My Beautiful Day

There's this woman in my life who has greatly impacted me.  She has been there through the highs and lows, through the laughter and tears and, because of this, has become one of my best friends.  There is nobody in the world like her and nobody who can even come close to comparing.  She's sweet and loving, goofy and fun.  She's one of the people I hold at the highest esteem in my life.  She cherishes her relationship with God, she is a loving wife and mother and an amazing sister. Today, there is nothing more I would rather write about than my phenomenal sister, Tanya , because today is the day we get to celebrate her!  Happy Birthday sweet sister - I love you more than words can express!!

This was passed on to me from my mother-in-law.  I thought the message was quite phenomenal so I wanted to share it with you.  The author is unknown. Family I ran into a stranger as he passed by, 'Oh excuse me please' was my reply. He said, 'Please excuse me too; I wasn't watching for you..' We were very polite, this stranger and I. We went on our way and we said goodbye. But at home a different story is told, How we treat our loved ones, young and old. Later that day, cooking the evening meal, My son stood beside me very still. When I turned, I nearly knocked him down. 'Move out of the way,' I said with a frown. He walked away, his little heart broken. I didn't realize how harshly I'd spoken. While I lay awake in bed, God's still small voice came to me and said, 'While dealing with a stranger, common courtesy you use, but the family you love, you seem to abuse. Go and look on the kitchen floor, You'll f...

Have you seen this movie? I recently viewed it at the recommendation of my blogging friend, Pennie .  There's not much I can say besides I LOVED IT.  So did Monte, in fact.  He loved it so much that he watched it twice.  Not necessarily by his choice, but more because I fell asleep the first time we tried to watch it (we started the movie at 10pm, I should've known I wouldn't last through it!).  He watched the movie through that night and then he watched it again with me the next night.  It is SO good.  So good, in fact, that I'm bringing it to my mom's house to watch with her soon.  It will be a blast! However, this movie inspired me a little bit.  You see, I have wanted to learn to cook a lot better than what my current capabilities allow.  My family very likely gets extremely sick of the same ol' same ol' that we have week after week.  There is not much variety in our menu because there is not much variety in my cooking abi...

A decision has been made.  One that has an impact on me, directly.  One that I'm actually quite happy about.  You see, for awhile now I have been going through this process of fertility.  I've been visiting my OB quite regularly, having ultrasounds, taking random medications - all in the effort to conceive a baby.  The effects of all of this have been frustrating.  The medications make me emotional, one even made me angry at the world (no joke, I wanted nothing to do with anybody when I was on this ... which, once we figured out that it was the meds making me feel that way, I immediately discontinued taking them).  I hate having to follow a schedule of take this, go to the doctor three days later, then go back in a week later to see if maybe, just maybe I will get to have a baby (hehe, that rhymed!). Well, after much discussion with my loving husband, we decided that this is going to be the last round.  Due to the fact that I already have Clomid...

Dear Mr. Favre, After last night's game, I really felt compelled to write you this letter.  You see, I have been a Vikings fan for as long as I can remember.  Never once have I been a bandwagon fan, but a true purple and gold lover during the good and the bad seasons.  However, this season was different from any other that I have experienced.  This season our team became an unstoppable force, lead by none other than you, our fearless and talented quarterback.  Our team was not one to be messed with.  By no means is our team filled with perfection, we had our share of fumbles and interceptions, of fouls and missed catches.  But man oh man was this year ever exciting! This year was the season that my husband and I hardly missed a game.  It was the season where we cheered along and were excitedly anticipating each game that was played.  Then came the infamous playoff game that happened yesterday.  Mr. Favre, I feel it necessary to tell ...

What do you get when you mix two boys with shaggy hair and a step-mom with a shears (that desperately needs sharpening)?  Well you get haircut night, of course!  Two nights ago, Iain and Colin were victimized by my shears and they are shaggy no more!  Here is Iain saying a sorrowful goodbye to his shaggy hair (I have yet to figure out WHY he loves his hair so overgrown and out of control!). Colin didn't mind the haircut quite so much. When it was done, Iain was all smiles! All in all, I would say it was a successful operation! Beyond the new haircuts, a lot has been going on around here!  Monte and I just returned from a wonderful weekend away at a resort in Brainerd.  It was a great and relaxing time for us to be away together!  When we got home, we heard a great report from our babysitter and even saw some of the pictures of the chaos that reigned while we were gone, including this picture of Colin the warrior: I guarantee you I wouldn't want...

Welcome to another blog carnival I've decided to participate in!  This carnival was started by Keely at Mann Land 5 - hop on over to her blog to participate! 1. Hair color..Au naturale..or not? If I have to be honest, I can tell you my hair is definitely NOT its natural color.  By nature, I am a blond but in recent years my hair has been a wide array of different colors.  Now, it is about as close to natural as it has been in a LONG time.   2. If somebody has food in their teeth or lipstick on their teeth do you tell them? Yes, yes and YES!  Even if I don't know them, I find a way to quietly let them know.  I can't stand it when it's ME who has the food in my teeth and nobody tells me, so I find it a good thing to let people know when they do (as long as I find an appropriate and discreet way to inform them) ! 3. Would you rather have a million dollars or  your  vision of the perfect body? A million dollars.  My body can always...

I'm thrilled to say that we have finally found the way to make the flames burn extremely hot in our home ... starting by using our wood burning fireplace!  This is the first time since I've lived here that we've used the fireplace and the experience was fabulously wonderful!  My studly husband built the fire for me ... ... and oh BOY were those flames burning! "Sit long, talk much, laugh often" ... yes please! Doesn't this look like the most wonderfully peaceful place to sit and relax?! Thank you, to my dear husband, for making such a cozy warm place for our family to relax.  The flames were definitely hot that day and I'm anxious to build a fire again soon!

I've spent much of today in reflection over this past year.  Much of it has to do with the fact that Monte and I decided to stay put in the house we live in, thus bringing me to thinking about friendships - new ones formed, old ones treasured and, sadly, ones lost.  This past year seems to have been a significant year for the latter of that list - it seems that friendships have been lost in abundance.  Truth be told, this bothers me a LOT.  Some of these lost friendships were with people who were in my life for a short period of time.  While the time they were in my life was very significant and they were friendships I treasured dearly, I feel a bit of a frustration when I think about the fact that the significance of the friendships have already worn out.  The thing that hurts more, though, is the lost friendships with people who have been in my life for many years.  One of these in particular is frustrating to me.  See, if I am honest with mysel...

I think it's safe to say that we went from having a house with a tiny garage to having a garage with a small house!  Okay, our house isn't small, but next to this new garage it definitely looks that way!  I'm not complaining, though, our garage looking like this is just another sign of progress !  We're moving forward and I am loving it!

Today I woke up feeling less than beautiful.  The thing that really shook me about this feeling was that I wasn't feeling less than beautiful in the physical sense (though I will admit I'm not all that strikingly beautiful first thing in the morning!).  The thing that shook me was that I was feeling quite ugly in my spirit.  I woke up feeling grumpy, feeling frustrated with having to get out of bed, as my almost-four-year-old woke me up several times last night needing to be tucked in for the fiftieth time, feeling exhausted and feeling run down.  I had no desire to make today a good day. To top that off, I was harshly awaken by my daughter yelling, "THERE'S A MOLE IN OUR HOUSE!"  Can I tell you a secret?  Kami + Rodents = a BAD situation.  I'm totally grossed out and appalled by them and want nothing to do with them!  Thankfully, my boys came to my rescue and promptly removed the rodent from inside our house and I was left to sit in my crabbine...

The Summit Properties Christmas party - awaiting our ride ... Picked up and headed to the restaurant ... Sarah and Bill .. our amazing business partners! My fabulous hubby and me! Meet the owners of Summit Properties. It was a great night .. now back to the truck and back home!

I think that's the decision that I've come to: my ovaries are on strike. Today, Colin and I headed out to yet another appointment with my OB. I was so proud of Colin, he was so very good at the appointment and everybody at the office found him to be simply adorable! That was the good part of the visit. The not-so-good part of the visit came when the doctor discovered that, over the last month, I have developed a cyst on my ovary. Wait - what did you say? A cyst? No, I've never dealt with cysts before, you must be incorrect. Alas, I saw the ultrasound and I saw what you called a cyst (though I must admit that ultrasounds never look like much of anything to me at this point except a bunch of black squiggly lines!). The thing that boggles my mind is the fact that the cyst formed in the last month. It wasn't on the ultrasounds that I had in December. Trust me, we looked back at those, too. So, while I was on birth control which is supposed to help prevent things like th...

We spent time at Uncle Mike and Aunt Sharol's (Monte's brother and sister-in-law's) house: We had a really really good time! We had fabulous times with wonderful family members: .. and my absolutely gorgeous husband kept me smiling all weekend! ... and our kids kept busy with the lego land they were building: The next day we travelled to Tanya's (my sister's) house and hung out with these great kiddos: I spent a lot of time being a baby hog of this beautiful baby girl: We had an unbelievable spread of food: I thoroughly enjoyed my time with my sister and my mom: And my siblings, my mom and I ended the evening by being the dorks we so naturally are: We had a completely fabulous Christmas vacation - now it's time to get back to our normal, fabulous daily life!  Hoping your Christmas was as wonderful as ours!