Wordless Wednesday - Mmmm.. Juice!

I don't know about you, but I just want to pinch those cheeks!

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Slowing Down

I've hinted at this a couple of times, but I can finally say with 100% assurance that my family and I are moving to South Carolina. My husband just got a new job down there, and he'll be leaving in a little over a week. The kids and I will follow him down as soon as the school year is over.

We are so excited, and really looking forward to living down there. He has lots of family in the area, and it will be so nice to be near them. After being a military family for so many years, and moving around at their direction, this will be the first move we've made by choice. We're excited to finally be able to "plant some roots," and hope to not have to move again for a very long time, if ever.

Anyway, my posting is going to be very sporadic over the next month or so, but I won't be deserting this blog all together. It's just going to be really busy around for a while. So, please bear with me while I'm in this exciting transition, and I promise to write more over the summer once we are settled.

As always, thanks for visiting!



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WW ~ Sharing ~ And, Fun with Photoshop Elements

'Sharing'

I altered the above picture using Photoshop Elements. Below is the before shot.

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Happy Momma's Day!

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Tackle It Tuesday - Playroom

We have a very small room in our house that we use for a playroom. Thanks to the addition of new Christmas toys, and me not enforcing the "pick up your toys" policy, it quickly became a disaster area with a capital 'D'. There were toys piled waist high throughout the room and you couldn't even open the door all the way. I didn't take any before pictures, because it was just too embarrassing, but I finally got in there and straighten things up and here are the results...



It feels so good to finally have this done, and my girls have loved being able to finally play with all of their things. Now, the trick is keeping it this way! :)

Be sure to check out all of the other 'tackles' at 5 Minutes for Mom.



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7 Things - I was tagged by Milk Allergy Mom

LONG AGO I was tagged by Milk Allergy Mom for this Meme, and I owe her a huge apology for taking so long to reply. So... sorry! Here is her 7 Things Post. Anyway, I started writing this post on April 20th, and I have now finally finished it.

So, what was I tagged to do? Write seven things about me. Interesting things, strange things, weird things... whatever things. Then at the end I'll tag some other bloggers. For those of you that I tag, I'd like you to know that I'm tagging you because I like reading your blogs. Please do not feel that you have to do a '7 things' post of your own. If you want to... great, if not... no biggie. I mean, geesh, look how long it took me to write something up. Also, I think a few of you may have done this Meme before.

Anyway.... on to Seven Things About ME!

1. Since I was tagged for this Meme by Milk Allergy Mom, the first thing I'll share is that when I was a kid I too had a milk allergy. Except, mine wasn't the typical mess up your stomach allergy, instead was a mess up your feet allergy. Yes, feet! The bottoms of my feet would get huge, DEEP cracks in them, and would bleed really bad. It was basically super bad dry skin.. but only on the bottoms of my feet, and yes, the doc determined it was due to milk. I know... weird, and oh so gross! The things I remember the most from that time in my life... not being able to eat pizza, and having to eat mocha mix ice cream.. just not the same as the real thing. Thank goodness I grew out of this problem, although I still don't drink milk. I never could get used to the taste again. :)

2. So, now that you know what I don't drink I'll tell you what I do drink... diet soda. Coke or Pepsi, it doesn't matter. I just don't like the generics. And, I actually drink diet because I like the taste better than the regular sodas. I always feel like I have a layer of syrup coating my mouth if I drink regular soda. The sad thing is.. I'm 100% addicted, I drink diet soda ALL day long, and usually never drink anything else. Pathetic, I know... but I can't seem to stop. :(

3. I was in the United States Marine Corps for nine years. If you've read my About page than you already knew this. But, what you don't know is that I worked as a Spanish linguist, and no, I didn't know Spanish before I joined. After boot camp I went on to a very intense language school and six months later was 'fluent.' It's now been well over a year since I've had to use these skills, and they have faded fast. I can still understand most Spanish that I hear, but please don't ask me to say anything... that is MUCH more difficult.

4. I taught myself to knit about 3 years ago, and I love it. I'm a fairly confident knitter now, and I think I can do just about anything if I have the right instructions. The sad thing is... I haven't knit a single stitch yet this year. I just haven't found the time, in spite of there being dozens of things I want to make. This really depresses me if I think about it too much, so on to something else.

5. I'm a horrible speller. I don't know why, I just know I suck at spelling, in spite of the fact that I love to read. The funny thing is I consistently spell the same words wrong over and over again. I figured this was a good thing to mention, because if you find any spelling errors in my posts please just ignore them... they're inevitable. Spell checker catches most of my mistakes, but I'm sure some have slipped through.

6. I grew up in Portland, OR, and I still think Oregon is the most beautiful place on the planet. I miss my home so much, and knowing that I will most likely never live there again is hard. But, it helps to know that I will always get to go back and visit my family there. If you ever get a chance to visit Oregon.. GO. The coast is BEAUTIFUL, the Redwood Forest in the south is Magnificent, there are mountains and waterfalls just minutes from downtown Portland (the most awesome city ever!), and there's so much more I could go on forever.

7. Last but not least... When I am under water I use my upper lip to plug my nose. Like this...

My lip completely seals off my nose, and no water gets in. Try it.. I bet you can't do it! I think I've only ever met one or two other people that could.

Right now I'm picturing all of you trying to suck your lips up to your noses... lol!!

So, who am I tagging...

Billie @ A Peaceful Serenity ~ Honestly, I can't remember how or when I stumbled across her blog, but I've been reading ever since. Also, she's a WAHM doing medical transcription, and has lots of insight into this type of thing.. just in case that's something you've been considering. I plan to start doing the Career Step training either this summer or fall.

Daiquiri @ Call Her Blessed ~ She has four kiddos like me, so in a way I feel like kindred spirits with her. She's a lovely writer and a fantastic photographer, so check her out.

Billie @ Hearing the Music Amongst the Noise ~ I met her through posts about grocery shopping, and we've become bloggy friends. She's a sweetheart, and she will soon have four kiddos as well.

Cassie @ Southern Domestic Goddess ~ I've just started reading her blog, and I definitely plan to continue. She's pregnant with her first kiddo, and just getting started out in this crazy thing called motherhood. She's got a great sense of humor, (tho, she may be a little PG for some of you... hope she doesn't mind me saying that) and reading her posts really takes me back. I love it.

Christy @ The Davis Family ~ Again, this is a blog I've just started reading, and I started reading because she's another mother of four (soon to be five.) She's also a baby-wearing, co-sleeping, bargain finding momma, and those are all things I do as well. So, I guess I feel a little kinship with her in those areas.

And, last but not least... Wendy @ WeSnLaNi ~ Wendy won my first ever giveaway, and I'm so glad she did, because I love reading her blog. She has two adorable kiddos, and she writes about them pretty much every day. She also takes the greatest pictures. I feel a kinship with Wendy as well, but for a completely different reason... she wants to get her nose pierced, and I want to get my eyebrow pierced. :) Also both of your husbands are bald with gotees. (not sure how to spell that... gotee, goatee?! oh well)


Whew! I think that's the longest thing I've ever posted. No wonder it took me so long to write! Thanks to all of you who stuck it out, and read all the way to the end. :)



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Weekend Recap - Choir Perfomance and Other Fun

We had a fun, but mostly uneventful weekend. Saturday we... well we... honesty I can't remember what we did. That shows how much fun we had. I think we made a trip to Wal-Mart, and played outside a little. Nothing too exciting. Sunday was much more fun.

Sunday after church Deidre, and the other kids in the children's choir, sang at a local assisted living home. We had a great time, and the residents loved it. This is the type of thing that Deidre really does well... she hasn't a shy bone in her body, and before and after the performance she introduced herself to each of the residents and spent a few minutes chatting with each person. She also gave out a bunch of hugs. She did this all on her own, and all I had to do was tell her that it was OK for her to talk to everyone there. If I hadn't been in a room full of people I would have probably teared up because I was so touched by her kindness... I'm truly blessed to have such a sweet and unique six year old.

I met a couple named John and Mary that have been married 67 years. She's 91 years old and he's 92. They have only been living at the facility for a month, and Mary was telling me what and adjustment it's been for them to go from living in a house to now living in one room. I can only imagine how hard that must be. Also, they never had any children, not for not trying, and it made me wonder what it would be like to be married to someone for that long and not have kids be in the picture. Obviously kids are a huge part of our marriage, and meeting John and Mary just made me wonder what their lives must have been like. Anyway, they were a really sweet couple, and if we were going to be staying in this area I would like to visit them again. But, since we are moving out of state soon, that just won't be possible. So, please keep them in your prayers.

When we got home the other girls were already playing in the sprinklers, and Deidre of course joined in the fun. The water was freezing, but I don't think they cared.. they just didn't stay in it as long as they thought they would.

I had fun watching them, taking pictures, and watching the caterpillars climb the tree.

I posted this caterpillar picture on my photo blog as well, but I just thought it was so cool that I wanted to post it twice.

My hubby spent the afternoon spray painting his jeep. He can be quite the hillbilly at times. :) It used to be white... he did a pretty good job, if you ask me, considering he was just using cans of paint!

So, that was our weekend. Simple, but fun. How was your weekend?



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Super Savings Saturday - Some Serious Cereal!

This was a fun week of grocery shopping, but boy are my pantry shelves full!

First, Superfresh was tripling coupons AGAIN (they just did it a few weeks ago), and they were offering a bunch of different Catalina deals. So, I went there twice in attempt to use the deals to the best advantage. In my first transaction I spent $51.76 (saved $83.71) and got back $20 in Catalinas for my next trip. Then in my second transaction I spent $20.35 (by using the $20 in Catalinas, and saved an additional $74.08) and I got back another $10 in Catalinas for next week's shopping!

Over at Shoppers, also known as Shoppers Food Warehouse (SFW), they had a coupon in their flier for 10 General Mills Cereals for $10 (select varieties), and this deal also printed out a catalina for $2/5 GM cereals. So, again I went twice to take advantage of this deal.

First Transaction
bought...
(4) boxes of Kix
(4) boxes of Lucky Charms
(2) boxes of Reeses Puffs
total= $25.00
used...
$15 Shoppers coupon (for the $10/10 deal)
(5) $1/2 MC for GM Cereals
paid $5.00
got back $2/5 GM Cereal Catalina

Second Transaction
bought...
(3) boxes of Chocolate Chex
(3) boxes of Strawberry Chex
(4) more boxes of Kix (my kids' favorite)
total=$25.00
used...
$15 Shoppers coupon
$2 GM Cereal Catalina
(6) $0.75/1 MC for Chex Cereal
(2) $1/2 MC for GM Cereals
paid $1.50
got back another $2/5 GM Cereal Catalina

In the end, I got 20 boxes of cereal for $6.50, and, technically, with the coupons I still have left (the Catalina and 5 more $1/2) I could go back and get another 10 boxes of cereal for only $3, but I think my hubby would explode if I bought any more cereal! See what I mean...

Also, we already had about 8 boxes of other types of cereal from previous deals. So, needless to say, I will NOT be buying cereal for a VERY long time. lol!

Be sure to visit Money Saving Mom to check out the great deals other people found this week.



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Looky What I Won!

During the last Bloggy Giveaways Carnival I entered Elaine's Giveaway at Muddling Through, and I actually won this BEAUTIFUL bookmark. Her neighbor made it, and I am so excited to now own this gorgeous item.

In case you don't know... this bookmark was tatted. My husband's aunt wants to teach me tatting, and it looks like we will be moving near her in the near future (more on that soon, I promise) so hopefully I will be able to learn this unique, and in my opinion.. rare, craft.

Thank you so much Elaine for my prize. I love it!



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To me, Motherhood is...

... NOT about being perfect.

There are almost always dirty dishes in my kitchen sink, my kids' clothes generally have a few stains on them, and there are small messes piled throughout my house. Most of the time it's hard to see the floor of my minivan, my girls sometimes go out of the house with tangles in their hair, and our beds are never made.

When I first became a mother I hated all of my little "imperfections," but over the years I've learned that these things aren't the things that really matter. All of my girls are happy and healthy, and they are growing and learning so much every day that it never fails to amaze me.

I'm not a perfect mom, and I never will be, and that's OK. When my imperfections get me down I just look at my four little angels and try to remember what's really important.

I think this picture is a perfect example of my imperfect mothering...

She's of course dressed up in my underwear, so embarrassing, but thankfully clean! I'm sure this was one of those days where the laundry was piling up, and the dishes were sitting in the sink, but just looking at these two little ones playing dress-up makes it all OK.


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Tasty Thursday - Chicken Enchiladas

For this week's Tasty Thursday I'm posting the best EVER chicken enchilada recipe. These are so good, and way better than anything I've ever had in a resturant. I've posted the recipe on my food blog, so just click on the picture below to read it. ENJOY!


To see the other recipes on this week's Tasty Thursday click here, or the Tasty Thursday icon above, and thanks so much to Trista at The Pumpkin Patch for hosting such a fun weekly event.



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