Thoughts about Friday

I worked on a couple different projects this weekend...and I had intended to share one of them with you this morning. But when I opened up my blogger dashboard, I saw that quite a few bloggers are taking the day to remember the victims of the horrible event that took place in Connecticut on Friday...so I decided to share my thoughts and feelings instead of a crafty post today. 

When I first heard the news, I was mostly in shock that another shooting had taken place. It seems like this kind of stuff is happening more and more often lately! I {probably like most of you} started trying to find out a little bit of information and completely forgot what had and was going on during the day for me. I read, and tried to hold back tears thinking of all the innocent lives that were lost in just a few minutes. So unthinkable!

It also made me think of my own kids...made me wonder if it was possible that something like this could happen to them. Because you know that not a single parent in Newtown ever in a million years thought that something like this would happen to their kids, their school, their community! I went on about my day with a heavy heart. 

The strange things is, I was at Grant's school at almost the exact same time that these horrible things were happening, and it took me almost two days to realize it. I don't know why...maybe I was blocking out the what ifs. Because really what if...what if this had happened at my kids' school. What if I had been at their school working on a fun activity with Grant's WINGS class just like I was on Friday. What if some crazed man came into the school with a gun. It's hard to think about the what ifs.

I just happened to be at the school that day, but my mind keeps going back to all the teachers that are at school everyday. I know that their minds must be full of what ifs. Because you really don't know how you would react in a situation so terrible. I am heartbroken to hear about the teachers who lost their lives trying to save their students, but I am also so proud of them! To know that they were willing to lose their lives for their students makes me smile, even though I'm crying that they had to make that terrible choice.

I will be thinking and praying for the families that lost their precious children this week as they have to do what no parent ever wants to do.  

**I'll leave you with a few pictures of what I was doing on Friday: making marshmallow snowmen with Grant's WINGS class. Oblivious to the evil things that were going on...just enjoying spending time with some really smart and sweet kids!**

We're Back!

So we made it back from our big roadtrip! You know how you usually need a vacation after your vacation...yeah with a roadtrip that long I think I may need two vacations to get back to normal! I have spent the last two days doing {loads &loads of} laundry and napping. I think maybe the whole being on Pacific time for more than a week has really messed with my sleeping patterns...and the fact that we stayed up late and got up early almost every day of trip may have something to do with it too.

I have lots of pictures to share, but I need to go through and pick out the best ones before I just start uploading a million and one pictures. I had intended to blog some while we were gone, but the wifi gods weren't very nice to me....and apparently it can be difficult to get an internet connection with your phone when you are 8000 feet above sea level:) I had planned to do a little round up of all the great Roadtrip Ready posts from May, so that post may come sooner than my vacation post. And I also wanted to keep up with my monthly Instagram Recap posts {if you follow me on Instagram {@supermom_kelli} then you have already seen a TON of our trip}, but that didn't happen while we were gone so my May recap post will hopefully be up soon too....and eventually I will get around to posting about our trip!

Until then here's a quick picture of the boys by the camper at our campsite at the Grand Canyon:

Doggy Drama

Back in January I introduced you to our new puppy Phoebe.

I also admitted that I'm really not a dog person, but I wanted the boys to have a pet so we brought home a cute little puppy for them. Since then Phoebe has been a great pup for the boys. Other than chewing up a few things here and there and barking at the wind at 10 o'clock at night, she really has been the perfect little puppy.
But since yesterday, Phoebe the puppy has been stressing me out! Something happened to her Sunday afternoon. We still aren't quite sure what. Possibly she got hit by a car, or maybe she got kicked by our neighbors' horse, or maybe a bigger dog attacked her. We're not sure how, but Phoebe got hurt and not just a little hurt apparently.
Jason took her to the vet in our little community first thing Monday morning. They did an exam and an x-ray of her back legs, which seemed to be the major problem. They didn't find anything serious and said that maybe she has sprained something. They let Jason bring her home with instructions to keep her in the house and confined for about two weeks to give her sprain a chance to heal. So after paying $300 in fees, he brought her home, gave her some food and water, and put her in her little doggy cage.
When I got home from school with the boys, I noticed that she seemed worse than she had that morning. I think Jason thought she was just tried or hurting, but I knew something wasn't right. She ate a little bit, went out to do her business, and then laid down. I brought her back in so I didn't have to worry about her running around and hurting herself more, but after a while I noticed she wasn't breathing right. We let her out thinking maybe some of the medicines had given her an upset stomach. She walked around for a while, and looked like maybe she was trying to vomit. Then she laid down in the edge of the flower bed and didn't really move...she was just really laboring to breath.
So at 7:45 last night Jason took her over to an emergency clinic about 20 minutes away. They examined her ans said she was obviously in pain and that she was really dehydrated. They ended up putting in an iv and then keeping her to run a bunch of tests. Jason was told they would call back within the hour with the results and let us know what they found.
We stayed up for a while waiting on a call back, and when we hadn't heard anything around 10:00 we called over to check on her. The doctor called us back about 30 minutes later and said that from the x-ray they did it looked like she had probably been hit by a car. Her diaphragm had a tear in it and it looked like she was bleeding internally. The tear and the bleeding was making it hard for her to breath which is why she was in so much pain. The doctor said they really needed to go ahead and do surgery to repair the tear right then, because she was just getting worse and worse.
Without know just how much doggy surgery was going to cost, we told her to go ahead with it. As much as I'm not a dog person, I really couldn't bare the thought of her hurting like that, and I knew the boys would be so heartbroken if she didn't come home. They did the surgery, and called about a little while later to say that things had gone pretty well. We went to bed last night hoping and praying that she would be fine through the night.
We are up and going this morning. The boys have asked where Phoebe is and all I've told them is that she is at the doctor still. I don't want to tell them about all the details until we get an update on her. I'm hoping that we get a call with an update soon this morning. I've never been through this kind of thing with a dog, and I'm really not sure what to expect over the next few weeks. How does a dog recover from surgery? Especially an outside dog that is used to running around wild!
Anyway, for now I am stressed and we are waiting.
Hopefully, we'll have good new soon. In the meantime, I'm wondering just how much emergency surgery on a dog costs!

HGTV.com feature

A few weeks ago,  I got an email from a writer for HGTV.com asking if they could feature my Outdoor Toy Organizer in an article on the HGTV.com website.

To say that I was excited would be a major understatement!
I love watching HGTV and I love browsing HGTV.com for awesome ideas....so knowing that one of my projects would be featured there was such an honor. I got an email today saying that the article was up and I was so excited that I just had to share it here with y'all! The article is called Clever Uses for Everyday Items in the Garage. I know my original project was for outdoors, but honestly it would work even better inside a garage! Here's a little preview of what the article is about straight from HGTV.com:

Upcycled decor is smart and savvy, so why save all the best ideas for inside the home? We've gathered clever redos from inspired DIYers with a talent for giving new life to old things that are perfect for the garage.

I would love for you to hope over to HGTV.com and check out the article. I know you have all seen my Outdoor Toy Organizer before, but there are also a ton of other great ideas that are perfect for organizing your garage or outdoor space...just in time for spring cleaning too! 

Life Right Now

Do you ever feel SUPER busy when you really don't have that much going on?

Like you are running around like a crazy person, but really things aren't that crazy?

That is how life has been around here lately!

Busy, but really not that busy. But busy enough to make sure that I don't get to any of the fun & frivolous stuff that I love to do...like craft and blog:)

Life lately has been:

P90X

soccer

Airstream

laundry

P90X

Airstream

P90X

laundry

dishes

P90X

soccer

Airstream

P90X

I think maybe I'm more tired than anything, which is why I feel so busy when I'm really not! This P90X stuff is kicking my butt...but it is also shrinking it! I'm down almost 15 pounds since we started the program a little more than 3 weeks ago {on March 27th}. But I have to tell you, it is HARD work! We have been getting up early...like 4:45 am early, and sometimes staying up late just to fit in the workouts with our busy schedule. Jason has been really busy at work lately too, which makes keeping a consistent workout schedule even harder. We are sticking with it though, and I know that by the time May rolls around and we start our summer trip, that we will be in pretty great shape!

We {and when I say we here I mostly mean Jason with a little bit of my help} have really been working on the Airstream a lot too. We bought a new AC unit and got it put in. Removing a really heavy hunk of metal from the roof of a travel trailer and replacing it with another really heavy hunk of metal is kind of a tough job.  

Here are a couple of pictures of the old AC removal for your viewing pleasure...

 ...and the giant hole that was in the top of the Airstream for a few hours until we got the new AC installed:)

So to recap:

We've been busy doing P90X and fixing up the Airstream....which means I haven't been crafting or blogging.

I hope to get back to a little more normal soon, but I don't know if that is really going to happen or not! 

*What has been going on in your life lately?*

What's in Your Lunchbox?

*graham crackers*

*granny smith apple*

*sugar free chocolate pudding*

*marshmallows*

*capri sun*

*whole wheat goldfish*

*ham roll-up*

*grapes*

This is what the boys' lunchboxes look like most days.

{except the marshmallows were a treat today}

Sometimes the grapes are switched out for carrots, the apple is switched out for a banana, the pudding is switched out for applesauce or yogurt, and the goldfish are switched out for Sun Chips....and sometimes they get leftover pizza instead of a roll-up or PB&J sandwich!

What does your "lunchbox" usually look like?

Waffles, Camera Decisions, and Other Random Things

I ate a waffle for breakfast this morning. I really need to start eating healthy again...and I really need to get my behind back to the track in the mornings too. BUT we watched the Office last night and there was a bit about hotel waffles that really made me want waffles....so I made myself a yummy waffle for breakfast even though I probably should have just eaten an egg or some yogurt! 

We have been working full speed ahead on the Airstream. And we have been buying stuff like crazy too.

flooring, a sink, butcher block counter top, leveling jacks, a new tv, a battery

Amazon has become our friend lately! They have a ton of great deals and the deals are even better when you can get free shipping. We ordered a sink a last week that cost about half what the ones at Lowe's cost and we got free shipping too! It just came in yesterday and it is perfect. I'm ready to get all the necessities taken care of so I can start looking for fun stuff like decorations:)

March is always fun for us money wise. Besides getting our tax refund {if the IRS would ever deposit it...we filed three weeks ago and we still haven't gotten our refund!}, March is also when Jason gets his bonus at work. We usually have a few bills here or there that need to be paid or something big that we are planning to buy, but this year the only thing we really have on our list is Airstream stuff. That means we will be able to spend a little bit of fun money and then still put some in savings.

I have been planning to get a new camera this spring {with some of that fun money I was talking about}. My Nikon D40 has served me well, but I want to upgrade a little and maybe get a new lens or two. I have been comparing a few different cameras and I have sort of decided what I want, but I'm still not really sure. I can't decide if I want to go with the D5100 because that is really all I need...or if I want to spend a little extra and get a more professional camera like the D7000.  It's hard to decide if the increase in price is worth it, but I hate to save a couple hundred dollar and then not be happy with my decision. Any camera advise is welcomed!

I have been busy planning our trip the past few weeks. Making reservations at campgrounds can be kind of scary especially when you don't know anything about where you are going. I have been researching trying to find us nice places to stay. So far it's been pretty good, but I'm having trouble with where to stay when we are visiting Yosemite. The campgrounds inside the park are all booked, which means we have to find a private campground. I found one that is really close, but it has some terrible reviews...and the next closest place is almost 30 minutes farther away from the park. I have to decide if we want to tough it out at a not so great campground or waste an hour of our day driving to and from the park. I'm going to research it a little bit more, but I have to decide soon so that everything doesn't book up!

Soccer season is in full swing, and I am loving it! The boys are really enjoying it, and they are actually pretty good too! I feel like they get so much more physical exercise playing soccer than they ever did during baseball or football! Plus soccer is way more fun to watch too:) Eli has been loving soccer season too....he especially loves the soccer socks!

Meet Phoebe the Puppy

I don't know if I've mentioned this before or not, but I am really not a dog person. I don't know why exactly. I do remember that I was terrified of dogs as a child...maybe that has something to do with it. But I just am not a dog {or really any kind of animal} person. We had a few puppies growing up and I'm sure I played with them at some point, but I don't really remember ever being super attached to any of them. Now just because I'm not a huge fan of dogs doesn't mean that I don't want my boys to enjoy having a pet. We actually had a dog a few years ago {Corndog} who had an unfortunate accident with a car...but it's been a few years since the boys had a pet. 

*****

Over Christmas break, my parents got a cute little part beagle part dachshund puppy. 

And my boys {especially Henry} fell in love. 

After seeing how much they loved playing with Eddie, I knew it was time to get them a puppy...and luckily Eddie had a sister that needed a home too.

And so we got Phoebe:

 She is actually a really good puppy.

She plays well with the boys, hasn't tore up much in the yard, knows to stay away from our cars, doesn't bark loudly, only eats a little bit of food, and she poops in out of way places:)

We bought her a cute little wooden dog house and she has a pillow and blanket. For the most part she is content to nap in the sun during the day and sleep in her doghouse at night. We have let her in the house on the few cold nights we've had...and she is great about coming in and going straight to her little kennel by the back door. 

 Phoebe is getting pretty good at playing fetch. She loves the little squeaky balls the boys picked out for her a few weeks ago, and she also like to play with stray socks that the boys leave outside by the trampoline. Eli usually goes out and plays with her for a little bit in the mornings while Henry and Grant are at school...and she really gets some fun play time in the afternoons with all three boys:) So far the boys have been pretty good about taking care of her...Henry is in charge of food and Grant is in charge of water. And Henry is now officially on pooper scooper duty too!

 So for now, I am trying my best to a dog person...and I have to say, it's actually nice to have another girl around the house!

Just Some Rambling

I'm making a cake for Grant's class today. A "100" cake for their 100th day of school tomorrow. I'm thinking about trying homemade buttercream frosting. I've only ever made homemade chocolate and caramel frosting before and I'm kind of worried....but I didn't buy any cans of store bought frosting for back up so I hope it works. I've seen a few recipes here and there that look pretty good, but somehow all these yummy baking blogs make their cakes look amazing and I know mine will never look like theirs!

Eli and I are home today waiting on the Dish Network guy to come out and work on our dish. We've been having trouble with it for a few weeks....the one channel that we can't get to work {that we really need} is Nick Jr! Kind of crazy that the channel watched most in my house is the one that is messed up! So we are waiting from 8-12.

I was sick last week.  Like really sick. Apparently my low immune system means that when I get something like strep throat it really hits me hard. I seriously didn't get off the couch for almost three days straight. I only left the house one time between last Monday night and yesterday and that was to pick up my antibiotic at the pharmacy.I don't think I would have survived if my mom hadn't watched the boys for me last week though. She picked them up at school on Tuesday and kept them until Friday so I didn't have to deal with drop off and pick up each morning and afternoon. I'm feeling much better today, though I'm still a little tired. I guess that's what a fever, sore throat, and lymph nodes swollen to the size of house will do for you:)

We got a new puppy the week after Christmas. I tweeted a picture of the boys with her a few weeks ago, but I still haven't gotten around to taking pictures to share here with you. Our new pup's name is Phoebe and she is actually a pretty good puppy {and this is coming from me the not really a dog person}. She is a tiny little thing that is part dachshund part beagle, and she plays really well with the boys. Even Eli who is technically scared of dogs love to play with her and pet her. When we got home from dropping Henry and Grant off at school this morning, Eli reached down to pet Phoebe and said "I missed you Phoebe". Isn't that the sweetest thing ever?!?

Jason took the boys to sign up for soccer last week. Henry and Grant {who are just a little over 16 months apart} never seem to be able to be on the same team! It seriously blows my mind that they can be that close together and still fall into different age groups. It mostly has to do with their birthdays though. For spring sports Henry's birthday is three weeks ahead of the age cut off, and for fall sports Grant missed the age cut off by 22 days. That means in most cases, Henry has to move up but Grant is too young to move up so they end up on different teams. So we are back to the same thing we had to deal with during football....Jason is coaching Grant's team and Henry is hopefully going to be on the team that our friend is coaching.

There are still a few traces of Christmas hanging around my house. I still have out some cute green polka dot {with red accents} napkins out, and I still have a Christmas printable in my kitchen frame. I have been brainstorming some ideas for a cute picture printable similar to the "I am Thankful for..." printable that I made for Thanksgiving. I have also been trying to think of a cute {original} Valentine for the boys to take to school, but so far I've got nothing!

The boys got their report cards last week. They both did really well and made all A's. I made a copy of their report cards before I returned them so we can get some yummy free donuts at Krispy Kreme one day this week. Krispy Kreme is so not on my diet, but a yummy chocolate iced donut sure does sound good right now:) I need to get back on my diet after being off for a week while I was sick...though I actually lost about three pounds while I was sick because I all I did was drink Diet Sprite and each chocolate pudding!

Now that I've talked about donuts and pudding, I'm hungry...so I'm off to find some breakfast. Have a great day! I hope to be around soon to check up on all the bloggy goodness that I missed last week!

A Few Days Late

I realize that we are 4 days past Christmas, but I haven't said it to all of you yet: MERRY CHRISTMAS!

 We have been way too busy!

{shopping, wrapping, and assembling presents}

The boys got way too many toys!

{The playroom looks like Toys R Us exploded in there}

We have eaten way too much junk food!

{cookies and candy and chex mix. Oh My}

And we still have six more days until school starts and we can get back into our normal routine!

For now we are baking more cookies, jumping in the new trampoline, playing with lots of toys {including my new toy: an iPhone}, working on the Airstream, watching Home Alone on the dvr, and getting a new puppy. I'll be back tomorrow with a review of some awesome vinyl that I got to sample thanks to Oh My Crafts!

 

What's His Name?

We are still in the process of getting out all of our Christmas stuff and decorating our house. As we were unloading boxes last night I found one of the boys' favorite Christmas decorations....their Little People Nativity Set! We've had this set for quite a few years, and every year the boys love setting it up in the playroom and reenacting the story of Jesus' birth {and a few other Bible stories that they manage to throw into the mix too}.

So last night I sent Grant down to the playroom to set up the Nativity Set just like we do every year. He left, and Jason & I continued decorating the living room with garland and lights. After about ten minutes Grant came back into the room with two of the shepherds in his hand, and with the most serious face ever he asked "Which one of these is Moses?" Jason and I both started laughing:) After checking with Henry about the man's correct name, Grant remember that it was Joseph who was in the manger that night with baby Jesus and not Moses!

I think somebody may be getting some Bible Story Flash Cards in their stocking this year:)

Making a List...

I sat down earlier this week and made a list of all the craft/snack/decorating projects that I want to do before Christmas....my list has more than 25 things on it! That means I have to finish at least one project {maybe even 2} every day between now and the 25th for me to get everything crossed off my list! I don't think it's going to happen!

You would think with a list that long I would get busy trying to cross things off...NOPE! I did get our Advent Calendar on the wall. It looks really cute, but it is completely empty:) I also managed to get the boys' stockings hung even though we don't have a tree or even a plan to go get a tree yet! And instead of tackling my list, I worked on something that wasn't even on my list: my front porch that still had pumpkins and footballs all over it!

I took down all the pumpkins and the footballs and added some red and green in their place! I hung up a cute wooden sign that I bought at a craft fair. Then I whipped up a wreath with some red burlap and leftover Christmas fabric. It's not much, but at least it's not still fall decor!

Even though our front door looks SUPER cute now, my list is not any shorter! Plus there is still a ton of other decorating and light hanging to be done! Please tell my I'm not the only slacker who still has a ton of stuff to go to get ready for Christmas!

Organizing the Laundry

I know I'm not the only mom who despises laundry. I think between the monotony of folding and the fact that it's a never ending cycle of clean & dirty, most moms would love to have someone else take care of the laundry for their family! But like me, just because you hate to do it doesn't mean you can get way with not doing it! Sure if you're J. Lo or someotheroverpaidfamouspersonwhoneverhastodotheirownlaundry the laundry probably seems like a joy...drop it off and it comes back clean and folded and you didn't have to do any of the work! But in my house laundry is work, and the best way to make work easier is to be organized.

We've had the dirty clothes part organized for a while thanks to this lovely creation that I bought at Walmart a few years ago.

 My organizational issues with laundry start after the clean clothes come out of the dryer. We have spent the last few years with just two laundry baskets. You can do the math and probably figure out that two laundry baskets for five people just doesn't work very well. And most of the time the clean clothes end up piled on the couch {and the chair} kind of like this...except this is a much smaller pile than normal:)

 So I decided it was time to get my clean clothes organized by simply buying a few new laundry baskets. My original intentions were to find some fun colored baskets {ideally in blue, green, and orange to continue our tradition of color coding}, but Walmart and Target didn't seem to get the memo and only had either black or white baskets. I decided on black mostly because they seemed a little more sturdy, but also because they seemed a little more formal too...you know just in case I wanted to leave them sitting around full of laundry when we have guests over!

 Now I had three identical black baskets, and I knew that would be an issue. It is is a lot harder for my kiddos to find their clean {wrinkled} clothes if they don't know which basket is theirs. My simple solution was to cut a few pieces of ribbon {blue, green, and orange} and tie them to the handles of the laundry baskets. Now everyone knows which basket is theirs without digging through a basket for 10 minutes while looking for clean underwear!

Do you have any simple solutions for making the dreaded task of laundry easier? Please share them with me....I need all the help I can get when it comes to the laundry!

My Very Own Mythbusters

My boys don't watch a whole lot of tv. Besides early morning preschool shows, the occasional DVR'd episode of Tom & Jerry, and a new AFV here and there, they would honestly rather be outside running around in the yard! The one exception to that rule is MythBusters...they would give up playtime outside to watch MythBusters with their daddy any day of the week. We usually watch as a family {since it is a more adult show and you have to be careful about commercials}, and I love how much they love a show that is teaching them stuff!

Henry came home last week asking about an experiment we saw on an episode of MythBusters years ago. They had apparently tried out this myth at school, and he was dying to try it at home!

Here's a clip just in case you haven't seen this fun Diet Coke and Mentos experiment: 

So last weekend, we picked up a few 2 liter Diet Cokes and a roll of Mentos at the store, and headed to the backyard to test out this myth!

The boys had so much fun doing this, and I think they may have learned a little something too...at least maybe Henry did, Grant was too worried about trying to drink the spray of Diet Coke:) This was a fun experiment that kept the kiddos entertained for the cost of a few bottles of soda and some candy! If you haven't ever done this experiment with your kiddos, you should try it sometime!

Shutterfly: Christmas Cards & So Much More!

Last year on my blog, I raved about how much I love Shutterfly! I loved them even more after I got my 50 free Christmas cards in the mail and I saw how awesome they were...seriously the best quality cards I have seen in my 6 years of ordering photo Christmas cards! So I'm going to spend a little time this year telling you about how great Shutterfly really is....and then I might just tell you how you can get some free cards too:)

Here are a few of my favorite photo cards from this year...though it is pretty hard to top our Shutterfly card from last year!

Can you tell that I love the look of a square card:) Now I need to get busy picking out clothes and planning a photo session!

I love the great quality cards that Shutterfly offers for the holidays, but did you also know you can get some really awesome photo gifts to give to aunts, uncles, and grandparents! My mom has already requested a photo book of my boys as a Christmas present for this year:) I'm fine with that, because I know she will love it....and I will have a great time designing it on Shutterfly's website.

If you are planning a holiday party in the coming months, you can check out the great selection of invitations that Shutterfly has on their websites too! I'm thinking it would be really fun to host a cookie swap, and I would love to send out some of these fun invitations:

I'm off to browse Shutterfly's amazing selection of cards, and try to make a decision about which card to chose for this year!
Which Shutterfly Christmas card do you like best?

*I received a code for 25 free Christmas cards from Shutterfly for sharing about their cards with you. All opinions are my own. If you have a blog and you want to join their blogger program, click HERE.*

Hey, What's That?

Yes, there is a sticky frog stuck to my ceiling.

Yes, it has been there since yesterday.

Yes, my house full of boys thinks that having a sticky frog stuck to the ceiling is hilarious.

Yes, I took pictures of the sticky frog to share on my blog.

Yes, I am low on good blogging material so instead of something interesting, you get multiple pictures of a sticky frog.

Have a great day! And try not to get any sticky frogs stuck to your ceiling:)

I Gave Into the Missoni Hype...A Little Late!

I know I am way behind the curve here considering most people were storming the doors of Target more than 3 weeks ago, but after quite a few trips past the {very small selection} of Missoni merchandise at my local Target I finally gave in. I bought a candle and a journal. I know big spender, right?!? 

 Honestly I just wasn't really a big fan of the majority of the stuff that I saw. A lot of the pieces seemed either way too retro or way too Southwestern for my taste. I will say that I LOVE the zig-zag {aka chevron}, but some of the the color combos just don't fit my style....except for the black and white {which is what I ended up buying}. 

 I did LOVE this bike, and these fun boots that my friend Carrie bought are SUPER cute too. There were a few other pieces that probably would have considered buying {like a scarf, a pair of flats, or some cute socks}, but when I finally decided that I desperately needed to have a least one Missoni piece to buy something, the pickin' were slim and the black and white things were all I could talk myself into buying. I do think that a lot of the little girl's stuff was cute....but little girl's clothes are never on my shopping list for some reason:)

For now, I am SUPER happy with my cute zig-zag candle that blends pretty well into my living room decor. It is black and white so it pretty much matches anything:) 

What do you think of the Missoni for Target line...like it or loathe it?

By the Numbers

7

The number of loads of laundry I attempted to do yesterday.

5 1/2

The number of loads of laundry I actually finished. I say 1/2 because the trusty load of whites is still sitting in the dryer getting more and more wrinkly every minute they sit there waiting for a fluff and fold.

1

The number of people who knew what the medicines were in the picture I posted yesterday.

11

The number of awesome blog friends who were concerned and emailed or commented on my Real Life post. Apparently I forget that even though I share a lot on my blog, I don't always share the more mundane details of my life...like the fact that I have a chronic illness and have to take way too much medication for someone my age.

2

The number of shots that I have to give myself each week. Both shots are for rheumatoid arthristis which I was diagnosed with over two years ago. Here's the post that I shared back when I was first diagnosed with RA. Some things have changed since that original post...like my doctor, my real diagnosis {I technically have something called Still's Disease which is a form of RA}, my meds, and how I feel{almost normal most days}.

4

The number of times Eli peed in his pants yesterday. He did not have a very good day and for some reason didn't make it to the potty in time more than once. That makes doing laundry not very fun...maybe I should attempt something similiar to what Leslie is doing with her little boy:)

5

The number of times I made Grant write his spelling words yesterday. I still don't know how he is going to do on his test because he CAN NOT stop mixing up his b's and d's! One of his words is dad and I'm pretty sure his test is going to come home on Monday with the word bab on it!

3

The number of days I'm going to be spending over at my mom's house helping her with a party...it's kind of like a jewelry party on steriods:) Check out this website to see the stuff we will be selling.

0

The number of crafts I have worked on this week that I want to share with you. I have a ton of things on my list that I really want to work on...but I just can't find the time or the motivation! I'm hoping I at least have some fun door decor to share next week because it is time for my summer stuff to come down.

Confessions of a Craft Slacker

We're almost halfway through September...two weeks into football season and well on our way to fall. Anybody want to take a guess at what my front porch looks like?!?

If you guessed all cutesied up for football season or decked out with pumpkins, hay bales, and scarecrows you would be SO wrong.
Nope, my front porch still looks like this:

Yep, the middle of September and my 4th of July decorations are still up! I have a few ideas of what to change out the flags for, but all you have to do is check out the title of this post to see why the stars and stripes are still flying proud on my front porch.

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Hi, my name is Kelli and I am a craft slacker!

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The sad thing is my front porch isn't the only place where my slacking is showing through. The back patio is looking pretty sad too after a few of my patio makeover elements gave out!

Do you remember my lovely Outdoor Toy Organizer? Well if you don't here's a little refresher...except don't look too closely because this is what it looks like now with sagging shelves and peeling paint.

Apparently my attempt to seal up a wooden shelf and make it outdoor proof failed....thank you very much in advance for not saying "I told you so"! I heard that enough from my hubby:)

And do you remember my old window turned outdoor wall art? Here's what it looked like before:

And here is what it looks like after a strong gust of wind snapped the wire it was hanging from and sent it crashing to the ground:

Obviously picture wire that is perfectly fine for indoor uses is not so great for things that are outside and might be moved by the wind!

And this just might be my worst confession of the day....do you remember this oh so pretty wall decor that I added to my kitchen back in April?

Yes it is Easter decor, and yes it is still hanging proudly on my kitchen wall. Okay, maybe not so proudly since we are closer to Christmas than we are last Easter...but at least it matches my walls:)

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I'm sure there are few more confessions that I could share with you...like my craft room that looks like it could be declared a disaster area or the rug I bought 5 months ago with plans to stencil that is still folded up on my bedroom floor...but instead, I would love to hear about some of your slacker ways! Is there anything around your house that you have been putting off? Do you need to join me at the next Craft Slacker Anonymous meeting?

Monday Morning Quarterback

...or maybe just Saturday morning PeeWee Football:)

We had a day FULL of football this Saturday. The day started with Grant's 9:00 am football game. His team played hard, scored a touchdown, but lost by a few points...mostly because the other team was WAY bigger than our team. One boys on the other team was probably as big as three of our boys put together! But the Golden Eagles held their ground and played hard anyway!

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After Grant's game, we came home to watch a little bit of college football on tv and eat some yummy pizza. Then we headed back to the football field for Henry's game that afternoon. Henry {#54} is the one in navy that is down on the line and ready to go. His team played hard and won their first game!

 Eli spent the day cheering in the stands! He says Henry and Grant are #1!

Did you watch any football this weekend?