Good, Clean, Cheap Fun

Its so fun shopping for girl's clothes.
Faith thought this dress made a great blanket for her baby.
My big splurge- a knit dress and jacket from Gymboree. (I paid $16) Its SO cute.
Most of our "bounty" other than the toys & books my kids were dragging away while I tried to take the picture!

This weekend has become one of my favorite family traditions, City Wide Garage Sales. My Mom and Charlene both came to join me in my biannual bargain hunting. We had a lot of fun, although not as many funny memories as other weekends. Here is a roundup of our great deals:

-A toddler cash register for $2.50 for Faith, Grace got a big girl one for her birthday and now Faith can play Grocery Store too.

-A Beauty Shop for $4. Grace was doing her ritual of asking what our favorite part was at dinner (from Dora). Grace stated her favorite part was this fun find.

-Fisher Price Dump Truck for FREE. I asked the man if he would take a dollar, he said you can have it. (not sure why either)

-A cool big basket for $.50.  I heart baskets, especially cute cheap ones.

-A ugly fur covered stool for $2 which I already recovered with black fabric and works great with my desk.

-A tractor floor puzzle for $2.

-A Minnie Mouse costume for $1, maybe for a future Halloween.

-Assorted books, toys, & fun for the girls.

This is the first time Grace showed excitement at checking out the sales. A future yard saler in training!

(BTW: That is my new red couch in the background of the picture, notice it is not in the basement. But more on that later...)

Project Monday

Our somewhat ugly yellow house, soon to be tan or something neutral! Oh, and hopefully a new mailbox and house numbers too. And maybe a new porch light fixture. (Hopefully Jeremy didn't read that last part...)
The girls loved the railing- Grace told her dad he did it perfect.
As you can see before the railing there was a dangerous drop off for little people.

As many of you probably know Jeremy and I tend to buy "fixer upper" houses. We usually do a majority of the work before we move in and then keep working on them as time allows. Well this is the longest we have ever lived in one place, and we are still finding LOTS of projects. Since we moved in we have put a new roof on the house, taken out the chimney, installed a shed in the back yard (that Jeremy built with his dad), ripped up carpet & refinished some of the hardwood floors, replaced all the curtain rods, painted pretty much the entire house, put down laminate in the kitchen, painted the kitchen cupboards, installed new stair rails to the basement, and a lot more I've probably forgotten. Did I mention we had to take down some nasty wallpaper? (not a fun project!) But, we are also in the process of several projects. I get ideas for improving the house all the time. I see an idea in a magazine or see a organizational issue etc. and my mind goes crazy. Unfortunately my poor husband can't keep up with me and it drives him crazy trying to think about a million different projects at the same time. So since his skills are highly necessary for 95% of the projects we do I have repented of my ways (sort of) and we started something called Project Mondays. Each Monday we choose one project to work on. One of us get the supplies we need that day and then we dedicate Monday night to completing or moving along that particular project. So far we have put up privacy film on our bathroom window (I really don't recommend this one it is a perfectionist's nightmare), fixed our couch, and installed a much needed railing on our tiny front porch. We are currently also in the middle of redoing our upstairs bathroom, building a snack bar in the basement, tearing down the old dilapidated car port in our backyard, seeding our lawn, and having our house painted. Oh dear, did I say I had changed my ways?? Anyway, I am terrible at taking before and after pictures. Which is quite disappointing because just blogging about the things we have completed makes me see how far we have already come. So I am hoping to occasionally blog about our Project Monday success stories. Here is the railing Jeremy installed on Monday, it will be painted white to match the rest of our trim when the house is painted (Did I mention we are actually hiring someone to do that? PRAISE THE LORD!) Today we are going to pick up a new couch I got a steal on, buying it second hand out of the paper. I am praying I can fit and the current sectional we own in our basement & it still look good. I'll keep you updated on how that goes.

Pirate Nation

This weekend was our Pirate Nation youth retreat. This is the second year we have co-planned a weekend retreat with Calvary Baptist Church. It was a great weekend. The spirit of God really showed up and to see Him moving made the week of total craziness preparing for the weekend totally worth it.  On top of Jeremy's role of co-leading the weekend our home was a host home. We had 11 & 12th grade boys staying in our home. At first I was somewhat (okay very reluctant) to have boys. I told Jeremy that I didn't know what to do with boys, we have girls!! But, the young men who stayed in our home were awesome. They were so polite and appreciative. I really enjoyed cooking for them. We also designed a game of Monopoly that went around the neighborhood our church is located in. The kids had a great time.

Easter Part 2

Faith shows off her find.
Loves from Uncle Cody
Grace finding eggs & special surprises.





The girls had fun opening their Easter basket. We decided to do one basket for them to share. We are considering making this our family tradition to have one family basket for the kids to share. We will see. I thought the girls looked so cute. They were so excited to wear their hats. I decided to enjoy it while they thought it was fun (since I'm thinking that won't last). Then after church we headed to my parents to enjoy dinner with my family. My mom hid easter eggs and all the girls' gifts out of their basket around her yard. Faith didn't get the the concept of hunting for the gifts. Whenever you put one in her basket she would throw it back out, she only wanted eggs. I LOVED spending the time with my family.

I have two favorite memories from this Easter. The first was funny. Whenever anyone would hand my girls an egg (real or plastic) they would try and crack it. To most people it might have looked like banging. But I knew all that cooking with me is sinking in. It was fun to see them connect eggs with cracking them for baking. The other memory is more serious but still sweet. On the way to the Easter party Grace and I were discussing what Easter is really about. We were talking about how Jesus came and died so we could be in Heaven with God some day. I expressed that I really wanted to be in Heaven with God. Grace said, "Me too, our baby is there, and I want to hold her and feed her." I'm so thankful that she trusts God is caring for our baby. And it gave me a whole new reason to be thankful Jesus died & rose again for me.

Easter Fun Part 1

Grace hunting Easter eggs.
My Easter surprise from Jeremy, gorgeous tulips!
Daddy & Faith hunt eggs.
Our very first "crop" of dyed Easter eggs.
Nana helps Faith with her eggs.
Grace hunts for her Easter basket from Nana.
Dying eggs.
Grace coloring at the Easter Party at church.
Grace making her snack at the Easter party.

Because the girls have been sick we had to pack all of our Easter fun into one weekend. On Saturday Nana came to visit. The girls hunted for their Easter baskets & eggs. We also dyed Easter eggs for the very first time. The girls really enjoyed it. While Faith was napping Grace got to go to our church's Easter party. She really had a lot of fun. They colored a book that talked about the Easter story, made special snacks, and had an Easter egg hunt. More on Easter fun soon..

Fishing

The Size of Our Original Fish
The Size of our "Pond" Fish

A little update on our life as fish owners. The second original fish died. Yes, I know we aren't doing good. It is the Humiston curse. We used to bring goldfish home from the Halloween Carnival when I was little and keep them alive forever. Jeremy however has a history of dead fish in his past. So my dad brought some "hardy" replacements from his goldfish which were at his clinic, but normally live in his fish pond. If you want a good laugh just look at the picture. He brought me this ridiculously LARGE fish. She is not staying (yes, I know its a she because her belly is huge, dad thinks she is pregnant) Have mercy, I do not need an oversized, pregnant fish in my little fish tank. She will be being served with an eviction notice very soon!! She is either going to my backyard or back to Illinois. Grace is still hoping she can live in the backyard, we will see.

On another funny note the other night Grace came out to see me when she was supposed to be going to sleep. She said, "Wet!" I inquired how her pj's got soaking wet up to her elbow. She simply said, "Fishing!" My dear daughter took the top of her purple fish tank and proceeded to fish. Lovely! I didn't know whether to laugh or scrub her with Dial soap. So I did a little of both and then explained if she continued to "fish" her fish tank would be removed from her room. She thought that would be very sad.

Hopefully we are done with fish drama for awhile, I will keep you updated. 

Girls Night Out

On Thursday some of the girls from my small group rescued me from my little hospital (a.k.a. my house) and helped cure some of my cabin fever. It was absolutely lovely to have dinner & chat. I am so touched they thought about me. Once again, God knew what I needed and he totally blessed me. Faith is doing better and no longer having to do her breathing treatments. I am very thankful.

I love surprises!

Last thursday I did one of my most favorite things to do, surprise my husband. He is really hard to surprise because he LOVES to try and figure them out. (yes, he shakes his presents at Christmas) He was feeling pretty overwhelmed trying to keep up with all his stuff plus taking care of all of my stuff as I recovered. And I wanted to thank him for being such an amazing & supportive husband.

So I sneakily planned a surprise date night for us. Our best friend  "Aunt Ashley" agreed to come and stay with the girls. On thursday morning I took the girls to a friend's house to play. I went and bought myself & Jeremy new outfits ( a huge splurge for me!!) Then I laid out his outfit with the movie listings for that night. The girls and I hid in our bedroom and when he came home yelled, "Surprise!"

We went to eat at a fancier place downtown. Then we went to a movie. Hannibal just got a brand new fancy digital theater. We went to see Monsters vs. Aliens in 3D. Neither of us had ever seen a 3 D movie. We then headed to our favorite "coffee" shop for white hot chocolate. It was a great night!!! It had been quite awhile since we had a date night.

I am so thankful the Lord gave me this idea. I had no idea we would be gearing up for another exhausting weekend with Faith getting sick, but the Lord did. He gave us just what we needed time to reconnect and recharge.

ER Finale

No, I am not talking about the TV show. We made another trip to the ER and I am seriously hoping it is the final one! (at least for a long time) Friday night almost two weeks to the hour that I went to the the ER we made the decision to take Faith to the ER. On Friday Faith started running a temperature and coughing during nap. I thought she was probably getting a cold. We were headed to Jeremy's dads for the night. We got to Keokuk and his parents had gone to dinner. Faith's fever got to 102 and she was having a lot of trouble breathing. At one point she was grunting to breathe. I was starting to get very nervous at that point. Faith's grandma teaches nursing so we were glad when she got home. She went to get something to check her oxygen saturation. It was only at 90%. I was shaking at this point. I was really having a hard time emotionally, worried about her, flashing back to two weeks ago, and not knowing what to do. Jeremy stepped up and decided we should take her to the emergency room. I was so thankful he decided because I was a wreck.

We decided to take her to the Fort Madison Hospital so Grace could stay with my in-laws. To make a long story short after testing we found out she has RSV and was experiencing respiratory distress. After two breathing treatment and a steroids shot they admitted us to the hospital. She responded great to the treatments and we were able to go home on Saturday afternoon. I am SO thankful! It was a long night, but we made it through.

Currently we are doing breathing treatments at home and waiting for her little body to fight off the virus. I am totally exhausted. While I was hoping to get back to some type of normalcy this week I think that will have to wait.  To be totally honest I keep thinking about God's promise that he won't give us more than we can handle. I keep asking him, "Are you sure you didn't get me confused with some super strong woman?" I feel like I've been running a marathon lately, and I'm close to running on empty. I'm so thankful I don't have to rely on my strength alone I know God can fill my tank. And so my prayer, FILL ME LORD!!

My Gorgeous Girls

Sisterly love!






My mom recently took new pictures of the girls. As you can see they weren't super cooperative. Or maybe this is just what a photo shoot with two kids looks like.  Although we did get a few cute ones, especially the ones with Aunt Jo Jo. I especially love the ones of their feet. I of course think my girls are absolutely gorgeous!! (even if they aren't cooperative) They are getting so big.

Girls,

I hope you will always know that you are beautifully and wonderfully made by our heavenly father. I continue to learn that truth in my own life so I can model it for you.  Your dad and I will keep reminding you how beautiful we think you are on the outside and teaching you how to allow the Lord to make you beautiful on the inside too. 

Online Conference

I wanted to share with you a great opportunity. I won a ticket to this online conference. I am really excited about it. There are lots of awesome speakers. It is a really inexpensive option for some inspiration. You can listen live, or if you are busy you can listen to the sessions at your own pace. I am hoping it will be both challenging and encouraging. One of my favorite author's Lysa Terkeurst will be speaking. Below is a promo video.