Mr. Snowman

Once there was a snowman, snowman, snowman.

Once there was a snowman tall, tall, tall.

Tomorrow he will be melted, melted, melted.
Tomorrow he will be melted small, small, small.

Ok, so I changed the second verse. But with warming temperatures, I'm afraid Jeff's masterpiece won't be around too long. Hopefully the sun gets him and not some hoodlums.And not only do we have a gigantic snowman in our yard but my sweet husband got up early with the kids, let me sleep in (he says with the drool, snoring, and stuffed up breathing at night it's fairly obvious I'm sickly), picked up our Bountiful Basket, cleaned and reorganized the fridge, and kept the pipsqueaks entertained outside while I had a shower and stayed warm in the house.

I could get used to Saturday mornings like this.

Pearl's 1st Primary talk

Pearl gave her first Primary talk on Sunday. I, sadly, wasn't able to help her or even listen because I was in Nursery with a screaming boy who didn't want to be left there. Jeff said she did really good and she was super excited to tell me about it after church.

Here is her talk on Family Home Evening:

The prophets have told us to have family home evening every week. Family home evening helps us learn about Heavenly Father and our Savior Jesus Christ. We should start and end family home evening with a prayer. We can read our scriptures, sing songs, and play games during family home evening. My family has family home evening on Monday nights. I like to help with the lesson and treat. My favorite family home evening was when we made marshmallow temples. I feel happy when we have family home evening together. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

How do I "un-beach" my room?

It all started about six months ago. I wanted new bedding. After almost 10 years, I needed a change. Don't get me wrong, I loved the quilt we had... my mother-in-law made if for us as a wedding gift, but I had the urge to do something different.

It took me months of looking to find a quilt I liked. It didn't help that I was looking for a quilt in the middle of summer! I splurged and bought one at Pottery Barn, thinking I can't go wrong if it's from Pottery Barn, right? Plus, I happened to take my sister shopping with me while Jeff was enthralled in his favorite T.V. show at the time. Bad combination, for Jeff's checking account anyway. We came home with the porcelain blue pick-stitch quilt and this pillowcase.I fell in love with it. Amoebas and all as Jeff calls the paisley print. It was a splurge.

Then another several months went by with me complaining about the curtains and the paint. I kept thinking some hidden interior design gene would just pop out of me. I should know better though. I can never decide on a simple paint color or color scheme, then once I think I have a look in mind that I want, I simply can't execute it without having a near panic attack and wanting to spend our entire life's savings redecorating everything. I didn't mind the current green paint color. In fact, it actually matched the new bedding fairly well. But Jeff didn't like it. And the curtains definitely didn't work with blue.

Then came the depth of winter when my house feels dark (cave-like really) and cold. I wanted something calm and bright and alive... a haven to escape to from our chocolate brown living and dining room that just seems too dark this time of year. Not a dark man-cave, much to Jeff's dismay. Jeff brought home paint samples, I brought home more paint samples, and nothing seemed to jump out at me. I had no idea what I wanted! My sister came over and we picked out a paint color to try. It didn't work. I felt like I was staring at the exact same color that our toy room is. Back to the drawing board. I decided to head back to Pottery Barn for a sample of their spring/summer paint collections. Then the great debate about green or this turquoise color (that I loved) began. I've wanted to repaint our bathroom a green color so I was leaning towards something not green for the bedroom. Plus, the green I liked, was so close to what we already had and I wanted something different. And I felt inspired by this room's makeover and wanted a similar feel. Two more paint samples on the wall and a threat from Jeff that unless I picked a color TODAY, he wasn't painting the room and I made up my mind.I loved the turquoise color... Mill Spring Blue to be exact.

I loved my bedding.

I loved the curtains I found at Home Depot.

I loved everything I picked out. Until they were all together.

Jeff spent all day - and by all day, I mean all day - Saturday painting. He even repainted all the trim and baseboards to a beautiful, bright white. I spent all day trying to keep two pipsqueaks out of the ONE room they wanted to be in.It was a long, tiring day. I still think I had the harder part :)

The paint looked absolutely beautiful! When my husband paints, he paints with perfection and precision! (Each time Jeff paints something, he adds a new dab of color to his ladder. The red is in our bathroom, the pink was for a fish wind chime thing we hung in the backyard, the light purple was Pearl's walls before her room became Cole's room, the dark purple - and our all time favorite color we've painted yet - was the ceiling color in her room, and now the turquoise from our room)

By the time we got everything picked up, it was late and Jeff was too sore and tired to move our bed back into the room. So we camped out on the living room floor together, dreaming of the big reveal tomorrow. Ok, so I was the only one dreaming about our dream bedroom! After breakfast in our bed with the kids, we moved everything back.

And then it suddenly hit me. We were standing at the beach! THIS WAS NOT THE EFFECT I WANTED!!! Far from it! I in no way wanted my bedroom to feel like we were on permanent vacation to Cape Cod. Even Pearl calls it the "sea" room now. Jeff keeps teasing me that he's going to hang up an oar on the wall. Ick! Granted a seaside vacation with my hubby would be A.M.A.Z.I.N.G. and very much wanted, but this was not what I wanted my room to feel like. Apparently, I really did want a dark man-cave all along.(I'm blaming it all on this pillow)

Now I'm stuck with the fact that my wonderful, sweet husband let me pick out a paint color he hated (I admit, you were right, Jeff... will I ever learn?), spent all day painting for me, only to not fall instantly in love with the finished product. Although there are a couple of positives to this redo. Like, having the cleanest room in the entire house and getting rid of a ton of crap I don't need anymore. Oh, and these awesome new light switch covers. Simple pleasures.How do I "un-beach" my room now?

And repainting is NOT an option! Jeff will paint one room each year for me and I am not about to tell him to spend another Saturday up on the ladder. Especially because he did a fabulous job and I really do like the color, just not with everything together. What I should have done, was paint it a very light tan or gray like Jeff suggested (subsequently repainting the living room this Audubon Russet orange color, also like he suggested) then refinished my dresser in the turquoise color instead of all the walls.

Oh well. Maybe I'm not completely sold on this new look because it's so different than the rest of our house. But change isn't always bad and I do so love Jeff for putting up with me about this.

Who knows, maybe it will inspire Jeff and I to finally take our tropical island paradise vacation we've been longing for these past 10 years!

Frosting face

This is what happens when we decorate sugar cookies at our house. ADORABLE!!! Minus the blue frosting all over the table, clothes, and stained on our fingers and faces. Ok, still ADORABLE!!!We did have a split second of actual decorating going on before the licking of the frosting continued.Let's not forget the other child. Don't let the speck of frosting fool you.... she'd already been squawked at to wash her hands and face at least once before I took this picture.I can't get over the sprinkles! Had Cole not popped the lid off of one of them and proceeded to dump them all over the floor, I'd rush right back to Target and buy more!See that really big, white sprinkle in the upper right-hand corner on the red frosting cookie? Um, yeah. It's not really a sprinkle. It's the missing lid from one of the sprinkle containers. I didn't figure that at until I ate it!
Yummmm. I've got to admit, I make a good sugar cookie! Alas, my frosting skills are still sub par.... that's what Betty Crocker is for. I couldn't help myself.
Pearl's batch. These stayed home with us because Pearl kept sneezing and coughing all over them.I now know why I keep making (and subsequently eating) these delicious, sinful treats... those two little, frosting-covered faces.

Tender mercies

In less than 24 hours, I had two tender mercies from the Lord. Reminding me that He knows best and that I need to trust Him.

The first you'll have to read about on my Daily Blog.

The second happened Monday. Trying to ignore the huge mess my kids had made and give myself a "timeout" to keep my cool about the mess, I checked my work email (I take Mondays off). I stumbled upon an email my boss had forwarded to me from her boss. Remember that dream job I turned down not once, not twice, but three times a few months ago? The one I agonized over thinking I had either missed the boat with any spiritual guidance or was being tempted again and again? Well, CDC lost funding for Year 2 of the grant. Somehow they have funding for the third and final year of the grant, but not this next year. While they don't expect any major personnel changes and should be able to stretch funding from this year to cover most of the next year, it's completely up in the air about what will really happen.

Had I taken that job, I would have been devastated. And a complete wreck wondering what might happen. I don't do well with funding cuts like that. I've been there once before, trying to figure out when to leave a "dying" program that I loved and poured my heart and soul into. It was agonizing.... way worse than trying to listen to the whisperings of the Spirit a few months ago. Even if I hadn't lost my job, cuts were so drastic that it would have hindered all the projects and ambitions I had for the position.

Something so simple to remind me that I'm not in charge here... God is and he knows what is best for me. My prayers are answered, even if I can't see it or don't understand why I get certain answers. I'm so grateful I listened to those promptings (all three times), despite the pressures, and that this small, tender mercy from the Lord was given to me.