Almost Done!

I am so excited to tell you all that I will be unveiling our bedroom remodel within the next week! I really think you girls are going to love it! I am waiting on the chandelier because I need someone electrical to help us out, so that last step will be the lingering change...

In other news, Dakota is prepping and learning many things for his upcoming California trip for Scout High Adventure this year. He is going to so many cool places! Lake Tahoe, Yosemite, San Fransisco, Alcatraz...I am really wishing I would have believed that God would have provided someone to watch my youngest so I could have tagged along. BUT I believe this will be another growing experience of seeing my boy go off and become a young man in a short amount of time!

We are finally done with birthdays, Father's Day, end of the school year parties, and now the 4th of July. It should be a relief but I am feeling like summer is gone all of a sudden!? Why is it as a mom you have to learn to shop for swimsuits while wearing long sleeves, purchase back to school clothes in July, school supplies too...and spend August exhausted knowing the kids are busy, headed back to school and wondering if they actually got a full vacation from it all?

I have been so anxious to finally get the virtual school computer and curriculum shipped out to confirm that we are standing on our own two feet for homeschooling. We barely touched them last schoolyear at all but there was a glitch in their system and they didn't send us labels so we had the supplies all year long even though we withdrew in October. As exciting as it will be to put back up our own computer and make more space with our own curriculum, it is also making me realize I need to find time to start planning out my curriculum but at the same time trying to enjoy swimming and outdoor activities with my kids! I am praying that God will guide me on what to keep and what to use throughout the year next year. I have also been very blessed with people sharing supplies and older books and such, that helps tremendously!

What a busy, busy summer! What are you busy doing this summer? I have stained, painted a hallway into a vaulted ceiling stairwell, planted, weeded, mowed, sold things on craigslist, cleaned part of our basement, taken a ton of things to goodwill, shared clothes with girlfriends for their kids instead of donating them or selling them. Seems like I have been doing a lot of work all of a sudden! :)

I will be posting pics in the next few days and I WILL finally be doing my first giveaway! Sorry for the letdown a few months back, I just couldn't get it together with everything we had going on!!

More soon!
Sarah

Home Decor Choices

I am so anxious to show you all pictures of our bedroom remodel, but we haven't painted yet! I should tease you but with painting needing to be done and a bench that is possibly on the way from my parents, I will wait. I will ask...
Gray/White bedding, black silk curtains, gray walls, silver accents, black bench...what color should I paint my pine nightstands??? I am between white and black??? I am really anxious to give this a shot and hopefully have it turn out great using spray paint! The nightstands do have plastic inserts that I can't get out of the drawer, so you can see the stuff inside...wondering if I could rough sand them and paint them liquid silver or something...ideas are stirring. What do they say to you? Or maybe white with the gray insert or black with gray...
That one can be done fairly easy next week so I need some aid in choosing colors, what stands out nice to you?

I did think I should take a minute and share a recent pic, my husband was majorly appreciative when he took these pictures and realized it isn't every wife that will let you set up in your rec room/computer area....

Have you ever done anything that you looked back on and realized what did I sign up for? That was kind of my initial reaction after I saw all the gear set up next to my computer desk! :)

Sarah

Past Winnings

Due to my computer going down after Easter, I realized I didn't get a chance to post a great win. I won some beautiful stationary note cards from The Note House.
Go check out her website, it is hard to choose! Even winning my choice was tough to pick one that I liked the most!

Recently, I am excited to share that I also won a contest at the IE Mommy, you can find her button on my side bar. I won a free shirt for boys/men from 191 Unlimited in my choice of size. Not sure which one they will send me, but I am anxious to get it and add to my boys back to school collection of clothes. My husband actually vetoed the shirt saying he doesn't do designs, which is something I know of him, stripes are about as decorative as he gets! :) I really hope we win one of these:



God also blessed us recently, my husband bought new drum heads for his drum set and then asked if he could get new sticks for our "gig" coming up this weekend. I asked him to wait and then on Father's Day after get home from church we have a msg on our answering machine....Guitar Center called to say I had a $20 gift certificate waiting for me. It ended up just being because I was on their customer list for some reason, but we were able to get his expensive sticks (3 pair) for $8! That is SO God! :)

Just wanted to share to remind everyone to keep entering those contests! You never know when or what you might win, but it won't happen if you don't enter! :)

Have a great day!
Sarah

Summer Breeze

(Is it just me or is there something so beautiful about his teacher's hair, numerous moms mentioned how much they liked her hair!)



This past week has flown by! Kaiden thoroughly enjoyed his time at Vacation Bible School...the cutest memories are hearing him sing the songs and doing the motions. Seeing him dressed up in his robe although I rarely got a chance to get his picture. Then my favorite was him coming home not once but twice with fresh made bread that he sprinkled cinnamon, sugar, honey and garlic powder on. Uhm, yum. This is not representation of how I cook, honest! We just realized the first time he did it we thought it was so funny, we forgot to tell him those don't work together! Whoops!!

As I went to pick up Dakota from Scout Camp on Sunday all I could think of was Goofy saying his infamous line from The Goofy Movie..."That's My Boy! Huck yuck!" There was my son who had turned 11 that day, but actually did seem older, more mature, covered in dirt, tired, a little sunburned, with new bandages and wounds but so at ease with himself. He came back to me a new boy. I fought back tears as he lined up with his troop and they all used teamwork to get the trailers unloaded, teasing, helping, mustering up strength they barely had left. Once they finished unloading and grabbing a piece of equipment to take home to clean, Dakota walked over and put him head into my neck and chest and breathed "Hi Mom" into my ear like he was little again. The emotion I felt at that very moment can't be expressed in words! Although I had been busy all week with Kaiden, my heart swelled and overwhelmed me. It was his birthday after all, but a big part of me wanted to take off with him alone for the day to enjoy this new boy that had come home...

but alas there were balloons, notes and brothers and dad at home to greet and celebrate with so that was not an option! Sigh!
We had two birthdays this weekend...Bennett turned 13 and he received a bunch of clothes as he has grown and asked for them. He also received the workbench he asked for. My husband was super responsive and actually mounted our Yakima in the garage when I asked him to so we have room in the basement now for the workbench area! Yay!

This week has been filled with another birthday, my girlfriend Angi. So we brought gifts and food to her house and spend a fabulous day Monday with her and of course her fabulous puppies! Even better, my husband came out after work and held puppies and celebrated her day as well! Here are more pictures of the puppies because I know they are so hard to resist!!! They are getting big and doing little growls in their sleep now! So precious!!!



































I am so in love with him and add a puppy and my heart soars!

This weekend our worship band is playing an outdoor event at a church for a few hours. Keep your prayers with us that our performance goes well and reaches many.

Hectic Vacation

Doesn't that seem about right? Wow, I have one son off to Scout camp, three sons off to a cabin with their grandfather on the other side of their family, and one left at home for 5 days. This week should have been open, relaxing, calm and the complete scheduling up to the little guy...

Somehow it seems like things always happen or need to be done though. We have had birthday errands for the two birthdays happening this weekend. Things to buy, take back, pick up, etc. We were able to visit our friend whose dog just had amazingly beautiful little puppies. It was a good visit *(with the puppies). Give me a baby or a puppy and I have tunnel vision the entire time for them. *sigh* But thankfully, today we are off to help a friend clean her house to prepare for family to visit...and to see those precious puppies again! Our best plan though is once that is finished, taking the kids to a great swimming location where you can actually take your rafts, floaties and whatever else you have. I can't wait to go and hopefully spend some of this pent up energy for both of us! I will just pray that between the children's museum, wrapping gifts, decorating the house and cleaning tomorrow we will get everything done so that the birthday boy who is turning 13 will walk into the house surprised and happy!

Kaiden has thankfully enjoyed Vacation Bible School every night this week and can't wait to go! Even better was having one of the teachers tell me how awed she was with how much he knew about God and his love and so many other things. She told me he is very special and God has a plan for him for sure. Confirmation from yet another person. It can be hard to be humble and recognize that while he is MY son, he is God's child that HE is imparting wisdom and hunger for his Word. It is not because of Me! We have had numerous people tell us over the years that he is special and God has a plan for him. I get very excited when I think about him growing up only because I can't wait to see what God has in store for him! He is the child that will approach people at the grocery store openly and say Do you know Jesus? His love is free and he can heal anything! His childlike open faith is a constant reminder to me of how we should be.

I just wanted to share a piece of my week with you all. My new bedding came in and that is put on and luscious! My husband loves it and now wants black carpet in our bedroom....uhm I told him we will wait until after we paint and see what happens. I have furniture to paint and rearrange and need to buy some new decor items as some no longer match. I will get pictures up by next week of the changes.

Have a great day!
Sarah

Fabulous Birthday!

Wow! I am just so happy STILL from the amazing birthday I had yesterday! My husband had a zillion notes (okay that is exaggerating) but there were a lot, all over the bathroom mirror for me to wake up and read. I had my parents call and sing to me each on their way to work. I snuggled in bed flipping through Domino magazines to verify bedroom ideas, then read to my snugglebug Kaiden.

After a barrage of emails, texts and facebook comments I felt like a Princess! (I have never been big on being a Queen, I guess because my name means Princess I cling to that vision!) ;) My husband took off half the day to surprise me with streamers, balloons, cake, flowers, presents and a day of shopping. He is amazing and such a wonderful man! I am so blessed with him! I also took him to heart and literally shopped for hours!!! He was great at helping pick out curtains, rods, bedding, sheets, unmentionables at Victoria's Secret, candles, clothes at the Limited and continuously saying "Go For It"!

I will post pics of my new sheets very soon! I got them at a steal for $25 (at Tuesday Morning's) and they will match the new bedding set I was longing for and found tucked deep into google on craigslist brand new for $245!!! WOW!!!






I am so excited about everything I got and how it all fell into place. I truly felt God's favor because I have sensed for 2 weeks now that my bedroom plans would fall into place on my birthday but I didn't imagine how easy it would be! The ONE pair of gray floral just happened to be at Tuesday Morning and they just happened to be Queen and cheaper than any other set there! The curtains we wanted they "just happened" to have the only 4 panels we needed in stock and on sale. They "just happened" to have the new Victoria's Secret candles that I love on sale for buy 2 get 1 free and I "just happened" to have two coupons, so it cost me barely more than two candles to get 3 and 4 new pairs of undies. I am just one of those girls that has learned to recognize where that "just happened" feeling comes from...my God is mighty and he cares about all things that I care about! Even saving money, having pretties, matching things up and knowing he directed it all like a beautiful orchestra just amazes me! :)