Messy Fun

Need some good messy fun with your kids? Just keep reading...

She finally arrived: Our long awaited guest. She has been highly anticipated since early June and we love the time she spends with us, the time never being long enough. Several times we thought her flight had arrived only to be disappointed with another flight delay.

Who is this wonderful and joyful guest we are so pleased to entertain and host?

Our dear friend Autumn. (And yes I mean the season, not a person - just in case anyone was lost.)

Before Autumn came the kids and I decided to make some preparations! Because we needed everything ready when she DID arrive. And what better way to start prepping for a guest than to BAKE! Woohoo! Typically sugar cookies wait until Christmas but hitting the %50 off Fall items at Hobby Lobby my eye glanced upon a package of cute Fall Cookie Cutouts and I couldn't resist. Plus - during the course of my college class most evenings consisted of homework and I figured I owed my kids some good quality (and messy) time.

So out with the ingredients:

Recruit some help...

Since I owed them I let them do it all - from step one to step...100? (Although I did crack the eggs and ice the cookies. There had to be SOME limits to these youngin's!

My kitchen paid for it. Dearly.

I think I "cut" out ONE cookie, the rest were ALL theirs...

Candy Wonderland!!! I had three bowls of icing, 7 bowls (yes SEVEN) of sprinkles, and two dozen cookies for them to do. (By the way have you noticed that we started in daylight and by this photo it is pitch dark out?!)

I love my hubby - he graciously captured all of us on film for me!

These kids had no rules with the sprinkles.

Should I have re-thought that one?

Nope. Never. Even though that first photo in this post was the "leftover" sprinkles off the cookie trays and my table. (No not including what little was left in the bowls. And NO not including the new sugar floor my kids gave me) But all totally worth it. Have you done something messy with your kids lately?

Class Auction Project

Little Tree Red Christmas 5x7 folded card

Make a statement with custom Christmas cards at Shutterfly.

View the entire collection of cards.

College Hill Bed and Breakfast

An account of our late summer travels, part 1:

On our way to retrieve our kiddos from the grandparents we decided to make our last night without kids special. We would be stopping in Wichita, Kansas and so I googled the city and found numerous B & B's. This one caught my eye with the private outdoor hot tub and my husband liked it because it was SO close to the Insterstate and we wouldn't be spending forever in the dark trying to find our way there. So reservations were made for College Hill Bed and Breakfast. (Oh and we got a 10% discount for being full time clergy!! This also applies to active military I believe)

When we pulled up we found the cutest country-style house with bright blooms and bountiful foliage everywhere! I love Bed and Breakfasts because it feels like staying at a friend's house versus the "I'm just a room number" feeling you get from hotels.

Here are the owners, Jerry and Suzanne who are originally from Dodge City. They are a delightful christian couple that were incredibly inviting and hospitable. They even easily worked around our getting in late and my husband's food allergy.

Here is the dining table where we sat and had the most delicious breakfast EVER! My mouth waters just thinking about it - it was Banana Stuffed French Toast (I think is what they called it) and of course sausage, eggs OH and who could forget their homemade pecan syrup. I think the syrup, with crushed bits of pecans in it really made the meal for me! The inn keepers sat with us as we all relaxingly chatted about this and that. Oh and I was delighted to know they had REAL coffee creamer not just the powdery stuff. I think Suzanne realized my delightment because she offered me a refill in a To-Go cup knowing we had a long day of travelling ahead. Here are a couple more pictures from around the dining room:

Our bedroom was the Library Suite. It had a soft, plush king size bed, our own dining area, sitting area with HD TV and a small collection of books, and of course the private outdoor hot tub! Here are a few views of our room:

And Nick and I can't just visit a place without exploring it a little bit! So we ventured off to Downtown in HOPE of eating at a quaint Italian restaurant but arriving too late settled for the local sushi place. Hand in hand we strolled around the Downtown square and seeing an ad for a Music Festival going on that very weekend I wished we could have stayed two more days and enjoyed it!

But none-the-less we left the next morning South Dakota bound - but if we ever return to Wichita most likely we'll be back to see our new friends Jerry and Suzanne!

This is what college does to you

As stated in my last post I have recently started back to college (FINALLY!!!). I am SO excited to finally be finishing up yet when you get into your homework and have to focus all your attention on a certain subject it can mess with your head.

Case in point: I am driving in the truck (by myself - rare occasion) and on the regular christian station that I listen to, KSBJ, was a talk show. They have talk shows every Sunday night and I will listen to some of them but this one was of NO interest to me. So I flipped the station to some country music and was enjoying hearing some old favorites and a few newer ones I wasn't familiar with yet. The radio switched songs to "You're Gonna Miss This" by Trace Adkins. I really begin listening to the words, you know listening, not just hearing and before I can catch up with my own thoughts I realize that I am comparing the similarities between this country song and Robert Frost's poem, "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening".

Okay I mean come on! Seriously brain! Although to give my brain credit they really are similar in theme and I could probably write a whole other paper on comparing the two...but still.

This is what college does to you.

(Click on the link to hear the poet, Robert Frost, recite this poem)

To Do List #5, Check!

I know it has again been a long time but just get used to it. I have just in the last two weeks - got a new job, started back to college, and signed my son up for his first team sport ever! Phew - it exhausts me just listing all those newbies! HOWEVER - I still plan on popping in to update with some fun and exciting things. First on the list was a thing that has been on my "To-Do" list for forever! I did a post this early spring of what were your spring cleaning goals. Mine didn't ALL involve cleaning, although I got a LOT of cleaning and organizing done, they also involved projects. So I went from Spring cleaning to Summer Projects just like that. And this one was a ton of fun!

It was mainly fun because I absolutely LOVE to create things and I also LOVE bold beautiful colors. Since I was a child I always remember walking into THOSE houses and thinking, "Wow how brave and yet SO beautiful for someone to paint their kitchen this color!" Or "Ooh that is SO different!" I always remembered them and so since I own my very own home now I wanted to BE that bold beautiful home that most people not DARE try to put on their walls! Hehe - can you tell I like to be BOLD?

So here was my order that I made from the paint counter:

I first did a test square with the small tester containers. I left it up for about a month so I could stare at it and make sure I liked it! I highly recommend the "test paint containers" before any major painting job. They are super cheap and you can look at a color in different lighting's before making the big decision and the big payment!)

And after cranking tunes and having to sing along to "I feel like a woman" we got the job done!

Don't you just love paint??!!

The return of the infamous Ivy!!!

I needed a break.

I didn't have time.

This summer has been a whirlwind.

Take any of the above three facts to answer the question of: "Where have you been?" Did I forget about my blog? No. I actually had SO many ideas for great awesome posts throughout the entire summer but it just never happened. I would go almost a week without even checking my emails it got so bad. So after a few weeks of wanting to blog and never finding time or when I did I was way too tired I decided I would just accept reality and take a well-needed break.

BUT - my kids are off with their grandparents staying with them for a couple weeks to give my husband and I a "oh-so-needed" break and thus...I have returned to my blog! Yay! I know I can hear the shouts of praise from here. Yes all 24 of my faithful followers and maybe a straggler that accidentally stumbled onto here by accident.

Anyways, so you ask what is my first post back going to be about? Well....how about a little bit of this and a little extra of that? I figure I owe you one.

First off is another "Spring Cleaning" idea. That WAS what my last post was about and I'm proud to report that I have come a LONG way in my cleaning and organizing this summer! My house hasn't been this organized in quite awhile. One particular day of organization I found myself in my craft closet. Although honestly I'm not sure I could define it that way because it holds quite a few other things but they are all holiday/craft related. Back to the point. In the top of this closet was my kids Easter baskets along with a couple other cute baskets I had received at one point or another and I never could find myself throwing them out. They were good baskets. I had become tired of trying to get them not to fall every time I rooted around up there so my ingenious idea was to use the clothes bar in that closet which was currently not being used for clothes. I really liked the result and it cleared up SO much room! What do you think?

Next up on my list is an idea for someones birthday. Or anniversary. Or Christmas. You get the point. It's multi-functional. Have you seen those window markers that teens love to "tag" other teens vehicles with? Or the occasional adult too :) ? Well it says on there you can use it on windows OR MIRRORS. You there with me yet? If your husband is like mine and doesn't eat breakfast (I know - it's a crime) then breakfast in bed for his special day isn't really gonna work. So instead I surprised him with a fun birthday greeting on our bathroom mirror!

It still was a surprise and made him smile just the same! It's cheap, and washes off pretty easy, I mean why NOT do it?!

Speaking of my husband, he took some of the cutest pictures of our daughter this one summer morning right after she had woken up. She wasn't hungry quite yet so instead she crawled up in this chair I have that sits right by the bookshelf and I always stack our latest checked out library books on it (so as not to be mixed with our books and impossible to find when they are due). She sat there so quietly and went through book after book.

It was so adorable and heartwarming to know that my kids are developing a love for books! It did this mother's heart good. Summer is a great time to encourage your kids to read because:
1. They have TONS of downtime that will at some point be vocalized with an "I'm bored".
2. Your local bookstores and libraries give great incentives to get your kids reading!

My kids did the BORDERS Bookstore Summer Reading Dare! If they read 10 books they got one free! They have specific books you may select from and yes my kids are toddlers and no the selection is not toddlers books but we got them anyways to keep for when they are older and to reward them so they felt happy about it I bought them a book each from the discount shelf! So they were happy and I was happy! AND I got two free books that are both excellent reads for when they grow up.

Also if you have a child between about ages 6-10 my Summer Reading Recommendation is the Magic Tree House Series!! I have already started reading one or two chapters a night to my son and he LOVES them! they teach about all kinds of places and people in history and with my son LOVING locations and where everything is he is IN to these books! And for my princess toddler well you just can't beat a good Fancy Nancy book!

Okay last thing has to do with school since yes it is already fast approaching. If you happen to be a scrapbooker or at least a mom who likes to record your child's events in some way this idea is for you. I myself am an avid scrapbooker and HATE to throw anything away. I want it all as memorabilia for my albums but some things are just too big or too bulky or the pile can just become ridiculous. So as my son would create the COOLEST things at school I had to come up with some way to scrapbook them without actually scrapbooking ALL of them, ya know? So is what I did was I hung up a cork bulletin board in his room to display all his school art work and projects. It would hold one month's worth of stuff (STUFFED full...but it did) and then at the end of the month I would take a picture of the bulletin board.

So instead of having a year's worth of art (I did save I think two of my favorite's though) to scrapbook I now have 9 pictures of that month's school projects! Cool huh?

I thought so at least. Well hopefully this will make up for being gone so long. And I promise another post to come SOON! Until then, thanks for allowing me my break (although you technically had no choice) and see ya next time!

Spring Cleaning

It is Spring. Which by social commonality means you should be doing all those cleaning jobs that you only are required to do once a year. Such as clean out your closet, or organize your cupboards, or move your stove and suck up all the dust bunnies underneath! EEK!
However there was a pressing matter this year that desperately needed my attention and it became one of my many Spring Cleaning projects.

Okay do you see this filing organizer?

It wouldn't close. Not because I wasn't strong enough to force it together but literally it COULDN'T close. Why you may ask? Because this is holding three years of my paperwork! I know. That's bad. So I set out to make this right again.

Fresh file organizer - ONLY holding 2010 papers! YAY!! Which by the way - writing your own names for the tabs really helps cut down confusion between husband and wife of where something goes or is located. I highly recommend it!

And here is my big finale! After about an hour and a half I finally had them sorted out year by year. and yet what are those extra papers on the floor? Believe it or not they are from 2007-2005. How they got out of their proper filing and ended up in my current one is beyond me. But then again, these things happen when you commence Spring Cleaning.

AH. Feels good. So how bout you? What are you tackling this season??

1 Free Month Trial of Netflix

My husband and I really enjoy our Netflix. Being pastors we don't make bu-cu money and so we have to plan our date nights sparingly. However Netflix does give us the chance and excuse to set aside a night or two a week where we pop some popcorn or scoop some Blue Bell and sit and cuddle together while enjoying a movie together. And for your sake I hope your relationship is like ours in the sense that afterwards we always start some conversation from the movie. Sometimes that conversation can be deep and lengthy while other times it is left at "wow that was a horrible movie. Score it a 1!"

If you have never tried Netflix before you choose your movies and also have the chance to rate your movies after watching them and from these ratings Netflix will recommend movies you should like. I say SHOULD because occasionally they are wrong, HOWEVER I can vouch that we watched some movies we absolutely LOVED and had never heard of nor would have ever watched. So it's not pointless.

Okay now to the point. Right now until June 15th Netflix is offering a one month free trial (and yes you can cancel AS SOON as the trial is up and pay nothing! So thought I'd let you in on that deal. I of course got a thing in the mail with this offer to share with friends - so I shared it with you. It comes with cards and Priority code numbers so I'm just going to share them with you on here in case they actually mean anything, lol. (Please check comments to see which ones have already been used)

Priority Code #1: M833284220105
Priority Code #2: M853214220045
Priority Code #3: M823254220025
Priority Code #4: M863224220035

This is what I'm asking you do IF YOU USE A CODE:

Please leave a comment telling us which priority code you have used. (this way people won't try entering it after it's already been used)

So what are you waiting for? It's a little less than $8 a month!!! To me that is far worth some relaxation time to enjoy a good movie!

Or some much needed cuddle time with my honey!
(and no, I'm not being paid to say this or endorse Netflix, lol. And no
that is NOT me and my honey pictured above.)

I just enjoy it and wanted to share that with you!