The Pink Story

I asked my Mom to recount the pretty pink fabric story. From my Mom.

Last week my nearly 10 year old granddaughter, Esther, and I were able to spend some 'girl' time with each other.
One of the things I wanted to do was to have her choose a piece of fabric for a dress I wanted to make her, so we headed for JoAnn's to see what we could find. I love to walk into that store. It is super stimulating for me; all the colors and textures grab my attention and my creativity gets stirred up. Well, I noticed, it was having the same effect on Essy, too.
We were leisurely strolling through the aisles and came upon the bridal section, and she moved to a pale pink sheer covered with tiny raindrop like sparkles. She carefully held it out and wrapped herself in it, while it was still on the bolt. I asked her if she had that piece, what would she do with it? With a dreamy expression on her face and without thinking she said, 'I would just look at it, Gramma.' She has that piece now, along with the piece we got for her dress, and I imagine she has it draped on her bed, so she can 'just look at it'!

Now me =D The funny thing was someone asked her if I had anything like that....that I just looked at. She said "No. Mamma would say if you don't use it get rid of it!" True! We won't be getting rid of that fabric though. Oh, and it IS draped around the headboard slats =D

Have I mentioned...

that I love pink? Probably my favorite color. And the reason for the change on my blog! Everything changes.....why not this too? I think it's nice. Ben thinks it's nice (although after further prodding he could've cared less! =D Love you Man!). And to further the quirkiness of me....I labeled this post as 'crafty'. How lame is that?!? Very I'm afraid.

The most magical place on earth....

is NOT Disneyland for me. It's IKEA (Disney is a close second though).

I'd never been inside any IKEA store, just shopped on-line. That is until Wednesday when I went with Kristi. It's truly a wonderland. I was not disappointed.

We've been looking for a coffee table for our front room at Goodwill and craigslist. Even resale they were about $100. I found a finished, wood one at IKEA for $29.99. Hummmm. 100 smacks for used OR 30 for NEW???? No question really.

Ben and I decided that the next time we go we'll:
*drop kids off at the FREE play place (only for an hour though. But....HEY....it's an hour!)
*cruse around the store
*buy above said item
*eat alone =D
*get kids and feed them
*since the kids will want to see the kid display area, we'll take them there
*load piece of furniture, the children and leave

What a great date place! Who could ask for more? Free child care, shopping and food! YEA!

Ahhhh. Simplicity.

I'm not a procrastinator.....unless we're speaking of ironing =0) (Since Ben is a salesman, he wears the nice, dressier shirts and I only iron them once a week. It ends up that there are about 5 of his shirts and three of the boys'. That, to me is procrastinating). ANYWAY......

I have been unable to, due to some business related stuff, organize and put away the past t-h-r-e-e years of papers. Uggg. This huge box of file folders found it's new home when we moved in. Of all places the......laundry room. (I needed them to be accessible and we had to store alot of boxes in the garage and this stuff was too important to loose).

So, for the past five months this box has been a fly on my nose. Bothersome, annoying and just plain in the way!!!

Today I showed that box who was boss. Her name is Katy, and she's kickin' you outta' heah!

The room went from this......


to this. (insert faerie, tinkling, harp music here.....bling, ting-a-ling).





When I was done I told Ben that I felt like I just vacuumed under the furniture. He didn't get it. Maybe I should have described it like......I felt like I had just showered after a week long, dusty camping trip.


Glorious. Splendid. Squeaky. Nothin' like it and I love it!

Blogiversary

I've been blogging a whole year as of yesterday. Does that qualify me for some booby prize or something? He, he, he!


And as promised, photo's of our new home below.....

Our entry

Front room....aka the adult sitting area....no running kids!

My favorite wall....E-V-E-R!

The fabulous tub. I've already taken 4 or 5 baths. Ahhhhh.

Thank you all for praying and a HUGE thanks to Ben, my Dad and Mom, Ben's Dad (his Mom had to work), Ben's sister Hannah, Joe, our kids and Anna (she helped me hang some pictures yesterday). We truly could not have do it without you all.

The Treasure Hunt......Finally

My Parents organized a treasure hunt about two months ago and the kids had such a fun time. On the front of the paper(first photo) is the 'map'. On the reverse there were the instructions. My favorite instructions: *Get dressed (they dressed in pirate attire complete with swords and I think with make-up to make scars and such) *Look for the enemy *Fight the bad pirates* Fight the attaching wolves* Attack the killer bees*

What a great idea! Thanks Gramps and Grams!

It Works

O.K. I needed a new apron and couldn't find one I liked, so, I made one. It took me about 4 hours and my old one is still my favorite! (thanks to Ben! He gave the old one to me Christmas of 2004) I'm hoping that when this one gets all messed up by a little spaghetti splatter or cleaning chemicals that it'll feel more comfy.

Satisfyingly Painful

We're done! It took Ben 5.5 hours. I worked for 4.5. Oy! Those rolls of lawn are much heavier than they look. We estimated each at 40-50 pounds. Ben literally touched all 230 rolls and I only 100. We are sore! Ben would load up 8 rolls on the wheel barrow(320-400 lbs) and I 3-4 rolls (min.120, max 250 Lbs). Right now it is hard for me to make a fist. Who needs sleeping pills? All you have to do is install a 330 square yard lawn and it's sure to put you to bed early and sleeping soundly.
When we were done, I called the kids and they squealed and ran on the new grass. Es said she had been waiting to lay on it. Oh, the kids did soooo great! They watched a couple movies and were just plain gracious to one another! Ben and I praised them up one side and down the other.
I just keep having these nagging thoughts.......Maybe we should have bought a different kind of grass???? Lets just roll it all back up and exchange it for a different variety. Ha, ha, ha..... I crack myself up! The lawn and I had a conversation. I told it we'd never replace it if it stayed nice and green and full. That was my side anyway.
More photos will be posted as we accomplish more.

Glorious Green

Our lawn was delivered at 8.25, sharp, this morning. Thanks JB Lawns. YEA!
Posts of the installation of our lawn soon coming.

Vacation Food and the Back Yard

This post has been stuck in the camera and my brain for almost a week now. The above is what Ben and I ate for our last 'snack' of vacation! I lost all the weight two days after returning to normal :)

This one is before.

This one is after*it's a different area than pictured above......

Ben is completely remodeling our back yard. For those who didn't know, we sold our 7.4 thousand square foot front yard this spring. We knew we'd be loosing our main outside play area so we decided to make the back yard usable. The lawn was all uneven and the ungrassed areas were really high maintenance.

Ben is such a hard worker and is massively persistent. In one day he moved 68 wheelbarrow loads of dirt from the side of the house to the far back yard. I don't estimate well at all, but I would think it's about 80 yards one way. I helped when I could and only with the shoveling of the dirt, he was a gentleman and didn't want me to hurt myself while using the wheelbarrow (I probably would have too!)

I've tried to post these with oldest first, but this site isn't complementing me or cooperating with me today:)

This one is after.

This is before.

Our instant lawn will be delivered Thursday. We will have to wait to break it in until sometime mid September. Ahhhhh! Can't wait. Ben thinks the best combination for relaxing is bbq (it will be more fun in our new back yard), beer and a book.....I say bbq, a margarita and the kids in BED! Y'all know I love my kids:)

Pushing

I've started my first quilt! Essy needed a new comforter and her b-d is coming up, so I decided to kill two birds with one stone.

I started about a month ago, and I'm not even half done. It's WAY more time consuming than I was prepared for. In order to complete Es's quilt, I would have to push myself and neglect the kids and the house for the next 13 days. And until about a half hour ago, I was going to do just that. Then I was reminded of a fact......

This past week-end Ben and I attended a retreat (locally). The focus was to understand who we are in Christ and who our enemy would want us to believe we are. It was probably the best Biblical teaching I've ever heard (and now applied:).

Anyway, at this retreat, I learned that I tend to push myself faster than God wants me to go. When I do this, I actually 'miss the mark', so to speak. I end up not getting the results I expected. I get so focused on persevering and completion that I miss the journey. I learned that God is a God, not just of arrival and completion, but also joy in traveling.....

I, as I was pushing to sew oogles and oogles, wasn't enjoying myself at all. I just wanted to make it to the birthday deadline. So much so that this morning I started to snap at the kids, telling them the reason was because I just needed to get done with this project.

Now that's a great memory for my dear Daughter! I so don't want her to remember Mama working so hard for her, that I made everyone else CRAZY and hurt every one's feeling in the process. I don't want her heart to drop every time she looks at the thing remembering the stress and hurt. I want it to remind her of joy!

So, I will miss the deadline in order to enjoy the journey. Because I am a woman who values traveling light!

The pictures above are some of what I've accomplished so far (I have completed 50 such pieces). Hey, can anyone advise me how to alternate the pictures from one side to the other? The set up looks so boxy......

Favorite Wall

I just finished my black and white wall.......I love it! The kids and I made the hand prints (It took three times to re-do Zach's {lower left}!) I was frustrated at first that they didn't match, but, as Ben stated, each one sort of matches the child's personality!

I will eventually switch out the currant photo with a b&w of the kids. What my friend said it true, it is so satisfying!