from cabin to beach...

the color of my bedroom furniture has always bugged me.

much too loggy (as in a log house) for me.

since i'd rather be on a beach right now, white inspires me.

since i had a white gallon sitting there, STARING at me,

i painted.

and

i loved it.

pioneer woman cooks...

the prep zone....

this is what Stewed tomatoes look like. we usually just use ketchup.

put your noodles on tin foil??? never heard of this but hey, when the Pioneer Woman tells you to do it, you just do it. don't ask questions. she's published a book, i haven't.

alright.

if you are reading my blog and have not yet heard about the Pioneer Woman,

get OFF my blog and check her out!!

no, i won't think you're a trader.

she's an amazingly funny girl.

someone that i would like to be friends with if she lived in my town.

she homeschools.

she blogs.

she cooks.

blah. blah. blah. so NOT me. still...love her.

my sis was telling me about her cookbook.

a.MAZ.ing!!!

so i've been trying some of her recipes.

easy-smeasy-japanesseeee!

in fact, she shows step-by-step PICTURES!

HELLO! that's my love language.

last week i made her lasagna.

jackpot. finally found something that all four of my boys were wild about.

so i made it again tonight for the whole likkel clan. when i told max was i was making, he actually let out a "yee-haawww".

of course, forgot to take a pic of the final project but trust me, it was prudy!!

graduation....

Pastor Pete and Mrs. Burke handing out his Bible!

don't you just want to kiss that face??

uncle tim and dear bai giving her testimony. precious.

my baby has graduated.

(wow. didn't think i'd be writing that for awhile)

a few weeks back, my babe 'graduated' from the second grade into third grade!!

big stuff in his life.

this is one of the many reasons that we love our church. they make a big deal out of the 'little things'.

but, the BEST part of this day for him was getting his very own "special bible"!!

let me tell you, it's a really cool bible!!!

we were sitting in the back so i didn't get great pictures. (like i would have in the front row??)

we hope that he will look back on this day and remember, not that he got to wear the spiffy hat but that he received his 'special' bible. it is our prayer that he devours the words, learns to follow them and becomes a great disciple for Jesus.

nothing else matters much.

my little miss bailee was also had the opportunity to share how she invited Jesus into her heart. amazing story. will have to do a post about that soon.

you've served him well.....

my boys love their shoes.

literally, love them to bits.

Sam would wear these until the cows come home...

whenever that might be.

so while he was out, i had to sneak these pups into the trash.

they served him well.

like my baby brother, Brady says "take a picture, that way you don't need to store it".

good advice from that sassy little whipper snapper.

the zoo master and her animals....

a few weeks back, i had the joy of assisting Jack's second grade class on a field trip to the Vancouver Game Farm.

i was asked to be a 'group leader', which at this age, is a breeze.

what a fun group of kids. did i mention that i adore this age?? i didn't say it?

well, i do.

an inquisitive and energetic little bunch.

at the end of a week of continuous rain, we were thrilled when God choose to give us a mostly, rain free day.

He even threw some sun in there.

wasn't that good of Him?

these are a great group of kids.

respectful and very, very fun.

i spent the day, in awe of what wonderful little people this group of kids is.

i'm proud to say, my kid is one of them.

oh crap, i can't find the pictures.

you'd think with all this organization going on i could EASILY put my hands on them.

uhg.

since i'm in a serious blogging mood, those will have to wait.

get back to you on this one.

nesting...

i'm nesting.

big,bad, nesting.

NO, i'm NOT pregnant. smack yourself if the thought crossed your mind.

ok, so maybe it's the ENDLESS amount of rain here in the Pacific Northwest.

maybe it's because i'm, as kath would say, 'in a funk'.

maybe it's because my sister and fam are coming? (just for the record, let me say, my sister could care less if my house is in order. she's good like that. although, when she heard i was coming, she quickly threw in a fancy new swimming pool and spa and lots of other pretty things in her yard....so, i don't feel too bad about wanting my house in order. is that too much too ask??? love u sis.)

maybe it's because i don't want to be married to cleaning and organizing my house this summer. i simply want to 'be'.

who knows, maybe there doesn't HAVE to be a reason.

i just like to nest.

it brings me joy.

i want my house to be the 'sanctuary' it is in my mind.

it's a nice place to be.

so,i did this......

-EVERY junk drawer, unjunked. not saying i got rid of the junk. that would defeat the purpose, however, i can now find ONE of the 75 AA batteries that have been lost in there for 3 years. not lying.

-i cleaned my office. i mean cleaned to the point of actually being able to set my laptop on it. ya know, do what it's designed to do? great concept, eh?

-cleaned out the game cupboard. those of you who frequent my house know that if you've left something here, this is where you will find it, usually shoved between Monopoly and Parcheesi. when my parents moved out of their house, almost 2 years ago, i 'inherited' a box of game/game pieces from my childhood.

yeah me. as sweet of a gesture that it was (mom, i know the truth, you wanted to clean that bad boy up as much as i did), it's been looming above me. yup, i cleaned that.

-i organized my DVDs and Cd's. i found out today that i have a tad bit of obsessive compulsive disorder. it was all i could do to not alphabetize them. yes, that actually crossed my mind. then i realized that the hub would think i was drinking in the middle of the day. (maybe this should have been an evening project...)

-master bathroom. every drawer done. old make-up gone. toothbrush drawer, bleached.

-upstairs. both bedrooms are done. all their cubbies (soon to be labeled) have been purged. (my dear hub took them to b'ham with him yesterday so i did a super speedy run through when i didn't have 6 little eyes, peering into the garbage can....assuring me that they CAN NOT live without that bird feather (gross)/painted rock/the notebook of paper that no longer has any use able paper/oh, and the ink pen with it's insides missing. which, WILL be used as a gun to shoot spit wads with.

duh, i should have known that.

lucky me, i had thought through this process beforehand and realized that the white garbage bags that we use in the kitchen would not be suffice.

i brought out the big dogs. the BLACK ones from the garage. good thinking, trac.

-kitchen cabinets and pantry...check.

-downstairs bath (jack's bathroom)....check.

-front hall closet....check.

-magazine pile/paper pile....check. check.

-UNDER MY BED. did it.

-nightstands. done.

-emptied out my car. i mean it, i REALLY emptied it. there is not one lone penny,not a stick of gum,not a stray reciept, got rid of the 19 (seriously, i counted 19) tampons....you never know where you'll run into a whole group of girls that may all need them. i'm just saying, it COULD happen, not a reminder appt. card to help me remember that i have/had a doctors appt. schuduled last july...or was it the july before that one??? anywho.....all that was quickly laid to rest, inside 2 large laundry baskets. i unloaded my center console. some of you just passed out. i have stuff that i put in there from when we first got our mini-van, in 1999. 3 homes and 2 cars later, i caved. decided that when my very favorite tub of lipstick went missing and i was frightened that i may loose an arm if i went in too deep, i decided, i could avoid it no more. a quick run through with the Windex tomorrow and i'll once again welcome Friends into my 2cd home.

anyone else thinking that i need a full time therapist??

yeah, a massage therapist please. :)

with all that being said, you'd think i was done.

wrong-o.

not-o.

haven't even started in the garage.

then there's that little thing called painting. (i have some wonderful back-up help on this one)

oh, and there's the steam cleaning of the carpets.

the stripping and re-waxing of the wood floors.

and don't even get me started on the outside projects.

thankfully, next week is supposed to be shaping up-weather wise.

i'm realizing that as much as i don't think the weather effects my moods, how i feel emotionally, it does.

i need sunshine.

i need sunshine.

i need sunshine.

just telling you what i need.

tomorrow i'm off to miss shona's for coffee. looking forward to catching up with all my bible study buddies. i miss them.

aside from all this nonsense, we have had other things going on. once again, most of my pictures are in my camera which is stilling in my camera bag (hey, at least it's organized!)

we ended up going to the Matsqui wave pool on sunday. celebrating our Maxwell a few weeks late.....

pics to come......