One More Pic ... and Hurricane Ike

I took a new picture of the curtains this morning. I wasn't really happy with the way they looked when both panels were drawn closed. (I thought they looked a lot like bed sheets hanging over the window.) I like this look better; however, this lets in quite a bit of light at night. Also, I straightened the finials (or whatever you call those things) in this picture. I'm sure Mom noticed that, if nobody else did. :)

Tonight after work, we went to dinner with Mike's dad. Emily requested Ted's so that's where we went. It was busy and we had to wait about a half hour, but the food was really good and we had a nice visit.

Hurricane Ike

The way things look right now, the remnants of Hurricane Ike will stay east of us. We have about an 80% chance of rain tomorrow, but only 50% on Sunday.

If you know Mike at all, I'm sure you know that we are watching on TV as Hurricane Ike comes ashore in South Texas.

I'm fascinated by this picture of Hurricane Ike taken from the International Space Station.

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Charming

Update: I have one more picture that I'll add tonight.

D'oh! I should have shown Before and After pics, but all I've got is the After ...



What do you think about my new curtains? Should they stay or should they go?

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Mom - Daughter Day

Our day started off with breakfast ... Barbie Cereal and Apple Juice. Yum!

Then we moved on to markers and stamps. Loving it!

We got out some cool coloring books and stickers.

Got to concentrate if we're going to color inside the lines. Then we got out the PlayDoh. The green was dried out so we had to throw it away. (Check out those painted fingers!!!)
Then after a peanut butter & honey lunch, we took a bath.

And then we took a nice long (2 hr!) nap and then had a snack of more Barbie cereal straight from the box! After that, I got too busy and didn't get to take any more pictures, but we had supper at home and then went to Cubbies. Emily said her Bible verses for the night and we made Froot Loop necklaces.

That's what I call a successful day!

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Nights in Rodanthe

Who wants to go with me to see this movie?? I can hardly wait for September 26!

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Decorating Update

First things first, I bought a new picture to replace the one that I broke last weekend. Here it is hung over the lingerie chest. Mom is probably wondering how it is hanging on the wall considering all the problems that we had when we were trying to hang it. (think: a kitchen knife and a pair of pliers)

I also got a bit of greenery to go on the corner of the dresser. It's in a "wooden vase" that is very similar to the furniture's wood.
And this is what it looks like from across the room. I'm not sure I'm satisfied with this. What do you think?

I also found some bookends for Mike's bedside table. I already had these, but they were in the kitchen holding up the cookbooks. I think they go perfectly with the bedroom.

And Emily wanted to help me take pictures of the bookends too.

So what do you think so far? Good? Not good?

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A Surprise to Share

I mentioned the other night that I might have a surprise to share and I do. I bought myself a new camera so that I could document all the new things that we are doing these days.

I was going to put the new camera on my Christmas list, but I couldn't wait. I would be missing out on too many things between now and then. It cost a little more than I originally wanted to spend, but I think it is totally worth it. I'll also be able to post more pictures on my blog for everyone to see. I know that I haven't sent any pictures of Emily in the last 6 months or more, but I'm going to try to do better.

Gymnastics

Emily went to gymnastics for the second time this morning. She wore one of her new leotards and looked so cute. She was not as hesitant this morning. She just got in there and started jumping and bouncing on the air trampoline with the other kids. After she got out of class, she said "Mama, I'm hungry. Lets go to Ted's." Haha! She already knows what's good. So we went eat at Ted's and then went grocery shopping. Now she's napping, I'm blogging, and Mike is watching the OU game with his dad.

Candy Apple

I do have one picture to share this afternoon. Mike and Emily were kind enough to pose for a picture with my new camera this morning after breakfast. Notice the red "candy apple" that Emily made at school yesterday. It looks too perfect to be made by a three-year-old, but it's cute anyway.

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We are AWANA Cubbies

Last night was the first night of AWANA Cubbies. I thought everything went pretty well. I had 5 children (and 3 teachers) in my class. I'm going to be helping with the youngest 3-year-old class. I think Emily had several more children in her class. I saw her with her class on the way back from Game Time and they were all over the place. Haha. We all made Cubbie Bear sack puppets. So fun! Can't wait to go back next week.

Well I don't know if we have many plans for the weekend. We'll have Gymnastics again on Saturday and then who knows? We'll probably end up doing something fun anyway.

Please pray for Mike's family as they'll be headed to Disney World this weekend. They'll be down in FL for a week. I think they are a bit worried about all the hurricanes that are headed this way.

I may have a surprise to share with you tomorrow. Check back soon!

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New Header

What do you think about my new header? Is it a keeper?

Let me know what you think!

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Girls Weekend!

Update: Emily pointed out that we didn't get any pictures of "Grandmother" while she was here visiting us! She's so right! We'll do better next time.

Mom came to visit this weekend.

Her main goals:

1) Return the kitchen cabinets that Dad repaired for us (Thanks Dad!)

Thanks Mike, Thanks Mom!

2) Watch Emily at Gymnastics

Emily in the pink shirt with her class

She was reluctant to participate at first, but she warmed up quickly.

Several of the other girls had leotards on so we had to go find Emily a leotard for next week. (I say had to because I really wanted to. They are so cute!)

And, of course, we had to get more than one.
And while we were out, we also went shopping for some accessories for our bedroom.

We found a nice picture with red background for the wall above the bed.

And a picture and two "dealies" (Emily's word) for above the chest.

And a cream colored ottoman. It has a tufted top and a storage area inside. We added the fringe trim that you see in the picture.

The trim has red and gold balls. I think it adds a special touch.

We also added the same trim to a lamp that we bought.

Here's a better picture of the lamp with the trim at the top and bottom. We also got two pictures to go on the wall on this side of the bed. I didn't get a good picture of them.

And a picture with the lamp on.
We got another picture with a red background for the wall above the lingerie chest. Unfortunately, I dropped it while we were trying to attach it to the wall and the glass and the frame broke. I went shopping again today and purchased another picture just like this one. This picture is without the gold frame.

And last, but not least, we hung the jewelry armoire! It was not easy to get all four hooks lined up, but we did it. And it's perpendicular AND level!
So that was our weekend. We had a fabulous time and got a lot of things done. It's always so fun when Mom comes to visit. And she always likes to clean and organize my house (which is embarrassing! but so nice to have some help.)

Love you, Mom!

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Dymo!

This weekend, I bought myself a cool new "toy". I had been working on organizing the closet in my master bedroom. I've sorted a lot of "stuff" into several categories and put them into different sizes of clear plastic containers.

My new toy is a Dymo handheld label maker. It prints one or two lines of text, can use different fonts, borders or styles. You can buy different types of "tape" to print the labels on, such as clear plastic, colored papers and colored inks.

So I've labeled almost all of my plastic containers with the contents. Soon after that, I realized that I needed to label both sides of the containers in case they get turned around on the shelf as we're using them.

I'm so proud of my closet (even though I am not finished yet). Wish I could post a picture of it. Maybe soon!

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WW

A couple weeks ago, Mike and I decided that we needed to make a change and so we both started WeightWatchers. Mike is doing WeightWatchers Online for Men and I am doing the At Home Program and borrowing his online account for reference. So far, it has not been as hard as we thought it might be. We have made some BIG changes and some small changes, but it is working for us!


I think the one of the hardest parts about WW is eating out. We have found some restaurants that we can go to and not go over our daily points, like Subway, Chick-fil-a and even Cracker Barrel! The hard ones are the ones that don't list nutritional information and so you just have to guess at the points. We tend to estimate high just in case we don't guess right.

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4th of July Pictures

I've been going through some pictures for Emily's photo placemat and thought I would share some of the recent pics on my new blog.

Professional photos for 4th of July

Look at me, I'm three!

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Grace Like Rain Falls Down on me

Amazing grace, how sweet the sound
That saved a wretch like me
I once was lost but now I'm found
Was blind but now I see so clearly

Hallelujah, grace like rain falls down on me
Hallelujah, all my stains are washed away, washed away

'Twas grace that taught my heart to fear
And grace my fears relieved
How precious did that grace appear
The hour I first believed

Hallelujah, grace like rain falls down on me
Hallelujah, all my stains are washed away, washed away

When we've been there ten thousand years
Bright shining as the sun
We've no less days to sing Your praise
Than when we first begun

Hallelujah, grace like rain falls down on me
Hallelujah, all my stains are washed away

Hallelujah, grace like rain falls down on me
Hallelujah, all my stains are washed away

And hallelujah
And hallelujah
And hallelujah
And hallelujah
And all my stains are washed away, They're washed away

I named my blog Grace Like Rain because of this Todd Agnew song. Ephesians 2:8 For by GRACE are you saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God. That's the amazing grace that this song is talking about. Wow, powerful.

So I started this blog on a Saturday night in my living room. The next morning, we sang this song in the worship service at church! Is that a bold sign from God or what?

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Well, I did it

I finally joined the blog revolution.

It seems like our family has gotten quite busy lately and I wanted a place where we could let everyone know what we're doing.

So ..what's been going on with us?

1) First Learning Center - Emily starts Mother's Day Out this week! She's in the Zippity Zebra class. We went to Open House this week and met her teachers. We looked at the wall calendar and noticed that all the kids in here three-year-old class were born in May, June or July. Wow! Consequently, there are FIVE three-year-old classes. I think she's pretty excited about "school" starting. I better get started on her photo placemat that she'll need for the first day.

2) AWANA Cubbies - I'm going to be a leader/helper in one of the (four!) three-year-old classes. Emily is going to be in a different three-year-old class. We went to Registration this week and got her Cubbies vest and bag. So cute! I have never been involved in AWANAs before, but I didn't realize that they actually expect three and four-year-olds to recite Bible verses from memory. As soon as I heard this, I started working with Emily on the Cubbies motto - "Jesus Loves Me" ... and she says "Jesus Loves Mama". Haha, so close!

3) Emily is starting Tumble Tots this week! When I called for registration, I asked about what kids wear to Tumble Tots and they said to wear shorts and a t-shirt. I secretly hope some kids wear leotards the first week so that I can get some for Emily.

So, like I said, we've become very busy lately.

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