A Much Needed Update

OK, Kent, don't faint; I'm updating my blog. I hope to be better at this from now on, but no promises!
So much is going on, I don't really know where to start. I guess it should be with my pride and joy. Katelyn is getting so big! She's almost 2 (five weeks to go) and is practicing for the terrible twos on an hourly basis. I try to remember that she just wants to assert her own personality, and I really can't blame her for that. She gets it all from me. But sometimes, I just want to say, "Please do something the easy way for once!" Mostly, she keeps me chuckling as she parrots everything I say and is branching out on her own with new words I don't think I've even used around her. The other day, she knocked over her tray table with her crayons on it. No big deal, really, but she looks at me, puts her hands on her cheeks and say, "Oh, gosh!" I died laughing and she looked at me like, "This isn't funny. My crayons are all over the floor!" She's counting to 10 and is now trying to learn her alphabet. At this rate, she'll be reading by her next birthday, which is no surprise if you know me at all.
Alright, enough about Katelyn, even though she is the inspiration behind my latest venture. Most of you know that I sell Discovery Toys, but that is a lot of work and I'm not one to pressure my friends into buying things, even if they are really awesome educational products. So I'm backing off on that-I'll still send out each season's catalog and sale announcements, but no more begging people to have parties. Anyway, anyone with a little girl knows that the most important accessory to keep people from saying "Oh, what a cute little boy!" is a hairbow. I've spent as much as $10 on one bow (shh-don't tell Randy), but what is a bow, really, but a few scraps of ribbon glued to a clip. So Jo and I decided to try our hand at making them. We all know that any information you could ever dream of needing is available on the internet, so we "googled" hairbows. I mean if you can find instructions for a bomb online, surely you can find how to make a cute hairbow. Not so, my friends! As I've already pointed out, hairbows are a hot commodity (that reminds me of a silly song on one of Katelyn's CDs, but I digress). That being so, no one is really willing to part with the knowledge of how to make them and risk losing well-paying customers in the process. Now, you can buy instructions for $20-$30, but that's quite an investment for someone as clumsy as I am. Finally, we found a sweet lady who had published how to make korker bows. These are really cute and relatively easy, so Jo and I bought some ribbon and dowel rods and we're off. Two Sister Boutique Bows is officially my new business (along with Jo, of course, she's the other sister)! If anyone is interested, we can custom design a bow to match any outfit. Give us a shout at twosistersbows@gmail.com.
My other big venture right now is in a completely different arena. I've joined Lifetime Fitness and am seriously trying to get in better shape. Unlike the myriad crazy people at our church, I am not training for a marathon, just trying to be better able to keep up with Katelyn and feel better about myself along the way. Wish me luck-so far so good.
I've spent a lot of time reading other people's blogs lately, and here are a few of my favorites:
Kent Benfer-my good buddy.
Reverend Mommy-I just love her screen name!
Church Chick-Reminds me of my mom.
Church Marketing Sucks-Great resource and lots of good, hilarious links.
I hope everyone out there is doing great. I've got to go curl some ribbon...

My Addiction

So I have a new addiction, as my husband calls it. I already read like crazy and can tune anyone and anything out while I'm doing it. Now I've discovered a new online game. I've been through Snood, Zuma, various incarnations of Solitaire, and now I'm on Slingo. It's Bingo mixed with slots and it is completely mesmerizing. I play at www.slingo.com and you can join up for free. You get a bank of "coins", buy into a game room, and start earning more coins. It's not seeing my coin balance go up that excites me, though. It's just playing the game and watching where I'm ranked against the other players. I go up, I go down, the darn devil gets half my points, and I just can't stop playing! The last few nights I've even missed out on precious sleep because I couldn't bring myself to turn off the laptop. So, check it out. I promise it's fun and you can chat while you play, so you might make a new friend. Gotta go slingo while Katelyn is still napping!

New Space

Well, I decided to move my blog over here and see if I'm any better about posting. Highly doubtful, but completely possible! So, for the 2 of you who may read this, here goes.

I took Katelyn to the playplace at Willow Bend Mall today and made another little girl cry. I know it sounds awful, but it was so not my fault! The girl was probably 3 or 4 and she was running around with her little sister by the arm. They came around a corner and plowed into Katelyn, knocking her to the ground. Now, Mama Bear wanted to come out full force, but it was an innocent accident, so I just smiled at the girls and asked Katelyn if she was okay. The older girl said, "Sorry, ma'am," and I said (very sweetly), "It's okay, just be careful, cause there are lots of little ones here today." She nodded and headed toward her mom, then burst into tears. Let me tell you, I felt horrible. If I had known she was so sensitive, I would never have said anything at all, but I'm so sick of people bringing their too big kids to a little kids play area and letting them run wild. It's not that big of a space and it also says to please not run. Of course, not one but me, Ms. Anal, reads the rules, I guess. Because it also says no food or drink, but I picked up (and even pryed out of Katelyn's mouth) about 5 pieces of crackers and such today. Arrrr! Anyway, Katelyn had fun. She walked up to a little boy about her size (even though he was probaby 2 1/2) and yelled "Ya, ya, ya!" right in his face. She loves to do that to unsuspecting kiddos. Anyway, this one yelled right back and she took a step back and stared at him like he was the coolest kid she had ever seen. They spent the next 10 minutes standing on the bench babbling at each other and bouncing up and down. It was really cute!

After we had lunch, I stopped in bath and body works to pick up some necessities. Yes, Randy, bubble bath is a necessity! Katelyn spied a bright pink rubber duckie and had to have it, so I added it to my little pile. She held that thing and chewed on its bill until naptime, when I tried to replace it with her baby doll. She was having none of that, so she is now sleeping with a pink plastic duck tucked under her arm. It's really rather hilarious to see. I should take a picture, but I am afraid of waking her up. I hope this isn't the new lovey we have to use every night. It's just not very cuddly, in my opinion, but I guess it's not my opinion that counts on this issue, huh?

Well, I need to go do some actual housework, so I'll call it a day here. If any of you are in the path of Katrina, I hope you're doing alright. Our prayers are with you.