Fall Decorations and A Severe Lack of Creativity

I've always wanted my house to be a welcoming and "homey" place for my family. I dream of being super resourceful and making great decorations and solutions in my home with little to no money. The sad truth is that I'm not good at it! I've been checking out some really cool blogs lately (theinspiredroom.net and shabbynest.blogspot.com are 2 of my favorites). I've been inspired to at least try to come up with some new ideas. 

Here's my extremely lame attempt at decorating for fall. Please bear in mind that we are on a missionary's budget so there is seriously no money for buying absolutely anything!

I wanted to find some sticks in the yard for placing around the hurricane that you'll see in another picture and came back with this totally cool branch (oops! a bit too big for the dining room table!) So, my trusty little pea-sized brain got to working and here's what it came up with:

I hung it over the (hand-me-down ugly) sofa next to the (hand-me-down ugly dorm room looking) lamp. My thought is to find some cute thin ribbon and hang a few small pictures of our family on it. Like a "naturely" (like that new word?!) family tree. Seriously, tell me if it's totally lame! I'm new at this and don't want to begin creating horrid excuses for decorations if I can be stopped now!!

Here's that hurricane. I'm totally in love with it. I got it last year after the season was over on a super clearance. I payed something like $3 for it. It's glass with mosaic type glass tiles on it. I put it on the dining room table and you can see the sticks that needed to be trimmed from the family tree branch I threw around it. It seriously needs help and I've got no ideas!

Here's a pretty little pumpkin pot with fall flowers and leaves that someone gave me last year. (Oh and please don't miss those super sweet boys in the photo!) I put it on the (hand-me-down 70's scratched up) side table next to the (wejustgotmarriedliveinadarkapartmentneedsomecheaplighting) lamp. 

And thus ends my fall decoration repertoire! 

This next one is a real conundrum. We have this really neat shelf between the living room and the front porch. I really like it, but in the 5 years we've lived here I haven't known what to do with it. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!!

Can you guess what all of these things have in common?

I assure you they do have something in common. Give me your guess and the winner will get a prize! =)

In case you can't quite see them here's what you've got:

Infant's sock

Mascara

Coaster

Nail polish remover

Children's Tylenol

Hand lotion

Foam tiger visor

**The 3 yr old's legs in the background are not included!**

Happy guessing! I'm off to decide on a fabulous prize....

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Please kindly take a seat and then scroll down since I've posted an unprecedented 3 posts today! And you can thank the very large cup of iced coffee I just drank after being off caffeine for 2 weeks for that! Good night and may God grant me a few undeserved hours of sleep after that little bit of foolishness on my part!

Disastrous cabinet turns Delightful!

I've been inspired to organize things around here a little better. I still have a long way to go, but things are progressing. Last night I organized 2 cabinets and one big drawer in the kitchen. 

I present to you the before and after photos.

BEFORE: (shameful, I know. Please don't judge me! But, please do notice that I had made an attempt a while back with the bins on the top shelf. They helped a lot, don't you think!)

Here's the top shelf before picture once the bottom junk was removed so you could see it better.

AFTER: (Top bins are still a bit overcrowded, but they're organized according to what they are - mostly baking things - so they're much better! Same goes for the bins on the bottom. The large one in the back has oil, sugar, flour, etc. The one in front has various kinds of rice, soup mixes, etc. Notice there's even some free space in front!! Unheard of in my cabinets since I have very few!!

Finally back to uneventful naps!

For those of you who have waited on the edge of your seats I apologize for delaying in sharing the good report on Caleb's nap activities. I went in to get him Saturday from his nap and he was standing there sweet as can be waiting for me to come. When he saw me he did the sign for "eat" to tell me he was hungry. Such a smart, sweet little man! Allow me to brag for a minute. Caleb knows 7 signs (eat, drink, more, please, thank you, all done, and work). I think he's pretty cool! =)

Here he is signing "eat":

What am I going to find tomorrow when I get him from his nap?!

This kid is out of control! He's so quiet and laid-back that everyone thinks he's an innocent little angel. Well, I did too until this (and yesterday's nap!)....

(sorry about the weird angle, but I was trying to be sure he'd be decent)

Please tell me that his diaper fell off and not that he took it off!

Caleb, your Mommy loves you very much, but she will use duct tape!

Good News/Bad News

The Good News:

I had just emptied out my bag

The Bad News:

I left a lipstick in there

The Good News:

It was almost gone (one of those that you hang on to trying to scrape enough out since they discontinued the color and you're forever bitter about it!)

The Bad News:

It didn't have a lid (since the same someone who found it during n

aptime pulled it out of my bag at our last trip to Walmart and procee

ded to fling the lid under a shelf where Mommy had no hope of retrieving it!!!)

We camp in style!

Our vacation this year was to a really nice cottage in the Mountains of WV (Isn't all of WV mountains? I don't know. That's all I saw anyway! Whatever.) It was called Faith Mountain and it's a retreat place for Pastors and Missionaries (with discounted rates - awesome!!)

It was so beautiful and peaceful (oh wait...it wasn't necessarily peaceful since we had a 3 and 1 yr old boys with us, but I can see where for anyone else it would be extremely peaceful!) 

I loathe putting pictures in posts. I'm either incapable of doing it the right way or it's a terrible system and I prefer to think the latter is true! So this is just a smattering of things that we did and saw. You won't be seeing pictures of the wildlife that visited our cottage (wild turkeys, deer, rabbits and the random bald man - oh never mind. That was just my dad!) because I'm too frustrated with putting pictures and they didn't make the cut.

This is the Cedar House where we stayed. It was totally the best way to camp. By day we had a campfire outside and a pond to fish in, trails to walk on and a beautiful view and by night we had an amazingly beautiful house to stay in complete with a full kitchen (even a dishwasher if that gives you an idea to how nice it was!) 4 large bedrooms, 2 bathrooms (one with a whirlpool tub!), wood floors - beautiful!! There is seriously no other way to camp in my mind anyway!

This is the earliest stinkin' campfire I've ever seen. This was probably about 6:30pm, but it was fun and delicious (s'mores!!) and the boys were bathed and in bed by 8pm. Doesn't get better than that, sports fans!

Caleb and Pop-pop at the campfire. You'll notice Pop-pop passed him off to me after this picture and when you see the next one you'll know why. Chicken!
Caleb enjoying his first S'more! He was such a sticky, chocolatey mess! And super cute!!

My parents came down the day after us. Dad stayed for 3 nights and Mom stayed the rest of the week with us. It was so fun to have Grammy and Pop-pop with us! We went exploring around the area and discovered there's really nothing to do! 45 minutes away we found Sutton Dam which was super cool. I don't remember ever being to a dam before, but some people are telling me I was at one in high school. I was in my own little silly world doing silly teen things then.  'Nuff said. Anyway, it was impressive and a really fun trip.

This is one of the views from the top of the dam. So pretty! Sammy spotted the playground down there on the left and asked to play for a bit so we drove down there. It's a beautiful park with pavilions for picnics, fishing, etc.

There was a spot for swimming so another day Grammy, Daddy, the boys and I went back. This time we swam with the boys (when I saw "we" I mean "I" because Grammy and Daddy were chicken!) Then we played at the playground and ate a picnic lunch before heading back to the house for naps. It was a great day!

The boys watching a movie. There was no tv, no internet, no phone, not even cell service at the cottage so we came up with things to do!

And here's one of the things Sammy came up with! =)

Daddy and Sammy fishing together. It was the first time for all of us and even though we didn't catch anything it was really fun (and nice to leave Caleb at the house with Grammy since we literally climbed down the mountain and back up again to get to the pond). I don't recommend it with a 1 yr old in your arms! In fact, I just plain old don't recommend it at all!

This was a very cool old, run-down barn we drove by many times. On our way home we finally stopped and took this picture. I think it would make the best postcard or a really cool puzzle. Or maybe I'll just do the boring thing and blow it up to hang on the wall. I don't know what it is, but I just love this old barn!

Caleb being silly and sweet on the ride home. We made it all the way with no traffic at all until we got to the smallest stickin' state (sorry, I can't bring myself to even utter the word - it starts with a "D") and mercy did we ever hit traffic there! We were stuck on 95 for what seemed like an eternity!  

All in all we had a great time and though I don't think we'll ever go back while the kids are young (I'm the kind that enjoys a quiet relaxing vacation every now and then, but really loves a place with stuff to do and see!) I could totally see us going back sometime when it's just the two of us.

Simon, a.k.a. Samuel Says...

After being stung by the bee yesterday I asked him if it was a small or big bee and he said "It was really, really big and it was like a circle (I assume that means round although I've never seen a round bee myself!) and it had crumbs on it" (We figure he meant fuzzy! =))

Please pray with me...

I just linked to a blog of a beautiful family who is in need of lots of prayer. They are pregnant with their fourth child and the baby's heart is failing. Please join me and prayer for this family. You can see their story here. 

Bzzzzzz

Unfortunately, the bee that Sammy encountered today wasn't as friendly as this little guy! He was playing on his water slide and the little buzzer (heehee) was lying in wait in the grass and stung him on the side. The crying didn't last long at all and it's only swollen up a bit around it. We'll watch him very closely though since I'm allergic and this is his first sting so we're not sure if he is as well. They say it isn't a genetic allergy, but who knows! My being allergic has made us vigilant (ok, somewhat psycho) about bee stings and the like.

This'll make you smile!

DISCLAIMER: Please forgive the lack of clothes!=

Relax..I'm back!

I must apologize to everyone (ok, just my impatient sister!) who have asked me to update my blog. We've had some issues with uploading pictures and what with my boys being so adorable I didn't think these posts were worthy without them.

And just to confuse everyone (ok, again, just my impatient sister!) I've changed the dates so the world will never know that my blogging is quite delayed. Tricky! Scroll down to see the good stuff!

We picked blueberries till we were blue in the face...

...not really. We actually picked less than $3 worth since we saw that the already boxed up ones were only $1.50/lb and the pick-your-own were $1.80. Seems so backwards! If it weren't for the boys we would have just bought the boxed ones and called it a day, but we had a good time picking.

We rode on the wagon out to the fields. Caleb was really sweet (what else is new?!) and waited patiently for a taste. Grandmom showed him how to pick them himself and before we knew it he was picking and eating almost as fast as his brother! By the end he was grabbing them off the bushes as we pushed his stroller along the aisles!

Sammy was really funny. I noticed he was eating a lot so I asked him how many he had in his basket. He looked in and then looked back up at me and said "oops!" His basket was empty after about 15 minutes of picking! It's so true that if they were smart they'd weigh the little ones before and after to make more money!

YUM!!

He and I have very different ideas of what saving for winter means!! =)

picking...

...eating...

...grinning because his basket is nearly empty!

Walking back to the wagon (to buy the pre-boxed blueberries!!)

HAPPY 4TH OF JULY!!!