We love watching caterpillars make the transformation to butterflies.

The Book Cover becomes the source for dozens of Gulf Fritillary caterpillars.  I found a cool link to a site that has pictures of the butterflies.

We have a great big netted hanging pavilion that we keep them in at the store. Here's one similar to ours!

There are two options for people that want  something to keep their caterpillars in.  (Well, three - you could buy one.)

My favorite option is using a large box from a kid's toy.  The boxes that have a clear side of plastic so the kids can see in the box are perfect.  Just take out the toy and insert the caterpillar.  It's that simple.  I really sugest a box that is larger than a shoe box. 

If you don't have a box from fisher price, walmart, etc that already has the plastic on one side - MAKE ONE!  You'll want to leave a "frame" around the outside edges of the box and just use a knife to cut the inside out.  Then carefully tape a strong plastic sheet (preferably something better than plastic wrap) into the new window.  If you are going to go to the trouble, I think it's worth it to make windows on 2 or 3 sides so your caterpillar can be seen from several directions.  ( We have some great thick stuff you can use from the store!)

Hope you enjoy your caterpillars this summer!

Madison loves to talk.  If you have met her you know that.  If you haven't met her, enjoy the quiet.  She is never at a loss for things to say.

But, she hates to talk on the phone.  She will talk to me most of the time for about 12 seconds.  The same is true for anyone else.  So, this afternoon I called home.  I asked my DH if she wanted to talk to me, so he asked her.  Her response.... "You can talk to her."

So much for the fun discussions of her day - gymnastics and a day with Daddy.  She didn't even care about our week at the bookstore.  She didn't care about the number of customers that actually showed up on a Saturday!  She didn't care about anything we were going to do.  She just knew she was too busy to talk to me.

Have a great weekend.

Tonight Madison stayed up late.  I went out with friends and she was at a babysitter/friends house. 

We got home and got PJs on.  As soon as Jeff pulled up, she was ready to run outside to find him.  "Hi Daddddeeey" she says with a huge smile. She proceeds to follow him in the kitchen as he puts away his dinner dishes asking him, "How Your Day, Daddy?"  What is more precious than that?  I loved listening to their conversation.  "Your day good, Daddy?" she continues.  "Oh, you have a good day at work today, good daddy!" 

That was about all that came from her side.  She has just told us "Go put your 'jammies on" - so we are off obediently get ready for bed. 

Not much else to add today - it was a nice... normal day!

 

What?  A day off?  No one told me!  This was a crazy day!  I can admit that it  didn't start until 9, because we stayed up late waiting for the storm to pass.  But then there was laundry, cleaning, meals to cook. 

The afternoon was spent with Keller - an energetic 5 year old at our church.  Keller's brother is in the hospital. So, Keller and Madison were gonna play - well ha, ha.  Madison several times wanted to hold his hand, take him to the bathroom and play with dolls with him. He expressed his discontent with her toy selection.  I did manage to find a box of cars she has somehow collected (Happy meals and friends who think she needs cars).  But he didn't like the girl stuff at all.  What's a boy to do? 

Just after he left I heard Ranger (our dog) and the neighbor's dogs barking like crazy!  I went outside to find Ranger with a sparrow.  She dropped it when I came outside and it hopped away looking very nasty (I'll spare more details).  I go out after her as she picks it back up - stepping in swampy, mud.  Madison hollers, "Ranger, NO!"  She runs along the fence with bird in mouth for several minutes (well it felt like several).  I'm yelling the whole time and Madison is too, "Ranger, not get a bird!"  "NO, NO, Mom tell Ranger No" "Mommy, Ranger has a bird?"  "NO RANGER, Not eat a Bird!" Finally I get close enough to her that as she comes by I swat at her (her back of course, because I don't want to get too close to the bird now).  She drops the bird and it tries to move toward to back corner of the yard.  "yes" I think.  If I can only keep her away for a few more seconds the bird can slip into the yard behind us.  But, it chooses a path along the edge of the fence beside the neighbor's dogs.  And with that they grab it's wing and pull it through the fence.  The life of the bird is over.  Thankfully it just wasn't in our yard.  And technically our dog just wounded it fatally, but she didn't kill it.  And I didn't have to deal with getting rid of it. 

Life is great - inside we go... wait - inside went Swamp Dog.   She had mud all over her and probably still had feathers in her mouth.  Madison says, "Ranger inside" "Ranger NO EAT BIRDS" "Ranger made a mess"

Well by this point I'm wishing for a day at work.  There are no dying birds, muddy dogs, screaming toddlers, disgrunted boys. 

But the day wasn't over, there was still a nap to be had (quick!), swim lessons, Wal-mart, dinner and then I crashed.  About 9 pm I was still planning on doing laundry, cooking lunch for tomorrow and all kinds of other things.  Madison fell asleep and I just fell on the couch.  A few small tasks and that was it for me.  I was thirsty and just sat and waited for Jeff to get home to get me water.  It must have been great to go to work for him.  Can't wait until tomorrow - WORK! 

 

Madison is busy telling us a story.  Yes, I know it's late.  But she was still up because of a late and long nap - then it started raining.  She couldn't fall asleep during the rain storm. She doesn't like "funder" but the rain is okay.

She is telling us a story.  This is about Dora, something, something, something.  A tower, because, and then and then.  The old man was sick and sick and sick.  The man was pouring rain.  Old man is pouring.  Old man is napping and wake up.  And the sick man climb up a later.  TYPE IT Down.  ...

Ooops she figured out I was typing as she was talking.  So the story ended for the desire to see me type.

She loves to make up stories, often made of 2 or 3 other stories she's read, mixed with a few things in real life.  That's where Dora and the sick old man came from.  And the rain was real life.  And she likes to pretend sick and doctor stuff.

If you ever have 30 minutes for a story, come visit Madison.  She will take every bit of the30 minutes to tell her story. 

Can I ever come home?  Can I return to my first blogging home?  Am I even worthy of blogging?

But with problems compounding on our store website, I think my blog is... low on the priority list.  But I miss it.  I miss being able to archive little events going on in our life.  So, I am coming home.

I am coming back to the simple life.  I don't have to work to make my blog work.  I don't have to struggle to figure out pictures (well, at least not as hard as on wordpress).  Life is good here in my old home, but I had left.  So, now I return with hopes of a good life.   However, in the back of my mind I still think of that link on the website.   So - visit the site and see - it leads nowhere!  www.the-book-cover.com

Thanks in advance for letting me come back.  Life is better here.

 

    I feel like I'm telling my neighbors good-bye and packing all these things into boxes. 

Please come visit - have a page warming party (like a housewarming party, ya know).

I've moved my Blog to our store Website!  Yipeee!  This is a good business move for us.

Anyone know some html and stuff to use to make it more exciting?

Visit me:

www.the-book-cover.com/blog

Marlain

Well, Things are going well for the birthday party.  The house is pretty much cleaned up, and this morning my wonderful Stacy came and cleaned. 
I cannot wait to get home and see how great my house looks.

The bookstore has been good this week.  I little more sales this week than the past few.
We also have had some NEW customers, hurray!
We had a Mom's Night Out that was for a specific homeschool group.  We had 5 new people here that night.  Since then we've had 2 or 3 a day come in that are new. 
I think I would say this week was actually "busy" again.  The word is spreading and I'm so excited.  This is how we want it to be, more customers each week.

We are about to have our inventory online - start telling the world to check us out.

www.the-book-cover.com

More after the party.

Marlain

I’m in the thick of planning Madison’s party.  As I write I have 5 ½ days until party #1, yes there is party #2 also planned.

 

First let’s back up, for anyone who didn’t attend last  years party.  I’m not sure anyone didn’t – there were I think 46 (But it’s been so long, and I was actually supposed to be in bed because I had bronchitis).  The weather was in the low 40s and raining – so in theory all 46 of those people were in the house (although some found the garage spacious!).

 

Anyway – this year we are not making that mistake, ha!  We’ll split the chaos in half and have two parties. 

So they are both planned.

 

Saturday morning from 11 – 12:30 we have invited 11 other friends of Madison’s to come over.  She has got to be the most social child, because she can actually say all their names, and knows their siblings, animals and parents.

This is her main party, all the balloons, party favors, games, lunch, cake, etc.  The theme of her party is taken from her very favorite TV show – Connie the Cow.  (www.noggin.com)  Seeing that nothing related to Connie is available for sale ANYWHERE we had to have some of it designed by a great lady.  (I’ll have to write more about her later!)

So, now I need to plan the activities, lunch, cake, balloons, favors – anything else I’m forgetting?

 

And most importantly I have to clean – AHHHH – clean the house, so it will not be destroyed by wood-eating ins ---- wait, no by TWO YEAR OLDS!  If I had an immaculate house the party would not be near so hard.  But I have to spend the week cleaning.

The best news is that I only have to clean the stuff up – the actually sanitizing type cleaning will be done Friday morning by my wonderful friend who cleans houses and does a great job of making me love my house 1 day every other week. J

 

Of course within 24 hours all her work will be lost to the party, but at least the children will not have dirt on their feet and hands from my floor.  But then I have to clean up after them because:

Party # 2, the grown-up party, is at 7pm.  This is the party with relatives and special friends of our family (without young children!).  I hope that Madison will have a good nap in the afternoon and then be calm and enjoy being around  her grandparents and friends.  It will be more fun for her to open presents calmly from them.

 

I’ve learned one thing – don’t bother to ask for advice here on the adventure of hosting two parties for one two year old in one day!  The response is usually – Don’t do it!  Or invite 2 kids – ha!  Ask her about her friends, she has a list! 

 

Oh – right speaking of friends – let ‘s not forget taking snacks of some type for her birthday at Mother’s Day Out on her actual birthday!  So I guess really that will be party # 3 – I don’t have to clean before OR after that!  I like that party.

 

That’s all I can think about tonight. 

 

I know so many people want to know more about my store – I’ll try to condense the latest to a post soon!

 

 

 

Here she is - Piglet!  She loves this costume.  I will struggle to keep her out of it for weeks to come!  Of all the characters from the Hundred Acre Woods, she may be most like Piglet.

 

But she did have an Eeyore costume too, but was very excited about Piglet.  She wore her costume for Mother's Day Out last Thursday and loved it!  Then when she found out she could wear it on Monday it was very exciting for her little mind - in fact she wanted to wear it and perhaps no other clothes.  But it was cold so before we left the house Monday MORNING she put on clothes and her costume.  Thankfully she agreed not to wear it at her Nana's house or to the funeral we attended Monday afternoon.  But as soon as we got home she was actually running to put it on.

 

We talked about going to other peoples houses to trick-or-treat and it didn't mean much to her. But when we talked about going and telling them "hello" and them giving her candy - that was better.  She has decided she likes candy in the past three weeks.  First some that her Nana bought, then some she got at the parade in Oklahoma and now this!  So she was excited to get candy.

 

Our first two visits were not so good.  The first house we went to was her Nana and Papa's neighbor, and she was going to say "treat please" and then tell them "thank you" - but she must have gotten two excited and got all mixed up (such a piglet thing to do you know!) because as soon as someone came to the door she said very excited, "THANK YOU!" 

The next try was not very good either.  We went to the elderly neighbors of Nana and Papa.  They let her pick her own treat and put it in her purple pumpkin container.  But after she put one in, she reached up for another.  So much for that.

 

We came home after that, so we could hand out candy which she would probably do much better.  We sat outside together on our new swing (new to us, from my grandparents house - I used to swing on it when I was her age!).  But it got very cold very fast and even with a blanket from inside we couldn't stay out very long.  She did help me a few times outside before we came in and she played while I handed out candy.  Except once I finally got her to come to the door to see another little girl (maybe 3?) who was a butterfly.  Madison giggled and said hello!  She was thrilled with this girl and then kept looking outside every few minutes after that to see if another such girl might show up. 

 

After that it was bath time and bed - enough for a little Piglet!  I sorted her container and took the parent share (all the chocolate, nuts and chewy things which she cannot have) out of her container after she was fast asleep!

 

I know by next year she will be picking her own costume, without me getting much say.  Like a friend told me today:

"It seems like YESTERDAY that my little ones were all cute and snuggly on Halloween.  Now they have other goals: Scary, Frightful and Spooky!!!!"

I know it's all too true, because I remember her 9 year old in a cute little cow costume, proped up against decorations to help him sit up - that was just yesterday! 

 

Trick or Treat - or Thank you - which ever you get out first!

Marlain

 

Haven't downloaded her costume pictures from her school party and trick-o-treat night!

 

But this was from a great pumpkin patch near my in-laws house.  They have TONS of fun character cut out of wood that you can take pictures with - Dora, Blue, Pooh and friends, Elmo and friends, and the list goes on...

 

However, Madison was scared of all of them.  So this was the best picture of the night.  She loves Pumpkins!  She learned about them at school, she saw one at her Nana's house and now we have "bitty-bitty" ones at home.  She thinks they are great. 

 

I'll try to get caught up with her costume picture in a day or so (I'm keeping her costume identity hidden, you'll have to wait and see).

We got back about midnight last night from San Antonio.  We held the estate sale at my Grandparents home on Saturday.  We got there on Thursday evening.  We worked in the evening some, then worked all afternoon and night Friday - I got 3 hours of sleep, my Mom stayed up all night.  The sale was all day Saturday and we made LOTs of money and sold all the big stuff!  Yeah! 

Then Sunday we slept in a little and then packed up what we left that we were taking. 

It was a long weekend.  And we worked hard.  It was sad that it was the last time we'll be at that house, since it's already sold.  But the house makes me (& my mom) sick because of the mold.  I feel tired (like taking a benydryl tired - when you cannot function fully) all the time in that house. 

I suppose it helps that it's been 2 months now since my Grandfather passed away - it makes it easier to have been there a few times without him before we leave the house.  It seems less sad now to say good-bye to the house. 

Now when we go to San Antonio it will be just to visit my Grandma in the nursing home.  Going there is so much fun now because Madison is great with everyone there and will just get more fun.  And now there is not the pressure of getting back to the house - no time pushing us!

 

I better go get Madison's birthday invitations ready to mail.  Her party is in 2 weeks, wow!  She is so close to 2, I cannot believe it!

 

 

 

This was Madison on Saturday at the University of Oklahoma game.  She was decked out and loved the whole day.

She was the greatest kid, she did better than her Mom.  I was ready to go in the 4^th quarter… Madison was still cheering in the 2^nd overtime! 

Several complete strangers have probably posted pictures similar to this.  I had a few people ask if they could have their picture with her, others just took pictures of her… shouldn’t I charge a fee or something?

She told everyone “hello” and “OU” and her name and age…. She talked all day.

 

We went to the game last weekend for homecoming at OU.  My husband was in the band at OU – played Trumpet – and loves to go back for homecoming when the Alumni Band gets to march with the band and to play the fight song 200 times just during the regular 4 quarters.  Add to that the number of times they played it during the TWO overtimes.  Ha!  I could go the rest of the year without hearing the song and still be humming it! 

I know he loves going.  This is two years in a row we have gone.  The year before that I was 9 months pregnant.  Four years ago we got married on the same Saturday as homecoming – hey we picked the date before they scheduled homecoming, they should have asked us!

 

Anyway, it was a very long day.  We left at 8 am (actually 8:25) and got to the campus about 11:30.  Jeff had a practice at 12 for the band.  Then we went to some meeting for the Alumni.  Then they had a parade; Madison loved the parade both for the candy and the Books they gave away!  Very cool that she got some free books, from the float by the Ed department of the school.  Then lunch (or whatever you call a meal at 4pm) and finally the game.  Things would have been great for 4 quarters and to leave by 9:30, but no, there was overtime, and then there was a 2^nd overtime!   By the time the traffic let us get going and we stopped to get dinner (or whatever you call a meal at 11:30 pm) we didn’t actually get on the highway until 11:45pm!  We got home at 2:30 am.

 

It was a long day – it was a whole weekend in one day!  We spent Sunday recovering from Saturday.  We slept, ate, slept, sat around, ate, slept. 

 

Busy week for me.  Lots to do, then a trip to San Antonio for an Estate sale at my Grandparents house.  Better get to bed, so I can get ready for the trip tomorrow!

 

Go Sooners!

 

I saw this on someone else's site and had to copy it.

 

We have birds.  Actually we have a child who is a bird and his wife and children. 

 

Bel was the first pet of our marriage - because we didn't want to pay a pet deposit.  Bel is a small lovebird.  Looks kinda like the picture.  He is the best pet I've ever had.  He was our first child.

 

When Madison was born he gave up on being my baby.  He has a female mate now and they have had almost 20 babies in the past two years. 

 

Lately, now that Madison does not seem to want to grab him by his neck, he has been a lot more friendly to us all.   Maybe our oldest child is coming back!

 

Anyone want birds?  We have a few extras!  They make good pets.  My friend Adrienne has two lovebirds that my Mom's pair hatched.  They are great pets!

 

Posted in Maddie

This was written about 3 months ago.  This is one of my Madison stories.  It explains why I have chosen the picture that is at the top of this page - notice the Yellow Crayon is front and center.

_____________________________

Madison can often impress a stranger or even a friend with her knowledge of color.  I say often and notice I say color not colors. 

 

Madison has a favorite color – Yellow!  She says it very similar to her favorite word – Hello.  All I have to do is point to something that is yellow and ask her what color it is, “yellow!” she responds.  Wow, what accomplishment, but then I stop – not pointing out blue or red or any other color.  Many people are impressed, as well they should be, but never quiz her any further. 

 

It is a great color and like I said it is similar to “Hello” which has been her favorite word for almost a year now.  Madison was not even 1 when she started to say Hello.  She said it rather clear and she said it to everyone.  With no fear she will look at anyone and say, “Hello.”  Without ceasing she will continue to say it until you are ready to scream.  Several times I have resolved to count how many times she says hello.  I have tried to start in the morning.  But by the time you tell Mommy and Daddy hello a dozen times and then go in your room to find Pooh characters to say hello to and then birds and food and water and ice and the slide and the grass and well, Mommy and Daddy another dozen times – I had lost count.  So I thought it might have been an hour and I could say I counted for an hour, but it had only been 25 minutes!  I did try to count a few other times and I have never been counting when she has said hello less than once a minute. 

 

Madison has been known to talk in her sleep, she says “Hello” during the night every few nights.  I don’t know if she actually wakes up and says it or if she is still asleep, but she cannot even go 12 hours without saying it apparently! 

 

So Yellow is a good color to learn, and if asked correctly she is very smart.  But don’t go on and ask other colors she will fail.  I say that with honesty, but have to add that Pink is a new color she seems to be working on.  She says it very well, but is so used to saying yellow that she forgets to look first sometimes.  She can say purple, blue, red, green and black – but she doesn’t know what they look like!

______________________

Update: She has learned two other colors pretty well at "school" (Mother's Day Out) - they have a color each month and she now knows Blue and Orange.

Posted in The Book Cover

This was moving day before our bookstore opened (July, 2005).  Maddie was watching carefully as we boxed books from my house and loaded them in the cars.  Her Papa picked her up and stuck her in a box.  She thought it was VERY funny. 

Our bookstore is called The Book Cover - that's the source of my blogsite and my title at the top.  Our bi-line is "Covering your Homeschool Curriculum Needs."  And someday, when our store is actually making money we will print those old fashion paper book covers we all used to have as kids.  We will then give them away to kids as advertising (hopefully they will use them). :-)

The Book Cover has been open since July 15, 2005 and it's a lot of fun.  I'll have so much more about the store as time goes on, but to keep it short I had a dream and didn't realize how much work a full time store took. I don't regret it at all.  The timing is good, with our daughter being old enough to play a little on her own, and being in MDO and such.  But being part of the everyday decisions of running a store is very different from what I was dreaming.  I was dreaming of the fun stuff, the books, the people, the money..... All that either has or will come - but I wasn't dreaming about the bills, employees, unhappy people, landlords, leases, city permits, cleaning, sorting, etc.

Our store really has grown fast, we started in July with maybe 5,000 books.  Two weeks later we got an offer to buy about 10,000 books from a store about 2 1/2 hours away, which we did in late August.  We now have those 10,000 plus over 8,000 we have gotten from consigners.  Of course some of those 18,000 books have sold - so I'd say today in our store we have about 15,000 books.

And our store is open now, so I better get to work.

Grace and Peace,
Marlain

Posted in Maddie

Well, as promised I've got pictures of Maddie to put on here. 

Of course I have redone the pictures and the post three times now, learning as I go how to get a picture that doesn't use my whole 1MB of pictures and still looks good.  But now I did it!

 

Anyway,  Maddie was very interested in smelling these flowers.  So interested that she hit her head once and fell over another time. 

This was in New Mexico, we went up on the mountain there and enjoyed a great view and the early colors of fall.  Madison didn't really enjoy that as much as throwing rocks and smelling flowers.

 

Remember, we all need our moments to smell the flowers.  I think that's my feeling about this site - I have so many things I can do, or even that I need to do.  But when it comes down to it, I need to stop and smell the flowers occasionally. 

 

Grace and Peace,

Marlain

I've thought for some time that it would be useless to do this because.... who cares?

 

But as I've taken a few minutes now and then to check on some friends, it's great to know what's going on.

 

It's fun to see old friends and keep up with good friends that I wish I could talk to everyday.  How fun!

 

So, excuse my grammar and spelling.  And ignore me when I brag on my daughter and when I complain that she is being a two year old (which I might add is still exactly 1 month away).  And ignore me when I talk about business stuff that might not be as interesting to everyone as it is to me.

 

So basically - you are free to ignore me all the time, because I have no idea why ANYONE will care to listen to me ramble. 

 

But I WILL have lots of PICTURES of Maddie, of the store, of friends - and well I have about 500 pictures from our recent trip to the Balloon Fiesta in Albuquerque.

 

Until next time,

Grace and Peace,

Marlain