The Worthy House

Ireland Trip Part 1---Skelligs and Dingle

2011-07-02T20:33:00.008-05:00

So to say I've been slacking on the blog thing is probably the understatement of the year. Its been almost a year since I posted. I can't believe it. Time just flies.

Anyway, so what have we been up to this year you may be wondering... Not too much really. Guess we are just kinda boring. We did get back recently from an amazing vacation to Ireland.

My husband posted his favorites and his disappointments on his site and I thought maybe I would share a few of mine.

I would have to say that one of the highlights of the trip for me was seeing the puffins in their natural habitat. I've always thought these were the cutest birds and I have always wanted to see one in real life. I spent a summer in Maine one year and they have puffins there but I never got to see one.

We went on a day trip out to the Skellig Islands off the southern coast of Ireland on our third day there and I finally got to see the puffins. They didn't disappoint. The Skelligs are home to thousands of birds. The country has established these islands as a nature reserve and they only allow so many people to visit per day. It was a 45 minute boat ride out to Skellig Michael. This is the larger of the two and they only one that they allow people to visit. There is a monastery at the top of the island that was founded in the 7th century by Christian monks. The huts are very well preserved and it was definitely worth the trip out and the climb up the 600 stone steps.

These are some of the huts at the top of Skellig Michael.

And yes, we climbed up 600 of these steps to make it to the top. Definitely know now just how out of shape I am.

Here I am with some puffins. We were able to get pretty close to them before they would fly off. There were hundreds out that day. The weather was amazing. I guess we were lucky because prior to our trip, Ireland had had horrible weather for like a month or so.

We left out of Portmagee for the Skelligs and on our drive into town we saw this amazing rainbow. I didn't get a picture of the whole thing but we could be exactly where the rainbow started and stopped. It was beautiful. We saw about 8 or 9 rainbows during out stay.

Another favorite part was simply the driving through the countryside. The views are beautiful. The next couple of pictures are from our drive down the Dingle Peninsula. If you ever make it over to Ireland, definitely do the drive to Dingle. Definitely one of the best parts of our trip. I know most people will drive the Ring of Kerry and we did this drive too. It had some wonderful towns and beautiful scenery but in my opinion, it didn't live up to the drive to Dingle. Stunning.

For the sake of not making this post forever long, I'll split up our trip and leave it at this for today.

Happy 4th!!!!

Bedroom Makeover

2010-07-31T18:47:00.006-05:00

We've been busy around here the past week or so making over our master bedroom. I'm so excited with how it's turned out. We had painted it green not long after moving in. I liked the green but it was a little too much. I'm definitely the type of person who likes to change things up every now and then. When I was younger I would rearrange my bedroom furniture every few months or so. Luckily for my husband I don't do that too often any more. I'm surprised he actually helped repaint this time.

Anyway, I decided that I wanted to repaint and after going through about a hundred paint chips, I found a blue and tan that I liked. We decided to paint blue in the bedroom and the tan in the bathroom. We haven't started on that yet but maybe soon. I need to give my poor husband a break from painting for a while I think or he really won't help me. He LOVES the color blue so I knew he would like the paint choices.

Here's a picture of the green before.

We didn't really have any other furniture or accessories other than a dresser that the TV sat on.

Here's the finished room. I'm really excited with how it turned out. Here are a few pics of how it turned out:

I found the quilt and tan blanket at TJ Maxx for a total of $45. It has the perfect shade of blue and brown to match the paint we chose. I'm considering covering the headboard and footboard with some white fabric that ties on the sides. I like the brown in the wood but it doesn't match our other furniture. I would love suggestions.

The picture above the bed came from Kirklands. I get a lot of my home decor items from here because there is usually always a sale. The quote says," Life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass... it's about learning to dance in the rain."

We found the armoir on Craigslist and had to do just a little bit of touch up. The dresser is something I picked up a while back at a flea market for $90.

The accessories came from both TJ Maxx and Kirklands. Everything was on sale. I love not paying full price. I picked up the curtains from Target. I have such a hard time with curtains. I can rarely find any I actually love. I considered making my own but I like how the brown and white look together. I have a couple of picture frames I'm planning on hanging together as soon as I get the photos developed. Other than that I think I'm pretty much done with the room. Let me know what you think. Is there anything that would look better changed up. I'm sure there is. I would love input.

I linking to Tatertots and Jello and Keeping it Simple

Look what I found...

2010-06-07T20:47:00.003-05:00

These beauties are in my flower bed in the front of our house. I planted these early this year and was in the hospital when they first bloomed. By the time I got home, they were a little past their prime. However, I got to see the new blooms this past weekend. I love yellow roses. I also planted a pink rose bush and the blooms on it are just as beautiful.

Backyard Landscaping Project

2010-06-07T19:43:00.005-05:00

Well after several bumps in the road, we are finally close to be done with our little landscaping project in the backyard. I'm really happy with the way its turned out so far. I've got a few little things to add to it but it's pretty much done. Here's what it looked like before...

This is a picture taken during the process of clearing out the grass around the patio. My poor husband worked so hard to make this perfect for me. I really couldn't do a lot to help. We did most of the work after I got home from the hospital so I pretty much supervised.

Here's what it looks like after. We built four 3X3 boxes to use as planter boxes. I've got tomatoes planted in two of them and flowers planted in the other two. Right now they don't look like much but I'm hoping in a little while there will be a little more color. I still have some bird feeders to put up in the other corner and we are planning on planting a small flowering tree at some point in time.

This is the beautiful hanging basket I got at Walmart. I love the colors.

Here's the side view. The sunflower looking thing on the ground is actually a bird feeder I got a year or so ago at a craft fair. I'm getting ready to hang it on another hook along with a hummingbird feeder.

I'm really happy with the results and I know it will only get better after things start growing. I would love any input about how to make it even better. Hope you enjoy. Thanks for stopping by.

Landscaping Project

2010-06-03T19:27:00.002-05:00

We're almost finished with our backyard landscaping project. It's only taken 2 months. There were some setbacks in those 2 months. We had about a months worth of rainy weekends so there was no we were going to be able to till up the ground with all the rain. When we finally get a week where we didn't have any rain, I end up in the hospital and have to have surgery. Finally, after all of that, my amazing husband worked so hard to get the flower beds ready to plant in. I'll post pictures tomorrow! Can't wait to show it off.

Show Us Your Money Saving Tips- $20 Gym Memberships

2010-04-30T07:32:00.005-05:00

I'm posted about this in the past but I think it such a great idea that I just had to link it up to Kelly's Korner- Show Us Your Life series.

Last fall when I made the decision to start a weight loss program and work on getting fit, I started looking into gym options. I don't know about you but I don't like the idea of getting stuck in a gym contract and after hearing some of the horror stories about the contracts from some friends I knew that was something I didn't want. My sister-in-law was using the gym at one of the local youth centers and it had everything she was looking for, so I decided to give it a try. The great thing about it was it only cost about $20 for a membership. That's all. No monthly fee. No contract. Now I will say this if you are looking for the personal trainer experience, you're probably not going to get that at a youth center. However, it had all the equipment I was interested in using. Most of the centers in my area offer workout classes for a small fee in addition to the gym equipment. So if you're looking for a place to get that workout in but you're like me and you hate the contracts and high prices, check out your local youth centers and activity centers.

New Goal

2010-04-11T20:41:00.002-05:00

So I may be crazy but oh well... I've decided to start training to run in a 10k run this fall. If you know me, you know I've never really done any kind of running. This is a big deal for me but I believe its totally doable. My awesome sister-in-law is going to do it with me. We're going out to buy new running shoes this week and going to get started soon.
I found a running plan that is designed for people who are new to running. It caught my eye because it's call the "Couch potato to 5k" training program. It starts with small steps and works up to a 5k. The race we are striving to run in is both a 5k and 10k. I'm hoping with 4 months to train we will be able to run in the 10k.
I'm not really worried about making a good time. I just want to set the goal to complete it. If I can accomplish that I will be happy. So here's wishing us luck. I know we can do this together.

Happenings of the last month with the Worthys

2010-04-01T19:54:00.005-05:00

Let's see... What's been going on with the Worthy's for the past month. Truthfully, not much. It seems like we've had something going on every weekend for the past month. Last weekend we visited some family on the other side of the state. My dad's aunt was celebrating her 80th birthday. We had a big surprise birthday dinner for her. There were 38 people there and she was totally surprised.
Two weekends ago we were in Las Vegas. Daniel's company sent him and coworker to a Microsoft conference and I tagged along. Neither one of us had ever been out there before. I have to say... Vegas is definitely an interesting place. We flew out Sunday night and came back on the following Thursday. I was pretty much ready to come home by Tuesday. I did a ton of walking around while Daniel was in his meetings. I don't know that I've ever walked as much in one day as I walked while in Vegas. We did a little gambling. Mainly we sat at the penny slots and got free drinks. We didn't really win any money but we didn't spend a lot either. At least not in the casinos. The conference was at Mandalay Bay but we stayed at the Luxor. It was okay. I started out in a pyramid room and had to upgrade to a tower room. The Luxor is Egyptian themed and the casino and theaters are in the pyramid. The rooms in the pyramid are really kind of interesting. The windows are slanted and the elevators move sideways. It was weird.

This is one of my best friends, Christina. She was one of my roommates in college and one of my beautiful bridesmaids. She lives in LA now and was out in Vegas for other reasons. When I told her I was coming out, she worked it out so she could stay an extra day and see me. I was so excited to see her again. It had been almost 3 years since we had seen each other. That's the pyramid part of the Luxor in the background. The weather was excellent while we were there.

This is the view from the room I stayed in the first night. I hadn't expected to see the mountains but they were beautiful.

This is the New York New York casino and hotel. I really like this one. That's a roller coaster track that is running in front of it. No... I didn't ride it but it looked like fun. Too bad they make me sick.

This is the Excalibur. It was right next door. Daniel really liked this one.

Here's Daniel sitting at one of the slot machines.

Poppies at the Bellagio. They have a beautiful garden just inside the lobby area. It was gorgeous.

Caesar's Palace. It was huge. The decor inside was amazing. The paintings and statues and ceilings were magnificent.

Standing on the balcony walkway at the Bellagio. That's Paris Casino resort behind us. The Bellagio has some amazing fountains. It was one of my favorite things that we saw while we were there.

Lions at the MGM. They have a lion habitat inside the casino.

Paris Casino Resort.

These are some of the statues inside Caesar's.

I know we didn't even scratch the surface of seeing all there is to see in Vegas. Maybe one day we will make it back out there.

I guess that's about all that has been going on this past month. It will be nice to relax this weekend and enjoy the Easter holiday with family.

Happy Easter to all of you out there in Blogger land.

Catching Up

2010-02-25T18:33:00.002-06:00

So I noticed it had been awhile since I had posted anything new and thought I would say a quick hello. Things have been kind of slow the past couple of weeks which is nice. However, it makes for some boring blog posts.
My husband's company is sending him to Las Vegas for a conference and I'm lucky that I get to go along. Unfortunately, the company won't pay for me but its okay. I'm just glad I get a little vacation. One of my best friends lives out in LA and she's meeting me in Vegas. I'm so incredibly excited about seeing her. Its been almost 3 years since we've seen one another. I have no idea what I'm going to do while Daniel is in meetings but I figure its Vegas, the possibilities are endless. I've never been there before so this is bound to be quite an experience.
My weight loss is going well. I've been going to meetings with my sister-in-law. While I've missed the past couple of meetings due to weather, I've still managed to lose a little. I actually purchased pants a size smaller than I normally buy. I was so excited they fit. They are still a little on the tight side but I can button them, so to me they fit.
I have to say that's about it for me right now. Hope all is well with everyone out there in blogger land.

Snow Day!!!

2010-01-29T14:23:00.004-06:00

One year ago this week we had the worst ice storm I had ever experienced. Everything shut down for about a week. My parents were without electricity for about 10 days. We lost it for 3 days. We were able to crash at my husband's brother's house. We were lucky they let us stay with them. I don't know what I would have done without them.

Well, we almost had a repeat this year. Luckily, we have gotten more snow than ice. It started last night as freezing rain and sleet but changed over to snow in the middle of the night. It hasn't let up at all today. It's nice to see the snow as long as I don't have to get out in it. I checked the Weather Channel's website. Here's what the radar shows:

Looks like it's going to be coming down for a while longer. At least I don't have to get out and drive in it.

Show Us Your Life- weight loss tips

2010-01-15T09:40:00.004-06:00

I've posted about this in the past but I thought I would mention it again because I think its a great tip. Kelly over at Kelly's Korner is hosting a link party to share weight loss tips and ideas and I thought I would link up and share.

One of my resolutions this year was to really commit to losing weight and to exercise more. This past summer I started going to the local youth center with my sister-in-law to workout. They have the basic equipment that I was interested in using. The best thing about the youth center is that it only costs $26 a year for a membership. There's no way a gym membership is going to fit into my budget this year and this is a great alternative. Most of the gyms around here are at least $30 a month plus you have to sign a contract. Not so with the youth center. You don't have to sign any kind of contract. Its a one time fee to use the center. They have decent equipment and a track that I like to use. The center I go to also offers a variety of fitness classes that you have to pay an extra fee for but its minimal.

So if you are looking for a place to workout but the paying the expensive gym fees is not in your budget check out your local youth center. They are not just for the kids.

400 calorie chicken nuggets and fries

2010-01-06T09:50:00.003-06:00

Last night my husband had to work late so I ended up making dinner for just me. I decided I wanted chicken nuggets. I love chicken nuggets. I have always loved chicken nuggets. So I started looking for a recipe that would work for my diet plan. I came across a couple that used cornflakes but I didn't have all the ingredients needed. I found a recipe calculator that will give you an estimate of the nutritional value of your meal. Like I said in my last post, I'm trying to stick to four 400 calorie meals a day. This one was pretty close.

I used the recipe calculator to tell me about how many calories would be in my meal. I entered the following ingredients:

chicken breast, no skin
cornflakes
black pepper
paprika

It came out to be about 150 calories per serving. These turned out really good. I ate them with ketchup of course so that added about 20 calories. So far my total is approximately 170 calories.

Since I was having nuggets I decided to make some oven fries. I used sweet potatoes since they are a better for you than other potatoes. I went back to the recipe calculator to make sure I was staying under 400 calories. Here's what I entered in:

sweet potato, 1 medium baked
olive oil
paprika

I used about 1 tbsp of olive oil to coat the potato wedges with the seasoning. Baked them at 400 for about 30 minutes. Delicious. And best yet they were approximately 240 calories. This was what the calculator spit out for one serving. I didn't eat the entire potato so it was probably less than that but we will go with 240 for now.

So I had nuggets and fries for a total of 410 calories. I'm guessing that it was a little less than this but I'll take it. And it was delicious. I felt full and satisfied afterward. I was curious and I entered a serving of chicken nuggets and medium fry from a local fast food chain. The calculator showed that these were approximately 600 calories per serving. That's a saving of about 200 calories. Wow.

I was so proud of myself. It may not seem like much but I love that I can still eat things that I like and still feel good about it. Hopefully it will pay off.

New Diet Plan and Meal Planning

2010-01-05T12:04:00.004-06:00

I've never been very consistent with my meal planning. I love having a list when I go to the grocery store and having my weeks meals planned out. I just don't do it that often. I'm trying to get into the habit of it this year. One reason is to simply be more organized and save a little money. The big reason though is due to my New Year's Resolution to lose weight. I've started a new diet plan.
I heard about this book on an episode of "The Doctors."
I'm not following it exactly but I'm using it as my inspiration for my meal planning. The idea behind it is eating 4 400 calorie meals that contain a lot of monounsaturated fatty acids or MUFAs. These are found in things like olives and olive oils, nuts, dark chocolate and avocados.

Now it says on the cover that you can lose 15 pounds in 32 days without doing any crunches. Not that I'm doubting what they say but I personally believe that exercise is just as important as eating the right foods. I'm not expecting these kinds of results but I hope to be successful.

I'm not only using the Flat Belly Diet as inspiration. I have found several recipes from the Weight Watchers cookbooks as well as the Prevention website. Really, its all about watching your calorie intake. I'm going to do my best to stick to the four 400 calorie meal plan. As long as I keep it under this I can eat pretty much anything I want.
I hope to start attending a weekly meeting with my wonderful sister-in-law. The program is called TOPS and I'm hoping that it will help keep me motivated and hold me accountable. Here's to the new me. Can't wait to post some of my results.

Is it really already the start of a new year!?

2009-12-30T15:50:00.005-06:00

I can't believe that 2010 is almost here. I have to say that I'm ready for the new year though. I'm looking forward to what 2010 has in store for me and my family.

Things have really not gone to plan for me this past year. I know that what we think we have planned for ourselves is not always what God has planned for us. I've really been feeling down the past couple of days and yesterday my poor husband had to come home to me lying on the couch with tears in my eyes. I was feeling pretty disappointed in myself. He is absolutely amazing. He has been so great and supportive through all of my career changes. I really don't know what I would do without him.

There's a lot of things I'm looking forward to changing during 2010. I've never been great at making resolutions and keeping them but this year I'm really going to try hard to follow through. So here's my list:

1. Get healthier- Workout more and diet. I hate the word diet but I'm looking forward to eating healthier.

2. Attend church every Sunday and pray more.

3. Get rid of some of our debt. I'm looking forward to paying off our credit cards and some of our student loans.

4. Find a full-time job that I'm happy with. I've been working a couple of part-time jobs this year while I work on fulfilling some requirements. I've changed my mind of what career path I want to follow about 3 times this year. It's time I just make a decision and work to achieve what needs to be done. ( hope that makes sense.)

5. This one goes along with #3 and 4. Get our family back to where we were financially before I left my job at the beginning of 2009. Once we get back to where we were and we are able to save a little more we can finally start thinking about children. This is probably the part that I beat myself up over the most. I feel like I have thrown our family so off track when I quit my job.

So that's it. It seems like a lot but I feel confident that I will be able to accomplish them. So here's to 2010. Can't wait to see what you have in store for me.

Merry Christmas!!!!

2009-12-25T19:14:00.004-06:00

Today is Christmas and it's been a wonderful day. My family exchanges gifts on Christmas Eve rather than on Christmas day. We have always done it this way. It really works out now that I'm married. We are able to fit everyone in and still have some time just to ourselves on Christmas. So last night we started with the In-laws. It was great. I am so blessed to have such wonderful in-laws. After having an amazing dinner with my husband's side of the family, we headed over to my side of the family. Things are always a little crazy with them but I still love them. We have a good time visiting and exchanging gifts and playing games. It's always incredibly loud but I'm used to it. I'm not sure if the husband is yet but he fits in pretty good.

It started snowing/sleeting about 6pm so we had to change our plans a little. We were really hoping to attend our church's 10pm Candlelight service but the roads were getting a little treacherous and we opted to drive home rather than chance it. I was so looking forward to this service. Its a wonderful time of worship and singing. I hope to make it a family tradition.

Daniel and I don't have children yet but we talked a lot last night about how we would do Christmas when we do have kids. We are completely on the same page with how we plan on raising children. We just hope that we are able to teach our future children about the true meaning of Christmas and the greatest gift of all, Jesus Christ.

I hope everyone out there has had an amazing Christmas.

Happy New Year!

What a week

2009-12-13T09:08:00.002-06:00

It's been kind of a crazy week for our family but things are starting to look up.

Last night, Daniel and I attended his company's Christmas party and after an emotional week, it was nice to relax and enjoy the good food and good conversation.

I can't believe that Christmas is just a couple of weeks away. We are pretty much finished with the shopping. Hopefully I can say we are completely finished after today. We still have a couple of small things to pick up but I'm optimistic that we will be done today. This is probably one of the first times I can say that and it not be two days before Christmas.

This time of year is always a little stressful for me. I'm sure a lot of people feel that way. I love the holiday season but fitting everything in can be a little overwhelming. Our family is wonderful though and we are starting to get the hang of jumping from family party to family party. We are very lucky that our families are close and we don't have to do a lot of traveling.

I hope that everyone has a wonderful holiday season and Merry Christmas to you all!

Christmas Decorations

2009-11-28T19:59:00.004-06:00

I've got most of my Christmas decorations up for the season and I thought I would share. I'm still working on a couple of items to complete the trees and the mantle but the majority is complete.
Here's a few pictures.

This is right as you enter the living room from the entry way. I told my husband earlier today that I think this is my favorite area of Christmas decorations this year. This is the first year I've done it this way. I really like it. I need to smooth out the hanging. Its a little wrinkled from being in storage.

Here's our Nativity scene. I really like this one. I got it at Kirkland's last year. I have a couple but this is my favorite.

This is on one of my end tables. Just a few little trees.

This is a 4' tree I have in the dining/kitchen area. I want to get kitchen/food related ornaments to put on the kitchen tree but I'm waiting until the after Christmas sale at Hobby Lobby for new ornaments. These are the decorations I have used on the big tree for the past couple of years. It kind of candy cane theme in color. I have a ton of red decorations. This year we decided to change the big tree up a little .

This is one side of the mantle. Got everything from Hobby Lobby at 50%. I never pay full price at Hobby Lobby.

Stockings and stocking holders. Love them. I've used these for the past couple of years.

Full picture of the mantle. We have a skinny tree that I love just with the lights. I thought about putting ornaments on it but I really like it plain. This is the first year we've put it next to the fireplace. I really like it here. I'm working on a wreath to go above the mantle. It's not quite finished yet but it's going to pretty simple too. I really like things that are not too overdone.

And finally the big tree. I want a new one and will probably try to pick one up when they go on sale after Christmas. We went with blue and white this year. I really like how it turned out. I'm working on a ribbon topper for it. I don't like a ton of ornaments on the trees. I know some people will think its to bare but I like it.

Semi-Homemade Christmas Gift

2009-11-18T15:20:00.003-06:00

I thought I would participate in Maman Tattoo's McLinky today.

She's sharing gift projects made for under $15. Check out her website for the rest of the awesome ideas.

I'm trying to do as many homemade gifts as possible this year. I always try to get something small for my aunts and this year I decided to make them recipe cards and pair it up with a set of wooden spoons.

Here's the recipe cards.

This is super simple to do. I just created a text box using Microsoft office. The fonts were downloaded from kevinandamanda.com. This is an awesome website. They have some great free downloads and great tutorials. So far this project has cost a whopping nothing. What's better than that.

I found a set of three wooden spoons at Gordman's for less than $2. I am planning on printing at Kinko's just because of the paper choices and they will cut them. I am signed up as a preferred customer and I don't expect it to cost more than $10. I plan on punching holes in the cards and tying them together with ribbon I already have (purchased at Hobby Lobby during 50% clearance. I think I paid $1.50 for the roll.) And that's that. Super easy and I think its kind of fun. Now they have personalized cards to write down all their favorite recipes. I considered putting my favorite recipes on the cards but I thought that blank cards would be better for my aunts.

Cost Breakdown:
card design-free
printing- less than $10
ribbon- $1.50
wooden spoons (3 pack)- $2.00

I pretty excited about these. I received something similar to these during a bridal shower. I thought the idea was excellent. Hope you all enjoy it.

Catching up with friends and my crazy husband

2009-11-09T15:04:00.009-06:00

These are two of my very best friends. They were two of my sorotity sisters, two of my bridesmaids and they were my college roommates for two of the best years of my college experience. Most of my favorite college memories includes these two ladies. There's no telling what we were discussing in the above picture.

I'm so excited because tonight we finally did a 3-way phone call. Why we hadn't thought of this before is beyond me. It was great getting to visit with them together. I've missed them so much. After college we all went our separate ways. We try to keep in touch the best we can. I know I could be much better at it. I've missed them dearly. We are separated by several thousands of miles and I wish that we were closer so we could see one another more often. I think its amazing how even though we don't speak as often as we would like and we don't see each other as often as we would like, when we finally get the chance to pick up the phone and call one another it's like we were right there in our college apartment again. I guess that just how a great friendship is supposed to work. Here's a few photos of us together.

They are truly amazing women and I know that I'm a better person for having friends like these ladies.

I can't mention these two without mentioning my other two bridesmaids. I love these ladies just the same and miss them as well.

In addition to sharing about catching up with great friends I wanted to post about my crazy husband. Rather than do two posts tonight I decided to lump them together. I'm calling this secion the Many Faces of My Crazy Husband. He's so cute and silly.

This is him. Isn't he a cutie. I don't know why he was smiling like this but it kind of makes him look like a chipmunk. I was bored when we were sitting at home and the camera was just sitting there so I decided to take a few pictures of him.

Of course he started making funny faces immediately. This one is a tad bit out of focus because I was laughing.

He's crazy, I know.

I'm pretty fond of him though. Sillyness and all.

Product Review

2009-11-02T11:41:00.003-06:00

I was working on cleaning the house and thought I would take a few minutes to recommend a product. If you're like me, I hate having to scrub the bathtub. I try to keep ahead of the soap scum but as we all know that doesn't always work out. I've been using this product for a while now and I love it.I've tried several different products but none of them have given me the results that this one has. I probably use more of it than I need to in the bathtub but I've found that if I spray it all over and let it sit for a couple minutes ( usually tackle the toilet while its sitting) it takes very little elbow grease to clean the tub. It's amazing. So I definitely recommend trying this product if you can't seem to get rid of that soap scum. Check out the official website for a list of products and surfaces that they can be used on.

Tanyard Creek

2009-10-28T12:40:00.003-05:00

If you live in the NW Arkansas area you've noticed that we haven't seen much of the sun lately. Today, however, it finally decided to show itself. I've been waiting for a little sunshine so I could go out and take some photos at Tanyard Creek. Tanyard Creek is a area in Bella Vista that is absolutely beautiful. There is a nature trail that leads you around the creek and the water falls. It's amazing.

I finally made it out there and thought I would share the photos I took today. Here they are...

Show Us Your Fall Decorations

2009-10-23T08:05:00.003-05:00

I'm participating in the Show Us Your Fall Decorations party hosted by Kelly's Korner today. I've posted about this in the past but thought I would put it all together again today. I love these parties. Its great to see everyone's decorating ideas.

I love this time of year. Fall is hands down my favorite season. I love everything about it. I also love the Christmas season but my favorite decorations are during fall. Like I've said before I'm definitely one of those people who decorates around the seasons. Most of my decor items change with the seasons.

This is how I decorate the ledge in my entry way for fall. This is one of my favorite place to change for the seasons. I put up my fall decorations after labor day (if I can wait that long). October 1st is when the Halloween decorations go up. I use a lot of the same decorations for fall and Halloween.

This is a tree we put up for Halloween. It's made from black poster board. I really like how it turned out this year.

Here's my mantle for Halloween. I made the spider web from black vinyl you can buy for the Cricut machine. I replaced my normal garland with a black feather boa. The pictures are made from scrapbook paper and I found the images on clipart.

We have a tradition of carving pumpkins with the family a couple of weeks prior to Halloween. We got together last week to carve pumpkins and had so much fun. I will hopefully get some pictures to post soon. I didn't carve this year. Instead, I painted my pumpkins. I'm really happy with how they turned out. So check back for those.

I hope you all enjoyed seeing my Halloween decorations. Happy Fall!!!

Have You Ever...?

2009-10-21T15:52:00.003-05:00

Have you ever gotten home from the grocery store and couldn't find something you knew had purchased? Happened to me today. I went to pick up a few groceries. I even had a list (I try to make it a habit to go with one.)

I got everything I needed ( or at least I thought I did) and checked out, loaded up the car and drove home. When I got home I started putting everything away and noticed that I didn't have an item I was sure I put in the cart.

My immediate thought was that I left a bag at the store. They have these spinning bag carousals things and I always try to make sure that I double check it before I leave the check station. I checked the receipt to see if indeed I did pay for the item. It was no where on the receipt. I could have sworn that I picked up the item and put it in the cart. The cart was empty when I checked out. I have no idea what happened to it. It was a little disorientating. And disappointing. I needed it for the dinner I was planning for tonight.

I hate having to make two trips to the store in one day. Heck, I hate making the first trip but its gotta be done.

Oh well.

Anyway, I was planning on making these

Source: Kraftfoods.com

They are Pizza Fingers with dipping sauce. The recipe can be found at Kraftfoods.com. I love this website. They have such great recipes and if you sign up you can receive a free magazine every season with lots of great recipes.

I especially like their 1 bag/ 5 meals feature. Gives you recipes for the week that use a lot of the same ingredients so its easy on the budget at the market. Great stuff. Check it out.

What!? It's only Tuesday!

2009-10-20T18:46:00.002-05:00

I don't really have much to say today but I thought it's been a while since I posted. This week got off to a pretty frustrating start. My husband usually leaves for work around 6:30 every morning and Monday I got a call at about 7am from him. This is unusual for him so I knew something was wrong. Turns out his car wouldn't start after he stopped at the post office. So we're currently running on one car until we figure out whats going on with his car. Not the best situation but we will survive it.

I'm looking forward to a phone call about a job. Hopefully I will hear something tomorrow. I've been struggling a lot lately with my career choices.

I went to work for the Department of Health after graduating from college. I was there just over two years before I decided that the job really was not for me. I left to pursue a career in teaching. During college I studied biology. I love the sciences ( well maybe not chemistry so much) but there is really not a ton of jobs out there for people with a BS in biology. It's great if you decide to go on and pursue a graduate degree or go to a pre-professional school. Arkansas has a non-traditional teacher licensing program for people who have received a degree but wish to gain their teaching certification. I've been working to meet all the requirements to apply for this program. I would be able to be licensed to teach 7-12 grade Life Sciences.

After working as a substitute teacher and looking into the different teacher licensing programs in Arkansas, I'm starting to think that maybe the secondary level isn't for me. See this is the struggle part. I'm excited about the idea of being a teacher. I'm just not sure what grade level will be best for me.

Anyway, the job I've applied for is an instructional assistant position at an elementary school in a nearby district. I will assisting the literacy teacher. I think this position will be excellent for me. I got a really good feeling about the position after meeting the principal and the teacher. Hopefully they had a good feeling about me as well.

Other than the car not working and waiting to hear back about the job, there's not been a lot going on around here. I hope everyone else's weeks are going well.

The Halloween Tree and a giveway

2009-10-10T16:50:00.003-05:00

I made this last year for Halloween and decided to put it up again this year. The bats are a new addition. It was super simple. I just used black poster board and basically free handed the tree. I found a bat outline on the internet, printed it and then used that as a stencil to cut the bats out of the left over poster board. All in all a project that only cost about $4.00.

I also made these two pictures. Again I found the shapes in clipart and printed them on white paper. I purchased two sheets of scrapbook paper to make the background and I already had the black frames.
I really like how they turned out. They look great on my mantle with the black feather boa and Halloween topiary I made.

I've been playing around with my camera as well and took this photo of some of the decorations I have in my entryway. I'm really happy with how it turned out. I love fall!!!!

Finally, everyone should go over to Centsational Girl's website and check out the giveway she is doing. If you are in need of new faucets like I am then this is a perfect giveway for you. She is giving away a faucet from Price Pfister and they are all fabulous.

Hope everyone is having a great weekend. It's my and my husband's birthday weekend and we are enjoying a little rest and relaxation at home. Couldn't be happier.

Happy Fall everyone!

More Halloween Fun

2009-09-24T12:55:00.004-05:00

I've started my mantle for Halloween. I've had a little extra time on my hands the past couple of days and figured I might as well do something productive.

Here's what I've got so far.
I used two black feather boas for the "garland" across the mantle. I made the topiary that is up there and tied a black ribbon around it. The skeleton man is something I picked up from Kirkland's a while back and the candles are the same one I use for fall and Thanksgiving. I love reusing items from season to season. Lets me spend that money else where.

Here's a close up of the topiary.

This is the spider web I created out of the vinyl I had from an earlier project. Its the vinyl that you can buy to use with the Cricket machine. I bought this a while back to cut out some letters for a phrase I put up in my sewing room. I had extra and that this would been kind of cute. I found the spider at Hobby Lobby for $.99.

I have a couple of projects that I'm still working on to complete the mantle but I'm happy with it so far.

Halloween Decorations

2009-09-23T15:53:00.003-05:00

Sorry for the break is posting. I haven't really been feeling very inspired lately but now I'm back. I'm getting ready to pull out the Halloween decorations and I wanted to share this idea with you all.

I have these lamp shades that collapse down on themselves. They have an inside layer that pulls up and clips to the top of the shade. This provides the perfect place to place items like these

I found these foam spiders at Hobby Lobby. They have a little foam adhesive dot on the other side so they will stick where I want them. It's not so sticky that it will leave any kind of residue behind when I take them down.

Here's a picture of what they look like when they are in place with the light shining through the shade.

Kinda creepy, huh?

Fall Decorations!!!!

2009-09-02T18:55:00.004-05:00

I'm so excited.
The weather is perfect.
Football season is starting up.
The fall decorations are up.

I know that technically fall doesn't officially start for a couple more weeks, but its really hard to know get into the fall mood. In case you haven't heard, I LOVE fall. It's my absolute favorite season.

I've had my decorations up for a few days. I couldn't help myself. It makes me feel better when my husband tells me he's already ready to put up the Christmas tree. Christmas is his favorite time of the year and he loves the trees we put up. (Did you notice the plural. There's no help for me, I know.)

Anyway, I thought I'd share what decorations I have up so far.

This is in my entryway. I have this ledge and I change it out for every season. I really like this feature in the house. We loved the entryway as soon as we walked into the house.

This is a picture of the area as you walk into the living room. I'm not totally happy with this yet. I'm trying to find something to put in the apothecary jar. I had these cinnamon sticks and the candle and thought , "What the heck, I'll give it a try." Not so sure about it now but we'll see how it goes.

Here's my mantle. I'm still trying to find all of my decorations and I know I have another garland to go with this one. I just can't find it. It's up in the attic but I'm just now sure which tub it is in. I'm not particularly excited about having to go through all the tubs. I need to learn some organization skills.

Here's my centerpiece for the table. We have an eat in kitchen with a small dining table. We never eat at the table unless we have friends over. Even then, it depends on the friends and what we are having for dinner. We are pretty casual people and we like to sit comfortably.

I still have tons of things I want to do to decorate for fall. I'm excited about the new projects and I'll be sure to share.

New Curtains Inspired by Fall

2009-08-31T13:07:00.005-05:00

I made new curtains for the windows in our living room. I wanted something that would work well for fall. I found this fabric at Wal-Mart. Most of the stores around here have already gone through a remodel to get rid of the fabric section. There's a couple that still have fabrics. I wish we had more options for fabric stores around here. Our only choices are really only Hobby Lobby and the single Hancock's fabrics.

I really liked the colors. They work well for fall with the oranges and browns but they also work with my home accents. I use a lot of oranges and greens pretty much year around in my decorating so I think they will be perfect. I had white sheers up over these windows.

Here's a picture with the sheers up. And here's a pictures with the new curtains.

I like them. They may not be perfect but I think they look just fine. And for my first attempt that making curtains I think I did pretty good. Of course, I did learn an important lesson in the process. Always measure twice. Silly me I cut the fabric panels too short the first time around. I had to figure out something so I went and got the green to put at the top. Oh well, I still like them. And now I know, measure twice.

I'm participating in "Celebrating the Holidays party" hosted by It's So Very Cheri. Check it out.

Furniture Arrangement Troubles

2009-08-29T16:44:00.005-05:00

Daniel and I decided to rearrange the furniture in both our living room and bedroom this weekend. We started with the living room. We don't have a lot of options on how we can arrange the furniture with the way our living room is set up. We have a gas fireplace in the corner and while it has a cubby for our television above the fireplace, we don't use it. We prefer to use a tv stand. This complicates things though because we only have one cable outlet on the walls. The other cable outlet is up in the cubby.

Here's a picture of the fireplace.

I purchased a large mirror to cover the space above the fireplace. I enjoy this better than having the tv up there. This allows me to be able to fully decorate the mantle. Like I've said before I decorate to the seasons. I finally broke down and decorated for fall a little earlier than usual. I'm not quite satisfied with the way the mantle is decorated now but I'm waiting for the fall decorating items to go on sale at Hobby Lobby. There are several things I just absolutely love there.

Anyway, back to my furniture story. So we decided to move the furniture around. The fireplace in the position it is makes this difficult as well as the fact that we only have one cable outlet. That really limits us on where we can place the TV stand. In addition to this we have a sectional sofa that takes up quite a bit of space. I really liked this sofa when we purchased it but now I'm wishing we had just went with a sofa and a couple of chairs. Daniel had a recliner he got from his parents and we have that in the living room as well.

This is the way we have it arranged currently. This is the new way. It was turned so the sofa faced the window and the recliner sit next to the window. Now its basically opposite. I'm not sure about this arrangement, but Daniel likes it. It will take some time getting used to. We aren't quite finished moving things around but for today I think we have had a enough.

I really love our house but when we decide that we will need to move into a larger home, I definitely will have a list of things that I want to be different.

Ribbon covered lamp shade

2009-08-24T18:03:00.003-05:00

Kim over at Twice Remembered is hosting Make Your Monday and I thought I would get in on the fun.

I bought this lamp at Wal-mart for $3. Actually I purchased two of them. They didn't have a lamp shade but I loved the simplicity of them. I have to admit they sat in my closet for the longest time before I decided what to do with them.

When I started getting my craft room together I knew this lamp would be perfect. I purchased a plain shade at Home Depot for $5. I bought the ribbon 50% off at Hobby Lobby. Not too bad for a total of $11.

I wrapped the ribbon around the shade and made sure that the edges overlapped. I'm really please with how it turned out.

Weekend in Review

2009-08-23T19:10:00.002-05:00

This weekend has been a fairly relaxing one. The weather is AMAZING. Usually this time of year is miserable with temperatures in the high 90s or low 100s and humidities around 100%. This whole week has been nice. This weekend I think we only had highs in the 80s and the lows have been in the 50s.

Daniel and I went out to the lake for a cookout with his company on Saturday. It was great fun. Today, we went to church and Sunday school. It was great. Afterwards we came home and simply relaxed.

I didn't really get much done though but sometimes you just need to sit and do nothing and rest.

Tomorrow, I plan on making up for not getting things done today. I'm starting my Halloween crafts tomorrow so they will be ready when October rolls around. I'll be sure to post on them. I'm looking forward to doing some crafts. I've not been able to the past week or so (stinking allergies).

So until tomorrow.

Photography is fun!!

2009-08-18T15:20:00.007-05:00

I know it's kind of a cheesy title. I couldn't really think of much more than that. I'm fighting off allergies and I'm kind of hyped up on sinus medicine.

Anyway.

My sweet husband bought me a Canon Rebel for Christmas last year and this past weekend, I tried my hand at taking some senior pictures for a family member. I'm still learning how to work the camera. It's truly amazing what these cameras are capable of doing.

I was really happy with how they turned out and so was the family I photographed.

Here's a few of my favorites.

I've always been interested in photography. I took an introductory course in college and loved it. I didn't really care much for the professor who taught the class but the subject was fun. Shooting these senior pictures this past weekend was the same. I absolutely loved it. I was a little nervous about how they would turn out. I was really worried that she wouldn't like them. I found out today that the mom and daughter both really liked them.

I'm definitely going to try to take more classes when I get the chance.

Fall, could you please hurry?!

2009-08-14T11:05:00.003-05:00

I can't begin to tell you how much I LOVE fall. I love everything about it: the smells, the tastes, the colors.

Moreover, I can't tell you how hard it has been for me to not get down the fall decorations. I am definitely one who decorates for the seasons and fall happens to be my FAVORITE season. I can't wait. I know it's still going to feel like summer for the next couple of months here in Arkansas but I don't care.

My seasonal decorating schedule usually goes something like this:

Summer- Memorial Day thru Labor Day

Fall- Labor Day thru Thanksgiving ( I decorate for harvest until October then the Halloween decorations go up. Come November the Halloween stuff gets put away and Thanksgiving comes out.)

Winter/Christmas- the day after Thanksgiving thru March (I put Christmas up after Thanksgiving and after the New Year I change everything up a bit. I put the Santas and those things away and leave up the evergreen wintry things. Come February I decorate for Valentine's Day. It uses a lot of the red things I use for Christmas just used differently.)

Spring- March thru May with Easter in there as well.

A lot and I mean a lot of my decorations are used for two or more seasons. I just use them in different ways. I love items that can be used over and over and look different every season. It makes the non-existent decorating budget go that much farther.

Now I know Labor day is only a few weeks away but I'm not sure I'm going to make it. The temperatures here have been a little below average lately and it's making me giddy. The weatherman says they will go back up and I'm sure they will. Here in Arkansas the saying goes,"If you don't like the weather, wait 5 minutes. It will change." Its totally true, too.

My husband probably hates this time of year because it usually means A LOT of trips up into the attic.

So today I broke down and brought out the fall scent wall plugs. I figure this may hold me off for a couple more weeks.

I'm currently using these:

source

I use this brand year round. I love switching the scents out for the seasons also. All summer I used the Lilac scent. Today I switched them out for the Spiced Cider. Love it. I stocked up on these last year and only have one box left. Looks like I'm going to have to do some scent shopping soon. I think I may change what I use though and try these:

source

I hope they come in the wall plugs.

This scent is amazing. I went into our local Yankee candle store last week and fell in love with this scent.

What is your favorite season?

Homemade Topiary

2009-08-11T07:55:00.005-05:00

I love topiaries. I have several around the house that I purchased here and there. The other day I decided to try to make my own.

Here it is.

It's not quite finished but there was enough done to take a picture. To tell you the truth I ran out of flowers and need to go get more.

It's pretty easy to make. Here's a photo of the supplies I used.

I used a spray adhesive to attach the silk flowers to the Styrofoam ball. I recommend wearing gloves. I didn't and had a time getting the glue off my hands.

I really like how it had turned out.

In other news...

I'm horrible at gardening.

That's probably a little harsh. I did grow some very tasty squash and tomatoes. I even tried my hand at making pickles. They are not quite ready. I'll let you know.

However, I was a little surprised the other day when I was tending to the garden and found something unexpected.

A pumpkin!!

Did I plant pumpkins? No.
Did I think this was going to be a watermelon? Yes.

See, I planted watermelons. I found this growing in the same place I planted the watermelon plant. It was very dark green and I was a little confused about why it was different than the other watermelons that were growing on the vine.

Two days ago I was working in the garden and turned it over and it was orange! And it now looked like a pumpkin. I was a little boggled about where it came from.

THEN I remembered...

We carved pumpkins last Halloween and threw the scrapings from the pumpkins over into this area.

Organizing Project

2009-08-06T07:39:00.002-05:00

I've started working on organizing my husband's office. He's been really busy with work and scout stuff and when he goes into his office, he feels really overwhelmed. So, Sunday night I decided I would work on organizing it for him.

Now it's Thursday and I'm reconsidering. It's quite a project. I'm determined though. This is why I've not been a good blogger this week.

I will post pictures of the before and after soon.

Today is the day for relaxing

2009-08-02T11:23:00.003-05:00

Been out camping this weekend with the husband and the scouts. Lots of fun but next time I camp I'm definitely bringing one of these...
Back pain is no fun. With that said, I'll be relaxing for the rest of the weekend. Back tomorrow with more craft projects. Have a great Sunday!!

Show Us Your Life- Wedding Ceremony and Wedding Party

2009-07-31T07:56:00.005-05:00

Kelly over at Kelly's Korner is hosting "Show Us Your Life- Weddings" today and since I loved everything about our wedding including the photos I thought I would share again.

This is my husband. We started dating while we were in college although we were close friends throughout high school. We tied the knot on July 14, 2007 and just celebrated our 2-year anniversary. It's been amazing. He is truly my best friend. I knew as soon as we started dating that I would marry him. And there have hasn't been any doubt about that since then.

I knew immediately who I wanted my bridesmaids to be. Here is a picture of our wedding party. Our colors were pink and green. The guys wore green vests and ties to match the girls. Daniel wore ivory to match me, of course.

These are my girls. I love the all so much and wish I got to see them more. They all live far away so we don't see each other very often. We were all college friends. My maid of honor was Alison. She was my college roommate for two years and also one of my sorority sisters. She's the one picutre in the front on the left. They are great friends and were wonderful bridesmaids.

This is one of my favorite photos. This is my flower girl. She was the daughter of one of Daniel's cousins. She is so sweet.

Here's the groomsmen. Daniel's brother was his best man and is picture on the far right.

Here's another photo of the guys looking very manly. What is it with guys that they can't stand too close to each other? Oh well.

This is another of my favorites. It makes me laugh everytime I look at it.

This is the ring bearer. He's my cousin's son. I was so happy that I got to include him in the ceremony.

This is Daniel and his brother, the best man.

Here's my dad walking me down the aisle. I had to keep telling him it was okay. He was pretty much teary eyed the whole time. He would probably kill me for say that but he'll never know. I'm totally a daddy's girl.

I walked down the aisle to "Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring" by Bach. The girls walked down the aisle to "Canon in D." We had a pianist play all the music. She was amazing. She's the same pianist who plays in the praise band at church with Daniel's dad.

I had to throw this picture in so I could tell the story. Our wedding went off with out any kind of hiccup. Well to the audience there were no problems. I'm glad I wasn't facing the camera while we lit the unity candle. As I was picking up the taper candle I dripped hot wax all over my hand. You can imagine the face I made. I almost said a word that shouldn't be said in church. When I saw the wedding photos I was so glad that the photographers had to stay at the back of the sanctuary, then I watched the DVD. The camera man was positioned perfectly to catch all the excitement of my little incident. I didn't see the camera anywhere near us and now wish that I had. If I had seen him maybe I wouldn't have made such an unpleasant face. Daniel laughed when he saw it. I don't blame him. It was funny.

We used bubbles for our send off. It was fun.

The ceremony lasted about 30 minutes. We had two ministers. One was from our church and the other was my college chaplain. I loved that she could be there to help with the ceremony.

Well I guess that's about it for the ceremony. Next Friday will be all about the reception.

Productivity

2009-07-29T12:44:00.005-05:00

It's a great feeling. I love feeling like I've accomplished something during my day. Today has been very productive for me. I worked on several small craft projects for my craft room and cleaned the house. I even got the laundry done. If you know me, you know that's a big accomplishment for me.

This morning I reorganized the utensils in our kitchen. A task that has been needed for some time. After that I made these cute pencil holders to hang on my peg board.

This project is so easy. (Those are my favorite kind of projects.) I made spaghetti for dinner last night and saved the cans I used. I cleaned out the cans and peeled off the labels. These are the supplies needed.
I used a paper trimmer to cut the paper so the edges would be straight. I used scrapbook paper that I already had and spray adhesive. I simply sprayed the outside of the can and after measuring and cutting the paper, wrapped the paper around the can. That's it. Easy, right? Tonight, I will get my husband to drill a small hole in the back side so I can hang them with a hook on my peg board. Perfect storage for pens and pencils. Here's a close up of each of them.

I love this paper. I'm definitely using it for other projects.

I also made these paper clips today. I'm planning on using some craft wire to hang things on and saw this project on one of the blogs I follow. Check it out. It's a great blog.

I plan on making more but I had other things I had to get done so I decided to take a break.

It just keeps coming. I'm telling you, I don't think I've done this much in one day and it's only noon. I made this pillow for my chair. It's a little big for the chair but I'm planning on using it as a cushion.

I really like how it turned out. I had the fabric left over from a quilt I made and it goes perfectly in my room. It was a little darker than I was wanting so I turned the fabric inside out. Here's a photo of the original fabric and how it looks wrong side out on the pillow.

I'd never even considered looking at fabric on the wrong side to see how they looked. I saw a project in a magazine once that did just this and thought it was brilliant. What a great way to make something look completely different. Amazing.

Check out some more great DIY projects over on A Soft Place to Land. It's DIY Day!!

The peg board is up!!!

2009-07-28T20:42:00.003-05:00

My wonderful husband put my peg board up for me tonight. I really excited about it. My room is getting closer and closer to being what I see in my head.

I'm having a problem deciding on what fabric to use for the curtains and pillows. I have a valance that I bought from Walmart but now I'm thinking I want to use some fabric I bought to make a curtain for the window.

This is the fabric I'm thinking of using. The wall color is a pale yellow and the furniture is white and light green. This fabric is a pale blue with green, yellow, and red. It's kind of hard to tell in this picture.

This is the valance I'm currently using. It's yellow with green and red. I would love to hear your opinion.

I spent most of yesterday evening rearranging furniture in my room. I ended up changing every piece of furniture. I finally found a set up I'm happy with. I have to work around a full size pull-out sofa. This room doubles as my craft room and a guest room. I moved some of my wall decorations around. I got these candle holders at a flea market for $9 and the sign came from Hobby Lobby.

And here is my new peg board. I haven't put much up on it yet. I'm spray painting the hooks white. Please excuse the disorder. Not everything is in its spot yet but I was so excited about getting the peg board up, I wanted to share before it was totally finished.

New Projects and Pancakes!!!

2009-07-25T21:22:00.003-05:00

I finally get to start my projects for my craft room tomorrow. I received my free paint from Glidden today. I picked the 'truly olive' green. I'm using it to repaint the dresser that holds all my fabric. I'm also painting my new peg board. I'm really excited about the peg board. I know it will give me so much extra storage space for my scrapbooking supplies.

I did some flea marketing yesterday and found a cute chair for my craft room. Its white but needs to be repainted. I'm just going to repaint it white and add a cute cushion. I will post plenty of pictures when they are all finished. Tomorrow will be super busy.

Daniel and a few of his scouts are selling tickets at church tomorrow for an upcoming fundraiser so we will have to be there for all three services. We usually go to the first service. Daniel's dad plays bass in the praise team during this service. Afterward we try to make it to an adult Sunday school class. We haven't been able to go for the past month or so. I'm excited about going and catching up with our classmates tomorrow.

If you live in Northwest Arkansas and would like to help out the boy scouts and eat all the pancakes you can, you should join us on August 8th at the Springdale Applebee's for a pancake breakfast. Tickets are $5 and can be purchased at the door the day of the event or from any of the scouts. Let me know if you're interested.

Can't wait to post pictures of all the fun makeovers I'm starting tomorrow. Until then, have a great night.

Show Us Your Life- Wedding Dress

2009-07-24T07:42:00.006-05:00

I posted some photos of my wedding dress a last week or so but I LOVED our wedding photos so I'm using this opportunity to share more.

My dress came with cap sleeves but I didn't like them so I had them removed. It was much nicer without them. There was quite a bit of beading on the top part of the dress. When I started looking for my wedding dress, I wanted one with no train and little beading. I wanted something very simple. Or so I thought. When I actually started trying dresses on I noticed I was moving more toward something with a little more detail. I had decided on a completely different dress before I picked this one. I went dress shopping outside of my hometown with my bridesmaids and found a beautiful dress. I wanted to show it to my mom before I committed to it. When I went into the dress shop with my mom I found this dress and fell in love with it. I made my decision quickly. I tried on both for my mom and Daniel's mom and they loved both as well. My MIL Vivian asked me which I like better and I said without a seconds thought that I wanted this dress.

Here's the back of the dress. I knew I wanted a pick-up skirt on the dress years before I actually bought the dress.

Here's a pictures of Daniel's family.

And here's my family.

I've decided that I'm going to use my wedding dress to create a christening gown for our children when we decide to have them. I'm really excited about the idea of this. It's a little sad to think about cutting up my wedding gown but it will be put to a good use. I can't see any reason not to do something like this with the dress. I hate the idea of it just sitting in a box stored away somewhere.

Hope you enjoyed the tour of my wedding dress. Have a great weekend.

Craft room progress. It's getting there!

2009-07-23T15:18:00.002-05:00

Today's been a pretty slow day so I thought I would post pictures of the progress of craft room makeover. I've added a few accessories. I'm planning on repainting this dresser. I order a quart of paint from Glidden when they were offering the free paint. It's going to be green as soon as the paint comes in. I found this at a local flea market for $60. It's great for holding all my fabric.

I found this at Hobby Lobby for 50% off. I love Hobby Lobby.

I got this lamp from Walmart for $3.00. It didn't come with the shade so I picked one up from Lowes and used ribbon to cover it. I really like the way it turned out.

I'm really excited about this room. There's still a few items I need to make it complete but we're getting there.

Favorite Recipe Blog Hop

2009-07-21T09:48:00.003-05:00

I found this recipe on the weight watchers website a while back and I make it at least a couple time a month. My husband and I love Chinese food but I'm pretty picky about the Chinese restaurants I eat at. That comes from being a health inspector for two years and knowing about all the restaurants around us. Anyway, I found this recipe for General's Chicken and fell in love with it. Plus it's a weight watchers so it's pretty healthy.

Here's the recipe:

boneless, skinless chicken breasts- cut into small pieces
3/4 cup chicken broth
1 1/2 tbsp cornstarch
2 tbsp sugar
2 tbsp low-sodium soy sauce
1 tbsp white wine vinegar
2 tsp peanut oil
1/2 tsp ground ginger
2 med garlic cloves, minced
2 cups white rice
1/2 tsp pepper flakes

Heat oil. Add pepper flakes and garlic. Add chicken and cook through.
While chicken is cooking, mix together broth, cornstarch, sugar, soy sauce, vinegar and ginger. Set aside until chicken is cooked.
Once chicken is cooked, add sauce and let simmer. The sauce will thicken up. Be sure to stir occasionally.
Cook rice according to package directions. I start this before I prep the chicken and sauce. The rice usually takes about 20 minutes and the chicken only takes about 10 minutes to cook.

This is what I'm making tonight and I can't wait. It's one of my husband's favorites and I know he can not wait for it.

Enjoy!

Gym fees not in the budget? Try this...

2009-07-20T21:11:00.002-05:00

While gym fees may only be $20 or $30 a month, it is definitely not in my budget right now. Plus I hate that ones you sign a contract it basically takes an act of God to get out of the contract. Not really something I want to deal with.

So what did I do instead?

I got a membership to the local youth center. It only cost me $12 for a membership that is good until the end of the year. They have all the same equipment I would use at any of the big gyms for a fraction of the price. My sister-in-law had a membership for this particular center and told me about it. We decided that we needed to start working out together because we are both the type of people that does better when we go with someone. Its been great. We've only gone a couple of times but I've really enjoyed it.

So if you are looking for a gym and can't afford the membership fees, look into the local youth centers.

Addicted to fabric shopping. Help!!

2009-07-20T10:24:00.005-05:00

I realized today that I have a big problem and that I need help. I'm addicted to shopping for fabric. I already have a dresser full of fabrics and what did I do this morning?

I went to the local dollar saver and bought four yards of fabric. Do I have a project that I needed the fabric for.

NO.

I love fabric and I love shopping for it. Today I bought four different prints. Two of them I do plan on using on a quilt for a friend. The other two I bought because I really loved the colors.

I'm about ready to paint the living room, entryway and kitchen and the colors in these fabrics are exactly the inspiration for the paint I've decided on for these rooms.

Here's some pictures of the two I bought to use in the living room.

I love these colors together. I'm planning on painting the walls a yellow color and love yellow with reds and greens. I think I'm going to make some throw pillows for the couch with these two fabrics. The inspiration for these colors came from a painting I have in the living room. I got this at Kirkland's when we first moved into the house. I needed something to hang on the wall above our desk and I loved this when I found it. Of course it was on sale when I purchased it. It seems I don't really purchase anything unless its on sale.

What do you think? Do these fabrics work with the color of my couch?

Thanks for your input. Have a wonderful day.

Opinions Needed

2009-07-17T19:02:00.003-05:00

It's been almost two years since we moved into our house and while I've pretty much decorated the rooms our guests see, I still haven't done much to the master bedroom or bath. We painted the bedroom a green color a while back. At the time I was okay with the color, but now I'm just not feeling it. It's a little too green. I like the color but its just not working for the master bedroom. I keep switching between colors I want to paint it and I think I've made a decision but I need some help.

Daniel bought me this duvet cover about a year ago and I really like it. It was a birthday gift ( I asked for this one in particular).

He got it from Target and I would love to keep it in the room. It has a yellow trim on it and so I've considered going with a golden yellow for the room. I'm planning on painting the living room some shade of yellow as well and since bedroom is just off the living room it would blend well, I think.

What do you think? Would golden yellow be a good color? And if so could I get away with red accents as well?

Anniversary!!!

2009-07-14T20:29:00.004-05:00

Two years ago I married the most wonderful man. It's amazing how fast time flies. It definitely doesn't seem like its been two years since my husband and I shared wedding vows. It's been wonderful. I'm married to the sweetest man. I tell him all the time that he is too good for me. He disagrees. I let him win this "argument" though.

Anyway, I thought I would share some of my favorite wedding photos. We have had other photos taken since we were married but our wedding pictures are still my favorites. So here they are...

Wedding Gown Woes

2009-07-12T16:23:00.003-05:00

I don't know if anyone else has problems with beetles but we do. We find them all the time and no matter what we do they just keep coming. Lately, its been worse. Well today my husband found two beetles in our master bathroom. This is where I usually find them too. After finding them, he went on a hunting spree for them. I told him to move my wedding gown bag and he might find where they are hiding them.

I hate to admit it but my wedding gown has been spending the last two years in the storage hanging bag under my rack in the closet. I was reading a post just a couple of days ago on a blog I follow that mentioned how she hadn't done anything with her wedding gown and it had been two years. I completely related with her. Our two year anniversary is just a couple of days away and the dress is still stashed away in the bag. I haven't even had it cleaned. It's awful I know.

I've decided I'm going to do what a lot of people seem to be doing these days and rather than have the dress preserved and stored away somewhere, I'm going to have it made into a christening gown for our family. We don't have children yet but do plan on starting a family in the next couple of years. Neither Daniel or I have a family christening gown (that we are aware of) so I thought it would be a great time to start this family tradition.

I hate the thought of my wedding gown just lying in a box, rotting away. Converting the dress into a christening gown to be passed down through the family feels like a great way to make use of it.

I pulled the dress out today to look at it. This is the first time it has been out of the bag since I placed it back in it after the wedding. It's a beautiful dress. I love it so much. I was amazed to feel how heavy it was. Here's a picture of me in the dress. This is a good shot of the back of the dress.
And here is a picture of the bead detail on the dress. It was ivory with champagne colored details. The beading continued down the bodice and onto the train of the dress.

Photo edits for Constructive Criticism

2009-07-10T15:31:00.007-05:00

This friday I "heart" faces is hosting a constructive criticism McLinky to help out all those beginner photo editors out there. This is my first time to post to this but I think that this is a great idea. I'm a beginner and really have no idea what I'm doing when it come to photo editing. I'm definitely self-taught and would love any constructive criticism you would like to offer.

I took this photo of my cousins son earlier this year. It was something I just clicked really quick while he was sitting down. I used the auto setting on my camera. I use a Canon Rebel SXi. I'm still learning out to use the equipment as well. But I really love this camera. So here's the original.

This is the edit. I cleaned up some of the dirt on his face and made the background a little blurred to give a softer look using the Gaussian blur filter. I also used the unsharpen mask on the eyes.

I used PS CS4 to make the edits. I like this photo but I think it could be so much better. Any ideas you have to take it the next level would be appreciated. Thanks for visiting and for your comments.

The Entryway!

2009-07-10T09:23:00.004-05:00

This week Kelly at Kelly's Korner is hosting "Show Us Where You Live Fridays." Entryways are featured and this happens to be one of my favorite parts of my house. Actually this entryway is what sold us on this style house rather than the other two we were offered.

This is the chaise lounge we have in our entryway. I got this when I moved into my first apartment. When we moved into the house we had no idea what to do with it. We didn't really have room for it in the living room or our bedroom and I just couldn't get rid of it. I LOVE it. My mother-in-law suggested that we move it into the entryway. At the time I was looking for a bench to place in this space. So Daniel and I moved it into the entry and loved the way it looked in there.

Here's the view from the front door.

A view of our front door. I made the wreath. Its not great but I love it and nothing says summer to me like sunflowers.

I found theses mirrors at Hobby Lobby for 66% off the price. I picked up two of them to put above the chaise. I love the arched look.

I found this candle holder at a flea market for $20. I change the garland around it with the seasons.

This is the ledge that we have in our entryway. I change the decorations to fit the season. The pictures stay the same for now. They will change out eventually. Right now they are some of my favorites from our wedding. I use these red candle holders for multiple seasons. I used them on my mantle for Valentine's Day decorations. For Christmas I have used them on both this ledge and on the mantle. They were on sale when I bought them from Kirkland's.

This is the view from my living room. The door on the left in a coat closet and the open doorway on the right side of the picture is one of the other bedrooms.

Hope you enjoyed the little tour of my entryway. Have a wonderful weekend.

Birthday vacation idea

2009-07-08T13:15:00.003-05:00

Since Daniel and I were unable to plan a big vacation this summer, we have decided to try to fit it in the budget to go away for our birthdays. He was born the day before me at the same hospital. Actually, the same doctor delivered us. His mother says that we were destined to end up together. I agree.

Anyway, I've started looking into packages and vacation ideas that we could do together. He really enjoys the outdoors and I enjoy camping and hiking as well. I, however, require a few more luxury items when I camp. For instance, a flushing toilet. I know, I know... not really true camping. Sorry it's the best I can do. I think I've come up with the perfect trip for us. I was looking into the Disney resorts and the rates for lodging and tickets to the parks. Well, turns out they have a campground resort. Perfect.

In addition to wanting something perfect for both of us, we need something that won't break the bank. This is why this Disney World idea is even more perfect. This year they are offering a birthday promotion where you get free admission to one of the parks on your birthday. Since Daniel's birthday is the day before mine we can get two days admission for the price of one. And if we camp at the campground resort we can stay at one of the Disney Resorts for around $50 a night. The campground has all the amenities of a hotel with the exception of having to sleep in a tent or camper. I'm perfectly fine with camping as long as there are bathrooms and in this case showers. There's also a restaurant in the campground and entertainment. Plus we would be able to take the shuttle to any of the theme parks at no extra cost.

I'm thinking that this is going to be a perfect trip.

BlogHop Favorite Photo

2009-07-07T08:06:00.006-05:00

This is a favorite photo of mine. It's of my husband at a scout event from earlier this year. I love this photo because it's so hard to get one of him with a genuine smile. He's one of those people who can't really fake a good smile. He looks so happy. He is love being a scoutmaster and working with the scouts. I'm so proud of him.

They're growing!

2009-07-01T21:06:00.004-05:00

The vegetables are getting bigger. I'm starting to get squash that are big enough to pick but the tomatoes and cucumbers aren't quite ready yet. It seems like they plants have just exploded with vegetables in the past couple of days. The tomatoes are the right size for picking but they just won't ripen. These look small but they are cherry tomatoes. I'm not really a big fan of green tomatoes. I prefer them nice and ripe and juicy. I can't wait. Hopefully in the next couple of days they will start to ripen. My taste buds just can't wait. I LOVE vine ripened tomatoes. I also LOVE watermelon. My mom says its because she craved watermelon when she was pregnant with me. She would eat a whole watermelon a day. When I was born I had a small red birthmark on my back that was shaped like a watermelon seed.

Silent Auction Success

2009-06-29T11:30:00.002-05:00

Yesterday Daniel's scout troop held their second semi-annual Court of Honor. This is a ceremony to celebrate and recognize all the boys' hard work and advancement. We also honored some of the adult leaders at this time as well. In conjunction with the Court of Honor, we held a silent auction to raise funds for the troop. I was in charge of organizing the auction. I'd never set up something like this before and I was a little worried while I was working on it. We got some amazing donations from the some of the parents and the companies where they work. We had about 40 items ranging from a $500 chair to homemade cookies. It went off really well and all but two items got bids. We raised over $800 for the troop. I feel like this is a GREAT success.

Gardening is not my forte.

2009-06-21T19:16:00.003-05:00

So I planted a few vegetables plants this year. Last year the husband built a little area to plant some veggies. We planted two tomato plants and ended up having four last year. Crazy story. Anyway, this year I decided I wanted a few things other than the tomatoes. In addition to two different types of tomatoes, we planted squash and cucumbers. I thought I left plenty of room around the plants when I planted them. I was dead wrong. I've never seen a squash plant as big as ours. I knew they would be really big but I didn't imagine it would take up all the space. The plants are thriving and starting to produce but they are running out of space. Next year I'm expanding the garden area.

Surprises

2009-06-17T21:08:00.004-05:00

My husband is so sweet. He has been out of town the past couple of days and left me little surprises all over the house to find. In addition to these I received flowers today. They are beautiful. My mother-in-law is a florist and does beautiful arrangements. I decided to play around with my camera and take a few pictures. If you couldn't tell from the arrangement I love the color pink. I also love gerbera daisies and the lilies. Hope you enjoy the pictures.

You've got to be kidding.

2009-06-14T21:03:00.002-05:00

About a month ago, my husband comes in from work and asks me if I know what happened to our landscaping lamps that were lining our sidewalk. I told him I didn't know what he was talking about and we walked out to find the majority of them broken into pieces. We assumed that some kid decided he/she thought it would be fun to take a baseball bat to them or something like that. There were two that were still intact so instead of removing them we just left them where they were. We rarely turn on the porch lights so it was good to have them there to see the sidewalk in case anyone came for a visit. I'm thinking now we should have moved them.

Well tonight I found out who really broke them. I was sitting on my couch reading when I heard a noise I didn't recognize so I went and looked out the front door. I found the two kids from next door playing with them in the street. They are about 3 and 4 years old. The little boy was throwing the top portion around like it was a Frisbee. There were adults sitting there watching them playing with them in the street. Most kids play in the street in our neighborhood. There is little traffic. Anyway, as soon as I walk out of the house they run back to their yard. I started picking up the pieces and the little girl walked up to me and said, "Lady, I'm sorry." What else was I supposed to say except it's okay. Then they started picking up the pieces I missed. It was sweet except for the fact I was seriously angry about them being broken and the adults just letting them do it. I'm not sure what to do about the whole thing. The lamps weren't really worth a great deal. For me it's more the principle of the entire matter.

Show Us Where You Live Friday- Bathroom Edition

2009-06-11T13:10:00.005-05:00

This week Kelly's Korner blog is hosting "Show Us Where You Live Friday- Bathrooms." So I thought I would share my guest bathroom with you. This is the first room we painted in the house. It was the easiest at the time and I tried to start with the rooms that I knew guests were bound to see when I began decorating the house. We moved in to a newly built home and everything was a beige color. I get so bored with the same colors on the walls. Unfortunately, the family room and kitchen are still the same beige color. I haven't quite figured out how I'm going to paint those just yet. Anyway back to the bathroom.

This is the view from the hall. Its the only room in the house without a window and of course I decided to paint it with a dark purple. It made it much darker but I loved this color for a bathroom.
Here's a view from the other side of the counter. Its a very long, skinny room.

This is a mirror we got as a wedding gift. I wasn't sure what to do with it. I really like it but it doesn't really go with anything else in the house. We put it up in the bathroom before we fully decorated it and I thought it looked good there after we painted.

I found this on sale at Linens and Things and thought it was really cute. The green matte matches perfectly with the green accents in the room.

I got these three little candles at Wal-Mart. Again, I was looking for green accents. I LOVE this color green. I pretty much have some variation of this color in every room in the house.

I got this from a good friend who was a Home Interiors consultant before they went bankrupt. I though it fit really well in there.

And finally the shower curtain. I made the mistake of painting the room before I found a curtain to go along with it. I don't think I will make that mistake again. It took us a while to find one that I liked, but I'm pretty happy with this one. It's got right color purple, the right green and some yellow with helps lighten things up a bit.

Anyway that's it, my guest bathroom. Thanks for taking a look. Have a wonderful weekend.

Wow!!

2009-06-11T07:29:00.004-05:00

If your were anywhere in the vicinity of NW Arkansas you probably saw the line of storms that moved though last night. I was sitting in my favorite chair with the lap top surfing the web and my husband walked into the room and said, "Wow. Look outside." I turned around (the chair sits in front of a large window in the living room) and this is what I saw...

I've seen some amazing sunsets but I don't think I've ever seen the sky this orange. It was beautiful. The white flecks are rain drops.

About 15 minutes after these were taken I snapped a few more...

It was starting to break up and look a little more yellow. Still amazing. It finally set about 15 minutes later and the sky still looked beautiful after the sun went down. It was a deep deep blue color and the clouds were still rolling through.

Just goes to show you the things God can do.

Weekend Review

2009-06-09T08:25:00.004-05:00

We had a super busy weekend. Well, actually it was really only Saturday that was busy. Daniel and I got up early Saturday and drove the two hours to Branson Missouri. There is a theme park there called Silver Dollar City and the company my dad and brother work for gave free tickets to all their employees. Since my brother didn't want to go, he gave his tickets to Daniel and me.

This is a photo of my brother and me. He is almost two years younger but everyone thinks he's older. I'm guessing it's because of the premature baldness. He usually wears a ball cap and it was like pulling teeth to get him to take it off for the family photos last spring.

After spending most of the day walking around and window shopping at the many shops in the park, we decided to head home. On the way we stopped at one of the outlet malls in Branson. There is a Coleman outlet there and Daniel loves to shop for camping gear. He's getting ready to head to scout camp with his scout troop for a week and wanted to look for last minute supplies. When we got home we took a short nap and then headed over to Daniel's brother's house. We met up with them and headed out to the drive-in theatre. The new Pixar movie "Up" was showing along with "The Hannah Montana Movie." We only stayed for "Up." It was great. There were some really sad moments but overall I thought it had a good lesson and story. There were some incredibly funny moments. I really enjoyed the movie but it is not my favorite Pixar movie. I am a big fan of Pixar and look forward to the movies to come from them.

Sunday was a relaxing day. We stayed at home for most of the day and did some very much needed cleaning. We went back to Daniel's brother's house for dinner. It was wonderful. He made ribs and they were great.

So far this week has been pretty low key for me. I'm job searching and so far not coming up with much. Yesterday I spent most of the day going around to local businesses asking for donations for the scout troop's upcoming silent auction. Hopefully some of the business owners will call me back with donations. We'll see what today holds. I am looking forward to having lunch with a good friend I haven't seen in a while today. So until then, have a great day.

Show Us Where You Live Fridays- Offices

2009-06-04T21:06:00.000-05:00

Kelly's Korner sponsors Show Us Where You Live Fridays. This Friday is home offices. I'm currently working on completing my home office. We have two offices. My husband has his own office, although I call it his man room. I would share pictures of that office as well but it is in complete shambles at the moment. Anyway, here are some pictures of my work in progress. I love to quilt and scrapbook so in addition to being used as an office space, it will also be used as a craft room.

We just finished painting this week. This is the pull-out sofa we have in the room. I like the pattern but I'm considering covering it so it would go better with the room.

This is a drawing a college roommate of mine did for her senior art project. It's done with inks.

Like I said, it's still a work in progress so everything is not in its proper place yet. This is a picture of my work table. I found this old metal top table at a flea market and repainted it this light shade of green. The quilt over the rack is a gift from my husband's grandmother for our wedding.Here's another view of the dest and window. I love the valance I found at Walmart.
I found this saying on a website and thought it was perfect. I cut the letters with a Cricut machine. My sister-in-law got a Cricut and it is AWESOME!! I'm planning on framing some of my favorite fabrics and hanging them around this.

Well there you have it. I would love any comments or suggestions anyone has to offer.

What a week!

2009-06-04T19:16:00.001-05:00

It's been a busy few days for me. Granted I don't have anything to really so for it. My mom had surgery on Tuesday. She is doing great, a little sore but overall good. I'm really happy everything went okay. She and my dad were really worried about the surgery. I was too but I knew I needed to help keep them calm. Her doctor was one of the best in the state for the type of surgery she needed.

While I was away with my mom, Daniel worked to finish painting my sewing room. I will post pics when it is completed. We painted it a soft yellow color. It definitely brightened up the space. I love it. I bought an old metal top table from a flea market that I'm going to use as a desk/worktable. I painted it a very pale light green color. I found the paint in the returned paint aisle at Walmart for $3.00! I think I'm going to have to recover the sofa that I have in the room. We got the pull-out sofa to use when we have guests over. I am so excited about this room and can't wait for it to come together.

Like I said, I don't really have much to show for my week but it sure does feel like its been a busy one.

TGIF

2009-05-29T07:59:00.000-05:00

This week has not been the greatest. I know that it could have been much worse and I'm thankful for what I do have. However, I am glad that it is finally Friday.

Things are not going as planned with the whole certification process. I missed a passing score on one of my tests by two points. I told my husband I would have rather failed miserably rather than miss it by two points. I was so disappointed with myself. My husband has been very supportive about the entire ordeal. He's so sweet. So since I can't retake the test and receive my scores before the deadline to apply, I am going to have to wait until next year to apply to the program. There are other options I could take, but this program is the best fit for me I think. Therefore, I'm applying for some classified positions with the school districts. Hopefully something will come through.

My computer died last night. I'm a Mac user and have had this computer for 6 years so I can't really complain too much about it. It's been a great computer and I'm going to miss it. My husband said we could look at replacing it but there is really no need. We have a family PC now as well. But I'm going to miss sitting on the couch, surfing the internet.

On the bright side, I'm going to a Naturals baseball game tonight with some friends I haven't seen in a while. I'm totally excited about it. It's a Faith and Family night at the ballpark and a local christian radio st ation is sponsoring the event. Francesca Battistelli will be performing before the game. It should be a ton of fun.

Is it really Tuesday? I can't keep up anymore!

2009-05-26T18:40:00.000-05:00

I'm so lost on what day it is today. I thought yesterday was Saturday all day long. Today feels like Monday.

I had a busy weekend. My mother has a doctor's appointment on Friday with a neurosurgeon and since they were going to be closer to my dad's family's house than theirs, they decide to go visit for the weekend. My husband and I decided to go along as well. It had been almost a year since we had seen most of them and there was a new baby we were excited about visiting as well. It was really great getting to see everyone. The kids had grown so much. However, seeing as it is a good 5 hours away it made for a long drive home on Sunday. I slept most of the way though so the trip passed fairly quickly for me. My husband napped when we got home and we were both pretty useless for the rest of the evening. We spent most of Memorial day cleaning the garage and attic and organizing our junk. We are both pack rats. It's pretty bad. I really have no idea what we are going to do when we have children. If you have any great space saving or organization tips I would love to hear them.

While I love visiting family, I'm always glad to be home. Even though it was a rather short trip, it took a lot out of me. It always feels so good to sleep in your own bed.

The next couple of weeks are stressful ones. First, I should find out my Praxis II scores this week. This is one of the tests required to become a certified teacher. I'm hoping to get certified to teach secondary life sciences. I have to take two different content tests, biology and earth science. I'm praying that I passed. See, I'm applying to a non-traditional program and if I don't pass both tests I will miss the deadline to apply to this year's program. If I miss the deadline, I will have to wait another full year to apply. I'm really hoping I passed those tests.

Secondly, my mother is having to undergo spinal surgery next week to correct a bulged disc in her neck. The surgeon says that its a fairly simple surgery and he has done thousands like this in the past. While that's good to know, I'm still concerned and worried. There's something about cutting near the spinal cord that causes a bit of apprehension. She's stressed out about it and I'm trying to calm some of her fears. If you could keep her in your prayers, I would really appreciate it.

Well, here's to Tuesday. Tomorrow's hump day and that means only a few days until the weekend.

Yay Daniel!!!!

2009-05-21T19:05:00.000-05:00

Yesterday, I got pulled over for not having brake lights. I was on my way to meet my mother and aunt for lunch when I saw the officer pull behind me. I hoped that he just pulled in behind me at the stop light but when he changed lanes behind me, I knew I was getting ready to be stopped. I was certain that I was not going over the speed limit. Anyway, he told me I didn't have brake lights and gave me a warning. He said I could go ahead and continue to where I was headed but I didn't want to take a chance of getting stopped again.

I thought for sure that it was a fuse or bulb, so when I got home I checked the fuses. No luck. They were all fine. My father came over and checked bulbs and they were fine also. That's when I really started to worry. I didn't want to have to take it in to a shop. When my husband got home he started tinkering around with the easy things first. Again, nothing worked. So he went online and searched for what it could be. It's amazing the useful things you can find on the Internet. I know that's probably a stupid thing to say. But it really does amaze me sometimes.

He worked until 11pm last night trying to figure out what would make the lights work again. He replace a brake switch and that made the brake lights come back on, but the blinkers wouldn't work. Finally, he decided to turn in for the night and pick it back up today. He replaced some other part in the steering wheel this evening and low and behold, it worked!!! Now he's working to put all the parts back together.

I am truly amazed and so proud of him.

Graffiti :(

2009-05-19T21:49:00.000-05:00

So tonight my husband and I did much need yard work. After almost a full two weeks of nothing but rain, our back yard looked like a jungle. My husband looked out the window on Sunday, turned to me and said, "If our backyard had a theme song, it would be 'Welcome to the Jungle'." I hate to admit it but he was absolutely right.

While mowing the front yard, Daniel, my husband, came in and asked me to come out and look at something. I walked out to the curb next to our drive-way and looked down. There on the side of the curb was three letters spray painted in blue spray paint. Graffiti. Why some people think it's cool to vandalize other people's property, I will never understand. Now I don't necessarily think there is too much to be worried about, but seeing as I am a worrier I suggested we report it to the police department. Daniel called and they sent an officer out to take a report. I'm sure nothing will come of it but I would rather be safe.

Other than this small downer, today was great. It was a beautiful day and I feel like we got a lot accomplished. We mowed the lawn. When I say we I really mean Daniel. While he mowed, I worked in the flower bed in front of our house. I'm hoping the plants survive. My record with plants isn't the greatest. I think more have died under my watch than lived. I took down my seasonal decorations and replaced them with my summer decorations. I know it's a little early but I usually change on Memorial Day. I'll post pictures tomorrow when I finish. I really love changing out the decorations. I've never liked for things to stay the same all the time. Growing up I would rearrange my bedroom at least 3 times a year. I get bored with things if they stay the same all year round.

Grandparents and quilts

2009-05-18T18:15:00.000-05:00

I thought I would share a little about myself in today's post. Like I have stated in my profile I enjoy quilting and scrap booking. I am a beginner at both and I have to say that I enjoy quilting more. I started learning how to quilt about a year ago. My husband's grandmother taught me. She is 89 years old and has quilted pretty much her entire life. Growing up I never did projects with my grandparents and before I really realized how valuable their skills and wisdom were they were gone. When I decided I wanted to learn how to quilt I knew exactly who to turn to. She helped me piece, quilt and bind the quilt shown below. It took us approximately 4 months to make. We hand stitched everything.

I absolutely love this quilt. I've made a couple of baby quilts since we completed the one shown here. Unfortunately I don't have pictures of these but I was very please with how they turned out. I am currently working on a small lap quilt with a flower applique. I'm excited to see how it turns out. I'll be sure and post pictures when I complete it.

It's amazing what grandparents can teach us if we just simply ask. Like I said earlier, my father's mother died before I could fully appreciate the wisdom she had to pass on. Both of my grandfathers passed away when I was young. My mother's mother is still living but refuses to talk to my family. I miss her and have often thought that I should be the bigger person and forgive her for her indiscretions. It's hard though to just look the other way. I don't understand her reasons for shutting my family out. It's been an ongoing thing since I started college. I've talked to her probably a total of 5 times since 2002. I contacted her to invite her to my wedding two years ago and she told me that she would not come. After this I decided that I would leave the decision up to her on whether she wanted to be apart of my life. I realize now that if I want her to be apart of my life I'm going to have to be person who makes contact. I can't fathom having children someday and her not knowing them. I think it's crazy to not to want to be involved with you grandchildren's lives. I know some day she will regret the decisions she has made. I simply hope and pray that things work out.

Recovering after camping with the boys

2009-05-17T14:28:00.000-05:00

Last night was Scout Night with the NWA Naturals. This is my husband and me watching the game. For the past two weeks it has done nothing but rain in NWA Arkansas. Finally a couple of days ago the rain let up. However, a cold front had come through and the weather was unseasonabley cool. Luckily, the ballpark was having a promotion night and they gave everyone a free fleece blanket. I don't know what I would have that blanket.

Daniel and I were the only ones who actually watched the ballgame. The boys spent most of the time running around and playing on those inflatable bouncy things. They all had a really great time and it was a fun change from the normal camp outs.

My husband loves working with the scouts. He has such a great time with the boys. I'm pretty sure its because he is still a boy at heart. I have no idea what he was laughing at in this picture but I felt that it really caught the moment. I'm sure one of the boys was doing something completely ridiculous.
Here I am freezing my toes off. I was just about to turn in for the night. After the game, everyone got to camp out in the outfield. They showed a movie on the big screen and everyone watched from their tents. Of course it was way past my bedtime and I had been surrounded by 10 boys who were hyped up on sugar and caffeine so I was exhausted.
This is a picutre some of the tents set up on the field. There were Boy Scout, Cub Scout, and Girl Scout troops from the area camping out.
And finally, my husband getting ready to take our stuff out to the van. I was tempted to see just how much he could tote.

Getting ready to camp with the boy scouts!

2009-05-16T13:07:00.001-05:00

My husband is scoutmaster for his old Boy Scout troop. This is him with one of wreaths from a fundraiser they did on his head. He took over about 3 months ago. When he came to me to tell me that he committee had asked him to take over as scoutmaster I knew there would be no way I would tell him no. He loves working with the scouts. It's right up his alley. It's probably because he's not that much older than the boys so he feels right at home acting silly with them. It's pretty entertaining to watch him with the boys.

Tonight we are taking the boys to Scout Night with the Naturals. The Naturals are our local minor league club team. This is their second year here in Northwest Arkansas. Twice a year they hold a scout night and invite all the local scouts (girls and boys) to come camp out in the infield after the game. Other than the weather being less than desirable, I'm really looking forward to it. We will watch the game then head out to the field and set up camp. They provide dinner and a movie. Check back for pictures.

Working with the scouts is definitely something I never thought I'd be doing. When Daniel got involved again with his old troop, I didn't have any desire to get involved. I had always thought it was just something for the guys. He asked me to go on a camp out with them one weekend and I agreed. It was really a lot of fun. They camp like I've never camped before. It was amazing. Then he took over as scoutmaster. I realized then and there that if I ever wanted to spend weekends with him I was going to have to get involved with the troop. It's been a great experience for both of us. The boys in Troop 107 are great. The troop is still in a transition period and it's growing rapidly so the meetings are a little disorganized. They have improved significantly though. I have high hopes for them. It's really been a learning experience for everyone. If you are looking for an organization to become involved in I highly recommend a scout troop whether its boy scouts, cub scouts, or girl scouts.

Hello to the blogging world

2009-05-15T21:24:00.000-05:00

So I've decided to start a blog. I'm not sure how it will turn out but I thought I would give it a go anyway.
Today was a pretty good day. I spent the day substituting for the broadcasting teacher at Rogers High School. It was the seniors last day, so you can imagine how much work they got done. It was actually fun. We spent most of the class playing games.
I started substituting in January when I left my job as an Environmental Health Specialist with the Department of Health. I decided a while back that I did not want to be a health inspector for the rest of my life. Conducting restaurant inspections is not a job you want to have if you enjoy going out for dinner. While working as an inspector was a good experience, it just simply wasn't for me. The part of my job that I did enjoy was the teaching aspect so I decided I would pursue a career in teaching. I have a degree in biology and am applying to the non-traditional license program. I'm am currently waiting for my Praxis II scores to come in, which won't be for another two weeks. Substituting is definitely interesting and quite challenging. It's been a good experience for me however. We'll see how it helps me in the future. Only two more weeks before my future will be decided.