The first members only sale site I registered with was Gilt Groupe. Gilt Groupe offers sales that last 36 hrs. During that time you can grab some amazing luxury brands at up to 70% off retail. They offer items in Children's, Men's and Women's.  I have found clothing, shoes, jewelry and house wares offered on the site from brands such as Catherine Zadeh, John Varvatos, and Donna Karan.  Happy Shopping!

I started making hoops in September of this year. I made hoops for friends, my kids, and my work. I find that I want to share hooping with everyone. I have been hooping almost daily since I made my hoop in September.  I have lots of people at work that love to join in on my lunch time hoops sessions. One friend in particular picks up on the tricks so fast that it has been a great motivator for me to learn new tricks faster.  This is helping us to not stay stuck in a rut of just doing a couple of tricks.

I am so excited about starting to teach hoop classes. I am going to start working on my Hoopdance instructor certification soon.  We are building my site as well. I will let you know once it is up and running.

It is so much fun to watch people smile and laugh as they hoop. The best part is always when someone tells me they can't or they have never been able to hoop. Then they pick up a hoop that is sized and weighted for an adult and they do it.  It is great to see their faces when the realize they are hooping and really well too. 

Happy Hooping!

This few minutes of my life inspired me to start looking into hooping. I wanted to run out and buy a hoop right away. A good hoop, a Wham-O Hoop, not these cheesy things we were using. I soon found out that Target and Walmart think that hooping is a summer sport only and had clearanced out all of their hoops. I then turned to the internet. It was while researching that I found out that a Wham-O hoop wasn't what I needed at all. I needed a professional hoop. An adult hoop. No toy hoop would do.

Now an obsession began. Who do I get a hoop from? There are so many good ones out there. So many interesting companies. So many fun DVD's. I finally decided that the hoop I needed was a polka dot one from Philthy Hoops. Now to just wait for a paycheck to come along so I can afford one of these awesome hoops. In the mean time I continue watching hoop video after hoop video. Reading site after site (see a short list below). I finally came to the conclusion that as much as I want my Philthy Hoop, I need to start making hoops. I love making things. I will get a Philthy Hoop in the future, but for right now I need to be crafting this new found hobby.

I then went on the journey of finding the materials in Las Vegas. After several phone calls that led to dead ends I turned back to the trusted internet. So now you may be asking where did you find these hard to find materials. Well, I would be happy to share that with you. I looked at many hoop making sites and found that 160 psi 3/4" poly tubing is the size of choice for most adult hoops and a connector made by Genova. I finally found these mystical pieces of hooping material at Ideal True Value. The SKU's for Ideal True Value are listed here: SKU: 300084 black 3/4" x 100', 160 PSI Working Pressure, Coil Polyethylene (other lenghts/colors:400ft black, 100ft white,300ft white) and SKU: 232785 3/4" Poly Coupling by Genova.

For directions on how to make a hoop check out Jason Unbound or any of the great links on Squidoo.

Hooping Sites

Hoopnotica An amazing video is on their home page. 

Hooping.org 

Hoop Girl 

Philthy Hoops

BodyHoops 

Hoopalicious 

An Australian Hoop Group 

Keep Googling and you will find many more.  Ohh and the YouTube videos. LOL!

Update 11/05/08

I forgot to say that I get my colored tape from IdentiTape.  They have an awesome selection of tapes and a great hooping reference page.

Much has happened in the last few months. I am working for the first time in almost 7 years. Juggling keeping track of the kids and house as well as working has been quite the adventure. We are blessed to have sitters come to our house and that makes working much easier.

Now, you must be wondering what would make me go back to work after not working for so long. Well, making some more investment money and paying off some debt was a pretty good motivation. But truthfully, what moved me to take the plunge back into the work force was that I had the most amazing opportunity to join the Customer Service team at Zappos.com.

I miss being home with my two beautiful children all day long, but I am learning so much about an amazing business that it is making it worth my time. I know that Zappos has already helped to make me a better wife, mother, and person. Dereky is on a long break from homeschooling, but we will start again in a few more months. Bethany is loving have some of the best babysitters ever.

Whew! The final two are done. So much more Easter work to do at my mom's house. But at least the prizes are done.

I can't believe it has already been 5 weeks since my last hair cut. It has grown out so much. I will really be needing it cut by week 6. Unfortunately it will have to wait until then.

You probably can't tell from the pics, but this guy actually has a smaller bottom half than the first guy.

The Homespun Yarn I am using has a wave to it that is hard to get used to. I kept loosing count of my stitches. This second guy is actually the size the author of the pattern intended it to be. Both chicks came out super cute though, even if the first one is like the Samson of Baby Chicks.

Now, many people think that such parties are thrown together overnight and it is a breeze to do, but let me set the story straight. Preparations for this party start many weeks ahead of time.

First there are game prizes to make for three games to be played in three different age categories. So that makes 9 crafted prizes already. Then there are 4 prizes for special egg hunt winners. And as if that is not enough crafting each child has to leave with one small hand crafted item so there are 36 mini crafts to make (don't confuse mini with simple though).

While crafts are being made there are also hand made invitations to be made and then filled out and addressed.

This brings us to the week before easter. At this time we prepare massive amounts of sugar cookies. The process starts the evening before and then takes an entire Saturday to bake and frost them all.

In addition to all of that there is food shopping, yard work, and house cleaning to be done.

The day before the party the final touches are put into place, tables and chairs set up, easter bags for the egg hunt prepared, ice chests filled with many cans of soda, and food prepared.

The morning of ice has to be bought and put into ice chests. Games have to be set up and much more food is prepared.

Whew! It was exhausting telling you about all of that. It is even more exhausting to go through all of it.

This year I have started my contribution of one of the sets of prizes. I am crocheting four Spring Chickens from a pattern by Beverly Button. Here is my first little guy.

So, for any one out there that gets to attend a party as crazy and massive as ours, please tell your host thank you. A lot, let me say that again, A LOT of hard work goes into making an awesome party for you and your kids to enjoy.

Happy Early Easter

When I was a baby, someone had given me a little 'tea set' as a gift and it was one of my favorite toys.

Daddy was in the living room engrossed in the evening news when I brought Daddy a little cup of 'tea,' which was just water.

After several cups of tea and lots of praise for such yummy tea, my mom came home.

My dad made her wait in the living room to watch his little princess bring him a cup of tea, because it was, "just the cutest thing!"

My mom waited, and sure enough, here I come down the hall with a cup of tea for Daddy.

She watches him drink it up, then says, "Did it ever occur to you that the only place that baby can reach to get water is the toilet???"

George was a gentle, loving young man. He never looked for trouble and was always looking out for his younger sister.

I am coming to you all right now asking that you lift up his family in prayer as they cope with the loss of their beloved son and brother. His parents are Blaise and Angie, two older brothers Eddie and Danny, and younger sister Christina .

Please also pray for the young man that shot George. He is in jail and being charged with murder.

This is a picture of George that I found from around 1999. He was still quite young in this picture. My husband and I are standing with him.

We will miss you very much George.

Update Jan 29, 2008
Thank you to James for providing me with a much more recent photo of our cousin George. This picture was taken August 18, 2007 at Dave and Karen's wedding. George caught the garter.

A ton of length and thickness needs to come off the back. Going back to the salon to have the back corrected is a definite must. I am determined to get this cut done correctly for once. After searching for over 3 years with little success, I am not going to settle for almost there...It must be done right. I had hoped that having exact pics of the cut I wanted would help, but seems it didn't. Such a bummer.

Ahh well. It is a cute cut, just not what I am looking for.

Let the journey to the perfect hair cut continue on for a while longer.

While researching this whole dying process I ran across a 5 page article on the subject. The site offers helpful advice such as Step 4. Put the plastic bag over your hair (but not over your entire head, or you will die and dye at the same time).

It is also time to find a stylist who is not afraid of doing a severe a-line bob. They all seem to be scared of making the front too long and the back too short. That is exactly what I want them to do though. It is like pulling teeth convincing them that I really want the front long and the back short. If you don't know what I am talking about style wise let me help you out... think Faye Valentine from Cowboy Bebop or Victoria Beckham.

Here is the synopsis from their site.

Birth: it's a miracle. A rite of passage. A natural part of life. But more than anything, birth is a business. Compelled to find answers after a disappointing birth experience with her first child, actress Ricki Lake recruits filmmaker Abby Epstein to examine and question the way American women have babies.

The film interlaces intimate birth stories with surprising historical, political and scientific insights and shocking statistics about the current maternity care system. When director Epstein discovers she is pregnant during the making of the film, the journey becomes even more personal.

Should most births be viewed as a natural life process, or should every delivery be treated as a potentially catastrophic medical emergency?

There will be two Las Vegas screenings of the show.
January 19th 5:00pm (panel following)
January 19th 7:30pm (no panel)
UNLV Campus Tam Alumni Hall
Las Vegas, NV
Tickets are $15.00.

If you are in a different city check for screenings here.

I think it is great to see some big names becoming concerned about birthing in the USA. In 2002 Derek was born in the hospital with an OB and many interventions including an epidural. I was not fully satisfied with many of the things that happened at his birth. My sister and Birth Year Network opened my eyes to the many birthing options available and in 2006 Bethany was born at home on my bed with a midwife and Hypnobirthing. I encourage you to educate yourself about the birthing options available to you.