Yay - I Won!

I woke up this morning with the usual Monday morning blahs.

Prying the kids out of bed, hurry up and eat, go brush your teeth find your shoes, etc. and I took a second to check my e-mail and my day suddenly got better.

I was a Winner!

Everyone wants to be told they're a winner & a Monday morning winner is even better.

Rachel was having a contest for a free photo session.

And what's even better is that she's local to our new town. Double Yay.

We'll probably be getting together sometime in October to do the photos (of the kids of course) so I'll keep you posted on how that turns out and in the meantime.....go over & check out her beautiful photography.

Hope everyone's week gets off to a good start and remember....we're all winners. (hehe)

Need Some Ideas

Ok all of you creative ladies out there. I need to pick your brains.

It's a sofa wall problem....not just one wall but two.

Here's the dilemma:





In this new family room the sofa has to fit into a corner and we just got a sectional (so we can all sit together) and now I have 2 blank walls staring me right in the face.

As you can see the stairs are to the right & there is a lovely thermostat on the wall. Now I love The Nester's idea for hiding that, however I don't know what to do with the rest of the space. (Ok - after browsing thru every single one of her posts to find this reference.....I totally need to visit every fabric store & yard sale for the next 5 years to catch up with her lovely style.)

But I digress....

A rug is on the agenda (as soon as I can get DH to agree - which he will eventually) and I'd like to get another table for that empty side of the sofa but for right now - it's the wall that's the problem.

Please help me figure out what to do with those two walls that will co-ordinate with each other and keep in mind.....I want to be frugal.

I'm officially stumped and desperately need your help.
Nester....you up for a little roadtrip to the Upstate of SC??

Gymnastics Begins

As many of you know, my little princess just absolutely flips for gymnastics. (Pardon the pun.)

Since we've been in the new location she's had to do without her weekly fix of jumping, twirling, and bouncing. We went to visit one gym and she was going to be evaluated but then she had her biking accident and wanted to postpone it. So, we did.

Well, since she's all healed, we decided to take a look at our other gym option and they are the only one who actually offered to let her workout with their team. We put her on the schedule and got to go yesterday. She was so excited.

Just to give you a little background...she had made it onto the competition team (level 3) at our old gym but never got the chance to compete. Now, at this new gym, they start their students out competing at level 2 and let me tell you they are some strong little five year olds.

The whole atmosphere was a little different. Just watching the girls out there practicing - they are a lot more strict here and a little bit further along than what we were used to. The girls are expected to walk the "competition walk" even to get water. Their form is expected to be correct all the time - even just warming up (which she wasn't used to). Did I mention that the owners of this new gym are from Russia and actually coached an Olympic athlete?? I may have left that part out.

After the class I spoke with the coach (not the Russian lady) & asked her about G. She goes..."um, yea I guess I can work with her. Level 3 will be ok but she may need a private lesson or two to get the routine down but I can work with her."

Umm....gee, ya think? Don't put yourself out or nothin'.

I personally thought G was pretty good at gymnastics (and she is) but she just hasn't been instructed on all of the things that they've already had. So....I guess her work has begun because she has to go 3 days a week for two hour sessions.

Man, B and I are really gonna hate that.

A Few Fall Touches

With everyone else doing their fall posts, I was beginning to feel a little left out.

It's bad enough that I have to look at all of your beautiful houses while I'm walking around here still trying to unpack boxes and try to figure out where to hang pictures while attempting to keep up with everyone's laundry. Now, I feel completely behind in the fall fufu process.

So....I managed to pull a little of it together. Just enough for one post and to be able to hook up to The Inspired Room's Mr. Linky.

I feel better now.

Here is a glimpse of fall in our home (even though it's still 90 degrees outside).

This little display is in the kitchen. I just love the cream pumpkin.

This is in the dining room.

I just love using shelled nuts in fall displays. (I didn't notice the stamps on the walnuts until I looked at the picture - oh well.)

The china belonged to my husband's mother. He inherited it when she past away. He was 16 at the time and it was 21 years ago yesterday so it's very special to us.

That's about it for the fall decor but I will give you a sneak peek at my new "toys" that arrived the other day. Can't show you the whole room until I figure a few more things out.

That's all for now. I'm off for more unpacking, arranging and re-arranging.

New Wheels

Hope everyone had a safe and happy Labor Day.

We didn't do too much and since we're still getting settled, there was plenty of work to do around the homestead.

A couple of things we did do was to get 3 out of the 4 people who live here new wheels.

Check 'em out:

My two little weeds had outgrown their other bikes & that's something that we had promised them they could get once we moved....new bikes. (The kids look so grown up - ugh.)

Disclaimer: They do normally wear their safety helmets however they just didn't want to for the picture. No nasty comments please.

This is Daddy's new toy.
He needed his new wheels to cut all of that lovely grass you see in the background.


There you have it. Everyone got new toys except Mom.....oh wait. My new toys should be delivered later today. Mine doesn't have wheels but they are very comfy.

Weather Woes

What a wild world we live in!

These storms out in the Atlantic just give us a small view of how powerful God truly is.

I pray that everyone in the path of Gustav has found a safe place to ride out the storm and when they return to their homes, they find little damage.

With that being said....is anyone paying attention to Hannah?

She's still out there just churning away and based on this graphic I just downloaded from the National Hurricane Center.....headed straight for the southeast. (Wait....that's us!)

I hope we'll hear more as it gets closer and I also pray that all of those other areas I see further out don't actually turn into hurricanes.

Happy Labor Day everyone.

Update: As of today's forecast, 9/3/08, Tropical Storm Hannah may only brush the coast of SC. We will pray that the storm doesn't strengthen anymore and that the ones who are in her path don't have too much damage.

We have a problem.

As many of you know, we've just moved into a new (ok, new to us) house.

The main pre-requisite from our children about new house when we were out looking was that it absolutely, positively had to have stairs.

That was their only requirement.

Stairs. (With lots of rooms up top, not just a bonus.)
That last request was the girl's.

So, being the intelligent parents that we are, we looked at all of our options and realized the advantages of having the children upstairs (Especially as they head toward their teen years with rapid speed.) and purchased a house that did indeed have stairs.

Now to get to the problem.....G is scared to sleep upstairs.
Huh? But you're the one who petitioned for these stairs.

She did well at first, but for some reason this last week she has been coming downstairs to our room every night.
She has trouble going to bed and gets up & down about 10 times before falling asleep.

She's not up there alone. Her brother is in the next room down.

I've tried letting her fall asleep to music.
Not working.

Last night, I even tried to let her camp out in her brother's room just to get used to being up there.
Didn't work.

This morning, she didn't even want to go up alone to brush her teeth! Ugh.
After some fussing encouraging on my part, she did get this task accomplished alone.

Any tips or hints for us to try?

I'm really tired of getting pushed off my own bed.