My Beautiful Day

emotional e⋅mo⋅tion⋅al [i-moh-shuh-nl] –adjective 1. pertaining to or involving emotion or the emotions. 2. subject to or easily affected by emotion. 3. appealing to the emotions. 4. showing or revealing very strong emotions. 5. actuated, effected, or determined by emotion rather than reason. 6. governed by emotion. uptight up⋅tight  [uhp-tahyt] –adjective Slang. 1. tense, nervous, or jittery. 2. annoyed or angry. 3. stiffly conventional in manner or attitudes. These two words encompass everything that I have been this past week. I can't really explain the reasoning, but everything about me has been emotional and uptight! As I write this I have tears streaming down my cheeks because I know that it's true. I know I'm not perfect, but gosh oh gee, this week I have been as close to EVIL STEP MOTHER as I have ever been! No, I'm not forcing all of my children to do all the chores and locking them in our tower while my hubby and I go to the ball! It's just that our ...

I absolutely guarantee you that nobody in the world has in-laws as amazing as mine! Meet Woody and Marion: Monte's parents who have been so amazing since the moment I met them on Monte's birthday last year (July 24, 2008). They have been kind and loving, they have welcomed me into the family, they have watched our kids so that we could go on a honeymoon as well as a separate vacation to Florida. They invited Colin and I down to their home in Arizona this past March when the transition into being a wife and step-mom on top of just having miscarried my baby was proving to be overwhelming. They continually call to check in on how things are going. They are happy to have me drop by spontaniously when I'm in the neighborhood (did I mention that they live in Minnesota during the summers?). Why, you might ask, am I telling you all of this? Well, that is because Woody and Marion have topped the charts of amazing in-laws yet again! They graciously showed up at our house toda...

Do you ever feel like you have too much going on, but know that if you don't wait out your busy schedule it's just going to get busier? I'm there. While my family has enjoyed more than our fair share of down time and vacationing, we are also finding that we are in hyper overload to get a lot of things done. When I say a lot, I mean a lot. Wanna see our list? Too bad, you're gonna! We have to: weed all of our flower gardens (and they're BIG flower gardens that haven't been touched yet this summer), sweep and seal coat our driveway (we do this ourselves - WAY less expensive), clean all of the apples from the ground in the orchard (to prevent making applesauce when I mow), stain the deck, clean the garage (a project three years in the making), paint our back patio, clean all of our windows, seal the sidewalk and back patio, paint our columns, paint the living room, paint the family room ceiling, power wash the house (I attempted this, but our power washer is c...

I'm back! Since I have absolutely no desire to recap all of the events of our vacation to you, I'm going to keep it short and sweet. The week away was marvelous! We swam, we fished, we went boating, we relaxed, we watched Magnum P.I. and The Andy Griffith Show, we cooked, we washed a LOT of dishes (there was no dishwasher there!), we played games, we had guests over ... basically, we vacationed! Now that I'm home, I'm ready to jump back into the swing of things. That being said, here are the answers to the questions left in the comments of my last post! Do you know how much we love you? (This question came from my dear friend, Jolaine ) I absolutely do! I have to say that it would make no sense to me as to why you would read my blog if you didn’t like me - that would be a huge waste of your time! What clique were you in in High School? I can honestly say I was never part of a specific clique. I got along with almost everybody. I was friends with the populars, t...