Latest Happenings

February was sort of a blur and we are now already just a few weeks from spring, my favorite time of year!

Just around the corner is a lavishly blooming landscape of tulips, gardenias, and those Hawaiian looking flowers that open when it is sunny and close up when it's dark..green grass..and a playground full of bustling little children :) Cookouts and driveway gatherings, spring turkey hunts and hopefully a little 4-wheeling.

So, this past weekend I made a trip up to good ol' Toledo Ohio, where I spent a good portion of my teen years before joining the Navy. We moved around so much when I was younger that I never really knew which town to claim as my hometown. So, Toledo Ohio it became. I "grew up" there (born out west and transplanted to yankee town, which by the way makes the best chilli, bar none, I don't care what these Texas boys say.."chilli ain't chilli without the beans") anyways.. and have made a couple of my very best friends there.

I know I have blogged about them before..

These girls have been a lifeline for me over the last, well 17 years! Woah! to say that out loud is making me feel ancient! Not really, I love being 30.

We celebrated Lisa getting married and I am so incredibly proud of her for being so brilliant. She always has been. In school she was the "responsible" working at a deli and saving for college her freshman year. I actually remember her showing me her savings account balance one day after school. She picked us up every morning and we drove to BK for breakfast. She was always there for the good times and the wreckless times. A true confidant and always made me feel important.

I feel so blessed as each one of these girls was there for me throughout some of the most trying times in my life.. from high school and boys, to being a teen who's parents "didn't understand", of course now that I am a mom now, I thank my own mom for the job she did raising me.., to marriage, love, God, parenting, and everything in between. I know that it is imperative to have friends that know you inside and out and who will withstand the trials and hold your hand through the rocky phases..

I get on a tangent sometimes, see something shiny and forget my actual point.. so backing up a little bit.. the wedding.. Lisa's wedding.. it was beautiful. :)

Love is a gift that should never be taken for granted and should be given unconditionally and always cherished. Love is patient and love is kind, true love is persistant and never gives up. Love never fails. I didn't say it was easy.. but when a true love is found...keep it.

Lisa and Jay spent the last couple of years together fighting for their love for one another.. that was the "not so easy" part I was talking about.. but in the end. Love didn't fail.. it took a while for them to get there..but the wait was well worth it! I am so happy for you Lisa!! May your love never fail!

Other than the wedding, I got to do one other really cool thing while I was in Toledo! MAKE SNOW ANGELS!! Ok, if you are my friend on Facebook, you probably have already seen my angel in the snow..it's the little things in life that keep me focused on being happy. Ya'll have a perfect week! Will post more soon!!

xoxox

Weekend Getaway

Well, I began this post last night and instead of revising, I created a continuation of thought...So, the work week is complete and I am happy to say that I am actually prepared for Monday morning! I left the office tonight in pursuit of a couple 3 foot tall crumbsnatchers who might enjoy watching Fivel Goes West with me and won't mind if I fast forward to all the singing parts.. :) Especially the part where they sing, "Therrrreee are nooooo cats in AMERICA and the streets are paved with cheeeessssssssssseeeeeeeeee", yes you know good and well what part I am referring to!

Anyways.. that was not the original plan. Our family was going to try and get together in Houston for a "manbirthday" party with our favorite guests of honor, "Old" Papa K., Uncle Tim and Josh as they all have birthdays right around each other. Except today our precious KK got a virus. We had to cancel. :( Bummer. Fast forward..Today is Saturday and now after re-thinking what my original thoughts were, I found myself staring at the posted pics of Josh and I in two great places. One full of sunshine and love and the other full of, well full of history.. Having the opportunity to sit on the wall of the Trevi Fountain in Rome was absolutely amazing! I wish we were there.. at least in thought we are as we look around and find a few memorabilia in our home that quickly reminds us of our "Italian Adventure"......

Instead, I crawled out of bed after almost 12 hours of sleep! Yes, you read that correctly, it was NOT a typo.. I went to bed at 8 last night and got up at 8 this morning. In addition, I took a 3 hour nap this afternoon while Josh was watching the Band of Brothers. I needed the sleep. I should be doing more of this....but opted for this instead.. Ella has such a soothing voice. As you can see, she was reading bible stories to her dollies and bears.. and although you cannot see, me too! When she gets restless, I ask her to go get some books and read to me.. she mostly tells me what the pictures look like and asks me if I need blankies or water..precious angel...

As my wrap up tonight, I look forward to another day of getting my to-do list done. Although it seemed like the only thing I accomplished was sleep, that was actually #1 and if you know me, you know that I don't usually have time to sleep. I am hoping that this next week goes smoothly. I will be working all the way up to Wednesday night and drive myself and the kids to SA for an early Thursday flight North where weather.com tells me will be a high of 26. YIKES!! Today was 68 and I was in heaven! :) One of my BFF's is getting married and I am so excited to be a part of it! (wedding festivities)

That's all folks! Onward and Upward to serve my sweet Jesus, my sweet family, the world we live in.

xoxxooxo

Well TGIF! Wow! This week was really amazing..and quick to say the least! Monday, Josh and I attended an amazing seminar, "GET MOTIVATED" with a few of our family and friends from the office. If you live within a 900 mile radius of Houston and listen to any radio station, you probably knew this incredible conference was coming to town. A packed Toyota Center, Reliant Stadium and Grace Community Church (capacity 10,000), which is where we attended..waited anxiously and excitedly to greet the faces of some of the most phenomenal people in the nation! My favorite speaker was Lou Holtz, former head coach of Notre Dame. My second was Gen. Colin Powell, former Secretary of State and of course.. Palin (with her hockey mom smile and her cute outer wear) was there to open the event.. I have never seen anything that amazing in a long time. We got to sit on the second row. The first row was saved for family and VIP's of the speakers. Josh was actually convinced we sat right behind Ashley Simpson.. I wasn't so sure...might have just been a look a like! Anyways.. Tamara Lowe founded these Get Motivated seminars with her husband several years ago. It is the largest in the world and if you have the chance to go sometime, DO IT!

So, that was Monday, Tuesday..caught up on work and spent a lot of time playing with the kids in the evening. Wednesday, I visited one of my favorite clients, Discover U Leadership, and had the most memorable meeting anyone has probably had in the history of Benefits Unlimited.

So, I am pumped and motivated and encouraged and loved on all week! What more could one woman ask for?

This weekend, I am catching up on some reading for school and finishing my bathroom paint job.. put doors on the cabinets, clean up the piles of HBA (health and beauty aids) lingering in my living room and probably even make time for an afternoon siesta.

Church on Sunday and it's Valentine's Day! Josh and I don't have anything planned for Sunday, but Monday I am going to a Grand Lodge meeting with him and his Mason brothers.. It is "Sunday Best" attire and we even have a babysitter for the kids. I am really excited to meet the men Josh has grown so close to over the last 6 months and see his meeting place. I am so proud of him for being a dedicated father, husband, and friend.

Well, that is all I have to update for one night! I hope everyone has a blessed weekend and a very Happy Valentine's Day!

xoxox

Sweet Discover U

Well it is a great day to be alive isn't it!! The theme of life! *HUGE SMILES HERE* I am dedicating my post tonight to my sweet sister in law. For those of you who don't know, her name is Christen and I am so incredibly proud of her. She conquered DU Leadership this weekend. And when I say conquered, I don't mean that she passed some kind of secret test, she conquered that mountain of fear that holds so many of us back on a daily basis. I saw this woman shine through and through. Her heart is treasured and her face is glowing!

There are so many things that I could say here about the grace of God, love, life, family, and the list goes on. But, tonight..tonight, I will stop and just say "thank you"

One of the many things that we learn in DU is to thank those that impact our lives. Some will impact us and at a given moment, we may not realize the beauty of what they are "teaching" us because we are so consumed with ourselves. It is a tough realization to come by when you are totally not expecting someone to bring it to your attention. But, that is life.. and the GREAT NEWS is you have the power of choice to create what YOU want, when YOU want, because ...well that's really it, just because..

I have the pleasure of seeing the lives of strangers changed dramatically every day through the realization that this one concept is not a concept but a tool that EVERYONE possesses.. If you think about it, Choices are everywhere and every other second we are faced with them.. our thinking, our speaking, our acting, our emotions, our "situations", our past, our present.. holy moly, it's like a choice buffet out there!! And most of the time, we choose to exist.. but existing is so not fun and LIVING IS SO MUCH better!! We can all agree here that I am a God-centered woman, who puts God at the center of my life and it took me a long time to really figure out that whole choice matter I was just mentioning..

But, once you have it, you have it and it is so POWERFUL!

Anyways.. I meant to dedicate this post to Christen (thank you) and became charged about my power of being able to choose and wanted to express it here tonight! :) I hope that everyone has an incredible week.

xoxoxo

Weekend List..In No Particular Order.. :)

Our weekend was eventful:

1. Gutted and cleaned out our master closet, tore down all the old shelving, and makeshift bars that the builder in 1970 constructed. Patched, painted and put in a new closet system. A total upgrade from what was there, and of course, since my cam is out of batteries (but I have an SD card now) I cannot show pics.. but it is beautiful and I am so proud of my sweet husband for getting it together.
2. Removed all hardware and doors from the kid's bathroom, ready to patch, tape and paint.
3. Laundry, laundry, laundry
4. Wrote Expository Essay on the different classifications of Expository Essays after referencing articles on "How to Clean Fish" and "Cochlear Implants"..quite informative.. :)
5. Chatted with my brother about his travels to India.
6. Went to an enthusiastic Graduation ceremony of class 254 at Discover U.
7. Made the 2nd recipe Josh picked out for dinner from the Martha Stewart website and it was delicious..

All in all, it was a very productive weekend and I am looking forward to the opportunities that Monday will bring for me! Life is good.

Make it a great week!!

Frugal For Fun

Frugal for fun...can you really be frugal and have fun? Hypothetically of course! Maybe I am just asking that because I like pretty things and being frugal takes away some of my comfort now so that I can enjoy the prize later! I positively have set a short term goal to try and find creative ways to save money and time aaaand still enjoy the world around me.

I know that with Caleb getting ready to start kindergarten in one year and daycare costs coming to a close for at least half of my children :) that if I am not careful, that money saved will be spent elsewhere before we have the time to enjoy it.. we have been talking about this for a couple of years now.

For those of you who don't know, the cost of outside child-care can be pricey- and I am not talking about a private live in nanny that does my laundry on the side, I am talking the typical clean, run of the mill (slightly above average but still on the cheaper side costs almost $20,000 a year) for a 1 year old and 4 year old, including admin. fees, school supplies, and throughout the year activities..I am hoping to cut that in half in one year from now.. hence the countdown to figuring out frugality just for fun! :)

I actually think that I do a pretty good job of keeping impulse spending down to a minimum. Josh actually laughs at me because my enjoyment comes every other Saturday or late Friday night when I get to grocery shopping A-LONE and is the only place I will spend $200 and not feel the least bit guilty about it. :)

I go through phases where I try to find new and easy ways to organize my time. The majority of my organizing junkie habits are tied to cooking, recipes, and finding new and exciting ways to mix up the dinner menu. And, like I mentioned before grocery shopping.. yes.. I know you are probably thinking "LAMEOOOOOHHHHHH" But seriously, when I got on the kick of clipping coupons, I ordered the paper, went to the corner store Sat. night for Sunday's paper and made sure to collect every paper coupon advertisement thingy that loads up in my driveway every week and mysteriously is wet and yellowed by the time I pick it up! (Not sure how that happens)

Most of the ways that I need to be careful about involve spending money on the kids..I always see the cutest clothes, the shoes (they grow out every 2 months) socks, and for Ella, it's "pretties", socks, shorts, shirts! Right now the kids are growing so tall and I know Caleb will be taller than me when she gets in middle school. Josh and I measure the kids on the pantry door, and he grew 1 whole inch in less than 6 months!

Anyways, I know that I still have a long time before I will have to deal with middle school days.. I am trying not to rush it ! I know I still have a few years to come up with a plan of action. :)

Well, I am signing off for tonight,it is almost ten and I can barely keeps my eyes open.

xoxoxoo

xoxoxoox

Tweeting Is History For Me

So, I get off of work and head out the door to pick up the kids from daycare and as I am waiting in line to pick them up, I scan through my emails and tweets. Since I have been at meetings all day and then back in office I hadn't had the opportunity to inform the world of what I was doing at that moment (a.k.a. tweet) and to my surprise there was a tweet from my user name regarding an article or something that I didn't post.. which I couldn't open..which is probably a great thing because it might have infected my computer or yours...anyways.. just so everyone is aware, I discontinued my tweeter account. I think I keep a handle on updates with blogging now and facebook! Farewell fellow tweeters, I'm off to see the bloggers!

xoxoox

Quick Note

It has been an interesting Monday. Reality hits hard sometimes and I have had to remind myself that there is purpose in all that we do and that God's plan is so much more than what I can predict from my every day happenings.

I am praying tonight over my family and over my friends...God grant us the strength to be who you created us to be and allow us to understand that it truly is out of our control.

Difficulties seem like mountains while you are walking through them, but when they are conquered and a part of the past they are successes and appear almost as tiny as a grain of sand...

xoxo

Hello Blogging World

Well, it is official, I am now a part of the blogging world. *smile* In the recent months I have been asked on more than one occasion to start a blog of my own so that family and friends can look in on what we are doing way over here in Sugar Land Texas....I have responded.. and much to my surprise, it is not as difficult as I thought it might be to get set up. The hardest part for me to remember throughout this process was to use the help tool bars.. all the while fighting the urge to post an S.O.S on my sister-in-law's blog . Instead, I searched through numerous websites until I found this where there was at least the basics of what I was trying to accomplish.

I am so excited now to be able to share our world with you!