It has finally hit me. . .

For years I have looked at other women, and thought... wow.

They have a LOT to do.

Why are they so busy?

They must over schedule their kids (yes, I judge sometimes... you do too.)

Why doesn't any one have time?

Why are they so harried?

What do they have going on in their lives that I don't?

Well my friends.

After 11 1/2 years of marriage,

and 10 moves,

and 4 children.

I have finally discovered what it is that makes you all so busy.

LIFE.

Today went as such:

Wake Up: 6:30

Walk for 30 mins

Make breakfast: 7:00

Eat breakfast and feed for kids 7:30

Read Scriptures: 8:00

Send kids to school: 8:20

Finish work out: 8:30

Do laundry 9:00 (On going)

Go to Lowes to pick up plants 9-10

Take home plants, get them out of car, do other various things in the garage along with field 3-4 phone calls. 10-11

Talk to landscaper 11:00-11:15

Take Wade to Preschool 11:15 (anyone notice I have yet to take a shower??? ???????? I HAVE!!!!!!!)

Drop off Wade 11:30

Go to Target: 11:45-12:30

Get home and shove a sandwich that my sweet husband made 12:45-1:00.

Respond to more phone calls/e-mails 1:00-1:15

TAKE A SHOWER>...FINALLY! 1:15-1:30

Make a mad dash to pick up Wade: 1:45

Go to Grocery store for Dinner for missionaries that they JUST called to remind me about 2:00-2:35.

Unload groceries and load dishes in dishwasher 2:35-2:50

Go to Scouts (NEW CALLING) 2:50-4:15

Come home and make dinner for Missionaries 4:15-5:00

Make Brownies for missionaries while they are standing in your kitchen and completely forget the sugar in the brownies. 5:10.

Clean up Dinner 6:00

Find pump and needle for basketball pump up: 6:45.

Decide you need to go to yet ANOTHER store 7:00 p.m.

Get home at 8:30

Field more phone calls 8:30-9:00.

Apologize to people for having it take you 4 hours to call them back.

Make a to do list for tomorrow 9:15.

Do something mindless for 45 minutes and decide to write a blog post about how you finally get what those "busy" people were doing all that time.

I get it.

Swiper the _____?

You be the judge.

Birthday Bayblade Blast

(i am almost certain this picture was taken by wade.....)

Jaxon has never had a birthday party. . . I know. It is kind of sad. But we have never had a birthday party for him because he has A) Never had enough friends and B) has never really cared.

But this year, he cared. As a matter of fact, all he ever talked about was HIS BIRTHDAY PARTY WITH FRIENDS!!!

{crickets}

That was an inside joke.. Jaxon says "crickets" all the time if there is a lapse in talking.

Anyway, he picked a BAD time to care, since we just moved in and he still has no friends.


Peter insisted on being in charge of the festivities, which I was completely happy to bag. I have a few other things going on, so, it was fine...

He had a very distinct vision of cupcakes that he would make.. It would be like an Ocean.. with a shark.. eating a smaller fish....





I said, I think you could roll the dough into a circle and cut out a mouth... kinda like Pac Man.... I think you can see who has the REAL creative vision in the family.




I think you can see how he liked it.


My sweet boy had all the patience in the world while he did homework, ate dinner and waited and waited to open those presents!!!

My neighbor came by a few days ago to introduce herself, and I in return said, WILL YOU PLEASE COME BE OUR BIRTHDAY PARTY? She brought her kids (3) and gift and an extension cord so we could try to put some dents in our wall by playing with a PINATA.. Another Jaxon "must-have" item.

Believe me, that was the most exciting Pinata I have ever seen!! I was sweating BULLETS!

But in the end, he had an amazing time, and an amazing birthday...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JAXON! WE HOPE 8 IS GREAT!

On a Bender

I went on a painting bender this weekend.

Painting is hard on a body. I wasn't even painting WALLS! I was painting Abby's furniture for her room so that I can GET to my walls, because I promised...

Anyway, I got to work on her desk, and some boxes that I have had in my playroom for... hmmm.. I don't know, 7 years???? They will no longer fit in the play room, and we had designs to get a trunk for the end of Abby's bed to hold her THOUSANDS of stuffed animals, but, why buy a trunk when you have a perfectly good set of box cubes that you can paint and put in her room?

The answer to that why question is, you just don't buy a trunk, you fix it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without..... Most of the time.

I also have a dresser I need to paint for her, and it is not yet under way... HOWEVER,

I have taken that mirror off the dresser and it is now serving a useful purpose.... Want to see?

I took the corroded mirror off of this little mount that was attached to her dresser. This is a picture of it upside down, but you get the idea.

And I painted it up like this. .




Can you believe those little rosettes? They were fastened on to that antique wood with the oldest rustiest nail... And that is it. They were just simple little pieces of wood. So cute.

I will tell you the paint that I used for BOTH of these projects, was seriously just a sample can of paint for $2.65 at home depot. It has done both jobs, and I am nearly through with it. Can you believe that? As Wade would say, "BOOYA YOU DIE". (Ps- That is Abby's cute desk that is getting primed under that frame. Cute huh? Don't let it fool you, it was a NIGHTMARE!)

Anywho....
I grabbed a few supplies at the store, mainly Michaels, and made Abby a super cute cork board that she can put stuff up on...
Some spray adhesive, cork, and some foam core cut to back your frame. It is nice to use the foam core, because you can punch holes in it, and the cork is thin, so, it will help hold the pins in when the board is up.

Measure you cork. Spray your board generously and voila. . . .


So easy.

Then, you take a look at the handle pulls that you just pulled off Abby's dresser... Unfortunately, you are not going to be able to use them, because there were a few missing.

So you make your kids sand them.



And you take pictures of them, because they are ANCIENT, and look how darn cute they are! You can't even believe how old these puppies are...





Then you prime them, and stick tacks to them with a hot glue gun with your disgusting looking hands that are covered in paint primer, glue and spray adhesive....




And then you paint them that crazy turquoise color and suddenly they look like little candies, and you can't stand how cute they are... or at least I can't anyway.

Can't wait to put it up in her room!

Boxing Out

The other night, I had a dream. It was about boxes... I was frantically searching around for boxes before a big move.

Story of my life right?

I was frantic, and wasn't sure I was going to be able to find enough boxes. I was searching high and low and I am pretty sure I broke into a sweat. . . in my sleep.

I woke up and thought, woah. THAT was a crazy dream.

I am purging boxes out of my house like nobody's business right now. I am tossing them out on the curb, and I hope to NEVER see them again.

I have a little confession, with living in rentals for the last three years, one knows they are going to be moving. Sometime, in the near future.

I kept boxes.

I never unpacked boxes.

I have things in my bedroom currently that I haven't seen for at least two years!

I folded up boxes and lined the walls of my garage with them.

I hid them in my food pantry,

my closets

and my basement.

I hoarded boxes.

And now. . .

I AM GETTING RID OF THEM!!!!!

Almost done.

Sneak Peak

I promised Abby that I would decorate her room FIRST. I have had a hard time keeping to that promise because with unpacking comes some level of decorating. But when I found myself dreaming of painting my dining room and making curtains, I recommitted myself to doing her room FIRST!!!! (I'm easily sidetracked...)

Anyway, since we moved on her ACTUAL birthday this year, her birthday was pretty lackluster. . . as was Peter's, which is a day later. My gift to her was her California room re-do. As I mentioned before, I let her pick out the bedspread, and we built from there. If you want to see my design ideas, you can go HERE.

One of the things that I acquired for her room I had actually bought probably 1 1/2 years ago. I.know. I had EVERY intention of painting it and putting it in her room, but I am SO glad I didn't... Who knows what color I would have painted it.. and since I can't take it apart, it was a COMPLETE beast to paint. And it had this high gloss finish wich I didn't exactly want to take the time to sand off. . . It sat in our garage untouched for that year and a half, and when I was outside painting it this week, I said to Peter, "Why did I not do this before!!?!?" And he said, because you would have died a heat stroke.... True. So. True. (PS- it was $10-- Garage Sale)


SO, I decided to go with a "beachy" feel.

I have been completely amazed by the blog Better After, which features big ol' pieces of wooden junk that people have refinished. I am no where NEAR at the level of ability that most of these people are. . that said, I like to think I can do just about anything. SO, I gave it a whirl.

I wanted to paint it all white, but since I am keeping the walls in her room white (for now) I decided it needed a little punch of color. THat is when things got messy, because when you can't take a shelf apart to paint indiviual pieces, you better believe there was turqoise all over that thing... Oh well, after a quick conversation with a new friend, (HI MARCIE!) she convinced me to just "knock the paint off" and forget about touch ups and antiquing. . .


I did just that, and I couldn't be more pleased with the results. . . That nice weathered look makes it feel like I just pulled it out of an old beach house. . .

You can't see them well, but the nobs are old glass antique nobs, and they look just great! You can see the cord hanging down from the shelf. It actually lights up! LOVE!

I can't show you the rest of her room yet, because it isn't finished, and I am hoping that it will motivate me to hurry up! But.. since I can't resist... I will show you her bed. . .

Cute huh? How do you like the disco lamp? Jaxon gave that to me a few years ago for my birthday, because he said it was "sparkly" and "girls like sparkly things..." So true Jaxon, so true. Since I never got a chance to return it (PETER WOULDN'T LET ME!) I kept it.... in a box... and now it has found a very welcome home. :) Ps- Someday, I am going to make Abby a new headboard with black and white polka dots! Can't wait!

Decorate on a Dime

here that I am SUPER excited to be able to decorate a house again. There is nothing like making a house your HOME. I can't wait. Three years was a long time to feel like you are living in someone else's space. I commend those of you who do it all the time.

I didn't realize all of the anxiety that living in that house was giving me... but, not having a working dishwasher for 4 months will do that to a person.. Especially after you are done hand washing dishes for 6 people.

ANYWAY... Our main issues in this house are STORAGE. It is seriously lacking... unless you are in the garage, and then there is plenty. However, if you have kids in your home and run a couple of businesses out of your home you know that you have to have some of your "storage" inside.

One of the things I LOVE doing is finding great decorations on the cheap. I kinda pride myself every time. For example. We needed a couple of new bookcases to store some books. I found one I loved in Pier One.


Behold: The Nicolina Bookcase from Pier One. $349.
Behold: The Montego Bookcase from Home Decorators Collection: $79 plus free shipping yesterday... which I got.

SQUEE!


Now for more storage in the family room. Like the look of this console... Originally $599 from Ballard Designs. Totally my favorite place for design ideas.. I tear page after page after page out of that catalog for ideas... It is on sale right now for $399.


Behold: The Essex console from Home Decorator's Collection. ALMOST the exact same thing.


$209 and Free shipping yesterday! I love it! I can't wait to show you my room re-dos!

Free Bird

Well, hello blog.

I have missed you.

Well, missed is the wrong word.

I have neglected you?

Yeah, that sounds more like it.

Blogging, for a long time, was my only method of processing a difficult time in my life.

Guess what.

Things aren't difficult right now.

As a matter of fact, they are amazing.

And I feel like a free bird.

I knew that eventually we would rise up.

But, three years was going on a long time.

It's not like all of our challenges are over.

We still have LOTS of challenges ahead.

But they seem to be more of a "fun" kind of challenge.

Possible?

Yes.

I feel like I have been a bird, stuffed in a cage, with clipped wings.

My captor grew lazy, and forgot to keep clipping my wings.

And accidentally left the door open for too long one day.

I escaped.

I left my prison.

And, it is absolutely the most wonderful feeling in the world.

I don't ever want to forget it.

I don't ever want to forget what we went through.

Sometimes, I can't believe we made it.

Most of the time, actually.

But we did.

And we are being rewarded beyond our wildest dreams.

It makes me think about this life's end.

Where we will probably stand, completely worn, exhausted, defeated and discouraged.

We will be uncertain if the sacrifice we made was enough. We will be tattered, and torn.

Then, we will be "taken in" and "lifted up" and we will feel His redeeming love, and we will forget the hardship we have been through, because now we have tasted of the good.

And it will be like nothing else we have ever experienced.

And it will be indescribable.

And it will be better than anything that we could have ever imagined.

And we will be home.



I have had a glimmer of what it will be like.