Not a Domestic Diva

***UPDATE***
Thank you to my domestic diva friends. Although I was hoping to get a tip on a miracle cleaner, you provided music to my ears when you told me to buy new ones! After all, if all of you ladies whom I admire would go buy new ones....gosh darn it I too will buy new ones!

Let me begin by saying that just because I am not a domestic diva does NOT mean that my houshold is in chaos or that it is a pigsty. What it DOES mean is that I am not one who knows all of the little shortcuts and neat ideas about how to get things done in a cheap, quick, or fun(yes I said fun) manner. I do, however, know that I have some blog world friends who fit the bill. I need your help...not your judgement:):):)


OK, now that I have gotten the important stuff out of the way...HELP! OH PLEASE HELP! I decided that I was going to do some cleaning in my kitchen that does not normally get done. Such as under and around my fridge, washer/dryer and stove. Again, we are not talking pigsty here, I just don't consider these things daily clean up spots. Well, I decided to take my burners apart to really get a good cleaning on my range top and HOLY COW. Now, keep in mind that you have continued reading which means that you have silently agreed not to judge...right? Ok here we go...

Not too bad, right? my stove top is clean and shiny!

Now, this is what was revealed when I unplugged my burners and took them off.

This is the worst one A.K.A the one I use the most!

OK, so now that I have exposed my domestic downfalls to you, let me tell you one more thing...these pictures were taken after they had been soaking in the sink for 2 hours, scrubbed with soft scrub, and scrubbed again with another cleaner. Are you still with me? Good, because this is where your help kicks in. I know it would be easy to say "oh, Leslie, just go buy some new ones." But I know you will not tell me that because, as I mentioned above, you are domestic divas and part of that involves saving money. So for dinner tonight, I am going to call in for pizza (since I am not the expert on saving money here) and wait for you nuggets of wisdom. I appreciate you!

Just Scrap It

Hey all! I rarely know what to post about at any given moment because I am never at the computer when I think of something to write, and when I am at the computer, I draw a blank. Well, the other day I was commenting on a friend's blog over at Cardiff Central and as I wrote and wrote and wrote and wrote, I realized that I should just blog about it myself instead of leaving the longest comment known to man. The issue of scrapbooking came up. There is always worry about where to start and how to know what "book" to make first and feeling like it will never all come together. Well, here is how I make it fun and not just bearable.

I used to feel like it was such a daunting task to scrap all of the pictures that I take, but I have come up with a solution that has changed my scrapping world!

First, I decide what brand of pages and books I want to ultimately use, whether it is creative memories, or others that you can get at Target, or Michael's. Once I decide what brand I will use, I buy a bunch of pages and page protectors and don't even worry about buying a book yet. Then, I just scrap things as they come to me. I do not let myself get wrapped up in a theme, or the idea that I have to create a whole book at a time. The end result is that I have scrapped all of my pictures, and they are no longer stacked up to the moon and back, and when I feel like I want to, I can organize the pages into the book of my choosing.

For example, we went to Sea World, Anna Started School, and Anna had a birthday all in one month's time. Well, instead of feeling like I had to make a book about Sea World, a book about her first day at Kindergarten (sniff, sniff) and a book about her birthday, I just scrapped each event and down the road I can put them together into books. I will not have a whole book for her first day of school, but down the road I will have enough pages for a book of ALL her first days of school. I will not have enough pictures to do a whole Sea World book, but we go every summer and one day I will have enough pages to make a Sea World book over the course of several years. Then it does not seem so daunting because you have been making pages as you go, and you just go buy the book and fit all of your pages in. Clear as mud?

Last but not least, I want to address all of the pictures we have that are PRICELESS, but do not fit into any category, they are just fun. Well, I mixed several ideas I have heard of and came up with a solution that works for me. Just as I mentioned above, I decided what pages and book I wanted to use, and then gathered up all of my random pictures. Then, I went to my husband and asked him to make a list of his favorite scriptures, then I went to Anna and asked her the same thing (yes she has favorite scriptures at age 6! Thank you AWANA) Then I made a list of my favorite scriptures, and my FAITH BOOK was born. Each page has a scripture written out and the initials of the person whose favorite it is. Then, you just add any random family fun picture, and it does not have to "match" the scripture. It has been so fun making this book, and the greatest thing is that as we continue our walk with the Lord, we will add scriptures that He has laid on our hearts, and add pictures as we go.

Oh, and as far as embellishments go, I think, personally, that less is more. As you can see in my pictures, I don't spend all my scrapping energy on the major embellishments. I want it to be about my pictures more than anything. The cool thing about scrapping is that you can make it as plain or as busy as you want.

Also, as far as journaling goes...I am so bad at journaling(surprise, surprise) I use books, and scriptures to journal with. Stealing ideas is the best form of flattery, right?

This may have just sounded like a big dumping of thoughts, but I hope it makes sense. Srapbooking should not be frustrating! Make it fun! The minute it gets frustrating, put it away for a while. Anyhoo, that is all I have for now. Remember to pray for my dear friend at Cardiff Central as she and her family await the arrival of their 3rd baby girl! Sooner than later, right?Happy scrapping!

Here are 3 pictures of my Faith Book. As you can tell, I have put in the verses and made the page layout but have not added my pictures yet. Why? Because there is no hurry:)

Here are a few pictures of a book I made for Anna. I had her first 2 years in photos, but no real theme, so for her 2nd birthday, I just stuck them all together, and the Journaling? I used Max Lucado's book "Just In Case You Ever Wonder" and it is a story book that she reads to this day!

And here are some of my random pages. We did some traveling before we had Anna and we do not have enough pictures from one trip to make a whole book, so here are my scattered pages, that I will probably put into one big travel book one day. You will notice my lack of big embellishments. Just paper!

Isn't She Lovely?

Do you like her? I have been inspired by several of my bloggy friends to update the look of my blog. I decided that maybe a facelift for my Blog might inspire me to post more often, and look....it must be working because I am posting! Truly amazing! Really the last few months have been quite a bit of a blur for me, but in the best way possible. It included visits from friends, Anna's play, work activities, family getogethers, illness, Dr. visits, Thanksgiving festivities, Christmas chaos, trip to Alabama, visit from family in Colorado, and now...back to work on Monday! I know that I can never say that life has been too busy to keep up with posting, becasue I know that a large number of you stay as busy if not busier than us and do a fine job keeping up with your blogging. We all have our busy lives and try to fit everything in.
I have to say that I am looking forward to this New Year with the precious family God has blessed me with. Please know that we wish all of you best wishes in this upcoming year and hope that you are richly blessed.
I will porobably be posting a bunch of pictures here pretty soon, but bear with me as I think of things to share. Love you all and Happy New Year!

We really are still here!

I know it has been forever! As I have said before, why do I bother? Well, I bother because I hear from some of you if I do not bother, and I am glad to know that even though my posts are few and far between, that you are still reading them. Thank you! We have done a lot in the past few months and I will be posting tons of pictures. I will either do one big post or do a post for each event. Regardless, I will be back really soon with an update on our activities! I hope all of you are doing well!

Vacation

Here it is for those who have been asking about our vacation. We had a good time in San Antonio and were not ready to come home. Every summer we try to make a trip to Sea World San Antonio. We have so much fun and each time we go, Anna is able to experience something new. We have gone from her not really knowing what was going on around her, to just watching the shows, to riding rides, to feeding the animals, to having Dinner with Shamu. In a couple of years, she will be old enoughto do the Baluga interactive program where she gets in a wet suit and swims with the Balugas! She is growing up so fast. In fact I will posting in a couple of weeks about her birthday bash. She will be 6 years old!!! More on that and my baby starting Kindergarten later.

As much as I want to share all of the pictures with you, I will TRY to hit the high points, but we did a lot, so be patient with the pics and I hope you enjoy.

Our first stop was the Alamo. We took the little tour and we learned all about how Santa Ana had ultimately been captured by Stephen F. Austin and his men. Anna responded simply with "Well, if they captured Santa, who will bring us presents at Christmas?"

Out of the mouths of babes!

A fun tradition we have is that as soon as we get to our hotel, Anna gets to jump on the beds (since she doesn't get to at home)

As we entered Sea World

Yeehaw!

This sealion show is great! The Walrus was HUGE. This picture does not do him justice!

After the show, we went and fed the sealions!

Right next to the sealions were the Lorikeets, so we fed them too!

Tim is not so sure about this!

Anna on the other hand loved it!

This is me taking a pic of my arm with 4 birds on it!

I don't do rollercoasters, but look at my 2 crazy people. Anna actually held her arms up the whole time! This was the first time she has been tall enough to ride this rollercoaster. She has had her eye on it and she barely made it at 41.5 inches with her tennis shoes boosting her to 42!

Off to feed the dolphins!

They come right up and you can pet them while feeding them!

Anna and her daddy always climb to the top of this ropes course. They climbed though all that you see behind her. I am so glad this has become a daddy and Anna thing! I get to watch from the safety of the ground below!

This is the Baluga and Dolphin show. PHENOMENAL! The week after we left, the 2 female belugas delivered their babies within hours of each other!

Our new thing we added this year was having dinner backstage where they keep the Killer Whales. Many of you have asked how close we actually got to be to the whales. Well, how would you like eating dinner with this as your scenery. Well worth the money!

The dinner tables are actually right there by the pool

Here they are waving good-bye to us!

Our last shot of the trip!

This was such a fun trip! We bought season passes this year, so if any of you are ever in the area and want to take a quick trip south, let us know. It will be our pleasure to let you in on our fun vacation spot!

Drama Queen

For those who have not been updated on Anna's most recent hobby, here is a little glimpse into what she has been doing. When Tim started Grad school and was competing his master's in a year (yes I said a year...and he has done it!) Anyways, he decided he could not coach her soccer team anymore and she did not want to play if daddy was not going to coach. So, I asked her what she thought she might want to do, if anything. She said "I want to take singing classes!" This was music to my ears(no pun intended) So as to not bore you with all of the legistics and how it all came about, a friend of ours told her about a local theater that was putting on "The Sound Of Music" and that she should try out. She did, and then was born Gretl Von Trapp. She did so well and really enjoyed the whole process, practices, hair and makeup, costumes, etc. When SOM was over, she wanted to know what was next. We, as her responsible (at least we try) parents decided to make her take at least a month break between plays.

Well, July rolled around and we signed her up for a drama camp put on by Missoula Children's Theater. It is a week long camp and at the end of the week they put on 2 performances. This summer the play was "The Little Mermaid." Lest you be confused, this was NOT the Little Mermaid you and I grew up watching. In fact the only thing similar was that the kids were "little" and there were "mermaids" in it. Anyways, she audtioned and got the part of a Seahorse. She had a special singing part and had so much fun! Today were the performances and it was so cute.

I think she has found something that she not only enjoys, but seems to be talented in! Next, she is off to "Seussical: The Musical" and "The King And I" auditions in the fall. We never thought our little drama queen would actually be a "Drama Queen!" She loves it, and we have fun watching our little star in the making!

Here she is getting her microphone put on for the first SOM performance

"Gretl" before the show!

The family Von Trapp

Being silly after the showThe Little Mermaid Cast -she is the 2nd seahorse from the right:)

Our little Seahorse!

Family Getogether

I cannot tell you how long it has been since all of my immediate family was at the same place at the same time! Ok, I guess I can tell you...it was this past week. My brother-in-law will be deployed in the next few months and he and my sister and their kiddos came for a visit from Colorado. We had a good time catching up and letting the kids play. My brother and his wife came down from north Dallas to hang out too with their new little man! There is not a whole lot to report except that we hated to see everyine go. Here are a few pictures we took at my parent's house on Sunday! Enjoy!

Me, Tim & Anna

Ben(my brother), his wife & new son

Darla(my sister), her hubby & kids

The Folks

All the girls

All the boys

The whole gang

What a good lookin' bunch, huh? We had a good time! I will be posting tons of pictures over the course of the next few weeks. "Sorry" if you hate pictures, "you're welcome" if you like them!