Shoebox Ministry

Most of you have probably heard about the Shoebox Ministry done by Samaritan's Purse.  The group home that I work at does this every year.  I have donated items to go in the boxes before, but have never done my own.  This year, I decided it would be a great way to teach A.J. about giving and helping those in need, while being thankful for all that we are blessed with.  We decided to prepare a box for a 2-4 year old boy, because I knew A.J. would relate to that the best and because I was told that was the most underdone group.  I explained to A.J. that we were going to prepare a Christmas gift for a special little boy somewhere in the world, who doesn't have very much.  He said he thought that was a good idea.  I took him to the store with me to pick out all kinds of things to put in the box.  When we got there and he saw the toys, he got a bit de-railed.  He wanted to keep all the things that we were picking out.  I reminded him that he would be getting all kinds of things for Christmas from lots of different people and told him that this little boy probably wouldn't get anything else other than our box.  His reaction was priceless. His eyes got very wide and he said "That's really ALL he will get???"  After that, he was throwing all kinds of things in the basket.  I had to put some stuff back and explained that we couldn't fit it all in the shoebox.  His response?  We should get a bigger box.  I was so proud of him at that moment that I had to kneel down and give him a hug.  

We got some toothbrushes, toothpaste, washcloths, bar soap, a slinky, a yo-yo, a small etch-a-sketch, some hot wheels cars, a small motorcycle, and socks.  Then it was A.J.'s idea to add some crayons, a fun pad, and some chapstick.  

We decorated the box with some scrapbook cut outs I already had.  A.J. was so excited when we got it all done, and asked when we were going to bring it to the boy.  I hated that I had to tell him that we weren't giving it directly to him and that we would never know the boy that would receive our gift.  

 

We will be doing a box every year from now on.  Not only do we get to help make a child's life a little bit better, but we get to experience the gift of giving, which is a valuable life lesson that I hope we instill in our son.  A lesson that was definitely worth the hour of time and $19.37 spent.

Do You decorate for Thanksgiving?

I don't do a whole lot of decorating specifically for Thanksgiving, but I like to add a few touches to acknowledge it.  I mainly just keep my Fall decor out until the Christmas fun begins, but after Halloween, I take down the jack-o-lanterns and put up a few Harvest themed items.  In the kitchen, I put my Home Interiors turkey with some apples and a harvest sign that found a Hob Lob (for just over $1) in the corner of my countertop to make a cute vignette.  

 

I put my Home Interiors pilgrims on my new foyer table that I am still LOVIN'!!! 

 

 

Then I added a jar with some acorns that A.J. and I collected in the back yard.  That is my favorite thing I think....because we had so much fun finding them and every time I look at it, it reminds me of that day. 

 

 

Plus it was free and sort of signifies the whole point of Thanksgiving to me.  Being thankful for what you already have around you.  Yes, they are just acorns, but they are from our land around our home that we truly enjoy.  We are so very blessed to have each other and a wonderful place to call home. 

I love chunky babies!

This weekend, we were finally able to catch up with our cousin Brittany and her 3 month old baby Bryleigh.  Bryleigh had some troubles when she was first born and had to spend her first couple of weeks in the NICU, but she is doing great now!  She has reflux, so she is taking rice cereal in 2 bottles a day.  Well, that has led to her puttin' on a lil' weight.  She is so cute and chunky....I LOVE IT!  To me there is nothing cuter than a baby with chubby little cheeks and rolls on their legs!  Brittany is a bit worried about her little chunky monkey, but I assured her that it will all even out as she gets older, especially when she starts running around. 

 OK, don't know why that pic is so small....I couldn't get it any bigger???!

 

AJ didn't really know what to think about her.  He couldn't really play with her, so he got bored quick.  Then he decided to run around our Aunt Lynn's house like a crazy loon.  I think he was a weeee but jealous that he wasn't the center of attention.  But I think that is good for him every now and then!   Hopefully he knows that he will always be my favorite chunky baby.....even though he is a beanpole now....he had his time!

Ha!  I will always love my little man the best!!!!

Halloween Happenings!

Halloween was so much fun for us this year!  As you probably already know, we had been decorating pumpkins for weeks before.  But we saved the one that we were going to carve for the week of.  We used a template for a monster that A.J. picked out.   Andy did most of the dirty work, but A.J. pitched in and did what he could.  

 

It took forever but I think it turned out really cute!  Andy was such a trooper to keep at it for 2 hours!

A.J. dressed up as a fisherman this year.  My mom made him the vest out of some $5 fabric I got at Wally World.  Much cheaper than the $40-50 vests I found online!  His pepaw already had the hat, and we just hot glued little baits on it.  I think it turned out really cute and only cost about $30 to put together the whole outift.  Here he is getting ready to go into the Fall Carnival at his school.

I told him to take a cute pic and this is what he did.  Yea....I had to remind him he was a fisherman, not John Travolta!  He had alot of fun playing the games and going through the "bouncy" obstacle course at the Carnival.

Can you guess which game was his favorite???  Here is me and my little fishing boy...

After the carnival, we met up with some of his friends to go trick or treating.  He was so excited about this part because he had never been before! 

He had so much fun!  And got so very worn out!!!

 

When we got home, we went through all of his loot.  We separated out the chocolate since he is allergic (well really it is more of an intolerance).  I thought there might be a meltdown...I mean what kid wants you to take away his Halloween candy?  But we had been building him up for it for weeks and he did great.  He just told me I could have it all! Which is fine by me!  

Table Drama

I am (not really) sad to report that the cute spider pumpkin that we made here has passed on.  About a week or so ago, we started to notice a smell coming from the foyer.  Well, evidently Mr. Spidey had started to rot and had leaked his guts out onto the foyer table.  Upon closer investigation, we discovered that the leak had seeped down into the marble top and toward the side of the wood surrounding the marble and caused it to crack! I knew I hated spiders!  So, after Spidey got a nice catapult into the woods behind our house, I scrubbed the marble and tried to fix the wood, but it wasn't happenin'!  The stain would not come out and the cracked wood looked horrible.  I gave up and decided I would possibly ask for a new table for Christmas.  The next night, Andy announced that the table had to go! I have mentioned before that he has a superhuman sense of smell, and he could still detect the stench in the table.  So, I lugged it out to the garage and came back and looked at the blank wall in the foyer.  Yes, I could still wait until Christmas to get a new one, but what EVER would I do until then?  What would I put my Christmas decorations on for the whole month before Christmas?????  No, I needed a new one PRONTO!  So, I spent the next few days searching online for the perfect one.  I decided I wanted something rectangular and overall bigger than the old one (bigger=more room for decorative stuff).  I found some gorgeous ones that were way out of my price range, but I had set a budget and I stuck to it.  I finally found it at Overstock.com.  It got here today.  I put it together with NO directions (they had conveniently been left out of the box) in about an hour.

 

I am going to spray paint the metal parts to match the mirror, but overall I LOVE it!   I am still playing around with the "stuff" on it, but I like that I have the bottom shelf for more display area.  Plus I think the overall scale is better for that area.  Here is the stinky table from before:

                                                     

Here is how it looks now after Andy took the stained and stinky wood and marble top off of it.

I have decided that I really like how it looks behind the couch.  We had another rectanglar table behind the couch before, but I moved it into A.J.'s room to give him some extra storage for toys.  So, now we have to figure out how to make a new top for this one and what to make it out of.  Wood?  Glass?  Any other suggestions? 

Day at the zoo

Well, as I mentioned last time, we went to the zoo Sunday morning with my parents.  We don't normally get to do alot with them because my mom usually works on the weekends.  But she was on vacation this past week, so we all loaded up and headed out that morning.  Our local zoo is ok.  It went through a rough time several years ago, just not being taken care of very well.  But, it seems to be getting better.  The landscaping was nice and the cages and habitats seemed to be kept up.  So, hopefully it will continue to progress.

Here we are at the entrance....I was impressed they had a cute Fall Display.

  Sorry, my mom just about cut Andy's head off!   Here she is with A.J.

And with my dad...

The weather was absolutely gorgeous!  We really enjoyed the sun shine after about 40 weeks of rain around here.  The animals seemed to be enjoying it too!  This peacock followed us around for a while, hoping to get some food!  It was so pretty...I love peacocks!

While we didn't have any food for Mr. Peacock, my dad fed the deer some leaves, which they seemed to enjoy.  Andy and A.J. had a conversation about which one they would shoot if they saw them in the woods and how they would get a good shot.  Horrible, I know, but we are in hunting country down here and I have to admit I get a little worried when I look in the freezer and see our supply of deer meat dwindling down. 

 

 A.J.'s favorite were the monkeys.  I think because he has alot in common with them.  You know, the hooping and hollering, jumping and swinging around....yea I think he could identify.

We went into the "creatures of the night" dark house and it was decorated for Halloween.  My mom took this creepy pic of us with a skeleton...yes, Andy and I are back there! 

And the post would not be complete without a CUTE pic of my little man!

He looks so grown up here!  (tear, snif, sigh...)

FUN weekend!

Wow!  This weekend has been action packed!  We have had so much fun!  Saturday, Andy had to go to a board meeting about 2 hours away, so A.J. and I headed out to meet some of our friends.  We went to a pumkpin patch in a town about 30 minutes from here.  A.J.'s friend Jace got to ride with us and he thought that was the coolest thing ever.  They watched Scooby Doo in the backseat and played handheld games.  I loved just listening to them talk and laugh together!

The pumpkin patch was AWESOME!  They had so much for the kids to do.  I think A.J.'s favorite was jumping off these big stacks of hay.  Remember this is my child with NO fear.  He seriously almost broke his leg one time.  But he informed me that it was ok beacuse he is tough and his bones are strong. 

They had slides....

swings....

 

duck races...

 

a corn box...

 

a train...

 

...which they rode twice.  AJ and Jace insisted on riding in the same car the 2nd time around. 

 

Then we took a hay ride out to the pumpkin patch.  Here is my little man keeping a look out for it! 

He found a good one!

All the kids gathered round the display.  Of course I couldn't get a good pic of all of them at once...

But this one of A.J. with his friend Jackson turned out really cute!

The weather was beautiful and it was so nice to get out of the house and enjoy it.  Plus, A.J. was so exhausted that he crashed for a 2 hour nap as soon as we got home!  Gotta love those days!  Then, we went to the zoo this morning with my parents, but since I am tired of uploading pics, that will have to be another post!   

A Little Bit About Me-20 questions

I read this post over at Heather's earlier today and really enjoyed learning more about her.  She had me cracking up.  So, I decided to play along!  OK so here we go!

1.  What is your favorite thing to snack on while you are blogging?

Well, I don't really snack while I am blogging...I'm not that ambidextrous!  (Yes I had to look up how to spell that!)  Plus, I don't like getting any food crumbs on the laptop.  In fact, I don't really snack that much at all.  But, when I do...I love anything that is considered bad for you.  I have a major sweet tooth!

2.  What is one thing you wouldn't want to live without?

Besides my family, I'd have to say the internet!!! I can't imagine how I would function without it!  I do tons of online shopping...it saves so much time.  I would rather spend the weekends with my family than going from store to store.  Now, don't get me wrong, I still do that every now and then, but it's after I have usually checked out prices online!  I stay connected with family and friends through the internet and I keep this blog as a digital record of our lives.  I browse home decorating sites to get inspiration, I look up recipes, I research whatever I need to, the list goes on and on!

3.  Beach, Mountains, or Farm?  Where would you live?

I'd probably pick the farm.  I love going to the beach, but don't like the humidity.  (Are there beaches in the world that aren't as humid as the ones on the Gulf Coast???)  Anyway I like trees and greenery so the farm would probably make me the happiest day to day.

4.  What is your least favorite household chore?

IRONING!  I hate to iron.  LOVE to clean, don't mind laundry, but HATE ironing!

5.  Who do people say you remind them of?

Hmmmm....a couple of people have said I look like Sandra Lee...the Semi homemade cooking girl.  Wish I could cook like her. 

6.  Parties and socializing or staying home with the family?

Most of the time, home with the family.  I enjoy socializing, but usually with a smaller group.  Andy is very much a homebody so I have a hard time getting him out to a party or anything like that!   He has a superhuman sense of hearing (and smell) so he doesn't like places where things are likely to get loud or crazy!  I seriously think he has some sort of sensory integration issue...he can't stand loud noises or chaos. 

7.  What's your all time favorite movie?

That would be a tie between The Princess Bride and Grease 2. 

8.  Do you sleep in your makeup or remove it every night?

I religiously remove it every night.  I use bare minerals make up though, and if there ever was a makeup to leave on at night, that would be it.  It doesn't cake up or clog pores like liquid makeups I have used in the past.

9.  Do you have a hidden talent or a deep desire to learn something that you've never had a chance to learn?

I would love to take a pottery or photography class. Don't think I have any hidden talents...or not so hidden talents.  Unless you count flaring my nostrils...but that is more of a stupid human trick. 

10.  What's one strange thing you are really good at?

Besides the nostril flaring, I share Heather's talent of belching really well.  Pretty much on demand.  Andy gets so jealous but I can beat him in a burping contest every time!

11.  What first attracted you to your spouse?

I guess his eyes and smile.

12.  What is something you love to smell?

Coffee, or my favorite candle...creme brulee, or bread baking. 

13.  Tell something about you that you know irritates people?

It drives Andy crazy when I clean up the dishes immediately after dinner, when he may not even be done yet.  He and AJ will still have their plates and I am already putting everything else in the dishwasher and putting leftovers away.  I cant stand dishes to sit out any longer than they absolutely have to.  I also tend to pick up glasses that he leaves around the house and put them in the dishwasher and then he gets irritated when he goes back to get one and it's not there!  And I am sure that I do tons of other things that irritate other people! 

14.  When you have extra money, what's the first thing you do with it?
I am pretty good at saving money, although no where near as good as Andy.  He saves EVERY penny he can.  Seriously he only buys or pays for the necessities.  I like to spend, so I set aside a certain amount for savings and then give myself a certain amount every month that I can spend on whatever I want.  Usually I buy stuff for the house, clothes, or something for AJ.

15.  Are you a silent laugher or loud laugher?
I can do both.  Silly little things can make me laugh out loud.  I can be in the middle of a group of people and think about something that happened the day before and start laughing hysterically!

16.  Where is your favorite place to shop?
I love Hob Lob, Target, Kohls, and an awesome store we have locally called Paul Michaels...it is a home decor place (surprise surprise)

17. Whats one thing you would do more often if you had more time?
Probably cook.  Andy does most of the cooking because he gets home in the evenings before I do. 


18. Are you a big spender or frugal? 
I like to spend, but am frugal at the same time.  Does that make sense?  I have my own set of rules that I follow most of the time.  Like I wont pay over a certain amount on a shirt.  (usually $30)  I try to get as much for my money as possible.

19.  Who is your favorite character of all time?

Cinderella.  Have always loved her!

20.  Would you want to be famous? 
No.  I don't like alot of attention and I know I wouldn't be photo ready at all times!!  I would be the girl on the "celebs without make-up" or "bad beach bodies" editions.  It would be very bad and I would be mortified!

Ok so whoever wants to play along, you know, out of my 3 dedicated readers, go right ahead...I would love to get to know you better! 

New Look

So, how do you like my new look?  I have been wanting to customize my blog a bit more, but had been putting it off because I really didn't know what I wanted, or how to do it!  I had even looked into having someone do it for me, but I just couldn't bring myself to pay over 40 bucks on that.  Do you know how much home decor stuff I could buy with 40 bucks?!!  Or shoes........anyway, I knew if I put some time into it, I could figure something out.  Today was the perfect day.  We went to my in-laws house to visit and the boys stayed outside most of the day splitting wood.  It was a nice day, but a little too chilly for me to stay out and watch them work! So, I worked on this!!!

I had a scrapbooking program that came with my laptop that I had never used.  I started playing around with it today and ended up with the header you now see at the top of the page!  It was so much easier than I thought it would be and I had alot of fun picking out embellishments and customizing everything.  

I think the new header is truly "me".  It has that old world look that I adore.  It has a fleur de lis (duh!) that represents our home state, and did you notice the flat head screw?  Yea...that represents my love of home improvement projects.  The flowers represent my love of making things pretty.  And best of all, it has the 3 things I love the most...my 2 boys and my home!  

I found the Fall background on The Cutest Blog on The Block.  I thought it coordinated nicely.  You can bet the day after Thanksgiving, it will be replaced with a festive Christmas scene.  (I can't wait!!!)

I even figured out how to add this cute little signature! 

Halloween Candy Jars

Has everyone seen those CUTE candy jars in blogland with the "vintage" labels on them?  I knew that was something easy I could do to add some more Halloween fun to our house! 

I already had 2 of the glass containers and picked up another one for 3 bucks at the Dollar Store on the way home today.  I found the labels online and printed them on sticky paper.  Then I just cut them out with my scrapbooking scissors and stuck them on. 

The "Life Renewal Potion" jar contains gummy eye balls, noses, and mouths. 

I especially like the "Potion of ogre-like might"! 

In the words of my son "How AWESOME is that???!"   I love them!!!