What's Goin' On

I don't have anything great to share. We have been busy getting our house back into order. While we had our hardwood floors refinished, we moved out of our house and stayed at my hubby's grandmother's house. It was great to have a place to be but after a few days, I was dying to come back home. We moved back in a week ago Monday, and lived for a week with no furniture downstairs. We would lay the kids down at night in their beds and then when we were ready for bed, we would move one to the floor and take their bed. It was great be home, but I was still longing for some normalcy. So, last Friday, we moved all our furniture back in and finally had somewhere to sit, somewhere to eat, our own bed to sleep in. HEAVEN!!! I'll try never to take those things for granted. I have spent every minute since trying to bring all our "stuff" back inside from the garage where we stored it. My mom came up and spent Monday and Tuesday with us. We decided to purge our kids' rooms. By the time we were finished, we had taken out 10 bags of trash, 8 bags to the local thrift store, and I have about 5 more bags I'm going to try to consign before I donate. The upstairs looks amazing. My kids are so excited to be able to finally see what toys they have. Less really is more. (The kids haven't even mentioned one thing they miss.)

This morning, I met a dear friend for breakfast, and we had so much fun just talking about our lives. I haven't seen her in about 4 months so it was alot of fun catching up. Afterwards, I decided to treat myself to some shopping. I bought the cutest clothes at Kohls; I got the best snack stuff from BJ's; and of course I had to run into to WalMart. I can't wait to try on my new clothes again and make sure I like them. I got the greatest pants at Kohls. I wanted to wear them out of the store; they were that comfy.

Life is good here but busy. There is always something to do it seems. It is raining today, which is such a blessing. It could honestly rain for days and I wouldn't mind.

Here are a few pictures we had taken while we on vacation. Enjoy!!




Our Family


The Kids


Mr T loses his first tooth and gets glasses

Here's the crazy thing about the glasses. We had them for less than 24 hours before I KNOCKED them off his face and he stepped on them. It took less than a second for the whole thing to happen and YES, they did have to be replaced. Welcome to my world! He now has new ones that fit him like a glove and look even better on my cutie pie, if that's possible.

Clean House, Here We Come

Once again, I have more thoughts than time to write them. We are back in our house. We've been living at my hubby's grandmother's house while our floors have been sanded and re-polyurethaned. The floors are finished now so we are living at home. There is no furniture in my first floor so my fridge, my bed, my sofa, my clothes are all in my garage. We lay the kids down in their beds and then move them to the floor so we'll have somewhere to sleep. Needless to say, I am ready for live to be "right" again. Tonight, we are planning to move everything back in so it won't be long.

Right now, I should be putting my kitchen back together, bringing my clothes back into the closet, or hanging up pictures. What I'd like to do (and in this order) is go back to bed for a long nap, get a shower, go shopping at Wal-Mart and the outlet mall, and watch tv (which I haven't seen in over a week and half.)

As busy as I feel, today is the first day in over 2 weeks where I don't have to go somewhere. I am really enjoying the aloneness and the quiet. I can't stop smiling because I am all alone with nowhere to rush off to (and it seems like these days I'm normally running late.) Hope you all have a great day.

Life at Warp Speed

I have so many thoughts and stories running around in my head so I'm just gonna throw them down on paper. We have been running this week, running to meetings, running to work, running to get it all done. It would not be so bad but I fully expected this week to be lighter but it's been busier.

I got a call Monday night telling me I had work to do. And while I am thankful for the work, staying up until 2 a.m. to finish it is something I would rather have left to my college days. Needless to say, I was dragging all day Tuesday. I got to volunteer in both my kids classrooms, which was a treat. I even got to eat with both my kids. What a sweet day. Here's the best part of the day. The principal caught me as I walked out the door and said she had to talk to me about my kids. I couldn't imagine BOTH my kids getting in trouble at the same time. But, that wasn't it. Both were chosen to get the "Star Student" award for their class for the month. The character trait for the month was "knowledge" so they were chosen based on their "knowledge." Could my head and heart get any bigger with pride? I certainly don't deserve the kids God has blessed me with.

We are still struggling to find gasoline around these parts. I finally found some to fill my hubby's truck up with yesterday. He was filling his truck up with gas from the lawnmower tank to make it back and forth to work and that was running out. I have about half a tank and am about to go out searching when I finish this post. Who knew that gas for my car would be something I would have to worry about. **I added that "for my car" part so you wouldn't think I meant "gas". :)

We took the kids glasses in to be fixed and they informed me it was just a matter of time before my son's broke. So, we get to buy another pair. I could just cry over that. They should make those more indestructible or I'll just have to be more coordinated.

This morning, my son found a dollar in his drawer and came running to inform me that we HAD to go to the dollar store today. He smiled and then I saw it. He was missing a tooth. He lost his first tooth last night in his sleep. My husband was sure he swallowed it, but I found it under his pillow. I can't understand how the tooth fairy missed it, but I'm sure she'll be coming tonight. My son wanted to take the tooth with him to school to show everyone but we talked him out of that.

Today is early release from school so I get to run my niece to gymnastics then go pick up my kids. Then, I hope to get a couple of hours worth of work done (this huge job goes out tomorrow) so that I can go to AWANA with my kids tonight. Mr T got his new Sparks book and has been taking it with him everywhere. He loves that Sparky book. They have new books that come with the coolest CD that basically tells them all the Bible stories that go with the verses they are learning. It's great for my little guy who can't read yet.

UGH!!

My house is completely empty on the main floor. There is nowhere to sit, nothing to write on, nothing. It is depressing and overwhelming all at once. It feels so empty and void, cold and foreign.

My son just got glasses and in my haste to get them for him, I picked them up without him being there. So, they don't fit. He's had them one day and I just knocked them off and he stepped on them, making them the most lopsided things you've ever seen. So, I get to drive at least 30 minutes again to probably pay $100 to have them fixed or replaced.

Can you tell I'm in struggling today? I need a nap but there's nowhere to lay down except on the floor. :) And the floor is too dusty to really down....or I just might sit down and never get up. And I don't want to sweep or dust because on Monday the floor people come begin sanding and refinishing. My life couldn't get any better, I don't think. :)

A Quick Update for the House that is in Transition

I am waiting for some of my work to download on my computer so I have a minute to write. My hubby and I have been "updating" our house. We replaced the tile on our kitchen cabinets. For a week, I didn't have a kitchen sink, oven, or dishwasher. It was hard trying to live in a house without a kitchen sink, but we made it. I'll try to post pictures soon. I have pictures that I took at different stages but don't have any of the finished project.

As soon as we finished the kitchen we moved to the rest of the house and began painting the interior walls. Last Christmas, my hubby finished out some attic space to give the kids a little playroom. After he finished painting it, he went to every room in the house and touched up with left over paint all the spots that need painting. Well, he didn't realize he was using glossy paint to touch up flat paint. So, we had shiny spots on almost every wall in the house. So...we are painting.

The crazy thing is we decided to have our hardwoods resanded and the people are coming next week. So, every non-essential piece of furniture is in the garage. And my house looks like a tornado has hit. It's a mess. I can't even describe how crazy it is around here. And to top it all off, I am back working again for a week or two so I'm busier than ever. So much for those slow, lazy times.

But when it's all done, we won't need to do anything to our house for a very long time. And it's going to look so good. I can't wait.

Pictures are coming soon.

Praise

I am having the best hair day. I know it sounds vain, but I am. And it feels good. :) All day, I've been smiling. It was confirmed when I saw my niece this afternoon and she said, "Your hair looks great today." I know girl, I know. Wish I could pinpoint what made the difference so I could bottle it up and never change it.

A Fun Memory

Today I met my hubby for lunch at the local Mexican restaurant. It was great food and even better company. As we left, we saw several local county government trucks in the parking lot. Each had a bright orange cone behind the trucks. And I just had to giggle. When I worked for the Department of Transportation in college, I got to drive an "official" DOT truck. Whenever I would park the car, I had to put out the orange cone behind the truck. The reason for this is it requires you to walk around the back of the truck before you leave. I'm sure it worked for everyone but me. I cannot tell you how many times I would back out of the parking space and hear the most horrible bumping, dragging sound. Then it'd hit me, "You backed over that stupid cone again." There were even a few times where I would drag silly thing all the way back to the DOT office. So, if you saw a DOT truck going down the road dragging an orange cone underneath about 10 years ago, that was me. I admit it.