Baby names

On the heels of a two week wait, that would have been a "surprise", I read a blog post about baby names and thought it would be fun to address this topic.

We have named two babies and the first was easy as pie, the second, well, I am STILL reeling from that one and truth be told, I am not sure I will ever be over it!!

Acilia Rhiann is our first born. I found out I was pregnant and it was a time when message boards were just starting to be popular. I was on a message board that had a "signature" at the end, I saw a name I liked with the spelling "Acilia" I am not sure how THEY pronounced their child's name, but I loved the spelling and interpreted it as "Uh-sealy-uh". I am a huge fan of names that are NOT common. Acilia is one of a kind as far as I am concerned and I love that her name is special and unique like her! The middle name was sort of compiled based on wanting my child to have a name to honor my grandma. My grandma Annie, (her full name was Anna Angelica) passed away on my birthday, 8 days after I found out I was pregnant. I was close to her and honored that she chose my birthday to be her final resting day. I wanted to give my child a piece of remembrance since she would never know my grandma. We talked about Ann being the middle name. Until I realized her initials would be AA. Not wanting my infant to be associated with alcoholics anonymous, I got creative. At one point we were thinking "Celia Ann" would be great. Acilia sounded better to me though, so I literally went through the alphabet in my head one day as I was driving and found that putting Rhi in front of Ann sounded pretty! Voila!

My son Miles, his birth name is Michael. No offense to the millions of people who like the name Michael, I am sorry to admit, I despise the name. It is far too common for my taste and I believe the fact that my husband forced me into naming my child something that every inch of my being was against has left a sour taste for the name. Again, so sorry. My feelings are usually bottled up until the topic is revealed and then they overflow like a river!! To read more about the name, I have a blog post up about it. It was one of my first posts! The name I just read it again, wow is all I can say! Miles is 4 years old and the emotions are still so fresh! I wonder if I will ever get over it :/

To lighten the mood I just introduced with my bitterness, future babies, if they may come, I have no idea what I would name another little girl, but it would be fun to find names that would be different, yet classic! As for a boy, I still dream of naming a little boy of mine Leo. I think it's such a cute name! I've loved it for many years. Cute little story, I was recently at a shop getting my oil changed, Miles and I were watching TV while we waited. We were watching Clifford, I asked Miles what the name of one of the dogs was, he said "Leo" I said really?? I love that name, I would have named you Leo if I could have, he said "Mommy, you can call me Leo, I wouldn't mind. I can be Leo when daddy is not around" :) The things that boy says, he melts my heart!!

And just for fun, all this talk about my kids, here is a picture of them at the pool today, Acilia is wearing mommy's sunglasses, Miles is wearing daddy's sunglasses! I adore these kids!

And, since I am sharing pictures, Acilia took this one of me and Al :)

4th of July

Close up of the shirts I made for the girls to wear on the 4th of July. Hand sewn star buttons and ribbon details to fancify them :)
The flag was an iron on.

Acilia posing for me to get a close up of her in her shirt :) 

The girls in their "Auntie Karrie made these" shirts. They love to match on the 4th :)

On the topic of shirts, right after I finished making the girls' shirts, I found this one for Miles at our favorite resale shop! It's got planes on it that "sky write" the letters USA! It was cute and CHEAP!

The sign the cousins' made to display at my parents house. 

Crazy hair day!

Well, I am going to do something I have never done. Show my face in public in it's NO MAKE UP GLORY!! The horror!!! ::::shudder::::

I am sitting here today giggling at the fact that I always find it to be such a great idea to go to bed without drying my hair. Until I wake up, and I am reminded that my laziness is in NO WAY a good idea!!

Proof:

I am officially embarrassed. I look like a crazy woman! And now the picture to prove it is in the Internet world!

Just so I don't give you all nightmares, here is a picture of me, in my normal, poised, state! My preference :)

Rest assured, I will not be posting any more crazy hair pictures, I don't want people leaving here with that sort of image in their head! HA!!

Happy 4th! Stay tuned, I made Acilia's 4th of July shirt this year, and 3 matching shirts for my nieces, it's fun to have them all dressed alike on the 4th, I am hoping with some luck I can get a picture of them in their shirts ;) Have a great day!

Storm

Sunday I took the kids to church on my own. I haven't done that with both kids in a very long time. It's usually either all of us as a family, or just me and Acilia. Al was out of town and I decided it was the perfect day to try to see if I could handle both kids on my own. They did great together! Miles is used to being in the nursery, so sitting through a whole church service is tough for the 4 year old. We have a little pattern, go to church then get lunch at Portillos afterwards. The choice is either stay in the car or go in to eat. Acilia requested we go in. Acilia chose where we sat and the three of us sat down to eat. Where we sat, I couldn't see much of the sky, but I happened to see a little peak of sky above a white building and it was B L A C K. I walked in with sunglasses on shortly before. Love Chicago weather :) I told the kids it looked like a good downpour was coming, so we should finish up and get going. The winds picked up as we walked to the car and we started driving, the rain came. My parents called, they always do when there are storms and they don't know where their kids are. It was storming by them, it was bad, high winds, the trees were bending over they said. I decided unless I went way out of my way, the only way around the storm was to drive directly through it. I drove a mile or two and it was intense after that. I couldn't see in front of me, there were branches flying through the sky, the rain turned to hail and everyone was driving with their hazards on. I picked a parking lot to turn into, it was between two brick buildings, I still felt vulnerable so I pulled out and started down the road again, then I found a driveway that belonged to a home. It looked like no one was home, I half thought of going to the door to seek shelter, but then had the kids sit between seats on the floor (I was worried something would fly through the window). I again started to drive. Got another block and found a CVS pharmacy where many others were parked. I pulled into a spot and there were people inside with the doors closed, the power was out and everyone was sort of just waiting it out. I climbed in the back and cuddled with Miles while Acilia was sitting there quietly praying. We had a talk about how God must be fighting Satan and clearly God was winning! Suddenly it lightened up a little bit, it was still a downpour with some hail, but I could atleast see. So we drove on, we had a few more miles to go until we got home, the damage was apparent the whole way home. We saw trees down by the dozens, two stop lights were on the ground, signs down, even a tree on a house. Fences down, lights out. Main Street by our house was flooded. The rain came so fast! And this was after having no rain and record breaking heat for weeks! Our power was out when we got home, I had to park outside of the garage. Miles grabbed some of his cars, he was scared they might blow away (love the logic of a 4 year old) :) It was still raining pretty hard so we ran inside, Al was home to greet us. I was glad to be home. When it stopped, we attempted to get our day back to normal. It's amazing how much you take for granted until you have no power. Thankfully we are in a town so we had running water. Unincorporated areas not so lucky, no power equals no water. Our power was out until 8 am the next morning. Thankfully we have a generator and were able to keep some fans going in the house where we slept and our refrigerator was kept running, we were able to keep the phones charged, we even had the TV in the master bedroom! Al, of course was called out to emergencies all night, he's an electrician. It's been two days since the storm, there are still many many many without power! Our town was the hardest hit, but there are a handful of towns miles apart that were affected too and are also still suffering without power. The heat is adding salt to the wound, it's averaging 14 degrees above normal.

My home had no damage, my whole little neighborhood seems to have gotten by without damage. The other side of town though is another story. Our local park is demolished. 200 year old trees were uprooted completely or snapped in half. We walked through that night along with many other townspeople. It was unreal. Each step was littered with huge trees and leaves and branches. They say it could take up to a month to clean it all up.  The park is 89 acres. It looks like this:

Amazing to me; our town's 9-11 statue that resides in the park was left unharmed!

Ode to the fairy garden!

Acilia is my only girl. She is not very girly. She doesn't care much about dolls or barbies or babies. She hates shopping, doesn't tolerate accessories (though she has them, she tries to wear them, then ends up taking them off, I think they get in her way! Ha!) She is more of a "farm girl" at heart. She is most comfortable with animals, she can keep up with the boys when it comes to sports or play. So when she went to a birthday party two weeks ago that took place at a florist to make Fairy Gardens, I was curious to know what she thought. I loved the idea, but I am much more girly that my little girl! I went to pick Acilia up after the party was over, she came out with a basic start to a fairy garden and she met me at the door and dragged me back in begging for me to buy some more supplies for the garden! She was so excited!! We bought a few little things (expensive!!) and headed home. The fairy garden was placed in her room and we've been building on it ever since!! My very girly niece came over, she was smitten with the garden. I had to giggle at the comment she made "Acilia, I didn't think a fairy garden would be your thing". I love the thoughts of 9 year olds! So beyond their years with their words sometimes! My niece also spent some time drawing a fairy garden that she would like to have!! I think they will be making one soon too! :)

This is a whimisal little project that's been introduced to us and I took some pictures of the garden so far. It's been so much fun!! (I am half thinking of making a bigger one for outside, because Acilia recently asked me if she could add something to it, and I found myself second guessing whether to tell her yes. It IS her garden and I had to remind myself that, so it may be time for me to make my own! Ha!!)

SUYL kid's rooms

My kid's room have the most of my artistic touch in them. The rest of the house I have decorated to be respected of the age of the home (100 years old) the kid's rooms though, they were fun! It's where I took the most risks and it's where the risks pay off!

Acilia's room is first:
I had a vision, people laughed at my color choice, said they needed sunglasses to enter, but now that it's decorated, the color is toned down!

I had a hard time finding a something to go above Acilia's bed, I freehand painted this butterfly. It was a big risk, never  made artwork that size! But I was relieved it turned out ok :)

Her dresser seems to be the catch all for her stuff. 

The book shelf houses books AND she uses it for some of her horses. :) I was showing full disclosure when I didn't put the laundry away that is on top of her book shelf! Tsk tsk!

On to Miles room! This used to be the "play room" pre Miles days. When he was born, we kept him in our room, I didn't view this room as a suitable bedroom, I believe it was an addition at one point, therefore it is not insulated and does not have a closet, though there is storage behind both walls. Weird little room, but we make it work ;)

Sort of a "patriotic/transportation theme. The little red chair is a new addition, Miles loves to sit in it and read! 

The ceiling is vaulted, and I painted clouds on it to make it look like the sky :) Hard to see in this pic, but they are there, and I do love it!

The train table is quite large, but it fits and Miles loves it!

Our mirror couple

I thought Al and I were unique and special. No one else like us, our story is one that has inspired countless lives and that feels great to be a part of. (Thank you God for making this my journey! I appreciate every moment! Amen) It came to my attention there is another couple out there that has an almost identical path! While listening to the radio the other day I heard Amanda Carroll talking about a couple.

Here's their story:

     No matter what happens to you in a relationship, or what has happened, you still want to believe in true love.  

I found a real one.  

Jonathan and Caitlin.

When Jonathan was 18 he had lupus and he had to have a kidney transplant, his mother was his donor.

Last year, his kidney was failing again hand the prognosis was not good, this was really rare and the doctors said because of all his past blood transfusions it would be virtually impossible to find a suitable match. He had a 15 chance of finding his perfect match.

At the same time he thought he'd met the "One" while in seminary school. Despite his failing health they chose love and got married. A month after their wedding Jonathan got on the transplant list, even though 

the odds were like winning the lottery.This week he went into surgery, 

turns out he really did find "The One," his perfect match ended 

up being his new bride, Caitlin. 

I couldn't help but phone in and talk about how my story mirrored Jonathan and Caitlin's story. I wasn't sure it was going to air, we had a little bit of a bad signal. The next day a friend of mine wrote on my facebook wall, she said she recognized my laugh and knew it was me! HA! God never ceases to amaze me! He gave Al and I our very own miracle, he did the same for this couple. I was able to find them on Facebook, I sent a quick little message, though I must admit, it was kind of awkward!! Organ donors UNITE! :)

Me and hubs sharin' a little love :) I look a little bit like a bird, but I love the look on his face :)