It's Scraptabulous!

In one week from today I will be leaving my cares and worries behind me (read: the children home with their father) and attending Scrap Around the Clock, a fabulous 24 hour event hosted at The Country Church of Molalla, Oregon. 

Okay so I won't just be attending, I'll be running it. But it truly is fantastic and I'll tell you why:

- 24 hrs straight of scrapbooking madness - from 6 pm on Friday, Nov 5th till 6 pm on Saturday, Nov 6th

- catered meals

- awesome welcome goodies

- hourly giveaways

- grand prize giveaways

- on site espresso cart

- on site shoulder massuese (15 minutes for 10.00!)

- movies on the big screen

- your own 6 ft table in our spacious, well-lit facilities

- bell hop service to unload your scrap supplies and load them up again at the end of the event

- vendors selling scrap supplies

- sleeping and shower facilities (if you want to stay all night, or you can leave and come back again in the morning)

- and much more. 

But most of all, holy FUN Batman!

I have been involved in running this bi-annual event for over 5 years now, and in charge of it for the past three, and I can tell you that it is a STEAL of a deal. 

Friday only: $20.00

Saturday only: $30.00

both days: $40.00

All of the proceeds go to Mighty Generations, the parenting ministry at The Country Church, which provides parenting classes to members and the community. If you live in the general area, or anywhere from Salem to Portland, you should consider attending. After Sunday, October 31st the prices go up $10.00 - but registration is not cut off, you can even pay at the door! 

If you're interested, shoot me an email at russjodi @ molalla dot net and I'll give you more details. 

Until then, I'm working away at double page layouts for our hourly giveaways, which you all know means I haven't started yet because, PROCRASTINATOR!

Luckily I have a great team to assist me...

Gaylen, Carmajo, Kelly, me and Annie

A picture from the spring Scrap Around the Clock, held back in March 2010.

lunch time - March 2010. Look at Kelly's cute belly!

Yes, that is a slice of cheesecake AND a mini banana cream pie on my plate, thank you very much!

 I am ready to get my SCRAP ON!

Us, in color - part 2

I meant to post these last night, but someone was watching the Portland Blazers game live online and wouldn't let me on the computer during the commercials when I asked oh so politely. So then I asked quite impolitely, and got an impolite response, and things kinda went downhill from there, ending in me realizing I was in the middle of a PMS-induced hormonal rage and putting myself to bed for the safety and benefit of all.

I fell asleep right away too, until that same someone came in and climbed on top of me, crushing all the wind out of me, and kissed me 20 times all over my face and asked if Mrs. grumpy-pants would like the computer now. I declined with dignity and fell back asleep again, and am feeling much better this morning!

Also, my sister picked me up a peppermint white mocha and delivered it to me when I dropped the kids off at school this morning so not only am I feeling better, but much energized as well and have already accomplished quite a bit around the house today.

Information I'm sure you're facinated by. 

Moving on. 

To see Us, in color - part I click here.

Kendall age 9

Cooper age 7 1/2

Blake age 2 1/2

Russ and I, ages undisclosed :)

alright I'm 31, but who's counting?

What I Wore Wednesday

I'm combining two weeks of outfits into one post since I had a guest for last week's WIWW. This worked out well because I ended up having no car for several days and wore sweats the entire time. 

You're not missing out on anything is what I'm saying. 

Also my memory apparently doesn't go back two weeks very well because I have no idea what I was doing that day in most of these.

#1

Multiply this look by several days and you'll get an idea of how I hung out most of the time.

tank: Shade

sweats: Nike - Costco

flip flops: Nike - Fred Meyer

#2

Church

cardigan: Old Navy - yard sale

tee: Shade

belt: Goodwill

Skirt: Ann Taylor - yard sale

boots: hand me downs

#3

shirt with belt: Ross

jeans: Old Navy

flats: Goodwill

#4

purple top: Ross

black 3/4 sleeve tee: Shade

jeans: Gap - Goodwill

flats: Ross

earrings and bracelets: Walmart

#5

Zumba class

tee: JC Pennys

leggings: Walmart

Adidas sneakers: Nordstrom Rack

#6

striped top: Kmart

skirt: Gap - Goodwill

belt: Goodwill

boots: Walmart

#7

cardigan vest: Ross

cream 3/4 sleeve tee: Shade

belt and orange bracelet: Goodwill

skinny jeans: Target

boots: Walmart

I can't believe I've been participating in WIWW for 15 weeks now! I have all of my outfit pictures in one folder on my desktop and after browsing through them yesterday I came to a shocking realization: out of the 87 pictures in that folder, I've repeated a whole outfit exactly (not counting jewelry), only two times. TWO TIMES! That's it. 

I think this might be an implication that I don't need any more clothes, but I'm choosing not to follow that train of thought too deeply :)

Now go check out other What I Wore posts at The Pleated Poppy and you'll see I'm not the only crazy gal doing this :)

p.s. Shade Clothing officially closed last week, a sad day in this little household. R.I.P Shade - I'll miss you!

Us, in color - part 1

Sunday morning I received my cd with our family pictures taken by the amazing Shay of Be Photography. Being as that our pictures were only taken the Sunday previously, I give her an A+ for turnaround time. Wow! 

I came home and bee-lined it to the computer, only to remember that my cd drive was broken. 

Nooooooooo!

Flash drive to the rescue: that evening I took the cd to my sister's and using her laptop we loaded the pics onto my cute pink mini-flash drive. And then I stayed up into the wee hours looking at them over and over again, trying to decide which were my favorites. 

Bottom line is I don't think I'll be able to narrow it down that much, I love them all! 

But here are a few... posted mainly for family (especially you Grandma, Granddad and Aunt Wenda, my most loyal NZ readers :) 

And more will come tomorrow :)

It's sad that I can't get them any bigger without turning gigantic and going way outside of my little blogging boundaries. But I believe if you click on the picture it will come up larger in a new screen. If you are so inclined.

Monday confessional

Yesterday I ate sweets for breakfast, lunch, dinner and dessert. 

I am not even kidding. 

Breakfast: toast at home before church and then 2 mini hershey's cookies and cream bites during church. 

Lunch: two of these... because I don't like to cook on Sundays.

pumpkin cupcakes with cream cheese frosting - made by me, thank you very much :)

Dinner: a churro from Costco (bought by my kind friend Jana who invited me out shopping yesterday afternoon - fun, fun!). 

Dessert: this, made by Kelly, who forced us to come over in the evening...

stuffed french toast with fresh fruit and cream

Alright, she asked us over and we obliged quite happily.

But now I'm feeling much, much guilt! Could I have eaten any unhealthier yesterday?

My sweet tooth has turned into a MONSTER. Kind of like the cookie monster, except not so picky about whether it's cookies or some other form of sugar! I think I'm going to have to starve it. 

But not until the rest of my pumpkin cupcakes are gone.

10 Things I Love

1. Cottage cheese with canned pears or peaches. This is one of the snacks that I've loved since I was a kid and will NEVER get tired of.

2. Candles that smell liked baked goods. Surprise, surprise, I know.

3. Climbing into freshly laundered flannel sheets on my bed with bare legs. Oh heaven!

4. The movie The Fugitive. My dad took me on a date to see it at the theaters when I was 15 and I loved Harrision Ford almost as much as my father after that night :)

5. Summer. I miss it already. 

6. MAC makeup. I'm addicted. 

7. A clean kitchen. Which leads to a really weird habit of putting cooking ingredients, or food in general, away the minute I use them instead of all at the same time at the end of fixing/cooking/baking something. Example: bowl of cereal for breakfast? I put the cereal back away before I get the milk out and pour it in my bowl. I told you, weird. 

8. White chocolate mochas... mmmm! Peppermint, coconut, and caramel are some of my fave flaves. Non-fat, single shot and no whip please. Although in the fall I switch to Starbuck's pumpkin spice lattes with 2 extra pumps of syrup :)

9. A warm fire burning in my fireplace - this almost makes up for the lack of summer.

10. Shopping on the day after Thanksgiving with all the other crazies. Yes I love it and I don't care who knows it!

They must have fallen into the cart

Because I know my bi-monthly grocery runs are of the utmost interest to everyone who visits here, I am proud to announce that I once again stayed completely within my shopping budget while out and about yesterday. 

I also abstained from any clothing shopping, except for the cropped leggings I picked up from Walmart, which are for working out and were only $5.00 so they clearly don't count. 

But nothing else! 

Oh wait...

What the... how on EARTH?

 

Honestly, I have no idea where these came from! But how cute! And in my size too! 

I swear, the strangest things happen when I go shopping.

And while we're on the subject of clothing, I came home to find this hanging off our computer hutch door:

 

I promptly informed Russell that I didn't know where he got it, but over my dead body would he ever be caught wearing it. 

Luckily for him, he informed me that he picked it up free (don't ask me how he finds the things he does) to resell on eBay because apparently it's a popular men's brand. For the 50 + age group living in Florida I would guess. 

Phew, that was a close one.

Yesterday...

- I woke up sore and achy from my Zumba class that was on Monday. I'm a two-day-later pain person. This was unfortunate as I had my second workout class yesterday afternoon. 

- When I went to Zumba, I found out we were doing Jillian Michaels 30 Day Shred instead. I felt pain. Lots and lots of pain. I actually don't care for Jillian right now, thank you very much. I'm pretty sure I hobbled back out to the car. 

- I managed to run out of everything necessary for preparing breakfast or lunches for my family the day BEFORE grocery shopping. Bread. Milk. Cheese. Fruit. Vegetables. Yogurt. Peanut butter. Granola bars. All gone. Oddly enough, I still had everything I needed for chocolate chip cookies. I guess you can see where my grocery priorities lie. Just don't ask me what my children ate for breakfast this morning.

- I discovered the blog Catalog Living and wasted away a good 45 minutes or so of my day scrolling through pages and pages of entries because, oh the FUNNY!

- I also discovered Blake "playing" in the butter dish on my kitchen counter. With a toy truck. That he rolled in the butter and then all over my counter. Why oh why does my child always get into greasy stuff that requires much washing???

"Blake was here"

- My husband got his car back from the mechanics which meant I got MY car back from him, Thank Jesus! Arranging rides for myself and my children for 5 of the last 7 days was a hassle I was ready to be done with. And I'm betting my mother and sister (aka my ride saviors) are thanking Jesus right now too.  

- I went to Wednesday night church and ate 4 frosted sugar cookies that were brought to our class by a friend. I could not stop, they were so good. I justifed eating them by repeating three little words... "30. Day. Shred."

- For about the 400th time in my married life, I washed my bed sheets in the morning, made sure to rotate them to the dryer, and then forgot to remake the bed until it was time to get in it at night. This was to the complete and utter vexation of my husband, who, when he decides to go to bed, gets ready in all of two minutes and then wants to actually GET IN the bed. 

- I decided I shall add a second set of flannel sheets to my Christmas wish list. 

What I wore Wednesday - meet Nicole

I have a cute friend. Her name is Nicole and she is a newlywed. She is also a teeny tiny little thing and is super stylin'. Like, ALL the time. When I'm not disgusted by her never-ending wardrobe cuteness, I'm completely envious. But as a proper Christian woman* who tries to obey the commandment "thou shall not covet" (thy friend's slimness or clothing), I squash those feelings and rave like a fool about her instead. And now I'm going to do it on the internet!

(* I don't really know what I mean by that, I'm definitely not proper!)

Meet Nicole, my first ever "What I Wore" guest:

Tom & Nicole, est. June 12th, 2010 (which just happens to be MY wedding anniversary too!)

If she looks a little familiar to you, it's because I blogged about her little sister here. 

While discussing fashion one day in my kid's school office (Nicole just happens to be the office administrator) I asked Nicole if she would be interested in taking pics of her outfits over the next week. She agreed - and was a good little friend and not only remembered to send them to me, but gave me all the outfit details too. Well done Nicole!

  

day 1

Sweater: Target
Shirt and Cami: Romy
Straight Leg Jeans: Buffalo Exchange (cool consignment store) - Hudsons
Flats: Fred Meyers

 day 2: church

White Tunic- Old Navy
Vest- Plato's closet
Indigo Skinny Jeans- American Eagle
Cowboy Boots- Courtesy of my friend Kennedy and Sarah's Closet :)

day 3: work

Beanie- Urban Outfitter
Bow Sweater- Forever 21
Skirt - Target
Leggings - urban outfitter
Gray boots - Alloy.com

day 4: Football game
Stripe turtleneck shirt- Target
White vest- American Eagle
Torn Jeans- Ambercrombie and Fitch
Boots- Nordstrom Rack

day 5: Pumpkin patch outing with her handsome (and fun!) hubby Tom

White tunic- Target
Yellow Cardigan- Target
Scarf - Urban Outfitters
Skinny Jeans- American Eagle
Gray Boots- Alloy
Jewelry - Forever 21

day 6: work

Black cardigan- White House Black Market
Gray 3/4 sleeves turtle neck- Target
Black Dress pants- White House Black Market
Hat- Urban Outfitters
Necklace- Forever 21
Bracelets - Forever 21
Jessica Simpson Shoes with buckle- Macys

In conclusion, if I were ever to lose 50 or 70 pounds I know who I would be borrowing clothes from :) Also, I suggest a new camera for your Christmas wish list Nicole. Just sayin' ;)

I'm linking to Lindsey's What I Wore Wednesday post at The Pleated Poppy.

And then I passed out from exhaustion

News flash: being temporarily without a vehicle does not necessarily mean you'll be stuck at home all day.

In fact, yesterday could not have been any crazier, in a fun but let's not do that again anytime soon kind of way. 

I'm tired is what I'm saying.

I was up bright and early to get ready for a fun day out with some girlfriends to visit the cute town of nearby Silverton, OR. Tricia graciously picked Blake and I up and after dropping Blake off at a sitter we met up with our friends and hit the drive-thru espresso bar before heading out. Our day was planned in honor of two lovely ladies visiting from New York and guess what? They informed us that there are no drive-thru espresso bars out East. What the hey? Hello convenience! So it turns out I won't be relocating to the East Coast anytime soon. 

We hit the downtown area and visited some cute antique and 2nd hand stores before enjoying a delicious lunch at Thai Dish. I LOVE Thai food (coconut milk, peanut sauce, mmmm...) and was not disappointed. And, it turns out when you have something sweet for your entree, you don't feel the need to order dessert to satisfy your sweet tooth, so I feel that more Thai dining will be in my future - for diet and money-saving reasons of course.

After picking up Blake and returning home (thanks again Tricialicious!) I changed into workout clothes and then waited impatiently for Russ to arrive so I could have the car. I was a little excited to go to my first ever Zumba class! Two ladies in our church just started leading classes this week and not only are they free, but childcare is available for free as well. Leaving me without a reason to not go. Which I didn't need because I've been wanting to try Zumba for months now!

And try it I did. Master it I most definitely did not. I would go into details about the class, but honestly, I don't need any more people laughing at me in one day. Me + coordinated rhythmic moves = comedic sideshow. But based upon the amount of sweat that dripped off my body I would say it worked the way it was supposed to so I'll be back again on Wednesday for more. 

I will master you Zumba, eventually!

I was supposed to pick up Russ and the kids afterward and then head straight to our nephew's football game which had already started, but as I showed up drenched and panting I opted to let them go without me and hopped in the shower for the second time in one day. I didn't have long to apply fresh makeup and get dressed again before Russ and the kids came back to pick me up so we could go BACK down to the school, this time for our niece's volleyball match. 

YES WE ARE CRAZY. 

With our good Aunt and Uncle duties fulfilled, we were home again at 6:15 pm, just in time to throw something together quick to eat and then it was out the door for the FOURTH TIME. Russ went to the first night of the new fall men's bible study while my Nanna picked me and the kids up to head to my sister's for a Thirty-One gift party Kelly was hosting. I bribed Kendall and Cooper with dessert to stay in Hayden's room with him and Blake and keep them occupied while the party was going on and then I may have enjoyed a piece or two of dessert myself. Alright I totally pigged out on Kelly's homemade carrot cake and raspberry coconut bars.

I also suffered some major porch envy:

How cute is that? 

And then I came home and CRASHED. Frankly I'm not sure how much more of this stuck-home-without-a-car business I can handle. 

I'm loving this blogging thing!

Three months ago today I started this blog on an impulse and had no idea if I'd keep it up or if anyone would read it. Today I'm having a hard time not becoming a complete blog addict because hello FUN, FUN, FUN!

I can't believe that I actually have a readership and blog followers, it just amazes me. And the comments, oh the comments! I love Every. Single. One. Talk about feeding an addiction!

I love you all. Thank you for reading and being interested and coming back. And for liking me :)

And now for a quick and incomplete weekend recap: 

 

Blake got into my hair serum (you know the kind that is so powerful you only use a dime sized drop for your whole head so it lasts forever?) and pumped it all over his head. 3/4 of the bottle gone. Dude was SHINY!

We went to our good friends the Nof's for a game night with Erik and Tricia (Russ's bro and sis-in-law) and Kelly. As you can see we are addicted to Settlers of Catan. And candy.

Our friends Rob and Shay and their cute little toddler Jenica came over to take our family pics and have lunch with us and let us talk them into staying all afternoon and for dinner too. They're awesome like that! We had so much fun, and may have played two more games of Settlers :)

I'm a little excited...

Tomorrow we are having our first ever "official" family photo shoot. I do not count the JC Penny's portrait studio session we did with Kendall when she was 6 months old because for one, that was over 9 years ago and we've added a couple of kids since then, and for two, we wore matching denim. 

Let's just say you won't find that picture hanging on our walls.

You may think the family picture on my "about me" page was professionally done but actually it was the awesome work of my wonderful sister who ran up after church one Sunday last December to take a family picture for our Christmas cards. It was sunny out but freezing cold so we were outside all of 5 minutes. 

Literally, we ran out, laid on the ground, snapped about 3 pics, and then ran back inside. Hence the miracle of us all looking at the camera and smiling at the same time - in not one, but two shots!

2009 Christmas card photo

Kelly knows a few fancy photoshop tricks thankfully because what you can't see is the metal farm fence post that was sticking up right between Russ and my heads!

No, tomorrow is a professional shoot with a real photographer (who is also a sweet friend) and she is coming to our place so we'll have lots of outdoorsy options, since we have a lot of outdoors :) Besides family shots we'll get pics of Russ and I, just the kids, etc, etc. We weren't really thinking about doing a session until we heard about Shay's sweet fall deal and thought it was just too good to pass up. If you live anywhere between Portland and Salem, Oregon check out Be Photography's page on Facebook.

Today I caught up on our laundry so that I would have all possible clothing options available while I worked on coordinating (NOT matching) outfit choices. This may have been counter-productive however, as now I'm still not sure exactly what we're going to wear because I have too many options!

Sometimes I'm not so good with decisions.

What I AM good at is spontaneous and last minute, so I'm not stressing, just super excited! Stay tuned in the future to see how they turned out :)

Laying low

I received some bad news yesterday. 

My husband's car, which overheated on the way home from work and had to be taken to our mechanics, will not be fixed until next Wedesday - at the soonest. That is 6 days, people. 6 days of living the single car family life - out in the country. With a husband who works in downtown Portland... 40 miles away. Which, believe it or not, requires a vehicle.

This came as a bit of a blow. I had expected a day or two of down time and was actually looking forward to a little forced "stay at home and do nothingness", but any more than that sounds more like "no life and slowly going insane-ness". Which I aim to avoid at all times.

I thought it might help to write out a list of all the things I could do that I've been putting off and now have zero reason to avoid, as a way of inspiration:

- make grapejuice

- wash the outside of my windows

- deep clean my house

- paint my hall closet door

- plant my bulbs for next spring

However this turned out to be inspiring in more of a laugh my head off because I know full well that having zero reason to avoid a job has never stopped me from NOT doing it before kind of way. 

This is the far more likely list of what will be going on:

- bake delicious treats

- watch movies with Blake

- read a few good books

- eat baked treats

- investigate fall boots online

- blame the disappearing treats on Blake

- email my friends to discuss important things like the upcoming elections and who got kicked off Survivor and why Glee is so morally awful but we can't stop watching it. Except without the upcoming elections part.

You know now that I think about it, maybe it won't be so bad after all!

white chocolate cake batter cookies - just one of the many baking options up my sleeve.

Psychological food issues

I am not a picky eater. At all. But there are a handful of foods that I don't care for and will usually avoid, as is likely true for most anyone. The weird thing is that for the most part it's not the taste of the item which makes me dislike it, and this leads me to realize that I have some psychological food issues.

Case in point: my husband recently brought home some wild game that he shot himself (bear and elk), and after having it processed he asked me to stop buying beef until we've used it up. A great money saving opportunity right? My problem is that no matter how great it might taste, or even if I can't tell the difference between it and beef because it's in a recipe with other ingredients, I can't seem to get over the fact that I know it's bear or elk meat and therefore I have a really hard time making myself eat it. And I mean a really hard time. Even though I want to like it!

Same thing with eggnog. It may taste delicious. It may not. The point is my mind knows there are raw eggs in it and I can't make myself try it to find out.

Olives... can't get past the smell.

Mushrooms... can't get over the weird rubber-like texture.

Dill pickles and black licorice... okay those just plain ol' don't taste good to me.

So really I only have two foods that I don't like the taste of! And in my defense I didn't grow up eating dill pickles (I'm not sure why, do they not have them in New Zealand besides in McDonald's hamburgers?) so I just never got used to them.

But back to my psychological issues, which I'm certain you are highly interested in, my question is how does one go about getting over them? By practice? Because I have a freezer full of meat sitting here and I won't be able to avoid it forever.

(And I don't think my genius plan of finding someone who loves wild game to secretly swap me beef for it would go unnoticed by my hunting hubby ;)

What I Wore Wednesday - gettin' my trend on

So I felt pretty edgy this week - edgy for me that is.

Skinny jeans! Leggings and boots with dresses! Leggings with heels! Plaid! Animal print! I somehow felt current and like I'd stepped into the 80's all at the same time. 

Part of my courage in stepping out of my clothing comfort zone came from looking at other What I Wore posts over at The Pleated Poppy, and the other part from a recent "Fashion Friday" post about leggings by one of my very favorite bloggers, Big Mama. My thighs are currently not such that a shorter tunic top over leggings would be very becoming so I loved her tip of wearing dresses over them (or over skinny jeans for that matter).

Wednesday: pumpkin patch field trip with Cooper

sweater: Aeropostale

scarf and jeans: Old Navy

Uggs: ebay

Thursday: grocery shopping

ruffle top: Old Navy

cardigan: garage sale

skinny jeans: Target

flats and bracelet: Goodwill

necklace: gift (from Wet Seal)

Saturday: special church conference

top with belt: Ross

skinny jeans: Target

boots: brand new from a friend who never wore them... sweet!

bracelet: Maurices

Sunday: church

dress: Ross

sweater and leggings: Walmart

heels: garage sale

earrings and bracelets: Walmart

(note: later in the day we went out again and I switched the heels to red flats with a red chunky bracelet and liked it even better.)

 Monday: prayer group, errands

half sleeve turtleneck: Shade

vest: Ross

Old Navy jeans: Goodwill

necklace: Plato's Closet

Uggs: ebay

Tuesday: ladies bible study

dress: Target clearance

Old Navy cardigan and belt: garage sales

tee: Shade

leggings: Walmart

boots: FREE :)

necklace: Claires

Wax on, wax off

Last night Cooper and I made some easy-peasy orange cranberry muffins for school/work lunches. And then our family ate them all. I think Russ had half of them all by himself. So, yummy-after-dinner-treat success, but saving-money-by-baking-lunch-snacks FAIL. 

We also watched The Karate Kid III with the kids and discovered that even though Russ and I had seen the first two movies about 20 times, we'd never seen the third one. How did that happen? And were they all that corny and I never realized it? By half way through I bailed and hopped on the computer. 

Not Russ. Once he starts a movie he sticks with it. Which is why I often find him watching family friendly movies all by himself, after the kids have wandered off out of boredom. (Like when I found him alone crying over The Black Stallion last week. Hilarious.)

This reason and this reason alone is how I've gotten Russ to watch many a girly chick flick with me over the years; don't tell him what it's about and wait for him to get sucked in. And by the end of the movie he most often likes it, and will even re-watch some of them with me!

I wouldn't ask him about this though if I were you, he will strongly deny it. 

I'll just say that he's watched Pride and Prejudice with me AT LEAST 3 times. 

And rest my case. 

Monday confessional - edition "gross out"

It really speaks volumes about the level of comfort I've reached sharing my life over the internet that I'm about to tell this story. It's embarrassing. And gross. 

Brace yourself. 

After we'd moved to the states and settled in Oregon one of the first things my parents set out to do was buy a vehicle. Now that we were living out in the country, where walking would just get you to the middle of nowhere, it was at the top of the priority list. They bought a maroon minivan - a Dodge caravan if I remember correctly, with a lovely matching maroon interior. Vans were cool once upon a time (before the introduction of SUV's to be exact) and us kids all loved it!

On one of the first trips we took in it, Kelly and I drove into town with our Dad to run some errands and waited in the van while he went into a store to pick something up. It was at this time that I, seated in the front passenger seat with my body turned sideways to talk to Kelly behind me, sneezed loudly and sent a large glob of something flying through the air. I will not go so far as to say (out loud) that it was a loogie, because that would be disgusting! It was more than just spit however, I'll admit that much. 

It landed smack dab in the middle of the driver's seat, about 2.5 seconds before my father came back to the car and opened his door. I stared mutely in horror at first Kelly, and then Dad, who was looking straight at the glob in consternation, a glaring new addition to his plush maroon seat. "What is that?" he asked. 

I had to say something, so I did what any twelve year old girl who is embarrassed of bodily fluids would do. I lied. "I don't know" I replied nonchalantly, and then bent over to inspect it as if I hadn't noticed it before. Unfortunately my father did the same thing, and to my even greater horror, he reached out and TOUCHED IT. 

I died. Right then and there. His hand flew back in disgust and he glared at us both and demanded to know who was responsible for it. As we all know by now, Kelly was never one to cover for a sibling, so I had to fess up. And then clean up. 

I'm pretty sure that I didn't make eye contact with my father for the rest of the day. And now that I've relived this story I'm not sure I'll be able to the next time I see him. 

I'm so sorry Dad, I'm a much more hygienic person now!

What to do when it's raining

Sleep in.

Make pancakes.

Watch movies.

Cuddle. 

Or, if you're like Russell and Cooper, bundle yourself up in rain gear and go traipsing about the woods, getting yourself wet and cold and generally having a grand ol' time. 

Whatever floats your boat!

Have a great weekend everyone. 

A miracle (and a word to the wise)

Yesterday was grocery shopping day and boy did I make the rounds. 

Hot Shots drive thru espresso - check

Safeway gas - check

Milk Creek Produce - check

Fred Meyers (I was NOT there to check out their new fall boots, in case you hear reports otherwise.) - check

Payless shoes (everyone knows Payless has groceries right?) - check

Ross (and Ross does too!) - check

Walmart - check

Winco - check

Costco - check, check and check!

Phew, what a day!

I would just like to let you know that my little Blakester is a shopping SUPERSTAR. Russ was able to pick up the kids from school so I didn't have to be back by my normal time, meaning I could spend a little longer up in town. But this also meant Blake had no nap whatsoever. 

He was a champ! Fun and easy, and a complete crowd pleaser to boot. "Hi guys!" he yelled repeatedly at anyone who walked past us. "What you doing?" to anyone who shopped near us. "Wook at dis!" to everyone around us in line at the Costco checkout, as he proudly displayed his scribble art on the back of my grocery list."Bye, bye!" he would wave to anyone we left behind, and not stop until they answered back.

With such a great shopping companion I had no real reason to stop, which is why after leaving at 10 am, we came home at 5:30 in the evening. I TOLD you I love to grocery shop! 

Alright, it was only half grocery shopping, and this is where the miracle comes in. In all my many stops of the day I was able to purchase ALL of my groceries and household items, PLUS 2 pairs of leggings and a new dress and tunic top from Ross, all while NOT ONLY coming 20 bucks under my regular grocery budget, but saving FORTY DOLLARS of it for a special item Russell wanted, AND not touching my "extra groceries" money that is supposed to be for last minute items throughout the pay period (but rarely makes it past day 1). AND TO TOP IT ALL OFF I didn't touch my blow money!!!! (if you are unfamiliar with Dave Ramsey this means play money.)

Are you amazed? You should be. This has never happened before. Not even close. It's not that I always go over budget (although that's happened a time or 50), it's that I will always use all of the budget. Plus I usually spend my entire blow money fund on the first day of the pay period (I lack self-control). In fact after texting Jana to tell her of my accomplishment I realized it seemed way too good to be true and thought for sure I'd messed up my math somewhere. If you know me, you'll know that this would be the far more likely scenario. But lo and behold, after using a calculator and everything, it's true! It was a pay day miracle!

My only reservation with sharing my success is that Russell will now expect a repeat. 

Don't cross your fingers honey, I'm still not quite sure how it happened.

Actually that's not true. I DO know. As I typed that last sentence the Holy Spirit reminded me of yesterday morning. When my alarm went off, instead of getting out of bed like I normally would, I sat up against my pillows and pulled my bible onto my lap. I read the Word and then prayed over my day, giving it to the Lord and asking for His help, especially with my shopping.

Well, after yesterday I'd say that Jesus is an even better shopping companion than Blake!

And I'll also say that, wow, I can write quite the voluminous post!

Have yourself a lovely Friday :)

Jodi

P.S. On a completely unrelated subject, when you are pooped out after a long day of shopping, do NOT let your 7 1/2 and 9 year old children talk you into letting them watch Congo with you on Netflix. They will be engrossed and tell you that it's not too scary for them while the movie is going. And then they will get out of bed, sobbing, later and beg you to let them sleep with you.

Just a little warning.