New Favorite Show

I think I have a new favorite show :-)  Not that there are many to choose from right now in TV land!  Come one new shows and start up already!

Picker Sisters on Lifetime makes me happy.  It has the pickin fun that we love...but then they make amazing furniture and decorator pieces out of the old junk.  You should check it out!

Check out this chandelier made with an old rusty metal ring...

Photo from here

 And this chair made from a....cilo...yes...like the thing that holds corn!

Photo from here



But let's not forget my obsession with American Pickers.  LOVE the show!  We even stopped by their shop - Antique Archeology - in Iowa on our long drive back from Colorado this summer.

Do you have a favorite show right now that you think everyone should be watching??

Tijuana Pics

I was going through some old pictures and came across these fun ones.  When hubby and I were dating I went out to San Diego to meet his family and see where he grew up.  We went to Tijuana, Mexico for a few hours (that was back when Mexico wasn't so scary for tourists...we probably wouldn't go back now).  We decided to get our picture taken with the "Mexican Tiger"...I'm pretty sure that's what they were calling the poor donkey painted like a zebra lol.

Then I found out that my grandparents had gotten their picture taken in Tijuana 50 years earlier!

How awesome is that?!  My Grandma is "OH BOY" with the cute puddle jumpers on and my Grandpa is "CISCO KID".  They had my mom the next year.

I love stuff like this...don't you?!

Birthday Memories

Birthday party post I wrote a long time ago and never posted...ENJOY!

I don't know why I started this tradition, but I am SO stinkin glad I did.  Every birthday party my children have (and even a friend's 30th party I hosted lol) I make...really...I MAKE everyone fill out a card before they leave with a memory of the child's year.  I think they will LOVE reading these when they get older.  I know I will.

 


Anna's 1st Birthday

   

Anna's 2nd Birthday - This time if you filled out the card, then you got a picture collage of my cute little one :-)

 
 

Anna's 2nd Birthday

  



Anna's 3rd Birthday

  


Anna's 3rd Birthday

 


Ellie's 1st Birthday

  

Then I find a cute little photo album to put all the cards into.  One album for each birthday.  It's so easy!  You could even just get a small journal and have each guest write on a different page.  Or I'm sure there are lots of creative and super crafty ways you could do this.

Getting Organized

This is how I spent my Saturday night...



You know you're jealous!

My kid's outgrow their clothes so stinking fast (especially the little one) and I was not keeping up with organizing their closets and clothes they've outgrown like I should have been...so it called for crazy clothes organization night.  Of course, I didn't take any pics of when the entire living room floor was covered with clothes and shoes.  Let's just focus on the pretty end product :-)

In my hubby's words "Thank you for taking care of the kid's clothes.  I don't EVER want to take over that job."

Hidden Cell Phone Towers

I have a weird fascination with hidden cell phone towers.  I love finding them!  I think "AHA! You can't fool me!" every time I spot one ;-)

This one is less than a mile from my house!  My hubby is the one that spotted it one day...it was really "hidden."  We drove up and down streets until we found the one that led to it.  We've lived in this house for almost 4 years before we spotted it!

I spotted this one in Colorado this summer.  It's a bison silouhette on a hill...wins the prize for most random I think :-)



Sideview so you can see the cell towers on it





This one was also in Colorado.  It's not super hidden...but they used an existing factory chimney thing instead of building an ugly metal tower.

There are hidden cell phone towers ALL OVER San Diego (where hubby is from).  Next time we're out there I'll have to get more pics of them.  Here's what they look like there.

Have you spotted any hidden cell phone towers in your area?  Did you take a pic?  I'd love to share it on my blog for the world to see...or maybe just those handful of people who actually read this lol!

Comparison Es No Bueno

I was able to attend the Willow Creek Global Leadership Summit this year.  There were amazing speakers!  Like really amazing!  I was tempted to shout out loud AMEN! a few times, but just felt too white to do it.

Anyways, the quote that I heard at the Summit that will forever be engrained in my brain came from Steven Furtick, a pastor in Charlotte, NC. (btw...the pic on the top of his blog major creeps me out...makes him look like one of those tv healers...glad I saw that AFTER hearing him speak)

Here's the quote:
"We compare our 'behind-the-scenes' with other's 'highlight reel'."

Can I get an AMEN!?

Isn't that SO true?!

Love this video :-)



BTW!!!  Can I give a huge shoutout to my hubby for adding a Facebook Like button to my blog.  I "Like" him :-)

Yup...that's me in the background.  Maybe I should have used this pic yesterday ;-)

My First Embrace the Camera

First time participating in Emily's Embrace the Camera!

I would just like to say that I did not pick this picture because of my awesomely tanned legs (that's sarcastic in case you can't tell!), but because I was being a little silly with my Anna.  Hope she remembers that side of me when she's older.

First Day of Preschool

Today was Anna's first day of preschool!  She was very excited! 

Ellie wanted in on the picture action...

My big girl!

Walking in with her giant backpack :-)



When I asked Anna what she did at school today she told me: "I played on the playground today.  We walked there and I didn't hold anyone's hand."  I'm obsessive about her holding my hand when we are in a parking lot.  You have to cross a part of the parking lot to get to the playground and she was telling on herself :-)

She's just as excited to go back tomorrow!

To Paint Or Not To Paint...

...That is the question!




The way my living room looks on any given day.


We are debating on whether to paint our fireplace or not.  This topic makes some of you cringe and some of you giddy.  We get that.  We are on the fence right now.  Here's the reason why we're thinking about doing it and the pros and cons for taking the plunge.

Reason:  Our living room is dark.  We have one source of light...a large sliding glass door to the covered patio.  Since the patio is covered, not too much light gets in.  Which is good because it never gets too hot in our house, but bad because then we don't get a lot of natural light in the room.  As you can see in the photo, the fireplace takes up almost the whole main wall in the room and it's dark brick.

Pro's:

• It will brighten up the space.
• It is the cheapest, quickest, "easiest" solution.
• I think it will modernize a somewhat dated fireplace.
• A painted fireplace will be easier to dust and clean than the way it is now.  Anything you dust with now just gets snagged and caught on the scraggly brick.  I feel like the paint will make it "smoother."

Con's:

• It's permanent.  If we end up hating it...we can't go back.
• It might be too much white in the room.  Since that wall is almost completely fireplace, it might overwhelm the room.
• White fireplace will probably show dirt more, but see Pro above related to dusting and cleaning.

By the way...I think a white fireplace at Christmas time would look amazing!...Right?  And I think we'd keep the mantle wood...just another btw.  Oh and we have new curtains to hang on an actual curtain rod...imagine that!  We're gettin all adultified in the living room.

Everyone has referred me here - Young House Love.  Check out the last room's before and after pics (the one with all brick and paneling walls).  Pretty much amazing...right?

Have you taken the plunge? Were you scared? Did you regret it? Want to send me your before and after pics???

Awkward Bible Stories

Now that Anna is at the ripe old age of 3 she is really starting to understand what's going on.  Her life is no longer as foggy as it once was.  She's putting the pieces of the puzzle of life together.  So this has had an effect on what we say around her, what we say to her, who we want her to be around, what we want her to see and listen to, etc, etc.  But I never thought that it would be awkward to read the Bible with her.  But it is!  Oh my gosh!  There aren't hardly any G rated stories in there! 

We recently got the Jesus Storybook Bible and I LOVE it.  Lots of people have recommended it to us and we finally got around to getting one at a Border's (that's going out of business and everything is on sale!).  Actually, my mom was with us and she offered to get it for us.  Bonus!  Thanks mom!

Anyways, back to the point... So...I was reading the story of Abraham and Isaac to Anna the other night before bed.  You know...the story where God asked Abraham to basically kill his son and Abraham was like ok and then God stopped him at the last minute and didn't make him do it?  Ummm ya...that's awkward to talk about with a 3 year old.  The way the Jesus Storybook Bible "spun" it was focusing on the fact that God always provides what we need exactly when we need it (ie. the ram for the sacrifice, and Jesus).  Now I say "spun", but really the reason why I love this children's Bible is because they don't water down the stories and make them something they are not.  It told the story straight up and then added their "spin," which is always to point the children to Jesus.

After we read a Bible story with Anna we like to ask her "Now what was this story about?" to help her remember and retain.  I was praying she didn't ask any questions!  How do you explain this story to a 3 year old?!  Luckily, she didn't ask any questions and I hurriedly closed the Bible and put her to bed. 

Am I the only one that feels this way??  I'm not going to stop reading the Bible to my children, but my goodness, I'm imagining some crazy awkward conversations in the near future about murder, incest, suicide, polygamy, adultery, and who knows what else.  Yikes!  I guess it's better she hears about those things from her parents first....still not looking forward to it though!

Please tell me I'm not alone!

I'm Baaaack!

I have lots of reasons why I stopped blogging for almost a year.

• I realized people were actually reading it and I felt super vulnerable and naked.
• Life got busy.
• I didn't feel like I was as good as other bloggers.
• I got an iPhone and stopped being attached to my open computer.

But...I've decided to try it again.  No pressure this time.  My goal is not to get 1000's of people reading it and following me and getting ad space and craziness (not that I ever thought that would happen in the first place...but there was definitely a part of me that wanted it to!).  My goal is to share my thoughts with whoever wants to read them.  Honestly, it's a good outlet for me to document thoughts in my life.  I'm not a "journaler"...so if I have a thought I usually forget it, because it's not written down anywhere.  And another "honestly"...sometimes I have funny thoughts that I think you think will be funny too and that makes me happy.

So this is me...and my thoughts...no judging...k?  thanks.