Its been laid upon my heart-

Tonight, i kept coming back to the computer and couldnt think of what i wanted to blog about--- I now know why.. This needed to be posted. I was reading a childhood friends blog tonight ( who by the way if youre in the Salem, Portland Oregon Area, her photography is BEYOND outstanding!!

http://bethanyfphotography.blogspot.com/

Her most recent post was a family that she'd done a photo shoot on. I was absolutely awe struck at how beautiful these children were. You see, a few years back before little muffin came into our family, we had wanted to adopt oversees. I wanted to find out more on this family. Bethany posted THEIR blog link to their picture.. i went there. On the blog they had written : "Our URGENT Request ". I continued to read and my heart filled with sorrow.

Please read their post and if you feel led, help bless these children in the Ethiopian orphanage. Every small amount helps and PLEASE spread the word. God uses us as vessels to bless others!!

http://bethany-withthesehands.blogspot.com/

*Its already started?*

Look VERY closely at the LAST, ERASED "KH" - that would NOT be my signature!! Every day after school, mini me has a list of things she has to do and then each parent is required to sign it so we're aware of whats going on and what their homework is.. uh huh.. she thought she'd be slick and sign it and then erase it before she got home.. We already had a talk about it.. but lemme tell you what this reminded me of.

Growing up, i HATED math, i mean HATED it. In the 4th grade, we had multiplication tables. Every night we were to take them home and have our parent initial them. And INITIAL THEM I DID! One day, ( i went to a private CHRISTIAN school) my mom went to talk to the teacher about something and the teacher had already graded the paper and had set it back on our desk for the next am for us to get. Uhhhhhhh.. My mom found it.. Ya.. Dun. DUn. Dun...

I NEVER FORGED ANYTHING AGAIN! NEVER.. not even an excuse note to skip class in Highschool. ( i just did that and THEN told her)
So.. its all coming back at me now.. its scary being a parent.. because as you watch your kids do things, you think to yourself, they're ALREADY doing that?

All in a days work

These past few weeks have been EXTREMELY wearing on me- like i cant even tell you how wearing. Im not sure exactly why, but i think a large part of it is the girls.. Kids are so good one minute and then they start testing you. I have BOTH girls testing me in different ways right now and emotionally i'm spent!

The other night, they both wanted to fall asleep in our bed- i gave in. We put them to bed so early, that i let them and literally within minutes they were passed out.

....ITS TIRING BEING NAUGHTY ;)

You can run, but you cant hide!!

After logging onto my blackberry to check local news yesterday, I was shocked to read about that model that was found in California. My heart is heavy for her family - seriously, thats all i can think about. WHAT HAS THIS WORLD COME TO, people?! I dont remember all of this violence growing up, and yet i wonder if i was just oblivious, being a child.

I remember my dad saying he doesnt watch the news because its so upsetting. It is. Ironically, most of what's on tv impacts him thru his work. He is in Prison Ministry.

How ironic that the man this model married ( whom she met on a reality series ) is the one that was suppose to love her thru everything, thick and thin.. "til death do we part" and is the one who ended up taking her life.

And yet, he thought that by taking her fingers and teeth out, authorities wouldnt be able to identify her. HOW I LOVE THAT THEY DID AND HOW THEY DID! Who on earth would have thought that someone could be identified by a breast implant!! AN IMPLANT! I've never heard of an ID that way--- This man ( still at large and "innocent until proven guilty") thought that no one would know or see him and yet, HIS MAKER was there to watch it all.

God sees everything-- this world and all of its YUCK needs Jesus!!!!

There have been so many tragic things of heard in just the last few weeks that have really shaken me up. I think people are at an all time low with the economy and are literally just snapping- they are taking it out on people that are like family, or are family to them, and yet they should be turning to God for help.

Its in times like these we need to turn our eyes on Him for help--- He sees and hears everything.

One of my favorite verses is Jeremiah 29:11

For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. (NIV)

JESUS IS OUR HOPE- NO ONE, AND NOTHING CAN FILL THAT VOID BUT HIM!!

Minn-ee- sO-Ta 2

*With Great-Grandpa at church*
*AFter church there was a little cake social- i see the table next to us looking at lil muffin and dying laughing. She was taking her paci, dipping it in frosting and then sucking on it. Puts a whole new meaning to "HAVING YOUR CAKE AND EATING IT TOO"

*Our Nanny Katie from Oregon who we havent seen since we moved lives in Minnesota now so she met us at Mall of America. We didnt tell mini me she was coming so she was SUPER suprised and as you can see ran up and hugged her *

*Before we said goodbye to nanny Katie*

*UH, ... ok i promised mini me i would ride with her. I HATE things that spin. i get sick. REAL SICK. At the beginning of the ride, they say raise your hand if you want the ride to stop. The ride stopped.. halfway thru. PEOPLE, that ride was a freakin ETERNITY.i felt like i had morning sickness all over again and felt sick for the rest of the day after that ride!*

*Hilarious. My Drama queen. This is an exhibit to advertise the shark exhibit at the Mall of America- skipped out on that one*

*Could my cousin be ANY craftier? this is Pipe and she made it.. BRILLIANT! i'm so making one and thought i'd share the idea with you. Walking thru her house gave me so many ideas!*

*Another brills idea by the cousin. Our family has a golf tournament every year and these were pictures from it. The little golf balls had each persons name on them and were used in the table setting. The spoons you see were stamped and had golf sayings on them. *

*3 Generations *

*family picture with my parents and sister- look at lil muffins face- too hilarious.. she did this for about 90% of the pictures that night *

THe next morning, we drove to Iowa to the aunt and Uncles Lake house-

Minnesota Summer trip 1

A few days after Mini me got home from jersey, we flew to Minnesota- - - seriously i thought vacationing was so much fun. UNTIL that's all we did this summer. Im burnt out and LOVE being at home ;) We had a family reunion and the last time we had one was 5 years ago.

*Best seat on the plane.. my own.. and HE had the kids, LOL. I'd had only 2 hrs of sleep so was able to catch up. When we got to Mn, we waited for my aunt to get there for 45 min. I finally called my grandpa and there was miscommunication - she thought we were coming in the FOLLOWING day. We rented a car, and headed to Mall of America, where our close friends from Oregon, who now live there met us last minute. Havent seen them in YEARS and had a fabulous time with them!!*

*Pool and Yaht club- played at the pool all day= it was a calm before the storm *

* This picture was before she was almost KNOCKED OUT with one of those huge mallots! I was sitting eating during the reunion and one of the kids was taking the mallot and SWINGING IT in the air around and around- it was literally 4 inches away from her head and i SCREAMED bloody murder at the kid to STOP swinging.. i scared the ever living poo out of the kid, but better than having little muffin knocked out with head injuries! *

*All of the cousins- minus 3 due to being pregnant, out of town, or underage. I have NEVER had so much fun.. arent we all a good looking bunch? We had SO much fun just laughing and catching up. We shut the place down! *

*My West Coastie Cousins- The one on the far left and far right are brothers.Seriously i could spend EVERY day with these boys, they are a trip, i love them! *

*We went to a place called Stella's- its a fish house by day and fun bar at night- it had cute sayings all over the walls. I thought this one was humerous and TRUE! *

*Another cousin- she wants to be a mortician.. takes a special person to want to do that job. *

*The Husband and Cousin *

*One last picture before we all parted our seperate ways- Cheers to such a good time and SO MANY LAUGHS!*

Jersey in a Weekend!

Since mini me was a baby, we've said to the husbands brother and wife that she could come for a few weeks during the summer. Now that we live in Ga, they are only a drive away-- a LONG drive, but being 12 hrs isnt TOO bad.. until you start driving.. seriously, i wish i'd had some tylenol PM or something to knock me out.. i was BORED.OUT.OF.MY.MIND!! We left on Friday and literally turned around and came home Sunday-- SUPER short, but we were able to spend some time with them and dropped the mini me off for 2 wks to have fun-

*Recognize this little monument on the left? I'd have to say i got a little excited when i saw it in person, even if it was far away!! *

*The day after we got there, we spent the day at their neighborhood pool- half of the time was spent on the tennis courts. she would run on the courts and catch the fly balls, and dance all over the place it was adorable. Here she is taking a break and a picture with her cousin. We'll call him Sweet one. He is the BEST kid EVER, like every mothers DREAM!*

*playing a little tennis with her Uncle *

*that night we went to dinner- i got this RARE sweet picture of the girls WITHOUT the paci*

*a cute shot of the cousins- This is highschool cousin. It scares me to think that MY daughter is going to be this age. Constant cell phone texting ( who am i to say anything, i'm guilty of that, IPOD in the ear) i cant lie, i'm NOT looking forward to this age. She just LOVES her highschool cousin and looks up to her so much*

*Lil Muffin hugging sweet one goodbye before driving BACK to Georgia*

* "Mom, i'm really going to miss you guys" was what she said before she left- not gonna lie.. i got choked up as we drove away!! She just loves her little sister and this picture just shows it all!!*

*We literally stopped only 2 times on the way home- i promised lil muffin a treat when we stopped.. she got a chocolate covered donut with sprinkles, ate all of that off and then handed me the bread part of the donut. HA! Why i didnt buy her munchkins, i dont know- live and learn. Her tongue sticking out is funny to me.. really funny *

The decorating bug has BIT!

I have yet to feel like our house is a home.. i know what i want, but putting everything in its place takes so much time!!! since we've been traveling so much i really havent had a chance to focus on the house- well.. thursday, it hit me. Awhile back, i stumbled on some Linen Fabric at an outlet that was TWO BUCKS! I snatched it up and its been sitting in my closet for about a month.
I'm pretty much obsessed with the blog Thrifty decor chick and get MANY ideas from her smart brain! So.. from that my new window treatment was born.. on a DIME!!
I had the curtain rod already.. Target of course. I bought some el cheapo brackets at Walmart that were gold.. EWWWWW_ i whipped out the ol' trust silver spray paint and changed their color.

Had the husband hang the rod up... many curse words spoken --- i like to laugh at him during these home projects cause its so comical watching him get upset. Oh wait.. back up.. i'm getting ahead of myself. I DONT SEW- so i used some super duper adhesive tape and made a loop for the rod to go thru.
Then.. i used this Linen jacket you see pictured below.

Lemme give you some background on it. My grandma passed away years ago and i was given a few pieces of her clothing. One of them was this linen jacket pictured below. I wanted to do something with it where i could USE it instead of sitting in my closet. So, i CUT up the back of it and made 4 strips. I tied 2 strips together pulled up the linen and then tied at the top in a bow.. and there you have it folks.. Hides my window with funky glass in the bathroom that lets in too much light--

Seriously.. out of pocket for this project was only 4 DOLLARS!!! i already had the curtain rod and the spray paint.. Im pretty sure my Grandma would be proud.. i'm trying to figure out how to use the rest of the jacket--- pillows for my bed would be cute!!

And.. Since i found out my In laws will be here in a month, i have even more incentive to keep on decorating! I painted Lil Muffins room tonight for 6 hours-- you'd think its a big room, but the problem is, i'm a SUPER crazy painter and have to have everything done perfect..

The color? Its by Behr paint, called Refreshing pool - and it reminds me of Tiffany Blue. I'm in LOVE, people!! Absolutely IN LOVE! Pictures will come, i promise..

Oregon trip 2

Here's part 2 of the Oregon trip, ya'll -

*The Oregon state Bird- ok.. .. not really, but there are BIG slugs out there.. and ALOT of them*

*The carousel- how about i got in a verbal fight with the custodian there- SWEAR! mini me had to go to the bathroom, so as i walked in with her, HE was standing in there. About in his late 20's- the moron had stuck the bathroom closed sign that was like a foot tall too far from the entrance and didnt put his cart out front.. he started yelling at me, i started yelling at him telling him HE was in the wrong Bathroom-- long story short, i LIED to him ( great example, i know) and told him we came into the bathroom to look at the horse mural) *

*lil Muffin riding with help from grandma*

*Grandma and the girls talking to some of the people that volunteer there and that carve the horses there*

*BOTH girls helping in Grandpa's garden! *

*before going to dinner one night, we quick stopped at the junior high that my trainer has her classes at and suprised her and her husband- i miss them like CRAZY! Havent been able to find anyone since i moved- she was my trainer for YEARS*

**Mini Me and James - he used to goof around with her during workouts if she got bored.. and at times, she actually DID the workouts with us **

** This pic is a start to the ""FUN"" that began on our trip home- due to flying standby, we got tickets on the plane if there were seats left over.. in the summer, those chances are slim. We spent the ENTIRE day in the PDX airport-- and found out that are chances were WAY bigger in Seattle the next morning... which was 3 hrs away.. so i started racking my brain on how to get up there-- meanwhile we met this fun family and her kids ended up playing with the girls the whole day , and were kind enough to buy the girls these stuffed animals**

**Waking up at 4 am and waiting at the airport all day is exhausting!! **

* One of the great parts about getting stuck at the airport was my dad flew IN to PDX that day and we were able to spend a little bit of time with him before my sweet brother picked us up and drove us to Seattle that afternoon *

* Already exhausted and we had NO clue this was the START to a 3 day journey of sitting in airports and WAITING to get home *

*talking to daddy on mommys phone- paci included in convo *

*after staying the night in Seattle with Uncle, he dropped us off at the airport at 430 am the next am.. interesting enough, the fam we met at PDX ALSO stayed in same hotel as us. I gave them all info and they too were flying standby- we made the flight to Denver, they didnt *

**Day 2 of my outfit, people- when you check a bag, IT goes ahead of you and i had no other clothes packed for me.. But had the makeup packed in the carry ons, of course ;) *

* Thank you, Jesus for portable DVD players!!!! -our old one was broken and since this was such a last min trip, we went to Wal **rt the night before at 10 pm and bought this. AHHHHHHH- peace and quiet! *

* I believe this is out of Seattle and is Mt. Hood- beautiful, huh?! Well, the trip came to a SCREECHING halt after this flight to Denver- the lady that gate checked the car seats, didnt inform me that she'd checked them ALL THE WAY TO ATLANTA. So, on my connection from Denver to ATL, i waited for the car seats and in that time MISSED my flight..i was LIVID!

So, we spent ANOTHER day in the Denver airport waiting LITERALLY ALL day for another seat on another flight.. by 730 pm, it didnt happen. With a crying 7 yr old in tow, and a VERY upset husband, my friend found us a hotel - we ate dinner in the airport and shuttled to this SWEET new hotel -- it was fabulous. *

* That morning, FATHERS DAY, i might add, we made the first flight out of Denver and had a layover in the Memphis airport ( after taking this picture, i almost knocked this huge pic over with all the bags i was carrying.. now would THAT have been embarrassing?! ) *

*After DAYS of trying to get home, we finally found daddy at the ATL airport.. the girls were SO excited to see their daddy!! Definately a Fathers day He'll never forget either ;) *