Daughters | A Thankfully Imperfect Woman

Oct 31

Happy Halloween!

Which broom, which broom, witch broom? Ahhhh…decisions…

One of my friends on FB tells the story of her favorite Halloween memory where she always looked forward to going to one house where the woman dressed up as a witch and had hot apple cider she served out of a couldren…how fun is that?

One of my favorite Halloween memories isn’t from my childhood – instead it’s from when Alex was little and she asked if she could wear my ‘antique’ dress for a costume.

Hrmph.

My ‘antique’ dress was about 10 years old, thank you very much. What a little shit. {I say with a chuckle}

Oh…and there’s the time I wasn’t feeling particularly crafty…so I dressed Sam in a dinosaur costume I’d found secondhand and put a tutu over it and a crown on her cute little head.

She wasn’t thrilled. But God was she cute! (And yes, notice that once again, Alex posed…I think she was born posing!)

And then there’s Miss Gabi…

My favorite costume of hers was when she dressed up like Hershey, our sweet little old chocolate lab (God rest his soul). She even took him with her trick-or-treating in our neighborhood!

I think my favorite costume EVER may have been the year I dressed Sam up as Raggedy Ann…she was ADORABLE! See…

Alas, the girls trick or treating years has passed. Our rule is once you hit 7th grade – you’re too old. Yes, our kids loved that rule. {sarcasm} Now Gabi gets to join us in handing out candy to all of our favorite little people!

So, what’s your favorite Halloween memory?

Patty O

Oct 24

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A Grease Monkey, Family Heirlooms, and Barb Kellogg Photography

The Grease Monkey is me…yes I shop at the St Louis County Mall (aka the dump) and yes, I grab greasy treasures! I have a little too much fun cleaning up these treasures…thank you Dawn dish soap, or as my husband puts it “If it’s good enough to clean ducks, it’s good enough for this”. (Obviously referring to the oil spills, the affected waterfowl, and the Dawn dish soap commercials.) I had GREAT fun cleaning up the pulley!

And yes, my husband thinks I’m nuts. Oh ye of little faith…but then he sees the finished product and says “Well, that’s cool!” 🙂

In the featured LOVE picture, the first two items were dump (oops Mall) finds. The V is a folding tape measure that was Tim’s Grandpa’s. And the two clamps I picked up at my friend’s garage sale…I needed an E…what can I say?

And here’s a collage of the rest of the wall! I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE it! Read more

Oct 20

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Belly Buttons and Boogers

Yes, you read it right. I’m going to talk about belly buttons and boogers. There’s pretty much nothing I won’t talk about. OK, there are a few things I won’t write about…per my husband, children’s and friend’s requests. Yes, otherwise I’d be tempted…but I do have a filter, believe it or not!

The subject of belly buttons comes from our experience with my father-in-law Ron two weeks ago. A nurse in the ICU was getting him all set and said “Oh good, a clean belly button!” As my mother-in-law and I looked at her, no doubt with a strange look on our face, she explained “It’s the first thing we check!” Huh…take this as a lesson learned…always wash your belly button! Seems right up there with Mom’s old advice “always wear clean underwear in case you get in a car accident”! I just remembered this moment yesterday and we all had a ‘belly button check’. This can lead to some pretty hilarious conversation – so GO – check those belly buttons!

OK, yes then there are boogers.

We had the babies on Friday, which wound up being Jen’s first day of her ‘on-call weekend’. After quite a day of eating…french fry hotdish (ok, I ran out of tator tots…don’t judge), a candy bar from Grandpa’s candy bouquet, pizza for dinner…and it was definitely bathtime for two little girls. Especially the littlest one who had a little of everything in her hair!

The bath itself was a fun and crazy experience which ended with water EVERYWHERE! Gabi grabbed little Nicole, I took Elena and as we wrapped the girls in their towels, the baby sneezed twice. (You know where this is going.) I looked over and sure enough, she’d blown all kinds of things out of her nose…and onto Gabi’s shoulder…and some of it was still attached to Nicole’s nose …. eeeeEEEEWWWWWWwwww!

I couldn’t help it. I burst out laughing. You should have seen Gabi’s face! She looked like she was going to gag – mouth wide open – tongue sticking out – while grimacing.

I quickly grabbed a tissue and rescued her shoulder – and Nicole’s nose – and cleaned up everything in between!

I hope you’ve had a much cleaner weekend…belly buttons and all. 😉

Patty O

Picture courtesy of Pinterest

Oct 4

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Prayers for Our Children

I pray…I praise…and I live a Christian life, or should I say I attempt to. Strength in my Christianity is something I struggle with at times, and yet at the same time, my faith in prayer is always strong.

Today I want to ask you to join me in prayer for two very special children who are going through challenges. One of these young people has become special to me even though we’ve never met, and the second is one who desperately needs the world’s prayers now, even though we haven’t even seen her face.

The first is a sweet little man whom I’ve only met through a video and yet I love him already. For those of you who read my blog post “Red Fred Project – Join Me”, you’ve met him too. This is the quote from Dallas Graham’s Facebook page today: (Dallas is the creative genius behind the Red Fred Project)… Guys: Our Nathan, from Red Fred Project, broke his back coming home from school today. His mom, Rachel Glad, says he seems in less pain as long as he’s on his back. Please send love, thoughts and prayers to our incredible little man, Nathan. We love you, Nathan. He has a Facebook page: Nathan Ryan Glad Foundation. Drop him a message! … Let’s all say a prayer for this little man and his family. And if you haven’t yet, join his foundation, and join the Red Fred Project so we can meet more young people like Nathan and can give them a voice too.

The second is a little girl who desperately needs our prayers at this very moment in time. She’s a little one year old who saw her Mom being killed by police officers in Washington D.C. yesterday. A little girl, innocent to this world’s troubles, innocent to her Mom’s troubles that caused this horrible situation…a little girl innocent. I pray that she be surrounded with love, I pray that she be safe, I pray that she have no memory of what happened yesterday, and I pray for her Momma…may God take her to Heaven and lay peace in her troubled heart and mind. And may she now be a special angel for her little girl.

Amen.

Patty O

Picture credit: Pinterest, Teresa Kogul

Oct 2

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A Tiger for Elena

Little Miss Elena loves tigers.

Not just any tigers, she loves the tiger at the zoo…and I think the tiger loves her.

We all went to the zoo on her last birthday so she could introduce us to her friend, and while we were there Elena stood on a ledge to point out her tiger, who was pacing back and forth. One moment he was pacing, and the next he’d reared up with his front paws on the glass to literally look at her eye to eye.

I’m not sure if he was thinking ‘lunch’ or not, but I quickly told her he was saying “HAPPY BIRTHDAY!” The poor little peanut turned her wary look into a big smile and off we all went to see the next animal…and her love of tigers remains!

I decided a week ago to get rid of an old dresser I’d been hanging onto. I mentioned it to Elena’s Mom, Jen, and she said she didn’t have one for Elena yet and maybe it was time.

Well…I couldn’t just sell her the plain old dresser, not for our little Miss Elena. I had hoped at one point to paint a beautiful flower on the front and then sell it, but had decided to just get rid of it…needless to say…the idea came back to me. I asked Jen what animal I could paint on the dresser for Elena and she immediately said a tiger. I should have known.

A few days later little missy appeared in her favorite t-shirt adorned with what else, but her favorite animal. So I convinced her it was dirty (it actually was), so I could borrow it.

Here is my weekend project, done with lots of love, for a sweet little girl who loves tigers…

(This is where my oldest daughter would say “Ta-daaaaaa!”)

Elena got to see her new dresser yesterday and her smile said it all.

Patty O

ps…this is absolutely one of my favorite things to do…so if you know of anyone who wants an extra splash on their decor, whether it be for a child’s piece of furniture or an adult’s, just give me a call!