Happy 8th Anniversary

My, my, I AM an old married woman.  Today James and I celebrate 8 crazy years of marriage.  Where has the time gone?!?  For those of you who don't know our story, I'll give a brief synopsis.

James went to Sterling College along with my sister.  A month after they graduated, he and a mutual friend of my sister were attending a wedding in KC.  They needed a place to crash so they stayed at my parents' house.  I had just finished my freshmen year at Baker University and was a little excited when my dad called my cell phone to tell me that 2 college guys were going to stay at our house.  I thought that MAYBE they would be cute.  At the time, I was working a full-time and a part-time job while taking a college Microbiology class at night.  Needless to say, I was BUSY.  I had to be at work at 5am that Saturday morning so I quietly got ready and then peeked in the living room to see what these guys looked like (they fell asleep with the lights on).  I noticed James right away...well, mostly just heard him right away.  His snore was OBNOXIOUSLY loud.  Once I got past the noise, I tried to see what he looked like.  But I couldn't get a good look because he was covered with dark hair.  At the time, he had crazy, unruly hair on his head, a go-tee, a white undershirt with hair popping out and hairy arms.  I honestly couldn't tell what he looked like underneath all that hair.  And so I went off to work.

I only worked 1/2 a day so I came home around the time he was waking up.  We easily fell into conversation that lasted until he left for the wedding.  When he returned, we continued to talk and talk and talk.  Long story short, we quickly realized that we wanted to spend the rest of our lives together and so a year from the day when we first met was our wedding day.

We have definitely filled the last 8 years with fun, fights, laughter ... many, many memories.  Here are some of the highlights:

  *Traveled to Russia for Spring Break 2004
  *Bought our first home (a major fixer upper) Dec 2004
  *I graduated with my BSN and passed nursing boards May 2005
  *Welcomed Malachi into the world January 2006
  *Welcomed Isaiah into the world January 2007
  *Traveled to NYC to celebrate our 5 year anniversary June 2008 
  *Welcomed Samara into the world September 2008
  *James went to school full-time while working full-time. I worked full-time and
       took care of the kiddos September 2009-May 2010.
  *Celebrated James leaving his 20's with a trip to Estes Park July 2010
  *I became a stay at home mom September 2010
  *Finished the fixer-upper house May 2011
  *James continues to apply to med schools
  *(and somewhere in there, James developed a huge bald spot on the back of his head so he now shaves all of his hair off...of course, he blames me for that!)

While our life together has been hectic, we continue to love and learn about each other.  Happy Anniversary, Jamesy-Wamesy...Love ya!!!

Playing "Pretend"

The normal conversation Samara has while playing "pretend" with her doll house (while using pirates, horses, and Buzz Lightyear instead of dolls)

Guy #1: "Hi, I a bad guy. What's your name?"

Guy #2: "I a good guy and I need to go potty. You help me?"

Guy #1: "I put you in jail!"

Guy#2:  "NO, not put me in jail."

Buzz:  "To efinity and beyond!!!"  (while scooping up Guy #2 and saving him from
             the jail)

Happy Father's Day!

What an honor it is to be a parent.  God hand-picked these little ones especially for us. What a privilege and sometimes an overwhelming task of raising these young ones so they can grow up and become who God created them to be. 

I was richly blessed with an amazing set of parents.  They always did what they could to support my dreams.  I remember being Daddy's little "sunshine girl".  I followed him wherever he would let me.  He was a wonderful provider for our family and spent his evenings playing with his girls.

James is a wonderful dad, as well.  When he gets home from work, he will tickle, wrestle, and chase the kiddos. He understands the needs of boys and so he will nicely let me know if I am being too strict because I simply don't understand the necessity of daily rough-housing.  If I've had a rough day with them, he will take them outside or watch them while I escape for a little while.

So, on this day, as we celebrate Dad's, I leave you this song...

   

Dream Living Room

I thought I would share my vision for how I would like to decorate our living room at our "unknown" new house.  As with Samara's room, a lot will depend on the size and shape of the room, but in the perfect world, this is what it would be.  I consider the "living room" as the room on the main level that is used for entertaining.  It's not the place where the kiddos would lounge around and watch TV (they could lounge and read a book, though!)  Ideally, it would have a fireplace, but I COULD survive if it didn't ;-) 

Throughout the main living areas of the "new house", I want to paint it a neutral light/medium gray.  I don't want it to be dark, but to be comfortable and homey.  The living room would be painted this color, too.

My vision for this room is Modern, Minimal, with some Vintage Fun.  I want it to be a place where anyone can come and just relax, but also a place with some character.

I would want to buy a new couch for this room. I like how this couch has the clean lines that I love and plenty of room for people to sit.  I like the color, too.

These chairs are currently listed on Craigslist for $85 for both.  If I knew how much room our "new house" had, I would swipe these suckers up. But, I have resolved that I will not buy until we have a contract on a new house.  I am confident that I will find exactly what I am supposed to have at that time.  ANYWAY, back to the idea: 

While the orange definitely is Vintage, it's not exactly what I had in mind.  I would reupholster these chairs in "Solid Wheat" color shown above.  I love the golden color and the lines.  Since a new couch and reupholstered chairs are costly, I want a neutral palate of furniture so that the room could be easily altered, if desired, by switching out accessories instead of big ticket items. 

One of the accessories that I love is a mid-modern coffee table.  The clean lines and simplicity of the piece is what attracts me the most to it.  Although the natural wood is pretty, I want to incorporate color into the room and this piece would be perfect for that.  I haven't quite decided what colors I would use.  Of course, I love red, but lately, I've been really liking the vintage green as well.  Oh well, I'll have time to decide and get opinions!  So here is a coffee table that I love so you can get an idea of what I'm thinking:

Here is a picture of a side table that I like as well. I would paint it to match the coffee table.

These Vintage lamps would add an element of fun.  I would use drum shades...possibly black ones.

For throw pillows/possible color schemes, I like these fabrics (I like the green or the red, not together, though!):

A round pillow like below is a must!

On the coffee table/side table/mantel/or possibly some floating shelves on the wall, I would want to incorporate a few pieces of depression glass in the appropriate  color scheme. I like the design of this:

 I hope you aren't on design/color/print overload.  I know I threw a lot out there, but I can see it in my mind and it looks perfect!

Likes/Dislikes

Below is a List of Samara's Favorite Things Right Now:

"Dino-horse"  =  The Pink Dinosaur She Made at T-Rex with Grammie and Papa

"My Sofi"  =  Cousin Sofia...She is Constantly Wanting to Know Where She Is

"Mermaid Dress"  =  Little Mermaid Sleeping Gown

"Beast"  =  Beauty and the Beast Movie She Received for Christmas

"Pop-sics"  =  Popsicles

"Cereal/Milk"  = Favorite Breakfast

"Pink Blankie"  = The Famous Blanket Our Neighbors Gave Her

"Show-wee"  = Shower/Bath

Things Samara Does Not Like:

Naps/Bedtime  =  Still Puts Up a Daily Fight

Root Beer

Hair to be Fixed

A Clean Bedroom = Must Immediately Destroy It

Sleeping in Her Bed...She Prefers the Floor

Keeping the Same Outfit on All Day  = Increase in Laundry for Mommy

The P-A-R-K

A conversation from yesterday afternoon went something like this...

Me: "James, are you still going to take the kids to the P-A-R-K?"
James:  "Kids, do you want to go to the park?"
Isaiah:  "No, I want to go to the place Mommy just said, the P-A-K"
Malachi: "Yeah, let's go to the P-A-R and then we can go to the park"

Second Chances

Last night James hung out with 2 college friends.  I decided the kiddos and I should have a camp out in our living room.  A little before dinner, I told them the plan.  All 3 were thrilled.

For the past few days, Malachi has been struggling with talking back and arguing with me when told to do something.  Yesterday was no different.  I told him that he was not allowed to have any more bad choices or the camp out would be taken away from him and he would spend the evening in his room.  Right after discussing this with him, he chose to argue with me over something minuscule.  I had to break the bad news that he just lost the camp out.  Huge tears filled his eyes and I could tell that his heart was broken.  My heart was broken, too.  I had wanted this evening to be fun for everyone.  He pulled himself together and forged ahead making just plain awesome choices during dinner and right after dinner.  When it was time for him to go upstairs, he didn't complain; he started to quietly make his way to his room. 

Before he made it to his room, I stopped him.  I told him how proud I was of his recent choices and so I was giving him a second chance for the camp out.  He was warned that even a little bad choice would not be tolerated.  His face overflowed with pure joy. 

For the camp out, the kiddos brought down their sleeping bags and pillows.  I closed the blinds and turned the lights out.  We huddled together and had fun watching a movie.  Throughout the entire movie, Malachi leaned against my arm and kissed my hand and thanked me over and over again for giving him a second chance.  He also kept telling me how much he loved me.  He never got close to making a bad choice.

It made me think about how many times God gives us second chances...do we capitalize on them like Malachi did or do we disregard what has been given to us?