Another year has gone by...

Soooo, I've made several attempts to post to our blog only to never finish any of them and now I've spent a whole year with a resolution to be better at keeping up with it and I'm pretty sure I've actually done worse. :-) Resolutions are not a good idea for me. I have such a hard time making a resolution that I can follow through on. Oh well....

So our review:
It seemed like the year went by so slow but here it is mid-December and I can't believe the year is almost over.
Little A turned 3 this year. He's gotten so BIG and tries to be a good helper most of the time! He loves to go to Disney World aka "Mickey's house". He rode his first roller-coaster about two weeks ago and he LOVED it!! I was scared the whole time that he was going to fly out of the seat so I held on to him for dear life, but once it was over he didn't want to get off. He also loves to go play at his friends house, but recently got into a scuffle with their dog. He had two cuts on his nose and one on the inside of his upper lip - it was very traumatic when it happened, but the next morning he was ready to go back over to their house. :-) Little A also loves Disney/Pixar movies, trains, cars, and reading books. He has recently taken to daddy's ipad and Alex is afraid that he's lost some ownership of it! A's favorite foods are Nutrigrain bars, cheese, and yogurt; and he LOVES apple juice and milk shakes (I might add that he hasn't yet figured out that chocolate milk and a milkshake are two different things!! This definitely works in my favor!). But I often find it very hard to get him to eat much of anything else. He is very mischievous at times - but he's a boy, right?! He is too smart for his own good (this does not work in my favor!!).

For Alex... well he's down to only having a year left to finish his Bachelors degree and then we are unsure what we are going to do, but our hopes and dreams are to move back towards Athens :-) He recently got a promotion at work. He is now the Guest Care Coordinator for the Orlando World Center Marriott... so he spends his evenings mostly dealing with complaints ha-ha. He and his friend Jared are also in the process of starting their own business: DormBoxes. Their website should be up and running soon as they would like to launch and have everything ready to open doors beginning Summer 2012. He stays pretty busy with work, school, church stuff, and this business venture but he loves those crazy shows about pickin' and gold digging and buying storage space.... it beats me..... :-)

As for myself, I have to say this year has been pretty good. Nothing amazing happened but nothing terrible either. I got prepared and took my teacher certification test early in the year, looked all summer and fall for a job and finally just last month I decided to take the Sub-workshop... so far I've had no luck what-so-ever. Things got pretty bad at the center where I was working so after much deliberation, and prayer... and a few in depth discussions with Alex... we decided that it would just be better if I left. I quit and am now at home with A. I am waiting to either find a position somewhere or possibly have another baby... I am just not sure what the Lord has in store right now. I love getting to make cool clothing and accessories, baby gear, blankets, home decorations... but I wish it could be profitable. My good friend Nikki and I have opened an etsy shop: OliveandPomegranate though we have hardly any merchandise yet. If interested keep looking out for new things, we would definitely appreciate the business!! Otherwise, I am just looking to enjoy this time with my little boy :-)

Though I am often a pessimistic person or what I like to call a "realist" lol I do like to look back and think of what I have to be grateful for... especially at this time of year. My good friend lost her dad in November and I can't even imagine what that is like, but I know that this life isn't the end and they will see each other again. I'm grateful for my family and that I have them everyday - I often take them for granted and hope that they know how much I DO love and appreciate them. I'm grateful for health, for the place and the lifestyle I get to live. I am so thankful that Jesus Christ was born and that he was willing to be our Savior.

My hopes for the New Year are:
To definitely keep this blog up at a much better pace, but I'm not making it a resolution!!
To possibly get my feet wet in the school system so that where ever we may end up I will be more prepared for a "real job" IF that is what Heavenly Father has planned for me.
To possibly welcome another little Perschka to the world... ?!
To "settle down" somewhere... fairly close to home (in a home of our own?)

Those are just a few... Check back soon for photos and hopefully I will promptly post about our Christmases with the family :-)

New Year, New Resolution

Since I have been so terrible at blogging the last oh three months I have decided that now would be a good time to write. Our year in review has been a good one. Not the best ever, but definitely not terrible. We moved to a new place and though we miss our family and our "hometown" we've grown as a family and Alex has grown as a student and as a professional. I got a job and made some new friends which I am SO grateful for, we are active and involved in our church and have met some amazing people through that medium as well. All in all we are so thankful for everything the year has brought us and for all the blessings we've received.

I have never been one for new years resolutions but I feel inspired this year to make a few. A couple years ago Valerie had this idea to make a resolution for each month ~ not necessarily something that HAD to change or be "resolved" but just things to work on. While I have come up with no where near 12 things I have thought of a couple.

First and foremost, I want to take my certification test and become certified in Florida to teach Kindergarten through Third Grade. I want to find a position in a school close to Celebration though it would be even better if I were lucky enough to land a job in Celebration!! I have gotten my study materials and the funding (thanks to Oma and Opa) and I will be registering soon for my exam. Wish me LUCK!!

Other goals I have made for this year are to cut down on the amount of soda we drink. I am sort of ashamed to say it but I definitely drink too much coke. It is something I have been thinking about a lot lately because Avery knows what it is now and though he doesn't generally ask for it I don't want him to start wanting it regularly.

I would like for us to get out more with people here from our church. I think we never get invited to things because we are always busy. Alex is a student and so he works at night and most weekends - generally when activities are being held... therefore when we are asked we generally have to say no... and people stop asking after a while. I also work during the day so it's hard for me to go to play group and all that. I thought moving to a new place would allow us to make more friends at church but it's been pretty much about the same as back home  :(

I would like to get into better shape. I know, cliche resolution, huh? It's not that I really want to loose weight because I've lost about 6 lbs in the year we've been here - how and where from I have no idea - but I'd just like to be more fit.

We have one other goal and that is to use our Disney Annual Passes at least once a month!! What are some of your resolutions?

Happy Birthday Avery!

We have had so much going on lately that I have to write about! So, can we talk about Disney?! We took Avery to Disney for the first time on his birthday and it was a lot of fun. Alex and I have not been since we got engaged there in March of '07. My family came down and Alex and I took the day off on Friday and we spent a good part of the day taking Avery around Magic Kingdom to see characters and ride on the kiddie rides. Can I just say that he LOVED it?! I guess that's probably typical for a child visiting the most magical place on earth, right? I think he liked the rides more than anything... every time it was time to get off he would either cry or try and make a break for it to get back on! He LOVES Mickey and all the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse characters and he was so excited to see them until we got up close and they were life size - then he got a little freaked out and wanted to hide behind me. :)

Here are some pictures from our day!

Samie and I on the race cars

Avery "driving" his and Alex's race car

Food and Wine Festival at Epcot!

Alex and I, three years and several pounds later :)

With Mickey and Minnie!

Us with Frontier Donald.

What a Great Day!

I cannot believe that it is already the end of October. Avery's birthday is next week and he will be 2 years old!! Time literally flies by. I am shocked everyday by how much he has grown, how smart he is getting, and how much he is talking. Our families will be coming to visit soon for Avery's birthday and we are taking him to Disney for the very first time. We are all so excited - I just know he's going to love seeing all the characters and the rides. I will post all about it and pictures as soon as possible!

So, just a little update on what we've been doing recently. We got Avery's Halloween costume - he is going to be a giraffe and it is SOOOOO cute. I will post pictures after he officially wears it (we have tried it on him, but I feel like I can't post pics till after Halloween)!! We went to the Pumpkin Patch here in Celebration and got a small one for Avery. He carries it around every where; it's like his little best friend ha-ha.

Here are some pictures from recently

Avery and daddy

This is the one we picked!!

Surprisingly, this only took two tries!! I can't believe it actually turned out because Avery was too short and I am holding him LOL.

Avery and Pooh Bear :)

Disney on Ice

Earlier this month I got the amazing experience of taking Avery to see Disney on Ice: Toy Story 3 at the Amway Arena here in Orlando. Our neighbors are so amazing - they couldn't go and so they gave us three tickets to see the show for free. Unfortunately, Alex had to work that night and I was really hesitant to take Avery by myself because it was a 7:30 showing... so I called a few family members that live relatively close. Because of such short notice no one was available and I decided that we had gotten really lucky with these and I didn't want the tickets to go to waste. I thought I'd just take Avery to see the first half and then we could leave at the intermission.

For a drive that is usually about 30-45 minutes, the traffic was really light and it took hardly no time to get there. We got there about an hour before the show was supposed to start and Avery had a lot of fun just watching people. The show started and it was SO exciting!! Avery got to see his favorite Disney Characters: Mickey, Minnie, Goofy and Donald and yelled out their names as they skated into the rink. He also recognized Woody, Buzz and Rex. He did so good! He sat on my lap the whole time and was almost entranced by the show. We actually ended up staying for the whole show and luckily, we had REALLY good seats and were parked close to the door and the exit; we got home in good time and we had so much fun together. I am SO glad I didn't decide not to go and SO thankful our neighbors thought of us when they couldn't use their tickets. :)

These are some of the pictures. Unfortunately, our camera was left at my parents house when we were last back home so these are taken with my blackberry ~ considering that I think some of them actually turned out pretty good. Enjoy!!

A Day to Remember

It seems I am writing on a Monthly basis now....? I actually have a bunch to write about which I will do tomorrow but I just wanted to say that I am SO thankful for our men and women who are in the service of our country. What a selfless thing to do. I wish I had half as much courage as so many who are in our armed forces.

I also wanted to take a minute to reflect and think about all the people who have lost their lives not only at the World. Trade. Center but all those who have died for our country since then. I'm thinking about our good friends Jared and Katy and the Reeves family who lost a son and a brother during his service.

I remember I was in the car with my dad on the way back from a Doctor's appointment; he was taking me to school. I was irritated because, as usual, he was listening to talk radio - something about planes - and I just wanted to listen to music. It was my Sophomore year and when I returned to school I was sent to French class. Every room had their TV's turned to the news coverage of planes flying simultaneously into the two World Trade Center towers. We all just sat there our eyes glued to the television and I realized that this must have been what my dad was listening to in the car.

Every year I think about that day and all the things that we sometimes take for granted. All the people that died that day in 2001 and all those who have died fighting for our country.... they can't be mad at their dads for not letting them listen to music, they can't enjoy little moments with their spouse or child, they can't read a good book or have a much needed cry. I think that one of the greatest things we can learn from what happened on this day 9 years ago is that you never ever know what the next day brings or when it will be your last day and so... carpe diem people!!!

Oh and congrats to previously named friends on the new digs. What's next..... a baby?! ;)

The Flipside!

So... after my last downer post I thought I should make this next one about something happy. In most recent news I accepted a job... well two jobs actually. So I interviewed at these two places one really close to where we live and another about 30 minutes away. I interviewed at the first place on a Monday and then the second place a week later on Tuesday... well the Tuesday place was so quick to get back to me that I had to call the Monday place and find out what was happening with the position I interviewed for. Needless to say, they didn't want me :( Something about me not having a CDA (which is just an Associates... and I have a Bachelors...?? Weird, but whatever).

So, I'm thinkin I'm goin with the Tuesday place and they call to tell me when I need to be here and how little I'll be making and what class I'll be working in and that I have to basically buy a new wardrobe because their uniforms consist of Navy Blue pants and White shoes and their special Red polos - which I have none of, plus the 30min drive and toll money if I want to get there sans traffic. BUT I am just happy to have found something, so I swallow my pride and accept.

And here I am the Wednesday before the Saturday that I am supposed to report for my new employee orientation/training at the Tuesday place and I get a call from the Monday place. WHAT?!?! They now want to know if I am still looking because now they want me. :) (still don't have a CDA, but whatever). Well..... considering that this place is just five awesome minutes from home, and is going to pay better and I already have half my uniform in my closet... I just felt like it was a no-brainer. Plus Alex told me to take it LOL.

Even though I was considerably hurt that they gave me the cold shoulder at first AND that I had to call the Tuesday place and tell them I wouldn't be coming (which was very hard, I felt terrible!). I will now be starting at the Monday place on a Monday (the 23rd)!! Avery will get to have some social time with other kiddos and he'll also still to get to stay home part time with daddy!! And, the extra money we'll be making will help out TONS.

SO thankful that everything worked out for the best. And now.... I will be working on getting my certification. I am one PreK-3rd test away from being Florida Certified to teach. Yay!

Debbie Downer

This post is pretty much just going to be complaints... I know that our blog shouldn't really be an outlet for that sort of thing, but I just need to get some things off my chest so bare with me and thanks for listening slash reading.

• I've felt like this for kind of a long time but... for some reason I think that people don't like me. I mean, do I give off a bad vibe or something? Do I seem snobby to others? I don't know, maybe it's my imagination but It just seems like people avoid me or that they know something bad about me that I don't know and they stay as far away as possible. And, this plague follows me. :(


• I have a new found dislike for the State of Florida. Just, a lot of experiences I have had here left me with a bad taste in my mouth ranging from grocery shopping to the state departments (DMV) to the job market and all the stupid requirements and hoops you have to jump through. I feel like that is just another reason why unemployment is so high. Sheesh. And on top of all that....


• TOURISTS - need I say more? ok, not all of them, but the vast majority act like they own the place. You go to the store and they expect you to drop everything and move outa their way, not to mention driving up the wrong way in the parking lot and walking in the middle of the road. They drive terribly. They are EVERYWHERE!!!! Ok, but I do understand that without them this place would probably be in even worse shape...ugh.


• The weather - BAAH - I mean, I know it is just as hot in GA and that rain is good.... but seriously everyday? And somedays it rains ALL DAY long. Ok, and then it's still SOO HOT even after it rains - like the rain doesn't even cool it off a little. Unreal.
  

THE END.

ok so now that I'm done with my rant.... PICTURES!!

I've been busy.... for real this time...

I haven't done anything to my blog in such a long time I felt like it needed a face lift... I'm still not sure I really like what it looks like now but after playing with it for a while I decided I'd leave it as is for a little bit and see how I feel about it in a few weeks. Feel free to share your thoughts!
As far as life goes for us right now, we are doing well. We've have a great past few weeks. My parents came down and spent a few days with us for Memorial Day weekend and we also drove down and spent a few hours at St. Augustine beach. My dads side of the family has been doing this for as long as I can remember; it's a tradition! Unfortunately, my parents and I haven't been able to make it the last couple of years. Anyway, it was nice to see everyone and get to spend some time at the beach. :)
The following weekend our friends Jay and Shelley stopped by for a night on their way back from a cruise... it so much fun to hang out with some friends from home; even though we didn't do much it was a great a time. Thanks to Jay and Shelley for Upper Crust pizza, Night at the Museum and amusing our little boy for hours on in!! P.S. Shelley, there are still tons of teaching jobs here. haha.
This past weekend the Perschka's came down for the shortest trip EVER! But, we got to do some amazing things. Valerie is going on a mission (to Arizona) for 18 months, and she came down here to go through the Temple for her first time. Although Alex and I weren't able to go with them (for lack of having a babysitter), we heard it was a great experience for her and we are so happy!! Congrats Val :) Alex got lucky enough to have Saturday off so we were also able to go out to dinner with the fam and Alex, Val and I played putt putt golf. Such good times. BTW - I'm going to need some of those pictures from the Temple, VAL................
Shelley inspired me, so I applied to the School District down here in Osceola County to try and get a job teaching next school year. I also applied for my Educators Certificate for the same reason lol. Earlier this week I sent letters, resumes, references, and transcripts to six different elementary schools that have one or more openings for PreK through 3rd. Let's hope that everything somehow falls into place and works out. I need a job.... and teaching is something I love doing and it's family friendly!
On Tuesday, Avery and I are flying home to spend ten days in Athens. I'm going to miss Alex and the pool :) but I cannot wait for some long overdue girl time, barberitos, shopping with mom, inokos, and a Twilight party and Eclipse with a few of my besties. It's going to be great just to be in the Classic City once again!! If only it were football season already~
But, it's not all play and no work... I am also going to have to stalk some people I know to write me references -
I will definitely keep updated about our trip and will hopefully have some pictures to post soon.

Yea, I'm a Homemaker! - part 2

Guys, our living room totally needed something - a pizazz, a little boost, some color, personal touch, you name it - our living room needed it... so, I took it upon myself to resolve the problem and I was able to do it fairly inexpensively. It was easier than I thought!

If you've been to our place you know that there is a huge empty wall in our living room. We have our "entertainment center" on this wall but that consists of a tv stand and our flat screen lol so the wall from the top of the tv up has been blank for the last few months. We have been wanting to hang something up above the tv but haven't really found anything that we were in love with.

We had bought some canvas' when they were on sale an made a "headboard" for over our bed by covering them using some neutral fabric (in case we wanted to change our bedding). It turned out really nice and we hada couple canvas' left over so we thought this same concept may work well in the living room.

We have a HUGE JoAnns a few miles from us so we went to see if we could find some fabric that we liked and that would work in the living room. We wanted something that was colorful but not over the top and I have to say, we got extremely lucky!

Here's how it turned out:

Up top: Here they are up close - As you can see the wall is not completely covered, but it definitely makes the blank space smaller. Below: this is the overall view. I really think it turned out nicely. We wanted to have two contrasting fabrics that matched and, like I said, we got really lucky. I found this striped fabric and there was only a yard left - once they gave me the slip for check out I realized it was on clearance - YAY!! It was only $2. Then the polka dot fabic just happen to be a perfect match with all the colors and they looked Soooooooo good next to eachother. Guys, tell me what you think - and be honest?!

So, after the canvas was covered I had enough striped fabric to make one pillow and only enough polka dot fabric to make a half.... I went back to JoAnns and got a little bit more polka dot fabric and then decided to stretch what I had and do pattern on one side and solid on the other. I bought a yard of tan and a half yard of brown. I used polka dots on one side with tan on the other and then I put brown on backside of the stipes. Pillow covers are actually not that hard to make and way cheaper than buying throw pillows. They turned out really good.

On top of the striped fabric being on clearance, the other patterns were on sale! We were able to add some color and comfort to our living room for less than $20... YAY for style!

Patience is a Virtue!!

If some of you shop at Target as avidly as I do you have probably seen Merona's "Collection" in the womens slash misses - I'm not sure what I'd call it except not Juniors. It's like the kind of stuff I'd buy all the time if I had an exceptionally well paying job... haha :)

Well, generally I never buy this stuff because I just can't see myself spending that much money on a dress that I'd probably only wear to church or an occasional (and I stress the word occasional) nice evening out. I DO however love to shop the Target clearance racks!! The other day I found these two great Merona Collection dresses that I had been eye-ing since they came out a several weeks before Easter. They were on clearance for 75% off; I couldnt believe it. I actually didn't buy them right away, I went back the next day and luckily, they were both still there in my size!

I also just want to mention that this has never happened to me - living in Athens, all the good stuff is usually long gone before it goes 75% with all the students and two counties shopping at one Target Store. Here in Florida there are two Super Targets relatively close to me and generally the clothing doesn't go as quickly since tourists usually aren't there for that.

Here are the two dresses:

I like this one because it's modest, I can wear it without having to worry that I'm not covering everything up. It will look great with just a few accessories such as white heels and belt.

This one is strapless but it has a lot of colors in it - yellow, an orangey pink, seafoam green - all I'll have to do to make this one work is add a colorful cardigan!!

This is the best part - I got both these babies for ten bucks each. love love love TARGET!!

yes, yes I am reading ECLIPSE again... and, of course, I am sucked in!

I'm sure those of you who are Twilight fans already know that the next movie, Eclipse, is coming out next month in JUNE! I am kind of surprised that they are releasing it earlier this time around.

I am generally not one to re-read books, but my friend and I wanted to read Eclipse again before the movie came out, sort of as a refresher - so I decided to give it a whirl; we are reading it together and discussing it as we go. I'm not usually one to blog about these sort of things, but since a lot of my family and friends do the whole Twilight thing I thought I'd share...


We are about half way through and I've found that as into this book as I was the first time reading it, I don't really remember a lot of the things that happened... When I think of the stories I think of them as a whole, I remember the big significant parts throughout and the in-betweens seemed to have slipped away. I read the book and its almost like I'm reading it for the first time, I can't put it down. I've found that there are things I didn't notice in the book the first time I read it because I was in such a hurry to find out what happened that I missed them.


This time through I am annoyed with Bella; I feel like she should have more of a backbone and stand up for herself to Jacob and Edward who both seem (at times) a little bossy to me. And, I was completely Team Edward the first read and (though I think I am still for Edward) I can kind of see where Jacob is coming from and I sorta feel bad for him. Bella seems selfish to expect that from Jacob, but I have to say that I can also totally relate to her not being into Jacob that way, but still wanting to have a relationship/friendship with him.


This book is definitely High School.

April

So, I guess I need to update for journaling purposes if nothing else though I feel like there hasnt really been anything major this past month. I know there are moments that I put off writing about so here's an overview of what happened with us in April...

It was actually quite a busy month... my parents came down the first weekend of April for Easter and it was so much fun!! This was really Avery's first Easter... I mean, he was around last year but unable to participate in the fun so I'm not sure it really counts?! Anyway, they always do way over the top things for Holidays here in Celebration so you can imagine that a huge Easter Egg Hunt took place. And the best part? It happened right across the street from where we live - do you believe that?! We got incredibly lucky because they were going to have the hunt at another park closer to downtown Celebration, but it had rained and stormed pretty hard for a couple of days prior; they moved it to our park because not all the water had drained from the other one as quickly as expected.... it was amazing. Avery was completely into it and he was so great at "egg hunting!" It was literally just a field full of eggs... but, pretty logical for a 0-3 age group, right?! He picked up the eggs and put them in his basket, as if he was a pro :)

He took a picture with the Easter Bunny and didn't shed one single tear. I guess I just couldnt believe it because my parents always talk about how I freaked when I was a baby taking pictures with the Easter Bunny or Santa Claus.
So my parents left on Sunday and on Monday morning my very good friend Brooke flew down for a visit while she as on spring break and stayed for four days. We had an awesome time hanging out at the pool pretty much every day and making a trip to the beach one day. It was sad to see her go! Brooke left Friday and about two hours later Alex's mom and Valerie arrived... does it get any crazier?! Val and I went on bike rides, all us girls (and Avery) went shopping, we played putt putt and enjoyed a couple of dinners out.

(Alex and I love it when our parents come, it's about the only time we ever get to enjoy dinner at a restaurant. Thanks to our parents to treating us to a few delicious meals every once and a while!! )

So, Alex's family left us on Wednesday morning - Avery and I in tow. We decided to hit home for an extended stay!! It was sad to leave poor Alex by himself, but since I've never been away from my family for very long I was in desperate need of a trip home and was provided the perfect opportunity. I got to enjoy 10 awesome days in Athens. Avery and I were able to spend time with both sides of the family as well as being able to see some very close friends while in town. I had so much fun playing cards with my family, watching the first ten episodes of Glee with Valerie, going to the movies - twice, being able to go back to KRK and visit with some of my favorite ex-co-workers (lol) and Barberitos - twice :) We do not have a Barbs or anything close here in Orlando... so I really had to get as much of that as possible. Delicious.

So ten days later Avery and I flew home. Alex picked us up and we went straight from the airport to downtown Disney to meet our friends Nicole and David... we are SO committed to our friends!?! They were in town for the weekend and luckily we were able to have a little visit with them before they headed home on Sunday. Really great to see you guys, and we will be taking you up on your offer to let us stay with you!! Next time, you'll stay with us?

That pretty much hits it for like, the whole month.... It was insane but really comforting to have all those people around me. I'm lucky that we can afford to have me stay home with Avery right now... but it definitely has it's drawbacks at times. With Alex in school and working full-time adult interaction is at all time low for me... having people here visiting every once and while helps me keep my sanity and it definitely makes me appreciate our families and everything they do/have done for us.

I'm now officially a HOME-MAKER!!

A few years ago I was able to go out west and had the opportunity to stay for two days with my dear friend Addy Cagle. The Cagles were living with Addy's family at the time and so I had the opportunity to meet her family and stay in their home. They were so welcoming. One of my favorite things about their home was all the amazing paintings they had of scenes from Christ's life. Every room I went in touched me in some way because of spirit their art evoked. Ever since my trip there one of my biggest temporal wants (LOL) have been to have paintings like this in my home. HOWEVER, since in no way can we afford anything that luxurious at this time I decided to get a little creative! Here is what I did...

Some time ago we were lucky enough to get a Greg Olsen calendar for free through the church. I don't really remember how, I think he donated a bunch of box loads. Anyway, we didn't actually use the calendar and I didn't want to thow it away because he has some really beautiful work. Since moving, our place has some pretty bare walls - we have just never had this much space before!! So I finally decided to do something with the calendar. I took it completely apart and picked some of my favorites out of the paintings. This is one of them...

The size was a little too big for an 8x10 so I bought a fairly inexpensive document frame 10x13 matted with an 8.5x11 opening. I just think that these look WAY better and more professional when matted. I don't usually like to go too cheap on frames because they generally fall apart pretty easily but these seemed to work out fine. They were six dollars at WalMart (where I usually don't like to go, unless absolutely necessary!).

Inserted the "painting." And, I was so surprised at how amazing it turned out. I mean, in no way does it compare to the Huge immaculate slash wonderful paintings that the Holladays have, but for our small budget I think it's A plus. :)

I did two more and hung them over our cubes. To hang them I actually used the new 3M Command picture hanging strips and I have to say, I was a little hesitant but they do work really well! This is what it now looks like....

This one is a litte bit more of a close-up. It looks as if the one to the right is smaller than the other two, but they are actually all the same size.

I have to say that for $18 dollars plus tax this little project turned out better than I expected AND I get a little bit of the feeling that I have some beautiful paintings of Christ in my home. Maybe one day I can upgrade haha, but for now I can be more than happy with this!

Thanks to the Holladay family, again, for their hospitality AND for displaying some of the most spiritual yet stunning pieces of art I've ever seen.

I'm pretty sure this counts as a tutorial, so now when people ask me my job... I can say homemaker!! :)

Oh, How the Times Change

And SO quickly too! Our little boy is growing up so fast that I can’t even keep up. It’s like he literally learns 1,000 new things a day. His vocabulary and his speech are different and better everyday…

Now, I know that he is not special in this and that it just happens… I mean, I studied Child Development in college so in no way am I really surprised at many of the things he can do and how fast he learns. I guess it’s just that no matter how much you know about children and development, when you become a parent you really get a whole different perspective. Do I know that children are sponges and they pick up things and learn everything incredibly fast? Yea but, I am STILL surprised when I see Avery doing something that I only showed him once. … absolutely!

Guys, I know I am just UH-mazed, because this is my child… so, pardon me for tooting my babies horn LOL but I can’t help it!! Plus, some of his grandmas have been asking about all the things he can do now

Here are some of the things that Avery has done recently that may not be all that special, but they were big in my book!!
~ Just a few weeks ago he didn’t want anything over him when he went to sleep – now he asks for a blanket: “bankie, bankie, bankie” : )
~ When we are going off, he goes to the driver side door and says “mama, mama” then to the back door and says “bebe, bebe”
~ He can tell me what the dog, the sheep, the cow, the fish, the cat and Lady GaGa says…. he can say a few colors: orange, blue, yellow, brown, red, and pink
~ He knows the members of our family – including some extended family and he can look at a picture of a different family and tell who the mommy, daddy and baby are.
~ He can blow his nose : )
~ And for a while now he’s known all of his body parts

AND last but not least – I think I am going to try and start potty training him as SOON as he hits 18 months because 1) he knows when he is going, he points to himself and tells me; and 2) when he’s in the bathroom he goes to the toilet, points inside and says “pee, pee”

Anyone got any tips on how to make it a smooth and relatively quick transition?

Here are some recent pictures of our little guy!

I feel like he looks so grown up in this one

I don't think it gets much goofier than that...

We took a trip to the beach this past Friday and Avery LOVED it!! The water was SO cold, but it didn't really seem to phase him...

After just a few waves, our feet were buried - Avery had sand up to his shins!!

Every time a wave would come he'd stick out his tongue and scream!

Little bit of Everything

So first I wanna start off by saying this was my first season watching the Bachelor. Jake picked Vienna in the end.... I keep having to say it to believe it. It's not my place to judge Vienna; I don't truly know what kind of person she is. And who knows what Jake really felt toward either of the girls... Maybe it was just a more special feeling with Vienna. All I wanna say is how she was portrayed (either by her own doing or by ABC's, I don't know) was not a person that seemed ready for something long term and just a little immature. I felt as if the only reason he didn't feel the same thing for Tenley was because she wasn't all over him everytime they were together. There is NO difference between physical and sexual chemistry. Tenley deserves better.

Another thing I want to say is that I am SO glad that Ali is the next Bachelorette, although I thought it should be Ella, I do feel like Ali deserves it. I think if she hadn't gone home, she would have ended up being the one with the ring.

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In terms of how we are doing here in Celebration, FL things are going about as well as they can be. I am not working, but I have started babysitting for a family here in Celebration. They are really nice, quirky organic people and they have two kids - a 3.5yr old girl and a 2yr old boy. So, I am putting my very expensive education to good use! I am planning to look for a pre-k position maybe during the summer, but I guess all that depends on a few different variables. I do LOVE being at home though. I have been trying to work on several different crafts to sell at a boutique shop owned by a friend of a family member. I will be meeting with her here in a couple weeks, and I am a little worried because Avery is at the age where if I am doing something besides giving him my attention he cries for me. SO, I can only work on things when he's sleeping. Plus, my sewing machine does not always like to cooperate with me...

Alex has finally started working at Marriott, once he got offered the job we ended up having to wait like three weeks before he started. Yesterday was his first day and today he starts his regular schedule of working late nights; we are looking at him being gone almost 60hrs week between his two jobs and school. We will miss him!!

The one thing that I really wanna share though is about some really great blessings that we have recieved.

I was asked to be a part of the Women at the Well for our Relief Society birthday celebration coming up here in a week. I never really got into Reflief Society functions back home; I have to say that I didn't really feel comfortable there. Let me explain: I converted to the church right before my 18th birthday, so I wasn't ever really in Young Womens and I was almost immediately called to the Primary, so I didn't make a home in the RS and I always felt like the youngest person in the room. To be honest, I still feel a little like that but I am so excited to be a part of this and I feel like it will be a great opportunity for me to start feeling a little more at home in the Relief Society.

I have already been given a calling. I will be assisting with the activity days for the girls age 8-10. This is an age group that I'm not really experienced with and I am glad that I will be getting to know some great girls and also learning a lot for myself as well. Wish me luck!

Some of my favorite testimonies are ones that have inspired me. I find myself in the same situation as some of those sisters that have touched my heart. Since we moved we have barely been making it because of Alex not starting at work till yesterday; of course he had no control over it but we just didn't know how we were going to pay these bills that we were going to have for two months. We are so greatful that our parents could help us but certainly we couldn't keep asking them for money when we know they are struggling too. We got a bill for our car insurance and we just didn't know how we were going to come up with 221 dollars by the 1st of March. We'd been praying for help but we still couldn't find a way to come up with the money. Yesterday, the bill was due. Alex walks in with the mail and shows me something we'd recieved from our previous insurer from Georiga. A check for 278 dollars. There is no other way to explain it except that Heavenly Father was there when we needed Him most. Listening to testimonies of faith and paying tithing have strengthened my testimony of these things and my family has blessings to show for it.

Quiet Book

Good News Minute: Alex has gotten a job!!!! He will be working for a company called Casa Latino. Their office is located in downtown Cele.bration and it will be about 3 hours every morning, but hes getting paid pretty well. And, that also gives him the opportunity to work somewhere else after class. He's had two other great interviews and he will hear from both of them this week. We are keeping our fingers crossed for Marr.iott!!!

On the other hand, I have not heard back from anyone about interviews and I haven't heard from the one place I did get an interview with (which was almost three weeks ago) :( So much for that college degree, Huh?! SOOOOO, I have decided to try and see if I can possibly work from home creating cutesy things for kids!!

I would like your guyses honest opinions on these too...

One of my creations that I absolutely love is the Quiet Book I made for little A. I have made a total of two of these. One for Avery and a woman I used to work with bought one from me for her grand-daughter. Both were personalized. Here are some pictures of Avery's; unfortunately, I didn't get a chance to get pictures of the other one so I'll just have to tell you a little about each of the pages.

Here's the cover. On the other one I made I put her name on the inside of the cover.

Alex wanted Avery to have a sports page in his book, so on this one there are different balls that are connected to ribbons (so they dont come off the page) and the activity is to put the balls in/out of the bucket. It can als be used when Avery gets a little older to recognize different kinds of balls and their names.

This is a fun page for Avery right now... it is basically just a variety of beads on thin ribbon attached to the page. He can slide them back and forth, count the number of beads on each row and also recognize the different colored beads.

On this one I took the picture without the actual shapes attached - so, the attachable pieces are made of felt and on the page the shape is outlined with the name of the shape written in. On the other book that I made I put the names inside the shapes in English and Spanish.

This is one of my favorite pages. The page has a flower pot and the flowers are button on - so the center of the flower is a button and the actual flower has a button hole in its middle and they detach. I also did this page on the other book that I made and that one actually turned out better than this one because I made the flowers reversible, so she had four different style flowers.

I love, love, love this page too!! So I made the page look like it had a cheese pizza on it and then I created three different types of toppings - pepperoni, onions, and peppers! So, Avery can create a pizza with which ever of the toppings he wants. Another option could be making a hamburger, or ice cream cone.This one is less of an activity and more for just the different kind of textures. The kids are made out of felt, the eyes are button and the scales are sequines that are tied on with embroidery floss. This is definitely a page that is great for smaller children.I hate to keep saying it, but I love this page!! I put this one in both books - the ladybug's spots detach - they are snap on/off. This can be done with really any other animal that has spots - cow, giraffe, etc.This is Avery's counting page. I love the pyramid and that they are sort of color coded, though that wouldn't be necessary it's simpler. This page was in both books I made but for the other one I did the pyramid and I wrote out the numbers in English and Spanish on either side of the row. In Avery's book the color page is pretty simple because I was in hurry to finish it. In the other book that I made I did the colors page similar to the shapes page but wrote the colors in English and Spanish instead of the name of the shape. So, the page could really be done either way!This is the last page in Avery's book. I didn't write a caption, but I do think it needs one. This activity is a puzzle of the airplane and two clouds. As you can see, the Airplane is traced and each piece of the puzzle is a different color. I also did a puzzle in the other book that I made, but her's was a little more difficult because of her age. The puzzle was a large castle, with 13-15 pieces in four different colors.

Both books also had pockets on the two inside covers, great for storing book pieces, stickers, crayons/markers, small spiral paper, etc. I made a couple pages different for the other book because I was making it for a little girl and she was bit older than Avery.

The mother wanted at least one page having to do with bible stories, so I made two. One page was a Noah's ark and on the actual page I put a boat with an open top and ramp. I found some cute animal buttons and decided I would do a two-by-two activity. One animal was attached to the page while it's match would fasten next to it or be stored inside the boat. The other bible page I made was about the Creation. On the page I put a blue circle of felt, and tied a couple of animals to ribbon and attached them on the sides of the circle. I made green felt pieces for land and a velcro sun/moon at the top of the page.

Other pages I did for her were ABC's, where she would match a letter to the object whose name began with that letter; and I also did a tic/tac/toe page for her - a simple game that she could play with parent, sibling or friend.

So, I am thinking about going out and seeing if there are little boutiques that would display a couple of my books and maybe some business cards for a small portion of each one I sell, I was also thinking of posting them on ebay, etsy or something like that.... I am also thinking about doing a few other things such as hooded towels & bath mitts, hair bows, and maybe some of those "wellness bags."

Please tell me what you think. Will these things sell, the books in particular? What do you think they are worth? What's your advice on marketing them? Do you think I could also target child care centers? Any and all comments are welcome!! Thanks everyone!