it's a good day

So far this morning I've been thankful for two things...their sort of unrelated but too good not to share.

First) The other day I mentioned to Spencer and his girlfriend, Susanna that I loved sunflowers and I wanted to used them for Mom and Dad's party but they were too pricey. End of story. We moved on. Yesterday Spencer said he had a little something for me for Mothers day. I'm not even his MOM! [see picture below]. The best part about this gift is not the flowers itself but the fact that my brother has such a sweet heart. He listens. He bought these for me because he knew I mentioned that I loved them and he thought it would bless my heart. He is a gem! What a good husband he'll make someday! I'm so lucky and thankful to have such an great brother. Thank you Jesus!
Secondly) I had a rough night last time. Colt is getting lots of teeth all at once. He has a really bad fever all night last night. He's having trouble with his peepee and it just seemed like everything was happening at once. I had spent all morning with him trying to make him happy and as I let the dog in from outside I stopped and was in awe by the view of my backyard. I thanked God out loud and just stood there for a minute. Look at what God has given us today? Look at the sky. It's like he took his paint brush and just paint the clouds in the sky just for me. So beautiful. Instantly everything was going to be okay. I don't know what it is but I feel so close to God when I see something like that. It's like he's saying, I'm still here. I hear him whisper that in the winter especially. When everything is so beautiful, quiet and white. Almost makes me want to cry. Thank you Jesus!

my masha

Happy Mom's Day Mom!

A few reasons my mom is awesome...


1. Her heart. Over the years I've learned so much from watching her. She has a heart for people. She truly cares for the less fortunate. She gives what she has without thinking twice. She used to work closely with the Make A Wish foundation and would always bring her MAW kids' situations into our lives. We would go and and grant wishes with my parents. She wanted to make sure we knew how important it was to show love to others. For years and years before we went and had our Thanksgiving feast with our families she would call the Center for The Homeless and let them know the Michael family would be there to serve Thanksgiving Dinner. We showed up and served...every year. Hair nets and all.

2. Cheap Fun. She taught us that you can have fun and make memories with out having money. When we were young the Fed Ex Plane [aka. The Big Purple Plane] would fly out of our local airport at 11pm at night. So we would pack up our station wagon with snacks and blankets...drive out to the airport...lay on top of the hood of our car and watch the plane fly by. When Andy and I were dating I told him if he ever want to take me on a good date. He should pack up a picnic basket and take me to the air port.

3. Her faith. She has listened to the Lord and lived her life for him. I remember when ever I had a try out for a team or a big test in school as she dropped me off she would grab my hand and pray for me out loud. It was significant. It mattered and I remembered it.

4. Her sense of humor. Growing up my Dad worked nights so it was just Mom, Spence and I all the time. We would have fashion shows. Spencer and I [yes...I said Spencer] would dress up in her old beauty pageant gowns and have our own Miss. America Pageant. She would be the judge. Then Spencer and I would make her do the talent portion of the Pageant. We would turn on some classical music and she would pull a ballet routine out of her butt and make us laugh until we cried.

The list goes on and on...

Love you Momma!

run forest run

Over the past 4 years I have signed myself up for a few 5K's. I've ran them. Well, can you call it running when you say, 'let's run to the next light pole...' then I walk for .25 of a mile, get ambitious and say, 'let's run to that red mail box...'. There is without a doubt more walking than running. But I'm a heifer....what can I say?

Luckily my Aunt Missy or my friend Missy...has ran all these 5k's with me. She is much less of a heifer than I, but still runs like one :) We refuse to sign up for any races unless we swear we'll run with each other for moral support and so we can look like losers together when we cross the finish line with a time of 46 mins. That time is not an exaggeration. We're a solid 15 minute miler. Actually today we ran a mile in 17 mins. But it was cold, rainy and windy. All the odds were against us.

It's always bad when you're running a 5k and you see a 90 year old man, who resembles the hunch back of Notre Dame, pass you by at lightening speed. Or the 5 year old who's taggin along with his mom and he leaves you in the dust.

The Sunburt is in a month and Missy and I are running it. Our best time was 38mins. She wants to beat our best time. I love how we haven't ran in forever and give ourselves 4 weeks to train. I just want to finish. This will be my 6th race. Makes me sound athletic doesn't it?

When I run, and my legs are burning and my left lung is about to jump out of my chest and play dead on the side of the road...I think this...If 400+ fat people can run on the biggest looser WHY CAN'T I? Then I remember they have a Jillian and I don't. BUT, at least I'm doing it!

Missy said she thinks about meat and potatoes and how yummy they are when she runs. I guess a big pot roast is what gets her focused and going.

When you're running or working out, what do you think about?

how many licks does it take...?

Tonight I let Colt have a tootsie pop sucker. He didn't eat the whole thing just licked it for a while. Imagine tasting sugar for the very first time. I'll bed his taste buds were dancing.
Sugar Crash. Colt took a nap with his Uncle Penter.So...How many licks does it take to get to the center of a tootsie pop?

the clapper

My son is a genius. The end.

i like to schwing

candy striped/shag

Following my last post I'll keep on the subject of home decor...
Would you rather...
a. Have every wall in your house be white and red striped?
OR
b. Have your entire house covered in white and red shag carpet from the 60's?

tur dur!

In my other life [the one where I used to get up to a alarm clock and actually make decisions other than, 'Should I gave him Blueberry Buckle...or Squash for lunch??']...I worked for Sofa Select, a local furniture store. My title was the Visual Merchandiser. Sounds fancy but pretty much I was in charge of bring new merchandise to the showroom floor and making it look schnazzy. It was an awesome job.

I also got to travel with the owners to Market in North Carolina twice a year to help come up with the new line up/fabrics for the upcoming season and to also buy accessories, rugs, lamps and artwork. It was a blast...and even more fun because you were spending $25,000 of someone else's money! Someone remind me why I quit???? No, as fun as it was, rolling around with my buddy boy far out weighs the joys of any job out there. It's true!

So in true designer fashion I change my house around all the time. I'm constantly switching lamps back and forth...swapping that artwork for this one and just changing up the look. I get bored quite easily. And that's what I've had fun doing the last few days. It's been a blast and Andy doesn't ever question it. I used to ask his opinion of how my decor looked and he'd always say, 'You're the one that gets paid to do it...Why are you asking me?' Now when I ask him he answers my question with a question, 'Are you still asking my opinion...you know I don't have one'. So I just do what I want and we're all happy.

Welcome to my living room! Feel free to relax and take a seat just don't mess up my pillow arrangement.

See I bought the orange curtains and the peacock curtains because I wasn't sure which way I wanted to go. I'd put a poll up on here to see what all you think...but I'm not that savvy and in my heart of hearts I just gotta go with the peacock. I'm returning the orange. I'm sure one day I'll be sick of the peacock because they're trendy and when that happens...I'll just go buy some more :) This is me. Getting really excited about pillows and such.Now go spruce up your house!

Switch around your rugs and your lamps.

Paint your living room Apple Green or Purple.

Purple is the new beige.

Do something fancy and unexpected.

I think you just might like it.

it's may 3rd now...

And I'm still talking about May 1st. So here are the pictures from my bday extravaganza. Here we go. This may or may not be...but definitely is the longest post ever.

Friday morning I woke up to find two cards on my table. The 'wifey' one made me cry and the 'mommy' one made me laugh because Colt signed his own name [with the help of big daddy] and then I cried because he's almost 8 months old and growing too fast. I'm sappy.

Then after making Colt's breakfast and looking out my front window I found a brand new pink hanging basket on my front porch. Also for me...also from my hubby...also made me really happy. He's good at giving me little surprises that fill my heart up.The last night we went to Tabor Hill and Oh my word...if you want some good food...you should go there. Wow. So good. Lane & Laurie, and Kaley & Rob graced us with their presence and we had lots of good times. Here I am with my hottie husband.Laurie and Lane. This is right after Lane made some origami out of his dinner napkin. I will not be mentioning what he crafted with his skills...all I can say is Laurie was embarrassed and told him to hide it. Kaley & Rob. Getting their dessert on. Because the baby's gotta eat!The view of the Vineyard from our table. So pretty!I wore the light fixture as a hat. It was just my size. XXXL.

Good times people. GOOD TIMES!

i like may 1st

Yesterday was my birthday. I'm one year away from turning 25...which is 5 years from 30...which means I'm practically 30. Which really means I'm 24.

My perfect day would have been relaxing and spending it with Andy but the amount of fun I had with out Andy made my day worth re-living if given the chance. Not because I was with out him...but because of what I did...Uh huh. It's was good.

I went shopping!!!!!!!!! Ya see, I love to shop and haven't gotten to do so in quite some time. We've been on a tight budget and so to fight off the temptation to shop my solution is to never leave my house. Which works. But yesterday, I feel into temptation and just bought things...and Oh Oh Oh did it feel good.

I asked all my In-laws and Out-laws for money for my birthday. They were afraid that if I got money for my birthday that I would put it towards our debt snowball. And in order to make sure I spent my money on things I wanted for my birthday and not do the financially smart thing with it...I had to have a chaperone go shopping with me. Which was one of the best chaperone experiences ever...I went with my sis-in-law, Krystle!

I wish someone would have video taped our day of shopping...then made a video...and put everything is fast-forward...and added some crazy clown music. We shopped for 5 hours. 5 hours people! Abe Lincoln's and Benjamin Franklin's were flying everywhere. We had that Honda loaded down. Employee's at Pier One were wondering if I wanted to just stay the night. It was craziness. It was the most fun I've hand since Spencer rode my picket fence.

I bought lots of clothes. All but 1 piece was on sale...and I got it all at Walmart. Don't be a hater. If I didn't tell ya, you would have never known. Then we were on a mission to find curtains and pillows for my living room. This is where things get a little backwards. I refuse to spend more than $15 on a pair of pants at Walmart...yet I spent $34 PER PANEL on new curtains from Pier One. I need four panels. Yikes. Don't do the math. I've refused to do it so far and have still remained excited.

After scoping out the curtains in about twenty different stores I went back to the first pair I saw at Pier One. I now believe in 'Love at first sight'. They are bright blue, shiny, and have peacock feathers all over them. I also bought lots of pillows in all different colors and patterns. Seeing it all together one might think that I'm insane. But I'm going to rock the bohemian look. Lots of different colors...nothing really matches...bright blue peacock feather curtains...and yes I'm keeping my red leather sofa. I figure if anyone can pull it off...it's me. I wish I would have had a camera when I got home though. Andy's mom and grandma were watching the baby for me and to see Grandma Betty's face when I pulled out my peacock feather curtains was priceless.

I had a great birthday. After my shopping extravaganza we went to my parents house for chips and salsa...watched The Office...and had a competition to see who could make the longest fart noise with out taking a breath. Mom won. Then Spencer beat her...but he had to try like 5 times. He lasted 40 seconds if you'd like to try and beat him.

Last night while walking past Colt he lunged his arms out for me. That was sweet and a birthday treat in and of itself. Tonight we're going to Tabor Hill, getting a tour of the winery and doing some wine tasting...then dinner with some friends. More importantly I'll be holding the hand of my hot hubby.

Life is good man.

Happy Birthday to me.

p.s. I'll post pictures of my new bohemian set up once it's all dazzled up.