Adventure 21

We celebrated some last's this week

 

Little girl's last day of pre-school

 

Golden Boy's Last day of 1st Grade

 

It was a whirl wind of  a week.

 

I posted this on Facebook a week or so ago:

*shadows dancing on tent walls

*water rushing in the nearby river
*flashlights flickering in the dark
*voices murmuring at night
*stars sparkling in the night sky...
*the smell of fires burning........I am dreaming about camping again.

 

My hubby made the decision on Thursday night to go camping again. I was all in and ready. We packed up and left on Friday morning for three nights of camping. It was a perfect weekend, weather wise to have tent camped bit the place we like to camp only had these cabins left and that was just find too.

 

 our home away from home for three nights

we played some bingo

 

golden boy won these in bingo

 

we took the kids to ride go carts

M&M race car dude

 

 

listening to a bit of bluegrass (family favorite)

 

these kids rocked the climbing wall. they never made it to the top but did great

 

swaying grass

 

 

 

small spaces

 

huge vistas

 sweet siblings

 

yellow, green, blue

 

 

this little guy took a ride with us for some of the way through Cades Cove

 

hiking with these three is my favorite

 

facebook post after our camping weekend:

 

*sticky marshmellows *chocolate fingers *flame-kissed burgers *raccoon *newt *minows *cool evenings *warm days *making my 10,000 step goal every day *butterflies *wildflowers *the breeze blowing through the high grass ***wonderful camping weekend. Happy we got to go again***



Adventure 20

Adventures in picking out a paint color and redoing our room

I really wanted to repaint our bedroom. I have been searching on Pinterest for some good blue/gray paint colors. there are a ton on Sherwin Williams paint colors that I like and Benjamin Moore but I think I am just going to go with Lowes or Home Depot. The Hubby and I went to Lowes to check their paint colors. we knew that we were looking for something blue/gray but not too blue and not too gray. we both kept reaching for the same color swatch over and over, so we decided to get a sample of that to see if we liked it. the colors is Valspar's Glacier Mist.

coat one, coat two and then coat two once the sun had set

 there was a lot of discussion on if we really liked this color.

we started to look at some more. I showed this pin to the hubby and he liked that navy accents (score) but once the glacier mist was painted on the wall he wasn't so sure he liked the paint color. he wanted to go with something more dark like in the pin but I wanted to go with something lighter. we started looking at other paint colors.

we came up with these three to add to the options, and decided that maybe we needed to prime the sienna colored wall and then try to paint the Glacier Mist over the primed wall.

we went back to Lowes to see the other colors below. the Cincinnatian Hotel Hunter Blue was very purple and the La Fonda Mirage was very mint greenish. We really liked the Blue Arrow (it was another color that I had found on pinterest and wanted to see it on the swatch)

we got a sample of the Blue Arrow and also one of The darker color that was on the Glacier Mist Paint swatch, as well as primer so that we could see if the Glacier Mist would look different.



here is the wall primed and then the three colors painted on. Blue Arrow is at the top, then Glacier Mist and then Cincinnatian Hotel Linder Blue.

 we both really like the Blue arrow but we weren't sure that I was the right choice for our bedroom. The hallway, maybe, although I had just painted the hallway last summer but I think I went too dark and am regretting my choice so I think that I may be painting it again this summer and Blue Arrow will be what it is painted.

next we decided that maybe I needed to prime one larger section of the wall and then paint it with the Glacier Mist to see if we liked it on a bigger section of wall instead of one smaller space.

here is the wall primed

here is wall painted and after a few days of staring at it we weren't sure that we really liked it. (that navy blue curtain is the new curtains that we are hanging in the room, got them from Target)

We talked about what to do. Should we go with another color? my suggestion was ivory, the hubbys was a khaki. i was not for the khaki. our kitchen is a tan and I am totally ready to re-paint that. this room first. we have to stay focused people.
so I went to Lowes and looked at the ivory and lighter blue/grays. i came home with wisteria snow (the first color to the left) and tinsel beam (which is the next color and it is actually on the same paint card as the glacier mist and the darker one that we tried.
back to Lowes (they should know us there by now) and I got a sample of wisteria snow and tinsel beam.



the wall was primed and I was ready to paint the two colors on. I started with wisteria snow (by the way, I love love love wisteria) and as I was panting it on I was thinking well this is pretty white. I feel like I am just painting white on my walls. then I started painted the tinsel beam on the wall and was pleasantly surprised with the outcome. after the second coat of wisteria snow I could see the more blue/gray color to it.

now we wait.

I need to see what my hubby thought about the two colors. he was really surprised with both of them and seemed to like them both too. I think would we are leaning more toward the tinsel beam (the color on the right) as the color for our room. it is blue but not too blue and it is light and airy, which was just what I was looking for. oh how I am ready to go and buy some gallons of paint and get started on this. I think that it may take quite some time to paint this room though. it is not gigantic by any means but we are living in it. almost all of the rooms were painted (by me and a parent, mom or father in law) before we moved in so painting while we are living in the room is going to be very different. we may be camping out on the living room floor for a while. 

here is my pinterest board with some of inspiration that i was gathering for the room.

  Follow Jennifer Andrews's board Bedroom makeover on Pinterest. 

here are a few picture of what the room looked like before we painted it.

we kept the same bedding.

these were the curtains that we had hanging in the room. you can see the walls were a sienna color.

 

we had a rug runner that ran along each side of the bed

 

and this candle holder was on the wall across from the bed. scroll down and you can see the whole wall and the bathroom door in the newly painted room picture

 

here are the after pictures.

I wrote the upper part of this blog post weeks ago.

the room isn't completely done either. 

this is the wall that had the candle holder on it.

we sold that and i wanted to get a picture of this wall because this is where i am hoping to have a sliding barn door in place of the bathroom door that is there now. (here's to hoping and for sure another adventure.)

 



 

Follow Jennifer's board sliding doors (my closet) on Pinterest.  

 

 

and here is the new rug that we got and put under the bed (that was an adventure in and of itself. I have a tiny girl who was a trooper trying to help me. to have been a fly on the wall for that fiasco. ha!)

 

Lasts

There are a lot of lasts happening in our home right now.....as I am sure is happening in most homes as the school year is coming to an end.

I first read the book, or actually heard Karen Kingsbury read the book Let Me Hold You Longer, with tears streaming down my face in, I think 2005.

I purchased a copy for me, of course, even though we were still a year or so away from having our own children.

 

Celebrating the lasts are special.

The last full day of preschool (you have got to be kidding me), in just a few short months I will have two elementary school aged children.

or a last as simple as the last night my oldest slept with a plastic mattress cover on his bed.

 

Now this last should have probably come a while ago but as I was changing his sheets this morning, I noticed that it was torn and just decided to pull it off. it hasn't been useful for a while, he is growing up and I never thought I would be thinking, "oh! last night was his last time to use his mattress cover."

like I said it is an overly emotional time of year. I am suspecting graduations years from now will be rough.

 

on the way to her last day of school

 

first day and last day of school

Still Little

There are times that i think she is growing up WAY to fast.

Then she asks me to put pig tales in her hair.

WHAT!?!

Of course i will.

And it is then that i see the tiny girl that she still is.

Thankful for this tiny girl and moments that help me remember that she is still little, as time goes by way to fast.

A Lesson In Shyness

not so much about how to be, although I guess I could teach that.

just the other morning my daughter said that she didn't want to talk to someone because they were shy. (this coming from my girl who is rarely shy. she puts her shy shoes on when I mention talking to someone, but other than that there isn't a shy bone in her body.)

I asked her if she loved me? she said that she did (almost like it was a ridiculous questions) I told her that when I was a little girl i wasn't like her, I was shy. I asked her about another little girl and she is friends with, i said, "do you remember how she was shy when you first met her? and not she is a good friend of yours."  I reminded her that it was just recently that we were at the park. there she met a lady that was walking her dog. after the lady went home little girl told me that she liked meeting new people. (this girl is not shy!) she remembered that too.

back to me being shy. I told her that she I was younger I was very shy (I still am, I just at better now about being intentional about not being shy (or at least I think I am better about it))

I told her that the first time I ever went to the church that I grew up in, that I was very shy. it was there that I met my best friend. she said oh I know her. I told her that she wasn't shy even though I was and that I am still so grateful that she came up to me over 20 years ago and introduced herself to me.

here we are in highschool

this is us in college.(bad photo quality)
I know I have some of us as kids but can't locate them right now.

Here we are now

I am overwhelmed with thankfulness for this women and that she is part of my life. God knew what he was doing when he had her run up to me and introduce herself. (there is a good chance what I was in my little house of the prairie clothing, hat, pantaloons and all. (Lily you were not the only one to dress this way, in fact some of the clothing you wore was probably once mine. my sister wouldn't have been caught dead in it though.)

Adventure 19

Camping

a year ago mothers day weekend we took the kids camping and had such a wonderful weekend. it was so much fun(despite the rain)

our campsite set up this year

 

we booked before we left for this year and included a cabin for my parents to stay in.

we met them there on Friday and stayed through to Sunday

 

we set up and relaxed, the kids played on the playground and in the river and had a blast. we cooked hot dogs and made smores and relaxed in the hammock.

the kids wanted to sleep in the cabin with Honey and Bear because there was bunk beds. the next morning, after we were all awake, I found little girl making her bed and setting up all of her stuffed animals and dolls.

on Saturday morning we had the pancake breakfast that the campground was serving and played some more while we waited for the temps to warm up enough to go tubing. we had breakfast for lunch and the kids tye died t-shirts and then honey drove us to the spot to get in the river and go tubing. (my camera was charging all day Saturday which was nice and then somewhat a bummer.) my mom did take some pictures so when I get them from her I will be sure to post them.
 

it was fun. there were some slow parts and the water was a bit low so there was two times that i bumped my tail bone on a rock. (i may or may not be still recovering from that) 

it took us about an hour to get back to our campsite where Honey was waiting to get pictures of us. from there the kids went to paint ceramic bear banks and played some more on the playgrounds. after we made dinner we walked up the road to return Bear's tube and to get an ice cream cone. then we headed back to the campsite for some more relaxing and hanging out before returning back to the tent for a fire and more smores. it was such a fun weekend just hanging out and relaxing. on Sunday morning my hubby and dad went to the store and got mom and i coffee and we ate breakfast and then packed up to head home.

dad and mom left but we decided to go on a little hike

 

 

 

 

and then head into Gatlinburg and for some dinner and Kiliwans ice cream.

 

 

 

it was a perfect way to spend mothers day.

 

the kids were pretty good for the ride home too.

Mother's Day

 

oh the emotions that go along with it. I have a wonderful mother, as does she. I love that I was born into a family of such great women. my heart hurts for the women who's mothers have passed on, women who are aching for the child they lost or have yet to have. there are some may different women in this world and while today I want to celebrate the women in my life, I also think about the other women in the world and the struggles that they may be going through right now.

 

I have seen a lot of photo recreates around the internet and I am always fascinated with them. I asked my mom to send me some picture of me and her when I was the age the little girl is but they weren't really what I was thinking of. my mom reminded me that she was not in very many picture when we where  kids because she was usually the one taking the pictures. (I have make a point to try the get out from behind the camera and be in more pictures. another blogger Ashley Ann does a great job of encouraging her readers to get in the shot with your kids)

I asked for her to send me a specific picture that I thought was me and her and this is what she sent. it was exactly what I was wanting although I am much younger in the picture that little girl is. (hint: that is probably why it wasn't in the original email that she sent me of pictures of the two of us.

I got everything ready (I wanted to get a chicken and candle sticks for the table too but just went with what we had) and I love the results.

 

mom thank you for loving, encouraging, cheering, listening, supporting, guiding, answering and praying for us. and like you mothers day card said, "I didn't realize what it took to be a mother until I became one myself." thank you for preparing me for being a mother.

 

and here is another recreate.

this is one of my favorite pictures of me. I am wearing my John Schneider shirt and head band. yes, I met him at some show and this is what I got when I met him. I so wish my parents still had it.  haha. I put little girl I my color run shirt and head band that I got at the end of last summer when I ran the race.

Influence

my mom has been sending words and notes of encouragement for the past the weeks and she has added pictures to the emails that she is sending out.

the one she sent recently had this picture of me and little girl. The work was INFLUENCE and the encouraging works she sent were: "Even if we are not aware of it...rest assured your INFLUENCE is directing and guiding the path of someone. May those you INFLUENCE this very day see the Christ in you!
Let your light shine!
I love you my friends!
Be encouraged!"

when i thought back on the picture, it is a picture i had my hubby take of us a few months ago. little girl wants to match me so badly. we have nothing that matched (so i thought). then i remembered my pink dress and her ivory one. they are not the same dress but are both lace. perfect! i showed her and she thought that it was great and was all up for matching for church that Sunday. 

The way we influence our children is astounding. i want to be a good, Godly influence in the lives of my children.

i feel like sometimes i get distracted and lost in my own head and when one of these tiny humans pulls me out of my thoughts and distraction, and i get frustrated instead of kind, loving and patient. i want to be an influence for good, not bad.

i want them to hear kindness come from me and not frustration

i want them to see patience from me and not being rushed

i want her to see and feel love from me and not selfishness.