Happy Anniversary to My Fantastic Hubster!!!

8 years ago...

we said "I do"

I married my best friend

I knew you'd be mine forever

we shared a kiss 

and a hug in front of a large number of friends and family

we laughed, we partied, we became one.

I love you my dear, sweet, awesome, fantastic hubster!

If I were marrying you Today...

 I would still say "I do"

 I would still be marrying my best friend

 I would know that you are mine and always will be

 I would still kiss and hug you in front of a large crowd

 I'd laugh and party with you, because every day, you make me happy and complete.

Thanks for being my best friend,

Thank you for being my go-to-guy for everything

Thank you for being so calm, loving, patient, gentle, kind, forgiving and wonderful.

You are my better half, and I accept that.

Happy Anniversary my love, I look forward to saying that every year from now to eternity. 

We've never had a fight, and I'd never want to

every time I see you, my eyes light up

you're awesome at everything you set your mind to accomplish

 you are a fantastic father

you are full of kindness and mildness

you make me laugh 

I love to cuddle and hold your hands 

you let me put my cold feet & hands on you when I'm cold and I thank you

I love to hear you sing and play guitar

I love your jokes, your laugh,

the way your eyes water and your nose crinkles up when you're telling a really funny story 

I love the way you wrinkle your forehead when you're thinking

I love that you've never had an unkind word for me 

I love that you listen and that you know me better than I know myself, 

I love that you love me

I love that you ask me to pick out your clothes and fix your hair

I love your yo-yo skills and magic tricks

I love that you gave me two beautiful children

I love how you work so hard for this family and never complain

You are you, and YOU are who I love.

If I were stuck on an island and could only bring one thing,

I'd pick you.

Also a very large thank you to all of you who were there and helped to make my special day, all the more special.  So many friends helped out and didn't get the proper thank you they deserved.  But I haven't forgotten you...

*Marlan* for being the best mother in law a girl could ask for.  For doing so much when I really had no clue, for sticking up for us when some said we were too young to marry, for making it all happen, you are a truly wonderful person and I can never thank you enough for then and every day since.  You're always there and always helpful, and a great mom to both of us.

Briana, Katie, Dawn, Heidi, Karen, Patricia, my bridesmaids, the groomsmen, Delene, the girls that helped serve: Melissa, Brittany, Alissa, All the friends who made food and yummy pies, Zack, Gary for marrying us, Mike and Ashley for the music, even others that I know I'm leaving out, and of course, all of you who came, you were there, and we thank you too.

Starry Night

Almost 2 weeks ago, I got a phone call from my friend and former housemate Karen.  She said she was going to a painting class to paint Van Gogh's Starry Night, and had an extra spot.  She said that TriciaJane told her she knew someone who would LOVE to go.  She told her to call me!  And of course, TriciaJane was absolutely correct!

I've always wanted to go to a painting class with friends, sip wine, and chat and laugh while painting away.  We met up last week at a place called Happymess Art Studio.  It's a six person class 'Paintini'.  3 people on each table.  We were the last to arrive so we didn't get to sit together.  But the room was small and so we had no problem communicating, singing, laughing... :)

Our instructor was awesome!  She was a very sweet girl who had something positive to say about each person's work of art.  She boosted everyone's confidence, and every person there enjoyed themselves.

The class was from 7-9.  We didn't get started until 7:30 and our canvases were huge.  She said normally it's a smaller canvas to work with, but they were out, so we got the bigger ones {woohoo!}

The class didn't break up until 10, and she was completely ok with that, and she didn't rush any of us and said she was in no hurry to get home.  I could have been there all night, adding and adding.  Mine still isn't done.  I used such thick paint that I had to wait until it was dry.  I'll add my own oil paints to the top of the painting.

So here they are, our works of art, we are no Van Gogh, but I'm sure we had more fun!

So thanks Karen for inviting me!

I'll definitely come here again!

Our Story

Click here to view this photo book larger

Yesterday, I got an email from shutterfly.

It was for a free 8x8 20 page photobook.

Well, I'm kind of obsessed with photobooks right now, 

so I took that offer and made a quick book!

I'm currently making awesome large individual photobooks for the kids, so this one I made for us.

I took all of the pictures off of my facebook account {gotta love the internet} making the pixel quality is low{each picture has to stay smaller than 4x6 or it will look choppy}, but I didn't have to waste time waiting on downloads, another plus is that I didn't have to weed through the thousands of picture files that are still waiting for me to organize...

So here it is, our love story,

told through pictures

Enjoy!

$35

What's $35 to me?

A new oven door, that's what!

After scouring craigslist and contemplating buying a new oven, we decided to check around for an oven door, since the rest of the oven worked fine...waste not, want not, right?

Replacing one from the manufacturer would cost us upwards of $500...uh no!  

Replacing just the glass was $75 + shipping....

So, I called around to local appliance repair stores and found a guy that said to bring in the door and he would try to help me out.

So I did, and he did!

And now we have a new oven door, that's in better shape than our previous one...

this one has a handle...

Hubby broke our old one a long time ago :)

I'm happy, hubby's happy, kids are happy 

{the thought of no freshly baked cookies depressed them and me too}

And our bank account is happy.

Let's call it a happy day!

Signs...

Sometimes it's hard to tell when your hair is too long and begging for a trim...

Sometimes you have to listen to the signs around you...

Like when you're cutting fabric and you accidentally chop off a chunk of hair with it.

Or when you roll up the windows in your car and it takes you 10 minutes to notice that your hair rolled up too.

Or when you have to sit up all the way to stop laying on your hair.

Or when you have to hold your hair back when you pray for your meal, lest it all tumbles into your bowl of soup or whatever food lay in front of you.

Or when you're swimming in the pool and it takes more muscles than your neck possesses to fling the hair out of your face.

All of these are signs that you just might need a hair cut.

Subtle nudges to get you into the hair salon.

Every few months, I get about 5 inches cut off, I guess it's that time again...

Gone with the wind {the movie}

Over the last two nights, I sat down and watched Gone with the Wind.


I love comparing movies to books.


Before I read the book, I thought, wow, this movie covers a lot.  Then after reading the book, I thought, yeah, the movie got the gist of it.  But now, after re-watching the movie, with the book fresh in my mind, I'm feeling a little disappointed.  I mean, the movie was great, but it was so Hollywood and left out so much.  I'm not trying to bash it here, it was made for its time, and I still love it but...


I wouldn't mind seeing a remake of this movie, maybe in a miniseries so they can introduce all of the characters that were left out and give it the proper awareness of time {the book covered 12 years}.  They could also develop Scarlett and Rhet's friendship more.


Also, in my previous post, I said that they didn't add things in the movie, well, I was wrong.  They were minuscule compared to some other book to movie productions, but still, they added, and I always feel that that is unnecessary.


I also said before that Clark Gable was perfect for his role, but I will be mean now and say that after reading the book, he looks too old, rough, and scrawny for Rhett.  There were other characters that I felt didn't fit their book descriptions as well.


All in all, they did a fine job, but I was left wanting more and am hoping one day to see an awesome{er} remake...  I don't think they'll be able to find a better Scarlett though.


Ok, so I'm done with this book.  Marlan lent me her grandmother's copy of Desirée so that will be my next book adventure, they also made a movie of that, so I look forward to comparing :)

Gone with the Wind {the book}

This week, I put the pedal to the metal and read Gone with the Wind.  It is such a long book, and I couldn't decide whether it was worth my time as I have seen and love the movie, but the southern drawl is so annoying, I didn't know if I could handle so much southern silliness. So for a while, I had been reading a paragraph here, a page there.  But this week, I decided to just dive in and I'm glad I did because...


It was unbelievable!


Aside from Pride and Prejudice, which shall always be held in high esteem as my favorite novel, Gone with the Wind takes the cake as my second best favorite.


I encourage everyone to read it.


The movie left out a lot, I mean, how could it not, the book was over 800 pages, but it covered the majority, and aside from leaving stuff out, they didn't add to it, which always annoys me when they do that.


Having seen the movie before reading the book, it was fun putting the faces that I watched on the characters in the book.  I'd have to say that I now perfectly understand why they cast Vivien Leigh as Scarlett and Clark Gable as Rhett.  They portrayed the characters perfectly, and their looks were right on.  Clark Gable as the strong handsome man that he was and Vivien as the leading lady that everyone wants to strangle.


Reading the book added so much more appreciation to the story that I already loved.
The struggle between the two, never sharing the same emotion at the same time, the struggle between holding onto the civilization of the past that is now, Gone with the Wind, and embracing the new age.  Wanting to slap and shake sense into both of them.  Rhett's obvious heartbreak every time she thought of Ashley, as he can read her thoughts.


The book told you so much more about the thoughts and feelings of the characters that you can't always get from a look on screen.  And the historical background, wow, there's a lot of history there.  I've never been a history buff.  In fact, Social Studies was the one subject that I abhorred.  I never cared to learn anything in that class through the years.  Especially about wars.  The thought of a war sickens me and the thought of learning about one evokes the same emotion.  And though the events of the war was told in a biased tone of the upper class, I learned a lot and I was intrigued.  


I have to admit, that even though I knew the ending to the story, I couldn't help hoping that it would be different.  That these 2 troubled people would get on the same page and live happily ever after.  Everyone loves a happy ending, well, I know that I do.  At least it leaves hope, or to others, despair, as it leaves the reader to decide the future of these 2 characters.


I have put Gone with the Wind at the top of my netflix queue and I look forward to re-watching and comparing sometime this week.  :)

Fabric Flowers

I've been having fun learning how to make different fabric flowers.

I'm not really into going to a fabric store and picking out fabric...

Too many choices, I'd spend all day picking up and putting down different things.

I'd end up coming home empty handed, or spending hundreds of bucks

So for now, I just use what I have on hand...

Old t-shirts and dresses, chop chop, snip snip

It's fun!

To be honest, I made the above flowers over a month ago, and they have been sitting in a bin on my floor ever since.  I haven't decided on the perfect use for them yet...

Headbands, clips, brooches

Too many choices.

Today, I learned how to make this felt dahlia.

It was fun, and I like it a lot, but it took a long time.

Time munchers aren't really my thing.

But I'd like to make a few bright colored really large ones for some couch pillows one day!

My girly

I thoroughly enjoy my alone time with my girly.

She calls us best girls.

We spend most of our alone time together.

Playing, talking, making stuff, giggling, and cuddling.

This is what she painted yesterday.

I love it.

It's of herself as a baby with her little kitten.

Sometimes I get a little bit of quiet...

The other day she said "Mommy, I Love you!"

I said "I love you too!"

then she asked "Do you love me when you spank my butt?"

I said "Yes!  I love you always, even when I spank your butt!"

and she said "That's weird..."

Of course!

Why do things come in waves?

I'm not going to say these are the bad terrible things that change peoples lives, no I wont complain that much, because I am thankful that my family and life in general has stayed in pretty good tact these 27 years of my life.

But it's those annoying things that all seem to go wrong at the same time.

I'm whining about my appliances here...

Our dishwasher has been on the fritz for a while now, hardly washing or you could say, making much dirtier, the dishes that go in.  So I'm hand-washing my dishes.  No big deal, it's just annoying.  This family goes through quite a lot of dishes in a small period of time, and devoting over an hour each day to dishes isn't on my agenda.

Then, last night, the wonderful hubby decided to make some yummy pizza...{He's the pizza man around here and has pretty much perfected the pizza.}  So, he opens the oven door and discovers the glass on the door has shattered.  It must have cracked the day before when I used the broiler or perhaps on Sunday when he turned the self cleaner on, but either way, it's unusable.

We were hoping these things would last us a year or 2 and that we'd slowly replace them with stainless steel.  And now they are both gone and it's not in our budget right now to replace them with what we want.  So now, we either have to replace them with used, probably near breaking, over priced things from craigslist or wait it out.

And we don't even have a truck!

Grr!

Thanks for listening to me whine.

Oh an I have a mouse in my outside Laundry Room!

Hopefully things are going better in your neck of the woods!

Ashley's Baby Shower

In just a few months, our friend Ashley will be having twin baby boys!

This past Saturday, KennaKat, Nonni, and myself, went up to Boonesmille for her baby shower.

Unfortunately, KennaKat tripped and broke my camera.  

My pour lens is now bent :(

But before she broke it, she took some pictures.

Enjoy KennaKat's view of the party...

What is up with...

What is up with...

1.  Bellybutton fuzz

I was laying in bed trying to sleep, when for some unknown reason, my hand traveled to my bellybutton and discovered a random funky something all cozy inside.  Bellybutton gunk or fuzz has got to be the most random thing ever.

2.  The ticking sound I hear

Lately when I use the computer, I hear a faint ticking sound somewhere close by.  I've searched and searched and can find no clock or watch or solution to this random tick-tocking.  Maybe it's a bomb, or maybe I'm losing my mind...

3.  People that stand too close behind you in line

I seem to possess this annoying ability to make anyone who is standing behind me in line, to invade my personal space to 19th degree.  I've recently experienced 2 different people hovering next to me in line, sometimes to the point of contact.  And every time I tried to inch forward they would too.  Once for 45 minutes I had a girl either standing shoulder to shoulder with me or if I made it in-front, she basically had her face in my hair.  Then while waiting to place an order at the food court, this man was hovering so close, that I couldn't move and every time I did, he would move forward and bump into me.  He hovered behind me.  Then when I stepped up to order, he stepped up too and was right.behind.me.  He even missed the next open cashier because he was too busy hovering.  Then when he realized he had been skipped, he stood in between the 2 registers with a very confused expression.  People are weird and some shouldn't be allowed out of the house without knowing the personal space rules.  {Envision a bubble around every body, do not enter that bubble realm unless invited.  And another thing, when having a conversation with someone, do not get so close in their face that you can only see their pupils and miss all of the facial and hand gestures, unless you are whispering, then you should look at their ear.}  Learn these rules and you will go far my friend.

4.  Ringing in your ear

Don't you hate it when you get that annoying ringing in your ear?  It's so random and annoying and sometimes slightly painful.

5.  Tiny closets

Our house has a very low quantity of closets contained inside of it.  To make matters worse, the closets that it does possess are annoyingly tiny.  Thus making our cluttery-pack-rat habits much more noticeable.

Paper Mache Piggy Bank

Last summer I had fun experimenting and making this paper mache piggy bank for a friends very special baby girl.

Cakes

Cake making is something that I stumbled upon a few years ago.

A friend asked me to help her with her graduation party and I said sure.

She mentioned that she wanted a cake but didn't know who to ask, and I said

"I can do it!"

She asked if I had ever decorated a big cake before, NO, but I know I can do it!

So I decorated the place for her Luau Party and made a Luau themed cake, it was fun, and the rest is history!

Here are a few that I have made...

The Luau Cake for LissaLou

First Pregnancy cake for Bri

Lingerie Cake

Baby Bump cake for Amy

Lingerie cake for Jessi

Super Woman Lingerie Cake for Sarah

I've thought about taking a class and learning the "proper" way to decorate and make cool flowers and stuff, but what's the fun in that??

Dabbling and learning along the way is too much fun for this happenstance girl!

Paintings

I LOVE oil painting, it is one of the most peaceful things that I do.  

When I do it, I get in the zone, in my head I hear Mozart and Beethoven and I transfer to another place, a beautiful place where every line and smudge and mixture of color is wonderful in it's own way, and all is happy and fun.

My first Painting for MYSELF!
A replica of O'Keeffe's Poppy
One of my most favorite pictures

The Eiffel Tower for Bri
To say she has a love for the Eiffel Tower is an understatement
And I was happy to paint this beautiful structure for her
One day, I'll paint one for myself because I love it a lot too!

My first experience with oil painting.
I painted this for M&G's 28th Anniversary 8 years ago
I didn't use a single brush, I did it with Palette knives, it was a lot of fun, and started my obsession

Here's something I painted, but it's not oil, just wall paint

The Eiffel tower for Deli's room, painted just over 2 years ago

I need to get my butt up there and paint AJ's tree in her purple room before she is born :)

Mosaics

One of my most favorite hobbies is Mosaics, I love them, I love to make them and I love to look at them, and I love smashing and collecting things to put in them, and I love that I have a huge overflowing bin of broken things to make them with.  I love.

Here are some of my before blog world mosaics...

Our Bathroom mirror.
The only room in the house with a "theme"
I made this one out of shells and sea rocks collected at the beach one year.
I knew taking home buckets of shells would come in handy one day :)

My first mirror.
It greets you as you walk into our home.

A wedding present for Pat and Kris

A mirror for Lauren

Everyone in the family now has something mosaic'd by me.  Bri has 4 smaller frames, but I can't find a picture of it.  I'll try and do that the next time I'm up.