Totally 80's

Nothing more awesome than 80's dress up day at school. Just wish I knew about it more than a day, but we didn't do too bad on short notice!



I dropped her off this morning. We usually park since we get to school ealier than they allow. We park by the Discovery Club which Malia's crush attends. This morning the kids from the club were lining up getting ready to head out to the playground. I could see Malia was embarrassed because she was dressed this way around the boy she has liked for most of the school year so she stopped and waited for them to go in front of her hoping they wouldn't turn around and see her. We see the club members every day and never do they notice Malia walking into class, but of course today, the teacher saw her and a parent saw her and perhaps they thought she looked so cute, they made a big deal out of her and motioned for her to come closer. I could see her totally embarrassed and I just wanted to call out to her to come back to the car so I could save her from that, but she walked over, said something to them, and continued on. She's awesome! I love that kid!

My Boy!

I love this kid. He loves to cuddle and I love listening to him read to me. He is such an awesome kid!

Bathtub Swimming!

Trying out the new swimsuit and goggles. Too bad it's storming outdoors but the bathtub will do just fine!

The Sky

One again, I have found myself pointing my camera towards the sky. I don't know if it is the photographer in me or if the skies are so beautiful, they are hard to miss. The last few weeks the sky has been amazing and my camera has taken a trip outside to capture them. These two pictures are taken straight from the camera...no editing. Of course they can never do the real thing justice, but you get the idea anyway...

This one was taken with my Canon. It called to me because behind me was clear sky with the sun setting. This led to the bright shine on the trees with the storm moving on:



This next one was taken with my phone...I'm so glad to have a camera at my fingertips to capture things happening right then. I just love this:

Sleep Over!

These two girls are so cute together! Carly just loves her cousin Ry Ry and they got to have a sleepover last night. Super fun!

Right Place...Right Time...

Have you ever felt like little things fall in place for something big to happen to not just you, but those around you? It's rare, I know, but today something very minor happened that made a huge difference to me and probably a total stranger...

I'm not going to lie, I am a total scaredy cat. I think of anything and everything bad that can happen in any situation. I would never Ever EVER pick up a hitch hiker because all of them have a gun and will shoot me and my kids for my wallet and car, but today something just happened...almost out of my control.

I was heading back from Sam's club thinking I was going to stop off at another store before I hit home. I was tired and after making a mad dash to Burger King, I decided just to head home and venture out again tomorrow. I saw the red light and the mass amount of cars in front of me. I looked in my review mirror and saw I was the last in line, I saw the lady walking down the side of the street with a big roller suitcase that creeped into the main rode from time to time. As I slowed to stop, she turned around with her thumb out. My first thought was "Crap, I had to stop right in front of this chick...don't make eye contact...don't make eye contact." She turned and started walking, but I swear it was like someone took over my body and I rolled my window down and asked where she was heading. It was pretty much right up the street and I told her to get in. She was so grateful and sighed with relief. Turns out her bag was full of beads that she was going to be making items to sell with and it weighed a ton. We had a nice conversation and her destination was on my way home.

I've been spring cleaning around my house lately. Yesterday I cleaned out the pantry and filled a bag full of non-perishable items that we just haven't used. I was going to donate them to a food bank and for some reason, I put them in my car today not even knowing where I would take them. I even thought at one point I wouldn't ever be able to get rid of it, but here I was, with this lady who didn't seem homeless but just kind of down on her luck trying to make her way to her daughter's house to visit her 4 year old granddaughter who could use this food. Again, she was very grateful with another sigh of relief. I helped her get her stuff out of the car, gave her the food and a hug and wished her luck and she was on her way.

I don't tell you this because I want everyone to think I am awesome, I tell you this because sometimes the Spirit of Christ is so powerful and every little thing that didn't seem relevant during the day becomes everything to one person. I don't normally post spiritual or things that are personal on here, but I think it is a good reminder that we are all brothers and sisters and when the spirit is yelling at you to do something, you probably should. I did today and I learned a very valuable lesson. Do some good people...it feels great!

Hungry?

I love writing posts about books. It fools people into thinking that I am an avid reader...I'm not, though. I've already written a post about The Hunger Games and even predicted who would play the rolls of each character in the upcoming movie. You can read it HERE.

The movie came out a few days ago. I've been waiting for a long time to see this, but I'm not crazy enough to go to midnight showings of any movie no matter how much Raya begs me to go. Raya and I headed to the local theater on Saturday to watch Katniss Everdeen and her wicked bow and arrow skills. It was a great movie. It stayed true to the book except for a few details, like where she got the mocking jay pin, but I can overlook that seeing they would have had to introduce a very minor character into the movie by sticking with what really happened. So why does this movie deserve a post you ask? Well, I learned something...

Back when I was reading Twilight, I was super duper UN-impressed with the movie. The movie was out in the theaters and I was still reading it, so I waited to see it until I finished the book. We all know that books are way better than movies and I kept reminding myself this as I was sitting through the movie with my bored husband by my side (Yes, I was one of THOSE women who dragged their husband to see vampire's sparkle!) Thank goodness it was a long while before the next movie in the series came out and I had already read all the books. I think I enjoyed the next movies much more having forgotten all the little details the book gives and because of this, I learned NOT to go and see movies of books I've read shortly after reading them.

So, I read the Hunger Games series over a year ago and I really enjoyed the movie, except I didn't. It's a little weird, I know, but there was just no suspense for me. The reason is because I already knew everything that was going to happen. Don't get me wrong, it still was a great movie even if I think that they cast the wrong kid for Peeta. Gale was certainly eye candy for me...too bad he was hardly in the movie, but none of that REALLY matters because as I was sitting there, I had an A-HA moment. I think because I already know the story line, and how it ends, the movie just isn't as good as I would have liked it to be. So, I've decided that I might just wait until movies come out before I read their books. I don't know why I started reading in the first place...It's so overrated! :)

Random Conversations...

Doing homework is always a blast in the Durling home...NOT!! Sometimes we do have a good laugh though. Like today...Ethan was being silly when he was doing his homework, so I called him a dork. (I know, don't judge). Raya went on to tell me that it wasn't very nice because her math teacher told her what a dork was. The conversation proceeded:

Me: "What is a dork?"

Raya: "An elephants penis." *chuckle, chuckle*

Ethan" "What? What is a dork?"

Me: "An elephant's penis."

Ethan: "oh, I must destroy all elephants."

Me: "Why would you destroy all elephants?

Ethan: "Because if there weren't any elephants, then there would be no such thing as that word."

I almost died laughing...

On another note...

Carly was helping me prepare for a church activity up at the church and of course, at the most inconvenient time, she had to use the restroom. We headed into the bathroom and chose a stall. She got herself ready and then we looked down and noticed that the stall wasn't really clean and so we decided to go to the next stall. Carly didn't want to get her pants up so she just walked over with her toosh hanging out, so I said:

Me: "Oh Carly, your toosh is hanging out:

Carly: "Hanging out with all its friends."

I love these kids...they keep me laughing all the time!

Guess Whoooo's Having A Baby?

It wasn't that long ago that I posted pictures from a baby shower I did for my sister. Let me assure you that this is not a repeat, she's just having another baby. Some have called her crazy, others brave. What would you call a women who will have babies only 15 months apart?

I threw her a shower today and it was a hoot! Probably one of my favorites with everything from the decorations to the activity. It turned out great and I recieved so many compliments on everything. I think it was probably my favorite yet, but honestly, I'm glad it's over. I got tired of everything taking over my bedroom floor and my pocketbook!

It started with the invitation. It took a while to design them and get them how I wanted. I loved how they turned out!



Then I planned the decorations and layout of everything:















I hand stiched all these owls. I had a lady at the shower ask if she could take one home. I had to tell her no...





The food was yummy! We did deli sandwiches with some side salads:



Raya made Nutter Butter and Oreo truffles which were a HUGE hit!



Cupcakes from cupcake craving:



And really cute attendees:



I really struggled with what to do at this shower. I'm not a huge fan of baby shower games anymore and I think that they are kind of going out of style. So after brainstorming, my friend gave me an awesome idea! Since my sister is having a girl, we thought that it would be fun to make bows for the baby. I thought it was a great idea and so did Sarah. The only concern I had was if her friends had any crafty genes in them. Turns out, some of them do. I was actually surprised that almost everyone participated in bow making. It went over really well.

























She opened gifts and of course got a lot of very cute girl clothes...I actually wished they made some in my size!





And then the party goers left with an awesome favor. Now those of you who know me, know that I hate being in the kitchen so you will understand when I say that it was torture making these. It wouldn't have been so bad if I had an actual recipe to follow, but alas, I did not and because I had my mind set on these favors, I braved the kitchen and got my baking skills on...it only took a few tries and even THAT was Pure Torture!



I wanted to do personal sized cookies in a jar. I loved that it fell along the "natury" type theme with the coloring and the oatmeal. I searched high and low for a recipe that I could fit in half pint jars that didn't have an egg with no avail. So I modified an eggless recipe and after a few tries and a few additions of ingrediants, I created a yummy masterpiece. It was Patrick approved which says a lot! Because it was a nightmare and I could not find anything online and I want to save anyone who shares my loath of the kitchen the unpleasantness of concockting recipes, I will post it here:

I used a half pint sized canning jar (Kerr brand)

I layered the following in this order:

1/4 cup of flour
1/8 teaspoon of baking powder
1/8 teaspoon of salt
1/3 cup of quick cooking oats
2 tablespoons of packed brown sugar
2 teaspoons white sugar
1 tablespoon of Blueberry or Pomegranet flavored Cranrasins
3 tablespoons of chocolate chips

I attached a little tag with the remaining wet ingrediants that needed to be added and instructions. They were:

Add to jar mixture
2 tablespoons plus 2 teaspoons of butter
1/8 teaspoon of vanilla extract
2 teaspoons of boiling water

Mix, drop by spoonsfulls on ungreased baking dish. Bake for 15-17 minutes at 350 degrees. Yield 4 cookies.

For 24 half pint jars, 3 small bags of chocolate chips were needed and 1 1/2 bags of the Cranraisens were needed.

Shower is over, now it's time to welcome a new little niece into the world. I'm looking forward to meeting little miss Ella Fox



and I'm pretty sure all these people are excited too:

Carly Quote

Carly: "Oh my gosh mom, feel my heart. It's beeping. That means I have a life."

Poindexters

I always loved my last name growing up. Regardless of the stereo type the movie industry has given it, I was not a nerd. It has made for some fun and interesting conversations with people and most people I met never forgot it. I often hear it while my kids are watching TV and they all get excited and say "mom, did you hear that? They said Poindexter!" Despite what one may think, Poindexter was an awesome name to grow up with and it's mostly because of these people:



After taking the big family photo on the Durling side, I was prompted to organize one for the Poindexter side. We just so happened were all able to get together and with the help of my awesome friend Heidi, we were able to capture our current family. It may not be as big as Patrick's side, but it's still big none the less:




After getting the group shots, I was able to do individual pictures of different parts of the family. I wish I had more time to do more creative shots with them, but it is, what it is, and they turned out great. The weather was absolutely perfect for a photographer and I couldn't have asked for more coopertive people to work with. Well, actually, I just bossed them around and didn't care about my professionalism...after all, they still love me AND I didn't charge them...

MY DAD AND HIS LADY FRIEND...I GUESS THAT'S WHAT WE'LL CALL HER, CHRISTI:



MY MOM AND HER HUSBAND, DAVID:



MY OLDEST BROTHER JASON, HIS WIFE KELLI, AND THEIR DAUGHTER RYLIE:





I just LOVE this one:


MY OLDER SISTER SARAH, HER HUSBAND MIKEY, AND THEIR SON ANTHONY:





Another one of my favorites:


MY YOUNGER BROTHER JAKE AND HIS WIFE SARAH:



I guess I have a lot of favorites because here's another:


MY DAD JOHN AND HIS SISTER PATTY:



MY AUNT PATTY AND HER TWO SONS NATE AND JOSH:





MY COUSIN NATE AND HIS GIRLFRIEND JAMIE:



ALL OF THE COUSINs AND THEIR SPOUSES...yes, we are a short breed:



I didn't get any pictures of my youngest brother probably because he is single but we did joke that our adopted sister Jen could stand in as his spouse. She's the one in red shoes with dark hair standing on a rock in the big group photo. No pictures of the Durlings as we just had our family ones done and I honestly was wiped out and I ran out of space on my CF card too. If you are a little confused...yes, there are two Sarah's and yes, they are both pregnant...due two days apart. How fun are those two cousins going to have? All I can say here is, I love my family. They are simply awesome!