This is what 44 "ugly dolls" look like.

Caitlin had a great idea for ME to make "ugly dolls" for the Big 10 Conference goodie bags for this year. So last July she and I started on them. She designed the doll shapes and helped me cut them out. We hand sewed the faces and the University of Illinois "I" on their butts. They turned out pretty cute. :)

So the tradition begins.....

This week bleach.

Next week dye.

Following week shave.

Little update for ya!!

Brian:

Brian has had the go ahead from the doctor to stop wearing the boot. He's been hobbling around on it "free" the past week or so. For the first time in over 2 months I've had him grocery shopping with me and his excuse for not being able to pick up the dog poop is O V E R!!

Caitlin:

Caitlin has been feeling GREAT! We went for a visit on the 23rd for her last home swim meet. She looks the best I've seen her since the Crohn's diagnosis. Brian's nephew John and his brother-in-law John Sr. came for a college visit. After the swim meet Caitlin showed them aoround the campus and we had dinner with her before we left. She traveled to Wisconsin this past weekend for a swim meet and swam GREAT! She is excited to be on the travel team for the Big 10 Conference meet in a few weeks. :)

Conner:

Conner just swam in his H.S Conference swim meet this past Saturday. He swam life time best swims in the 100 fly (5th place with 57.06), 200 free (5 place with 152.85) the 200 med. relay (4th palce with his fly 26) and the 400 free relay (2nd place with his 100 free a 51.61). All of the boys on the team did an excellent job, we are proud of them all. They were seeded to come in 4th in the Conference, and they came in 2nd. I don't think there was a boy that didn't score. We are excited to see how he does with a taper. :)

Me:

I'm glad Brian can pick up the dog poop now. I'm THRILLED Caitlin is feeling so much better and is swimming well. And I'm excited to see how Conner finishes up his season.

That is all....goodbye. :)

I've not been so good about keeping my blog updated. I've let Facebook take over in the "blog" area. Things have been quite busy the past three months to say the least. October brought a new drug treatment for Caitlin. She is now taking Humira shots every other week and they have been a blessing so far. (fingers crossed) They have changed her life to say the least. She feels 10,000 times better and has no pain and her strength is coming back. She looks wonderful and I'm just thrilled for her. November brought Thanksgiving and a ruptured Achilles tendon for Brian. He had surgery on December 2nd and is on crutches with a cast until the 30th. He will get the cast off then and get some kind of adjustable boot thing he will have to wear for 3 months (my nerve is wearing thin....). Conner started his high school swim season and is doing great. He was Swimmer of the Week a few weeks ago, which was exciting. Caitlin and Conner are both on Christmas break and I am on vacation. I'm loving it. :) That's about it. I'm hoping the new year will bring great health and lots of wonderful memories for everyone. Happy Holidays!

New Etsy shop

After much day dreaming, I've opened an Etsy shop on Etsy.com. I LOVE this website and will sit for hours looking at all the neat stuff people make and sell. I've made bunco game boxes and sold them on eBay before and my friend Diana thought that I should try and sell them on etsy. Well....after many months of thinking about it I've decided to do it. I've also started making funky little gift/trinket boxes as well. I really just love to sit and create them. Truly, I'm obsessed right now. :) Well, in my first week I have an order from a lady that owns a little retail gift shop in Texas for 6 of the bunco game boxes and I've sold another one on etsy. I'm hoping that I can sell a few here and there just so that I can keep making them. http://www.sandboxstudio.etsy.com/

Visit with Mother

Last week my mom came for a visit. My sister Cindy was driving back to S.C. from Colorado and my mom rode along. Cindy drove through so that she could drop my mom off for a visit. It was nice to see them both. Cindy stayed for a few days and then headed home and my Mom stayed until last Tuesday. I truly enjoyed having her here to visit. We took a little road trip to Champaign IL to visit with Cait and take a tour of the college and new apartment. It was a perfect day weather wise and company wise. I was sad to see her go...but she had to get home for her next round of company, my nephew and his wife and 3 young children. That will have the house hopping. :)

1st Apartment!

Well.....we moved Caitlin into her 1st apartment on Thursday. She headed back to school and this year she and two other girls will be living in a 3 bedroom 1.5 bathroom apartment. It's a nice size apartment, I was surprised at the size of the bedrooms. Not as large as her one here at home, but much larger than the dorm.

We got up early and headed out. One of her roomies, Rachel, was already there and unpacking with her mom. Her other roomie, Laura, didn't move in until Friday so we didn't get a chance to see her room all decorated up. The apartment comes furnished with a couch, love seat, end tables, coffee table, dining table and 4 chairs, beds, dressers and desks in the rooms.

Caitlin and I started to unpack while Conner and Brian went to buy cleaning supplies. The apartment was in pretty good condition...but the blinds were filthy. I think her room turned out pretty darn cute. She has some space on her walls that she will need to fill in with photos or something, but it is a cute room and perfect for her. We hung wires up and pinned up photos for now, but she can pin up other things as time goes on and change it up. All in all I like and and I think she loves it. (and that is all that matters!)

We left her around 4:00 our time. It was A LOT harder this year than last year. Maybe because she's in an apartment or because I'm not there to watch over her, or probably the biggest reason is because I enjoy having her around. My mom will be coming out next week for a few days and I'm going to take her over to visit Caitlin and see her new apartment (keep it clean Cait!) I'm hoping I can talk my mom into making a few dishes that we can freeze and take for Caitlin to put in her freezer......especially since the first call I got when I got home went something like this... "hello" -me "Rachel, where is the fire extinguisher?"-Cait "Caitlin!?!"-me "hold on mom....I know we have one, where did we put it?" -Cait "What are you burning?" -me "Well, we are trying to make the frozen pizza"- Cait Need I say more?

If you look closely in the bowl on the dressser, you can see "scoot" the black goldfish that will be sharing the room with Caitlin.