My Beautiful Days

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...

I'm beginning to wonder if my absense from blogging is a pattern in the making?! Well, I guarantee you that it actually IS, at least for the next couple of weeks. Why is that? Well, because my brother, Tory, and sister-in-law, Lisa, just welcomed a new baby girl into their family on Monday morning (wait, that's yesterday right?! Holy moly it feels like more than one day has passed since then!!). Say hello to the absolutely beautiful Abigail Grace! My upcoming absense comes partly due to the fact that I am going to Jamestown, ND to spend a few days with my brother and his family. I will leave tomorrow morning and return home again on Friday. That being said, on Saturday morning our family is leaving for a week "up north" at a cabin near Brainerd, MN. We are going to spend the week fishing, swimming, reading, relaxing ... oh, and I am determined that I am going to learn how to knit ... so I'm going to do that this coming week as well! :) All-in-all, I'm just giv...

I have received many emails asking me where I've gone, so I'm guessing it's about time that I jump back into my blog world again! Life has been incredibly busy, with this past weekend topping the charts of overwhelmingly busy! Thankfully, though, it was also completely refreshing and rewarding in the same. Isn't it amazing how God does that for you? When you know that you're going to be extremely busy, He provides rest in the middle of it all! So, here's a quick recap of my weekend ... :) Friday was spent with Claire and I meeting up with Tanya and Breanna (my sister and my niece) and doing some great shopping! We started off at Ikea in hopes to find some end tables for my living room. Instead of end tables, I ended up finding some beautiful lamps and an arrangement (of which my boys lovingly refer to as "the dead sticks in a bowl") of branches in a very tall vase which are now sitting in the corner of my living room. All in all, it was an incr...

After three days of driving all day long (or what felt like it) to drop Claire off and pick her up from horse camp (one hour each way, twice per day), after endless moments of not cleaning my house and not doing my laundry, after a date night with my husband and a Bible study with him as well ... after all of that I can say that my schedule is sufficiently BUSY! Thus why I haven't been blogging. You would think that I have a ton to talk about now, but instead I'm going to leave with saying just what I've said. Why? Because Claire and I are going shopping with my sister, Tanya, and my niece, Breanna and we have to leave in less than an hour!! Sheesh :) Life is just SO rough sometimes *wink wink*!!!

Welcome to Blog Hop Tuesday! Today's theme is "Three Things You Might Not Know About Me", so without further adieu ... One I love love LOVE planning and organizing events! This comes from my obsessively organized side. If I can plan anything from having dinner guests (which I LOVE to do), throwing birthday parties, or even helping to plan weddings - I just LOVE it! I don't want to be paid for it, I just want to plan it!! :) Two My sister is one of my favorite people in the entire world. We talk on the phone almost every day during the school year, and now that summer is here and we both have kids at home, we don't get to chat as often. I MISS HER! She was the person who helped me to truly define my path in life and to head in the direction that God intended. She also helped me in every stage of planning my wedding and has walked by me through the transition into life as a wife and mother. Tanya and her family are adopting a precious little girl from China...

While having guests over for dinner last Thursday, I did not tell my 11-year-old daughter, Claire, to shut up while she was telling them how much of a product stocker I am. By no means would I have eight back-up bottles of handsoap in my cupboard and be embarassed when Claire would choose to announce this. By NO MEANS would I ever use the phrase "shut up" with her - I am a much better parent than that! Since having my wisdom teeth removed this past Friday, I have not been SO sick of the soft-foods diet that I'm on that I would ask our wonderful MckMama for some ideas of what to eat since sweet Stellan eats an entirely pureed diet as well. By no means would I be searching to see what various babies eat just to get something more appealing into my stomach! In fact, I am NOT sitting here at 9:15am eating ice cream for breakfast! That would be absurd :) I have far more common sense as to eat something of nutritional value as opposed to ice cream so early in the morn...

Errr .. wisdom TEETH. That's right, this morning I had them taken out. I will admit to being incredibly scared on the way in, as I had never been put under anestetia (sp?) before. Thankfully I have an amazing husband who was reminding me that "God has not given you a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind". Walking into the room was nerve wracking, the doctor said a bunch of mumbo jumbo that I don't remember, and then they gave me the anestetia. Next thing I know, I'm waking up and Monte is sitting next to me, just waiting for me to come around :) So, all in all, it really wasn't bad! Now, I'm at home in bed, eating a lot of ice cream and watching Friends on DVD. I'm sleepy and about to conk out, but just wanted to update for those who were waiting to find out how it went! Pain is minimal. Not really swollen at all. Content, at least :)