And the award goes to...

ME!




I have been given the honor of recieving this award from my gorgeous and extremely awesome friend, Ellisa! Not only is she gorgeous and awesome, but she's an incredible mommy to her two handsome boys, a loving wife and just an all around wonderful person. Some pretty funny things happen in her world, so be sure to check out her blog.

So, here's the details of the award. The Oops Award was created and is to be given to bloggers who inspire others with their humor and their talents, also for contributing to the blogging world in whatever medium. When you receive this award it is considered a special honor.


Once you have received this award, you are to pass it on to others. The rules for passing this honor on:


1) Pick 5 blogs that you would like to award this honor to.
2) Each award has to have the name of the author and also a link to his or her blog to be visited by everyone.
3) Each award winner has to show the award and put the name and link to the blog that has given her or him the award itself.
4) Award-winner and the one who has given the prize have to show the link of “Oops” blog, so everyone will know the origin of this award.


So, most of the people whose blogs I follow, have already recieved the award and the others I read aren't usually the funny type. So...I'll have to get back to you on that list of 5.

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Creativity and Happiness

So yesterday, I just felt the urge to do something creative. I ended up crocheting a plastic bag holder that I hung inside my pantry, so now I have all my plastic bags in there, instead of all over the floor of the pantry. Yay, I did something creative and cleaned up a chronic mess that drives me crazy everytime I open the pantry door.
Life has just been even more great than usual, lately. I'm making some really good friends at church and my women's bible study brings me so much joy and I can feel myself growing closer to the Lord. Not only that, but I have so much to look forward to!
Saturday is Gavin and Riley's first basketball games. They are super excited and so are we. Of course this takes away our one day of the week to sleep in, but oh well, such is life I guess. Halloween is coming up in a few weeks, then it's our girls' shopping weekend in Birch Run and Frankenmuth, the the "Kick off the Holidays" party at my aunt and uncle's house, then Thanksgiving, then Christmas Tree day, then all the Christmas parties, then New Year's, then my mission trip to Mexico, then Easter, then my birthday, then Delyn's wedding, then Summer...the things to look forward to just go on and on. I am so blessed and I don't take that for granted for a single second. I'm in awe of how fortunate my family is. We are healthy (besides the nagging colds and sinus infections the kids seem to keep getting), we all love each other so incredibly much, we have fun together and my children are growing up to be wonderful, loving little people. What more could I possibly ask for?
So, I'm thinking about doing some other crafty, creative projects and trying some new things. I just feel inspired and motivated. Hopefully that feeling sticks around, because I'm going to need that inspiration and motivation to get through the holidays on such a tight budget. LOL

I'm on a roll

So, I just finished baking 6 dozen ginger snaps and tomorrow I'm going to make several dozen snickerdoodles. I'm on a serious roll with this baking stuff and I'm loving it. Now, don't worry...Brian, the boys and I are not going to be ingesting all these cookies by ourselves. I'm going to take them camping with us this weekend where my parents, several of my aunts, uncles and cousins and some friends are going to be. So, there will be plenty of people to eat all my goodies. Brian is dying because he has only been able to sample the goods, due to him being in that Biggest Loser competition at work. I give him credit for having the willpower not to dive in and eat them. I told him I'd bake them all tomorrow while he wasn't home, if it would be easier for him, but he told me he could handle it and he has. So, one type of cookie down and one more to go. I'm just a baking fool lately and I'm thoroughly enjoying myself!

Stronger

I just wanted to share something that has been with me this week. We sing this song at church sometimes and this past Saturday we actually sang it 3 times during the same service. There was just something so powerful about it. Now, our Saturday night service only has about 100 people or so on most nights, but the feeling of the Holy Spirit in that room was so strong. When I looked up the video for this song and watched it, it actually brought me to tears. I know how just our small group at church sings this song and others with so much passion and love, but to see such a huge group singing it and worshipping the Lord is truly touching. I can only imagine how much love and joy God feels when He hears His children singing out to Him. How awesome. Anyway, I hope you'll enjoy the song too and really think about the lyrics. He is stronger than anything else in our lives. There is no person, no circumstance, no illness...nothing, that is stronger than our God.

Let His name be lifted higher!

Yummy Treats

So, I've been on this baking kick lately. Now, if you know me, I'm definitely not a baker. I love to try new recipes for dinners and stuff like that, but I'm not much of a sweets eater and I certainly don't make them...usually. For some reason lately though, I've been loving baking! I've made the good ol' chocolate chip cookies a few times, but I've made those in the past. I had some bananas one day that were really ripe (I want to puke when bananas are really ripe, they taste disgusting) so I had this sudden urge to make banana bread. I've never made it before, so it was a total experiment, but I made it and it was dang good. I even had enough to freeze some! Mmmmm, a yummy piece of banana bread with butter and a cup of coffee. Now that's what I'm talking about! Then, on Friday, I surprised the kids and made up some sugar cookie dough and mixed half of it with cocoa powder to make chocolate sugar cookies. Then, we used Pooh, Piglet, Tigger and Eeyore cookie cutters and decorated the cookies with all sorts of different kinds of sprinkles and stuff. The kids thought that was the coolest and it was a fun time for us to spend together as a family too. Now, I have another treat I'm ready to make. I was going to make it today, but I know it's one of Brian's favorite things and he's starting the Biggest Loser competition at work, so I don't want to tempt him. I'm thinking I'll make them and take them to the campground with us this weekend for Halloween camping though. So what is it? Snickerdoodles! Mmmmmm, I can't wait to have the house smelling all cinnamony and yummy. I actually don't eat a whole lot of what I make (thank goodness, because I definitely can't afford to), but I love the way it makes the house smell and I love seeing the smiles and excitement on the kids' and Brian's faces when they eat the yummy treats I make. I'm thinking this winter is gonna be full of baked goods around our house. Such a fun new hobby!

If only

As tons of other people right now, we are seriously running low in the money department. We've gone over our options a hundred times about how we can bring in more money. We have already begun being very frugal when it comes to groceries and that sort of thing and haven't eaten out or bought anything for enjoyment's sake for a while now. Me working isn't even an option because of the amount of money I would be able to make and the amount that would have to go out in daycare. Not to mention, in my eyes (and Brian's too, really) daycare is not even an option. So, I just keep thinking that there has to be something I can do to make money from home. You see people all the time who come up with easy little clever things that they start selling online or at craft shows or something and it eventually becomes a business for them. Why can't I seem to come up with some sort of clever item or service that I can offer from home to help bring money in? Now, don't get me wrong, Brian never makes me feel like I'm not contributing or anything like that and actually tells me he would much rather be in our current money situation than have me working and have Asher in daycare, but I still can't help but feel like I'm just not really helping out enough. Why should he have to work all day to bring in our only income and then stress about how far we can stretch it? He's really working at getting ready to start doing websites for local businesses and we're really hoping that will take off. In the meantime though, it sure would be nice to figure out some way that I could bring some extra money in. How cool would it be to find something you enjoy doing that is sort of like a hobby for you, but brings in an income too?! I guess I'll just have to keep racking my brain for some ideas, but in the meantime, if you know something I'm good at that could potentially earn me some money, could you clue me in? LOL

Ouch!

So, excitedly I go to the dermatologist today to finally take care of this insane acne that has decided to take over my face in the last year. It truly is as though I am going through puberty for a second time. Well, I'm not havin' that. So, as I said, excitedly I go to the dermatologist today...

My dermatologist has a huge, nice new office now (instead of the one that used to remind me of some dingy free-health clinic you might see in a movie or something) and I sit in the waiting room looking around and checking the place out. A nice guy named Jose calls my name and leads me back to a room and asks me what I'm there for. I tell him for the hideous acne that he may have noticed invading my face. He laughs and says he didn't notice, so it must not be that hideous. He fills some stuff in on my chart and tells me the doctor will be in in a few. So I wait...

In comes my doctor and we immediately get down to business. I explain the problem that is plaguing me and he examines my face and agrees that something needs to be done and he proceeds to write me some prescriptions and tell me he's going to take some samples from my acne. That sounds yummy. I proceed to make a few jokes about different things and he says "Sarcastic humor, that's my absolute favorite." and I tell him that's good because I'm full of it. He does the sampling and when he gets to a zit that I've been popping repeatedly for days in the crease of my nose, he says "Oh, that was awesome." I'm feeling insanely gorgeous by this time, let me tell ya.

All's well until he asks me if there's anything else he can do for me and I say "Oh yeah, I wanted you to look at the scar from the mole you removed on my back last summer." I turn around and lift up my shirt and he says "Whoa, that's one heck of a keloid." For any of you who don't know what that is, here's the definition: an abnormal proliferation of scar tissue, as on the site of a surgical incision. Well, I'm no stranger to keloids, I've had a few doozies and get my lovely scarring skin from my father. He then proceeds to show me quite the scar on his hand that is flat now, but he says that is was once like the scar on my back and some injections made the dramatic difference. So, he proceeds to get the injections ready...

REWIND: "So, excitedly I go to the dermatologist today to finally take care of this insane acne that has decided to take over my face in the last year." In no way was I expecting any form of shot, injection or the like. So, you can imagine how I felt at that moment as he was getting things ready. I said in a joking manner "Oh, that should feel good." and he looks at me with sympathy and says "It really is going to hurt, I'm sorry." Yay, I feel so much more at ease now. Thanks. He has me lay down on my stomach and says, "I know what this feels like because I've had it done before and I know it hurts, so bear with me." He sticks the needle in and I think "I'm cool, I can handle this." and then the intense burning and feelings of a sharp object being jabbed into my scar take over. I let out a little grunt and proceed to kick my foot ever so slightly on the table and tell him I'm sorry and he says "Hey, do whatever you have to do to get through it, because I know it's miserable." Well, it was and I was still in pain for a few hours after it. Right now though, it feels ok and I'm excited to see how it does. He did say that I may have to have a couple more injections, but I guess that would beat having this big ugly scar that I can sometimes see through my clothes and that I'm super self-concious someone who hugs me or puts their arm around my waist will feel.

All in all though, it was a good visit. I got some things taken care of that I've been needing to do and I'm looking forward to a zit-free face. So, wish me luck that the medications he gave me will clear my face up and that my scar will get better without having to have too many injections!