All Hail Pinterest

Okay, so I fought it for a long time.  My friend, Christi, tried to get me hooked on Pinterest back when I was living in Asheville.  I am not one for social networking and spending more time on the internet than I need.  After we realized what our new life situation would be = in Naples + Ryan working many hours a day, I decided it was time that I find a "hobby" or something to occupy the couple of extra hours per day that I now have.

I am not a crazy Pinterester as I don't spend wild amounts of time pinning things that I will never have time or actual desire to do.  It is a great place to go for ideas and I have enjoyed it.  Here are some things I have pinned and tried.

 When we moved in we sort of added all of these dark spots to the carpet from grease, dirt and moving things up the stairs.  I found a cleaning secret on Pinterest - mix one part ammonia to one part water, spray onto dirty carpet, cover with white towel, iron over top of towel, stain pulls out.  Totally worked, Ryan was impressed.  Sorry I don't have an after picture here...

 Father's Day gift idea for Ryan.  We had a strict $20 budget.  We bought (and returned) the letters from JoAnn's, bought frame from Wal-Mart and printed pictures at Sam's Club and came in under budget!  

These are the kids new favorite cookies.  So simple - strawberry cake mix, 1 egg, 1/4 cup water, 1/4 cup oil, roll into balls, place on cookie sheet 350 for 11 minutes.  Seriously so easy, so sweet, so good, so gone...  Also experimented with Devil's Food Cake they turned out but I had to up the water and oil to 1/3 cup. 

There are other food items I tried as well but no pictures to back them up.  I have done some puzzles for Elysse's church bag.  It is fun getting ideas and trying new things out.  Thanks Christi!

Hoops

Nathan has had a difficult time this year at school feeling like he fits in.  He wants to but doesn't always know how.  So we started asking him what the other kids do at recess.  He said most of the boys shoot hoops.  We encouraged him to try.  He came home from school one day completely ecstatic.  He couldn't wait to see the pride on my face when he told me he made 19 hoops at school that day.    

 I went out and bought a basketball.

The people we are renting from left the basketball hoop behind as they said it is broken.

Maybe it is broken but works great for us!

I love that he is not afraid to try something new.  He doesn't have perfect form but he is learning.

Apology

Last night was not a good night.  The kids were fighting.  It started as wrestling a bit and then it exploded into something different.  Kids were sent to their rooms and a grouchy night was had by all.

I went into Nathan's room last night to put some things away and we talked for a few minutes. Then Nathan said, "I am sorry I had to call you stupid two times today."

Expressive Art?

95 Driftstone Circle

It is official our home now belongs to a new family.  We officially closed today.  All documents are recorded and all funds have been transferred.

I know I should be grateful we were able to sell our home in a down real estate market - especially how quickly we were able to sell it, despite the fact that we lost a ton of money in the sale.  The fact remains, that was my house.  We built memories there.  We expected to stay.  That was our forever house.

Normally I would post pictures of the house with this entry.  However, I can't stand to look at the pictures.  This past Sunday, while in church, Ryan was flipping through pictures on his phone.  He stopped on a picture of Audrey's fourth birthday - she sat in front of a fun cake decorated in light blue and green frosting (favorite colors) adorned with chocolate animals - in my dining room.  It hit me, just like that - it doesn't belong to me anymore, I burst into tears.  I tried to stop.  I really tried to stop but couldn't - so there I sat in church, balling my eyes out because I saw a picture of a family memory recorded in our home - that no longer belongs to us.

I am so thankful to be in Florida.  I love it here.  We are making friends and we will look into buying a house in the next year.  I just need to mourn.

Perhaps this will seem completely ludicrous to some, it is only a house.  But to me it wasn't - we chose that house because we expected to be in it forever.  As a mom that stays at home, that home became, in large part, my identity.

She is 2!

 Here is the birthday girl.  

 Looking at Ryan singing "Happy Birthday" look how she adores him.

 Now that is cake!

Elysse will always share her birthday with two other important events for our family.  

(1) Zachary's birthday 10 years earlier and (2) Audrey's last hospitalized chemo.  

This is a scary birthday for me.  Audrey was diagnosed with a rhabdoid tumor only one month after her second birthday.  I know, she is a different girl - but for me, the feelings are still there.  

Sisterly Love

It has taken awhile to get to this point.  

 But sometimes when Nathan is away...

Elysse is "Little Mommy" and she tries to do everything she sees me do.

Lunch at the Round Table

 Audrey is not very good at entertaining herself.  She misses Nathan the ENTIRE time he is away from home.  The other day she surprised me and came up with a project all her own.  It was very organized and detailed and in the end she decided to have lunch in the middle of it all! 

 Elysse enjoyed it too.

Contract Law

Lets face it, my children are never idle.  Before church they decided they wanted to build a fort.  We discussed that the fort would need to be cleaned up after church so we could prepare lunch (fort was covered table in kitchen area).  They agreed.

Pic taken in the beginning before half of the toys from playroom were also under the table

When we came home from church it went as expected.  "Never mind I am not hungry."  Thinking if they weren't going to eat it would not need to be cleaned up.  

So, we had a discussion on Contract Law.  It was explained that what we formed earlier that morning was a verbal contract.  Grantor side of the contract (parents) allowed children to build a fort under the pretense that Grantee side of contract (children) would clean up after church.  In contracts both sides make promises to one another.  Grantee must repay Grantor for generosity (in this case).  If one side does not follow through on the contract the contract is broken and the party which breaks the contract must face consequences.  

Believe it or not they actually got it!  Now we discuss contracts and check to see if the kids really want to enter into a verbal contract - thinking of moving to actual written contracts for Nathan...

When we were finishing the cleaning a comment was made stating that if we truly work at it it only takes a short time - much faster than complaining and dragging it out.  Audrey then declared, "Don't blame it on me, blame it on the contract!"  Love that girl.

All Caught Up

Okay I am now all caught up on my posts.  Can you tell I have been posting a lot more lately?  Living in Florida has given our family many changes that make it easier for me to blog.  #1  The computer is actually set up so I can use it whenever I want and it is so much easier (I will have to take a picture).  #2  Ryan works so much later so I keep myself busy on the computer after dinner (sometimes before too). By the way I have decided I am going to do pinterest (because of Ryan's schedule and being alone so much) but it said I have to wait for an invitation - and it has been 24 hours and no invitation, what is the deal?  #3 The house is set up - by the end of the weekend we will even be able to put both cars in the garage!  That is a great accomplishment for a Florida house.  (I was priding myself on the fact that we were getting close and my neighbor said he has been here for five years and he doesn't even have one car in the garage).

After I get the exercise room set up I guess I will not have an excuse to not use it and see some results.....

By the way, I am not complaining about Ryan's schedule.  Yes he works really long days which leaves me home with the kids for LONG days but he is happy when he comes home.  He works hard.  He has work to do and that means job security for our family.  It is a very good thing.