Taking it all for granted

Do you ever have one of those days that seems to be going along just fine and then something happens that blindsides you and makes you put things into perspective?

Today was one of those days. I got some upsetting news that doesn't directly affect me, but does affect someone I know  that was once a big part of my life.  I will not go into details, but just say that it shook me and affected me very deeply. It is something that I can not get out of my mind.

It made me realize how much I take things in my life for granted..... not just the little things but the big things too. Sometimes I have to just stop and remind myself that I am lucky just to be alive and living in a country that has so many opportunities, liberties and freedoms.

I guess it is easy to take for granted the everyday things such as a dishwasher, having clean clothes and a car to drive. To some people (many, in fact) these things would be a luxury and is something that is far out of their reach.

I was struck as I was letting the water in the kitchen sink run for far too long that all over the world people are in need of something as basic as clean water. Something that I have at my disposal at any given time and here I am letting it literally slip through my fingers and run down the drain. I quickly shut it off in that instant and reminded myself to be thankful.

You see in the hustle and bustle of everyday life it is easy to forget to say thanks for all the little and big things that we have. It is so easy to get caught up in the "have nots" instead of the "haves". I am ashamed that it sometimes takes something tragic in  life to remind me that I am so lucky. I have everything I could ever need and so much more.

New ways to follow Me

Never in a million years did I think when I started blogging that people were actually going to read what I wrote, much less comment or care. I have been blown away with how much support and encouragement I have received from you guys! I have "met" so many amazing people and can't believe that my little ole' blog has reached 200 followers. Now, the numbers don't mean everything to me...the relationships formed do. However, I am not going to lie. When I see my numbers creep up it makes me feel good and somehow validates what I am doing here. :)

With that said, I am sure we have all heard that GFC is going away. There are lots of new ways to follow me though,so we can keep in touch! I have added the new linky followers tool. I am in the process of trying to make a facebook page but am having some "issues". If someone has some advice on how to do so I will take it! So, feel free to follow along and let me know that you have done so, so I can follow you too.

Our Weekend Recap

Despite the fact hubby was out of town again, we managed to have a fun filled weekend.


Friday we had a playdate with my friend Laura who blogs over here. She brought over some home made puff paint she had made out of cool whip and food coloring! Such a great idea.... plus it tasted good too! :)

Kendra had fun!

Saturday morning Target was hosting a Dr.Suess story time to celebrate his birthday. We had so much fun. They handed out great goodie bags for the kids and read an assortment of stories. Jaxson even got to pick out a new book! Thankfully my mother in law came along because Kendra hit the ground running and was ALL over the store!

Don't you just love my Lorax mustache? They gave these away too and of course the kids refused to wear them!

Saturday afternoon my brother and his girlfriend came up to visit and we had so much fun catching up and just hanging out at home. Jaxson had fun playing soccer and being rambunctious. We finished off the night with pizza and mac and cheese. I know......dinner of champions!

Kendra got caught by the paparazzi! 

She is such a little diva. :)

Sunday morning my mom and I went to a matinee showing ( only $6.00) of Gone with Amanda Seyfried. I really liked it but then again I love suspenseful thrillers. It wasn't exactly what I was expecting but still really good. By the time I got home Brandon was home and we spent the afternoon being lazy. I even tried a new recipe.


All in all it was a great weekend!

Shh! Can you keep a secret?

Today I am linking up with Lena at Mom2MemphisandRuby and sharing a dirty little secret. The last Saturday of the month you can link up and share some of your secrets!


Okay, so here is mine (one of mine)! I like to think of myself as pretty organized and that I keep a fairly clean house. However, that does not extend to my closets and drawers. I am in the process of trying to slowly go room by room in my house and restore order to the chaos that has become.

Yep, those are all scarves and hats!

Up until last weekend my room was a disaster!

I spend so much time keeping the rest of my house clean that I completely neglect my room. In my defense the last picture was taken when I was completely purging my closet of all it's contents. I reorganized HALF of it and am still working on the other half. I did, however, haul away three boxes and two bags of stuff to get rid of!

Stay tuned for some after pictures.... just don't hold your breath. It may be awhile!

Another peek into my home.........

A few months ago (gosh time flies!) I gave you a peek into my house (well the rooms that were clean at the time)   ;) If you missed that here it is.


Finally I am getting a chance to post some pictures of the kids' rooms. I took these photos quite awhile ago and just kept forgetting to post them.

Not the best photo, but here is a view looking into Kendra's room.

The letter's were a gift from my sister in law and I love them! Her dresser was an old one that we refurbished and put new knobs on. We used to have a changing pad on top.

This picture doesn't do it justice! This was an old bronze chandelier that my husband repainted and hung pink and clear crystals from it. He made it for his "little princess". :)

Glider and shelves... which look a little sparse. I made the zebra fleece blankie for her.

Her bow board which a friend of mine made! I wish she would actually wear some of these!

A View into Jaxson's room. His bed is NEVER made... they spend too much time jumping on it. :)

Some of his way too many toys! I got those car mats at garage sales for $2.00!!

His messy unorganized book shelf!

Sign above his closet!

Well, there you have it! I hope you enjoyed the tour. Now, if you were to be here in "real life" their rooms would definitely not look like that!

Next time I will show you our room!

Things That Are Making Me Smile

1.) Watching the bond between my kiddos and seeing it strengthen everyday. When Jaxson thinks that no one is looking I see him do sweet little things for Kendra. At playgroup a few weeks ago he helped her into the toy car and was pushing her around all while telling her he loved her. It brought tears to my eyes.

Taking care of sissy when she has been hasn't been feeling well.

2.) That my orchid that I had written off as being dead has not only re-bloomed , but is flourishing now!

3.) The fact that even though it may not look like it, that my house is slowly, little by little, getting organized. I have been on a re organizing mission lately. I have a whole other post lined up for that. :)

4.) I found a new series of novels that I am loving right now. There is something about finding an author with reoccurring characters that you can form a connection with. I get excited when the book is over because I know I have a new one to read. Plus, it is so much easier with my kindle to just download and have it right there(it is also easier to overspend on books, however, because I buy so many!).

5.) My new washing machine! The spending money part on it doesn't make me smile.... but we have been without one for over two weeks and it is tough! I took that for granted and never will again. Hello clean laundry!

6.) The Walking Dead is back on! Although this show is not everyone's cup of tea, I love it!

7.) Kendra finishing my sentences! I was singing a song the other day when she chimed in and finished the line perfectly! It was so cute. We kept doing it over and over so I could hear her little voice. She is talking more and more everyday and amazes me with what comes out of her mouth.

8.) Noticing the distinct differences between my childrens' personalities and preferences, even at this young age.  For example, if you give them the same meal she will go straight for the meat and then to the bread. She always saves her fruits and veggies for last. Jaxson, however will eat the veggies, then the fruit and then we have to fight to get him to eat the main dish. She generally will finish what he has left behind.

9.) We have implemented our bugdet and seem to be adjusting. We are starting to see some debts go down and our savings go up. Yeah for progress!

10.) My friend asked me to be a bridesmaid in her wedding and I am so excited and honored to be a part of her special day!

What If?

Do you ever have those moments or even those days where you wonder what if?

While cleaning out my closet yesterday I came across a book of poetry/journal from my middle school and high school days. Wow! Let me just say I really poured out every emotion in that thing, and boy, did I think I was in LOVE way too many times!

With that said, though, it got me wondering What If?
What if that boy I had been pining over noticed me? What if that ex-boyfriend who I was so sure was the one I was gonna marry had not broken up with me?

What if I had kept that same group of (toxic) friends that hurt me? What if I had stayed at college when I had gone?

There are a lot of what ifs in life. In fact, I could waste a lot of time thinking about these things. However, I don't regret any thing in my life..... everything happens for a reason. I truly believe that.  I don't dwell on things from the past and wish for something else. I am exactly where I need to be. If any of those things had happened the way I wished they had, then I wouldn't be where I am today. Maybe my life didn't turn out how I had "planned" but that is the beauty of it...... it turned out exactly how it was supposed to!

It's OK

IT'S OK

•  That I ate two chocolate cupcakes on Valentine's Day(I scraped off the frosting, does that count?) AND a doughnut!

•  That I secretly love to have the whole bed when hubby is gone  

• I forgot to send my voter's ballot in on time... OOPS!

• I only made it through 20 minutes of Zumba before I thought I would die

• My entire closet is pretty much on my bedroom floor and has been for days! I started the pulling everything out phase of re organizing it and haven't gotten any further.

• I have a pile of diapers by the front door because it is too cold to walk out to the garbage can.

•   That I sometimes wish I had part of my daughter's wardrobe! She is stylish. :)

•  My breakfast as of late, has only consisted of an apple.

•  We didn't get to spend Valentine's Day together. I know hubby is working hard and kicking butt!

Spontaneous Aquarium Trip

Yesterday morning we woke up and decided that a trip to the aquarium sounded fun! Jaxson hadn't been since he was a baby and Kendra had never been. Since we knew Brandon would be working on Valentine's Day we figured it was the perfect way to celebrate with the kids.

The aquarium is about an hours drive away so the kids were a bit fidgety. We met up with my brother, who lives in Seattle.

Kendra touched the starfish.... but Jax wouldn't. 

They have all these great touch tide pools! My favorite part.

Neither would look at the camera... too much to look at!

Pointing at all the fish

They both squeezed into the Octopus!

My little diver. He fell off the stool that was boosting him up not long after this. Oops. He was okay, though.

Getting Uncle Ryan

Jaxson was so excited to find Nemo!

If you look closely you can see the otter pup. She was so cute!

Happy Valentine's Day everyone! I hope you get to spend some time with the ones you love!

oops!

While perusing through the way too many photos I have stored on my phone, I came across some Christmas pictures I realized I never shared. It doesn't surprise me because let's face it, I slack in that department. I may take a lot of photos, I just don't DO a lot with them! My children's baby books are full of empty pages too.

Here is what awaited the kids on Christmas morning! Santa may have gone a LITTLE overboard this year. :)

Lights of Christmas at a nearby Christian camp. This place is beautiful. they decorate with over a million lights. It is breathtaking!

 

 

 

I love the mountain made from lights!

My veggie tree! I had fun with this!

My favorite snowmen

Our "Jungle" Expedition

The last week has given us quite a few chances to get outside and soak up some sun. Since we are talking about the Pacific Northwest here, we don't get a lot of sunny days during February (or at all... hahaha). We decided to take full advantage and visit a number of parks nearby.


Jaxson is very in to jungles right now. We decided to head to a local national park that has lots of walking trails, open fields and creeks. Jaxson was convinced that we were about to enter a jungle. We chose him as our fearless expedition leader.

He took his role as leader very seriously; pointing which direction to go.

He told us to be on the look out for crocodiles when we came to the creek(such a great imagination)!

Much to his disappointment, there weren't any!

When we came up a hill there was a man and his brown dog in the distance. Jaxson became very still and informed us to be quiet, because he was certain it was a grizzly bear.  We assured him it was just a dog, but he was not convinced. When we finally got close enough for him to realize it was a dog he was a little saddened by this fact, I however, was not! :)

As far as I am concerned, Kendra had the best seat in the house! She didn't agree and kept yelling "OUT"

We had great time soaking up some much needed vitamin D. Now, it's back to gray skies and rain! :(

Oh, and no trip is complete with out dirty knees and some rock climbing!!

Come on Over !

Two post in one day?! What! I forgot to mention that I am guest posting over at The Foley Fam -Unedited . Come check it out for my thoughts on being a stay at home momma and for a chance to win some great prizes! I am doing a Target card giveaway and Kristine also has lots of other great prizes up for grabs too.

Ten things I said I Would Never Do (and have done)!

I feel like before I became a mom I had all these grand plans and ideas in my head on how I was going to raise my children. I pretty much had a mental list going of all the things I would do and more importantly, all the things I WOULDN'T do. Well, as any mom can tell you, your thoughts can quickly change once you actually have kids!

Ten things I said I would never do (and have done)!

1.) My children would never ever watch children before the age of 2! Well, it pains me to say but they have seen their fair share of t.v. I don't love it and I certainly limit it... but every now and then they need a distraction and I need a break. Let's face it.... when my second one came along and was pretty much attached to the breast 24/7, Jaxson (being 16 months at the time) needed something safe he could do that would keep him entertained and sitting still where I could see him.


2.) I wasn't going to use the "cry it out" method when it came to sleeping. Let me just say that I think there is nothing wrong with it, I just felt I would have too weak of a heart to do it. Wrong! After too many sleepless nights I caved. BEST thing ever!!

3.) I wasn't going to spank my child. Now, I know this can be a hot topic for some and I don't want to start a debate but I never really believed in spankings. However, my little guy was constantly into things that could be potentially dangerous (like pulling on cords, trying to climb entertainment centers and so on) and every tactic I tried failed. Spanking seemed to work... and if that is what it takes to keep him out of something potentially dangerous, I will take that rather than the alternative.

4.) I won't be the mom that forgets to shower or even get dressed! I think this one speaks for it self. There just aren't enough hours in the day sometimes when you have two little ones running around.

5.) My children will always have a well balanced meal at every meal. Yes, I strive to do this, but we all know how chaotic dinnertime can get. So, sometimes it's chicken nuggets (again) and french fries. I always throw in a fruit and veggie but still feel guilty it isn't something made from scratch.

6.) I will not be the mom that says NO! ten million times a day. This is something I am working on. I am trying to say yes more and no less, but inevitably, there are still those days where it seems like every other word that I utter is no!

7.) I will not forget to make  time to keep the love alive! We all know marriages take work and they can be cast aside and put on the back burner when you have young kids and lots of distractions. I know, for a long time I was guilty of putting my hubby last, but we have really been making an effort to take time for each other and go on regular dates and spend some nights away from the kids.

8.) I will not take years to lose the baby weight. Yup, still working on it. Just don't know if you can call it baby weight anymore, though. :)

9.) I will not give my kids desert before dinner. Yes, I have done this a few times and you know what? It was kind of fun; a special treat now and then won't kill ya.

10.) I won't ignore my screaming child that is throwing a tantrum. My children are pros at tantrums. I always wondered how parents could ignore their screaming children, but sometimes you have to ignore them because all they want is attention. Now, I don't mean I would walk away in a store or something... just that when we are at home or in the car (where tantrums seem to happen a lot) I simply walk away or tune them out and wait for them to calm down.

The lovely Lay over at The Next Chapter tagged me in another game. The deal is you must post 11 random facts about yourself(I struggled with this!) and then answer the person's questions that tagged you.

The rules:

1. You must post the rules. (And link up who tagged you.)

2.  Post eleven fun facts about yourself on the blog post.
3.  Answer the questions the tagger set for you in their post, and then create eleven new questions to ask the people you've tagged.

5. Tag eleven people and link them on your post.

6. Let them know you've tagged them!

11 Facts About Me:

1.I have horrible handwriting!

2.I bite my nails and pick my cuticles! It is such a bad habit. Yuck!

3.My favorite shows growing up were In the Heat of The Night, Murder She Wrote and Matlock. See a theme there?

4.I love rollar coasters.... but not heights. Go figure!

5.  I have one tattoo and plan to get another soon.

6. I studied Japanese in high school but didn't retain hardly any of it. :(

7. I eat ranch with so many things. I think it is the universal dip.

8.I don't like apple pie... I know, it's practically unAmerican.

9.I balled at my wedding rehearsal, but didn't shed a single tear on my wedding day.

10. I was a captain on my school's oceanography science team.

11.I still secretly hope I have a long lost sister out there somewhere. hehe :)

Answers to Lay's Questions:

1. What was the best vacation you ever took?

Well, our honeymoon was pretty extravagant and so relaxing (we went to Cancun), but our first vacation as a family with both kids was filled with so many fun memories. I will never forget the look on Jaxson's face when he saw the Orca whale jump out of the water at Sea world. :)

2. What is your favorite movie?

Just one? I love way too many to choose. A few are Sense and Sensibility, Emma and Sliding Doors.

3. Who is your ultimate celebrity crush?

I love Greg Kinnear! I just saw "I Don't Know How She Does It" today, and he was looking pretty good!

4. If you could live anywhere in the world where would you live?

Providing my family and friends were with me, then probably somewhere tropical near the beach.

5. If you could have any super power what would it be?

Ooh...... growing money on trees?! Does that count?

6. If you could be anyone for a day who and why?

Mother Theresa.... so I could know how it feels to touch so many lives.

7. Describe yourself in one word.

Loyal

8. What is your ultimate dream job?

Published author

9. Favorite childhood memory.

There isn't one specific memory but maybe more of the feeling when you had no pressing worries; things were just simple and carefree.

10. What is your favorite dish?

All time? I love fish tacos.

11. Favorite beer, cocktail, wine, or non-alcoholic beverage?

Favorite beer? Budlight. Cocktail? Key lime martini (vodka not gin).

Since I just tagged a few of you last week I think I am going to forgo tagging this time around but I would love to hear some of your answers to these questions... so leave me a comment!

Fill in the blanks

Happy Friday!

Today's blanks are brought to you by Meg of Mr. C & Me.

1.   If money wasn't an issue, the first thing I'd cross of my life list is  Traveling the world. Just taking off with my family and going where ever we felt like going and having lots of new adventures. I would really want time to immerse myself in the cultures of the places we were visiting.

2.    Cottage cheese as dip for my doritos     is something I like that other people think is weird.

3.  If my life were a movie right now, the title would be     "Money Pit" hahaha... yesterday our washing machine and garbage disposal broke within 15 minutes of eachother. There goes another $300.00!   

4.  Three things I am looking forward to this month are     Valentine's Day    ,   my nine year  dating anniversary with Brandon (yesterday!)  and   seeing the sun shine more!

5.  My favorite song to sing in the shower is  I don't have a favorite so generally it is some sort of cartoon theme song.

6.  If I found out that the production of    Frank's Buffalo sauce    was ending this month, I'd go out and buy as much as I could tomorrow.

7.  One thing I'll never grow tired of is    cuddling with my kids. They will be forced to cuddle for years to come :) .

Nine Years!

Nine years ago today, Brandon asked me to be his "girlfriend". :) So funny to think that we started dating right after I turned 18! It has been a great nine years; filled with ups and downs and more joy than I thought possible. We have grown up so much together in the last nine years. It is not always easy but it is ALWAYS worth it! So, to celebrate the occasion I thought I would show some pics of us through the years.

Our rehearsal dinner

Our honeymoon!

Also our honeymoon

On our roadtrip to San Fransisco

 Jax's first Birthday!

 Kendra's baby shower

Most recent professional pictures

Cheering on the Seahawks!

What's a little rain?




I wish I could show you some pictures from when we first started dating. That was before the days of me having a digital camera!