Happy New Year!

Here's this year's pop mashup by DJ Earworm. I always find it fascinating how he does this. I don't, however find the videos fascinating. So close your eyes lol.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ail7D_k0s9w&feature=youtube_gdata_player

posted from Bloggeroid

Meaning of Christmas

After a day full of last minute shopping, gift making and no nap, I sit here pondering the true meaning of Christmas.

Last week my hubby got a call from the police department (no he's not in trouble... yet. Haha) who had extra donations after their food drive and wanted to know if we had a family at our church who could use the food. So the whole family took a trip to visit our police friends. Isaac was gifted a police car set and his face just lit up. Then he was greeted by the Chief and was star struck. After we picked up the goodies we drove to a nearby trailer park to drop off them off. This family of 8 live in a single-wide mobile home. The kids have never had a bed of their own their entire life. Their uncle sleeps on the porch in a lazyboy recliner in the summer time so he can have more space. As we dropped of the boxes of food all the kids came out to help and say hi to Ike. You should have seen their faces when we handed them a Costco sized box of Pop Tarts. Just as we were leaving their uncle was walking home. We stopped and said hello and as we were leaving he said, "I love you". I remember when his sister first came to our church. She told me about her disabled brother and that she couldn't bring him to churches because he's never been accepted. She was asked one time to not have her brother come back. And I told her he would be safe and welcomed at this church. He's been coming ever since. I cried when he said "I love you". When he came to our church, he brought a friend, and the first conversation we had was how he was the only person who loved this woman. While that is a huge blessing to be loved by one person, it saddened me that she was alone in this world. They share that common loneliness and feeling of being unaccepted by the world. But they've found their belonging with God and through a church family. And that is why I cried. He only said "I love you" because he knows we love him. It's so easy for me to get caught up in my own vainity sometimes that I forget how truly blessed I am.

Tonight as I took the dog out I heard the church piano playing Christmas music downstairs. At night our basement becomes a homeless shelter for families in the community. We have 5 families staying there tonight. And they are happy in the midst of a crappy situation while I sit next door in my warm home, my Christmas presents waiting to be wrapped and a decorated tree in my living room. What do I have to be unthankful for? What in the world could their possibly be? Christ is the meaning of Christmas and his commandment to love one another is the reason. No gift under the tree could be better than the gift we've already been given? Have you said Merry CHRISTmas to someone yet? All it takes is one act of love to be Jesus on earth.

With all my love, Merry Christmas.

posted from Bloggeroid

American Dream?

As New Years approaches (yes, it's approaching. There may be a 12 step program to help you get out of denial. And by "you" I mean "me". Haha). Anyways, as New Years is approaching I'm starting to think about my goals for my 31st year. I don't like the word "resolutions" but if you want to call it that you can. Resolutions, like most things these days has become commertialized. They consist of loosing weight (to become more like ,not to become healthy...), make more money/save more money (/be more greedy because God forbid we give more money...actually, God very much bids giving), find love (even though we already have it. Just gotta look up.), what else...oh quitting bad habbits (and avoid finding help for the reason behind why those bad habbits exist). Very rarely do I hear truly healthy resolutions. Sure the results can make you more physically healthy, but what are the motives?And here's a bigger idea: how many of these resolutions are God centered? The American Dream looks a lot like a resolution. You're thin, for sure, have money and lots of it...maybe several savings accounts not just one and money coming out your assets, you don't dare have any bad habits, you own a house, you have the fancy new gadgets and your kids are perfect. Here's what my American Dream looks like. I'm so thankful just to have a roof over my head, $20 in my purse for play money for the next two weeks, food in the cupboards. I feel rich to have a smart phone and a car and a t.v. and a bed to sleep on. Friends of mine are sleeping on a futon matress on the floor tonight and there's a 16 year old mom with a 9 month old baby sleeping in her car too afraid to spend the night in a shelter for fear they'd call CPS to take her baby away. There are people right next door to my house in the basement of our church who are homeless. My American Dream might not be much but it's certainly God seeking and I am rich. I'm concerned that it will be harder for me to get to heaven than for that camel to go through the eye of a needle.

My husband and I had a discussion about soluting the American flag. Honestly I have a hard time. For me the government is ran by people who are bought by other people living "the American Dream" and are certainly not my voice. I'm dissapoitned in my countrymen. As priveleged as we are to be living in America I think we do a real shotty job of taking care of eachother. So my American Dream has nothing to do with America. And it certainly has nothing to do with money or looks. There's a reason the bible says you can't serve two masters, both God and money. By "money" did he mean the "devil"?

So after all this babble you're probably wondering what my New Years goal is?Give more. Love more. Be self less.

So wanna see something cute?



That's my American Dream



And so is that.

Amen?

posted from Bloggeroid

Thanksgiving

There are many things to be thankful for any day of the year. Thanksgiving responses of thankfulness bring out thanks for family, friends, God, salvation. Etc. But today I'm thankful for the little things.

My son was sick last week and my prayer was, "Lord, please keep me from being sick for Thanksgiving. I already don't get to enjoy the traditional food rituals packed full of yummy gluten because of this new dietary restriction (more like jail) so please let me feel good. Amen". It was a selfish prayer. I know. But God wants to fulfill the desires of our heart. This I really know. And God answered my prayer. The day after Thanksgiving I started to feel my sinuses fill up and a chestal cough rise up making me sound like a 90-year-old chain smoker. So today as I blow my nose and become miss-coughs-a-lot I am reminded of my answered prayer and how truly thankful I am for a God who answers me when I call.

On to this gluten free thing...I could choose to be bitter over this new change in life-style. It really is a change in my life. I can't eat out easily anymore, or participate in my great grandmother-in-laws cherry pie. But I have a supportive, encouraging family and wisdom from others who live this life-style. They tried every gluten free item I baked and lifted me up for the good job I did *eh hem*. I get to try new recipes and use the gluten free diet change as an excuse to get those big ticket applyances I've been wanting for years (like a kitchenaid mixer, new bread machine and a vitamix Haha) because now I must become a bakery owner. We live on a very limited income and I could chose to be depressed over the cost of gluten free cooking as one loaf of bread is $5. But my frugality insticts tell me there's other solutions. I could chose to be bitter over the 4 batches of pie crust I threw out to get to the one gluten free pie that was worth eating...barely...or I could chose to be thankful for being able to eat and not starve like many people across the world do on a daily basis including holidays.

So today I'm thankful for the small things which I could easily be just as bitter for. Chosing to see the glass more full than empty is a daily experience for me. Without God my glass would be empty but He fills my cup up daily.

Thank you for you God.

posted from Bloggeroid

Remember me?

Well I've been quiet lately. (which is very unusual for me). We went to the Casting Crown's concert


(That was the best pic we got lol)

The next week we were in Levenworth







The next week was Halloween







I've been making applesauce for a month now, not to mention pumpkin butter and now gluten free recipes (more about that on another post another day)





And it's Thanksgiving already?! Holy time flies Batman! If I blink it'll be Christmas! It's already snowed



Isaac woke up that morning and said, "Daddy! You made it snow! Good job daddy." Ah that kid melts my heart. And he loves his Daddy







I love his daddy too. He took me to see Breaking Dawn tonight. What a man I tell you!

How are you doing?

posted from Bloggeroid

Tractor Tippin' and soreness

You need to know first that my son has to watch Cars now at least one time a day. 

Ok...You know when you aren't looking and then all of a sudden the door frame closes in on you, knocks you on the head and throws you to the ground?  Well it just happened to my 2 year old son. 

He immediately felt the bump on his head.  After picking him up he looks straight at me...stops crying long enough...and says, "Tractor Tippin'." 

I about died laughing.

On another note.  I'm very sore from my workout yesterday.  Here's some motivation to keep me going today: 

"pain is weakness leaving your body"

Live Fat Free

So my husband and I have been saying for YEARS that we should purchase a gaming system. But we just couldn't justify spending tons of money on one. "Couldn't" as in past tense. Yesterday we WERE able to justify it...when we said, "we'd spend the money on a gym membership in one month anyway." We had our eyes on the PS3 but then decided to go with the Wii. We can get all the games we like from PS3 through the Wii plus the fitness games we want.

Here's the thing: My son is two and then some...and I still have not lost my baby fat...nor my pre baby fat, nor my freshmen (sophomore, junior, senior) 15, nor the pounds I gained after marriage. LOL. Are you with me? I've got some weight to loose. I'm not going to tell you how much, because my goal isn't to loose the pounds, my goal is to be healthy (I'm not even going to weigh myself). I'm a fairly healthy person food wise. I just hate working out. I get way too bored. Unless it's for sports. But you throw a video game in front of me? I could do that. (My dad owned a video arcade my entire child hood...yes I'm straight out of the 80's). So we got Wii Active II. And tomorrow we're getting Wii Fitness Plus and Zumba. I figure that will give us enough diversity so as to not get bored.

Here's the other thing: Now my husband and I can work out at home while the boy naps. I don't have to go anywhere! (And I'm not tempted to pick up that ice cold frap on the way home from the gym.)

I'd like to see what life feels like without the extra pounds. I know I'll have more energy. And if I plan on having more kiddo's I'm going to need it because Ike wears me out as it is!

I'm going to blog about my journey so you can keep me accountable. I also have some other goals for a healthy life. Like at least once a week I need to do something creative for me and cook something using all organic and/or whole foods (I'm going to try home made bread next week). Because being healthy isn't just about weight, it's about the mind too. I certainly don't want my child to grow up with my self-esteem. It's time for a change.

So here's to being fat free?! Would you care to join me?

Happy Father's Day!

http://m.youtube.com/#/watch?desktop_uri=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DhtgPh3DalmM%26feature%3Dyoutu.be&feature=youtu.be&v=htgPh3DalmM&gl=US

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I was just dated...

My son found my old box of Barbies. He recognized one of them. Without knowing it...he just dated the age of his mom. Yup...I'm officially "old school". Thanks Toy Story 3.

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Small Town Pastoring

http://www.churchplanting.com/2011/06/06/3-things-i-have-learned-about-small-towns-and-hard-to-reach-places/

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Breaking Dawn!

Okay...I can't figure out how to embed the you tube video but the new Twilight Series, Breaking Dawn part 1 movie trailer is out. I'm a little sad I didn't see any feathers in the "chicken coup" during the honeymoon clip. But I still got my Twilight (goose) bumps going! Yay!!!

Anyone else so stinking excited? Time to read the books...again :)

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High!

Heals.


LOL.

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Success!

Do you see?! Dog went potty on the puppy pad (we won't count the slight miss), and Isaac is going on the potty! This is a good day. Lol.

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Blog re-post: Sunnyside needs a conversation on both problems and solutions.

BLOGSUNNYSIDE

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Blog re-post: Get off your @$$!

Get Off Your… | Ragamuffin Soul

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Thanks

I was remembering our trip to Costco this weekend. Costco is the place to be for an afternoon snack and it always keeps the kiddo occupied so mommy can shop. Well this weekend we pulled up to a sample table where a lady was giving samples of hot dogs. I asked Ike if he wanted one and he replied, "yes please". When he took the hot dog from the nice lady he told her thank you. I praised him for saying thank you because it makes him want to do it more. We've never had a problem with our son being polite. He gets the biggest praises from nursery workers and he's just fun to be around. But the lady looked at me and said she gets more thanks from children than the adults! We've raised our son to be polite, but I have to wonder, would I gave said thank you if I took a sample? What about when I take a piece of candy at the bank, or if someone opens the door for me...even if it's my husband? It's so easy to be impersonal these days when stores have been replaced by online shopping, bills can be paid through online banking, and problems can be solved via a recording. Yes, Isaac learns through praise but he's already starting to resemble mine and Cameron's personality traits. He will soon be able to tell if we do or don't say thank you and then follow in our example. I always want him to be grateful for the little things in life and never take it forgranted.

I guess this is just a reminder to me to not set a double standard. I'd like to think I always say thank you, but I know it's not always what I do. So thanks to you for reading my thoughts. ;)

How about you? Do you struggle with this?

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Sheep!

In continuation of this morning's creative shark imagination... Isaac sculpts a sheep from a piece of sandwich bread and exclaims, "Sheep!" Lol. This kid cracks me up! Trust me, this is all him.

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Shark!

Isaac and I were "playing colors" this morning when he drew this shape and exclaimed, "it's a shark! And there's it's tail, and there's the whale, and there's the dolphin..." I asked him to show me the shark's fin and sure enough...there it was. The next Picasso? Heehee :)

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Hubby's Thoughts

Alarming | Cameron Garcia

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Good morning monkey!

My son is in love with Yo Gaba Gaba. And its fun songs and heavy beats are a great way for us to get motivated in the morning. I get motivated for...you know...cleaning, being mom, stuff...and Isaac gets motivated to climb furniture. To each his own. ;)

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Dream Valley Challenge #7 - Something Old Something New

Here's my card for Dream Valley Challenges:

It's for my friend's birthday and she loves to garden so the digital image from our sponsor, Digi's With Attitude, was perfect for this week's challenge. If you like the image you can grab it for free right now! The challenge for this week was Something Old and New. The card I used was an old card I had laying around. I thought it would be cute for the gardening theme. The buttons are from my vintage collection. The image is new and I got to use my new gloss pens! This is my first attempt at coloring a digital "person" and I had a lot of fun picking out her personality. Of course she has brown hair just like my birthday friend :)

What a day!

Puppies - 2 of them
Puppie's Pee...in the house
Crazy lady from the alternative humane society asking silly questions about what the pups look like as if saying they look like a German shepard, retriever mix wasn't descriptive enough...
Mr. Isaac No nap
Ants in the bathroom
Ticks - one on the dog...one on my shirt. Yuck!
Shiny booger covered beed up Mr. Isaac's nose...possibly the cause of no nap?
Head banging to 80's butt rock
Child laughing hysterically to mommy rocking out.

Priceless.

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Broken Heart Part II

My husband joined in on a walk Friday night which was technically cancelled due to the Thursday night shooting of the 17-year old. The theme was "Take Back the Night" where people walk and pray together over our community, where they can one day hope to feel safe walking the streets at night. About 22 people showed up to the walk which ended in the town center's gazebo. There they prayed for the 17-year old girl and her family and prayed for God's presence in the town. My husband never felt the presence of evil more in his life than he did on Friday night.

Last night we heard the sirens going again. This time I verbalized to my husband that I hope it's not another shooting.

For the second time this week I woke up to news that someone was shot and killed. This time a man was pulled over by local police and the man pulled his gun out, opening fire at the police. No police were injured, however the man was shot and killed. This all happened at the very same spot that my husband had prayed the night before. Let me repeat that: The very same spot my husband prayed the night before, Satan attacked. It was almost like he was sending us a message.

I talked early this morning (ehem...late last night) about the presence of evil in this community and how Satan has a hold on the darkness here. My husband and I had a deep talk last night that Satan will do everything in his power to keep the darkness here. Which means we are in for a serious fight. Satan's going to attack us in every way possible. But God is more powerful and He's on our side.

Please keep praying for this town.

Broken Heart

I haven't really talked about the move to Sunnyside very much on this blog. For those of you just tuning into my blog, read here for some background on the big move..in a nut shell: We got the call from God to move to a small town where my husband became lead pastor for a church of about 40 people.

To tell you the truth, I haven't wanted to really talk about it because I just didn't know how to talk about it. This has been the hardest thing my husband and I have ever done. In the top of the lists are a miscarriage, a tubal pregnancy, deaths in the family...just to give you a few of the top hardest things we've ever done...and this has been THE hardest.

Sunnyside is a small town on the East side of Washington state. We live in a valley that's pretty dry. Here's a good picture:

There are no trees - just farmland. And unless you have a farm or a yard to water, it's a dry and barren land.

That's not the downside of Sunnyside though. In the last year, weapons crime has gone up 500%, that's not a type-o, five hundred percent. We have a serious gang problem...or to put it better...we have a serious SATAN problem.

This showed up in our backyard a few months ago:

That's a 9mm bullet. And it doesn't belong to a hunting gun...it belongs to a gun designed to be a weapon. And it was in our backyard. Satan is running this town. The funny part is that God called my husband and I here to help run Satan out. At first we thought He got the paperwork mixed up. My husband and I have never known gang problems before...so why would He want US here?

Since being in Sunnyside I've noticed not just the dry land or the gang problems but I've noticed a quiet town; a community that's become complacent. I have found that if organizations, government and the church attempt any sort of solution, they certainly aren't working together to fix the problem. The hands and feet have been cut off and those who still have a foot don't work with the those who still have their hands. It's like this:

My prayer has been for God to A: reveal his purpose for us and B: break my heart for this town. Well, yesterday that happened.

Wednesday night my husband and I were sitting in the living room spending some time together and we heard sirens go by. The brief thought had crossed my mind that it could have been a drive-by shooting but I told myself that there must have been an accident on the freeway. We woke up the next morning to a Twitter feed reporting a 17-year old girl was shot point-blank in the head by gang members. 4 gang members got out of their SUV, put on blue bandana's, and knocked on her door. Her mother was standing right behind her as she opened the door and just like that, they shot the girl in the head. You can read more about it here.

This girl was mixed up in the gangs, however, Sunnyside's Promise (a non-profit that works with people to keep them/get them out of gang's) had been working with her and I believe she was no longer affiliated with the gangs. However her brothers were and once a gang house...always a gang house.

My fear the night before had been true - the sirens were due to gang violence. It hit me that I now live in a town where, if I hear a siren, more than likely it's due to gang violence than an accident on the freeway.

I jumped in the shower and as I contemplated everything I started to cry. I cried to God, "Why would you send us here when we are not equipped to do a job of this magnitude. Cam and I have never had any experience with gang violence...really any violence of any kind... why would you ever send us here." After 6 months of waiting, and a broken heart, he finally answered me. He said, "I have sent you here because you and Cam have the ability to bring people together. You have the ability to inspire people be the hands AND feet." This overwhelmed me because I certainly didn't think that of myself. My husband, of course, but not me.

I got out of the shower and got dressed. As I looked at myself in the mirror this song came on:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8HY-_f6RA8U

Please watch the youtube video of this song if you haven't already heard it. It's amazing.

It's called "By the Power of Your Name" by Lincoln Brewster. Also, a little background...after the beginning solo a beat starts right after the piano comes in...the beat is Lincoln's son's unborn heart beat and the piano is his grandmother playing.

I had never heard this song up until that point and I have the Christian radio station going 24 hours a day in my son's room. God was waiting for me to hear this song until I was broken enough for it to effect me, motivate me, inspire me to do HIS will.

We have been called here. There's no doubt about it.

Satan is going to do everything in his power to fight the light; to keep it nice and dark in this town. I have never felt his power so much in my entire life. But God's power is greater. And we will be the hands and feet by the power of His name.

Dream Valley Challenge #5 - Flowers

For this week's challenge over at Dream Valley Challenges I decided to do a card for my mom on mom's day. I used scrap glossy pink (although it looks orange in the photo) cardstock, some scrap eyelet trim, all the stickers were stickers my mom gave me for Easter (yes, she still gives me an Easter basket even as I approach 30), some prima flowers, and a flower I made using scrap paper and a vintage button.

Feel up for the challenge? Link up to Dream Valley and you could win some pretty awesome stuff!

Big Boy!

As I was dressing my baby boy this morning in my favorite jeans on him, I saw he had a hole starting on the knee of his pants. This is a huge thing for me! For most people the milestones in child development are things like first word, first step, etc. Now that my baby's no longer a baby (at least we won't say it to his face...he'll always be my baby) the milestones seem to be getting farther and farther apart. At least not happening every month. Because they just develop so quickly during the first two years of life, new strides take place often. When I saw that holy jean it meant my baby is a big boy. He roughs and tumbles and plays hard like the other big boys. That holy jean will go in the keep box as a token of his boy-hood.

Two hours later he marked them up with permanent green marker. So long favorite jeans! You were loved.

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Dream Valley Challenge #4 - Easter

Here's this week's challenge from Dream Valley Challenges. The challenge this week is "Easter" and our sponsor is Stitchy Bear for the digi's. This is the first time I've used a digi and boy let me tell you...it took me 4 times to color this image! The first two I loved but then I decided to do something creative. So I attempted to do a crackle glaze over the top using mod podge and paint. It looked like a chocolate poo covered easter egg! LOL So I decided to just color the image and it turned out better. I'm sure I'll get better over time. Here's the final masterpiece :)

I was going for the Granny Chic look. I learned this style a few days ago and was so excited to finally have a name for my style (or at least the style I love). I took a dollar store shadow box, covered it with dollar store shelf liner and added all the trim, ribbon, vintage buttons and wood shapes I had laying around that was Easter-y. I did the best coloring I could with the markers I have (even did a little shading)! Here are some close ups:

Feel up to the challenge? Visit Dream Valley Challenges and enter in your Easter creation!

Blessings,

Woman

Fight to be a Leader!

My husband sent me this for a motivational tool. Thought you'd get a kick out of it because you know what? You're TNT Baby!:

Fight Fight Fight!

Have a freaking AWESOME day ;)

Raw Talent?

I let my son go nuts with the camera feature on my phone today. He actually got a few cute shots! Think he's born with some natural photography mad skills? lol Well for barely being two, just the fact that he knows how to operate a camera is pretty awesome.

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When Coupon Binders Attack!

I was able to get all my floating shelves put up before Isaac's 2nd birthday party on Saturday. The house looked a little more put together. But when I got home tonight after my weekly couponing adventure, I placed my coupon binder on the new catch all floating shelf in my kitchen and BANG! Down the shelf came! I must not have hit a stud when I screwed the shelf in. My husband heard the crash and came running to my rescue. I looked at him and said, "my coupon binder did it". He might have been thinking I need to cut back on all the coupons...I was thinking I haven't been using enough coupons lately! lol. *big sigh* I'll fix it tomorrow... for now I sleep.

One of Those Days...

Ever had one of those days where you feel like you are taking two steps forward and three steps backwards? I'm having one of those days.... And to top it all of I having an almost two-year-old monkey attached at my hip. Every time I turn around I knock him down because I didnt realize he was right behind me. So then he started to just cling onto my leg, literally. He just went down for a nap so I have an hour before worship practice to bust this house out! Then hopefully after he wakes up we can have some fun time. But I thought I would procrastinate just a little bit longer by blogging about it with you first :)

How's your day?

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Sneak Peak

I know! I keep saying my craft room is almost done but I promise it is! I need to hang one more shelf unit, paint my new sewing table and then it's ready to rock! But I did find the finishing art piece that every girl needs.

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Quote of the day

Funny quote my husband shared with me while reading Rob Bell's new book, Love Wins: "I as well have a hard time believing that somewhere down below the earth's crust is a really crafty figure in red tights holding a three pointed spear playing Pink Floyd records bacwards and enjoying the hidden messages" Rob Bell

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Time Out!

As some of you may know my son turns 2 on Thursday. Well along with the joys of getting to see him grow up are also the pains of discipline... it seems he's been receiving more and more time outs lately :( Well more than one is painful for mom.

Isaac wakes up at 7 am usually every morning. He likes to hang out in his crib for a while. But when he hears either mommy or daddy walk by his room he'll start to yell at us, "MOMMY! DADDY! OUT!!! WANT OUT NOW!!!" Well this morning I heard daddy walk past his room. Daddy opened up the door to say good morning and Isaac says, "Daddy! Time out (points to time out chair). Sit down!" Then daddy sat, asked if could get up now. Isaac said, "No. Two minutes Daddy."

Laugh my little white booty off! it was so hillarious to witness this. I'm glad Isaac is starting to communicate a little better however I wish he'd learn to repeat the less disciplinary language. he makes it sound as if that's all we do all day is time outs! lol.

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Such a big boy!

I love how my little man sits all big boyish with his legs crossed.

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I WON!

I just won some wonderful candy over at Mel's Craft Room! Thanks Melly! I look forward to getting some new stuff to create with!

Brownie Points!

My DTster over at Dream Valley Challenges, Carole, sent me my very first blog award! How sweet :) I have to say 7 things about myself and pass it onto 15 other blogs. I don't know 15 other blogs! So I will pass it on to my hubby and my bff. Have fun you two!

K, here it goes:

7. If you knew me you'd know that I don't like peanut butter cookies unless it's a chocolate chip cookie with peanut butter chunks in it, not peanut butter cooked all the way through.

6. If you knew me you'd know that I sucked my thumb until I was 12 (and can still be caught today sucking my thumb every once in a while)

5. If you knew me you'd know that I love to play Rock Band and Dance Dance revolution. Like LOVE LOVE LOVE!

4. If you knew me you'd know that I hate bowling and I once bowled a 14.

3. If you knew me you'd know that I have been playing the guitar since I was 13, the organ since I was 9 and the flute since I was 11. The flute I am best at but the guitar is what I love and the organ is just too darn big to fit in our house so I play the keyboard now.

2. If you knew me you'd know my favorite color is orange.

1. If you knew me you'd know that I love me some Jesus!

Burning Down the House

Although I wouldn't ever really burn my house down, mainly because we live in the church parsonage, as I was cleaning today this song came on and it made me consider it beings as my house looked like this and it was spotless two days ago. Does it ever seem like you are always take two steps forward and one step backwards? I have felt like that with our house. We still have boxes to unpack! But it's getting close. I tackle one annoying thing a day and feel better. I keep a list of all the "areas" of my home that annoy me and scratch them off as I get them to a not annoying state. My goal right now is to make everything have a home by Easter. Then it will be easy to maintain. Wish me luck!

Blessings,
Woman

P.S.! I downloaded a new Blogger App and my post worked yayaayayaywoohooyaaayayaaayaaaaaaay! (that's my written out version of the happy dance) I can't believe Google's app is so bad! Thank you unknown app writer person for making my life a tiny bit simpler.

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Blogs I couldn't post last week because my smart phone was dumb Part 2: Sweet Moments

See the previous post for dumb phone explanation lol. This was supposed to have posted on the 4th:

As my little man approaches his second birthday (he was born on St. Patty's day), I often catch myself cherishing the "baby" moments that are still left in him. Although they are few and far between these days. He's growing so fast and so smart that I also find myself subconsciously having higher expectations for him than a two year old should have. I tell myself, "He's not even 2 yet! It totally makes sense why I still have to change his butt" lol. You get the picture. But as I walked into his room tonight to make sure he was covered up and his heater was at the right temp, I found him laying in the classic baby fetal position: Arms tucked up under his chest, legs crossed up under his belly and laying face down. He is still my baby. Every time I find that sweet "baby" moment in him I wonder if it's the last.


Blessings,
Woman

Blogs I couldn't post last week because my smart phone was dumb: Today's Lunch

So this was supposed to have been posted on the 1st but for some reason I can't publish from my Blogger App on my Droid. Anybody have the same problem? The app gives me an error and then continues to attempt to still publish the post until I finally kill the app. Gah! So here you go:


I though I'd make a lunch today that showcased how my little man has been acting. He's been a little monster for sure today! But he ate up his lunch real well. The monster is made up of cucumbers, sliced string cheese and crasins for eyeballs, and carrots for the horns, all dipped in a savory blue cheese which is the only way he'll eat cukes. I gave him the rest of the string cheese cut up, some mulit-grain wheat thins, leftover chicken from last night's roasting and a bushel of grapes. I think he'd die if he didn't get grapes every day. The kid LOVES him some grapes.

Pray I make it through today! It's nap time now so I get a with my Jesus for a while. He'll calm me down...always does!

Blessings,
Woman

Junkin'

That's what my grandma always called shopping at the thrift store. She got me hooked at a very young age for shopping at thrift stores. Now that I'm a mom of my own I know there's more important things in life than spending full price on everything. Not that it's not okay to go ahead and splurge every now and then. It's not just about the frugility of purchasing used items, I love the thrill of good finds (my grandma called a good find at a great price "gonga's" which I still use the term and still have no clue where it came from...I think some used car salesman from Arizona used to say it in his commercials, "COME ON DOWN TO MY LOT! I've got a GONGA of a car for you!" lol). I love the fact that I'm also recycling by purchasing used. And I usually give it right back to the thrift store when I'm done with it. (I've always wondered how many people an item will pass through before it winds up in the dump.) Anywayzzzz this week I went junkin' with my momma and I've got some gonga's to show you:

I found some old editions of "Heidi" and "Abraham Lincoln's World" in hardback. Here's a close up of the cover to "Heidi":


I just loved the colors of these books! I got them for $2 a piece. The poppy stamp was 49 cents. And I think the green tin with the orange poppy on it is an old film reel that someone altered. I love it! I'm using the bottom as a tray for my art supplies in the craft room and the lid will go up on the wall as art. I think I paid $1.49 for it! So cute!!

I even found some gonga's for Isaac:

Because we were so blessed when Isaac was born by all the hand-me-downs from friends we had enough clothes to last him three years! Seriously I've maybe spent $50 in his whole almost two years of life on clothes for him. So I'm starting to purchase clothes for when he's bigger while I can get them at good prices. Right now is the best time to buy winter clothes because the stores are trying to clear their shelves for spring. So I'm thinking ahead and looking at the 3T's because that's what he'll be in come winter. This cute little zip up sweater was $1.49. I also found some cute little stamps for his scrapbooks (25 cents each). And my mom picked up the boy doll for him. We're thinking about letting God decide when we should have our next kiddo (a.k.a. we'll stop NOT trying to have another baby soon). So we thought a good way to gear our little man for a real baby to take care of (we figure he's big enough now to raise the next kid...haha), was to do practice runs on a fake baby. Let me tell you something, he LOVES this baby. He tucks him in at night, holds him, snuggles him, gives him a passy (pacifier). Isaac is so gentle with this fake baby I can't wait to see what he's like with a real sibling. Hubs didn't quite know what to think about his son and a "baby doll" but he plays along with the game. It's cute to see daddy and Isaac with the new baby. I couldn't believe the most expensive item out of all was the doll at $3.49 but compared to brand new, it was still a gonga :).

Do you go junkin? What good finds have you come across lately?

So I mentioned my craft room and no...it's not quite done yet. But I've accomplished a lot this week. NEXT week! I PROMISE! It's so close I can taste it! I did have a good excuse. I would have had it done this week if it weren't for the fact that I got a cold...again! I'm so done with winter.

Blessings,
Woman

Dream Valley Challenge #2: New Beginnings

Our friends just had their first baby so it only seemed appropriate that I make them a card for this weeks challenge around the theme of New Beginnings over at Dream Valley Challenges. Here's what I did to congratulate their brand new baby girl:

Front:

"A new baby is like the beginning of all things - wonder, hope, a dream of possibilities."

Isn't that the perfect quote for this weeks challenge?! I used all scraps I had laying around. The flowers are pulled from a silk hydrangea bush. I try to be frugal in everything I do so I buy pretty hydrangea flowers and pull the pedals off. It costs me a fraction of what Prima flowers would. I've had the little heart brads forever so I thought they would be cute little additions to their centers. The hemp string was purchased at the dollar store and the pink fiber border was leftover from a new sweater I got years ago. You know how blouses come with buttons - well this one came with buttons and fiber just in case I ever needed it. Thanks cute pink sweater maker! I did need it! :) The pink cardstock was inked up all around the edges with the same ink pad I used for the stamp for extra added oomph. And the vellum sticker I've had for as long as I've had the brads for. I found this cute stamp at the thrift store this week for 49 cents! (WHAT?! Yeah! I know!!! What a steal!):

So I made my own printed paper by stamping the image on a piece of soft pink cardstock scrap. And just for extra added flavor I carried the theme to the inside of the card too:

inside:

Sorry, my camera wasn't doing the card justice tonight so the colors are a little muted.

Feel up for the challenge? Visit Dream Valley Challenges and enter in your craft for a possibility to win some pretty awesome goodies.

Thanks for popping in!

Blessings,
Woman

Help!

So I'm starting to take this blogging/crafting thing more seriously these days. BUT supplies can be so expensive! Like Copic markers range up to $300 for a full set (even if I bought them from a craft store with a 40% coupon, it would still be more than I'd like to pay for them)?! It's either buy my son's big boy bed, groceries for the next month or pay for our heating bill for the next two months...versus purchasing a set of markers. BUT I WANT THEM! And Copic Markers are just on the beginning of my wish list - Dear Santa: I'd like Copic Markers, Tim Holtz distress inks, daubers, stamps of all kinds, a clip-it-up, and stuff to fill my clip-it-up, and glimmer mists, and and and....

and the list can go on and on and on! So what are ways I can get my supplies for free or cheap? Now that I'm a crazy couponer I'm always looking for more ways to score free stuff right?!

To be honest the supplies I have were purchased on clearance or were found in the dollar bin at the craft store. So most of them are no-name brands. I also really enjoy using recycled items. I save EVERYTHING and try to use it creatively. Here's how frugal I am: I use the cellophane packaging that product comes in, I have a cup in the kitchen to collect bread wrappers, bottle caps, and any other little thing I can turn into something special, and I still use the same markers I had as a kid (amazingly....20 years later...they still have ink!). I've never let the amount of income I have determine how I craft...I always find a way around. I've always thought how unfair it is that artists have to pay ridiculous amounts of money to express their gifts. No wonder they're starving! Haha :)

So what do you do? Enter into every Candy giveaway and Challenge out there (and if you do, how do you find time for all that)? How do you get your supplies?