Celebrating Lindsay

With three children, we decided early on that our kids didn't need to have a birthday party every year. It would be too much time, effort, and money to throw three parties a year, so each kid gets a party on an even birthday. For Lindsay, this was her year, and she was super excited. But, with her in soccer, Cole in karate, all three in church activities, and on top of that both J and I playing for two softball teams each, we had to push back her party a bit this year. She was also having a hard time deciding where she wanted to go for her party, but after changing her mind a dozen times, she finally decided on Build a Bear workshop. She helped me make invitations and we invited five girls to come along with us. Then she got all dolled up and waited anxiously for her friends to arrive (she even let me fix her hair and put bows in it and everything!).

Finally the girls arrived and the celebration could begin. They began by checking out all of Lindsay's toys in her room (and dumping all of the Littlest Pet Shops out all over the floor under the guise of admiring her collection).

Then it was time to gather around the table and sing happy birthday to the birthday girl (notice Bailey at the table, but Cole was MIA for the home festivities. He did not want to be around so many girls and even gave up having cake and ice cream to escape).

She also had a hard time choosing her cake, but she ended up with a Tinker Bell cake that she was really pleased with.

What a goofy smile!

Then the girls piled in the car with me and Bailey and Cole piled in with J.

 

Cole continued to have a hard time being around all the girls, and the girl running the party was trying to get him involved. So when Cole refused to rub his bear's heart on his muscles so it would be strong, she had all the girls rub their hearts on his muscles so they wouldn't be scared when he was around. Needless to say, Cole was extremely embarrassed and we were laughing.

 Both Cole and Bailey had fun celebrating their sister's birthday and both ended up with animals that made them very happy. Bailey named her hippie bear Rayne and Cole named his....Anakin (shocking, I know!).

I'm not sure what all the girl's named their animals, but they sure did have a good time.

Best of all, Lindsay had a great time, and that's what was most important to us. Being the youngest, I think she sometimes feels like she has to remind us to not forget about her--as if we ever could. But I know that having a special day just about her is one of her favorite things in the world. She's such a special girl and we love being able to show her how much we love her.

New address

Hopefully I won't lose anyone by doing this, but I needed to change the blog address so that I could line up all of my business things under one name. It was hard telling people to go to three or four address, so I'm trying to make everything easier to find under my name. So thanks for staying with me.

FYI

Next week the address to my blog will change. I'm trying to have everything line up the same so all my addresses everywhere are the same and make things easier for me, so next Sunday I'm changing the blog to www.jessicamauss.blogspot.com

The love of my life

Recently J was talking to a woman he plays tennis with about the slow pitch softball league we have here in Surprise. Turns out that this team she plays on needed more women for their team, so I was invited to join their team. I went out the first week, had a little fun, but I miss really playing ball. Slow pitch just isn't the same. As I'm trying to dust off the cobwebs, I decided I needed to find some batting cages nearby so that I can work on not popping the ball up (a sign of being anxious in the box and swinging just a little too early as the ball is coming down). As I searched for cages, I came across a park in Glendale that is not city owned and they have their own leagues. The first thing that caught my eye about this website was one of my favorite words: fastpitch. As I'm reading over the information on the website, I'm getting more and more excited--they actually have a women's fastpitch league, something so rare and precious I can hardly believe it. After poking around on their website for awhile, I found a place where you can post as a free agent or find postings for teams that need more players. So this past Wednesday night, I spent a couple hours doing one of the things that I love most in this whole world: playing fastpitch softball. As rusty as I am, I was able to contribute defensively and offensively, so I had a pretty good game. And I found that my muscles seem to remember how to do most of this, even if they don't do it as fast or as well as they used to. So now I'm working on getting out there and clearing out the cobwebs, using muscles that have been dormant way too long, and trying to get competitive again. And all the while, having so much fun that I don't care how far I have to drive to get there (40 minutes one way), or how sore I end up after. It's all worth it to have re-discovered my life-long love of the game.

Wish I knew what I was getting myself into

Sometimes I really wish I knew what I was getting myself into before I say yes to things. At the beginning of the year, the kids always bring home all the paperwork from their teachers. And I think that I was bummed that the last few years I haven't been able to help in their classrooms because of work, so I pretty much said yes to everything. Well, Lindsay's teacher has a great thing going in her room, she has no pencil sharpener for the students to use. She said she was tired of the second graders always breaking the sharpeners, and I know how much time they can waste sharpening pencils, so I really like this idea. However, what that means is that she sends pencils home to parents who are willing to sharpen pencils. So when I checked the box that said, "Yes, I will sharpen pencils", I had no idea what it really meant. Lindsay came home the second day of school with an industrial electric pencil sharpener for me to use for the year, and I do a load of pencils a few times a week. Really, I am thrilled to be helping the teacher, and if I can free up some of her time, I'm happy to do it.

In love with a template

So I found this new template for a box which is the perfect size to hold note cards, and I am in heaven trying it out. I have to say this one is my favorite:

This one I like, but it was my first one and I learned a lot doing it, but it's just not quite as cute as the other one:

To give credit where credit is due, I didn't come up with this template, it's one I purchased from a much more creative demonstrator, Ilina Crouse. I'm sure this isn't the last time I will go to her for inspiration as she has talent in areas that I am definitely lacking, so I'm grateful for the inspiration.

Etsy Holiday Boot Camp

I get regular emails from Etsy about how to be successful in running my shop, but I really liked the one this week. They are encouraging sellers to work hard to be successful this holiday season and in doing so, they are going to set challenges each week. I'm game in trying to increase my business and add more holiday items to my shop (I added some Halloween items today that I'm really proud of), so I've decided to participate. I'll report back when they issue a challenge (starting next Thursday) and see if I can't increase traffic to my site. In order to participate, they've asked each of us to make a pledge on our blog or website, so here's mine:

I, Jessica, pledge to participate in the Etsy Success Holiday Boot Camp to the best of my abilities. I vow to check in every week, do my homework and support my fellow Holiday Boot Campers. I will read the weekly newsletters and blog posts, check in on the weekly forum thread, read the weekly blog post, check off the checklists and salute the mascot. I promise to share what I've learned with those who need it, support my fellow Etsy indiepreneurs and, most of all, have a positive and persistent attitude. I understand that together we can spread the word about our handmade and vintage goods, making this holiday season a more unique and meaningful one to gift givers and give-ees everywhere!

Wish me luck!