Travel Tuesday - Alaska

our dear, dear friends who we visited in July.  We miss them so!  

Kelly

declutter {eleven}

Today's decluttering took on an electronic form, e-mails cleaned out (down to only 269 in my inbox) :), etc.

So I decided to include this pic of a cute boy in a fun vintage high chair taken on a family date for breakfast to Smiley's a few weekends ago.  

I'm also going to keep it real for those times when others' lives look "picture perfect" on their blogs.  This breakfast out was actually not THAT fun.  Someone who looks cute and smiley here was being grumpy and a stinker.  But that is real life and sometimes you just have to keep on keeping on, right?

Just out of curiosity, how many e-mails are in your inbox right now?  

Kelly

declutter {ten}

Maybe I'm getting back on the decluttering bandwagon???

More than ten things today but mostly papers.

Your comments about the letter jacket were fun to read yesterday.

I was surprised a little that most of you were in favor of keeping it but I will have to say that it is in the donation box as we speak.  

I don't disagree with any of your comments but I don't have a good place to store it and I just don't feel like having it take up room.

So onto today . . .

a Rich Mullins cd that I accidentally bought a duplicate of at my mother-in-law, sisters-in-law and my favorite thrift store in Pittsburgh in December.  I couldn't remember if I had it on cd or if I had just had the old school cassette tape and it was really cheap so I bought it but then I checked itunes when I got home and it was already in there, so I've got a duplicate.  I hate to say this isn't the first time I've done this with a cd purchase.

The Heloise from A to Z book.  

I am a tiny bit on the fence about this but really, will I look at it or just look up anything I want to know on the internet?  Would my kids enjoy looking through it and reading it one day in the future like I used to like to do with a similar book of my mom's growing up?

Lots of random paper clutter . . . 

I had a file folder titled "things to do in and around Dallas".  Well, we don't live there anymore and I have a wiki now (and pinterest) where I store information.  The folder will get recycled into the office supplies drawer to be used sometime when I need a file folder.  

Found my OLD American Airlines frequent flier numbers/info in another folder . . . trash . . .

various magazine pages and flylady printouts

the instructions for logging into our substitute teacher request system from when I used to teach

a poem I wrote in high school that is not meaningful to me at all

duplicate and outdated church directories 

and a random print out lying on the counter about car maintenance

all gone!  

declutter {nine}

So, I obviously got off the decluttering bandwagon back there around the 9th of January.  This is not nine items but you've got to jump back in somewhere, right?

I'm cleaning out the nursery closet (formerly the guest room closet) and trying to decide whether to get rid of my letter jacket.  

Did you have one in high school?

Do you still have yours?

What would you do?

Thanks!

Kelly

another seven minute post coming your way

That was pretty fun yesterday so here I go again . . . 

I think I have mentioned before that David is in preschool once a week.  Combine that with the fact that my husband has a fairly flexible work schedule and we have been able to enjoy some fun daytime dates these past several months.

This date day was courtesy of him having to work on a weekend and therefore getting to take a morning off later.

The weekend before we had been having a family run around town day and Adrian and David were gracious enough to stop with me to check out Womb to Grow, a local maternity and kids' consignment shop.  (I'm missing all my great maternity borrowed clothes from my pregnancy with David.  Thank you great Dallas friends for all of those loans!)  

While there Adrian noticed a menu/flyer on their bulletin board for Urban Steam, a coffee shop in town we hadn't heard of.

We decided to check it out on our date morning keeping expectations low.  

I mean the menu said they had "Belgian waffles" but what were the chances that they were yeast raised like we are used to getting in Pittsburgh and uh, Belgium???

Well, they didn't include the pearl sugar of a Liege style waffle but they *were* yeast raised and they were yummy!

I got the one topped with ham and scrambled eggs and it was great.

In my last "smp" (seven minute post) I wrote about my peanut butter craving, well, another craving that has been much more consistent with this pregnancy has been cokes.

If you know me well you know I rarely drink caffeine and cokes pregnant or not but starting in Iceland at a hot dog stand, I have had LOTS of coke cravings this pregnancy but I limit myself to about one a week.  

Well, my seven minutes are up.  

I'm off to add some links to this post and then I'm going to try to find a skinny nail which apparently is just the right tool to open Adrian's office door which some little stinker in our house keeps managing to lock and then close behind him.  Thankfully he's not locked in there!  He is up in his bed where he is supposed to be napping but IS NOT.  Driving me nuts!

Hope you are having a great Thursday!  

Kelly

seven minute post

My friend Meredith does "seven minute posts" and tonight I decided to copy her.

So basically, I just write whatever for seven minutes and you get to read it if you want.  :)

I really like to have photos when I blog though so I just chose a fairly random one to include.

Okay, the timer is ticking so I'd better jump in. 

Now that Christmas is over I am simultaneously trying to work on a "big boy room" and a baby girl nursery.

I kind of like the night light above from Target for David's room but I'm not sure.

In both rooms I am having trouble deciding on a color scheme.

I think I want to have a HUGE D painted on one wall in David's room and I'm envisioning it in red but there is already some orange in his room so I don't know.

I am having the hardest time finding bedding for him.  It probably doesn't help that we got a full size bed for him instead of a twin.

For baby girl's room (and no, we haven't picked a name yet and probably realistically won't until we meet her) I am trying to decide between a more serene pink/grey/silver/gold color scheme or red, pink, white with hearts.  

I CANNOT DECIDE!  Everytime I think I've decided I waffle.

I am like that on a lot of decisions in life.

On Sunday night while browsing the web and while Adrian was out at Lowe's I got the HUGEST peanut butter fudge craving!!! 

I really wanted one of my aunts (two of them make it) peanut butter fudge but as they both live in Houston, that wasn't going to be scared up at the snap of the fingers.  I called my sweet husband to see if he would be willing to stop somewhere while he was out.  

He was near a Culver's and brought me back a sundae with chocolate custard, peanut butter topping and reeses.  It was good.

The next day I had a dr. appt. and it went really fast and my sweet neighbor who was baby-sitting had told me to take my time because our kids REALLY enjoy playing together and play super well so Adrian and I went to a nearby local burger joint where I got another peanut buttery sundae and it was even better.

Well, last night we went to Freddy's and I had the best one yet!  Chocolate custard, peanut butter, marshmallow and fudge swirled in, whipped cream and waffle cone pieces!  YUM!

Okay, seven minutes are up. 

Hope you're having a good Wednesday!  

Kelly

scripture

I am doing scripture memory again this year along with Beth Moore and 11,000 other women on her blog.  But what is even better is that there are about 16 women, all of whom I know personally who are doing it with me.  My blog friend Dina has written some about her verses here.  So encouraging!

Here are my first two verses of the year.  

The chalkboard is definitely inspired by this post from Ashley.  Her ideas have stuck in my head since she wrote it in 2010!

recently

We did this!

idea from second half of this post

found via pinterest

Thank you so much for the car and truck, Aunt Gail!  

Kelly

priceless!

I love life with my little boy.

Kelly

Travel Tuesdays - Iceland

Iceland was truly stunning.  We'd like to go back sometime (maybe with tents -eek and definitely with lots of food provisions because it's EXPENSIVE there - gas station lamb dinner = $30).  This river/waterfall area was calling our name to hike along it.  

Kelly

because he wanted me to take his photo . . .

I tried something new

While fixing a glass of chocolate milk to take my prenatal with this afternoon I realized that I was down to the very last of the bottle of chocolate syrup.  While I had the fridge open I also noticed the jar of maraschino cherry juice.  hmm . . . 

I spooned in a teaspoonful as I stirred my milk and I must say that

chocolate cherry milk

is quite good.  

Do you think you'd try it?  

Do you like milk?

Plain, flavored?

Have you ever tried a chocolate cherry coke at Sonic?  

I learned it from one of the first grade teachers at my old school.

Kelly

good thrifting weekend

Last weekend was a really good thrifting weekend!

I mentioned stopping at the thrift store with Adrian, Mandy and Jeremy and after we picked up David, Adrian, David and I stopped by a garage sale on the way home.  

At the thrift store we scored a book Adrian had had on his amazon wishlist, a cute denim maternity skirt, an unopened box of Peanuts Valentines for David's preschool party and two toys that I had wanted for David because he LOVES garbage trucks and had played with these at a neat coffee shop in town that has a huge play area for kids and is GREAT for moms to be able to sit and visit.  

Here is the garbage truck (actually I just looked it up on amazon and I stand corrected, it is a RECYCLING truck).  We also got a dump truck that I think will be going with us to the park a lot this summer.  These are called Green Toys and they are made in the USA which I really, really like.

So, I got all of those things plus at the garage sale I scooped up the vintage children's school chair (that has "Temple, TX" stamped on the back - love it!) and the vintage Fisher Price fire truck for . . . 

a quarter a piece!!  

I was thrilled.  Both have already gotten much use.  

Any good thrift finds lately?

Kelly

declutter {eight}

*  parts from our old dishwasher - so thankful to have a new one that actually CLEANS dishes when you put them into it, add soap and turn it on!

still getting adjusted to loading/unloading it, I am so adverse to change it's ridiculous - not sure I love everything about it but focusing on the fact that it cleans and I don't have to.  :)

*  a pile of mail, envelopes, errand lists, etc. that had been sitting in my "inbox drawer"

*  a nearly new box of probiotic - my poor boy seems to develop a cough with shelf stable kinds so we've finally found/gone back to something from whole foods that he calls his "fizzy medicine" and thankfully actually likes to take.  He was on a strong antibiotic for the pink eye/sinus infection hence the probiotic.  

If you're local and could use this, please let me know as I would much rather pass it along than throw it out. 

Kelly

p.s. if there's anything else you see that I'm decluttering that you'd like to have, feel free to let me know.  I'm all about stuff going to good homes.

Travel Tuesday - little conductor

Hey, remember Travel Tuesdays?  I used to do those and I had completely forgotten!  So here we go.

I can't remember if I mentioned that we rode the train out to Pittsburgh and back when we went before Christmas.  It was mostly a lot of fun until people started getting sick.  

I think my favorite part of riding the train is eating in the dining car, meeting new people (it's community seating) and watching the world go by as you're seated for your meal.  

Especially on the train out (when these photos were taken) it was not very full and David got lots of special attention and even gave our waitress and hostess a hug before we left!  

It was very popular that the train had Chuggington coloring books (- thank you Marla for telling us about Chuggington!  I like it MUCH better than Thomas!) and yes, he is wearing his jammies.

That is his most favorite attire these days and sometimes it is not worth the battle when it really doesn't matter. 

Have you ever ridden Amtrak or another train?  

I can remember my first time to have French toast was on an Amtrak train from Houston to L.A. when my Sweetie took us.

Kelly

declutter {seven}

Several library books to return and videos (we love Boz, do you watch him?  Unfortunately most of the dvds from our library end up being too scratched to watch once we check them out so we may have to invest in some of our own.)  And a coupon that I let expire to one of the cute shops in The Barn in Castle Rock.  Bummer.

declutter {six}

I returned a cake carrier and a hand towel to my mom (they're both hers and oh how I love living close enough to have each other's things).  

I decluttered a penguin who was not loved sadly, only used for the candy cane that he was perched atop.  :)

Our busted pinata was unearthed from the *cold* sunroom where we hardly bother to go in winter as well as the signs I'd made to put on various baskets/bins to try to organize myself for the holidays and lay out paper goods, tablecloths, centerpieces, etc. ahead of time.  All of that was trashed as well as some recipes that I cleaned out of my binder (see below) that I decided I wasn't realistically excited about anymore or going to try.

Are you doing any new year organizing?  

Kelly

Saturday morning

Why am I about to eat my hair in this picture?  

Jeremy, Mandy, Adrian and I had a fun morning out together Saturday morning while my parents threw a little new year's party for the boys because they're great like that.

We went to a newish restaurant downtown called Over Easy and enjoyed steak and eggs, biscuits and gravy, corned beef hash, strawberry cheesecake pancakes and Hawaiian pancakes as well as coffee drinks all around.  

It was a lot of fun to hang out and catch up a bit on each other's lives.

We followed up breakfast with a trip to half price day at the thrift store where we each found some treasures and a stop by Staples for some Christmas clearance merchandise and $1 after rebate reams of paper.

What did you do with your weekend?  

Kelly

meaningful Christmas gift

I received some very thoughtful Christmas gifts this year.

One of the most meaningful to me was this one.

While we were visiting their house, unbeknownst to me, my mother-in-law took David into her closet to let him "shop" for me for Christmas.  Adrian has had him "give" me cards before and I love that but he is still so young that all of these types of expression are so new to me and it's really, really neat when your child picks out something for you.

My mil said that he really took his time and looked at lots of different things and said "no" to some and finally decided on this bracelet and this pin.

Isn't that sweet?

I am excited to wear the heart pin at a "queen of hearts" party I am hosting at my house for one of our women's groups at church in February.  I also received heart socks for Christmas so I am set!  

Kelly

declutter {five}

I did a little decluttering of boy clothes when my mom and I went through the baby stuff I'd saved and picked out the gender neutral sleepers and things.  Now that the guest room is turning into the nursery and Adrian's office is absorbing the guest room then I need to figure out where I am going to store all of the boy clothes I've saved.  Not keeping all of them seemed like a good idea to start.

Sometimes your kids "help" you declutter.  I remember buying these JOY letters when I was single at Pottery Barn I think.  They are fun but unfortunately the "Y" got flung across the room and broke and so I am letting go of them.

I really like orange marmalade but I should have just stuck with smuckers instead of trying to get all fancy.  I only looked at the brand not the ingredients but the first one is high fructose corn syrup and it doesn't even taste good.  If I am going to consume some hfcs it sure better taste good. 

Kelly

little man!

This poor little guy was too sick and germy with pink eye and a sinus infection to go to church on the Sunday before Christmas or to Christmas Eve service so he got to wear his cutie patootie outfit this past week. 

shirt:  hand me down from cousin Caleb  Thank you!

bowtie:  etsy seller Crafty Munchkins

projects du jour (so far, hoping for another one or two before the day is out)

Have you seen the ornaments that you make out of a cut of the tree trunk from your Christmas tree floating around on pinterest and the world wide web at large?  

I had seen them and thought they were fun but would never have remembered probably except that the guy who sold us our tree asked if I wanted the cutting to make into an ornament or something.  So thoughtful.  It's been wrapped in saran wrap in my craft drawer until today.  

This was a super simple craft and fun to do.  I just cut out the entries for "family" and "together" from my thesaurus that I think my Poppy may have given me once upon a time.  I always use it for crafting now as I use my computer/phone for looking up words. 

The only downside is David saw me ripping out the page and in his two year old way reminded me that we do *not* rip books.  "Um, ur, you're right"  I've told him that and I'm thankful he listened.

I put a little elmer's school glue on the backs of the papers and stuck them down and then made a pilot hole with a nail before sticking in this red star brad.  I printed out the 2012 on red cardstock and layered it over faux bois washi tape from in the clear on etsy.  (They are GREAT to work with if you need any washi tape or other fun supplies!) and nailed it down as well (I don't really have any high hopes of washi tape sticking to wood over time.

I added a little baker's twine bow and loop for hanging both held on with small nails as well and then typed out a little synopsis of our Christmas on red cardstock and nailed that down on the back.  

(While I was working on that part, David was doing "his craft" and nailing push pins into the tree trunk with a small hammer.  ha ha!  He had a blast but to his credit easily gave it back to me and let me take the pushpins out when I was ready to finish it.)

Another project on my list today was to make an iphone case using washi tape.  Adrian recently upgraded to the iphone 5 and right after that I dropped my iphone and broke the face.  :(  

So now I'm using his old phone and went ahead and switched to his silicone case too as opposed to my cute, clear, can change the scrapbook paper in it case that was fairly slicky.

His was blackish gray and not all that fun. :)

I have no real hopes of this holding up super well but it is fun and was easy and relatively quick and when I get a new phone this summer I'll buy a cute and not too slicky case.

I just cut a piece of white cardstock to fit the back and glued it on with a gluestick.  Now that didn't really stick all that much at all but I knew the washi tape was going over it I just wanted a white background for the tape since it's translucent.

Then I layered on different pieces of washi tape and then used an exacto knife to cut holes where they were in the case.

Last I spruced the whole thing up (and gave it a little more grip in the hand?) with a bit of elmer's glue and iridescent glitter.  :)  

I like it!  

Off to try to find photos and print them to scrapbook Christmas 2009!  ha!  

What have you been up to today?  

Kelly

declutter {four}

another magazine

a water bottle left at our house

several staples that held up Christmas ornaments that were dangling from the ceiling

and a pair of kitchen shears that we never use

la pinata

One of my very favorite things we did this Christmas was a pinata.  

My new sis-in-law is from Mexico so we wanted to incorporate some fun traditions to make her feel at home.  

It was a blast.

We had a song to sing and everything.  

Turns out the place where we bought the pinata online (a company based in San Antonio - I love going back to my Texas roots) had great looking pinatas but I guess they were just for decoration as there wasn't a hole for filling and it had sturdy wooden supports inside.  That's okay, though, we weren't going to let that stop us and figured between all of us we could bust it!  

And we did!  Candy for all and this little guy's first time to ever have gum.  :)  

Have you ever done a pinata at Christmas?  

Kelly