Happy Day!

First of all, Happy Birthday, Chel!!! it's Michelle's very special day today as she is entering the wonderful 30's! :) Hope it's a really spectacular day, Chel!

What a better picture to put up than the one of she and I when we were both preggie back in 2005. Chel, I want that cute shirt. I forgot how HARD it is to find cute maternity clothes!

Most of you know my very dear friend, Alexis. She and her family are living in Japan now for the next 2-1/2 years. They've been there since the first of the year. I'm thankful that throughout the miles (she's halfway around the world, 14 hours ahead), she's still so close. We keep in touch in every way imaginable. You can follow her amazing journey as a stranger in a new world (with a huge language barrier) here----> You don't want to miss it.

So yesterday the kids got a package in the mail from none other than Alexis in Japan. They were beyond excited! Usually they get packages from Oklahoma, not Japan! :) Of course Maia doesn't understand the actual distance and that it's coming from a different far-away country, but Noah does (but monkey-see, monkey-do). But they both do realize when I say it's from Japan, that it's something probably from Sami. That means a celebration in our house! As you can see, they were thrilled!

And what was it? It looked like Japanese candy and, to Noah's excitement . . .

. . .his very own pair of chopsticks!! (He loves to use chopsticks. We get sushi quite regularly in our house, whether we go out or get take out. Noah has learned quite well how to use them - I think he's a little better than his mommy, actually! He loves using them, so he was SO excited to have his own very cool Japanese pair. Sami would be proud of his chopstick usage! )

So the kids weren't the only ones excited about the goodies, Neil was all into it as well. (Last night we all dug into them. My favorite is the green - slight apple taste. All very "light" in taste. I like it a lot.)
Neil got a kick out of these candies and you can only imagine what he called them. He told me I needed to put on Alexis's Facebook page, "Thanks for the nipples!". Yeah, that's my husband! I spared Alexis the harassment :)

And Alexis didn't leave her favorite Val out. For my birthday in March, she sent me the best little surprise. My own Bento Box and chopsticks! I looooove it. Thanks again, dear friend. The kids thank you, too!! It's all been so very special.

"Trail Mix" part 2

{I guess I have a lot of updating to do since I have been without frequent updating for so long . . . ha!}

• This weekend we put up a gallery on our wall coming up the stairs. It looks cool. I'm really happy with it. I uploaded pics to flickr. Tell me what you think! (Erin, did we do okay?)

• We also cleaned out the garage this weekend. First time doing so. And when I say clean, I mean we literally took everything out and scrubbed the floor. Looks like sparkly perfection. (Not really, but tons tons better than it did a week ago.)

• Two days ago I got really frustrated with how scraggly Maia's hair looked and since she has only had 1 haircut ever, guess what I did?! I cut her hair myself and I have to say, it looks pretty good for my first time. It's still piggy-tail doable, don't worry!(More also on flickr.)
  

• Earlier in the summer I went to my "adopted" grandmother's estate sale. As you know, I won (yay!) one of her beautiful old upholstered chairs. I also won an antique "brownie" camera. Then I bid on some other boxes . . . where i wasn't sure exactly what was in them, but I knew I wanted them. And so I took a few pictures of my finds. I'm so excited about it all because they were things of hers, but also because I think some of things are pretty rare. For instance, there was a Newsweek from when Reagan was shot, a copy of "The Grapes of Wrath" from the early 1900's, and then some storybooks which were of some ladies from my hometown who could have been grandmothers to Marie (my adopted grandma), so they date from the middle 1800's. I also have Marie's Home Economics textbook which has recipes in it and little notes in her handwriting. She doodled all through it and would write notes like "very good", etc. beside favorite recipes. There are also pictures of women cooking in this book over old stoves probably in the 30's? I'm so excited I have these things. I have a few showcased in my dining room hutch. Check out the pictures which I uploaded to flickr. There aren't a lot of pics, but a few.

• While Erin was here we went shopping. I mean, how could we not?! We adore all the same things, dress alike, decorate alike . . . and she came across some fabulous ceramic vases which she just knew would look great in my (still being transformed into) VWC "presentation room". So I bought them. 3 of them. Plus a little suitcase thingie and she bought me a bowl. Looks awesome! I have some pictures of Erin "Vanna White-ing" off our finds on flickr which you must go see (if you haven't gone there yet).

• An old friend and I just got reconnected through facebook.com (I love that place and it's sooo addicting!). Right about when her daughter was born, she started up an online scrap booking store. It's really awesome and I'm very proud of her. I know how hard it is to keep a small business going, so I wanted to give her a little plug. Please check it out. She has some really cool things (even though I don't scrapbook) and I looked on her sale page and from what I know about scrapping, her sales are a must to check out!

• I forgot to mention last week that the first day Erin was here, she gave me a fun "thanks for having me gift". Which I think was more of a "R&R" gift for after the day full of parties. Inside the cute paisley turquoise bag were some coasters that she made herself (she's very creative, ya know? -- I love them!), a candle, body cream, leg gel (for my tired legs), lots of yummy Canadian chocolate that we don't have here (which is better than most chocolate we have here!), and my very favorite . . . TWO bags of ketchup chips. Oh my gosh, I love those things!!! (Unfortunately, so do my kids. Thankfully, Neil does not, which means I get his portions.)

• We did trick-or-treating tonight and the kids had a blast! Maia was way way more into than Noah EVER was at this age. And Noah had a really great time. He went on his own up to houses and said "trick or treat" which is really big for him; he's really really shy. Anyway, O'ma came over to see the kids and walk around with us. Then we went to dinner. It was nice. We had a really good time. I'll post pics another day. Happy Halloween!!!

Temperature is rising in North Carolina!

The most peculiar thing came to me in the mail two days ago. I knew it was from Alexis because she emailed me asking, "have you got anything odd in the mail?". My response, "Ummmm, no." She didn't say anything else after that, but of course the wheels in my head were just a turnin'. So every day I was looking in the mail for something "odd". It never came. Then she told me that it was sent to her house first. So Tuesday it finally arrived.

I opened the manilla envelope and this is what was in it:Yes, a newspaper. My first thought, "So, Alexis wants me to know just how hot it is in North Carolina. Okay . . . she has lost her noodles . . . " and I laugh. But I figure there has got to be more to this than just telling me how how NC is right now. So I start flipping through it and suddenly I know exactly why she sent it to me.

I stick "it" up on my fridge as I'm laughing so hard and saying "oh my gosh, this is so GREAT!" all the while my kids are just blank staring at me. So I put "it" up on the fridge because Neil was going to be arriving home from work shortly. I wanted to see how long it took him to notice it. Do you see it? Do you? Do you?So if you know me, and Alexis knows me quite well, you would know how much I love Clay Aiken. And lucky duck Alexis lives in the same town as he! Raleigh, NC! I hate her. (Only kidding!!)

A few summers back we went to see him at the Indy State Fair. It was the BEST TIME EVER. I need to find pictures from that. We had the greatest time eating fair food and walking around like teenagers (without any children!) anxious to see "our guy".

Clay really rocked. What an amazing singer he is. He doesn't have to put forth any effort to belt out a perfectly beautiful song. He even sung a few covers, one of them being You Were There by Avalon. That was amazing. And it was then that Alexis and I really fell in love with this man. He was a Christian and was not afraid to show it. Plus, okay, he is a little cutie, too.

And here it is close up:So what did Neil say when he finally saw it? Well, he passed by it a couple times and then suddenly I hear "What is this?!" And laughing and being silly like Neil can get, he says "how gay. You two are so gay." He knew it was from Alexis, 'nuff said. Yes we are dorks, but I admit it, so call me whatever you want to call me and I'll probably agree ;c)

Thank you AJ! What fun!!!

He is home!

Neil made it home late late Thursday night. He went in to work Friday morning (*groan*) but came back around lunch. It was then that the kids got to see their daddy and boy were they excited! So was I . . . :)

He said things were really expensive in Germany. But he did still did manage to bring home a couple of gifties. I took pictures of all of them, but some are on one camera and others on another and I just don't have time to download it all, so for now you just get to peak at a couple o' things.

He knows how I like to journal, so he brought me back a really nicely bound red journal with a church symbol on the front of it which is the symbol for Hamburg (speaking of, I had no idea that Hamburg was it's own state, did you? Same with Berlin! You learn something new every day!) And then he also got me . . . drumroll . . . why of course, ketchup! It is room service size because he just couldn't find a regular one in the market (granted, he only tried one store, but at least he did try.) It says Heinz on the front, but everything else is written in German. It's very ketchup cute.

He also brought me back some chocolates which are chocolate covered marsipan. I didn't know people actually chose to eat marsipan . . . I thought it was more for looks? It tastes ok. To be honest, I have had better, but then again, I've never had marsipan, so no, I haven't had better! (*rolling my eyes at myself*) The texture is just kinda weird. But the chocolate part is quite yum. Notice the missing piece?

Daddy brought back Noah a "foot ball" as they call it in Europe, but to us it's a soccer ball. He loves it. What boy wouldn't love a ball?!

For Maia he got her a Steiff animal. No, not a bear (I wish!!!), but it's a donkey (or a horse, maybe??? See for yourself!) and sooooo cute! The Steiff bears started at $125, and that was for a 3 inch size! Luckily the one he chose was just $35 and that was the least expensive animals. Wowzers! I knew they were pricey but not THAT pricey. I told him thank you for not buying her one of those! It's just fun, though, to now have something with the Steiff button on it! (And we even got a cool little Steiff box to boot!) See . . . isn't he cute? We call him Mr. Donkey. Original, eh?
Luckily, I made Neil take the camera. He got only 40 pictures and 5 of them are of the same pose, with Neil standing in front of an old church in Hamburg taken by his German friend/co-worker who wouldn't stop snapping the shutter. But hey, at least he got some of my hubby in Germany! When Neil went to Japan he had one picture taken of himself and that was standing in front of an upscale store (Louis Vuitton or something?). It could have been shot in New York City or Chicago! (ha!) So at least he does have some of himself with surroundings that look like he could be in Germany :c)I'll share more of his pictures later, again, when I have time. Since he has been back, I've burried myself in my work. My list is an 8x10 page long of orders and work to-do's. It's pretty overwhelming, but at least I do have work. I'm thankful for that. Now if I could just make time stop for a day or two or three, then I'd be doing good. But since that's not possible, you probably won't see me much this week. Noah also starts school this week and well, there's just a lot going on. So hold the blogging fort down for me and I'll be back soon.

P.S. We found a new church that we LOVE. We fit in the moment we walked in and Noah did as well. At our old church Noah would never leave our side. Here, he wanted to go with the rest of the kids to Sunday school. I'm already signing myself up for Bible studies and small groups. Woo-hooo! I'm just really excited. This is a huge burden lifted off of us. Phew.

P.P.S. Lots and lots of new stuff at my VWC blog. Probably a lot more to come this week. I'm also going to stop sending out emails to clients and will be posting my specials and such at this blog. So, if you're interested, visit the site frequently. And here's an example of what you see at that blog if you've never been . . . . . . weddings, bellies, and children, oh my!

Thanks, . . . . and toodles!

Do you have a video camera?

I have to admit that I know nothing about video cameras. I don't even think I know how to work one of the new snazzy ones they have out on the market. I have an old one that is pretty simple. The smaller ones look more complex, but maybe I'm wrong. See, I know nothing! Which is why I need your help.

Tomorrow is Neil and my 8th anniversary. I can't hardly believe it. We've been together 14 years. Each year I think, wow, it doesn't feel like it's been that long and I can't believe it's been that long, but then I count backwards and realize it really has! And then I think how I've absolutely loved every year of it and secretly I'm always thinking about another wedding where we renew our vows. Just a dream, but maybe one day it will happen? I take notes at the weddings I shoot . . . shhhhh!

Anyway, I am completely blessed to have been chosen by Neil. He is quite possibly the best husband ever. (I've even had friends tell me that in a way that I feel like they're saying in a very loving way "don't take him for granted!") And we've never really exchanged nice meaningful gifts before. We're just not all that into that. (Sappy, I know, cuz that's me, but we have each other!) I think I've bought him clothes in the past . . . but nothing that ever pertains to us. So my first thought was, how about a video camera?

So I bought one. I think it's a great gift for him. We'll both use it of course, but this piece of technology he can be in charge of. I'm usually stuck behind my camera (but because I want to be!), so this one he can be stuck behind. I'm just not sure I bought the right one.

I went into Best Buy with having done zero research. But I talked to the sales boy (yes, he was a boy) and he really knew a lot. (You know, we can all tell when they're pulling it out of their butts or out of their heads.) So I think he led me down the right path and didn't talk me out of a medium-priced camera.

So my question is, what do you use? Do you like it? Is it a tape camera, a memory stick camera, a DVD camera or a hard drive camera? Tell me all about it. Then I'll tell you what I got and if I'm keeping it (based on what you tell me --- ha!).

My Organizational Finds

So, if you know me well, you know that I have a disorganization problem. Neil is convinced it stems from even before my mom (sorry, Mom, but I do have your genes), but also from my grandma W on the other side of the family, so I am blessed with this "disease" from both chromosomes. But I have to tell you, I am trying to beat this illness. I have gotten great packing advice from my biggest organizational inspirations, Sara, Alexis, Michelle and Natalie. I'm honestly not even sure why I like these girls because I am totally envious of their organizing and it drives me mad, but I keep thinking that maybe God placed them in my lives to help make mine flow easier. (hehe, we all know you are for more than just that, but it really is a good observation, eh?)

Anyhow, I stumbled upon something online today and quickly purchased it. I feel anything at this point, that helps aid in my organizational attempts, is a well-spent purchase. So this is what I ordered:And this organizing attempt for me has to begin somewhere, so I am starting with my purse. This here is basically a wallet on a strap so that if I want to run in someplace without my purse, I can do it and just throw it on my wrist. I love it and am so excited to get it!

And I couldn't pass this up, either, a diaper/wipe organizer. And I realize that Maia won't be in diaper for (I hope) much longer, but I am sure I can find other uses for it once she no longer needs them. (This would have came in really handy when I ran into a store with Maia having a dirty diaper in the dead of freezing winter, with a diaper in my purse but forgetting the wipes. Ughh. . . gross, toilet paper just does not cut it.)


These awesome things all come from Fanci Free, which can be found on numerous websites such as these: littledudesanddivas, ebags, and Bella Baby Boutique.

And then, this is how much Natalie knows me. For Christmas, Nat got me a cell phone carrier. It not only protects it from fatal crashes (like water!) but it also can hook onto most anything, like jean belt loops, purse straps or fingers. It's awesome! And this is it:
Isn't it cute? I love love love it. Although I have still found myself just dropping my $600 (I say $600 after having to replace it from stupid preventable accidents twice in 1 month!) cell phone in my purse. I need to now figure out how to stop myself from just spontaneously doing this and instead taking a whole 2 seconds to put it where it belongs. This, my friends, is where my problems begin. If anyone has any organization advice they'd like to offer dear Val, please please please don't hesitate to!

And you can purchase this lovely Phonepocke (above) at these fine places online: shoptrendigirl, strapya-world, and good ol' Amazon.