Purse Fetish

I know lots of women have an addiction to purses. I am no exception. It's not just purses, really bags of any kind.

When I buy a purse, I think, I LOVE IT!!!! This could be a purse I could see myself using for a long time, justifying the price tag. But, it only takes a few months for me to start looking for a new one. Sometimes I just buy it because it's a great deal even if I don't like it, see the gray purse below.

With the kids, I must of gone through a dozen diaper bags! I was always looking for a different one. Even now, I don't really need a diaper bag, but my eye is still attracted to them. I find myself looking at all the cute, new styles, with all their pockets and compartments!

I guess in part, it's the organizer in me. I just love taking all my things and giving them a new, fun home! An odd thing about me though, is I don't mind my purse getting messy. I love things organized, but I usually let my purse get completely out of control before I clean it out. Or, I just get a new one!

The current state of my purse. Really bad!

I usually go with plain old black or brown. I love the colorful fun ones, but I usually try to be practical and get something that will go with everything.

I have purses hanging everywhere. Living out of five purses at one time is very exhausting.

So here are a few from my collection. I still like the first two. I really need to get rid of the ones I will never use again, why do I keep them? Do you want one?

Isn't this one pretty on the inside!

I got some of these from downstairs in my storage room. I found some interesting things inside a few.

Most of the time I don't totally clean out the old purse, I just take the essentials to the new one. But this has me stumped, not sure how the Selsun blue found it's home here.

The purse I am using right now. Target!

Everything I'm packin in my purse at the moment!

This should give an organized person anxiety, but for some reason it really doesn't bother me! I don't know? It's a mystery.

My Little Ramona

My mom recently sent us the movie "Ramona and Beezus." If you have not seen it, you need to, it is super cute. One reason I love it is that it reminds me so much of my girls, especially my Ella. She is such a little Ramona. After watching the movie I looked at Ella in a whole new light. I love my little passionate spunk!

I ask, "Ella why is your room such a mess?"
Ella replies, "remember the other day when you asked me to go and use my imagination, that is why!"

I always ask Ella how her day was at school, mostly referring to her attitude and behavior. She has been having some issues lately with her screaming and her talking back at school. She gets off the bus, with her cute wide eyes, bouncing to the car with what must of been some amazing news. She throws open the car door and says, "guess what mom? I was more good today than bad!"

When we were in the bathroom getting ready for our family pictures, I was curling her hair and she had her eyes closed, head back, I guess to get the full princess experience. She says, "I just love family picture day. We get to wear lipstick, we get to be all beautiful, it's just fabulous. Can we please do this again, soon?"

There was some play dough in the car from the boys preschool class they went to that day. She got in the car from the bus stop and spots it. With her curious wide eyes she says, "what it that?" like she had never seen play dough before. She opens the bag and starts mushing it and says, "this is the most terrific play dough I have ever touched, it's just so perfectly mushy! I think I am completely in love with this, yes, my heart is in love with this play dough!"

Jon has been having some trouble with lying lately. The kids had just received a valentines package in the mail from Papa and Nana, individual candy boxes! We were in the car and he had just told a doozy of a lie. I told him, "Jon lying is unacceptable, this is your warning, if you lie again I am taking away your candy box." That woke him up, he takes his candy very seriously. He started crying about his predicament.

It was quiet in the car for a couple of minutes and then from the backseat we hear Ella give Jon some advice, "Jon you better eat all that candy before you feel like lying again."

Totally missed that point.

I struggle every morning keeping Ella motivated with her getting ready routine. She is very easily distracted and usually very unmotivated. I said to her one morning, "Ella you really need to get yourself dressed for school, you only have twenty minutes before the bus comes."

"I just need someone to help me," she replies with a disgruntled sigh.

I say the go-to mommy phrase, "Ella you are five years old, you can dress yourself."

"Mom, five is not that high. Abby is way older than me and she always will be. I will never, ever catch up to her . I will always be small." She said all this with a very sad, droopy face. If her goal was to win me over so I would help her get dressed, she did her job!

Ella was moping around the house the other night and that is Erik's cue that he needs to have an Ella talk. He knows how to be patient with her and have those necessary heart to hearts. I love listening in and learning a thing or two about how to deal with personalities like ours. El and I are two peas in a pod. Here was their conversation.

Daddy: "What's going on El, why are you so sad tonight?"
Ella: "Life is just not that great right now."
D: "What is going on in your heart, what is making life not great?"
E: Almost in tears, "I just want to be a parent and I don't want to be a parent later, I want to be one right now."
D: "Why, what are the reason for wanting to be a parent?"
E: "Because they get to do things, well, they get to do really anything they want to."
D: "What is it that you want to do so badly?"
E: "You know, the things you do, like chew parent gum."
D: "Well how about this. You be kind to others for one whole week and you can have your very own pack of parent gum. How does that sound?"
E: "Okay, that sounds like a good plan," after thinking about it a minute or two, "but Dad, that is going to be really tough, can I do something else to get the pack of gum?"

My gorgeous, vibrant, tender-hearted, hilarious, precious baby girl turns six in a few short days!

Happy Birthday sweet girl!

Earring Dilemma Fixed

I am not sure why some projects get done right away and why with some, I procrastinate horribly. I have had this incredibly easy, fun, super-cute idea for months. All the necessary supplies were purchased. Then for some reason, the fifteen minutes it was going to take me to assemble it, I guess became intimidating. I have just let it sit there. Sad. Lonely. Un-loved.

Well, the pressure of blogging about it drove me to complete it. It literally took me fifteen minutes. Why the heck did I wait so long?

Do you need a cute place to organize and display your earrings? I did.

This is what I have been looking at for months. Instead of being an earring holder, it became a convenient place to drape my necklaces. Look, I didn't even take the time to cut off the price tag. Pathetic.

What you will need for this project.

A cute frame without any glass or backing.

An easel of some-type to prop the frame on when complete.

Some screen. It comes in a huge roll, so you will have plenty left over to re-screen a door or some windows. Or, maybe you have an obscene amount of earrings and will need to make a very large one!

A hot glue gun and scissors. The sharpie was to cover up some scratches that were on the frame.

I used an old 8x10 picture to measure the piece of screen I would need. My beautiful baby girls, how time flies.

I gave myself some breathing room and cut it with a little overhang. You can always go back and trim it.

Test out the fit. Make any trimming adjustments.

Using your preheated glue gun, start gluing right on top of your screen. The glue will seep down into the screen securing it to the frame.

I of course felt the need to apply a few coats of glue. You know, make it strong enough so Matty can dangle from it if he feels the need. Really, one coat would do fine. My OCD skills are not necessary for this to turn out successfully.

If your like me and you get sort of sloppy with the glue gun, no worries. That is the beauty of hot glue, it peels right off.

So that's it, all done. Ready to display and organize all your beautiful earrings. So easy and it only took me two months to complete!

My house is one that may look clean, but if you open up any drawer or cabinet you will see the reality. Out of site out of mind, is typically my motto. I love things to be in there place and organized, but more often than not whatever is on-top of the counter is getting swooped into the closest drawer. Especially if someone is on there way over and I haven't had time to pick-up!

I can't even believe I let my makeup drawer get this bad. Embarrassing.

All my horribly unorganized earrings.

Now my drawer looks like this. Gorgeous. Makes me so happy.

I did a little dance.

I guess there is some reward in not being 100% organized and tidy. Taking something from a messy, disorganized disaster and making it beautiful is so much fun!

I did a post on revamping my bathroom awhile back, but it wasn't completely done. I didn't like the mirror I had, it was temporary until I could find a great deal on a larger one. I found this one at Hobby Lobby, it had some chips in it so I got it for 66% off. I love looking for damaged things and asking a manager if they can give me a discount. A little sharpie action and it's all good! Also, Erik finally installed my vanity light for me. So pretty!

What to do with the last blank wall? I could of left it alone. Nah, it needed some love. A clock! Don't you think every bathroom needs a clock to ensure punctuality? I do. And why not go big!

Now, it still needs batteries. So, it's not actually serving it's purpose at the moment. Helping me with my loosing battle of getting the girls to the bus on time. But, it looks cute and that's the main point! It might take me another two months to get those batteries installed, but it will happen. Patience.

BTW: Erik thinks the oversized clock looks ridiculously stupid in a bathroom. Sorry babe.

I would like to say that the bathroom is finished. But, there is one last unfinished project that needs to get done. This one requires Erik's skills, so that probably means it will go unfinished for sometime. He works all day with tools, so using them again when he gets home is not on the top of his list. But, here is what will be, one day.

I purchased these adorable knobs.

The idea is to hang my necklaces from them. Someday.

Everything Happens For A Reason

The alarm went of at 4:30 a.m. Sunday morning.   As you all know, I am not a morning person, so on these mornings Erik is extra sweet and accommodating to me in order to get me to play along with this insane regimen of his.  It's a great idea to get up early, get the perfect parking spot so we can enjoy a day of skiing with four small kids.  I get it.  But, early in the morning, when I am half-asleep, the idea is far less appealing than the night before when we agreed to it.  I try my usual suggestions. 

"We could sleep in and then go later in the day, by then all the early risers will be leaving and we could get lucky with one of their spots?" 

or

"If we sleep in and stay home today, then next weekend we can go both Saturday and Sunday.  I will wake up happy both days, promise!"  

They weren't working. They never do, but I try!  I was actually looking forward to the beautiful warm day on the mountain, it was forecasted to be perfect! So I rolled myself out of bed and tried to be as happy as possible about getting ready in the middle of the night.

We loaded up the kids, gave them their blankets and pillows and told them to go back to sleep.  Mommy wanted to go back to sleep also.  It never happened.  Chatter-box Ella didn't feel like dreaming anymore, she had her fill for the night.  Oh well, it was going to be a great day despite the circles under my eyes. 

We made our usual stop in Breckenridge at Starbucks.  Mommy was going to be one happy camper in a few short minutes.  Everyone agrees, mommy needs her caffeine!  I instantly turned into my smiley, talkative self once a few sips were enjoyed.  We were on our way, the sun was coming up and everyone was happy and excited.

A few minutes outside of Breckenridge on the deserted highway, (not many get up this early for the prime parking spots) we watched the sunrise as we were driving the last thirty minutes to the mountain. We come upon an intersection, with a guy slowly rolling through the stop sign.  We notice him right away because he is driving none other than an El Camino.  How could we not notice him?  Erik says, "hey look, an El camino!"

I respond, "oh yeah, cool!"

Erik then says, "oh look an El camino, stop El camino, what the heck are you doing? Oh no!"

We both let out a loud scream as we crash into El Camino.  But of course we remained completely calm, the screaming was just for show!

My first thoughts after impact:

* My chai, my lovely sweet chai.  I only took a few sips and now it's covering the dashboard.

* Is everyone okay? Good, everyone is okay.

* My Chai is all gone!

* Why is he backing up, were does he think he is going?

Mr. El Camino puts it into reverse and starts to pull away.

"Erik what is he doing? I think he is trying to get away, hurry get out and chase him."

Erik hops out of the car, just in time to see Mr. Camino back himself up and over a snowbank.  Not sure what he was doing, but he was stuck now.

The kids were all crying but thankfully all okay.  Abby shouts out immediately after the accident, "why are the airbags not working, shouldn't they be working?"  Always thinking that girl.

They all finally calmed down and we thanked God for protecting all of us.  Matthew has a seatbelt bruise and everyone is a little sore, but other than that we are all okay.

Matthew showing me his owie.

The Suburban, wasn't as lucky.

It is such an incredibly scary thing to be in an accident, to be involved in something that is completely out of your control.  It really puts life into perspective.

We were both thinking right after it happened, "well we can probably still make it to the mountain after we get this all taken care of.  We might even get there in time for a good parking spot."

We didn't make it to the mountain.  The damage was a little worse than we thought. Obviously.  It would of been pretty funny to see peoples reactions to us driving this into the parking lot. We would of looked so hard-core. But, it started leaking fluid.  I guess that's not good. 

I really was under the impression that if you were involved in an accident you were completely taken care of.  Not so.  After the firemen check things out, after the ambulance crew makes sure everyone is okay, and after the police get their report, everyone leaves.  You are there, not really sure on what to do.  The officer asked us if we had AAA and then that was it.  It was up to us to figure out how to get all of us home and to figure out what to do with our banged-up car.  I guess really it's not their job, but still it was odd to me.  The El Camino guy walked right back into his apartment a few feet away and there we were in the middle of the highway, clueless.  

So, how did we get home?  In our non-drivable vehicle.  That's right, we rode on top of the flatbed tow truck, inside of our Suburban.  We could not find a rental car big enough to transport our gang, so we had no other option.  I had no idea that was even legal. We got lots of staring and pointing from onlookers, with the expression of, "hey look there are people in that car up there." We just smiled and waved! Apparently, most people don't know it's legal! I so wish I had a picture of us. The kids thought it was hilarious.  We thought it was pretty neat too, until about forty-five minutes into the ride when the constant bouncing, from the double shocks, started to take effect. We were on a very long, poorly constructed, non-stopping carnival ride.  Yippee!


We sat inside while he dumped us off at the top of our driveway, like a dump truck unloading a pile of gravel and then he took off back to Breckenridge.  "Thanks for the ride!" 


Thank you God for protecting us!