The Graduate

He did it! Finished kindergarten and ready to move on to the first grade. Love this little boy so much it hurts sometimes...there's nothing better than that smile.

What it is and what it isn't

What this is...a blog post. Shocking? Yes. Why? Because it's only been like FOREVER since I wrote something.

What it is not...a long winded, overly apologetic explanation as to why it's been like FOREVER since I wrote something.

We're just going to gloss over that part of the post and carry on. We'll pretend it hasn't been like FOREVER and you're all kept up with the goings on and happenings of the Moody clan. Just imagine I've posted regularly and haven't kept you anxiously waiting on the edge of your seat. Go on, you can do it...start pretending.

See, now isn't that better?

So anyway, here life as we know it:

Eli, my little baby boy, is graduating from kindergarten tomorrow. That just doesn't seem possible. He's still in diapers, right? Is he really six years old already? Are we sure he's not still this age?

Okay, so I know he's growing up ridiculously fast and it's very bitter sweet. It's amazing and wonderful to watch the little boy that he's turning into but it's a little sad knowing that we'll never pass this way again. Gone is the chubby little baby face that used to gaze up at me pleadingly and say, "E I want choc lick Mommy."

And there's no more baby smell. You know the smell I'm talking about - obviously not the icky smells that come with babies but that sweet, makes your heart melt baby smell. Mommies know exactly what smell I'm talking about.

But I'm happy to have my energetic, inquisitive, super smart six year old. He keeps me on my toes, that is for sure! Like this morning when I stubbed my toe on HIS suitcase that was left in the middle of HIS floor in HIS room. To which I receive this little pearl of wisdom from the resident half pint genius...

"You know Mom, if you hadn't left that in the middle of the floor, you wouldn't have hurt yourself. Maybe you'll think about that next time you decide to leave something where it doesn't belong."

As I'm hopping around his room holding onto my toe and cursing on the inside so as not to give the little sponge anything else to suck up for throwing back at me later, I make this mental note to myself:

my co-workers will have to show up at my house if I follow through with the urge to throttle this child of mine. And at least I know he does listen when I'm lecturing him.

So now that I'm sitting here remembering this moment ~ minus my little toenail ~ it's funny and I laugh. I know that years from now, when he's all grown up and doesn't have the time for dear old Mom, it will be the memories of these moments that keep me company.

Butterflies and F-22's

Tonight I finished the dress set that I started on last night. One of my co-workers ordered it for her daughter and supplied the fabric, which is so cute. The A-line jumper is reversible and the bloomers coordinate with both sides of the jumper. I experimented and made a matching reversible headband out of some of the scrap material. I think it turned out well and is adorable.

I love the butterfly pattern and the bright blue and green color scheme.









It just says "Spring" and "sunshine" to me.



My "model" is actually a doll that I've had since I was about 6 or 7 years old. My Paw Paw gave it to me, along with similiar dolls to each of my female cousins. She's tagged along behind with every move that I've made, stuffed into closets, sat in storage, or biding her time in the attic. Then one day when I needed a way to display an outfit to figure out the length, I remembered little Dolly, all alone in the attic. : )

She's not nearly as cute as my real life model, my somewhat niece Chloe, but she does in a pinch.









We went to the airshow on Sunday. We were going on Saturday but it rained all day so we waited for Sunday's show. It was actually fun and the weather was perfect - sunshine and a breeze so we weren't sweating, freezing, or wet. Eli and I spent the day hiding under hats and sunscreen...got to love us pale people. Eli really enjoyed seeing the planes but his favorite activity, by far, was the bouncy blow-up things that were set up for the kids. They had an entire hangar full of them, so he was in heaven! There were also miniature replicas of various aircraft that were pedal-type toys, so he got to pretend he was flying one of those several times. It was more like he steered while Jeremy and I took turns pushing it around the "air space."



Eli fell asleep while we were waiting for the Navy Blue Angels to perform. He was bundled up in Jeremy's windbreaker, sitting in my lap and the next thing I knew, he was sound asleep. We bought him little ear plugs for $1, which made the day so much more pleasant (I bought a pair too. Only Jeremy was man enough to go without)

Jeremy and Eli entertained themselves during the down time by making weird noises with their mouths and doing famous fighting scenes in slow motion...at least, I think that's what they were doing.







The people sitting behind us were a little strange (sorry, no pictures of them)...almost normal by PC standards but the kids (who looked to be about 10 and 12) kept hitting me on the shoulder to say, "Look up there" or "Did you see that?" Meanwhile, what appeared to be their father alternated between yelling at them to sit down and refusing to take the one kid to the bathroom, despite his obvious distress - I mean, how many times do you have to hear "I've REALLY got to go!" before you figure out, "Hey, maybe my kid needs to go to the bathroom." Something about me, I attract crazy wherever I go.

Finally finished!!

I'm doing the happy dance because I finally finished two of the custom orders that I've been procrastinating on for weeks. Well, technically it wasn't really procrastinating because I wanted to finish them, I just couldn't find the time. But I made it my goal this week to finish these two and I did it!

The FSU diaper bag...

a request from a friend to make her an FSU diaper bag with an open top. This was fun (that's a sarcastic fun, mind you.) I also made a matching diaper wipes case holder - it holds the wipes case and a few diapers, for those times when you just need to grab those and not the whole bag.

The diaper bag project actually was fun - the planning part and about the first 3o minutes. After that, it was just "please let this be over already." This project pretty much came out of my head because I didn't use a pattern or any kind of template - just free handed it all the way. It took 3 times as long as it should have because I would stitch something, decide I didn't like how it looked, and rip out the stitches, then do it over. Jeremy's mom's cousin Renza pointed me in the right direction, which helped tremendously. I think if I do one of these again, it will go much smoother now that I've figured out all the things NOT to do : )

I also finished a reversible romper for my supervisor's nephew. I'm pretty proud of this one because I took an existing pattern and modified it to be reversible. All by my little self! The story behind this creation is that the Mom and Dad of the little tyke are fans of two different college football teams. One goes for LSU and the other for USC (which I learned is for University of Southern California - not University of South Caroline, as was my first guess....shut up Jeremy)

So when game day rolls around, junior can support Mom's team and then when the other guys play, flip the romper around and junior is ready to root for Dad's favorite. Just makes me smile : )

In other news, sadly I must report that we are in mourning for the loss of Eli's pet gold fish. "Petra" aka a number of other names as the poor fish was surely suffering from an identify crisis, given the multiple times Eli changed it's name; passed away in his little tank last night. He was three weeks old (or at least, with us for 3 weeks) and will be missed. The burial took place this morning in the back yard, with said fishy going to his maker in a plastic zip loc bag inside a metal coffee can.

Eli has plans to replace his beloved first pet with another gold fish or two, only this time we're going for a smaller one, as the little fishy friend was somewhat on the Goliath side and looked pretty cramped in the tiny tank. Eli was upset and cried, until his devious little brain kicked into overdrive and decided that while he was so obviously distraught was the perfect time to make his case for getting the new Star Wars animated movie from Wal-mart. He is so my child, little manipulator!

It's pouring rain here, off and on since yesterday. The air show is this weekend, if the rain lets up. We're going tomorrow, which will be the first time we've been able to go as a family in several years. The last time all 3 of us were able to go was when Eli was almost 3 years old. Every other year Jeremy has been deployed or TDY. Mom's just along for the ride as I don't really find the excitement in all of the technical, manly machinery-type stuff. But if it makes the boys happy.... : )

Welcome!

After a very long time with a blog on blogdrive.com, I'm taking Christi's advice and moving on up...my new home away from home will be here on blogger.

Why the change you ask?
I'm told that blogdrive has more features, which I definately like. Blogger is very frustrating when it comes to posting pictures, etc because it requires loading them onto photobucket and then posting to Blogger. Hopefully, adding pictures and files to Blogdrive will be easier.

So stay tuned for more....