Another new post at the new site!

http://tapsalteerie.wordpress.com

Friendly reminder to update links to the new blog.  I'll only be posting update notices over here from now on.

Speaking of which, I've made a couple new posts!  Go check them out!

http://tapsalteerie.wordpress.com

My rent here at Blog-city will be running out near the end of October, so I've been scouting out new locations and have started sprucing up a cute little place over at Wordpress.  It's slow going and I'm sure I'll be tweaking it for a long time, but the bulk of my posts will now be over there. 

I've loved my time here at Blog-city... but it's time to move.

I've really been hitting the crafting blogs lately (notice the new bloglist to the right) and there are so many incredible ideas for crafting with kids that it's hard to know where to start!

Today Sophie and I melted old crayons in the oven and made cool autumnal cut outs from the swirled up wax.  It was incredibly fun and Sophie had a blast!  She's already planning her next color combinations and what shapes she wants to use.

It's hard to tell from the picture but the crayons we used were all purple, brown, green, orange and red, with a couple yellow and white thrown in for pop.  We used small leaf and acorn cookie cutters for the shapes.  The wax sets rather quickly, but is extremely watery when it comes out of the oven, so be careful that you don't burn yourself or totally muddy your colors in transit.  We used a toothpick to swirl some of the colors (think marbling) which you can kind of see on that bottom left maple leaf.

We used a disposable pie plate and we had little left over wax, and clean up was a breeze!

The hardest part of this project was simply removing the paper from the crayons.  I'm now sporting a very colorful manicure. 

We got the inspiration for this project from The Crafty Crow, definitely a must view for crafting families!

I promised several entries ago that I would post some photos.  So I went through some of the photos we took over the summer and picked out a few favorites.

This is Dandy wearing Sophie's "Princess Hair".  It was hilarious! 

This is one of the happiest sights ever!  Normally I'm overjoyed when we get our "end of summer" load of hay (means I don't have to worry once winter sets in) but this year, with the continuing hay shortage, and the price of hay skyrocketting (not to mention feed prices!!) I was never so happy as to see these 100 bales parked in front of the "barn". 

This was taken at Wild Wings in G'ville.  Jim wanted to go there for his birthday... odd choice I know, but you humor the birthday boy :)  Anyway, this sign was hanging right above Dandy when he sat down and we all found it rather amusing :)  I've never heard of Dandy Cola.

This was taken at Big Ben's English Pub in Charlotte NC.  Beckett was hamming it up and being such a cutie!

Sophie has this keen fascination with face painting so I bought a good set of face paints and discovered that it's hard to paint the face of a squirmy, giggly child!  This is Beckett as a Tiger.

Xander as a Pirate

and Sophie as a Butterfly.  Seriously, I've gotten a lot better, but these were our first attempts.

We went to see Thomas the Tank Engine at Dillsboro and just as we were waiting for our turn to ride the train we bumped into the Stacks!  Notice how none of the boys were interested in having a picture made.

While we were riding the train, M bought the boys new shirts, hats and kerchiefs and they were eager to put them on IMMEDIATELY!!

This is Dandy and the giant Lego Thomas.  It was really neat, you could climb inside of it!  The only bad part was parents kept sitting in the steps and it was hard to get a pic without somebody's backside in it!

This is Dandy riding Skye.  Yes I know he should have on a helmet!  He has had such a marvelous time riding and he looks so cute in his breeches and boots!

Last night I was so delighted that I actually got all of my guys to bed at a decent hour.  Beckett instantly went to sleep, but Sophie was a little keyed up and Xander, it seems, was in a chatty mood.

After a story I announced that the lights were going out and we were going to sleep.  Xander and Sophie agreed.  I was moments from sleep when I hear:

X- Mom, what's that noisy?

Me- It's a cricket.

X- Mom?  It's too loud.

Me- Yes it's loud, but it won't hurt you.  Go to sleep.

X- Mom? What's that sound?

Me- It's the donkeys braying, Martha's probably turned on a light in her room and it woke them up.

X- oh, ok.

A few minutes of silence followed by:

X- Mom?  What's that noisy?

Me- It's more crickets and other night bugs.

X- Will they get Dandy?

Me- No, crickets come out to sing with all the other night bugs when it gets dark.

X- They not good at singing.

Me- They've been singing all summer, baby, you're just noticing it now because you don't want to go to sleep.

X- oh.  OK.

Another span of silence

X- Mom?

Me- Xander do you want me to just come over there and sleep with you for a bit?

X- Sure!

So I grabbed my pillow and Xander and snuggled into the top bunkbed (it's a single bed btw).  A few moments later I hear Sophie sniffling.  On asking her what was wrong she said she wanted to sleep with us on the top bunk too.  So over we squished and in she climbed.

Admittedly it was funny.  Sophie and I started giggling, much to the consternation of Xander who repeatedly told us to be quiet or else we'd wake Beckett!  Finally Sophie settled and we were all moments from sleeping when once again:

X- Mom?

Me- Yes Xander?

X- You're squishing me.  Maybe you go back to your bed.

Me- (thankfully) OK, I'll go back to my bed.

X- I'll stay here.

So as I'm gathering up my pillow, Sophie decided to have a near melt-down as she was rather enjoying the whole sleep-in on the top bunk!  A bit of cajoling and compromising later she was snuggled into her sleeping bag on the couch and I was snug in my bed.  We all, thankfully, slept soundly.

Until this morning when Beckett bounded out of bed, fresh as a daisy!  I heard Jim come in from work and then head into the kitchen so I grabbed my phone and called him (one of the funniest calls I've ever made I might add) to come get Beckett.  Xander had followed Beckett over to my bed and was curled up next to me while Beckett was doing his dead-level best to dislocate my back!  Jim ended up taking Beckett to go feed with him this morning which afforded the rest of us a little more sleep.  But while the kids have been quite full of themselves this morning, I've been dragging and wishing for just 10 more minutes of sleep!

After Sophie finished her schoolwork this morning we decided to look up a few songs on iTunes.  Somehow, I'm not sure exactly how, we ended up on Edith Piaf. 

Knowing that Sophie has a strong affinity for music in foreign languages, it's no surprise that she instantly became engrossed in it!  She's been walking around the kitchen ever since humming and singing "La vie en rose"

As I was exploring other albums by Piaf, I found a list someone had made... essential French pop or French dinner music or something... regardless it has a bunch of different artists singing... Sophie's totally over the moon with that one too!

I've already gotten weird looks from people that heard Bollywood soundtracks blaring from our car, I guess I get to add some iconic French tunes too :)

I suppose it's not really too surprising, after all Sophie was named after a French girl :)

Ivy over at FamiLee Blog gave me this award for blog excellence... even though I've been sporadic at best with posts lately... Thanks so much Ivy :)

Esther at SC Martins.blogspot.com/

Christine at Smiles and Trials

Sally at Adventures in Living and Learning

Tara at East and West

Suzanne at Straight Down the Mountain

Rosemoon at Moonmeadow Farm

Several days ago I noticed an odd place on Sophie's front tooth.  It appeared to be a crack, but Sophie didn't seem to mind it.  A couple days later Soph complained that her tooth hurt, so I went ahead and scheduled an appointment and luckily they were able to work us in today.

Turns out it was just a scratch in a calcified part of her tooth, but it's better safe than sorry especially since the tooth in question is a permanent tooth!

So since Sophie was such a very good girl at her appointment I treated her to lunch at the Bistro at Whole Foods.  It was pretty good, although the service was nearly non-existent.  When Sophie gets fed up with the lack of attention, you know it's bad!!

We rounded out our WF adventure with a little shopping and then hoofed it back home in time to catch a nap with the boys... although Sophie wasn't in the napping mood since she had napped the whole way home and ended up going off to do errands with Jim instead.  I had a nice little nap which was/is a good thing (more on that later).

Then I was up and out the door for my own dentist (actually orthodontist) appointment.  I have been rejoicing over this appointment as my top wire has been poking me for the last couple days and has been very annoying and very painful!

Unfortunately I was tortured (not intentionally) during the changing of my lower wire.  I won't go into details but the tech accidentally caught my lip in her pliers just as she was twisted the wire... it wasn't pretty and my lip/mouth still hurts :(

Anyway.  I was in a less than happy mood when I pulled up at the house.  Jim met me at the car with his you're-needed-STAT face on so I knew something was afoot.  Apparently Maddy (the Appaloosa) had bolted her feed and was choked.  So instead of spending the evening bemoaning my poor mouth, I dashed into the house to change clothes and went out to the paddock. 

Maddy was happily munching away on grass when I got to her paddock, but I went ahead and brought her out to give her a more thorough look-see.  She seemed fine, nothing to indicate that she had had any trouble other than a little mud on her knees... so I found the rest of her feed and offered it to her.  Within a couple bites it was apparent that she was having some problems.  I brought her up the house and started our standard "choked-horse procedure" (because yes we have one since my mare Aimee notoriously bolts her feed and chokes). 

After several attempts we finally got her unblocked (yeah!) only to find that now she's bloated.  So standard "bloated-horse procedure" followed.  One trip to Wal-mart (I so loathe that store) to buy out every bottle of store-brand Pepto they had and I now have a woozy, still slightly bloated horse tied to my front porch.

Sigh.

She is doing better, but she's slightly uncomfortable so I'll be spending the night either on the porch so I can watch her or getting up every little bit to go check on her.  While I don't equate my horses to my children, I still don't like having a sick horse, and Maddy's quite dear to us all.  She's nominally Julie's horse, and Julie spent the entire evening here with her, walking her around the driveway and just keeping her company.  Julie left at 11 and will be back in the morning.  The kids are going mental/crazy, I think they're taking advantage of the parental break in attention to wreak havoc... here's hoping that things are better for all tomorrow!

Since it's been rainy the past couple days and it looks like it may continue raining for a few more, I decided to dig out some wool and start spinning again.  So far I've got about a bobbin's worth spun of Maggie's wool (she's a dark brown/black color) and it is gorgeous.  My plans are to spin the whole fleece, ply it and knit a sweater for Jim.  It's the perfect color for Jim, so I may implore one of my more knit savvy cousins (Judy) to do the actual knitting.

I've had a few problems with the boys "helping" me.  Xander managed to unwind the bobbin once and Beckett popped the driveband, screwed up the brake band AND unwound the bobbin once as well.  I finally had to have a "come to Jesus" meeting with both of them and so far they have steered clear of my wheel.  We'll see how long that lasts.

I've been using my old Louet instead of my preferred Kromski Symphony simply because the Louet was in the living room and the Kromski was up in the guest room... laziness prevails!  Well it's not all laziness, as the Symphony needs a new driveband and I'm fresh out of twine to make one.  Ah well... something to remember to buy next time I'm out.

M and I have been planning to dye some wool (possibly Fiona's?) to do some felted Christmas ornaments.  Yes I know it's only August, but I have to make the mental decision to do something long before it's actually done!!  It's a really neat process using cookie cutters and felting needles to make the shape, and the embroidering the details on later.  For the Kyrgyz peeps out there, it's very similar to the wool mobiles available at Tsum and BETA.  Anyway, it seems like a good project.

First off, thank you to all my friends who noticed I was MIA for a while there.  I appreciate all your messages and phone calls!  Nothing has been "wrong" on this end other than just being to tired/busy/blocked to blog and when I have blogged my posts have disappeared into the nether-reaches of the internet never to be seen or read again.  Seriously, I've made 3-4 posts that somehow never made it on to my actual blog... no idea where they ended up, but I hope they're happy wherever they are :)

Lots been going on here!  The garden has kept M busy and she's been bringing in bucket loads of tomatoes every time she ventures down to the garden.  The boys are in heaven!!  They love tomatoes and eat them right off the vine like big messy apples!  A big thanks to Suzanne for recommending the Black Krims.  Those are quite the favorite this year and there's gobs of them!  They look a little weird, but the taste is phenomenal!!  Thanks for the suggestion!!

We've been working with the horses alot lately.  I'm not sure that we'll be doing lessons like I did 10 years ago, but it's great being back in the genre.  I've missed working with my girls and although Aimee and Alise are enjoying their well-earned retirement, they still enjoy the occasional jaunt out with the kids.  Xander has a beautiful (enviable) natural seat that is just incredible!  I know his early years with his Kyrgyz family are probably the reason (he remembers riding with them).  He is an incredible natural talent and I'm sure he'll be a terrific equestrian if he chooses to be.  He has been riding Sophie's pony Skye, but prefers to take out big ole Alise (Skye is a tiny little pony, Alise is a HUGE draft horse).  We've been searching for another schooling horse online and invariably it turns into me searching for my dream horse (a Friesian by the way... ever since I met Daen back in '94 I've had my heart set on riding one!).  I found a couple barns that have videos of their horses for sale.  Xander and I watch them often and we both get that "ohhh" and "ahhhh" thing going when the horses go trotting by!  By the way, I'm hoping to actually go look at a Friesian gelding soon.  He costs the earth but he's gorgeous and I can't resist looking :)

I've started working with Fantine again with moderate success.  I've decided to slow down and start over from the beginning with her.  Currently we're working on lots of trust issues with her.  She does not like people at all, but I've been working with her everyday, bribing her with treats and she's getting to the point where she doesn't try to run away when I get near her.  My goal each time I mess with her is simply to get a hand on her without her freaking out.  At this point I can run my hand down her neck and across her face so long as she's eating a treat.  I've managed to touch her once without a treat at all, but I think that may have been accidental :)  She's coming along, but she's had so much trauma that it's amazing that she lets us near her at all.  She is a truly beautiful horse and I hate that she's been so sorely used by the human drug system.  Don't get me started....

In other family news Kelly did finally have the new baby.  We were wondering if the blessed event would ever happen as she kept getting bumped, but finally Myra Jean made her entrance on August 21!  They named her for M and Kelly's M, but we're all having a hard time coming up with what to call her as calling anyone by M's name feels weird.  Kind of like calling someone by my own name.  I guess it comes from not running into people with that name often.  Currently we're referring to her as MJ.  She's very cute and looks alot like my brother, although I can see lots of Kelly too.  We haven't gone up to see them yet, but hopefully that will work out soon! 

Sophie's started her schooling again.  We've been doing lots of reviews and have just started doing the "real" stuff again.  She's eager, but we're having some focusing issues, as she wants to do things her own way or not at all.  I think we've just got to get back into the rhythm we were in and then things will be fine.  Jim's started back to school as well, which has helped Sophie get into the mindset that it's school-time.  Hopefully things will get smoother soon!

What else?  I have gobs of pictures that I need to post but I'll need to resize and upload them.  Look for a photo post soon! 

OK, so I know many of our in-process blog buddies have (justifiably) locked blogs, but I still thought having a Kyrgyz Blog Ring would be pretty cool.  If you'd like to join just click here or on the link in my right sidebar and follow the directions.  It is slightly confusing, but just persevere and all should be well!

There are so many new KG adoption blogs now that I'm finding it harder and harder to keep up so I'm hoping that this blog-ring does catch on!

If you have questions please leave me a comment or email me (link on the left, under the stick horse) and I'll try to help!