A New Door

I scoured the internet to find something I liked for our front door. Like...a wreath? But if you’ve ever looked for a wreath, they are NOT cheap. I decided that I was feelin’ crafty and wanted to make something for our front door.

So I found a tutorial on how to make a big letter for your front door. Isabelle and I shopped for a big paper mache’ letter at Joann’s Fabric...which is the only place you can get them, I think. They are about $8. We then bought two bags of Sheet Moss. It’s a bit messy, but you can just cut it up and glue it on with hot glue. Each bag was about $8, as well.



After that we glued a ribbon on (actually with Gorilla Glue, since the hot glue ribbon kept coming loose from the heat between the door and the screen door). Then we hung it from a wreath hanger! Wa la!

And while the girls were gone at Oma’s last week, Conrad painted the front door, and I put a vinyl “Welcome” on it. I rounded out our front porch with some new red cushions for curb appeal. Love how it turned out!

Mommy Vacation

My babies have been at my parent's up north for most of this week because of the babysitters vacation. So Conrad and I have been on Parenting Vacation. I have to say that I was REALLY ready for one and although I miss my little ones and I'm ready for them to come home today, I very much enjoyed a little me time.

We didn't do all that much because, of course, we were working, we did accomplish some things in the house, which I'll show you pictures of when we finish them up! And all of the creative activity is really "nourishing" to me. Some of you probably get that, but it really rejuvenates me to put my hand to something artsy for a while. And sleep. Did I mention how much sleep rejuvenates me? I've been loving that too.

I also noticed after the kids had been gone for about two days, I started to think clearer, more coherent thoughts than I usually do. Linear. Usually, I can't follow a train of thought very long before I'm interrupted, and as a result I got ALL kinds of ideas on what I would like to share with you here on The Michael Chronicles. Hopefully all of my great posts won't fly out the window by 7:30 tonight after the babies get home. So I won't make any promises.

Meanwhile, I don't want you to worry about Isabelle and Grace up at Oma's house. I told her yesterday on the phone that I missed her and was ready for her to come home. She said she missed me too, but would be ready to come home after another day or two at Oma's. They love being up there in Grandparent heaven, surrounded by all of their adoring fans. Where every grunt is satisfied and every smile and blink is applauded. Isabelle went to Wal-mart with my Aunt Brenda yesterday and made the off-handed comment to her, "Aunt Brenda, doesn't it make you happy to buy me everything I want?" Brenda replied dutifully, "Yes, it does, Isabelle. Should I add this 4th bag of candy to the cart?"

On second thought you may very well not hear from me this upcoming week, as we take the kids through Grandparent Detox. It may be a painful process.

Isabelle-ism of the Day

Unlike Grace, who will pose for my ever present camera, Isabelle has an aversion to being still. So, I don't have many pictures of her. But oh the stories I have of my little talker. She has been giving her sitter a run for her money lately. I imagine she's "testing her boundries" as she tends to do with us every day of every week! Ms. Shelley, being a teacher by occupation, doesn't put up with much crap attitude from Isabelle and the clash of wills begins!

So one day last week Ms Shelley told us that Isabelle had a pretty bad day. When Daddy got her home, her day became much much worse. Needless to say, he told her that she WOULD have a better day the next day. And she did. The next day we picked her up from the sitter and asked her, "Isabelle, did you have a good day at Ms. Shelley's today?" She thought for minute, and then asked, "Did Ms. Shelley TELL you I had a good day?"

Summer Lovin'

Yep. I'm one of those parent's who let's thier kids run around naked in the sprinkler!

Those Wedding Bells

The wedding bells are starting to ring for my cousin Joe and his beautiful fiancee' Tab. We are excited to have a wedding on the Stallard side of my family and were even more excited to be able to throw a shower for Tabitha! "The Aunts" (as my sister and I call my mom and her three sisters)let me act as event planner and go Martha Stewart Crazy with all of my ideas. But I paid for it, let me tell ya. I was never sooo tired of frosting, fondant, and little gift purses.

By the way, I.HATE.FONDANT. I just can't get the hang of it. It turns the wrong color, it gets soggy. And the weather was soo humid on that saturday that all of the frosting started melting off my beautiful cupcakes. Oh well! You can't win em all. But they did taste yummy..

Overall it was a beautiful shower and Tab got lot's of cool stuff. Congrats Joseph and Tab...we love you!

More Home Improvements

We came into a bit of extra money thanks to a hail storm and a reasonably price contractor. Thank you, Lord, for a little windfall! So we decided to try to put some of the money back into making our home sell-able. Maybe...one day, we'll get up the nerve to put in back on the market and face those wretched "showings" I know all my friends who have done this with small children understand my reluctance to do so.

We decided to do some little things and we love the results. We have also re-discovered our love of Craigs List. We bid out our jobs and found some great contractors who do excellent work and charge very resonable prices.

So...we have yet to hang up many of our pictures again, but boy what a difference a lot of paint and a few fixture changes made.



We put in a new light in our entryway, thank you Contractor Jim! And these are all Benjamin Moore Colors. They even suggested the combination. We have been avoiding painting our 20 foot walls because..well...we didn't know where to begin! But thanks to Painter Chris, it looks fab!!



I know I always go a little crazy with my kitchen colors. Conrad says our old color made him feel like he was in a mexican restaurant. I toned it down with a Navy Blue...because..well, I did not want to buy new curtains! I know, nice logic, right? Anyway, what you can't see is that the other walls are "Harbor Fog"..a light grayish blue to help lighten it up. The girls and I went away for the weekend and came home to the whole house painted. Nice.

And I chose a clean green for the laundry room. I love the way it flows together with the blue. Again, with all of the storage shelves there, I had always avoided paiting this space, but we are really happy with it!

Our Little Family Sunshine

Isabelle is our family word-smith with all of her funny sayings and pithy replies, but Grace is our family sunshine. She's starting to talk more and respond more. She is oh so sweet! Most kids around her age say a lot of "No." in response to whatever you ask them. Grace says, "Alright" or "Ya" to almost everything. She is so agreeable and fun. She constantly comes up to Conrad and I and wraps her arms tight around our legs and says, "Yuv you. Yuv you. Yuv you" She also calls us "Mommy Daddy" most all the time. When she's in despair she can choose a name and call out, but usally she just calls both of us, "Mommy Daddy" I guess she figures she's covering all of her basis.

She's a pro at making most all animal sounds and she does not like it when Conrad and I kiss. She feels left out and will screech, say, "No, no, stop." and come running up to us and get in between so she can get in on the kissing action.

UPDATE: I wrote this a couple of days ago, but you might be happy to know that Grace had her first real honest to goodness hissy fit last night. Over ice cream. She screeched and cried like someone stole her mama. And she got so mad at her Daddy, she made herself throw up in her bed. Yes. She definatley did it on purpose. We've been suspecting for sometime that she can throw up on demand, and I think it's now confirmed. Don't want to sleep...throw up, it buys you an extra 20 - 30 minutes as mommy and daddy run around cleaning everything up. Let the games begin!

I Love Summer

The older I get, the more I can totally understand why people move south when they get older. Snow: Yuck. Cold: Yuck. And the older I get the less I like that magically snowy time of the year. It was fun before I had to get up at 5am to plow through it.

So I thought I'd share with you some pictures of roses from our rosebush at our house. As you might remember me sharing with you in the past, the years that I have been pregnant I tend to have a brown thumb and every plant or flower I touch just shrivels and dies. But I'm NOT pregnant this summer and our yard and plants are thriving!

Five Years!

I can't believe Conrad and I have been married for five years! They have been five wonderful, amazing, and fruitful years! We have been so blessed with each other and with our family. I'm not even sure what to say here on blog-ville...because no words can really express my depth of feeling and gratitude for these gifts in my life.

One of my pastors in Texas used to joke with me that whom ever the Lord would prepare for me would probably just drop from the sky! Well, he was kind of right. He dropped from the sky and a few months later we were married. Neither Conrad nor I are procrastinators, nor do we have trouble making decisions. We felt clearly that God's hand was on our marriage and we were both committed to a lifetime of work toward a Godly home and relationship.

I often hear people talk about surreal, "magical" feelings and when talking about marriage. You just "know" and we just "fell into it" or "fell out of it" or like it's a crap shoot. Lucky you...the stars were all aligned and you got a good one. If you are single: DON'T LISTEN! Marriage is amazing and really fulfiling...but it's not magic. It's just two people who are very committed to sticking with it NO. MATTER. WHAT.

Of course, we are by no means the experts, only havening been married for five years and as someone at work once told me, "What do you know, it's only your first marriage!" ha!