Kitchen Update!!!

Our New Countertops came today!!! Whew. Merry Christmas to us!!! The pictures are SOOO subtle, but in person, it does really make such a difference, AND give it a more streamline, clean look.
ABOVE IS BEFORE..........
.
.
.and BELOW is AFTER!!!!!!


Below is the Old sink and Countertops.....
and now the NEW!!!!
NEW!
NEW!
YAY! We are super happy with the improvement, and ready to start the new year with a kick a$$ kitchen, lol!!!

Ballroom Dancing

The gift was for us. A designated time to set off into a new territory alone together. I think it has surprised us both how much we like it. Out of the box, finding each other, enjoying each other.

Stockings!

For Christmas we have taken on the tradition of doing the stockings as an exchange. That way it gets everyone involved in the act of giving, and doesn't overwhelm ME so much! It's fun and on Thanksgiving everyone loves passing the hat to see what name they draw!

This year I was super excited to see that I had gotten Mike's name. You remember the post I did about Mike losing his wedding ring, and it has now been 6 months that that man has walked this earth with bare hands.

I knew that I had a $30 cap on our stockings, but oh what fun it would be for him to find a wrapped jewelery box at the bottom of HIS stocking!!!

Our rings are white gold, and when I went into the jewelery store to find him a ring I was floored to see how much white gold bands were now! I had been aware of all the commercials advertising selling old jewelery and how the price of gold had gone up...but I guess I hadn't put two and two together. This was not me selling! This was me buying! Hrmph! It was tooo much!

The jeweler and I came up with a great compromise. Until He and I can get nice expensive set (which 19 years later still don't have...it's okay sentimental does outweigh it all) there was a beautiful cheaper metal called Dura Colbolt. I got a design on it, but it isn't etched so flour from work won't get stuck in it! Awesome!

It feels so good to have a ring back on his finger. I think he loves it:) I know I do!

My Secret Photography Project

This is the secret photography project I have been working on. We have dedicated a room in our house to some of my work. A neighbor of ours who use to own a little shop in town recently moved and cleared out all of these window panes which I cleaned up and used as frames.

Some of the pictures are really dark, but since we put the Christmas tree in here, I wanted to capture the beauty of the Christmas lights lighted on the glass, and took it in Manual. Haven't quite mastered Manual and darkness yet.

Thanks Kimber

Love is a temporary madness. It erupts like an earthquake and then subsides. And when it subsides you have to make a decision. You have to work out whether your roots have become so entwined together that it is inconceivable that you should ever part. Because this is what love is. Love is not breathlessness, it is not excitement, it is not the promulgation of promises of eternal passion. That is just being "in love" which any of us can convince ourselves we are.

Love itself is what is left over when being in love has burned away, and this is both an art and a fortunate accident. Your mother and I had it, we had roots that grew towards each other underground, and when all the pretty blossom had fallen from our branches we found that we were one tree and not two.

Louis De Bernieres

Our Rainbow Girl

For Summer's Preschool "Breakfast With Santa", they put on a little performance before hand. The build up for this in my four year old's mind had made her about half wild. For the past month Summer has been learning all the words to various Christmas songs, very caught up in the story of Jesus and his birth, and super excited about the little program they were going to put on. Her daily make believe and play includes babies that are Jesus and Daddy is called "Mary" and it really has been a fun phase.

One of the things she talked about in the weeks leading up to the event was that some of the children were going to get costumes! I asked her what her costume was going to be, but she wouldn't tell me. She just would say that it was a secret. As the weeks went by, I did get out of her that some of her friends were angels, and finally she did relent and tell me in a whisper that she was a rainbow.

A rainbow!

So as the day slowly came, I divulged the secret of her dressed up rainbow costume to my mother and husband and anxiously waited in the audience for the program to start. She had been dropped off to her preschool teachers caring hands and was going to be led in.

Camcorder and camera was ready, but I was not. Here is Summer.

LOL! She was one of the Three Wise Men.

Happy as a clam in her "rainbow" cloak, her fellow girlie preschooler wore halo's and wings, but my daughter clunked her present for baby Jesus in the manager and took her spot on the stage with a big smile on her face.

After, we received beautiful handmade presents from the children and got to see Santa while we ate.

(waiting in line to see the big guy)
(she sat on MRS. Claus's lap, lol)
It was a fantastic start to the weekend. I'm so sad thinking this is the last baby of mine {{sniff}} What fun memories we made!

My Weekend ~Trenches Style

For Christmas Mike and I decided our gift to each other would be a big project for the house, and so we are investing in the kitchen. We are redoing the counter tops and putting in a new sink, and although this is very exciting and something to look forward to, we need to keep it within a budget ( granite can get unsightly expensive!!!) and the process of ordering and setting up in home remodeling stores are not so fun with 4year olds :)

As this weekend approached and we narrowed down what we were going to do, our microwave door came off in my hand. Really!? And on our list of something to grab and Mike could install himself in this 2 day block got penciled in.

There was also the town's annual Horse Drawn Christmas parade through town. Summer got invited to her friends house, who sits right on the main street for the perfect view. We couldn't miss that!

And so with our kids (well minus the working one (Tatum) and the sleeping hormonal one (Jake) ) we set out with our dressed up puppy in control of this weekend.

Hours and HOURS later as we carried in exhausted kids, dog, coats, and microwave....with the door wide open for the box to fit through the door...in ALSO came in a BIRD!

So as Mike installed a microwave with the old one sitting in the yard and Summer sitting in the boxes in the family room...Jake and Matthew carried in ladders and tried to help me catch the wild bird who chirped and clung to our 2nd story chandelier.

Finally with towels and and the house torned apart, mud from the extension ladder on the walls, bird caught, I left to go pick up a pizza for dinner. Microwave installed. We all went to bed.

Sunday came with me running back to the Home improvement store to finalize the kitchen order, and coming home to realize that our one cat had been trapped in Tatum's room for over a day. (she had spent the night at a friends and did not come home) He had used her bed and laundry piles as a litter box.

Start up the Washing machines! OMG.

So as I tore apart her room and threw stuff out, did homework with Matthew, and took Jake to Kohls for jeans, Lol, Matthew out of the blue decides to tell me that he wants to be baptised.

Bless his heart.

I stopped with everything and talked with him. He said he knows that Tatum and Jake have been and he wants it too.

Looks like we're going to church on Sunday :)

It was a whirlwind that's for sure. I don't even know how I'm going to get Christmas together, lol! But it's all good. It's all awesomely good.

Merry Christmas TO ME!!

I got my package from Arizona ( Lacey ) today!!! She is super wonderful. She did what I did for her last year and has filled my holiday season with the 12 days of Christmas!!! A present every day JUST FOR ME! The problem?? Ummm. It is FREAKING DECEMBER 3rd! And I have no restraint.

But I am determined to make this special. And as meaningful as she meant it to be, so in the name of honoring our friendship, I WILL NOT ALLOW myself to ruin it by opening them all rightthisverysecond. (even though I really really REALLY want to!)
( I think she wrapped the ones in HO HO HO paper just to mock me! You think??)

The Verdit Is In

My testing went off without a hitch. I can thank Jesus for all He has done for me and for watching over me this entire time. Everything really did go pretty smoothly and I am so grateful that my results didn't come back in the many wild directions they could have gone.

Long and short of it is I have several ulcers in my stomach area. When I asked the Dr. how many, he just emphasised "MANY". Some were bad enough they were bleeding, and some looked as if they were about too. But this I can handle. Given my directions of what to do, I am on it. I go back in 8 weeks for another upper GI.

I am so blessed to have such friends surround me. One, who has been through it all, and just having that connection of "you know" gave me such comfort and relief to be able to talk it over with. Thank you Lisa.
One upped her friend card to the highest level, and while I was left alone with a house full of kids and a suprep bowel kit, LOL, googled the heck of all my questions as fast as I could text, and though MILES and states away, stayed by side the whole night seeing it through. We laughed, we cried, we talked about poo more than people ever should, but THAT is what a real friend does. Thank you Lacey.
I had friends pray and send texts and show up at the door with baked goods. Just having me in your thoughts meant so much. Love you Linna.

And my mom and husband. Who dropped everything to take care of life for me for the day. Thank you guys. I love you both so much and do not know what I would with out you.

So I am back on track to getting healthy. And grateful for the chance.