A first of many I think

It has been a long, long time since I actually have sewn anything. I made a few things for young women's projects in high school but nothing really since then. I knew I liked to sew and I have been wanting to attempt it for a while. I think I was just nervous to start, how or what do I start with. So I just went with it. I have been wanting to make a dress for Kyla from a shirt of Dustin's and I found this one he bought and has never worn it because the neck was too "femme" he said. It really was weird and looked funny on him. So I thought it would be perfect. I used one of her other dresses as a guide line and the rest, I just guessed! It only took me around an hour and I actually really like it.

Here it is before:

And after!

What do ya think? I am going to do some more in the next couple days. Talk about saving money eh! I want to do one with one of his button up shirts. Wish me luck!

Our Weekend!

Dustin and I finally got away! It was so fun and we did A LOT.
The first day we went shopping at Ikea, then just hung out at the hotel since we didn't get there until later and we were tired. The next day we went shopping for the most part at West Ed, got some great stuff and had fun. We saw the dirt biker, Carey Hart (he is married to PINK) and if you don't know him you're not cool. I of course knew exactly who he was and all his stats... well I did know who he was, but that's about it. He was signing autographs at West 49, and we could have been close to the front of the line but we didn't want to waste time waiting. Besides his booth stuck out into the mall so we got a picture of him.
After that we went on some rides in Galaxy land. I don't remember it being that boring there. Honestly, we were bored after about 4 rides. So we played some of their games and then shopped a bit more.
That night we got tickets to the comedy club in West Ed on Bourbon st. and Tim Meadows was there. He is the principal on Means Girls, and he's from SNL. It was so funny and so much fun. The next day we decided to go to a shooting range and shoot some guns. I've shot a .22 before and I loved it so I wanted to try a hand gun. Dustin did good.

I cried. Not joking. I did. What a baby, I know. I must have been having an emotional day or something. As soon as we got into the "dungeon" as I call it, where we were shooting, I literally had a heart attack listening to how loud the guns were! I was terrified of actually holding a gun trying to concentrate then someone shooting and it freaking the crap out of me and I jump and shoot someone! Seriously! Maybe i'm a little dramatic. But still I jumped EVERY time a shot went off. Scared. To. Death. We did have the ear things on but they didn't do anything. While i'm having a panic attack from every shot, the guy is trying to explain everything and I of course heard nothing but these death shots around me! I said to Dustin to go first since I was on the verge of tears and was convincing myself to toughen up and stop being such a wuss. Well I snatched a couple pics and took off. I stood in the waiting area with the windows so I could watch him, but I was a wreck! What the heck was wrong with me, I have no idea. Of course everyone is laughing at me, including Dustin. I was just ticked and wanted to leave, so I got my refund and Dustin finished the box of bullets we bought since we can't buy half a box and then we left. Well now I know. Of course I laughed later. What an idiot. Meh, oh well. At least I can admit it!

So that was that, then we went and had some lunch at Olive Garden which I love and headed home. We didn't take a ton of pictures and couldn't take any in the comedy club, I wish I would of taken a picture of us before we went because we looked pretty hot of course. But I didn't.

Dustin took this while he was waiting for me after we went on rides, at this point he was sick of shopping and wanted to leave. He said "Here's Mindy STILL shopping of course"

whatever. That's what you get for moving me to exile island up North! Where shopping sucks.

This is the only one we got of us two. I got this group of 4 teenagers to take it, they were taking photos of themselves and I offered to take one of all 4 of them, which they loved. So I asked if they would take ours! We were waiting in line for the big roller coaster.

Dustin shooting the guns in Galaxyland, my picture is retarded so i'm not putting it on.

Swing of the Century! My favorite ride when I was younger.

My handsome man.

So that was about it! We've just been chillin these past two days because he goes back to work tomorrow. Boo. But we had a lot of fun and it was so good to get away and worth every penny, even the ones we didn't need to spend...i'm sure he'll get over it. I already have!

Poor Presley

I hate the hospital.
If I didn't need to go there I definitely wouldn't. I hate it with a passion. There is at least a 3 hour wait every time you go and the waiting room is full of people who think they are sick, but they aren't. Or they are but they'll live and really don't need to be in Emergency. So enough about my annoyance with ER and to the point.

Earlier today around 4:00, I pulled out a bag full of random sewing stuff, fabric, thread, SCISSORS, ribbon etc. Played around for all of 5 minutes and decided now was not the time to do a craft with the girls around. In that 5 minutes I turned around and saw Jayci with the brand new pair of sewing scissors I just bought. Crap. So I grabbed them from her and stuck them in between my legs, while I was sitting on the floor. I packed up the bag of stuff and put it to the side and stood up and walked into the bathroom. Within seconds I heard hard crying and I knew something was up. I went into the living room and saw Jayci with the scissors that I, the smart mom, forgot on the floor and that they were in between my legs! I grabbed them from her and I think Kyla said something about Presley, so look over and she is covered in blood. What the! So I run over and her hand is by her mouth so her mouth is covered in blood and so is her hand. I checked quickly to see where she was bleeding and it was her hand, her thumb. It was cut bad, and gushing out blood. I thought, ok what do I do? I grabbed a towel and squoze it hard trying to stop the bleeding but it wouldn't stop. It was flowing out pretty good. I called Dust to let him know I might have to take her to the hospital, I couldn't get a hold of him so I left him a message. I called up Wendy (a relative who lives a couple blocks away, and used to be a nurse) and I told her what happened and I wasn't sure if I should take her in or not, so she came over right away and we held it for about 45 minutes and it was still pouring out blood every time we would take off the cloth. I found some gauze and we held it on there and decided that it probably was pretty deep, but we couldn't tell because it would bleed so fast and so much when we would try and look. So her son came over to watch the girls and we took her to the hospital.

The waiting room was full, there was a line at the desk, and I was holding Presley while squeezing her finger. Wendy was getting a parking ticket for the van. They noticed me struggling and one nurse came over too see what happened and she took us into an admitting room, checked her in, put on this massive gauze bandage and didn't tape it, and told me to have a seat. 2 hours, and one long nap by Presley on my lap later, they called us in. I had to squeeze her finger the whole time with this ginormous gauze that barely fit on her finger because it is so tiny. She didn't ever pull it off or not let me hold it, she just sat still the whole time. So we got into the room, another hour went by and they finally came in to do her finger. They wrapped her up in a blanket really tight so she couldn't squirm and had two nurses right by her ready to hold her down and the entire time she didn't move. At all. She even just sat there letting them wrap her up in this blanket and just smiled at them. When the doctor started to work she just laid there! It was amazing. They ended up just gluing it together, thank goodness. But it did stop bleeding after we were there for 2 1/2 hours. So it bled for over 3 hours all together. It finally stopped while she was napping. Took all of 2 minutes to fix and she was done. They couldn't believe how awesome she was. She actually didn't cry at all, ever. Only when it first got cut for about 2 minutes and that was it for the rest of the night. What a great little girl I have created. I know.

She is all bandaged up and should heal within a few days. I'm turning into one of those moms who has to go to the hospital with injured kids. I know it. You do see some interesting people in those waiting rooms though.

Oh and the other night, I should add. I gave Presley some tylenol around 6pm because she was very cranky and I think her tooth is coming in, so I drugged her. Why not eh, isn't that the answer to a crying kid??
So Jayci and Presley climbed up and grabbed the two tylenol bottles on the microwave and I have no idea what I was doing but I didn't notice. I actually think I was getting their pj's upstairs. Yes that's a good excuse to not sound like a bad mom.
So I came down and Presley had the tylenol bottle in her mouth just chugging away! I grabbed it and notice she drank half of it, and it was a brand new bottle. (Jayci's bottle was still closed.) So I called the poison center to see what amount is too much, so she figured out numbers and she was 5ml under over dosing. But the lower end of over dosing where it isn't even that bad. So they said she'll be fine just no tylenol for 24 hours and she's good.
I really hope this isn't a trend for us...well Presley I guess. This girl always gets the worse end of things. Poor thing.

What a happy girl for going through all that!

Teeny fingers, not much to see. Just a little bandaged thumb.

She's so cute. I love her to pieces!

Happy Love Day!

We got invited this last week to a kids Valentines party at the Fitzner's and it was too cute. The kids had a blast and she went all out with crafts, games, and food.

I love this chair the girls are on, I think I might steal it from her.

Oh and Presley's eye is from me beating her.
Actually it's from Kyla, who was whipping around a wand and accidentally hit her in the face, poor kid.

Running through the streamers

They had to dance and when the music stopped they had to sit on their heart.

They had to pick up all the hearts on the floor and put them in their bags

Presley thought this was more fun.

An attempt at a picture with all 3 girls, cute eh?

Picnic on the floor

Craft

The Kids, minus Cohen and Rilan

Since Dustin and I are doing Valentines Day this weekend we wanted to still make it special for the kids, so we plastered the floor with chocolates and got them each their own little gift. We set it all up for them to wake up too. They loved it.
Presley wasn't quite feeling it.

(Yes I know those are Easter Chick Kinder Eggs, but that's all they had left and like they'll know, right?)

Then like the good mom I am, I made them heart pancakes with whip cream and strawberries for breakfast.

And I had to make myself one of course, it is after all my favorite breakfast. Yes it's as big as the plate.....don't judge.

All dressed up for church. (Can you see the hair? Yep, it's coming in curly! And SO cute!!)

Happy Valentines Day, Love the Francis Fam!

I'm the best wife

Yes yes I am.
So as you all know we are going away next weekend for our little getaway. Since Valentines Day is on Sunday, Dustin will be working till 9:00 at night. So we decided that we aren't going to celebrate it that day but we'll do it in Edmonton. We have never been the cheesy romantic type, but we do little things here and there for eachother, such as little notes or messages etc. Stuff like that.
One year for him I cut out a ton of pink and red paper hearts and plastered the main house wall with them and on each one I had a different reason why I loved him. After about 10 I got stuck and couldn't think of anymore, so I just wrote the same stuff over on the rest of the hearts.
Just kidding. Wouldn't that be funny though?
He also one year put rose petals all over the house leading the the bedroom and plasterd the bed with candy flowers and stuff. It was cute.

So I need your help to come up with some fun, or cute, or crazy ideas on what I can do for him this weekend. Think hard. I know only the good friends will help me out, so....no pressure.

I guess I kinda love this guy

My life is boring

Dustin is half way through his 24 and so far our life have been non-eventful.
The girls I think are starting to feel him being gone so much. He has hardly seen them, they go to bed at 7:00 and he gets home at 9:00. Jayci and Presley wake up a lot in the night lately, and I think it's because they know they can see their daddy. He asked for a day off so I am hoping he'll have Tuesday off and we aren't doing anything, just playing with the kids the whole day.

Since I have been a single parent for about 2 weeks now I have been exhausted, and if I sit down and get at all comfortable, I fall asleep. Seriously. Kyla wakes up at 6:30am (brutal) and most of the time Jayci and Presley hear her so they wake up too. So we come downstairs and I pass out on the couch while they fend for themselves until about 8am. I of course wake up constantly from them crawling on me or someone is fighting etc, but for the most part they leave me alone and I usually do get them some cereal at some point. Once I am up, it's go time. They want something to eat and attention, so all my energy goes to them. We clean and play, and that's about it. Jayci and Presley are smart little girls and love to do what Kyla does. One morning in the middle of me sawing logs on the couch I woke up to Presley at the table with the juice and her sippy cup and she was trying to fill her cup with it. Kyla does this all the time so she must of seen her do it. I couldn't believe she was actually doing it herself.
They have now figured out to push the kitchen chairs to the counters and get EVERYTHING! This has been a pain in the you know what. Tonight I cut up some strawberries before bed and they ate them at their little table, and while they were eating I sat down on the couch. I was obviously not paying attention (mixed with a little tired) and Presley jumped up on a chair and grabbed a strawberry and the knife and was trying to cut it herself. It was a sharp knife too. Could have been bad. It makes me keep my kitchen counters clean which is nice but I can't leave anything on there.
They also open the fridge and try and reach the light button, so that's a fight to keep it closed. Usually these little girls are really good and I don't have to worry but they are figuring new things out and are getting so smart. They are talking a lot more and saying some new words which is great.

I got switched to teach next week instead of the following week because we are gone and I couldn't find a sub so i'll be busy this week working on that but I have been pretty bored. Since I quit taking orders it feels weird to only have to worry about the house and kids. I am not constantly thinking, "I have to finish this order, or mail this one, or e-mail this person" etc etc. I am loving it. Don't get me wrong I have been busy enough still just with the girls. I feel so bad when Dust gets home i'm usually watching tv on the couch on the verge of falling asleep.
So since i've been so bored I want to finally start some sewing projects. We just got a fabric store in town and they have some cute stuff so I thought I would buy a few meters of fabric and make some dresses for the girls. Well I went in and it was $20/meter!! The cheapest was $17/meter, and that was flannel! (Not even the cute stuff either) I went to walmart before and they are clearing out the fabric section so I wanted to get some white thread and I only found cream for around $3. I had to get black and so I went to the fabric store and it was $10 for one roll of thread! I'm not joking. Looks like i'll have to stock up on thread in Edmonton.

Well this post probably doesn't make sense or flow at all and is super boring.... just like our lives. Actually I am NOT bored, my kids keep me very busy but I have nothing exciting going on. We go to Edmonton in 12 days and I still don't think it's happening because we've been planning it for over a year and have had to cancel so many times. So when we are gone i'll believe it.


When Jayci and Presley are super cranky, they usually both just want to be held so I sit on the couch with one under each arm and more than once I have fallen asleep like this. This time so did Presley, and Kyla decided to take a picture, she is so smart. There are also about 40 others on the camera of Hannah Montana on the tv...
I know I look super hot in this picture but lets just look past that.

I was awake for this one, I think I even took it, but she was out cold.
I am constantly having at least one or two kids hanging on my legs or on my lap, or wanting to be held and I JUST WANT MY BODY BACK! No more clingy and clawing and pulling at my pant leg. I do dishes with Jayci and Presley on each leg and then they start fighting. So I am breaking up a fight with my knees while i'm still washing the dishes. They've gotta get done! My body is tired just thinking about it. I'm constantly being touched or grabbed, then my husband comes home and he does it too....just kidding. Ok well only a little kidding.
I'm just irresistible to everyone I guess.


Here they are reaching for the stupid light button.

My little mommy and me

This was her puppy she drew all on her own. I have never shown her how to draw one that looks even remotly close to this. Pretty dang good eh. You should see her people. Hilarious.

Today before church, they all looked so cute.