Got a second?

Say a quick prayer for Nate, Tricia, and Baby Gwyneth. I don't have much time to elaborate on their story, but go to their blog for more information.

Just breathe....

Yesterday afternoon, some pretty bad storms came through our area. I was on my way to pick up Zoa from day care, when I got a phone call.

Whitney: Where are you?

Myself: I am picking up Zoa, why?

Whitney: Mom wants you to come over because (insert city where I live) is getting hit with hail right now, along with a lot of wind. It is pretty bad up there.

Myself: What!? Okay, I will be there after I get Zoa.


Just as I was pulling into my parent's garage, the hail starting falling. It was not too bad there, but once I got home, we had shingles banging on our roof. I looked out on our deck. More shingles. There was not too much I could do at the time, as far as assessing the damage. Jeremy was not home yet and I was a little nervous about a tornado, plus both of the girls were asleeep. I refused to put them in their bedrooms, for fear of having to make a mad dash to the basement.

Come to find out, there was a F1 tornado abouyt 5-10 minutes from where I live. A little scary when you are home alone with 2 children under the age of 6.

Repairs are on the way. A tarp is over our roof now. The insurance adjuster is coming by tomorrow. (Cross your fingers.) Hopefully, we will not have any problems at that end.

On the flip side, I took the day off of work today. Jeremy and I did quite a bit shopping. I got a new purse...something I can always find! Jeremy got a lot of new clothes...which I can explain later. After lunch at Olive Garden (Yummy!), I went a got a manicure. My nails deperatley needed one and I mentally needed to unwind. It was a win - win.

Now I just have to get through Thursday and Friday.

Running in circles!

No major post here. Just wishing my children would not make a mess while I am cleaing up one. I feel like cleaning is a viscous cycle!

Jeremy is helping some very good friends of ours move. They are really more like family. We only live 3 houses up the street from them. I keep looking down the street and just looking at the moving trucks is making me sad. I was thinking we would leave the neighborhood first but they beat us to it. Now I understand why Desera said she didn't know if she would be able to help us move. She was right by saying it will be too sad. Plus, I don't know how big of a help I would be with the girls. We love you and will miss you...but are very happy for you and your new house!

I am off to wash my car. The birds attacked the passenger side with their waste...ewww. Jeremy wanted to know what I did to make them mad! The weather is finally above freezing so this is the first opportunity to wash it.

Have a great weekend!

Notice anything different?

What do you think? Feedback please!?

Edit: Thank you Whitney for all your help and the picture!

My thoughts lately....

I can't help but wonder what is wrong with me sometimes. My children are healthy- and gorgeous I might add- I have a wonderful husband, and my home life is terrific. I have great parent's and my sisters are pretty great too. But for some reason, I feel discontent, like something is missing, or perhaps "off". I cannot put my finger on it, and have no idea where the feeling is originating from. I do know that my mind feels jumbled and I cannot focus on where I need to begin to be able to sort it out. I feel almost lost in this world, like I am losing my purpose. Is it possible to feel bored and overwhelmed at the same time? Right now, I think it is.

I am involved in a couple of ministries at church, which take up anywhere from 4-6 hours per week, depending on which week it is. I work full time and am currently taking 7 hours at school. At times all of this can feel overwhelming, but I work on homework anytime I feel up to it, not just when it is due. I am really staying on top of these things. So I know it is not this.

I feel like I am trying to be a super-mom. Like someone told me a few days ago, we all try to be. If I were trying to be anything less, I would disappoint myself. My thoughts on this is there is so much more to life than our 'everyday'. The only way I, or we, can discover it is to experience it.

But why do I feel like I am half empty right now?

Wordless Wednesday

Life in the Fast Lane

Migraines, Bowling and Church

I assume it is because of the dang weather that I have had headaches, including migraines since Friday evening. Usually a super hot bath will take the edge off of a migraine, but this one would not leave. I went to dinner and then bowling with a few girlfriends on Friday, and ended up having to leave early because of it. Saturday, I woke up feeling fine. The girls and I had a birthday party to go to, which was also at the bowling alley. It was a lot of fun. The girls bowled pretty good. Zoa found that kicking the ball down the alley increased her odds of actually getting the ball to the pins, if that makes sense. Macie felt fine just throwing the ball. It was very cute to watch little girls try their best to knock pins over!

Once we got home, I felt it coming back. Thank goodness it was nap time for the girls! Even though I could not fall asleep, it was nice just to have some peace and quiet. We spent a relaxing evening at home, where it was warm! We are being hit by a cold front, and Saturday evening, I think it got in the single digits!

Sunday we went to church. Macie and I are back at Sunday School. She loves Sunday school! I used to go to women's class, until the leader moved. Now that it is back with a new leader, I am excited to get back in it. We are studying the book of Proverbs. It should be interesting.

Sunday afternoon/evening, Macie and I are usually back at church for AWANA. This is a great program for children and I highly recommend it. You can click on the link, then About Us, for more information if you are curious as to what it is. But...the headache came back so I ended up with another hot bath. No AWANA this week...

Hopefully, this is not a pre-cursor as to how this week will be!

Herbalife!!!

As you may or may not know, I am a distributor of Herbalife. The offer a wide variety of natural products, anything from personal care to weight loss to energy products, and everything in between! The company may sound familiar to you...they sponsor David Beckham and the LA Galaxy Soccer Team.

I tried the products a few months back and immediately fell in love with them. I have lost about 14 pounds so far and feel great! I have tried many things to help me just feel better overall and to help lose weight. I have never felt more natural energy!

About a month ago, I became a distributor of Herbalife. It has been successful so I decided to take it a step further and expand online. I have a few websites, which I want to share here. I will post them below as put them in my sidebar, under the section titled, "Some of My Favorite Sites". If you are interested, you can contact me through these:

If you would like to learn more about the program, please go here.

If you would like to browse the Herbalife products or purchase products, you can go to my online store.

Click on here if you would like to learn more about our popular energy drink, Lift Off.

I also have sample packs. There a quite a few samples of different products in the packet. They are $8.00 and I can mail them, like the products, all over the United States and many other countries as well.

So, feel free to browse the websites and contact me if anything catches your eye!

Birthday Party!!

This year was the first year we had a birthday party for Macie and all of her classmates. We never invited any children besides her cousins. We decided this year, since she is in 'big school', we will throw the bash for her. Her whole kindergarten class was invited, plus cousins, and a few friends of hers whose parent's are our friends. We rented out a local fitness center and they planned the games and took care of cleaning up. It was well worth it. I don't want to put details on here, but I recommend it, so if you are interested, let me know and I will fill you in.

The kids played about 4 games. The trainer that was hired for the party coordinated them so the parent's could just sit back and watch, including Jeremy and I. The children played a scooter racing game, a parachute game, and showed off their skills on a rock climbing wall. The trainer then took them into a room where racquetball is usually played in and had the kids throw a huge ball in the air. If you have ever been in such a room, you can imagine how loud it was!

Here is Macie on the rock climbing wall.


Zoa climbing...and she didn't fall and get another knot.


Here is the big pink ball.


They played "Cat and Mouse" with the parachute. Our niece didn't want to get under the parachute, but all the other kids did!


The Scooter Races



Blowing out the candles on her High School Musical Cake.


And the presents!




I think everyone enjoyed themselves and with her birthday being so close to Christmas and Zoa's being in the end of November, our house looks like Toys R Us relocated to our home for the time being! Thank you to everyone who came and gave the girls presents! They love everything!

Tonight, Jeremy and I took the girls to see The Water Horse, Legend of the Deep. It was a decent movie, but in my opinion, they portrayed it to be more of a kid's movie in the previews. There were a few scenes where I had to describe to Macie. We enjoy taking our girls to movies - it is something we can all do together and all have a good time. We have seen Enchanted, Alvin and the Chipmunks, and now The Water Horse. To us, they are rated from best to worst in that order. But we still had a good evening and spent some quality time, so it all worked out.

Tomorrow, we are in for a busy day. Church, wedding dress shopping with my sister, back to church for AWANA, then a baby shower. Whew...I am already tired just thinking about it! Have a good week!

Back to school, back to school...

I have decided to start taking classes again. I already have 40-something hours but I am ready to finish it up and get a job that I love! My job now has everything I like - flexibility, good pay for what I do, somewhat easy, although somewhat time consuming tasks - but I don't love it, as in, don't love it enough to do it the rest of my life. I want to do social work. I have wanted to do this since I have been 14 years old. The pay would not be that great until I get my master's, which I plan on doing as well. I really want to be a child therapists, or focus on children anyways. I want to help children deal with death, divorce, school...etc. I was going to do psychology, but I can do the same thing I want to do but with a degree in social work. There are a lot more options for jobs with social work, as opposed to psychology.

I signed up for part time classes at a community college. They are Internet classes so I will not be driving a lot and I can do them in the evenings. I have done this before and signed up full time, and with the girls and work and having a home, it was too overwhelming. I am taking 7 hours, which once I get to 50-60 hours, I will transfer everything to William Woods University. They are located in Fulton but 'branch' out all over the sate. They have an accelerated program to get your bachelor's in two years going 2 nights a week. Once that program gets going, I will be done in roughly 2 years. Then I will get my master's. But I will cross that bridge once I get there.

So, it's back to school for me. Reminds me of that song on Billy Madison. Ha!

Other than that, everything has been nothing but normal. We decided to get the girls in ballet/tap. So, that will start up the week of Feb. 4. I am really excited to see them in their little tu-tus. Macie will begin this time in Pre-ballet and Tap and Zoa was going to begin, but Monday nights are not good. (I already committed to a church group.) In August, they will both be going with a recital in May! I cannot wait. Zoa is just now getting to the age to start extra activities. I hope she likes it. We went their to sign up and as we were leaving, she wanted to stay and have a dance party. So cute! Macie has not found her niche yet so hopefully this will be it. We have tried soccer and gymnastics so far, but nothing she absolutely loves yet. Maybe I will get lucky and they will love the same thing! One can only pray!

Between work, school, the girls and their stuff, Herbalife, and church, I should have a few minutes of each day to myslef! But, everything will come out better when it is all done, so I am happy!

Last night, the girls stayed with my parent's and here is the conversation between Zoa had my mom:

Zoa: What's that, Maw-maw?

My mom: That is my badge for work. I need to put it on a different string because that one is old.

Zoa: Yes, maw-maw. That is dwangwous. (Dangerous)


My mom called me and we were laughing so hard! I love their little words!

Step 1:

Dana, the writer of a blog I read, Think Pink, shares one of the same New Year's Resolution as me. Oragnize! She posted a link to a Decluttering Calendar, that makes sense! Each day, you complete a small task. I will do this this year.

After I signed up for the email newsletter, which I hope will keep me that much more on track, I recieved my first tip. I will write these on here as I get them.


1. How do you want to feel this week? What is one action you can take.
Accomplished. I need to get my house back in order. Not in depth, but just visually.

2. Identify one time waster you can decrease.
Collecting laundry from throughout the house. It just needs to go in the laundry room.

3. You are enough. Write down 5 accomplishments from today.
1. Called Dance Extensions.
2. Got my thoughts together.
3. Put together the calendar for the year.
4. Printed pictures for the toy bins.
5. Semi-cleaned my desk.

4. Calm yourself down with deep breathing during stressful situations.

5. Make a list of things you would like to finish up from last year.
1. Painting the inside of our house.
2. Finish the girls' closets and dressers.
3. Organize the garage.
4. Finish decluttering the basement.

6. Do one task that has been on your to do list since 2007.

7. Do something you are passionate about.
Read!

Going Green

I have added a couple of New Year's Resolutions. I don't expect to get them fully done and checked off anytime soon. I realize that I cannot organize my car, desk, home, basically life, in one day. So instead, I take it one day at a time. That's all I can humanly do.

My new resolution is to start being more 'earth friendly'. I have put a lot of thought into it and everything around us, we take in. Chemicals we clean with, we breathe in. Preservatives and chemicals for food, we eat. The list goes on and on. I have always tried to buy organic food when I see it. I don't think that because our children are just that, children, that they should eat chicken nuggets and french fries every night. They get their side salad with Jeremy and I when we go out to eat. I have not always felt this way about my girls. Jeremy and I have always tried to eat healthy. I have not always been a stickler about it with the girls. We were blessed with children who will try anything and 99% of the time, they will like it. So, my theory on this is if they like healthy choices, then why not give that to them over other food?

So back to the resolution, I have organized the toy room. We had these open stackable bins for all of the toys. I bought new ones so for the old ones, we will use for our recycle bins. I have been doing some research on how to start a home recycling program and never realized how in depth it is. The are quite a few different types of plastic. You can recycle paper, but not envelopes because of the sticky part. That is just a few of the tips. You can visit Earth 911 to find a center close to you, plus their contact information. Our location does not have a pick-up service, but it is just a few minutes from our home, so we can drop it off.

Our other going green move was to start buying "Family and Earth Friendly cleaning products". Thankfully, my mom and dad bought Mrs. Meyer's Clean Day products for us for Christmas. They smell so good! It is not outrageously priced either - nothing more than we would have spent at Wal-Mart for all of it. I bought Method products at Target about a month ago and they work great also. These are all non-toxic and green friendly!

We also have started purchasing these light bulbs. They are a little more expensive than regular light bulbs so instead of re-doing our whole home in them, as a bulb goes out, we will replace it with an energy saving one. That way, we are not out a lot of money at one time.

I have been thinking about this for about 2 months now and researching all of it. Then, I turn on Oprah last week and Method and Mrs. Meyers Clean Day was on there, so I know it is okay if Oprah likes it! There were a lot of great tips on there and it helped us realized that if everyone did something, that it would make a difference.

On a lighter note, it is a somewhat dreary Tuesday. It is kind of scary how much it feels like spring. Here is a picture of the girls after they had baths last night. They love the new towels Ninny and Pop got them for Christmas!

Getting Back into Life

Birthdays were celebrated. The holidays are over. The toys are picked up. Chrsitmas vacation at school is over. We are finally getting back into how daily life is. Normal. Don't get me wrong, I love the holidays. Really. But deep down, I am a home body. I love to just relax and watch television or read a book. I am ready for my home to be clean again so I can do that without feeling guilt over it. Maybe I am just getting older. I never thought being 24...nevermind...it cannot be that.

I think that everyone should get a two week vacation around the holidays, not just students.

Is 2008 the year?

A new year is upon us, and that means times for resolutions. Is this the year I will actually follow through? I think in the past, my resolutions have always been somewhat unrealistic. Work out everyday (not enough hours in the day to do that), lose weight to get to 'x' amount of pounds (I will never be that skinny), or always keep my house clean (once again, not enough hours). This year I have made two resolutions. I am only going to post about one because the other one is somewhat a cliche resolution, if that makes sense. But this is one of the most important ones and will make me feel better overall.


1. Become more organized. Our home appears somewhat clean if you were to just take a glance inside. But if you really start digging, the closets are unbearable and we have too much clutter. I do not like to throw things away, except if I am in one of those moods and then I start pitching without regret. Do I really need a size 3-6 months white onesie from Wal-Mart with formula stains on it? Really? Nope...in the trash it goes. My goal is to go through the entire house, one cabinet, drawer, room, etc. at a time and do this. I like to keep quite of bit of the girls' drawings, homework, and crafts for later on. I plan on keeping this, but I need to come up with a system for it.

I have started with the toy room. You can ask anyone who has been to my house, this is the root of our home's evil. We bought about 10 clear storage containers. I then printed out pictures of the toys that belong in there - baby dolls, kitchen stuff, dress-up clothes, electronic toys, etc. - which will help the girls be able to identify what goes where. So far, the system has proved that it will work, with a little more learning on their part.


So, there it is. I hope that the organization comes easy and not too time consuming, and I hope it stays.

Happy New Year! What's your resolution?