Vocab Words

Yesterday evening, me and the kids were in the car on our way to Ally's band concert.

I asked Ally to read Emily her spelling words so that she could get her pre-test out of the way during the drive. 

Right smack dab in the middle of the list, Emily shares that the word SEX has two meanings.

After I got the car back on the road, I snatched that spelling list out of Ally's hands so fast that the papercuts sliced off a finger or two.  After quickly scanning the list, I realized SEX is not one of the words.

I then calmly inquired as to HOW ON EARTH DID YOU COME TO THIS CONCLUSION AND WHY ARE YOUR TALKING ABOUT IT!?!?!?!?

Turns out a little boy in her class, we will call him A$$HOLE to protect his innocence, has been looking up dirty words in the dictionary and sharing his findings with his classmates.  Emily said that one meaning for SEX is male or female.  I could not let her share the other meaning.  Dear Lord I truly hope she doesn't know the other meaning, please tell me sweet little A$$HOLE didn't share the other meaning----because the only meaning in the dictionary is male vs. female (thank you Websters).

I looked over at Ally and I thought her face was going to explode she was laughing so hard.  And then she quietly said "Perhaps we shouldn't play with A$$HOLE.  Alright- #7 WEEK".

Lord I love these kids.

A Heavy Heart

Prayer is powerful.  It just is.  I don't believe it is a time to lay a wish list at Gods feet though.  Because God knows what He is doing, I'm not sure He needs me to tell Him what to do next.  He's not a genie I've heard others say.  I can share my wishes- but they may not change the outcome of His plan.  Therefore, part of my prayer is always that I can see His glory in whatever the outcome is- because I want my heart to always see His plan, His faithfulness, His glory.........regardless of if I got my outcome or not.

During prayer, it is a time to thank God for just being............well.........Him.  And for calling me out of the darkness into His light.  He could have totally left me there in the dark and alone.  But He wants all His children to return to Him, He's cool like that.

It's also a time to listen to the inklings that He lays on our hearts.  I try to always pray that I am open and obedient to what He calls me to do. That I would hear Him and respond in a way that glorifies Him.

During a mom's prayer time yesterday, I was overcome.  He has called me, over 9 months ago, to take care of something for Him.  And I have stuffed it down- over and over again.  I never once thought that the constant thoughts were coming from God, I assumed they were coming from me and I didn't know what to do with them.  Yesterday I realized that He had asked me to do something, and I'd ignored him.  Really, I haven't ignored Him, I just have kept putting it off.

When He laid it on my heart.........again..........I just began to cry.  Oh Lord I've done it again, I keep asking for the insight to hear your calls, and I wasn't listening.  I still have no idea what He wants me to do, but I am certain He is going to let me know.  And this time I am ready, and I will do whatever it is He leads my heart to do.

God is that little voice in your heart.   Sometimes He tells you to drop an email to a friend- you don't know it but they may need that bit of encouragement right at that second.  Other times He leads you to bake an extra loaf of banana bread to drop off at a friends house- because they are struggling and God knows that having the support of a friend might give them joy.  Other times He might lead you to offer an outgoing comment to a perfect stranger at the grocery, because He needs them to be reminded of Him.  But He never calls us to hurt others or to point out flaws- He would never want us to tear someone down.  Nope, that is all us and our egos that do that.

On the radio yesterday I heard a very interesting statement. 
"God would never want us to point out flaws in others.  He calls us to LOVE."

Sometimes people become self righteous as they grow in their bible knowledge and feel that they have to point out ways that other people are sinning.  My prayer is that they can continue to grow in the love of our Lord, the love of Christ Jesus, and move past all the 'religion' and find the LOVE. 

Not sure why I felt like I wanted to share all of this today- but there you go.  I hope your day is AWESOME!

How to have a successful yardsale

How to have a successful yardsale:

1. Throw a tantrum, decide your house/cabinets/closets/toyboxes are too full (after tripping over a dumptruck and landing on a lego) and begin making piles, boxes and bags in every corner of every room of your home.  But don't price it as you put it in the bag- no way- it's too much fun staying up until 2am pricing each little happy meal toy the night before the sale and you won't want to deprive yourself of that glory.

2.  Allow children to play in said piles, boxes and bags and essentially drag out every dag gone thing you have put in them.

3.  Gather back together and move it to the garage.

4.  Never pick a date and eventually plan your sale for the freezing temperatures of Fall in an effort to get rid of said pile in the garage so you can put your car back in there........someday.

5.  Organize the pile and move it to a cart and shelves, and then wheel the cart around the garage to feel productive.  And then park it back where it was- right where the car used to be.

6.  Stack folding tables in  your garage to tell yourself you mean business and you really are gonna do this thing.  And then don't curse under your breath when you bump into them and knock them all down.

7.  Pick a date.  Then move it, twice, because your daughter can't decide on a good time for her birthday party.  Finally park it right on a fabulous date for a sale that includes 3 other activities, but you're certain you can do it all because you are some kind of a freak.

8.  Buy fancy chalkboard labels.  Don't be really sure what you need them for or what purpose they will serve, but just be certain you need them.  And while you are there at the Martha Stewart office supply section- spend $10 on fancy metal rimmed tags on strings- because your useless stuff will look more sheek if they have the right price tags.

9. Begin gathering other peoples yard sale stuff and offer to sell it in your sale.  Because you are so organized and prepared, why can't you handle 3 other peoples items in addition to your own?  Tracking sales will be a breeze since your things have the expensive a$$ price tags- just sayin.

10. Contemplate putting it all on the front porch for the DAV, including those fancy chalkboard labels, and call it a day. 

11. Change your mind and follow through with this plan, but only because you promised the kids their time to shine by having a lemonade stand.  A lemonade stand that you will end up running because they are going to be too busy playing with all the toys in the sale and taking them back into the house.

12.  Write a blog post about it, rather than actually doing it.

The End, and you're welcome.  Good luck!

I'm a WINNER!

I won!  I won! I can't believe I WON!

See- over at The Coupon Goddess, she gives away some pretty cool stuff.  That's what happens when your blog is interesting and fun and lots and lots and lots of people read it- you get sponsors and companies that give you stuff to review..........and even PAY you to advertise on your blog. And then you have lots of stuff to give away!  She's changing the focus of her blog- away from coupons and on to food blogging.  I still read her though- her life story is an interesting one that involves four kids and a near death accident last summer that she not only survived, but has thrived ever since.

I'm a sucker for inspirational life stories- what can I say.

The point here is that she gave away a box of stuff from a blogger conference (oh how I would LOVE to go to a blogger conference) and I WON IT!

 Dude- I could hardly wait for this bad boy to arrive.  She didn't detail everything that would be in it- but I just knew it would be some awesome stuff!

 And boy was I right!  Although I will say there was some rather embarrassing items included (not going to go into detail- but Eden's Fantasies was a large sponsor of the blogger event- and there were some items from them.........stop looking, I took them out of the photo)

 Fake nails, shopping bags, chapstick, t-shirts, jewelry............we had so much fun going through this box!!!

 Not to mention tons of coupons and giftcards!  Some for free product, some really high dollar product coupons, some store gift cards, some website giftcards!!!

 A super cool t-shirt!

 A reflective runners headband (how cute is that!)

 Hot wheel cars!

And even a stuffed bean bag Hot Pocket that Rosie claimed as her own.

There was something for everyone- even Dan got a $25 giftcard to Hanes.com.  But I will spare you the photos of him in his new skivvies.  You're welcome.

An update

I know I should offer some sort of an update, but I'm stuck.  Stuck in a land of undecided paint colors, animals trapped behind fireplaces and tears that fall for no reason.  A land where my children are gone all day and I really just don't have anything to share. 

Damn- there come the tears again.

Everything is fine- I'm just in a strange place right now as the dynamics in our home change.

Yuck.

Interior Design Nightmares and the woman who create them

I know what you're thinking- you LOVE what we've done with the place.  Decorating is not really my thing- but this time I think I've hit the nail on the head.  Bringing in the 15 foot scaffolding was a bit of a gamble, but I think it adds a bit of hominess. 

The reality is, last June my husband began the process of closing off the window from the upstairs playroom to our living area.  Thus making the play room, allyson's personal bedroom.  All three of our children officially have their own bedrooms now.

And once the drywall was hung and kind of in place- all progress stopped.

So for 3 months our living room has had dry wall dust and a half finished wall.......classy.

This week, Dan has begun trying to finish it up.

And it is a long process, I'm here to tell you.  We can't even use the living room right now- which is cool since we all have our own space we can escape to.

My largest concern is that I need to make a decision on paint. 

When we bought this house, I spent hours and hours and hours with tiny paint samples, colorful cards and magazines to select the perfect colors for our entire house.

And then we proceeded to paint every room elephant gray.

Yes- I managed to pick a different shade of gray for every.single.room.

You see this is not a gift, right?

So now, for almost a year, I've begun the process of picking a new perfect color for our living space (which includes the hallway, entry way and the kitchen- it's a commitment dude).

Apparently I'm leaning toward browns.  I thought I was last time too when everything turned gray instead.

I have a friend who randomly paints walls, furniture, children- it always turns out beautiful.  Then, a few months later, she does it again.  She says it's JUST paint.

Yeah.

I really need whatever I pick out, to really love it.  I just need to LOVE LOVE LOVE it.

I can't paint all of this again if I manage to pick some lamo horrible color.

I need help.  Or I need to at least paint the scaffolding if it's going to be a permanent part of our home.

It's tough being a girl

I bought Ally a box of home waxing strips. 

Ally has been getting her face waxed at the salon, by actual hair waxing professionals.  But see, I'm cheap stretching our resources, and therefore this time when it came due- I hesitated to shell out twenty bucks to tend her lip when I could get 12 wax strips for five.  So we gave it a whirl.

I came into the bathroom after she finished and her lip looked good.  A little red, but mainly hairless.  So I thought, what the heck- I'm doing me too!  I used to wax my face when Dan's mom was an active beautician and she would do it for free out of love.  But since then, I've taken to plucking and fancy trimmers.

I warmed the strip in my hands.
I carefully applied to my lip, being careful not to include my actual lip.
I rubbed and waited.
Then I grabbed the end and ripped it off as fast as I could and HOLY HECK the pain was everything I remembered!!!!  I was anticipating, since it was a cheap at home kit, that it wouldn't work as well.  But it did.  I swear to you, had I not already had the other half glued on the other side of my lip, I wouldn't have gone through with it a second time. I would today have half a mustache.

After I dried my tears and stopped mumbling about the pain, I applied the oily clothe thing and in my head wondered what would keep that oil from making tons of pimples in the raw open pores that I just rubbed it in?

And this morning, I discovered that the answer is NOTHING.  My lip is swollen up like a crazy nut ball and is loaded with giant mosquito bite looking things!  (Ally looks fine- by the way- at least she can have a relatively free from embarrassment day).

You can stop scrolling down- there are no pictures.  As if I would do THAT to myself.

Will I do this again?  Probably.  Being beautiful comes at a cost.  But next time, I will not do it with anyone in the bathroom with me.  Allyson was laughing so hard, which didn't help my pain at all.  No audience and some stridex pads- that is what I'm gonna try next time.