relieved....

Oh my....school supplies are being loaded into everyone's shopping carts.

July is over in 2 days. And you know what August means....

BACK TO SCHOOL!

Oh wait....




not for me this time!

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, now that's a sigh of relief!

Now, while looking at my August calendar does NOT bring relief (crazy, crazy month)....I can't even imagine the panic and franticness (is that a word?) I'd be going through if I was ALSO returning to work.

Today, I think I might bask in the sun (while keeping my eye on Taylor, of course!) and enjoy the thought that this year my summer has no end! Well, until winter comes.

I'm Back!

WOW, it's been a crazy month, where in the world has July gone...seems like I never really had a chance to recover from vacation and then I was off to Ft. Worth for 4 days with all my Premier jewelry girls for our National Rally...which means the introduction of the brand new jewelry line!!! That's always the big highlight of the summer!

Rally is always such a blessing to me. Not only is it so fun to spend 4 days with some of the best girls ever, but it's so fun to come home on such a high...not just for Premier, but life in general!

You may or may not care what goes on a Premier Designs Jewelry Rally...you may think we just talk jewelry for 4 days...man, that would be boring! Good thing we don't! We had some amazing speakers...anyone heard of Anita Renfroe? She's a stay-at-home mom gone comedian...and is the featured comedian on Good Morning America. She has been featured on YouTube with her creation of what a mom would say in a 24 hour period, condensed to 2 1/2 minutes, put to William Tell's Overture...check it out, all you mom's will LOVE IT! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RxT5NwQUtVM&feature=related

She entertained us for about 45 min. and I have NEVER laughed that hard for that long at anything in my life!

Another truly touching speaker was Burl Cain, Warden of Lousiana State Penitentiary where he has implemented programs for the inmates, in which they are able to discover value and purpose in their lives, and to experience true freedom in their souls. One such program, allows them to study to become pastors, spreading the gospel inside the walls of the penitentiary and they have even been able to transfer to other prisons for a short period of time, to spread the gospel and hope to other inmates. After holding the hand of a man on death row as he was being put to death, and realizing that he was the last person on earth that got to speak to this man, and he stood there and watched him die, knowing that his eternal life was probably not being spent in heaven. He decided that God put him in this position with a purpose, and he is now changing inmates' lives, letting them know that there is hope and forgiveness. He was truly amazing to listen to. If you really want to read a touching story... read this article on Burl Cain from Time.com http://www.time.com/time/reports/mississippi/angola.html

And most importantly, I came home with a new energy, a goal to get my priorities in line, and a to-do list a mile long....but that's because I have just not been so productive lately (last few months!) Of all that I heard or learned at rally, here's what I am holding on to: (some of it I already knew, but just needed that reminder):

1. Time is so precious...What are my priorities in life? And am I spending my time on these? I only get ONE shot with my kids!

2. I have things all the time that I hesitate to do...I want to do them, I know how to do them...but I don't do them. You either operate out of faith of fear....hmmmm, guess I've been operating out of fear lately!

3. Dream a dream SO BIG that only GOD can make it come true! Enough of dreaming the small dreams and controlling everything on my own!

4. Live your life by looking around for what you can GIVE, not what you can GET...serving others is God's example of living!

5. Pain is a great instructor...it will indicate the areas of your life that are out of balance.

Here are few fun pics from rally:

Our group was the biggest it's ever been this year!

Nothing more fun than doing Premier with my sister-in-law (see pic above, she's in the jean jacket in the center) and now my SISTER!!!Those of us in leadership got to go to a leadership pep rally and dinner the night before rally actually started.

Now that I'm semi- recovered from such a crazy month, let's see how good I am at catching up on all the pictures and events of our last month! Stay tuned.

Blog Makeover Anyone?

I still consider myself new to the blogging world, and I'm learning new things all the time!

Did you know that you could get a customized blog template and a custom header? Check out this website...http://www.onceuponablog.org . The gal who does the designing has closed her waiting list because she is SO popular, but she has recommended someone else for the time being...http://www.doodlebugwebdesigns.com/ Check out some of the customized looks!
Some of the package prices are SO reasonbly priced too! I think I may ask for a blog makeover as a birthday gift!

A few of the blogs I check have customized looks and I LOVE them! I got my current template on the following site: http://lenatoewsdesigns.blogspot.com/ She has free templates you can download. Just be careful, sometimes the header that blogger does for us, does not fit well at ALL in these header boxes and it just looks funny! That's why it will be nice to get a custom header one of these days! Here's another fun site too... http://www.thecutestblogontheblock.com/

And for those of you like me, who need help when it comes to all this html stuff...here's a great tutorial http://simplyfabtutorials.blogspot.com/ It walks you through adding one of these cute templates to blogger!

So for now, I'll start dreaming up my new customized blog look that will hopefully be coming soon! Well, maybe September (my birthday!). For now I'll stick with this cute FREE look!

Birthday Fun!

Today was Cousin Jaden's 3rd birthday party! The invitation said "wear your swimsuit for lots of water fun!".
We woke up to rain, so we called to see if swimsuits were still in the plan.
They were!

Rain or shine...the party still went on!!
Look at the fun we had...When what to my wondering eyes did appear...
BARNEY!!!

Jaden loves Barney....so a Barney party was perfect!

Taylor loves Barney too....but not up close!

The 2 biggest Barney lovers of the party (Jaden and Taylor) were the 2 who took the longest to warm up to him! Taylor never really got there. She was happy to tell Barney "Bu Bye!"

Jaden finally decided to make friends with Barney (luckily, making mom's money spent on the costume a little more worth it!).

Happy Birthday Jaden...thanks for including us in your big day! We had a TTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTRIFIC time!

counteraction

I dropped Taylor off at Grandma's for the afternoon.

The last few days since being home from vacation have been ROUGH!

For lunch I decided to treat myself. Even though we have a fridge full of food...I got the salad bar from Dillons...my absolute favorite lunch! The whole way there my conscience was trying to tell me that I needed to just eat what we had at home...we just went grocery shopping. But I didn't listen.

Lettuce, cheddar cheese, bits of boiled egg, 2 cherry tomatoes, a couple slices of cucumber, bacon bits, all drinched with thousand island dressing (man, I should have taken a picture, but I was just too hungry to take the time).

Oh, and a Hershey's chocolate bar with almonds and 20oz. Pepsi. The old man that bagged my stuff at the counter laughed and commented about my salad and candy bar. Oh well.

I suppossedly stopped drinking pop June 1.....oh well.
I also suppossedly have lots I should be doing with Taylor out of the house this afternoon...but "So You Think You Can Dance" DVRd from last night is calling my name.

Salad, candy bar, pop, TV, Mason napping.

Like I said, the last few days have been rough.

The Lake

We drug our feet for awhile on this one...

We hadn't all been to the lake house for several years, everyone else was going this year.

We just didn't think it would be all that fun with a 4 month old and 20 month old...especially the flying part.

But we went....and we're SO glad we did! We had lots of fun and Taylor and Mason had so many new experiences and adventures!

Here's our story...

We flew out of Wichita, switched plans in Atlanta and arrived in Detroit. If I could have chosen, I would have much preferred a non-stop flight with the kids. It seemed just as we got them happy and calm, we had to get off and start all over again! For the most part, on the way THERE, they did well (notice that I emphasized THERE).

Here's where we stayed...Dave's brother's lakehouse! It housed 8 adults and 7 children under the age of 7 pretty nicely! What a neat place to live!This is who we spent our time with....Dave's parents, siblings and their families

Dave's mom and our neice and nephew from Michigan.Big boy cousins...Tyler and Jeremy.GrandpaDave's brother, JasonDave's sister, Stefanie and our niece PaigeOur niece SydneyAnd here's how we spent our time...

Within the first 5 minutes (maybe even less) of arriving at the lake, Taylor found the water! We quickly learned that we would have to be keeping a very close eye on her...she LOVED the water so much and had no fear!

Mason took the prize for the most naps...but believe me, we all competed heavily!
Watching Barney...it never gets old (for them).tubing.....

tubing...
and more tubing....
Dave skiing with his nephew Jeremy...what a great uncle he is....you can tell by the sky that it was NOT warm!this beats a trampoline! lots of time in the water

celebrating the 4th of July...
and here are a few of our family favorites....


And now for our BIG announcement:

After much thought and prayer, we thought we'd let you all know that we are moving. We have put offers down on the following houses and will be finding out soon which one is OURS...

We're so excited to live on the same lake with Dave's brother!

We obviously will have enough room for any of you to visit!

Oh wait...that means we won't have grandma and grandpa a few blocks away anymore...guess we're staying put! Sorry Jason and Stacy!

And if you're wondering how the flights HOME went....don't ask!

Home, Sweet, Home!

We're finally home. We've been gone for the last 9 days...if you were wondering why I hadn't posted recently! Maybe I'm the only one who wonders what someone's doing and where they are if they haven't kept up with their blog.


Not all 9 days were spent in Michigan. The last weekend in June was spent camping with our small group (fun pics from our weekend coming soon), then we were home for a day, and then flew to Michigan last Tuesday and got back late last night. I have SOOO much to catch up on....including almost 500 pictures from the last 9 days! We got a new camera in Michigan...and I LOVE it! Ours has been going bad (purple wavy lines across the screen) for a few months now...so we knew this purchase was coming up. After much frustration with missing good shots of our active little angel on vacation, we decided not to wait another day. I have lots to learn with it, but I'm loving it so far!


I hope to catch up with posts very soon! But for now, I just wanted to do a quick post to let you know that you can keep checking in, because I'll have stuff up soon! For now, we have two fussy kids who are completely off schedule, a ton of stuff to unpack (thank goodness for being able to do laundry BEFORE we came home...it's so much nicer to unpack all clean clothes rather than having to worry about loads of laundry today!), we also have no food in the fridge, shows on DVR to catch up on, and we're running on empty as far as energy!


It was a great vacation, minus the hours of stress while getting there and getting home....flying with two little ones just is no fun at all! By the time we got home last night, I felt SICK from all the tension and stress from the day of traveling! I have NEVER EVER been so glad to be home. Thank goodness for my need of having a clean house before leaving on vacation....coming home to a clean house is SOOO nice!


Check back soon for our vacation pics - plus a catch up of some of our other summer activities! For now, I'll leave you with 3 videos from our trip...


This first one was taken in the first 5 minutes that we arrived at Dave's brother's house...we had no idea if Taylor would like the lake or not...but as you can see...she loved it! Bags were not even out of the cars yet, and she was in the lake in her clothes!