The Paustenbaughs

Pebbles Projects

The last 2 weeks over at the Pebbles Blog featured the entire design team putting together quick gifts and simple projects.  Tis the season for being pulled in many different directions and having lots of obligations so the team wanted to make it simple as well!

For the first week I pulled together a very quick coaster set:

 

I made this from an old Making Memories coaster set I got a few years ago.  Like many projects, it sat in a closet and got moved 3 times before I got it down and did something with it!  I always have good intentions, but sometimes those intentions don't get the follow through they deserve!  Obviously this is a super simple project using Pebbles papers, some home quotes and pretty ribbon to tie it all up.  This will actually be a gift to myself to put in our new sunporch once the renovations are done next month.  Can't wait!

The following week I limited myself to 30 minutes and made a card.  This was a challenge because 1) I'm SO not a card maker, and 2) for some reason even my most simple projects seem to take F.O.R.E.V.E.R.  I'm easily distracted and get hung up on tiny details!  I love a good grid design and decided that would be the easiest and most simple way to make this card:

So far, so good on the winter break homefront with the 2 tiny drama queens.  This afternoon is off to buy Daddy his Christmas gifts from the girls, which sometimes proves to be interesting!  They normally default to underwear because they think it's hilarious.  And really, buying underwear at any age can be laughable!  But I've put them on a "no underwear" restraint so let's see what they come up with!  After that we will be in the kitchen making some lovely Rice Krispy Treat houses.  We tried the gingerbread house once, but it was way messier than even I dreamed, and we are just not gingerbread eaters over here.  Put some krispy cereal and marshmallowy goodness in front of us and we're all over it!!

Almost

In this season of anticipation I did a layout of a different kind of anticipation for the current Inspired Blueprints sketch.

 

For those that don't live near a military base, this is a foreign concept I think!  When all the Mommy's and Daddy's get ready to come home their family normally makes a sign to hang up for them to welcome them home.  Many people put up their signs along Highway 24 that leads into the main gate at Camp Lejeune.  When there is a large group coming home it is simply amazing to see the sea of signs, balloons and plaques that line the highway.  The girls know that when we see signs that means "lots of Daddy's are coming home"!

They wanted to make the signs since Terry left, but that would be too hard on all of us.  I told them when he is close to coming home then we would make them.  They were so excited to get their pillow cases and paint and get to work back in July!  They weren't professional signs, but it was their sign!  Terry loved them!  They knew that with the signs complete it was ALMOST time for our family to be complete!

Girlfriends

I know a lot of people have seen this video.  It's a reading from author Kelly Corrigan on girlfriends and the meaning they hold.  Cathy Z. posted it on her blog this week and I was reminded of it's greatness once again. I've seen it several times and cry every. single. time.

It takes a special meaning to me as a military wife. 

We obviously move.  A lot.  Aside from the logistics of moving and all that it entails; there is also the emotion that comes with it.  Every 2-3 years military families pack up their belongings and their lives and move on to the next phase in their life.  What they leave behind are friends who have become part of their family.

When a military kid is sick there is no aunt or grandma to come and help if you need it.  You call Michelle, Chris or Kacey.

When your husband is gone for months and months on a deployment and you are about to lose your mind you call Amy, Molly or Sherry.

When you don't go away for the holidays to see family you celebrate with Angela, Nikki or Brooke.

These girlfriends become your sisters, and celebrate milestones, and cry with you when you are scared about your husband being in a war zone.  They become an integral part of your life and so very important.

While this is the season of bringing families together, I think it's also the season of celebrating everyone who means so much to you.  For military wives, this is often our neighbors and all the other women who are so close to us.

My husband doesn't always get why I am so eager and nervous about making new friends when we move.  It's not only because I enjoy having girlfriends in my life, but it's because I'm extending our family and support.

Truly Blessed

I'm a normal mother who will complain about her children from time to time.  Some days more than others and other days we are the Beaver family!  I can say that recently with end of semester stress, constant rain in our area, and overall holiday stress I have not been the best mom around.  We all have those times though, right?!

I teach on Tuesday and Thursday nights at our local community college, leaving 30 minutes before the girls go to bed.  I came home to this on my bed when I got home on Tuesday evening.

Ella's Card:

She has graduated to drawing round eyes with eyelashes-so unbelievably cute!  And I'm loving that sun!

And Maya's Card:

Love all the sentiment she put in hers!  She's typical oldest kid and I'm tough on her sometimes so it means a lot that she wrote all this to me!  Love, love these girlies and all they bring to my life!  I will be keeping these forever and ever!

On a completely different note:  head on over to the Pebbles, Inc Blog and leave a comment to win a set of chalks.  I wasn't a chalk person until I was sent some in my design team goodies.  They really are so versatile and come in some great colors!

The Good Kind of Drama Queen

This girl never ceases to amaze me at the most random times!

On Saturday she woke up and decided she was going to perform a play based on this book:

It's a very cute book and one of our favorites too.  When I came down at 6:30 am she was already dressed in the above outfit as the peacock in the story. 

I do say she makes a very nice peacock indeed!  But I'm biased!

She not only wanted to perform the story, but wanted to make the characters in the book, design a backdrop and recruit other performers for the show. 

Today was Dad's day to shine!

I will give Terry full credit for the drawing and building of Moose and the drawing of Elephant.  I think he has a bright future as an illustrator, don't you??!!

She decided Dad would be the tiger and worked very hard on his beautiful tiger tail!

The play was wonderful and it featured some great performers!!  Here they are trying to pull Moose's tooth with "all their might"!

Seriously, she amazes me.  Where does she come up with all of this in the little head of hers?  She is truly one of the most creative people I know.

Sure, I can cut and glue some paper, type some journaling and call it creative, but what she comes up with is much beyond what I do!

She came home with a notebook from her teacher to work on writing skills and sentence formation and the class was instructed to write 2-3 sentences per night.  This kid wrote 2 pages in one afternoon.

And on Sunday we had a beautiful rendition of The Bumpy Little Pumpkin since many of the characters we already had on hand in either drawn form or stuffed form.  This time I was picked for the play and played a lovely version of Big Mama!!

Luckily, no incriminating photos from that play!

She's Got Leeeggggsss...

I did this layout for the current Inspired Blueprints sketch this week:

I was going through photos to use on that sketch and these 3 jumped out at me right away-because you see LEGS and then the rest of Maya!  We often wonder how we produced such a leggy, tall kid.  Sure, we're not short and those under 5'3" may consider us quite tall, but at 5'6" and 5'11", we're no giants!  She is now nearly as tall as both of her grandmas and she loves it! 

And hopefully she appreciates these luscious legs when she's older, but you know we still have that awkward teenage time to go through.  You know, where the boys haven't quite gotten to that growth spurt and they're being complete turds to girls they actually like?!  And your body grows at disproportionate rates- fun times!

And this one isn't far behind in the leg department:

Her legs just don't seem as long since she's standing next to Leggy McGhee most of the time, but she's no shorty herself!  Still not quite sure how they came from us, but I love it!

I may be looking up to them before I know it!

This Season is a Little Merrier

Last Christmas and holiday season was a little somber at our house.  We were preparing for Terry to deploy just after the new year for a year (which thank goodness was shorter); we lived in a house/neighborhood that none of us liked and Maya was having some issues at her school.  So the 2008 holiday season was emotional and tense to say the least.

The 2009 season is a little merrier, brighter and just plain happy and I'm so thankful for that!  Although it's hard going through difficult times, I do think it brings new perspective and insight when you come out on the other side.  That has been so true for our family this year.  We did it. Together. And we're a better family for going through it now.  So bring on the holiday cheer!!!

I've also been uplifted and finding some new perspective after reading this:

There are just certain books that sing to you and this was one of them for me.  A dear friend let me borrow it and now I've put it on my list of books to buy and keep and even got one for my mom for Christmas!  I really like the idea behind it, which is that we don't need to give others' monetary or material gifts to make an impact.  It just put things in perspective for me.  Especially during this season of gifts and feeling the need to spend and spend to give a good gift.

Now, if someone could let a certain 7 year and a certain almost 5 year know about this concept then we're all set!!  Our house has been full of "I WANT THAT" with the 8,000 magazines and 5,000 commercials they see!

Late As Usual, But Still Thankful!

As usual, I'm a few days AFTER a holiday/event, but I've come to live with that just being how it works for me!

We spent Thanksgiving with my lovely in-laws down in South Carolina, enjoying the sunshine and warm-ish weather for our holiday.  I have so, so many things to be thankful for this year compared to other years.  While our year wasn't filled with unemployment or major money troubles like many in the country right now, it was filled with heart ache and some tough decisions as a family. 

I'm thankful we made it through some school difficulties with Maya and have come out on the other side brighter and better.  We are still struggling in some areas, but so much better overall after her switch to a new school, or as she calls it her "quiet school"!

I'm thankful that all 4 of us survived and triumphed during Terry's deployment to Iraq.  What started out as a 1 year deployment was reduced to 6 months and that is something to celebrate and thank God and the USMC for every day! 

I'm thankful we're in a new beautiful house on base, where everyone is happier; much, much happier.  We did not find a lot of joy living in Jacksonville in our rental house and we just couldn't be more happy living on base, even with the sounds of hammers and destruction/construction all around us!

Our Thanksgiving was filled with 2 very special cooks, who I might add are cut from the same cloth and would be considered BFFs if they weren't already related!

Maya was super excited that we got to eat in the formal, or as she calls it the fancy, dining room this year and use the fancy plates.  We haven't been able to up until now because of a smaller person who is a spaz, clutz, and all around goofy person, but we won't name names (psst it rhymes with "FELLA").

Our girl loves to be fancy!

And Grandma was genius and bought them some charms to mark their spot, because although Ella was allowed to sit in the fancy room, she certainly wasn't allowed to eat off the china!

And we always celebrate Papa's birthday over Thanksgiving since he's an end of November birthday.  We are all about celebrating birthdays, having cake and opening presents in our house!

Happy Birthday Papa!

And although our Christmas cards are ordered and being addressed this week, I always try for a family photo to add to our collection and this was turned out so typical!  Terry giving a half smile, me trying to wrangle the wild child, the wild child being just that-super goofy, and Maya just wanting it all to hurry up and be over so she can move on to other important playing!

Happy (Late) Thanksgiving!  Now let the Christmas decorating begin!!

Um, wow and NO WAY!!!

See this??!!

Yep, that's me as the featured layout at Two Peas.  Never thought in a million years that would happen!  So excited!  I'm completely serious when I say this kind of good news doesn't happen to me all the time.  My mother used to tell me that if it weren't for bad luck then I would have no luck at all!  These days I count my blessings where I get them and this is definitely one of them!

Welcome to my Swamp (said in best Shrek voice)

I really do feel like Shrek should be living at our house after all the rainfall we've had over the last 2 weeks.  It's sad when your children are even asking if the sun will come back out.  I don't think any of our family would last in the Northwest for even a month!  We love our Coastal Carolina sun and warm weather-SO BRING IT BACK ALREADY!!!  And to top it off we have construction at our house, limiting our path to the vehicle as only through the soggy mud and grass.  But I always remind myself that I'm not doing the construction nor paying for it so I need to hush about it!! 

This is our neighbor's yard right now:

Anyone for a swim later?  And if we had access to all this mud then I think we would be the coolest family ever with all the 3-14 year old boys in our neighborhood!

But do you see it?  That little speck of sunshine on the water and tarp?  As soon as I took the picture the sun came out in all it's glory! 

Welcome back Mr. Golden Sun!!!

And because Mr. Sun finally came out then I finally took some pictures of layouts that were needing to go up!  This is for the current Inspired Blueprints sketch using EAD Rub Ons.  Love that the new Studio Calico kit this months went so well with the rub ons I received!  You would have thought it was planned!