Our Weekend Plans

Our plans consist of keeping our house immaculate and staying as far away as possible! We had our first showing today! Woohoo! We have another showing tomorrow afternoon, and then an open house on Sunday!!!

Lots of activity going on at the Carolina house!

Childhood Memory Quilts

Last night I received an email from my husband's aunt. It had been forwarded to her from a friend, and she thought it was worth sharing! I, too, thought this was a cute idea so I thought I'd share with you guys! This is the email that I received...

OK, now for the true story about a fabulous thing to do with the baby clothes (rather than throwing them out or thinking a grandchild would wear them). When we lived in Wisconsin we had some great friends, a married couple named Lee and David. Lee is an artist, David a poet, and they were born on the same day (minor fun detail)! ANYway, one day Lee showed me something very special -- she said I would appreciate this, and truly I have never forgotten! We went up to their bedroom, and covering their bed was a very pretty but normal looking bedspread. She acted very mysterious, and then folded the spread down so I could see the flip-side of it underneath. What I saw at first looked like a crazy quilt of some sort, but then I could tell that among the strips and squares were also entire little dresses, little overalls, a flattened (unstuffed) teddy bear and bunny, etc. etc. Each was fit together like a puzzle, and then embroidered on the pieces were words like "Lee's Easter bunny, age 2" or "David's first denim jeans, age 4" or "piece of Lee's baby blanket" etc. When David and Lee were married, the two moms of the bride and groom gathered all their kids' baby goodies, and created a wild and fabulous quilt, never meant to be seen by anyone other than Lee and David when they turned in and turned UP the underside of the quilt! For this reason, I have saved EVERYTHING possible, and fully intend to create the same sort of warm lovey happy underside of a quilt that they can snuggle under every night. FABULOUS, no???

I am not sure about using the quilt on one's bed all the time, but I thought the idea was interesting. I googled "baby clothes quilts", and guess what? There were a lot of hits. I had no idea how common this is. There are even quilters' who will construct a quilt for you if you send in the clothes.

http://www.ednasquilts.com/ is one such site. I found this photo there...

I didn't save enough of the boys' clothes to make a quilt, but I thought some of you may enjoy reading about this idea.

Hope you are having a great Thursday! The sunshine returned so I am HAPPY!!!

It's Official...I Have the Winter Blues

It has been raining here for two days straight. The days have been dark and dreary, and it has been cold. One of those colds where you just can't seem to get warm (well today was a little warmer, but I was caught in the pouring rain coming out of a store and got soaked, and let me tell you - getting rained on when it's 47 degrees is COLD)!!!

So today I've been daydreaming of my favorite places to be...warm, sandy beaches.

I'd LOVE to be here...

Or here...

Or here for that matter...

Where would you like to be? What's your favorite destination?

25 Random Things

I was tagged this week (by two different friends on Facebook) to write a "note" titled 25 Random Things about Me. I thought that I would also share with you guys - so here goes...

1. I am married to my best friend.

2. I love to sneak in to the boys’ room at night and kiss them on the forehead while they are sleeping.

3. I have one sister.

4. My hair is naturally black, but I would almost be gray by now if I didn’t have it colored.

5. My favorite soft drink is Diet Mountain Dew.

6. My favorite place to be is on the beach.

7. I own all four books in the Twilight series but haven’t read them yet.

8. I only like to watch happy, feel good movies.

9. I hate to cook.

10. The center stone of my engagement ring is a Ceylon sapphire, not the traditional diamond.

11. My house is currently for sale.

12. We are almost 11 months in to the adoption process.

13. I love to travel, and wish I could afford to go somewhere once a month.

14. The first thing that I would buy if I won the lottery would be an ocean front house.

15. My favorite color is blue.

16. My favorite chain restaurant is PF Changs.

17. I have been married 10 years, 8 months and 25 days.

18. If we buy the house that we have under contract, I want to paint the brick white, the shutters black and my front door red.

19. I will always keep my hair long because I don’t want to give up my ponytail.

20. I almost have a panic attack when my house is really messy (just kidding…sort of).

21. By nature, I am a negative person so I have to work extremely hard every day to stay positive.

22. I own a really nice Nikon Digital SLR camera, but I don’t have a clue how to take a photo using the manual settings.

23. I started a blog in September.

24. My life has been extremely blessed.

25. Every day I thank the Lord for my beautiful, healthy family.

Let Me Just State for The Record...

that keeping an extraordinarily clean home is virtually IMPOSSIBLE with two little boys! Having our house on the market is proving to be quite the challenge, but I feel certain my two little mess makers will not disappoint!!!

We Have Lots to be Hopeful For...

May the God who gives hope fill you with great joy. May you have perfect peace as you trust in him. May the power of the Holy Spirit fill you with hope.

~Romans 15:13

I May be Crazy

We woke up this morning with this in our front yard...

Yes, we may be crazy! We decided to put our house on the market this week AND make an offer on a larger home just about five miles away. We will have a contingency clause, though, which means that we will not be buying the larger home unless ours sells first. Please wish us luck. We would really like to move before Emma comes home - for obvious reasons!

So for the past 12 hours I have been transforming our master bathroom from Benjam*n Moore Pear Green to Olymp*c Toasted Almond.

Much more palatable for the prospective buyers, I'm sure!

My Sassy Shoes

I have been wanting to post about one of my Christmas presents for a while now - monogrammed clogs from The Pink Monogram (pictured below). This is a cute little store located in Greenville, SC. I'm sure many of you already know about this shop! They were actually featured on the "O" list (Christmas 2008) for their monogrammed Nesting Instincts Bags.

Anyway, this makes my third pair of clogs from The Pink Monogram! You can choose many, many options when placing an order for these clogs. They come in both children and adult European sizes, and are available in suede, leather, and nubuck. If you choose the wooden sole, you can also have these painted.

For this pair, I chose the black leather uppers with white embroidery thread. My monogram is in the "Paris" font. .

I chose the black wooden sole and added the leopard print painting.

These are such fun shoes to wear!!! I even have a pair of black nubuck monogrammed in Carolina blue with the words "Go" (on right clog) "Heels" (on left clog) for our Carolina games!!! I really should clean these up and post a photo!

If you've never seen these before, you really should click on the link and browse the "clog sample gallery"!

I am not affiliated with this store in any way...I just love these clogs and thought I'd pass them on to you all!

A Fortune Worth Keeping

I don't really believe in superstitions or fortune tellers or palm readers or fortune cookies! Today, however, I met JC for lunch at a Chinese restaurant, and this was his fortune. I just had to bring it home to save! Let's hope this one comes true!

Long Weekend, Mountains and Snow Tubing

This past weekend our friends from the beach drove up for a visit. We all went up to the mountains of NC for more snow tubing. It was FRIGID out! The temperature was only 19 degrees, but the sun was out so it didn't feel too unbearably cold. Since it was a holiday weekend, the resort was so crowded. Our tubing session was 1 hour and 45 minutes, but we only had time to go down four times due to the long lines!

I packed my camera again, but this time I changed to the long range lens so that I could actually take a few photos of them tubing! I am going to try out a slideshow for the first time on the blog since I took so many photos that I would like to share.

Also, today is our first snow day! We woke up to only about an inch of snow, but that will get you out of school here in NC! The boys are very happy, and I just bundled them up and sent them out to play.

Mother of the Year Award

Yes, I know that I have been missing in action lately! We took a little trip to the mountains this weekend so I have been out of the loop! When I returned, I found out that I had been given the MOTYA (ok...I just made that acronym up)! :) Anyway, thank you so much Stephanie for nominating me!

There are no rules that I know of other than to pass this award on to some other awesome mothers!!! I have chosen five although I think you are all fabulous! I am just worn out and need to go to bed! :)

1. Lisa - she is one dynamic lady!!! Lisa has two beautiful children, and she and her family are currently waiting to make their family complete by adopting a third child from China! The thing I love about Lisa is that she always has wonderful blog posts, and she makes the best comments on the blogs that she follows!

2. Cyndi - she is a wonderful mom to son Brady! Cyndi and her family are anxiously awaiting Lilly Rae to come home from China! I pray that they get their wish soon!

3. Carolinagirl - need I say more? I mean, this mom and I share the same nickname! Carolinagirl has the four most beautiful daughters! Go check out her blog! I promise you'll love it!

4. Jodee - she has two beautiful children - Kamree and Carson! This mom clearly loves her children, and she also has the best blog posts about celebrating their lives together!

5. Denise - she is the most inspirational mom! Denise and her husband have FOUR biological sons, and they have recently returned from China with their little girl, Maggie Mae! Denise is so kind and motivational to me, and I love reading her blog!

Of course, I have to give a shout out to my mom and my MIL. What would I do without both of them??? They just don't have a blog! :)

Ok Moms, like I stated earlier, there are no rules that I know of...just feel free to pass this award on to your favorite moms!

Wordless Wednesday on Thursday

Happy Birthday Banner

After Brendan was born, I was obsessed with getting my P*ttery Barn Kids Catalog! It's not that I usually bought anything from the catalog, I just loved looking at the different room designs for both little girls and boys! A few months before Brendan turned one (in 2002), PB Kids had a "Birthday Banner" advertised! It was so cute, but you all know that their prices can be a little expensive - especially for something like a banner! Well, I decided that I could "make" one instead! That is...have my MIL sew two pieces of canvas together and then add the grommets for me since I still don't know how to sew!!! I then painted the letters on the front! They are not perfect, and that's how they were/are supposed to look! It's a good thing...I don't have the steadiest hand when painting!

Anyway, I hung this banner for Brendan's first birthday party, and it was a hit! The best part of all is that I had the foresight to start handprints on the back of this sign on each of the boys' birthdays! I don't know how many years I'll be able to fit on the back, but I'm hoping at least the first 10 years (looks reasonable)! I can't wait for Emma to join our family...there is a spot right in the middle where her little handprints will go on each of her birthdays as well! I'm praying that we will only have missed her first birthday (that breaks my heart just thinking about it)!

Every birthday I hang the banner across our front porch!!!

Brendan's next...he'll be 8 in May!

Happy 6th Birthday Jackson

In honor of Jackson's 6th birthday, I thought that I would list for you my six favorite things about him!

1. Jackson has the most beautiful blue eyes that can pierce you right to your soul.

2. Jackson has one of the kindest hearts of anyone that I know.

3. Jackson is a great helper around the house - always eager to lend a hand.

4. Jackson has the most magnetic personality!

5. Jackson is a natural athlete and excels at whatever sport he decides he wants to play!

6. And even though Jackson is six years old today, he loves nothing more than to sit in my lap and snuggle.

Jackson's First Birthday


Here are those piercing eyes!

There's that personality!

Jackson posing with the cake that we took to school today!

Happy Birthday Jack Jack! We love you all the way to the moon and back!

Quotable

"What makes the difference between wishing and realizing our wishes? Lots of things, and it may take months or years for a wish to come true, but it's far more likely to happen when you care so much about a wish that you'll do all you can to make it happen."

~ Fred Rogers

Wordless Wednesday - My Brain Child

No News Here

It's been 10 months today since we submitted our initial application to Carolina Adoption Services. It has also been about 7 weeks since our Russian coordinator called me with news of the little girl from Sakhalin.

I wish I had an adoption update to report, but I don't! Still praying for patience and understanding!

Emma's Monogram

Back to School Again

I think we were all ready to get back to our normal routine today. The boys didn't skip a beat. They came right home, and it was as if they had not had the past two weeks off from school. Back to the daily grind...

Brendan and Jackson's First Day of School 2008

"Holidays are enticing only for the first week or so. After that, it is no longer such a novelty to rise late and have little to do." ~Margaret Laurence

The Great Toy Clean Out

Ok...so it only took me almost two whole days! I said no "before pictures", but I forgot that I had taken these two when I asked the boys to put away some of their Christmas gifts.

This is Jackson's interpretation...

Isn't he a great stacker?

Well, by Friday, I just couldn't stand it anymore. Why do we all feel this way about organizing post holidays?

I started innocently enough by just trying to find spots for all the new "stuff". Then it turned in to FULL BLOWN CLEAN OUT 2009!

Below are the "After" photos. I just had to capture this room on film. I promise it won't last - even after the three lectures I gave the boys about returning items to their "home". I mean for once, everything in that room has a "place"! Unprecedented!!!

P.S. Isn't MiMi's free-hand painting spectacular? She painted the boys' room three summers ago, and it still looks great!

Mission Organization

I have spent this entire day working in the boys' room "cleaning out" while they ran rampant! I am too embarrassed to post "before" photos. Let's just say that it took me a good six hours straight just to get through storage bins and totes of toys.

By 5pm, I was frazzled! My awesome husband, TheDentist, was so kind when he got home, and insisted that I take a break! I went to Target for more totes!!!

Unfortunately, they didn't have everything that I needed so I headed to Home Depot. I have to admit that I didn't even make it in that store since I passed the 75% off sign at Pier 1 Imports. Had to stop there! I LOVE their 75% off sale after Christmas. For the past two years I have been able to get all of my teacher gifts and hostess gifts from Pier 1 at 75% off retail!

Gotta love a good sale!!!!

Back to the grind tomorrow...will post the pretty "after" photos - promise!