Giveaway at The Paper Mama!!!

There is ANOTHER giveaway over at The Paper Mama. Man, is she cool or what? You'll have to go check it out at her page if you want to know what it is.....

Just kidding. It's a super awesome Sadie Ryan Keepsake Tile! They are totally cool and can be hung on the wall or place on a stand on a table! Neat! I already know what picture I want to put on there if I win. What would you put yours?

Head on over to The Paper Mama and check it out! :)

Auntie Em! Auntie Em!

{You oughta head on over to The Naptime Momtog today ~ she's celebrating her son's 3rd birthday with some pretty awesome givewaways!!!}

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We had finally decided to drywall our basement staircase last night. It was all open wood when we first moved in and we had it carpeted in 2009 just before Snowdrop was born. We've had the drywall since we put a ceiling in down there several months ago... but you know how it is. We got busy! And last night, our neighbors were out of town (we have a townhouse) so we thought it would be the perfect night to do this. (Our kids would sleep through the drilling but we didn't want to disturb the neighbors' kids, just in case.) We measured and then measured again, and got the first piece into the place. Before we did, I wrote on the wall something to the effect of "We lived here and the date we moved in." I would love to find something like that in our house, but I have yet to find it!

So we measured the second part (there were three parts to do) and got to work. I think it's fun to cut drywall, I like that you "cut" the line and then punch the drywall off. That's the best part. So we had just finished cutting this second part and out of the blue, tornado sirens start going off! I nearly jumped out of my skin. We had no idea there was even a watch for one...

Anyways, it near scared me half to death. I think when I hear the sirens, my first thought is always "BOMBERS!" I don't know where I get this stuff from. Perhaps in a past life I did not survive a World War. Gosh, I am so weird. :)

We rushed upstairs and Hubby flipped on the local news channel. He kept saying to me "We have time, we have time" ~ but frankly, I am not in control of the weather so in my mind I did not have time. {Note: We DID have like a half hour before the storm actually got to our house. We had time.}

I got the girls up right away ~ even if we "had time", I wanted to be extra sure they were right near to me. Our house is three stories up. I do not doubt in the least that I'd be able to run my little legs up there as faster than the wind, but I'm not taking chances on something I have zero control over {the weather}. Magnolia got up right away and got a few of her lovies and her blanket. Juniper was out cold. I stood her up and she literally fell back into bed! HAHA! Eventually we got all three girls downstairs and got the VCR started. The girls think it's a big treat when they get to go in the basement because we never let them down there unless there is a tornado!

Hubby kept checking the TV upstairs so we could be as informed as possible. I guess I forgot to mention earlier that we didn't even know the weather was bad! The sirens came as a total surprise So, I did know there was a tornado warning in OK (Thanks to Pioneer Woman's Tweet) but that's not super close to us and weather could definitely change by the time it makes it across the Midwest to where we live.

So anyways, we were totally unprepared for this so it was a little hectic getting the pitcher of water (I'm obsessed with doing this, just in case we get stuck down there. My husband laughs at me every time. But I tell you, he will not be laughing when we end up stuck down there someday for hours. He will delight in the water I have prepared and praise my existence as his wife!), snacks for us to eat, and pillows and blankets to sit on, and shoes/snowboots for everyone in case we have to walk a long distance in the rubble to find other survivors. {I am so weird.} I even remembered to grab the Epi-Pen! This time, the storm looked bad enough to my husband so he ran upstairs and grabbed two belts. For tourniquets? Nope. I thought it was for a tourniquet. {Seriously, I am so weird. You know, because we'd need to perform our own medical surgeries here in our basement with an Exacto knife and a belt, in the event of an emergency? I always go right to the most ridiculous idea.} The belts were actually so that we could harness ourselves to the water pipe if things got really bad. Oh ~ that made me feel sooo much better. Thanks, Honey! ;)

The belts are still there, hanging on our water pipe.

We said a couple little prayers while I waited for our home to blow away. That made me feel a little better. What made me feel REALLY STUPID and SCARED was that I had written on the wall behind the drywall, like an hour earlier, "Our Family lived here" with the date and our names! Hubby got goosebumps when I told him that. I thought for sure we were goners. That's how it would work, right? LOL. I'm so superstitious, or whatever the right word for this is. Paranoid!!

Bless their little hearts, they were so well-behaved while we waited out the storm! No one was "scared".

 

{Junie}

{Mags}

{In the HideOut}

{Snowdrop & Mr. Froggy Oggy} 

{She looks so my like my nephew, my brother's kid, in this picture; which is funny to me because I'm not, to the best of knowledge, blood-related to my brother!}

{Banana.} 

{She loves Mr. Froggy Oggy. He's been her favorite since she was born.}

I, on the other hand, was shaking and my heart was racing. I don't know why I find tornadoes so frightening. I really do love a good storm, and I think it's exciting to "hide" in the basement. But then I get all scared when the s.h.i.t. is about to hit the fan. I was mainly nervous about the kids. What if things started flying around and hit them in the head? We don't have windows in our basement. If the wind got in the basement, I think that would mean that the rest of our house is gone. So... things flying about would likely be at low on my list of concerns. Anyways, so after all that running around (and drywalling) I was super hot and then all of a sudden it started hailing and it got REALLY cold in our basement. It was so weird. Then the hail stopped and it was silent.

Nothing. Not a peep of any sort from outside. And that was the creepiest part.

I think the wind picked up for another five minutes or so and then it was over and we were alive, sound the chorus! Hallelujah!!! No big deal, right? I haven't been able to watch the news yet today but I know some places are out of power, there are many fallen trees, and some schools and businesses are even called off! I was really surprised when I looked in our backyard and saw.... that all our "stuff" (toys, bikes, etc) was in the same spots. Hardly anything had been moved by the wind at all! I find this totally weird.

So that's it. Nothing terribly thrilling or exciting as my title might have made you think! ;) We have not yet finished the drywall because by the time the storm was over it was like 1am and we were ready for bed. And then we spent most of the night up with the girls who were then terrified that every burst of wind meant that we needed to go "Eyed in the Bate-min".  I will post the "After" pictures when we do finish the drywall on the staircase. I will leave you with one last photo from when we were putting up the drywall. My husband really hates to take pictures.

At least he smiled? :)

17 Followers!!

17 Followers!!! WOW!!!

Just last night, while meeting The Pioneer Woman, I was talking with some of the other ladies in line. We were discussing blogging and they asked about my following. I chuckled and announced "I have SIXTEEN followers!!!" Then I went on to say that I don't blog as often as I'd like but that I'm surprised nonetheless that SIXTEEN people have chosen to follow my meanderings on the web.

I'm impressed. And grateful for your following. Thank you! And then I wake up this morning and I have ANOTHER FOLLOWER!! 17 in total!!! WOW! Thanks Everyone!! :)

So I tried to go and follow all of you back... and it worked for most of you! The ones it didn't work for... I'm guessing you don't have a blog? Right? Okay. :)

One More Question: Do all of you use Google Reader? Or are you old-school like me and go page by page checking for new posts? I'm considering to start using Google Reader after all the recommendations by the other bloggers to whom I talked. I'm a big fan of seeing all the fol-de-rol on your pages but I'd like to test out the Reader for a bit to see if I like it more.

P-Dub! (UPDATED with picture)

So I met Ree Drummond, The Pioneer Woman, tonight! It was so exciting. I was really nervous. I think I was talking really fast. I don't quite recall. ANYWAYS, she was SO funny and seemed so incredibly down to earth. We sat in the library while she talked for a little bit (before signing books) and answered some questions. She said an important thing about blogging is to do it often. That we should blog every day even if it is just something little. Our readers want to hear about the everyday.

Of course, this is true as I always love to be able to read more every day from my favorite blogs!

So I really need to be better about making more time to post, even if it's just some little stuff.

Ok, back to P-Dub. She was so nice. I had left BOTH of my camera cards at home so we had to take a picture with my cell phone (lame). I'll try and get that transferred and uploaded sometime. I gave her a restaurant suggestion, told her to visit the farmer's market next time she's in town, and I gave her the link to my blog. She probably thinks I'm some lunatic who wants her to promote my stuff or something. I don't. I don't even have anything to promote, lol! I mainly gave it to her so she could check out what her fans are up to. Maybe tell me my new cabinet handles look amazing. I don't know... Is that lame? Anyways, she was very nice and even did something special for me. I can't say what it is. I'll be able to say during the month of April.

I'm not pregnant. Not close to it, not at all.

Anyways. So I made "Egg-In-The-Hole" from her cookbook with our brand new brown organic eggs to celebrate this fun day. The eggs were delicious!! And cooking the egg in the hole was much easier than I thought it would be. I'll get into our whole food thing this week. I just saw "Food, Inc". Wow.

P-Dub rocked! I'm excited to have had her sign my/her cookbook. I enjoyed looking at books at the library while my group was waiting to be called. It was a nice and quiet break from the Family. :) I look forward to following her advice and blogging more. I'm afraid you'll think my life is boring or something. I'm so weird.

And if you don't follow The Pioneer Woman, *yet* you should definitely check her website out! From cooking to family to photography to homeschooling... there is all sorts of fun stuff to learn and read. She's really a great writer!


PS Marlboro Man was also there. His name is Ladd! How cool is that!! While I can report is ever as mysterious and handsome as Ree makes him out to be on her website, he was not in chaps. Which was the only disappointment of the evening. ;)

Project365 ~ 50 to 56

Thanks so much for visiting! Link up your Project365 pictures in the linky at the bottom of this post!! And don't forget to grab my button in the sidebar! :)

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Project365 ~ Days 50 to 56

 {Running on Empty}

 {Snowdrop's first time on her 'new' bike!}

 {Sister Love}

 {The Poor Man's Tea Table & Chairs (diaper boxes)}

 {I love this one!}

 {Baking Cookies}

{Hendrix is hiding and Snowdrop wants her to play!}

And that was our week! Please link up your Project365 posts in the linky below! Thanks so much for visiting my blog and for linking up! Keep snapping those pictures every day! Do you believe we've made it this far? I'm proud of myself, and you should proud of yourself, too! :)

Linking to:

naptime momtog

thedailywyatt

(I think I linked somewhere else, too. Let me know if it was at your blog! Thanks!!)

Wordless{ish} Wednesday ~ February 23, 2011

Wordless Wednesday with The Paper Mama!

{What It Looks Like When They Decorate Their Beds}

Link up with The Paper Mama! 

Project365 ~ 43 to 49

We had company for the better part of the day today. Sorry this is up so late in the day! :) 

Project365 ~ Days 43 to 49

 {new shelves in the kitchen... I haven't organized yet.}

 {I made 22 Valentines for the girls to hand out at school. Mom Badge.}

 {On our way to school ~ Junie has extra handmade valentines that SHE made for her friends.}

 {I asked them to get all the books out of their room for bedtime. This is how they did it!}

 {New Kitchen Handles. Love.}

 {Lima Beans!}

{It's a twin thing.}

Link up your Project365 pictures below! Thanks for sharing!! :) 

Kitchen Cabinet Handles/Knob

{Sorry the pictures are so crummy today. I don't even feel like watermarking them! But I did want to post about this.}


Blogging has inspired me to do so many things... amongst them is to update my home on our very little budget.   I just posted about our new shelves in the kitchen.

The cabinet below the shelves is newer than the early 90's laminate that goes throughout the rest of the kitchen. The previous owners never put handles on this 'island' cabinet that I now use for all my baking stuff. Three years and one certain week of too many times getting into my frosting colors and I was ready to buy handles. I really fell in love with these at a certain Home Improvement Store, so I bought them. And Hubby installed 'em and they look SO GOOD!

Then I went to my friends' apartment during the SuperBowl and I was so impressed with how her kitchen looked. She rents so she can't do anything major as far as decorating/updating. She DID however replace all the handles in her kitchen and it looks so amazing! I decided to take a chance and buy a couple more handles and see how they look on our laminate cabinets...


 BEFORE:                                                                               AFTER:

I'm super happy with the result. It really looks nicer, updated, fresh, not so generic... I'm so glad we did this!
There's no turning back now! Even my husband said how great it looks and how different/better the kitchen looks. If I got him hooked, it totally means the game is on! So at $3/each (I'm rounding from like $2.98), I can't afford to just go out and buy them. We have 27 more handles to do and that's a lot of money, that we don't have laying (lying?) about. So we're doing it a few cabinets at a time. I'm going to try and collect $6 in change every week from our house, my car, my purse, etc ~ in hopes of getting two new handles every week until my kitchen is finished! Well, the cabinet doors at least!! Those new countertops will have to wait for now. :)

Wordless Wednesday

{Valentine's Day, on the way to school. SOOC, other than the watermark!}

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Link up  your Wordless Wednesday over at The Paper Mama!

The Simple Woman's Daybook

I am anything BUT a Simple Woman. {ha!} However, I really dig this idea. So, I'm doing it. Simple. Simple is good sometimes. Like For Today. Every Tuesday, The Simple Woman's Daybook is posted and bloggers can link up and participate! Awesome! Let's go! :)


FOR TODAY {Tuesday, February 15, 2011}
Outside my window... Darkness. It is night.
I am thinking... How wonderful it is that the kids are in bed.
I am thankful for... my children. And my physical therapist. She deserves many thanks.
From the learning rooms...(if this applies) Magnolia kicked another student today at school. This pleased no one.
From the kitchen... I am really loving my new shelves! I am disliking all the leftovers we keep having to eat.
I am wearing... Black crewneck sweater (Mossimo from Target; very lightweight) over a spandexy blue tank top. Izod golf pants in black, cozy. And my Short Grey Uggs. 
I am creating... A blog post. :)
I am going... Downstairs in the basement after this to hang out with Hubby.
I am reading... Blogs. I read blogs every day. I used to read books. Blogs are easier to read when the Littles are running around.
I am hoping... that I feel like having more kids some day because right about now, I don't.
I am hearing... Hubby cleaning the 2nd floor bathroom. God Bless Him.
Around the house... The house is a mess. A literal mess. But not inhabitable, mind you.
One of my favorite things... Getting out of the house twice a week for PT. It's been wonders for my body, and my mind.
A few plans for the rest of the week: Clean! Errands! Hang some frames that have been lying around (laying around?). Discover a trillion billion dollars in my backyard.
Here is picture for thought I am sharing... none to share at the moment! :)


Check out The Simple Woman's Daybook for more information on participating! :) 

Kitchen Shelves

A quick post today. We FINALLY got around to hanging up some open shelves in the kitchen. We bought the brackets at Ikea several months ago while out of town and I've been mulling the idea of open shelves in my kitchen ever since. I didn't really know how I'd feel about them but I was pretty sure I'd like the result. And I did! And I think my husband does, too. Here's our kitchen Before (but without the "artwork" I usually have hanging behind the counter): 

 Please excuse the kitchen mess, I was in the middle of cleaning everything else when we did all this and then I had to take Before pictures... you know how it is. Whatever. We have this great big peninsula in our kitchen where stuff tends to pile up and where we house our computer. So all my "work" is done here. In this generally cramped space. So open shelves it is.

Check out the After! 

           

It's totally not complete, it's still messy, and I still need to "arrange" the shelves. But it's a work in progress, and I'm thrilled to have some more storage space! They look great, I think, and totally give us more space on the counter. Look ~ flowers!! So my original idea was to paint the shelves either black or dark green (to match the kitchen trim). As it happened, I really love the way the unfinished wood looks. It "goes with" the wood counter ~ although I AM considering putting some sort of finish on it to make it totally match the counter. I'm really not positive on that though because frankly I really do like the way it looks as it is. And then I'd be done with it. :)

Okay so there you have it, kitchen shelves before and after. Phew. Glad I got this up! :)

Whippy Cake Giveaway!!!

There's a giveaway over at Whippy Cake, one of my favorite blogs/websites to frequent. I haven't ever purchased any of their very tempting accessories but I'm totally in love with their stuff and when I have some money... I know where it's going! They are doing a giveaway this week to celebrate Valentine's Day (I think) and what is neater than this bracelet?

Go to Whippy Cake and check out all the fabulous stuff over there ~ and enter this giveaway. Or don't and leave me a better chance at winning a fabulous bracelet! ;)