In Memory

Maxine Bolden

May 13, 1925-July 23, 2009

My Grandmother passed away this morning. We will be traveling back to Tennessee for the funeral. Please keep our family in your prayers. My Grandmother was a wonderful lady and will be missed terribly.

Jackson @ 9 Months

21 pounds

Loves to "Rawr!" at his Bubba

Can crawl to the top of the steps by himself. (scary!)

Has never met a food he didn't like.



I love my little man!

~*~*~*Vacation Destination~*~*~*

We finally settled on a vacation spot. We are going to Eureka Springs, Arkansas! =D I am so exited!

Here are a few pictures that I found of the town on www.arkansas.com. Doesn't it look charming?

Recent Home Updates

Last week was the two year anniversary of us moving into our house (7/7/07). It's funny that we knew as soon as we looked at this house that it was the one we wanted. We had been looking for a while, and none of the houses we had seen really seemed right. They were either too far from base, too small, too expensive, or something. When this house came on the market, we knew we wanted to see it and came for a tour the next day. The following day is when we put in an offer and it was accepted. So, if you're doing the math---it was only on the market 2 days before it was under contract. I'm sure the sellers were probably more excited than we were. =)

We love this house and it has been great for us. It is really quite a bit more space than we need, but we have enjoyed it. While we knew this was the house we wanted, no doubt, it is funny now to see all the changes we have made since we moved in. We painted the outside, almost all the rooms inside, changed every single light fixture in the house (inside and out), and seemingly endless other projects along the way.

Here are some pictures of our recent changes:

We updated the hardware on the kitchen cabinets from that horrible old antique copper to brushed nickel to match our appliances.

Before:



After:

I stained the master bathroom vanity and added hardware.

Before. This is the hall bath, but same style vanity.

After

My hubby put new laminate tile down in both entryways. We had horrible, ugly, beat up linoleum before.

And hubby painted my front door red. I love red doors!

After one coat. I was starting to worry. It didn't look too good at this point.

Ahhhh, there we go. That's better. =)



We still have a huge list of things we'd like to do. Maybe one day I'll share that list with you. For now, even the thought of typing it out makes my fingers hurt. =)

"Professional" Pictures

I decided to bite the bullet Wednesday and take my two grouchy, uncooperative, wonderful children to have their pictures made. The grandparents kinda hassle me about that from time to time. =) Knowing my sweet children as I do, I knew my best bet would be not to spend a lot of $$$ on said pictures. That way when they act like little baboons and take not one single stinkin good picture, I won't be too terribly upset. Good thinking on my part...we went to Wally World. Yeah, you can imagine the quality of customer service we received. Our "photographer" was not exactly good with children, to say the least. I finally got everybody to stop crying (including me, on the inside), and we were able to get a couple of descent pictures out of it.

If you would like to see them, this should be a direct link to the photos. Let me know if it doesn't work for you. http://portraits.pictureme.com/pr3/ViewAlbum.aspx?a=606410


And on a side note, as "frugal" as I am I do believe that with pictures you get what you pay for. If I thought my kids would have cooperated, I definitely would have driven the 50 miles (one way) to a better picture studio.

This Weekend's To-Do List

Stain bathroom vanity (Done.)
Tile fireplace
Change 2 ceiling fans
Change kitchen cabinet hardware (Almost done. Got the wrong size drawer pulls)
Put shelves in hall closet
Remove bathroom door (Done.)
Replace bathroom door
Tile entryway
Deliver couch sold on Craigslist (Done.)
Swap boys' room/office
Sort boys clothes
Take donations to airmen's attic
Haul off recycling
Enjoy our time together (Always)

I hope to have some pictures off all this hard work next week. Things are really starting to look up over here.

It's July Already?

Wow! Summer seems to be flying by at warp speed here in my neck of the woods. I cannot believe it is July already. I love summer! It's my favorite season, so that's probably why it seems to be going by so quickly.

Our summer seems to be extra busy this year. I'm not sure what it is, but we just seem to have no free time at all anymore. I told Keith last night on the way to church that the reason I loved going to church so much was because it was the only time I get to see him. (Real spiritual, I know. And I was just kidding.) But we really don't seem to have much time for anything right now. Hubby has been working 12 hour shifts for what seems like forever, and when you add in getting ready, travel time, and PT to that it makes it more like 16 hours. That doesn't leave much time for family or anything else. The little time we do have is spent doing other things that need to get done.

Here on the homefront I have been busy cleaning, organizing, decluttering, and simplifying. I had a yard sale with a few other ladies from church 2 weekends ago. I decided last minute (Thursday) that I was going to do it, and it was pretty successful. What items didn't sell were either donated or the bigger items I listed on Craigslist. I love a clean, organized house but the chaos that comes along with getting it that way drives me nutty. I don't know where all of our "stuff" comes from-I think it multiplies in the dark. =)

We have a cat now--a foster cat. We are watching her through a friend's deployment. She will be here for 8 months. I cannot believe we have a cat. But she is really low maintenance and pretty affectionate, so I'm sure she'll be fine. The boys love her, and she toletrates them.

We are trying to plan a real family vacation this year, Lord willing. In 7 years of marriage we have never once been on vacation together. Any time we go anywhere, we go home to visit family. We love visiting family and I am really homesick to see them now, but we need some time to relax, reconnect, and truly vacation together. I have found that deciding where to go is way more complicated than I thought it would be. It's not easy to find somewhere that would be good for the whole family, especially with small kids. We thought about Disney for about 30 seconds. I would love it, so would Keith and Tyler. But poor little Jackson would probably be misserable. I think we have decided on Savannah, GA. We will be looking more into that and hopefully making plans soon. =)

Well, there really is more I'd like to say. There are some things that I'd just like to spill my guts about, so to speak. But for now it is best to guard my tongue and my heart. God is great! Life is good! Sometimes circumstances stink. =)

I hope you all have a great 4th of July! Be safe.