Operation Christmas Child Shoeboxes

I have a goal of filling and paying the shipping costs of Operation Christmas Child Shoeboxes this year. However; I have to start actually making some sales from my Etsy shop first. Come visit my shop and see what you think!!!! http://www.bookwormhlw.etsy.com

Baby Hats

I am in the middle of making baby hats right now for my etsy shop.

Listing!!!

O.k. I have officially listed some items to sell.

Begginings

Well, I decided that I am actually going to sell jelly and jam. I opened a shop and am working on the logistics of the appearance of the shop on etsy.com ( http://bookwormhlw.etsy.com) though I still haven't made any jelly or jam yet to sell. I am still trying to collect materials and try to figure out how much it should be selling for. If any one has some tips or comments please let me know. I still have to get a canner and maybe some more jars and definitely more pectin since I only have one package left over from doing some jam and jelly last year. Oh well, maybe next weekend, I might be able to do that, we will see.

Trip to NY

This weekend, my parents and I took Isabelle to NY. Alicia had her wedding yesterday. It was a beautiful wedding. I really liked the dresses that Beth made for the flower girl (Katiann) , junior brides maid, (Caylin) the bridesmaid, and the maid of honor (Laura). Katiann had a pretty yellow dress and yellow ribbon in her hair. All the bridesmaid and the junior bridesmaid had very pretty light green dress made out some eyelet material. They were all different but similar. Beth did a very good job on the dresses. Beth also made little Emily and Isabelle matching dresses to the wedding. We traveled out on Friday. It didnt take real long to get out there especially because we had started out in the morning where Isabelle had a little nap in the morning in the car and then she took her afternoon nap while we were in the car for the rest of the trip. I am very thankful that I had my parents with me to help me with the stops were we had to feed her, get her changed the adults fed, and everyone in the bathroom if they needed to while we were stopped. Everyone just pitched in and did what they could to get everything done. It was a crazy weekend!!! Of course, it is crazy when your family is having a wedding. Isabelle had a blast though she practically fell asleep at the reception but that’s o.k.!!! It was during her nap time. She had fun walking around the big room, people would have a big smile on their face as she walked by, and her cousins had a fun time following her all round!!! I hope the best for Alicia and Reagan and I hope that they live “happily ever after” or the best humanly possible. I think that Alicia will like the present that I picked out for her. It is a bunch of little things that will help start off her kitchen. It was also fun to have Isabelle play with her cousins that she doesn’t get to see quite all the time (they live 2 hours from us). But I was fortunate to have my parents stay with Isabelle in the B&B in Moravia, NY. They had a perfect room. They had a room with a room off the side of it where they could put our crib that we have Isabelle sleep in. The apartment that my husband still has, that I wish he would get rid of, is not suitable for Isabelle. She wouldn’t have a room to sleep in or a safe, clean, baby space to play in for one thing so that’s why she stayed with my parents at the B&B. The owners of the B&B are really nice and are almost like family. I did however managed last night to have my husband and pack some boxes of kitchen stuff that he would never use that I could either store in my parent’s attic or use!!!!!! I am trying all the time to get him to weed out stuff that he wouldn’t use so that it would be easier to keep some things more (organized; if he would work on that!!!), and it would be easier for him to actually move to MA when the time comes (soon, I hope!!!). Isabelle and I went to church with my husband and his family this morning. It is hard to go to that church especially because there is no one in the nursery to watch Isabelle so, I had to have her stay with us during Sunday School and in the service with us. She has been such a good trooper!!! It took us a long time to get home today because of the fact that we went to church. We had to leave later where she had a 1 ½ hour nap and then we stopped for lunch. She didn’t have the rest of her afternoon nap so she ended up napping a little bit on the last leg of our trip. We also had to stop in Westfield, MA because my bicycle that we were trying to pick up while we were there had ended up in Heather and Tim’s garage (long story!!!!). Its a good thing that we have Baby Einstein Cds, Baby Einstein DVDs, her books, and toys that keep her busy!!! She is such a good baby to take care of. The weekend was a fun but stressful, and interesting very quick trip. And it went a lot better than it could have. We are now finally home and it it is a little bit before 9:00 PM . We now have to get everything out of the car into the house, get Isabelle into pjs, give her a bottle, put her crib back together, and put her to bed!!!! It is really past her bedtime. She usually goes to bed around 8:30 or 8:45 pm.

I will post some pictures later.

Trip to the Cape

Yesterday, my mom, Isabelle and I went to Cape Cod to visit my Grammy and Grampy. We hadn't seen them since Christmas time. Isabelle decided to get up at 7:00 AM, just like on Sunday. We also had a very long, but good sermon so she was more then ready for a nap by the time she got in her car seat to go home, have her bottle and take a nap. She got in a good nap in the afternoon though. Yesterday, she barely had any naps. She wouldn't have a "swing" time so she instead tried to help me get us ready to go to the cape. That means, she gets everything out. Upstairs she got out one of my shirts from one of my drawers and got out several of her books from the shelves. Downstairs, I was trying to pack a bag with some of her toys in it. That meant that she was taking out toys faster then I could put them in and she was following our cat, Madeline around the house. I thought that she was going to spend a lot of the almost two hour car trip taking a nap. Well, she decided that she was going to wake up about half way through the trip while we were in Boston. I don't know how she can keep on going like that sometimes. I wish I could have some of that energy. I think that sometimes she thinks that she is the energiser bunny. She had a lot of fun playing at my Grammy and Grampy's house. For one thing, we forgot to bring baby gates with us. So, she had a lot of fun "running" all around. She would go from the living room to the kitchen , go around the kitchen island, around the dinning table, over to the stairs and back to the living room where we were trying to visit. She would do it over, and over, and over again!!!!!! She also had the experience of going to a restaurant for the first time and sitting in at a restaurant table in a high chair. She had her first visit to Seafood Sams. We were in a good spot; a corner. She really liked looking all around and seeing what other people were doing . And she liked watching the fans on the ceiling while she was eating her Gerber dinner, her bottle of formula, a mini saltine cracker, and a Gerber Graduates "wagon wheel". Then we went back and played for a while and then we went home. She did sleep half the way home in the car and then the two of us were playing and singing songs and I even found some children's music on my computer to play. Now, we have Friday's trip to NY to pack for. That is going to even harder on her. At least, I won't be all by myself. I was really glad that she didn't get up at 7:00 am again. I really didn't feel like getting up a 7:00 this morning and I even got in my shower and my breakfast before I made her breakfast and got her up.

Friday and Saturday

Friday and Saturday were busy days!!!!! My dad and I walked Isabelle to the library to go to Baby Bookworms. Isabelle just loves Baby Bookworms. She loves all the kids that go and Mrs. Sheppard who does the program. In the afternoon, after Isabelle went down for her nap, my dad and I went on some errands. I picked out a new pair of glasses. I was glad that Parrelli Optical had more pairs of glasses covered by MassHealth then at Dr. Gurley's office. I found a pair of glasses that were simmaller in shape and color as my current pair of glasses. We then went to Trader Joes. I am trying to learn how to be as frugal as I can possibley be. I am learning a few tricks from some of the blogs I am reading. I found that it is better to buy gummy omega 3 vitamins at Trader Joes rather then the ones I have found at Target. They are a 120 count bottle for 8.99 rather then a 60 count bottle for 6.49. I am doing all that I can possibley do to be frugal. I also got a few things at Walmart but I was dissapointed to find that the only knee-highs there were black when I really wanted tan ones. Later in the day, Isabelle and I played. Saturday, I went to the ymca with Isabelle for her swim class. And then my mom and I both got our hair cuts done. I soo needed a haircut. It will be soo much easier to get my hair done now.