Use It or Loose It

If I was dorky enough to admit that I have a motto, this would probably be it.

There are few things that put me in a bad mood faster than piles of stuff and useless junk laying around my house. And yes dear, I put your Dickies in one or both of those two categories, which is why they are no longer with us.

This especially comes into play with family heirlooms. If you really want to honor your loved ones than use it, display it, or give it to someone that will!

So, when my Mom told me that she had some of my Grandma's jewelry for us girls to look through, I was a little bit concerned. I didn't want to hurt my Mom's feelings by not taking anything, but I didn't want stuff that was just going to sit at the bottom of a jewelry box either.

Turns out, my Grandma had a thing for gaudy silver jewelry... So do I!

Then she brought out some of my Great Grandma's jewelry. She had a huge thing for butterflies... Me, not so much.

However, there was this one silver pin that I wanted as soon as I laid eyes on it. The trick was that my Mom kind of wanted it too.

I wanted it more.

Sorry Mom!

So today I wore my little butterfly pin to church. Not on my shirt though....

In my hair!

Thinking of you Grandma!

Making the most of a rainy day

The End

What's more important?

Teaching your children how to cook, or...

teaching them how to make Chocolate chip cookies!

If I actually knew how to cook or maybe even enjoyed it I might put that in the top 15 things I want to teach my kids. As it stands, it ranks more like number 675.

Cookies on the other hand, are a whole different story.

I of course learned the art of cookie making from my mother, and have been teaching Samm for a while now. So, yesterday I decided it was time to start Macy down the path of learning what a kitchen is really meant for.

And since it was Monday and we needed some sort of activity for Family Home Evening, it was the perfect opportunity.

PS. To any of you that we delivered cookies to. I'm sorry that they were a little underdone, and if there were any egg shells. I let Samm crack the eggs.

Macy thought she was pretty hot stuff.

Samm kept trying to sneak her fingers into the bowl when she thought I wasn't looking.

Gravitating towards the goodness.

James didn't really want to help make the cookies, but he sure showed up for the

important part.

Yep, it was that good.

So now, here is my other question. Just out of curiosity, what type of chocolate chips do you prefer? See my poll in the top right corner.

My husband is a milk chocolate kind of guy, but I think that is too much sweetness. And, up until just recently I have been a semi-sweet kind of girl. Now I am in love with the bittersweet chips. Yum!

So, we have a house divided.

Only time will tell what the kids prefer, but I'm pretty confident they will side with me.

Oh ya, and Go Jaguars!

Today

I love the first Sunday of every month! I may be one of very few people that really do. I love that for one day out of the month I can go all day without eating and not get the headache that would usually be lurking around the corner somewhere after a missed morning snack because It is the one day that I can stop thinking mostly about myself, (because I really am a selfish person) and focus all my love and concern for other people.

After a ward wide email from our bishop, I woke up this morning prepared to fast and pray for a very special family that is battling a second round of chemotherapy and anyone else who might be fighting their own hidden battles.

It wasn't until I got to church that I realized how many of those other people I really was fasting and praying for.

A family deeply in mourning for the tragic loss of their son-in-law just this morning, A dear friend struggling with difficult health issues, another friend who seems to just be going through one of those rough patches, and many others who are struggling silently.

So, I took to heart the article in the ensign that Josh showed me this morning called toothpaste on the mirror If you haven't read it yet, you should. It's very short and a great reminder of what's really important.

And I decided to try to do everything I could today to be a better person.

So, today I played a silly game with two of my kids because they are so hungry for any attention I give them.

Today, instead of just smiling at people in the hall as I walked by, I said "Hello" and called them by name.

Today, I worried more about what I could learn in church than what I would wear to church.

Today I reached out to give a loving touch to a man I hardly know because he is suffering

Today I put aside some major insecurities about being judged and criticized and signed up for the ward talent show.

Today I poured out my heart to the Lord and wept with gratitude for all the blessing I have been given, but feel so unworthy of.

Today I was truly happy!

quick update

Here's the break down...

Josh left Tuesday morning for a month of rural health care in Idabel Oklahoma. I don't know anything about it except that it is VERY backwoods country. Josh tells me that the people are extremely nice though and he's even had a few invites to the county fair.

Tuesday morning James wakes up with a fever and is coughing really bad....Great

Wednesday James is still sick and Macy is starting to feel warm and is coughing. A phone call from a friend informs us that the kids who were at our house on Monday have strep. (No hard feelings at all, it was a fun get together.)

Thursday James finally goes back to school, but Macy hasn't slept in 24hours which translates into no sleep for Mom. Mom is also starting to feel achy and congested.

Friday we take a trip to the Doctor's office for a throat culture and wait for Dad to get home to take care of us during his two days off.

All of this going on while I'm trying to work on my big project which turns out is going to be a lot more work than I had anticipated.

Were Surviving!

More curtains

I feel like a lot of my posts lately have been look-at-me-type posts. You know, tooting my own horn. I'm just in one of those project moods where I want to be doing stuff. I go through cycles from time to time, when I'm really excited to make stuff or paint, and then other times when I don't have any desire to do anything.

So, doot doodle doo, here is the valence I made for our kitchen window to match the curtains in our dining room.

As soon as I hung up this valence I LOVED it, which then made me only like the curtains, which then made me sad because I spent so much time on the curtains. What do you all think? If you need to compare just scroll down a little. Overall though, I'm just really excited to have both of them done, because I bought the fabric quite a while ago.

Another project is coming soon, but it's a BIG, no HUGE one so it may take a while depending on the amount of motivation I have.

Seven months old.

To see some cute pictures of Macy click HERE I'm really hoping there's no question as to what the customer name is, but just in case it's SALLY ROLLINS.

Do you play?

So, Josh got me a guitar for my birthday this year which I am really excited about. So excited in fact that I went straight down to the music store to get a book about basic chords and then I went home and snapped one of the strings while I was trying to tune it.

In my defense, Josh didn't tell me that he had tightened all the strings because he thought they were too loose. I was way too embarrassed to go back the next day and ask the same girl for new strings though, so I sat in the car like a little kid while Josh went in for me....so very noble of him.

The first couple of days I was OK with memorizing chords and icing my very sore fingers, but then I got impatient as I always do and went digging through my music to find some actual songs. I want to play and sing.

As a side note, here is a little known fact about me. I Love to sing and seriously wish that I could be Taylor Swift, minus the being a teenager part because who wants to do that again!? Unfortunately not only do I not sing nearly well enough to make a profession out of it, but I'm also a little bit shy when it comes to singing in front of people. I guess I just have to stick to daydreaming in my living room.

Back to the whole point of this ramble... I ended up finding two songs that only have a few simple chords repeated over and over. Concrete Angle by Martina McBride, and Breathe by Faith Hill. I love both of those songs and although Josh has assured me that he isn't sick of hearing them I would like to add a few more to my repertoire.

So, I'm wondering if any of you that play could give me a few suggestions on good beginner songs. My fingers are finally starting to get calloused so now I can practice for more than an hour every other night.

Change is good

I realize that I'm a few days late in posting my first day of school pictures, but aside from the fact that two of my three kids are gone most of the day, I'm still really busy. How exactly does that happen? Where is all the time I was planning to use to clean my bathroom, scrapbook, exercise, read, and play with my baby? Well, wherever it went, one thing is for sure, I've discovered pretty quickly that I'm going to have to downgrade my list....I'm thinking the toilets will be the first to go.

How cute are these two kids!!

Well, it's no secret that I have been looking forward to this day for a very long time, but it turns out that I was not as prepared for it as I thought I would be. I thought for sure I would have a harder time with James going to school than Samm, especially since she went to preschool all last year, but James is one exhausting boy so I was really glad to send him out the door. On the other hand, sending Samm off that first morning was really emotional for me, more so than I would have ever imagined. My little girl is growing up!!!

OK, and just maybe sending her off on the bus with this shady looking character had something to do with how stressed I was that morning.

What happened to the cranky old lady or that fat old man bus drivers?

Well, she made it home so I guess he's OK. Actually she isn't riding the bus in the morning anymore since I have to drive James to preschool, and the afternoon driver is different so you don't have to worry about her at all.

Overall both kids are loving school and Samm even started soccer this week so look forward to some pictures of her first game. She looks so cute with all her gear on. Wow, I guess I really have morphed into . soccer Mom, That's kind of scary, but fun too in a my kids are growing up and becoming fun little people kind of way.

Are you ready for this

OK people, get ready because this is marathon blogging....basically I'm combining about five posts into one, so if your not in the mood for lots of pictures than just move on to a different blog. I won't be offended!

So to pick up where I last left off, here are a few more pictures from my trip to Oregon...

Samm found this enormous blackberry in my parents garden.

We took the kids to a splash park for some outdoor fun.

While we were there my Mom gave us girls some jewelry that had belonged to my Grandmother. These earrings were in the bag and I thought they would make great dress up jewelry. Auntie Jenn glammed her up with the sunglasses and hair piece. Samm liked the curly hair so much that she asked if she could wear it on the airplane. It wasn't until we went through security and Samm set off the alarm twice that I realized how much metal was in it.

The highlight and whole reason for the trip was to welcome home my sister Krista from her mission in Argentina. She had no idea that we were all coming, so it was a fun surprise.

And then there was the fun three plane rides with three kids to get home. At least none of those got cancelled. That happened on the way there.

This pretty much sums up how I felt by the end of the day!

Then, waiting for us at home in our garden was this very large cucumber. It needed to get picked probably a week or two earlier to still be good, but since this is my first attempt at growing any food, I was still pretty excited.

The kids are loving the vegetable garden too.

And finally...DOOTDOODLE DOO (that would be me tooting my own horn Keith!) I just finished a little project that I have been working on since before I left town.

What started out as this...

After many many frustrating hours and a few ripped out seams...

Turned into curtains for our dining room!!!

I don't sew very often, mostly because I get so dang frustrated with the machine, so I'm pretty proud of myself for actually making these curtains all by myself. (Thanks Joni for letting me borrow your sewing machine and curtain panel so I could have something to follow)

So there you have it! I had a really great time in Oregon with my family. Traci and Anne it was great to see you guys too. But it is nice to be back home and now I'm running around crazy trying to get Samm ready for school.