where have i been?

you can call off the search, i am alright and i am back to blogging. we have been doing alot of swimming lately. the pool is finally just right. and on a hot day, it's heaven.
so what have we been up to during this blog break? well, charlie and i built a planter in our backyard. ok, charlie built it, i was just manual labor. we unloaded a billion bricks and had to carry them one by one into our backyard. each brick was really heavy. they were the big ones. but i think we did a great job. we were so proud of ourselves, that the next weekend we made another one by the pool pump.

mothers day was great. i got to sleep in and charlie made me french toast. it was delicious and a very good sugar rush. we spent the afternoon in the pool and went to chipotle for dinner. we ran by charlie's parents house to drop off some mothers day gifts.

my sister and i are doing mothers day at our mom's house tomorrow. so i can't tell you what we are doing, since mom is reading this. but i wanted to say that i have an incredible mom. she stayed home with kim and i until i went to school. she was a teacher and worked the same hours we were out of the house. i know that my parents made many sacrifices for my sister and i, and now that i am a mom, i appreciate those so much more now than i ever could have. i am the mom i am because of my mom. i always heard "i love you" from my parents when i was little. and i thought that i knew what all of that phrase meant. but i understand so much more what those 3 little words mean now.

so mom, i love you. and i am so glad that i got to have you as my mom.

jill b

kittens inspired by kittens...

this youtube video has been getting a lot of air time at our house. just hearing the little girl voice will send zella running from where ever she is in the house to the computer. i can't tell you how many times we have watched it. so here it is, now remember, zella is 4 and the little girl is probably about 6 or 7. so try to watch it with humor of a little kid.

enjoy

go team barrett!!

yea!!
2 weeks ago, charlie and i had our tenth wedding anniversary! and according to divorce magazine .com, (yes there is a divorce magazine) only 65% of marriages make it to their tenth anniversary. so yea for us. to be honest, it has been a really, really fun ride. ten years sounds like such a long time to me, and not very long at the same time. i think it has a lot to do with charlie being my best friend. i have seen people, on blogs, make a list of things they love about the birthday person. so i am gonna make a list of ten things i love about charlie b.

1. i love the way he is still the first person i want to see in the morning and the last person i want to see when i go to sleep.

2. i love the way he is always thinking one step ahead of what i might need or want, and then does it.

3. i love the way he is always trying to make me smile, even jumping into the pool in January.

4. i love how he will bring me a diet coke on Saturday mornings. with extra ice!

5. i love how he knows the characters on days of our lives, and he does the best john black impersonation.

6. i love how he still holds my hand when we go somewhere.

7. i love watching him love zella. he makes her feel like the center of the world!

8. i love how much random trivia he has stored away in his brain.

9. i love how he is the same person no matter who he is with.

10. i love how he is still my best friend!

so charlie, as you read this, know that i love you with everything that i have, and everything that i am. i am so proud to be your wife. i am so glad that you are zella's daddy. i love my little family. and i am ready to spend the next ten years together!
i love you
jill b

these two...

remember last thursday when it was really, really windy? and that wind caused it to cool down to the upper 60's? well, these two jumped into the pool and swam around on the kick board. they then jumped out. see, for a couple of years, charlie and zella have this game that they play by the pool. charlie will stand by the edge and proclaim that he hopes nobody pushes him in the pool, because he is standing so close to the edge. then zella will run over to him and tries to push him into the pool. the conversation goes back and forth for a while. and then eventually, zella pushes him into the pool. so last thursday, zella was telling charlie that she wants to get in the pool so she could use her kick board. we both tell her that the pool is really, really cold. this did not matter to her at all. charlie told her to stand on the first step, to test if she thinks it is cold. she did it and said it wasn't. charlie told her to stand on the second step. she did. so charlie went over to the deep end and started his song-and-dance about not wanting somebody to push him in the pool. zella jumped out of pool and ran to him and proceeded to try to push him in. he eventually let her and he went into the pool. she ran and got her kick board and brought it over to charlie. he helped her into the pool and they went the length of the pool and jumped out by the steps. when zella said "that was cold!" i got it all on video, but i am not allowed to show it. since proper swim wear was not worn and someone didn't want his underwear shown to all.
ha ha ha

flowers...

i had to show at least one picture of zella while i was making thisi bought a big gerber daisy from Michael's. it was in the floral dept.

i pulled the flower away from the stem

i turned the flower upside down and glued 2 magnets to it. i had to let this dry over night. i did put some glue in between the layers of the petals.

and that is it. very simple and easy to make.

i hope my instructions were easy to follow. if you have any questions, leave me a comment

jill

letters...

for the letters, i painted the sides of them cream. when they were dry, i turned them over and glued magnets on the back of them. i let them dry overnight.

i then glued them down on the back of the paper i had picked out for the letters. i cut them apart. i went back over them with an exacto knife. it is kind of hard to get in the letters that have a curl to them. so the exacto knife works good for small details. i used a nail file to sand down the edges i could not get with the knife.

i turned them over and used the ink to "dirty" them up. (just like i did around the frame).

materials

wood letters, paint, Michale's

magnets, home depot

glue stick

i will do the flowers next

jill

wanna make this?

little Taylor had a birthday the other day and i made this for her mom, Kim. i started off with a frame from Michael's. i painted all of the surfaces that would not be covered with paper.

i just used a foam brush and painted the sides. i didn't paint the back of the frame. i wanted to write a happy birthday wish to Taylor back there.

turn the shadow frame over. i then glued galvanized flashing to the 12 x 12 base of the frame. make sure it is the galvanized flashing, because the other one is not magnetic. i used just a tacky wet glue that i got at Michael's. i let it dry over night.

i then glued the patterned paper (floral) to the top of the flashing.

i then measured the width around the frame, and then cut out from the floral and the blue dots papers.

i arranged the papers the way i wanted them. i then used a glue stick to glue them down to the frame. i used an ink pad to "dirty" up the edges of the frame.

now my base is finished.

materials

shadow frame, paint, paint brush, are from Michael's

the magnets and the galvanized flashing is from home depot

the paper i already had, but you can get at any craft store.

i will post later on how i made the letter magnets and the flower magnets.
enjoy

jill