We had a fun week at my parent's house playing with all the Bloom cousins. We got to meet our newest, David, too! He is super, super, sweet and I can't wait to see him again.

The fun thing about going to my hometown is all the Swedish horses...they are everywhere. Little ones on the downtown businesses, people's houses, and a couple of very large ones too.

No trip is complete without some sort of mural:

The weather was kind of a bummer and it was cloudy and rainy everyday. Which meant lots of playing inside and lots of shopping at junky thrift stores (my favorite kind!!) in nearby towns. We came back Thursday night to a house that had COUNTERTOPS! Woo-Hoo! That was a long 6 weeks to wait. Here's a tiny sneak peek at our island. You can see a part of the green paint I started with, but it's not quite right so it's back to the paint store for me.

Here's a totally random picture of our new fish. One of them passed away while we were gone, but RJ replaced it by the time we got home. He also bought a ghost shrimp, which supposedly help keep gold fish bowls a little cleaner. Unfortunately, the little shrimp only lasted a day...when we woke up in the morning we found it next to the bowl on the counter. It had jumped out. Isn't that disgusting?!

This week my in-laws are in town so we all went to the zoo yesterday for Member Monday, which means FREE train rides! 

We also got to feed the giraffes:

And the birds:

We have loved having a zoo pass this year. *Hopefully* they do another groupon deal next year!

RJ has today off so we're working on the kitchen some more and heading out to the lake house this afternoon to spend more time with grandma and grandpa. Don't you just love summer?!

Hope you all have a lovely week!

Life Lately:

Making decorations for VBS.

A week of VBS.

Ice Cream. 

Adventureland!

And now the kiddos and I are off to spend the week at my parent's house. 

When I get back, I'll have to introduce you to our newest family members:

Red Light, Green Light, and Yellow Light.

(they're fish)

Have a good week!

I love this time of year. Today is a bit too hot for me, but on days where it's lovely and in the 80s we'll meet daddy at the park for lunch. Usually on Wednesdays. And sometimes we'll get Happy Meals. Cuz it's fun. And super cheap on Wednesdays!

We also got our first watermelon of the season. Just cutting into it and smelling the beautiful scent brought so many summer-y memories. 

(those are still our old countertops...*hopefully* our new ones will finally come in this week!)

We also got to go to a little birthday party on Saturday and the kids got to wear their suits and splash around in the yard. They had so much fun! Can't wait to get our pool set up in the back yard.

And lastly, my stellar husband put up our shelving!! I still have some work to do on the top shelf to make it look right, but I'm really loving some exposed shelving. The other wall cupboards are staying up and you might notice they are tie-dyed white and cream. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'll get to it.
Meg puts old globes on top of her cupboards in her kitchen and I'm very tempted to copy her. Maybe just one right on that top shelf. Wouldn't that be cute?

Crazy week. Gotta run. Have a good one!

We celebrated out 8 YEAR anniversary on Tuesday.

8 years! I love my RJ so much and can't wait to spend the next 80+ years with him.

I love how God so perfectly fit us together. 

The kids and I walked to Dahl's that afternoon to buy some ingredients to make salmon tacos. They were so yummy that I'm making them again tonight. RJ walked in the door with flowers and another adorable set of measuring spoons to add to my little collection.

It was a simple day.

And I loved it.

AND I was able to cook-on-our-stove!! It's finally up and running and I've been using it like crazy! I'm trying to decide what will be the first thing that I bake. Ideas??

My 10 weeks at Farrell's is up on Saturday, but I tested last night because Saturday is going to be too crazy-busy of a day. 

And since I'm sure you're all dying to know my results, here they are!

(I posted on my FB acct that they are giving away 10 FREE admissions into the next 10 week cycle. Go for it!!! You'll love it. It's hard, but you'll love it.)

These numbers are the total lost since I started:

Chest: 3 5/8 inches

Waist: 5 inches

Arms: 1/2 inch...still seems like they're smaller, but must be because of my bulging biceps. ;)

Thighs: 2 1/4 inches

Hips: 5 1/4 inches

So a grand total of 16 5/8 inches of stuff off of my body!

I lost a total of 13.2 lbs.

(I have to say, it's so nice not really caring about what the stupid scale says and it feels good to be healthier and getting stronger.)

I was able to do 51 push-ups in a minute and 36 sit-ups. 

AND, what I am most excited about, is that I finished the whole mile without walking. Pretty sure I haven't run a whole mile without walking since High School. My first attempt I ran/walked it in 14:55 and last night I ran it in 10:08. Still not fast, but I felt really good.

My goal when I started this whole thing was to simply finish it. I had no idea what to expect so I'm pretty happy.

So that's all. Hopefully I'll post again about Farrell's results, but don't worry, it won't be for another full year! 

Update on my little nephew David...he is still in the NICU, but he is completely off oxygen and the feeding tube and now we are just waiting and praying for his bilirubin numbers to get below 10 and then he can go home! I know they are so ready to start their life as a family at HOME, so please pray for him! 

Have a lovely Thursday!!

Thursday

I got Henry some shades at the mall yesterday and he's been wearing them happily ever since.  I may have gotten them for my own enjoyment as well...I can't stop laughing when he has them on.

About a month or so ago I got Henry a little Toy Story notebook and pencils and encouraged him to draw a picture of Woody and Buzz. He's always liked to color for a little bit, but never tried drawing actually things or people before. Once he actually tried, he has colored for probably 2-3 hours per day. I'm barely exaggerating here, folks. He loves to color and draw. And I've totally gotten over the "my children are not going to use coloring books...it limits their imaginations" theory. It may be true. Or may not be true. But regardless, he loves his coloring books.

I like his use of color in this one:

So here is the quilt I found at a garage sale last week for 4 DOLLARS. Seriously, I can't believe someone got rid of this. I would have paid, like, $20 bucks for this. That's like a normal person saying they would have paid $125 bucks for this. But 4 DOLLARS. Oh yeah.

It's going to be for Harper's "Big Girl Room" and is in perfect condition.

Here's a close-up of the "yo-yo's".

So I'm thinking I'll leave the walls blue and do something crazy like paint the trim a coral color. Or paint coral mural stuff on the walls. Or somethin'. Fun!

My next favorite garage sale purchase was something for our kitchen:

I got all the 4 big ones for a total of $24 and the little one at a separate sale for $1. So 5 for $25. That felt like a lot of money for me to spend at a garage sale, but considering a new apothecary glass jar is about the price I paid for all 5 of them, it was a fairly good deal. I'm going to use them for my flour/sugar/oatmeal/etc. Fun, eh?

And here's the latest with our kitchen:

Our stove is waiting for some electrical work so we can plug her in. We needed a slide in stove to work with the island and for some reason gas slide-in stoves are a bit ridiculously priced, so went to electric. A little sad, but it will still get the job done!

Those are the pretty floors. 

I'm staining the cupboards of the island for the 1st step, and then I'm going to paint them a sweet vintage green (think Martha Stewart) and distress them like crazy. I don't want everything to look nice and new since this house is far from nice and new. We had been looking for an old piece of cupboard or something cool to use as the island, but had no such luck...this will (hopefully) be the next best thing. The rest of the cupboards are going to be "swan white" and then we got some stainless steal shelving for the walls also. But, you know, it will probably be August before we get it all done.

And that is all. Hope you all have a great Thursday!!

Life Lately

So much going on lately and so much to get done.

I feel a tad bit flustered.

Just like the rest of you moms out there, I'm sure!

Our kitchen. Yeah, haven't been able to do much with it while we wait for our counter tops. Why do they take 4 weeks to get?!

My brother and his wife welcomed a super sweet little boy into the world early Saturday morning. 

His name is David Aaron and he is seriously ca-ute. He has been diagnosed with Downs Syndrome, so please pray for their family as they adjust to his needs. God placed him into a very loving family with 3 older siblings who are going to love him like crazy. He'll be in the hospital for a couple more days, but he is doing great.

I can't wait to meet him!!!

Another friend had a baby boy on Monday and another friend is going to have a baby boy any day. Boys, boys, boys!!

I have found some great deals at garage sales so far. I'll post some photos. Someday.

Next Saturday is the last day of the Farrell's 10 week program. It went way fast. And I signed up to do it for a whole year after that. Huge commitment, but I'm excited. Even though I almost passed out today. The instructors have no mercy. None at all. (in a good way)

So that's life lately.

Hope your week has been wonderful!!

Mother's Day

What a lovely weekend!

RJ and I got a major date night on Friday to some of our favorite places. Kwong Tung for appetizers, Smokey Row for a friend's graduation open house, and then to Gusto Pizza to use a coupon. So yummy. Our kids even spent the night away that night so we didn't have to rush to get home. Just what I needed after such a long couple of weeks of sickness! Saturday I woke up bright and early for Farrell's and then headed to a garage sale where I scored 5 beautifully vintage dresses for $2 a piece. I'm a little obsessed with cute vintage dresses and my collection might be getting a little our of control. Just depends on who you ask.

My parents came down on Saturday afternoon and I went with them to a wedding of a family friend of ours. It was a beautiful wedding and so fun! 

Sunday I woke up to a few little presents for Mother's Day, church, Panera, and then to Lowe's to pick out flowers...along with every other mother in town. Man, that place was busy!

Thanks to my lovely mom for helping me. I've got no clue when it comes to flowers other than I think they're pretty. 

The kiddos can't pass by them without smelling them.

After naps we went down to the sculpture garden to take some pictures and play.

I have a "flat stanley" from my nephew Sam and had to take some pictures of him for a school project. We got some pretty fun ones!

And that's all for now. Hope you all have a great week!!