Sleepover!

Tonight, Maddie is sleeping at her friend's house for the first time! She has had her friend stay here, but she's never gone away on her own. I am hoping I don't get a call at midnight!

I still can't believe she is old enough to be sleeping at someone else's house!

The new bed is coming....

in 6 to 8 weeks.

Isn't it horrible to have to wait for new furniture????

We bought a new KING mattress tonight, and a new headboard/footboard to go with it! The mattress is a Serta (from the Vera Wang collection - who knew mattresses had to be as fancy as a wedding dress????). And here is the bed

I bought this bedding too
I am not sure I will keep that bedding though. I am torn about what I want in the room. The bedding is from Walmart, from their Better Homes and Gardens collection. I was pleasantly surprised with the quality of the items, but I am thinking of going with a pretty tan toile set I saw on ebay. Not sure, not sure!

Bubbles and gardens and mattresses - oh my!

Maddie is at girl scout day camp this week, leaving me and the boys home together for most of the day. We've been getting a lot done around the house. Today I gave my bedroom a good cleaning (including the windows!), cleaned the kids' bathroom, did 4 loads of laundry and decluttered another dresser drawer (making it the 4th one this week - Goodwill is going to love me!)

Ryan and I played a few games this afternoon, but soon he wanted to try something new. I just got the newest issue of Family Fun magazine in the mail and had torn out a page with a cool bubble activity on it. We decided to try it.

All you do is take an empty bottle (water, soda etc) and cut the bottom off of it. Rubber band a piece of towel or washcloth around the bottom, wet the fabric and then dip it in a shallow pan of dish detergent (we use Dawn). Just blow into the bottle and here is what you'll get
Aren't those the coolest bubble "snakes" you have ever seen? This was so east to do, but be careful you don't hyperventilate! Ryan was blowing so hard (to make longer snakes) that he nearly fell over! The best part about this (aside from how easy it is to do) is surprising others with it. Ryan loved showing his brother and sister what his new bubble blower does - they were all pleasantly surprised!

While Ryan blew bubbles, I checked the progress of the garden.
We have lots of green beans on the plants (had some with dinner a few nights ago) and the lettuce is getting bigger (I planted too close to the beans, and most of my lettuce ended up not growing at all - we'll try again for the fall). Lots of carrots plumping up too. We have some nice green tomatoes:
The squash has some nice flowers on the plant, and the peppers are turning from flowers to tiny peppers this week! we also have TONS of flowers on the cantaloupe plants and some starting on the watermelon too!
Tonight, we went mattress shopping - with all three kids. Needless to say, it was quite an experience. We currently have a queen-size bed which is about 10 years old. The mattress is getting saggy, and after sleeping in king-size beds on vacation we started talking about upgrading to a king.

Mattress shopping is very frustrating! Craig seems to enjoy laying down in hundreds of beds, but I find it tedious and exhausting! The kids want to jump on every bed (you have to admit, it does look tempting), and Jacob had an accident while we were in one little mattress store! Yikes! (I was kind of hoping perhaps the salesman would give us a great deal just to get us to leave his store!).

However, we did make some progress. We know we are interested in a traditional innerspring mattress - something right in the middle of plush and firm. Hopefully we'll make a decision this week and order something - then I can have fun shopping for new bedding!!!!! I love this brown quilt from Kohls.com
Tomorrow - I'll show you my very undecorated bedroom. We'll finally paint and decorate once we get the new bed!

Mooooooooo!

Can you even stand it?????? I love Cow Appreciation Day at Chik-Fil-A! The whole family dressed up as cows and enjoyed a totally FREE dinner tonight! Yee-haw!

Bye-Bye Hair!

Here's the new me! I cut several inches (in the back, it could have been almost 8 inches?????) and had the back "stacked." This was a pretty bold move for me, but it paid off as I love the new look! Craig liked it a lot too (which is great - I thought he would miss the old, long hair). What do you think?

ps - these pics were taken with the self-timer and were the best I could get. :)

Walking

I carved a little time for moi tonight and took a nice long walk. I like walking (once I get going) - it's so nice and quiet and the perfect time for me to relax/daydream/unwind. I love to look at all the homes as I walk past and imagine what the families who live in them are doing. :)

We had a busy day today - library, returns at one store, paying my charge bill at my dear friend Kohl's and lots of laundry.

Tomorrow we're heading to the opposite end of town to try to pick up a gift certificate for my sister's birthday (she's turning 30 this weekend - and her husband is trying to pull off the impossible and have a surprise party for her). She loves getting her nails done every other week, so I figure a gift certificate for that is PERFECT!

Speaking of things that cost a lot of money but make you feel pretty and pampered, Craig got me a lovely gift certificate to a spa (yes, a real honest-to-goodness-spa!) for Mother's Day. I still have to book my day of pampering - but first I need to decide what to get done. There will certainly be a pedicure and massage involved! I can't wait to find the time to enjoy that gift!

New Routines

I can't believe the 4th of July has come and gone! The summer is nearly half over, and I feel like it just started!

We returned home from our vacation nearly 2 weeks ago. We had mostly good times. :) The kids turned out to be good little travelers (despite the fact that poor Ryan either had a big case of the nerves, some car sickness, or a 24-hour bug on the ride down - he was sick an hour into the ride) and did much better than expected during our long, long drive.

The Orlando portion of our trip was wonderful! I can't say enough great things about the pool home we rented, and Disney World was everything I hoped it would be (despite REALLY hot weather and some tired kids). Craig did work during our trip, but we still had lots of fun!

Myrtle Beach was a great way to end our vacation. We had perfect weather and stayed in a hotel that was very nice. I think we will end up visiting Myrtle Beach again in the future - we all thought our 3-day stay was a little too short!

Since we have been home, we've all been adjusting to our new "normal" - I am done babysitting and spend the days with my own three children. I won't lie at all - I am loving it! We are free to do whatever we want! We've done the pool, the library, grocery shopping, visited family and friends and more. We eat dinner at 5:00. We're all a lot happier; however, there is still a lot of adjusting going on.

I am rarely on the computer anymore! we're so busy doing "stuff" that I never have time to sit down at my desk. My goal for the next week or so is to really settle into a rhythm where I can balance housework, time with kids and personal time - I haven't really been able to hit that balance yet (meaning lots of kid time, but little time for the house or me). I think we can do it - we're just still in the Honeymoon Phase.

Hopefully I'll find more time to update more frequently here.