cute, cute, cute!

popdeluxe.net is one of my most fav places online to visit. they have so many darling items! i love these matchstick gardens though! what a great stocking stuffer or hostess gift!

stripes~

this is one of the most precious bunnys i've ever seen. it's on my daughters christmas list this year. i'm so going to get it for her, simply because it'll look so cute in her room! click below to visit apartment48.com

sweet journaling...

i love to journal, and i especially like journaling in girly, cute, spiffy journals. well, this little one caught my attention, and will be my next journal purchase. love the little birds! and it's made of recycled paper, so it's not only good for you, but for the enviornment as well! click on the web addy below to browse...

run, gigi, run!

as some of you know, i've been working out 2 hours a day religiously for quite a while now, and have become addicted to it. it has been one of my goals to work up to running in a marathon...well, i've decided i'm ready. thanks to my good friend kelly, i will be running in the st. johns hospital sunshine run. it's a 10K marathon for the burn center in springfield. i'm soooo PuMpEd!!! today i've started my "official training". i'm going to be alot more strict with myself, workout a bit more and a bit harder. i'm very excited, and i'll keep you updated!

a necessary indulgance

i couldn't start posting all of my favorite girly twirly things without starting off with this little gal. i found this product about 2 years ago, and have used it daily ever since. a girl by the name of sara happ made this little concoction in her apartment kitchen, and it's now being sold by the masses! what's so great about it, you ask? it's fabulous! it sloughs off all of the chapping on your lips. it makes them smooth, kissable, and gives them a bit of natural color, since it revves 'em up a bit. not only that, but the first time i ordered it, i was plum giddy to see that it came in this sweet little box tied with a bow. for a girl thats all about packaging and thrives off visual content, it made me feel like i was given a present. i love it. great packaging, it smells terrific (brown sugar is my fav), and bonus! it really does work. click below to visit the website.

visual thesaurus

at the risk of sounding like a *huge* nerd, i have totally fallen in love with the visual thesaurus. if your a word freak like me, you could spend hours, ( well, maybe not HOURS), but a whole lot of time burying your nose in a thesaurus. the visual thesaurus is set up almost as a dna strand for words. you can subscribe to it online (it does cost some $$), or you can buy the cd and download it on your 'puter (that's what i've done). anywhoo~ it's so much fun, and a great resource for finding a different word with the same meaning.

Warm Fuzzies...

some photos from this summer that give me warm fuzzies inside...awww. i love my little sweet life!

Milla Photography

well, i thought i'd better go ahead and introduce my newest addiction, milla. milla is short for amelia and camilla, which are j and i's picks for a girls name if we have another baby...one day...maybe...eh, who am i kidding. we're sooo not going to have another baby, well, at least not for a while, but adoption has been talked about...alot... :) lol...i guess i don't have a straight answer on that one...anyway, amelia and camilla are our first choices for a girl, and since we won't be adopting anytime in the near future, i decided to use my favorite spin on the names for a hobby that is so close to my heart.

i'm really not interested in taking pics of families, weddings, seniors. my passion is more artistic. i'll do it for friends, but to be quite honest, i don't want to deal with anyone like myself. i'm a hopeless perfectionist, and drive my photographers nuts with all the miniscule details i desire. i don't want to deal with anyone like that. it's bad enough i can't get away from myself to take a break from it, i don't need the added pressure of having to please someone who's just like me. ;)

anyway, you can look up milla at milla.smugmug.com~hope you enjoy it!

Summer Lovin'...Had Me a Blast...

wow. summer is quickly coming to an end, and to be quite honest, i'm totally okay with it. it has been such a crazy, jam-packed, on-the-go last few months, that i'm in a hurry to bid it farewell and say "hello" to autumn. j and i just got back from a whirlwind trip to iowa, minnesota, wisconsin and illinois. his youngest brother, adrian (age 13), had been living with us for the summer, and it was time to take him back up to wisconsin for school. adrian is a great kid, and taught me quite a bit about raising a 13 year old (eeek!). since he was only 3 when i married his brother, plus the fact that he lives 12 hours away, neither j nor i really knew him. this summer was a great way to develop a bond between him and us. we had a great time, but like all good things, it came to an end. all of us were ready for it too. as much as i loved getting to know him, and enjoyed our time together, after 2 months, we were ready to have our house to ourselves. j and i are pretty selfish with eachother and our 2 munchkins, so 2 months with a house guest and not going insane is considered a success for us! ;)

in other news, this summer has brought a new "side business" for me. i've decided to do stock photography. something i've *loved* to do for most of my life, but now i've worked up the nerve to share it with others. a huge thing for me, since i'm usually pretty private about my taste in art. j, being the best hubby ever, bought me my new camera. a canon 40D i've lovingly named bindi. she's a beaut. ;)

school started yesterday for the monkeys...and to be quite honest, it about kicked my rump. this year is so intense. i've changed some of my curriculum, and stepped up to a more advanced form of history and geography. it's incredible, but a *bit* overwhelming for me just starting off. i know i'll get the hang of it soon enough, but if you saw the 2 HUGE stacks of books that will be read by my children by the end of the school year, you'd understand. yesterday alone, the first day of school, we started reading 3 indepth fictional books about early america, on top of our history lesson and required reading. crazy, but oh-so-fun! it's hard to believe this is our 4th year of homeschooling, and that i've got a 2nd and 3rd grader. i grow to love it more and more every year. quite surprising as i never thought i could do it. it's so encouraging and satisfying to see lauryn and london reading for fun, doing math quizzes like it's a game, and being completely engrossed in american history. they run to our poster on american presidents if they can't remember who came after nixon. they ask for me to fill them out a sheet of math problems so they can do them. they love reading, and a "field trip" to barnes and noble is the highlight of their month. i've also changed our scheduling around a bit. we are now doing 5 days a week, instead of 4, and we are 4 weeks on, 1 week off, with 2 extra weeks at christmas, 1 extra week at easter and 4 extra weeks in the summer or to be used whenever. i love going year round, it means we never really have to review the last year. all of our curriculum is cumualtive, and the kids don't have a "break" long enough to need to be "re-taught". makes life simpler.

well, i've gone on about that long enough. we're headed to the lake house for the holiday. you have no idea how much j and i are looking forward to having our little family all to ourselves. i'm going to work a bit on my photography, editing and such, and just kick back, take the boat or jet skis out and relax. *sigh*...i'm clicking my heels...;)