Wordless Wednesday: Daddy & Son time

Priceless!!!

(this is C's makeshift bed in our bedroom. He calls it his motor home of course)  ;)

Do you have time to "waste"

If you are a Mommy, then probably not. I know I don't. Well I didn't.  Lately I have not been able to sleep too well at night. P goes to bed around 10-11pm. Now you would think, after a full day of cleaning, cooking, picking up around  here, running errands, dealing with a 3.5 yr old, I would be out before my head hit the pillow. Well, that would not be the case AT ALL. I am wide awake. Usually until 1 or sometimes 2am. (and once in a while even later) WoW...how do I function? I am extremely lucky bc C will sleep in usually until 10-10:30am. (he goes to bed with his Daddy, other wise he is up @ 4AM, NO THANKS)  ;)

So what do I do for this spare couple of hours? I blog, I catch up on your blogs, I catch up on my email, I facebook, I read, etc.

Well that is until I found this website... www.sporcle.com  It is a fun site where time will fly by. I am new to this site, so I am not sure what all it offers, but I am addicted to its game area. It challenges you on all different types or categories. Examples, do you know all the states? or their capitols? or even their largest cities?  Do you know ads or trademarks for companies? Do you know all the Presidents? Or the most popular baby names? Do you know characters or catch phrases from sitcoms? The list goes on and on.

Really, you must check it out. And if you do, let me know what you think.
I am also fairly new to facebook, which is also a great way to "waste" time you don't have.  ;)  Seriously though, it is a GREAT way to keep in touch with friends & family. And even to track down a lost friend or loved one.
There are so many great things out there...we need to go to congress to get them to extend our days to like 30 hours, so we can still do all these things and spend time with our families and friends. 
If you are on facebook and want to be friends, send me an email. I would love to get to know you even better.
Isn't the internet AWESOME?

Boot Camp for little boys

"terrible two's" HA  ...                  "treacherous three's" is more
                                                       like it

    
              C @ 2 yrs                                      C @ 3 yrs

Why do "they" call it terrible two's? We are having treacherous three's here. They are much worse than the two's could ever hope to be. HELP!!!  ;)

C will be 4 in April. (I can not wait) I am hoping that he wakes up on his birthday leaving 3 and the behavior that came with it behind.  :)
This is my prayer. (honest)

In the past few months we have seen a different child. And not for the better. No, for the worse.

Please, don't get me wrong...he has his days, weeks even where he is the best little 3 yr old he can be. Loving, sweet, well mannered, helpful, etc. But then, just one thing goes wrong for him and it is all over. A new boy emerges, one that I do not recognize. And with this "new" boy, comes a "new" Mommy. And I must add, I do NOT like the "new" Mommy either. She is mean and she yells, mainly bc that is the ONLY way she can be heard over the screams of the "new" boy. That, and it is the only thing that has worked so far for the "new" boy. YIKES. It makes the "old" Mommy's head hurt.

So this week we, (I) decided to try something new. Boot Camp!!! I locked C out of his playroom. All he has to play with are his instruments (bc somehow they were over looked and left in the family room), his story book reader, a handful of blocks that came from some hiding spot, one dinosaur, and a small Thomas fire truck. In his bed he has Salty.
He will not be allowed back into his playroom until he is listening a majority of the time. We are also putting him in "time out". I am not sure this works, but we are trying it out. The rule for time out is he has to face the wall and no crying (I am so mean) for three minutes. (one minute for each year). You would think this was easy...no it is not, not for him. He is in time out for two, three or four times longer than he would have to be, just bc he won't stop screaming.  

I guess staying home with him all this time, I have not realized a lot of this until this past week when I took him to church with me while I working in the childcare in the evening. WoW...he really opened my eyes. Out of 20+ kids, mine was the only one that would not listen to me, his own Mommy. He was also the only one that had a screaming fit and chose to sit out TWO different times. What an eye opener.

I am determined to tame this "monster" I have created. Please pray for us. I will keep you updated. And if you have any suggestions, PLEASE send them my way.

Doesn't he look SO innocent? 

              C-3.5yrs

Sunday's Scripture...

My apologies for missing last week's scripture. I took an unplanned blog break for a few days. (need to rejuvenate)

So my verse for the MIL last week was sent to me by MiMi @ He & Me + 3 .
Thank you. :)

Be still and know that I am God
Psalms 46:10

And this week's verse was suggested by Lisa @ MY JOURNEY THROUGH INFERTILITY . Thank you too.

For he will command His angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways
Psalms 91:11


Several of you have written and asked how my MIL is doing. Thank you for your concern and prayers. To the best of my knowledge she is doing ok. I have not spoken to her personally for a while now. She has kind of pulled away from everyone and everything. So we give her space. I am not sure this is the best thing, but it is what she seems to want. We think of her always and keep her in our prayers. I suppose that is all we can do for her now, until she is ready for more.
I continue sending her the verses each week, but have not heard from her regarding them. I hope they mean as much to her as they do to me. I have learned a lot from doing this for her. I am currently looking into some type of devotional for her. And possibly a Chicken Soup for the Soul book.

If you have any more verses you would like to share with me. I would greatly appreciate them.  I love getting them and reading them too. I have a bulletin/dry erase board in my kitchen and write Bible verses on there to go back to through out the week.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend.

Do your kids watch...

PBS is one of the few channels we still get. Which is a good thing, bc C would be lost with out this show. He LOVES it and so do I. It is very educational. We have four or five of their dvd's too. 

If you have not seen this, check it out. You can go to www.pbskids.com to check for your local listings.

Be sure to let us know what you think. 

Prayer Request

 

Jen @  Home... Hands Full, HEARTS Full, Quiver Full! has asked that we here in bloggy-land band together again in prayer for her friend's son, Isaiah.

The details follow...(I took this from her site)
                                  
"Isaiah was born with all of his "insides" on the outside.

Because of his problems...He needed a small bowel transplant. He's never really eaten or enjoyed eating food-he is mostly tube fed.
                                  
Jen and her hubby and other 2 kids took turns staying with Isaiah-sacrificing "self" for this sweet child. He has been in and out of the hospital for years.

They thought the transplant worked......It didn't.......
Jen called yesterday to tell me that they had to remove ALL his new bowel...it was destroyed. She has asked for prayer for her family. Isaiah is in unbearable pain and I'm sure Jen is too......of a different kind. The mommy kind-the kind I pray I never have to face.

If he makes it through...He will be listed for another transplant immediately.

Because of Jen and Aaron.....Isaiah KNOWS JESUS!! Praise the Lord for that.
                       

Please join with me in prayer for my dear friend and her only boy. I don't even think Jen knows what a blog is but I HAVE SEEN the bloggy community come together in situations where prayers need to be lifted up-GOD DOES MIRACULOUS THINGS through these crazy computers.

Pray I'll know what to say & that whatever I say will comfort her. Pray that Isaiah's suffering will cease."

"O Lord, hear my prayer, listen to my cry for mercy; in your faithfulness and righteousness come to my relief." Psalm 143:1

ch cha changes (around the house)

Good Afternoon fellow blogger friends.
I thought I would share with you a couple changes we made here at our house. (nothing too major, don't get excited)  ;)  HA

Remember this...

well I changed out the stand, and now have this...

(I think it looks MUCH better. What do you think?)

Another change in our kitchen...

this is the best picture I have...notice the white bakers rack back there? We got rid of it and replaced it with this...

I think we may buy another one of these pantry cupboards.  There is just enough room on the wall there for a second one. (I measured)  ;)

***we are about to get ANOTHER new table...courtesy of my Mom. The table in the above picture is stable and only seats 4, period. My Mom's table is round, but has a leaf, maybe two, that make it oval and able to seat more. (just in case) Plus it is just a NICER table all around.  :) I will share it with you once we get it, in about 10 days. 

Here is our last change and it is also in the kitchen...I do not have a before picture bc when I took pix of the house I did not show this wall. Though the pantry cupboard USED to sit in this spot along with our recycling bin. (recycling bin = eye sore, so it is now in the laundry room)  ;)

Have you noticed that I use these "cubical" things through out my house? They are great for storage.  I think we have 8 of them total. 
4 for the play room (toys, puzzles, games, books, etc)
1 in C's bedroom (dvd's, pictures,more books, etc)
1 in the entry (great for shoes, mail, gloves, hats, etc)
1 in the family room (as seen in second picture above)
1 in the kitchen (as seen in above picture as well)

In old houses you have to create your own storage.  :)
We are a little closer to having our house listed on the MLS.  YAY!!!
I'll keep you posted.

HAPPY FRIDAY!!!

The Bloggers Prayer

The Bloggers Prayer

Lord help me to learn to spell without spellcheck, manage to visit all that visit me, and post regularly - all in 5 minutes a day, so that I can clean house and take care of my family. Help me to not look at every occurrence in my life as a blog post, and to quit taking pictures of weird things to share as well. Please Lord, help me to stop talking about my blog friends as though they are next door neighbors or someone I have known all of my life. And help me dear Lord, to think of something witty and wise to post tomorrow.


This rings true for me...how about you???
I found this somewhere a few months back. Now I can not remember where. If it was from you, please let me know and I will give you proper credit. Thanks!!!

Wordless Wednesday: A makeshift train of toys

A child's Imagination & a few answers to your ?'s

this is C's make-believe motor home.  Let me break it down for you...
the car towards the front is obviously the motor part with the passenger seat right beside it.
the chair he is sitting in is his living space/couch
the other chair towards the window facing the window, C informs me is his bathroom/shower.
The fire truck next to Salty (the dog) and sweeper is his fridge. (bc the yellow seat opens)

Don't you just love what kid's come up with on their own? He was so proud of himself for this.

Some of you asked questions re: my last post where I showed you an RV we looked @ and loved.

1. No we have not bought one yet. While we are aggressively looking @ them, we have not bought one yet and are unsure just how soon we will be buying one. We want to a have plan in order for when the time comes. First on the list is for our house to sell. And while I listed it on a local for sale by owner site, it is not truly on the market yet and won't be until a few more things are finished. (soon I hope)

2.  We would love to come visit each & every one of you once we do buy one and are able. That is part of the reason for buying an RV, so that we can travel more and not rely on nasty hotels or expensive inns, or family.friends SO MUCH.  And of course we would love to have you & your family join us too. Soon...I promise. Thank you for the invites. How FUN!!! Can not wait!!!  :)
Maybe I could go on a blog tour...feature each of you @ our stop/visit with you. Oh the FUN times. Hmm...can hubby get paid for this somehow? Does anyone need new carpet or flooring??? Ok, I better come back down to earth out of dreamland now.  :) Seriously though, P needs a traveling job, one where we could go with him though, of course.

3. This particular RV is nicer than my house. It is amazing what they can do with them these days. The storage in them is AMAZING. Seriously. The only drawback in the one bedroom, but the couch is a pull out and like I mentioned, there is plenty of room in the bedroom for a small mattress/bed. C sleeps with us a lot during the winter anyway. (bc we have an old house that is HARD to heat upstairs)

4. Since you asked...YES we will be living in this FULL TIME for 12-18 months.
Do you think we are crazy??? Honestly, I would LOVE to know your thoughts.
Here is why...I have said this numerous times before...I want to live more simply. How much simpler can it get? A place for everything and everything in its place.  And to be honest not a lot of room to keep buying "stuff".
Also, togetherness. We want to become closer as a family. Neither of P, nor myself grew up in close knit families. My parents divorced when I was 8 and we split our time between my Dad, my Mom & my Grandparents. While my family is "close", we did not do things together as a family much at all. My Dad's work did not allow for it one, and well a Father on his own with two young daughters made it hard to do a lot of things.
P's family did not and still does not do a lot together. They all live there own lives and catch up when they can.
We want to give Collin more of a togetherness that we did not have. AND we want to take him to explore the different states and such too. Lots of family vacations. Little ones and big ones. :)
Another reason...I learned when my Dad passed away very unexpectedly that life is INFACT short. We do not know when our time here on earth will end. For this reason alone, I want to do this now and not wait until we are older, like most couples do. There is NO time like the present.
We are lucky bc my Dad owned about an acre & a half of land in the "country". It is now city, but still the country feel. My sister lives in our childhood home and after talking to her, she has agreed that we could put the RV on the property. (technically the land belongs to both of us, but she has lived in the house for the past seven years)

So when the times comes and our house sells. We will then buy an rv and proceed to live in it until we feel our time has come to again buy, build, or even rent a home.

We think this will be an adventure. And something that can only be done while we have one child. If I find myself pregnant we will have to cancel this plan to live in the RV. Not enough room for a family of four, I am afraid. Not full time anyway.  ;)

We found one...

Monday P took the day off and so we headed out to look @ RV's again. We are getting closer to actually buying one and wanted to see what our local dealer had to offer.
After almost four hours looking and comparing and narrowing down...we think we found THE ONE.

 

 

a more defined kitchen area with MORE
cupboard space then I have in my HOUSE.

 
dining area across from kitchen

even a fireplace  (wow)

 
the entertainment area            the bedroom (king size bed) & room enough
comes with TWO lcd tv's            for C's toddler mattress too
 

 
For some reason I missed getting a picture of the BEST part...this model comes with a washer & dryer.  YAY!!!   The couch pulls out into a bed as well. And there is even storage in the dining chairs.  (crazy)

This model only has one bedroom, which is a negative, but offers everything else we were looking for. So I think we are willing to trade the 2nd bedroom for all the extras this model offers.
But look at this other models second bedroom...

it sleeps up to 10!!!
Isn't that AMAZING????  (for an rv?) It also has a 1/2 bath off of it. But the living area is non-existent.  (bummer) Just a small seating area right across from the kitchenette and booth table.
Well, you can't have it all!!!

Wordless Wednesday: Salty goes to Target

FYI: Salty is C's doggy and he was 'cold' and needed to wear a jacket for his day out, per C.

A budding artist?

P found this on the wall in the hallway last week...

and the "artist" with his work

This is not the first time. Over a year ago we were coloring and I went to answer the phone and came back to find crayon on the wall behind the couch. And just a day or two ago we found ANOTHER drawing in his playroom on the wall. We think he made that mark about the same time as the above marks. (since) He has lost ALL pens, pencils, crayons,markers, paints, etc for the month of February.

Is it wrong to take a picture and then punish???  ;)

Do you Twitter?

Well, do you? If so, then you can now follow me on twitter. Or stay caught up with my recent twits, by looking to my right sidebar.
It is fun, easy and free. So try it out!!!
But, please be warned it can(and will) become ADDICTING, much like blogging.

Sunday's Scripture

Trust the Lord with all your heart and don't depend on your own understanding.
Proverbs 3:5

PTL: Harper is home in Arkansas

Woo~hoo!!!
Praise GOD!!!
Harper was released from the hospital in Tulsa, OK today and is now home with her Mommy & Daddy in Arkansas.

God is SO good!!!

Again, thank you all for your prayers!!!

  
The HAPPY family  :)

Wordless Wednesday: bye bye tv

He just wanted to give the tv a hug bye.

Tour of My Home

As of this afternoon our house is for sale. (YAY) Please say a quick prayer this journey is a quick and smooth one for us. THANKS.

We are still working on the final touches, but it will all be done SOON.

A couple weeks ago a dear friend and fellow blogger, Monica from life on the hilltop suggested that I take you on a tour of our home. Our first home, before it sells. I thought this was a GREAT idea and decided to take her up on it.  :) Thanks for the super idea.

WELCOME to Our Home!

 
Please, come in...                            our entry way
   
     through the doorway to your left, C's playroom
 
the original fireplace and tile work (sits across from the window in the above pic)  Yes in the playroom.

and then on into our family room

the door on the right will take you upstairs, but before we go there...

Let's take a peek into the kitchen, shall we?

We had a much larger kitchen table and just down sized to this one.
It gives us so much more space. We love it. We call this "room" the dining AREA, bc it is connected and open to the kitchen.


I was really hoping for black appliances, but since we are selling, no need for them now.  :) I just LOVE the walls in the kitchen.

and this is the ceiling above the kitchen...

next we will go into the half bath, which is right off the back of
the kitchen.
 
Our laundry "room", which is just a closet is behind these doors
in this 1/2 bath...I will spare you that though.  ;)
 
Are you ready to head upstairs? Ok...

You have already seen our master bedroom, but incase you missed that post, here ya go.

on to C's fire truck bedroom...

 
Next we will go take a look at the office, which could also be a
3rd bedroom.

it is a small bedroom.  The door behind the white chest,
overlooks the kitchen area with the raised ceiling and rail.

and last, and maybe least our full bath
Which will be getting a tub, very soon.  :)

the toilet area...if you REALLY want to see it. ;)
just a side note...the trim still needs to be put down in this room, so please don't mind it.  :) (thanks)


I hope you enjoyed your tour of our home.
Please come back again soon.