Faithful Friday {week 8}

Kim at Daily Blessings who hosts Faithful Fridays has a meme of sorts for today's post. We are to list 7 things we are blessed by today. After you read this go check out her post by clicking on the button & join in. Even if you read this after Friday. Here's my 7.

1. It's a 4 day weekend for hubby!

2. Modern technology like the internet so I can keep in touch better with family & friends while we are out of state.

3. Modern technology so I can better keep in touch with my hubby when he leaves.

4. The opportunities the kids I have to make new friends while we live away from our old ones.

5. The old friends I still have and will always be able to count on esp when I need them most.

6. The opportunity Mary Kay provides me to meet new people, have an income & be encouraged.

7. The time I have to spend with my family.

I hope you all enjoy your weekend! Thanks for stopping by.

♥

Current Events

I realized I haven't had a 'normal' post in about a week or so - by normal I mean a post that isn't about a contest or a meme of some sort. I'll share what we've been up to with photos.

I can't remember if I mentioned this or not but my son is now bald. Last weekend I decided to finally cut his hair because it was just way too long and bugging me. I've done pretty well with the clippers in the past but they weren't working this time. So I attempted with scissors. I know, what was I thinking right? I tried to fix it but there was no hope. It was crooked in every way it could be. So I said "That's it! We're shaving it off!", which was the same thing hubby said when he first saw the haircut. It was accurate, I wasn't offended. Above you can see hubby shaving our little boys head. He's now sporting the screaming eagle as they call it around here. And yes those are animal crackers {cookies} for comfort. He didn't like the process but seems to like his new do. Shawn shaved his own head the same day - I still need to get a picture of the two of them together. Scrap page titles I'm thinking of "Haircut Gone Bad", "Don't Run With Scissors - unless you are taking them from mom" and "Cookies Make it All Better"

Last week we also went to a playgroup that meets nearby. There were lots of kids ranging in age from just weeks to 5 years old. Michael had a lot of fun running around playing with other kids and Lydia seemed to enjoy herself as well. I just realized that photo looks like she's scared or crying but I swear she was happy - darn digital camera delay.

What? brownie batter isn't a good, healthy, well rounded breakfast? Oops! Just kidding - sorta. I made brownies for a potluck after church this past Sunday. They were tasty! It was from a box, can't go wrong there. I got away with making the first batch without Michael realizing what I was doing but he got a hold of the spatula the second time around. Yes, I did lick the other spoon and possibly the bowl. Don't worry, we had our normal healthy-ish breakfast of cold cereal. I'm thinking of having some now actually.

Lydia & Shawn have bonded so well over these past few months. It just warms my heart. I was a little concerned with him being gone the first two months and then not around full time until she was almost 5 months old. While holding her he'll ask for kisses and she leans forward and plants a raspberry on him. It is SO cute. I've got lots of kissy face pictures of the two of them. She also follows him around like a puppy when he's got food. And she gives him the sweetest smiles. She smiles at me but she does this coy little 'flirty' face for daddy that almost makes me want to cry just thinking about it. Sappy, I know but I don't care.

And this is my new car! Isn't it pretty? It's a Mary Kay *pink* Cadillac Escalade - fully loaded. Yeah baby! Did you believe me? Well, it's not my car - not yet anyway. A National Sales Director in this area picked up her new toy today and a bunch of us met her there to hoot & holler and take pictures. I'm not the only one who posed in front of or behind the wheel of the car either. Michael seemed pretty excited about it as well and tried to get into the pictures with me. Seriously though, I am working toward a Mary Kay car - you don't get the pink caddy right away but the rest of the car options are nice too and so is the cash option that I'd take to pay off my own car. If you are interested in learning more about Mary Kay products or business you can take a visit to my Mary Kay website for more info.

♥

Masterpiece Monday {page 5}

So I am LOVING this weekly motivator to get me scrapping. Not just because I'm making progress on the many memories I want to preserve with pictures, journaling & make pretty with paper & embellishments. But taking the time for myself at least once a week to do something I enjoy is fantastic. To me scrapbooking is more than just fun, it's relaxing and therapeutic in a way. Looking back at photos, capturing moments I'll never get back. I just love it. This week I didn't scrap while the kids were napping. Between playgroup, my sinuses and keeping up with housework it just didn't happen. And then Friday came & I didn't want to do a.single.thing. Yesterday while the kids were napping I was feeling much better and was inspired. So while hubby was browsing the net for music and we had our own little limewire party I scrapped. The limewire thing was a lot of fun, we were totally rocking out to the 80's - "We've got to hold on to what we've got 'Cause it doesn't make a difference If we make it or not We've got each other and that's a lot For love - we'll give it a shot" Anyone else love ♥ this song? Considering my age this may sound odd but this song holds a special sentiment to me. I even have a shirt with the lyrics and band's name on it. And I'm wearing it in the pictures on my last page. Today I took advantage of nap time again and made another page. I really like how it turned out. Anyways - onto the scrappy stuff! Thanks for looking & to see more Masterpiece Monday participators or join in on the fun click on the button above.

I love love love these sleeping photos of Lydia. I have some of Michael in the same profile pose with arms spread out. {I'm sure most moms do as it is a common sleeping position for babies} These layouts are very simple but I love them. I inked the Bazzil {textured cardstock}, matted my photos and stamped out the lyrics to an entire lullaby I found in PeaSoup by searching for 'sleeping baby', I wanted some inspiration for a quote or poem. It didn't list the author who wrote the song but you can read the full lyrics here, along with the back story. I just loved it. My favorite verses are the first & last. I was so glad to fit it all onto my pages, though I'd have preferred to keep it in it's original format. The stamp set I used had the star stamps and I thought it was fitting with the whole sleeping photos, though I'm sure these pictures were taken while she was napping during the day - that's beside the point. I hand cut the brackets and called it done.

This may be one of my most favorite pages ever. I've often been inspired by various techniques that digital scrappers use but don't have the software or full desire to venture into digital scrapbooking. When I was looking through my patterned papers and found one with pretty, large flowers on it I instantly saw the page. When I was through tediously silhouetting {fancy for cutting out} the flowers I wanted with way too big of scissors I realized how much space the flowers would take up and didn't want to cover them after all the time spent. So instead I layered them with my photos, without covering the focal point. I had a few ideas for a title "Mother of two", "Mom/Mommy to two" but then I thought mother sounded a little older than I wanted it to and Michael rarely calls me mommy. I'm momma {Shawn is daddy} and that's what Lydia can say {for now} as well. So there came my title. The photos are simply matted, I used two colors on the one because I didn't have a wide enough piece of either color but like how it looks. For the journaling I wrote on three of the flowers {two around the edges} and one of the leaves. This is what I wrote:

on the top two flowers
"Sometimes being a mom is hard. You get tired & frustrated but then...they give you a sweet smile, snuggle up or give you a kiss for no other reason than they love you. Once in a while you even hear "thank you" or "good job momma" & that is when your ♥ melts!"

on the bottom flower
"When you see them loving others you know you are doing something right and it keeps you going."

on the leaf in the middle
"love, teach, guide, protect"

♥

Smart Habit Saturday {week 4 August}

It's that time of week again. Time to check out my Joe's Goals Chart and determine if this week was a success or failure - or change my definitions of either. Here's the breakdown:

Clearing Dishes at Night/Quick Pick Up/Quick Clean Kitchen/Call MK Hotlines: 7/7 or 6/6 (MK)
Enjoying Me Time: 6/7 - Don't remember what happened Tuesday
Brushing Teeth at Night/Washing Face/Follow Schedule/Dinner for Hubby - 5/7 or 3/5, much improvement and hubby was sweet to make me dinner twice this week!
Organize A Small Space: 1/7 but it was my daughter's closet and a big task of purging too small to wear clothes, organizing stuff she has to grow into and cleaning it all up afterward so I gave it two check marks
Reading 10 Minutes A Day: 0/7 {read: LAME} Surely with all the blogs I read and as much time I spend on e-mail and whatnot I can take 10 minutes to read a book. I can't use the, it's hard with my little ones thing because I obviously can make computer time.
Invite 5 People to MK Meeting: well I didn't invite 5 but I invited 2 and one wants to come so that's something!

So overall I'm pleased with my progress this week. My personal hygiene habits are improving as well as following my loose schedule {I think it needs some revision but that's part of the process} and I got a start on my messy closets. This week I'm not going to add any new habits. I really want to improve on some of these first. I hope you all had a great week, thanks for stopping by & to see other SMARTies out there or learn more about getting SMART yourself click on the banner above.

♥

Some More Giveaways

While browsing blogs today I read this blog that was linked to this blog with tons of giveaways listed. And of course I entered as many as I could. I know - what are the chances right? Well, in the dog days of summer bloggy giveaway I won my fancy new header for my blog from this cool chick. Before that I won this great gift for my dad from these sweet ladies and a new mouse pad from this smart woman. And I just found out that I won a contest over here at this awesome site. {More on that in a future post!} So while my chances may be slim to none it's still fun. You can check out Laura's blog to see all of the giveaways she has listed. I'll highlight two them -of it's part of the requirement of entering & it's fun.

The first is Handbag Love where Scribblescratch is giving away this pretty bag you see on the right. Who doesn't love a fun new handbag? If you don't you could still win it and give it away as a gift to someone and make their day. If you don't have any friends who like handbags then let me know and you can send it my way. I'll even pay for shipping & send you a thank you card - promise!



The next highlight is a $25 Mastercard given away by Christian Stay At Home Moms blog. What would you buy with $25 guilt free spending money? I'd want to head straight to my local scrapbook store because $25 doesn't go far in the clothing department, but I could stock up on Bazzil and get some fun new stamps & paint!

So go & check out these fun giveaways and see if you win something. Hey, if I {who never wins anything} can win stuff then so can you. It's all about the luck in the random generator or the draw - however they do it!

Updated: I found another one! When Michael was a baby shopping for clothes was fun enough but there weren't any extra frills beyond a cute hat. Now that I have a daughter that has all changed. Look at what I found, did you look? Seriously - you must look. Okay, now aren't those just about the most adorable little things? And they don't slip out of their hair. Lydia has got fine baby hair, pony tails don't last long and the velcro clips I have fall out all the time. I know I want to get my little girl some, if you know a little girl {or a mother of a girl} who would love them check out MomViews.

♥

Faithful Friday {week 7}

Today is one of those days that I am not happy about being a woman. So all that I can muster up is thank you God that when I receive my glorious body in heaven I will not cramp, ache, bloat, feel nautious or have hormonal issues to deal with.

Okay, that is really lame so I'll add this in the midst of preparing for deployment. I'm entering a time when my faith will be tested. I won't be able to talk to my husband for somewhere between 45 & 60 days after he leaves. I won't be able to talk to him regularly as the availability of a phone & his missions schedule will be too random for anything to be regular. I will have no tangible evidence of his safety or well being. So I will blindly trust, hanging on to the promises the Lord has given me, grasping to His peace that surpasses all understanding. I don't know if I'm quite to that point yet but He will bring me there. For more Faithful Friday click on the button.

♥

A History Lesson {or Where Did That Phrase Come From?}

I got this e-mail from my cousin a while back and thought it would be fun to save for a post one day. Well, today is the day. Here's an interesting look at life back in the 1500's. If this doesn't make you thankful for our modern comforts I don't know what will. {My comments in brackets}
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The next time you are washing your hands and complain because the water temperature isn't just how you like it, think about how things used to be. Here are some facts about the 1500's - it's interesting to say the least.

Most people got married in June because they took their yearly bath {um, ew!} in May & still smelled pretty good by June. However, they were starting to smell so brides carried a bouquet of flowers to hide the body odor which brings us to a common tradition in weddings today.

Baths consisted of a big tub filled with hot water. The man of the house had the privilege of the nice clean water, then all the other sons and men, then the women and finally the children. The {poor} babies {who couldn't speak up & complain} were last. By then the water was so dirty you could actually lose someone in it, {again, gross} hence the saying "don't throw the baby out with the bath water." {I've never heard of this saying but why even bother with a bath after the filthy man has gone in, I'd take a swim in the creek first!}

Houses had thatched roofs - thick straw piled high, with no wood underneath. {drafty?} It was the only place for animals to get warm so all the cats, dogs and other small animals like mice & bugs lived in the roof. When it rained it became slipper and sometimes the animals would slip and fall off the roof, hence the saying "it's raining cats & dogs." {why house a cat if it won't kill the mice?}

There was nothing to stop things from falling into the house. This posed a real problem in the bedroom where bugs and other droppings could easily mess up your nice clean bed. {another ew!} Hence, a bed with big posts and a sheet hung over the top afforded some protection. That's how canopy beds came into existence. {I'd also like to add that the phrase "honey, I have a headache" started around the same time as bugs & droppings falling into the bed.}

The floor was dirt. Only the wealthy had something other than dirt, hence the saying "dirt poor"
The wealthy had slate floors that would get slippery in the winter when wet, so they spread thresh (straw) on the floor to help keep their footing. As the winter wore on, they added more thresh until when you opened the door it would all start slipping outside. A piece of wood was placed in the entranceway, hence the saying a threshold.

(Getting quite an education aren't you?)

In those old days they cooked in the kitchen with a big kettle that always hung over the fire. Everyday they lit the fire and added things to the pot. They ate mostly vegetables and did not get much meat. They would eat the stew for dinner leaving leftovers in the pot to get cold overnight and then start over the next day. Sometimes stew had food in it that had been there for quite a while. Hence the rhyme "peas porridge hot, peas porridge cold, peas porridge in the pot nine days old..." {As a kid I wondered a)what peas porridge was & why it was appealing b)why would you want it cold? and c)9 days old, seriously?

Sometimes they could obtain pork, which made them feel quite special. When visitors came over the would hang up their bacon to show off. It was a sign of wealth that a man could 'bring home the bacon' - literally at this time. They would cut off a little to share with guests and would all sit around and 'chew the fat.' {love me some bacon!}

Those with money had plates made of pewter. Food with high acid content caused some of the lead to leach onto the food, causing lead poisoning death. This happened most often with tomatoes so for the next 400 years or so tomatoes were considered poisonous.

Lead cups were used to drink ale or whiskey. The combination would sometimes knock the imbibers out for a couple of days. Someone walking along the road would take them for dead and prepare them for burial. They were laid out on the kitchen table for a couple of days and the family would gather around and eat and drink and wait to see if they would wake up, hence the custom of holding a wake. {creeepy}

England is old and small and the local folks started running out of places to bury people. So they would dig up coffins and take the bones to a bone-house so they could reuse the grave. When reopening these coffins 1 out of 25 coffins were found to have scratch marks on the inside and they realized they had been burying people alive. So they would tie a string on the wrist of the corpse, lead it through the coffin and up through the ground and tie it to a bell. Someone would have to sit out in the graveyard all night (the graveyard shift) to listen for the bell; thus someone could be 'saved by the bell' or was considered a 'dead ringer'. {I guess the whole 'wake' thing didn't always work}

And that's the truth - now whoever said history was boring?!
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So that was the e-mail. Is this all true? I have no clue but it's fun & gross & creepy anyway right? I for one can say this is a whole other list of reasons that I am glad to be born in this century with modern conveniences like running water, well made roofs, good floors - even if they look like a grocery store, refrigerators, affordable food, poison free tomatoes & medical technology that can accurately confirm if a person is dead.

Thanks for visiting! And if you found me on TopMomma {or not as always} please leave a comment so I can visit you!

♥

Linky Love

Have I ever told you that I am often late to post or completely forget about meme's that I've been tagged with? Well, I am. I'm still recovering from preggy brain - you do know it takes a full two years to recover don't you? And did you know that you lose something like 15% of your brain cells while you are pregnant? And did you know that if all of the changes that occur over pregnancy occurred in one day a woman would die? We women rock! So I was tagged like 10 days ago by Psychology of Clutter with this 'linky love' sort of meme and then a few days ago Lara tagged me with the same sort of meme. I'm finally getting around to it. You all know I have an extensive blog roll that you can browse around by topic and if you haven't taken a look you really should - there's some great blogs on there. Today I'm going to post links to neat sites that I've recently found. They have fun products for moms and/or kids.

1. Simply Sweet Bowtique: Amanda started making bows for her daughter and it grew into an online store where she sells her beautiful bows and bow holders.

2. Planet Mom T-Shirts: Check out these fun shirts with sayings like "Nanny Deprived" and "Seeking Tall, Dark, Rich cup of coffee". {Another mom owned business}

3. Baby Rock Apparel: Not your average kid's clothing store. With phrases like "Elmo Rocks", "Mommy/Daddy Rocks" and "Drama Queen". Plus they make donations to pediatric cancer foundation.

4. The Polkadot Platypus: This is a fun site to check out, even if it's just to window shop. There are many affordable items they sell and have just about everything you could think of when it comes to kids.

5. SuperMomz: This is another site that has just about everything you could think of for mom & baby.

If you'd like to post some of your favorite links go for it and let me know so I can check them out! Thanks for stopping by!

♥

Another Contest

Hurry & go to Mums The Word and check out these great contests they are holding. While you are there browse around the site and subscribe so you can check out great new items, reviews and gift ideas.

The first contest is from SuperMomz. She has products for everything you could need for yourself or your child. There is a four piece dinner set up for grabs at Mums The Word and you can choose from a ballerina or ocean theme. If I win I will be choosing the ballerina theme for my little girl. Take a look around her site, there are so many items to choose from and they are affordable.

Masterpiece Monday {page 4}

Updated: More pages at the bottom

So I had this great advantage over my scrappy sista and thought I may actually catch up on her awesome progress because she's been driving for about 8 hours out of the day. Unfortunately it just didn't happen for me this week. So today I realized that I had to get something done to share with you all and I couldn't let her continue to get ahead of me. While this doesn't count in my efforts to catch up to her it does complete some unfinished pages so it's my own personal progress. I didn't have my printer for a while so I had left some pages unfinished & in need of journaling. So I did the journaling for my pages from last week as well as some from a long time ago. I am still missing a photo on the first page of the first spread but I'll add it & show it to you all once I get it printed. I didn't realize just how many photos are missing from Lydia's album. So one project this week for me will be to see what photos I need to print & stick them in a file so when I'm ready they are all in one place. How do I know what photos I'm missing? Well, the OCD in me wrote out notes for the missing photo including what size I need to crop them to. I've learned {the hard way} that if I don't write something down I forget so now I write down just about everything. Anyways, here's my progress for this week.

These are the pages from last week. So like I said I'm still missing the other photo but I will show you again when I put it on there. Someone commented last week that they were surprised that I put photos of me laboring on my blog. I may not be at my cutest but I still like the photos and people knew ahead of time that I'd want pictures to scrap later. This is a lot of journaling but it was 24 hours of labor so there was a lot to remember. The paper is brown though these photos almost look black. I also added the flowers and stamped 'team rebecca' and 'how i saw it' by the photos. The bottom one came out blurry which is how things looked at the time and my memory is still fuzzy. I had back labor the whole time and being on my side or crouching on my arms and legs while hugging a pillow were the only comfortable positions. Well, not comfortable like a nice fluffy overstuffed chair and half but as comfortable as could be expected.

These are Lydia's ultrasound photos. The top on one the page above was her first at 9 weeks, she looked like a little peanut. The middle photo was taken on my mom's birthday because she kept moving around so much they couldn't listen to her heartbeat and wanted to take a look just to make sure things were okay. The bottom one and all of the photos on the bottom page are of when we found out her sex. I was so excited to be having a little girl! Especially since we already had her name picked out. The same thing happened with my son, only had a boy's name decided on and it all worked out. I loved all of the shots they gave me, profile, her toes, front of her face & the 'girl' shot. There were some other ones of her spinal cord and arms as well but these are the cutest.
These are pages of Lydia's Welcome Baby Shower. It was such great fun. I printed photos of all the decorations to wallet size so they could fit more easily on the pages. I used a combination of three different pattern papers; on that looked like ribbons, one with paisleys and a word collage paper along with two shades of pink textured cardstock & green. The ribbons were left over supplies from decorations. No journaling on these pages, just highlights of the shower.

These are more pages from Lydia's shower. Same papers used and lots of journaling this time. The wallets on these pages are photos of me & each guest as I opened gifts. On each page there is a stack of matted wallets stapled together into a flip book of sorts. This way I can still look at all of the photos but they don't take up as much space.

Thanks for stopping by & taking a look. To see more Masterpiece Monday or show off your own stuff click on the button above with all the flowers on it. Just a reminder - this doesn't have to be scrappy stuff to show off. It can be any creative accomplishment!

♥

Smart Habit Saturday {week 3 August}

It's that time of week again. Time for me to tell you what a SMARTy or a slacker I've been. This week I had a few slacky days and some slacky habits. So here's the breakdown from my handy dandy Joe's Goals tracking sheet. Drinking water, quick pick up & calling Mary Kay hot lines I did each day, clearing the dishes & quick clean kitchen I did 5/7, brushing teeth & washing face 4/7, following schedule 3/7, organizing small space, dinner ready and reading only 2 days.

Some of you asked last week what I would be reading. At the time I wrote it I hadn't decided. I've got a lot of unread books on my shelf. The two days I did read I read Dare to Discipline by Dr. James Dobson. I enjoyed reading and as I predicted once I started I was reading for about 30 minutes rather than just 10. But then Monday came and I didn't pick up a book again all week. Another book I plan to read {again} is The Captain's Choice by {my friend} H.R. Peters. I have read this one but it was before it went to publishing so I want to read it again before the sequel comes out. It's really a great book & if you like the Little Women type stories/movies you'll LOVE this.

This week my new habit is another one that focuses on helping my Mary Kay business grow and achieve my goals. Have I told you that you can earn a free car or the cash equivalent to pay for your own car? That's what I'm going for. I'll keep my own car until I earn the pink Cadillac Escalade! So my new habit is to invite 5 people a week to be my guest at the weekly meetings. I'll track this each Sunday because the meetings are on Mondays. Mary Kay had the 3 foot rule and it's something like this: Everyone within three feet of you is a possible customer, recruit or friend that you just haven't met yet. I'm not going to build my business or develop friendships without talking to people - duh!

Click on the *new* banner above to see what other SMARTy pants are up to & get inspired to start your own habits.

♥

Faithful Friday {week 6}

So I'm a little late remembering that today is Friday and I have this post that I try {really hard} to remember to do. But better late than never right? Right. Though an old co-worker of mine {yes, I used to work an 8-5 and did pretty well too} would respond to that saying with "Better never late". Well duh but that's not so encouraging or forgiving. Speaking of my old 8-5, where did the term 9-5 come from? I've never worked or known anyone who worked from 9-5. Anyways I'm getting off topic and conversations about fertilizer {fancy for cow or other animal poo & dirt} flying through my vents because the wind was blowing in the wrong direction that day. Hmm...I should do a series sharing fun & sometimes 'scary' stories about my old job. What do you think?

Back to Faithful Friday because after all that is why I logged on and started posting rather than rummaging the kitchen for more to snack on while kids & hubby are taking a nap. w00t! for the quiet as a mouse house. Except that mice aren't very quiet, I'll share more in my old work stories. You intrigued yet? Focus people, focus! {speaking more to myself than you all} So I don't have a specific topic this week. But I do have some news. We have found a church! Hallelujah, praise the Lord! {by the way I'm glad you aren't required to know or spell 'Christianese' in order to be a Christian because my spelling is something awful lately} So yes, we have started going to church. It's a little chapel, not with pews but it's still cute, within walking distance from our house. There's a good group of people, around 100-150 and a variety of ages which is great and other children there too. Michael goes to more of a daycare thing than a preschool thing like he did at our old church but that's really my only disappointment. The worship is current & they have drums - do you worship without drums? I can but I much prefer the drums. And the words to the songs are on a projection screen so I'm not fumbling with the kids & song books. After service they get together for lunch, everyone. Plus they have a softball game each Sunday for the guys {or gals} and a few Bible studies going on.

Now, don't get your hopes up about the softball thing. I haven't exercised in quite sometime, in fact I even just misspelled the word exercise until the little red line told me it was wrong that's how out of touch with exercising I am. But If I do step up to bat I'll be sure and have hubby {try his best to} take a picture so you all can see. I used to play bobby sox - girls' softball if you didn't know. But that was 13 - wow - years ago and I haven't done anything close to 'gym' in about 7 - wow - years.

Thanks for stopping by. For more Faithful Friday click on the button up top. By the way, this is post number 150. I'm not sure if that means a) I'm a creative chick with lots of great stuff to talk about, b) I spend too much time on my computer and less time doing really important life changing stuff like laundry or c) I need to get out more. {I'd say a bit of each if you were curious}

♥

Am I Missing Something?

So this may just be my naive unaware only lived in one state narrow minded view of things but it's summer so it's hot & it doesn't rain right? The "doesn't rain" part surely comes from my being raised in sunny California where you can pretty well predict the weather most times of the year without going to weather predicting school or wherever it is that the weather people learn their stuff. Out here in Kentucky I guess things may be different during the summer. We haven't had a thunderstorm for well over a month now, the one little sporadic one we had was too puny to count for anything. And the temperatures are rising. It is supposed to be 105* today. Again, coming from sunny California not so rare but out here people seem more surprised.

Back home when it was hot out we'd cool down at the pool, play in the sprinklers or make a slip & slide {plus the grass would get watered - bonus!} or go to a local water park. Because you know, it's summer and hot and that's just what you do. What happened here when it got hot & wasn't raining? They shut down the splash park by my house so now I can't take the kids to cool down and have some fun in the hot weather. I realize that droughts happen. I remember when I was about 7 or 8 and my parents had to wash the cars on the sidewalks to save water by using it for the lawn at the same time. Because of the no rain issue we can't water our lawns or wash our cars. I hadn't been doing either so no big deal, but no splash park? Meanwhile some businesses have pretty green lawns that people don't even walk on so what's up with that?

This morning when I woke up at 5:00 in the morning to take hubby to work it was already 75* in my house, by 9:00 it was 80*. I called up maintenance to send someone out to fix the problem. After answering all of their questions - are your exterior doors closed? {seriously, you think I'd call about my house being hot and open my doors to the warm outside air?} etc. Then I was asked if it was the fan or the outside unit that was not working. The outside unit wasn't turning on at all and the fan was blowing out warm air. So they say that someone will be out in the next 24 hours. I told her it was supposed to be 105* today and I didn't want my kids napping in 90* temps, or more since the upstairs is always warmer. I also explained that this was not the first problem we've had with the unit. The response I got? "You are lucky, some people's units aren't working at all." Huh?! So I should be so lucky & grateful that I've got warm air blowing out of my fan rather than nothing at all? I turned off the fan because the warm air made it worse. My situation was the same as everyone else whose units weren't working. Maybe if so many people have problems with their air conditioners they aught to install units that are a little newer and work better?

Like I said, I'm sure that this is my naive unaware only lived in one state narrow minded view of things but that doesn't make it less frustrating. Sorry for the vent, thanks for listening.

How is summer weather where you live? And how do you cope with frustrations that come along with that weather?

♥

Masterpiece Monday {page 3}

Sorry today's post is so extremely ridiculously late. I didn't have my card reader to upload my photos for Masterpiece Monday until just now. A friend of hubby's borrowed it and we didn't get it back over the weekend. I know, I know - there's important blog stuff to do. I've got a few minutes before I need to finish getting myself, the kids & house ready before my Mary Kay meeting tonight. {I won't get lost er confused this time!} So I didn't get nearly as much done this week as Chriss{tine} - shocker I know. :P But I did start a spread. These are photos of me while in labor. I still need to add photos, journaling & embellishments but at least it's a start. I hope to have the rest finished by next Monday to show you the finished results as well as more pages. I'm starting to get used to my new routine/schedule and I can see that it's helping me divide my time more productively. Anyways, here's my {partial} pages.

One more thing. If you have some crafty creativeness you would like to share with more people in this blogosphere click on the button that says Masterpiece Monday to add your name to the linky at my friend's page. It's so much more fun to see many people's projects {scrapbook or otherwise} and get inspired!

This is the first page of the spread {spread = 2 page layout}. I know it doesn't look like much but the title took me forever {read: way too long}. I printed out the words about 5 times to get the right size & font thickness, then cut it out {took two attempts to not cut a letter in half} and I still messed up on the heart but by that time I was so done with it. Then I had to cut little itty bitty 1/8 strips of adhesive to get the letters to stick to the page. I ran out of my glue pen and need a new one esp if I ever do this kind of title again. Anyways, I need to print a picture of my sister, Chriss & I when I was still at home during labor, add the journaling from the stories of labor at home and an embellishment.

This is the second page of the spread. This photo of my layout came out a little blurry but the bottom picture really is blurry. I'm still using it because that's what things looked like to me at the time, and still in memory. This title I used a rub on so it was much easier & faster. I still need to add the journaling, it will go over the flower patterned paper.

Smart Habit Saturday {week 2 August}

It's Saturday? Already? Where did the week go? Where did the summer go? I can't believe fall is just around the corner. I love the fall season; cool days, brisk breeze, leaves changing color & falling to the ground. I'm curious what fall out here is going to be like. I'm sure the leaves still change color and fall to the ground but I have heard mixed opinions about the weather.

I've been working on my habits and doing pretty well this week. I didn't stick exactly to my schedule but did refer to it a few times this week. I really want to get this in place before hubby deploys. I need to keep my routine going and have something that feels 'normal' while he's away. Though I realized I will need new motivation. Wanting him to come home to a clean home and dinner being prepared is a large motivator for me so for now checking off this list will have to substitute. If you want to see exactly what I did this week you can look at my Joe's Goals chart. Here's the breakdown: Dishes at night, Quick pick up & Quick clean kitchen was a 7/7 {habit!}, Enjoying me time 6/7 {habit!}, Brushing teeth at night 4/7 {improvement}, Create and follow schedule & Organizing a small space 3/7 {needs work}, Call Mary Kay hot lines 4/4 {habit!}, Washing face at night 1/7 {lame! - need my product}, Dinner ready for hubby 3/5 {not bad for first week}.

I'm still noticing that I do better at taking care of the house than myself. Isn't this a trap that a lot of moms fall into? Often without realizing it. We put everyone & everything before ourselves. Most of the time it's necessary and may not seem like a big deal, I mean - that's part of our job right? Except that if we don't take care of ourselves we get burnt out and we can't take care of our families & homes as well. So my habit this week is to read at least 10 minutes a day. I used to love to read and then sometime after high school didn't as much, then I read when I had to and not as often because I wanted to. I've got a bookshelf full of books, many that I haven't read. I'm sure once I start I'll exceed the 10 minutes but I want to keep it small so I don't feel so overwhelmed and intimidated by it.

I hope you have had a SMART week and if you aren't a SMARTy pants yet, what are you waiting for? Check out the Lazy Organizer by clicking the picture at the top of this post to see how she & others have been SMART and join in on the SMARTness!

♥

Faithful Friday {week 5}

Wow, two weeks in a row I remembered. And this time without any reminders. So last week I started talking about my dry season I'm in, spiritually speaking. I thought I would elaborate more on that but now I'm not sure what more I was planning to say. I'm dry, that about covers it. I really should start keeping notes on things I plan to blog at a later date so that when that date comes I have some reference. Do you like this little button I made? Click on it to read more Faithful Friday from my buddy Kim at Daily Blessings. I'm having fun making these little buttons. I've got lots in store for Masterpiece Monday but you'll have to wait until then to see.

Today's Faithful Friday is inspired by a devotion that was in a newsletter from Wives of Faith that I read today. An excerpt from the 'About Us' section of their website: Wives of Faith is a new group that exists for the purpose of connecting all military wives including active, retired, Reserve and Guard, who are looking for encouragement and friendships with others sharing similar life experiences. Wives of Faith get-togethers provide a way for military spouses to meet each other, connect for a friendly cup of coffee or conversation over lunch, a play date at the park with the kids, or a heart to heart when times get tough. It's our hope that through this group, women will be encouraged in their walk with God through the ups and downs of military life and discover the hope and contentment that we can all have through Christ.

The newsletter I read this morning talked about the times in life when winning does count. I'm not talking about finishing first in a race, breaking records or scoring points. But rather having victories in life, overcoming circumstances & beating the odds. There are spiritual forces in this world and an enemy that wants to defeat you & me, everyone. He wants us distracted & swated from the Truth & to live our lives in fear & without hope. I have had days that I felt nothing was going right, I was failing at everything and it felt as though the world was falling apart around me. But God's mercy is new every morning, I made it through hard times, I was not defeated. As I'm preparing to enter a new season in my life, a season with my husband away at war I need to cling to the truth & peace that surpasses all understanding. I need to claim victory for my husband, my marriage & my family. I can't let the enemy defeat my thoughts, invade my peace or take advantage of my vulnerability. This isn't to say I won't worry or have bad days but I won't be defeated.

♥

Countdown to Christmas {Part 1}

Yes, we are in the middle of a hot record breaking summer {in Kennesee anyway} but it's already starting, at least for me. I love giving gifts and can really get carried away if I let myself. I love the Christmas season. It's always been one of my favorite times of year. Getting a tree, making cookies for friends, sending out the yearly letter & family photo, decorating the house & esp making and/or buying gifts for those that I love. However the list of people that I love has grown over the years and my budget for Christmas hasn't grown at the same rate. It can really get overwhelming especially when things are left until the last minute and I'm a procrastinator so that happens often.

This year I'm going to start planning early so I'm not as overwhelmed and am able to stick to a realistic budget that won't add to our debt or cut into our monthly expenses. Because of all the siblings my parents decided a few children back that we would draw names for gift exchange rather than give everyone a gift. My dad, step mom, siblings & grandmother all get thrown into a bowl on little pieces of paper and it's left up to chance who we buy a gift for. There are 16 people on the list this year and I'm the only child who has children. I can just imagine how large that list will be someday if we continue the tradition. Two new additions to the list are my littlest brother Elijah & my new brother in law Jake. We set a limit of $20 - $50 so no one breaks the bank and everyone gets a nice gift. Part of the gift is also homemade, sometimes the larger part and sometimes something as small as a card. My siblings really enjoy this part. Michael will be old enough to make his own contribution to his drawn name this year. I usually do something scrap related for my part. I figured that even with us now having four names drawn I will still spend less than I would if I bought for everyone on the list.

This year will be different with my hubby deployed. I'll be spending a couple weeks at my parents house so I won't get a tree for our house and won't purchase new decorations beyond the yearly ornament for the kids. I will still send out the yearly letter & photo. We also have other family members to purchase gifts for but this year I have shipping costs to think about. So I'll just need to keep it in mind when shopping. Last year I wrote out a list of who we would purchase gifts for, gift ideas & spending limits for each person. It worked out pretty well so I'll do the same again, but probably cutting down the list some.

For me Christmas is more about spending time with family, carrying out traditions & celebrating the birth of Jesus. Giving gifts is just something that I enjoy doing but don't want to be obsessed over it. If I don't get someone a Christmas gift I can enjoy splurging on them for their birthday, within reasonable limits of course!

How do you plan for the big holiday? Is your focus on gift giving, family traditions, both? If you live away from immediate family members how do you give gifts? Any ideas or suggestions would be helpful to me & I'm sure others reading. From the stats at the end of the year overspending at the holiday is a nationwide issue. By the way, there are only 137 days left until Christmas. The year is almost 3/4 of the way over - where has the time gone? As the day nears closer & I get my plans set and shopping started I'll post more about this so we can all exchange thoughts & ideas. For now enjoy the sunny weather & flip flops!

♥

POP! Quiz

Can you figure out what this item is & what happened to it before taking this picture? There's no prize but you can get bragging rights. Heck I'll even make a little button for you to stick on your blog if you'd like. Not a fancy button but it's not a fancy contest so it works. If you're participating in Wordless Wednesday please leave a comment so I can visit your blog. {This is wordless for me, I'm not a girl of few words} :P


Updated: Most of you got it right. This was a deck of {barely used} cards that were in a pocket on hubby's uniform and went through the washer & dryer. His pants have about 30, okay maybe 8 pockets but it can still be easy to miss checking one while doing laundry. Thanks for visiting! Off to visit you now.

♥

Back to Blogging

With all the SMARTness, showing of my Masterpieces and informing you all about really important information I haven't really been talking much about my actual life outside of the great blogosphere we type in. So here's a list of things that have been going on lately that may or may not interest you.

* I took some pictures of Lydia on her 9 month day, they turned out really cute and I'm excited about that because that means I don't need to take her into a studio where the pictures may or may not come out well, over pay for prints & be manipulated into purchasing the extras they printed 'just in case I changed my mind' and if I don't they'll be burned & who am I to allow such a thing? Isn't that sweet of them to think of my memories {read: their cash register}.
* I still need to take pictures of Michael for his 3 year old photos but am delaying because he hasn't been in such a picture taking mood yesterday and the popsicles are gone so I have nothing left to bribe him with.
* My husband found out that one of his good friends from basic & ait training died in Iraq when the Humvee he was in was hit with an IED. He knew two other people in the same vehicle, one made it out safely and the other was hit with shrapnel. I'm nervous, reality of what he's facing is hitting home and I'm getting scared.
* I was going to go to my first Mary Kay meeting last night but got confused & thought I was lost and by the time I figured out what I did I was too late. I really don't like showing up late so I'll give it another shot next week.
* We have a neighborhood national night out fair of sorts with a {surprise!} cowboy theme tonight. It should be fun, games & fun for the kids and a chance to meet more people.
* We lived for a day without an air conditioner & we were all miserable. Can't remember if I shared that or not. Now it occasionally goes out but we know how to fix it so it's not so bad.
* I spent Sunday trying to cook, do laundry & watch some TV not knowing if my power was going to shut off & how long for. I think the power went off about 10-12 times, no exaggeration. Usually it was for short bits but still - annoying. Luckily no laundry or dinner was harmed in the process.
* I put Lydia's hair in a little pebbles style pony tail on Sunday and it stayed in fairly well. The next day Shawn was inspired by the mo hawk look it left that he gave her a real mo hawk. Cute huh? We tried to give Michael one too but it just wasn't working with his longer hair.
* I think I remembered what I wanted to share. If not there's always another post tomorrow!

Thanks for visiting.

♥