She's Already Amazing...

So in honor of this book that I'm about to read there's a party going on over on here on Holley Gerth's blog that I really wanted to participate...

The year was 2002... It was an ordinary fall day... I walked into my mom's group meeting at St. Francis in the Fields church in Louisville, KY expecting our ordinary meeting... but little did I know that God was about to drop an EXTRAORDINARY gal right into my life!

A new girl arrived and began to tell her story... her husband's job had moved them to Louisville, KY from Australia and she was nothing short of miserable over the whole experience. My heart broke as she described the loneliness and sadness she felt being so far away from family and friends. The more we chatted the more we found we had in common... she had a little boy the same age as mine named Harry... My little boy was named William! (Um hello!?! William and Harry??? OK seriously we HAD to become friends if for nothing else but the sake of our boys sharing names with the royal family).... We shared the same birthday (well technically she's OLDER than me but we both celebrate on April 17th)... We planned a playdate, and then another playdate and we connected in a way that I can't even put into words. Over the course of that year we became the best of friends. I had my daughter Campbell, she had her daughter Sophie. I cooked traditional American Thanksgiving dinner, she cooked the most amazing chocolate sauce pudding thingie that I've ever experienced. Our boys connected over Thomas and the Wiggles (OK who are we kidding!?! Will was not the easiest toddler to connect with so they were forced to tolerate each other for the sake of our friendship:))

Then it happened... she tearfully told me they were moving back to Australia! So as quickly as she came into my life, she was going home. I was sad. Really, really sad. I mean in that year she had truly become like a sister to me. I questioned whether we would keep in touch, remain friends?

Fast forward to April 2011... my sweet husband plans a surprise 40th birthday luncheon for me. As he is thanking everyone for being there he mentions one person in particular that he needed to thank for being there... she took time off work, her husband was kind enough to keep her kids so she could come and I thought "what's the big deal with that?" and then he said it... She. traveled. thousands. of miles. to be. here... and before I could even process it there she was. That EXTRAORDINARY gal was standing in front of me. That EXTRAORDINARY gal traveled across the globe to surprise ME!



I could sit here and type all day and truly not be able to adequately put into words what an AMAZING, SELFLESS, LOVING, FORGIVING, ENCOURAGING, FUN, EXTRAORDINARY woman, mother, wife, and above all friend she is!

And if you are wondering if we kept in touch the answer is yes! We talk, text, facebook almost daily. Just the other day she was giving me grief for not blogging recently and wanted to know when I was going to blog again... So to my EXTRAORDINARY friend Sally I hope you enjoyed this blog post! You are amazing and beautiful and my life is fuller because of you! Thank you for your love, encouragement, and joy... can't WAIT to hug you in person in November!!!

Project Life Tuesday

Lots and lots of pictures and stories this week! This week was the father/daughter dance that Kip and Campbell attend every year and I had a lot of pictures from that night that I wanted to include... I've seen others include a smaller page protector to include lots of pictures from one event... problem being I didn't have any 6X12 page protectors which is what I wanted to use... so it was on to plan B... which included page protector design B from Becky Higgins... I took a design B page protector and basically trimmed along the seams to cut it down to the size I needed to accomadate all my pictures! It worked great and I was pleased how it flowed with the rest of the page! Again, I am sooo loving Project Life and getting our weekly life documented in 2012! I had plans of doing multiple albums at once to catch up on the last few years but so far have not had much success in carving out enough time to make that happen... rethinking the possibility of using the new digital option on Shutterfly... we shall see!

Project Life Tuesday... but on Wednesday

This week-end was a fun but busy week-end for our family... amongst the activity I did not carve out time to get my PL layout done... but Tuesday being Project Life Tuesday gave me the motivation to take time yesterday to get my pages done! I seriously love this project and am really determined to NOT fall behind! It really is so easy to get it done if you stay on top of it... a few thoughts on this week's pages... I had lots of pictures and had several individual stories that I needed to document and want to remember about several pictures... so lots of journaling! Secondly, I did most of the journaling in my own handwriting! This is a HUGE great bid deal for me because I hate my handwriting and usually try to avoid using it in my scrapbooks at all costs! I typically type my journaling as I want things to appear neat and clean... but when I started Project Life I decided that with this project there would be NO rules... I really wanted to give myself the freedom to be successful at completing this album and really wanted my focus to be on memory documentation and not on technique, style, etc... so I used my handwriting this week and am pretty pleased with it! So, since I didn't get my pages finished until last night I am a bit late with my Project Life Tuesday post... but again the rules are out the window on this one! So Wednesday it is and here are my pages for this week...

For the love of Pinterest...

I have a confession to make... I am completely, utterly, constantly consumed with Pinterest! Like I seriously think I may need an intervention to allow me to resume my normal state of living! Now for those of you that just asked yourself, "what the heck is Pinterest?" please, please, please think very hard before typing that word in your internet address box and above all don't say I didn't warn you when you can't help but become consumed with it because IT WILL HAPPEN! It. Will. Happen. People.

Now for my "non-pinning" friends let me share with you why I love Pinterest, First, it is the perfect place to organize ANYTHING you see, find, like on the internet. Seriously, anything from fashion to furniture, fitness routines to family fun, organizational tools to original artwork, decorating ideas to do it yourself projects, recipes to rumba tutorials, hairstyles to hamster habitats, scriptures to sewing projects... did I mention you can pin ANYTHING??? Secondly, you can follow other people's pinboards and they can follow yours. I typically log in so I can see mainly things pinned by those I follow. I LOVE seeing a pin and thinking "that looks like so&so's style or taste and upon looking at the name of the pinner realizing it was pinned by the person it reminded me of. So much fun to know your friends' tastes and be able to pick them out among all the pins to see! Anyone with me on this???

Once you find yourself glued to your computer screen, you can then repeat these words that I say over and over while "pinning"... "this is productive!" I mean just this week I've found amazing ideas for my kitchen renovation, planned meals for the week, begun planning Campbell's 9th birthday party (yes I am well aware that it's not until April but who doesn't like to be ahead of the ballgame???), created a piece of artwork for my guest bathroom, sewn a really cool camera strap cover for my camera, made another really cool camera strap cover for a friend's birthday, made yummy banana crunch muffins, redecorated my craft room/office based on one I saw on Pinterest, made a homemade king cake, done an upper body workout I found (to balance out the king cake and muffins:))... oh the list could go on and on.

so here's a little glimpse of this week's Pinterest action...






So there you have it... the confession of a Pinterest addict! Are you on the Pinterest bandwagon? If so, what is your favorite thing about it? If not, what are you waiting for? Join! You'll be glad you did but please remember that you may not blame me for the subsequent addiction... I warned ya! Now to do that laundry that I've neglected due to my Pinterest obsession... oh wait maybe there's some really cool laundry secrets on Pinterest! OK you get the picture! Happy Friday and happy pinning!

Hair bows, body odor and Project Life...

This week I read this brilliant article Don't Carpe Diem and seriously could have written (well not really with my serious lack of writing skills) this article myself... I just loved the comparison of cronos vs. kairos time and just felt so relieved of the stress of thinking we are the only family that doesn't live "blue ribbon moments every single moment. I love how this thought process goes right along with what I'm attempting to capture in my project life binder... those kairos moments that I need and want to remember every single week. both good and bad. both happy and sad. both big and little. Those moments that I want to remember. I need to remember.I am not a mom that typically gets sad over my kids growing older. Now don't get me wrong... I often reminisce of the days gone by and often wish we could go back to the days before homework, tests, peer pressure, etc. However, I also enjoy watching my kids learn and discover new things every single day of every single season. It seems there's something new and exciting about them each year that I love and appreciate. But this week, I had two moments of gut-wrenching sadness that completely took me by surprise. something about both my kids this week that stopped me in my tracks...

1. Campbell doesn't need me to do her hair anymore.

Like "she does her own high pony and bow" doesn't need me anymore! What!?!

2. Will has body odor. Like "not cute little boy playing in the grass" smell but real adult man B.O. after a hard workout smell. What!?!

Now those may seem like ridiculous things to cry over but cry I did my friends... But I'm better now and you know what... both of these silly but important milestones are now documented in my 2012 week 3 project life layout... I want to remember. I need to remember.

I also tucked a printed copy of the article I m

entioned above in my page protector for this week as well. Something else I want and need to remember!

So here's a peek at this week's pages (hair bows and B

.O included:))...

Project Life Tuesday

OK... I am seriously in LOVE with Project Life!!! I worked this week-end on getting all my supplies organized and printing pictures... I really, really wanted to wait for they type A page protectors tocome in before I started but when I saw that they wouldn't be in until February I realized it was time to throw caution to the wind and dive in with the page protectors that I could get my hands onnow! So I completed my cover page (thanks to Cathy Z for the title page downloads) and my first two weeks of my 2012 Project Life binder... so exciting! Now that I've taken the plunge I'll share a few things about how I think this will work forme... definitely not going to be a "must take a picture every day" kind of girl... I'mfocusing more on our weeks rather than days... I will include pictures from the week that capture the moments that I want to remember... those moments that I need to remember. I also know now that I want to be more conscientiousabout saving things such as movie stubs, receipts, lists, etc. I also need to start keeping a little notebook to jot down what we listen to on the radio, talk about in the car and watch on TV... these are the "little"things that I know one day I willforget and really hope to document in this scrapbook. I purchased 4 of the signature black binders and really hope to get to a point that I can complete the week's pages for 2009-present each week. I can't tell you how exciting this venture makes me! I love the way the binders look on my shelf, I love the way the pages and elements work so well together to complete pages that tell a story, I love that I don't get so caught up in tricks/techniques (now don't get me wrong... there's still plenty of me that loves trying new tricks/techniques in my other scrapbooks) but rather in telling the story, I love the idea of a completed project at the end of the year and I love all the inspiration found on Project Life Tuesday on Jessica Turner's blog! So here's my title page and my pages for weeks 1 & 2 of 2012...

Champion in my book...

This week-end Will and I were in Lafayette for a horse show. The more I watch him ride and show the more I see the pure joy this sport brings to him. He is calm, focused and above all full of joy when he's at the barn and/or on Hollis' back. From what I've seen thus far, this is a predominantly female sport. I saw one other boy at the horse show on Saturday and yet that is the furthest concern from Will's mind. I remember the first time we went to the barn to pick up Campbell from a camp she was attending and Will asked "mom, why didn't you sign me up for this camp?" I gave him a quick response regarding the fact that it was ALL girls at the camp. To which he came back with "SO!?!" From that day forward the boy has been consumed with horseback riding!

Will hoped to get his first blue ribbon in this horse show but that was not to be... he came home with 3rd, 4th, and 5th place ribbons. I was a little disappointed for him but the entire way home he talked nonstop about how two months ago he would have been terrified to trot x's and now he was doing it and how two months ago he would never have dreamed of cantering and now he's doing that too. About half way home it hit me... it's NOT about the ribbons! Oh sure being a champion is great and what he strives for but just as importantly in that horse show he gained confidence, responsibility and of course pure and radiant joy!

As a mom of a child that often struggles with appropriate social behavior and skills, I am often one of Will's hardest critics. Luckily, the amazing trainers at Sommerview where he rides are the first to tell me how much they love Will and how fun he is to be around! A comment was made Saturday that he was going to make the best boyfriend and husband one day... So tonight I am thankful for the way riding has filled my boy's heart with joy. I am thankful for the kind words of others about my sweet son and am thankful for the opportunity to take a break from being the "bad cop" mom and being able to brag on my son that is such a special part of our family. I hope one day he is a champion at a horse show but until then I'm content with him being a champion of our family! Thanks Brittany (who I totally did not get a picture of Saturday:(, Emily and Catie for your kindness, patience and dedication to my kids and all the kids that ride at Sommerview... You all rock and I am thankful for you!!! Oh and am also thankful for Hollis and the amazing place this horse holds in Will's heart!