Rewind {August}

Hey Michele welcome back to blogging.
I really {believe} I mean it this time. I am about 78% confident I am going to start blogging on the regular again.
Honestly, I have contemplated doing vlogs {video blogs--in case you don't know} just so I can talk to a camera and get it done quickly. Because I am a way faster talker than typer. However, not having it written out freaks me out a bit AND let's face it I can run photoshop like a wizard, but I don't have a clue when it comes to video editing. That is Chad's department. So we shall see.

So here is a peek into what has been going on this past August.

Up first praise team.
You guys you have no idea the joy being on praise team brings me. none. I would do it every weekend if they would let me. It blesses me beyond measure and I pray that through our worship we bless those and prepare their hearts for God's word. And that is a privilege to be apart of.

 Then there is this.
Please note this is no ordinary swimming photo. This is MW in the SHALLOW end. Not on the steps, but the shallow end. Say it with me the SHALLOW END! Praise hands. He has spent the ENTIRE summer on the steps--having a blast mind you but nonetheless on the steps. I begged, I bribed, I tossed him in even, nope nada. Not getting off those steps. Then one day we finally coerced him off the steps {on one of the last days of summer} and the rest is history. That boy goes running for the water whenever we get a chance to go, which is getting fewer and farther between due to school and crazy weather patterns. Anyway, summer goal completed!

A trip to the zoo. I think this was right before school started. It was a nice family day. We struggle with family time due to polar opposite work schedules, so when we can all be together we so enjoy it!

 I have to include this.
Lo has a heart like her daddy. She loves to write notes and give gifts. Mommy bought diet oreos {aka the regular stuff kind and not the double stuff} there was only one double stuffed left and Lo saved it for Chad and wrote this note and placed it lovingly on his pillow. She is so sweet it hurts. She does stuff for me like this all the time. Such a giver.

Here we are not impressed with dinner. Oh, and you should always wear swim goggles to the table.

 This was another family day right before school kicked off. Bowling! They love going and we had a ball. {get it...?! :) }

 Last swim of the summer {before school started}.
This is the Fat Sheep gang. I am not entirely sure why they call themselves this, but they did and it stuck. Next year MW and Jayne will start school too. Tear.

This is how mommy and MW spent day 1 of school! At the park...and being silly.

 Chad now works at our church and is gone all weekend. So we chillax on Sundays, in our undies, on the table, watching Tarzan and playing transformers. Yeah, it is awesome.

 One evening we took a walk and the horses up near where we live were  out and walking towards us. The kids beg to pet them, so we did. Thatcher not a fan. This horse was so nice.

And that concludes this installment of Rewind. We did a few more things, but I thought separate posts would work better for those things.

Chele

Weekend Rewind {Need Decorating Advice Too!}

I really like this post topic. A quick way to recap the little things.

This weekend was awesome. Long. But totally awesome.

Friday started off with some Friday Fun slime, courtesy of the Target dollar bin. Less messy than I thought. Score.

While the kids played I did this---

I took down all the hideous, ugly border in my kitchen. It actually went really fast. As in 2 hours to take down 40 ft of border. It would have taken less time, but I have these two needy people I have been charged with, so I had to keep stopping. BUT I need HELP! Please PLEASE PLLLLLLLLLLLLEASE with sugar on top someone help me! We are re-doing our kitchen, mostly. We are getting new laminate countertops (nothing fancy, just something to fix the hideous green the original owners chose--don't get me started), and re-painting. That's the part I need help with. Not so much color, but whether or not to paint the whole kitchen. Should I only paint wear it is green and do a painted type border or just paint the whole kitchen one color?! Opinions go.

side bar those wine bottles on the fridge were decor on my cabinets, we do not drink that much. :)

In the picture below you can see that some of the "khaki" color will stay as their is no break point above the sliding glass door (red curtain), so...

If I had to do another border which I am NOT crazy about I wanted to do a stencil of some sort like this...or one of the many out there...yay or nay? If you could please help out this decorating challenged girl that would really help!

Source: etsy.com via Michele on Pinterest

Moving on. Friday evening I went to a consignment sale and go the kids a few clothes...they didn't have much so I was a tad bummed. Here is Lo modeling one of her new outfits. She is so freakin' cute.

Yep, still on Friday.
That night was our town's big football game. We have two HS here so it was on. We live fairly close to the "statmen" as Lo says, so we walked down there. Group shot.

Go Team!

 We stayed all of 20 minutes, it was bedtime for MW and it was crazy down there. A perk of being a teacher is we all get in for free, so it isn't like the adventure costs us anything.

 

Saturday! Our city was commemorating it's 50 years or something, they do this every year. But the morning started off with a parade! The parade was fine, but the BEST BEST part was these girls. We had some dear dear friends move away last year and like the prodigal son they returned home this year! I can't not adequately convey with words what this means to my family to have them home. I could cry tears of joy right now just thinking about it. I keep pinching myself hoping this is real. It is.

Anyway these girls are like sisters/BFFs whatever. They just instantly connected again as if no time passed. Watching them play nearly brought tears to my eyes. I am usually not so sappy, but like I said...no words. Just joy.

So they enjoyed the parade together and got enough candy. Never enough to them, but enough! HA!

I don't have pics from the rest of the weekend, but it ended up at our friend's house, where we sat outside, ate pizza and caught up all the while the kids are running like mad around the backyard. It was one of those moments you just wanted to never end. But I know there will be many more years of fun ahead!

Sunday I started Judgement House rehearsals. Judgement House is one of my favorite things to volunteer for. It is such a powerful witnessing tool and watching people come to Jesus, well it doesn't get better than that my friends. I am an angel singing in Heaven. We are all praying this goes well. Here's the thing, never in my life have I ever seen so many things go wrong or be under attack as I do when we get ready to put on JH. You can actively see Satan trying to sabotage all he can to keep people from coming to Jesus. It is astounding I tell ya, astounding. Yet through prayer, perseverance, and God's mighty hand we are never deterred and always bring thousands more to Jesus each year. So I would like to ask fellow believers to join us all in prayer to lift up JH across the area and nationwide that Satan will be thwarted and those churches are able to bring Jesus to those who need Him!

Here's a link to Judgement House if you don't know what I am talking about and if you are interested in going it has a place to find one near you. JH run all over the country at different times of the year. If you haven't been whether you are a believer or not I recommend going. It is life-changing.

Hope you all had a great weekend and enjoyed the beautiful fall weather!

Weekend Rewind

Why does summer feel like it is going at warp speed?! It should be more relaxing than this.

{One}This past week/end I have spent getting ready for our garage sale and then having it. I was so excited to clean out our spare room, so it didn't look like an episode of hoarders in there anymore. Seriously, that must be a disease because I have no idea how anyone could live like that, I was about to go.insane!

However, the garage sale was at my friend's house. Day 1 was nice and cool with 70mph winds, blowing everything off the tables. Day 2 was freezing and I found myself huddled around a space heater wrapped in a blanket on June 1st. I kid you not. Miserable and rainy. Day 3 perfect.  Overall I did just ok, my friend did awesome. No one was in the market for the baby clothes I had, they all seemed to need the size my kids are currently in. Oh well, that is what the consignment sale is for. At least of bunch of my "junk" went. And since this was my first garage sale I learned a lot about garage sale people. Wow. That is all I can say. I may write a book. HA!

{Two}Of course Chad watched the kids while I sat for 3 days and the house is now a complete disaster. But they were fed, dressed and alive by the end of each day, so I guess that is all I can ask for right?!

{Three}To back up pre garage sale, I did go ahead and take MW into the doctor to be certain about his possible hand/foot/mouth disease. Turns out it was a severe allergic reaction to what we still don't know. My best guess at this time is his sunscreen as that is the only new thing I have introduced to his uber sensitive skin as of late. At this point it is nearly healed, except his feet which are all peeled off on the bottoms and red looking. I feel sorry for him although it has yet to slow him down. {This seems like something unrelated to the allergic reaction thing...stay tuned. ;)} So yay no HFM, but boo allergies. 

{Four}Sunday we had an amazing service on prayer and I am excited to hear more and participate in our challenge. Check it out here: talking2God.com I could never do the sermon justice, but it is all about just hitting "click-send" to God. We all formulate thoughts, fears, stressors, hopes, dreams etc in our mind or to family and friends everyday, but a lot of times we forget to just share those things directly to God. He loves us and wants to hear from us. Anyway check out the link.

{Five}Finally, Micah has been such a hoot lately. That boy is such a talker, and I am not sure what age is suppose to start formulating sentences or stringing together words, but he is already doing it! I.am.in.trouble. with that boy. For instance one day daddy got home from work MW says: Hi Da! And waves.

The kids absolutely love QT pina colada freezoni drinks. Today they had to share one. Leighton getting all nervous MW was guzzling it down too fast said: "I want some!" Then as I pass it to Leighton, Micah screeches: "I un um" {I want some}, even Lo a 3 year old understood him. I am just blown away. It took forever to get Lo to talk and then formulate sentences. There is my "my kid is awesome and I am going to brag on him" story.


Now to go do some laundry.
PS sorry I have ZERO pics as we haven't taken one picture in 2 weeks. How sad is that?! Time to do something fun I guess. :)

Week in Reverse

Last week was a crazy, full of accidents, bloody week. Thankfully, no one made an appearance to the ER, but there was one close call in my opinion and if you know me at all death must be looming before I would even consider a trip to the ER or doctor...

 Monday was a disaster in the fact that I thought it would be a fantastic idea to keep MW from his morning nap...I keep thinking he wants to drop it, only to find out he really really doesn't...so in effort to keep him up we went to the library, where on family picture day, he knocks his eye on a table so hard I was sure we were going to have to photoshop out a black eye! Thankfully, by picture time no black eye appeared.

Tuesday started off with a bang after a simple morning bath turned bloody. Micah got out of the tub was all dried off and dressed, when he decided he wanted to go back in and play with sissy (who was still in the tub). He started to climb the step stool, slipped and bit his tongue so hard I thought he actually bit completely through it...CSI shows had nothing on us when it came to the amount of blood lost. I was moments from yanking Lo from the tub and heading to the ER when the bleeding slowed and the tears got minimal. I felt so bad for him.

Then I get him down for a AM nap and start cleaning up the kitchen, Lo is still in the tub, don't ask, it makes her happy...I go to check on her she is crying because she now fell and has this HUGE bruise on her bum. Sigh.

Wednesday Lo decided to join in on all the accident fun. I mean why not? Blood and tears are mommy's favorite things to deal with. :) We decide to go to a park for fun and a picnic, on our way to the park Lo is running, skipping, something, because she just.can't.walk.like.a.normal.person. Oh wait she is 3...and BAM! She hits the pavement hard. Stopping her forward momentum with her face! Scrapping all the skin on her nose off! You know why she cried? Yes, because it hurt, but that was only 35 seconds of the tear fest, the rest of the 5 minutes it was because she had to get to the park and play!! Refusing to go home and clean up her face, elbows and knees...whatever, go play then!

So needless to say I was hoping for a bloodless Thursday and Friday...

So I emptied out that ridiculous bean tub and put sand in it!

 Thursday resulted in only minor trauma to Micah's lip as he got behind me and I accidentally kicked him in the face and caused a very minor, albeit, bloody lip.

By Friday I gave up trying, but pretty certain there were no major injuries.


 I have also spent all week tagging and tagging and tagging all of Leighton and Micah's clothes for our upcoming garage sale. I went to a lot of extra work to tag them per consignment sale specifications, so those that don't sell are ready come this fall! It was exhausting.

Sadly, this really doesn't do the mess justice but my huge 

walk-in closet is busting with kid clothes (mostly, Leighton's) 

and it is spilling out into the guest bed!!!

One fun thing {for me} was getting all my digi scrapbook pages organized and put in books!! Yay!
I think there are 95 pages here! And that is just for 2011.

However, there was some fun had as this weekend Lo got a new big girl bike and is really doing quiet well with it. Video and more to come. {if you click the picture you can see the nose injury...}

And on Saturday night we got to see the Supermoon, which was pretty cool. I tried to take a picture through my kitchen window...didn't turn out as pretty  or as large as what I was seeing, but nonetheless, it was breath taking. Plus, I just found it so fascinating to take a moment and watch the moon rise. Just amazing how fast it went, yet we can't feel a thing. God is pretty awesome in His creation that is for sure.

Oh and finally I got my front flower garden planted! No more kids digging in it and making a huge mess!

 

Lo and I are pretty excited about the blueberry bush! I sure hope it yields fruit this year!!

We planted purple salivia plants, purplish lilies and seeded orange poppy flowers! Very KSU of us! ;)

Hope you all had a little bit better week than I did, but a fantastic weekend!