My First Yard Sale

So, I've never done a yard sale as a married woman. Actually, I've only ever contributed things to yard sales that my mom had and did all the work for. This was quite an experience let me tell you! Number one thing I learned, advertisement is KEY! We didn't advertise until yesterday, ok let's be honest, it was last night before we put the signs up! Mistake number one folks! You have got to get the word out much sooner. That's one of those things that I knew but just didn't get around to doing. We also wanted to put an ad on Craig's list to promote it, but didn't get around to doing that either. People talk about the early birds that will come to yard sales and we were expecting to have lots of people when we got going. But the first hour only 2 people came! Those 2 people came at around 7:45! It was slow! Got to advertise!

Second thing I learned, don't plan a yard sale when you have something going on the night before. I had a Pampered Chef party for a lady last night and didn't get home until almost 10. I then had to finish up some things for the yard sale. I didn't get in the bed until 1 am, and the alarm went off at 5:45 am. This was the first time in a long while that I actually had felt like I had just laid down to go to sleep and then it was time to get up again. I will plan out my events a little better next time!

I think I made a whopping $11 this morning, which will buy my movie ticket when I go out later this afternoon for girly movie time! (Going to see You Again, and very excited!) Oh well, you live and learn, and then try again!

One really really cute story to share about Karis at the yard sale....

Karis stayed out and played while I was doing the yard selling today. She had so much fun and was checking out everything that my neighbor and I were offering. After a while a group of people came out to look at things. Karis followed a man up to our table and started showing him things! She would point to an item and say, "look," then move to another item, pat it and say, "It's nice," then she headed to our diaper genie, pointed and said, "pretty!" She was trying to sell our stuff! It was priceless! She offered us some comic relief on the sad yard sale day!

Any tips you have for yard selling? I would love to hear them for future reference! Ok, time for a nap for this tired household!

Karis and the Moon

Karis is adorable. I love the way she is learning things and communicating them to us! Tonight on the way home from being in downtown Raleigh, she looked out the window, and with great enthusiasm, said "Look at the moon! It's a circle! Oh my goodness! It's so pretty!" Every time she would catch a glimpse of it she would tell us to "look at the moon!" It was so great!

We have begun going through the catechism for young children at this website here.
We ask her, "Karis, who made you?" and she has two regular responses. It's either Karis or Grand-Daddy! After we say no and point up she says "God." We ask her "What else did God make?" And doing a fun little hand motion she says "everything!" It's so neat to watch her learn things and see her growing in the knowledge of the Truth! I'm praying that we will be faithful to teach our little ones about the great God that made the pretty circle moon and everything else!

September Already???

I cannot believe August came and went, and I didn't post one single thing! Wow! Well, I have some fun stuff to share about the kids so I thought I would put a little something on here today. (Don't have too much time though, we have a Labor Day cookout to get to shortly!)

My little Karis is talking so much and is learning more words and phrases. Her favorite phrase right now is "Where is ___" So it may be where is daddy, where is Owen, where is mommy, etc. She asks multiple times in the day "Where is Camden?" "Where is Co-Co?" "Where is La-La?" Camden and Co-Co are her cousins, and La-La is my sister (Cam and Co-Co's mom). I don't know if she's actually asking for her Aunt Lala, or she thinks that my mom's name is Lala. When she sees a picture of my mom she says, "Ahh!! Lala!" So, I think she's a little confused. She's constantly asking for people or things. I heard her ask today, "Where is milk?" She's a funny little girl!

She's also started a funny thing in the mornings. I usually leave the kids in their cribs for a little while in the mornings before I go down and get them. Karis' new thing to do (which I hear on the monitor) is ask, "where is mommy?" and then she proceeds to yell at the top of her lungs, "Mooooooommmmmmmyyyyyyy!!!" It's quite hilarious!

Owen is finally sleeping through the night (a day I was beginning to wonder if it would ever come!) and is such a sweet little baby! I so enjoy seeing his little face light up when he smiles and hearing his little laugh that his sister gets out of him! He loves Karis and I can't wait to see them play more together. He is still not crawling or pulling up or anything, but he can roll around like a pro!

Blake is back to school and working, so we are still adjusting to the new schedule. It has been a really fun summer and I'm sad to see it go. But, I am quite ready for the change in the seasons and all the wonderful things that come with the fall!

Family picture at the beach

Cow Appreciation Day 2010

July 9 is Cow Appreciation Day. This is not one of those days that most people have written down on their calendars and look forward to all year long. But now, I will be looking forward to 2011's celebration of our bovine friends! Chick-fil-a (definitely my go to/favorite fast food restaurant) has a generous way of celebrating this wonderful day of the year. If you dress up like a cow (attempt a head to toe costume) you get a free meal! It is awesome! I'll take free chick-fil-a however I can get it, so you best believe I was dressed up like a cow! Not only myself, but Blake and the kids too! We all received free meals! Well, we didn't cash in on Owen's, but we probably could have. We joined our friends Cory and Autumn and their little girl and had a wonderful meal, made even better by the fact that it was free! : )

Here are a few pictures of my sweet little calves.....

Not sure why this picture is so small. I made the onsie for him. I think this is my favorite picture of him thus far in his little life! He was so stinkin cute tonight! : )

I think Karis looks more like a cross between a cat and a cow. I didn't know how else to do the ears, but they definitely look cat-like to me!

It was such a fun night with the family and our friends! I am seriously looking forward to next year! : ) Here is to Cow Appreciation Day!

My little Talkers

Karis is now officially two years old! That is just crazy to me! With her growing up comes some fun new things, and one thing is her talking more and more! She has said some funny things in the past few days, and this is one I just have to share!

Karis has a new phrase that she is saying a lot. If she is playing with Owen and he happens to grab her hair or in any other way accidentally hurt her she makes a grimacing face and says, "Oww! Ee it me." (He hit me) We have no clue where she got this from! We are trying to teach her that Owen is not hitting her and that he doesn't mean to hurt her. We are also trying not to laugh when she says this too! It is funny, but definitely don't want to encourage a habit or tattle-telling! I've actually heard her say this when she bumps into inanimate objects as well! She's crazy!

Owen is almost 6 months old now! (How crazy is that!) He is starting to get a lot more vocal too! Pretty sure he said "da-da" this week, though it was in midst of babbling! He says "ba-ba" and "da-da" now. He is getting so big, and so cute!

My kids, man do I love them!

What a night....

I think it will be therapeutic to write out this amazingly horrible night. First let me give some back ground info....

We are on our way back from our big trip out west (which I will have to blog about another time to share all the fun that we had!) and planned before we left to stop and spend the night somewhere on our way back. Normally we push through and drive through the night, but Owen is NOT a good car rider and needs a break. So, we decided to drive to Nashville, TN which would put us over halfway home. I had this idea in my head that we would have a fun evening together, stay at a hotel with restaurants nearby so we could walk around, and just relax and have fun as a family! Well.....let me just tell you how the evening actually played out.

About an hour before getting to Nashville Owen started screaming and crying. It wasn't time to eat, he was just ready to be out of the car! We knew we were getting really close so we just kept going (mistake number one). My wonderful mom got online for us and started looking up hotels that were in the Nashville area. After calling a few we decided we would hit up a Holiday Inn Express that was outside of town a bit. Blake then said that we should have my mom check on Expedia to see if there were any deals on hotels in downtown Nashville (mistake number two). We thought it would be fun to stay right in the heart of things (mistake number three). Mom found a deal for Best Western in downtown, so we decide we will go for it instead of the Holiday Inn Express (mistake number four). With Owen still screaming we just wanted to get out of the car and into a hotel! We didn't clearly listen to my Mom while she gave us directions and couldn't find the hotel. We turned around and finally got on the right road. We found the hotel, and we were not too happy with what we found!

The hotel is not in the best looking area of town and we did not want to stay there. So, I started asking how we could cancel the reservation. The lady at the front desk said that we would have to go through Expedia (who we just booked the hotel with about 10 minutes earlier). So, I call expedia. They have to contact the manager of the hotel to see if we can cancel. We start driving away to head to the Holiday Inn Express when the expedia lady comes back on the phone to tell me that unfortunately the Best Western will not issue us a refund. So, we turn around and grin and bear the hotel. I'm trying to stay positive and think that we can still have a nice night even if we are in a not so good hotel. But, things don't get any better.

We get to the hotel, check in and find out that we are on the fourth floor. Not the easiest thing with two kids, but ok, we will deal with it. We get the kids inside with a few luggage items and wait for the elevator. After standing at the elevator for close to five minutes a hotel employee (who had been standing there the whole time) comes over to inform us that the elevator is being worked on and won't be ready for 30 minutes or so! AND WE ARE ON THE FOURTH FLOOR!!!!! I was shocked! I just couldn't believe it! We carried our little ones up to our room and Blake went and got more luggage. While he was gone, both my kids were screaming and crying, and I just wanted to join in with them!

Still trying to stay positive, we get dressed and walk a little ways to go get dinner (the one thing I really wanted to do that we actually did!) We ate at a place called Otter's. Ordered our food, and I misspoke and ordered the wrong thing only realizing it after we had paid. Dinner was pretty pleasant, then we got back to the hotel. Owen was over this whole being out and being up thing, so he started screaming and crying again. I put Karis in the bath and let her play a bit while I passed Owen over to Blake. When I got back to Karis saw that she had pooped in the tub. Yep, that was awesome. Who doesn't want to clean poop from a hotel bathroom after a frustrating evening! : ) Owen finally calmed down and went to sleep, Karis finally wound down and went to sleep, and Blake and I are now getting some much needed rest.

I've been trying to think positively and be thankful all night in midst of one frustration after another, and let me tell you it has been a challenge! Karis has a veggie tale video and the words to one of the songs has rung in my ears all evening "A thankful heart is a happy heart..." I have not had a happy heart but I am fighting for it! I am thankful for God's grace and that He is in control, even over nights where nothing goes your way! He is good even when my circumstances are not.

Ahh...that was therapeutic. What a night, what a night! I sure hope the rest of our drive home is uneventful and smooth! Here is to having a happy, thankful heart!

Still Here....

It's 12:12 pm, and the van is still not ready. If it's not ready by 5 pm we are going to take my mom's car that they have so graciously offered us. It's smaller than the van, so we will be much tighter. But, we need to get to Iowa! Please say a prayer that our van will be fixed by 5 o'clock tonight.

Once again, in our heart we planned our way, but our Lord is directing the steps. Hopefully we will be on the road soon. I will update later today.