decorating

today i will not sound like my mother. ok now that i have gotten that out of the way. if you look over to the sidebar, i've added some more blogs that i read every day. i love reading them and checking out who they read or what interests them. the speckled egg and simple song have been my favorites lately. just love their style. i also find blogs from readers comments. not from my readers but others like the pioneer woman. she has so many diverse people who read her blog its amazing.

if i had the money i would buy one of these beds for ham's new room. they were found in the pottery barn teens catalog. why do they have to cost so much?


and the kitchen towels were first showcased on a blog but i cant remember which one. i need to start writing this stuff down to give them the credit. anyway, love them and the colors! they can be found at tikoli



so it looks like my kitchen color will be from one of these. {kaylee's new room will be the green color seen above} and speaking kitchens. i've been going the white cabinet w/black counter tops route for awhile now till tuesday night. saw tori [spelling's} kitchen on her show "tori+dean". its not completed yet but i will be watching for it. she had black cabinets and i loved them! i picture black cabinets with grey,white+ black marble type counter tops. oooo that would love so nice and it would make these kitchen towels pop. and i realize they wouldn't match but i also love this hanging lamp that can be found at 2modern . thought it was beautiful.

ok i'm off to give the little one a bath. this could take awhile. she doesn't want one even though i tell her she's stinky like a boy and bugs will be coming out of her hair etc....

no pressure

this morning i was awaken by the husband giving me a peck good bye at 5 freakin 15 am! why he's going to work so early is beyond me. anyway, after kaylee came down to join me , i fell back to sleep singing rosanna by toto and private eyes by hall and oates combining one song with the other. weird. i know. i also had a short dream about me at a party with oprah and it was in an old castle, that i owned. very weird. i know. and once i work up from that, i decided it was time to get up and start reading blogs. still amazed at how many talented people there are in the world and it leaves me wondering why i'm so boring and plain with no talent. i find it not fair personally. and as i'm getting ready to hang up the photography hat i went to flickr and reminded myself that this is why i like photography so much. it captures moments. people and things. beauty is really in the eye of the beholder. so no more pressure for me to become "professional".

in other news, i am ready to send out my two swaps tomorrow. just need to get packaging supplies and ship them out. i hope they like what i did and bought for them. the first name swap was extremely hard to come up with an idea. actually, i had an idea but was just too lazy to go and do it. the name swap goes to france. i will post pictures of them tomorrow. i don't think anyone still reads my blog but one or two of you.

here's a pic from hawaii. {i know i need to post more pics of hawaii but i need to quit being so lazy and find just the good pics so be patient} anyway, as we were sitting there waiting for the boat to set sail mike gave me a diamond tennis bracelet for our 5th wedding anniversary. that schmuck, we both said no gifts this year for any occasion. but i love it anyway. and him too. mike's pa looks over and says the clocks moving and we all look over and all start to laugh. it was the boat that was moving. now the boat i do not recommend. {norwegian cruise lines} it sucked. it was dirty and small and the pools were tiny and they didn't have anything do on it especially for the kids. {carnival cruise line gets 2 thumbs up, they are a lot better} and all the dining that they had available sucked. the "buffet style" was all chaotic and the freestyle while the food was good, we had to wait for over an hour and they couldn't stick to the same procedure, it was a total mess. its a good thing norwegian is the only cruise that goes around hawaii or they would not be in business for much longer.

weekend review

ok. i'm semi out of my blahs from friday. i have new found blahs but wont bore you with the details.
friday after mike came home from work, we headed over to the farmers market in search of some unusual spice for my kitchen goodies swap. the sad part is i had already found and purchased something unusual in shipshewana a few weeks back only to come home and find that they had been opened already. pissed me off- paid 8 bucks for the bottle of savory salts with rosemary and lavender. i think my swap buddy would of loved it too being that she's a baker etc etc...... after that disappointing trip {i found something but not as cool} i made lyn from texas italian stuffed shells. {my favorite things swap buddy gave me two of her fav. recipes to try} i had to improvise since my part of the woods don't believe in selling jumbo shells. i turned this into an italian bake and it turned out delicious. mike and ham both said they liked it and that's an accomplishment right there.

saturday kaylee and i went over to a friends house to drop off some baby stuff. her daughter is having a little girl in november. kaylee swam for 3 hours while julie and i talked. after that came back home. i went shopping for a little bit. not really intending to buy anything but elder beerman was having a great sale. 70% off so i bought kaylee 3 pj sets. she really is in need of some pj's. kim and gary were over once i returned home. kaylee showed them her baseball hitting skillz and later around 9:30ish she wanted to go to bed so she told gary to go home. it was pretty funny. {jcpenneys is having a great sale too, found a fire pit for under $150. hopefully it will still be there friday when we go back to buy it}

sunday we headed over to lowes and got some maintenance done to the house. the sprinkler system is up and running again, the gutters have some new spouts to drain out of, the house is clean inside and out and flowers were watered. bought some paint too. i want to do the front porch all one color- gray.

oh and we finally got ham his learners permit. he starts drivers ed tomorrow.

the blahs

ever been in one of those blah moods? that's how i've been feeling this morning. i could either use a good laugh or some good news right now. i did it to myself. well some of it, ok most of it. number 1, i am tired. i've haven't slept well for the past 2 nights. my lower back is achy. this is happening because just the other night i told mike that i've been sleeping like a baby and don't hear him get up in the mornings. i cursed myself. number2, we showed the house last night and i worked myself into believing that they love the house. its been the cleanest and most organized that its ever been- how could they not love the house?? after hyping myself up with that thought of course its got to come down. hopefully the blahs will go away soon.

here's some before and after photos. this was what those people got to see except you don't get to see the closets or the upstairs storage cabinets that's in the hallway. all clean and organized!! i turned the living room back to its normal state. the projects table and all crafting stuff into storage. i did rearrange the room again this morning. the couch is along the left hand wall and the chair and ottoman are right underneath the 4 pictures that are crooked. we will see if i like it this way or the other way. just want to make use of the window. wonderful trees outside.

in the chill room aka as the computer/toy room. i switched the entertainment center and desk around. it just seems to make sense this way and kaylee has more room to dump out her toys and leave them there for me to pick up later which i purely enjoy. ha!


and in the family room, with the chair and ottoman back where they belong, also got rid of some extra stuff, the room feels even larger. the marino jersey might have to come down too. we will see. and yes, that's a huge sectional sofa!

and no, i will not be painting the new house with the same colors even though i like them. so this is what all the work i have been doing. i think it looks awesome. certainly feels a lot better.

customer service

i woke up early this morning with a backache and tummy ache and it wouldn't let me go back to sleep. its not a throw-up tummy ache, more of an annoying dull ache. i figure it must be old age and i don't have the best posture in the world. exercising and stretching probably would help some. hmm....might have to invest in doing some of that.

yesterday after much debating about the shootsac purchase i came to my senses and did not purchase. i surprise myself that i have such will power. {ha! will power?} anyway, after returning from one of my nieces birthday party, i found my lucky brand tops waiting for me {yippy} and these on my front porch:

my cell phone contract was up and i was online all day sunday looking for the best deal while i waited for ham to make up his mind on which cell phone he wanted. i found 2 years ago that if you go to wirefly.com you get the best phone prices. i got 2 razor phones for free and paid $9.99 for shipping. so i went there again and found that if your a new customer {which is probably true for all wireless sites} you get cheaper phones which i find to be not fair. i am a loyal customer who stuck with her 2 year contract and paid the bills on time. so come monday morning i call at&t and tell them i would like to cancel my services since my contract is up. they of course ask me why and i tell them flat out that i can go to wirefly.com and get cheaper phones for being a 'new" customer instead of extending my contract and upgrading my phones. i thought they would of said ok since i was still going to use them as my carrier but instead they totally surprised me and came through with great customer service. not only did i get ham's phone for the 69.99 price { mine was free} but free shipping and i also got to go with a smaller family plan {550 minutes} since we don't need or use all the other minutes {700}. they made it happen. which i find to be rare these days. good customer service.

time flies when your having fun??

wow its almost 1:oo in the afternoon. i feel like i have accomplished nothing. i have managed to clean out 1 bathtub and the bathroom that contains it and i have managed to get a short grocery list around and a load of laundry into the washer while slaving away to the desires of a needy, certain 3 year old. so it hasn't been a total waste of day yet. and do you remember this movie? {i personally loved it- "I ROCK" just quoting the movie}

i kinda felt like annette benning this past week while cleaning and decluttering the house. i found myself talking to myself saying "this house will get sold, someone will come and love this house and buy it." etc... just some little info to share with y'all.

and today this photographer extraordinaire is 29. Oh to be twenty- nineteen again! anyway she is celebrating her birthday with everyone with a sale on her shootsacs. i really want one. it would be a lot better for my camera than the fossil bag i am currently using and a lot safer.

but i'm suppose to be saving money right now for the new house. mike really wants a pool. this might be silly

but i might just buy this cover since its on sale and its really cool, plus its limited edition and would hate for it to be gone. {i like the other designs but really love this one the best}

decisions. decisions.

braces suck, swaps are cool

i am in pain. i just got back from my brothers office. my lower front 4 teeth have been pulled on, pushed in and tightened today. i had involuntary tears starting to come down that's how painful this was. {braces suck} but on the bright side of things, i got my favorite things swap today from lyn whose from texas. and well, she ROCKS!! look + drool over the goodies she sent me! {black floral tote, big red pop, zero candy bar + some lemon heads, mary kay products, tons of paper/stationary/note cards for list making + a gratitude notebook, which i desperately in need of at the moment, yummy recipes, a texas book, a fantastic pen + some gum. ham might snag the gum from me, that's his favorite kind}

feels like christmas in july. this is why i love swaps. though at the moment i need to bust some butt in order to get my other 2 swaps out in time. i will have finished photos when all is sent out.

retail therapy

back in may kaylee and i tagged along with mike down to indy for the night. he was there for a short business meeting. anyway, as kaylee and i were shopping, i saw this in the lucky brand store:

and i loved it but the price tag was way too hefty for me. came back home to find out that the pioneer woman bought it- what a coincidence? and she was giving away a nice little gift card to lucky.com. of course i didn't win it- that would of been too lucky for me. so yesterday during my fit of boredom, i went to lucky.com and found it on sale. yep. score for me. i got this and the koi tank top for half price each. they must of sold out of the koi tank top cuz i couldn't find it to post.

i also went to this blog how about orange. i found it to be very inspirational for decorating the new house. love her colors and how simple everything is. not overstuffed and crowded. {cant remember how i found the blog, one of those hop from one blog to another}

i also love this:

i saw this first on pure and simple. {she has a different style posted on her blog but love them both} you can find this and some other wonderful stuff on etsy at pacoandlupe.

ok going to go and get ready to head over to hobby lobby. came up with another idea for my kitchen swap and need to get a few things for my first name swap too. after that, going to attempt to tackle the garage. going to go through all the old boxes that was stored in the attic and see what needs to go and what can stay. i have tons of southern living at home crap. use to be a consultant but it didn't fly around here like it does in the south. and its not all "southern" things either... oh well thats elkhart for ya.

random things

still working on my brillant idea. now the "living room" looks like we are packing to move...hint hint hint to the moving gods. this morning i rearranged the "chill room" and last night while kaylee was sleeping packed up more of her toys. dont worry, she still has plenty to play with. now that i see how uncluttered our house can be and how nice it actually looks, kinda want to get rid of everything that i'm packing away. guess we will see.

ham wanted to go swimming at my parentals house yesterday so i took a break from all this packing + cleaning. also went up and saw my sister + her fams. new crib that they put an offer on. boy does it need a lot of work and A LOT of cleaning! and i dont think my sister knows what she has gotten herself into having her in-laws move in with them and the how big the house is but thats for another time.

here are some random pictures of me and kaylee.

went to her favorite place in the world- the ice cream shop. she ate all of her chocolate ice cream+ cone.

and here she is trying to get a lick of mine but i wouldnt let her. {i love playing that trick on mike too. have them go in for a bite and pull the food away- hilarious! mike hates it} kaylee ended up eating all of hers and half of mine!! she loves ice cream is an understatement.

{hard to see but my top braces are off. i think my teeth look big.}

me and my brilliant ideas

sometime last week i got the brilliant idea of decluttering the house even more so. the cabinets, attic and some closets are over stuffed and potential buyers cant see the space this house has to offer. so last night i had mike clear out the attic. {good thing i made him a good dinner} while i cleared out the front closet and repainted it. the front room will be turned back into a "living room" so all my craftiness will have to be placed on hold. {ok, craftiness wannabe} and now i have a garage full of stuff. today i will be cleaning house and weeding through the garage seeing what needs tossed, garage saled or storaged.

to make this even more grand. my little sister calls me yesterday and tells me someone put an offer on their house which has been up for sale for about 3 weeks....biatches- said with love, and the house they put an offer on, has been accepted. *sigh* some people have all the luck. i'm really happy for them and glad that they haven't had to go through this whole waiting process.

when did this happen?

when she went from this:

to this:

i was going through some old photos when i saw these of kaylee. the top two photos are from myrtle beach and she was about 9 months old. love how chubby she was. i think if you click on the second photo of her on the surf board, you can see how chunky her legs were. you just want to eat them up! the ones of her laying on the beach is from kuaui this year. it makes me sad to see how grown up my children are becoming. moments like these you wish time would stand still.

i have lots of photos of kaylee looking out into the ocean. i was waiting for her to do something so i just clicked away but she didn't move for a minute or two and it makes me wonder. what is she thinking about as she's looking out into the big wide ocean.

before + after

i've been waiting for these pictures. this was done last sunday.
ham before:

and ham after:

i think he looks handsome either way just in the after shot, he looks more like his dad and he looks younger. this was done at kim+ gary's house. their son, arrin, ham's best friend, did the cutting. i guess it was decided that if ham did it then tommy had to do it. {another friend} though ham had the most hair to lose.

house news + pictures

i apologize for my last whiny post. i thought it would kinda cancel out since the pictures where happy ones. i told mike this week we are going to sell our house, i can feel it. trying to go with a positive attitude here and keeping the good karma flowing. well yesterday we got a call from the guy who wants to build our new house. he's offered us whats called a "guarantee sale". he would have one of his "marketing analysers" come over and take a look at the house to see what its worth {appraisal technically} and he would buy it from us for that said price once the new house is finished. this looks like a possible win-win situation for us. and it takes some of our concerns away like having to find temporary living if our house did sell before the new house was finished, having someone beat us in purchasing the land and not having to deal with 2 house payments. he said he will get back with us about this late summer, early fall.

i've also been working on the hawaii pictures and getting them developed over at snapfish. since i opened up an account there, i got 50 free prints and i thought i was going to get a free 8x10 but must of missed the deadline. ah well. i've got 137 pictures coming so far. i have a lot more to do. i'm weeding out the bad ones and trying to enhance some of those that looks like they would be cool enhanced like this one.

though you really cant tell on this print but i hard lighted it. love how the blue in the truck stands out. and this is what i dream of: living in hawaii with an old car and a not so fancy house....someday once the kids are grown mike + i plan on retiring over there. {this was in kona}

4th of july

fourth of july. how can i explain it without sounding like a 10 year old whiny kid? ok, i cant. it was really, really boring. {this is mike's favorite holiday. last year he drank from around 9am till about midnight. this year he got a late start- 11:30ish but he still managed to be obnoxious + very loud.} so of course mike wanted to be in laporte by 9am their time. {laporte even though they are in indiana, are an hour behind us} ugg! let me just leave it that it was really boring. i would rather have stayed home and cleaned out the attic and gotten stuff ready for a garage sale.

cousin jessica, her dad- uncle dave and shari did stop by so that helped break up my day. cousin jessica brought her little guy with her. he's 10 days old in the pic. that's gizmo, the dog, belongs to mike's folks. later in the evening we headed over to the dingmans for the annual fireworks. the girls had a great time doing the sparklers though i really didn't want kaylee to do them. {just read on pioneer woman that pesky tim got 2nd degree burns because one blew up in his hand- yep a sparkler did that} mike dumped that big firecracker into the fire pit. you were suppose to take it all apart and do them separately. i think there were 400 firecrackers in there. all that it did was smother the fire and make lots of popping sounds. we had to stay away from the fire pit the rest of the night because some would go off at any given moment. the fireworks were actually pretty good. i need to get my firework photo taking skills up to speed. i didn't get a chance to read "how to" on pioneer womans website till the day after but i'm ready next time around. the girls watched the fireworks for maybe the first 5-10 minutes. kaylee said they were boring. so her and lilly ran around and played tag. next year i'm doing something else. maybe go later in the afternoon or something.

stupid housing market

hard as it may seem, i don't lead a very exciting life. right now my worries and problems deal with this house not selling. i try not to let it get me down but it does. i feel like i should be doing something instead of sitting here waiting for a phone call or email saying that someone wants this house. to get by and to move on, i think of what might be- these are photos of the land we want to purchase. its huge even though its less than an acre. and the second photo was taken from back of the lot, thats the pond we have access too. makes for a nice view and kinda makes our yard seem bigger. this is the house we want to build and the second one is the coloring that we want on the outside. we like the darker stone and trim.



thinking this way is kinda a two edge sword. i'm looking forward to the goal/dream yet i'm reminded that this goal/dream could take awhile.

swaps

just sent out my favorite things swap yesterday. everything went into the straw bag: stickers for scrapping, thank-you note cards, little notepad, burt bee's lip balm + foot creme- love them! bath and body works lavendar vanilla sleeping mist, a "family" magnet and our family's favorite- honey bbq sauce from the parentals restaurant. hope lyn from texas likes everything.

and i'm currently in a kitchen swap and a first name swap. the kitchen one i'm kinda nervous. been reading the person i have to send too blog and she seems so much more "sophisticated" than me. wish me luck!!

hawaii june 6, 2008 friday

{going in order of photos}

if you can remember back from my last post about hawaii kaylee ended up falling asleep before getting a chance to eat anything for dinner and she didn't wake up till she fell off the bed, remember?? well this is her friday morning multi-tasking: eating her leftover lunch of chicken nuggets while sleeping in front of the door. good thing i decided to save those chicken nuggets because at this time in the morning, nothing is open without a little walk. poor sweet kaylee. days full of beach and the sun is really wearing her down besides being a little jet lagged. once again the day was spent pool/beach side. sometime throughout the day thursday mike's relatives showed up. {don statton who cashed out the money for all of us to be doing this + mike's grandma rosie, aunt diane + uncle don, uncle steve + 3 kids- doug, jake+haley, uncle don+shari}

in the morning everyone besides grandma rosie and me and kaylee went for an hour long catamaran ride. ham said it was a good time. and by late afternoon the time that mike and i were waiting for arrived- NANA was here!! mike's folks+ brother finally arrived. being anal as they are, they checked on their flight the night before and saw that they had a time change. good thing for being anal because if they hadn't they would of been waiting at the airport at least 4 hours before having to arrive. kaylee girl got spoiled. anything she wanted to do- nana was there at her beck and call. she loved it and mike and i loved it too- we got a chance to get our "tan on". {a year or so before kaylee asked where i was going- tanning bed and she said getting my tan on? and so it stuck}

after the day at the pool/beach we talked mike's folks into going to pf changs for dinner. once again they did not fail us. we ended up walking around and going into a few shops here and there. it was extremely busy. they were having their pan am festival that night too. got kaylee to bed and had ham keep an eye on her while mike and i went back to senor frogs. we met up with dave and shari- funniest and coolest people i know. i also got one of these palm tree drinks that dave is holding in the last picture. it looks more "adult toyish" in person.

after mike finishes another one of those big ass beers we head back to our hotel for some much needed sleep.