My Poor Babies.

 Isaac and Bella are sick :( 

Here he is all lethargic. Normally he is so active, being sick takes a lot out of him.

I checked his temperature and it made him mad when he woke up.

                                                             The cutest bed head and milk mustache there ever was.

Bella had a slight fever and she said she was tired. This child is NEVER tired. Something was up with her.

This is his face pretty much all day. And me holding him that close, any other day, forget about it. 

I did a bit of yoga today. Just a bit. 

That's all.

Like A Mini Vacation

I stayed up until 3:30 watching Capadocia. Then woke up at 9 a.m. to get right back to it. 

After lunch we went thrifting!!!

I was dressed with one of my favorite accessories and pretty nail polish.

New (thrifted) purse and my favorite flats.

Forgive the poor picture quality. I lovethat it's a basic floral V-neck tee. Simple.

This was only 3.10 plus an additional 40% off. I love the large sleeves.

 It creates a beautiful drape.

I am a huuuge fan of denim and corduroy. The next thing I need to stock up on is jackets 

and $8.45 plus 40% is a great start. 

This I considered to be deal of the day. This is a skirt. Old fashioned, long, shapeless skirt.

I hiked it under my arms and Voila! It's so comfortable and this belt couldn't match

any better. I'm so happy to have this new find.

This is Samiyah and I at "One Night of Queen". It was suuuuch a blast.

I appreciate the fact that I have a picture of us from that night. 

Gary Mullen has such an incredible voice. Not only is the similarity to Freddy Mercury's 

uncanny, hearing someone with that type of vocal talent in amazing. I loved that we head

banged during "Bohemian Rhapsody". I loved that we clapped and danced.

So much fun and such a great talent.

Chris and I headed out to lunch at Butch's Diner in Downtown Riverside.

My outfit is completely thrifted. This makes me smile.

This is my $5.00 slap watch that I love.

And I got new shoes. $30.00 in total for all 3. And I LOVE that. I have been wanting a pair of 

Oxford style shoes and I am so happy to get them.

This weekend my family took the kids to a family party in Las Vegas. It was the first time I was without them  for so long. It was weird. I got cute picture messages on the way and it made me happy, and made me miss them. I love my kids, but I'm not ashamed to say that I did enjoy my weekend off. 2 days of me and Chris. No work, no commitments. I am so thankful to have my kids back and don't mind the daily grind. But this weekend, it was just me and Chris. It was nice.

You Did It

Bella learning to ride her bike has been weighing heavily on mind. Do I not give her enough time? Will the other kids make fun of her? How can I teach her? But, she did learn it. Can't wait to get my bike done and we can go riding together.

Toothless

Well, you're not quite toothless, but I love "How To Train a Dragon" and the name is too adorable. I was surprised you let me wiggle it out. You were so brave and sat there. You, of course, are not a fan of the blood, hence picture number one. Even with a missing tooth, how beautiful is that face?! 

My Happy Place

Disclosure: I wish I was in this picture. I was super sad to work on Sunday and one of the hardest parts was knowing these 3 were going to be hanging out, cuddling. This picture is something that means a lot to me. This is what it's like a lot of times for us. Cuddling and hanging out on the bed, and Isaac trying to go elsewhere. My happy place for sure.

Wednesday: Work In Progress

My sister's boyfriend's mom likes to shop. She has donated a ton of clothes to us. So, this is only a small amount of jeans. They fit the crotch and waist (the majority of the difficulty completed). They are just too long and a little baggier on the calves than I'd prefer. So, I decided to take them in. Mind you, this is a work in progress.

NOT PICTURED:

1. I put the pants on inside out then pinned one side however I I wanted to pants to fit on me. I made sure to pay attention to the knees and thighs as to not have them too baggy, it will give more of a tapered look (undesirable on me) rather than a skinny, fitted look (preferred) if I only take in the bottom parts.

2. After pinning in all the places on both the inner and outer seams (giving a more even look), I used a fatter Crayola marker and colored on the fabric that was pinned. Running the marker along the fabric where the bar of the pin is gave me a better indicator of where I wanted it pinned.

{Unpin after all markings have been made, and take off pants}

Pin it down. Make sure to straighten the fabric against the seams..

It will look something like this.

Measure the placement of the pins, like in battleship or graphing. So many inches over, so many inches up. 

Pin the opposite side of the leg making the fabric straight against the seams.

Measure the mirrored markings.

Mark and pin.

It will look something similar to this.

I tend to do a dot-to-dot from the each of the markings.

(obviously test marker or chalk on fabric first)

Another image. Do same steps with outer seam.

Continue the line and new seamline until it meets with the original seam line. Measure inches up and make same marking on opposite leg.

I have always felt that the prepping was like 1000 times harder than the sewing. So on my next day off, I will finish with the sewing itself. 

The Thrill of the Hunt

I am a BONAFIDE thrift store junkie. I absolutely love the thrill of the hunt. I am such a bargain shopper that I feel it's almost an addiction when I find that great deal. I love the variety and chance of finding something completely unexpected. Each thrifting trip is different.

I need black shoes for work. And I have been looking for some that were flat(ish) and would look good with cropped pants. These have a small 1/2 inch heel, just enough to give that little click clack when I walk.

$3.50!

I love the Oxford look. These have a 1/2 to 3/4/ inch little heel. I canNOT wait to wear these.

$3.50!

This is my Valentine's Day loot (minus the sippy cups Bella threw in my shot to lure Isaac away from her. Yea, kind of like fetch) The black purse normally isn't my stylo, but the strap is juuuust (almost) long enough to get away with wearing it cross shoulder. (There was even receipt from 1999 in there. That's 13 years ago!) I like the little red purse, just enough to hold my bare essentials. Kind of 80s, but the cool kids seem to have something similar nowadays. And for a dollar?! Yes, please!

I had bought these bad boys like in November, and they seemed to be manageable when I tried them on at the Goodwill. But, the night of our Secret Santa exchang dinner, I stepped into these and for the life of me, couldn't take one step. I imagined I looked like Bambi. One day, I will strut proudly in these.

I absolutely love this huge chain link clip ons. They are about 1.5 inches and pack a heavy punch. I just realized I don't know where these are anymore :(

I wore these once and then left one in my car and one at home and could never get them together.

I thought these clip ons were so interesting.

This is the wallet I currently use. I like something big that I can securely throw my receipts and coins in. Besides, I love green and $1.50!

These, these I love. The brand says "For Men", kind of different. They are men's Italian loafers and I absolutely adore these.

Random pics of thrifted items I have recently acquired. Happy Thrifting!

Valentine's Day

Chris and I decided that we wanted to spend Valentine's Day together in the morning and with the kids in the evening. This way we could have the best of both worlds, aaaaand eat at Silver Dollar!

I knew the moment that we planned on an early Valentine's that this is where I wanted to go. Just look that smile on my face.

Chris is such a good sport letting me take a picture. I think he knew I would be persistent about picture taking on this day.

And THIS is what you get for $7.99! 2 huge pancakes, that are delicious, 3 eggs, 3 bacon, and 3 sausage.

Ok, these chocolate pancakes for to die for. They ares so good and chocolatey. I don't really have words.

And like any day to show love for me, a thrifting stop. We went to the Salvation Army where everything we got was 50% off, and I scored THE best velvet blue coat that someone thought was a blouse, pricing it at $6.35 and then 50% off that!

I needed new sunglasses. Isaac broke one and I stepped on another. My favorite place to get a pair, the good ol' 99cent store. Look at my cool new pair! There was a guy asking for change outside of the store; we didn't have any, so I had Chris offer him soda. He was pretty excited at that orange soda. He was so thankful and wished us Happy Valentine's. I love that my husband is caring, that's something you just can't take for granted.

And then we watched our little princess ride her bike.

See the small bike in the background? That was what she learned on, and on Valentine's Day, she moved up to the big bike. Isn't her fashion sense adorable?

This little guy wanted to come outside too. But he doesn't like to be still and put so he decided he wanted to go back in the house.

2 seconds after this he ran off with these gamges. He's ALWAYS trying to run away from me.

We picked up the Gotye CD at Best Buy after picking up the kiddos.

The prettiest and cheesiest girl every!

The beautiful men in my life!

Me and my princess.

She wanted Dad's Famous Mac and Cheese (Kraft) for dinner. She asked to eat in the living room while we watched Princess Mononoke. I told her I got a tablecloth for dinner. We compromised on putting it on the chest in the living room. (2 seconds later she had the bowl on her lap and her feet on the tablecloth-covered chest)

We decided to be fancy and have banana splits for dessert. (she ate this all)

I felt so full of love on this day. It's a great celebration of whatever form of love you have in your life.