Blessings of Love

I am so not old enough to have a 9 year old child, but I do! Here are some snippets from over the years!

We will be celebrating Rock Star style on Saturday night. Pictures to come!








Loosing her first tooth, now she's loosing molars...







MY ALL TIME FAVORITE!!!

I can't even believe I went to see New Kids on the Block!
I was never a huge fan, because I was pretty young, and was not allowed to listen to them...haha.
But I was old enough to know they were cool and to learn the songs anyway!

I remember riding my bike, and having a piece of paper with "Step 1: We can have lots of fun
Step 2: There is so much we can do Step 3: It's just you and me......etc.

I was a dork. I admit.

The concert was fun!
Jessie McCartney was there (ICK...that was so dumb) and Jabbawockee
was there also and they were GREAT!!!
I loved that is was 75%(or more) women at Blossom.
It was just fun to be around so many women from so many age groups.
There was this little girl wearing a shirt that said "I LOVE NKOTB like my mommy"
HOW CUTE.
I wish I would have thought to bring Merci, she would have enjoyed herself, no doubt.

I never went to concerts as a teen, i have only been to 4 in my life, 2 in the last 9 months...haha.
They are much fun and I plan on going to many more!

I have been so busy!!! Not horrible busy, but enough to make me exhausted.
Between trying to get things done for our big 4th of July party and daily things and planning and teaching for VBS....I feel like I haven't had 5 minutes to sit down this week.
How I long for TV time with my hubby!
Just down time that I don't have to think about what to do next etc, etc.

Josh and I have been talking about planning a vacation.
We usually go to Michigan with my family every year, but will not be going this year.
Which is fine, something different is definitely welcome.
I wish we had a RV or knew someone with one so we could go rv camping. I like the idea of having a cheap place to stay with you wherever you go=)

We will probably go to a surrounding state, not too far away with lots of stuff for the kids to do.
I loved Indianapolis. The Children's Museum is definitely a 2 day ordeal, it is HUGE!!!! And incredibly fun, their zoo was nice too. I also brought us Niagara Falls. We were there a few years back without the kids, but I really think the kids would enjoy it too.

Any suggestion??
We are in OHIO, so nearby states only!

Sometimes I really miss my blog, other times I think maybe I am just done.
I absolutely love looking back at all my post over the years and remembering, all the good and not so good moments in our lives.
{Looking back makes me kinda want to try some Liporexall so I can look like I did back then;)}
But anyway, it seems like lately I have sad, depressed posts, about how hard life is.
I am hoping that will change sooner than later.

But honestly, that is where I am in life right now.
We are having a hard time with our kids, me with even wanting to be home with them.
I hate this season I am in.
Josh and I are trying new things and he knows how I feel.
I would appreciate your prayer and support...and even ideas!
Some days are wonderful, but most are not.
Who said training kids was easy though?;)

So if you have some time, come on over or invite us over for a play date!
We would appreciate the company and encouragement.

The first day of Summer break was wonderful. No complaints towards the kids. Angels almost.
2nd day not so much. 3rd day has only started and I don't even have words to say, except that I cannot go another 8-10 weeks like this. Torture, when it should be joyous. I know it should, but I cannot force that. The crying over the breakfast, the clothing, the fighting over everything under the sun, the asking for pop and chips for breakfast, when they know better (thanks daddy for not cleaning up like I asked), the incessant I need you NOW and 2 seconds will not do-I was cleaning the litter box, like I even wanted to, seriously give me a break. There is no one to call, lots to sympathize with me, but where have they all gone? I have lost interest in so much. I feel empty and need to be filled up.

10 years ago TODAY I graduated from high school.
So MANY memories from that day and around that time.
I was with my husband at the time, not married obviously, but we had been dating for a few months and luckily he was even my prom date.
(Boy did he look GOOD is his tuxedo)

I miss those days, but am happy where I am today.
A mom, a wife, a homemaker.

Labor Day weekend is our 10 year reunion.
I may or may not go, I didn't have many friends outside of church.

My posts seem to be very few lately. Except for my money making ones.
I will have 2 kids home all day long starting Wednesday, I am sure I will have more posts to post about;)

I am also on a mission to paint around here. Starting with the bathroom.
On Ethan's last day of pre-school last week, I took a shopping trip for ME (with housewarming gift cards...even better).
I got a shower curtain, a few different sets of towels and a wall hanging, and only spent $10 real money!!!
I am excited to show you the new look. It is just so grungy in there.
A very light pink color just just looks so blech.
Unfortunately not gonna be able to do anything with the tile floor or tub surround, but I will take painted walls & new deco.

Who want to guess my new bathroom colors....??
Hint: Josh was sick of the purple in our old bathroom, so it is not purple!

Sometimes I feel so overwhelmed with places to go to find good tips, recipes etc. With the internet at my fingertips I am sure to find what I need, but what is the best site for this or that??

I like to go to sites that have products that I use and trust and that is why I would like to let you know about Making Life Better.
This is a Unilever site, and I tend to use a lot of these products already.
Ragu, Lipton, Breyers...the list goes on....and I am sure you use some of these also!

I am excited to have a site to go to for beauty tips as well as recipe like this:


Click picture for recipe of the week!!


You can also find great family tips and ideas.
What about News and special offers??
YEP that too=)

So much good stuff in one great place.


Thanks to Mom Central for allowing me to spread the word and receive some free samples of my already favorite products=)

Ethan got to meet his teacher and see his classroom for next year (a few months really).
Merci informed me he got the mean one. Oh well, I guess we are staying with the same results, Merci's K teacher was NOT the nicest. I am sure this one is better though.

Ethan scored 54 points out of 70.
Which makes makes him average.
56 point would be above average.

Personal Info: Able to verbally give
1. First name 2. Last name 3. Age 4. Birthdate (month and day)
5. Street and city (He so totally knows this)

Prints Full Name:
1. Prints first name 2. Prints last name (need to work on this I guess)

Shape recognition:
1. Circle 2. Square 3. Triangle 4. Rectangle 5. Diamond
(maybe he mixed them up? But he does fine for me)

Visual Motor Skills: correctly copies
1. Horizontal line 2. Circle 3. Cross 4. Square 5. triangle

Color Recognition:
Blue Red Yellow Orange Green Black Brown Purple Pink White

Picture Vocab: Identifies and names
Dog Cat Tree House Boat Airplane Crayons Lion
Firefighter (not sure why he missed this one??) Butterfly

Body parts: points to or touches
nose ear chin shoulders elbow knee thumbs eyes heel wrist(kinda a tricky one)

Gross Motor Skills
Hops 2 hops on R foot, Hops 2 hops on L foot, stands on R foot for 5 sec, stands on L foot for 5 seconds, skips forward 4 steps (he gets really confused about skipping...we are working on this in parking lots all over the city!)

He did not perform well in speech, speech sound production.
He doesn't pronunciation very well, and still says some sounds babyish, so we do correct him and will continue to do so.

I am proud of my little man!