Angelman Walk

I've worked an eclectic collection of jobs before I became a full-time mama.  One of my favorite jobs was taking care of Patrick, a happy, smiley, kid who has Angelman Syndrome.

Every year Patrick's family and friends participate in the Angelman Walk, to raise awareness and funds to help kids with Angelman Syndrome.  Patrick's team was made up of his parents, another of his caregivers and her family, and me and the baby.

The Ham Family

Team pHAMily

I was preggers at last year's walk. So it was really fun to have the little lady join us this year.

Before the walk begins, each of the kids with Angelman's is introduced to the crowd and given a balloon.  I think this is by far Patrick's favorite part of the event.  He loves pomp and circumstance, and balloons.

The walk began and we wound our way around a beautiful little lake.

As we neared the finish line, the two little girls were holding hands as we pushed their strollers.  It was the cutest thing ever!

It was a fun walk for a great cause.

If you'd like more information about Angelman Syndrome please check out their website at http://www.angelman.org/.

Swap Party

Last weekend my friend Colleen hosted a Swap party.  The basic concept is that everyone brings a bunch of stuff they don't want anymore.  Colleen's house is divided into different rooms for said stuff (clothing, housewares, beauty supplies, media).  When Colleen gives the word, everyone runs around and collects stuff that they do want.  It's really fun.  It's totally my kind of party for a number of reason: 

*I like to get free stuff.
*I like to rescue things that I know other people won't use.
*I don't really like shopping, or spending money, so this is like shopping without the shopping or the spending money. 
*I like knowing that my old stuff is going to cool people.
*Mingling.  I do love parties. 

Speaking of mingling, I had lots of fun chatting with friends, new and old.  I wish I had more pictures of all the great gals that were there, but I was too busy swapping during the party. I did remember to take a few photos at the end though. 

Colleen and Heather

Jan and Reena

Emily and me

Now for the haul.  I scored a ton of clothes.  I really needed a new pair of jeans so I was very happy to find three pairs that fit me perfectly.  Hurray!  They're already broken in, too. 

Look at these great shoes!  I have big feet, I'm talkin size 10 feet.  So if there are free shoes to be had, they are rarely in my size and if they are my size they are rarely cute.  So I was excited about these.  Score.  Also, the girl who brought them informed me that she'd hardly even worn them.  Double score.

Here is some more loot.  Scrapbooking paper, knitting needles, little scissors that are perfect for knitters, sweet note cards in a cool tin, stamp ink, and lotion. 

And some more: beads, two bottles of sparkly nail polish, an awesome batman lunch box (that I've been taking to work with me) and a sweet shower curtain that will now be repurposed as a table cloth. 

Here is the best find of all.  When I was living in Gillette I was a teacher's aide for a very awesome lady named Jean.  She had given me this bracelet as a going away present and I have always loved it. 

So you can imagine how stoked I was to find this matching necklace.  For free!  For me!

I just love swappin. 

P.S.  Here is Colleen's version: http://ranunculusadventure.blogspot.com/2011/04/swap-after-dark.html

And Jan's version: http://justimagineheaven.blogspot.com/2011/04/shall-we-swap.html

P.P.S.  Mr. Paws rarely lets me lay out any kind of fabric anything without feeling the need to come and sit right in the middle of everything.  He is also a notorious picture crasher. 

Lyrical Shenanigans

I was trying to figure out what to blog about today when this popped up on my facebook page: 

It was posted by my old college roomie, Kara.  Oh the fun that Kara and I had has roommates.  We shared many-a laugh and good times. 

Here is the story of that picture. We were in class together and had the very simple assignment of writing one of those poems were you count out the syllables.  It wasn't a Haiku, because that poem obviously doesn't have the 5,7,5 format but it was something similar to that. 

Our prof collected the assignment at the very beginning of class and Kara was annoyed to realize that she had forgotten to write her poem.  "Don't you worry," I said.  "I'll save you."  Literally while the papers were being collected I quickly jotted the down the world's absolute lamest poem, slapped Kara's name on it and turned it in. 

And we thought no more about it.  Until... 

We came into class about a week later and our professor handed out some sheets of paper.  He had compiled all of the student's poems onto one sheet and was giving them back so we could have them all.  There, at the very top of the page where you couldn't miss it was that awful poem with Kara's name on it.  She was horrified, and rightly so. I was highly amused. 

At some point later I commemorated the event with construction paper, and the bad poetry lives on. 

Thanks for the fun times, Kara.  And thanks for holding on to my silly artwork for all these years :-)

Valentine Making Party

Here is a confession:  I wasn't planning on making any Valentines this year.  "But what about your last post?" you claim.  Well, those were from 3 years ago, when I didn't have 2 jobs and I had a huge craft room.  I thought I'd just lay low this year and reminisce about my cool Valentine craftiness of the past.  However, Colleen encouraged me to get crafty, so get crafty we did. 

She drove up for the day, and two other friends, Jenna and Katie joined us. 

Michael even came over and mingled for a little. 

There was paper everywhere.  I loved it.  There is just something about a messy table that gets my creative juices flowing. 

Colleen was the Valentine making machine.  She made a lot. 

Jenna kept wowing us all with her fun ideas. 

Here's my measly contribution.  I made a bunch more later but forgot to take pictures (oops). 

Katie didn't actually make any.

She was having more fun drinking yarn and playing with Katya.  Both of which still make for a good time. 

My parents always send me a fun Valentine package every year and it arrived while we were crafting.  I opened it and found this awesome pair of pajamas.  Thanks mom and dad! 

I also have to include the Valentine my best friend, Meghan sent me, just because it is so cute and if she lived nearby, she definitely would have been crafting with us. 

But my favorite Valentine of all was the one Michael gave me.  He's the best :-) 

So here's to good friends, a messy table, and sharing the Valentine love.