SPW - Something Blue

Our SPT challenge for this week is: may means *wedding month* to me. and, no, this challenge is not going to be about weddings (unless you want it to be...) this month's challenge is simply:
tuesday, may 6 something old
tuesday, may 13 something new
tuesday, may 20 something borrowed
tuesday, may 27 something blue

As for something blue...

we are!

I've been taking a lot of pictures and getting a lot taken lately because we need to put together a collage of our family as part of our adoption profile.

We are not only blue we are red too!

SPT - Something New

Our SPT challenge for this week is: may means *wedding month* to me. and, no, this challenge is not going to be about weddings (unless you want it to be...) this month's challenge is simply:
tuesday, may 6 something old
tuesday, may 13 something new
tuesday, may 20 something borrowed
tuesday, may 27 something blue

I took some NEW pictures of my children this week.

Caleb - 6 1/2

Matthias - 4 1/2

Seija - 2 1/2

Also, I bought these NEW headbands. A friend of mine put on a fabulous (headband) party. A bunch of women got together to visit and try out these headbands (below) by Pink Bench. They are brilliantly made to stay on your head and not hurt... so I bought two. We all had a wonderful time. Thanks Kari Dawn! Your an amazing hostess!

The cutest headband model you'll ever see.

SPT - Something Old

The spt challenge this week is: may means *wedding month* to me. and, no, this challenge is not going to be about weddings (unless you want it to be...) this month's challenge is simply:
tuesday, may 6 something old
tuesday, may 13 something new
tuesday, may 20 something borrowed
tuesday, may 27 something blue

Lets see... Do I have anything old around my house... I do! I see a few things!... Actually I see many things. If fact everything is old. Looks like next week will be a little trickier to figure out. This week my only problem will be how much to include.

The point of this picture is for you to see our very old table. Almost all the finish has been removed over time. It is such an eye sore! So I bought all the supplies I needed to refinish our table... a year ago. Last week was yet another week of being too busy to make my old table look like new, as I was trying to plan two parties (details in a future post), finish my cards for the card swap, get Mother's Day cards out, deal with three sick children, clean up the "sick" they left on my carpet, etc, etc. I happen to have the most wonderful husband in the world. Who not only helped out with my crazy week, but also found time to do this.

Just look at it shine! I love it! My old table now looks like new.
Thank-you Brad!!!

Old Hairdo. As you can see Brad is in need of a haircut. Hopefully that needed event will occur before his sister's wedding this month. We want nice pictures! Although I have to admit his hairdo isn't quite as old as this one was (below).

This photo is a favorite of mine. I know the baby is new, but look at the contrast of the hand that's holding him. Isn't that beautiful?

Brad as a baby. Old looking face - little baby arms. He hasn't changed much but fortunatly he grew into that head of his. His body is proportioned much better now.

SPT - Fuel or Shopping Spree?

Our spt challenge this week is: your challenge this week? find your last receipt from the gas station (or if you are filling up over the weekend, make note of what you spend.) how'd you do? $35.00? $70.00? $100.00+?? what if you could take THAT amount and spend it on something for you?? to make it a little more challenging, let's just say that you can only buy ONE item, and the cost of that ONE item must be within $5.00 of what you spent at the pump.

I have between $48.10 - $58.10 to go shopping with.

My first thought in this imaginary shopping spree was to buy a new outfit. I'm sure others get sick of seeing me in the same few outfits week after week. I know I do. But (although this may surprise all females out there) I don't like shopping! It's such a hassle finding something that looks good, not only on the hanger, but on myself too, and then have that item be the right price for our low budget. The sizes drive me nuts too! How can I be a size small, medium, large and X-large in the same shopping trip? It makes no sense! Maybe one day, when money is not such an issue, I'll like shopping. Maybe.

So, because I x'ed out the clothing idea right off the bat, I had to think of something else I wanted (most of which were either way below or way above my target price range). There was one item that I have been toying about getting, but have been putting off until our next long driving trip. I would buy Chronicles of Narnia boxed set on Audio CD.

It turns out that the cost of this item is $54, which is only $.90 over the amount I paid for fuel this last weekend.

How would you spend your money, if you didn't have to pay the outrageous price of fuel?

SPT - Earth Day

Lelly's SPT challenge for this week is:
this week, go out and plant a tree. carpool. invest in a good water bottle. at the very least, take a moment and figure out your ecological footprint. if you participated last year, are you doing anything *greener* this year? if this is your first earth day spt, do you consider yourself a part of "the green generation?"

Although I don't do as much as I should, I do what I can. Year by year we are getting better at being part of "the green generation". But I still have room for improvement for next years spt :)

I Reduce:

These babies were purchased last November. Oh, how I love front load (high efficiency) washers & dryers! Saves time, saves money, saves water, saves electricity.

This was installed last summer. CPS regulates a/c usage by turning it off for 10 minutes at a time. I didn't even notice it, and it supposedly saves a "ton" of electricity.

Our "bright idea" of a year ago. These light bulbs "Save Money. Save Energy. Save the Environment." - or so I've been told :)

I Reuse:

My kind of Tupperware.

I Recycle:

Today not only is earth day, it just so happens that it's recycle pick-up day too. How convenient! It makes me feel like I've helped out a little today.

Do you have any great, inexpensive ideas that you do to help save the earth?
HAPPY EARTH DAY!!!!

SPT Challenge - Welcome Home!

for tuesday, march 11th: if i came to visit you next week, how would i know which doorbell to ring? do you have a formal entrance? should i come to the front door? or do you prefer your guests to come around back? (would you be surprised if i came in through the garage?!?)

*I really wanted to have this post posted on Tuesday, especially since it's been a few weeks since the last time I SPTed, but after taking a few pictures my camera battery died. Died, right before I got a picture of me. And I couldn't very well post this without picture of me. So now that I have one I can. The "T" in SPT will stand for both "She photographs on Tuesdays" and "she Photographs on Thursdays" in this case.

Most people who come to visit knows which doorbell to ring, by looking for our vehicle in the driveway. Our vehicle has a couple features that makes it really stand out. If that's not there, then you need look for the house with an amazingly beautiful arbor beside the front door.

Doesn't that look gorgeous and exceptionally well made? My handy husband designed it and made it all by himself.


On that arbor you'll find two trellises that have beautiful vines a third of the way up. The goal is to have them all the way up the trellises one day.

SPT Challenge - Love, Me

This weeks self portrait Tuesday is: what will you do for yourself this valentine's day?

There is something that I've been meaning to do for myself, so this was the perfect opportunity to finally do it! Thank-you spt!

This doesn't affect anyone but me. So it truly is something just for me! I decided to finally tint my eyelashes. I have blonde hair and even blonder eyelashes, so I feel I look much better when I have mascara on. So why not permanent mascara? Well, permanent for over a month anyway.

The before picture with my do-it-yourself eyelash tinting kitA before picture with no mascara. Yikes!
I really do have some lashes there somewhere.

Oh, there they are! :)Me with tinted eyelashes. Much better!

SPT Challenge - Fill-in-the-blanks

sometimes we've just got to mix up the soul searching spts with some off the cuff fun. this feels like one of those weeks - i feel like having FUN!! so how about a fill-in-the-blanks? all you need to do is fill in the blanks and insert your spt ready?

the other day, i was in my _____________, and i noticed this _______________. my only thought was, "why do i still have this hanging around my house?!?"

As I was thinking about the "why do I still have this hanging around my house?" question, I thought of basically every piece of furniture in my home, but there is a very obvious answer to that question. We have it because we are poor students. If money were no object I'd toss the beds, mattresses, couch, table, chairs, shelves, a dresser, etc, etc. But definitely the first piece of furniture to go would be our couch. From far away it doesn't look to bad, eh? Well take a look at these...Fortunately the colours of the couch do a pretty good job at masking the stains that are on it.

The blanks could also be filled with "closet" and "bag"I use to use this as my temple bag because I thought it was so tacky and therefore perfect. But it has been a long time now since I have used it. Some people like to keep everything, but I'm the kind of person who likes to dejunk and toss. So I really did think "why do I still have this hanging around my house?"

Other people looking in my home may have filled in the blanks with "friend Tilane's house" and "tube of toothpaste"But we like to get our money's worth out of everything we buy.There's at least two more brushes in that tube!

SPT Challenge - The 25th Hour

SPT Challenge - The 25th Hour - what if there was a twenty-fifth hour of the day, an hour all to yourself! no commitments, no distractions, no need to sleep. what would you do?

This spt was fun to think about. An hour just for me. There are some of my family and friends who don't seem to need a 25th hour like I do. My husband Brad is a prime example. He has time management skills that are awe-inspiring. He can accomplish in one day, more than most people can in three days. It truly is a wonderful talent he has. As for me, I've been wishing for a few extra hours a lot these past fews days. I've been greatly tempted to disregard my goal, of getting to bed before midnight, so that I can have that extra hour. So I thought about what I like doing, what I want to do, what I need to do and what I've been putting off for ages, and I came up with a huge list of what I'd do in that 25th hour. Below is my current top ten ways I'd spend my 25th hour. Some of them aren't so exciting or fun, but they need to get done.

***Warning*** there are some people who think I keep quite a clean home, but the terrible truth is about to come out. I am like those children who pretend to clean, but stuff everything into their closets. Most people who come over to our house don't go into our bedroom, where our clean laundry is sprawled all over the place, unfolded. Nor do they enter our office that is a bigger disaster than you can imagine. Those are my "closet" rooms. Now that you know my secret, you may proceed to my top ten list.

1. Get the Christmas stuff put away. I am one step closer to getting that done. I've have now accumulated most of the decorations into one spot.* Update: I got it done today! Not that I found an extra hour, I just forgot about all the other things I need to do. My personal goal was to accomplish this before the end of the month (I was cutting it pretty close, wasn't I?).
2. Iron my huge stack of wrinkled clothes and fold the mountain of clean laundry. It really is a mountain, see...3. Sort through my children's clothes, and pack the items that no longer fit them.
4. Organize my office (I am not showing a picture of it, it is way too embarrassing!!!)
5. Make the cards for my card swap and other cards also.
6. Finish our 72 hour kits. I've been collecting needed items over a year and now I just need to put them all together. But when?
7. Finish working on "14 Days of Valentines". I started a tradition, much like the Twelve Days of Christmas, where my true love gets something (usually very cheap, but creative) everyday in February, leading up to Valentines Day, to let him know how much I love him. I don't want to spoil the surprises, so there'll be more to come on this subject.
8. Start taking piano lessons again and having the time to practice.
9. Play volleyball, volleyball, and more volleyball.
10. Last, but definatly not least. Take a photography course.

SPT Challenge - What's in a Name