More than you ever wanted to know...

So this blog started out as a way to keep up with family, you know, update those that are far away with pictures of what we have been up to recently.  Then, I sprinkled in a craft or two.  Even a recipe!  Over time, it has become my scrapbook/journal.  It is the place that I record pretty much everything that has been happening with us.

Mostly, I have shared good times here, because I want this to be a positive place for me and my family to come to remember. Not that we don't have hard times, because believe me, we have our fair share.  I get personal, but not too personal, because...well, I don't know?!
 
That being said, I am about to get personal.  I am going to give you more information on me that really you ever probably wanted to know, so really feel free to skip this post if you want!  I just want to have a place to write stuff down so that I can remember one day, oh yeah, that happened to me.

Don't say I didn't warn you.

About a month ago, I went if for my annual female exam.  No big deal, but I did want to discuss why my period felt like it did way back when I was like 14 years old and pre-birth control {I have been on it since I was like 15, I went on accutane, went off when I tried to get pregnant with each kid and then finally off when the hubs took care of business after Lola was born}.  There was concern enough for my doctor to order a pelvic ultrasound to see if something was causing the crazy bleeding {6 day period then it will stop for a day or so, then start up for another day, then stop again}.  The ultra sound showed a structure near my right ovary.  When the nurse called me with the results she asked if I was pregnant and immediately referred me to my obgyn.  Ugh, pregnant?  Sweat started dripping out of every pore in my body, then I cried, then panicked.  NOT.  POSSIBLE.  Peed on a stick, negative.  Why were they asking if I was pregnant?  Did they see something down there when they were doing that special ultra sound?  I called the obgyn and asked them to review the results and call me back asap.  It took them two days {my appointment was on the third day} and they said that they would talk to me about my options tomorrow.  What did that even mean?!  Thursday could not come any faster.  When I had my consultation, my doctor explained to me why they asked about the pregnancy.  Where the structure is located is very similar to where a tubal pregnancy might be.  But, he reassured me that I wasn't pregnant if in fact I got a negative result.  Huge sigh of relief.  So then what is the structure and what are my options?
~more birth control pills {I have migraines that they think are related to hormonal changes, so it would help those and control heavy bleeding}.  I feel like I have been on birth control my whole life, for some reason I am emotional about this one and do not want to go back on it.  I already take two pills each night {for high blood pressure and migraine prevention, really, what is one more pill?}.  With this they would repeat the ultra sound to make sure that whatever the structure is doesn't get bigger.
~IUD.  This will possibly help control/reduce the bleeding and make me more regular.  Again, repeat the ultra sound to make sure that whatever the structure is doesn't get bigger.
~Operative Hysteroscopy {the link will explain it better than me}, but if you don't want to read it, know it is very similar to a d&c.  This option goes in and gets out whatever it might be that is inside me, cleans you out.  No guessing or waiting to see what that structure might be or grow into.  Could just be a cyst, very normal in any woman's body, this I learned or could be a polyp or something else.  The what is it is what bothers me.  This procedure you do have to go under for.

So, after a few tears and questioning what I should do, I opted for the latter. They called me yesterday and scheduled me for the day before Thanksgiving {did I mention we are hosting a HUGE get together this year?!}.  Should be interesting.  

Hoping that once everything is out I will sleep a little bit easier and things will be back to normal.

See.  Told you.  Much more than you ever wanted to know about me. 

 PS-Of course my doctor could get me scheduled to do the surgery the day before Thanksgiving, but the surgery center itself could not, so I will be having the procedure done on December 28th.  Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to me!
 

The BIG One.

I have been waiting a year for this sale.  No joke.  The countdown has been on since last year where I found the most incredible headboard on the entire planet (and lots of other stuff too)!  Only this time I was going to help work at the sale Friday, spend the night with Donna at Grandpa and Grandma Shipe's house, wake up early Saturday and pick up my mama at the airport, then get in line for the "special rooms", and work a little more after we finished shopping!

So, with a planned day off of work, bags packed, you can imagine my excitement Thursday night as I anticipated Friday and my day/night with in-laws, shopping my little heart out!

Yeah?!  

NOT.  SO.  MUCH.

Friday morning I woke up with a sore throat and...well, lets just call it an upset stomach and these crazy pains in my chest that feel like I am having a heart attack {happened about two weeks ago while on a photo shoot and I thought maybe because I always bend all crazy that I tweaked something in my sternum and then again Friday morning}.  They leave me breathless and it takes sometimes 20 minutes to get my breathing right.  Off to Urgent Care I went, just in case I had strep.  While I was going to go, sick or not, to the sale, I wanted to have meds if I needed them!  The doctor took one look at my throat, and said nothing was wrong.  But when I started to tell him about the pains I was having in my chest, he thought that I was probably having esophageal spasms and that they could have everything to do with my throat hurting.  Esopha-whacha-go-gul?  Yeah, I had never heard of it, but he explained it to me and sent me on my way with some Zantac, for acid reflux.  A quick stop to pick up the prescription and the medicine of my choice for upset bellies, Pepto-Bismol, I was off to pick up Donna. 

When we arrived at Grandpa and Grandma's, it was lunch time {we were supposed to get there earlier than this to start helping}.  While I ate nothing, we had a nice visit at lunch...that was until I heard my phone ring. 

It couldn't be?

It was.

The school nurse at my children's school.  I knew someone was sick and that they were calling me to come and get them.  Kyan as a matter of fact.  He was puking, can you come?

Panic, tears, saddness.  But not by my son, by me!  

This was supposed to be my day and night away?  How was I going to make this work?

I did the only thing there was to do.  

I called my husband and crossed my fingers that he could/would leave work to go get our puking boy.

And do you know what?  He did.

Chad gets the best husband/daddy award ever!  He knew how much I had been anticipating this weekend and he made it work so that I could stay.  I owe him, BIG!

It was at that point that I could finally relax {but still not eat} and really enjoy my time!

We shopped and we helped out the rest of the afternoon {including covering as much of the furniture outside as we possibly could in plastic as the dust storm rolled in}!  Then we headed back to Grandpa and Grandma's for a quite evening at home.  Grandma made a spaghetti and meatball dinner {that smelled delicious, but that I still couldn't eat, only the salad and some strawberries were okay for me} and then we watched a little TV before we all went to bed at 8pm!  It was glorious!  I read for just a few minutes, but the stress of the day and the not feeling well, put me right to bed!

My mama flew in to spend some time with us too {and to see what all of the fuss was about}.  My Aunt Heidi picked her up at the airport {lifesaver} and they met up this morning!  They were line cutters and managed to sneak into the "special" room with us first!  They took off after they browsed for about an hour, while Donna and I got back to work until about 10:30, when we decided to call it quits.  We settled up and headed home with a truck full of goodies!

I didn't need anything major this year and was on the hunt for two particular things:

1.  White Dishes for our Supper Club Parties

2.  Scrabble Pieces {after seeing my Aunt's collection, I wanted my own}

Check.  And check.

I was able to score the White Dishes with place settings for 8 {perfect for our dinners} for $7!   There were actually about 16 large white dishes in the box, so double score!  And I found four scrabble games, including boards and pieces for $1 a piece!  

Have you seen all of the cool projects you can do with them?  I have a few saved onto my pinterest board already!  Are you on pinterest?  I am, right here:  

If you are not on it and need an invite, let me know, I'll send you one!   Just leave me your email!

Other things I found this weekend and took home with me included:

zippers {@ 2/$0.25 how does one not grab six, or seven, or eight?}

3 baggies full of buttons

assorted thread x3 in plastic containers, $1 each {the containers were worth so much more!}

fabric

needles

2 small red decorative Christmas trees

bells

2 Nativity Sets {for my friend, Angela}

2 pine cone wreaths

box full of vintage holiday to:/from: stickers to put on presents

giant chalkboard {as big as the bed of my truck} for $5.  I had big dreams for that one, but sadly it got warped in the rain.  I am thinking of still using it for photo shoots?!

candy jar

picture frames {I don't think I can go to any junk sale without buying a few!}

condiments serving dish thingy

Phew!  I am sure there are things that I left off, but that is it in a nutshell!

While it wasn't the weekend that I had planned, I didn't do too bad!

Thanks to Grandpa and Grandma Shipe for being so good to me, always.

To Donna, for being the best mother-in-law a girl could ask for.

To the hubs for taking care of the kids, especially one who happened to be sick, so that I could have a night off.

To my mama, for flying down to spend time with me this weekend.  Sometimes mamas just know when they are needed and when a ticket went on sale, my wonderful dad bought it for her first chance he got, so yes, thanks to him too.

To Aunt Heidi, for being the coolest, I love getting ideas from you!

Halloween Rewind

Oh wow, what a busy Halloween weekend we had!  

So, going to push the rewind button...NOW!

 FRIDAY:

Met up with our Grandma Donna, Auntie Rae and the cousins to do a little Trunk-or Treating at church!

The kids look forward to this event every year!  Yummy food, carnival games, costume parade, dancing {new this year and was a BIG hit, especially with Lola! Girlfriend shook her booty until the very end}, and then getting candy out of the trunks of cars/trucks!  

Kyan wanted to play every game, while Lola played one or two!  She was a LOT afraid of one particular costume that happened to be at every game we were at!  

However, she managed to dance the night away and convinced her brother to eventually join her!

After dancing, the kids marched in the costume parade with the help of our favorite girl Alyssa!

And then it was candy time!

SATURDAY:

Spent the morning traveling to Kyan's baseball game approximately 40 minutes away from the house, then chillaxin' at home until Kyan did Friday all over again with his friend from school!!  Lola spend the evening with Celeste, while Chad and I enjoyed a nice dinner out with friends!

SUNDAY:

Pumpkin carving time!!!!  Here is how it works in our house; daddy cuts opening of the pumpkins, the kids and I gut the pumpkins and prep the seeds for baking, kids draw faces for daddy to cut while I get seeds ready to pop in the oven, daddy cuts the pumpkins!  Everyone is happy and it all works out in the end, when we are popping freshly baked pumpkin seeds in our mouth!

MONDAY:

Go to school.  Go to Target after school and pick up candy {I know, last minute right?!}.  Come home. Eat dinner.  Get on costumes, again.  Trick-or-Treat around the neighborhood {that happened to be hoppin' this year more so than last year}!

 Poor Lola's hair looks like a hot mess!  She insisted on keeping her french braid that Mrs. Ashbey, one of her teachers, did for her earlier in the day!  To be fair, it looked adorable from the back {you can kinda see in the picture below}, but by the end of the night, most of it came loose!  Oh well, I still think she was the prettiest princess on the block!

 Kyan and Lola made it all around the neighborhood this year!  Towards the end however, Lola needed a ride on daddy's shoulders in between stops!  He also protected her at the scary houses!  When she was walking and we came upon a house that looked a little spooky or had on scary music, she would push us forward and scream at us to go!  I just kept laughing at her, but she really was terrified of some of the houses and had no problems vocalizing that to us!

 When we got back home, we were greeted by our cutie pie neighbor kids, who helped pass out candy!  This was the kids favorite part last year, and by the looks and sounds of it last night, it seemed like it was the highlight again last night!

My favorite picture of the night!  

Love the relationship that they have.

Love them.

 We were busy, but this Halloween weekend was a blast!  Hope yours was too!

Happy Halloween

From Princess Cinderella and her Knight in Shining Armor!

Lots more pictures to come from our weekend filled with Halloween festivities (can't believe that there is still more trick or treating tonight?!)...but we didn't want to miss the chance to tell all of you that we hope you have a SPOOKtacular day and night!  Be safe!

Super Stars!

Yesterday morning I was able to eat breakfast with the kids at school before their big vocabulary parade/student of the month assembly!  Then, I joined the other parents in the courtyard for the vocabulary parade.  Each student had to pick a word and then decorate a crown or a t-shirt describing that word.  Kyan made his in class, while Lola's crown was made at home!  

Kyan walked around in the parade like a tropper, waving his pom-pom with the biggest smile on his face!  

 

Why no picture of Lola?  Oh she just cried {and I wish I would have snapped a picture of her, because it was hilarious}.  I knew that it was going to happen.  The jets were flying over and the echo through the school was super loud!  Plus, the amount of people that were there was just too much for her to handle.  She is crazy.  But, I was hoping that she could get herself together, because what she didn't know was that she was the student of the month in her preschool class and she was going to receive her award in about 10 minutes! 

Another reason why I went to their school yesterday!  I wanted to be there when Lola received her award!  She was already the star of the week a few weeks ago, now the student of the month!  Her teachers are killing me!  As if her head isn't already big enough?!  Her tears turned into smiles as soon as they showed her the crown and she gladly traded the one mommy made for her student of the month one!

The assembly was outside for the first time and it was kinda hard to hear, but it was so pretty and Lola grinned from ear to ear as she received her award!  No crying that time around!

We caught up with "brothie" at the assembly and snapped a picture or two with him!

He was very proud of his little sis!

Last, we had a doughnut and milk together before she had to go back to class!

 Best two hours I have spent in a long time!

Love Letters

This weekend Chad and I celebrated our 8 year wedding anniversary!  Surprisingly, I remembered how many years it was this time around, usually I am a year off!  It has become a pretty big joke between us.  Guess it just took me that long to figure it out!  Love you boo.

  We spent the evening eating at Ah-So, something we have done with each anniversary, and then at the local high school football game with the kids, where they loved seeing their babysitters and the band/cheerleaders perform!  After we tucked the kids in bed, we sat down for my absolute favorite part of our anniversary...our love letters.

 This is hands down the best idea we have ever been given {thank you Rae Lynn}, and one that I try to pass down to every one that I know that is getting married or is already married.  Honestly, one does not need to give gifts, the power of words are more incredible than anything I know.

With each year, we open a letter written from the previous year from our partner.  On our wedding night, we sat down together and wrote our first letter to each other on fancy Hawaiian paper provided to us by our hotel {that was our first and probably our last time we wrote on fancy paper, now we write on whatever is laying around and seal it in a used envelope from a card someone else gave}!  On our one year anniversary we opened those first letters from each other.  When we were done wiping away the tears from our eyes {me for sure} we wrote our next letters to be opened on year two.  We have done this every year since.  I cry each year, and each year I go back and read old letters to each other.  It is a reflection of how we have grown together, as a couple and as a family.  I believe that it is never too late to start these letters. I am so grateful we have done them from our start.

Spreading my love of our letters this week at some of my favorite places.

An old door as decor!

The wall space above my bed has been missing something for over two years, but I have never been able to put my finger on what that something is.  I knew I wanted to make a sign of some sort that was on a large scale {our master bedroom is quite large}, but had no clue how to pull it off.  The hubs and I always say, "calmer than you are" to each other so I really thought that I would do something along those lines.  However, when I saw a picture on Junk in the Trunk's blog, featuring items for sale at a recent sale they held, I had full intentions of purchasing their sign or going to see it in person to see how I could create my own!

When my mother-in-law got to the sale, I immediately spied the sign and then looked at the price.  It was worth every penny, but I needed something a little bigger and the bigger I had to go the more moo-lah I was going to have to fork over.  So I passed on their sign, but it gave me a really good idea for how to make my own.  As we waited in the forever long line at the sale, I spied the most beautiful, old, chippy door I have ever seen.  But it was inside the barn, so I figured it must be sold already.  I didn't want to make assumptions on something so beautiful, so with fingers crossed, I found out that the door had not sold and it became mine, as it was the perfect colors and size to hang above our bed!

Pretty huh?

With a can of paint from the local ReStore {for only $5}, a pencil and two different types of brushes, I went to work.  I figured if I messed up, I had one more shot to correct it on the other side!  Lucky for me, it worked the first time around!  I very lightly sketched out the word love {kept it simple and thought the original quote would be too much for the door}.  I then began tracing it with the yellow paint.  It is far from perfect, but matches the look of the old door perfectly!

I thought about distressing the yellow, but when I started to, it took off even more paint from the door, so I stopped.  It was chippy enough.

No matter how much I loved it, it sat for about another three weeks.  You see, this sucker is big, old, and heavy {6 and 1/2 feet x 2 and 1/2 feet of solid wood}!  I knew it would require much more than a nail to hang it up and it would depend on when the hubs got tired of my whining to do it for me!   

He must have been sick of it, because it went up this weekend and WOW is all I can say!  I knew I loved it just sitting in the garage waiting to be hung but it looked so much better actually hung on the wall, where it felt like it always belonged!

I won't even begin to tell you how he hung it, because I have no clue.  He did tease me several times though by saying that a true DIYer could hang this on her own.  Seriously?!  Thanks babe, I love you too.  Just hang the door!

Once it was up, I didn't want to leave the room.  I just stared at it {and took pictures} from about every angle!

No matter where I stood in the room, the door looked amazing!  

It was just what the room needed and is my favorite piece of artwork in the house!  Especially when it comes in at under $50!

And just because I like a little before and after...

So...what do you think?  Love it too?!

Have you ever used a door as decor in your own home?

 Linking up with my favorite party people, including Crystal B.'s....Inspired By {a new party, you should head over}!