Spring cleaning the yard!

My yard is a huge challenge for me! No, it isn't huge but it seems to get out of control rather often. If it isn't the flower bed in the front with more weeds than flowers it is the back yard with more weeds than grass. Anna and I worked out there several hours this morning. Working with my stacks of pine straw and cutting the grass, sweeping off the porch and cleaning Anna's outside toys. We worked so hard that we earned a picnic out there. Anna loves to be outside and being able to do all of this was wonderful for her. We even soaked up some sun after our picnic. I love hanging out with Anna. She makes everything so much more fun.

Hope you all can have a great friday! Enjoy some time in the great out doors with someone that makes you smile!

What is in your TRUNK!

Yesterday I cleaned my car out! By cleaning out I mean EVERYTHING came out!!! I haven't done this since before Anna. I mean I have occasionally done a quick clean up if someone were going to ride with me whatever but that usually meant whatever was in the front of the car landed in the trunk! I decided that it was time for a complete clean yesterday so we spent the morning cleaning the inside. Taking out trash, cups and toys etc. Then cleaning the dash and stuff. We worked for a good hour and a half on it. Took a lunch and nap break and then hit the trunk and washed the outside. The trunk was full of stuff. I thought I would share with you a few things that I found in there and see what you think that says about me lol.

1. water wings from last summer!
2. a single shoe thats mate went flying out the window (last summer) it was Anna's favorite shoe!
3. About 4 pairs of MY shoes and 2 pairs of Anna's and 2 pairs of Chris's!
4. 5 purses
5. 3 of Anna's coats and 1 of mine
6. Anna's 2 Bibles
7. Some of Anna's papers from Sunday School
8. cups and a few other dishes
9. A few of Anna's babies
10. Christmas cookie cutters lol

So isn't that just terrible! Of course I left out that Anna's bike was in there and Chris's things from where he cleaned out his old office. Going to the grocery store and not having a place to put the groceries is what prompted this cleaning. It looks so good now that Chris accused me of taking it somewhere to have it detailed! Yes I am THAT good! (When I want to be!!!)

Work in Progress!!

Now that summer is unofficially over Anna and I are trying to get back into the swing of things. We are working in the mornings and playing in the afternoons. The swimming pool was throwing us off our rhythm but it is now closed except for the afternoons on the weekends. Therefore, we have been working our way through the house. Cleaning and decluttering as we go. Today was Anna's room! It was a mess and extremely cluttered. We managed to make a lot of head way in there and I think it looks much better. The closet still isn't great I have to talk my hubby into either getting rid of his old college books or at least putting them somewhere else.





And yes Anna is still in her pjs at 11:00. Can I hear Mother of the Year award!!! She hasn't wanted to get dressed and well I haven't either lol. At least we have gotten work done so that I can say I am not a total slacker!

Wordless Wednesday - Storm Preparations

All of the toys have been put away in the garage. Along with the grill and our swing that is usually hanging on the back porch. The house has a forlorn look to it, well to me it does anyway. Anna and I seized the moment of a clear porch to sweep it and blow it off. Now if I only had a pressure washer we would be in business. It sounds like the storm is now supposed to make her debute at our sister city so all of this may have been for nothing. Well, except for the fact that the porch needed a good cleaning!

Pity Party ~ Done!

In case you guys didn't notice I have been having a pity party over here in my part of the world. I am done with that. I am finally ready to pick myself up by the boot straps. I am not saying I will change over night cause I have a lot of changing to do. I have to focus on the good things though and gradually change the bad. I would like to thank friends and family for standing by me even when I haven't been my best. For loving me even when I didn't feel lovable. For showing me that I deserve so much more than I am allowing myself to receive. So having said all of that; I am shedding all of my grumpiness, well for the most part. I am going to jump into my new life with both feet. I am going to grab that perverbial bull by the horns. In other words I am going to live my life instead of hiding from it.

Enough about all of that! So Tropical Storm Hanna is setting a path to knock on our door later this week. Exciting, huh!?! I know Pop you don't think it is exciting at all. I am just glad that we live in a time when we can know days in advance about it. We can decide whether we will stay or leave. We don't have to find out the moment that it arrives.

In an attempt to get my life back on track I have started cleaning my house up better. I am getting rid of the clutter and well cleaning up lol. Today I have worked on my bedroom, which happened to be the worst room in the house. It already looks much better although I still have some stuff to do. I am washing sheets and blankets and I still need to vacuum. However, you can now see that I have a dresser and floor. Maybe, after nap I will get it all finished and put some pics on here for ya!

Sorry this post was kinda scattered! That is just the way my brain works right now, so I am going with it lol!

Here is Anna the day Tropical Storm Fay came through! I say came through it was about 200-300 miles away but we still felt the wind and rain from it.

Busy, Busy, Busy

The end of last week we finished Anna's swimming lessons, picked up a guy coming home from Iraq, spent time with friends, cleaned house and stayed extremely busy. I have posted here and there but let me recap for you guys.

Swimming lessons ~ Yay we are done lol. Anna did great throughout the process. I am not sure how much more she learned going there but hey she can swim underwater even better (although she still can't pop up to breathe) and she is more comfortable trying to float even though she can't do it just yet. She enjoyed her teacher and her classmates and even asked if we were going to see Megan today.

Picking up Jason ~ It has been great having Jason home again. We went to dinner with him Thursday night and he came and hung out with us Saturday afternoon. He is trying to win Anna's affections again. She is holding out although she is doing better. She didn't hide from him Sunday at church.

Hanging out with friends ~ That is one of my favorite things to do. We had a "party" with Allie after swimming lessons ended. It was fun we had tacos and cupcakes and the girls played hard! They have so much fun together! It is great talking to Shanda too. If I had looked around the church I would have really thought we would be least likely to be friends. She is just so quiet and well I am not lol. I love hanging out and talking with her though. She is quickly turning into a very dear friend. We also had another dear friend over to go swimming. Denise and her two boys. We always enjoy having them over because Anna thinks her youngest (a 10 year old) is the bees knees. You know the equivalent of Patrick Swayze or Tom Cruise in my younger years.

Cleaning house ~ Yuck, I hate this lol. We are preparing for Anna's party and I have a lot left to do. However, I did declutter my living room and put most of Anna's toys in her room. My living room looks so much better for it! I also cleaned behind tables and chairs etc. You know the deep kind of cleaning. I also started on the kitchen although there is more to do in there. I plan to do a little in the house and the yard daily so that everything will be as close to perfect for Anna's party as I can get it.

So this week is going to be a lot of prep work for her party and not as much fun as usual. Although ya'll know that I will squeeze it in there somewhere! So what are ya'll doing this week? I am still looking for great birthday ideas if anyone would like to share!!!

Tackle it Tuesday!

I actually did this yesterday. I rearranged both my living room and my daughters bedroom. I switched out some furniture between the two. I am so pleased with they way they look. I forgot to get before pictures but take my word for it it is a big difference!

Productivity!

I have been so productive today even I am impressed lol. Of course I am now sitting on my butt, eating some baked chips and drinking a diet dr. pepper but hey we all deserve a break right!?! Let me just tell you all in bloggyville what I have been up to today. We got up and I fed Anna. I couldn't make myself eat so I started some laundry. After Anna was fed we got ready and ran out the door. We went to the store cause we needed just a few things and of course we were gone for like an hour. We got home and we hung out our first load of clothes and started another in the wash. While those were all running we cleaned the living room and vacuumed. Then I put the load that was in the wash into the dryer (hubby's dress clothes) and started another load. While that was running I started dinner (roast in the crockpot!) I went out and checked the clothes on the line and they were still a little damp but Anna and I enjoyed the sunshine for a while. We ran around like nuts chasing her ball and having fun. In between all of the playing I hung out another load of laundry. In hopes of wearing Anna down we ran around for another little while before lunch. It obviously worked cause she is now sleeping peacefully! YAY, maybe she isn't ready to give up naps after all.

If I had my camera I would have so many cute pictures. Anna trying on her new swim suit from Aunt Casey. It is SO adorable. It looks great Aunt Casey thank you so much. She didn't want to take it off but she had goose bumps lol. I was going to get a picture but I couldn't find it online.

I would show all of you in the North how pretty it looks here with our green grass and the leaves starting to pop out of the trees and plants.

I would show you how funny Anna looks all curled up in my laundry basket. Well, funny as long as there aren't clean clothes in the bottom lol.

So many things to share and NO camera. Have I told you all how much I miss it lol. We went to walmart this morning and I was looking at the cameras there. I am dreaming of a new camera! Isn't she pretty! I will continue to dream of one like this. One day!!!

Tackle it Tuesday, Shew!

So last night was exciting. Anna hadn't had her nap and she was throwing one fit after another. We just went to her room and read until she was ready to settle down. We both crashed a little after 9. Today we worked on our fridge. I don't think I have complained about our fridge on here but the freezer part had a leak down into the fridge that would just collect in the bottom of the fridge after dripping down each shelf in there. It was awful and disgusting and very frustrating. So I posted on freecycle to see if anyone would now how to fix it or whatever and received lots of great advice. Today Anna and I tackled our freezer and then cleaned up the fridge. It looks so GOOD! I don't have before pics because it was yucky but just look at the after shots! I just hope and pray that what I did today has fixed the problem. So far so good. We will have to wait and see though! Oh and don't look at how empty it all is lol.

Rachel Ray come see what is in my fridge!

After we did that we went out to watch the birds enjoy some afternoon sunshine.

Anna ran around in our new found back yard and rode her 4 wheeler. Our dog Buddy just prawled around enjoying the brisk air!

Work Day

We had a work day at church today. I always feel pretty useless during these days because Anna is with me. Today I realized that even though I am not able to do a lot of the major work at least I can take care of the few kiddos and others can have a chance to work. It is my little contribution that doesn't feel so little to the other Mom's. I am not sure how I end up the ones with the kids. I guess I am a kid magnet and they just gravitate towards me. We ran around outside and in the nursery. Went to visit the other workers and made sure they were working hard lol. We also listened to our praise team practice. It was pretty fun. I just have to remember that even though I didn't get any work done at least I contributed my time and energy.

This afternoon in an effort to keep my body moving I cleaned the weeds out of our flower bed in the front yard that I just did about a month ago. It wasn't to bad but if I waited a few more weeks it probably would have gotten pretty bad. It looks fabulous right now. Although I now need to clean our walkway and do one of the other beds up there. Anna and I will work on that this week.

We also intend to declutter our house. I have heard about flylady by numerous people including my mother. I have signed up for her daily emails and have shined my sink! Doesn't that look pretty!!! So I am going to start doing the baby steps this week and see if I can't get my house in shape. Now that I have lost 8 pounds I have more energy so I am going to put it to good use. Hopefully Anna will cooperate with this decision lol. She typically has other ideas about my energy, like running around in the yard or going to the park and climbing the rock wall.

Manic Monday and Tackle it Tuesday

I was going nuts with the chaos in my house. I don't have a dirty house but I have a messy house. It has toys and clutter everywhere. I am taking charge! I think taking charge of my body is giving me strength to take charge in other areas of my life. I started in the kitchen today because it is the heart of the house. I worked all morning and with Anna's help I am very pleased with our results. I didn't take a before picture because honestly the spirit just moved me to get to work! I do have after shots though and let me just say there is a WORLD of difference!!! I still need to do the floors, clean out the fridge and the pantry lol but other than that it is GREAT lol. Boy I guess I didn't get as much done as I thought lol. Oh well look for yourself and tell me what you think.

The picture above is the biggest improvement. We have had the little rack you see in the corner forever and never put it together. So Anna and I put it together and put it to good use finally! We also tossed out things we didn't need or put away other things that were just lingering.
This was a vast improvement too. The window seal needed a definite scrubbing. I keep all of my important mementos in my kitchen window for some reason. You will see the unicorn my brother gave me, a few candle sticks and holders given to us at our wedding, a little tiny egg plant pitcher and beautiful flower vase given to us by my hubby's me-maw, a few little figurines given to me when I was a little girl one by my aunt and the other I can't remember where that one came from maybe my parents, the little candle holder with rocks in it is for my hubby and well Anna too now I guess (they both LOVE rocks) oh and don't forget the little wood bear in the corner. This little bear has traveled with me since I was a girl. My friend, Jody's Dad made it for me one year. I think it has a date on it let me see it says 1988 how about that lol. Oh yeah and don't look at the dishes in the sink!
Of course here is the best treasure ever! I can't take pictures without her wanting in on the shot.
Don't you love my flat top stove! The pictures behind it are pretty cool too. They were given to me by my mother in law and I thought they would look great back there. My sister in law, God bless her, cleaned them up for me a few weekends ago. They get pretty messy hanging up there!
Here is our dinosaur microwave! We have had that little thing since we got married and we are working on 12 years. It still works at least most of the time so we hang on to it lol.

PS. What do you think about my counter tops. Our builder told us not to go with these because we would hate them after being here a year. I think we have been here 8 years now and I still LOVE them. They are different and fun.

Tackle it Tuesday

OK so this is embarrassing to put on here but I know that you guys will understand :) Anna's room has been collecting things since she has been born (almost 2 years ago) and well it wasn't on the top of my priority list but now she is sleeping in there pretty much all night and will soon have her big girl bed set up so I have to clean it up and get it ready! We started on it yesterday and got a little headway with it but we have lots more to do today! Here are the befores and the little that we got done yesterday. Come back later for the grand finale!





Ugh I have tons of work to do so I will see you all later. Wish me luck lol!

Anna loves her clean room I can't keep her out of it! I have tons of stuff to take off to our children's consignment shop now woo hoo! I am excited all we have to do is get Daddy to set up her big girl bed. Her crib turns into a full size bed so that should be easy enough and our window seat will have to come out because we want the bed against the wall. We will probably move it to the living room and get baskets for it to keep toys or books or something in it. Yay I am glad I am done now I am going to see what everyone else is up to today!!! If you want to see what everyone else is up to go here!