i'm in the mood for...

i would LOVE to have this in my backyard. not going to happen, but i would love it. total eye candy.

inspiration. i'm so in the mood for hanging out on the patio, swim parties & that good ol' worn out feeling from having too much fun.

seriously want to jump in. so in love with these pools. sleek. stylish. no fussy, fru fru fake boulders around the edges. just elegant, simple and so impressive. LOVE it! {home pics from decorpad}

melamine plates from crate & barrell. i'd put them on top of white chargers...how cute!

want these! from potterybarn. 3 of them. one for lemonade, one for pink lemonade & the other for cucumber water!

a definate at my house! these are solar from brookstone

and a couple of these. from west elm...i'm so getting these.

i love all the pink of this one!

and this...more pink! {pic from costal living}

and last but certainly not least. THIS. i'm gonna do this somewhere...i don't know where, and j will fReAk OuT, but how cute is that???

memorial day "fun"?

i've hesitated putting this on the blog...just because i didn't know how i should spin it...this story can go two ways~ nice and clean cut, or the truth. i've decided to do BOTH. so, here we go, hold on to your seats, it's going to be a bumpy ride...

NICE & CLEAN CUT VERSION (not a lie, but not all the truth)

this last weekend j took both monkeys to go ride our horses oakley & harley (right now they are being boarded till the house is finished being built). i took that time alone to work out in my little garden, plant some flowers and piddle quietly around the house. he called a few hours later and said that there was a chuckwagon race/rodeo going on that night in arkansas, and asked if i wanted to go.

everytime i go to a rodeo, or something like it, i am so filled with pride of our country. it amazes me how attending a rodeo can bring tears to my eyes from being so prideful of our great country.

at the beginning, they go through the flag ceremony, mention the troops, pray, you know, all the stuff that makes an event an "all american" event. plus, there's something about rodeos that get you in that "down home country" mood. (smell of maneur & grilled burgers probably helps)

cowboy hats. nachos. cattle. spurs. cowboys. horses. chaps.

think "sweet home alabama" / "hope floats" kinda feeling.

although i'm not a real "country girl" (being born and raised in the "wilderness" of los angeles), i LOVE pretending to be "country".

i say *pretending*, because i love hunting, but if i see a snake or something equally *satanic*, i BOLT outta there and i won't be back to that part of the woods.

i love being outside, but will spasam at the first mosquito or bug bite, and seek safety indoors. (just ask my hubby, i'm a *blast* to go camping with, honest)!

i love our horses, but i'll admit i'm still intimidated by their power & size.

i love cowgirl boots, but think their cutest when worn with a girly babydoll dress.

so all that being said, rodeos make me feel like an organically grown country girl. hometown homecoming queen. boot scootin' boogie line dancing cowgirl (minus the western outfits)...

so. that was the clean cut version. it's not much, but it's all i've got.

now. THE TRUTH.

saturday morning, j takes the kids to the horses, i piddle in my garden, and am feeling quite content knowing that j and the kids will come home, we will lay the outdoor carpet in the screened in porch (which was the last thing needed in order to finish that project), bbq burgers on the egg (for those of you that don't know about the *big green egg*, it's a whole new level on grilling. go ahead, google it if your a die hard bbq'er. once you taste a steak or burger on the egg, you'll NEVER use a regular grill again. EVER. )...got a little side tracked, but seriously, check it out.

then, after grilling, we were going to take a leisurely boat ride and fish for a while. (love to fish. REFUSE to bait my own hook.)

so j phones, and tells me about this chuckwagon race/rodeo. i told him i didn't want to go, we had "plans" and i was quite happy staying home. he finally convinced me to go after promising that he'd come home and lay the carpet before we went. the kids went on with his stepmom and her husband, and he came home. we laid the carpet, put all the furniture back, i decorated it a bit, then we cleaned up and headed to the backwoods of arkansas. (mind you, i still wasn't too happy about going, but he assured me that there was going to be bull rides, so i was "okay" about heaving my plans to the trash bin)

anyway, the drive to get there should've sent red flags and warning signals to us. shoot. it should've sent clowns (which i hate) on stilts with HUGE signs saying "don't go!" and "you won't like it" or "it's going to feel like hell on earth!" but it didn't. well, it kinda did, but we shrugged it off. we get there, and find j's stepmom. we park the truck right up to the arena, and let the tailgate down.

first sign that 4 people (us & our two monkeys) don't belong at this event~

1. everyone is drunk. everyone. the entire collection of "rodeo" participants. the onlookers. everyone. i see kids ages 3-6 carrying and playing around with their parents beer and cigarettes. seriously. there's a huge group of 14-16 year old hammered a few tailgates down from us.

2. the "rodeo" is supposed to start at 6pm. it starts at 8. yeah. okay, i'm chronically late, it's an illness, but even i'm never 2 hours late, but whatever.

***side note: we had to be at both services at church the next morning because j convinced me that my two head ushers were going to be out of town. i had thought they weren't going to be out of town for another couple weeks, but he assured me i was wrong... meaning we have to leave our house at 7am to get to church on time...meaning we have to get up at 5:30-6am to get everyone ready by 7am...*** okay on with it.

3. the first "event" was steer wrasling. (i'm spelling it the way they say it) not WRESTLING. WRASLING. i've seen this type of event before, one team ropes the steer, then the team ties up the back legs and one front leg and they're timed. okay. this was unlike ANYTHING i've ever seen. picture 4 drunker than drunk guys fighting and chasing a steer around a huge arena, not being able to rope the poor thing, and at one point FALLING OFF THIER HORSE. here's the clincher. THE HORSE WASN'T MOVING. IT WAS STANDING STILL. and they fell off. yeah. that's when i really thought i was in the twilight zone. an alternate universe. hell. these poor steers were pulled down by 3-4 men, held there with their tounges flailing around and them groaning while their legs were tied up. now, don't get me wrong, i love animals and i love rodeos. all the rodeos i've been to, i've NEVER felt like the animal was treated unfairly, or harmed in any way. but this. this was disturbing.

4. it went from bad to worse, each event worse than the one before. people got drunker. said people started invading my personal space. (can't handle that...don't they know about my invisible bubble?) at one point, i look over at our trucks tailgate (i was sitting on j's stepmoms) and a band of wild drunken teenagers ( and one ICE CREAM CONE EATING three year old) had pretty much taken over the bed of our truck. when i say taken over, i mean, their stash of alcohol, their plates of food, and their RUMPS were all over the tailgate of our truck. sitting there texting, kissing, laughing, yelling, drinking...this made me one unhappy camper. with each event i got more and more uncomfortable. and bored. and in desperate need of some normalacy. i cleaned out my purse. i did my nails. TWICE. i started texting friends with urgent SOS messages.

5. they announced at one point that evening that the next event was "wild cow milking".

i looked over at j, who looked as puzzled as i was, and glared at him. i blamed him.

i wanted to stay home (enter background calming music, birds chirping, scents of flowers and lemons filling the air), grill hamburgers (sounds of kids playing, crickets cricketing and picture perfect picnicking) and go on a nice, quiet boatride (picture sun setting in the background, wide open lake surrounded by gorgeous views, you see the boat and our silhouetted family of four peacefully boating away) that's what I wanted. HE instead, brought me HERE. to the backwoods-honkey-tonk-sorry-excuse-for-a-rodeo place.

the time came for the WILD COW MILKING. 4 guys, *ahem* 4 drunk guys, running after a poor momma cow trying to wrestle her and milk her enough to get a few drops into a little old bottle, then run to the middle of the arena to a judge that tips the bottle down to see if anything comes out of it. one team didn't get anything. fight breaks out. security steps in. they don't want to leave the arena. they're saying it's rigged. they've been jipped. they're pretty upset judging from the use of 4-letter words they were yelling...my kids don't know what to think. neither does the judge whose still being yelled at. they FINALLY leave the arena. things calm down. they finish up the wild cow milking. then they announce it. the main event. the thing "we've all been waiting for" (i hadn't been waiting for it, i was kinda hoping that was the end) the cherry on top of this huge rodeo sundae...THE PORTA POTTY PULL.

6. yep. the porta potty pull. 3 porta potties. 9 teams of 2. one person gets IN the porta potty. the other ropes it while on a horse. they pull the porta potty by horse across the arena (mind you only ONE of the porta potties didn't fall over and have brown "goo" spill out of it...i'm trying to be gentle with my descriptions) they did this 3 times, and then took the 3 that won and they {raced?} pulled against each other. it was disgusting. we didn't stay to find out who won. the winner would win the pot. $200. i'd GIVE $200 to NOT do that.

we got in the car after explaining to j's stepmom that we were going to "beat the crowd" and headed for home. it was 11:45. it was an hour and a half home. i told myself i wasnt' going to tear right into him...so i asked him what he thought of the "rodeo". he shook his head and started chuckling. his feelings matched mine, and i took that as an invitation to unleash my thoughts that had been building all night. needless to say, j knows better than to EVER go to one of these things again. (and just to let you know, we didn't want to look "rude" and leave even earlier...long, boring, detailed story)

we got home at 12:15am. the kids had to take showers because they were filthy (forgot to mention it rained while we were there, and they were so dirty) by the time we got to bed it was after 2am. we woke up at 6. on the road to church by 7. (it takes an hour and a half to get to church from the lake house). we pull up, j drops me off at the door. my main ushers (father and son that were supposed to be "out of town") are standing at the door greeting people. another glare is cast at j.

i knew i should've called my ushers and made sure that this was the weekend. i knew my gut was telling me different than what j said. as i had thought, it was another 2 weeks before they were leaving for texas.

we took a 4 hour nap that afternoon. i told j thats a clue that we can't handle late nights anymore. aging. pathetic little detail of life.

i was able to laugh at it after the nap. but i've told j (playfully, of course) that this will be held over his head for the rest of his life. he thinks the whole thing is hysterical. i'm starting to see the humor in it...kind of...

**BONUS** j's stepmom informed him when we got there that she was wrong about the bull rides. they weren't until the next day. all of that, and no bull rides. makes a girl wanna cry.

have a great weekend!

the "lovely blog" award...

i'm so giddy that i've recieved this from lauren at the neaves nest! (she and her blog are a-dor-ab-le, you must go check it out)

it's my first blog award, and i'm excited to pass it off to 10 blogs i've recently discovered!

here's what you do: accept the award and post it on your blog along with the link to who gave the award to you.

then pick 10 newly discovered blogs and list them. contact them to let them know about the award.

i've chosen these lovely blogs:

brown eyed girl and her beau

drew and ashley

life @ the white house (she also recieved this, but i love her blog)

running in stilettos

paisley and pearls

iva messy

love and marriage

the lajeunesse family

20 times a lady

b is for brown

i love all the blogs i follow, but these are among the newest ones i've found. you need to check them out along with laurens. they're all fabulous! thank you lauren!

a bit of {randomness} to start the day...

1. patti blagojevich is a celebrity??? since when??? and going to be on a reality show??? c'mon, seriously? most of the nation had never heard of her or her husband before the whole "selling the senate seat" thing. (which i don't have any opinion on because i don't know enough about it). her husband says she's "willing to go out in the jungle (to make money) for her kids"...she says they have to earn a living somehow...could they not do something low-key?

of course i had this same thought when they started treating kato kaelin a celebrity too. it seems as if all you need to do is get involved in a public scandal. instant celebrity! are people really that interested in the blagojevichs?

{and please understand, i'm not putting anyone down, i'm just so confused at how we've gone from calling someone like marilyn monroe, brad pitt & reese witherspoon celebrities to putting paris hilton, those kardashian girls & now the blagojevichs in the same category}. i mean absolutely no disrespect towards any of them, i just don't get it.

2. ingenius! so cute and fun. get 'em here.





3. a woman gives birth to twins that have different dads?! wow. i had NO IDEA that was even possible. i will say i have a LOT of respect for her fiance (father of one of the boys), he made it clear that he's "daddy" to both, and that's that. she's got a good guy. but seriously? did you know that could happen?





4. i really want these. plus one in black. you can find them here.














5. and i *LOVE* this shirt and belt from the spring collection of my friend jodi's clothing line sakrid.

have a *great* day!

*excuse me while i wipe the drool off my chin*

okay, sooo, while perusing this website, i found these...first up is my vision for our new dressing room. only with dark cabinets. LOVE the chandelier! makes me want to play dress up.

and this. well this is nicky hiltons breakfast nook. i'm hoping for something like this in my craft room...love the wallpaper!

* the colors in this room make me happy.

you might recognize this from the movie "the holiday". i'm OBSESSED with this house. our home was designed with this house in mind. even the floors.

if i had to have an office it would look like this. notice the "tree" painted on the wall in a darker blue. i'm in love.

and again..."the holiday" house. the color scheme is what i'm doing throughout our home. so relaxing.

look at those lamps! i could so live here.

the touches of turqouise. love it. kinda feelin' that wallpaper too...

the pillows. i. need.







again, 'the holiday". the color scheme. love. only our bedding will be all white.

you didn't see this room in the movie, but this is also from "the holiday". i fell in love with the beamed ceilings.









and again. "the holiday" i can't help it. they had the BEST set designer EVER.

the back of the house. i just put this one up because i love the pool. more eye candy of a different kind later~ we're off to run errands! have you read the new jennifer weiner book? i can't hardly put it down!

my brain...you should try living with it...

okay, so i'm sitting here, having PLENTY to do, but instead i'm off in a little bubble and the voices in my head are going crazy chattering about the most random things...these are SOME of the things going on in there, all at the same time:

1. i need to go excersize, but i'm hungry. i could just grab something to eat (really craving chocolate) while i jog...but does that defeat the whole purpose of jogging? would i be burning those calories, or all the ones before. duh. before. but i really want chocolate. put that on the grocery list. still wanna lose 5 lbs...geez.

2. laundry is totally piling up. i hate laundry. i don't know why they don't invent disposable clothes. but would i really want to go to the store every week and buy new ones? well, yeah! but then they wouldn't be as well made. that would be a bummer. but i guess it really wouldn't matter if i was just going to throw them away. but what if i REALLY liked something...could i just keep buying it, or would they eventually stop carrying it? that wouldn't help the landfill situation either. what a silly idea. i don't know why i have it every time i do laundry.

3. i need to go water my garden. we've gotten soooo much rain though. what am i going to do if i see a snake by it? i hate snakes. maybe lowes has something to keep snakes away. and ticks. yuck. hate ticks. still haven't gotten my tomato plants. need to get those tomorrow. scared nothings going to grow. i'm going to be so mad if it doesn't. i'll NEVER grow from seed again.

4. tomorrow. wednesday. church. don't think the kids should go to church because of their poison ivy. still need to go to the grocery store. and lowes. poison ivy. yuck. need to pick up more white paint for the screened in porch ceiling. can't believe the stupid thing is taking this much paint. my arms hurt. i hate painting over my head. i need to wash the car while i'm in town. dry cleaning! need to remember that too!

5. poison ivy. why is it poison? need to google poison ivy. see if there's something else i can do to speed up the process of it going away. kids still look like "chubby". "hi, i'm chubby, my mama's chubby, my daddy's chubby, even my dog is chubby. one day my momma said, chubby, can you smile? sure, ma, like this!" used to do that a lot as a kid. poor kids. i should take pictures of them for the blog. would it be mean to post them with their little faces all swollen on the blog? i don't know...

6. the paintings for angela still need to be done. i'm so behind on that. need to mail aprils cd's to her...need to call jodi and make sure she got her cd's. need to make reservation at bed & breakfast for jodi's wedding. j's birthday! gotta figure out something for that.

7. i'm clumsy today. i always get clumsy right before that time...i HATE "that time". i wish we were made with an on/off button. i would so have it on "off".

8. i want to go somewhere. figi. bora bora. j's set on not going anywhere exotic till the house is done. don't blame him, but i really want to go somewhere.

9. kids need to finish math. maybe we could do it outside. dinner. what are going to have for dinner. leftover smoked ham is good...don't feel like cooking. don't feel like doing much of anything.

10. facebook...keep it or get rid of it. it's starting to turn into a myspace kind of thing. i liked it better when not everyone was on it, and i wasn't getting invites from people i went to elementary school with and haven't talked to since. why don't people like that write a little note with their invite " hi, how are you, it's been so long! i've thought about you over the years, and wondered how you were. looking forward to catching up!"...something like that. sometimes i think they just want to be nosey and not put any effort into a real friendship. ugh. then you've got all the applications, all the requests. not a big deal, but do i really want all those people knowing all that about me. blogging's different. blogging is words from me. things i want people to know. but if i'm not on facebook for a few hours or longer, and someone puts something on my profile that i don't want known, i'm out of luck. does it really matter? it's just sometimes peoples sense of humor isn't funny. i hate when people "joke" by putting you down. i mean seriously? why? it just rubs me the wrong way. why put people down?

11. memorial day weekend. want to do nothing but hang out here. go on the boat. paint the adarondak chairs. and the wicker. one more coat for the wicker and it should be done. took enough paint. we need more mulch and rock. need my other hummingbird feeders put up. need to get rid of the squirrels...

12. what posesses two women to go into walmart and steal a 52" tele? one dressed as a walmart employee and one as a "customer"...purse snatcher on the loose in springfield. springfield. city where nothing ever happens, now has lots of stuff happening. i remember when we first moved here, the main story was on a heard of cattle that had gotten loose and wandered away. now it's non-stop crime.

13. still need to make the drapes for the lake shack dining room. so cute. wonder if they're too trendy. do i really want big pears framing my windows? do i really care? it's not like they're my forever drapes. they are really cute though. orla keely from target. gotta love her.

14. wonder if psycho stalker girl reads this blog. hmmm. i don't know. i'd love to get into her head. try to figure out the way she thinks. i'm pms-ing. i'm thinking mean thoughts. i don't mean to. they just "pop up" and there they are. self control. she will not get the better of me. a lotta nerve that girl has.

15. i need to make smoothies. strawberry raspberry peach. that sounds really good. i hate that i didn't bring my kitchen aid blender here. i'm stuck with our old one from when we were first married. double yuck. it's slow. i'll be so glad when the house is done.

16. i hear water running and the kids whispering...not good. they say their rinsing off their plates from lunch. i'm scared to see what i'll find when i go out there. need to make sweet tea. been out for 2 days. sipping on lemonade instead, cause i don't feel like making it. need to cut all the veggies up and put them on a platter for munching. should've done that yesterday. is it normal to talk to yourself? hmmm. i just don't know. need to experiment with the felted wool. need to go to hobby lobby. hate my "to-do" list right now. it's too overwhelming.

17. seriously have to love j for putting up with me. when we first got married, he would come home and i'd sit there and talk his ear off. he said he'd never met anyone that talked so much. then i saw on a morning news show that women have 25,000 words they have to use a day and men only have 15,000. i filled him in on that fact that night at dinner. from then on, whenever i would do my nightly chatting to him, he'd wait till he couldn't take it anymore, and would nicely ask if i was anywhere near my limit for the day so that he could get back to watching whatever it was that he wanted to watch. i've told him through the years that while it might be hard for him to have to listen to me rattle on and on about (very) important stuff, that he should try thinking about how i feel. these conversations and thoughts go on and on in my head all day without a break. ideas for decor, ideas for making something, stuff with the kids, stuff with the house, photography stuff, craft stuff, stuff with the lake house. the list goes on forever.


if you've made it this far, i'm impressed and you're probably exhausted. i've only met 2 people in my life that are like me in this way. there are so many times i have to make myself be quiet around friends because if i don't, i'll go on and on about ideas and such. it's draining. i can skip tracks and conversations with lightning speed. poor j has had to hold on tight to make sure he keeps up. unfortunately, it looks like lauryn has the same "illness". j and london are forced to listen to us as we go on and on explaining detail by detail about our day, our ideas, our thoughts and our opinions. i haven't really talked to anyone in the past 3 days except for j and the kids because i've lost my voice...this entry was good for me. i feel better. alrighty then. i'm gonna go. i have to get something done. i'm just not sure of where to start...

my skincare regimen...

okay...it seems as though us girls are always asking one another what we use to make us "pretty", be it make up or our cleansing routines. i thought i'd post mine in hopes that you would think about posting yours too. first and foremost is my moisture cream. i've been using la mer for years now. i LOVE this stuff. i would BATHE in this stuff if i could. my skin is oily with a dry surface...thanks to a recent change in hormones...it has also turned extrememly tempermental, so i really have to watch what i put on it. this is the only thing that truly hydrates my skin and leaves it looking "dewy" and supple. i swear by this stuff. in fact, i have tiny panic attacks when i get half way though it and haven't reordered it yet! la mer took my skin from dull and dry to "glowing". seriously. it's a miracle product.

next item in my regimen is my eye cream. i had been using kinerase, but i ran out and didn't have time to go to sephora to get some...i made a quick trip to walmart and found this. oil of olay pro line. i thought the price was a *bit* steep for an olay product, but i was pleasantly surprised at what it did for under my eyes! i'm now completely sold on this product and plan on buying it again and again!

next~ my most favorite scrub. ever. exfolikate! by kate somerville. she's known for giving her clients that "dewy" "glowing" look and this is her scrub. it's amazing. i don't really care for the packaging, since once you use it and it gets about 1/4 of the way down the pump stops working...but you just unscrew the top and dig your fingers right in. no biggie, it's just the push top pump was so handy...still definately worth it because of the results!

my toner. from mario badescu. this toner works really well at eliminating blackheads and getting rid of excess dirt, but it's still plenty gentle for my sensitive skin. the thing i love most about it is that it doesn't leave my face feeling dry and gross.

i don't get a lot of pimples, but once a month ;) something always trys to "pop up" and this takes care of it almost immediately! i put it on at night, and it's gone in the morning. i swear by this stuff. i've used it for several years, and always have it on hand. LOVE it!

i loved this product so much, i posted about it when i first started my blog. this is incredible stuff. it's by sara happ, who couldn't ever find a good lip scrub. sooo, she started experimenting with ingredients in her kitchen. this is what she came up with, and what has made her i'm sure, quite a lot of money. it's so good, smells good, tastes good...and it leaves your lips soft and smooth. i'm starting to think i sound like a commercial, but seriously, i searched for years for just the right products for me, (and spent a LOT of $$$), so if i can help someone that's looking for products like this that work, i'd like to help. plus, now this might not matter to a lot of people, but it does to me (because i'm a total details person) the packaging is adorable. it comes like how you see here, complete with the little bow. so sweet, and so much like a little gift to yourself.

at night, after i get into bed, i use this. it's la mer's lip balm. i only use it at night because 1. it's incredibly good and the next morning my lips feel silky. and 2. because during the day i wear lip gloss and i'm eating, running around and so on, so i don't want to waste it.

and last, made by sara happ (maker of the lip scrub) is the lip slip. i use this during the day. it's good for under lip gloss, or with just a lip liner (my fav way to wear it). line your lips, fill them in a bit for a touch of color, then put this on. it has a very faint pink tint to it, but it's made to look like you've just licked your lips. not too shiny, and definately not goopy and heavy. and it lasts a looong time.

okay, that's my skincare regimen...what's yours???

my 489,679th mistake as a mummy...

i have made *plenty* of mistakes as a mum. i'm saying, my fair share, and then some. but this past weekend i made a doozy of a mistake. we were at *the land* (you can read about the land in older posts), and we had been out in the woods turkey hunting. (yes, i like to turkey hunt. wearing my pink suede, fur trimmed boots no less. seriously.) anyway, j and i had told the kids to play up by the shop and we were going to go down the hill to look at a few things. (j had made london a 4 wheeler track, and he has started on the walking trails).

anyway, i spotted this little turtle. i thought it was so cute, so i picked it up, knowing that the kids would love to see it, and brought it back with us on the 4 wheeler. of course, sis priss got all excited (she loves to "mother" anything that will let her, or that is too small to not allow her to) and the boy thought it was pretty cool, and went on popping wheelies with his 4 wheeler (typical). sooo, the first thing out of sis priss's mouth was "can we keep it?? P-L-E-A-S-E??? and in a moment of pure insanity, and a very GINOURMOUS brainfart, i said yes. i'm usually soooo good about saying "no" and how "they are much better in the wild where they belong..."etc... apparently my filtering system between my brain and my mouth was turned off, and before i knew it, or could even think about it, we had a pet. a pet named "sally".

"sally" was put into a hermit crab cage and given food (grass & leaves) and water. sis priss refused to let her down to walk, afraid that she might get hurt (even though she was born and lived in the woods and had made it so far...) and when she was put down to walk, it wasn't but a few seconds before she was swept back up and given a little scolding for either going the direction she was going, or going underneath the boat or truck or whatever happened to be there. sis priss thought it best to carry her around everywhere because she would be safer. i'll admit, i was feeling pretty good, thinking that a mum of the year award was pretty much a given.

moving on...we get home, sis priss still won't put the poor thing down, and when she does, "sally" makes a BOLT for the opposite direction. i mean turtles are slow movers. this one was fast. she wanted out of there, away from sis priss and her mothering. the next morning we found sis priss mothering her new pet (instead of getting ready for church). i knew we'd be gone quite a while, so i cut up an apple and some lettuce and put it in the cage for her to eat, and sis priss gave her fresh water. fast forward to the afternoon (mothers day, mind you) and we realized that "sally" hadn't eaten any of her food. i got on the computer 1. to find out what kind of turtle "sally" was and 2. to see what they ate. i found out that she was a box turtle (i had thought she was), and that they ate crickets and bugs, etc...in this article from the missouri conservation dept, it also said that almost always when kept in captivity, they die.

huge lump in throat.

it gave the reasons, and with each one i felt even more sick. i called j in and showed him the article, and he asked sis to come inside. we told her what we had read, and let her make the decision of what she wanted to do (knowing full well she would make the right decision. if it would've been the boy, we wouldn't have given him the option, knowing there was a good chance he would opt for the wrong decision,lol) and she started crying. hard. not because she was mad or angry, but because she loved this turtle sooo much.

she told us that it was a "special turtle" and she didn't want to let it go. well, apparently this was too much for j, because out of NOWHERE he blurts out, "don't worry, we'll get you a turtle this week at the pet store, one that can live with us!" SERIOUSLY??? i turned to him and shot him a look that said "you just did the same mistake i did all over again!!"

sis wanted pictures of her and "sally" before we let her go, so that she could look back and always remember her...( i didn't remind her that she only had the thing for 24 hours). so we all gathered together at the fence that separates our land from the field, and put "sally" down. j talked about "sally" and what a good turtle she was and what a good pet she was as sis priss hugged me, her head buried in my stomach, and her shoulders heaving. it was the kind of cry that is deep. it was a hard cry. not a tantrum, but one when you're losing something or someone. it was a loss cry. i bawled because it hurt me to see her hurting like that. she cried silently for the longest time. the only sound you heard was the long drawn in breath in between sobs. she asked if she could go in her room for a while to think about things. while she was gone, i emptied and put away the cage and talked with j. sis priss has sooo much love for animals. she seriously should be a vet when she grows up. it just broke my heart to see her like that. she came out after a while and was fine, quiet, but fine. and every so often, you would see her eyes well up with tears. she would just hug us.

that brings me to "turtle shopping". i thought it would be an easy thing. pet shop. check. turtle. check. pay for such turtle. check. one happy sis priss. check.

yeah. not at all. we went to every pet store in town.

they don't sell turtles. excuse me? seriously? they all told me one thing. "you'll have to buy it online."

since when did we enter the age of BUYING our PETS online??? our new TURTLE is being SHIPPED to us via UPS???? yeah. seriously. this is going to end up costing us so much more than we thought. and all because of me and my un-filtered big mouth.

here's sis priss below, notice the puffy red eyes and flushed cheeks...with "sally" right before her release. she didn't want to cry for the picture...she was such a trooper.

then a picture of "sally" leaving us. there is no doubt that any of us will ever forget "sally" and the lesson she taught us. ALL of us. especially about making sure our "filters" are always turned ON. ALWAYS...

crushing on lilly...

my crushes from lilly pulitzer this season....so gorgeous! go ahead and find your own crush here.

how cute is this?! it'll make me so happy in the morning...who am i kidding? i'll be using it all day! it's too cute!

and look at this journal! i've always wanted a pink elephant. ;) and a little lock and key. brings me back to my jr. high days. love it!

all in a sunday.

we had such a great weekend. london turned 8 on saturday, which is so hard for me to believe. especially since he's my baby, and there's no chance of us having anymore. bummer. anyway, yesterday morning started off wet and rainy. all of the rain for the past week has made the lake rise and flood our roads to where they're impassable, so we've had to take the long way to town. (how silly i feel now thinking that an hour and a half to church was "long")...after church we grabbed a quick bite to eat, and headed out towards mansfield, we took a detour in seymour to visit some amish friends. they are so cool.

we met while they were building our barn, and they've been so open and friendly towards us that it's turned into a nice relationship. it's weird to think about how different we are. we pulled up in their driveway just as they were getting back from sunday meeting, they were both surprised and happy to see us.

the boys were getting themselves and the buggy ready to go to the "singing" that night. we chatted a bit about the heirloom seed company, which was where we were headed, then said goodbye so we could all get out of the rain. their lifestyle is so interesting to me. they have 3 boys, all adopted out of the english world. the boys are in their teens now, and are good kids. they've given us a lot of insight to the amish world. i respect them and how they choose to live. as we were leaving they waved goodbye and i thought about how funny it was that two totally different families could find a common ground. as we were saying goodbye, i noticed her black shawl swinging below her wrists, her other hand clutching it to her chest, and when i waved back, my "return to tiffanys" bracelet jingled and gleamed. it was a funny contrast of worlds.

and, of course, in staying true to who i am, i then preceeded to tell j for the next 30 or so minutes how we needed to score ourselves an invitation to a singing or to meeting. i told him i could totally be amish for a week. and i would learn all sorts of farm stuff and canning stuff. i pictured myself in a little black dress with an indigo blue shirt saying "dah" and "danki" i could TOTALLY do it. (i would have to sneak a tube of co bigelow tinted lip moisturizer with me, but i don't think that would be a big deal).

j laughed and asked what i would do when i had to use the restroom. grrr. see. in my mind i could totally be amish for a week until i remember the whole thing about them using an outhouse. that whole no indoor plumbing /shower thing bursts my bubble every time. she is a better woman than me. hands down.

we then made it to baker creek heirloom seeds. as a semi-experienced gardner, i was so excited to go! it was pouring down rain, and basically parking was in a huge mud hole. j and the kids were pretty skeptical about getting out and walking around, but we had driven all that way, and i was determined to see it...so we braved it...mind you i was wearing my super cute black leather 4 inch peep toe heels...( i got a lot of attention, looks and questions from people about wearing them) but it was so worth it. bakers creek is set up like an old pioneer village. it has a restaurant, mercantile, apothecary, jail, etc...they have festivals and are very much willing to answer any questions you have. it has seeds from vegtables, fruits and flowers that were introduced as far back as the 1800's. (i picked up a variety of string bean seeds from 1892) if you have a garden, you need to see this place. it's nationally known for having the biggest collection of heirloom seeds. so if you're into organic gardening, you need to check this place out. if you don't live in missouri, you can request a catalog, or shop online here
i scored some red bell peppers, snow peas, celery, different herbs, radishes, turnips, green beans & cucumbers. oh! and marigolds. i can't wait to go back.

life at the lake shack

this is our lake. it's a beautiful lake. it's nasty brown in the picture because this was taken in the middle of winter, but you should see it now! it's back in all it's glory! see that shore over there? well, that's arkansas. yep. we're that close to being called "arkansasians" now. for those of you not familiar with our house history, here's the readers digest version. we bought 22 acres of land, our dream land just outside of a town near springfield, mo. we set out to build our dream home (look at post below)on it, and had a *brilliant* idea to put our house on the market immediately, because the market was so bad. that way it would give us plenty of time to build and finish our new home, while still being able to live in our current one. we were hoping that by the time we were finished building, that the house would sell. it didn't quite work out that way.

the house sold after 2 days on the market. the new buyers wanted us out in 9 days. they wanted to be able to get settled before thanksgiving. hmpf. all of a sudden, we were homeless. our house wasn't even started! the architect was still drawing up the plans! so, with 9 days to move, we decided to do something a little drastic.

neither one of us are big on renting. not that there's anything wrong with it, obviously, but i don't like paying for someone elses mortgage. so we moved our little family to our lake house an hour away from the rest of our life. we had just finsihed building the lake house this past summer, and really hadn't spent much time at it. let me start out by saying it's MUCH smaller than our old house. the lake house is 1300 sq. feet. 1300. seriously?! we have a LOT of stuff. a LOT of furniture. a LOT of everything. and before you form an opinion of me, i'm soooo not a pack rat. any one of my friends can assure you of that. but we had a bigger house, with more rooms, and i love to decorate.

anyway, we put the majority of our stuff in storage, untill our barn/shop could be built on the new land, and took over to the lake house what we needed. we took all our livingroom furniture, our bedroom set and stuff that we had planned on taking there after the new house was built, because it's going to stay at the lake, (all new furniture, for an all new house!) and we settled in. we only planned on staying at the lake shack 3 months TOPS.

here we are, 6 months later, and it looks as if we won't be going anywhere for a while. winter was hard on us this year, so it wasn't easy finding good weather to build the barn/shop. our plan is to build the barn, then start the house...we are just now in the finishing stages of the barn, and with the economy being what it is, and having it be as completely unstable as it is, we are waiting a few more months to start building our home. soooo, it looks like we'll be here for almost another year.

if you figure we start at the middle or end of summer, it will take 6-7 months for the house to be built, and that's if the weather cooperates.

when we first moved in, i didn't bother really decorating or organizing, because we were only going to be living here for a couple months, but now that it's going to be longer, i have been in a decorating frenzy. finding creative ways of organizing in such a little space. i've had so much fun living here, and have even gone as far as to tell hubby that i wouldn't mind living here permanently. (to which he rolled his eyes, and said something to the effect of "riiiiight")...he knows me *too* well. i do love the thought of living here, but i'm too much in love with our new house, ( and the thought of decorating it) to actually be content living here forever. but i have loved living here, and i will continue to enjoy being here for the rest of the time we are. i've done more creatively since we've been here, and i'm a little scared that when we move back, i'll go back to my old ways and lose that. i'm going to try so hard not to. but it's so easy living in the city (well, we don't live "in" the city, but close by) to run and go and go and go.

but here, you don't go anywhere. the nearest grocery store is 30 minutes from me. here, the kids and i take daily walks along the lake shore, we find beach glass, and shells. and in the words of anne shirley, "there's so much scope for the imagination"~ everywhere you look around here is gorgeous. i have views that are to die for, and i'm having fun.

the shack takes me an hour and a half to deep clean, that's baseboards and windows too! we don't get very good television reception (which doesn't really bother us since we aren't big on t.v. anyway), and our cell phone reception stinks. that right there has freed up a lot of time for me. back at our old house, the phone was constantly ringing, and i was constantly on it. now i'm hardly ever on it, because you pretty much have to lean forward, cock your head to the left side, hold out one leg and put your right arm to the sky in order to get a signal. and don't you dare move a muscle, or your going to drop that call.

i wanted to be able to show you our little lake shack i've come to love so much. excuse these pictures, as they were taken before i made the house all pretty. it's still a work in progress, and i'm lovin' it!



our bedroom. i normally don't keep that many books on my nightstand, but our book cases are in storage, and there's nowhere else for them to go...



pierre. my pig. i love him. i couldn't bear the thought of him in storage.

the bar.

lucy! my pet. lucy has been with me for over 9 years. i love her. she's the gorgeous one on your left...;) my aprons on the wall of the kitchen, the pink one is mine (love pink), and the yellow one was my great grandmas.

the master bath. a pedestal sink for the hubby and me. grrr. i miss having my own sink.

the living area. that's all for now. i'll post more soon!