photo challenge: Inspiring Person

Today I want to tell you about someone who inspires me, my Mom. 

My Mom is amazing for countless reasons and once again I find myself struggling for the right words, the following are just a few of the things that inspire me:

She is a strong woman of God 

She is a fighter, and does not accept defeat

She is super creative, I get all my craftiness from her

She was brave enough to be okay with me being mad at her when I was younger

She taught me about Jesus

She cried with me when my heart got broken

She made sure I had positive male influences in my life when my Dad wasn't around

She taught me to be a good steward of what I have been blessed with

She walked me down the aisle on my wedding day

She loves animals and allowed me to have lots of pets

She encouraged me to do the things I didn't think I was capable of

She always makes sure my Birthdays are special

She got up with Weston every night for the 1st 2 weeks of his life so I could recover

When faced with a task she gives it her 110%

She is an amazing "Grammie" to my boys

I love my mother as the trees love water and sunshine - she helps me grow, prosper, and reach great heights. -- Adabella Radici

My mom is also an inspiration to her community. She is the center director of an amazing ministry called Hope House. Hope House offers opportunities for young moms to receive mentoring and parenting classes, along with supplies like diapers and formula. My Mom meets with a number of young woman face to face each day offering help, guidance, & encouragement. 

Love you Mom!!

(mom surprised me with Tickets to WICKED for my 28th birthday)

photo challenge: Favorite Color

"Look at the stars
Look how they shine for you
And everything you do
Yeah they were all yellow" 

Yellow by Coldplay

I'm not sure I would boldly say I have a "Favorite" color, when I was younger I loved blue and I still do, but recently I have found myself gravitating towards the color yellow. I think yellow is such a happy color and I love to use it as an accent.  A little pop of yellow here & there, my favorite combos are Yellow & Navy or Yellow & Gray. Since moving to VA I updated my kitchen decor and now have a Yellow & Gray color pallet

I made 3 valances for my kitchen out of a table cloth from Target!

I am not a fan of wearing yellow clothing, again just accent pieces, I have a yellow scarf that I L O V E and my in-laws got me this awesome yellow crossbody purse that is big enough to hold the essentials (iphone & wallet) when I am lucky enough to get to leave the house without the diaper bag in tow. 

photo challenge: Something Funny

Today's challenge is a photo of something funny and a few things came to mind:

#1. A few months ago Eric & I got to check out one of the old warehouses in the historic tobacco district in danville, the building was huge & at one point it served as a hardware store, while I was exploring I came across this sign taped up on the entrance way into the office area. Obviously someone had a problem with Snow White & did not believe in the age old adage, whistle while you work. 

#2. This product is for real, I snapped this picture at Dick's Sporting Goods, my only question is does it work? because I am one of those people who get EATEN alive by mosquitos, and swell up, it ain't pretty, although I must admit they usually don't attack my face

#3. When I need a good laugh I can always count on ellen to deliver! I think its hilarious when she puts an ear piece in a celebrity's ear and tells them what to say, I love the original one with Dennis Quaid at starbucks, to this day Eric & I will still quote him "Dennis Quaid is here!!" 

She has done this prank with a couple of different celebrities but of course my favorite would be David Beckham. Enjoy!

photo challenge: Books

After taking the day off from blogging, enjoying some time with family & friends, I'm back!
Today's photo challenge is...

 

B O O K S 

the older I get the more I enjoy reading! which is kind of funny since the most recent series I've read and LOVED is geared towards teens. In my defense I know of many other adults that have also enjoyed the Hunger Games series  :) 

I enjoy reading non-fiction as well from time to time, some of my favorite authors include, Donald Miller, Brennan Manning,  & Rob Bell. The downside to reading non-fiction for me is I feel like I have to read slow and meticulously because I don't want to miss anything, and sometimes I have to re-read certain passages a few times to allow the content to really sink in.  However there is just something about picking up a novel and getting lost in the characters & story.  I'm also a pretty picky reader, if something doesn't catch my attention quickly, it is highly unlikely that I will stick with it! 

I do however like to read the book before seeing the movie, especially on for new releases. That is actually how I came about reading The Notebook; The Twilight Saga; Eat, Pray, Love & The Help. I saw previews and decided to read the book 1st. I think its interesting to see how the story transfers from the book to the screen. I'm usually satisfied with the movies, I understand there is no way they can fit the details of a whole book into 2hrs (or less) Sometimes I'm disappointed when they may leave out my favorite part or minor character. I wasn't too thrilled with Eat, Pray, Love the movie...I love me some Julia Roberts, but the movie definitely fell way short of the book in my opinion. 

Now onto The Hunger Games, I read this series of 3 books (the 3rd, Mocking Jay not pictured) in a  week! I just couldn't put them down. Eric & I were flying to VA for a job interview so I decided to look for a new book for the trip, I had heard people talk about the Hunger Games, so I thought it was worth a shot. I actually read the books a few months before I had even heard that there was a movie in the making. Which I am super excited about :) I'm also one of those crazy people who think its fun to go see movies during the midnight "premiere" showings!! I love the atmosphere and excitement! Well I used to be one of those people until recently when a certain little man came into my life and still wakes up in the middle of the night multiple times, sleep has just become too valuable. 

Another quirk about me is that I DO NOT buy the books with the movie edition art work on the cover, I want the original artwork. I once heard a comedian say that he thought it was genius that they started marketing the book using the actors from the movie based on the book, when people see the cover and say things like "oh I didn't know Brad Pitt was in this book" haha

photo challenge: Leaves

we moved from IN to VA mid September and I'm pretty sure it was the most beautiful fall I've EVER SEEN!! Yes there are trees in IN but mostly cornfields and everything is so FLAT, nothing like Danville VA.  Everywhere we would go I was mesmerized by the beautiful fall colors and the changing of the leaves. It seemed to have lasted forever, locals told me that this was a bit of an unusual fall and the leaves were keeping their bright red and orange color longer than usual. I tried many times to take pictures of the fall landscapes but none of the pictures I took could ever do it justice!

we are blessed to rent a sweet little house surround by beautiful trees, I enjoyed sitting on the front porch admiring the beauty of a Virginian Fall. Fall is by far my favorite season, I love sweatshirt & jeans with a cup of pumkin spice latte in hand, type of weather.

H O W E V E R

All that beauty came with a price! Eventually my beloved leaves turned brown & crispy and fell to the ground. It took us (mainly Eric) close to 20 hrs to rake/blow/drag ALL those leaves to the front curb! Thankfully in Danville you aren't required to bag your leaves for pickup, instead the city comes by with a giant hose and sucks them all up, all you have to do is get the leaves to the curb, which we learn is much easier said than done!! When all was said & done our curb leaf pile went from the corner of our road all the way across our yard to our neighbors fence. It was at-least 3&1/2 foot wide and was taller than my waist! It took the city 3 trips by to get them all! I also tried taking a picture of our CRAZY leaf pile but that photo definitely did NOT do the mass of leaves justice. And there is still a decent amount of leaves looming around our yard, we need to do another round of leaf clean up!

So if you ever get a chance to visit Virginia in the Fall I would highly recommend it and if anyone would like to pay for professional leaf removal service for us I would highly appreciate it! :)

photo challenge: Happiness

one my favorite song lyric's comes from Ben Harper and goes a little like this:

"But you put the happy in my ness, you put the good time into my fun"

So naturally when I thought of trying to capture "Happiness" for today's challenge I thought of my handsome husband, Eric! (I always had a thing for redheads)

now here is where I feel my lack of ability as a "writer" begins to show up, I've always had a difficult time trying to express my thoughts through writing and honestly how does one put into words their feelings for the person they love?!  So I have decided to make a list, lists I can handle

Here are just a few of the many ways that Eric puts the happy in my ness  (in no particular order)

*He loves Jesus with all of his heart and is willing to follow him even into the unknown

*He listens to me ramble on about stuff I'm pretty sure he doesn't care about but he acts totally interested

*He is Brave and does not give up easily

*He works hard to provide for our family so I can stay at home with the boys

*He loves Scrubs, which isn't my favorite show, but I love watching him watch it because he laughs so hard which makes me smile 

*He is Beckham's best friend (& I'm pretty sure Weston adores him too)

*He knows pretty much everything there is know about anything, I will get all excited because I've learned something new, share it with him and his response is "yeah, I know that" He just knows stuff, its pretty cool

*He researches EVERYTHING about a major purchase before buying it to make sure we are getting the best deal available

*He tells me I'm a good Mom

*He can find anything on the internet! this may sound funny, but for some reason the internet & I aren't the best of friends so if I can't find something I know Eric will 

*He can deep fry a turkey....if you have not had a deep fried turkey for thanksgiving you have not lived

*He has more faith in me than I have in myself sometimes

*He will wear a costume, We have some awesome friends that have a big costume party for Halloween, we used to go every year when we all lived in IN (now we're in VA & they are in IL) Eric was always a good sport about dressing up & he still is, this Year Beckham wanted him to be Captain America 

here we are as "peace & quiet" haha

my superheroes

We have been married for 7yrs, and just like any other marriage we go through seasons of stress, busyness, joy, & excitement. But regardless of where we are in life he still puts the good times into my fun and there is no one else I'd want to spend my life with!

Love ya Babe :)

photo challenge: Smile

I have always been someone with a "thing for teeth" by which I mean, teeth are the 1st thing I notice about someone, Especially celebrities and TV personalities. I must admit that at times I can be harsh, I often think if a celebrity has money than why in the world would they not fix their teeth!?
Maybe I'm so sensitive about teeth because I spent a large majority of my life having mine worked on!
I got braces right before I turned 6 and didn't get them off until I was in 7th grade!! YUP my mouth was that messed up!

Here is a picture of me before braces, awh aren't I cute? 

I know you all are probably like "what? her smile looks fine" well those there are my baby teeth and as soon as those bad boys fell out and my adult teeth came in my mouth was a HOT MESS because there was NO ROOM for them, everything was so crowded, I had teeth coming in under my tongue! 

So began my many years of dental work! 

not only did I have braces I also had orthodontic headgear!! ahhh, thankfully I didn't have to wear my headgear for long and never in public, just at home and I was supposed to sleep in it too. Oh man was it uncomfortable. Braces had their upside too, for those of you who also had braces you remember how much fun it was to get different colored bands, you could even mix & match colors and have themed bands for different holidays, you know red & green, or orange & black...the worst choice of color for your bands was white, it just looked like you had something stuck in your teeth,yuck!

           

Thankfully all those years of being a "brace face" or "metal mouth" paid off.

I am very thankful that my family was able to afford to keep my mouth in braces! If I could change anything about my smile I would love to have my teeth professionally whitened! Now to the next generation...my boys, I'm pretty sure there is no hope of them not having braces! In fact we recently took Beckham to his 1st dental exam and I decided to ask the dentist his opinion and before I could even get the question out He assumed I was asking about braces and responded with "absolutely without a doubt he will need braces" What I've been told is that even though it may not be the "prettiest" you want your baby/toddler's smile to have a lot of gaps, because then they will have room for their adult teeth. Unfortunately Beckham has a beautiful gap free smile :(  Better start saving now!! The good news is Orthodontistry has come a L O N G way in the last 24 years

Here is a picture of Beckham at the dentist, he said he needed "Batman" glasses because it was too bright, not sure what made them batman glasses but hey, whatever works!

So there you have it! I hope you've enjoyed my pictures & crazy hairstyles, hey I was a child of the 80s, what do you expect?