There are many blogs that never disappoint, but this one is one that never fails to bring tears!

Fun little post...

So the following is a quote from the blog I found this on...
So I stole this directly from Jodie’s blog. Reminds me of one of my favourite quotes: “The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources” - Albert Einstein - hey, if it’s good enough for Al…

I digress.

Here are the rules for a little blog post about me:
1. go to www.flickr.com
2. type in your answer to the question in the “search” box (just use one word, with the exception of question #5)
3. use only the first page to choose your picture
4. copy the html and paste for the answer

Easy enough? Well here goes:

I changed the way I pasted them... instead of step 4, I right clicked on the picture and then clicked on properties, highlight the address portion (starts with http:), hit "ctrl c", insert picture on blog adn in the url portion paste the link you just copied (ctrl v). All Good!

1. Your First Name

2. Favorite Food

3. What school did you go to?

4. What is your favorite color?
This is SOOO not pretty, but quite funny... or gross!


5. Who is your celebrity crush?
OK, so really I just don't have one...
6. Who is your favorite Disney Princess

7. What is your favorite drink?

8. What is your dream vacation?

9. Favorite Dessert

10. What do you want to be most when you grow up?

11. Who do you love most in your life?

12. One word to describe you...

13. What do you dream about?


Kinda fun, probably more fun to find the pics than it was for you to look at them, but I like that it's a little cryptic, most of them probably are not what you think they are. So, I challenge you to participate too, comment here if you do it so I can see!

Tagged... and an update...

I "think" we are closing on the house on Friday. It's still tenative, but I'm crossing my fingers!

And, I was tagged by Sarah
I had this all filled out in a serious tone, but it got WAY TO SERIOUS, so I went and lightened it up... A LOT, maybe to much!

I am: sitting on the couch
I know: that my house is a mess
I want: to have a clean house
I wish: my house would clean itself
I hate: mayo
I miss: my pool
I fear: never having a pool
I feel: tired
I hear: the t.v.
I smell: seafood from dinner
I crave: chocolate... ALWAYS
I search: for my cell phone when I feel like it
I regret: buying THIS house
I love: chocolate
I ache: b/c of stress
I care: what people think of me
I always: brush my teeth first thing in the morning
I am not: swimming right now
I believe: that Jesus died on the cross so my sins could be forgiven
I dance: NEVER
I sing: when I'm alone or with my kids only!
I cry: a LOT
I fight: with telemarketers when they won't leave me alone
I write: on my blog, emails, thank you letters for the wonderful donations I have received for my trip to Africa and notes to teachers
I win: ummmmmmmmmmmmm, never!
I lose: my cell phone all the time, it takes me a while to get motivated to find it, so normally the thing is dead and impossible to find until I move furniture and stuff. Doesn't help that the one year old thinks it's a toy
I never: drive or ride w/o my seatbelt
I confuse: words all the time
I am scared: of fires and bats
I need: oh boy... we'll go with chocolate
I am happy about: closing on my grandpas house
I hope: we close on my grandpas house this week yet
I am tagging: Ange, Gabbie, Becky, Kate & Sarah (see links on the right)

SOMEONE IS PLAYING A TRICK ON ME...

Really, they must be... so tomorow we were supposed to go to St Joe to close on the house... (my grandpas), but while I was at school over lunch time I got a phone call that that isn't going to happen. The buyer took out a loan between pre approval and closing that is preventing his financing from goign through now. I remember when we bought our first house... our lender specifically said... DO NOT TAKE OUT ANY LOANS, OPEN ANY CREDIT CARDS, BUY ANYTHING ON CREDIT ETC, his lender must not have told him that! So, if no one can lend him money to pay back the loan that he took out and he can't come up with any other financing options, we have a MAJOR problem on our hands and we will be stuck with the house for at least another month. If all goes well though he will come up with alternate financing and we can close next week. Let's ALL pray for the second option, because I'm ready to be DONE with it ALL!

Ughhhh...

How can it go from 80 degrees and then twelve hours later be 40 degrees... and why does that have to happen during baseball season? Landon's game was at 2 today, which iwas much better than 9am or even 12pm I imagine, but it was still cold and windy and miserable. The dirt was blowing in our faces every few minutes, I need to brush my teeth and wash my face really good to get it all out! Despite how miserable we (the parents) all were, Landon's team was loving it! They won 13-0. Landon pitched 2 innings and did pretty well, he just needs to make sure he's throwing them hard! I'll post pictures later!

I've been feeling yuck lately! The kids are driving me crazy today! This morning I was looking for Landon's team shirt in his room and found some of Bailey's clothes in her garbage can, after some "discussion" I found out that she threw them away b/c she wanted to be done cleaning her room faster. So, that was at about 8:30 this morning and it's just not getting better. I hate when a day starts off with me being a terrible mom and my kids not helping that situation! It has put me in a terrible mood all day, constantly near tears and just plain old miserable! YUCK! Trying to think positive thoughts right now (my kids are healthy and safe, we have food to eat, a house to live in, cars to drive, friends and family that care for us... you know the drill), but sometimes it's just not possible, this is one of those moments!

Radon

Radon Testing was done at the new house last week and on Monday we got te results from that test. It was high. I guess safe levels are 4 and below, the results from ours was a 6, so not terribly higher but high enough to be concerned. In order to get it lowered you need to have a fan installed. (I really know nothing about this whole fan thing realy). The fan tends to take levels down to 2 or lower, definately safe anyway! But the fan costs a nice chunk of money to install. So we wanted the bank (owners of the house) to pay for it, but the problem with that was the house was listed "as is", so we weren't sure what would happen, but didn't have high hopes of them covering the cost. We've been waiting ALL week for answers and today we finally heard... they ARE going to cover it! How great is that??? Were happy anyway!

So you want to see pictures... I hesitate to show you, b/c it is TERRIBLY UGLY! But keep in mind that it will all be redone and nice at some point!



Yeah... so that's all you get, what do you think of the charlie brown mural? Think we should keep it???? Tempting as it is I don't think it goes with the whole decor (don't tell anyone we don't really know what the "decor" will be yet though!)

Time for a REAL post

Matt and I were just laughing at ourselves. My Granpas house in St Joe is being sided right now by the buyers and I also heard that they replaced a door. I told Matt this and he rolled his eyes and said "Do you know how long it took me to paint that door?". But in order to get it ready to sell we needed to get it "prepped". Make it appealing to the potential buyers eyes. Because you know not everyone can walk into a house and see potential like we can. Now if you have seen our "future" home you know why we say this. It really is a PIT. Very ugly and needing LOTS of work. And this isn't the first house we've seen like this... our current home was a pit too! What is it with us? Are we the only ones in the world that see potential, no matter the amount of work it will take? (B/c let me tell you, this house will take a LOT of work)! Why do we see potential? Why can't we find a house just as it is that we like? (Trust me, we've looked!)

Life is getting super busy again. Baseball has begun for both kids. Two nights per week of practice this week and last and then games begin. 3 games per week between the two of them, and most of them do not overlap. Matt's going to have a hard time finding time to work on the houses and fish that's for sure! Pretty much planning on him being gone every night besides baseball nights. Let the fun begin! Oh well, it will all be worth it! Right? Tell me it will be worth it please!

This week I've been at or will be at Bailey's school every day helping with different things. Keeps me on my toes. Thankfully the Jeep is fixed for the most part. There are still pieces of glass everywhere. The dash is dusted with a sparkle of glass pieces. I had to vacume this morning before I could let the kids get in and there are still little pieces that the vacume didn't get this time around. I have a feeling we will be picking up pieces of glass for quite a while. Oh well, were all safe, right? (Arghhhhh!!!)

OK, off to bed! But what would a post be w/o a picture? Yup, it's similar to another one I posted earlier, but it's different, you know?!?

And some more...

More pics...

Are you sick of pictures yet? I had so much fun taking and uploading and editing the engagement pics that I had to take the kids and take pictures too! Definatly not quite as easy to work with them! They don't take "orders" as well!

Some more pics...

OK, here's a bunch more pics that I've had time to edit. I have to say that I actually like some of them, I only say this b/c the whole time we were taking pics I was worried that they were going to turn out like crap and I would have to tell them to hire someone, definately not saying it b/c of them, they were awsome, Matt was very cooperative (and Gabrielle too, but that wasn't a suprise), and they looked great, but I have to think that there is at least one that they can work with. Oh, and can I also add that there are a TON more pics that are edited, I just don't have time to resize them for blog right now! Maybe later!

Can't even think of a title... I can not wait to get the jeep fixed, we are a one vehicle family right now and ugh, that's not fun! We are so blessed to live in an age when we can have two cars. The window on the jeep is about to crash in, if we open the door one more time it will probably fall. It's like a suction in thier, when you open the door you can just see it droop more and more!

Those black things you see... those are feathers! Lovely huh?

We had such a busy day today... my own doing of course and once I got past my extremely tired slump I was good!
After church Cobe came over to play baseball with landon, sounds like they got some pitching practice in! When Sarah dropped him off we left to go look at the house and get a second opinion on some flooring stuff at Lowes. (Thanks Sarah!). Then we went to Sams Club and then went to look at her house. We stopped by another house to to check things out, I really liked the house we saw and got some good ideas.

After that I went to take some engagement pictures of Matt & Gabrielle. They are so cute! Here is one of my fav's so far, I had to take a break so I'm done for the night and probably not even half way through!


After that we all went on a little mini private parade of homes with Sarah & Ryan. Saw some really nice houses and got some good ideas! I'm still lovin' the black & white floor, trying to convice Matt on that one though!

Now I'm off to bed... I'm exausted!

A little story for you...

6 things to be thankful for...
1. Tempered Glass
2. the reflex we have to close our eyes when we are about to be hit by something
3. A backseat to ride in when the front seat is covered by slivers of glass
4. a second vehicle
5. the fact that we can laugh about it
6. thankful we hit a turkey and not a dear or something else larger

So, did you catch the idea of that story...
on our way home from gr we got hit by (notice I didn't say that we hit, but got hit by) a STUPID turkey! Right in front of my face, in the windshield. Point of impact was very low on the windshield, but the whole thing is shattered, thankfully it's tempered so it's mostly still in place, but there are little pieces/slivers of glass EVERYWHERE! I was COVERED, the seat is covered, my shoes were covered (sandels no less, which means I think there are pieces in my feet), my arms were cut a little, just itty bitty little cuts, but thankfully it wasn't my face or eyes, I didn't even try my pop b/c I'm sure that was full of glass. Luckily we can laugh about it (quite hard really, and quite a bit too), I mean honestly we were due again, it's been a whole 2-3 months since our last car incident adn we tend to be qutie frequent with "incidents".

Almost the weekend...

The weather has been gorgeous hasn't it? I got a sunburn Wednesday on my neck/chest and I was only outside for about an hour. I ended up with a migraine that night so I'm wondering if there is some kind of relation, I'm always on the look out for what is causing the migraines, but really I got them all winter too and trust me, there was NO sun to be had. It was truly the worst migraine I've had since my blackouts have gone away, I was in bed from 5:30pm til 5:20am (when I couldn't sleep any longer).

Did you feel the earthquake tremmors this morning? I sure didn't, but I kinda figure that even if I had I wouldn't have reacted, we live with the train in our back yard so really when the house shakes (which is does quite often), I just figure it's the train.

We have a super busy weekend planned. Tonight we are going to go out for dinner with some friends. Thier son is going to watch our kids so that will be fun for all of them I think, hopefully E isnt' crabby or doesn't have a dirty diaper, that could be t-r-o-u-b-l-e as he's never changed a dirty diaper before...

Saturday Landon has baseball all afternoon and then Matt and I are going to go to the pool, spa and patio show to check out some options for our new house. We don't yet have a pool there, but we are (more literally - I am) hoping to put one in. The house is in Zeeland, just not in town like we are now.

Sunday we have church in the morning and then later in the afternoon I am going to take some engagement pics of Matt & Gabrielle!

As predicted the house is trashed again. The migraine threw it all off, I wasn't able to straigten up before bed and then fell WAY behind the next day.

The pipe situation for E was going great, cutting the ends off worked wonders, but then he kept finding other ones. One was an infant size and he still thought that was ok, then he found a big one that was whole and that was GREAT! He WILL not take it out of his mouth unless he's keeping it in his hands. If I do get a chance to snatch it I will and he will be fine without it, but that's seldom now. I'm ok with him having it to sleep, just not walking around and trying to talk, oh well, in time I guess!

All right, off to enjoy the sunshine with the boys! enjoy your weekend!

Well...

I think we have a new house, pending all the details of course, but in a few minutes we will have accepted the offer. Kinda nervous and excited about the whole thing. A new house isn't a small purchase and there is ALWAYS buyers remorse (for me anyway) whenever I make a BIG purchase (like over $50). But I think we will be very happy with our purchase in the end!

I really wish..

that I had a gift for writing to inspire others, but alas, I do not, therefore I find much inspiration in reading others writing and just dreaming that I could write like that. There are some people that are so eloquent when it comes to words. Using words I've never heard of or would just never use... sometimes just in speaking, other times in writing. (Side note: Have you seen the new "Go" phone commercial... catchy I tell ya!... ok, diversion over)

I just saw this on the Nitty.Gritty. blog and wanted to share it with you... (this is a copy and past directly from her blog, no portion of this is mine, just so there is no confusion)
"The perspective needed to guide and shape my parenting is this-

When I begin to see the day to day as a delight, rather than drudgery...
When serving my children is seen as a privilege, rather than a chore...
Knowing that my actions are slowly and through repetition shaping them for the rest of their lives...
Then it [parenting] becomes a task of enormous and lasting consequence.
It becomes a 'higher calling' and the reality sinks in that
giving it my all, demanding my best and expressing love in ALL that I do, is the least I can offer to those who mean the most to me."

I, too, often find the job that I've been given to be a chore, a sometimes dreadful chore, now keep in mind that I DO NOT find my children to be dreadful at all, just sometimes the endless task of caring for thier daily needs. Making dinner, cleaning up thier messes, cleaning and folding thier laundry, buying the necesities for school and sports, changing diapers... you know what I mean. I find great joy in all of thier accomplishments and successes though, I find great joy in seeing thier smiling faces, making them giggle, I find great joy in being needed by them, when it's not over the top at least. I DO find great joy in being a mom, in being blessed by God with these great little children. It is an amazing gift, that is for sure! But sometimes I'm not sure that I can handle the little tasks that seem so big. I know that I will prevail if I just have the right perspective.

OK, so that's not why I came here... I really just wanted to update you (as if you really care though) on the sale of my grandpas house... we got the FHA requirements today, they wanted the house scraped and repainted (which was no suprise at all) and the hot water pressure fixed in the bathroom sink and the light in the laundry "room" repaired! So with some luck the bank can rewrite the loan for the way the buyer wants so that we only end up paying an extra $300 and the buyer will pay to have the house resided (doing all the work themselves), plus we pay to fix the water pressure and the light (which may end up being just a light bulb...). Works out pretty good if you ask me!

Oh, and "Project 365" is still on, I'm just WAY intimidated by the daunting task of getting caught up right now, but I WILL prevail, I promise!

Let the music begin...

OK, so if you were a reader last year you remember my rants about the community keyboard... the neighbor that sits in his front yard in a lawn chair and plays the keyboard for hours. Well apparantly it's getting nice again because... he's outside playing away. My windows are closed and I can still hear it plain as day and guaranteed he will play for HOURS. And once it get's warmer it will be ALL DAY! Am I doing a good job selling my house to you????

Oh and the house front... we got a counter offer today! We'll see what happens, we recountered already!

Ahhhhhhhhhh...

the house is perfectly clean! So if you were thinking you wanted to come visit tonight would be the time to do it, I may even let you in the house, and if you wanted a full tour you may even get that. I've NEVER let anyone in my bedroom b/c it is always soooo trashed, but it's completely clean. The walls are all wiped down (which if you remember I have a boxer... he drools, so washing the walls is very necesary and very hard work), the dressers are dusted, the bed is made, the floor is clean, the closets are both clean, the clothes are all put away, it's so nice and I really want to keep it that way, it's a much better example for the kids too!

The people that went through our house that wanted to rent I think are actually going to be renting, we need to get them a contract and possibly an application, not sure we will go through all that, unless someone wants to tell me that I have to... we know nothing about renting so i dont know the rules. It's a perfect situation b/c they don't need to be in until mid July to August, which is when we kind of think we could be out! They were super nice and were very honest about financial stuff. They were super excited about how much storage was in the bathroom which kind of makes me laugh b/c we dont think there is enough, but I guess it depends what they are coming from. So, if you have any tips for renting, contracts, applications, please let me know!

And another request... do you have any great websites/resources for decorating? I've been scouring trying to find what I like. I don't have a specific style that I like, which is kind of frustrating to both myself and Matt, I have an idea what I want, but I don't want to get sick of it in a few months either, like I did in this house. Right now our house is pretty dark colors, besides our bedroom at least, and I'm kind of sick of dark colors, but that could be b/c I'm sick of winter and just want bright stuff right now. In fact, the colors I"m looking at right now are bright mostly. Matt is a little put off by my current ideas, but he will do whatever I want, within reason (so he can say "I told you so" later I'm sure... :), just kidding).

It can quit raining ANY DAY NOW! I'm soooo incrediby ready for some sunshine. it looks like it may happen next week at least, but wow, it can't come quick enough that's for sure!

Church tomorow, then I was supposed to take some pictures of Matt and Gabrielle in the afternoon but I think the weather will prevent that from happening, although I'm not complety sure yet what they are thinking b/c I haven't heard from Gabbie... *hint*hint*hint* - we'll probably end up sitting here messing up the house! Oh Joy!

Oh... and I forgot to tell you this big news! Guess who peed on the potty today?!?! Just random I know... b/c then he finished on the floor,b ut he did it and we were all there to offer positive reinforcement with cheers... all of us! And he didn't so much pee IN the potty as it was on my hand b/c I was trying to point it in (those with girls, be so thankful that you don't have to try to aim that thing for them...)! But he thinks he peed on the potty! Big stuff! Don't get me wrong, I'm not disillusioned at all, I know that he is at least a year or more out, but it's a start adn it was exciting for him! (Oh, I never told you it was E, just in case you were confused!)

Exausted, but with hope

We've been enjoying what is left of spring break. Wednesday Landon went to a friends house in the afternoon and then to Craig's Cruisers his friends brothers birthday party and Bailey left to spend the night at a friends house and go swimming at the Aquatic Center. They both got to have a great time w/o any effort by me!

On Thursday, Landon and I started a heated game of Monopoly, which lasted on and off ALL DAY! (it ended when I went bankrupt and Landon had an insane amount of $500 dollar bills). We took a break in the morning to hit up Crazy Bounce with Kate. It got quite busy by the time we left, but we all had a good time, I think at least! After that we went for lunch with Matt at Red Robin! So all in all it was a great day!

Today was an exausting day... exausting I tell ya! I've been cleaning all day, and not just surface cleaning... DEEP cleaning! Packing, scrubbing, condensing... all of it! We have someone coming to look at the house tomorow, not to buy unfortunatly, but to rent! Let's hope it all works out b/c we also made an offer on a house today. Not sure how it will all work out, but we'll know by Tuesday at 5pm what will happen with all that!

Tomorow morning we get to get up and do some more cleaning and then the showing in the afternoon! After that it will be trashed again within 15 minutes, guaranteed! Oh well, it'll last for a little while at least!

Chi-Town Pics...

But first... I clipped the end off of E's pipe today, b/c I've heard that that works to break the habit... so far no change though, he needs it just as much as before, hopefully that wears off though... wish us luck!

There are a TON and I'm not even done downloading them all yet!

At the aquarium.


Matt & E at the hotel.
For some reason E loved the tub at the hotel.
E eating butter (b/c we didn't have food to eat) at the cheesecake factory.

Bailey & Marisol post hair style.
Driving a semi at ESPN.
All worn out...
Playing in the fun mirrors on Navy pier... did you know I was sooooo tall??? And all legs too... HA!


On the ferris wheel.
Playing in the water at the children's museum...


This was after our trip to the museum/navy pier... he was exausted and got out of the elevator and plopped down in the hallway, ready to fall asleep...