My Beautiful Day

To participate in The Simple Woman's Daybook, visit Peggy's blog here . FOR TODAY...  Outside my window... the sun is shining, birds are singing and the weather is beautifully warm. I am thinking ... how I am a  bit frustrated with myself for my attitude at this particular moment. I am thankful for...  peace and quiet. I am wearing... jeans and a green shirt layered on top of an orange and a brown tank top. I am remembering... nothing. I am going...  to the grocery store in just over an hour. I am currently reading... a book of which I can't remember the name or the author.  I just started reading it this morning. I am hoping... to change my attitude. On my mind...  my husband and my pregnancy. Noticing that... I cry very easily now that I have crazy hormones running through me. Pondering these words...  I am pondering nothing right now.  Just feeling blah. From the kitchen...  BLTs tonight, per the request of Iain. Around the...

Our bathroom is almost ready to go (in fact, much more ready than it appears in this picture) ... My awesome hubby and adorable son painted some pull-out drawers for inside our cabinets ... Claire was a villager in "Beauty and the Beast" ... Iain, Claire and Ellis enjoyed some pool time while visiting Grandpa and Grandma in Arizona (Colin did too, just not in this particular picture) ... We toured Luke Air Force Base.  This is Monte trying on a helmet with night vision goggles ... This is our whole family (including Grandpa and Grandma) at Luke Air Force Base ... We hiked near Canyon Lake and got some amazing photography opportunities ... That's our life in a nutshell.  So, how are you?!

But maybe it's more because of the fact that I had to see it with my own eyes.  Or maybe just because, for once, I wanted a different result - to prove myself sane as opposed to insane (you know the definition: someone who does the same thing over and over again expecting different results).  Regardless of my reasoning, I did it: I took an at-home pregnancy test.  You know what?  I'm pregnant!  If you've checked my blog in the last week, you obviously already knew this, but I decided to share the lovely news anyway :) Thank you so much to all of you who responded to my initial blog post with congratulations!  We are incredibly excited about the new addition to our family.  Life has been pretty crazy since we arrived home.  Ellis starts soccer tonight (well, official practices start tonight, though he's already been to an optional practice) and I am their team manager (honey, did I mention that I decided to accept this task?!  If not, I'm so...

Hello hello!  I have just a couple of minutes of spare time (who am I kidding?  I have all the spare time in the world!) and figured it was time to hop on the hotel computer and give you a little update on our vacation!  We have kept an extremely busy schedule while we've been here, which has been good, as I've discovered our kids have a tendency to quickly bore of things!  We have taken hikes up mountains (and prayed that the rattlesnakes stayed away!), visited a ghost town, visited the Luke Air Force Base and received a tour compliments of two very awesome air force employees.  We have eaten out and eaten in, spent many hours in the pool and much time in the sun.  I'm hoping to come home with this beautiful burn I've got going on :) Through all of this vacationing, though, I must admit that I miss home and am so very ready to head there tomorrow!  Thank you Woody and Marion for an amazing vacation!  It has been fabulous :)    ...

I truly am wondering ... does anybody have any maternity clothes that I can borrow?! You'll find me blogging regularly again soon, as we return home in just a couple of days!  Hoping you all have a splendid weekend! Kami (yep, my signature is working funny on my inlaws' computer, so I decided to give it the boot for this post!).

Well, I've been gone for awhile, but it's entirely my own fault.  You see, I've been unable to get to a computer with internet access.  We brought our laptop with us to Arizona (did I mention that my family is currently on vacation, visiting my inlaws in Arizona?!), but unfortunately we are still having problems with the internet connections on it.  For some reason our wireless card will detect the networks available, but won't give us the option to connect to them.  So, that is a problem I will deal with when we get back home.  For now, I will just enjoy my vacation, enjoy this beautiful 87 degree weather, enjoy the peace and quiet of spending the afternoon with my daughter and my mother in law. Did I mention that I'm using my inlaws' computer to type this?  Because I am. I've been thinking about this blog post for awhile now, wondering just how I'm going to encompass everything that I have to share - and I decided to be brief about it.  However, ...

It's been awhile since I've participated in a "Not Me! Monday", so I decided that today was a good day to start!  Hop on over to Jennifer's blog to see what other people are not doing ... This past week I certainly did not throw myself into hyper overload mode just to survive the planning of my sister's adoption shower.  In doing so, I was not instantly relieved once the shower was over and just my mom, my sister, my niece and myself were left to relax and hang out.  I did NOT at all think that it was THAT moment that I had been waiting for all week! I also did not spend hours making a beautiful dessert, only to scrape it against the top of the refrigerator when taking it out to serve, only to ruin the appearance of it's beauty.  Nope, I'm far more careful than that! My family is leaving to visit my in-laws in Arizona tomorrow, so by no chance have I yet to still pack, still do all of our laundry and still clean our house before we leave.  I am ...

Lauren at The Little Things We Do is hosting this blog hop - and I'm more than thrilled to join in!  Visit her site to read other fill in the blanks as well as participate in this fun tradition! 1.   The best day ever was     my wedding day.  It was my dream come true - the day that I got to forever claim Monte, Claire, Iain, Ellis and Colin as mine! 2.   My favorite meal of the day is     dinner     because   that's when my entire family is home, sitting around the table together and enjoying each other's company.  Sometimes it's a whole lot of chaos - but that's the way I like it!   3.   This weekend    I am going to Perham to co-host an adoption shower for my sister (and her family).  I am also bringing Colin with me (this was not originally in my plans).  4.   Never in my life have I     worn pantyhose on my head.  It just doesn't sound interesting eno...

Have you ever felt like you have too much on your plate, but yet it's all stuff that you put there, so you just have to work through it and make it all happen?  I'm there!  You see, this weekend my dear Claire is competing in the regional spelling bee (which is confusing to me why it's not called the state spelling bee, entirely because if you win you move on to compete in nationals.  I digress ...).  Unfortunately, I won't be attending, as I will be out of town.  My reasoning for being out of town, however, is not unfortunate.  You see, my mom, my sisters-in-law and myself are throwing an adoption shower for my sister before she heads to pick up her beautiful little girl.  The shower is at my mom's house this weekend.  The preparation for it has been insane!  I'm not complaining, though, as I truly am an organizational nut and I really enjoy planning events!  Today I have to work in the MOPPETS room at church (the place where your kids ...

If there's anything I've learned from being a mom it is the fact that fun can be found in the simplest things.  I remember back when I was in the fourth grade, my parents had just built a new home; my older brother, Tory, and I discovered the large box that one of the appliances was delivered in and we played for hours in that box!  Though I must admit that the box lost its appeal when Tory put me in it and stood it up straight (the box was much taller than me) and walked away.  Having to knock the box over when I was in it and take the brunt of the fall was not fun at all! One of the things that my boys have loved to play with is a huge styrofoam container that protected something our friend, Chris, had ordered.  When he had the container left over, he knew it was something the boys would enjoy, so he brought it over for them.  What they discovered in this is an instant hockey goal!  They've had a lot of fun hitting "pucks" with their "hockey sticks" (...

I can't find a good title for this blog post.  This topic is something that's been on my heart for awhile and I think it's definitely worth sharing.  I remember at a young age having a very idealistic perception of how my married life was going to be.  We would always be happy with one another, my house would never  be messy, life would flow smoothly and things were always going to be great.  Marriage is what I longed for, what my heart desired, as my lifelong dream was to be a wife and a mom.  Well, I can tell you that, truthfully, my marriage is not that far off from that idealistic picture I had in my mind!  I am incredibly blessed in my marriage, but I believe it's because we both work very hard at making it so wonderful.  Granted, that whole 'my house never being messy' thing probably needs a lot of work, but I'm proud to say that my first fifteen months of marriage have been fabulous!   What's the catch?  Well, I think a lot of i...

If there is one thing that I have learned this week, it is the fact that almost everything is easier to do if you're not obligated to do it.  The most obvious of these tasks, to me, is housework.  You see, Tuesdays are my reserved day for housework - this is when I clean the house and do laundry.  The funny thing about that is the fact that it is so hard  for me to motivate myself to do the work even though I've set aside that specific day to get it done! Another obligation I have a problem with is waking up early.  You see, during the week, when I'm helping the kids get ready for school, getting Colin ready for preschool or MOPs, or attending an early morning event (such as I did this morning when Colin and I went to Claire's DARE graduation at her school) I have such a hard time waking up and getting myself out of bed.  It's almost like my body is on strike against getting out of bed!  However, flip that shoe to the other foot and bring on a weeken...

I have fallen off of the face of the Earth and I'm wondering when I'm going to come back down!  Wow what a busy weekend it has been! This short and sweet post is just to let you all know that I haven't forgotten about you, but I am in over my head with laundry and cleaning, planning an adoption shower, planning my family's meals, running to this activity and that, and preparing preparing preparing! More to come!