Fun MEME and nothing else, zip, nada......

I'm POOPED, being doing so much this weekend that I have no energy left in me. My brain cells are fried, hence the lack of topic or interesting story to tell. Hey I guess even the SAHM household gets boring at times....who knew?!?!?!

This whole weekend we've spent cleaning the yards, washing cars, having BBQ's and just enjoying family time together.

We've played with water guns, hosed each other down while washing the cars, rode bikes, went for walks, jumped on the trampoline, you name it......we did it!!!

It's only barely 6pm and I'm exhausted. My body hurts from all the activities we've had going the past two days, so I'm heading upstairs for a warm bath and then getting into bed with a good book. I hope you've all had as great of a weekend as I did and I'll see you all back here tomorrow morning. I'll bring the coffee and maybe even throw in some bagels if you'll join me???

Here, I'll leave you all with a fun MEME!!!

A-Z

Saw this MEME online and thought it would be fun to do. I tag anyone who wants to give it a go, just let me know on my comments so I can check it out.

A is for Age: 31

B is for Blooms: White Roses, Tulips and Calla Lilies

C is for Career: Raising two children into responsible, productive young adults! Enough said!

D is for Dad’s Name: Dario

E is for Essential Item to Bring to a Party: Depends on the party!!!

F is for Favorite Songs at the Moment: James Blunt "You're Beautiful"

G is for Goof-off Thing to Do: Jumping on the trampoline with the kids

H is for Hometown: Lourenco Marques (Mozambique)

I is for Instrument You Play: None unfortunately but would love to play piano.

J is for Jam or Jelly you Like: Strawberry Jam

K is for Kids: Two, daughter - 7 years old and son - 3 years old

L is for Living Arrangement: Hubby, myself, son and daughter with three dogs at a house on base where hubby is currently stationed.

M is for Mom’s Name: Jacinta

N is for Names of Good Friends: Hayley

O is for Overnight Hospital Stays: Just two when my kids were born.

P is for Phobias: Snakes and mice

Q is for Quotes you Like: Dance, as though no one is watching you, Love, as though you have never been hurt before, Sing, as though no one can hear you, Live, as though heaven is on earth. -souza

R is for Relationship That Lasted Longest: 8 years married to my hubby!!!

S is for Siblings: 3 brothers and one sister.

T is for Texas: Don't mess with Texas!!!

U is for Unique Trait: Umm, aren’t we all unique in our own way?

V is for Vegetables You Love: Cauliflower, broccoli, green beans, corn, spinach....too many!

W is for Worst Traits: Stubborness definitely.

X is for X-rays You’ve Had: Chest and wrist

Y is for Yummy Food You Make: My family loves my portuguese food

Z is for Zodiac Sign: Leo

THANK YOU GOD!!!

I woke up this morning to a wonderful update by Heidi over at "My Quiet Corner". You all know that momrn2's little one has been seriously sick in the hospital, doctors running all sorts of tests trying to find out what was wrong.
Yesterday they finally figured it out and she had to have emergency surgery, a very delicate one as it seemed that she had a twisted bowel in two places which involved both artery and vein.
We all continued to pray for her and later found out that the surgery went well.
I'm in awe of the outpour of support and prayer that momrn2 has received. Thank God for the blogging community and the power of prayer.

I came across this cool little tool yesterday. It's so funny and I'm embarassed to say that I spent about an hour just messing with it. It's called the Newspaper Clipping Generator and I can JUST see me using this all the time. LOL

Hubby wasn't too impressed, I guess I'm venturing into dangerous territory when it comes to making fun of his computer games LOL

Lately I've been feeling a little on the down side, I don't really know why or what it is. I'm suspecting it might be the end of school looming over us, for some it's a wonderful time, for me it means my baby girl is now going to second grade, not so little anymore.

If there's one thing I've learnt about motherhood is that nothing is predictable. There are very few things you can always count on, but for the most part, you blink your eyes and they've gone from infants to big kids, just like that. Makes me realize that every moment should be treasured.

I used to be the kind of mom that worried too much about what *society* thought. God forbid I went against what everyone else said was the RIGHT way to raise my children. If they dropped a toy on the floor I would run behind and pick it up, the sight of one of the kids running into the living room and catapulting onto the couch with a juice box in their hands, had me screaming like a psycho and running at turbo speed to try and intercept them.
Then I woke up one morning and realized that I'm missing out on so much, I'm missing out on having fun with my kids and just relaxing, time goes by so fast, you have to enjoy every day and make every minute count.

I turned to God and said "Look, I don't even need to go into details because you know me like no one else, you know what I think, what I feel, what scares me and what makes me tick. But I'm at a loss here, I don't know how to let go without causing more chaos around me." It didn't take long for me to get into the right frame of mind and to start enjoying the kids.
"Take it with a grain of salt." Yes, Yes, that is exactly what I'm going to do!!!!

We laugh, we have fun and if there is a mess to be cleaned after, that's fine. *GASP*, I can't believe I said that out loud!!!
It's not the end of the world and I would much rather see a smile on my kids faces than have to freak out over something that is easily fixed. - a happy kid or a mess free house- it's not that hard to choose!!!

This is the day the LORD has made;
let us rejoice and be glad in it.
PSALM 118:24 NIV

And with that said I think it's time to venture into the warm weather and do some gardening. Have a great saturday everyone!!!

Pitter Patter Pitter Patter!!!

Took me a while to fall asleep last night, but after I did I was lulled the rest of the night with the pitter patter of rain. I don't know about you, but THAT is the best sound to sleep with for me. The rain, the thunder and even the lightning was just amazing and we were in desperate need of that after these scorching two weeks.

You know I'm really enjoying my new template, no matter how bad of a day I may be having, clicking onto my blog always makes me feel like I'm somewhere else, on the beach having a great time and listening to the waves.

I want to start today by asking you all to head on over to momrn2's blog "My Quiet Corner", she really needs some prayers right now. Her 8 year old daughter is in the hospital undergoing all sorts of tests to find out why she has been vomiting for the past 11 or so days. PLEASE head on over and say a prayer for her precious little girl and the family too.

Another blog I would love you to visit is Julie's "Everyday Mommy". Especially for those moms that have sons, she has a great post on raising them and a new blog set up etc, but I'll let her explain, I'm not too good at trying to summarize things. I will just say that it has to do with my new button on my sidebar, the "Just Like Joshua" one.

I'm thrilled that I actually got everything done on my to do list yesterday. It was one of those days where you get a second wind around noon and then zip through the house like a tornado. I cleaned and scrubbed and mopped and vacuumed, I even put new curtains in the living room, washed windows, you name it, I did it.
Yes it was exhausting and by the time I got into bed by back hurt, BUT the outcome is so worth it, nothing like waking up to a really clean house smelling like flowers......well maybe not flowers, but it smells clean.

I want to share another quote from the book "Another Fine Mess Lord". I came upon it yesterday right after I watched ER and the whole war and Iraq issue. These words seemed to fit just perfectly.

We sometimes face enemies who want to destroy us, or maybe we're just in the path of someone else's misguided ambition. When that happens, we can accept the situation or learn how to change it through our own acts of courage and obedience to God's Word. Like Esther, you can work where you are, with what is within your control, do what you know, and learn the rest as God teaches. With powerful courage and more powerful belief, your destiny will find you, one victory at a time.

It really takes me right back to Joshua's book and the repeating words "Be Strong and of Good Courage". This book has taught me that every decision requiring great insight requires great courage. I choose to be courageous not weak and with God at my side, I KNOW I can achieve whatever I want to.

Blogger has been acting weird as usual, so if it seems that I haven't been to your blog or left a comment the past few entries, please know that it's NOT me. Here's how it goes, every morning I sit down and read through all of my favorite blogs, yes I said ALL. LOL
There's some on blogger that I get to and it has an entry from a few days ago, I refresh again and again but nothing. Then I go away, come back the next day, and all of a sudden I have 4 or 5 entries that WERE there, but blogger was hiding them from me???? For fear of?????
I wish I knew. So anyway, just letting you all know, if you don't see a comment from me it's because I'm being held captive by blogger somewhere in cyberspace until it decides to spit me out again and show me what I missed.

I just realized today is friday. Maybe I'm having too much coffee or not enough, I seem to get lost in the days. Does that ever happen to you guys? I think my life has become so predictable and the days are all the same that suddenly it doesn't matter if it's monday or thursday or even saturday, I'm still going to be doing the same things, cleaning, cooking, chasing after kids, etc.....see it never changes.

Being that it really IS friday, here is my "Remember When???".

When my dad was young he used to play roller hockey. It's always been one of his passions, so when years later in South Africa, he was offered the position of coach for one of the teams, he gladly took it. This was wonderful, not only did he get to do what he loved, but during the summer time we got to travel with him and his team, all over the country. It was a blast.

So one of the trips to us to Durban. To keep the expenses cheaper, we booked rooms at a local YMCA. We get to the place, my dad checks in and then goes off to see to the team, make sure they are in the right rooms, give them the schedules and times to be in bed, all that fun stuff that coaches do.
Since my sister in law (who at the time was just dating my brother), had come with, we shared a room. My stepmom handed us the key and we looked at it briefly. Apparently we were on the second floor. We dragged our luggage upstairs, there were NO elevators. Again we glance down at the key number and then head to the room we are supposed to be in. I stick the key in and try to turn but nothing happens. We look at each totally confused and then being girls, we start giggling and laughing, we both grab onto the door handle and start jiggling it and pushing the key in and trying our best to get it open.

Next thing we know, this man in his underwear opens the door. I think we both stopped breathing right there and then. All we could do is stare in disbelief. He says "what are you doing?", and we answer "this is our room", and so the following conversation begins:

Weird man in underwear: "No this is MY room"
Scared to death girls: "NOOOOO, we have the key, they just gave us this key, you're in our room"
Weird man in underwear: "Umm actually, NO this is my room, I've been here a while"
Scared to death girls: "Actually, this is OUR room, again, they just gave us the key"
Weird man in underwear: "This is room 112, what does your key say?"
Scared to death girls: "It says *look down at the key again*, OH, it says 212, I'm SO sorry".

Walk away from the man, drop the bags and burst out laughing. We had JUST tried to break into this man's room while he took a nap....or at least that's what we're hoping he was doing in his underwear, anything else is just too weird and gross to think of.

So there you have it, one more of our adventures!!! Until I started writing these down, I had NO idea how exciting of a life I actually have LOL

Wow one more week and school is out. I just can't believe how fast it went and that my little girl is already done with First Grade. Nothing like that to make you feel older!!!

So I'm off to work on a template for Charla. Then I have to work on my back yard, the one thing about living on base is the constant visits by the housing inspectors and the threats of contacting the commanders etc. It's frustrating really.....BUT we gotta do what we gotta do right?

Hope you all have a fantastic friday. I will see you all back here tomorrow :)
God bless,

Ahhhh beautiful morning......

The weather has just been amazing lately, and even though we're supposed to have some thunderstorms later today, we're still enjoying the warm temperatures.

I took some pictures of the kids as we were getting ready to leave the house. Then I got back from dropping off Jasmine and quickly made myself a new desktop using the pictures. What do you think?

Thank you all for the wonderful comments left about my new blog look. I love messing around with graphics programs and just recently started learning html and how to tweak templates to my liking. I would have never guessed that it would be so much fun.

These past 3 days the kids have been at each other's throats, you wouldn't tell by the pics above, but really, I'm about to go nuts. I keep thinking that if this is what awaits me when school lets out next week, I will either go completely crazy, or run away. I'm looking forward to the summer break just so we can sleep in and not feel so rushed, but as awful as it may sound right now, I'm not really looking forward to the two kids being in the house 24 hours a day. I better start working on some ideas for outings.

For those of you that check my food blog, I updated it this morning with the recipe for those Cream Tarts I had mentioned and I also posted a recipe for the Salisbury Steak I make, as per request from one of the ladies. As always I love hearing from everyone, and if you try one of the recipes, let me know how you liked it :)

So here is my to do list for today:

• Laundry
• Sweep and Mop
• Vacuum
• Wash Windows
• Wash Curtains
• Give Lola a bath

Doesn't sound like much at all, but withschool letting out earlier today and the two kids home, who knows what I'll get distracted with. Hopefully I can get everything on the list done, that's my goal.

I weighed myself today, don't ask why, I don't know, sometimes I think I like putting myself through the whole "Weight Issue" torture. So I get on the scale this morning and it says 130lbs, so now I'm ecstatic, I'm jumping up and down and thinking WOOHOO, you did!!!
Well nevermind that I've been eating too much lately, not drinking enough water, and snacking at night time. I try I really really try to stop and just can't help myself, it's totally out of control.
But I am in denial, I mean seriously, 130lbs?!?!!?!?!?
I look back down and it says ERROR.....it stays there, flashing at me, taunting me, I can almost see it smiling evily and cackling.
I get back on it and it says 137lbs........well DAGNABIT!!! Not only was the 130lbs a fluke, but now I'm being told that I actually PUT ON a pound. That scale is ONE inch closer to getting dumped!!!!

I think I'm having a "Flug Day", if you don't know what that is, head on over to Emily's blog, she will explain LOL

My son has taken to speaking spanish. I've tried so hard to talk to them in portuguese, because that's my language and I would love for them to be bilingual....but no, Dora the Explorer has beat me to the punch. She has achieved what I haven't been able to. Maybe if I start video recording myself saying things in portuguese and acting silly, like a cartoon? Wouldn't be that far fetched to do, my life is like a crazy cartoon at times.
The reason I bring this up is because just now as I was sitting here typing, Nicholas said "mommy help me", he wanted some help with one of his toys. I said just a minute and then he said in a stern voice "Mommy Ajuda me". THAT caught my attention. This kid is going places, he knows just what to say to get you to listen.

Well I'de love to stay and chat all day, but duty calls. This thing of being a mother sometimes gets in the way of things, but hey, it's what I signed up for right? Besides, if I didn't have my kids to keep me busy I wouldn't know what to do with myself. I better get started on that to do list, unfortunately no matter how much I beg it to, it won't get done on it's own. *sigh* it's not too much to ask!!!!

Well whatcha think???

I was getting a little bored with my old template. I'm sure by now you've realized that I get bored easily LOL

So I decided to mess around and make a new template, I like this one, it makes me want to go to beach somewhere. What do you guys think???
Does it feel calm, relaxing and summery???