Two Quotes I Pinned Today

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That's all!

Days 21-24

Day 21: Pretty Pattern

Me and damask...sigh! I feel like I choose this pattern all.the.time. I love that it is girlie but not too girlie...for Pat's sake, you know?! I chose this for the seat covers of the chairs I am redoing. I do like it, so hopefully I will get these done in the next...ohhh, maybe 6 months!

Day 22: Sunset

Sunset in our neighborhood.
This picture was taken with Pat's iPhone. iPhones take such awesome pictures and I love the instagram application! But, I refuse to buy an iPhone until it has an actual slide down keyboard as I simply cannot do touchscreen. I wonder if this will ever happen?

Day 23: Trees

We have ourselves a mini-forest in our backyard, but I was drawn to this little tree for this assignment. It was the first tree to be planted in our yard and so for that it is very special to me. I hope to plant more trees in the future especially one for each of the boys just as my parents did for my brothers and I.

If you look real close, you will see we had ourselves a casualty recently! My cute little bird house was hit by a flying golf ball. This is what happens when your 4 year-old is learning to hit golf balls.

Day 24: Smile

SMILE!

Days 17, 18, 19 and 20

Day 17: On The Shelf

This is so my life right now. There are trickles of boy scattered throughout my house sometimes in the most unexpected places.

Day 18: In My Bag

 The inside of my bag is currently in a no see situation.

Day 19: Where I Slept

I make my bed everyday. Having a nicely made bed instantly makes this space look clean and tidy and truly makes me feel better about myself.....

even if these 6 loads of unfolded laundry are over in the corner.

Day 20: What I Read

I knew I would finish One Day while on vacation (which was a good book...you just need to get through a small part in the middle where the male character is kinda crazy, but after that it gets good again), so I brought Jennifer Weiner's newest book, Then Came You as my next read. I read this last night before I fell asleep, which I do almost every night. Because of this, I am only on Chapter 4ish.

Day 16: What I Ate

Day 16: What I (We!) Ate

I'm usually always a Cherry Garcia girl, but they were out at my grocery store yesterday. As I was walking through the frozen food section, I randomly got the urge for Ben & Jerry's and I thought Coffee Health Bar Crunch would be equally as good. Oh my friends, it is better...it is the best (it has huge chunks of Health...my favorite)! Last night, Pat and I polished this off pretty quickly while watching the movie Country Strong. I recommend this movie (good renter!) as much as the ice cream!

Polished Off.

Day 14 and 15

I have been taking every opportunity I can to finish some of the many projects we have started around this house. A few of the things we are working on right now are board and batten in the office, sanding and painting our breakfast nook table and chairs, painting a chalkboard for Jack's room, creating a gallery wall for both boys' rooms, finishing my gallery wall on our main level, and just plain figuring out how to decorate this place all while introducing fall decorations. Oh and the basement, don't even get me started on that! It's embarrassing down there as in complete hoarder status. That being said, my photo challenge is taking a bit of a back seat right now. I do find it fun and inspiring and I am committed to completing this challenge so I will get better for the second half. Yeah, one half done!

Day 14: Flowers

I got two hibiscus plants from my sister-in-law and mother-in-law as house warming presents back in May. Now, I had never had an hibiscus plant before this and I think I will buy myself a couple every spring. They are so beautiful and vibrant in color when they bloom!

Day 15: Shoes...Jack's Shoes

Today's challenge was supposed to my shoes, but mine are boring in comparison to Jack's new super duper speed shoes. I took him shoe shopping last night because let's face it, this boy is growing like a weed. With a chill in the air and a decrease in the temperature we have had to break out his pants and jeans all of which are now above his ankles. Sheesh! Clothes shopping will come soon, but first he needed new shoes. He fell in love with these immediately upon seeing them and then after he tried them on and ran laps around the store (to show us how fast they helped him run), they were most definitely not coming off. There was no persuading Jack to another shoe his Momma liked more/thought were cuter/went with his clothes better/etc. So, it was the black and neon yellow for Jack and he thinks there super hero status. That's all that matters, right?!

Day 13: From a Distance

My Version of From a Distance

Day 10, 11 and 12

Day 10: Something I Made

I have been making a lot of smoothies lately! Owen and Jack have been sick at different times over the past ten days and their number one request....smoothies. With no appetite for much else, smoothies is what their Momma makes them. FYI: I did try to whip up some new couch pillows during nap-time today. I used a four pack of Target cloth napkins and Heat & Bond. It was a disaster and they look awful. Can't win them all.

Day 11: Something Fun

While on Hilton Head Island, we took the boys on a bike ride down the beach one morning before our daily swim in the ocean. We came upon this newborn Loggerhead Sea Turtle that didn't quite make it into the ocean along with his brothers and sisters. He was trying to get down there but he had a long ways to crawl/walk and he was losing steam fast in the hot sun. We scooped him up and placed him in the water. The lil' guy was trying to swim so he seemed okay. This is was so fun and exciting for the boys to see and help with. I hope the little bugger made it!

Day 12: Close-up

Also on HHI, these flowers were growing everywhere near our condo.
No clue what they are, but I like them.

Day 9: Faceless Self-Portrait

Today, I'm off to Milwaukee for a baby shower. My mom, O-bubs and I are road-tripping it down this afternoon while Pat and Jack stay home. Pat will work on our never-ending list (board and batten...oh yay!) and take care of Jack who needs to karate chop this virus outta here! I simply don't have time to get creative with today's challenge so I am using a photo from day one. It's works!

Faceless Self-Portrait

Day 8: Technology and My Preschooler

Jack started his second and last year of preschool on Wednesday. Sniffle...I can't talk about what that means just yet. He is going to the same school he went last year and he refers to it as "the blue school".

For the past week or so, I have been chatting up the idea of preschool with him and come yesterday, I was all set to drop him off in the morning. I thought to myself, I better read the information one more time to make sure I have everything ready to go. Good thing I did this because his first day was a short day and parents to were to come with for the two hours. This was also a good thing because Jack was complaining of many physical ailments that morning, such as, tummy ache, headache, tired, sore throat, etc. All of these physical ailments I was thinking were nerves. Jack and I made a morning out of it as we went on a breakfast date (I had the tex mex skillet...oh my goodness was it unbelievably delicious) together before heading to preschool.

Jack did awesome and I was so happy to be there with him on his first day. However, some of those nerves have actually turned out to be a virus. Jack has had a fever, headache and sore throat since yesterday. We are entering fall with a bang around this house!

My dreams, those related to that girlie movie.

 My favorite all-time movie is The Notebook (Keefe, quit rolling your eyes). Maybe it has to do with the love story, maybe it is has to do with Ryan Gosling, but mostly it has to do with the fact that the story line is quit similar to my grandparents own love story. Ahhh, so sweet! Anyway, I digress, back to my dreams. 

As I have talked about before, Pat and I have moved five times in the last seven years and yes, that means we have owned five homes in those seven years. Now, each of those homes were special to us in there own way, for example, our first house as a married couple, the house we brought Jack home to, the house where Jack took his first steps and said his first words and the house where we brought Owen home and where he took his first steps and spoke his first words. However, because there was always another "potential move" looming out in the atmosphere, I never felt that they were homes where we were planting our roots and making our dreams come true. 

Fast forward to house number five and finally I am starting to feel like we will be staying put. I may not have made any (maybe 3?) nail holes in the walls, but I am making plans for this house and starting to create traditions and memories for our family. Now back to The Notebook and how it relates to my rambling. Ever since I saw this movie and fell in love with it (way back when), I have stored in my dream house file in my brain (until now...thank you Pinterest) that I would love to someday have a big front porch complete with a porch swing.

For example:

Front Porch

Porch Swing

images via

With this recent move, those two dreams came true as the front porch came with our new house and the porch swing we created just for it. I showed you this, oh about one month ago. These past few weeks, with some Pinterest inspiration (this) in hand, we took an adirondack loveseat and made ourselves a porch swing! 

Yipee!

I bought this adirondack loveseat from a Habitat For Humanity Restore. I primed it and painted it Picket Fence by Martha Stewart. A very helpful employee at Lowe's helped me think through the technicalities involved in hanging a swing and then loaded up my cart with the goods. We Pat then hung the swing for me while I made sure it was straight and even (right Babe?!).

Before:

After:

Looking at my new porch swing makes me happy and swinging on it makes me even happier!

One root has been planted!

Day 7 : Something New(er)

Owen just recently learned to ride his bike. He is very excited about this big accomplishment and truly cannot get enough of his little Buzz Lightyear bike.  In his Momma's eyes, he is so darn cute riding that tiny bike, but what's even cuter is that he points his toes outward and pedals on the heals of his feet. So this cuteness factor is why I have included four photos today and to remember!

Owen's New Accomplishment

Day 6: Something New

Day 6: Childhood

I was all set to take the boys over to my mom's house (the house I grew up) this afternoon as I had a grand plan for this assignment. However, after naps, snacks and an episode of Wild Kratts, we simply couldn't fit it in before dinner. Oh well, maybe I will be able to sneak it in somewhere in this challenge. I then remembered that I had taken this picture of Owen recently and it definitely reminds me of my childhood.

Childhood Memory: When my mother would make me a nice, comfy space on the couch where I could rest and recuperate when I was sick, we called this a sick bed. As I have talked about this a few times before, I now do this for my own children.

Owen has not been feeling well (not well at all) since Friday. We concluded today while at the doctor that he has had Croup, but I am happy to say that he has been on the mend all day today.  Thank goodness because that Croup is scary stuff in the middle of the night.

Day 5: Someone I Love

How can I possibly pick someone as in "one" person that I love? I simply can't because I have lots of special people in my life that I love. However, these two little men, I am absolutely crazy in love with!

Day 4: Favorite Color

The color of my sons' eyes.

Favorite Color

I could stare into their eyes all day long! Sometimes I dress each of them in colors that make their blue eye color "pop" and then I can stare a little longer! Speaking of color "pop", these photos were edited by my friend Michelle who knows her way around Photoshop unlike myself. I thought these pictures were pretty good with the little editing I did in iPhoto, but they needed Photoshop editing. I can barely open a picture in PS, let alone edit one. So, I asked Michelle for help in giving these photos a little "umph" specifically in making the blue in their eyes really shine. Michelle did just that plus some and now these photos look awesome! I wanted to share with you the before and after because I love me a good before and after recap.

Jackers

Owen

 

Day 3: Clouds

Day 2: What I Wore and What Jack Wore

Oh man, day number two and I already flubbed as I am getting this posted a whole day late. Yesterday, was just "one of those days" where my day did not go as planned and I simply got nothing accomplished. Also, I may have slightly procrastinated on this assignment because it seemed to me that self-portrait and what I wore where not only quite similar, but equally awkward for me. This challenge is about trying something new and conquering those fears so I did accomplish day two. Now there is a disclaimer to this photo, which is that I took it as I was running (remember after one of those days) out the door to a bachelorette party and O-bubs was crying for me as he laid limp on his sick bed (comfy space we make on the couch) with a 104 degree temp and a barking cough. No worries, I wasn't leaving him all by himself, Grandma was cuddling him. Oh and yes, that is a dog tail by my foot. Sigh.

Dress, belt, earrings and shoes: All from Target

To all of you that actually read my blog, I promise that there will be more going on around there than my face and this photo challenge. Promise!

Now, onto what Jackers wore.

Sand: The Beach

Day 1: Self-Portrait

Day 1 of the photo challenge complete.....phewie! 

Let me just first say that capturing a self-portrait was fun and a whole bunch of awkward all wrapped up into one.  Am I supposed to smile, not smile, look up into the sky like I'm cloud watching, give a serious smolder look (whatever that is?), or hide my face behind my camera? For this first go at it, I decided to stay true to the words self-portrait and what that means to me today.

So, here is what I came up with!

 

Self-Portrait