My contribution to TIMHT for this week is to show you my new kitchen curtains. They are called Cafe De Paris. I found them at Anna's Linens a few weeks ago, but wanted to think about it first. Somewhere in the back of my mind, I knew that I needed a change for my kitchen curtains as the gingham valence really wasn't helping cheer the place as it should. I went back last week to buy them and this past weekend my husband and I changed the mini blind and then added a curtain rod so that we could hang these. Who cares there are several unneeded holes in the molding? I cannot see them, can you? LOL
I love what this little change did for the kitchen. I start down the hall and the curtains catch my eye and it startles me for a minute. I'm probably wondering whose house I am in. Ha!
I bought this last week when I was out of town with my daughter on our "girlfriend trip". I hate carrying a pocketbook and generally will just carry my vera bradley key/coin purse combo thing and my cell phone. I've been looking for something sleek, simple and lightweight, however, so that I could put my phone and keys together where I would be hands free as I ran errands. This bag was the perfect solution for me. I was even able to put my camera in there (a bit tight-but it did fit). IT is made of some sort of water resistant (assumption) nylon/cotton type materials and is only ten inches by five or six inches with a long adjustable strap. (which can also be removed) I can throw the strap over my head/shoulder and be off-hands free to shop and look as I need to without carrying a bulky handbag.
Another funny sign that my daughter and I saw (that I did not get a picture of) said:
Parents your children will have the irresitable urge to jump off the top of these two steps. Please watch your children so that they will not disturb the people downstairs. It scares them.
I like how this place was just telling it as they saw it.
Another bit of amusement for my daughter and I came from this sign placed in a planter next to some gas pumps where we were getting gas.
It basically says:
Attention Please, These flowers are planted for the pleasure of our customers. Please be respectful of our efforts and please (litter) Paper, cigarettes, ETC Please do not pour gasoline into the soil.
I am guessing that they are trying to say to not litter , but it came out weird...but my big question is...what flowers?
My daughter and I made a "girlfriend" trip to Asheville last week. On our way home, we detoured through Chimney Rock so that we could visit Bubba O'Leary's General Store. We bought Christopher this T-Shirt.
Canine Identification: Black Lab (fechius maximus) Ears(sometimes non working) Self Amusement appendage (the tail) Also available in stylish yellow and chocolate models (labradors) habitat includes couches, porches, and pick up trucks Amused by hunters and their plastic ducks dogfood tastes like ...well, dogfood. bleech. Butt sniffer(the nose) Bird holder(the mouth) slobber maker(the tongue) Useless human fashion accessory (the bandana around his neck)
We found this shirt very amusing and it seemed to fit our Christopher very well as he is our resident dog expert. Indeed he did love the shirt and is wearing it today.
My contribution to TIMHT is our collection of remotes seen below
Growing up, we never had a remote control. One could say that I was the remote control as my daddy would ask me to change the channel for him LOL Nowadays it is crazy how many remotes we have and what they are for. L-R Old TV remote for a TV we no longer have, Old VCR remote for a VCR that died several years ago, CD player remote, DVD player remote, Digital Tuner Box remote, VCR remote, TV remote (current), fan remote, Small Bedroom TV remote, and the wii remote.
Ridiculous!
Seriously? And the funny thing is-I NEED 'em all. Uh huh! And I need another one like I need another hole in my head.
For more TIMHT check out MSM's blog to see who is participating this week.
This is definately an alarm clock my son needs. It is called "Clocky". The official site is found here .
Nanda was started by Gauri Nanda when she was a graduate student at the MIT Media Lab. The Clocky alarm clock evolved out of Gauri's own need for an alarm clock that wouldn't let her snooze repeatedly. She created a prototype for a class project and a flurry of unexpected attention by the press ensued.
From the AOL Gadget Page where I discovered Clocky, it says:
It gives you one chance to get up, but if you snooze, Clocky will jump off of your nightstand and wheel around your room looking for a place to hide. Mischievous and loud, Clocky is both hands-down adorable and surprisingly effective.
This You Tube Video (sorry MSM-I had to go there) shows clocky in action as two dogs discover it rolling around being loud. For that reason alone it might be worth the price to see how our dog, Bayley would react to Clocky! Oh Yeah!
The rules that go with this award: Put the logo on your blog
Link to the person you received your award from
Nominate at least 7 other blogs
Put links to those blogs on your site
Leave messages on the blogs you've nominated
So here seven blogs I choose:.
Always Wanted Four-Rachael does a great job at narrating her life. Through reading her blog, you learn of her family's adoption story and about her Simple Wishes project. You also can keep up with her preparations as she gets ready to run a half-marathon in Chicago in a few weeks.
American Girls in Moscow-This blog tells the tale of an expatriot family living in Russia. She not only tells of normal family things, but also gives you a great bird's eye view of what life is like for them there. Lots of wonderful photos as well as informative posts about Moscow.
Doctor Anonymous-This blog is written by an "anonymous" doctor living in Ohio. It is sometimes a medical blog, sometimes a retrospective, sometimes cutting edge, sometimes updates on his weekly podcasts and always witty. I stumbled across this blog about two years ago and have been keeping up with it ever since.
Pickle The Guide Dog Puppy-While this blog is no longer updated regularly(Pickle is now in school), it is a great dog's eye view into what the first year is like for a future guide dog puppy and his puppy walkers before going off to school.
McChronicles-This blog "Chronicles the McDonalds brand experience from Customers' Point of View." It definately makes for an interesting read.
Doodles From My Noodle Fun scrap blog by a graphic friend I know online. Great stuff to play with as you play in photoshop or paintshop pro.
Rachael of Always Wanted Four is having a special giveaway to promote the grand reopening and promotion of her esty shop. The proceeds of this project go towards buying Christmas gifts for Russian orphans. I have added her Simple Wishes widget to my sidebar....and you can go to her blog for more details about this project and how it works and those who will benefit.
Once again, MSM has invited us to join in with her to celebrate Things in my house Thursday. I made the above banner to share with her(and her friends) as any good weekly meme needs a cute banner IMO. You can download it here if you like.
Now for this week's contribution from muddy, I present my soap dispenser. Once upon a time it held some soft soap liquid soap. It also had a cute little fish picture inside, making it all cute. Well, one day we ran out of soft soap and I was still a few days away from going to the store for my weekly/every other week trip, so I started shaving bath soap into the soap dispenser. I added warm water so that while it sat in the dispenser, it would become the right consistency to pump out.
That was several months ago now. I never did buy any new soap as my family liked using this soap much better. I may eventually switch to a more eye appealing soap dispenser, but for now, I'm keeping it cheap. It costs so much less than buying liquid soap and is a good way to use up all those little pieces of soap at the end of the bar from the shower. I have been known to shave a half of bar into there before all is said and done if we are running really low. So that's it for this week. Be sure to check out MSM's blog for more fun with Things in my house Thursday!
Hannah, taken during the wee hours of the morning of her 18 th birthday. (about 1 or 2 am)
We didn't have cake until later on in the day. It seemed that her birthday started with Friday, August 1st after she got off work and ended Sunday night sometime. We let her open presents during these week hours of the morning before we went on to bed that night. Saturday we let her guide our activities, mainly running some errands with her that she needed to get done. We ended by going to a favorite restaurant and then watching the newest Nancy Drew movie. I was glad that before we rented the newest Nancy Drew movie, that we had watched the ones made in the late 1930's. My mother had taped those back in the spring of the movie cable station. The newer movie really took the classic elements of the story and who Nancy Drew was and placed her in a contemporary setting. I would recommend this movie...as well as the older ones made in the 1930's if you can find a copy of those to see. I think the rest of Hannah's birthday photos are on her camera, as my camera's batteries went low right as we were singing Happy Birthday. (great timing huh?) One pretty neat thing we had this year were color flame birthday candles for her cake. We found them Friday while doing some errands. The flame is the same color as the candle as you light it. They seemed to melt pretty quickly, so really doubt you'd get eight whole minutes out of them like the package says. Since we light, blow them out and eat cake quickly this wasn't a problem for us. Anyway, just a few notes from this past weekend...good stuff-happy memories Praise God!
Yesterday, I posted about things I might would grab if I had 10 minutes to do so with the knowledge that my family and critter was safe. It felt familiar to consider it and I suppose this is why...Perhaps the thing that has changed is that if I had 10 minutes I probably would grab my PC (or if a laptop-that)...but without that time, there would probably be hundreds of things I'd grab before this. I think it would be nice to not have so many things to consider-perhaps becoming less burdened over time, as I continue to grow older.
I was doing some research back through some of my older posts and came upon this statement from late in 2004 that I made:
Its funny , sort of...that as my husband and I were talking last night....the topic came up about things we'd take in an extreme emergency...Supposing we had the time to grab a few things. Suprisingly to my husband, as he knows this is "My world" so often( literally, when I've been sick, and when we only had one car...etc...), the computer really wasn't one of them. (perhaps if I had a laptop...but since I don't, the computer isn't one) We also talked about how we have tried again and again to become less hindered by our things and by the pull of this world. (and we're slowly getting there....praise God) We have done different things to lessen what is actually "ours" in our home, from selling on eBay, to giving things away that we do not need anymore. We even had a yard sale/give sale last year. When I die, I do not want a house full of stuff left behind that my kids have to go through and sort out. I would hope our monies would have gone more towards our survival, our kids and grandkids while we are here to help them as they have need as well as other things God may put in our path to do....I even wonder at times why we have homes. Ours is a modest home...and we do actually do more here than sleep....it does keep us dry and clean. But so many just have homes to house their things. They own things, and have to pay to maintain things....and their whole existence is about their stuff. Hmm...just some thoughts there.
I think it better explains where I am. I do admit to liking our "comforts of home", but likewise hope to die without a lot of money or things -having used them for God's glory somehow in life. Amen
So, if you can allow yourself to conjure up a scenario where you have to be out of your house for good, in ten minutes, and your family and animals are SAFE, what would you take?
I really like to consider myself a very non materialistic person, but who am I kidding? I live in the year 2008 in the United States of America. I have my comfy bed, my comfy blankets...well, all the comforts of home here in my home. Still, if I had ten minutes to grab things and still get to safety, I guess my list would look something like this:
Pictures Money/pocketbook/important paper's folder computer and disks...maybe my little bedroom TV and my camera food and meds And if I still had time, I'd grab things that are irreplaceable, like the piece of pottery made in my grandfather's shop, the things my grandmother made(quilts), things my mother has made for me etc.
I guess those would be the things I'd throw in my car and go with, but who knows. Everything mentioned above are just things and I might just be thankful that I have my life and the lives of my family and get out of there regardless of any time frame to grab more.
I've heard of people who have challenged themselves to downsize to where they only have 100 Things . They desire less clutter. They say that clutter stresses you-and I would say if that is true (which I think it is) we probably are some of the most stressed people (in this nation) that ever have lived. I'd love to live with less...I'd love to declutter-but seriously? I doubt my goals will really be met until my kids move out of the house where I can send my clutter (and their clutter) to their house....like my mama did with hers LOL
Some might think it a bit odd for my son, my daughter and I to all be in our own respective rooms-emailing each other....but somehow...I find it perfectly normal. Is a strange world we live in nowadays, yes?
Exactly 18 years ago, at this time, I was hanging up the phone with my ob/gyn who had just told me to come on to the hospital.
The day before (on July 31st) I had a doctor's appointment. Before going, I noticed some spotting which he assured me was normal given how far along I was. He told me before leaving that he expected he'd see me within a few days.
After my appointment, I remembered going to my mother's house for a little while. She wanted me to try to paint some faces on these wooden balls her and her crafting group were working on for a project at church. I stared at those wooden balls trying to think on how they should be painted. All my mind was really on was how uncomfortable I was feeling, like I did when I was on my period and would have cramps. I finally got up, unable to concentrate on the faces and told my mom I was going to go home. I left her with my doctor's last words. I didn't really put the three things (his words, the spotting or the cramping) together in my mind.
I was in the beginning stages of labor.
Driving home it hit me, however.
Once home, for fun, not really expecting any of this to mean anything, I began to time the contractions just to see if they were spaced equally. I had finally realized that I was not cramping, but contracting. Indeed they were spaced about 10 or 15 minutes apart at that time.
I laid down on my bed for a little while just trying to relax my mind. I played fetch with our dog, Scotty and called Jay. I also cut the TV on to distract my mind from what was happening. It is impossible to get your mind off the obvious when you are about to give birth. Nothing else can compete or cover up those thoughts.
Somewhere in there the contractions definitely jumped to being pretty consistently 10 minutes apart. My husband arrived home (usual time-we knew there really was no hurry at the time when I called).
We ate a light dinner and went for a walk. We came home, restless in anticipation of what might happen SOON and decided to bake chocolate chip cookies. We drove to Food Lion to pick up what we needed and set together mixing the dough.
After the cookies finished, we thought that perhaps we should try to go on to bed. Unsure if we'd be able to sleep, we figured that if this was true labor, it would either keep us awake. If not, then we'd fall asleep and get the rest we'd need in the coming days.
We never made it to sleep.
In the wee hours of Aug 1st we called the ob/gyn on call as I said above and he told us to come on in. Contractions were at 5 minutes apart by now and steady. I was starting to feel a little uncomfortable. My bags were packed already, so with a few last minute add ins, we left for the hospital.
Arriving and now hooked up to the monitors, I was told that my contractions were now two to three minutes apart. I was dilated to two or three. Things were looking good.
Then, everything stopped. It seemed I was still having some contractions, but not much of anything to move things along. I thought for sure they'd send us home.
My doctor met me first thing in the morning, still in the hospital. He did not send me home, but instead broke my water-reasoning that we might as well go ahead and do what we came to do rather than make another back and forth trip later in the day or the next day. I loved that he did not send us home.
I now started walking with the other women in the birth units up and down the hallway. We'd stop with our husbands and peer into the windows that showed the babies in the nursery.
I was told that at any time I could start a pitocin drip with some stadol. I really hoped to see my contractions pick back up again naturally.
By later that evening I gave in. I was tired and had experienced what I now know was back labor all afternoon. Apparently my baby was sunny side up. I allowed them, asked them...probably begged them to start me on the pitocin/stadol combo.
As it dripped into my veins, I drifted off to sleep. No kidding.
I woke up at 2:00 am August 2nd dilated to 8 cm definitely "feeling it" now. I was still pretty drowsy. I had a wonderful nurse. I loved having this woman attend to me during this time.
I began to push a bit later and they quickly called for the doctor as things were going REALLY well. I remember the nurse telling me he lived just right down the road and would be zipping into the parking lot in his red sports car any moment. Funny the things you remember in your pain.
Hannah was born at 5:30 am August 2nd. I remember thinking before she was born she'd be a boy. The ultrasound lady (who I had heard had a 95% accuracy rate in guessing the sex of your baby) told us we'd have a girl-but we didn't believe her. We had our girl. I remember saying out loud when I first saw her, "Oh it's our Hannah"....seeing for the first time we had a girl rather than a boy. We didn't care which-we just had it in our heads one way...and God surprised us with another. Had she been a boy she would have been called James Ryan...James after my dad, Ryan just a name we both liked. Instead we named her Hannah...for the obvious biblical reference as well as a name we found we liked because I had a Hannah in one of the day care classes I worked once upon a time.
Arriving home on August 4th, I remember sitting on the edge of our bed with my husband...holding her...(as our dog, Scotty danced around us in joy that we had returned). I remember thinking, what now, as it sunk in that we had brought home our first baby. She was so tiny, so needy, so perfectly formed by God's hand.
We couldn't be more proud of you Hannah. As I remember your birthday and the days that led up to it, I remember them in joy and happiness. God Bless you my daughter.
Behold, children are a heritage from the LORD, The fruit of the womb is a reward. Psalm 127:3
My contribution to TIMHT for this week is to show you my new kitchen curtains. They are called Cafe De Paris. I found them at Anna's Linens a few weeks ago, but wanted to think about it first. Somewhere in the back of my mind, I knew that I needed a change for my kitchen curtains as the gingham valence really wasn't helping cheer the place as it should. I went back last week to buy them and this past weekend my husband and I changed the mini blind and then added a curtain rod so that we could hang these. Who cares there are several unneeded holes in the molding? I cannot see them, can you? LOL
