Thanksgiving time w/ the fam

Today we are heading to KS to spend the holiday with our family!!  I couldn't be any more excited.  We have been super busy lately.  I got all my fall decor down and am so excited to decorate for Christmas.  This is probably going to sound horrible but I am sure I am not the only one.  I am kind of anal about the Christmas tree, i love decorating it with the kids but always find myself showing them where they should hang their ornament or moving them after they hang them and have left the room so it looks just right.  I did not want to do that this year.  I wanted them to have the tree just like they wanted it... so, we bought them a cute   little tree for the basement family room.  The kid's bedroom's are down there and they spend more time down there then upstairs so it is perfect.  I sat back and watched them do it all on their own (well, besides helping them put on the lights and some ribbon, they had a hard time with that).  The tree is completely their own and they LOVE it.  And momma has her very own Christmas tree upstairs to decorate just like i want.  I am so glad we did it.  I will post pictures later!  I am off to continue getting ready for our trip south!

I will leave you with a picture of my window :)  I love the twinkling lights!

Happy Thanksgiving!!

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I'm back!

Wow!  It has been a long time since I have written anything on here.  Been busy!  Things are slowing down now that summer is over.  Cannot believe i am saying that... summer is over!  I am usually not excited for summer to be over but this year i am so ready for fall.

I had forgotten how therapeutic it is to write.  I am stay at home mommy/wife kinda, i work full time from home also.  This IS my outlet.  I spend a lot of time by myself.  And it is great to get all of my thoughts out there!

Where to even begin with what life is throwing at us right now.  Well for starters, the snakes are back!  I thought we had for sure gotten rid of them.  BUT i am certain that the same momma snake from last year is back with her babies.  Remember her?

Yep, looks the same!!  Me and the girls had an exciting day yesterday trying to get them out of our yard.  But of course as soon as my husband shows up they disappear.  Is this some kind of sick game they are playing on me??  My son loves the snakes though and spent an hour last night digging in their hole to try and find them.

I now have a potty trained 2 year old!  She potty trained herself when she was 2 years and 3months old.  I can honestly say she did it all on her own.  She showed me that if i pushed her she wasn't going to do it, but if i backed off she was perfectly capable.  And did i mention this happened all in the matter of ONE evening. Easiest child to potty train ever!

We have new family members,  last spring we bought bunnies!  The kids showed them at the fair this summer.  They loved every moment of it.

The girls started dance in August.  This has been a promise to them since we moved to Iowa.  ( 3 years ago :/ )  What else, what else, what else....  oh and a very proud momma moment, my 11 year was asked to be in the gifted program at school.  I am glad to see we have not completed failed as parents!  You know when you are wondering if you are doing a good job or not then things like that happen and you realize that you aren't miserably failing after all.  Great feeling.  Although i cannot take any pride in his smarts, he is just so naturally smart... kinda like his dad!

I think that is enough rambling to get me back in full swing blogging mode!  Off to my "me" time for the day.  Cici is napping and the treadmill is calling my name.

Laters!

 

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Sunshine you are my sunshine

Captured a sweet moment while she was playing with her pillowcase doll she made this summer.

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Waiting...

I hate waiting.  I am probably the most impatient person you will ever meet.  When i want something done i want it done right now.  If i have to depend on someone else to do it and it isn't being done within the time frame i want, i do it myself.

Since I had Chasley when i was 17 i decided that i should work instead of going to school after i graduated high school.  I wish i wouldn't have made that decision but i did and i am now paying for it.  Or am I?  For about the past year i have been driven crazy with the constant thoughts of "what am i going to do with my life??"   feeling like i am going to be stuck with a career that i would have never chosen.  And the thought of going to school overwhelms me because like many working mothers i think when will i have the time or the money to do that?  So now after a year of anxiety of no action on getting one step closer to what i want to do i have been wondering why God isn't showing me and giving me a way to accomplish this?  Like he is just supposed to hand it to me or something.  So then i start thinking well maybe i am not praying enough... or searching enough for what it is that i am supposed to do.  So i decided to pray about it more.  But just felt like i was talking but not really connecting or feeling God.  So i talked to my Hubby about it and he gave me some great advice.  He said "well maybe that is the problem... you are talking when you should be listening."  Hmmm... hadn't thought of it that way.  So now in this search of "what am i going to be when i grow up" i am really trying to listen for what it might be God is trying to show me.  Who knows maybe he is saying i have you right where you need to be right now.  :)

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Me + Dirtbike = FAIL

Well...  Syler's dirtbike experienced it's first wreck tonight and it wasn't by Syler.  I decided to give it a try.  Got on with full confidence.  Got it started.  Let off the clutch...  pulled back the throttle... and ahhhhhhhhhh!!!!!  I popped TWO wheelies... that's right, not just one, TWO!  Then proceeded straight towards a barbed wire fence where i then decided it would be a good place to park it.  lol on it's side.  Ok so maybe it crashed not parked.  I couldn't let go of the throttle... i don't know why, but i couldn't and attempted to jump off when i realized i was going into the fence.  I didn't make it off all of the way and quickly crawled out from underneath. I then realized what actually happened and died laughing hysterically along with everyone else that was watching me.  Unfortunately we had company :/  I walked away with minor bruises and only bent the clutch.  So all in all it was a good day!  Syler is still cracking up.  Glad we can all laugh at it now!  From what i hear my legs were flailing and i was flying, just to give you a visual.  Happy Friday!

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a little VARIETY

Whew!  Been a busy last 2 days!  Yesterday was Syler, my stepson's 11th birthday.  I can hardly believe how fast time as flown!  He was about 15 months old when me and his father started dating.  Just a baby!  Now he is turning into a little man!  My camera was being weird yesterday so i don't have the greatest pics but here are a few of him on his special day.  :)

This afternoon was spent in the Dr's office with my Chas.  She has been having stomach issues for while now.  Started with a UA which came back OK, not 100% what it should be, but not enough for antibiotics. So now we get to do stool sampling :)  She is just thrilled about that.  If that comes but with nothing then her Dr. said he has some other testing that he will want to do.  We are also cutting dairy products out of her diet for the next 2 weeks to see if that might have something to do with it.  Ready to get her past this.  My poor baby girl.

When we got home i made dinner then we snarfed it down and headed to the Variety show at the middle school.  Watching all of the jr highers goof off brings back memories of my middle school days.  I loved middle school.  I have such great memories!!  Seems like forever ago though.
The variety show was alot of fun to watch.  There were some really creative ones!

After a long day i don't look or feel so hot!

I will be spending the rest of my time awake right here!

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Sunday bliss...

There is just something about Sundays that just make me feel good.  We start out the day by going to church.  I would be lying if i said i was always chipper and ready to go to church.  I am usually the most tired on Sunday mornings.  And it is the one day that i have to wake up the kids.  I don't get it.  I think the devil is trying to get me down.  But once i get to church my morning usually turns out great.  I love worshiping God and though i wish i could say i give God alot of my time during the week i often find myself leaving him out of my week.  This is something i am working on.  I love him so much and long for more time with him.  But it does take work.  But i am willing to work for it :)  Anyways, once i get past all of the anxiety of getting myself and four kids ready and change my mindset to surrender everything to God for at least one morning my mood quickly changes.  Not that i have never been crabby at church, i have had my days!

After church we usually come home and eat lunch and then RELAX for the rest of the afternoon.  This is one day i try to make myself not work.  It is very hard for me because i feel that i always have to be doing something.  I actually get anxious and nervous feeling if i don't have something to do.  I do struggle with anxiety anyways and actually take some medication to help me with this.  I am really trying to find balance in my life and not feel like i always have to be doing something.  It is the hardest thing for me to sit and watch TV or read a book.  Both things i enjoy doing but i am a go go go all the time type of person.

Yesterday my hubby was scheduled to preach at a nursing home after church and normally we would have gone with him.   I love seeing the sweet elderly and they enjoy the kids so much.  But yesterday i told myself that i was going to lay down and enjoy a nice quiet afternoon while Cici slept and the girls played.  Syler went to a friends house and Chasley had a friend over but i laid in bed and watched TV all afternoon.  I felt great.  Then we had the youth group over and spent the evening outside acting like little kids :)  All adults need to do this every once in a while.  Our driveway is attached to the parking lot and i rode around on a scooter and let me tell ya it is a GREAT workout for your legs.  Might have to do that more often!  Nothing like killing two birds with one stone.  Playing with the kids/ working out.  And Syler rode his dirt bike that he got for Christmas.  He is just finally getting to enjoy it and I can tell he is going to get a lot of use out of this summer.  He keeps begging me to try and ride it... he says he just knows that it will be hilarious.  Who knows i might be a pro!  I will get on it but it will either end badly or he will never get it back ;)  Here are some pics of our evening.

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Snakes:1 Me:0

i woke up this morning with a plan of attack.  I had two things on the agenda.   1) clean house 2) clean out flower bed.  Got the first one done no problem.  The second not so much.  We had an issue with snakes last fall but after we noticed them it cooled down enough that we didn't see them the rest of the winter.  They made an appearance today.  I was on a roll and thought for sure i would get the whole thing cleaned and ready for planting until the first one came out.  I really HATE snakes and once i see one i can't get past it so i decided i was going to get rid of the problem... or try and convince my son to.  I told Syler to go get the shovel and all he had to do was chop it in half.   He was excited until it came time to do it so i grabbed it without giving it any thought and chopped down on the snake.... it was the grossest thing i have EVER done.  I can't kill a bug because of the crunch.  I had to run away because i was gagging so much.  I literally had shivers from being so grossed out.  And i didn't even kill it.  I just gave it a little cut.  But it couldn't really move that well anymore so then i had to figure out how to get rid of it.  Syler was intrigued by this point and raked it into the ditch.  Then Chasley came out to see what we were doing and she started to freak out because she is part of a "nature club" that her and her friends made up and they are not supposed to kill any wildlife.  Way to make me feel HORRIBLE!   But i wasn't going to give up and decided to work on the flower bed again.  But right away saw another snake!  Seriously.  We have a tree in our front yard that they have made a home under so we walked over to see if there were any and there was a bunch.  We need to fix this problem and soon.  I CANNOT handle them and can hardly go in the grass out of fear that i might step on one.  Ok i can't talk about it anymore, i noticed i am making faces just writing about it.

Let's talk about something pleasant.  I am so excited about this outfit that i ordered on Etsy for Cici's 2 year photos.

I ordered it from Avry Couture Creations on Etsy but i just tried to go to her shop on etsy and it is no longer on there.  Bummer!

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Blog look keeps changing...

I just can't seem to find the "perfect" look for my blog.  Until then i will keep playing with it until i get it the way i  want it.  Bare with me here :)

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Holy fabric!

Today i got my fabric order from fabricguru.com.   Ummmm.... i might have ordered too much :/  lol  I think i have enough to cover the entire living room!  I was actually worried i hadn't ordered enough.  At least it is cute and i can prob use it for some other project.

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my list of favorites for the day :)

Here are few things that have put a smile on my face today:

My treadmill, if i go without getting on this thing, i really feel blah.  But once i get on it i get a much needed energy boost.

Nail polish!  I love to have my fingernails painted.  Also gives me a little boost.   It is the little things that help me feel so much better about myself!  It is so important to give yourself time and to take care of yourself.

Birthday invitations.  I am so excited about these.  Aren't they just adorable??  (i know it is a seriously bad photo, my camera on my phone is horrible)  Made them on snapfish.

And last but not least Warm weather!!!!  Makes me want to do this!  (and go to the lake ;) )

HAAAPPPYYYY FRIDAY!!!!

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Ongoing battle

I have been in this ongoing battle with my living room since we moved here.  I had red curtains at our old house and thought i would reuse those at this house.  I picked a honey yellow color and really liked the color... until now.  The room just wasn't doing it for me so i tried  to dress up the curtains by adding some stripes.  I am just not feelin it.

Today i was looking on fabricguru.com and found this gem :)  For only... wait for it...$3.95 per yard!!!!  I didn't know the look i wanted but knew i wanted this for the curtains.

I am thinking a greyish brown color would look great on the walls.  I want something that black and white photos will really look good on.  These are some colors that i thought would look good.

I have black leather furniture.  So it would go good with these colors too.

In other news.  Syler had a music program last night.  I didn't find out that he had a music program until he walked in the door at 4:30 and told me he had to be there at 6:45.  After i whined like a baby for a few mins  we moved quickly along to get dinner and get out the door.  Here are some snapshots of our night.

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Ahhhhh... Monday

I really do love Mondays.  They are kind of refreshing to me.  Especially now that it is getting warm outside.  I work from home so i am busy on Monday's but i get some time to myself when Cici is sleeping. (I also like when she is awake too, she is in  great mood on Mondays.  But now that the weather is getting nicer i have had the windows open and my house smells AMAZING!

I have a great lunch date every day :)

 Doesn't she have the most beautiful lashes???

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