Alter-Ego Night

Yammin' It!

Attitude of Gratitude #7

I went back and forth about having this final post as my moooost important blessing. Which is definitely my family and faith. But I don't really want to draw this out, so I'll keep it simple.

I'm thankful for my family. I love them. I think they love me. I'm glad we'll be together til the end of forever.

I'm thankful for the beliefs I have. They help me along each day. I'll break those beliefs down for ya right here, real fast.
1. I go to the church that Jesus started when he was on Earth a long time ago.
2. Jesus set it up so we all could get back to Heaven where we started off in the first place, and spend forever with our families.
3. Life is a test to see if we'll make good choices or bad.
4. Pass it on.

Yes, there is definitely a lot more to my church than that, but I wanted to keep it simple. If you want more detailed but still simple, look at this.

Those are the Articles of Faith. In 13 short paragraphs it sums up exactly what the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is all about. And if you have questions about the church, do me a favor and actually ask a member of the church instead of someone else.

I think this series of posts has helped me be a little more grateful for the awesome things I've got going in my life. Hopefully, you've benefited in some way too!

Attitude of Gratitude #6

I. Like. To. Bake.

This helps.

In fact, I love to bake so much I'm considering looking in to opening a bakery in Gilmer. Considering.

Ben got this mixer for me right when we moved to Gilmer. And it's been well used since.

Is it wrong to be thankful for so many materialistic things? I mean, if I lived a long time ago before Kitchen Aids were around, then maybe I wouldn't have this extra bit of fluff.

But I'm still thankful for it.

Attitude of Gratitude #5

I'm thankful for books.

Reading is therapy for me. Being a stay-at-home-mom can be quite taxing.

Reading gives me an escape from my stress-inducing-mundane life and that's all that keeps me sane sometimes.

Just to prove how taxing staying at home can be--I've read 67 books this year.

So if you're interested in reading Young Adult, I can surely let you know what's good. And if you've got suggestions, I'm all ears.

Thanks to all those brave men and women who pour out their hearts onto paper. You take me away to new worlds.

And thanks to the Upshur County Library. If it weren't for you I'd be broke and have no shelf space.

Attitude of Gratitude #4

I'm thankful I live in a small town.

It's is roughly 5,000 people. Small to some I suppose.

I like being able to get to the store and back in 15 minutes. Or head down the road for a quick trip to the library.

I like that my kids will know everyone in their grade in High School.

I like the fact that I know a lot of people who live here. And they know me.

Maybe that'll come in handy someday if I ever start my own business. :)

Attitude of Gratitude #3

I'm grateful I have a college degree.

I haven't used it a whole bunch but it does mean a lot to me.

Thanks Mom and Dad!!

Attitude of Gratitude #2

One of my biggest blessings is that I'm able to stay at home with my kids while they're young. It's definitely not the easiest jobs. In fact I think it's the hardest job to have--just ask Ben--I tell him all the time :) And most of the time I don't even consider it a blessing--more of a curse!

But I am blessed that I'm the one that can raise my kids and watch them grow and hit milestones. And teach them their ABC's and a million other seemingly inconsequential things.

Like how to drive a Power Wheels Monster Truck.

Thanks Ben to going to work everyday and giving me this chance!

Attitude of Gratitude #1

I have a problem with not being thankful enough for my blessings.

And I have a lot of blessings. :)

So for one week I will journal what I am thankful for, in an attempt to recognize the things that shouldn't go unnoticed.

The inspiration for this came from President Monson's talk in the Sunday morning session of General Conference. You can listen to it here or see what General Conference is here.

Today I am thankful for:

I love living close to family. It's a big deal to me.

I want my kids to grow up knowing their grandparents. I didn't have that opportunity and I wonder how much I missed out on. Luckily for my kids, they have both sets of grandparents in the same town!

I'm thankful for the other family that I live close to. It's awesome that my kids get to grow up with some of their cousins. Instant best friends! It's also a blessing to me personally. I love my brothers and sisters in law like they are blood. They set great examples for me and my family.

I'm grateful to be close to family!!!

This room...

...has been a thorn in my side.

...has been my prison for the past two plus weeks.

...has been a nightmare!!

The room is the boys' bedroom.

Though I don't have before pictures, I can tell you when we first moved in the wallpaper was dark blue with large tulips. We tore that off almost immediately when the kids discovered just how much fun it was to tear wallpaper apart. For the last two years it's been a cream colored floral print that must have been original to the house. I've had no motivation to re-do their room because I knew just how hard that wallpaper was going to be to take down. And I didn't know how to repaint.

I finally decided on what to do and since I hadn't worked on the house in about a year I figured it was time. I painted the walls khaki. On the large wall I did diamonds in argyle fashion*. *Disclaimer: Do not attempt unless you're willing to spend many hours taping. I used white, orange and mixed my white and khaki to get a cream color. I also painted one small wall the same orange as the diamonds.

I painted over the wallpaper to get everything white. I also had to mud the seams so they wouldn't show.

I am a messy painter. I dropped a can and it exploded here.

The Wall. My Bane.
Let me just tell you I thought this would be much easier going in.
I thought I'd just have to tape everything off twice and paint my two colors.
Wrong.
I may have done something wrong that made me have to tape off the diamonds three times--with one time cutting the tape to fit inside the diamond lines. If I messed up, I can't figure out where. It was hard.

The step-by-step process involves this:
1. Determine the width and height you want your diamonds.
2. Draw a wall of rectangles that match that height and width.
3. Once you have a wall full of rectangles, measure off the midpoint of each line in the rectangles.
4. Connect all the midpoints with a really long straight edge to form the diamond.
5. Tape. A lot.
6. Paint.

Finally finished!

I'm done!! And I've vowed to not finish the rest of the house!!!

Not my favorite thing...

Setting up the tent.

Copper at the pond.

Racing on the pier.

The tent is up!
And for some reason they think it's one of those blow-up-jumping-things.

Campfires are good.

Getting ready for bed.

We woke up to this. And cows.

Matt came with pancake mix and sausages.

Camping just isn't my cup-o-tea.

I'd never done it until six years ago to the day!! When we had Caleb as a baby we went camping for the first time in Hobble Creek Canyon in Utah. It took six years to get me to go again!

Overall we had a great time. A fast treat/getaway for the kids. I'd do it over again.

Next year maybe ;)

She wasn't really asleep...

I'm embarrassed to say this isn't the first time this has happened. Two other times at night she has gone into my room, gotten out some markers and marked on my wall and bed. Fortunately my sheets are dark, and the room hasn't been repainted.

This time she was supposed to be taking a nap.

She wasn't.

She brought the markers to her room and drew on her sheets, wall, and headboard.

Luckily it came off of the wall and headboard.

Not easily though--just ask Cate. It took her a while.