the back door

so today i broke down and decided to take mapboy to the doctor. our's has the day off, but our other friend is always willing to see us as well. knowing i was now paranoid about both rabies and swine, he ordered a series of tests resulting in a blood draw, throat swab, and nose swab. poor little guy. i treated him to a slushy.. then we headed to the doctor....there, our wonderful doc laughed as he thought about all the "fun" i've been having lately. it seems like one giant non-stop adventure. i think he could tell, i'd had enough of this fun...so after diagnosing my son with tonsellitis and prescribing meds + ice cream he looked at me and prescribed a getaway.... ...ahh....doesn't that look nice!! i love vacationing at the beach. fly me to a beach and let me sit for 48 hours. just reading and watching the waves. this is soooo me........we have visited a few beaches on our excursions, but most of our trips are inland. hubby claims he'd be bored at a

okay, now, in our house we try hard to live in harmony with nature. we feed our birds - and feed them well i might add. we seem to also feed our squirrels to their hearts content. we plant trees and grow gardens. we even allow a few weed type plants to grow as a way of drawing hummingbirds and butteflies. we let our garden rest a year...like i said, we try to live in harmony with nature. but this past few weeks has once again brought the wrath of nature upon us. last sunday, as we were preparing to leave for our kids baptisms, a tree fell. thankfully, it was only part of the tree, a rather large part, but amazingly fell on absolutely nothing or noone. it honestly couldn't have fallen in any better spot, but still, it fell. this has resulted in us making the contact to cut the entire thing down. then last week this little guy made an appearance. we were aware of one possibly using our basement as his supermarket of choice, but when we lost power due to the storm it must

yes, folks, it works!! okay - so i probably need to back up for most of you and most of you don't care, but i'm excited and this is my blog so i get to talk about whatever i want!!! i grew up with a dishwasher, hubby grew up being the dishwasher. we got married and had an amazing apartment where i learned the art of washing dishes..and frankly, i enjoyed it! we would do them together and you know where they say that 3 letter word begins:) well, we were also newleyweds..oh i digress.. then we bought our first house. it had a dishwasher. we were here looking around one day when the couple who lived here stopped by to pick up a few last items. they showed us some wonderful things they had done to the place and as they talked about their kitchen remodel i mentioned the dishwasher. "oh yes," she says, "be sure to always run your hand along the seal because we broke that and it will leak if you don't stick it back on every time." hmmm...okay. "an

so today was my little girls birthday. princess turned 7 ! i can hardly belive that it has been seven amazing(?) years. princess is such an interesting little person with a style all of her own. tradition in our family has the birthday person picking out a dinner location. a few months ago, princess started talking about her pick. for some reason she was genuinely requesting the place with fish on the wall and shopping. soo off we went to the bass pro shop. everyone had fish and chips - except princess, she had pizza! of course we did some shopping as well. she is in need of a fishing pole she says. princess has quite the personality. she is spunky and feisty - yet shy and timid. she is all about fashion, but doesn't seem to care if she matches. loves to give herself makeovers, but forgets to comb her hair or wash her face. princess started her life 5 weeks early. she was a very little peanut at just under 5 lbs. she was cute and tiny and while i was warned she might

we told them...."sure you can look at it, but don't get wet!!!" yeah, right.......so they had a lot of fun and got a little wet!

she did it...she finally gave in....i think there were some moments that might have pushed her over the edge recently, but after a year or so she finally did it... go welcome dear friend at some days are like that !! sorry dear friend...i just had to do it:)

so i woke up this morning and went for a run. i'm trying to run the 5k route 2-3 times a week until the blueberry. i had an amazing time this morning which did a lot to lift my soul! then i got home and all was still quiet....love that! i pulled out the cereal, helped hubby finish clearing off our kitchen counter and sat down to cool off.... i think at one point hubby told me to get dressed..i was just still in my yucky smelly running clothes....i don't understand what he was thinking. oh wait...maybe it had to do with the fact that this morning my kitchen looked like this now it looks a little different...once again, our house is filled with contractor friends. i love this phase - hate the mess and am really missing the ability to sneak into the kitchen for a piece of dark chocolate - although i could probably crawl under the ladder and over the tools and squeeze between the 2 to open the freezer just enough to reach my hand in - hmmm... anyways...they had arrived and i had

so since i'm feeling a little bloggy down...you know, the time when i ask does anybody read this anymore?? i thought we could play a little game, readers and i... i'll give you few clues of where i was yesterday and you make a guess! ready? here we go... - made chocolate in the chocolate machine and brought home a whole bucket full! -wrote on the wall where i had lunch - circled the block a couple of times - played with legos -shopped in some of my favorite stores - EVER!! - and oh yes, maybe saw a doll or two... okay, ready, guess!!!!

here are just a few things i'm liking these days.... ...my hubby - he just got super cool new glasses and well, i just really like him:) ...my kiddos - they really are super cute and funny ...the color brown ...iced caramel machiatto's - they really are better iced!!!! yummo! ...friends - i have such cool friends:) ... this sermon on gray areas ...construction workers - only because they are getting things done around our house! ...country music mixed in with a little pop and worship ...our backyard full of black eyed susans ...cool mornings and evenings ...pbs!!! i love pbs!!!! ...honestly, i just really like this life God has given me!

...my hubby left his job! and a year ago, while totally supportive and completely thrilled to have him no longer employed where he was, i was a total wreck about him sitting in my space! oh yeah...it was quite the issue. but after a few short months we got into a groove and i love having my hubby home! this has been an amazing year. honestly, i expected some trials. some times of doubt. i'm not sure why, we were both so sure this was what God was calling us too, but i guess even in that assurance there was room for doubt. but God has been so good and faithful and so real. imagine that? so i love my hubby, i've established that several times...and in honor of his one year he wanted to have a big party. then changed his mind to something a little later in the season. but we found ourselves childless on that monday evening and i hinted at wanting an old-fashioned date! i didn't say much other than - just a good old fashioned date that we didn't have to come home

summer has flown by, maybe because it doesn't seem like we have had any summer temps around here, but either way, our summer is wrapping up. one of mapboy's requests was for a campout. so last weekend we borrowed a large tent and set it up in our backyard. honestly, i expected we'd be heading inside by midnight! so after a few readings by each child, some marshmallow roasting and game time, we settled in for a good nights sleep. i was quite surprised that both kids just settled right in. it was the dog that wasn't too sure about being outside. i think he might have been a tad cold - it was in the 50's! this really was quite fun. yes, my back hurt the next morning, and i felt a little damp and yucky, but this was a memory. and i'm so glad we have it. this summer has gone fast. it has been good, but lately i feel like i've not made memories with my kids this summer. work has kept me busier than last summer and while i love what i do, i don't l