Finally, some nice Fall days

The weather this week has been aMAzing!
It's been a rare treat to actually be able to go outside without a winter coat on, and see the sun.
So we've been making the most out of it because it's uncertain how long the niceness will last.
The only down side for me is all the leaves.
The up side for the girls is all the leaves!
Aw well!
It's likely to get windy tomorrow and blow them all into the street for me anyways!

Portrait Project-senior portraits

Last weekend I did a senior portrait session for an upcoming graduate in the CASA program. I've been waiting for this opportunity! I was so excited to meet her, after talking with her several times on the phone. It was so wonderful that through the casual conversations I was able to get a little bit of background on her, where she is, what she wants to do. That's what I often look forward to the most...and I was so pleased to have walked away knowing a little bit more about her.
I just love seeing God in His extreme coolness continue to open up doors for the Portrait Project to reach people in all different walks of life. And what I love even more is that we haven't even scratched the surface yet! He's always got more in store, and it will never cease to excite me!





Visit my website for more pictures from our session...www.mjsphotoshoppe.com

Ladybug frenzy

We've got ladybugs!


I love this part of the Fall.
The part when for whatever reason we get tons, and tons, and tons of ladybugs.
They are literally everywhere.
On your house, windows, cars, grass, you name it, it will have a ladybug on it outside.
Oh, and don't forget you.
As soon as you walk outside you get pummeled with them too.
They fly onto your head, face, back, arms, nose, ears....everywhere.


I have no idea why we get saturated with ladybugs every Fall, but I love it.
And I'm thankful our freak snow storm didn't freeze them all so we are able to enjoy them now.

Moms know it all.

It's true.
Moms do know it all.
And by 'Moms', I am not referring to myself the mom, I am referring to my mom, the Mom.
Our moms, the Moms.
My Mom knows it all.
And not in a, " I'm a knowitall!" kind of way-
but backed by years and years worth of experience kind of way.
My Mom is better than a doctor.
I can call her up day or night (can't do that with my doctor),
ask her about any medical condition,
and she has an answer.
My Mom is better than a psychologist.
I can ask her about any behavioral phase my kids are going through,
and she has an answer.
I can ask her anything,
and BOOM!
Answer.
It's quite amazing.
No medical school. No psychology degree.
All on the job training.
A-mazing.
The plethera of knowledge floating around inside my Mom's head is crazy.
Moms know it all.
I'm not there yet.
I've got a lot of parenting to go before I'm as brilliant and all knowing as "the Moms".

That's a lot of smoke

I just burnt a bag of popcorn to a crisp,
and nearly started it on fire for that matter.
I had no idea a whole bag of popcorn could emit that much smoke,
even after I smothered it in water.
Geesh.

9 Years and counting....

Me and Isaak celebrated our 9th wedding anniversary this weekend and drove 30 miles south of here to Nebraska City to have dinner at the Lied Lodge.

A forty minute drive really made it feel that we were "getting away" for a bit. Since having kids nearly 4 years ago me and Isaak have never spent a single night away from the kids. Well, Isaak has for work, obviously, but we haven't. So, it was nice to pretend for a bit like we were away away. The food was scrumptious! It was totally worth the drive to eat there. The waitress gave us a free dessert because we were celebrating...you know I don't argue with free. :)

And then we drove home through the beautiful Nebraska landscape. It was a nice, quiet, simple, evening. Oh, and I got the most beautiful scarf! I love a good scarf...Isaak knows me well. :)


Happy 9 years and counting honey....

Snow. In October.

This is what we woke up to this morning.

Snow.

And not just flurries.
This is snow, stuck to the ground.
Covering my flowers.
Covering the leaves that have not yet fallen off the trees.

Snow covering my Fall.

Excuse me while I take just a moment..."What the heck?!"

Naturally, Isaak and the girls could scarcely contain their enthusiasm, so right after we finished breakfast we took the next twenty minutes bundling up to play in it.


and play we did.

We threw snow balls, in early October.


We went for sled rides, in early October.


Isaak dusted over two inches worth of snow off the car, onto Sydaleigh, in early October.


We stomped and ran and played in the snow till our fingers were freezing and our noses were running, in early October.



We were the only people outside at 8:00 in the morning playing in our white Fall, on this early October day.




After thirty minutes we went back inside before I couldn't tell the difference anymore between rosy cheeks and frost bite. What a morning.

Marvelly's newest enjoyment

This is where I find her when I can't find her... ...climbing onto the toilet standing up and turning the lights on.and off. on. and off. She finds this to be quite entertaining. Who knew the flickering of a light switch could be so riveting.

A doozy of a Monday

It all started on Sunday.
It's bad when your Monday doesn't even get to start on a Monday, but the day before.

After much research over the weekend, and even more research and finalizing on Sunday, me and Isaak decided to use Monday to go and buy a new car. And by "new" I actually mean used. Over the past nine years me and Isaak have purchased two brand new vehicles and decided this time around we were gonna go used. But the beauty of used is that it's still new to us. It's like yard salin' for cars, just more expensive.

So we set off early Monday morning to get the HHR thoroughly detailed so we could get the most bang for our buck when we trade it in. But two hours into our morning we found out the car we wanted to buy had been sold on Saturday.

Bu-mmer.

(I should have taken this as a sign to stop right there, but of course we didn't. I had a case of the stupids.)

So while the car was getting detailed we dug a little more and low and behold we found TWO more of the same vehicle for CHEAPER, holla!, one in Council Bluffs and the other in Lincoln.
I started doin' a dance, I was happy as a clam, thought we were on our way to gettin' a new/used car!

But just to be on the safe side, Isaak called both dealerships to make sure the cars were there, and they were. Yippee!

We had everything all planned out, because I'm a planner. I knew how I was gonna walk in there, be aggressive, stand my ground, not let some pushy car salesman rip me off! Oh yeah! Not takin' me for a ride, uh uh!

So 4pm rolls around and we drive our Sunfire to pick up our beautifully detailed HHR and head out East to Council Bluffs in Iowa. So excited. I can't wait to buy this car. It's JUST what we've been looking for, will meet our needs, and super cheap! We're pretty confident that everything is going to go as planned, and the chances of the car not being there are practically zilch because who buys cars on a Monday-um, no one! People buy cars on the weekend. And buy people I mean everyone except us.

So we get to the dealership, and five minutes before we get there it starts pouring down rain. But that ain't no problem because you can't rain on my parade if even if it is raining! I'm getting a new car!

And then the guy who we made an appointment with to test drive the car comes out of his office and tells us that. it. was. sold.

There goes my parade.
Apparently it can get rained on.

Of course the guy didn't think it was worth calling us for apparently because he was thinking he was gonna sucker us into buying something else off the lot, which he wasn't!
Did you not get the memo that I don't get suckered!!
So we drove all the way out to Council Bluffs for nothin'.

BUT, there was still one last hope left for us in Lincoln.

However; it's now 5pm, aka dinner time.
We haven't eaten.
Lincoln from C.B. is an hour and 10 minutes away.
Ugh.

I was fading faster than the girls at this point.
We had to stop for food or I wasn't going to make it.
We make a "quick" pit stop at Taco Bell for some nourishment and then parked the Sunfire at the Wal-mart for the night.
We are being ever so careful to get in and out of the car (in the rain) and not mess up our freshly cleaned car. So that means taking the girls' shoes on and off every time we get in and out.
After we scarfed down, we got back in the car and reluctantly set off for Lincoln, now 5:30pm.
From the 13th St. exit all the way to the 60th St. exit I couldn't decided whether it would be worth my sanity to drive us all the way down to Lincoln. But in the end it went something like this, " forget it, just GO!" (said in the least happy tone I could muster up-didn't take much mustering at this point)

So we set off now to Lincoln, our THIRD attempt of the day. After an hour and ten minutes of "I want to go home!", pouring down rain, we finally make it to the dealership at nearly 6:45pm.
Hooray!
FINALLY!
We made it and are going to buy a car.
The salesman was awesome.
He had that car pulled up and all ready for us to hop in and take on a test drive.
So we start unloading the kids and the car seats and.....

there is no third row.
There is no third row in a vehicle that was supposed to come with one.
A third row that the salesman never mentioned was conveniently missing out of this model.
Which left us looking at a vehicle that offered to no more passenger room than what we currently have....
I'm sorry, I think I just hallucinated! Did you just say there is no third row which means we drove ALL the way out to Lincoln for NOTHING?!!!
Oh. my. good.ness!
I was the level of mad that you want to cry to relieve the frustration but can't because you're too mad! I think there may have been smoke coming out of my ears at this point.

So......we got back in the car.
We drove another hour back home.
No new/used car.
Wowzers.
It was bad.
That was our Monday.

(Determined to end on a high note even if it is in a parenthesis at the end of my post, a high point nevertheless....we got in some great quality time during our road trip. Lot of talking, singing, laughing....we got quality time out of it. A new car would have been nice too but I'll take great quality time!)

Target outdid itself

I've got to give mad props to my Target.
I've gotten some good sales there, well, that's an understatement.
I find such good deals nearly every time I go it's like stealing I'm getting stuff for so cheap!
But today, ahhh, today....I just had to share the treasure I found.
It was nestled on the bottom of a shelf.
I nearly walked right by it, but something inside told me to stop and look down.
So I did.
And there, amid a pile of random clearance goodies was

....a 7 piece glass margarita set with pitcher.....

....for.....

$2.58.

Yes, that's right, $2.58.

That's TWO DOLLAS' !!!!!!

Now granted, I drink as often as a fish swims outside of water, so my need for a 7 piece glass margarita set with pitcher might seem a little unnecessary.
Until you look at the price again
TWO DOLLAS' !!!!!

It was clearanced so low because it was missing two glasses, except it wasn't! It was all there!

AND! I really bought it for the pitcher. I've been needing another pitcher for forever and you can't even buy a cheapo plastic one for
TWO DOLLAS'!!
And I got a pretty glass one with 7 glasses.


it's even prettier because I only paid TWO DOLLAS'!!