Sunshine Pies

koala cute!

2011-01-26T11:26:00.001-08:00

check it out. I'm entering to win this adorable hat... YOU can too!
http://littleeme.blogspot.com/2011/01/giveaway-giveaway.html

Giveaway

2010-08-02T10:09:00.000-07:00

Don't you just love that word? It's right up there with FREE! Well, one of the blogs I follow is giving away a very very cool crafty 'toy'. You have to go and check it out. It makes even the un-crafty people look very crafty. (I think I said the word, crafty, too many times).
Here's the link

Fish on!

2010-07-16T14:37:00.000-07:00

Last Wednesday night Jason, his friend Jason (I'll call him Jason E.), and Jason E's dad drove up to Westport to go fishing with my uncle. The last time Jason went fishing in Westport was about 17 years ago. I went with him then and I have to say, I'm glad it was just him that went this time. I love being out on the ocean, and getting to hang out with my uncle, but it is way too long of a day for me! They check in at 5:15am and don't dock again until about 4pm. 12 hours on the boat...nope, not for me.

But Jason, Jason E, and his dad had a blast! It was cold but nice. Fought off a few sharks and lost a couple of bets (first catch, biggest fish) but they're already planning their next visit!

A HUGE, Giant thank you to my Aunt Doll and Uncle Dave for letting the boys stay in the apt and for a FANTASTICALLY delicious trip!!!

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Molly's concert

2010-06-16T07:34:00.000-07:00

This was taken from my Flip camera. It's a great camera for close up and personal videos, not so much for stuff like this, but you get the idea. Molly is the one in the yellow sweatshirt.

I'm an auntie!

2010-06-14T20:50:00.000-07:00

I know I've been an aunt for about 14 years but this time I have something I never had before... a nephew!!!

He is a very very adorable kid. Born 6/13/10 (exactly one week after Daisy's birthday) weighing in at 9 pounds 2 ouces (yikes) and arrived at 4:04am via a C-section (after being in labor allllll day and night).

Julian James Picinich! I think I might try to call him JJ, that's cute!

Sorry, I'm not allowed to post pictures yet but you can be sure I will once I get the ok!

for now, here are some pics of us waiting for him...

and here's a teaser shot....

Happy Mom's day....

2010-05-31T11:50:00.000-07:00

This post is (obviously) a little late but I have good reason for that. I had big plans for Mother's Day. I wanted to go hiking with my little family. My experienced sister, Debbie, gave me some good advice on where to go and what to bring. Unfortunatly, we found out that Jason had to work that day so scratch that plan! I know I still could have gone but I really wanted it to be a family day. So instead, after church the kids and I weeded and weeded and weeded. They weren't exactly excited to be out there sweatin' on a Sunday but I was very proud of them and we got soooooooo much done! I took a 'before' picture but funny thing is, I can't find it! Weird, I know. But if you've been to my house lately, then you'll know that it was a MESS!!!!! The only plants I had in the garden area were 2 lavendars, 1 flowering bush (not sure what it is called) and a small tree, oh and a clematis that needed some attention. So the reason for the lateness in this post, is I just finished planting yesterday... well, finished for now. It is mostly done. I still need to hang the lattice for the wisteria but it is really coming along. I was looking for some chaotic color and after time, it will start to grow in so nicely. One of my favorite features is this tiered pot I painted. I found it here. I liked the idea of all white flowers against the colorful pots so I went that way. I'm not done with this either, I want to paint a white 'P' on it or my house nubmers, I can't decide yet. I need to wait for the pots to completely dry and thanks to Mother Nature, I still can't get that done! The top pot will have a large, white flowering blossom too. I'm just waiting for that to happen...

molly and macey-jo

2010-05-29T07:50:00.000-07:00

just a few quick shots to keep the grandparents happy: Molly ran track for the first time this year. She did GREAT!

And she is still riding and jumping. I think she'd leave us and move in with them if she had the choice.

And Macey is playing baseball. This shot is from ONE of the sunny days she played. This weather has been really cruddy for baseball.

My camera battery has been dead so I'll get some current pictures of Jake and Maya up soon.

this and that

2010-05-21T09:07:00.000-07:00

I am happy to say that this quarter is ALMOST over! I'll get to check off 12 more credits! 34 total! Yeah!! I am sad to say that my time spent in the ECE dept. has come to an end. I've created such great relationships there with students and staff and that will be missed. Now I'm on to the exciting world of math, sciences, english... joy.

I am also looking forward to another member of the family joining us very soon! Cameron's fiance' is expecting on June 3rd!! Little Julian James will be the second boy in the family. The first will be 14 and a half years old! I can't believe it's been that long. My kids are excited to have 6 cousins now.

A few weeks ago, I put a shower on for Tanya. Here's a few shots:

I had high hopes of making my own cake using fondant but realized I had zero time to do that. I still want to try this though, it looks so fun.

These pictures should be switched. The bottom one is a little girl who was helping Tanya with her presents. There was a lot of little gifts in this laundry basket and pretty soon she was inside of it trying to get them all out (see above picture). She was so cute because after Tanya opened up the gifts she would be a little Vanna White and model the present for everyone to see.

look at that belly! LOVE IT!!!

My wonderful MIL made all of the food. I didn't want to stop eating! It was amazing food!!

Molly took this m-n-m's shot. She likes to get some interesting shots... wonder where she gets that from?

Easter

2010-04-04T22:11:00.000-07:00

So sad. This year Molly and Jake had no interest in dyeing eggs. Molly actually slept through the whole process and Jake was watching TV hanging out with G'ma. But us girls had fun!

For Easter dinner I made strawberry shortcake. First take some whipped cream. Mmmmmmm.

Then some Angel food cake, store bought... only the best from me!

Cut up the angel food cake and the fresh strawberries.

Add one very pretty dish.
start layering

pretty little design on the top.

Looks yummy, doesn't it!

here's a random shot for the day. this is the set at our church. It looked like we were at roof top level, looking at the tops of buildings and the Space Needle. the tightrope walker with the wheelbarrow is actually hanging from the ceiling and resting on the tightrope that is going across the stage. It was really cool.

I hope you all had a blessed Easter. We were pretty happy to have spent it with MOST of our family. We missed seeing just a few people: Dad, Jackie, Deanna, Darin, Daisy, Dani.

Practicing...

2010-04-02T23:21:00.000-07:00

Maya practicing before her concert.

HIVES!

2010-03-31T23:03:00.001-07:00

These are not the greatest pictures but it gives you an idea of how miserable Macey was. Last Sunday at about 10pm, Macey comes to me and tells me that she is itchy. I lifted up her shirt and this is what I found. This is her back and I know the picture stinks, but you can see the splotchy red parts. It was like this all over her body. Here is her back: It looked like someone had punched her in the face.

Big red welts on her forehead.

We can't say for sure what caused them but Jason and I are about 90% positive it was an allergic reaction to the penicilin (sp?) she was on.

It is 4 days later and she still looks pretty bad and is still very itchy. Benedryl wipes her out too. The doctor gave her some on Monday morning and this is where she was about a half an hour later:

This was taken from my cell phone camera.

busted

2010-03-30T14:32:00.000-07:00

When I got to Molly's concert last week, I got there plenty early to position myself in the best possible picture-taking spot. I knew the gym would fill up fast so I was pretty proud of myself for getting there in time to get the PERFECT spot.
And it would have been the perfect spot if they were in the same spots they were in at the last concert. For some reason they were on the complete oposite side this time. So no pictures of her acutally playing her bass.
I settled for getting pictures of her during her down time, waiting for the other bands to perform.
One small glitch... she spotted me trying to get her picture so she hid behind her bass, like this:

So then I would text her and threaten her if she didn't knock it off, so I have some pictures of her trying to slyly read her texts, like this:
Can you tell by her fact that she is very frightened by my threats?

But I did sneak this one in:

the neighbor

2010-03-23T20:07:00.000-07:00

Our next door neighbors are the kind of people that have lots of pets. 3 dogs, 1 lizard, 2 guinnea pigs and the newest member: a toad.

They just brought him home this past weekend and you would have thought they brought home tickets for everyone to Disneyland.

His name is Motor. Welcome to the neighborhood, Motor.

What I've been up to...

2010-03-21T18:47:00.000-07:00

Recently... not much. I feel like I can take a breath right now because I am done with my second quarter. I just found out that my GPA is 4.0. HUGE relief!! I took 2 classes this quarter and one was fun, fairly easy but a lot of work and the other was fun, not so easy and a TON of work! So, I'm pretty happy with that.
But, on to much more exciting topics...
Here is a shot of Molly and her best friend, Lexi. They were both one of the many kids that were a part of an honor ceremony for their GPA's. Molly's was a 3.783!! (And that is with taking a 9th grade algebra class too!) Jacob just missed it, by the way. We are still pretty proud of both of our Junior Higher's grades!! They are nothing like their parents at that age.

Let me also add that Molly has not worn a dress or skirt in YEARS! She went out and picked this dress out all on her own and paid for it with her own money. She is a pretty thrifty person as her dress cost only $15! I offered to buy her some nice shoes with a little heel on them, nope, she didn't want any heel at all and borrowed some flats from Lexi.

Here are the girls, all dressed up! GOOD JOB!!!

And here is Maya with her science project. She worked so hard on this (actually, WE worked so hard on this). She tested three different brands of batteries to find out which one lasted the longest. Next time you need batteries, trust that little bunny... he really does keep going and going and going. She did a fantastic job!

more to come, I need to go make dinner...

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testing a new signature line

2010-02-28T11:19:00.000-08:00

here goes......

Valentines

2010-02-10T23:23:00.001-08:00

Just in love with this year's Valentines.

Maya made these same ones last year but they were such a big hit tht she wanted to do them again this year.

Macey's are so stinking cute, they make me smile every time I look at them.

Start with this picture of a cheesy smiling girl.

lamenate the picture and add a yummy lollipop strategically placed... and there you have it! EASY!

oh yeah, you also end up with this lovely mess!
Happy Valentine's Day to all of you out there!!

same old same old

2010-02-04T06:46:00.000-08:00

I really don't have anything new or excititng to update here. We are still plugging along, trying to at least come together at the dinner table each evening. Sometimes that means eating dinner at 9pm, like last night. I hate doing that but it happens.

Right now I am taking 'Music for Young Children' as one of my classes. We were supposed to make an instrument and I couldn't decide between a rainstick and sandpaper blocks so I made both. I've got pictrues of the process here but no real final outcome shots. Sorry, brain fart. And I don't really care for how blogger.com works because it adds the pictures in backwards order of what I put them in as, so you have to start from the bottom picture and work your way up.

4. Spray painted, usually a favorite part of any project, but I really had to get in there and around the handles so it was a little tricky. Also, lesson learned... don't use this kind of spray paint without sealing it before you use it. It will make your hands gold. After they were dry, i hot glued on the sandpaper and they were ready to go. My kids (daycare and my own) love these too.
3. screwed on the handle. We went back and countersunk the screws so the sandpaper would be flush with the block.

2. Drilled holes in the center

1. Here is the start of my sandpaper blocks.

3. See the inside is full of nails. Doesn't really look like a preschool toy does it!? this is the last photo I have of the rain stick. Just picture it filled with marbles and dried corn, capped off on the ends, wrapped in colorful wrapping paper, and then covered with contact paper. Kids love it!

2. Strategically placed drill holes with nails in them. Maya drilled almost all of these holes.

1. Rainstick started with a piece of PVC pipe.

That's all for now.

2010-01-17T07:59:00.000-08:00

We are going to a wedding today and I can tell you that we did NOT shop off of their registry. I tried to, I usually do, but they wanted $120 rice cookers and $19 pizza cutters and $700 home theater systems.

Not in my budget!

So I went to Target and bought these 3 Pyrex dishes (with 3 lids!!!) for about $16. Then I went to Joann's looking for etching cream (they didn't have any), went to Michaels for the etching cream (they sold me etching MEDIUM... there is a Huge difference). Drove home and tried the etching medium. This is when I found out about that Huge difference thing... it didn't work. I searched my craft supply and low and behold... I own etching cream! Still in the original packaging too, never been opened.

I put some letter stickers on there and taped it off with some painters tape and put the etching cream on. Waited all of 60 seconds (now that is my kind of craft!) and washed it off. Now when they go to a pot luck, they'll never lose their dish!

I am so IN LOVE with the outcome! Don't be surprised if you get some etched glass something-or-other for your next birthday or holiday!

And then to top it off, I used the same stickers to put the happy couple's initials on the bag. Now I just need to get some bubble wrap so they won't break before they get them!

My new favorite site

2010-01-16T23:50:00.000-08:00

I'm a bit of a blog-hopper in my 'spare' time. This is usually around 11pm, while I am in bed and just trying to wind down from another crazy day. I love to check out all of the new, cute, crafty ideas other people have.

I was so excited to find http://www.knockoffwood.blogspot.com/

I've looked at those Pottery Barn catalogs with drool and an empty wallet. I think that even if I could afford the furniture in the Pottery Barn catalogs, I wouldn't purchase anything in it.

Like this locker style piece of furniture. I'd really love to have 4 of these in my entryway. I know, first I need an entryway, but those are just details. Normally, this simple piece is $639, but right now it's on sale for $599. Hold on while I do the math... $600 (rounding up) plus 4 equals $2400. Ya, plus shipping, tax and that ever so pesky 'handling', I'm sure I'm looking a lot closer to $3000.

Well, Ana, over at www.knockoffwood.blogspot.com has the complete plans for a ton of furniture products from companies like Pottery Barn. In fact, she has this locker style one too! All plans, all measurements, all for you for FREE! She even suggests you going to Home Depot and having them make ALL of the cuts for you. That's right, no table saw needed!

Now, I only need to pick an easy one to start with and find some more of that spare time I mentioned earlier.

back to reality

2010-01-15T07:25:00.000-08:00

I was really ready to come home, even go back to work, but I am so glad today is Friday.

School started back up for me while I was gone so I missed a full week of classes. Not smart. I'm pretty much up to date in one of my classes but the other one, I'm not.

To top it off, yesterday I came down with a pretty nasty cold. It's mostly in my throat and it is painful!

More very bad news: my Flip video camera broke!!! In New York too, so I couldn't take any videos while I was there. Not happy about that one. It's just in the battery compartment. the little part that one end of the battery sits on is missing. I don't even remember it falling or breaking off.

AND.... my printer is broken too!!! I use a printer at least 4 times a week for work and school. It keeps telling me I have a printer jam and I know I don't. That, along with the funny noise its making, means I am in trouble!!

Ok, I'm done with the pity part...

On a much happier note: Jacob started piano lessons last night. He has already taught himself how to play O Christmas Tree, Silent Night and other Christmas songs. (I'd show it to you but my video camera is broken!)

Maya and Jason are busy with basketball. Jason is coaching Maya's team this year again and let me tell you... the difference in ability between 4th graders and 5th graders is amazing. There are a lot of talented girls on this team!

Molly will be starting soccer very soon. The last time she played, she was 3 years old, so this will be a new experience for her. I'm so excited for her to play but not too excited about being out in the cold and rain again!!! I have class every Saturday so I do hope that I will get to her games.

Macey is in between sports right now. Basketball is over and Bethel Rec soccer sign ups are right now so we just have to wait for practices to start.

So we're all pretty busy, but its a good busy. Like I said earlier, I'm happy to be home!

2010-01-11T08:06:00.000-08:00

New York/New Jersey: This was the 2nd time Jason had seen Uncle George. The last time was at our wedding in '93!

me and Uncle George. Loved this part of the trip!

One last look at the city at night. This was taken as I walked across the street to get our car.

I loved how this building was decorated. It was a bow of all lights. Looked very cool.

this is the door handle at the NBA store. Everyone seemed to have revolving doors and this was the most clever one we saw.

Made out of legos!

My hand compared to Shaq's hand. Yikes.

I never thought of Jason as a short person!

You had to be there to appreciate this one!

Juicy store.

St. Patrick's at night. Even prettier than during the day.

The Rockefeller tree.

Rockefeller ice skaters at night.

Our pretzel, purchased in Battery Park. It was almost unbearable how cold it was down here by the water. The guy that sold these to us tried to rip us off. The sign on his cart said, 'pretzel $2'. then he tried to charge us $6 for 2. When Jason said something, he said, "Oh, I don't have the $2 pretzels today". BS. We called him on it and he gave us them for the price on his sign.

Ground zero.

Museum

This made us laugh. This is a shot of the drive into the city. Each one of these buildings is owned by Mr. D. Trump. They are all apartment buildings. First one is called Trump, second one is called Trump, third one is called Trump... you get the idea.

Well,that is our trip. I had a FANTASTIC time but was so happy to be home.

2010-01-05T05:48:00.000-08:00

NYC
Jason, outside of the new Yankee Stadium. It must have been 19 degrees that day, with freezing winds blowing which made it much colder! The snow was coming down lightly too.

Saint Patrick's cathederal. We came in on a Sunday during mass. It was really weird that the tourists were walking all around the place while mass was going on. Beautiful church! My mom's parents were married here.

It took us awhile to find this skating rink outside of Rockefeller Center. Can you tell how cold we were!

Grand Central Station.

This was the beginning of day 2. It was about 10 degrees colder on this day. FREEZING!!

The Brooklyn Bridge

I thought this daycare center was pretty cool looking.

Jason in Central Park

Jason and I in Central Park.

never saw David Letterman.

This picture was taken on Jan. 1st. The morning after the big New Years Eve party. If you look closely you'll see that someone threw up all over the window of this police car!

This fire station was decorated for Christmas inside, they even had a tree. I love how the flags are hanging above their uniforms.

Madison Square Garden

Jason and I in front of Times Square

Welcome 2010, from Times Square!

Times Square

Dear G'ma and G'pa Driver

2009-12-27T08:53:00.000-08:00

we missed you this Christmas and wanted to make you feel like you were here, so here are the kids opening up the presents you got them.
Thanks so much!!

Thank you so much for the jacket. It is really cool and I've been wearing it ever since. Miss you a lot, Love Jacob

Thank you for the hat and gloves. I like them alot, they are so cute. I can't wait to see you again, Merry Christmas!

Thank you for the boots. I wear them every day. They are really comfy. I miss you very much. Love, Maya

Thanks for the backpack. I really liked it. I already put my Webkinz in it. I love you, Macey.

And Jason and I want to thank you so much for our gifts as well. Jason loves his shoes and sweatshirt. Perfect for our trip too! I love my cell phone cover, calendar, bag, photo book (which I have always wanted to make but don't have the time!!) and of course, the jelly belly hat! So excited for all of it!!!! I must say that I was a little disappointed by the fact that one of your beautiful polished rock pieces of jewelry was not included. I was so happy when I opened it up at Debbie's house though! It is beautiful!!! Thank you so much, it means a lot!!

Hugs and kisses,

Jason, Michell, Jacob, Molly, Maya, Macey-Jo

our wonderfully crazy Christmas!

2009-12-26T08:08:00.001-08:00

***************************************************************************************
I'll try to make this as brief as I can!
Christmas Eve we packed up the kids and went to Cameron's house. Jason made yummy traditional Croatian pasta sauce, and ummmm... I'll say.... interesting blitva. This is a boiled potato and swiss chard dish. It wasn't horrible, I'll tell you that, but I'm fine not eating it again. He also made lignje (squid). Gross gross gross. Macey and Maya tried it, something disturbing about seeing tenticles going into their sweet little mouths. We also have mashed potatoes (for the rest of us normal people), pulled pork and rolls, salads... everything (well, almost everything) was DELICIOUS!

This is one of my favorite pictures of the kids and Grandpa John. Can you guess why??? (HINT: look in the background).

This is all of the kids and Cameron and Tanya. They are going to be parents soon!! So excited that next Christmas we are going to have another little one around. This year was fun with Dani being so new, so I get to do that again in 2010! They find out what they are having Jan. 7th!!

When we got home, the kids were allowed to open one present each. They all knew what it was, I guess that is the bad thing about tradition! But comfy, new pj's for Christmas morning is the best!

I even got a smile out of Jacob!

Christmas morning was actually pretty peaceful. We told the kids that they couldn't come into our room to wake us up until 8am. I woke up at about 7:30 and quietly snuck out of my room and sat quietly at the dining room table with my computer and some chai tea. Christmas tree lights were on and there was frost all over the place outside so if you squinted your eyes, it felt like a white Christmas. I could hear the kids playing downstairs but I just took some time to myself before the mayhem started. At 7:58am, they could take it no longer. They came up the stairs to wake us up and that is when the peace was gone. But it was replaced with happiness and joy! Everyone was so sweet to each other and the gifts that the kids picked out for each other or made were the best of all! I love it when I see a child open up a present and they are truly happy and excited to get a pack of socks!

It never fails, though. No matter how much I try to get everyone to put the torn up wrapping paper into the trash bag right away...the house ends up looking like a paper factory sneezed in here!

I am still searching for one present that went missing. I so hope it didn't get tossed on accident.

After we cleaned up a bit and got ready we headed off to Olympia to see my sister's and their families and my mama. We were fashionably late, as usual. Debbie's house looked so festive and seeing everyone was perfect. I really did miss seeing my Aunt Doll, Uncle Dave and my Dad and Step Mom. You were all there in people's thoughts!!

Again, the food was awesome! Ham, green bean casserole, cheesy potatoes, sweet potatoes, makes me hungry all over again! I love seeing my kids on Christmas morning and being able to watch my niece, Daisy open her gifts brought back so many memories of some of our first Christmas' as mom and dad. Poor little thing wanted the present opening to never stop! (I can't blame her though, I love opening presents).

So I have to say to all of my friends and family members.... Thank you for being in my life! I hope your Christmas was as wonderful as mine was and that your 2010 brings surprises of peace, love and joy!

Macey got these slipper socks from Maya, she loved them.

Christmas morning.

First look at the tree.

Macey LOVES the Sounders. Thanks G'ma!

Little miss Daisy taking it all in.

Maya got a jewelry box from G'ma. She was so happy!

Here is the whole clan. We were ordered to take this shot for G'ma and G'pa Driver. There's Murphy for you too!

I know this is a blurry shot, but she was so excited to get this shirt. It has a picture of a dinosaur on it and it says "Never forget" on it. What a goof ball!

2009-12-25T11:07:00.000-08:00

this post is for my Dad and Step-mom...

Since you guys don't get to be here for Christmas morning, we wanted you to feel like you were here... here are each of the kids' opening up their gifts from you.

Is anyone out there?

2009-12-20T07:56:00.000-08:00

Or am I just posting for myself?

VACATION

2009-12-13T14:29:00.000-08:00

This week I work on Monday, then I have the rest of the week off!!! It's a good thing to because I have done pretty much none of my Christmas shopping yet. And now the snow is coming down... these kids better go to school this week!

last basketball game

2009-12-12T20:06:00.000-08:00

If we were allowed to keep score, I'd have to say that Macey's team was undefeated. She had a great time and she did great too. Best part is, Jason got to be her coach again this year.

NEW blog!!

2009-12-10T21:57:00.001-08:00

Ok, so I'm sure you have noticed that I haven't been blogging in a very long time. I was having some serious issues with the account. I'm not going to go into it but I just gave up and here I am all fresh and new and different. Let me start out by just sharing with you this video of my horse rider.

She is doing so great and is still in love with the horses. If you ask her what she wants for Christmas she'll tell you, "a horse". Not such a bad idea when you think about the fact that we'd never have to mow the lawn again! BUT, knowing how great (notice my sarcasm) my kids are at cleaning up little dog poops I really doubt they'd be excited to clean up big huge horse poops.

On to a new subject... today was the last day of my first quarter! This Fall quarter I took Survey of special Education, Planning the young child's learning environment and Work Based Learning. The official grades aren't in yet but I do believe I got all A's! I'm extremely thankful for this break!