SNOW DAY!!!!!!

We get a snow day tomorrow! Yee Haw!!! Can't wait to play outside with the kiddos. With hot chocolate and making some cookies as well! Sprinkled with lots of picture taking! We are making the most of it! Too bad Daddy has to work!

Wow, what a difference.........

..........a few weeks can make! I am now knee-deep in finals work. This week had been so nuts that I feel like I am just trying to keep my head above water!!! And it isn't even finals week yet! The crazy thing is that I only have one final to actually take next week! So many of my professors decided to give exams this week over the last few units and count them as the final. Which stinks cause it means classes and tests and projects all simultaneously. Which is what finals weeks is SUPPOSED to be about. Just being able to focus on testing and not the normal class schedule. I will quit complaining and just say that I am glad to have made it half way through the week. I have one quiz out of the way. As well as turning in my final drawing portfolio just a bit ago. So that is a load off my mind. Now I just have to get through a final this afternoon, My last big design project that is due in the morning as well as a portfolio of my semester's design work. Then tomorrow afternoon I have an exam in Psych over four chapters and since I have a high A average in there I should be able to exempt myself from that final. Last but not least I have a review session Friday to prepare for my big American Government/Political Science test. That one will probably be the hardest. But at least I have the weekend to breathe a bit and get more studying for it in before Monday.

Next week should be a breeze school-wise once my test is over! I am really looking forward to it! I will work a little bit and get to go to Kyndall's Christmas party at school. Which I am super excited about! It is the 1st party all year I will have gotten to attend since school usually conflicts! Then Friday I just have to come back to campus to pick up my final portfolio's with their grades! The rest of the week I am going to spend getting the five of us ready to go to visit my family in Nebraska over Christmas. As long as no big road blocks or bumps in the plan get in the way, we plan on leaving the 18th and staying there until the 1st of the year. I can't wait. It has been almost 1 year since the last time I saw all of them. I am super homesick and it will do me good to relax and spend some time with my old friends and family all together in the same place.

Hope you all are having a great holiday season! I still have yet to finish up or decide much about Christmas cards. Maybe I will get to that next week too! I feel another to-do list coming on!!! AAAGGGHHH!! :) LOL!

Happy Wednesday! Take time today to enjoy the little things!

Downtime........

I am typing this from a computer at WKU, but I could literally jump up and shout that I am "SO READY FOR THANKSGIVING BREAK!!! WOO HOO"!!!! I have to go to work at 3, then I get off at 4:30 and embark on five days of nothing but family and good eating! I love it! I am excited to spend time with my kids, and just enjoy life with no hustle and bustle. I may go shopping on black Friday, or I may not! The beauty of it all is that it is up to me! Nobody dictating our schedules! Our Christmas tree is up as well as most of the inside decor, so all I really have left to do is mess with the porch if I feel like it! It is heavenly! I am floating on a cloud thinking of all this un-scheduled downtime we are going to get to have. Sure I may do some laundry here or there, and I know I will run the dishwasher and clean the kitchen a bunch. But the smile on my face is because I know I can do it all in a t-shirt and p.j. pants and not even have to touch the eyeshadow or mascara all weekend long if I don't feel like it! Of course we all know, that the time will be to short. I will turn around and it will be Monday again. But believe you me, I am gonna enjoy the next few days in every possible way..............come on 4:30! LOL!

Hope everyone has a blessed and happy Thanksgiving. Doing whatever it is YOU want to do....eating, shopping, napping, you name it! Enjoy your family and friends and don't feel bad about having that second helping of stuffing. I know I won't!

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!

Life has been hectic as always! Can't believe that Thanksgiving is just over a week away and then the hustle and bustle of Christmas will be upon us! I have still been keeping up with my gratitudes this month. Even though I haven't written them all down here on the good old blog, I have made a real effort to think of as many things as possible each day to be thankful for. Sometimes that means just recognizing good things in the moment. Other times it has been actually putting pen to paper and making an old fashioned list. A few excerpts from that past week would be as follows:

I am so thankful that:

I survived my first parent-teacher conference. Actually I got glowing reviews about Ms. Kyndall! I was so happy to hear good things about my girl. And have a few fears put to rest by her teacher as well. It was a blessing!

I have had an umbrella for all the not-so-nice days on campus.

My husband is a good father and provider and has allowed me the chance to return to school without having to worry 24/7 about if the kids are in good care or not.

Keaton and Claire are adjusting to "big kid beds" (toddler beds) They are growing up so fast!

Good conversation with good friends.

I am able to watch my kids enjoying life and learning about new things! Watching them experience something for the 1st time is like doing it all over again myself. Completely amazing!!




On another note, I want to challenge everyone to not only count your blessings and BE THANKFUL.....but also tell someone that you are thankful for, THANKS! I think this quote sums it up:

At times our own light goes out and is rekindled by a spark from another person. Each of us has cause to think with deep gratitude of those who have lighted the flame within us.
-- Albert Schweitzer

We all have these people in our lives. And if you are like me you rarely take the time to truly put into words how special they are to you. What a good thing it is to have them in your life! So take time out this week and let them know! I promise you will be glad you did! If you are not great with the spoken word, then jot it down in a notecard. Write it on the mirror in the bathroom, leave a note on the fridge. However and where ever you want.....just do it! You might be surprised at what you spark in someone and better yet, you may just find out that lots of people are thankful for YOU too!

Have a blessed week everyone! :)

Where does the weekend go? :)

Every weekend seems to fly by faster and faster. I just don't ever have enough time in them to get done all the stuff that I want to, much less NEED to! :) I did make time this weekend though, to judge a pageant in BG. It was held at the new South Warren High School, which is absolutely beautiful! I hope all those kids know how lucky they are to go there. It is nicer than any University I have ever set foot in! It was fun to see the girls all dressed up. It was for the Calendar Girl pageant, so there was a great turn out. There was 14 contestants, which for a new school is great! My favorite part besides seeing all the dresses, was reading the girls responses to the questions that they were required to fill out. Some of them were hilarious, like what vegetable they were most like! Others were really philosophical....think like this "what is most important wealth, knowledge or beauty?". Made me remember back to my highschool days when I was doing pageants and how I thought I had all the answers to life back then! Ha, little did I know, right! :)

It was nice to be in the pageant atmosphere again. It had been since this summer that my girls had done one. We have actually decided to take a break from competing until they are a little older. Right now they are in the same age group and it is hard for me to give as much attention to each of them as I would like to with them being so young. I know that in the future we will pick it up again, when they are able to at least go out on stage alone and I can just watch from the sidelines. I hope they have as much fun with them as I always did. Some of my very best friends after highschool, were girls I met during Miss Teen Nebraska. I still keep in touch with them to this day.

I know that lately pageants seem to be cast in such a negative light. But I don't feel they are. I will always be grateful for my pageant experiences. For the knowledge, poise and self-confidence I gained from them. And for the life-long friendships that I fostered. As far as I am concerened....LONG LIVE BEAUTY QUEENS! :)

Have a great week everyone! I will be back in a day or two to update my gratitudes!

Happy Monday!

Gratitude

Lately I have been thinking a lot about gratitude, big and small. Things in life that we take for granted and the overall feeling that we should be thankful for more. We are truly fortunate to live in a warm home and have food on the table each night. But beyond that we have many other things in life in which we should take the time to recognize and give thanks for. I was blog-hopping the other night and came across several posts which all referenced gratitude journals. Simply put it is taking the time every day to write down 5 things you are thankful for. It can be as simple as the sun in the sky or the smile on your kids face. For me I am challenging myself to start and keep this journal for the next 30 days. I want to be specific. I want to rememeber that the Lord is constantly at work in my life. All in all, I think it will be neat to go back to the journal on Decemeber 2nd and see what all I wrote down! Maybe give me the inspiration for an art project or two. Ultimately I hope to keep it up through December too, cause lets face it when things get hectic around the holidays it is easy to grumble instead of giving thanks! LOL! :) I will share my gratitudes here from time to time. And if you think this sounds like fun then join in and post your gratitudes too! I will get us started..........

Today I am thankful for:

1. Seeing a white squirrel on the way to study this morning. It was funny and unusual and a neat way to start the day!

2. Having people in my life who are involved with helping my twins get prepared for school. We have an amazing team of therapists and workers who care about them like they are their own family.

3. The fact that I remembered to wear a sweatshirt today. The weather has turned cold and for some reason WKU is spending our tutition money on still running the AC! :)

4. Being able to sit here right now and know that my kitchen is clean. Even though I was tuckered out last night I still went ahead and loaded the dishwasher and cleaned up from the evening meal. It is nice to not have that hanging over my head!

5. Extra time unexpectedly in my day. I was able to leave my morning class early and get a head start on studying for a test I have at 12:30. This has put me in a much better mood!

Bring on the Christmas music!

So Halloween is officially today. Even though we did our trick or treating last night due to a town ordinance that changed it to Saturday. And I have to say that I am glad to see it go. It has never been my favorite holiday. The kids enjoyed it. They will eat candy for the next four weeks. End of story. On the other hand, I am ready for the holiday of all holidays............CHRISTMAS!!!!!!!!!!!!! I would put my tree up tomorrow if Jordan would allow it. We all know he won't though. So I will count the days til Thanksgiving. Stuff myself with Turkey and Dressing and then wait patiently until midnight that night when I can officially begin my joyous Black Friday shopping. I can't wait!!!!!!!!

It is the MOST WONDERFUL TIME OF THE YEAR!!! :)

Trunk or Treat!

Just a few pics of the kiddos before our annual Trunk or Treat at church. The girls as you can tell by the pics were super excited to dress up. Keaton not so sure about it all! :) Maybe this will get him excited for the real thing Saturday for Halloween!

Are things really better with age? :)

I am so thankful for getting the chance to be able to go back to school. I know it may seem like a small thing, but I really do Thank God everyday that I am able to take this second chance and really immerse myself in learning and the whole process that is college. It makes me a little regretful though, that I didn't make the most of the college experience at a younger age. But for some reason I just wasn't ready at that point in my life to absorb this knowlege and apply it to my life. Young and dumb, too concerned with the other things that college life had to offer at the moment. So for me college is one of the experiences that has gotten better with age. I don't think I take things for granted here like some of the young kids in my class do. Don't get me wrong, I highly recommend finishing the process while you are young, not married and kid-free, but there is something to be said for being able to apply the life lessons that I already have collected to my new process of learning. Each day that passes is one day closer to graduation, but it is also a new day to learn something new that I didn't know before! That to me is exciting!!!

Happy Thursday everyone!!!! :)

Funny

Sometimes life is just funny. People are funny. The way things happen are just funny. And by funny I mean many things, funny ha-ha, funny strange, funny I couldn't have seen that coming with a crystal ball, funny weird. It all is just funny. There are things I have seen since getting married and having kids that I swear a Hollywood writer couldn't come up with! Living in Allen County would sure give some t.v. show good material. I truly think we have more funny/strange/unique people than any other county in Kentucky. It is just one of the most different places I have ever lived in my life. And I have lived LOTS of places! It has taken me awhile to figure out how the people here operate. But I am slowly but surely getting the hang of it. One thing is for sure, I don't know how long I will live here, or if I will spend the rest of my days in Scottsvegas, but I sure don't think I will ever fit in with their brand of funny. Now that would be good for a laugh! :)

FALL BREAK!!!

I have enjoyed all the challenges so far of going back to college full-time. It has been rewarding to try new things and challenge myself to learn material and take tests all over again! (hey it has been almost 9 years!) But the late nights at school and the extra work that goes into design projects, artwork and general studying has left me a little (ok a lot) worn out. That is why I couldn't be happier that from tonight until Sunday night I am on FALL BREAK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I really need this time to get lots of things done that have fallen by the wayside since this summer. First and foremost I need to get a haircut! I haven't been to get one in months and I am not sportin' this mini-mullet past the weekend. It has GOT TO GO! Secondly I plan on getting all my laundry done and the kids summer stuff put away. I will keep out a few outfits in case we experience any unseasonably warm weather again, we do live in KY afterall. They always say if you don't like the weather here just wait a few minutes and it will change! But for the most part if it is summer it is headin' into hibernation in the basement. Last but not least I am going to get all my fall decorations out and up! I have been wanting to buy some new stuff lately, but I promised myself I wouldn't get anything until I took inventory of the stuff I already have. Not that I NEED anything else, but it is always nice to add a new fall prim or two to the collection.

On the FUN side of things, I think we are going to try and make it to Jackson's Orchard. I would love to wait a little longer til the leaves are changing more, but I think the weather this weekend is supposed to be pretty spectacular. So we will take advantage of that while we can!

So that is my next four days in a nutshell. I hope to squeeze in some good walks and outside time in there too. But if the laundry beast takes me over then I will have to slay it before I can play! :) I will try to post pics of the fall deco. as a little motivation to get it all done!

Hope everyone has a great rest of the week! TTYL!

WOW, where has she been!

Sorry friends, family, and those that don't know me but stumbled upon this page quite by accident, as you may or may not have noticed I have been M.I.A! And we are not just talking the out for a day or two, back next week kinda missing! We are talking full on dropped off the planet gone for a year type stuff! Shew! Now before you go on thinking that I have been at home eating bon-bons and just living the easy life, let me set ya straight! I have been a busy girl. And I really don't know just where to begin. So let's see........in the past 12 months I have..........


Spent a lovely snowed-in Christmas with my family in Nebraska.
Threw a throw-down of all throwdowns for Claire and Keaton's 2nd birthday!
Started a new job.
Resigned from said new job.
Gone back to college full-time, to pursue my passion of art and graphic design.
Started a new job as a student worker on campus.
Made new friends.
Left old friends.
Celebrated 2 amazing birthdays with 3 amazing kids.
Lost 20 pounds.
Gained 20 back.
Lost 10 again. :)
Prayed a lot.
Put faith in the unknown and the Lord above. A LOT!
Celebrated 6 years of wedded bliss with Jordan.
Stayed a weekend in a gorgeous home in the Smokey Mountains for the 1st time.
Got rear-ended in Bowling Green at rush hour.
Focused on myself, my kids, and my husband and never felt better about it!


So really as you can see, my time has been well spent. But the said thing is I don't have the details of all these amazing happenings written down anywhere. Sure I have the photos of some of them, but we all know how I am about actually printing off the photos from the memory card. Sheesh, that is a whole 'nother post. So in the interest of looking back at these events fondly years from now. And also for the plain and simple fact that I miss hearing myself think, type and sometimes talk out loud.....I guess back to the blogosphere I come. Ready or not. I can't promise that all or any of my posts will be interesting. But I can promise that I will share more often what is going on in the life of this mom to three, student 24/7, working, half-crazy, wife who still doesn't love to cook's life!

Afterall, 12 months is really to long to go without talkin' to someone. Don'tcha think? :)