Joys of Painting!

Our front bathroom was in great need of a fresh coat of paint. So, I just spent the last hour in there painting away. I have one coat done in the whole thing and just have a second coat to do in about 2/3 of it. I'm glad to know that it won't take me more than another hour to finish it up! Yeah!

4 Year Anniversary

Kyle and I both missed our 4 year anniversary (June 19) while he was gallivanting around Mexico and me, Idaho. So, we have a sitter lined up tonight and we're going to dinner, a movie and to pick out water bottles at REI. I know, it's amazing, isn't it? Water bottles at REI for our anniversary! We've been wanting new high quality water bottles for quite some time now and REI is kinda far away. But, we decided to eat at California Pizza Kitchen tonight and there is a theater right there, too. So, we can kill all our birds with one stone, it's pretty awesome. My Mom and Grandma are wonderful and gave us a little $$ for our anniversary, and we have free movie tickets! Yeah!

I'm an Idiot

This morning at put some lentils on the stove to cook (I add them to Maddox's oatmeal). I brought them to a boil and then lowered the temperature to simmer them until they were done. At one point I checked them and they were almost done. I left to go grocery shopping (this is where the idiot part comes in). I opened the door and instantly smelled nasty burning stuff. I burnt my lentils to a crisp. Obviously, I forgot about them and am so thankful nothing caught on fire!!! Currently, I have my entire house opened up trying to get the stink out. Yuck, yuck, yuck. See if I ever leave something on the stove without a timer set again!

Life Without a Dog

It's a glorious life!

It's strange because I expect to hear her trotting around the house, and I don't. I expect to have 2 eyes on me practically at all times, and I don't. I expect to have one more thing expecting me to feed them, and I don't.

It's weird, but VERY liberating!!!

I can focus more time on other things than an anxious dog, it truly is glorious.

And, I know that she is loving her new life of sleeping in beds :-)

Great Trip!

I've spent the last week visiting my family with Maddox and it's been really fun! Kyle was in Mexico with our church and I don't like being home alone, so decided to take advantage of his time away and spend the week with my parents, grandparents, younger brother and his wife. We went up the mountains for a couple of relaxing days at Nicole's aunt's condo. If only chasing a 16 month old was really relaxing!

Now, it's back home to house with one less family member :-( Faile was pickd up on Friday night. But, no more sweeping up dustpan full after dustpan full of doggy hair. It sounds like she is having a blast at her new home. She's even sleeping in their bed! Oh dear.

Venessa Had Her Baby!!!

Justus Aaron arrived early this morning at 12:06am and weighed 8lbs. 14oz! From talking to Venessa's mom, Justus's delivery was about as traumatic as Maddox's (he got very stuck). But, everybody is doing great and we're so happy to hear that he's here!

Our Dog

We have a found a new home for our dog.

I was not sad last week, today, I am. The thought of her no longer being apart of our family makes me sad. Even though, there are so many reasons why we made the family decision to get rid of her, the reality of it is that it's hard to say goodbye to a family member.

I don't know how I'll handle it when the time comes, I'm sure I'll cry, a lot. But, I need to keep reminding myself that she is going to a much better home that will give her much more of what she needs.

Dang it, this is hard!

I LOVE My Son

This evening we were having some good 'ol family play time. Maddox has learned how to ride on my back while I walk on my hands and knees. It's a little scary because he doesn't full understand the whole "hang on" thing, but he's learning. At one point he totally rested his head on my back and it was just so sweet and then a little later I just said, "I haven't had a hug or a kiss in days!", and he leans over plants a big 'ol kiss on my cheek and gives me a hug. He's a sweetie pie, that one!

Yes, it's war paint. That's what you get when you hang out with youth and play youth games!

I *heart* Costco

I know Costco recently changed their return policy that you can't return electronics past 90 days after you purchased them. But, hey, that's still 90 days longer than most stores!

So, let me take you back 2 years ago. I'm newly pregnant, just 4 weeks along. In fact, I haven't even told my parents that I was pregnant yet because I was waiting for their visit in just 2 days to be able to tell them in person.

Back to the real story.

Kyle and I are so excited about being pregnant, our digital camera is on the fritz, so we decide that a new camera is definitely something we need if we're having a baby. We drive to trusty 'ol Costco and buy ourselves a digital camera that is "highly recommended" by the employee in the electronics department. We bring it home, mess around with it and discover that the pictures are terrible. Back to Costo we drive to return it. Most stores (ie. Target) won't even return an electronic item if you've opened the box, but, Costco is fabulous. There is nothing in store that we like that is in our price range, so we go home and order a Canon Power Shot online from Costco.com.

We get it we love it, it's a great camera and we use it religiously for a long time, well, almost 2 years to the date, in fact. Then, one day, the zoom control starts sticking. And, I'm thinking to myself, "I don't want to spend another $200 on a camera, we didn't buy this one that long ago!". Then, that little light bulb goes on in my head like in the cartoons and I remember where we bought our camera, "oh yes! Costco, they'll totally return it!"

I dig around in my Gmail inbox and I come across the receipt, I print it and take it to the store to see if they'll return it. Sure enough, the customer service lady says that if I bring it in by June 17th, they'll take it back (I guess that when we bought it they had a 2 year return policy). I come home and start digging around the box. *gasp* I must have thrown it away! BUT, I did have EVERYTHING else, the memory card, the cable, everything.

I put off going back because I dreaded them saying "oh, you don't have the box, we can't return it. But, I knew it was worth a try and if they did by chance say they could return it, it would save us like $200. So, I prayed all the way to Costco today, "Lord, please let them take it back". I got up to the customer service counter and the lady hums and haws a little bit, but she returned it and give me CASH back including the shipping cost! I can't stand not being without a camera, so I bought a new Canon Power Shot while I was there for just a $18 difference.

I don't like making big purchases like that without Kyle, but he was home babysitting a sleeping boy, and I didn't want to drive back later since the next 3 days are packed for us and I need a new one by Sunday. But, apparently, I made a good choice because of all the cameras at Costco and Costco.com Cnet.com rated this one the highest.

That's why I *heart* Costco.

This is for you, Shelley.

To the one who obsessively checks my blog.

Maddox has figured out that things slide really easily on our hard wood floors, so he's started rearranging my furniture. If it wasn't bad enough that he puts EVERYTHING on the floor, he's now pushing it all around with my furniture he is rearranging. Oh well, such is life when you have somebody this cute around!

And, just because I love Shelley SO much, I'm even including pictures!

My Little Model

Oooo...Weeds!

Opinions Needed!

I've been experimenting lately with knitting vs. crocheting and all sorts of different patterns. Some hats have turned pretty cute, others, not-so-much. It's hard only having 2 head sizes (Kyle's and my head are the same size) around here and only one cooperative person. Maddox sees me coming with a hat to try on his head and he runs. Yes, runs.

So, I made a hat in my size and I think it turned out cute, but I need some opinions.


What's your opinion? Should I take the brim off? Should the brim be wider? Ultimately, I just want to make these for little girls with a flower on the side (like the one from my post further down). I make a totally different style for boys, this is a little on the girley side in m opinion.

Dumb Kitchen

I hate being in the kitchen all day long. I HATE it. Between fixing breakfast, cleaning up breakfast, preparing snacks & cleaning up snacks, fixing lunch, cleaning up lunch, cooking dinner and cleaning up dinner I feel like there are days when I never leave the kitchen.

Dumb kitchen.

Granted, Kyle does help clean up the kitchen after dinner, but aside from that he's working during the day, so it's just me doing all the cooking and cleaning up. I think that's why my kitchen can get out of control, I'm just tired of being in there!

Sorry, just needed to rant.

Picture from art.com

Wall Vinyls

My parents are entrepreneurs and opened a consignment furniture store a few years back, within a year, they transitioned to a women's consignment clothing boutique. I look forward to my trips to visit because that means clothes shopping! I can get so much bang for my buck, it's great.

Recently, my parents decided to start a small marketing company and they started by buying a vinyl cutting machine and can now make wall vinyls like you can see in the picture. This is a very popular thing to do right now! Their website isn't fully functional yet, but once it is I'll post the link here so you can go check it out. Their prices are amazing! In the mean-time, you can check out their Etsy store here (I've also linked to it in my side-bar) They can custom make any saying that you want and they have numerous color options.

If you have a small business that you'd like to advertise on your car windows, they can make those as well as business cards.

2 Hospital Visits in 1 Week!

Thankfully, they're for good reasons!

A friend from church had her little girl last Thursday and we made it up to the hospital on Friday to meet her. Such a cutie pie!

My dear friend Molly had her little boy today and we're headed up to the hospital in just a little bit to meet him!

I'm so thankful they both arrived safe and sound and I hope that their Mommy's recover quickly!

Today's Challenge

I've really been challenged today. First, through what we talked about in High School Sunday School this morning and then again through what I teaching the girls today. We watched this video about a girl that died in 10th grade of heart disease and what an amazing impact she had on those around her for Christ. It made me wonder if I were to die today if I would leave a legacy like that.

Of all the relationships in this world, my relationship with Christ is the most important one. But, honestly, is the one relationship in my life that I invest the least amount of time in. That's scary to me.

I'm teaching the high school girls tonight about image and what our soul reflects.

Proverbs 27:19- As water reflects a face, so a man's heart reflects the man. (NIV)

What does my soul reflect? Unfortunately, not nearly enough of the joy that I have in Christ.

I'm really going to start working on that.