Sweet

This post is devoted to thanking and realizing the wonderful blessing that is my soul-mate.

Today, I came home from work and found pink roses on the table along with the book "Confessions of a Shopaholic". There was a note that said, "To the greatest wife in the world! Why: Simply because I love you!" He also proceeded to tell me that he cleaned upstairs, cleaned the garage, and folded laundry. I was so surprised and happy.

Following that, we took advantage of one of the free nights at the local park (the place where it all started). Tonight was free night for the paddleboats. The girls really enjoyed it! We didn't even have to wait in any line. They played on the playground while we watched. It's funny because there are so many memories there at that park. It's where we met during high school at our summer job that took us through summers in hs and college. We walked by the concession stand that I ran, the swings that we would often swing on, and relived some memories. Yeah, things are different--we have two little girls and this time we helped them swing high in those same swings where many a conversation took place.
The coolest thing...I'm so much MORE in love than I was 10 years ago when we fell in love there!

YAY!

I'm so excited..."Confessions of a Shopaholic" is out today!! I'm going to buy it. After working on stuff for an audit today, I need some laughs and entertainment. I highly recommend it as a cute, funny yet has a point, girly movie. I said girly movie, but Josh has heard about it so much from me that he is going to watch it with me. Believe me...I don't normally get overly excited about movies so this is that once every five years thing.
Well, there's laundry to fold, small group to go to, flowers to water, trash to take out, a house to be vacuumed, and picking up to do so I had better make this short. The movie will be late tonight--before bed.
Stay cool in the heat!

Saturday Fun

Okay, I have to admit, with the recent great finds that my parents had been getting at garage sales, the fever has set in with me. I don't know if it is like a treasure-hunt, a game, a fun way to blow a few bucks or what. Honestly, with the over-the-top pricing I have seen in stores lately, I've had a lot of fun at the few garage sales we've visited.



I will preface by saying that each year, we hold a garage sale--or two. They are very successful and this year was no different.



We don't have anything in particular we are looking for really--just great stuff. Lately, we have been blessed to find brands of almost everything we normally buy at the store.



Today's spend--$21.50



The first 4 or 5 weren't very good. Everything we purchased came from 3 sales.



*We bought an outdoor steel wire box thing for the outlet Josh will be installing soon--$1.00

There isn't a picture because this item is boring. It was new in pkg. and will save us a few bucks.

**A tinkerbell girly bed canopy--$5.00. I had always thought this would be cute for the girls' bedroom, but they are pricey.





**Wooden dollhouse furniture--$1.00. This gives her some more furniture for her wooden dollhouse.



**Littlest Pet Shop house $2.00



**A tote FULL of LPS items for $10.00. This is great because it had 105 LPS pets in it plus buildings and such. The little pets sell for $4-$7 EACH!! The tote had some great items in it--hundreds of dollars worth actually. They have played with it for hours now.



**Brand new roll shelf liner .50--always comes in handy



**four cute bracelets .50



**Tuck and run item of the day--a NEW in Box--never worn pair of shoes for $1.00. The clearance tag said $49.99. Either way--they're cute & my size!!

Happy Thursday!

So, yesterday I worked off the day's stress. Today, it was REALLY humid and even hotter. I wasn't in the mood to mow--even though it needs it. I think it would have put the grass under stress. Anyway, after sitting with Tufsey and watching the girls run around the yard for a few minutes, it was time to go inside and find something else to do. I decided to look online at the schedule for the local pool. OH--it's family night---right now. I told the girls to hurry.

Hurried they did and we enjoyed some time in the pool after all. Keirah even became more brave tonight =). Ahh...that was the way to relax tonight. Once we got out, the weather was more bearable anyway.

Smiles all around and hoping for LOTS of pool time this weekend!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yep...it's Her

..summer that is...and she brought along the cloud of HUMIDITY preceded by quite a few sonic booms and firework-like lightning last night. Yikes--it was constant last night. Tufsey's eyes were the size of saucers this morning.
It went from 70 some degrees like 2 days ago to well into the 90's plus a blanket of humidity. hello sweat! Heat I can stand--humidity is another story.

Summer, is that you?

WOW--I think summer officially made it here!! It got HOT today. Too bad it wasn't sunny yesterday so we could have gone swimming.
We made it to our yearly goal of not turning on the A/C til after June 15th. It is now June 17th and its not on yet. Fortunately, we don't deal with allergies so having the windows open works well for us until the humidity sets in. Living in a hotter climate helped me acclimate to the heat as well as working at the local park district w/o air conditioning in hot temps.
So, today at work was BUSY. Yikes.
Would you believe me if I told you that I came home and scrubbed the porch floor and walls, watered the flowers, weeded all over, put everything back on the porch and enjoyed it--even though I was pretty sweaty when it was all said and done. Why? Well, it was mindless work and it was outside. Whenever its a busy day at work, doing work outside or whatever helps to let off some of that stress I guess.
Our porch is getting so close to being finished. It is all closed in now. Tufsey has learned how to use his kitty door--yay!

In other news, Aliyah lost her very first baby tooth yesterday. It was about 3 weeks ago, we noticed it was loose. She could have made it hang on for weeks longer I'm sure, but the new tooth is coming through. I told her the old one needed to come out or the new one would grow in crooked.

Keirah is officially p o t t y trained!! I put a diaper on her at bedtime b/c she sleeps all the way through. Most of the time she wakes up dry or pretty close. The daytime is done though! She tells me that I don't need to come in with her--so self sufficient.

Well, It's almost 8 pm and no dinner yet--I think it's time!!

Happy summer and I'm so glad its here (weather-wise).

The Library

On our way to pick up a much needed grape slush from Sonic the other night, Aliyah began asking me a zillion questions about horses. Maybe it was due to the "back"-ish (still in the city) way that we took to get there. I got questions about types/colors/racing horses etc...
Finally, I told her that she needed to get a book on horses and just read because I simply didn't know the answers to all of these questions.

Granted, I have seen the Anheuser Busch clydesdales, but other than that I don't know the specifics. I will mention that the AB clydes are quite magnificent. I remember the one named "Captain". He was/is HUGE--very tall!

Once we arrived at Sonic, we waited in the drive-thru for the all important slushes while Aliyah proceeded to read all of the various signage around the place. It was at that moment that it dawned on me that I could enroll her in the summer reading program at the library and let her check out books about subjects that she has interest. The idea made her exuberant!

Today, we went to the library, signed her up for the program. The lady asked if she was reading books on her own. We told her "yes". I proceeded to ask her where we could find the books on horses. This lady has been at the library for YEARS & YEARS. In fact, she was head of the children's dept. when I was in the reading program as a child. Fortunately, things have gotten an upgrade in technology since my last visit =). I told the lady that she wanted to know all about horses. She told us that the books at Aliyah's reading age level were just stories about horses, but she would show us the non-ficion/info books and we could read them to her. I asked Aliyah which ones she wanted to check out and she pointed to a series of 5 (I knew that's what she would pick). We took them, signed her up for a library card, checked them out and on our way we went.

During the car ride, we heard all about Thoroughbred Horses. Aliyah was reading to us from the back seat. There were a couple of words she didn't know like "Secretariat" & "Citation", but didn't have a problem at all aside from that. So, we are ALL learning about horses =). It had big words like "thoroughbred" and such in it. Anyway, that is our happy library story. She can't wait to go back each week. The summer program is 5 books per week. I'm excited for her and this will sharpen her for 2nd grade.

On the swimming note...we did get to go swimming for the first time this summer--yesterday. It wasn't overly warm, but we made it. We were going to go tonight, but when we came out of the library--it was raining. Go figure!

Gardenscapes

Can someone tell me what these are?? I have tons of them growing along the fence, but no idea what they are!
Love these multi-colored geraniums--the color contrast is awesome!

Astillbe--or False Spirea

Urn & a garden angel

This pot of flowers is just HAPPY!

Isn't this the cutest little Starbucks cup? It was a sample at Target today. Totally what I need right now to get me cleaning the house--some motivation!

Tufsey couldn't resist being a part of the gardenscapes shoot.

No, this isn't a tie-dye dress--it's Aliyah's VBS t-shirt. She's so tiny that it looks like a dress. The shirt actually pretty much fit most of the kids. No worries, I rolled the sleeves and tied a knot in it so it looked better for her program

The diva-fashionista with her bling, ca$h, and Polly car

Me...I apparently found an excuse to put off cleaning...yikes--I'm just not motivated. Maybe it's cuz still NO swimming yet!!

Garden Sightings

Here's our "new" three season porch/breezeway!

Fountain

Honeysuckle vine--oh such a sweet, sweet smell!

Coral Bells--enchanting--don't ya think?

Tufsey--sweet little cat

Making Memories

We had a fun night together. I call it a "family date". We went miniature golfing for the first time--for the girls. Josh and I spent many a free-date night at this particular place. That was one of the perks to the summer job we had in HS and college. The biggest perk of all in that job...it's where we found each other and love =). Pretty awesome if you ask me.
It was tons of fun and a private golf experience since we were the ONLY people on the course the ENTIRE time.
We stumbled upon a new store today while making a return at Banana Republic. It's an artsy-ish store. I called a real-life Etsy store. Everything in it is handmade by local artists. It has jewelry, furniture, hairbows, art, pottery etc... Apparently, they just opened today. I bought a cool handmade cocktail ring and a pretty bracelet.
Other than fun with my 3 sweeties, it doesn't feel like summer and we HAVEN'T been swimming (aside from at our hotel in Chicago).
Also, on a different note...I enjoy reading blogs. There are so many stories/needs out there. Well, the blog that I have most recently been reading A LOT (which fortunately wasn't linked here), has been exposed as a FAKE HOAX!! There is even a Chicago Trib article about it tomorrow morning (it's online tonight). The answers are definitely not in the article, but anyways...it is what it is. On that line, I have decided to spend much LESS of my time on blog readings and more time enjoying my girls and Josh. In that spirit, I have deleted my buttons on my blog, but have left my list as it was before.
People can choose to portray whatever type of persona they choose and sometimes its easy to get caught up in that false portrayal. Of course, ideally it would be nice if people would be who they really are, but I can't control that one. I can only control what I do and my own blog.
No worries, there is plenty for me to do--we have the porch project, work, a house to clean, a garden to tend to, girls to love on, a kitty to feed, a husband to spend time with, grocery shopping, and exercise (what's that?)
Aliyah has thoroughly enjoyed VBS this week and loved making a tie-dyed shirt. Keirah is still going strong in her PT 101. We got some brand new panties today and she was even more excited. Aliyah's tooth is looking more and more crooked by the day, but it's been like 2 weeks since we knew it was loose and it's still there. I'm sure it will just come out in her food or something.
Off to watch "New In Town" to finish off date night--the kids are sleeping now.

Bits 'n Pieces

Let's see...try to sum up the weekend. Easy. Not long enough =).

I came close to having a heart attack last night. Why? I was driving along a street right by our house. It intersects with a bicycle trail. Traffic has the right of way--no yields or stops or anything. It was about 9 pm and so-- dark. Fortunately, I saw a kid on a bike and slammed on the brakes to avoid hitting him. He didn't stop, slow down, or anything to cross the busy road. The car going opposite me hadn't quite reached the spot where the trail crosses yet, but after seeing my slam on my brakes and honk at the kid...they stopped completely and they were going the opposite way. My heart was pounding. Nobody wants to hit someone while driving that's for sure. I thanked God for allowing me to see the kid and stop.
I definitely wondered a) why is a 8-10 year old kid out riding his bike in the dark on the bike trail by HIMSELF??
b) don't parents care what their kids do?
c) doesn't he have the sense to stop and look both ways?????

Other bits n pieces...

Keirah is all into using the potty seat and I would call her completely trained. She is to the point where she doesn't want us to go in there with her b/c "she can do it herself". She must visit it like 20 times a day. YAY!!

We didn't get to go to the pool--too cloudy/a bit rainy.

We did some more work on the porch --er Josh did.

The girls are in their room singing right now with their CD. It couldn't sound any cuter!

Tomorrow starts VBS for Aliyah. She loves going so much. It will make for a busier week, but it's worth it!

Tufsey now has a kitty door installed on the porch. I'm hoping he will figure it out. The other regular door will be installed soon and he will have to or he won't be able to get inside the porch.

We saw the NASTIEST, largest beetle the other night on the porch that came flying in. It was black, huge, and had horns!! It even fought with the cat. It would play dead and then get back in a fight position. Cool to watch--sort of, but yikes I hate bugs that look like they belong in a movie or in make believe. It was like some scary bug from Indiana Jones or something. It even bit Tufsey once!

Other than that, I have many things to do tonight. Wash/vac the car, laundry, dust, bathroom cleaning etc... That's why the weekend could have lasted longer --lol!

PT 101

As it goes in the "milestones" of babyhood or toddlerhood or whatever...Keirah has reached one!! The one that really gets mommy & daddy excited because the wallet should have some extra ca$h in it--goodbye DIAPERS!!!
She's so proud of herself and we are too. She has gone 2 days without accidents and wearing panties.

She loves the "rewards". She gets to put a Dora/Diego sticker on a little chart. She also receives a piece of gum when she goes. When her chart is full of stickers, she gets to go to the store and get a Polly Pockets car. She loves Polly's and she doesn't have a car.

Yay!!

Crossing our fingers for some nice weekend weather so we can visit the pool!

9 Years

I don't know where they have gone, but they have flown by!! Nine years ago on June 3rd, I married my best friend. He is my soulmate, the sexiest man alive, my handyman, a SUPER daddy to 2 little girls, the person who makes me laugh the most, and my husband. How on earth did I ever deserve to be blessed with Josh??
In nine years...there's been a lot packed in...work, laughter, house projects, house projects, remodels, trips, two wonderful little girls, a kitty cat, a move, growth, love, eating at Chili's and PF Changs, enjoying many firsts of Josh's life etc...
For example, we experienced one of those "firsts" the other day. We were parked right by Sears Tower. As we were walking to our car, there was an old fashioned Good Humor ice cream truck. I decided it was time for a treat. Three out of four of our family had never had a treat from the ice cream man. It was great...he rang his little bell and everything...not to mention he was dressed for the part. A yummy sno cone for me, a lime popsicle for the girls, and a Reese's bar for Josh and that was another first!
Happy Anniversary, baby--I love you so much more than I did even 9 years ago!!!