Showing posts with label blessings. Show all posts
Showing posts with label blessings. Show all posts

Thursday, December 31, 2009

Our Christmas Eve

On Christmas Eve the kids get to open one present. It is always new pjs. Then after they were all ready for bed Bear decided to read everyone a story. He chose "God Gave Us Christmas". I couldn't help but snap some pics as the kids all climbed into and around the recliner together and listened.

Thank you, God, for giving us Christmas.

Bridget

Monday, December 28, 2009

Maggie Beth

My cousin, Whitney, and her husband, John, had a baby girl three weeks ago. Her name is Margaret Elizabeth. She is named after Nana. And she is precious.



Bridget

Tuesday, December 22, 2009

Fabulousness and Struggles

We just finished a weekend full of Christmas'. Great-Grandparents, Grandparents, extended family. It was wonderful. It was a whirl of activities. It was exhausting.

And now we're home for a few days to regroup and then do it all again.

Really, this post is just to share one fabulous piece of information and a struggle. First the fabulousness:

Remember this post? Or this one? Or this one? Or what about this one? Well, you will if you've been reading for awhile bc I wrote those back in the summer and fall of 2008! Yes, folks...2008! I have been wanting this camera for a LONG time. And I GOT IT!!!!

Hubs asked his parents, my parents, his sister and brother-in-law, and his nana to all go in together with him to buy it for me!!! I basically haven't put it down since Sunday morning when I opened it.

When he asked me what I wanted for Christmas I told him I either wanted the camera or money to save toward the camera and that was it! And he delivered!

I've already taken over 300 pictures. I'll post some soon.

Now, for the struggle:

Folks, we had to take two cars with us this weekend just to get all the stuff home! Seriously!?!

Now I have no place to store it and we still have two more Christmas' to do! Ugh. (in a good way) I was at Walmart last night buying groceries and storage bins and ran into a friend and we were talking about how we couldn't afford to store all the new toys the kids get. =)

Anwho...small struggle I know-just the one I'm in right now.

Merry Christmas!
Bridget

Friday, November 13, 2009

You Probably Thought I was Exaggerating.

Since I posted pictures of my entry, living and dining rooms some changes have been made. I was serious, people.

Here's what happened: about a month ago, hubs and I took the two little ones to Wichita Falls while the two big ones were at a birthday party. While there we visited the lovely little store Hancocks and I found the fabric for my living room drapes. They are the perfect colors AND they were on clearance. People: I got upholstery fabric that is usually $19.99 a yard for $2.30 a yard!!! Crazy!

So anyway, once I had them sewn and hanging I knew I didn't like them with my old dining room curtains. I love my dining room curtains, but they are cotton quilting fabric that is usually $6.oo a yard and the look of them next to my new curtains was cheap. Maybe it was all in my head, but frankly, I have to live in my head so I wanted to do something about it.

When we went back to WF for the Sesame Street Live show husband graciously let me run into Hancocks again to see if they had any of the fabric left. Well, of course they didn't. Not when its on clearance for pennies.

So I figured my head was just gonna have to be unhappy for awhile.

Then, my SIL* helped me out by moving into a new house on Saturday and having her first baby on the very next Wednesday. While she was in the hospital I left my kids with my mom and went to help my MIL* and FIL* unpack my SIL's house. Because of all the dirty laundry and gazillion other things that needed to be done, MIL and I decided to take the dirty laundry to the laundromat to wash it faster.

*sister-in-law, mother-in-law, father-in-law

This has a point, I promise.

When we pulled up to the laundromat what did we see just a few stores down in the same shopping center? I'm sure you guessed it. Hancocks. And a big beautiful one at that. After getting the clothes into the washing machines we headed that way. And I'm sure you guessed it again, They had my fabric!!! EXCEPT: it wasn't $2.30 a yard. It was marked down to $8.50 a yard. Still a good deal but I needed 7 yards to cover both my dining and kitchen windows. 60 bucks people.

Not chump change in my world. If I spend 60 bucks on unnecessary fabric it means I DON'T spend 60 bucks on necessary things. Nope, I couldn't do it. I did, however, find some fabulous sheer fabric 1/2 off to cover my lampshades with. And my dear, sweet MIL bought it for me. Check it out.
The before:

The after:
The full monty:

Fabulous, right! I'm so pleased. And of course, in true Bridget fashion, when I'm done with these colors, the ribbon and fabric come off and my plain white lampshades are back. Yeehaw!!
So, on with my story. When I got home from my weekend away, I told hubs about finding the fabric. He then told me that while I was gone, he received his check from the school for announcing the junior high football games. And then my perfect, wonderful, handsome, funny, smart, precious husband told me to call his mother, who happened to still be at his sister's house, and ask her to go get my fabric. I couldn't be more in love.
Yesterday morning my MIL delivered my fabric to me and I sure did have those new curtains sewn and hung by the end of the day! And they look wonderful!
The before here
and the after:
Other changes were made as well. I used my handy dandy photo editing software to put pink numbers where changes were made. (Don't forget that you can click on the pitures to enlarge them.)
No. 1: New curtains.
No. 2: new fabric covering the chain for the light fixture.
No. 3: new flowers on the table
No. 4: moved china cabinet
No. 5: rearranged top of china cabinet
No. 6: new paint on walls
No. 7: replaced the decorative paper in my brown frames

I'll talk about no. 6 in a sec. First, my mom had the art teacher at her school draw these pictures of my children for us for Christmas two years ago. I love them. Sometimes I go temporarily insane and put something else in these frames, but luckily it is only temporary.

I'm one of those people that loves symmetry and balance so I love having these pictures on either side of my china cabinet. And putting the cabinet back on this wall makes the dining room feel bigger. I seriously can't remember why I didn't like it this way the first time. Must be more of that temporary insanity.

Honestly, I didn't need to put this picture in here, but oh well. I still love my tile floors.

Now about no. 6. when I originally painted my kitchen blue I told husband that it wasn't quite right and that I planned on tweaking it a bit. I lived with it for quite a few months, but this past Sunday I just got the fire in my belly to paint something. My kitchen is small and can easily be painted in a day so I got to it.
As you can see it is only slightly different. A little lighter and a little greener. (The new paint is the paint around the edges.) Now it's perfect.

And I mixed my own paint. After you amass all the paint that I have you can do that quite easily. I just bought a gallon of white satin paint and mixed in very small amounts of a color I had out in my garage. I love the way it looks after just a few swirls.
And as more proof of my sickness, Sunday was the fifth time I've painted my whole kitchen in the two years we've lived here.

I put this picture in here because I was able to take this picture without a flash and using the natural light from my window. I wanted you to get a better idea of the true color of my walls. It's light and icy and wonderful and NOT the color you see in the other pictures!!!
I've actually been making more changes in other rooms but this has gotten very long and I really need to do something else, like vaccuum my floor and brush my teeth.
Bridget

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Sniffles and Smiles

I don't feel well. It's not sickness, but allergies and they are bumming me out.

It's the usual stuff. Stuffy nose, itchy-sore throat, watery eyes, sneezes, stuffy ears, sinus pressure. No big deal really, but it's made me think of all the people that suffer from chronic pain. Not feeling well on a day to day basis really does make life hard.

And that makes being in a good mood hard.

I've been stuffy since last Thursday. I had finally found something that actually helped, but when I went to Walgreen's on Friday to get some more I found out that the laws in OK have changed and I can't buy any right now. And I'm not sure if or when I'll be able to get some again.

Oh well.

However, this morning made me smile. The designated morning chores have been changing lately. The kids are growing and can do more so now Popeye empties all the trashcans every morning and then helps Bear sort the laundry. Bear sorts the laundry and feeds/waters the dog. While Bobo empties the dishwasher and loads any dirty dishes in, then after everyone has brushed their teeth and fixed their hair he wipes down the bathroom: mirror, sink, and toilet.

Also, they have to wipe down the dining table and chairs and move the chairs into the living room every morning after breakfast so I can sweep. But all of them do this together.

Anywho...this morning Bear asked if he could wipe down my bathroom like Bobo wipes down theirs. Of course, I said yes. Remember: I'm trying to say 'yes' to my children as much as possible. =) So Bobo showed Bear how to do it in their bathroom and then helped Bear wipe down mine.

Not only do I now not have to wipe down my bathroom every morning, but I just love it when I see my children helping each other. Particularly when they teach each other. I didn't ask Bobo to show Bear what to do. I was planning on showing him myself. But they took it upon themselves to work together. And it blessed my heart.

And my aching head.

Bridget