A 40ish Day Journey

**I am not here to offend anyone one or "push" my religion on you, I have decided to share my journey because this is my blog, please feel free to read, feel free not to, feel free to join me if you like!**

 

As I get older my desire to learn more about my relationship with God has grown.  I have always believed in God, I have had my doubts in him, because I am only human, but my belief in him has always been strong.  My problem?  I am not very educated when it comes to the true purpose of life and what God is really about.  I know that he is always there, always looking after me and has a purpose for my life.  A purpose that I have doubted, cried about, screamed about and wondered why is God doing this to me?

A couple of months ago I was talking with a friend about the purpose of life and she gave me a book and said that it was a must read!  I finally started the book today.  Have you heard of or read The Purpose Driven Life by Rick Warren?  The book is designed to be a 40 day read, because God considers 40 days a spiritually significant time period. I never knew that, like Noah was transformed by 40 days of rain (knew that), Jesus was empowered by 40 days in the wilderness and the disciples were transformed by 40 days with Jesus after his resurrection.

So today marked the start of my 40 day journey, which I will say 40ish because I am only human!  After reading Day 1, which is a whopping 4 pages, I have started my journey, my quest to find the purpose of my life, which coincidentally has nothing to do with me at all!

Today's Point to Ponder:  "It's not about me."

Verse to Remember:  "Everything got started in him and finds its purpose in him."  Colossians 1:16b

So today I know that I was born by God's purpose and for his purpose, I exist only because God wills me to exist.

I hope everyone is having a fabulous Sunday!

 

A Winner!

Thank you to everyone who entered my giveaway!  We have a winner of the Monogrammed Frame!

Jen from Larsen Loves and Craft-O-Maniac!

Congratulations Jen!  I will send you an email!  I hope everyone has a great weekend!

Picture Perfect

To me these moments are priceless and I am so glad that I can capture these moments!

Love my girls!

I Think I'm Going Crazy!

Dear Friends....

I have been a horrible blogger, I am swamped with work.  Like so swamped that I worked last night from 8:30 to 1:30 am on top of an 8 hour day.  And today is no better.  I am still working!  I put a movie in for the girls and begged them to watch it so I can work!  I took a 2 hour break for volleyball and I'm back at it....well kind of I needed a blog break!

So tonight I am stuck with this...

and this....

and this...

The only good thing about this is that the new prison opens in 1 week and the majority of my work will be done, yay for me!!!

And hopefully this weekend I will be making an amazing Monogrammed Frame for one lucky winner!

hint, hint...did you enter yet?  No?  Well help me get my sanity back by crafting this weekend and enter here!

So while I am not enjoying my 9 o'clock Dance of Joy, I hope you are!!

Boring Day, But a Great Tip!

Not a whole lot going on here today.  Ben left again for the week.  He is training for work.  **Crazy weirdos....I have a house full of guns just waiting to be used!**  Anyway, I did get one of my metal Hobby Lobby finds hung up, but I think my 2 year old hid my camera...the search continues.  So until then I have a great tip/trick for you tonight!

Last year around Halloween, I was painting my toenails black on the living room carpet.  Kielyn decided that she wanted black toenails too, so as I was painting Kie's toe nails, Taylor who had just turned 1 decided to help.  She decided to pour half a bottle of black nail polish all over my beige carpets.

*Insert extremely inappropriate long string of curse words, thank God my kids didn't repeat any of it*

PANIC!!!!!

How in the heck do you get black nail polish out of beige carpet and what did we do before google?!?!

The answer is Windex!

Windex will remove nail polish from your carpet!  Spray the spill with windex, blot, spray, blot, spray, blot and repeat until the polish is gone!  It is a miracle! 

See, nothing exciting going on here tonight, but at least this might save you a headache somewhere down the road!  I am off to watch the Season Finale of Army Wives!

P.S.  Did you enter my giveaway yet?  If not click here!

Poor Taylor, Poor Poor Taylor

On Friday my Gramma watched the girls for me because our daycare provider took the afternoon off.  When I got off work and went to pick them up Kielyn entertained me with the best conversation I have had all week!

Kielyn:  "Mom, Gramma said she is going to buy me a princess dress."

Me:  "Don't you think you have enough princess dresses?"

Kielyn:  *rolls eyes* "Mom, this is for my costume."

Me:  "What costume?"

Kielyn:  "Ugh, for Halloween."

Me:  "What are you going to be?"

 Kielyn:  "A princess.  And princesses say "Help me, Help me!"  all the time."

Me:  "They do?"

Kielyn:  "Yeah, all the time."

Me:  "Well, if you are going to be princess what is Taylor going to be."

Kielyn:  "A dragon."

Poor Taylor!  Her sister is going to be a beautiful princess and she is going to be a dragon?!?!  So I asked Taylor "What do you want to be for Halloween?"  Her reply?  "A dragon" and then she roared at me.

Don't forget to enter my giveaway here!

A Splurge and a Giveaway!

***This Giveaway is Closed***

At the beginning of the month my husband gave me $100 cash for our anniversary and last night I got to go shopping!  Yay for me!!  I went to Target and found nothing, KMart....nothing but I did find a few things at Hobby Lobby and Joanns!

I have been looking for some metal pieces for the living room and dining room and finally found something that I like.  I apologize in advance for the bad pictures, I took them in the garage because I was too lazy to bring anything in.

I can't wait to get motivated and find them a home!

And now for the splurge, I have had my eye on this amazing wreath at Joann's for a while now, but I choked every time I thought about spending $40 on a wreath, come on!  But yesterday when I went in it was 40% off, only $25!!  And because this was "gift money" and not household money I didn't feel guilty at all....ok, I might have picked it up, put it back, picked it up, put it back like 3 times but it finally came home with me!

An amazing black feather wreath!  How cute is this going to be for Halloween?!?!  I love it!  And now for the Giveaway!!!

I finally reached 300 followers and am completely, totally excited!  I might have even texted my husband to tell him.  He called me a dork!  So to show my appreciation to all of my followers I am going to giveaway a custom Monogrammed frame!

Here is how you can enter to win your very own Monogrammed Frame made by yours truly!

*Please leave a separate comment for each entry and include your email address if it's not on your profile*

*This giveaway is only open to followers*

1.  Follow me or become a follower - 1 entry
2.  Leave another comment just cause you like me! - 1 entry

3.  Blog, Tweet or Facebook about this giveaway - up to 3 entries

This giveaway will close next Friday!

Happy 9 o'clock Dance of Joy!!

Friday, Friday, Friday!

It's almost Friday!  I can't wait for the weekend to get here, it has been a crazy/hot week at work!

Tonight I got to go shopping by myself and spend my anniversary money!  Yay, can't wait to show you what I got, I even splurged!

And there is a giveaway to look forward to!  Stay tuned and Happy 9 o'clock Dance of Joy!

$100 Mistake!

What do you get when you mix this....

with this...

while talking to your hottie husband?

1 Trip to the emergency room, 1 Tetanus Shot and 1 stitched finger!

Another note to self:  Pay attention when you are using large serrated knives!

  Luckily for me it wasn't too deep and it didn't hurt at all, I actually finished cooking dinner, ate dinner, went to have my cousin look at it (she is an athletic trainer), went to Emergicare (they closed at 6) and stopped for a Pepsi before getting to the E.R.  30 minutes in the ER = $100, thank you for decent insurance!

I hope everyone has a happy 9 o'clock Dance of Joy!

Does Someone Want to Nominate Me?

It's no secret.  I am not the best dressed person in my family.  Both of my sisters are extremely stylish....not me.  After I got home from Ben's softball game last night I looked in the mirror and had to laugh.  Someone seriously needs to nominate me for TLC's What Not to Wear.  I need help!!!

Look what I wore to the ball field last night!

Ben's Camo Hat

If this doesn't scare you how about a partial body shot.

Yikes!  Can I get anymore redneck?  Seriously Camo and Harley.  Have I convinced you to nominate me yet?  My sisters are probably going to keel over and be horribly embarrassed that I went into public looking like this!


Note to self:  Make more of an effort in the appearance department!

Chalkboard Wall is Complete!

I am happy to report that the chalkboard has already been used!  I came home from work to see this!

A little love note!

 Last night I decided my chalkboard was lonely and needed a friend.  I dug around in the garage and found a piece of aluminum that was the perfect size.  I cut {blessed} with my Cricut out of vinyl, punched some holes in the metal and hung it up using ribbon.

Bad picture...metal is so picky!  Just a little reminder of how truly blessed we are every day!

We constantly fight about who loves who more...I won this round!

I think it is finished, unless you guys have some amazing idea!  I hope everyone had a great Monday!  I spent most of the day in the ceilings of our new prison, it was miserably hot!  And then I got caught in the biggest thunderstorm of the year, got soaked and then froze!  We are headed out to watch Ben play softball, have a great night!

I Finally Joined the Cool Kids Club!

I finally joined the cool kids club!  What club am I talking about?  I finally made my own chalkboard!  I am so excited!  Up until this afternoon I was the geek hanging out in the corner by myself!

Here it is!  Love it!!

I started with this nasty mirror that I found at a garage sale for $2.

I am trying to get away from painting everything in my house black so I settled for green.

It ended up being way too green for my liking so I used black craft paint to glaze it.

When I asked my husband what he thought he said it looked dirty and old...mission accomplished!

I used chalkboard spray paint and followed the directions completely, kind of.  I sprayed the mirror with 3 coats of paint and let it dry for 20 hours, not the recommended 24 hours.  I couldn't find any chalk in the house, how can you have a chalkboard with no chalk?!?!  So I settled on using sidewalk chalk to break-in the chalkboard according to the directions.

Maybe not the best idea...see all the little scratches?  They aren't very noticeable and I was too excited to redo it and wait another 24 hours!

I put the mirror back in the frame and used hot glue to secure it.

I can't wait to use it!  I think I will write down important reminders or list the menu for the night!  I need to add a few more things on the wall to spruce it up, but this wall is on its way to being done!

Featured @ Random Crafty Georgia Girl

Winner of the SheltonMade Giveaway!

The winner of the adorable fabric flowers from SheltonMade is Charity from humboldt cherry!

Congratulations!  

Don't forget to visit SheltonMade on Etsy and visit Kimberly's blog here!

Don't Forget to Enter

Don't forget to enter the giveaway from SheltonMade!

I will announce the winner tomorrow!  Enter here!

Happy Friday Eve!!

Happy Friday Eve!!!

I am so excited that it is Thursday night because that means my husband will be home for 1 week after being gone for a month!  We can't wait to see him.

I am ready for him to be home for a few days so maybe I can have some help with the girls!  They have run me ragged!  Taylor is almost 2 and has started throwing major temper tantrums.  The throw myself on the ground, kick, cry, scream, take a 30 second break to check out what's on TV and starts over....hello Tantrum Two's!  And Kie just misses her Dad, she knew he was leaving, but how do you explain to a 3 year old how long a month is?  I tried to show her on the calendar and told her every night we could mark a day off and when she got to the red circle (I marked the day he would be home) that her Daddy would be here.  She thought it was really cool to color on the calendar so that was a fail!  18 more hours and he should be here!

I hope everyone has an amazing Friday and a great weekend! 

Don't forget to enter my current giveaway here, it ends Saturday night!

Comforter Disaster

Life has been crazy!  4 days til the husband is back for a whole week!  I can't wait!  I am having the carpets cleaned gramma called and made the appt for me on Friday.  I have been trying to get everything picked up and ready for Friday.  I was cleaning in my bedroom and stumbled across the comforter that has been laying on the floor for the past month.  Kie had an accident in our bed one night and I haven't had time to get to the laundromat.

So tonight I decided to wash our comforter in our front load washer, it was a tight fit!  The comforter is cream, white and black.  I pulled it out of the washer only to discover that the black had bled all over it :(  I am in love with out bed set and am so sad.  I am determined to revive it!  I headed to the store and came home with this.

I am praying that one of these will work!  So far I have used the Tide Stain Release and color safe bleach.  I laid the comforter out on the tile and went to town with both of them.  I added 2 Shout Color Catchers to the wash and am praying that this works.  If not I will try the alcohol and hair spray.  If that doesn't work I have no idea what I am going to do!  Crossing my fingers!!  I might have to take the afternoon off of work to sit at the laundromat and use one of the monster washers.  Cripes!

Does anyone have any ideas?

Kinda Bummed

Saturday marked the start of week 4 of my husband being gone.  We did get to see him this weekend, Sunday was "Family Day" on post.  I took the girls up and we got to hang out with him at the picnic.  We had a good time.  He got to come home last night but left at 3 am this morning for Kansas for a week.  And then he comes home for a week and leaves for Texas for a week.  Boo!

He will be home for the month of September and then he starts Active Duty in October to deploy in January.  Things are starting to "get real."  I am going to be on my own for over a year!

Now don't get me wrong, I have an amazing family and they are always willing to help me out, but I miss my husband.  He is going to miss so much.  Holidays, birthdays, the girls growing up.  The only thing that makes this bearable is how proud I am of him.

I don't have the guts to defend our country so I am so glad that my husband and all the others enlisted are willing to fight for our freedom.  Thank you, Thank you, Thank you!

So today I will be thankful that he will be home next month for the entire month!

$50 CSN Stores Winner

And we have a winner!  Are you ever the first one to enter a giveaway?  I hate when I click on a post to enter for a giveaway only to find that I am the first person to enter, I always think "the first entry never wins."

Well guess what?  Random Number Generator does create the number 1 as a result!

Congratulations to Jan from bobbypins boardwalk, you are the winner of the $50 CSN Stores giveaway!  Have fun shopping!

If you didn't win don't worry there are lots of upcoming giveaways to enter!  Want to win some adorable fabric flowers from SheltonMade?

  I do but I can't, so make sure you entere here!