Give Me Some Accountability!!

Time for some confessions. 'Cause I need me some accountability. I must figure out how to blog properly. I know you're wondering what that means so I'll tell you. I need to learn how to make my blog look like all the awesome ones I follow (see left side). I need to learn how to post pictures from my camera! I need to be able to pull things up from all over the internet and post them here. I do projects around my home I'd love to show you, I find and collect great ideas from the blog world that I want to share with you! I need to know how! So, during Hubby's next set of days off it is my mission to 'pick his brain' (he's very good on the computer!) and have him show me HOW! If you don't start seeing some of these changes put into place BUG ME!!! "Mindi, what's up, girl? Where are the pics of that great idea you have about framing a pumpkin, that recipe you tried and loved and the ideas for decorating your loft? Get with it, girl!" That's all you need to tell me, but do tell me!!! Give me a week before the accountability begins...

TIME FOR THIS BLOG TO TAKE OFF!!!!

I'm Baaack!!!!!

After an eternity away from you I have decided to come back. I have been so busy with so much going on (see 'new adventure') that something had to give. Sadly, it was you. But if you'll forgive me I am back and back with a new name, a new layout and design and more 'new' coming!

Oh, and I have new habits and addictions to share with you! Normally I wouldn't share such things but in this case I must!

I am a newly found addicted fan of Pinterest! I love going on and 'pinning' all manner of things from glories of changing seasons to ideas for the house to recipes and the like. Anything and everything is available for you to 'pin' onto your boards and categorize and comment on. Once the girls are in bed I have to force myself to go to bed after an hour on Pinterest! Go to Pinterest.com to get a sampling and an invite to join. Once you request an invite it takes just a few days for you to be able to begin pinning away!

We had a great summer and hope yours was as well! Our vacation this year was a road trip to the east coast to see family and have adventures along the way. We had a blast, the girls were good given the hours they spent in the car and we made many many family memories. And....

I HAVE PICTURES!!!!

Left to right from top to bottom:

Hubby rowing a row boat in Central Park, NYC

Mom (me!) and my girls Central Park, NYC

Buglette inside a giant bubble Central Park, NYC

The girls with Grandpa catching a fish, Pennsylvania

The girls at Steel Stacks Bethlehem, PA

Daddy trying to make driving a little more interesting with a pillow pet on his head

The girls on the carousel at Silver Dollar City Branson, MO

Daddy and the girls crossing over the Colorado River just outside of CA

Have a blessed weekend and we'll talk soon!

Mindi

My Place to Yours: DE-STRESSING with Simple Pleasures ...

My Place to Yours: DE-STRESSING with Simple Pleasures ...

Beautiful photos, Susan! I like to de-stress by putting on some spa-like music, lighting a candle and having either a glass of wine or a cup of tea! Works for me! Have a blessed day!

Ch ch ch changes...

Hi. I know, it's been forever since we've talked. Like, before Christmas. Hopefully we're the kind of friends who can go awhile without talking and then pick up right where we left off. So much has happened I don't quite know where to begin. Let's just go in chronological order...

We were in escrow for a new home in our area a few weeks before Christmas. Escrow fell through due to our loan not going through. Have you ever looked and looked for a new house, finally found one, put the bid in, they accepted the bid, you got pre-qualified and opened escrow, thought and planned and dreamt about what to do with said house, began to pack just a little and then your loan fell through? Never happened to you? Well it did to me and it stunk. Then Christmas came and we had a great one, quiet here at our house on Christmas morning then quiet at my mom and dad's for dinner. The night before Savannah and I were in the program at church. I played Mary (or as the director told me, "an older Mary, she's looking back on Jesus' birth". Yes, that was a bit of a blow to my 37 year old ego) and Savannah read the story from the bible. Bethany couldn't get out of her two-year-old mind that her Mommy was Mary, the manger at the front of the church didn't have a baby in it and that her sister was up on stage instead of sitting with her. She literally talked for weeks about that night.

We were blessed in the gift giving/getting part of Christmas. I asked for new luggage and a new camera but told everyone instead of breaking up the requests and ended up with 2 new cameras and 2 new full sets of luggage. Oops! The girls made out like bandits also. We went to play in the snow about an hour away, saw a movie (Bethany's first and she did great!) and had a date night.

On New Year's day I finally sat down at the computer, after getting the previous house out of my mind and ok, out of my heart too, to look at more houses for sale in our area. I stumbled to the listing for the previous house and to my utter surprise saw that they lowered the price of the house by 50 grand! We spent that day gathering any and all money we could, put in a new offer and found out later that week that the house was ours! We had the quickest escrow known to man, about a week and 2 days, and now we are working with our fabulous general contractor to finish the inside. Whew. I'm excited, stressed and exhausted all at the same time.

The house is a new construction foreclosure so we are saving great money every month going from this mortgage to that one. God is good. The new house is a Mediterranean style 2-story and I've been running around trying to get all the inside stuff picked out. Appliances, backsplashes, sinks, faucets, doors, and lights are a few of the items I've had to make decisions for lately.

Which brings me to the other change that will be taking place. This is a really good, exciting one, though, and involves YOU too! My blog will be changing! I follow many decorating/home blogs in bloggerland and I'm changing my blog to be a bit more like those. I will have plenty of pictures of the new house befores and afters, decorating and yet still have stories and quips and pictures of my family. The new blog will have it all! It won't just be about our family life and my life as wife and mommy but will encompass much more.

Through all of these changes will you stay with me? You may not hear from you for a bit until it's all up and running, the new house and the new blog. But I am here. Going crazy. Excited, stressed and exhausted, crazy.

Dangerous Instincts

This cannot continue. There simply must be an end somewhere. Please. Someone make it stop.

There are babies, babies, everywhere. There were four babies in church alone, yesterday. No, they weren't alone. But if they had been that would be just fine with Hubby and I. We would scoop them up and hold them to our chests, and breathe in that new baby smell. This is beginning to become a problem.

To top it off, over the Thanksgiving holiday we 'babysat' a friend's bunny. You would think that my two girls would be the ones oohing and ahhing all over said bunny but, no. The one carrying Mr. Bunny all over the house like a newborn, rubbing his ears till he fell asleep, and doing the oohing and ahhing was Hubby. Houston, we have a problem.

Then, back to church, there we are in our towards-the-back row trying to concentrate on praise and worship when we've got four little precious faces on their Mommy's shoulders either sleeping or looking around. It is becoming more than I can bear. It is more than I can bear. I cannot bear anymore children. I mean, I could but I don't think I really want to. I beared (is that a word?) 10 hours of labor with Savannah only to be whisked off for an emergency c-section. I beared many sleepless nights (still am sometimes) with baby Bethany who, for some reason, thought sleep would kill her. I am bearing through this same child's terrible twos. I have enough to bear.

But just seeing those babies and, I guess for Hubby, the baby bunny, brings out the maternal and paternal instincts. Some of us have them stronger than others. I don't think my mother still has hers or maybe they're just for her granddaughters. Mine are still there. Hubby has strong paternal instincts. Especially as the daddy to two daughters. It's so attractive, too. To see my big, strong cop and marine get all sweet over babies and a bunny is just so, uh, attractive. You get my drift. He can afford to do that, though. He isn't the one who has to go through pregnancy and then labor and then nursing and not sleeping. Although he was very helpful, at the end of the day there was only so much the guy could do.

So, unless God has other plans, we will not be having any more babies. I've decided, just now talking to you all, remembering not just the good but the bad and the ugly too. And yes, I think my mother would kill us if I became pregnant again. She'd eventually be thrilled but at first, uh, not so much. Pray for her.

Girls Day

The girls and I will be heading to a Children's Museum today. Both of them are home with me all week and while I have lots to do 'round here I must stop and enjoy the joy of them today. We will have a 1.5 hour drive during which we will listen to some fun kid's music in the car, stop for a treat (maybe they'll let me get them a cookie at Starbucks instead of McDonald's!) we'll head to the museum and spend as much time as they want touching and playing with all of the exhibits. This museum has a big 'grocery store' the kids can shop in and ring up groceries in all day. I have no idea why this sounds like fun to my girls but they are looking forward to dressing up in the museum's dress-up section and hittin' the store. Oh wait, I sometimes I get dressed up and hit shops, maybe it's a genetic thing.

For lunch I am planning, wait for it, Chuck E. Cheese's. I told you it was a day for them. I know I am nuts. But see, I have a few shops I need to hit on the way home and I figure I can kinda' sneak them in if the girls are completely tuckered out, sugared up and on the low of that high. We live in an area just far enough away from everything that when I am somewhere I must make the trip count and figure out what else I need/want to do while I'm 'there'. Don't worry, I never want to stay there for too long (the noise and the traffic about do in this small-town girl) but I enjoy for a few hours.

Tomorrow is Christmas decorating, yep, with the girls home. I'll let you know how that goes!

Plus, I've asked for a new camera for Christmas so I will be posting pics soon, soon, soon! Hang in there with me...

Sick

I'm sick today, and yesterday for that matter. I would say I'm "home sick" but I'm always home so that doesn't qualify. I had to drive to San Diego on Saturday for a leadership conference for church and on the way home I had a sneaking suspicion I was coming down with something. After stopping at Starbucks for the second time that day (and at 5:30pm I might add) I made it home.

Yesterday I was much worse. Fever, body aches, cold symptoms, check. Cranky husband who had to put in 'daddy duty' two days in a row, check. Now, I'm sitting on my couch, laptop in hand, hot tea on coffee table staring outside to the backyard. It's cold and windy out after raining this morning. I'm being a super great mom right now... Bethany is watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse in my bed after eating the 'bana' she just asked for (banana) and drinking her milk. I may just let her stay there as long as she wants.

Obviously, I'm still not feeling well. Oh, and I just noticed a ginger snap in the pot of my silk tree in the living room. I noticed it and walked on by. We had ginger snaps in this house about a week and half ago. Seriously, who are these people I'm living with? Here's hoping no cold/flu buggie finds you this season. And may all your store bought cookies stay out of tree pots.