Catch-Up!

We've had some busy days this past week and have been able to do some fun crafts and spend some extra time together. Lanie is sick today (x3) and will be a home body until Thursday. Poor thing is so pitiful :( She has the Flu, Bacterial Infection and the Stomach bug. She's all cuddled up on the couch watching wonder pets and I think I could stare at her all day long! I'm on some preventative medicine so I don't catch the flu, we have the best Doctor ever.

 

So to play catch up...Ellie has been a funny little girl elfie this past week!

 

 

Justin & I celebrated our 6 year anniversary this weekend as well. On Saturday we took off work and ran errands and had some amazing sushi @ Sushi Hana in Greenville. The In-law's kept the girls and I slept in ...LATE Sunday morning...It was wonderful! Sunday was our actual Anniversary and we spent the day with the girls and ate chocolate covered strawberries and sparkling cider.

 

 

 

Lanie and I also made these ornaments. My house smells wonderful! I added some nutmeg to the recipe and let's just say we have to watch Addison carefully, she's tried to eat one already!

I kept the extra branches from our Christmas tree and decided to fill an Ikea vase with them. It's actually really cute and is on our breakfast table! A pinterest pin caught my eye a few weeks back and I wanted to make the girls a cute little desert. They are supposed to resemble Santa Claus, but I forgot to buy the black icing. They were still cute, and honestly...they were eaten in about 3 seconds so who
really cares they didn't look like Santa?

 

 

No Beets For Me

This morning I tried a Juice with :

A Handful of baby carrots
2 Apples
1 Pear
6 Leaves of Kale
1 Beet

Ugh. The beet killed it! The flavor isn't bad at all, but it's the overwhelming chalky smell that repulses me. I'm drinking it, just slowly! I may have tried them too soon. I feel super hungry.  I've adjusted my plan. I went to the plans at www.FatSickandNearlyDead.com and most include light food with beginners of juicing. I'm a little disappointed that I can't go cold turkey on this, but with working I just don't think I can handle it. I feel like a wimp, b/c it's been what...12 hours? It just goes to show me how much food really does impact your life!

So for breakfast I'm drinking the juice above and a small wheat bagel with nuts.


On to more fun things ;)

Ellie must have been thirsty! :)

Just hanging around!

Bad Habits...

Lately I've been feeling like I'm falling deeper and deeper into a bad eating habit. I love to eat! I felt like I was eating junky food and that I'm also snacking alot. I do NOT want that to catch up with me, and I already felt like it had started too.

I had done some research in the past on juicing. It intrigued me but I wasn't ready to start all that. I wasn't ready to add something else to my ever busy life. I was catching up on Sydney at the Daybook and she had a post recently about juicing. She said something about eating cold cereal as dinner often, and that's so me. Now that school is on break I'm taking the plunge! I'm super excited! I made a trip to the store to stock up on fresh fruits and veggies. I am so a beginner at this so I'm not sure how long the food will last for me. I'm hoping 5 days. I went off of a recipe i found on Williams Sonoma's website and let that guide how many ingredients I bought. It took me a while to find a few things...I've never eaten Kale or Beets... In my life! So I'm excited to shock my body.

This is my plan:

Drink Juice only for 3-5 days for full detox (again, not sure how this is going to go, so the time may vary)
After I feel all detoxified, eat a whole food for 1 meal for 2 weeks.
After that, supplement one juice a day while eating balanced meals.
Cheat here and there...Seriously, I can't be a full on juicer..let's be realistic!

The Juicer

The original stash

 

 

 The First Juice:

Sweet and Tangy

Included:

Strawberries (A Small Carton)
2 Kiwi

2 Large Carrots

1 Cup of blueberries

4 Heads of Kale

est. 8 Mint Leaves

 

The juice color is red/pink and I left the froth in

 

Made about 2.25 Cups

The below cup plus another half

 

As I'm drinking this for dinner, Justin is making Chicken Alfredo...EEK!

 

Day 2 of Ellie + Plans for December!

This morning we found Ellie in the Christmas Tree Snow globes we made the other night!

We figured that she must really be missing the North Pole! She also brought back little trees and got snow everywhere!

 

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On another note, I'm done with school for this semester. It feels great to have nothing to study for! I'm so excited to spend these next 5 weeks with my family. I'm thankful for 2 more "A's" that go on my nursing school application too. I made new friends in my class and they will be in my class next semester too! It's hard to beleive that i've been back in school for over a year now. Honestly, it's flying by which is scary. It's also scary lanie is almost half way done with K-5. I wish I could keep her smaller for longer, but that's not happening. The more I think about time flying by, the faster is goes. So, here is to a December full of crafts, family time and traveling.

 

I'm trying to document on this blog as much as I can this month, so you'll probably be seeing posts more often!

 

 

 

 

Meet Ellie!

 

 

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Ellie showed up this morning from the North Pole and was sugary sweet to the girls!

I've heard these elves can be mischievous, I can't wait to see her sneaky side!

 

She perched herself on our light fixture so she could have a good view of the girls with their special North Pole Breakfast!

 

 

Ellie left a plate of White Powdered Donuts shaped like a Christmas tree..and Chocolate milk with a bright green straw!

 

 

She also left each girl a cute Santa bag with a coloring book and pack of crayons.

 



 

 

See you tomorrow!

Christmas Crafting!

I love Christmas time and super cute crafts. I saw this on Pinterest and decided it was perfect for our dining room table!

 

Here is the pinterest link..and I will add my twists below..

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What you need:

 

• Different sized trees-I bought a pack from Michaels for $8.80
• Tape or Glue Dots or Sticky Velcro
• Mason Jars or jars with screw on lid
• Fake Snow
• A frame (Michaels had these laser cut frames)
• Paint color of choice
 

Avg Cost for the project is between $15-$20 depending on sales and if you use coupons ;)

 

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1. Paint your frame desired color and let dry

2. I had 1 set of sticky velcro and for the rest I used rolled up duct tape...whatever works, right?

3. Secure the tree to the inside lid of the jar you are using...the tape holds it fine. The trees aren't that heavy!

 

4. Fill the mason jar about 1/2 inch with the fake snow.

 

5. Screw on the lid and voila...your cute new snowglobes!

Our First Showing

If you know me, you know I'm super OCD and stressful about things like...being judged ;) So when we were getting our house ready to list I really tried to pull myself out of the process and envision what potential buyers would want. Those weeks were stressful! Painting and sanding and just touching things up were time consuming. It felt SO GOOD to list the house.

Then I got dissapointed when I didn't have an immediate showing! I would get phone calls from random numbers that I hoped were agents and they were just appointment reminders...like from the dentist. So I stopped getting my hopes up and one night didn't sweep the floor and I didn't put every single dish that was dirty in the dishwasher. Sure enough, that next day I got a call!

I didn't have a heart attack...but almost. Justin and I flew home to tidy things up. 1 hour later I was shaking and all worked up, back to where I was before. That showing was yesterday and I'm on this 'high' of when is it going to happen again!? This whole situation is very weird for me...Having strangers come in and judge my house. Hopefully I can get used to it?

Those who have sold or who are selling, can you relate??

The Pumpkin Patch

The time came where it was Lanie's first field trip. What!? Seriously...Lanie is old enough for field trips. She was so excited to go and talked about it pretty much every day. We set out her "fall-ish" outfit= Orange Tunic with skinny jeans and modern cowgirl boots. That wins every time with me, If I could wear skinny jeans (ehemmm...jeggings) every single day I would! Anyways, I decided to take the bug aka Addison along, Aunt Deboo joined us!

We got there about 45 minutes early...hey, maybe I was excited too :) We enjoyed the quiet of the farm and walked around before 250 elementary school kids crashed the party.
 Yes, 250+.

Addison was sure this pumpkin was for her...

 

We are almost half way through Lanie's first year of school! I am shocked every day at how much she learns. I'm so thankful for a great teacher. We drove up to T.R. the other day and checked out what would be Lanie's new elementary school when we move. It looks very nice and very small =) I'm sure we'll love it just as much as where we are now.

 

 

 

Pinterest Project - Reclaimed Pallet Wood

Who doesn't love pinterest?

 

My Pinterest

 

Who doesn't love pallet wood?

 

Combine the two and you will find something like this:

 

 

 

 

That inspires someone (me) to do this...

 

 

 

 

 This was so easy to make! The hardest part was laying out the stencils

 

What you need:

A frame to nail the wood to. I used an old Canvas frame that I used for my Melted Crayon Art (tutorial to come soon for that as well)

Pallet Wood. We got ours from Sonny's

Nails/Screws

Screwdriver

Paint

Polyurethane (optional)

Stencils

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1.) Remove the pallet wood from frame and nail the pallet wood on your frame in whatever pattern you like. I liked the horizontal streamlined look for this one.

 

 

 

2.) Decide what you want to paint on the pallet, I used stencils and laid out my phrase.

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3.) Paint in the stencils and coat with a layer of the polyurethane paint to keep the wood sealed.

Thursday's List

This particular list is getting shorter and I am so excited!

My goal is to have the house listed on October 17th through

a FSBO website with a MLS listing. Exciting stuff!

 

I'm always looking for pointers on things, anyone have any for me related to listing a house for sale and getting it prepped?

 

 

 

 

Jello...

That is how my legs feel right now.

 

Our stairwell ceiling is about 10-11 feet high and I've never been able to paint the edges or fix the ceiling spots...in over 5 years (embarrassing!) I had to get creative and come up with something and Stilts was my last option. A ladder just wouldn't reach high enough. They were kinda fun to use and it was neat being 9 feet tall, but after 1.5 hours my legs were so wobbly and I had some bad impressions. Oh well, it got the job done, right? Kudos to those who use these on a daily basis, I don't know how you do it!

 

 

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And on another note, Christmas shopping has begun! Who else is getting ready?

 

 

 

My Sunday

 

Sunday started out with a great church service and the girls loved "super church" and came home with a bag of candy each. We headed to Lowes with my IPhone "notes list" and I was on a mission! An hour later we were in the return line at Lowes because Addy decided to put 5 packs of light bulbs in our buggy and Justin and I thought that one of us needed them. No wonder we spent an extra unplanned $65.00. The employee processing the return thought it was hilarious. 

 

 Lanie decided she wanted to be my little helper and we put Addy down for her nap. Lanie cleared the vanity for me and started to get distracted so I asked her if she could "stick it out" for me...she said sure...and 5 minutes later started talking about her room being messy and asked if I'd "stick it out" with her. Smart girl, Lanie.

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8 hours later we had a new and improved vanity:

 

 

 

Adding Before, Only picture I had :( To show the coloring...

 

 

 

I love when you find the perfect color for something, This color is Valspar "Ebony Field" and is THE perfect shade of dark brown/black/grey. I can picture this on the wall above a 6-7 ft. white wainscoting in my new house :) Something like this...yes...

 

 

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And a new and {70% off} lamp in our breakfast area:

 

 

 

I got a late start on my pinterest project because it rained Saturday night, It's almost done and I will be posting it soon :)

 

 

 

 

Lunchtime Post

It's the middle of the day and I'm chowing down on an egg roll and some steak. Random? Yes, I know! But really good. 



Justin and are renting a POD. These things are so cool! Last night we loaded it up with our stuff we have packed away. We tend to collect things...lots of things. We went through every room in our house and packed away the things that we don't absolutely need for the next year or so. By doing this, our house is so much easier to keep clean and it's so organized!

It's a cute little pod...

Why the POD?

We bought land! Some of you already know this but now I can give some more information about it! This Summer we both decided that we want to build. We are both pretty picky and finding a home that has everything we want could have been a disaster. We hope our next home is what I like to call, our "Forever Home" I want to raise our family there. I grew up in the same home from the time I was around 2-18 years old and I loved it. I knew my neighbors growing up. I want our kids to have the same thing.

We will, hopefully,be listing our house in the next couple of weeks and we have decided to list it For Sale By Owner. We have done a lot of upgrades and are going to price it aggressively. Super excited!

A view of our lot, It is a little over half an acre and we will be in front of a tee box. No one can build behind us, and it is a cul-de-sac back there so our kiddo's can have space! 

That's all for now...

A Fresh Start

Life is busy, I feel like my life never slows down. Surely, other people feel the same way? I'm not sure. My last blog started as a description of Cloth Diapering, which by the way I'm still using my cloth diapers, love them! But I hit a wall, I started back to school, we bought property, Lanie started school....

See where I'm going with this? I felt it was appropriate to cut all ties and start fresh. To start neutral with something that can be flexible with my life. I'm a list person...calendar person. I have lists for everything: Target (yes it has it's own category), Grocery, Christmas, Bills, Projected Projects, Work, School, .........

My new blog is called :

CrossMyList

Because no matter what's happening, it's on my list and it must be crossed off...

Ruffle Pants

We haven't told the girls about our upcoming Disney trip yet, but I've begun the search for their outfits...when I get onto something, I go a little over the top! I found these super cute outfits on Etsy...

And at first I'm thinking $30-$35 per set? Certainly I can make these!

So I found a pretty good tutorial and started to make a pair for Lanie...And they turned  out so small I'm not sure if Addy can squeeze into them...

So on my second try I succeeded (minus the thread color, LOL!) But I have issues with the casing for the elastic...I'm not sure why I can't get it, but it's so difficult for me. 

I love how big the ruffles are! I'm currently working on a pair with a Red and White polka dot flare...Hopefully I'll have them finished up tomorrow :) I'll also add the tutorial because it is seriously pretty easy!