Is anybody ready for Christmas?

I don't know about anybody else, but I feel like Christmas is coming to quick. It's my favorite Holiday and I feel like I need more time to prepare for it. I shopped at Wal-mart last night to the tune of Christmas music, already. Granted I understand that there isn't Thanksgiving music, but can't we at least wait until one Holiday is past before getting started with the next one? My old neighborhood has at least 4 homes completely decorated outside already. Is it me or is it coming really fast? Where's fall? Did I miss fall? Has anybody seen Fall? :) I LOVE fall when the temperatures are perfect. OK I've said fall so many times here that it's starting to sound strange ;) How about "Autumn" then. It's in the low 80's here today. There is hope for tomorrow though, it's only going to be in the 70's. I am looking forward to Thanksgiving. Cooking is not my favorite thing to do, but I do it and to the best of my ability. It's just not my passion, but I will do a real nice Thanksgiving feast for my family. I have refused however to cook the turkey, only having done so about the number of times I can count on maybe 1 hand in all my years, so I bought a Butterball smoked pre-cooked 10 lb. turkey. I don't mind doing sides and baking. It will be awesome and they'll love it. So I'm going to enjoy Thanksgiving and I'm going to take the time to be thankful for friends and family and the roof over our heads, the health that we have, the provision for our lives. Then I will move on, after Thanksgiving, to celebrate the birth of a savior for which all that I'm thankful for has been made possible :)

The Floor is complete

The dining room flooring is done!!!!! I think my husband did an awesome job. It was a new experience for him but he did well. We have had meals in the room now and we have more room. Now all we need is a coat of paint, so it doesn't look like a giant white box (I'm not a fan of white walls, for me that lacks imagination) and a couple more pictures and some curtains or a valance. I haven't decided curtains or valance yet. I'd like to put something more up in the open window above too. Today we will take the light fixture down and paint it black, it's a perfectly good one, it's just the wrong color. We will change the cord and the chain to black also. I think it will make a dramatic difference. Surprise I don't like white fixtures either, I may have already mentioned that previously. I just had a thought, we just bought our daughter some shabby chic "white" furniture. For something white, it's actually very pretty, it has character. I love the victorian look to it. It has glass knobs, reminesant of Grandma's house and her glass door knobs. Maybe I'll take a picture of her new furniture. Her walls are light purple so the white furniture will look really pretty. See the painting I bought to add "color" to the dining room, I LOVE IT! Back to the flooring, we are enjoying our new room and it looks great. Any tips on the best way to clean laminate flooring are welcome :) In the photo that is natural light from the window above that you see between the flooring and the carpeting, just in case you're wondering :)

Beauty Tip

- Go through life feeling beautiful every second, no matter what you are wearing or how your hair or make-up looks. You are always beautiful!

- Be nice to others. The most beautiful person you may ever see who has a nasty attitude isn't beautiful at all.


-Beauty isn't just looks, it's personality that people want. Looks are just bonuses that can be an advantage. Never feel pressured to be like someone else; be yourself.

My Blog Theme Song

Over to the right is "Newsboys In Wonder" if you haven't already watched it from my previous post, please do now. Just click on the top image. It is totally my "theme song" to this Blog and there is beautiful photography also! I would have that song playing over and over if I could fiqure out how, but you all would probably have a hard time reading all my posts listening to it over and over, so just listen now or I'll have to fiqure out how to make it play over and over :) Then it will be in your head and you won't be able to get it out ;) I said please :)

My son's Birthday party preparations

I am having so much fun planning my son's 5th Birthday! He wanted a "Spy/Detective" party so I took that and I'm running with it. I must admit our dear friends Lisa & Steve have been an inspiration. They are both so creative in this way also. Our home will be decorated with the usual streamers and all, but we'll also have "crime scene tape" and chalk outlines and footprints :) I made up a Spy ID card, upon arrival to our house we will have a table set up by the front door and each child will come up with their "code name". They will then be fingerprinted and get their ID photo taken with their newly acquired Fedora hat. Unfortunately I couldn't find 12 trench coats cheep :) My daughter has volunteered to handle the check in table. My husband will be the photographer. Once all agents are welcomed and checked in, we'll begin their "Spy training". They will come into our home while all kinds of detective music is playing, such as spy kids, mission impossible, you get the idea. Each training session they complete (games) they will get a star on their ID card. We will be playing lots of games. We will seek out and defuse a bomb (aka kitchen timer) They will test their detective skills by trying to figure out, by questioning other "agents", what animal they are, which will be taped on their back. We will show them some items then take them away and see what they can remember of what they saw. We'll play eye witness and have someone run through the house and commit a crime and they will figure out what happened. My son really likes Pinatas but I don't want to spend $30 more for that. I may come up with a creative idea along those lines. I might make something that can work, I have an idea.....For the "cake" I actually bought a couple of boxes of ding dongs. They are round chocolate covered cakes for those that don't know. I'm going to put a black fork in each one which will be a magnifying glass handle and the ding dong is the magnifying glass. I'm going to decorate each one with blue icing to look like glass. I will lay them all out and on each it will spell out Happy Birthday and my son's name with candles. On that note, check out my daughter's cake I made above. Since my son has tree nut allergies, I make our Birthday cakes. I can't decorate a cake quite as good as Donetta over at "A Life Uncommon" but I can be creative :) My daughter doesn't like Chocolate, go figure? Hopefully just a faze :) So I did white icing and the decorations are fruit roll yogos and round yogos (found in the fruit snack area of the grocery store) Looks pretty good doesn't it ;) Back to the Detective party, at the end of the party our agents will need to seek out their "top secret" spy/detective kits, since they will have then completed all of their training. See the photo of the envelopes as well as the napkins & plates. Someone will have taken the envelopes and they must be found. That will be their "goody" bags, or in this "case" no pun intended ;), their goody envelopes. I am lettering each one myself with stencils. Which by the way were not easy to find! I had some about 20 years ago that would have been perfect. Each goodie envelope will have a disguise (glasses, nose & moustache) some crime scene tape gum, a magnifying glass, a rubber bracelet with detective says on it, a mini flashlight and of course they will take home their Fedora hats. I think it will be lots of fun. We have mostly boys invited with a few girls. My son is to funny, he has issues with girls if they wear nail polish or necklaces. It's ok for Mom and sister but not girls his age :) He is no longer going to marry 2 girls because of this, so he says. One is still on the Birthday list but the other is history, for now. I know this to shall pass, it's his way of dealing with girls growing up. I'll have to post more pictures after the fact. Looking forward, and 1 week and a day away :o better get busy, BYE for now (over and out)

"Elf Yourself" from Office Max

A friend's daughter had made one of these and she sent me their "Elf yourself" and I thought it was too cute. You have to see this. I had to make my own right away. It was so much fun doing this. Check out mine of my children.
Click on the title of this post "Elf Yourself" from Office Max above to view. LOL :)

Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus concert continued.....

Friday night I took my daughter to her first concert. I had previously posted the info. about this. It was really fun and Miley put on a great show. The Jonas Brothers were the opening group and they did a great job too. My daughter can scream like nobody! I must confess I put tissues in my ears to keep from having my ear drums damaged by her ear piercing screams :) I say this all with a smile. She had so much fun. It is my prayer that Miley will always remain the great role model and sweet girl that she is now.

Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus concert tonight!

My daughter is so excited, tonight is the night of her very first concert. She can't believe she will see Miley Cyrus here in Arizona as she put it. I'm excited for her and actually am looking forward to it also. I especially like some of the Miley songs that are from her own rather than the Disney made image. I'm not looking forward to the drive to Glendale during rush hour, pray for me! We are going with another Mom and daughter so we will at least have some company for the journey. Traveling back shouldn't be to bad other than we'll all be pretty tired. I'm sure this will be a great show. I'm glad that she can call this her first, I'm a little embarrassed by mine, KISS. I can't believe I liked them. I think I was 14 and I remember my Mom taking my friend and I to the Lakeland Civic center in Florida. It was about an hour or so from our house. She actually dropped us off and just hung around Lakeland. Now a days I'd never drop my 14 year old off at a KISS concert, back then though in the late 70's we survived. I will have to post what I think of the show in the next couple of days. It sounds like it will be really good. I just wish we could have sat a little closer, not happy with the scalpers that didn't make that possible. It's unbelievable to think that so many were able to access tickets and buy so many up, well just thankful to be going.

Laminate Flooring to go here

Last night we bought Laminate flooring! I'm so excited about getting it put into the dining room. I think it will look awesome. We hope to put it in tomorrow after our garage sale. Then we will move our table and chairs into that room. We have them in an eat in kitchen area but it's just a bit too crowded. We may replace that with a air hockey table since it's just beside the family room. The move will give us more space to walk around the table, especially when we have guests. I'm posting the "before" pic. and then of course I'll post the after. The window up above is so awesome, in the photo it's still dark early morning but the natural light that comes in is great. That fixture that is hanging will be painted black or replaced completely eventually. All white fixtures must be banished from my kingdom :) Anyways, it's taken us a couple of weeks to pick out just the right color and texture. We thought we'd made a decision the other day but changed our minds. Last night we ended up purchasing it at Lowe's. I told my husband we are anal :) we are just so darn picky. Does it have the right texture? Is it just the right color? Does it match or compliment the other wood in the room? How about the wood banister going upstairs, not that it's anywhere near it. Then the printing terms from both our past come in, are the colors "registered"? Meaning do they line up, because of course laminate flooring is just made to look like wood, did they do a good job making it. How thick is it, because we have a thicker padding under our carpet that will butt up to it. Can the dogs nails or my son's toys scratch it? Do the key test and try to scratch it. How about the warranty, is it for 10 years, that's not long enough, even though we may no longer be in our house 7 years from now. The floor has to out last us. So we bought flooring with a 25 year warranty. I'm sure the future owners of our home will be thankful :) I'll be 67 by then :) We are to funny, I told my husband we make quite a pair :) Our children were so patient with us last night, I couldn't believe it. We went from Home Depot to Lowe's with thoughts of going back to Home Depot. In that time we did run into some friends from our past, they actually live behind us but we only see them about once a year. Along the way our daughter thought an elderly man was stalking us, don't think so though but we appreciate her being on the look out. So we now have it "acclimating" to our room, see there it is in the picture, all 6 boxes of it. We wanted to have the room finished for Thanksgiving dinner, nice goal don't you think? We've been in our house for 6 months now. Our goal is to have our 1st floor completed, possibly with the exception of paint. The carpeting from the dining room actually went up into my daughter's room. Her carpet didn't match the rest of the upstairs. My husband and father-in-law did a meticulous job removing and installing. The upstairs is near completion also with the exception of paint and the "loft" which now looks like a twister went through it. My daughter's room, with the exception of her bed is out there now due to the carpet having been installed. Still waiting for a vision though on the loft. We want to keep cost down so my husband will custom make our Art/Craft work area up there. It's fun to see this all come together. It's funny to think I wrote all this about Laminate floors, LOL.