Wait and see...

I went to one of my most favorite stores in the world yesterday (Hobby Lobby) and bought some super cute supplies to make some really fun teacher gifts for my boys' teachers. Being that I work at the school and know both of them, I happen to know their taste, so that made it even easier and more fun to pick out the materials to make their gifts with. I seriously can spend hours in that store, but since I only had about 45 minutes, I think it saved me a lot of money. I am so excited to get started on these projects! Wondering what they are? Well, you're just going to have to wait. I will be posting pictures as soon as they are done. Here's hoping they turn out the way I'm hoping!

My Latest Obsession

I've always thought it would be fun to pick up some old furniture for cheap and paint or decoupage it. In fact, it's something I've thought of doing a lot, but just never have done. Now that we have a new house (well, it's been almost a year since we've been here, but it still seems new to me), it seems like the perfect time to add some real interest pieces and just make this house a little more eccentric than my last house. I was thinking about maybe trying out my whole furniture redo idea this summer, if I got around to it, and then I saw...Junk Gypsies! Have you seen this show on HGTV? I just happened to run across it this weekend and knew in an instant I was going to be hooked. These two adorable sisters travel around to flea markets and different places picking up "junk" and they refurbish it into some seriously cool decor! Of course, in the episode I saw, they decoupaged a headboard and painted and re-upholstered a garden chair. They both turned out so cool!!! There is no way after seeing this that I will possibly be able to wait much longer to do some cool projects of my own. In fact, I've already been scoping out craigslist and other places for some cheap furniture. And you know pinterest has some really great ideas too. I seriously was dreaming about projects I could do last night. Yes, I'm that obsessed. I most definitely will be very soon posting a picture of my first before and after project and here's hoping it turns out! I can't wait for my first victim...I mean, project. ;-) Be sure to check out Junk Gypsy on HGTV for some awesome inspiration!

Crazy Fun

My crazy self told my sister back in December that I would be more than happy to watch my now 6 year old niece and 6 month old twin nieces for Memorial weekend so she and her husband could go on a canoe trip for the holiday weekend. What?!!! Everyone I tell that I volunteered for this little adventure thinks I'm a nutcase and yesterday, I thought they might be right. After my sister dropped all the girls off (Payton is 6 and London and Lily are the twins), the twins just cried and cried and cried. I decided to take them outside in the stroller for a little walk. We live on a dirt road now, so I thought a walk around our 2 acres would probably be better than on the bumpy dirt road. London immediately was quiet and just looked around at everything, but Lily continued to scream. I decided to just forget it and wheeled the stroller into the garage to take the girls into the house. Surprise to me when as soon as we hit the smooth terrain of the garage floor, Lily instantly got quiet. Hmmm...maybe I was onto something here. I ended up pushing the girls around in a circle in the garage for 20 minutes until they fell asleep and then had Gavin (my oldest son who is 13) help me pick the stroller up and bring it into the house. The girls proceeded to take a 1 1/2 hour nap in their stroller in the kitchen. From then on, the rest of the night went great. Both girls went to bed between 9:00 and 9:30 and Brian, Gavin and I were able to do our workout (I will definitely be doing a post about our new workout adventures/torture) and the older kids played in peace and we all went to bed around 11:30. The twins slept until Lily got up at 6:00 and I brought her out in the living room and fed, changed and played with her. Then London woke up around 6:30 and I did the same with her. Everyone else continued to sleep until little miss Lilycakes decided she was tired, but was going to fight sleep by screaming (around 7:45) and wake everyone else in the house up (except for big sister, Payton, who is clearly used to sleeping through their noisyness). So far, the day has gone great and they have all 3 been happy girls. I'm getting a little taste of what it would be like to be a mom of 6 between the ages of 6 months and 13 years. For a weekend, I think I can handle it. For my everyday...not so sure. I'm just enjoying all these sweet girls that I have the joy of watching and am thinking I'm more blessed than crazy by having them all here for the holiday weekend. We'll see if I still feel the same by Monday. ;-)

It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood

What a completely gorgeous day! Of course I spent the majority of the day inside, but I thoroughly enjoyed the warm breeze blowing through the house and making everything smell fresh and springy. I used my Little Green and cleaned my couch and tomorrow I'll be cleaning my dining room chairs. I am in spring cleaning mode for sure. Time to de-clutter and get my house in order so once I get done with work for the summer (only 2 weeks left with my little preschoolers), I'll be able to enjoy my nice, clean house and only have normal maintenance cleaning to do instead of big projects. Aaaaaahhhh...what a perfect day, finished off with church and dinner out with the family. Everyday should be this good.

Little Green Review

So, I normally do product reviews on products that companies send me, but sometimes there are products that you purchase that are just too good not to share about. One of those products I've found is the Little Green by Bissell. I originally bought this deep cleaner to clean up some little "messes" our puppy was continually having on our carpet, that I got tired of hauling out the full-sized carpet cleaner to clean up. The Little Green did a great job of getting all of the mess off of the floor and completely took away the odor too. It wasn't long before I decided to clean my dining room upholstery and was amazed at just how dirty it actually was. Not only could I tell by the disgusting looking water in the tank of the machine, but also by how bright the upholstery looked! From there, I decided to get brave and try it out on my microsuede couch. I was a little nervous about how it would do, since it's so easy to see if any kind of liquid gets on that material, but I was beyond surprised and happy with the results! My couch smelled fresh and once it dried, it looked darn close to brand new! My mom even borrowed the Little Green several times to use to clean her carpeted stairs and then ended up liking it so much, she bought her own! I really just can't say enough good things about the Little Green by Bissell. If you're looking for an easy way to clean up little spills on your carpet, carpeted stairs, pet messes, upholstery, etc....this is the machine for you. It retails for about $89.99 and is totally worth every penny. The cleaning solution isn't too pricey either and a little goes a long way. I love my Little Green. In fact, I feel inspired to clean with it...my couch could use a little refresher. ;-) Disclosure: I was in no way compensated by Bissell for this product review. It is a review based solely on my experience with this product after purchasing it for myself and using it for the past few years.

I'm Awake, I'm Alive

Just in case anyone was wondering, I'm in fact still alive. This whole having a job and 3 kids in sports thing is really cramping my blogging style. Well, the good news is that summer vacation is quickly approaching and since I work in a school, I will have the whole summer off. Blogging world, here I come! I'm hoping to get back into doing some great product reviews and giveaways and just plain blogging again. So, let's do this! I'm long past due.