I've Already Got My Stamps!

Last night we put up the tree, strung up the lights, and watched Christmas movies. It is officially that time of year. As I’ve mentioned before one of my FAVORITE holiday traditions is our annual family Christmas card. This year I bought Christmas stamps weeks before Thanksgiving because I am just that excited.

Shutterfly has been such a great resource for me over the past 10 years that I have held on to this tradition. One of my favorite Christmas cards was the 3X5 folding card with a picture of me, J, and our dog Crew that we sent out in 2006.

This year I have something special in mind, but as always you will have to wait for the big reveal to find out what it is. I will tell you though that it will be a photo card from Shutterfly. When I thumbed through their 2010 Holiday catalogue I fell in love with so many of the designs, especially The Top Ten moments Christmas Card.

Not only do I love Shutterfly for Christmas cards, but they are also great for birth announcements (like this one I ordered from them earlier this year),

and calendars as well. Last year I gave my dad a desk calendar for Christmas and this year his wish list included another photo calendar, which I guess means it was a hit.

Sending out Christmas cards each year is one of the things I looking forward to the most around the Holidays. It's right up there with having everyone else’s cards fill up my mailbox. I am sure the first one should be arriving any day now. I just love this time of year!

This post is a part of Shutterfly’s Christmas promotion for their 2010 holiday collection. Allowing blogger’s the opportunity to receive 50 free cards only makes me like them that much more!

Coupon Craziness- This time the cops get involved.

This weekend has been full of adventures here in messy land. I already shared about our sleepless shopping spree. Well, the next day I had a friend over who had showed some interest in getting in on this coupon craziness. So I started showing her the ropes, including dumpster diving at my favorite recycling receptacle. I think what happened was that someone called the cops to report us, because a police car comes driving around the corner straight towards us as if we were their destination. Then the cop (a handsome young one, to help you are trying to get a mental picture) gets out and asks "are you donating are taking?". I sheepishly reply "both?". Then he starts lecturing about how these items are not up for grabs and he stops mid sentence and squints at the paper retriever. Then he says "is this one of those cardboard paper things..." he looks in to see mounds of paper and shouts out in a frustrated tone "Oh my god, you're kidding me" then he looks at us and says "Never mind." I apologize and say we are going to leave, but he assures me that we can stay and that we are fine.

I think they were under the impression that we were raiding a donation box for the children's home or something. We still decided to call it a night after that. We had gotten plenty of inserts at that point anyway.

Now that you now what I've been up to, here are some of the fruits of my labor.

I got $53.29 worth of stuff for 64 cents and I am ready for more!

My Friday Socks

I really hope everyone had an enjoyable Thanksgiving. I know I did. We ate all the good thanksgivey stuff followed by watching football and lounging around. Eventually we played a huge 14 person game of Hand and Foot, followed by some Guitar Hero. At around 2:30am I put on my Friday socks* and a comfy pair of shoes so that J and I could head out for some black Friday madness. It went something like this-

3:00 am- Door busters at Kohl's

3:30 am- Get in line at Kohl's while J still shops around

4:45 am- Check out and save $98.00!!!

5:00 am- Stop in for some Lattes and a pumpkin scone at Starbucks

5:30 am- Arrive at mall

5:35 am- Purchase at JC Penney's

6:30 am- Purchase at Sears

7:30 am- Purchase at Macy's

8:00 am- Depart from the mall

9:00 am- Dutch Babies** at Ol' South

10:30 am- Crash at J's sister's house.

It was one of the best mornings ever. I really am thankful for my wild and crazy husband. It was his idea to do Black Friday in the first place. He is such a techy shopper. He had an app were he could search all the deals ahead of time online compile a list of which ones he wanted to check out and what items he wanted to get. He also took pics of some of the fliers he flipped through the night before, he used this once to show an employee exactly what he was looking for. We went forth with a plan and we conquered! Pretty much all the Christmas shopping is done, just like that.

Did anyone else brave the stores this weekend?

*I own a set of brightly colored days of week socks. They were on clearance at Target, don't judge.

**Dutch babies are similar to Crepes. J and I LOVE the ones they make at Ol' South. if you haven't been there to try a Dutch Baby you must go!

Family

Today I am thankful for family.

They are crazy and I like that way!

I'll be spending time with my in laws the next couple days, we are about to head out right now. Hope everyone has a happy, memorable, delicious Thanksgiving!

On The Bright Side

I have had a lot of photo shoots this week, including two today. It got me thinking about how much I love my job. That was going to be me my thankful post today, until today happened.

It's crunch time for the magazine. Assignments are due by tomorrow, so today I had to go out in the country to get some shots of some young motocross racers.

The youngest was barely 7 and she was adorable.

Then I went from the sticks to the city were I had a private job photographing some people at a country club. I won't go into details because even if there are only 3 people that read my blog this is still the world wide web and I can't risk having the wrong person see this. Let's just say the night began with drinking and ended with someone writing me an upside down check. They filled it out in all the right places, but it was upside down. I didn't look at it until later and so I can't cash it. It's been a tiring day. I can't say that I feel all that thankful for work right now, but I am. What I am really thankful for though is that tomorrow is a Holiday and I won't be working at all. Yea.

LIFE

Today I am thankful for life.

J had officiated his first funeral tonight. Last year he did his first wedding and this year was his first funeral. We didn't really know the man that passed away, although J did visit him at the hospital when it was close to the end and he was asked if he could lead the service since our pastor is out of town this week.

This is the same week that our church celebrated Granny's 90th birthday.

This photo is when she was 86, but she still looks just as beautiful

She is actually my friend's grandma, but she has always loved me and many others as though we were a part of the family and since I have never had a grandmother of my own (they both died before I was born) she has me call her Granny. The celebration on Sunday was truly wonderful. Granny was publicly honored and if anyone deserves that, it would be her. She has blessed me in so many ways in the years that I have known her. One day she told me "when I see a pretty dress, I think of you." It's one of the nicest compliments I have ever received. She has asked me to sing a special hymn at her funeral and requested that I sing it church sometime while she is still around (which I did!) Afterward she thanked me with a sweet letter that she sent in the mail. There is nothing like getting a letter in the mail these days. I hope it will be a long time before I ever have the honor of singing that hymn, knowing Granny and how spunky and full of life she is I think it will be.

Food With Friends

Tonight we had some friends over that are moving out of state in about a week (thus the reason for the posed shot shown above). I made my favorite recipe, Cranberry chicken with mashed potatoes, asparagus, and french bread. This is the perfect holiday dish! It has things like cinnamon, cloves, and allspice in it. Our guest described it as "eating Christmas". I have to make it with mashed potatoes too because all the extra cranberry gravy goes great with the potatoes.

J even made some guacamole and chips to snack on while we were cooking, because we just like food THAT much. Our friends brought brownies and ice cream for dessert. I am so stuffed, but I am just getting primed for the big meal that will be here in a couple days.

Today I am thankful for good food and good friends.

Oh, and for anyone interested here is a link to the cranberry chicken recipe.

The Obvious

This week I am going to try and write about some things that I am thankful for. I know, I know. It is Thanksgiving week and talking about thankfulness is such an obvious choice, but aren't you thankful for the obvious sometimes? I am.

Today SJ wore some adorable boots that I found at a thrift store.

She always gets tons of compliments on them. She doesn't seem to care all that much, but until the girl can appreciate the fashion praises, I will accept them for her.

I have had a weakness for baby shoes long before I ever even cared about a baby, but the truth is they are not the most practical things. By the end of the day the boots were in her car seat with her, BUT no longer on her feet. I was hitting up some local drugstores hoping to get some of the Sunday deals when I realized that one of the boots was missing! After making my transaction (it was 2 dove bars, some Excedrin and Advil PM for 49 cents and $3 extra bucks in return) I back tracked to Walgreen's hoping to find the missing boot. I said a little prayer, told myself it's no big deal, and tried not to be too sad. It wasn't in the parking lot, but it WAS in one of the shopping carts inside the store. YEA!

So, today I am thankful for good finds. That could mean some used baby boots that looked like they were never worn, or some Dove chocolate bars on clearance for 25 cents, or finding something you lost that you really loved. Have you had any good finds lately?

Anniversary Movie

Here is my latest imovie creation, hope you enjoy.

Thanks again to Hannah of Cracker Jack art for all the photos and to J's brother who agreed to shoot video at the last minute. These memories will always be cherished!

The Boy

Oh dear Lord, please help me.

I have a boy and he is three.

Z is one rowdy rebel rouser, but WE are working on OUR behavior. I will say this though, no one knows how to make me smile like Z does.

My favorite thing is watching him play. With his imagination a water bottle becomes a giant and a chicken nugget is David (and yes, eating our food at meal time is another thing we are working on.)

In this photo we have Bob and Larry. Larry is a book and Bob is some kind of angry looking ball that squirts water out his eye. This ugly little ball has played the role of Bob for about a year now. J and I call him Bob's evil twin.

I've also mentioned how I was astonished by his creativity at the arts festival a few weeks ago. He made a really nice fruit loop necklace.

I couldn't believe how engaged he was in what was for him a tedious project. Then after all that work I caught him eating it. He just went to town on that cereal.

Recently he's been making the manly right of passage into the world of standing up while going potty.

The other day he thought I should give it a try. At first I panicked thinking I am not ready for this conversation, until I realized he was not asking for an anatomy lesson he was just making a suggestion. So I calmly responded, I am girl and I don't stand up only boys do, like you and daddy. This answer was more than adequate for him.

He has become quite the little secretary too.

He has answered my cell phone twice. Out of all the times that my mom or J call me BOTH times he answered it was a client. YIKES! The first time it happened I was in the kitchen singing my heart out as he ran in holding up the phone towards me. Then he yelled, mommy your PHONE! When I saw the number of the connected call I freaked out and hung up the phone. Then I looked at Z with the biggest most frightened eyes he has probably ever seen and I asked him, "Um, sweetheart, did you call them or did they call you?" and he matter-of-factly said "Nooo, they called YOU, mama." I just about died, when I wondered what they had heard. I put the sing in embarrassing. I called back and the lady was really nice, she had kids of her own. Now I just need to remember to place my phone out of reach.

I guess that's enough Z stories for one post all though I could go on and on all day... just like him.

On the Move

My little helper.

Baby SJ is 8 months old now. She continues to pull herself up on everything and is almost ready to let go and stand without support. She is also cruising around a little bit, and prefers it over crawling. A few of the things that make SJ a one of a kind baby are...

1. The way she sticks out her tongue all the time.

I think she is feeling her new teeth, but she does this all the time and it's so cute.

2. Her Pterodactyl noise.

She is always squealing by sucking in her breath. It's been her trade mark from the beginning.

3. Her teeth!

She has already decided to take the path less traveled by the order in which her teeth have come in. She has 5 total. 3 on bottom, 2 on the top, but still no front teeth! She has been compared to a walrus, vampire, and old man.

It's hard to get a photo of a smile big enough to show all her teeth, but this shows the order they appeared in.

4. Her pouty face.

Every baby knows how to tug on your heart strings when they want something and SJ is no exception.

My dad took this photo when she was missing her mama!

5. Big eyes.

One of the first thing anyone comments on are her big eyes. She is always so wide eyed, which reflects her adventurous personality. It's like she thinking "if I could just open my eyes a little more I could take it all in!"

At the rate she's going I won't be surprised if I will be writing about her first steps in a couple months. Until then, I will enjoy this stage where I can still keep up with her!

My Kids

The kids have both been doing so many new things here recently that I have wanted to write down or blog about and I have made a mental note to do so. Today I put them in their "wedding" clothes because I wanted to get some pictures before they grew out of them. SJ already has, I didn't even button her dress all the way up so that she would have more room.

A stranger once told me that going from one kid to two is more than twice the work and she was right. It's like the synergy concept, but in a counterproductive way. Then I read something the other day on From Texas to Ethiopia. When someone told her she looked like she had her hands full (referring to her 4 children including newly adopted baby from Ethiopia) she said "Better full than empty".

Some people are single, some people have no children, others have 12 and it's all great, but for me personally the experience of having children (plural) is as good as gets.

I love seeing how different they are.

I love watching them interact.

I love how they love each other.

I love my kids.

Church, Church, and More Church

I am pushing a week without blogging so I thought it would be good to check in. It's been a busy week and I have been at the church/coffee bar everyday. Our youth group girls had a conference this weekend. It was amazing. Lives were touched. I had to step out of my comfort zone on a couple occasions including leading worship and speaking.

Leading worship is totally different than being on the worship team. J (who is our worship leader) does not plan and rehears everything. He does prepare a list of songs, which we will go over ahead of time, but even that is subject to change. So it was up to me to orchestrate these two songs without being able to play an instrument. I wanted to tell the band just to go through verse, chorus, verse, chorus, bridge, chorus close. That would be my structured safety zone, but J blows it to bits with his open ended go with the flow approach. I love him for that. I have a lot to learn.

I also spoke for the second time in a month. I am not a public speaker, but apparently God is bringing me into new areas of leadership. The first time I spoke was for the women's ministry and I taught about fear. This last time was for the youth girls and I shared some of my testimony about overcoming body imaging issues. Both times I was able to use my blog as a reference because I had previously written something that was appropriate for the given topic. I even shared with the girls about how blogging, poetry, or other creative outlets are a great way to deal with some emotional issues. That is why even though I may have fallen off of the band wagon a bit with my consistency or content for messy mom I am not about to abandon my passion for blogging. I think it helps keep my mind from being overtaken by children's songs and task lists!

So, that is what has been going on with me. I am looking forward to the holidays even if it does cost me what little is left of my sanity.

The photo is of the Revive 2010 girls. I am the one in the yellow shirt furthest to the left in the second row. I was trying to think of something goofy to do.

My First Song

I like to consider myself poet and my husband is the musician. When we got married I wrote a poem for J and surprised him with it at our wedding. He also had surprise up his sleeve and in the middle of the ceremony he played me a song he had written.

A few months ago I got inspired to write another love poem and then later I realized that J would be working open mic night at the Lighthouse coffee bar on our anniversary. I planned on reading the poem, but no matter how hard I tried to rehears it it seemed to take on a melody of it's own and I could help but sing! That is how my poem became a song. So I enlisted my friend (the great cake maker) to help me out on the guitar and we practiced secretly in the weeks leading up to our reveal. It was our first open mic performance and we were both a little nervous, but J loved it and it gave me a chance to step out of my comfort zone and try something new. It's a simple, silly little song, but it fits our relationship well.

I am linking up with try new adventures Thursday at Alicia's Homemaking because writing a song and performing live was definitely a new adventure for me!

Grateful

It's been a dream of mine to renew our vows for our 10 year anniversary and on Saturday we did it. We actually pulled it off. The whole event was such a success, but it was definitely a team effort. I called it the dream team! I can’t help, but give a humongous thank you and publicly acknowledge this group, whether they read this blog or not.

1. First off my friend Hannah not only loaned me her wedding dress, but she was our photographer. She is amazing and I know the photos are going to be priceless. She even sent me a little sample of what's to come!

2. We have been going to the Lighthouse church since we got married in 2000, so it was such a gift to have our pastor officiate the ceremony. He has been an important friend and support to us over the past 10 years .

3. Richard and Vicki are a couple that have connected with all of us that are a part of our coffee bar ministry and they are the best. Vicki played solo violin during the ceremony. She felt led to play Celtic music, which just happened to be the theme of our first wedding. It was beautiful.

4. The ceremony took place in the horse field at my in laws. It is a serene and peaceful place out in the country and I got an itch to have a ceremony there a long time ago. It would not have been possible without mom and dad B.

5. My sister in law Brenda is the most amazing chef. Not only did she provide all of the meat for the reception, but she was a huge help in being the caterer. The rest of the family also pulled together to make a great meal for this party of 35.

6. My parents were like little elves that scurried around taking care of endless duties on my long task list. Food, balloons, kiddo control, they were on it. I am so grateful for them.

7. My friend Melissa makes THE BEST DESSERTS I have ever tasted in my life and she made me a two tiered chocolate mousse wedding cake with raspberry filling. She is gifted that’s all I can say.

8. Hannah and Melissa get to be on this list twice because along with my pal Crystal they helped make the invitations.

9. The flower girl from our original wedding helped walk Z and SJ out at the beginning of the ceremony. It's weird that she is a teenager now and we have a son the age that she was when we got married.

10. Lastly I have to say thank you to my husband. Without him there would be no celebration. He went along with this whole crazy idea and helped create just one more precious day that I will never forget! Can't wait to see what the next 10 years with him will bring.

This post is linked up with Oh Amanda's Top Ten Tuesday.

Today Is The Day

1 wonderful husband

2 great kids

10 long years

Just kidding, it's actually flown by in some ways. Today is our 10 year anniversary and Saturday we renew our vows. The plans have been made, the work has been done, every details is just about set and I am so ready for this. I probably won't be blogging much, but when I do you can be sure to hear all about it.

Halloween Weekend

This past weekend was so packed. Not only did we attend the art festival and do a photo shoot, but we also did several rounds of Halloween festivities.

Friday we went trick or treating in the square downtown where the church/coffee shop had a booth set up.

A big turnout!

Some girls from our church dressed up as the Little House On The Prairie sisters.

Who wouldn't want to give this little cowboy some candy?

Siblings sticking together in the large intimidating crowd.

Then Saturday morning we went to the SPCA Bow wow Halloween hustle to see all the pooches in costume and I just happened to bump into one of my clients.
Can you believe this dog looked like this the first time I photographed him?


Sunday evening we visited a few our neighbors going door to door showing off the kids costumes.

Then we went to the church to catch the tail end of the Light Fest which included bounce houses, train rides, candy, balloons and more.

That's me in a wagon full of kids.

Somehow Z ended up with a giant Hannah Montana balloon that sings "The best of both worlds". He loves to sing and dance to it over and over. It was cute the first time. Now, well let's just say you can feel sorry for me.

In the end it was an exhausting but fun weekend (I believe I said that already a couple posts ago, but it's still true). Between all four outings shown above Z accumulated around 100 pieces of candy.
He is too young to count and brag so I thought I would do it for him.

Costumes

I've been planning for Halloween costumes for a while now, but it didn't fall into place quite as easily as I thought it would. It's hard to find a decent Woody hat for under twenty bucks, but I found one online for $13.00, and it came with a bandanna, belt, and gun holster. My mom made the vest which is the same one he wore on cow appreciation day. I got the sheriff badge and gun at the dollar store, we borrowed the boots, and he already had jeans and a yellow plaid shirt. With shipping we still came in under twenty dollars. He asked to wear his costume again today so I have a feeling we'll be getting some more use out of it.


We had all kinds of ideas for SJ, but they all fell through and about 10 days before Halloween I went to Babies R Us where I got a great deal on Z's dinosaur costume last year. At first I was worried that I had arrived too late because I didn't see any costumes anywhere until one of the cashiers showed me where they were and informed me that the already low clearance prices were 50% off. That meant that this $7 Disney princess for $3.50. Since the prices were so low I picked a cow costume for Chic Fil A next year while I was at it.


I shared these photos on Facebook this morning,


but I took tons just to get a decent shot. These pumpkins were real troopers.