My 100th post give-a-way! Fun & excitement (at least for me) & it's for FREEEEE!

I really and truly can not believe I have stuck with blogging this long. I have made it to my 100th post, YEAH. To some that may not seem like such a big deal but to me it's HUGE! When I started out doing this I never imagined how much satisfaction I would get from my little blog. It gives me time to focus and think about life with my family or simply just for personal musings. It really has become an outlet. When life seems to be passing by so quickly the blog helps to preserve & slow it down just a bit.  I'm loving all of my many new friends that have come through this venture. We are all more alike than we realize. Thank you so much for all of the inspiration and for those that have left comments, I treasure everyone of them. 

So probably what you see below is just pictures of some really cute girls. To me, yes I see that as well but I also see hair accessories that I have made. You see I used to get so much pleasure out of creating these nifty little items before there were no triplets in my belly and since I like both making hair accessories & blogging I thought it a perfect reason to have a FREE giveaway for my 100th post (plus it helps motivate me to get a few custom gifts checked of the list..Whitney call me). I will decide what it will look like but you can decide if you would rather have a clip or headband, flower or no flower, and the size. They can be for a little baby on up to a big girl like me. I guess the only way for me to know if you want in on this celebration is to just drop a comment:-) Perhaps you should leave a comment with a random tidbit about yourself. The big winner will be randomly picked next week.  Hey this should be an easy one to win with my 13 readers (ok so maybe it's a little bit more than 13:-).  Oh I'm just so excited.  As my sister would say, go, fight, win & ZAHZOO!  Speaking of ZAHZOO, if you are my sister who lives in Oregon & you leave a comment you automatically win one right this second but you will need to CALL me and give me a line from your favorite movie but not "Big Gulps huh...well see ya later".  

Oh my look @ this little doll who happens to be my niece.






I just had to throw these pictures in because....well just look @ these darling girls. 

  

Bottom 4 photos taken by Michelle over @ Sweet Moments design.

BEFORE & AFTER/ Learning patience

Patience is such a refining attribute, one that has been a continual lesson I've had to learn in life (sometimes the hard way). I've never been a fan of painting for the very reason that it takes patience to get it done the right way. As I sat there sanding all of the imperfections out of the new but old media cabinet I just bought, I thought about how much the whole process of re-doing this project paralleled with life. At first I just wanted to skip the steps of sanding and priming and just get right to the paint but I knew if I didn't set the foundation right it may as well be a waste so I decided to just do it the right way. I heard that when you spray on paint that you should spray on thin layers and then wait a bit before applying the next layer which is such a hard concept as I just wanted to spray it all on in under a minute. Again I reminded myself step by step, day by day, minute by minute, line upon line, precept upon precept. That's the way it is in life you know so why couldn't I just paint that way too. Sometimes I would get a little out of control and get all spray happy which would then create runs and drips. That was so painful because it put me back a bit but I was always able to sand it out and start over. Wow how many times have I messed up in life but was able to repent, move on being even more refined after I'd learned what I was supposed to. It actually took me a long time to get the cabinet finished and after enduring it I would say that all of the work was worth it. Ever heard of the saying, "I never said it would be easy I only said it would be worth it". TRUE, TRUE......

If all else fails paint it off-white. I seem live by that motto quite often. Why do I love white and black so much?

Look at this cute little antique silver dish I picked up @ the thrift store. It already had a "B" engraved into it. I guess it was meant to be mine.

Oh one more thing the below tape is my best friend. I tried my very hardest to paint straight black accent lines all by myself but then realized I needed a little help. This little black decorator tape came to the rescue. The stuff really made me look like a professional. You can't even tell that the black accent lines are tape.

P.S. - My next post will be my 100th. I can't even believe it. For someone who is a rebel by trade I sure have conformed to this blogging thing.

My Happy Shop.

Sometimes I dream of having my own little shop. A cute little shop with striped awnings on a quaint little street lined with trees. I've found myself letting my little mind wander to that place more often.





Then I realized I already am living my dream. I am the owner of my very own little shop or shall we say the CEO of my my huge Fortune 500 company which happens to be the very best company to invest in {The HOME}. Life has been so good to us especially with all of the perfectly even sunshine our Spring has brought us. As I was switching out the St. Patrick's Day decor to Spring/Easter I had a brilliant idea to bring the dream of owning my own little shop to my home. Of course I had to make a banner and decided to use the word "Happy" (Happy spelled with one P that is because apparently I bought the very last P in all of the Valley). Spring is such a happy time as things are anew and there is such a feeling of rebirth. Speaking of birth we just had an addition to our family. Well not to my immediate family (PHEW) but my brother and his wife just brought Presley Denise into this world. What a miracle birth is.

Look how darling these girls (my girls) look in front of this cute flower shop.  Only appropriate to post this picture as it goes along with the post.

I've been completely obsessed with vintage trophy cups as of late.  I look for them at all of the thrift stores.  If you find one call me and we'll be best friends.  Well sometimes I go to the Dollar Store when I need some retail therapy (can't do too much damage there).  Also sometimes it's fun to see if I can be inspired by any of the items they sell there.  Well look what I found....50 trophies for ONE DOLLAR.  Once I covered them in glitter (glitter makes everything pretty) they worked perfect to hold the tissue paper flowers in the above happy banner.  I love the dollar store.

Ok so maybe those weren't exactly the trophies I was looking for but check these beauties out for inspiration.  

Speaking of inspiration..I would like to thank women who may be moms or may not be moms, women who I may know or may not know...Thank you for inspiring my everyday. Women are truly the secret weapon.

Food, water & garbage. New week, new resolutions.

Sometimes I wish I were funnier than I am but I am after all the oldest child.  Having the oldest child syndrome I think catagorizes me as a blue type personality who can't help but be a  perfectionist & quite serious @ times.  I don't know if that is true of all first borns but what I do know is when it comes to my family's diet I can be quite intense and serious.  Let me just show you as we take a tour down our dietary lane.

I don't proclaim to be the biggest know it all health nut on the planet but what I do know is I never ate healthier during and after the triplet pregnancy.  Considering all of the demands on my body I'd never felt better.  I mean really, how does a girl like me not eat hardly any meat but produce upper 5 pounder triplets (besides a miracle from above).  
Take the miracle aspect away and I can't deny how much diet plays a roll in how we function.   First all let me introduce one of my best friends in the pantry, her name is Quinoa [keen-wah] and everybody looks at me funny when I try to tell them about her but she is exotic and very well diversified..  I tell everybody about Quinoa because of all of it's health properties and nutty taste.  I'm crazy for this super food grain that's not really a grain but really a seed stuff. It can be mixed into just about anything and after you eat it you will feel unstopable. Google it I dare you. Next I am currently obsessed with Agave nectar because it is low on the glycemic index.  It stacks up pretty well to honey in the natural sweetener department.  We use it to sweeten anything from pancakes to oatmeal.  Can't really recall the last time I've used the white refined stuff but I will use it if I have to.  Then 2 years ago I discovered Spelt flour and have been hooked ever since.  Didn't even know it existed before then.  Pretty much it is like whole grain wheat flour but much easier to digest (much more expensive - O too)  Seriously is a staple for me now.  Finally just to make me feel better about my mantel of motherhood I've also been using a ton of milled flax seed. "Oh you don't want to eat your veggies, well ok then your just going to have to have the magic yogurt again", followed by a bowl of applesauce or yogurt filled with my little flax seed friends & an inside chuckle (or cackle). I feel so tricky & it satisfies me greatly to see a kid down their yogurt or other items with this stuff mixed into it.  

Oh these are just a few staples that I've mentioned and they just begin to touch the surface of grains and good health items but the biggest thing I have learned is that when Mac & Cheese goes on sale buy all 40 boxes on the shelf.  I've just officially exposed myself I'm afraid, but it's true we eat mac & cheese every other day.  Really I just posted the above items to hide behind the fact that we eat way to much M & C and to remind myself how much better I could step it up on the food pyramid.  It's time for a change so I figured if I focused on a health post and get it out in writing, that would be the first step to the fruition of.  

Which leads me to my water intake.  Apparently I've been trying to keep my glass half full. So much in fact that I heard that I may not be helping my body out. I guess I was taking it a little too literal or something. Well excuse me while I change the motto around here to "Is your garbage half full or half empty"...Now that way I can still be positive with a half empty glass of water.  My garbage is ALWAYS over flowing, so what a good life I must have. Thanks in advance to Mr. Garbage man who comes on Tuesday for you are one of my favorite people.

Oh and I don't know if I've mentioned one of my other favorite people but her name is MOM.  Look what she did to my pantry one time.  Need I say more...

This is going to be a great week. I have a fun surprise planned for my 100th post.

Our #1 fans

     

The girls decorated the house with some of Daddy's childhood ribbons. Daddy only had one blue ribbon out of about 15. The kids could care less what color they were and that Daddy didn't always win the race...because to them he is the biggest super hero of them all (and he is).  It's kind of crazy that you don't have to do much to be 1st place in a child's book. All they need is pretty much just food, beverage, basic hygiene, patience & love..repeat.  This parent thing is just way too easy. 

 
Way too easy that is until I just remembered that kids have been sick & seem to want to have playtime rendezvous in the middle of the night. One thing still stands true and that is it doesn't take much for the kids to be happy for they are pretty simple creatures.  

Speaking of simplicity, how can children get so much pleasure out of making mud pies in the back yard while having an apple juice party. The best though was when the below culprit couldn't stop laughing hysterically because he was having a jolly olly time clamping down on spoon and not letting go for the 20th time. Oh the things that make kids tick.

To be child. Go have a party, it's the weekend!

I'm plum tuckered now.

P.S. - I was just kidding about this parenting thing being just way too easy.

On a leprechaun hunt. Sharing the St. Pat's Day love.

Do you have your green on today?  Well we do. 

After we got our green on we went for a leprechaun hunt. Went to the first green hill we could find because that seemed like a logical place to start (not easy to find in the desert) .  No luck there but then we soon spotted something else that was green.  Wait a second did we find what we were looking for....

My girls thought that they had finally found their leprechaun but turned out that all they had on their hands was just a really big  Ogre.  Moving onward...

Hey wait is that our leprechaun sitting on the corner? Kind of looks like Dizzy the landmark & legend to our city but this time he's wearing a green hat.  If you are my husband stop reading right now.  I took the below picture from car window but it that wasn't good enough for the girls so then...

I warned you hubby. So then I flipped a U-eeee and let the girls get out to meet the Dizzers.  You see every time we drive by and they see Robert aka "Dizzy" dancing around and singing the girls want to stop and talk to him. Well today I caved (must have been the color coordinated green shoe laces to go with the big green hat) and yep we pulled over and got out of our car to wish Dizzy a happy St. Patricks Day in person. He was so much fun and even got the girls to raise their arms for Jesus. Dizzy didn't have a pot of gold but I'm pretty sure he didn't care. He probably thinks his riches are in Heaven anyway. If anybody else wants to talk to him do not fear he is really nice and welcomes it and is not as crazy as he looks and really has some great stories.  He even prefers to be called by his real name. Thanks Robert for making my girls day.

Surely if we make cookies for the leprechauns they will finally show up and probably with a very LARGE pot of gold.  If for some reason they are still a no show then the cookies still have to disappear if you know what I mean. Darn.

Wonder if Dizzy has been to the Easter Pageant?  Just wondering.

Rebound Monday.

Sometimes after your home has a corn beef cabbage broccoli salmon smell with a hint of poo then just juice some lemons.

Ahh there is nothing better than the smell of lemons....

Has anybody heard the saying, "If life gives you lemons than make lemonade".  haha

Well I have a new saying, "If life is kind of sour and smelly than go to the thrift store.  Why you ask, well sometimes thrift stores are even smellier than my own house so it always feels good to come back home (especially with a bargain in hand).

Now if only I knew what color to paint this beauty.  Oh well I only paid $20 so whatever color I pick couldn't be that bad.

Sisters are you out there...

Have you ever had a Truman Show moment?  Sometimes I wonder if everybody is in on it and I am the only one missing something. As I sat there on this beautiful sunny day thinking about Truman (which happens to be my favorite Jim Carrey movie) I heard the rumblings of airplane after airplane descending into the Valley.  My Truman conspiracy theory was quickly shot down as I looked up to see the 10th airplane fly over in 30 minutes and realized that would be almost categorized narcissistic to start entertaining thoughts that the planes where all put there in their place just for my life to play out. 

 

So back to real life.  My mental state is mostly stable but have to admit that getting out the door by myself with all five on a deadline can be a test on sanity (it's almost always worth the effort though, I mean who doesn't love to have an appointment with big green rabbits, refer above).  I find myself having to focus really hard to get out the door with all of my troops and their provisions.  I often have a trail of thought that goes like this.  "Don't forget to brush teeth, get sippies, diapers, wipes, shoes, socks, camera, phone, purse....REPEAT".  Seriously I have to say this over and over in my head until I have finally loaded everybody or I'm bound to forget something.  This trail of thought may get played over and over for 10 minutes before we are ready to go.  The other day as we were finally loaded up & driving down the road little "M" started giving me a lesson on how we live on the planet called earth.  The only part she seemed to differ from what I had been taught was the fact that my sister who lives in Oregon didn't qualify as living on our same planet.  Kind of funny she didn't mention the other sister who lives in Korea (which I myself think is almost like a different planet).  

Perhaps little "M" also got a little confused because Oregon sister (refer below) can be a creature of her own who is out of this world (a cool creature at that who I want to be like when I grow up).  Seriously I  love her.  She exemplifies the middle child syndrome to a "T".  She wouldn't want anybody to be unhappy. P.S. - Don't tell this sister that David Archuleta was in my neighborhood today...she may get jealous.  




Which leads me to the next sister in Korea who has come leaps and bounds in trying to be in the "make people happy category".  No I'm still not bitter about the time when she got my stickers taken away back in '85.  She's made up for all childhood mishaps, especially this week as I received a little package on a day when I really needed it. She takes groovy pictures and documents her life very well on her private blog. That's right I said private but that's ok because I like to share her photos every once in a while.  Oh who am I fooling I mean all of the time (Annie, if you are reading this can I have permission to post all of these pictures:-).  I  love her too and come to think about want to be just like her as well!

Package sister sent this week.

Then there is the royal gem of the family, the baby who happens to also be a sister as well.  Not a malice bone this one.  Never met a more human being without guile and who would speak no ill.  Ok I have met one of her standard before but sister is really something else.  She helped me all last summer with my kids as pure service.  Golly when I was her age all I was thinking about was the next outfit I was going to wear to the next singles outing.  I'm for sure adding her to the love list.

So there you have it, it's really not all about me and even though you (my sisters) haven't made regular appearances on my set lately, we are in this together and I know you are there.  In fact I know all of us humans here on planet earth are all in this together more than we might think...which is my final answer that leads me to have to break the original Truman Show conspiracy theory AGAIN.

If you think I am proud as punch to have such great sisters then you may be onto something.

I haven't forgotten about my sweet sister in-laws either.  We'll save them for another day but give them some honorable mentions. Feel free to sneak a peek @ these fine ladies because they sure are PERDY.