Don’t we hear it over and over in the media? Men just want respect while women want to feel loved. I get it and was sorta listening but when it really came down to it I felt that they were just replacing the word love with respect and isn’t it the same thing? And I love my husband so I obviously was respecting him, right?

My other thought was that respect meant that men think people should obey what they say. Is that what they mean by respect?

It isn’t.

[Read more…]

Has anyone else had so much fun with the lottery being so high? I love the conversations we have of what we would do, where we would buy a vacation home (beach vs mountains), etc. It is worth the price of the tickets just for hearing my boys funny ideas. One wants 365 footballs so he won’t get yelled at for leaving them outside, everyday he can just get a new one. My husband wants 365 pairs of new underwear. Too funny!

A couple weeks ago I mentioned freshening up our family room decor. It is such a slow process. I found this basket when I was rushing through HomeGoods for something else and it will be perfect to go above our fireplace. We have these weird nooks 2 stories high that I have no clue what to do to make them look good. I have found a couple random pieces to throw up there and need to find more.

We are doing something fun this weekend since it is MLK so this blog may be a little quiet. I’ll tell you all about it next week.

Let’s test out a video to see if I can get it working. Click Here. 🙂 We found the boys old balance bike and Britton immediately loved it. She is getting pretty good and will probably be riding her regular bike without training wheels soon. I love these things.

I hope everyone has a wonderful year. I know I am excited about the next year. This blog has been exciting for me. It is fun to write. Before I started I was worried about running out of ideas and instead my list of ideas has grown longer and longer. I think that is a good sign of things to come.

I wish everyone a healthy and prosperous new year!

Have a Merry Christmas! I hope everyone is on Santa’s good list.

The weekend before Christmas is always full of great events. Our neighbors had a fun party on Friday night. We have a great neighborhood and know a lot of people but now I was able to meet some new friends.

On Saturday evening we took our boys to a basketball clinic at our school held by the University of Louisville Women’s Basketball team. Very random since we do not live in Kentucky but they were in town to play a local school and did a clinic at our school. My boys had a lot of fun.

My boys are in a stage where they tell me they don’t want to do anything. I told them about the clinic and they fussed and carried on, saying they weren’t going. They only want to go to things where they know they have friends at the same event. I need to constantly tell myself not to listen to them and to push them to do things like this because they always end up having so much fun.

I have family that works at University of Louisville so that is another connection we had to the school.

Then last evening we hosted a work party for my husband. It was a good time and very nice to meet some of the people he works with on a daily basis. I don’t really get to meet a lot of his coworkers since they work on a secure site so I can’t go visit him there. They are all great people, no duds in the bunch. 🙂 It was also a great reason to use our Christmas china. I can’t even remember the last time we used it.

The next couple days are crunch time. I have a couple more gifts to get for a few people on the list. I have never had such an issue with gifts. Some people this year are very difficult to come up with ideas.

I had better get moving and get some of my to do list accomplished.

Last night we went to our local Christmas parade. I forgot what going to a parade with a 4-year-old is like. It was a blast. She loved everything about it. The lights, the candy and especially waving at everyone was so much fun to my little girl. We had debated whether or not we were even going to go and everything fell into place that we did it and I am so glad.

Does everyone else feel like this week is crunch time? I feel like everything has to be done by this Friday. I am starting to have so many lists in my head that I am forgetting things.

Last weeks goals:

Family

1. Borrow some new books at the library for the boys. They are about done with the current stack. Done, plus I checked out a book for myself and read it in 2 nights. It was a quick read and I am too embarrassed to say what it was. It was written by a reality tv person.

House/Home

1. Deep clean the bathtubs upstairs. They need a major scrubbing and toy clean-out. Some of the toys need to be secretly thrown away. I only think of it when my little girl is taking a bath so I can’t do it in front of her. – FAIL. My husband has decided to have some people who work for him over for a Christmas party on Saturday so I will be busting my tail getting this house together this week.

Blog

1. Link up with 6 Blog Hops.
2. Research where I should be storing my photos to help my site run fast. I am just downloading them from my computer to the Media tag in WP but am not sure if that is what I am supposed to be doing. Still need to do this.

This weeks goals:

2 Huge Tasks that I have to FOCUS on completing!

1. Clean the house for my husbands Christmas party.
2. Finish Christmas shopping.

What I really want to be doing is working on planning our trip to Napa next summer. I need to stay off the Napa info until after Christmas but I keep procrastinating.

I am proud to say that I finished reading a book! I want to say that I love reading but after having kids I realized that I am not a good book reader and Mom. My problem is that I get completely involved with reading and hate to put the book down so I end up staying up half the night to read just “one more chapter”. Anyone with me?? 🙂 Then I wake up the next morning and am cranky and have no patience.

With all the traveling I did last week I took a book with me (plus my Grandmother’s house has no internet). I read The Girl on the Train.

Such a good book. I am usually a romance reader but love a good thriller occasionally.

Let’s catch up. My Grandmother passed away last week. I am super sad and trying to deal with it so can’t even write about it yet. My in-laws did a fantastic job watching the kids. I am so thankful they could watch them.

Let’s talk about Goals for the week, I am not even going to go over last weeks goals since I didn’t even look at them since I was away from internet. I did get most of the Christmas Cards complete.

Let’s go with a fresh start.

This weeks goals:

Family

1. Borrow some new books at the library for the boys. They are about done with the current stack.

House/Home

1. Deep clean the bathtubs upstairs. They need a major scrubbing and toy clean-out. Some of the toys need to be secretly thrown away. I only think of it when my little girl is taking a bath so I can’t do it in front of her.

Blog

1. Link up with 6 Blog Hops.
2. Research where I should be storing my photos to help my site run fast. I am just downloading them from my computer to the Media tag in WP but am not sure if that is what I am supposed to be doing.

My beautiful Grandmother went to heaven yesterday. I know she will go straight to heaven as there is no one I know who is more faithful and obedient to the Lord than her. She is going to be terribly missed. She has 9 children and 25 grandchildren and even more great grandchildren. What a strong woman. My Granddaddy died when they were in their late 40’s so she has raised our family all by herself. Amazing.

I will be on a blog break for the rest of the week to be fully present with my family during these tough times.

I hope you had a great Thanksgiving holiday. I love having the whole week off to head to my parents beach house. We couldn’t have had better weather. It was warm and sunny. We heated up their pool and went swimming and swam in the tidal pools at the beach.

We enjoyed reconnecting with cousins and having lots of laughs. Even finished a 1,000 piece puzzle.

My youngest sister and I were able to see a small Darius Rucker concert. It was so fun since it was a small event with open bar. The sky was a clear blue and it was so fun to experience it with my sister.

My Mom does an incredible turkey dinner. This is a small peak at her new kitchen, it is gorgeous. Maybe one day we can do a tour of the renovations to the entire house.

Let’s talk about this upcoming week. It is Christmas Season!! Woohoo! I could tell by the line at the post office that the crowds have begun to come out for shopping and errands. I have lots to do to get ready, I am sure you do to.

Last weeks goals:

Family

1. Go eat lunch with my boys at school
2. Set up a date night. We haven’t been out just the two of us in a couple months and we need it. – FAIL

House/Home

1. Order Britton’s Birthday Cake
2. Order Christmas Cards

Blog

1. Link up with 6 Blog Hops. I would like to get some readers, it will be more fun to write if I know that someone is reading. Hi there, if anyone is reading this. 🙂
2. Write a Thanksgiving post that links to my 5 favorite posts to have up during the week of Thanksgiving. I will take the week of Thanksgiving off.

This weeks goals:

Family

1. Borrow some new books at the library for the boys. They are about done with the current stack.

House/Home

1. Get everything ready for Britton’s birthday party on Sunday.
2. Address and mail Christmas cards – I received them and now need to get them in the mail.

Blog

1. Link up with 6 Blog Hops. I was able to do this last week and had some views so I’ll keep this going.
2. Write a post that I can put up for when my Grandmother passes because I will be traveling and away from wireless. She is on hospice care and will pass any day now. She is the most faithful woman so I am sure she will go straight to be with Him. My family is crushed and will miss her terribly.

I hope everyone enjoys the rush this week brings to the season. We put up our 12 foot tree last night and it is way bigger than we expected but looks great. I can’t wait to put the decorations on it.

I hope you are enjoying your holiday. We are spending time with family so I am going to take the rest of the week off from the blog. If you are visiting for the first time feel free to take a look at my favorite posts so far.

1. Bow Bootcamp – How I got my daughter to wear her bows.
2. How to stop your wreath from scratching your front door.
3. Toy Review – What my 7 year old boys received and actually played with this past year.

Here is a preview of our new family photos. I am so happy with how they turned out.