Pay it Forward

2 and a half years ago, a friend of mine asked if I wanted her old tread mill. I was SO excited, and used it often...for a while. I had it in our room which I wasn't excited about, but it was the only space it worked. I had a mini tv/vcr set up so I could watch tv while I exercised. It helped me shed baby weight with #3. Then I got a membership to our community center and the tread mill became a shelf (all the stuff next to it, was on it before this picture).



I was finally ready to get rid of it. I wanted to put it on Craig's List to get a few bucks, but Michael said, "someone gave it to you free, why don't you just give it to someone else?" He's right.


So, I sent an email to our ward RS secretary to send an email out to others to see if anyone wanted it. Well, she emailed me right away saying she wanted it and when I didn't respond within an hour (surprisingly, I wasn't near my computer) she called my home. She really wanted it! It made me happy to give it to someone who was really excited about it. After the transfer, a few days later, she said she had something for me as a thank you. I reminded her it was free for me, so no need. Well, she came over and when I saw this, I shrieked...and gasped...it was so beautiful. She made this bag for me, remembering I love these colors, and I just couldn't believe the beauty therein. It actually coordinates with my kitchen curtains without the brown. I think she should sell them on etsy, what do you all think? I'd buy one! This bag is worth more to me than the $50 I would have tried to get on Craig's List.

Blue

I used to have a blue room. It was the first room we painted when we moved into our home 5 and a half years ago. I got this bedspread when we were in graduate school in Delaware. I saw it in the Pottery Barn catalog and I fell in love with it. I had just gotten money for my birthday from my grandparents (both sets have always been generous like clockwork for mine, my husbands, and my childrens birthdays). I loved the bedspread so much, I was planning for the time I would paint my bedroom walls blue to match it. We did it the first month we were in our home. I did white accents, Michael built my beautiful tv armoire (patterned after a ripped out magazine page from Pottery Barn). The curio cabinet in the corner, we found in an empty dumpster in Delaware at our apartment complex. It was a wood brown color, and I painted it to match our room. It holds my precious moments collection (my grandma Hill has a larger collection).

I loved this blue, but after 4 years, I got tired of it. I wanted something all new. Michael's sister, Julie, helped me paint it a dark tan color because I wanted to do chocolate and orange shades. Looking back at these pictures, I miss it, but I love the new colors. Each room in my home is a different color, and I'm halfway through the process of painting each room a different color again:) Crazy, I know.

I don't know why, but I thought it would be fun for the kids to see their names painted on the wall and then help paint over it. Knowing their names were hidden under the new paint.

This was December 2006 and I've got new colors, but I'm working on wall hangings now, that I'll try to get a new post up soon.

The Party

Alyssa's Birthday Party (3 of 3)

Michael gets off work at 2 on Fridays, so we had our party at 3:30. A few friends asked if Tyler and Matthew would like to go play during the party. It was thoughtful--thinking they'd be in the way or go crazy or something. I declined because I like it to be a family affair. The boys really get into pampering their little sister.

I tried to make strawberry's like my bee's, but ran into a problem when I tried to mix white chocolate with hot pink paste. Adding that small amount of liquid changed the consistancy a lot. So the edges of the strawberries aren't too great. This was my second attempt and I added just a touch which still gave me the pink I liked. Added lime green to my cream cheese frosting.

Balloons make everything more fun and festive (most of them lasted almost a week after I requested they put silicone in them).
Here is my first attempt at the hot pink (notice the pink glob on the plate)

Making our craft at the new table....

Craft: strawberry wands Not sure how I came up with this one, but it was fun and in the lovely theme colors!





The favor boxes...I just fell in love with this little guys at Michaels

I found the blue strawberry hankerchief in Target's dollar section when I was shopping with my friend, Jessica, and I couldn't think of what to use it as and she said, "A baby's blanket, of course." Even though it strayed from my theme colors of pink and green, I got them. Alyssa has loved it.
Michael reading a "Happy Birthday" storyTyler decorating his dad with stickers and used the handkerchief for another purpose
i love balloons

Tyler, Erin, Ashlee, Alyssa, Jacob, Madeline, Violet, Matthew

All done:)

My own little time away

I am in Houston on the 8th floor of a lovely hotel, plopped upon a cushy bed, surrounded by fluffy pillows and a pure white down comforter with the thermostat set at 72 and the bussle of cars passing by on the 610 loop near the Galleria. I am ALL ALONE with time to do whatever I want--and that includes having cable tv in the background and checking out the latest in the blogosphere. I could walk the few bocks to the 2nd largest mall in America, but I'm truly not interested in the shopping...just don't feel like spending money and if I look, I'll want to. I did, however, spend $18 on a breakfast buffet this morning, and I made sure I got my money's worth (lots and lots of bacon, croissants, fresh pineapple, and my own little mini syrup bottle). After all, that $$$ spent is pretty much the only $$$ coming out of our pocket this weekend. While I sat at the table all alone, I read my new book given to me by Linda, The Kite Runner. I used to think it was sad to see someone eating alone with or without a book. Over the years, it started to look inviting, and I got to test that out today--it was highly enjoyable. I just ate and read, ate and read. I am typing away on my mom's apple laptop, and I unfortunately had to have the hotel add to our bill $10 for unlimited use for 24 hours, which was very annoying. Don't all hotels have free wi-fi? Especially the nicer ones? I don't have a laptop, so I've never had to test it out, but I know McDonalds has wi-fi now and I'm pretty sure they aren't charging their customers for it. I am annoyed that this apple is confused about the "delete" button, too. I had "part 3" of AJ's bday all set to post, but I was arranging some things and accidentally deleted a few picts when I pushed delete and it backspaced instead. I'm good with the comfort of my PC.

Ok, so I'm here because Michael is attending a Sports Medicine Conference in the downstairs ballroom. His boss is footing the bill for the hotel, so naturally I thought I'd come along. My kids are just down the road (about 45 minutes) at my mom's house...playing with my 2 brothers and their wives and my mom. I'll see them tomorrow when we meet for church. Michael had the conference on Friday and I played at my mom's and met him for dinner last night.

In my blog hopping, besides catching up with friends, I've become acquainted with strangers and felt a twinge of sadness that strangers can't become acquainted with me. I'll get over it..it happens from time to time, but I'm not going to change anything. I love the ease of staying in touch with people on blogs, to get insights into the lives of my friends that I wouldn't normally get. To learn about the siblings of my friends, and to see who my friends are friends with. Isn't it odd to feel like you know someone so well, then to find there are others out there (who comment on your friends blogs) who also know this friend of yours, maybe even better than you do. It's kindof a weird reality. When I was discussing with Michael my blog insights at his lunch break, he said, "Blogging is many things you love in life...keeping in touch with your friends and making new friends." It's true, before blogs, it literally pained me that I didn't know what was going on in the lives of my friends and family. There is only so much a 1 hour phone call can reveal every once in a while. AND I LOVE meeting new people! I have an insanely weird interest in details. I love to hear stories about the lives of others, I often ask questions that most people think are weird. Why do I care so much about having new people over for dinner and asking them questions about how many siblings they have or where they've lived or how they met? Because it often leads to more interesting conversation where I fixate on a word or phrase they share in the process and then branch off with my next question. Plus its so much more interesting than surface conversation. And, I think, the more random stories I hear in my lifetime, the higher the likelihood is that I will run into a similar circumstance later in my life, or in the life of others and I can relate that original story...it happens all the time. Blogging is all the stories without the questions.

Listen to this blogger (a friend of mine's sister's friend I don't even know):

I share a back fence with my neighbor Ashli, but we didn't start sharing our hearts until we read each other's blogs. We dropped all pretensions and became best friends.
and
I was reading about their hopes, their fears, their crafts and vacations and day at the park. On the other side of the country I've watched my friend's babies grow and felt our friendships deepen.

Now doesn't that just warm your heart??? Alright. Enough. Thanks for listening to my purging thoughts, and thanks for caring what I have to say and for letting me peek into all of your lives. I'm gonn go find myself a chilled snickers bar in the mini fridge in my room.

June 12th--The Birthday of Alyssa

(Part 2 of 3 birthday posts)
On her actual birthday, besides taking pictures, we also had the yummiest Round Rock donuts...

went to the sprinkler park...

Then she got to watch her beloved Strawberry Shortcake "cake" video (she asks for 1 or 3 that we have nearly every day).

a few more pictures....just because....

And since I knew I was doing my cool cake at the party the next day, I did something really simple for us to have just as a family the night of her bday. She likes the princesses and knows all their names, even though we haven't quite viewed all the movies. I got the cake toppers at our local HEB grocery story for $6 for 4. I was surprised they sold them to me without buying the cake. You like the pan? I tried to find the very cool giant cupcake cake mold at Target that Emily told me about, but they are no longer sold in stores:( Find it online here.

The boys gave her a wooden fruit platter for her kitchen

opening Grandma and Grandpa Dukes Presents...a purse filled with Strawberry shortcake items

and a cool quite church game filled with buttons that you have to search to find each one from the list on the back

Then she opened the doll I made her which we affectionately named "butterfly" because her clothes have butterfly's on them. I was happy to see that she cared about it, but still doesn't replace her beloved Strawberry.

Then we brought her to our room where we temporarily put the new kitchen table (that we assembled the night before). I found this at the Pottery Barn outlet a few weeks ago and my wonderful brother and his wife (Kirk and Rachel) picked it up for me. I just have to add that its orginal price is $150 the outlet told me it was $77 then 40% off of that! Agh, I was SO excited! I also added the 2 benches. The kids love it, and I really do, even though it ended up being bigger than I expected it. It fits nicely in Alyssa's room next to her fridge/oven (this picture is in my room).
Then the fridge was fixed...

and then all tuckered out at the end of the day...she fell asleep on the couch...

Alyssa Joy turns 3

My sweet girl....Every morning when she wakes up, she groggily walks around the house until she finds me and I just hold her. I stop whatever I'm doing, sit down and cuddle until she has decided she is ready to jump down. Summer is nice for that. I used to have to wake her up when we took Tyler to school and I didn't get to do that as much.Or if she came to me, I was getting Tyler ready for school, so I wasn't as available. My boys favored their dad, which I was ok with. But AJ, she'll choose me, although she loves her daddy just as much. She doesn't like to eat cereal, but she offers to have a sippy cup of milk with fruit snacks for breakfast. We settle on a cereal bar. She likes to pretend she is a kitty cat and meow's around the house. Her favorite thing lately is to say when she wants to play with me, "You can come to my house." Meaning she wants me to push babies in stollers down the hall to her room and play in her kitchen. She also likes to boss her brothers around saying, "I'm the MOM, you are the dad, and you are the baby." They are willing participants in her games. She'll quote Madagascar the movie, which she's only seen once when she says: "Mommy, I have to tell you something....the tiger bites on the zebra's butt and the zebra says....No I not." She doesn't quite have the verbage right, but she's said this multiple times a day for about 2 weeks now. She also likes to say she's "going to Ashlee's house a dippa day" she just spouts this phrase out of nowhere in order to avoid silence. Weird. She knows all her princesses, even though she hasn't seen their movies. She likes her accesories (which I love) and carrying around purses with babies stuffed inside. Michael loves that she'll just sit and rub the top of his head. She is so independant that she makes me stand in the hall when she uses a public restroom, but don't worry, she slathers on tons of soap just for the fun of it. She'll push our grocery card, with Strawberry in the baby seat...buckled in, of course. And when I try to steer the cart away from the shelves or another person, she chirps at me that she wants to push. She'll say whats on her mind, but she is obedient and often walks to time out before I tell her because she knows she's done something wrong. She is still in denial that she is another year older, when we tell her she is 3, she says, "no, I'm 2" with a grumpy face. I'm with her on that aging thing......

She is fiesty and fearless

Loving and nurturing

Sassy and chatty

Adorable

Grumpy when she wants to be

Loves her babies...especially Strawberry Loves cheese and cake and says, "It makes my tummy feel better" even if her tummy never hurt
loves to be with her brothers
and loves to sing Popcorn popping each night before bed

I try to do a photo shoot with my kids around their birthdays, and I got the chance to take Alyssa out to the trail by our house in the morning...just the 2 of us. She wasn't excited to be there, but I tried to make it a tad bit fun. She doesn't give me the smiles, so I have to try to catch her essence in other ways. Then in her swimsuit getting ready to go out standing with her party balloons. The last set is outside with "birthday" balloons. I've dreamed up her walking with balloons for a while, but she wasn't thrilled with my plan. I'm pretty happy with the way they turned out. Tell me which balloon shot speaks to you. I can't quite decide.

Party images and the rest of the days activities coming soon.....(I may post them below this post)