This Is The Year

Well, my month is up! It's time for the big reveal in Shortmama's Living Room Redo Challenge . Did I get everything done that I wanted to? Nope. Did I accomplish anything? Actually I did. And my procrastination isn't really what's to blame for what I didn't get finished. I just ran out of budget! So I'll share what I've done so far, and hope to come back with more updates at the end of June! "Before" pictures on the left, "afters" on the right. Some are labeled, but I got lazy! First was the west wall, where our piano is. It was cluttered up with boutique supplies, and I wanted to replace the end tables with different ones from our bedroom that I wanted to make over. I also wanted to add to the wall display. Successes: Got all the Ribbon Blossoms clutter out of there! I finished my end tables. Please visit Mod Podge Mania to see what I did, and also see some great projects from other bloggers! Failures: Was not able to add to my wall d...

Welcome friends! I hope you're all having a beautiful weekend! Mine has been jam packed with cramming to get my mod podge projects done...it kind of snuck up on me this month! Let's recap the rules. Link up any mod podge project you'd like to share. It can be an old post or a new one. It can be your own idea, or one you saw somewhere else you'd like to share...just remember to give credit where credit is due! Please include a link back to my blog in your post so that others will know where to come check out some more great projects! Then make sure to go visit as many other mod podge maniacs as you can! Can't wait to see what you've all come up with this month!! For me, I wanted to make over some end tables for my Living Room Redo project with Shortmama that I'll be posting about later on. I wanted them to match the chest I did for last month's Mod Podge Mania. To see the chest go here . I started out with these end tables that we got for FREE from a wo...

Presiden Gordon B. Hinckley spoke of the sequence of events set forth in the scriptures pertaining to the creation of the earth, and all the living things and animals. He said: "Having looked over all of this, he declared it to be good. He then created man in His own likeness and image. Then as His final creation, the crowning of His glorious work, He created woman. I like to regard Eve as His masterpiece after all that had gone before, the final work before He rested from His labors." President Hinckley also said to us: "I feel to invite women everywhere to rise to the great potential within you. I do not ask that you reach beyond your capacity to achieve. I hope you will simply do what you can do in the best way you know. If you do so, you will witness miracles come to pass." I love this. I have met so many wonderful women these past few months and see such devotion to being good women. As my final bucket filler I wanted to let you all know what you have come to m...

The pessimist complains about the wind. The optimist expects it to change. The leader adjusts the sails. - John Maxwell Tomorrow will be my final bucket filler . I have so enjoyed the opportunity to share encouraging and uplifting words with all who are kind enough to visit me. I truly believe everything I have shared. It is time for me to toss the bucket on to another fellow blogger. I wanted to let you know about her today, because tomorrow is Mod Podge Mania , as well as my living room redo reveal (I hope!) for Short Mama's Home Redo Challenge . I am tossing the bucket to a wonderful, sweet blogger named Carissa . If you haven't read her blog Sugar, Boogers, & Tantrums , now is your chance to get to know her! I thought she was the perfect one to toss the bucket to, because everytime I visit her blog, I leave feeling uplifted. She is warm, and caring, and has such a wonderful attitude. I can't wait to see all she has to share with us! And now, I will continue to cr...

In 6 weeks from today, July 10 th , I will be hopping in (a hopefully feeling better) Tanielle's car and we will be goin ' on a road trip to Vegas! We're headin ' down to see our boys in concert. If you're new here that would be New Kids On The Block! I'm so excited! In honor of this momentous occasion, I have decided to do a fun (for me!) new Friday Feature. I stole this idea from my good friend Amanda at Serenity Now. She counted down the weeks to the premier of the awesome t.v. show So You Think You Can Dance by sharing a favorite video from the show each week! So I'm totally doing that! Each Friday I'm going to share a favorite New Kids video for your viewing pleasure! Just humor me and watch it okay? You can make fun of me in the comments if you want afterward! For my first video, I want to share the song that brought them all back to us. It was their first single from their new album The Block. I'm going to show a sound check they did, becaus...

The way to gain a good reputation, is to endeavor to be what you desire to appear. - Socrates

I saw this over at one of my favorite blogs, It's a Fine Life , and just knew I had to use it as a bucket filler! I Believe ... that just because two people argue, it doesn't mean they don't love each other. And just because they don't argue, it doesn't mean they do love each other. I Believe ... that we don't have to change friends. If we understand that friends change. I Believe ... that no matter how good a friend is, they're going to hurt you every once in a while and you must forgive them for that. I Believe ... that true friendship continues to grow, even over the longest distance. Same goes for true love. I Believe ... that you can do something in an instant that will give you heartache for life. I Believe ... that it's taking me a long time to become the person I want to be. I Believe ... that you should always leave loved ones with loving words. It may be the last time you see them. I Believe ... that you can keep going long after you think you ...

Well, here it is Wednesday again and I barely made it in under-weight! I didn't eat or exercise the best over memorial day, so I'm only down a little over 1/2 pound...but I'll take it over a gain which is what I was worried about! Poor Amber's having a rough time recovering from her wisdom teeth surgery, so head on over and give her some love! The times I DID exercise this past week, I have been able to increase my "jogging interval" that I do at the end of my workout to a pace of 4 mph. Not very fast, but it's definitely helping me get conditioned to be able to up the speed and increase the amount of time I spend jogging. And I can totally feel a difference. When I've been in the school (kids' school) these past couple of weeks, I have gotten several comments on the fact that I look like I'm losing weight. HALLELUJAH! I love when it' get's to the point that people actually start to notice, it's like your effort is finally starting...

When odds are one in a million, be that one.

So my long distance bloggy bosom buddy Amanda at Serenity Now tagged me with the fun Purse Tag. Here she is in all her glory. My $12.00 Walmart find. She's seen better days and will probably soon be replaced with something more colorful, but it kind of falls at the bottom of the priority heap as far as spending money goes. I'm glad that I got this tag after my daughter dumped the entire contents of my purse out while looking for something. When I put stuff back in, I left the huge pile of receipts, garbage, permission slips, etc. out so I could sort through them. I still managed to compile some extra junk in the past couple of days though! So starting from the top left, we have: my cute covered contact case that I just had to have, a piece of garbage I stuffed in there during church, a sticky note with a phone number on it (no not a guy's phone number, a mom at school whom I need to call), 2 spools of ribbon, 2 check books, a black hair bow, my blue jeans wallet, a sta...

The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. ~Thomas Jefferson Thank You.

They did it! It was wonderful! We really just had a beautiful morning. First I need to clarify a few mistakes I made in my post yesterday. Although the 9th grade was in charge of Pedals for Hope, the entire middle school actually did the bike ride. And it was a 4 day ride, not 3 like I thought. The entire ride was 100 miles, and they were able to commit to 10 miles, 20 miles, 30 miles or 40 miles. We had so many proud students! About 1/3 of the kids committed to the 40 miles...that's 40 miles in one day! Pixie's grade (K) won the Penny Wars. One of the students' grandparents started saving pennies when their daughter was born 31 years ago, in order to send her to Hawaii when she graduated. She ended up going on that trip, but they never cashed the pennies in, they just kept collecting them. When they heard about Pedals for Hope, they donated all of them to Kindergarten! There were over $400 in pennies from Kindergarten! The students wanted to pass last year's total of $...

Tomorrow at our school will be the culmination of our annual Pedals for Hope service. Our 9th graders have been studying our state (part of our state's core curriculum) and it's people through the lense of cancer. We have one of the highest skin cancer rates in the nation, and also one of the leading cancer research institutes. The whole school gets involved in this expedition. For the past several weeks all the grades have been participating in Penny Wars. There is a big jug for each grade that the students fill with as many pennies as they can...it's a competition between the grades. You can increase your grade's chance of winning by donating money bigger than pennies to the other grades' jugs. Whenever any currency bigger than pennies (bills, quarters, nickles, etc.) is put into your jar, that counts against your total! At the end of the "war" all the money is donated to the cancer institute. The 9th graders are participating in a 3 day bike-tour across...

SMILE FOR YOU Smiling is infectious; you catch it like the flu, When someone smiled at me today, I started smiling too. I passed around the corner and someone saw my grin When he smiled I realized I'd passed it on to him. I thought about that smile then I realized its worth, A single smile, just like mine could travel round the earth. So, if you feel a smile begin, don't leave it undetected Let's start an epidemic quick,and get the world infected!

Hello ladies! Welcome to another edition of EM:ME hosted by Amber ! If you'd like to join us in giving each other healthy support head over to Amber's and link up! I have not had the best week, and was very discouraged by the end of the weekend. I wasn't sure I wanted to link up, but I knew that I had to share the bad with the good...otherwise what's the point? So I have some bad news and some good news. First the bad. You'll remember (if you visit Tanielle or I regularly) that Tanielle asked me to come stay with her kids on Wednesday night while she and Hunter Dan took Ashie to the ER. She had a severe bout of croup. She's okay now. Anyway, I was just getting ready to exercise, but of course this was more important! By the time I got home at 3:15 a.m. I really didn't feel like exercising! Then I missed Friday and Saturday as well! I felt like I let myself down and Amber who I committed to do Every Weekday in May with. What a loser! (and NOT the good kin...

Gonna be a Bear In this life I’m a woman. In my next life, I’d like to come back as a bear. When you’re a bear, you get to hibernate. You do nothing but sleep for 6 months. I could deal with that. Before you hibernate, you’re supposed to eat yourself stupid. I could deal with that too. When you’re a girl bear, you birth your children (who are the size of walnuts) while you’re sleeping, and wake to partially grown, cute, cuddly cubs. I could definitely deal with that. If you’re mama bear everyone knows you mean business. You swat anyone who bothers your cubs. If your cubs get out of line, you swat them too. I could deal with that. If you’re a bear, your mate EXPECTS you to wake up growling. He EXPECTS that you will have hairy legs and excess body fat. Yup, gonna be a bear!

It's time for Friend Makin' Monday hosted by Kasey . If you'd like to join...go check it out! Today's task is to answer the following questions: You wouldn't be caught dead where? a strip club. Do you have any hidden talents? I can pick stuff up, anything, and operate things like c.d. players (that are on the floor), using only my toes! Name two things you consider yourself to be very good at: debating an issue, cooking. Name two things you consider yourself to be very bad at: singing, organization Have you ever won a trophy? I think I may have received a participation trophy for softball. Also I won 3rd place in our all school (7th-9th graders) spelling bee in 7th grade - I got a ribbon. Name one thing not many people know about you : I'm pretty open...I don't know of anything very secret about me. Name your earliest memory: Living in some brown apartment buildings when I was 5. My mom was a single mom and it was just us and my 3 year old brother. We...

John 3:16 For God so loved the world , that he gave his only begotten Son , that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life .

If you're Monkey, and you're bored while sittin' on the toilet, you clip a bunch of little claw clips on the last little bit of toilet paper left on the roll. If you're Monkey, and you're bored at Costco, you make a finger puppet out of your hot dog. So what do YOU do when you're bored? Children are one-third of our population and all of our future.

Tanielle 's the kind of girl that just likes to do sweet things for people. Here's what I mean: A little while back I did this post . You'll have to go read it to understand this gift. About a week later Tanielle brought this over to me. She made it for me as a "reminder" to have in my home always! I love it! As many of you know we are not only friends, but business partners as well. We make lots of darling things to sell, while our girls ooh and ahh and wonder when we'll get around to making some for them! My girls especially love the bow holders, which happen to be Tanielle's specialty. Last week she showed up with these. Forgive the editing to protect my children's privacy...I think you can still get the idea of how adorable they are! It's hard to see in this picture, but the pattern on this is actually red bandana! It's for Cowgirl's new room we're working on. It has a red bandana and denim theme. They have a lot more bows than th...