Julie's Exhausting Adventure

Why I'm NOT making a bunk bed

2012-02-08T15:00:00.000-06:00

So, if you've been around our family or this blog for any amount of time, you know we like to be frugal around here. We also like to make things ourselves. We kinda pride ourselves in it, being able to create and take something for little and make it into something kinda awesome.

That is why it pains me a bit to be PURCHASING bunk beds.

I had all intentions to make this bed:

img from Ana White.com courtesy of Ever Heard of Eueless

This is Ana's bunk bed plan, made by Ever Heard of Eueless. Beautiful. LOVE LOVE LOVE it. Problem is when I started pricing out the cost of the materials, plus mattresses, plus paint, plus my time, I was only saving about $50 bucks. $100 if I was lucky. Let's be honest people. I'd pay someone $50-$100 bucks to sand for me. As much as I love to build, can you imagine all the SANDING on this bed. (no sanding makes me happy).

There are times in your life when time is more precious than money. This is one of those moments.

Right now our family is smack dab in the middle of military stuff, boy scout banquets, a lead role in a school musical, workout and weight loss plans, tumbling practice and training for 10K's.

Oh also my youngest has learned to climb in and out of her crib, so a new bed is really needed ASAP.

Taking 2-3 weekend to build a bed, actually just FINDING two to three free weekends to build a bed is just not feasible right now.

So, I bite the bullet, throw in the towel. I'm buying the bed. I'm sure someday sometime down the road I may regret this decision. (trust me I've gone back and forth over this for the past several weeks), but for now its the best decision to be made.

Pinteresting Wednesday

2012-02-08T10:14:00.000-06:00

I kinda am starting to like this Pinteresting Wednesday thing. Just when I feel that I have no creative juices or anything to write about hump day comes along and this gives me a little post to share.

No theme today, just going back to my favorite pins from the last week. Here they are in all their glory.

My first "Social Media Explained." SO True. So TRUE.


Pinned here

Here we have Cream Cheese Stuffed Lemon French toast. Yum. Filed under my Recipes pin board. Instead I should file it under "recipes I will probably never make but will pin anyway."

Recipe from Our Best Bites found HERE

I found a really awesome sandbox plan from Ana this week. Just add it to the very LONG list of items I want to make.

Img found at AnaWhite.Com here

Oh, and this should be filed under "complete and total awesomeness." Send this lady a photo of your kids drawing and she will make a softie of it. This HAS to be one of the cutest most creative things I've EVER seen.

Img found at Child's Own Studio here

And under the "holy crap, why didn't I think of this before category"....DIY drawer dividers/organizers from Ana of course...

Img from Ana White.com found here

Oh, and this would be great IF I ever actually made teacher gifts. Sometimes I feel like I'm that ONE mom in the class that just doesn't do it all.

Img pinned here

That's about all for this week. This week I'm linking up to The Vintage Apple's "Oh How Pinteresting Wednesday."

My Pinterest Dream Kitchen

2012-02-01T08:20:00.005-06:00

Today marks my SECOND Pinterest Wednesday.

Today rather than share my favorite pin's of the week, I'm going to be daydreaming a bit with you about my vision for my kitchen.

*Disclaimer. I do a LOT of daydreaming. (a.k.a. pinning things that I may never actually accomplish)

**Disclaimer TWO* This vision is subject to change within six months with or without warning.

I say that because six months ago my vision for my kitchen was dark floors, white cabinets, faux dark beams across the ceiling. I called it "modern farmhouse".


img from DecorPad.com

While I still think that this is gorgeous my husband wasn't extremely fond of this idea. (Yes, ladies it is their house too.) He likes the idea of darker cabinets, which I don't mind either, but the thought of re-staining my cabinets was a daunting task. I learned during my bathroom renovation that staining cabinets is a LOT of work. MUCH harder than painting.

So I started thinking about painting my kitchen cabinets black. Yes. I said black. For better words lets call it espresso (sounds fancier doesn't it?).

So I started searching images and came up with some ideas.

You can call it French country or European country. Here is my vision.

image from Rustic Woodworks, Inc. pinned here

I'm really starting to LOVE LOVE LOVE rustic looking wide plank floors in a walnut color. Since I have pets if I went dark you would see every scratch and nick, every single bit of dog hair. If I go more rustic I think it would eliminate a TON of stress for me. Of course my taste is expensive. Siiiighh.

I'd LOVE to do something like this for my range hood:

img from Houzz.com pinned here

And NOTHING goes better with a French country theme than copper. Who would have thought that I would start to LOVE copper?

Image pinned here

Image Pinned Here

Doesn't that copper with the distressed black just scream French country? Ahhh. I love it.

Img from depotcreations.blogspot.com pinned here

Of course what TOTALLY freaks me out is that my tastes change like every few months, and when you are doing something like a kitchen, well, you are gonna have to LOVE it for a LONG LONG time. We are a LONG way away from a kitchen redo, so I have time to really think about this. In the meantime though I'm gonna keep pinning away ideas for my dream kitchen.

img pinned here

To follow my board "kitchen ideas" you can see it here on Pinterest!

Today I'm linking up with The Vintage Apple "Oh How Pinteresting Wednesday".

Table Saw 101

2012-01-31T13:29:00.000-06:00

So we finally had a free weekend that my husband and I could both be in the garage together. I needed him to be there when I started building the bench because I needed him to give me a crash course in Table saw 101.

I was pretty freaked starting out, because it's such a dangerous piece of equipment. I wish we would have got the one that the blade stops if it senses skin on it, but we don't have the luxury of owning that one. Maybe someday.

Like Norm says "measure twice, cut once".

Started out with all my measurements.

Then it was time for me to put my big girl pants on and make my cuts. It's tricky holding onto the wood while pushing it through. The table saw is also pretty quiet. Our miter saw makes a BIG scary noise, this thing is pretty quiet. That helps calm the nerves a bit.

You may be tempted to grab the wood next to the blade to move it out of the way. DON'T do that. This is me jumping back after I make my cut. Yeah, I was pretty freaked out. I like my fingers and really want to keep them.

Here is all my wood, cut, sanded and ready for assembly! I would say I made a good portion of the cuts myself, the rest my wonderful husband did. SO proud of myself for using the big scary table saw!

Rethinking Running

2012-01-26T13:49:00.001-06:00

Lately I've started to rethink my plans on running. If you read this post it will tell you about my journey into the running world.

In fall I took a running hiatus, and even though I finished C25K I never actually RAN a 5K. I know. What was the point. When I started running again I realized I wasn't ready to run a 5K, so rather than jump into the 10K program I did the "Ease Into 10K plan."

The first few weeks went really well. Even now It's going ok, but there is a problem. The workout is LONG. Like almost an hour run long, and that's fine if that is my ONLY workout of the day, but then I ended up giving up my Zumba classes (which even though they make me crave Mexican food, I LOVE LOVE LOVE my Zumba. It's SO fun).

So I came up with this CRAZY workout schedule. It failed. Miserably.

As awesome as P90X is. I CANT workout at home. Two little ones under my feet just isn't working. Also I get too distracted. I need the gym and I NEED their daycare. I wanted to do it ALL, but at this time in my life raising small ones I just can't.

I also CAN'T give up running. The difference that it's made in my body is unbelievable. I never want to stop running and I always want to incorporate it into my workout regimen.

The long runs are draining me. Don't get me wrong, I plan to finish the 10K program and run a 10K. I want to be able to say I did it. But I'm thinking that I don't want all my running to be for endurance.

My husband and I started discussing sprinting.

Then I saw images like these:

img from HealthierLiving.com

And these:

img from HybridFitnessSolutions.com

Also, the more I started to read and research, the more it started to make sense. PLEASE don't think I'm hating on marathon runners. There is definitely something to be said for endurance. As much as running has helped me shed the pounds that I wanted, I'm just not seeing the muscle definition there that I want, and SOMETHING has to change in my schedule.

I ran across this today and I LOVE it. (Three Simple Sprint Workouts).

So I'm thinking now of somehow incorporating sprinting into my schedule, keep up with my strength training in my boot camp class, and bring BACK Zumba, because nothing is more fun than dancing to Latin music, even if it does make me want to eat tacos.

My First Pinterest Wednesday

2012-01-25T14:23:00.001-06:00

Ok, I'm doing my very first "Oh how Pinteresting Wednesday".

What is Pinterest you may say?


img source cheezburger.com via ragebuilder.com

Not kidding. That's pretty much all it boils down to.

So I decided to share my favorite pins from the past week with you all.

Img from Anawhite.com via apartmenttherapy.com

My 4 year old has been begging for a desk, but with a huge dresser, toys, and sharing a room with little sis, doesn't give us much room. I think this would be a PERFECT solution. I love it.

img from BHG.com

A "command center". A place to put all the school paperwork and stuff that goes in and out of the house. I LOVE it and hope to someday have this in my den/office area.

from impatientlyprayingforpatience.blogspot.com

These little bad boys were staircase newel posts turned into candlesticks. SOOOOO doing this.

img source julievic.polyvore.com

I discovered Polyvore last week also. Let me tell you I could spend hours putting together outfits I'll never wear. Seems like I may have pretty decent taste because this little bad boy had 17 repins.

img source bamboofloorings.org

Wide plank walnut flooring. Oh, I could just die. LOVE it.

img from houzz.com

LOVELY barn doors that my husband hates. Sigh. Still trying to win him over, but it's not working.

And the crowing jewel of my week on Pinterest. I laughed so hard at this I was crying.

no photo credit available. Sorry!

I still look at that and laugh and laugh. So funny!

I'm linking this post up to The Vintage Apple "Oh How Pinteresting Wednesday."

Cleaning Checklist

2012-01-24T08:45:00.001-06:00

Has it really been over a WEEK since my last post? I was doing so good getting in a few posts a week. I've been off doing important stuff (you know, like pinning all kinds of projects I'll never make.)

I did finish my cleaning checklist last week and started it. The house has actually remained pretty clean the past week and laundry caught up! Who would have EVER thought a list could keep me so on track. In fact I was SO on top of things I realized I don't have enough drawer space to hold all my clean clothes. (Talk about first world problems.)

I am TRULY blessed and I need to realize that more often.

Also, in keeping me focused and on track a friend of mine posted this blog on Facebook, and I tell you with everything that I've been struggling with lately, this was the MOST FREEING thing to read. It allowed me to forgive myself and actually relax a bit. I swear if you are in or have ever been in mommy burnout mode you MUST read it.

Back to my cleaning checklist. Talk about something else that has been completely freeing. Seriously this little checklist has changed my life. I feel organized and so put together. I feel free to blog or get on my computer because I know that there is nothing lingering to do for the day. It took me some time to figure it out but after several hours of planning, and tweaking my schedule and spreadsheet I think I've finally got it. My version of our cleaning checklist.

I first came up with this idea after seeing it on I Heart Organizing. The problem is I needed it to be tweaked a bit to work for our family. However if you LOVE the idea of a cleaning checklist as much as I do, and don't want to invest the time to make your own, please pay her some love and respect and hop on over to her Etsy store to purchase some of her printables.

After printing it off I went to the dollar store and picked up a document frame for a buck.

I went to HL and bought sick on magnets ($1.99) to stick on the back. I decided to go with level "3" magnets (mainly because they all ready had adhesive tape on the back and I didn't want to glue) .

I quickly regretted that. It took ALL of them and it does not magnetize as much as I would like it too. Currently I'm afraid the slightest nudge is going to make it come crashing to the floor. Time to purchase some more powerful magnets I suppose.

Now I can use my dry erase markers on the frame and just wipe it clean at the end of the day/week etc. Saves a TON of paper from printing each week.

I'm hoping that this will keep me more focused on the house and get the stuff done that needs done on a regular schedule. It seems to be working GREAT so far! Now it's just time for me to delegate some of these chores out ;)

Weekend Detour

2012-01-16T13:57:00.002-06:00

My weekend took a bit of a detour from what I thought it would be.

Yesterday was supposed to be spent in my garage woodworking on my entryway storage bench, as you saw from my previous post, however upstairs was feeling pretty dirty and gross so my husband and I went into a full cleaning frenzy, and ended up rearranging our room in the process.

We decided to move the bed under the window. I know that this goes against some peoples home decorating rules and according to Feng Shui all our Chi or whatever would go out the window and it would disrupt our sleep. Yeah, I totally don't buy into that kind of stuff, and I slept GREAT last night.

Now of course re-arranging our room puts me into a "I need to completely redo this room" mindset and once I get there it's VERY hard for me to get out of that mindset.

I actually considered axing the entryway project and starting to work on night stands instead.

I told you I'm nuts, and completely indecisive.

It's SO hard for me to prioritize when I have a HUGE list of what I want to do.

Do I need matching nightstands? Yes. Do I want my king size bed with a new headboard? Yes. BUT I need to be content where we are at. We will get there and the journey is the fun part, and by lamenting about what I want and don't have, I don't enjoy the present.

I plan to get a perfect little corner chair and move that wing back downstairs and recover it and put it in my den. Also we will get a regular bathroom door (we removed the two double doors because frankly they were a pain in the rear). We will move the TV over a bit more centered to the bed, and hide the cables in the wall, and have a tall chest underneath it. Also I want one of those pretty benches in front of the bed with storage.

It is ok to dream a little.

Here is my vision (but with Ana's farmhouse headboard and side tables):

img from Houzz.com

Image from Decor Pad

It's fun to plan and dream.

But ahem, back to my weekend detour: Flippin. Cleaning. Frenzy.

My husband is such a sweetheart and offered to clean our bedroom and let me go woodwork and have a day off. Because I'm such a ~~control freak~~ sweetheart I decided to help him instead. (This had NOTHING to do with the fact that I'm a big sissy and scared to use the table saw by myself.)

We usually end up moving beds, vacuuming under them, vacuuming mattresses, vacuuming corners etc.. and doing BIG stuff like this when we just get sick of the mess.

This is NOT working for us.

With four kids, two dogs, two cats and a hamster I need to get better control of this home. I need a cleaning schedule that KEEPS it clean throughout the year, and so I don't spend days at a time killing myself because it got so out of control we couldn't handle it anymore.

My weekly cleanings keep the "appearance" of a clean home and keep it from getting totally disgusting, and goes over the major stuff, but there are honestly all kinds of corners I'm cutting because of time.

I found this AWESOME blog called I Heart Organizing a cleaning checklist and I've been meaning to do this for a long time, it was just sitting down and coming up with a schedule. Currently I'm putting together a spreadsheet/checklist and a schedule that works for our family. Here is what I've come up with so far:

DAILY

    Wash dishes
    Empty dishwasher
    vacuum downstairs
    vacuum upstairs
    beds made
    rooms picked up
    full house pick up
    wipe down sinks
    empty garbage
    empty recycle bin
    wipe kitchen counters
    put away toiletries (a.k.a. bathroom is picked up and sinks clear)
    laundry

WEEKLY

    MONDAY
    wipe down fridge
    wipe down microwave

    TUESDAY
    dust
    clean glass (tv, computer, etc...)

    WEDNESDAY
    vacuum under sofas/chairs
    vacuum stairs

    THURSDAY
    clean toilets
    mop bathroom floors
    scrub bathtubs
    scrub sinks

    FRIDAY
    vacuum kitchen floors
    mop tile floors
    scrub kitchen sink
    wipe down kitchen cabinets

    SATURDAY
    wash sheets
    clean rooms
    clean hamster cage
    clean liter box

MONTHLY

    WEEK 1
    wipe down walls
    wipe down switch plates

    WEEK 2
    vacuum corners/ceilings
    vacuum inside sofa cushions
    vacuum air vents
    dust fans

    WEEK 3
    launder bathroom rugs
    cycle clean washing machine
    cycle clean dishwasher

    WEEK 4
    vacuum under beds

QUARTERLY

    JAN/APR/JUL/OCT
    wash comforters
    vacuum mattresses
    scrub grout (not sure if this is quarterly annual or bi-annual thing...)

    FEB/MAY/AUG/NOV
    vacuum/dust above cabinets
    change air filters
    clean out fridge/freezer
    clean oven
    descale coffee maker

    MAR/JUN/SEPT/DEC
    wash sofa cushions
    vacuum window coverings
    wash windows

Bi-ANNUALLY

    clean out cabinets/drawers
    wash shower curtains
    change smoke detector batteries

Anyhow, when it all pans out and is finished, I'll post my spreadsheet/checklist to share and let you know what we have come up with. Also share with me what your cleaning schedule is and any tips that you may have! I could have EASILY forgotten something!

First Project of 2012

2012-01-13T14:12:00.002-06:00

The wood is purchased!

I finally went out last weekend to Lowes and spent my gift card from Christmas. When you have a hundred projects in your head that you want to do, it's so hard to narrow it down to just one thing you want.

Also because I'm so indecisive, I go back and forth on even the smallest decision.

So much so, I considered RETURNING the wood I bought last week.

Yes, I'm THAT crazy.

I finally settled on making the entryway storage bench/coat shelf from Ana White's plans. I've wanted this for like, um forever. Also because I get SO frustrated trying to get my gloves/hats and scarves out of the bin from under my stairs EVERY time the weather goes arctic. I NEED a better storage solution, and I can't wait until my hallway and stairs are picture perfect. I need this now for my own sanity.

Here is what we are going for:

img from anawhite.com

The problem is the wall where our coats currently hang is only a little over three feet and this is a four foot bench, so there will be some modifications! However, I will progress my steps along the way! I plan on painting it an espresso color, putting hats, gloves and scarves in the top three bins and the bottom bins will be for shoes and miscellaneous items.

Assembly starts this weekend.

I can't wait!

A Bet is a Bet

2012-01-12T08:52:00.000-06:00

A bet is a bet, and although I would have LOVED to get over a thousand hits on that blog post, I think this is even better.

For those of you who missed it, you can read that post here.

Thankfully my husband is such a sport. And a bit of a ham.

When he is NOT goofing off, he really does help me like crazy around this house.

And even though he is a total GOOF sometimes, I'm so thankful that he makes me laugh.

A LOT.

Even though he is a bit of a ham....he is the best husband and daddy this family could ever ask for.

Thank you babe for bringing me so much laughter, and for being such a good sport.

Fitness Goals 2012

2012-01-09T15:19:00.000-06:00

In the summer of 2011 I really hit it hard at the gym. I was doing boot camp two days a week, Zumba twice a week and C25K three times a week. I saw some massive results once I started in with my running.

Once I finished C25K though I never actually RAN a stinkin 5K. Then fall came and the kids went back to school, our schedule got crazy busy, and I went full force into a BUNCH of DIY projects followed by the Holidays. I still continued to work out, but I ate everything I wanted. Funny thing is while I was downing all the sweets in the world I wanted and NOT watching my eating, I lost like 5 pounds. No kidding. I know I know, hate me if you like.

Even though I may have LOST weight during the holidays, I felt gross. I was tired. I felt weak. I wasn't hitting the gym with my usual passion and my nutrition was going downhill fast. I was still hitting my Ease into 10K plan, but I'd hit it three times one week then skip a whole week, or only do it once. THEN I realized I'm getting these massive migraines on running days. I'm sure its from dehydration and improper nutrition.

So, here I am, feeling like a total mess. I feel weak. Something MUST change.

We've all seen this on Pinterest right? Exactly how I feel.

So this past week I've been eating MUCH better and I've come up with a new workout routine to hopefully help me get to my goals. My weight is almost to the place I want it, what I REALLY need now is some muscle. My husband wants me to do Crossfit, but as much as I'd LOVE to it just doesn't fit in with my schedule at this time (childcare issues and such). I know Crossfit and running alone could take me right to the level that I would want, but I have to find something that works with my life right now so I've come up with a plan.

I will continue with my E210K plan and run a 10K the beginning of march. I will be running Mon, Wed and Friday morning at the gym while the rest of my family sleeps. Six AM and 30 degrees does NOT agree with me. I HATE the cold. I know running on the treadmill is NOT the same as the street, so I plan to mix in some street running when the weather gets a bit better.

Tues, Thurs and Saturday I'm mixing back in P90X. I never felt more bad ass and strong than when I did that program. (You can read about my journey here). It will help me gain the muscle that I really need. I'm not doing Plyo, Kenpo or Yoga, I'm just doing the strength days and Ab Ripper X.

THEN if my schedule allows and I feel like it I may hit up Zumba on Tuesday and Thursday. Depends on how my day is going. I also may hit up boot camp every now and again on Monday & Wednesday. I like the girls in those classes, and it gives me time to unwind and the kids can play in the daycare.

It's a crazy workout schedule. My husband said that If I stick to it all this week, at the end of the week he would detail my van for me. He he.

Him doing dishes in an apron and detailing my van for me in one week would just be crazy awesome. He really needs to learn to stop betting me. I always win.

A Work In Progress

2012-01-07T11:23:00.001-06:00

Ok. Take a step back. Breathe.

Something is terribly wrong in this home, and I'm pretty sure that it's me.

The more I try to let things go, to let go of perfection, to care less about what people think the more it eats at me.

The more that God tries to work on this area of my life, the more it hurts. The harder it gets.

People will be coming into my home in the next few hours and I'm freaking out over the crayon on the walls, the dog hair on my sofa and the clutter in my home.

So I get up and I start cleaning. As I start to clean I notice a pair of my husbands shorts next to the bed on the floor. I pick those up. After I pick those up I realize laundry needs done. I start collecting a mess of dirty clothes that was strewn about my house.

I come downstairs to load the laundry and notice about a dozen pair of shoes in my basket by the door. I throw those on the stairs and start making a "go upstairs pile". I notice pieces of paper that my daughter has thrown all over the floor. I pick up all the little pieces of paper and I can feel myself getting more frustrated.

Every room I go into has a mess to clean up. Once I get a room clean, and move onto the next, by the time I go BACK into the first room, there is a NEW mess, a new blanket fort, something else to pick up.

I'm truly chasing a tornado. My effort is all in vain.

So what do I do rather than give up on perfection? I cry. I yell. I get angry. I give into my sin and disgusting behavior rather than pray, work on it and do what I need to do. I take my frustration out on those closest to me, my kids, my husband, my WONDERFUL family. Those who it will effect the most. Those who are watching me and learning what it is to be like Christ.

Then I hate myself. So I cry more, I feel shame. My sin disgusts me. It makes me physically ill. I feel pain in my body, I feel an ache in the pit of my stomach when I allow it to take control. It hurts.

Then it hits me. A song I haven't heard in about 25 years. A song I sung in Sunday School as a kid. A sweet little tune.

He's still working on me to make me what I ought to be.
It took Him just a week to make the moon and stars,
The sun and the earth and Jupiter and Mars.
How loving and patient He must be, He's still working on me.

There really ought to be a sign upon the heart,
Don't judge her yet, there's an unfinished part.
But I'll be perfect just according to His plan
Fashioned by the Master's loving hands.

In the mirror of His Word reflections that I see
Make me wonder why He never gave up on me.
He loves me as I am and helps me when I pray
Remember He's the Potter, I'm the clay.

I'm currently taking a parenting class at church. The other night they used an example of a blacksmith forming a horse shoe. Sometimes the blacksmith has to bang on it gently to get it the shape that it needs. Other times he has to apply heat, put it in the fire, to really shape it to where it needs to be.

Right now, I think that God is putting me under the fire. It burns. It hurts. But he is shaping me. He is making me the wife, the mother the woman I am supposed to be.

Rather than worrying about the way my home looks, I need to worry about my homes atmosphere. I want people to feel the love of Christ as they walk through my door. I want them to feel joy. The wonderful joy that comes from my amazing kids. I want them to roar with laughter like we do at times. I want them to experience the feeling of family.

I can't do it on my own. I need Christ every day to give me strength, and patience. I need him to make me less selfish. Because on my own I will only fail.

Most of all I need to realize that He's still working on me.

¹ There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.^[a] ² For the law of the Spirit of life has set you^[b] free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. ³ For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin,^[c] he condemned sin in the flesh, ⁴ in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. ⁵ For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. ⁶ For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. ⁷ For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God's law; indeed, it cannot. ⁸ Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
⁹ You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. ¹⁰ But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. ¹¹ If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.

-Romans 8:1-11

Home Goals

2012-01-04T14:23:00.003-06:00

So there is this amazing blog that I stumbled upon one day. I think I found it as a referral from another site, and honest to God I can't remember from where.

It's called the Nesting place, and as I read her story (the Nester) and as she opened up her heart to her readers I just fell in love with her. Her testimony was amazing and her advice was so poignant to my life at that moment I became an instant fan.

So next Wednesday January 11th she is having a home goals linky party. Where I will link up this post about my goals for my home this next year. I think it's an amazing idea because when you read her post she comes up with some really thought provoking questions.

Here is what she says:

What’s my favorite room in my house? Why?
How and where does my family hang out together? What’s working for that room? What’s annoying in that room?
Is there something in my home I want to do but I’m afraid? What if I take that risk? What’s the worst that can happen?
What’s the purpose of my home? Is that obvious by how we use it and what is filling it?
Do the objects in my home reflect our family or do I just have things because someone told me it looked good, gave it to me or bought it for me?
Am I neglecting my home and not putting money into something that is needed? Am I squandering money on something I don’t need or enjoy?
Stop apologizing for your home.
Say more kind things than negative things about your home.
Your home is for the people who live there first and foremost, honor them and also think about your guests. This means you can ignore what your well-intentioned neighbor, 80-year-old male painter, and kind-hearted father in law have to say about your paint colors and furniture placement. Make it work for your family for this season of life.

I can't even begin to tell how how relevant this is to me in my life right now. So I started pondering this and came up with MY goals for the following year. (now, keep in mind MY goals sometimes seem a bit lofty, but I'm REALLY trying to be more realistic about the budget and our capabilities to handle renovation at this time in our life.)

So here goes my goals and thoughts for this year, and answers to The Nester's questions:

WHAT IS MY FAVORITE ROOM IN THE HOUSE AND WHY?

I would have to say that my favorite room in the house right now is my den. Painting those cabinets white has been such a HUGE transformation in my home. It has made it feel cleaner, crisper and brighter. It's the room that has helped me find my style and figure out what I want my home to eventually look like. Though the room is not quite finished yet, I still love coming in here.

Before


After! So MUCH brighter.

Although I still have more to complete in this room I love it and it works right now for us. My goal (hopefully this year) is to get rid of the overstuffed furniture. Also waiting in my garage are two wing backs. My plan is to recover the two wing-back chairs in a charcoal/gray fabric and place them under the window with a table in between. I plan on getting curtains for the window, and on the north side of the room put a desk like this Ana White plan underneath the some shelves. SOMEDAY (not this year) I would like to close off some room with some pocket doors, that we can open/close whenever we wish.

Image from Pinterest/Conspicuousstyle.com

Wouldn't those pocket french doors just be TO DIE FOR? Even better would be barn doors, but I can't convince my husband to jump on that bandwagon yet, and since this is his home too, I guess I have to consider his opinion ;)

Hmmph. Whatever I think they are gorgeous.

Img from Pinterest

HOW AND WHERE DOES MY FAMILY HANG OUT TOGETHER? WHAT'S WORKING IN THAT ROOM? WHAT'S ANNOYING IN THAT ROOM?

Our family hangs out now in the front main living room (we used to have the TV in the den, but had to move it to get the computer out of our master bedroom). The ONLY place that we had to place the TV was on my mothers cedar chest in an odd corner. I'm not at all thrilled with the placement of the TV. I think that room was meant more for a sitting room, because there is really NO great place for a television set. Problem is it works better for us to have the tv in the front room.

I love our fireplace. During winter we love to chill out in there, watch movies and have a roaring fire going while we pop popcorn and drink hot cocoa. As you can see though, the TV is just a HUGE eyesore in that room. It REALLY needs to go above the fireplace, so our goal is to get the cedar chest OUT of that room, and add a mantel and trim work to the fireplace and mount the TV up there. I know MANY people are either FOR or AGAINST a TV mounted above a fireplace, especially one as large as ours, but it really needs to happen for my own sanity in that room. We also need some type of storage solution for our DVD player and cable box. My husband and I are still formulating a plan for that one.

Below is our vision:

Img from Pinterest/DIY Chatroom

ALSO...

After putting the TV in there we realized you can see EVERYTHING going on in that room from the street so I recently ran across black out curtains for $7 each at Target. A total steal, we LOVE the privacy they give us. Problem is they are a smoky blue/gray and just are not working with the color of the room, so I have to find some new wall color to match these curtains. Since my husband has never really been fond of the wall colors in this room I chose, it's a good opportunity for us to make that change over. So I'm hoping for this room to get a small renovation this year.

IS THERE SOMETHING IN MY HOME I WANT TO DO BUT I'M AFRAID? WHAT IF I TAKE THE RISK? WHATS THE WORST THAT COULD HAPPEN?

I'd have to say without a doubt it's my staircase. You can read about my vision here. I want to rip up the nasty gross dirty carpet and go for a clean fresh look. I want to paint the rails espresso and the treads espresso as well, with white balusters and white trim. There are some issues that I need to work out, but really the worst that could happen is that we live with some wood stairs for a while until we re-carpet the house. I think anything has GOT to be better than the carpet we currently have.

Also this year hoping to get my entryway storage bench/coat rack complete. If not this winter, maybe in the fall!

Here is my vision:

Img from Pinterest/Remodelaholic

Gorgeous, I mean, WOW, I just need to go for it.

WHAT'S THE PURPOSE OF MY HOME? IS THAT OBVIOUS BY HOW WE ARE USING IT AND WHAT IS FILLING IT?

This is a strange question. I guess I could answer this by saying our purpose is to be comfortable and relaxed in our own home. I want my home to be pretty but we actually have to be able to LIVE in it and keep it reasonably clean with four kids, two dogs and two cats! Also we do LOVE to entertain and have people over, and I think that we have updated our seating and dining area enough to accommodate guests comfortably. I would like to get the kids bath/guest bath complete this year (we had a water leak issue, the floor is sagging and come spring we need to repair the floor and start working on that room). I want to get that up to code for our guests to use. Oh, and I really need to get better about having more guest towels and washcloths. MAKE MY GUESTS FEEL WELCOME AND COMFORTABLE.

DO THE OBJECTS IN MY HOME REFLECT OUR FAMILY OR DO I JUST HAVE THINGS BECAUSE SOMEONE TOLD ME IT LOOKED GOOD, GAVE IT TO ME OR BOUGHT IT FOR ME?

Yes and no. I'm starting to replace artwork with things that are my own, rather than store bought items. Also some furniture was given to us or was passed down after my mother and grandmother passed away, but it's working for now, some my husband has made, some I bought myself before we were married (can you say purple overstuffed sofas?) , but some like our dining table we bought together. It's a work in progress. I'm learning to let go of things that were my mothers but don't reflect my style. For the longest time I would hold onto things of hers because they were hers, even though they didn't reflect my particular taste. I'm learning that my home is MINE, not hers. She would want me to enjoy my home and be happy with it, rather than just holding onto a piece for sentimental reasons.

AM I NEGLECTING MY HOME AND NOT PUTTING MONEY INTO SOMETHING THAT IS NEEDED? AM I SQUANDERING MONEY ON SOMETHING I DON'T NEED OR ENJOY?

Ok people, here is where I get real and honest. We have a BAD eating out habit that needs to be broken, and we are TRULY getting better about it. I wonder just HOW much could we have done to our home last year with that money? Instead, we just ATE it.

STOP APOLOGIZING FOR YOUR HOME

Stop griping about my tile when guests are here and apologizing for it. Stop apologizing for our bathroom upstairs, hey, it's not pretty but at least it works and it's clean.

My husband has a great saying "Those that matter don't mind, and those who mind don't matter."

REALLY good saying. Those who truly love us and care for us don't mind that our home is a work in progress.

SAY MORE KIND THINGS THAN NEGATIVE THINGS ABOUT YOUR HOME

Stop griping about my tile. (See above). Stop pointing out all my homes imperfections and show them what I'm proud of and all that I've accomplished in this home on a very small budget! I LOVE LOVE LOVE my home, and there are times that I forget how much I love it when I see the stains on my carpet, the scratches on the trim, and the fingerprints on the walls. Every once in a while I'll get a glimpse of my home through a strangers eyes, and what I see is absolutely beautiful. After all it's not the walls, furniture, paintings or carpet that make this house our home, it's the people living in it, and I honestly couldn't be happier. This is our home, and I love it.

Linking up to the Nesters Home Goals Linky Party!

The Ultimate Pinterest and Blogging web post ever crafted!

2012-01-02T15:50:00.000-06:00

Lately, all I've been talking about to my husband is my blog. Today was no exception. He is always trying to give me advice on how I should run my blog. I usually don't listen.

My husband has been moping around the house today pretty bored.

He said to me "I bet I can get you a thousand hits on your blog."

I laughed, rolled my eyes "whatever."

"I'm serious." he said, "I can get you a thousand hits." He then told me his plan. I laughed so hard I had tears rolling down my face. So I said go for it. So here it is my husbands guest post on my blog.

Jamin's Ultimate Pinterest and Blogging web post ever crafted!

Step 1 "Find some old piece of garbage!"

Step 2 " Paint it White! Oil rubbed bronze, or for super effect, BOTH!"

They paint everything white. Not sure why.

Step 3 "Gather Yarn, Pipe Cleaners, a toilet paper roll and cloth for flowers, colorful decoration, etc."

Step 4 - "Hot glue that sucker!!!"

Step 5 - " Add a 'Girlie Word' to it. Girls love that stuff."

Step 6 - "Show an unconventional use for a conventional item"


Wash your dishes with a hose! Using an old insecticide sprayer!

Step 7 - The Reveal "Before and After". Move that BUS! Move that BUS!

*** NOTE - My husband hereby retains all the rights and royalties to any such famousness that may erupt for such a mega-awesome super DIY project!****

*** P.S. If this blog post receives 1,000 or more views, Julie forthwith promises to give her husband a foot rub. Failure to received 1,000 page views within 7 days will result in said (awesome) husband doing the dishes whilst in an apron (awesomely, of course). Photographic results of either thine foot rub or the awesome dish-washing must be posted withing 24 hours on this here blog!

2011 In Review

2012-01-02T12:37:00.001-06:00

My first initial reaction was to say that I hope that 2012 is better than 2011. However when I really stop to look back 2011 was not bad at all, it was just full of busyness, which in turn makes things seem more stressful than what they really are. I think my biggest problem is that I need to chill. Relax. Stop and enjoy the small moments more, because when I truly look back and reflect on 2011 it was a pretty awesome year.

In January I started out really trying to organize my life and my heart. Traci from Beneath My Heart started posts about "Organizing My Heart and Home". It was something I could totally get on board with, so not only did I start working on my heart spiritually, but I started out by decrapifying (word stolen from TDC) my life. It started with my laundry closet project.

Next I moved on to my medicine cabinet:

Then my girls room:

After that I took a break on organization and went on a blogging hiatus. I was busy doing some pretty cool things! I went down to Austin, TX for spring break for SXSW, and got to spend some time with these lovely ladies:

I got REALLY sunburnt waiting in line for a band we never got to see, which was a bummer. But I couldn't think of two better ladies to stand in line with.

I came home, and celebrated SIX years with this wonderful guy:

I went back home to Phoenix for a trip in April. It was amazing. I got to spend REALLY wonderful quality time with my sister in law, and of course dinner with my besties. Miss these gals SO much. It was a great night, full of fun, laughter and of course Sangria.

We traveled to Missouri to see my brother in law graduate from basic training. So proud of that guy! My husband decided to go back into the military and joined the National Guard. Can't tell you how honored I am to be a soldiers wife, and how proud I am of the soldiers in our family!

We had all the cousins here at the same time! It was great spending time with those kiddos!

Sometime in July, just like Forrest Gump I started running. I really focused most of my summer on my fitness, working on me for a bit. I spent time running, in boot camp, in Zumba. My husband (who does Crossfit) convinced me to do a hero WOD with him, and in September we did 31 Heroes to help raise money for families the 31 Navy Seals that died in Afghanistan.

Our WONDERFUL team. Couldn't do it without them.

Then some other great stuff happened, my daughter started pre-k, my oldest made the cheer squad and my son graduated to Webelos. So proud of my kids!

Then the weather started cooling down and I got back into the spirit of all things DIY. I started fall out by renovating my downstairs half bath.

Then I tagged along with my husband to Orlando for an IT conference. Who knew how FUN some IT nerds could be? We seriously had a BLAST dancing the night away!

Once I start a project it usually begins a whirlwind of other projects, and this was no exception. Right after the bathroom I moved onto what is my favorite project of the year, painting my den bookcases white.

I'm so thrilled with this project I just linked it to Thrifty Decor Chicks Before and After Party. So if you have a before and after you are pretty proud of, go on over there, visit her and link on up!

Then, just when I thought I was done for the year, the week before Thanksgiving I decided to renovate my dining room. Crazy I know!

I started showing off my projects on Pinterest and other blogs and this little blog of mine started to take off a little. I got featured on Ana White's blog in December and also on Knock off Decor, and got some great Christmas gifts from my husband!

Right before Thanksgiving, during the middle of my dining room renovation, I got a terrible phone call. Dad had been taken to the hospital with chest pains. Come to find out he had a mild heart attack, and a REALLY massive blockage that caused it. We are all so fortunate that God had his hand on him and he made it through. He was better and able to visit for Christmas. I got to go see the OKC Thunder play with him on Christmas day. I hadn't been to a game with my dad since back in the 90's when the we had season tickets to the Phoenix Suns. I'm so glad I have this memory with my father, and SO thankful that he is here with me today. I praise God for his recovery. My dad is one amazing guy.

Looking back 2011 has been an amazing year, full of great things, some ups, some downs, but mainly ups. I don't know WHY on earth I get so cynical at times. Life truly is wonderful. I have a great family and my life is full of so much joy. So in 2012 I want to spend more time filling my heart full of joy and letting go of stress and strife.

Home Made Harry Potter Broom

2011-12-31T13:29:00.003-06:00

So my son has been wanting a Quiddich broom from Harry Potter to play around in, but I wasn't too into all the cheap looking plastic ones, and the more realistic ones came with a pretty hefty price tag. My husband and I decided that we could make one ourselves and so we got to it.

The first thing my husband did was go out and find a large branch that was about the right size and shape of a broom. Silly me forgot to take a photo of the branch, but that would have been nice, wouldn't it? (I'm still getting used to doing these DIY tutorials so please forgive me).

Sorry.

Anyhow my husband started stripping away with his knife to get all the bark off of the tree branch and get it to some sort of shape. Once he did that he sanded it like CRAZY and got it silk smooth and to the right shape.

We were not trying to go for a prop replica. Our son is only TEN and he will probably wear this thing out playing with it, we just wanted something similar for him to goof around with! I found GREAT tutorial online here at Instructables, but it was WAY after we had all ready been building ours. Anyhow, it's a great post so I recommend you check it out!

We stained it first with a dark walnut stain, then went over it with some Java gel stain.

I then went to Hobby Lobby and found some Prairie Grass for $9.99 (minus 40% off coupon) that I thought would work for the bristles of the broom.

I grabbed an old towel and curtain that I was no longer in need of to wrap it as padding and give it the shape underneath that it needed. You could also use foam or styrofoam. I just went for what I had on hand.

After I got the general shape of it my husband and I added the prairie grass to it and taped it. There MAY or MAY not have been a slight argument about how to get it to stay on there properly. I really need to stop questioning his judgment. The man is always right. (Please don't tell him I said that though.)

We taped it on there as a temporary hold then went and got pipe clamps to clamp the top and the bottom and screw it on tight. My husband then COATED the thing in spray adhesive to get it to stick, cut off the top and bottom of the bristles to make it even, then wrapped it in twine. If I had to do anything over again, it would be that I would have taken the time like the guy on Instructables did to painstakingly put on the bristles, but we were running out of time nearing Christmas eve, so we went for a quick fix. Also, this is a kids TOY and I'm certain one day we will be replacing the bristles on it. When we do that I may change some things up.

Next I went and added "Nimbus 2000" in gold paint on the handle.

Then last added a coat of polyurethane to the handle and it was complete! Someday we may go back and add the footrests, but for now, he is perfectly happy with it how it is, and the total project cost us less than $10.00 to complete for a pretty awesome gift!

I think he was pretty thrilled with his gift!

DIY Snowflake Napkin Rings

2011-12-28T09:09:00.004-06:00

I wanted some really cute silver snowflake napkin rings for my table setting Christmas day, so I started searching the web.

I found some that I absolutely LOVED. They were perfect, except for the $95 price tag that came along with them.


Img found at MyCorporateGifts.com

Anyhow, I wasn't willing to shell out that kind of money so I thought MAYBE there was a way that I could come up with something cute and similar for MUCH less cash.

And I did.

I started searching at Hobby Lobby and found in packs of six snowflake shaped wooden pieces. They were $0.99 a pack. I needed twelve so I purchased two packs.

There was a problem though. I got REALLY busy before Christmas and didn't finish them.

Fast forward to Christmas day. It's 12:15pm. Turkey is in the oven cooking, mashed potatoes boiling on the stove, rolls are rising and we are prepping to eat a 2pm dinner. Suddenly I decide to make my napkin ring holders.

I tell you only I could be this nuts.

So I went and grabbed those Hobby Lobby snowflakes I bought and ripped them open. Silly me forgot to get a photo BEFORE I ripped open the packet of my snowflakes.

Then I grabbed a BIG leftover wrapping paper roll. Anything would work though, toilet paper roll, paper towel roll.

I measured and made marks at 1 inch wide (enough to make twelve of them) and just went along and cut them.

Next I grabbed some of my Krylon brushed nickel spray paint that I had left over from my hinges in my bathroom renovation.

I spray painted the little bad boys and let them dry in the garage for about an hour. 1:45 pm and I'm in my kitchen hot gluing the snowflakes to the round rings while my company starts to arrive. It's all ok though, they are family and they understand my nuttiness and love me in spite of it.

I must say though, crazy as I am. They turned out really cute. Not bad for about two bucks! If I wouldn't of had the spray paint, it still would have only cost me about $5 to make them all. Not too shabby I say!

I'm pretty proud of how these bad boys turned out. I ended up getting this post featured on Knock off Decor, and you can see that post here! Also I'm submitting this to Beneath My Heart for the Best DIY projects December Linky Party, so check that out as well! Both of these blogs are among some of my favorites and I HIGHLY recommend them!

My Christmas Present

2011-12-27T13:17:00.004-06:00

Let me start out by saying that I have truly the most loving, kind, thoughtful husband on the planet. I really don't deserve such a wonderful man, and all the credit that he gives me. I also truly don't give him the credit that he deserves for all that he does and the man that he is.

Either that or he is a total evil genius that pawned his gift giving onto someone else ;) I kid...I kid. He really IS a total sweetheart. Also, I'm getting ahead of myself.

Back in September he told me that he had gotten me the best Christmas present ever, but he couldn't tell me what it was. He said (and I quote) "It's better than a car in the driveway."

REALLY? Because I know our budget, and I just can't see how anything like that is possible.

So, for FOUR yes FOUR months I've been trying to keep this out of my mind, otherwise it would pretty much drive me crazy.

He would give me hints along the way, telling me it's great because not of the money that it would/wouldn't cost, but that it shows he really knows me.

Then about a week ago he gave me one last hint he said "I don't know what your present is."

This really stumped me. What POSSIBLY could he get me, that he doesn't know what it is and shows that he knows me well. I guessed it was a blank canvas, or something to do with some kind of improvement project that I would have to complete and that is how he didn't know what it was.

I could have NEVER in a MILLION years guessed what it was.

Finally Christmas morning he told me that several months ago he wrote three of my favorite bloggers, told them how awesome I was, and how much I enjoyed their blogs, and asked if they would send me a letter, note or if my husband could purchase something crafted by them, because it would mean the world to me.

So he wrote Sarah, from Thrifty Decor Chick, Ashley from Make it and Love it and Ana White. They all sent me gifts and notes. This would almost be the equivalent of me contacting Mike Rowe from Dirty Jobs (whom I kid is my husbands man crush), Norm Abrams (New Yankee Workshop) and Mike Holmes and the Mythbusters and getting stuff from each of them for my husband.

I was VERY happy. I was REALLY shocked. I was a teeny bit embarrassed (I mean, I don't want them to think I'm some crazy weirdo stalker or something). Most of all I was in awe of how much my husband really knows me and the trouble him and these wonderful ladies went to for me.

I mean, these women, what they have done is inspire me. They have taught me that I can take something on a small budget and make it beautiful. Their homes and projects have truly inspired me. So because I go around the house saying "These are my heroes, if they can do it so can I" and talking about them all the time and their ideas that inspire me, and my husband listened (although I'm pretty sure he didn't he didn't have a choice. I talk a LOT). He did the sweetest most kindest gesture by showing he loves me and knows me, and these wonderful women opened their heart to me and showed they cared too. I feel overwhelmed and totally grateful that they would take time out of their BUSY schedules to send me something. Oh, and they didn't charge my husband a penny, not even for shipping. That's how awesome these ladies are.

(*disclaimer, this are about the WORST photos of me EVER and I can't believe I'm blogging them, but I really wanted my TRUE reaction about the gifts so here goes it...also sorry they are blurry, I blame the man for that one, and I swear these photos make me look like I've gained back the 15 pounds that I've recently lost. SIGH. Most unflattering photos EVER).

Sarah from TDC sent me my own hot pink tool belt embroidered on it "TDC Squeezy"(thats ME), and a sweet hand written card. The fact that she said in the card that my dining room looked amazing was a HUGE compliment (like I may of passed out for a second or two). I go around all the time telling my husband TDC is my hero. She totally is. She has the most kicking amazing blog ever, she is GREAT when it comes to decor on the cheap. She has a heart for Goodwill treasures that is almost as big as mine ;) Also she does it all while shoveling her way out of a pile of debt. It's SO good to have her as inspiration that I CAN make my home beautiful while staying on track with our budget and our plan. Someday just like her we will call up Dave and SCREAM "WERE DEBT FREE!!!!"

Ashley from Make it and Love it sent me Itsy Bitsy Spider that she featured on her blog recently, and an autographed photo (which she is probably still shaking her head over that one thinking we are a bit NUTS and possibly a stalker). I have an idea of where to hang Itsy Bitsy Spider (It will most likely go in my kiddos bathroom when we do the renovation this spring), but I'm still shaking my head on what to do with the autographed photo of her....I think my husband was going more for maybe a signed shirt or something. Too cute.

Ashley, if you read this, I SWEAR I'm not a crazy stalker/obsessed fan. We are honestly FAIRLY normal people. The photo DID make me smile. Thanks for all your inspiration. ;) Your blog was the first that got me really into the DIY blogging world. Thanks so much.

I have NO idea if that is why Ana White featured me on her blog this month as her featured builder, or if it was just a coincidence because I uploaded my kitchen plans to her site, either way, I can't believe with her being in the middle of building the momplex that she would stop and send me a gift card and a Christmas card. She is a total rock star and I think she is awesome. I mean first of all she lives in Alaska and she is out there in weather I would freeze my tush off in building things with power tools and looking all adorable while doing it. I plan on building another one of her plans with the gift she sent me. Now just to decide which one, kids bunk beds, entryway storage bench, my computer desk....my list goes on and on...

So thanks Jamin, my wonderful husband and evil genius, and a few of my heroes in the blogging world Sarah, Ana and Ashley. You guys truly all ROCK.

Santa Photos 2011

2011-12-22T08:46:00.005-06:00

Last night we took the four kids up to the mall to get their photos with Santa. We tried this last Sunday, but their whole system crashed and we got turned away, thankfully last night they got us in and we didn't have to wait too long.

And yes, that is my middle daughter wearing red Jesse boots from Toy Story. I've given up. I just let her wear what she wants, and capture these moments in time forever. Yes, her shirt had pizza on it and I didn't realize this until we were in line to see Santa. It's all good.

My oldest two know the whole jig with Santa. We told my boy this year who Santa really was and IS. He was let down, but he was ok with it. My oldest didn't want to be in the photo but I made her do it. We have always told them "we know all Santa's secrets." When we sat our boy down and told him that daddy was Santa, at first he thought like he was REALLY THE Santa. Like the Santa Clause Santa or something. We had to explain that NO, mom and dad are Santa and that's ok. We told him about St. Nicholas and how he loved Jesus and cared for the poor. We also told him that he will still get presents from Santa under the tree every year.

Anyhow. I digress.

For weeks now the two little girls have been asking for Doodle Bears. It's the only thing they want from "Santa". The only reason Goose wants one is because her big sister wants one too. Evie understands that she won't be getting presents until Christmas day from Santa, but Lucy doesn't quite get that concept.

It became even more obvious after her visit with Santa. The kids sat on his lap, chatted with him and smiled for the photo. Then they were all handed coloring books.

We went and stood in line and waited for our photo to print. Lucy had her brow furrowed and a pretty ticked off/confused look on her face. Looked at the coloring book in her hand and looked at us and said "Doodle Bear?"

Obviously she felt pretty upset with Santa. She was fully expecting her Doodle bear right then and there. I really wish I had snapped a photo or video to capture her expression. It was priceless.

Just so you know, we DO have the Doodle Bear. Its safe and sound hidden away in mommy and daddy's closet, ready to appear Christmas morning. I'm sure Goose will be pleased to see it then.

Featured

2011-12-21T11:13:00.003-06:00

So yesterday I'm at the kids Christmas party at school and I receive a text from my wonderful husband. He tells me that I'm on the front page of Ana White's website as her featured builder!

I knew that I'd been getting TONS of hits from her blog, but I figured that was because I FINALLY got around to putting a brag post on her blog about making our girls kitchen. I figured it's Christmas, a LOT of people are looking at her post about girls kitchens.

I had NO idea that I was her featured builder. I guess my sister in law Ashley, stumbled across her site and saw my photo on the front page!

That's me on Ana's homepage!

In DIY blogland Ana White is like a rock star. Seriously. I am TOTALLY thrilled and humbled to be her featured builder, and I'm SO excited about the traffic to my site!

Then my husband calls me and tells me that Ana commented on my photo of the girls kitchen. Squeal! Happy tears. OH MY GOSH. I may just pass out and die from the excitement of it all.

Anyhow for the last twenty four hours I've been walking around on cloud nine from my fifteen minutes of fame. My head is now officially so big, I'm not sure if it will fit through my door ;)

I kid I kid.

I'm so grateful for all the lovely comments on our girls kitchen. We really LOVED making it and are very proud of the project, and we LOVE LOVE LOVE Ana's site and all her plans, I really owe most of the credit to her and my husband. I just painted and sewed a little and sanded. A LOT. This is the first of MANY things that we plan to build of hers (I think next up is bunk beds).

Hoping all my new-found readers stick around, I promise I have good things to come!

Santa's Workshop: Year Two

2011-12-20T13:38:00.001-06:00

Well we have been at it again (or should I say my husband has). This time it's for our boy. We are SUPER stoked about how these gifts are turning out this year, I LOVE LOVE LOVE making home made gifts. It's SO much fun.

Can you guess what we are making Bubby for Christmas?

Here is a hint:

Any ideas yet?

Ok, ok just ONE more hint.

I can't wait. I'm just GIDDY about this gift.

Christmas Traditions

2011-12-17T09:02:00.007-06:00

In our house we have a LOT of Christmas traditions, some conventional, some unconventional and some are just plain fun.

I'm REALLY learning and trying as I get older to make Christmas more about Christs birth, spending time with our family and the spirit of giving more than about the gifts. It's difficult, but we are trying.

Our traditions though we remember year to year. Our traditions keep us more focused on spending time as a family and the fun of Christmas rather than the gifts, our traditions are important.

One of my favorite traditions/useful Holiday tips that I thought I'd pass along is an idea my husband gave me that his Aunt Kathryn used to do with her kids and I thought it was just such a brilliant idea.

She would get each of her kids a different wrapping paper and wrap all the gifts in them, and wouldn't tell her girls who's was who's until Christmas morning.


Can you guess who's is who's?

It's a lot of fun to watch my kids try and guess who's is who's (usually wrong because I'm sneaky like that). It also keeps them from digging under the tree shaking gifts trying to figure out what their gifts are. I love it and look forward to it every year.

No peeking until Christmas!

My mother in law's birthday is Dec 15, so we always go over to her house on or right near her birthday and get her a real tree (I do an artificial one here at home). She always makes a big crock pot full of apple cider and has Christmas music on while we all decorate her tree. I tend to get a bit nutty watching my kids cluster too many ornaments next to each other (my OCD kicks into overdrive), but she is so relaxed and chill she just let's the kids have fun with it. I need to learn to be more like her on things. She is one amazing lady.

Kids hanging the lights

the little ones with grandma

Another fun Christmas tradition that we have is my baking during the week before Christmas (usually Christmas Eve and the day before). I make white chocolate pretzels, rice crispy treats, fudge, sugar cookies, gingerbread men and sometimes other things, but those are my staples.

My kiddos in the kitchen making sugar cookies

The best part (other than eating them) is decorating them!

My gingerbread men

I think I almost enjoy Christmas eve more than Christmas day. There is just something magical about that night. We start out the evening by eating pizza. Yes, I said pizza. It's something that my family did when we were kids, and my husband and I carried the tradition on. We even carried on the tradition in blizzards.


My husband, nephew, and brother in law's going to get pizza in the blizzard of 2009

Yes, we were all trapped in my mother in law's house in the OKC blizzard of 2009 and the men in my family walked about a mile in the snow to Target to get frozen pizzas to carry out our tradition. You can read all about that Christmas here. It was one of the craziest and best Christmases ever!

After pizza we settle down and get the kids and read about Christ's birth out of Luke. While we are reading we let the kids take the nativity pieces and move them around to the story.

Each Christmas the kids look forward to this

After we read the Christmas story from the bible, we sing Happy Birthday to Jesus.


My MIL makes a cake each year

After they do that we let the kids open one present each. If we were at my MIL's house, we do this when we get home and my husband puts a big fire in the fireplace.


Waiting to open his one present

It's ALWAYS been PJ's

Every year I get the kids new Christmas jammies. My son still doesn't remember that each year he gets new pajamas. Every year he thinks it's a toy. I think this may be the first year he actually remembers.

After the kiddos go to bed my husband and I bring down all the "Santa" gifts. The Santa paper I try and find always has an image of Santa on it and is the traditional red color. I love waking up Christmas morning and seeing the kids faces. Every year my husband and I are so excited we usually have to wake the kids up!

We take our time opening presents, mixed in with Christmas music, and have pigs in a blanket for breakfast. For lunch I usually make a ham and we spend the rest of the day enjoying our time together as a family.

This year we have added Advent to our list of traditions we will be doing. I look forward each Sunday night to our family bible study together when we do Advent. (Advent is not biblical, it's just tradition to help remember and anticipate the coming of Christmas and to help us keep focused on Christ during this season).

Our first Advent wreath

When it comes down to it, it's not the presents we remember but the traditions and time spent with our kids and family that sticks in our memory year after year.

What are your favorite Christmas traditions? I'd LOVE to hear about them in my comments! No matter how your celebrate Christmas this year, I hope you and your family have a wonderful, awesome VERY Merry Christmas. God Bless.

Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

2011-12-09T14:36:00.003-06:00

This is a family recipe from my husbands Grandma that I've adapted to make my own. Since it's Christmas time I plan to be doing a LOT of cooking (mainly sweets) and I figured I'd post the recipes as I go.

Some people are calling them "little drops of heaven", but, WHATEVER - Monica Friends

I kid, I kid. But I did hear that they were "the best oatmeal cookies ever." So, um, there is that ;)

So, as I turn into crazy Christmas candy/cookie lady, I plan to pass along some of the deliciousness to you. Enjoy.

Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

1 cup brown sugar
1 cup sugar
1 cup shortening
2 eggs
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups flour
3 cups oatmeal
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup nuts, optional

Mix in order. Bake at 350 degrees for 10-12 minutes.

Forced Blog Redesign

2011-12-07T15:07:00.007-06:00

So this morning I woke up and to my horror I noticed that my background image was GONE on my blog. Completely gone.

(insert whines and cries here)

Recently Google has been making changes to google reader, Gmail and more, and I'm not certain if these changes effected my blog, but for a while it's been acting kinda funny. It was either that, or MORE LIKELY Cox members site problem where I was hosting all my images. Either way, it was time for a fix.

So, I've pretty much spent all day ~~neglecting my kids~~ working on this blog to get it back in shape.

It's still a work in progress, but I'm liking what I'm seeing. I decided to run a test post because my signature seemed to not be working either, (probably has nothing to do with the fact that the image is a "borrowed" image...ahem...) so (fingers crossed)...hoping it works.

My Napkin Rings

2011-12-05T08:48:00.003-06:00

Anyone that knows me knows we are not people that try to be overly fancy come party time. We try to maintain a nice relaxed atmosphere in our home, and we ALWAYS want our guests to feel comfortable. It's usually grab the Solo cup, put your name on it with a sharpee and then, get your paper plate and fill it with food.

I'm still pretty much that way, but when it comes to our home, except for Holidays. Come holiday time I like to pull out the nice plates, my mothers fancy cups, and set the table really cute. Sill doesn't mean that I know which fork is the proper salad fork, it just means I like things to look pretty.

This year I decided to add some nice napkins to our collection and do some cute napkin ring holders on my Thanksgiving table. I got a few comments that they were cute, so I thought I'd share how I made them.

I ran across these on Pinterest (of course) from BHG.com and wanted to make them.

Problem was that it was kinda late into the year to find the acorns and get them in condition in time.

Then I ran across these at Hobby Lobby.


$4.99 at 50% off due to Christmas decor sale that week

I figured they were small enough that they make work in lieu of the acorns.

I didn't have any rings, so I took old paper towel and toilet paper holders and cut them up like so:

Then I spray painted them with Krylon Caramel metallic spray paint.

I got all my fall leaves at Hobby Lobby the Monday before Thanksgiving. All the fall decor and foliage was 90% off. It pays to wait till the last minute sometimes.

I cut all the leaves off the vine, so they would be easier to spread and glue like I wanted.

Then I got out my hot glue gun and went to work, gluing down some leaves, some twigs, and some pine cones.

I think they turned out super cute!

For the first few I went ALL the way around with the pine cones, I decided to not do that later.

The best part, they were inexpensive. All together with my pine cones, leaves and pumpkins, spray paint, plus candles and dollar store vases, I spent less than $30 on all my decorations.


I just spread the rest of the leaves and pine cones on the table.

My spray painted pumpkins looked great against my new dining room walls!

Mom's Chocolate Chip Cookies

2011-12-01T15:27:00.008-06:00

Ever since I became a mom and started baking, I wanted to make sure that I had the most awesome cookie recipes around. Thanks to the Akin Family Cookbook, I mastered peanut butter cookies, and oatmeal raisin cookies, but I could NEVER seem to get chocolate chip cookies just right.

I was becoming a bit nutty, kinda like Monica on "Friends" (yes, I relate to Monica the most, I am SOOOOO Monica). Oh come on, you've all seen the episode where Monica wants to be the mom who makes the BEST chocolate chip cookies?

I tried everything, Paula Deen, Emeril, and yes even Nestle Toll House (insert Phoebe's French voice here "Neslee TOOL Haus")

I had given up. I would just succumb and buy the store bought cookie dough. I would not be the mom who made the worlds best chocolate chip cookies.

Then I found it. It was in a little green recipe card holder, on one of those 3 x 5 cards, in my mom's handwriting. I happened upon it by mistake. I had NO idea that it was in there. All these years it was right under my nose, and I didn't even know it.

I should have known it though, anyone that knew my mom, knew that she was a fantastic baker. It was HER thing during the holidays. Even though I miss her SO much that she has gone on to be with the Lord, I'm so glad that I have some of her heritage to pass down to my kids.

My mom and I baking during the Holiday season.

Now, I'm going to share that recipe with you. Why? Because it's Christmas, we are all baking, and I've decided to start sharing some of my favorites with you all. This is what I'm making today for a class party tomorrow.

Mom's Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe

1 cup shortening
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
2 cups flour
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 12oz package chocolate chips

Cream together the shortening, sugar, brown sugar, egg and vanilla. Add dry ingredients. Spoon onto greased cookie sheet. Bake at 375 10-12 minutes.

*Disclaimer, the batter will seem unusually greasy. It's the shortening, but the come out fine, I promise. Also mass consumption of delicious chocolate chip cookies MAY cause your waistline to expand. You have been warned ;)

I promise you, they are amazing. The secret all along is the shortening. It just makes them light and fluffy. Butter doesn't compare at all. In fact, my oldest daughter who LOVES to bake used up all my shortening in the house. I currently have all the ingredients measured out on my counter as I type this, but I refuse to substitute, so I'll be heading to the store in a bit to purchase some shortening!

Also greasing the cookie sheet is a MUST, any other time I made cookies and didn't grease the sheet, they stuck to the cookie sheet and were ruined.

I hope you try the recipe and I hope you enjoy it as much as my family does!

The Dining Room

2011-11-28T19:53:00.005-06:00

I've known for a while that I wanted to re-paint my dining room, but it was pretty low on the priority list, but I decided to move it up because of company coming in for Thanksgiving.

I've gone back and forth the past few weeks, do I do it or not. I wasn't sure I wanted to undertake ANOTHER project right before the Holidays, but every time I walked into the room and saw my girls "artwork" on the walls and the scuffed up oak trim I would just cringe. It just looked DIRTY.

Finally I talked with my husband, who was totally in for it and I went for it. (his side will say that I MAY have caught him over IM while he was in the middle of a server crash at work, and used that to my advantage).

It has taken me over a week. Scuffing up the oak trim (to give it tooth), oil primer (because of the oil poly on the current trim), then paint. When we first moved into this house I LOVED all the trim work and crown molding it had, I just didn't care for the color of the stain. It was this orangey oak. If it was darker it would have been fine, but I just didn't like the color. I prefer white trim. I love the contrast of white trim on a colored wall, it just looks bright and clean and crisp. Also with kids CONSTANTLY scuffing it up, I can just keep a can of trim paint on hand and touch up when needed.

After we moved in, I looked at my husband and said "I want to switch all the trim in the house to white."

He looked at me like I was nuts. He said kindly "That is a LOT of work."

I said "It won't be THAT bad."

Famous last words of a fool.

I have like THOUSANDS of feet of dark trim in this house. It's going to take me forever.

It's totally worth it in the long run though. I LOVE the white trim, even though my arms are STILL aching from working on that crown molding.

Anyhow, the dining room is done, and hopefully after the Holidays we will move to the living room, do the built in/mantel on the fireplace and get that room next!

Here are the before and afters! Enjoy!

This was our OLD dining table, about three years ago (its the best before shot I have).

Here is our new table, but we hadn't got the chairs yet. Still a pretty old photo.


Here is a more current photo of the room, after the furniture is moved out.

The before photos really do NOT show how bad the walls and trim really looked. The walls were drawn on by my kiddos, and I tried magic eraser, but that left spots on the wall, it was pretty bad. Here is the after with all my Thanksgiving decor!

This is at night, before I added my chairs back to the room. We decided to leave the blinds off the windows, it looks so much better that way!

Daytime photo

My thanksgiving decor on the table! Repainted the mirror white. I'm glad I finally found a spot for the white shelves I had!

My homemade napkin rings (made from toilet paper rolls) and placards


My 90% off decor from Hobby Lobby and dollar store candle holders! Waiting till the last minute pays off.

I'm really pleased with how it turned out. I was worried I wouldn't get it finished and I was painting up until Tuesday before Thanksgiving! I'm glad we decided to go ahead and do it, and I'm glad I went with the bold color! I love it, love it, love it!

*UPDATE*

I love it so much I'm submitting it to a few blogs to try and get featured, right now I have about UM, 5 readers that actually read my blog (I kid, I kid....) but seriously I'd love to get some traffic to my site.

I'm hoping to get featured in Beneath My Heart "best DIY Projects of November". I LOVE this gal. Every morning when I open up my Google reader I'm anxious to see what she has posted, and you guys have GOT to read her whole kitchen renovation story! It's great! I can SO relate!

Crazy Cat Trapper

2011-11-05T09:52:00.003-05:00

I am really beginning to think that this stuff can ONLY happen to us.

Seriously we have the weirdest pet stuff ever happen around this home.

Remember our dog Nikki and when she got dog napped?

Or how about my suicidal dog Charlie?

Oh, and don't forget about my crazy hamster breeding farm that I was running for a while.

So here is the latest epic story in our household about our crazy pets.

We have this cat Duke. He is seriously the coolest cat ever. We got him last May (on the day of the LOST series finale to be exact. He was ALMOST named Sawyer). Since he has grown up with the beagle and the kids, he is really friendly. He wrestles with the dog and he lets the kiddos tug and pull on him all the time and he never scratches them one bit.

Below is a video of Duke and Charlie playing together. This may be the ONLY pet video with Sarah McLachlan music playing in the background that is NOT advertising for abused animals.

I've always found that we have less cat allergies, and just happier cats all around if we let them go in and out. I know by doing this I take a chance at loosing them, but I've always put a collar on them and hoped for the best. All the neighbors know Duke and love him too because he is such a sweetheart.

Anyhow, Duke always runs out of the house at night and usually comes back in the mornings and sleeps all day here. He has repeated this routine for over a year now. He is NOT neutered, despite all the warnings from Bob Barker about the pet population. I know, I know, I'm a BAD pet parent and I should have had it done FOREVER ago, but at first I was considering getting a female and having kittens with them (something my sister Ginger got stuck in my head to do), and then life happened and I never got around to doing it.

Saturday night he runs out of the house, and that is the last I see of him for a while. Halloween came and went and I still hadn't seen him, but we had been busy. By Tuesday night none of us could place the last time we saw him, so I started to ~~completely and totally panic~~ worry a little.

By Wednesday morning I'm pretty certain he is gone because he would have certainly been home. My kids are now worried as well. I post a Craigslist ad for him, and then I register him on the OKC animal shelter website.

Thursday morning after tossing and turning worrying about him I make posters and go put them all around our neighborhood. At this point I just pray because I've done all that I can do to try and find him.

Thursday night I get a message on my cell phone from a guy that said he found a break away collar that looks like it belongs to a cat or small dog with Dukes name and my number on it. This is JUST what I was afraid of.

I immediately call him and he proceeds to tell me he was weed-eating his back yard and when he hit the chain link fence the collar just flung up into the air. I asked him where he was located so we could come and look for Duke in that area.

He says "we are just south of you."

Wait a second. The collar didn't have my address on it. I didn't tell this guy where I lived. How did he know he was south of me? Is what I should have been thinking, but in my mind I just dismissed it.

Then he asks "What does your cat look like?"

I proceed to tell him Dukes description (which my husband continually now makes fun of me for because I said "he is brown and black tabby/tiger striped and has a cute face". He can't get over the fact I said "he has a cute face.")

He says "well, I think I may have your cat."

I'm almost in tears so happy now. He then proceeds to tell me that they trap feral cats and that on Sunday they saw him in their garden and then Sunday night he was eating out of their back patio food that they leave out for the cats in the neighborhood. He then tells me that on Monday he trapped Duke (since he was without a collar), and then Tuesday took him down to the humane society and had him neutered and gave him all his shots. He goes on and on about feline leukemia and all the other diseases in this area and how we were lucky that Duke didn't have any diseases. Then after finding the collar today he gave me a call because it could possibly be our cat).

I can see Jamin getting upset that this guy is giving me a lecture on the phone. He seemed nice to me and I really wasn't thinking because I was so excited to find Duke. He told me to come over and check it out to see if it was him.

I got off the phone and Jamin said "he is lying to you." I said "huh?" Jamin said "he didn't JUST find his collar. I guarantee you something is fishy here."

I started thinking about the conversation and all the odd pieces that just didn't add up. How did he know where I lived? Then it dawned on me. He saw my signs. That is the ONLY way that he would know.

We arrive at their house and they are very nice people. His wife is super sweet, he is a bit odd but seems nice. They take us to the room and open the door. There is my sweet Duke lying on their bed. I started to cry.

The guy starts talking again and tells us that Duke has been eating out of their yard since last Wednesday. Wait, I thought you said Sunday? On Saturday the last time I saw Duke he had on his collar. So if he has been seeing Duke for a while, he MUST have saw his collar. He also says "you are lucky that he wasn't diseased after being out for a year and a half." I explained that even though he wasn't neutered he did have all his immunizations.

Wait. I never told him how old Duke was. That was on MY SIGN. This guy WAS lying to me.

Oh well, they were sweet. They gave me my cat back. I'm sure he realized that we cared about him after he saw all the signs. We offered to pay for the shots and him being neutered, but they declined. Said they were just happy that they found his home.

Thankfully I wanted Duke neutered. Thankfully he wasn't a show cat that I was planning to breed or anything....

Oh well. He MAY have been lying to me. Maybe he wanted my cat, all in all Duke is home and we are happy and thankful he is here.

Unfortunately Duke will now be an indoor cat, because I can't risk him heading back over to crazy cat trappers home for some more free food. He is not too happy about this. He keeps giving me the stink eye every time I pass him standing at the door.

Oh, also I think I figured out where my old cat Scout may have disappeared to...

Decisions...Decisions

2011-10-19T09:55:00.003-05:00

Yet another blog post that mentions my hero Thrifty Decor Chick. Seriously, this gal is my hero. Ever since I saw her post on her staircase I was all like "hey, I could TOTALLY do that".

Here is my vision:

From Thrifty Decor Chick's blog, her staircase

Here is my reality:


My carpet is just gross

Anyhow, the railing is worn from 20 years of wear and tear (and one suicidal dog but that is another story) and it is in need of some desperate TLC. The problem is the wooden boards underneath my banisters are HIGHER than the wood underneath the carpet. Therefore I would not have that nice brown stained uniform look all the way across. There would be this "drop off". Therefore I axed the idea of actually having the wooden stairs of my dreams and decided I'd just do the railing and leave the stairs carpeted. Also because of having little ones, the carpeted stairs were a better plan.

See, the carpet is "level" with the wood on the side (those are my dogs marks there you see)

But if you know me, that's just not good enough. Once I have a vision in my head, I need to find a way to complete it. So I started doing some research. I ran across one blog where the girls stairs were the biggest mess underneath. Her trim on the side was not level with her treads either and she made it work. I thought that maybe I could just keep ALL the trim-work white, and add molding to the inside next to the stairs, then do the treads only dark (either painted or stained depending on what type of wood I'm working with.)

See white trim higher than black stairs (mine would be brown)

The carpet NEEDS to go, but that just isn't in the budget right now. I COULD do the rails and give the carpets a GOOD cleaning, but to do the stairs properly the carpet REALLY needs to be removed to make sure all the trim-work gets covered properly in the paint/stain.

My crazy thought is lets just rip up the carpet and I'll do it and make it look decent. If we hate it, well we re-carpet it later down the road.

My poor husband. I don't know HOW he puts up with me.

So, I started pulling back the carpet to see what I was dealing with.

My wooden stairs do not nearly look like the mess she had. In fact, they looked pretty decent to me.

This is not my BEST visual. Please don't mind my UGLY tile. I can't do anything about that now.

My husband is like 190% sure that we have builders pine underneath there (and I'm pretty sure he is right because he usually right like 99.9 percent of the time - he is a REALLY smart man), which pine doesn't stain the greatest. It's not the best wood to be working with. Still, crazy stubborn me thinks I can somehow pull a rabbit out of my hat and make it work.

I want to get this done, but I want to do it right. But I want to get this done, like NOW. The war rages inside of me, and in the meantime I can't think of anything else but THIS PROJECT. Can you say OCD? It's maddening I tell you, just maddening!

Painting My Cabinets

2011-10-11T09:37:00.002-05:00

I never really intended for this to turn into a decorating blog, this is just what I've been up to lately. Creating makes me happy. I've felt SO alive and fulfilled these past few weeks doing these projects I can't even explain it.

Anyhow, I had planned for a LONG time to paint my built in cabinets around my fireplace in my den white, but every time I thought about doing it I just lost motivation. After I finished the bathroom I decided since I had just conquered those cabinets that I would tackle the ones in the den. After all, I'm not staining them.

Easy peasy.

Um. Did I mention my husband and oldest kids were out of town that weekend I decided to do it?

Did I mention that I had my four year old and two year old alone in the house with me?

Yeah, I wasn't thinking clearly. Obviously I'm pretty delusional about the amount of work that this was going to take.

Here is where I started. The bookcases were a mess. Not only were they ugly, they were COVERED in polyurethane and they were cluttered.

My messy bookcases filled with UGLY paperbacks.

My mantel

The whole room. The fan has GOT to go, but that's another project for another day.

My vision for the room is to get rid of the overstuffed furniture, put a desk on the right wall, remove the DVD cases, add two wing-back chairs (currently in need of reupholstering- but I'm too freaked to start that project) under the windows. But alas, this was JUST getting the built ins done.

So I moved all the books, games and everything out of the cabinets. I moved the sofa, and covered it a bit because I knew some dust would kick up. My plan was to give enough "tooth" to scuff up the poly and let the primer do the rest. I should have just sanded by hand everything, but I decided to grab the power sander.

I was delusional on just HOW MUCH dust this was going to kick up. I quickly grew weary of sanding. I was NOT as diligent as I should have been about the sanding process. Yes, this would haunt me later.


You can almost still see the dust in the air.

See that shiny poly on the back cabinet. Yeah, I didn't. Tsk. Tsk. Bad Julie.

My goal was to prime that night, but after all the sanding I was pretty worn out and decided to wait till the morning to prime it. I started reading some forums about what was the best primer, and come to find out with stain and poly since it is oil based you need to use an oil based primer.

I went to the garage to check my primer. Latex. Drats.

I loaded up my two little ones and went to Home Depot. My 4 year old was running a slight fever, so I parked near the carts, and put both girls in the cart, and ran in. It was my fastest trip in and out of Home Depot ever! I got my primer and came home and started priming.

I've never used oil based paints or primers before, and oh GAWD it's the worst smelling stuff ever. I mean it's bad people. I figured I'd do a quick coat of primer and be done. It took me THREE HOURS to prime these things because of all the nooks and crannies that I didn't sand. The primer just was wiping off the corners of the cabinets and wouldn't stick. Finally I had this foam brush and I was dabbing it into the corners and that seemed to work at last.

My mantel, primed.

My cabinet primed. See those corners. Arrgh. They were the death of me I tell you.

And no, I did NOT paint the inside of the cabinets. I had originally planned to but gave up on that pretty quickly. I was regretting this project, my 4 year old wasn't feeling well, but I was too far into this to not finish.

Anyhoo, the next day I woke up after a horrible night with my four year old and decided I needed to take her to urgent care. Turned out she had strep again. I got her her medicine, brought her home and got the girls down for a nap and I started my painting. The first coat took forever, but the second and third went much faster.

I let the paint cure for a few days before I started putting things back on the shelf, in the meantime I did the doors of the cabinets outside during the girls nap time and the rest of the project was really relaxed and I had a lot of fun. I'd take a few hours a day and put things back on the shelf slowly, getting them all to look good. My biggest problem was the paperbacks. I found a few small baskets that held SOME but I had a TON left. I had no place to put them and I didn't want them back on the shelf. I was at Michaels the other day and ran across this gem for only $6:


Its a decorative box! Held a TON of paperbacks and looks pretty on the shelf!

I still had a TON of paperbacks left even after purging a lot of them, so I got this at Ross for $12

It held ALL the rest of the paperbacks and it was pretty! YAY!

So, painting cabinets was NOT easy. Staining cabinets is NOT easy. These projects are NOT for the faint of heart, but I'm pleased as can be with how it turned out. Here is the FULL reveal:


I can't BELIEVE how much brighter the room is. I LOVE LOVE LOVE it.

No more cluttered books. I streamlined.

Seriously a MILLION times better.

My mantel with my bird painting.

Put a Bird On It

2011-10-10T15:18:00.002-05:00

I've had this idea in my head for a while to create some art that looked like THIS. It was another idea from Pinterest. The caption said "Elmers glue then paint over it." Genius I thought, pure genius.

So, I grabbed my canvas (which I had painted a long time ago and never finished), came up with a sketch of what I wanted, that included a sweet little bird. As I was drawing it I kept chuckling about the "Put a Bird on It," from the show Portlandia.

Anyhow, of course I ran into some issues. In doing this project I didn't actually look into the blog of the lady that did it. I took my HUGE canvas and just went all glue crazy on it. I could tell immediately that it didn't look as "puffy" as the photo from Pinterest, so I started to wonder what was going on.

So, I went onto the computer and went into the actual blog of the gal that created it. Come to find out it was NOT Elmers glue. She used puffy paint in a very SPECIFIC way to make this piece of art.

So, I had a couple options, go with what I had or try something new. I decided to go with it, paint on top of it and see where I was. If I still wanted more texture I could add the puffy paint afterward. After I added the white it was just TOO much white, it would have been fine for a small canvas, but this was just TOO much. Even with more texture it was going to overwhelm the bathroom where I had it and it needed something else to it. SO, I started painting some grey on it to see where I ended up.

It's getting somewhere now...

This is the finished painting, no place for it yet though....

I ended up liking the way the different shades of grey looked on the white canvas and left it as is. For fun I hung it over the fireplace in my den while I was painting the cabinets (to keep it out of reach of small hands) where my Monet painting used to be and it actually looked REALLY great there, so I just decided that it would stay!

My mantel (now painted white with new decor)

Anyhow it was a DIY turned disaster that actually ended up being something different than I imagined, but it totally worked itself out, and I think its fun, even though I did get a little cheesy and "put a bird on it". I've gone back and forth about adding color to the flowers, but I like it simple as is, the splash of color with the scrapbook paper on canvas is all I really want for now, so I think for now I'm just going to keep it that way.

Bathroom Reveal

2011-10-09T21:30:00.003-05:00

So, I just glued together my DIY mason jar soap dispenser, and decided to call the bathroom "done" enough to post photos.

We still need to nail down the baseboards and I have some other art I'm working on for the wall, but I was ready to wrap up this portion of my blog on my bathroom.

I had a LOT of fun with this project, and some frustration as well, but I'm extremely pleased with how it turned out.

So (drumroll) here it is:

Before: Yellow walls, dingy cabinets, creme switches, brown trim.


After! I am SO pleased with my dark cabinets, neutral walls and white trim!


Painting behind the toilet was NOT fun.

I went back to home depot and had them darken the color. The first time I brought it home it was too "purple". It's still a slight bit too pinky for my taste, but since my accent towels are purple, it actually works pretty well. I also painted all the trim white in the room and I will eventually switch it out for a paneled white door when I get the funds. Baseboards are all white now and I'm LOVING the contrast of the colors. The dark trim was just SO not me.

I used my old flowers but made a new trough to put them in on the back of the toilet. An idea I got here from my hero Thrifty Decor Chick.

I love how it turned out and it was super easy to make. Just used scrap wood I had in the garage, wood glue and some nails and stain and voila.


Isn't it pretty? I LOVE LOVE LOVE it.

I'm so into this rustic meets modern look. Farmhouse meets modern decor. LOVE it. Another Pinterest find was the mason jar soap dispenser. I decided to make one too, and I love how it looks in there. I just followed the easy instructions. The hardest part was getting the pump to stick on. Hot glue did NOT work, and I had no plumbers adhesive, so I used good old superglue and it worked just fine.


My mason jar soap dispenser.


The vase I had in the attic for like...um, forever and I forgot about it. Added some branches and voila!

I had a lot of fun on this project, but I'm glad it's over! Seriously though the photos do not do justice to HOW MUCH better it looks, really. Now I'm working on my den cabinets. They are painted and I'm working on adding the decor to the shelves, that blog is coming soon!

Playing With Electricity

2011-09-30T14:03:00.003-05:00

Kids, don't try this at home ;)

Ok, seriously though, I've been doing this bathroom renovation and trying to do the majority of it myself. I realize my husband is a VERY handy man, but he is also really busy, so I didn't want to ask him to do everything on this project. I wanted to be able to say that I did most of it myself, not giving up at the first sign of frustration and caving and asking my husband to do it.

So, I did it. Sanded, stained, applied poly, primed, painted and now it was time to swap out my light switches, receptacles and light fixture. It was time to play with electricity. I wanted to switch out my old creme colored receptacles and switches for new white ones.

I've read Thrifty Decor Chicks post about installing a dimmer switch, and by golly, if she can do it so can I. I was bound and determined to get this thing done.

I started by going to the breaker box. Of course, NOTHING was labeled properly. I finally found the switch that turned off my light in the bathroom and decided to go for it. You would think that the light and receptacle would be on the same breaker right? Wrong. NEVER assume that. Luckily I had the good sense enough to plug something into the recep even after the light went out to make DOUBLE sure that there was no juice going to the outlet. There was. I freaked a little and my heart skipped a beat.

I could just see myself fried to smithereens on the floor when my 12 year old came home.

So, I left the recep alone and decided to just proceed with the light. This actually worked in my favor because I was able to plug a lamp in to give me light while working.

I unscrewed the light switch and pulled it out from the wall. Scared to death to touch it. Doesn't help that my husband was posting photos on my Facebook wall like this:

Yep. That's my man. Anyhow, you basically have two options with the wire. You can stick it in this TEENY hole in the back, or curl it around the sides. Mine were stuck into the back, and as much as I pulled, and pulled, I couldn't get the old wires out. Even after hitting the "release" button it still wouldn't work for me. Finally I just snipped the wires with wire clippers and then trimmed them back. I ended up putting the new one on and just curling it around the screws. With the light switch both wires were the same color so it didn't matter which one went on which side.

It took me WAY longer than expected. I sweat. A lot. Yes, I was freaked out. No, it wasn't as easy as I thought it would be.

I was done for the day on that one. The next day I decided to take a stab at the receptacle. Took me a while but I finally found the breaker for that one as well. Flipped the breaker off and just went at it. This one took me about twenty minutes because, after all I'm a professional now at this stuff.


Here is the "Before" shot


After I got the recep off here is what you are left with, ground wire (copper), white wire and black wire

This one is a bit trickier just because you have to make sure the white and black go to their specified side, but still, it wasn't difficult.


Again, I twisted my wire instead of going through the holes. Much easier in my opinion

Oh also, FYI the wire trimmers have this nifty little hole on it that makes twisting the wire a snap. Wish I would have figured that out yesterday. Oh well, live and learn (and watch YouTube).

All done! SO much prettier!

Since I got that recep done in such a snap I decided to tackle the light fixture. After all, Julie is now a master electrician right? This light fixture should obviously be a snap. It wasn't. It took over an hour of grunting, cussing, sweating and crying to get the thing on. My first problem came when I couldn't figure out how to get the mounting bracket into the junction box, once I figured that out, the wires would not go into the wire nut properly and kept falling out. Oh, and NOWHERE in the directions does it tell you that you need at least four hands to get this done properly. There were times I was using my toes to pick up a screwdriver off the sink while my hands held the light in place and I'm standing precariously on a step-stool on one foot.

But I did it people. It looks SO MUCH BETTER.

Before. I should have donated it, but I think I did someone a favor by tossing the ugly thing.

After. My pretty new light fixture. (yes, it's an awful photo)

There are several things I learned this week. First off a whole new vocabulary with words like mounting bracket, junction box, breaker, wire nut, wire release, ground, and so many more. Second, guy jobs suck. Seriously. They are not really that fun. I'm ready to go back to picking out decorative towels and arranging flowers, because this crap is just grunt work.

However this project has been my Everest, my lobster from Julie and Julia, my obstacle that I had to get over to continue, and I'm pretty darn proud of myself for completing it!

Now its time to go hang some photos....

The Half Bath Redo

2011-09-16T09:30:00.003-05:00

A while ago I got the brilliant idea to stain my half bath vanity cabinets a darker color, and to paint my den cabinets white. Then I could decide which I liked better for my kitchen, dark or white.

My half bath was actually one of the best looking rooms in the house, the cabinets had the least wear and tear and the paint job was much fresher than any of the other rooms. Seriously there are probably about a thousand projects that should of taken higher priority than this. However since it was the cheapest project and a test on how I will handle the rest of the house, it was actually the perfect place to begin.

I've had this idea in my head for a while and finally I came home last week and my wonderful husband had taken everything out of the bathroom and started sanding the cabinets for me. We taped a tarp over the door and brought in his shop vac and reversed the air flow to eliminate a lot of the dust from getting in my house. It worked pretty well. The dust stayed mostly on us and in the bathroom!

Once we got down to nearly raw wood (we weren't extremely particular because we are going darker), we cleaned up and vacuumed all the dust off the cabinets.

Oh, and I'm SOOO putting shelving paper on those shelves. They are disgusting, I know.

The next day we began staining.

If you know me well, you know I have trouble making a decision. I sat in Home Depot Sunday morning with a can of Ebony and a can of Jacobean stain for about 45 minutes while surfing the net on my iPhone at what these colors actually looked like completed. I finally went with the Jacobean and came home, because the people at Home Depot were starting to think I was weird.

So we stained.

We stained more. And more....finally four coats in they just were NOT getting any darker. I wasn't happy. It was not my vision, but I sighed and figured I'd just live with it. They did look a TON better than the old color, but still not my vision.

My wonderful mother in law (who knows a LOT about staining) told me not do do anything else until she came over with some of her stuff. I wasn't certain we could fix the cabinets, because they are pretty cheap pine plywood (seriously the edges of these cabinets are NUTS people...they just soak up the color like crazy).

Anyhow, she came over with a couple other options for color. She took one look at my cabinets and said "those aren't very dark." She confirmed EXACTLY what I was feeling. (It's so good to have her opinion, she is such a great lady). She had a gel stain (Java) that she got from Woodcraft and she said I should put that on top. I tried it on the back of the cabinet and I LOVED it. It just gave it that richness that the Jacobean was lacking. So, I started staining....AGAIN. Gave all the cabinets backs, fronts and built in's in the bathroom another coat of the gel stain and it turned out just about perfect.

I may need ONE more coat on the cabinet fronts. For some reason the base is taking the color better than the cabinet doors, and I don't want it to be mis-matched. The flash doesn't help, but it really does look gorgeous.

I'm SO over staining and ready to move on to painting my bathroom, putting down new baseboards and getting the decorations back in there. I almost have my paint color picked out. That was a funny story in itself. Proves how brilliantly crazy that I am.

Thrifty Decor Chick has the most gorgeous colored walls I've ever seen in her stairway, and that is the color I'm wanting to go with. She got the color at Porter Paints. So I found the place up in Edmond that sells the paint and went up there. The color is discontinued but they still had a swatch of it and said they could match it for $32 a gallon. Uh, yeah, I can't pay that it's WAAAAY out of my budget. Of course since it was discontinued they didn't have a swatch they could let me take. So I took the swatch around their store and found one similar to it that would work, grabbed that swatch and plan to try and color match it at Home Depot later this week.

I told you I'm nuts.

I think I've decided though that painting my kitchen will be a LOT easier than staining. I'm getting this vision for it. White cabinets with a black glaze in the cracks, dark granite or poured concrete counters...oil rubbed bronze pulls....dark espresso beams across the ceiling with some canned lighting. Farmhouse table with a bench in the dinette area, with dark hardwood floors. Are you seeing my vision?

Anyhow, stick with me, the full reveal will be coming soon!

Cake Update

2011-08-26T17:07:00.004-05:00

With the help of my wonderful oldest child we actually produced this:

I'm not ready for Food Network Challenge or anything, but it's definitely our best production yet. It's passable!

A couple things I learned:

1. When freezing a cake, do not put it on top of your recently frozen tubs of chicken broth. It will leave a ROUND imprint in the bottom of your cake, causing you to have to cut off the wrong end.

2. A butter knife is really NOT the proper tool for spreading icing. Invest in an icing spatula.

3. If you choose to eat the chocolate frosting while you are icing it you will run into a few problems. First, you may run out of icing for the cake, second you will get it all over your fingers and in turn get it on your cute little flowers.

4. The words "extra cake" yelled in a house will bring six kids running into the kitchen faster than you have ever seen in your life. You may want to try that if you ever have a fire in your home.

The WORST cake decorator ever

2011-08-26T13:28:00.002-05:00

I consider myself to be pretty crafty and artsy, but there are two things I think I may just need to give up on. The first is sewing. I just have no patience for it. It's kinda like trying to learn to ride a bike when your sixty, with a lot of hard work and patience you could probably do it, but why would you want to?

The second is cake decorating. I go through 4 kids birthdays a year in my house, and you think after several failed attempts that I would just give up, but no, a few months pass, and I forget just how positively awful my last cake looked. I think that I've learned from my past mistakes and that I can actually make a cake look somewhat presentable.

I can't.

I'm awful.

Don't believe me? Take a look at the following:

My first attempt. Just pitiful.

This one actually was not THAT bad. Still, not great.

Just sad....

I think Lucy could have done a better job at it. Just sayin...

Give me a little slack on this one, it was a flippin cookie cake.

This years was so bad I didn't even get a photo of it. This is the best shot I have of it.

So, you would think after YEARS of miserably failed attempts, that I would give up.

Nope. I went ahead and baked the cake. One layer is all ready falling apart on me. Somehow I'm going to have to take the frosting to "glue" it back together. My plan this year is to freeze it so it ices easier. My oldest daughter is supposed to be decorating it herself, but with her control freak of a mom, I can see myself quickly taking over the project.

I went to hobby lobby, picked out a sheet of stuff that you are able to "cut out". I have little flower cookie cutters. My goal is to have pink flowers on brown icing. We will see how it turns out...

I almost attempted fondant. It's laughable actually to think I could even pull that off...

Wish me luck. I need it.

Running

2011-07-14T21:01:00.002-05:00

So anyone who has access to my Twitter or Facebook knows that I've been working out. A LOT. With all the working out I've been doing, I haven't really had the time or motivation to sit down and actually write a blog post. My cousin Treasure kept ~~pestering~~ reminding me that I haven't wrote a post in months, but every time I tried to write one, nothing interesting came to mind.

Finally, I got inspired to write a post about my newest endeavor. Running.

I have always HATED running. Like LOATHED it. You see, as long as I've been alive I've had all this great upper body strength but absolutely NO endurance.

Who was the kid that took more than fifteen minutes to complete the mile in grade school?

Me.

Who was the kid who was ALWAYS picked LAST in P.E. class?

Me again.

Who BARELY squeaked by with a C in athletics?

You got it. Me.

So, when I first started working out officially the first time I got on a treadmill or elliptical machine, I really thought I'd die. My face is red, head pulsing, heart throbbing out of my chest. Yup, that's it's I'm having a heart attack for sure.

Slowly I was able to gain a little bit more endurance, but running? Seriously, never even considered it. Slowly though I began to see these women running, ponytail bobbing back and forth, feet pounding the ground in perfect rhythm, and I became envious. I wanted that feeling I wanted that freedom that they had, to just take off and RUN.

So, five weeks ago I started the Couch to 5K program. Basically what it does is gradually work you into running. Weeks one and two went really well, between weeks two and three I developed swelling in my peronial tendons. I determined this was from running in my Vibrams, which yes, are made for running, but you are supposed to ease into running in them. So I sidelined the VFF's and went back to regular athletic shoes. I figured it would be best to get used to running in general at first, then eventually switch slowly to the Vibrams at a later time.

So, now I'm in week five, and in the C25K program week five gets pretty insane. Today my routine was warmup walk 5 min, 8 min run 5 min walk 8 minute run then a 5 minute cool down.

So you ask, is Julie the perfect running goddess, ponytail flapping in the breeze, shoes striking the ground at a perfect rhythm? Is she ready for her Nike commercial now?

Not. At. All.

Let me give you a more realistic picture of what Julie running looks like. A hot freaking mess. Face so red it looks like it is going to pop. Sweat POURING off me. It's in my eyes, burning my contact lenses. I lick my lips and I taste the sweat in my mouth. Heaving, heavy breathing. (I'm certain that it annoys the CRAP out of the people next to me in the gym.) Feet not in a gentle rhythm, but more of a loud elephant like pounding.

Oh, and guess what? I still HATE running. So WHY? Why do I keep putting myself through this torture? Because when I start something I finish it, even if it kills me in the process, and this just might.

My next run in my C25K program is a 20 minute straight run. If you all don't hear back from me, it's possible I killed over in the gym. Wish me luck. I'm gonna need it.

Healthy Meal Ideas

2011-02-21T13:14:00.005-06:00

I am truly blessed with a husband who will eat pretty much anything. He is not a picky eater. Same thing with my kids, for the most part they will eat just about anything. There are a few items that they don't like, but that is to be expected with anyone.

We do however get extremely bored in our family eating the same thing week after week. I realized some time ago that I could easily get in a rut recycling the same meals over and over again. I would sometimes venture out and check out some stuff on Food Network, but some of that stuff can be a little bit more high brow than what I want to make for a weekly meal (with the exception of Rachel Ray...I do a lot of her meals since they are mostly quick and easy and Paula Deen is wonderful but I think every one of her recipes has a ginormous amount of butter in it...SIGH wonderful, wonderful, butter).

Another issue is that we have been trying to eat healthier/low cal/low fat meals. This threw me for a loop at first because I'd been cooking a certain way for YEARS, and to completely change my eating habits and the way I cooked wasn't going to be easy (insert whining here). After a couple years of TRYING to eat healthy I think I've finally gotten it down, especially over the past year.

So, within the past year SparkRecipies has become my go to place for a good, healthy meal. I've tried out a TON of stuff on there and some has worked, some has not. It's a gamble, but sometimes it turns out to be totally worth it.

I also stumbled across a blog called Our Best Bites. I have fallen in LOVE with these meals. Not all of them are low cal/low fat, but some are.

There are several of my friends out there who are trying to find healthy meals that actually taste good, or some friends that just need some new ideas, so I decided to share what has worked for me recently over the past several weeks.

Peanut and Sesame Noodles (SparkRecipies)
This was a HUGE gamble. It was kinda a wacky out there recipe. I added some steamed frozen broccoli to the recipe because it just needed something different. My kids totally loved this. It is a bit "heavy" tasting, but it's still only a little above 200 calories per serving. This turned out to be good enough to make again!

New England Clam Chowder (SparkRecipies)I was also concerned about a "low fat" version of clam chowder. Also when I purchased the clam juice in the store I thought it looked like the grossest thing I'd ever seen. (It was a running joke in our house that if you did something wrong, you'd have to drink the clam juice). I kept pushing this meal off until finally it was one of the last things in the cupboard. This was YUM. Only 153 calories per serving! Even the kids loved it!

Alfredo Pesto Chicken (SparkRecipies)
This was pretty good. 231 calories per serving BEFORE the whole wheat pasta. Not bad, and it was really easy. Nothing to write home about, but still not bad. It was easy and that's what made it so good I think.

Slow Cooker Beef and Mushrooms (Spark Recipies)
This was a HUGE hit at our house. HUGE. I added a bit of low fat sour creme at the end and served over whole wheat egg noodles to make it a healthy alternative to stroganoff. My whole family LOVED it. I don't care for mushrooms, but the chunks were big enough that I was able to pick them out.

Whole Wheat Pizza Dough (SparkRecipies)
I'd never made my own pizza dough before and this turned out really good, AND it's healthy to boot! I topped it with low fat cheese and veggies (zucchini) and grilled chicken. The kids loved it (even our friends kids who were over for the evening that I was babysitting). They looked at it and said "we don't like that kind of pizza." That was about ten minutes before they cleared their plates and kept coming back for more.

Chicken Mushroom Quesadillas (Food Network)
I stumbled upon this about a year ago and fell in love with it. I've made it a handful of times since then. The mushrooms are really hard to pick out, so if you don't like them, omit them. This is really good with some pico or guac on the side. Guac is high fat, but it's a good fat.

Baked Sweet Potato Fries (Our Best Bites)
I was extremely leery of these. I had tried them once before (a different recipe) and failed miserably at making them. My family HATED them the first time. I kept running into them though on different websites and everyone just raved at how yummy they were. I thought I'd give it a try one last time. I came across this recipe and realized that I just didn't cook mine long enough and that made them really soggy the first time. These turned out perfect. They were crispy on the outside and yummy on the inside. I didn't make their dip because I had honey mustard dip in the fridge and that was easier.

Smoky Honey Mustard Pork Chops (Our Best Bites)
My husband made these last night while I made the sweet potato fries. OMG they were delicious. I have always had trouble with pork chops. The ones that I usually liked were the high fat bad for you chops, and the other chops I would get (boneless) were the breakfast chops which had zero flavor. I can't believe this is the first time I bought sirloin pork chops. They were low fat, tender and full of flavor after cooking them on the grill. They were great!

I have a lot of neat meal ideas on the menu for this week (Southwest stuffed bell peppers, Greek style pita sandwiches, zucchini fries with corn flake nuggets, & Manicotti) Can't wait to try out all these new recipes!

Decrapification - The Girls Room/Closet

2011-02-19T15:08:00.002-06:00

Every spring and fall it's the same thing. As I look forward to the changing season there is also a fear and a dread that comes over me. It's this nagging thing that I push and push off until I MUST do it.

Organize the girls seasonal clothes and clean out their closet.

Dum, dum dum dum dum!

I've gotten pretty handy at organizing other areas of my home. The medicine cabinet wasn't bad, and neither was the laundry closet, but I go into my girls room, look in the closet, shake my head and just usually end up walking out totally defeated. There is just SO much stuff I never know where to begin. I usually end up just pulling out everything and end up cramming it back in the closet in a slightly more organized mess than I began with.

I can't live like this anymore. It's driving me insane.

So, before I began this time, I decided to wrap my mind around the project and break it down into simpler steps. I went and took a look in their room and closet. I looked at what items needed to be organized, and what inventory of organizational supplies I had on hand, then I was able to compile a list of what I'd need, and where everything would go.

I made a spreadsheet so when my husband and I budgeted we could look at it and see what fits in the budget this week so we stay on track with our finances, and then I have a reference to look back upon. I know it may be a bit overkill and nerdy, but it really helps me not to DREAD this project. Knowing that I have a space to put everything.

So, now I had a list complied of what I needed to organize the girls closet, where I would relocate certain items to better utilize the storage I had and a list of new items I needed to buy. I was really happy with how much relocating certain items would free up space and use the storage I have in a more efficient manner, so my buy list was pretty small.

Shoe Rack
Two 15 gal bins
One shoebox size bin
4 drawer organizers

A NICE to have would be some wood for Jamin to build a dress up bin, but we are going to try and do that out of scraps. Until then I will use the current bin that I have. It's not great, but it will work to save us on the budget. The drawer organizers and shoebox size bin I was able to find at the dollar store. The shoe rack and two 15 gallon bins I got at Target. Total I spent $27.00 on all the items I needed. I went out and got these FIRST before I even entered their room. That way I was ready to relocate items.

Here are my before photos of the room and the closet. It's a giant overwhelming mess.

Here is the room, it normally looks pretty bad, and that is expected because the girls play in it. I can't expect it to be immaculate all the time.

Drawers just stuffed with clothes. I guarantee you not one item of clothing in there is folded properly.

This is really just to show off our kitchen set again and to show you the CUTEST banners my husband's sister Ginger made my kids. I LOVE LOVE LOVE them.

My nemesis. The closet.

See all those bags and bags of clothing just stuffed on the top shelf? That is what I eventually need to get to. I have to get through the closet mess first though.

This bin is SUPPOSED to be for kitchen items, but it's always overflowing with miscellaneous junk too.

These bins are the worst waste of space ever. I realized I needed to better utilize the storage that I did have. I can never find shoes because they are just piled on top of the dresser in the closet.

I started just putting stuff in bins and rearranging. It was easy because I'd all ready planned out where everything would go. Well it was as easy as it can be with little ones running under your feet. Even with an entire room full of toys to play with, whatever mommy was doing in the closet was MUCH more interesting to get into.

I finished up day ONE with getting the room clean and the closet clean. Next was time to tackle the clothing. I started by yanking EVERYTHING out of their drawers and going through that first. I then move items that are no longer needed into file boxes in the attic marked as to what size and season they are for.

Here is a photo of my piles of clothes and bags to go through. This is not even CLOSE to all of them that I need to go through.

I then started pulling out clothes in their size and put them into a pile. Then I started separating the clothes that needed folded from dresses that would hang, and then winter from summer clothes. (because of Oklahoma's wacky weather I need to keep warmer clothes on hand in case they are needed). I put the summer shorts and shirts into the dresser in the bedroom, and winter and warmer clothes go into the "reserve" dresser in their closet. This makes fall sorting easier and I have stuff on hand for chillier spring days.

Sorting the clothes was definitely almost a full days work. It took me about six hours to do it all. I know that sounds like a crazy amount of time, but I am REALLY blessed with neighbors and family that gives me hand me downs. I don't have to buy one single item for my girls this summer except for some sandals for Lucy and a swimsuit for Evie. They almost have more clothes than they can wear!

I got a little nutty and started labeling bins, which may have been overkill, but I just like the way it looks. Also if the older kids help clean the room, they know where everything goes. So, after two days of hard work, here it is for me to show off!

Bins better used to hold play food, play bake-ware and play dishes! It also gives the girls some "counter" space.

Pajama and sock drawer. Everything folded neatly and socks in their little organizers from the dollar store!

The room is clean (for at least five minutes)

Books in a nice little basket.

Lego's and wooden blocks & Lucy's dresses.

Clean, organized, beautiful closet!

I can actually find the shoes now! (That is our door that leads to the upstairs attic)

My nerdy labels.

BEFORE

AFTER

All in all I'm totally proud of how it turned out. Room by room I'm getting this house organized a little at a time, and each time I do it I'm getting a little better at it!

Organizing my Heart and Home

2011-02-14T12:07:00.001-06:00

Normally I title these posts "decrapification" but this week this is a MUCH more fitting title.

I've been having some incidents with my kids lately, mostly my son and my 3 year old. I'm not going to go into detail about what they did, because I don't want to embarrass or mock my children in any way, sometimes I make fun of the things they do, but when it comes to more serious behavior issues, God has put it on my heart to chill out on telling the entire world on what they did.

But, I have no problem telling you what God is putting on my heart for ME to fix. I've become a total passive parent. I will let things go, and let them go, until my anger builds and I end up exploding, and using unkind words to my children. Then as I lay in bed at night this huge wave of guilt comes rushing over me about what I did wrong that day and how I could handle it better.

Yesterday I had a massive incident with my three year old. My husband came down and quietly pulled out a dusty book on our shelf. James Dobsons "The Strong Willed Child" to possibly look for answers to our problems with the kids. I started reading this and God started to reveal so much to me that I've been doing wrong. I have been this completely passive parent. The kids know that I don't mean buisness and it's all rehearsed play on how things will go between them an mom. Nobody ever gets truly disciplined, but both parties end up completely frustrated in the end.

Dobson talks about this in his chapter "The Most Common Mistake." Talking about how most parents fall into this pattern. He used the police officer and a speeding ticket as a good example of how authority should be. The officer does not need to rely on anger to influence our behavior. Nor should I rely on anger to influence my kids to behave.

So. Goal number one this week: Organize/Decrapify my heart, by instilling two messages to my kids:

I love you more than you can possibly understand. You are precious to me and I thank God every day He let me raise you.
Because I love you, I must teach you to obey me. That is the only way I can take care of you and protect you from the things that might hurt you. Children obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right (Ephesians 6:1)

Second. Start the D A U N T I N G task of organizing my girls room and closet. Normally this gives me a headache just thinking about it but I sat down and made of list of what I need before I start yanking stuff out of their closet, and pulling out spring clothes.

Here is my spreadsheet of action I need to take and my deadlines for it! This is my second project of the week. Wish me luck!

Decrapification - The Laundry Closet

2011-01-25T08:35:00.002-06:00

I don't have a large luxurious mud/laundry room in my house. It was one of those things I wasn't crazy about when we bought the home, but I was willing to live with. The problem with having a teeny closet to store your washer and dryer in is that there is not much space for storage, and with it being right in the kitchen a lot of stuff tends to just haphazardly get thrown in there.

So, I've been really wanting to organize my home, and it started in the fall with my medicine cabinet, but with the Holidays I got thrown off track. I've been reading Beneath My Heart, and her and her sister who blogs are doing a series "Organize your heart and home." She inspired me this week to go ahead and clean out that laundry closet.

I've been meaning to pull out the washer and dryer for a while now. We had a massive washing machine leak several months back that flooded our den. We ended up having to pull out all the carpet and get new carpet. I had this sinking feeling that there also may be water damage behind my washer and dryer, so it was time to pull it out and inspect it while I was cleaning back there. I searched the internet for inspiration on storage and ideas and ran across this from Fine Home Building:

SIGH. Someday my husband WILL build me this. But this year we are getting out of debt, and this year is not the time for large projects. It did however give me some ideas on how I wanted to store items.

So, I started with this mess that you see here (that is my little one eating breakfast. She is such a cutie pie):

Next, I yanked everything out of the closet and either tossed in the garbage it or put it in a pile to take where it belonged in the home.

I found about $2 worth of coins while cleaning back there. I also found 2 Euros.

I also found water damage in the drywall, nothing massive but it is going to have to be fixed in the spring. I was planning on putting a coat of paint in there today just to make it look cleaner, but since we will be fixing water damage soon, I decided not to waste my time on it. Another day for that.

So, I wiped the walls and shelf, wiped down the washer and dryer and then put it back in place.

I then made a list of what I needed to buy to help me organize. I didn't have a large budget for this, only about $20, but again, we plan to redo this entire area someday, and for now, I just need a cheap storage solution to get me through until that day comes. So with my list in hand and two little ones in tow, I headed out to Dollar Tree and Goodwill, hoping to find my storage solutions.

I found some old contact paper that I believe was bought at the dollar store several years back to cover my shelf. I say "contact" paper lightly. This stuff did NOT want to stick. (I'll just say this, the contact paper MAY be stapled to the underside of my shelf. I'm not proud of this but hey, it works).

I got some bins and hooks at the dollar store and some mesh bags to hold dirty dish towels (which normally just get piled on top of the dryer for about a week). My total so far was ($5).

I still needed a solution for my brooms and mops and something for the dog bowls. I went to Goodwill and found a nice basket ($1) to hold all my reusable shopping bags, but nothing for the dog bowls and brooms. I didn't want to just hang them on a hook because they would move all over the place when I opened and shut the door, so I needed something that would hold it by the rod to keep it sturdy.

I went shopping to four stores that evening and found nothing to hold the brooms. I did get a packet of racks to hang on the opposite door to hold cleaning products, paper sacks and other stuff. I paid $6 for them at Wal-Mart.

I got grounded by a snow day and it took me a few days to get back out. I ended up buying a rack at Bed Bath and Beyond to hold them all. The cost of this was $15.99. I had a 20% off coupon and it ended up coming to $13.00.

I was only TOTALLY bummed to find out this thing did NOT hold my Swiffer Sweeper very well. Turned out to NOT be what I was looking for at all. I needed something more industrial and heavy duty so I went to Lowes and found EXACTLY what I'd been looking for AND it was $4 cheaper! Guess I'll be trekking back to BBB to return the other one.

I scored some locker shelves at the thrift store for $1 each and they worked nicely in there as well, flipped one upside down and it held the dog bowls nicely.

So, here it is completely finished! Remember that HORRID before photo? Well, take a look at how GREAT it looks now!

Total cost of project $28.00 which was a LITTLE more than I wanted to spend, and it took me about a week to get around to all the stores to get exactly what I needed (at the right price). It was the broom holder that put me over (and took me the most time to find), but it was totally worth it! I LOVE having a nice, clean, organized laundry area!

Money Saving Tip #1 - cooking a whole chicken

2011-01-06T09:48:00.001-06:00

I'm not big on New Years resolutions, but my husband and I decided that this year we are going to really focus on trying to get completely out of debt. We are taking Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University at our church to help us get motivated. We KNOW the principles, but we really think that the class we help keep us accountable. Not just accountable to ourselves, but to a group as well. At the same time we hope to meet other couples that are going through the same thing we are.

So, I took most of November and December off of couponing, and just let it slack, but I'm back in full swing. I took all day Monday and clipped about six weeks worth of coupons and re-organized my big binder.

I thought along the way of me trying to save a penny here and there that I would share some of my successes. Here is my money saving tip #1.

I take a whole chicken (about $3-$4 at Aldi) and cook it. I usually get 3 meals out of it and the best chicken stock you will ever have.

So here goes.

I take the chicken after it's thawed, rinse it and put it in a large stock pot with onion, celery, carrots, salt, pepper and garlic. I don't bother peeling the onion or garlic because I drain that out at the end and it adds flavor. Cover it with water and boil it until the chicken is falling off the bone.

After it is done, I pull out the chicken and drain the broth into a big pot, using a strainer to remove all the vegetables, so I'm just left with the broth. I separate the broth into containers and place it in the fridge. It needs to cool so the fat can come to the top. Once the fat is floating on the top you just skim it off and can freeze it for use later to make some of the best chicken soup you will ever have.

While my broth is cooling I cut up my chicken and pull it from the bone. Make sure not to get any bones in your meat. It should be coming off the bone pretty easily.

I chop up my chicken and freeze it in labeled bags. I usually freeze about two cups of chicken at a time because I have a large family and usually double my recipes for chicken pot pie and chicken and dumplings etc...if you have a smaller family you could freeze it in one cup portions and your meals will stretch farther.

I was able to get three meals worth of chicken and some awesome broth for about $4. It costs some time and patience now, but in the long run it will save me time and money on dinners to be able to just thaw out the cooked chicken and throw it in a easy meal.

Santa's Workshop

2011-01-03T16:22:00.003-06:00

So I've been reading this blog by this awesome chick Ana White. She is a GIRL woodworker who lives in Alaska and makes this awesome furniture. I've fallen in love with about a thousand of her woodworking plans but one in particular stood out to me and that was the kitchen play set (click on link for plans to it on her blog).

We decided to undertake this project for our girls, and at the same time made two more for people my husband works with (figured if we were making one we could go ahead and make three and just do an assembly line).

This was a really fun project. It got a bit crazy doing the mass production, and I'm not certain I would undertake such a project at Christmas time again, but looking back I did enjoy the time in the garage with my husband.

We went to the hardware store and picked out the materials the weekend before thanksgiving. We came home and cut the pieces for the sink and stove in no time. It was when we started mass producing them that things began to slow down a bit. We spent about three weekends working on the project in December. Thankfully we had a small space heater in the garage and an insulated garage door. It was really fun woodworking next to my husband. I learned a LOT (when I wasn't acting like a miss know it all and would shut up and actually listen...something I'm NOT great at).

Anyhow, the people we made it for at my husbands work wanted pink for their kitchen. We finished those first and here is what they turned out like.

I decided that I didn't want the one for my girls all pink and since their room has daises in it, I wen with daises on the door rather than the swirly flowers. The colors pink, purple and white match their room perfectly.

Here it is Christmas morning waiting for them

We used wooden tires from HL for the knobs on the stove, and purchased the handles from Habitat for Humanity. They have the larger pulls at Ikea but unfortunately OKC does NOT have an Ikea yet....we used dog bowls for the sinks from Petco and we purchased the cheapest laundry faucet we could find at Home Depot for the sink faucet. They ran $17 each and was probably the priciest part of all the kitchen other than the wood. Others recommended Ebay for faucets, but I just couldn't find any that were not like $15 for shipping.

I sewed the sink skirt for my girls kitchen out of fabric scraps and my MIL sewed the other two (which turned out MUCH nicer than mine and unfortunately I didn't get a photo of those but they were SUPER cute). I also made pot holders to go with them and found small wooden spoons at the thrift store to give the girls. They also got TONS of food and kitchen misc items for Christmas to go with the kitchen. So far they have had a BLAST playing with it, and I'm really proud of how it turned out!

The finished project in their room!

My First Black Friday

2010-11-26T09:45:00.006-06:00

I never quite understood the whole Black Friday thing. My cousin Treasure goes every year, and EVERY year I wanted to go with her to see what it was all about, but I just could never convince myself to get up before the sunrise and head out into the cold to wait in line. After scouring the BF ads for the past couple years my husband decided to go it alone last year and I stayed with the kiddos. After his experience he determined you definitely need at least TWO people (you have to have a runner...which I should have learned from all my cousin's BF blog posts..sigh). Anyhow, we decided this year we would send the kids home with the MIL and him and I would go out. I have to say, I think I'm hooked.

This is going to be a LONG post so just bear with me.

This was NOT at all like I expected. I expected to see humanity at its worst, but in fact I encountered a TON of really nice people and I felt this sense of community while shopping. It was definitely crazy but it was a LOT of fun.

After scanning the ads after Thanksgiving I decided to come up with a game plan. I found that several of my items were similarly priced at both Wal-Mart and Target. There were some Wal-Mart specific items, and some Target specific items. Thankfully we were not purchasing any electronics at Wal-Mart so we could go at midnight to get the toys and other items on our list, and what we didn't get there we could make up for at Target at 4am when they opened.

We arrived at Wal-Mart around 11:15 and the place was PACKED. We got there and there was no cart anywhere. I grabbed myself a little basket and decided that I would use that and hand carry the rest. Wal-Mart had all their BF ad items shrink wrapped in the middle of the aisles. (I can see the need for this but it caused MASSIVE congestion). There were people huddled around them and tearing into them like crazy. All the items were marked "ITEM DOES NOT GO ON SALE TILL MIDNIGHT", but unless someone was specifically watching, people were tearing into them like wolves. I felt kinda bad disobeying the rules, but all is fair in war, so I snagged some of my items when I saw something I wanted. There was a girls bicycle on sale for $29, Jamin went to grab it but some lady began yelling at him that we were not allowed to pick it up until midnight. She was watching us closely, so he just decided to park there and wait for it. While he was doing that I decided to go try and hunt some other items on our list. I went to the back of the store to find the $4 pajama sets and they were heavily guarded in one area. You would think this was loaded guns or something the way Wal-Mart was guarding them. Ridiculous that people were lining up for PAJAMAS.

I went around the corner and saw another pallet of pajamas unguarded, and people were ravaging them. It was somewhere around this time I heard a Wal-Mart rep say that we could get into the items. I went ahead and found PJ's for both small girls and ran into a friend I hadn't seen in a while. It was good to see her. We both looked for PJ's together for a few moments. I kept looking for the older kids some PJ's because they are about $5 cheaper than normal, and overall that's a savings of $20 for all for kids, so it's a pretty good deal. I never found them for the older kids, so I gave up and went to find my husband. This was a little after midnight.

He was in the back of the store, in gardening in LINE. Oh. MY. GAWD. I get back there and he has a $200 Kitchen Aid mixer in his cart. I gave him a funny look because that item is NOT on our Christmas budget this year. He smiled and pointed to a smiling gray haired man behind him in line and explained that he was sharing his cart with this fellow. (We later found out his name was Bob.)

So there we were. Me, my husband and Bob. We stood there for about forty five minutes and the line was not moving at all. I finally decided to go see what was up. What I found was a complete and total traffic jam of carts all merging into one huge line. People were just squishing their way into the pile and there was really NO real line. I saw this and KNEW we'd never get out of there, so I started searching for a new line right away. I found one that was in the gift bag aisle and I could see the register from there. I quickly texted my husband to come find me. He couldn't find me but ended up one aisle over in the cards. I walked over and found him and Bob there.

Bob had found that line, went and found my husband because a nice lady saved his spot, and we all went into it. Bob was with us for the long haul. Our line quickly began to slow down. Some lady at the register was causing a stink. The manager light began to flash and the poor cashier looked like a deer in headlights. This went on for what felt like forever. They finally got a new cashier and the line began to move. We were one cart away from the register and the lady in front of us saw our bike and asked how much it was. We told her and she had that pained look on her face that she wanted one. I told her "they are just right over there" (I could see them from where I stood). I said "hurry, go get one". She ran over there and grabbed the exact same bike as me. We checked out, shook hands with Bob and said our tearful goodbyes...

Finally at 1:45am we were DONE with Wal-Mart. We were both fading, and starving so I gave in and let my husband go to the Waffle House to eat. (I usually don't like these places because they are dirty and scare me, but their bathroom HAD to be better than Wal-Marts bathroom and it WAS. That's saying A LOT).

We got out of Waffle House about 2:30 and went to Toys R Us because we had time to kill. We didn't buy anything there, just walked around. We grabbed some coffee, and hunkered down in our warm truck in the back of Target parking lot and waited. The line was wrapped around the store. People had TENTS. I wasn't about to get into that craziness for the few items I wanted. We waited until the store opened and the line moved and we went up there. At 3:55 "Eye of the Tiger" came on the radio...fate? It possibly was. It was like we had our own personal little soundtrack. We were pumped, we were ready. 4:00am the doors opened and we filed out of our car towards the store. Ran into the same friend that I saw in Wal-Mart on the way! We got into Target a little after 4am. My husband headed for the toys for one item, while I went to electronics for two other items. We found all three items on our list and were checked out by 4:20. Target was a dream compared to Wal-Mart. We had successfully gotten everything on our list for the day and decided to head home.

We had gotten everything that we came for! Total score. We are the kings of BF shopping.

So here is what I learned: Mob mentality CAN and WILL get the best of you. Don't give into it. Stay calm and you will most likely end up getting what you were after. You have to go in there though with the notion that you MAY not get what you are after and that is OK. You have to be QUICK and savvy, but you don't have to be rude. People out there are also pretty nice and willing to help you, there is just a sense of camaraderie when you are out at that hour with people all on the same mission. This whole experience was SUCH a trip. I can't wait to do it again next year.

The House is DONE!

2010-11-23T14:16:00.002-06:00

After seven LONG months our outside renovation is finally complete. WE are still in the paperwork process of getting it finished but as far as the work is concerned we are DONE! I'm so happy with how it turned out!

Here is the before:

And then the AFTER

I can't even tell you how THRILLED I am to be done, and how great it looks. I LOVE the new colors.

Before and Afters

2010-11-22T08:16:00.003-06:00

I've been a busy little bee around my house. First we've still been in the process of the whole outside remodel (which thankfully is COMPLETE now...photos soon...) then we ended up flooding our den when our washing machine leaked. The carpet was bad to begin with and after water sitting on it all night long there was just no salvaging the carpet. At this time we decided to move the TV into the front room and make our den an actual den. We got new carpet, moved the computer out of our bedroom and it's wonderful!

Here are some before and after shots. (The before is when we first moved in and still had the BIG screen, but you get the gist of the layout, our flat screen was still in the same spot)

And here is the AFTER. I LOVE it! I can't believe how BIG the room feels with that huge overstuffed chair out of the way of the entry. (I plan to get rid of this furniture when I have some more money, but for now it stays...overstuffed furniture was SOOOO 2003...)

Next I decided it was time to take care of that UGLY file cabinet. Nobody saw it in our bedroom, but here where it would be more prominent I decided I MUST take care of it.

Before....

And after some ORB (Oil rubbed bronze) spray paint.

And last, we received some items from Aunt Blanche's home. Our Aunt Blanche was almost ninety and recently passed away. I can't tell you what an honor it is though to be able to keep some of her items in our family. You can read all about Aunt Blanche on my Aunt Kathryn's blog here.

Here is a cute little handy stepstool we received. It will be used well in our kitchen by the little hands that like to help mommy bake cookies. It was however, in need of some TLC.

Here it is after with some black paint and a coat of poly to make it easily cleanable.

Considering Aunt Blanche picked black as one of colors to paint her fingernails when the twins wanted to paint her nails, I think she would approve of the color choice. MUCH better.

We got our windows installed in the house this weekend, but since they gave us all new trim on the windows we had to re-paint some of the outside. I will have photos soon of that completed project and I have TONS of other items in the garage I'm currently working on! Christmas is coming and we've started Santa's workshop in our garage! It's going to be fabulous! Can't wait to share it.

Renovation Nightmare

2010-10-21T11:14:00.001-05:00

Two years ago my husband was driving to work and having a chat with God. He jokingly asked God to give him a new truck. Not five minutes later he gets plowed by a hit and run driver. Thankfully he was fine, but his Pontiac Grand AM was NOT. The car was totaled, and yes, my husband got his truck

This spring my husband told me we needed to paint our house. We were also in need of a new roof and some other outside repairs that we just didn't have the funds for. We jokingly asked God again to provide for us (we do realize that God is NOT a magic genie in a lamp). A few weeks later we were pummeled by a hailstorm. We had MASSIVE damage to our home. Looks like all those things we were needing to get taken care of insurance would cover.

God has a funny sense of humor when we ask him for things doesn't he? Or is this just US?

I need to be a little more careful what I ask for. We are four months after this hail storm and still knee deep in the process of trying to get our house back together. Dealing with the insurance company and the mortgage company has proved to be a nightmare. On top of it I decided to be my own contractor to try and help save on my deductible. I've learned NEVER to do that again.

This is a long story so I'll try and keep it brief. We had a claim for A amount of dollars. B amount of dollars was our deductible. C amount was our depreciation amount, so insurance cut us a check for amount A-B-C which I will call amount X. We get our amount X Check and it is made out to us AND the mortgage company. So, we called ~~the evil bastards~~ our mortgage company and they told us to get the check cashed we must send in the contractor information, their license, insurance the report from the insurance adjuster and a check for $35.00 for a home inspection when it's complete. We explained to them we were working as our own contractor and that we would be completing some of the work ourselves and the work would be done by various companies.

Here is where things got messy. Here is where I wish I would have thrown in the towel and just called a contractor.

The mortgage company said we would need a materials list printed from a supplier (Home Depot or Lowes), we would need insurance and license info for every company working on our house, and the estimates from all those companies. So, we comply of course. Problem is the people at Home Depot look at us like we have two heads when we ask for a materials list. We decided to just send them a spreadsheet with the materials, the cost, and the item and where it will be purchased at. 10 days later, no word, and no money. I have ROOFERS on my house installing a roof and I have NO MONEY. I call the mortgage company and they tell us that they are missing information on a materials list. The one we sent them wouldn't suffice. Really? So, my wonderful savvy husband prints a shopping cart from online and sends it to them. 10 days later we call and they tell us that a check has been issued.

Thank. God.

So, we leave for vacation expecting a nice fat check when we come home. We get home and yay! We have a check! We open it up and it is for HALF of amount X. HALF.

I feel bile rising in my throat, and anger pulsing through my veins. In the memo line it says "50 percent contractors material draw." Really. You have GOT to be kidding me.

So, my wonderful husband gets on the phone to the mortgage company (because at this point I was about to postal on these people). The representative explains to my husband that we can't get more money until the entire job is complete. We ask her how we are supposed to cash flow the project and she is nothing but nasty to us. She said we could release some of the funds for the roof, but we would have to pay to inspect ($35 remember?) every time someone comes out (roof, windows, paint, gutters etc...you get my drift).

So, we decided to get out of their nasty system, and pulled some strings to cash flow the project to complete it. Once we get it done we will get the remaining funds from amount X from our mortgage company (granted that they don't need our blood type and a kidney from us). THEN once it is all completed we will get amount B (the depreciation) from our insurance company. THEN we will pay off the project. Sigh.

It's October. Hail storm was May. My house is NOT done yet but we are getting there slowly. My husbands truck was also damaged in the storm, when we found a repair shop insurance asked us "do you want the check mailed to you or the repair shop?" I said "REPAIR SHOP." I am backing out of the system and washing my hands of it. I will let the repair shop argue with the insurance company and I will keep my hands clean of this mess ever again.

Here are some photos of my home and the hail damage it sustained:

Now we have gotten almost all the painting done. We just need to finish the painting, do the gutters, get the windows fixed and new screens and we will be done. I can see the finish line the end is near.

Here is where we are at so far:

One thing I can be completely thankful for is that through this entire process God has provided, and we have a gorgeous new roof, and we were able to redo the colors on our house and get a really great garage door. The house looks a MILLION times better than it did and I'm loving it! Final reveal of the home will be coming soon!

Decrapification - The Medicine Cabinet

2010-10-13T20:30:00.004-05:00

I'm stealing the word "decrapification" from my new-found hero Thrifty Decor Chick. I just love that word...decrapification. Anyways decrapifification of my home has begun. I do not want to appear on an episode of "Horders, Buried Alive," and if I continue on in the chaos I've been living in that's where I'll end up.

I decided to start with my bathroom medicine cabinet. It has been pretty much a total mess ever since we moved in. I think I've cleaned it maybe once in the past two years. Stuff just gets thrown up there and never really sorted through. So I decided to dedicate this afternoon to organizing my medicine cabinet.

If you think I suck at decorating stuff, I REALLY suck at organization, but with all the couponing I've been doing it's been nagging at me that I was gonna need to eventually do something to control the chaos. I start organizing and get into a total tizzy on how to organize stuff. Like, do I go by ailment or do I organize by kids medicine vs. adult medicine, or both? For GOD sakes it makes my head spin. If you don't believe me check out my post on organizing my kids clothing. It's enough to make me insane.

So, I actually GOOGLED "how to organize your medicine cabinet." I'm not kidding people. The consensus is to organize by ailment like "cold and flu" and "pain relief", etc...so I started on the daunting task of going through all my meds.

So, for those of you who are organizationally challenged like me, here is what I did. Maybe it will help you, or maybe you can give me ANY advice for the future ;)

Here is my before shot. It's NOT pretty. It's downright embarrassing. It's a total pain in the rear to try and find anything in there at all.

I cleaned it all out, and wiped down the cupboards.

Then I organized categories of meds into piles. It about threw me into a tizzy when one medicine would fit more than one category. For example: Hydro-cortisone. It could go into anti-itch or it could go into first aid. I think I debated this one for twenty minutes. Have I ever talked about my inability to make a simple decision?

I then took out all expired medications, and put them all into baskets according to their category.

Then after about 30 minutes of ~~cursing and screaming~~ trying to get a label maker to work, I just decided to write the labels by hand with a Sharpee. I put all the labels on and put them up in the cabinet, and finally I was done! I wish my shelves were adjustable so I wasn't wasting space, but this is much better than where I started. I'm pretty proud of my progress!

I learned some things I learned while doing this:

I have enough feminine hygiene products to get me through the apocalypse.
I have purchased Benadryl probably EVERY time I felt allergy symptoms.
I've purchased sunscreen every time I've gone swimming.
I've bought aloe practically every time I've gotten a sunburn.
Sunscreen actually DOES expire. I never knew that.
I had items in my cabinet that expired in 2007. That's before I MOVED. That means I MOVED this crap.
I had BREAK FLUID in my medicine cabinet. Not sure why, but that's a bit scary.
As technically savvy I think I am for the life of me I can't figure out how to use a label maker.
When left to their own devices, a three year old will try and mix water and Play-Doh to make a cake.

Tomorrow it's the linen closet. Yikes.

Our Half Bath

2010-10-12T11:24:00.004-05:00

So, we have this small half bath in the downstairs hallway and for two years I've been meaning to put stuff up (including a hand towel bar), but just never got around to doing it. So, I finally got STUFF on my walls in my bathroom.
So here are my photos of what I've done to make this room a much nicer place to pee for about $20 bucks:

(You think I would have at least emptied the trash)...I've had this photo for ages in my bedroom. It worked much better in the bathroom in the space above the toilet. Oh, and that's a magazine rack from Ikea I've also had for a while. I thought it may work as a toilet paper holder. I was wrong.

A hand towel ring! Finally! Woo hoo! Total cost of towel ring $10 at Wal-Mart. The candle holder I found at a thrift store for $1 this weekend!

The purple towels I've had, the painting was my moms (or my grandma's) when mom and grandma passed away I got one and my brother got the other. The frame was absolutely hideous though so I never had it up on the wall.

So, I went to Lowes spent about $2 on dark brown spray paint and refinished the frame. Looks totally gorgeous now and works nicely in the bathroom. It's a family heirloom, so it's nice to keep it for sentimental reasons.

I was lucky enough to score this mirror when we moved in. I love it. Found the cross today at Hobby Lobby for $4.00 on clearance. My final plans for this bathroom are to refinish the cabinets this winter and add new hardware to the doors. That medium wood stain and grain of the wood is KILLING me. Also I may get some vinyl wording to go above the mirror. I saw one that said "our aim is to keep this bathroom clean. Your aim will help" ....ummmm ok maybe not.

Underwear Parade

2010-10-11T14:24:00.004-05:00

Holy cow two posts in one day!

This is a short one, but cute.

My middle daughter Evie comes into the room with only her underwear on, dancing past me in a line back and forth, hands on her hips, shaking her little booty and humming. After about three laps in front of me...

"What are you doing silly?" I ask.

"I'm having a parade!"

Of course.

The Decorating Bug

2010-10-11T10:27:00.006-05:00

For two years now I've been in my home, and for two years I've had blank walls. The reason for this is two fold.

1. I consider myself to be a bit artsy and crafty, yet I don't have any works of art I feel worthy of putting up on my walls, but I refuse to just "buy" something made by someone else when I'm perfectly capable of making something.
2. It takes MONEY and TIME to make things. Both I always come up short on.

So, for two years my walls have remained empty and projects are left unfinished. SO, I'm dedicating this fall/winter to taking care of my walls and unfinished projects little by little. Thanks to Thrifty Decor Chick she has got me totally motivated with her savvy thrift store salvages and restorations. I'm in awe of some of the stuff she comes up with. Totally gorgeous and totally within budget.

So, I admit I kinda suck on decorating. I just don't know how to arrange things properly on walls and what should go where. I'm pretty awesome at copycatting things, so that's pretty much what I plan to do but add my own little flair to it.

So I started last week with my wine bottle project (which I totally stole from somewhere but can't find the link so I can't give them credit...so sorry). Anyhow, I primed them, painted them a color to match my Asian tablecloths and then looked up the Chinese words online, crossing my fingers I didn't accidentally stumble across a dirty word ;) I added some cherry blossom to them and plan to put them on a shelf in my dining room. I really love the way they turned out. I can't wait to get them up on the wall!

And yes, I'm missing one cherry blossom. For some dumb reason when I went to Hobby Lobby and got them I only got four instead of five. Waiting for them to go back to 50% off again to buy another. Total project cost (since I had the wine bottles leftover and the paint on hand) about $5.00!

This was the old mirror to my dresser we got at a thrift store. We don't use the mirror and it's been sitting under our bed for two years. I pulled it out, cleaned it off and painted it black. It's not the best mirror out there but it was FREE (oh and it had to be THIS weekend when I ran out of Windex...). I found the candle holders at a local thrift store this past weekend, brought them home, painted them with a little ORB (Oil Rubbed Bronze by Krylon), and voila. The whole project cost me about $12.00! Now I have one wall in my living room done at least.

Anyhow, I have MANY more projects in the mix, just trying to find time to do them all! Will post them as I get finished! I'm not quite as innovative as my guru (Thrifty Decor Chick), but I'm trying to get there.

My funny little girls

2010-09-07T19:29:00.001-05:00

I was downstairs enjoying a nice quiet afternoon of reading while my two little girls were down for a nap. Lucy had only been down for an hour when I heard the faint sound of a xylophone playing from upstairs.

I quickly dropped my book and ran upstairs wanting to quiet Evie from waking up her little sister. To my surprise I found Evie's bed completely abandoned and Lucy was happily in her crib playing with the xylophone (which I can only assume her sister gave her). It was a really cute sight.

So I grabbed Lucy (and the xylophone) and went looking for Evie, whom I found in my room. I said to her "what are you doing in here?"

To that she replied "I was scratching my butt Mom."

You couldn't have asked for a more honest answer than that. My only response to a statement like that of course would be "alright then sweetie, let's go wash your hands..."

Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds

2010-08-24T08:51:00.001-05:00

Has a year all ready flown by? Wasn't it just yesterday I was looking down at you in the hospital trying to figure out where you got all that black hair from (must be Papa) and kissing your chubby little cheeks?

Over the past year those cheeks have remained large but you've grown into them somewhat, your hair has slowly turned from black to a beautiful shade of brownish blond with a little red in it, and you still capture my heart just as much you did on the day you were born.

When you smile you smile not only with your mouth, but with your eyes. You have the most amazing eyes ever. They are blue, with a hint of green and golden yellow in the center. I say it's the sun in your eyes just like the song says "look for the girl with the sun in her eyes..." We couldn't have picked a better name for you.

I can tell all ready that you love music. Anytime you hear music you bob your little head from side to side, and scoot on your bottom. I'm certain that once you start walking you will be dancing shortly thereafter.

You are a little cuddlebug. When I pick you up you grab my face and give me big smooches on my cheek. I absolutely adore my kisses from Lucy. (Daddy says you are a daddy's girl, but deep inside he knows you are a momma's girl ;)

You are smart, and you are mischievous. You can catch my eye from across the room and smile at me when you know you are getting into something you shouldn't. That tells us that you are definitely one of US. You are curious. I can tell all ready that behind those blue green eyes there are deep thoughts full of curiosity.

You love your brother and sisters. You want to be wherever they are, doing whatever they are doing. You follow them wherever they go. You love to laugh just like the rest of our family does.

You are totally attached to your bottle, and I'm in no rush to take it away from you. After all, you are my youngest little baby. You have the sweetest disposition unless you want something and then you will go to all lengths to get it (usually a screaming fit). I give into you more than I should because I know you are my last little baby. I've spoiled you a bit, but that is ok, because you are only little for such a short time. In a blink of the eye you will be all grown up and I'll wonder where the years have gone.

God knew how to make you just perfect. I could have never guessed exactly what you would be like. Before you were born I could only guess, but God knew. He knew exactly what Lucy would be like before you even existed in my mind. I still don't know what changes will come in the next year but I love watching you grow, learn and watch your personality come out more and more each day.

For now, I just enjoy you exactly as you are. You are my silly little Lucy, and today you are one!

Toenails

2010-08-11T21:09:00.000-05:00

Yes, only I could do a post titled "toenails."

So I was in the kitchen tonight when my son comes in to talk with me. I glance downward and notice his toenails are in desperate need of clipping.

Me: Dude! Look at those toenails. They are ridiculous.
Him: (nonchalant) I know.
Me: No, seriously dude, you could totally make weapons out of those things.
Him: Yeah,whatever.
Me: (joking)Is that your plan? Is that what you are going for?
Him: Nope. I'm going to be on "Ripley's Believe it or not."

Then he walks away.

Sisters

2010-07-30T09:47:00.000-05:00

I didn't see Lucy crawling around so I asked Evie "Where is your sister?"

She says,"In the closet," and walks away.

I go and open the closet and find her in there, locked in the closet, happy as can be. She totally didn't seem to mind at all that her sister locked her in there. Give it a few years though, I'm sure that will change.

Red River Vacation

2010-07-22T15:13:00.002-05:00

So, last week hubby and I set out with a convoy of 7 vehicles to Red River, NM for a family reunion/camping trio. I have to admit, I wasn't looking forward to this much at all, in fact, I was dreading it a bit.

Not because I don't enjoy his family (because I do they are MY family too and I LOVE them), but because camping to me with the kids is a chore. It's been YEARS since I've camped without little ones and had to change diapers, worry about meals for them in the outdoors, them eating dirt and grass, etc...also ten hours in the car with four kids was not my idea of a picnic.

Surprisingly, this was one of the best vacations I've ever had with my kids. I had such a great time. First of all I didn't realize how gorgeous Red River was. I knew I'd be in mountains, but I hadn't really wrapped my mind around that concept. Right as we hit the mountains and the 70 degree weather, it started to sink in.

Also I didn't realize how much fun it would be driving with a convoy of cars. We all had walkie talkies (yeah, a bit old school, but better than cell phones for this type of situation.) We each had code names, Donut, Glacier, Bomber, Elders, Beamer, Rancher and then us Scrooge. (My cousin Treasure tried to name us Oompa Loompa because of a recent unfortunate incident that I had with the self tanner, but that is for another blog post...).

We had quite a bit of amusement with these walkie talkies, joking with each other along the way, for example we discussed that here is a water tower that Aunt Kathryn probably backed into with her car (her and I both have a knack for backing into things with our vehicles).

Getting there truly WAS half the fun. That night at our campsite we saw deer (thankfully no bears) walking close by. I was totally amazed to just see them so close to our campsite! We also had hot dogs with the family and made banana boats back at our campsite.

The next day we got up and decided (well my HUSBAND decided for me) that we would go on the chairlift. I don't know how he convinces me to do these things, but part of me is glad that he does. I'm TERRIFIED of heights, so me going on a chairlift is not as relaxing of a trip as some may think. The trip up wasn't too bad, it was the trip down that had me in a panic attack. It was when the chairlift would stop and sway in the wind that I started to cry a bit. I did however manage to calm down enough to get a few shots, because it was truly an amazing view.

Here I am blissfully unaware of how frightening the trip down will be.

This is about when I started to panic.

I had to admit even in my panic stricken state, that it was amazing.

That afternoon we went on a jeep ride up into the mountains. We saw even more amazing views. I totally loved it.

This was the first stop we made in the jeep. Breathtaking isn't it?

This lake we had to really work to get to. It was this very narrow road up a pretty rocky path. Took us a while to get there, but as you can see it was totally worth it. A lake hidden up in the mountains. It made me stop and think that if God made this earth so beautiful, what is heaven gonna be like? Amazing. Simply amazing.

We debated on wether or not to go to the peak, because time was ticking on our rental. We went ahead and decided to head that way, and once again, it was totally worth it.

We headed back to camp that night covered in dust from the jeep trip, and cleaned up for a progressive dinner. That I'll admit wasn't my favorite part of the trip (toting Lucy up and down the hills from one place to another was a bit rough while my husband cooked the main course for about 50 people), and I was exhausted from the long day we had all ready had. Plus I had to get both my kids showers that night to clean all the dust off of them. My day started about 6am and didn't end until 10pm, and that is a LONG day when you are camping outdoors.

The next day we went into town and let the kids ride go carts and spend a little of their allowance on some fun things. We had a blast.

This made me nauseous just looking at it.

We got back to camp just before it started to rain. Ended up spending a couple hours in our tent while it blew over. I started to get a bit of cabin fever and stress that it would rain all evening, but thankfully it didn't. As good of a time as I had, I was ready to go home. The kids were starting to wear on me a bit. That night we had smores with the kids and jiffy pop on the campfire. It was a lot of fun.

It really WAS a great trip. I had a lot of fun with our family and we got to do a lot of neat things. I will carry with me some great memories from this trip!

To see a full slideshow of our photos from our trip you can click here.

The Vegetarian

2010-06-19T22:29:00.002-05:00

So, last week my son came in the house pretty upset over finding a dead baby bird outside. You see, my son is pretty tenderhearted about things, and this just broke his little heart. He was wanting to get a shoebox and bury the bird, but one of the older kids parents threw it away, and this upset him that the bird didn't get a proper burial.

My husband explained the whole circle of life thing to him, and tried to calm him down and explained how we even consume animals for food. My son told me later that night that he was going to become a vegetarian. I giggled under my breath "Good luck with that." You see, we are a family of total carnivores, and love nothing more than a big juicy steak.

I quickly dismissed the conversation. The next day my son again told me after lunch (which was hot dogs) that he was a vegetarian.

"So how was that piggy you just ate?" (and I use the term pig loosely) I asked him.

He smiled, "Well, I'm a vegetarian that eats pigs, but I'm not going to eat other meat." He tells me.

"Mmmmhmmm." I said.

That night I made home made chicken nuggets for dinner, which I bread in cornflakes and fry. They are totally delicious, and my whole family gobbles them up. My boy comes into the kitchen nosing around. "What are we having for dinner mom?" He peers over the stove and sees what I'm cooking before I have a chance to reply he exclaims "YES! I LOVE these!"

"Too bad you can't have any since you are a vegetarian." I reply.

"Ah, you got me," He admits defeat. "I guess I'm NOT going to be a vegetarian."

Just what I thought.

So I'm Graduating...well...maybe...

2010-05-05T23:08:00.001-05:00

So I came home yesterday with my cap and gown in hand, and one last day of class left before finals.

So, I came in the house, put the cap and gown package on my end table, got the baby out of her car seat, and got Evie her juice etc....you know started doing mom things. I completely forgot to go back and find a safer spot for that cap and gown.

When I walked by the end table in my living room today I noticed the cap and gown was missing. I didn't give much thought to it because I knew my son picked up the living room yesterday (part of his chores), so I just figured it was in the pile of stuff on my dresser in my bedroom.

I was wrong.

We decided to take the kids swimming tonight at the Y, but when I realized that the cap and gown were indeed missing I started to panic. My son had no clue what I was looking for, and when I explained it he swore he didn't know where it was. I tried asking Evie where she may have placed it (you see she was building a nice fort/house out of blankets in the living room today so she could have easily taken it). She had no clue what I was looking for either.

We organized a search party and started looking everywhere. The cap and gown were nowhere to be found. I patrolled the backyard praying NOT to find it in a chewed up pile of dog poo. It wasn't there. We looked through the trash, we looked through the recycling...we looked all over the kids rooms. It. Was.. Gone.

I started to feel hopeless because I know there was no way I'd ever get another cap and gown in time for the graduation. We packed up in the car and headed for the YMCA.

Half way there my oldest shouts out "I think I know where it is mom! I put it in the Twister game box!"

My husband and I glance at her and almost simultaneously say "Why on EARTH would you put it in there?"

She said "I thought it was the game board spinner." (BTW it looks NOTHING like the Twister spinner)

"We would have NEVER found that." my husband said. He was right. One day we would have opened up that Twister box and found it, and I would of had an aneurysm. "Next time you dye your hair we are going DARK!" my husband told our oldest.

So, tonight I came home and pulled the cap and gown out of the Twister game box. I was going to just leave it in the package until Friday to make sure that it didn't get grape jelly on it or peed on by a dog, but I figured I'd open it up to try on my cap for a second.

To my horror, the tassel is missing.

You have GOT to be kidding me.

Happy Birthday Myah

2010-05-03T08:00:00.003-05:00

May 3, 1999 there was a tornado going on in Oklahoma, but I was far away in Arizona giving birth to my oldest child. I was young, only twenty one and I was scared to death. I didn't know what to expect, and I sure as heck had no clue about how to be a mother, but nevertheless it was happening.

I was scheduled to be induced into labor that night at 9pm. The previous night I started having contractions around 11pm. They lasted off and on all night but never became regular. I went into the hospital around noon the next day, but they sent me home saying I wasn't in active labor. I went back to my mother in law's house and waited there. Contractions got stronger and stronger, and by around 7pm they were getting closer and closer. Finally we went into the hospital when my contractions were two minutes apart. They admitted me and my first baby was born at 11:57pm that night.

She was so beautiful I just held her and cried. She was simply amazing.

Today she is still just as beautiful and more amazing then I ever could of imagined. God has given this child such a tender heart and sweet spirit. She loves to help others, and when she loves, she loves deeply. She wears her heart on her sleeve.

She is funny and smart and has a great sense of humor. She loves clothes and make up and doing her nails, but she still loves to climb trees and go fishing with daddy. She is so talented. She loves to sing and she loves art. She can write too. She has written some of the most amazing stories for her age. I can't believe how creative she is.

She loves converse shoes and skinny jeans. She knows how to sew more than mommy and she is a force to be reckoned with in the kitchen. She recently just perfected her own recipe for home made brownies.

She loves Taylor Swift, but she still is so cool that she knows and loves the classics. She can name ANY one of The Beatles songs.

She loves soccer and volleyball and said she wouldn't mind being a stunt woman when she grows up. She is so totally cool it blows my mind.

She loves her family and is always willing to lend a hand a help. She is a giver in the truest sense of the word. She constantly makes me little gifts, cards and drawings and gives them to me just to brighten my day. I love that God gave her the spirit of a giver.

God has granted me with an amazing relationship with my oldest daughter, and I love watching her become a woman. As the teenage years are quickly approaching I'm still a lot like that twenty one year old woman, a bit naive and a bit frightened. I still don't know what to expect, but I do know one thing. If the past eleven years have been any indication on how things will be, I look forward hopeful at what the upcoming years hold for her, and for me as her mother. She is a joy to have and raise and I am truly blessed to be her mother.

Happy Birthday Evie

2010-04-30T08:30:00.003-05:00

Wasn't it just yesterday I was packing your bag for the hospital, holding those little white and purple booties in my hand? I sat there lovingly packing your bags, stroking my belly and feeling you move inside me and my eyes welled up with tears with just how much I all ready loved you. I knew you then, and I hadn't even seen your face yet.

You came out of my tummy and they put you on my chest. You didn't cry at all. You just lay there, content staring up at me happy to finally be in my arms. I will never forget that moment.

Ever since that moment you have brought so much laughter, and joy into this home. You are a bright light in what can sometimes be a dark world. This world NEEDED you, and God knew that. Your name fits you "Bringer of good news"(Evangeline) and "life"(Zoey).

I love the way the sunlight bounces off your white blonde hair, and your big blue eyes sparkle with laughter and joy. You are so smart, and kind. You make me laugh like no other.

You love to be outside just like your daddy. You have the biggest imagination that I've ever seen. You love food, especially fruit. When given the choice between candy and cantaloupe, you will choose the cantaloupe.

You love your brother and sisters. You have a strong sense of family even though you are very young. That is something that God instilled in you. You also have this knack for being sensitive to peoples feelings and emotions, something you must have inherited from your Grandmother.

You love tea parties and want to be a doctor when you grow up. You tell everyone, "When I grow up I'm gonna be a doctor. A happy doctor."

You have the cutest little sing song voice. You talk to me like you are an adult and it is really funny, even though some may consider it being precocious...I love it. It's just further proof of just how smart you really are.

You love Max and Ruby, fruit snacks and your favorite color is pink. You can't sleep without your purple blanket, and that's ok. You love princesses but you have yet to sit through an entire princess movie.

You can sometimes be a bit high maintenance, but that is ok. I wouldn't have it any other way. You are my Evie and I love you so very much. I can't believe that you are three today. I am so privileged to be your mother, and thank God for letting me raise you. I pray that you grow in His grace and beauty and above all learn to love Him.

5 Years

2010-04-09T16:26:00.003-05:00

Today is my five year anniversary with the love of my life. Part of me feels like I have been with him and known him forever, but the other part of me can't believe how fast five years has flown by. Every day has been an adventure with him, and I am truly blessed to have such a wonderful husband.

He met me and fell in love with me when I felt like I had been damaged beyond repair. The last thing that I was looking for was a relationship, he knew that, he respected that and he waited. We built a foundation on a strong friendship, which I feel is most important and why our marriage works so well. He is truly my very best friend.

We met in art class at church in the summer of 2004, and on breaks (we were the only two smokers in the class) we would talk with each other. I then started attending the small group that he did and we got to know each other even more. Before I knew it we were spending every moment together. Everyone kept asking what was going on and each of us would reply "we are just friends." They would give us this "whatever" look. Everyone else knew it before WE did. After months of getting to know each other and developing this deep friendship, we started dating, and six weeks later, we were engaged. Once we admitted to each other how we felt, we couldn't deny that God had brought us together. We were married April 9th 2005, with all of our friends and family there to watch.

He is smart, he is brilliant, he is hilarious and he has a big heart. He has the best smile, and these deep brown chocolate eyes. He LOVES food. He is strong and firm and a great father and leader of our home. He is my husband and I'm so thankful for him.

Over the past five years we moved from Arizona to Oklahoma, we have gone to Disneyland twice, we have had a new house, an old house and then found OUR home. He adopted my two oldest children. We have gone to Paris (yes Paris France), we have had two more babies. We have gone camping, gone jet skiing, gone to Texas and Arkansas. We've spent nights in the ER and survived appendectomies and surgeries, and even survived quitting smoking together (we BARELY made it through that one without killing each other). We have spent countless hours walking in the park, playing games and having fun. We have shared laughter and tears. There have been weddings and funerals, triumph and tragedy. We have played in the snow and on the beach, survived blizzards and tornadoes together. It has truly been the best five years of my life.

We have shared so many wonderful times together, and I'm looking forward to what the future holds.

Girls Weekend

2010-03-31T10:32:00.000-05:00

I started writing this post several weeks ago and never got around to finishing it, however I feel that it deserves to be finished so here goes...

So my son and my hubby took off this weekend on a boys backpacking trip in the Ouachita Mountains, so it's just me and my girls this weekend. I've been sick for the past three days and so are the two youngest, so we've pretty much just been laying in bed watching girlie movies and eating junk food. Pretty much doing the same thing we'd be doing if we were not sick!

I really have some great kids, I mean REALLY they are truly the best, but right now I just want to talk about my oldest. I know I spend a LOT of time on here going on and on about all the silly and cute things my kids do, but I don't spend enough time on here talking about just how wonderful they are, and my oldest truly is wonderful. She constantly helps me with the little girls and the housework. She loves to cook and help me out in the kitchen. She loves girly movies and shows about fashion (she's the only one who actually enjoys watching "What Not To Wear" and "Say Yes To The Dress" with me).

She is turning into quite the young lady. I love to do her hair, her nails, her make up. I love to be able to teach her all the fun things about becoming a lady. I love watching girly movies with her.

I love her freckles, and how her face lights up when she smiles (and not the I'm smiling for a photo smile, but the REAL smile). She has always had such a sweet loving spirit about her. She is a giver.

The other day my memory flashed back to when she was around 5-6 years old. She is on a video coming up to me giving me flowers she picked. She says in her sweet baby voice "mommy I picked these for you." I started bawling. She is NOT a baby any more, she is a young lady, and she is gorgeous, and I am so very proud of her. I'm so fortunate to be her mother, and I'm so fortunate to have a good relationship with her. I pray it stays that way over the upcoming "teen" years. I pray also that I can be a nurturing Godly mother to her, and give her everything she needs, but not everything she wants.

I love my kids with all my heart and everything that is in me (all four of them). When I had my first and got pregnant with my second I wondered how I could possibly love another as much as I love the first, but your heart grows and makes double the space for that second one, and you love them just as much as the first, and so on and so on. I thank the Lord for each one of my children, my son and my three beautiful girls.