Attention all Fly Babies

So most of you all are probably wondering, "What The?"

Let me explain...About a year and a half ago I read a 

little book called "Sink Reflections" by Marla Cilley. 

This is a must read for anyone that feels like they're being 

swallowed wholeby their house work. As for me I didn't 

need it one bit...hah joking. I have a startling confession to 

make....I struggle with prefectionism. Some of you may think, 

"wow what a cocky girl this Amanda is". Negative my friends.

 Perfectionism is kind of a bad thing. I found a list that proves

 that point. 

Perfectionism is:

• the irrational belief that you and/or your environment must

   be perfect

• the striving to be the best, to reach the ideal, and to never

   make a mistake

• an all pervasive attitude that whatever you attempt in life must 

  be done letter perfect with no deviation, mistakes, slip ups, or 

  inconsistencies

• a habit developed from youth that keeps you constantly alert 

  to the imperfections, failings, and weakness in yourself and 

  others

• a level of consciousness that keeps you ever vigilant to any 

  deviations from the norm, the guidelines, or the way things are

   ``supposed to be''

• the underlying motive present in the fear of failure and fear of 

  rejection, i.e., if I am not perfect I will fail and/or I will be

   rejected by others

• a reason why you may be fearful of success, i.e., if I achieve

   my goal, will I be able to continue, maintain that level of 

  achievement

• a rigid, moralistic outlook that does not allow for humanism

   or imperfection

• an inhibiting factor that keeps you from making a commitment

   to change habitual, unproductive behavior out of fear of not

   making the change ``good enough''

• the belief that no matter what you attempt it is never 

  ``good enough'' to meet your own or others' expectations

  
  

 So what do you think? I mean I'm not a clinical case or anything 

like that, but I have a tendancy of being unneccesarily hard on

myself....I also have a feeling that I'm not the only one and that

many of you know EXACTLY what I'm talking about.

  Now, what the heck does all that have to do with this charming 

book I spoke of? Well...the whole gist of the book is learning to deal

with this problem by organizing your life and learning how to love 

your self. Sounds good huh? 

  Sheesh, as if I hadn't already taken up enough space, now I'll 

get to the point of this post. My good friend (and aunt) are putting

together a blog game/ help center for fly babies (read the book and

you'll know). If you haven't read the book, no prob. Each day we'll 

post 1-2 tasks to perform. There will also be a weekly task. Kristi 

and I both thought this would be fun. It'll be great to have more 

than just us to share in the joy of....uh...cleaning? If any of you get a 

chance to read the book you should. It's very inspiring...at least it 

was for me.

  I'm gonna be done now. Love ya all and if you'd like to join us just

let me know.

Crazy Name Tag

1. Your rock star name (first pet, current car): Ebony Caravan

2. Your gangsta name (fave ice cream flavor, favorite type of shoe): Caramel Skimmer

3. Your Native American name (favorite color, favorite animal): Green Tiger

4. Your soap opera name (middle name, city where you were born): Williams Blackfoot

5. Your Star Wars name (the first 3 letters of your last name, first 2 of your first name): Penam

6. Superhero name (2nd favorite colour, favorite drink): Pink Hot Chocolate 

7. NASCAR name (the first names of your grandfathers): David Lonny 

8. Stripper name (the name of your favorite perfume/cologne/scent, favorite candy): Polo Chocolate

9. TV weather anchor name (your 5th grade teacher’s last name, a major city that starts with the same letter): Kaleikini Kalamazoo   

10. Spy name (your favorite season/holiday, flower): Autumn Gerbera 

11. Cartoon name: (favorite fruit, article of clothing you’re wearing right now): Apple Tee

.12. Hippie name (What you ate for breakfast, your favorite tree): Muffin Dogwood

I tag any one that wants to participate!

Please don't tell me that's in her mouth!!

 I guess I'm having a bit of bloggers block.

I thought I would share a funny story...I hope like

crazy that this content doesn't offend anyone. But 

like I said, it's a funny story.

So, my baby is at the age where everything is in her

mouth. Lately, her favorite thing is a Littlest Pet Shop 

Frog that she carefully and lovingly places in her mouth.

It's a common occurance for her to crawl all over the 

house with that poor frog hanging out of her little gob!

We have tried really hard to keep the bathroom door 

closed for this very reason...I don't care how often a 

person cleans their bathroom...it's still a bathroom!

Dirty, dirty things happen in bathrooms and I just have

this thing with letting my baby, who tastes EVERYTHING,

crawl around on the bathroom floor. With that being said, the 

other day James & I walked into the bathroom to find her

with a box of tampons scattered across the the floor, one in 

each hand, and one in her mouth. She looked up at us like,

"what did you expect lady?" I couldn't help laughing my 

bottom off. It was just so disturbingly funny. Of course I 

ripped the stuff away from her before taking a picture. 

Oh well. You can picture it in your mind right? 

            

Why is it that kids have such an attraction to these personal, 

embarassing little devices? When my youngest brother was

really little he used to unwrap them and place them on each 

finger. Or some times we would find him with little pillows stuck

all over his scrawny body. I'm sure that you all can relate to this

strange phenomenon...if not, I apologize for this horrible post and

I'll try to post something a little more proper next time.

Etsy made my dreams come true!

Ok so the title of this post is completely and utterly full of cheese.
Oh well. I guess you'll just have to put up with me. So I've always
had this terrible habit of always wanting to try new hobbies. The
problem is that I never really stick with one. So I'm not that great
at any one thing. A lady at church once told me that she considers
herself a dabbler. I've decided that that's exactly what I am. I,
Amanda Pendley, am a dabbler.

Well A couple of months ago I started browsing Etsy. (Those of 

you who are not familiar with Etsy need to become aquainted 

because it is an awsome site!!) So I created a profile with the 

intent of selling some...uh..stuff. Unfortunately it took quite awhile 

to decide what to sell. I ended up settling on finger puppets. I'm also 

working on a doll pattern. So I'm mostly going to stick with toys.

It's been alot of fun and yesterday I made my first sale! Woohoo!!

So that's it. I'm officially an Etsy store owner and it's been so much
fun. I'm not nearly as seasoned as most of the folks on there. I mean
I only have one thing listed right now, but still.

A quarter of a century already?!

Wow, I guess today is my birthday. It's strange that I just keep getting older and older and yet somehow I never feel a day past 18. For some reason (don't ask me why) when I pictured the more mature me I thought I'd be...uh...more mature....or something like that. But nope! I'm still the same old me (haa..old.). I still don't like tomatoes or avacados. I still adore skittles, dum-dums, and gummi worms. And I still don't have a clue as to what I want to be when I grow up. Of course having a few babies has helped me age a little. Especially when the 5 year old can't even fathom all years it's taken to make up my life. Sheesh!! I did have somewhat of a panic attack when I realized that I'm now on the fast track to 30! I'm over it now, but it sure gave me

a fright. Well, on the sunny side, I had a great birthday. James took a day off (sort of) so that I could take a day off. It's really all I wanted. What a great guy to make all my hopes and dreams come true. And of course, what birthday would be complete without a little Office to tuck me in.

Ahh this is good!

A little bit of Family time

It's always amazing to me what just a little bit of
good old family time can do.
James and I have tried really hard to make sure
we have some sort of family night on Mondays. All too
often we slack in the planning and preparation end of it
and wind up popping a movie in and calling it good.
I suppose it's better than nothing.....but still.
Last night, however, DH (dear husband) and I decided
that it was time to shake things up a bit. So we loaded the
kids in the car and ventured out to the Fruit and Berry
Patch to pick us some blueberries.
When we got to the farm they told us that most of the
b.berries were gone but that we might still be able to find
some. It was pretty slim pickin's but you know it's a good
family home evening when things go awry. We set a goal of
getting at least enough berries for blueberry muffins. So
we searched and James kept telling the girls to keep their
"eyes peeled" to which they responded, "We're good at
peeling our eyes, huh dad." They actually did a great job.
Spencer of course was mostly a hindrance than a help.
I don't think we got home with any that he picked. Yah, they
pretty much all ended up in his mouth and so on and so forth.
It's too bad that he was picking all the red ones. sigh...Oh well.
Wow..I'm a little long winded today...for me that is. I guess
the point I started making was that besides all the crazy things
that my family does I'm really grateful to have them. And
spending time with them last night really was a joy, even though
we all ended up with a million and a half bug bites!

Just a few tears!

Well, we are officially a part of the public school
system! Evelyn had her first day last Thursday.
She was a little nervous before we left but was fine
once we got into her classroom. Actually, the day
before she had a sort of mini tantrum because I
wouldn't let her ride the bus on her first day.
(independent little stinker) There were a couple
of tears but it wasn't when you might have thought.
The tears actually sprang as I was picking her up
from school. I guess it finally sank in then.

I have to say that having a baby grow up
is a strenuous hardship on a mom! This is so
cliche but I'm going to say it anyway, it wasn't
that long ago that this little girl was in diapers!
Now she's a big girl that would really like to ride
the bus to school. Unfortunately for her, she has
a really uptight mom. It's a strange phenomenon
for me....all of the sudden I feel like I'm a grown-up.
More responsible, if you will. The weirdest part is
that I think I'm ok with it.

Oh just a side note...for all you moms that haven't
had the joy of sending a little one to school yet.
Don't worry too much about buying the most fabulous,
trendy clothes for them because chances are they'll just
want to wear the stuff you got on sale at Wal-mart.