pre disney

we are back from our trip, rested and wishing we could go back again! 

here are some of the highlights.

we figured since we were driving down to california we may as well see all that we can on the way down. i suggested san francisco because none of my family had ever been but me. we left friday morning and our plan was to drive to reno, spend the night and drive into san fran on saturday. we got to reno about 4 and our hotel was less than stellar. pool was closed, room was too small to fit the roll away and it was in a pretty shady part of town. after being in the room for five minutes, literally, we decided to find a different hotel. in the process of finding a new hotel we decided that since san francisco was only three hours away we would just head there and skip the overnight reno stay. by the time we were gassed up, fed and on our way it was 6:00 but knew it would be worth it to have all day to spend in the city.

then we woke up.

to rain.

a forecast of rain all day.

boo!

there were so many things i wanted to show everyone.

pier 39

fisherman's wharf

the golden gate

lombard street

the seal lions

alcatraz

i was super bummed but we decided to make the best of it and head out anyway and try to stay dry.

first we hit lombard street, the crookedest street in the world.

the city streets are all crazy steep but this one had to have curves put in it cause it was too steep for a car to drive straight down. i think this is when i remembered that we were supposed to have the brakes done before we left home...

then we decided we would go to the aquarium. it's indoors and since it's right on the water it should be really great right? not so much. it was expensive and not great at all but it got us in out of the rain for a while.

after the aquarium we thought it would be a good idea to walk around pier 39. 

it wasn't.

it was raining even harder now and we were all miserable.

after lunch we headed to the end of the pier to get a better view of alcatraz.

and then went to ghiradelli square to warm up with some hot chocolate. i must say that it was a close second to the hot chocolate we had in argentina. what's not to love about four chocolate squares melting in a hot cup of milk?

 since it would be a sin to go to san francisco and not see the golden gate we decided to drive across.

again, i was disappointed that it wasn't sunny but the kids thought it was fantastic so it made me feel better.

the $6 toll to get back across did not.

after this we decided we'd had enough rain and were ready to call it a soggy day.

tomorrow we get to drive the pacific coast highway all the way south!

and i will let you know now that we woke up to beautiful blue skies for our drive out of town.

figures.

the wizard of oz

i was walking the kids to the bus last week and emily started talking about the characters in the wizard of oz. this is how it went...
emily-there's the chipmunks...
me-chipmunks? you mean munchkins?
em-yeah the munchkins and the tin can...
me-tin man
em-and the guy on the stick...
me-scarecrow
em-and the tiger...
me-lion
...and both of us laughing the rest of the way.

two days!

we leave in two days!

two days!!!

we are so excited to tell the kids but have managed to keep it under wraps.

and we get to tell them in two days!!!

i got emily packed a couple days ago and i think i can do taylor and probably austin today too. 

i have emily's suitcase shoved behind my clothes in the closet and most of the clothes i want to take shoved on another shelf in the closet.

my only slip up so far has been labeling the remotes for alyssa and randall. i wanted them to be able to turn on the tv(why do they have to be so complicated?!) so i labeled the remotes so i could write it down step by step. austin came home from school and wondered why they had letters on them. i sort of mumbled something and made my escape to another room. 

i also need to make last minute trips to the bank, grocery store etc so i will be a busy girl til friday.

two days, people. 

two days!!!

just some stuff

not very amused that old man winter decided to wait til lacrosse season started to show up. it's march first,  there is a good inch and a half on the ground and it doesn't look to be stopping any time soon. bummer.

i painted taylor's room a couple of weeks ago. 

this is the before. we painted in tan and red not long after we moved in and it was time for a change.

and this is after! 

i went with all white so he could do anything with it and i wouldn't have to worry about painting it again. he wanted a bsu room with blue and orange walls but i wasn't in the mood for that project, nor did i want blue and orange walls.

he had enough bsu stuff that i was pretty sure i could use that stuff to decorate and not have to spend much money. i was right. all i bought were blue curtains for $15 and 3 frame for $9 total, he had everything else.

when it was painted but not decorated he told rob he hated it and wanted me to paint it back the way it was. 

he was on the verge of tears. seriously.

while he was at school the next day i finished decorating and i thought it turned out pretty great.

thankfully so did he.

please excuse the window seat...we were still putting stuff away.

i had these two shelves in my bathroom with only a couple things on them. they are pretty narrow so i was having trouble filling them. they ended up being perfect for his stuff.

these pictures are horribly blurry...

i used three bobble heads, a #1 finger, bsu pez dispenser, signed football, history of bsu book and a cow bell.

every time we go to a ball park taylor gets a pennant. he had the bsu rug and stop light decoration he got for christmas.

he has had the three bsu sports illustrated magazines for a while and i was so afraid they would get ruined. not now.

i bought three cheapo frames at walmart, sprayed them with paint i already had and put the magazines in the frames. 

cheap and easy.

so i am done painting for a while. i would like to do austin's room and emily's needs it bad but all my inspiration is gone for now. waiting for another vision.

we are 22 days away from our trip and rob and i are bursting at the seams. there is so much i want to do but i have to be careful. i even thought about packing for the kids last week but i thought i should wait just a little longer. i can't believe we have been able to keep it a secret for this long. i have almost slipped a few times but caught myself in the nick of time. my dad almost spilled the beans to taylor but my giant eyes and violent, but subtle, shaking of the head got his attention so we are still good.

rob even has a countdown on the mirror.

come on spring break!

keith and doug have decided to start a church.

rockharbor.

we are so excited to be involved from the beginning and are so excited to see where god is going to take us. everything is falling perfectly into place. we are meeting at rocky mountain high school and have already had two launch team meetings. we have two more to go before the first trial service on march 18th and then the grand opening will be on easter! so much to do but god has been good in providing everything.

and just so you know...since i started this post the two inches and counting of snow have melted, the roads are clear and the sun is shining.

gotta love spring in idaho.

mirror love

the kids are all very sentimental but emily and taylor tend to show it more. i keep a dry erase pen in the bathroom to write reminders on the mirror but the kids, especially emily, have taken to leaving notes quite often. i love walking in and receiving a surprise message.

 here are a few recent favs.

emily

taylor when he was leaving to go to mccall for the weekend.

this one made me laugh out loud.

rob wrote 'happy ♥ day' on valentines day and when i went to fix emily's hair i found her reply.

emily's latest...'i ♥ you dad and mom'

staying alive

i thought it would be fun to document some of my favorites in life. 

movies, music, food. anything that makes me me.

i have been wanting to do a blog post on this movie for a long time but just never got around to it so this will be my first favorites post.

one of my all time favorite movies is staying alive.

a fun trivia fact about staying alive:

it was written by sylvester stallone. yes THAT sylvester stallone. he actually makes a brief appearance in the movie.

my aunt introduced me to it when i was about 7 or 8.

she used to take me to her house and we would get round table pizza(mushroom and black olive), m&ms, green tea ice cream and dr. pepper and we would watch this movie over and over. 

i started taking dance classes when i was in preschool so i could sort of relate to the movie. 

it's something that, as a very young child, i could see me doing with my life. 

i was in dance...why not be a dancer when i grow up.

i could just picture myself in the opening number.

the leotards, the leg warmers, the head bands.

the tryouts where everyone is judged and only the best of the best get through to join the show.

intertwined in the quest to follow their dancing dreams is a love story. 

the girl who is best friends and, on again off again, dating the boy. 

the jealous boy who likes her when it's convenient but really has eyes for the lead dancer in the show.

the girl who is tired of being put last and has to tell him through song.

when it all comes down to it she loves him  no matter what.

when he needs help practicing for a part there is no place else she would rather be.

he gets the lead part(spoiler, i know) and the training starts.

i still think this would be so awesome.

then there is the final dance number. what they have all worked so hard for. 

boy and girl have decided that they love each other and this is what they've waited their whole lives to do.

it's their turn to be in a broadway show.

the last scene in the movie is what it's all about. 

he has everything he wants and all he wants to do is strut!

no matter how cheesy, corny or downright goofy this movie is it will always be one of my favorites.

whitney through the years

whitney houston died last weekend and it almost feels like i lost an old friend.

i remember when i first met her. my parents had some friends, the whitney's, and they got together frequently. they had a college age daughter named jennifer who was kind enough to let a ten year old girl hang out with her while our parents visited. i will never forget the first time i heard whitney houston sing. i can still see the orange cassette cover and her toga like dress. let me get you a picture...

she was beautiful.

and the songs...i was ten years old and had every song memorized within a week.

fast forward and her songs were with me throughout elementary school.

my favorites we so emotional, where do broken hearts go and didn't we almost have it all.

she followed me through high school with the bodyguard.

oh the bodyguard...

the movie was good but the soundtrack was so much better.

of course everyone loves i will always love you but my all time favorite from that album was i have nothing.

i spent many an afternoon belting out "dooon't maaaake meeee clooooose one more door!"

she sort of fell off the grid after that album but she wasn't done yet.

she came back in my early adults years with the preacher's wife.

i love a good black choir and when several songs included the georgia mass choir it was like candy to my ears.

i played hold on, help is on the way over and over and over.

 the first words speak a great truth

When you're down and in despair 
Don't be uneasy because he'll be there 
Say don't you worry, no don't you fret 
The Lord has never, never failed you yet 

but my favorite lines in the song are:

He may not come when you want him
But he'll be right there on time

again i didn't hear much good about her for a lot of years.

i had been going to the gym for a couple of years at this point and decided to try a step class.

who do you think sang the second song in that class? she was back again singing me through life.

million dollar bill was the last song whitney would sing to me and believe it or not it is my all time favorite song to do in step. go figure.

it's so heartbreaking to see a life cut short but it was all put into perspective when a friend wrote this on facebook:

The world has lost another great singer, whitney houston. The thing is... whether you are rich, famous, and talented... you will face the same eternity as everyone in this world. I hope someone spoke Christ into her life. 

i hope the same.

loving it

so here it is in all of it's low light glory...my new bedroom!

i love how much bigger it looks now that it isn't dark blue.

i love that it is calming when i walk in.

i love that everything looks so clean and fresh.

i have some more decorating to do. not sure what i want to do above my bed. i had some ideas but when i got the shelf up there they didn't work so now i am scouring pinterest looking for other ideas.

this was an old headboard. i got it from a store in nampa several years ago. it was yellow and, even though i didn't know what i was going to do with it, i knew i had to have it. well several years passed and it hung on my wall as a headboard. a big yellow headboard with legs and a place to put side rails if we saw fit someday. i had had a couple people tell me i should use it as a coat rack. i liked the idea but never did anything about it cause we were content hanging our coats on the knob at the end of our bed. classy. i decide  yesterday was the day that the transformation would happen. i knew i would have to use rob's miter saw to get the job done, which was a task in itself. i went back and forth deciding whether i should use it by myself. i could only imagine the things that could go wrong and how bad that would be with no one home...so i got my cell phone. i figured if anything happened i would, hopefully, have enough left in me to call someone before i passed out from blood loss.

moving on.

i got my ear plugs, well one ear plug and one kleenex wad cause i couldn't find another ear plug, my safety goggles(sun glasses) and leather gloves cause i figured that they might be harder to get through in case the saw decided to bite. i lined up my cut, turned on the saw, and away i went. it was awesome. like a hot knife through butter. and within two minutes i had cut off both legs with not problems. yay me! a couple coats of coral spray paint and it went from this...

to this...

Here is the other angle. Like I said, I still need some stuff but it's good for now.

i got these baskets at goodwill for $5. i went in with an idea in mine and was blown away to find five baskets that were exactly the same just different shapes. i snatched them up and another idea was born. the chandelier was painted lime green before.

after five years i am finally getting my type drawer out to use. i would like to put a few things in it and do something else under it to use a little more of the space but i love it on the wall.

now taylor wants his room painted. oy! he has even taken everything off his walls and moved it all to the middle of the room which means i actually have to do it. guess i know what i am doing saturday.

painting

made my first spinach smoothie today. i got the recipe from budget bytes and used it as a guideline but pretty much did my own thing. my includes a banana, blueberries, strawberries, frozen cherries, spinach and almond milk. it isn't like drinking a chocolate milkshake, it's definitely something that i will have to get used to, but it's not bad

i am hoping it will give me the energy to tackle my bedroom. decided to paint last night and went out first thing this morning to get the paint. it's a big job but i am hoping to have it done today.

i chose martha stewart's enamelware color. guess i better get started!

projects

i have a lot of projects that i need to get done around the house. between thrifting and pinterest i have about a million things i would like to do...

easy stuff like painting the pantry door

or doing board and batten in the living/dining rooms.

i would also like wood floors 

and lots more windows.

but until we have the money(still waiting for that money tree to start producing) and the time to do those things i will stick to the little things that will make me feel like i'm making progress.

i have two lamps that i got for $3.75 and $3, respectively, that i need to get painted and put somewhere or sold. the first is small and i already have a shade for it so it just needs painting. easy peasy.

i love the shape of this one! i need to get some paint and get her done too so i can enjoy it in the house instead of looking at her occasionally as i pass through the garage.

i got this cabinet off craigslist for $20. i think this is a fixer upper and sell cabinet but i will have to make that decision when it's all done. 

this is a head board/foot board that i got for taylor at goodwill for $19. he is the only child that doesn't have a double bed and he was beginning to feel left out. it needs a little work where the rails attach to the head board but once it's painted i think it's going to be awesome and, like the lamp, look much better in the house than in the garage.

loving...

...my toes. a friend of  mine has a girl at her church that does pedicures for ten dollars. ten dollars!!! this is my second one and i just love going. we get to sit and talk AND get my feet taken care of. love! 

...my laptop. rob got it for me for christmas and i have already gotten his moneys worth out of it. i use it all. the. time.

 ...my new chandelier. i have wanted this thing for a couple years but, being at ikea, i never wanted to spend the money on it when i actually had the chance to go. my aunt was going to one and said she would get it for me if i wanted it. she called and asked if i was sure i wanted the big one, because it was pretty big, and i assured her that it was the big, not the smaller one, that i wanted. it arrived in the mail, we put it together, and i had giant light remorse. big time. but the longer it hung there the more i fell in love. 

...my glass coffee mugs. i got these in texas at crate and barrel for $1.50 each. sad thing is i only got two of them. stupid, stupid, stupid! i love how big they are. i love their shape. and i love that my hands fit so nicely around it.

...my burt's bees chapstick. i thought i would always be a blistex girl. i had been for many a year, but after we started down the healthier living road i learned of many not so great things in it. i am a chapstick girl. i always have to have it on me so i was a little intimidated trying to find a new one that had natural ingredients and wasn't waxy as i am a very picky about my lip balm. hellooooo burt's bees. everything i wanted and more.

...my mantel. i'm not good with decorating. i know what i like but have a hard time getting it to translate around my house. this took me almost two full days(sad i know) but i love the way it turned out and it makes me happy every time i look at it.

hodge podge

--rob and em were out the other night and she tells him that she is so glad we live where we do because if we are ever hungry we have so many places to go eat like "walgreens(?), j.b.'s, jack ons." what? he told her that it was jackSon's, as in the shell station around the corner. she said she thought the squiggly line in between was to separate the words.

--in going over things in my head for our trip i have come to realize that i still have the same bathing suit i wore on our trip 6 YEARS AGO! i don't wear it but tit's still in my drawer. note to self:get rid of 6 year old bathing suit.

--i found two more chairs for our dining room table at the youth ranch yesterday. chairs by themselves have been super hard to find. i was walking around the store and came upon four chairs that weren't marked. i was almost afraid to ask how much they were cause the youth ranch can be a little pricey but they told me ten bucks a piece. sold! i took the best two and brought them to their new home.

--rob got me a laptop for christmas. probably my favorite present, aside from the gurgle pot, but it has been both a blessing and a curse. i love having it downstairs on the counter so i'm not constantly running up and down the stairs all day to our other computer. however, having it on the counter all day leads to spontaneous, all day sessions of facebook, pinterest and craigslist. must get that under control.

--i'm on a no meat kick again. i watched the movie forks over knives and coupled with food inc. and super size me i never want to eat anything but veggies again. i am in the process of making the next two weeks menu and so far there's no meat in sight. i've also gone to almond milk instead of cows milk and am trying to limit the amount of dairy in general. eggs, butter and sour cream might be a little harder to limit but we'll see. everyone but austin seems to be ok with it and, hopefully, he will come around too.

--we got snow shoes, from santa, for christmas and decided since it finally snowed that we would take them out last saturday. we didn't really know where to go and the spot we chose wasn't very good. and it rained. and we had sadie who sunk to her shoulders every time she took a step. a memorable first trip if nothing else.