Cabinets, Paint, Mexico!

Sometimes it can be frustrating if you know in your mind what you want, but trying to find it in a store is a different story! Know what I mean?! We looked online for about an hour and a half Thursday night for some cabinets for the kids' catch-all area in the laundry room. Nope. Nothing. Well, nothing in the price range that I set for this little project. Yes, we can go over what I allotted but that would mean a delay in getting this room done. A delay in this room would mean a delay in my craft area. And I sure don't want that to happen! =] Everything we found had huge shipping costs attached to it! I'm talking like as much as the cabinet itself. So... this morning we dropped the kids off at school and headed out for a full day of shopping for that perfect cabinet that is in my head. This picture is not of "my perfect cabinet", but the closest thing I could find, $99:

I just wanted to share it with you because it'll be a couple of days before we can set it up and see if it'll work.

I found this FREE neat little tool on Sherwin-Williams website.  You take a picture of the area you want to paint.  "Mask" it off, and then select the color you want and it shows you what it will look like.  The stuff hanging on the wall has been masked over because I didn't want to go in and tediously mask around it so I just covered it all.  Now mind you, due to monitor limitations the colors are not completely accurate.  In fact, it almost looks rose in this picture, but it is really one of their darkest red colors.  You get the jest of it.  How about this for my dining room?

Or stay like it is...

I've been debating this color change ever since I painted the family room (the room off to the right in this pic) during spring break 09.  I picked out about 20 color swatches of the dark red.  Narrowed it down to one and taped the swatches to my walls.  I moved them around all summer and fall.  Then one day I just gave up and decided to leave it like it was because I couldn't decide.  I am probably the most indecisive person you will ever meet in your life.  Really, it is ridiculous!

So... here I go again!!  Decisions, decisions, decisions!!  I was going to buy the paint today, but ran out of time because of the cabinet ordeal.  Honestly and truly, what do you think of my 'Sun dried Tomato' wall color?  Ditch it or keep it??

I have a little bit of time to think about it.  Everything is getting ready to be put on hold.  I'm going on vacation!  Woo Hoo!!  Except without Rich or the kids.  So that's gonna be kinda weird.  Next Wednesday, the 27th, I head out to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico!!!  Hello sunshine!  I'm so excited, yet sad about leaving my family.  My parents live in Mexico during the winter months.  The first half of the winter they live in a village a little north of Puerto Vallarta.  Then the last half of the winter, they move up to central Mexico (because the beach gets too hot, so sad!) to Guadalajara.  Because of Rich's incredible flying benefits from working for American Airlines, I fly FREE!  I stay with my parents for FREE!  And while there, they spoil you rotten by taking you out to eat almost every single meal.  How could I pass up an offer like this??

I'm so glad my parents have internet and a laptop where they live. I can sit out in the sun by the beach and keep up with my blogs!! =] Yes, they live that close to the beach. It is an amazing time, I've been there before.

Well, lots and lots to do before I leave.  I have a home to clean (because I'm a freak like that.. can't leave a messy home even though my kids will be making a mess while I'm gone), camera to get ready, summer clothes to dig out (that's going to be nice for a change!!).

Don't worry; I won't be rubbing in the perfect paradise weather of 80 degrees.  I'll just wait and post some pics for ya.  Have a wonderful week ahead and I'll be checking in from time to time.

 I am grateful for opportunities like this that God places before me. To travel and see his beautiful creation, to get a glimpse and a taste of paradise. Then to realize that it's not even a drop in the bucket compared to the eternal paradise awaiting me one day with Him!

Slight Progress

I've been working all weekend in my laundry room, turning it into the kids' catch-all room.  Whew!  We have too much stuff!!

There are three areas of this room that I'm going to re-purpose.  The first area-- it is the area behind the door as you walk into the room.  This door is always left open because it leads to a bathroom.  So this door to the room kinda acts like a door to this "closet".  All the stuff is hidden, because you have to walk in the room and shut the door to see what is behind the door.  I like it that way!  It's all very accessible, yet hidden.  Perfect!

Here is the YIKES! before picture (and before painting)...

Here is the after picture.  I hope you can tell a difference.  Lol!

The top 4 shelves belong to cases of pictures that are waiting patiently to be scrapbooked.  My soon to be 11 year old (as of next week) daughter has the next shelf.  Yes, along with all her scrapbook supplies, the Cricut is on her shelf.  I bought it with intentions of using it all the time with my scrapbooking but somehow it has become hers with her many school projects.  I will say I'm thankful to have it; her project boards look rather smashing when the Cricut is used.  So far... an "A" on every project.

Then we have the little guy's shelf.

Am I insane for putting Play-Doh, stamp ink, paint, chalk and markers at the reach of a 4 year old?!?  Probably so!  I brought him in and showed him his little shelf.  I wish I was recording him.  He was oh so excited to have his own little place for all his neat stuff!  I sat him down and we discussed how important it is to tell Mommy or Daddy when he wants to work on something.  Then we get the clear table mat and take it to the dining room table.  When we are done, we put it all up and put it back in its place.  If not, then everything gets put up where he can't have it.  He's pretty good about listening.  Even at four years old, he understands consequences.  We'll see how it all pans out.  Actually, I look at it as investing in him and influencing his creative side.  I love being able to offer him choices at his age.

Yah!  Stage one completed!  Stage two started!  Gotta love progress, right??

I'm grateful for kids that get almost as excited as me when it comes to organizing and taking care of their things.  I believe it's very important to teach them to respect and take care of all things that God has blessed us with.

Re-arranging Rooms

I sure do love the mood I get into when I take down my Christmas decorations.  Everything looks so clean, so sparse.  Well, not really sparse because my home is full of things I love so it might be to the point of clutter for some people.  But I surround myself with things I love.  Anyway, back to the point.

In light of this creative mood that I'm in, I have been re-thinking the purpose of a couple of rooms in my home.  So... I have taken it upon myself to do some re-arranging.  As I sat down in one of the rooms to make a mental list, I started to get the feeling of being overwhelmed with the task ahead of me.  Yikes!

This is the plan:  I will take everything out of my now craft/laundry room and turn it into a catch-all-kid room.  Hmm... I need to come up with a catchy name for that area.  I re-painted the room back in October with the plans of purging and organizing as I put it back in the room.  See how nice and clean it is?

Well, it didn't get organized-- more like thrown back in the room and looks worse than ever now.  So... all my craft and scrapbook stuff is going upstairs to the library.  I still have to buy 3 more cabinets with that same finish to store it all in.

When everything is out of that area, then we will get three (one for each child) bookcase-type cabinets.  That will be their area for their school books, athletic equip that is not kept in the garage, toys, jackets, shoes, and no telling what else.  I have a 24 x 36" bulletin board that will go on the wall for all their school/sports/fundraiser/whatever else papers.

This picture is definitely a before shot.  Before I even painted the room.  Eeek!!  Wow, that's a mess!!  This behind the door area will be where all their craft, crayons, play-doh, etc will be.

That is all I can think of at the moment, but I am going to do some net surfing about organizing kids stuff.  If anyone has some great ideas they want to pass on, I would be ever so appreciative!

Julie, this is mainly for you.  =]  When we were stuck at home in the snow and ice, I took the opportunity to organize my gift closet.  This is the only space in my home that is neat, clean and organized right now.  Lol!!  This is pretty much what it is...

This 3-drawer cabinet contains boxes, gift bags, tissue, and flat wrap.  The bottom drawer contains only Christmas.  The middle drawer is organized by everyday, baby, birthday, and kids' categories.  The top drawer is all solid colors.  Yes, there are lots of solid bags-- 200+!  But don't you worry... I only buy them on clearance.  Those all happen to come from Hobby Lobby where I paid pennies for a bag!  I'm such the bargain shopper.  On both sides of the cabinet is where I store my roll wrap.  One side is Christmas kids and the other side is other Christmas, baby, and birthday wrap.

The big blue tote is where I store gifts that I buy throughout the year.  I mainly start buying the essentials for my kids' Christmas (pj's, undies, slippers, etc) in June.  Also, if I come across an extremely awesome deal on something, it gets tossed into the tote.

The small blue tote is the "party tote".  It holds balloons, streamers, banners, etc.  That is mainly Amariah's department.  She's my big birthday decorator.  This is awesome for me!  Not only does she love to do it, I love being able to mark that off my list without any worries.  No stress there!  =]

This tote holds the 25 cent packages of bows that I buy after Christmas.  I love after-Christmas sales!  On top of it, I keep all my solid tissue paper.  It is organized by color (of the rainbow).  Yes, I am a freak... I already know that because my family likes to remind me.  I had to show you my little stash of tape.  Every year after Christmas at Hobby Lobby, we always have tons of tape left over.  So I stock up on it at 66% and 80% off!

Then this shelf contains cards.  The box on the right is my Christmas card box.  It contains silver pens, cards, address labels and thank you notes.  The box in the middle is my card organizer.  It came from Current.  Remember that neat little catalog?  I wonder if it's still around?  I've had that box for many, many years.  It just happens to be the very first thing I ever bought, even before I married, for organizing.  I guess it can be blamed for my organizing madness!  The box on the left is mainly Christmas gift tags/labels.  There are a few everyday ones in there.

I guess this post is long enough.  If you made it this far, then thank you for holding out till the end.  If you stopped 1/4 of the way into it... I really don't blame you.  Haha!  I'm just way procrastinating!  I could accomplish so much in the next hour with the kids being in bed, Rich gone to work.  But I'm a little overwhelmed on where to start.  I think I'll post pictures as I go so I can look back and see that progress is being made.

I am grateful today for a place in my home for everything and everything (soon to be) in place.

Christmas, Part Three... and finally the end!

We finally made it for Christmas with Rich's mom on Rich's birthday... the day after Christmas!  Yes, he grew up with his birthday presents wrapped in Christmas wrapping paper and Christmas cards instead of birthday cards.  Poor little baby... so I try to make his birthday all about "him" even though he is 42.  Well, these were circumstances beyond my control, so he still had a good birthday/Christmas.

I just love this picture of Ryan, his eyes are so beautiful!  Now, the light 'stache that's going on... not so much!!  Anyway, he was playing around with his new hat and $$ he received from Mema.

The next morning, Sunday, we woke up and headed to Missouri.  Finally!  We met my parents in town for lunch, then headed to their house and opened our gifts.  Some family members dropped by to see us.  Even though ALL the family wasn't present, it was a very nice visit for those we were able to spend time with.  We played games and laughed so hard till way past midnight.  That's unusual for us on a week night!

We rang in 2010 pretty quietly.

Well... not too quiet, actually.  Our plan to get together with a group of friends was shattered by my kids' unruly behavior.  It was getting towards the end of Christmas break and they really hadn't been out of the house except for the two Christmas get-togethers.  They were WILD... to say the least!  I don't know what was going on with them.  I let them stay up till they couldn't stay awake any longer and let them sleep most of New Year day.  That day turned out to be a nice and quiet day.  Lol!  I guess they just needed to get it out of their system.  Whew!

With all the ice and snow we've had, we were waiting for a warmer day to give them their last present.  We knew it wasn't going to happen and they would be going back to school very soon, so we had to do it this day!  Please look past all the clutter (hopefully that will be our Spring project because it didn't happen last Spring!) in the garage, but I wanted to post this picture of them "closing their eyes".  I just love Robbie's expression... he's the little guy in the middle.  He's trying so hard not to peek!

Again, I love Robbie's expression in this picture as the other 2 are extremely excited.  Rob... he's not so sure...

...as this was their last present.

We had to take it for a spin.  So each child got one ride and then the older two got to drive a little bit.  We are going to take them and get their little heads fitted for helmets, but for this one time ONLY; I did allow them to go with bicycle helmets.

Not sure I'm too ready for this!!  Amariah is wwaaaaayy too young to be behind a wheel!

But this scares me more than anything else!!  In one year and three months... this will be a real wheel, a real vehicle, the real deal!!  I'm so glad I have God to sustain me through these years and not Prozac!

Robbie didn't like it.  We had to force him to get on.  He kept saying "Now go real slow Daddy, did you hear me?  Go real slow".  In the end, he loved it.  I don't know who had more fun?  Daddy or Robbie?

All in all, it was a wonderful Christmas.  There was no rushing here, rushing there, rushing everywhere, and not getting any sleep like our Christmas' usually seem to be.  This year it wasn't all about the presents like my kids like to think it is.  This year it was all about quality family time-- the way it should be every year!!

I am so very grateful for the love in my life, the family in my life.

Christmas, Part Two

After our presents were opened, we headed outside for fun in the snow!  Our first White Christmas since... well... a long time!

This is the only picture of Robbie smiling.  Poor 'lil guy wore himself out real quick with the snow being up past his knees in most areas.

We all love icicles!

I always take pictures of our pond behind our house in every season.  It's so serene to me, most especially on cold, frozen nights when the moonlight is reflecting on it.  I will just stand at my kitchen garden window and gaze at the beauty of what seems to be a sea of diamonds.  It sparkles so effortlessly, so magically.

We head out down our little country road...

Having a little snow snack

The big kids found a little hill to tumble down.  It didn't look very fun to me, but they sure enjoyed it so that's all that matters.  They tried to get me to join them-- I politely told them that is something a Momma shouldn't do.  They didn't understand this.  I didn't either... it was the first thing that came to my mind.

I adore my neighbor's log cabin.  It's so dauntless as it sits high on a hill with massive boulders underneath it.  It's a beautiful spread no matter what time of year you see it.

We enjoy our little country road all year long.  The bridge and creek make up for what we are lacking in acreage for the kids to run and play in.  Of course, the most fun time of year to be at the creek is in the summer when the craw dads are out and about.

Just because a Momma shouldn't tumble down a hill doesn't mean a Momma can't have any fun!  My husband grabbed the camera and practically took a still video with all the pics he snapped of me making a snow angel.  The real humor came when I was trying to figure out how to get up without messing it up.  Don't worry; I'll spare you the rear end shots!

Unlike most normal people who head straight for the fireplace and hot chocolate after being out in the cold, we head for the snow ice cream!

I was extremely excited when I discovered the recipe a few months back.  As a child, I fondly remember ending my Christmas Eve with a batch of snow ice cream.  Over the years, my family had forgotten the ingredients.  It has a home-made ice cream taste to it, yet there is something special about it that I just can't put into words.  I so enjoyed making this treat for my kids (and they enjoyed it too!).

How fun it was to have a white Christmas... To take our time with no worries to the clock... To not rush here, rush there, rush everywhere... To truly enjoy each other the way God intended for us to.

I am grateful for a fun and loving family that I enjoy and desire to spend my time with making wonderful memories that will last our lifetime!

Christmas, Part One

Well, the Christmas tree and decorations are all taken down and put away.  My house is once again clean... finally!  Christmas 2009 was definitely a Christmas to remember!

I had to work Christmas Eve till 2:30 PM.  The original plan was for me to come home, throw everything and everyone into the Suburban and head to my parent's house in MO for Christmas with my family.  As I was walking out to my car, I was sliding everywhere on the wet pavement.  Then when I reached my car and it was covered in ice, I called home and broke the bad news that we weren't heading out in this ice.  It was dry when I went to work that morning.  It started to rain early morning and by that afternoon, it was sleeting.  By 9:00 that evening-- everything was covered in snow, the Governor had called a state of emergency and major interstates were closed down.  Tulsa, OK was receiving a third blizzard in its 25 year history!  I had never been in a blizzard.  I didn't know what it was.  I'm here to tell you that I am so fortunate that we stayed home that night in a warm and safe home!  I kept thinking about my co-workers that were still at work, hoping they made it home okay.  It was neat to watch it, but scary to think of the people that were stuck in it.  It looked like smoke just blowing all around...

The drifts were huge!  We got 8" of snow, but some of the drifts were almost as tall as my 4 year old!

That night was only the second time in my life that I had been away from my family at Christmas Eve.  The other time was because of snow and ice storms.

I was deeply saddened.  I sent them pictures of our blizzard.  I called a few times to talk and hear all the fun that was going on.  Rich told me that when we were able to get out, we would head up there and stay a few days.  That made it easier, but I knew it wasn't the same.  When our family gets together to celebrate Christmas-- it is a celebration!  There are 6 kids + 4 spouses, 19 grandkids + 11 spouses, and 23 great-grandkids... with 2 more on the way!!!  Including my parents, that makes the sum of our immediate family 65!  Soon to be 67!  When my parents built their most recent house, a huge basement was planned for all the family gatherings because that was the only place to hold us all.  My Mom insists that she sees everyone open their presents.  Since she's the matriarch, we oblige.  But the past couple of years we had to change it up since it was taking 3+ hours to watch presents being opened.  Would you believe it never, ever got old for me??  I would continue that, but my sisters say enough is enough!  So now we go two at a time opening presents.  It's cut down to a little over two hours.  But, oh what joy!!  I LOVE Christmas madness with my family!

Christmas morning, we woke at 9 AM.  I wish I could say that we have a nice, big breakfast or even a muffin, cinnamon roll tradition... but we don't.  Our tradition is to skip breakfast and head straight for the presents!  I am just as bad as the kids!  Lol!

Blurry, but the only picture I have of my favorite gifts of all time...

In a nutshell, that is how we spent Christmas Eve and Christmas morning.  I'll be back later with the rest of the story of our Christmas.

I'm extremely grateful that I belong to such a large family that loves, gives, cares and serves God!

Even though ALL Christmas plans were shattered, I believe this Christmas of 2009 was a most memorable and enjoyable holiday for me and my family!