If here in the next few weeks you see me

at Typepad or Wordpress or whatever, don't say I didn't warn you. I have just about had it with Blogger and the constant glitches, it's just getting too frustrating for me.
I've been trying for the past 3 hours to get on here, so we'll see how long this lasts. I understand that it's free and really, right now I just can't afford to be paying for an online journal, but I think it's also unacceptable to expect people to just put up with anything just cause it's free.....that's not fair.

Alright, I'm done complaining, see I have no patience to complain or whine, it gets boring fast LOL
But let me just say that this is the reason there was no post yesterday, other than my WFMW which took an hour to get up.

It's crazy hot here today, the temperatures are just not dropping below 100 and usually by 10 am it's already in the 90's. You know what that has done for me??? It's made me lazy. Every time summer is about to begin, I make all these plans, I'm going to walk everyday, I'm going to take the kids to the park every morning....it will be so nice being outside.....and then just like clockwork, the same thing happens. It gets WAY too hot and I hide in the house, not wanting to go anywhere, not having the energy to even run to the store, and the beautiful tan I had just a month ago, is now slowly dissipating.
Oh well, nothing new right???

My mother and brother in law arrive on Tuesday morning, they're staying for two weeks and we're all so excited already. The kids ask me everyday "how many more days until Grandma and Uncle Chris get here?". Needless to say, I don't think they'll sleep much on monday night.
We have a few outings planned for when they're here, one of them is to Twin Falls which is about an hour from where we're stationed. We're going to the Ice Caves and the Shoshone Falls, no sense in going to one and then returning a few days later for the other right?

I'll be taking my camera along and then posting the pictures, so you'll all be coming along with us, in a sense. If you're anything like me, I love visiting new places and seeing the pictures.

Don't forget about The Tour of Homes tomorrow, hosted by Boomama. For details go here. I'm hoping to participate, but tomorrow I have my friend's kids over while they pack up their house to leave next week. I don't think I'll get on the computer much at all, so we'll see.
If you like seeing other people's houses, then this is just what you need. I admit, I have this little obsession with the way other houses look. At night if I'm driving anywhere, I'm constantly looking at the windows and looking inside......NO, I'm not a stalker or a peeping tom of any sorts, unless there is such a thing as a House Peeping Tom...then maybe I'm one???

I just love seeing how other people decorate their houses, I love all sorts of homes, victorian, contemporary, modern, you name it........though I do have a soft spot for old homes and especially Plantation Houses, they are just beautiful.

Can you just imagine living in one of these???

But anyway, enough about houses, I don't know even know how I got started on this.....oh wait, it was because of the Tour of Homes tomorrow LOL

While reading through Boomama's blog, I was once again reminded of Elise and Paul and when I read the post, I cried, yes I actually had tears running down my face because even though I had never met them, they sounded like the perfect love story, the kind of marriage and love that you wish for yourself and your children.

It also reminded me that although my husband and I may fight at times, and have our ups and downs, I really couldn't imagine my life without him. You know when you find your true love and you know when that person just completes every part of you. It's almost like an umbilical cord is formed, just that instead of a birth you get a marriage. We go everywhere together, we love being with the kids and each other and we love everything about our lives, we don't make decisions without the other one and we've often joked about "divorce not EVER being an option". LOL

We often say "as bad as things might get, you're stuck with me, so we either make this marriage work or we're going to be living miserably".....we laugh about it, and we both realize that even though it's said as a joke, it's the truth for us. The love we share is far too great to let it fall apart or to let it sit and become just a comfortable thing.

Anything that is left unattended for long, tends to just wither away, and the same can be said for marriages. You can't just get married and then FORGET about it. It doesn't work that way, if anything that is when the real struggles and work begins. Now don't go running off thinking that I'm saying marriage is too hard, it's NOT, and if you learn the biggest secret of a successful marriage, you'll be just fine. Want to know what it is???? COMMUNICATION!!!
When hubby and I first got married we talked about everything and anything, and then two years or so into the marriage we hit a wall....we stopped communication, we stopped saying exactly what was wrong or what we felt, but all that did was fester inside and lead to some of the nastiest fights we've ever had. So, we got back on track, it's tireing fighting all the time LOL

Again, I feel like I went off on a totally different direction of my initial thoughts, but anyway, you now know how I feel about my husband and about marriage.

I'm off to go do some housework, though my house is clean, I always like having it spotless before visitors come.....you understand don't you???

Hope you're all having a blessed day, stay out of the sun, grab a glass of iced tea and just relax for a bit, or do what I did, grab a glass, drop a few ice cubes in, fill it with coke and then add one or two slices of lemon. YUMMMMYYYY!!! It's so refreshing and really hits the spot.

Works for Me Wednesday!!! July 26

"I want a snack".....Grrrr, anyone else tired of hearing those words???

It seems that every 10 minutes, one of my kids let's me know that they are apparently starving, but not for anything nutritional, for snacks.......after a while of doing this I realized that I needed to come up with a healthier snack than the usual fruit roll ups, bag of chips or cookies. (Their favorites).

This is what my WFMW is about today, what works for me when they ask for snacks.

I had to cut down on all the junk food, so lately they have been really good about eating fruit or even carrots for snacks, but there's days that they want something different and that's where my WFMW tip comes in.

I make Peanut Butter and Jelly Tortillas, or Peanut Butter and Banana ones.
I take a flour tortilla, spread peanut butter and jelly on it and roll it up, then I cut it into slices . For the PB and Banana, I just substitute the Jelly with sliced bananas and then do the same, roll it up and slice it.
They love it and I feel like they're getting a MUCH better snack.

Now for ANOTHER WFMW tip, yes you're getting two for the price of one today.....aren't I the crafty one??? LOL

Blogger has been extremely painful lately and especially when it comes to uploading pictures, I had a few friends ask me how I was able to post pictures on my blog these past few days. Easy, because I know HTML and when you know that you can bypass a lot of the frustrating glitches in Blogger.

So here you are, next time blogger acts up and doesn't let you upload your photos.....upload them to either photobucket or another free host, like Flickr or Imageshack......then come back to your post, click where it says EDIT HTML......next you type img src="URL" but remember to add this < style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">img and this one > after the url" ......and when you click back on COMPOSE, your pic will be there......just click on it and center it if you wish or leave it, and you can also click on it and resize it if it's too big.

Hope this helps all you blogger users, so now, there will be NO MORE excuses for not posting pictures when blogger is not cooperating LOL

If want to join in on the WFMW posts, just head on over Shannon's "Rocks in My Dryer".

I know, I know, I sometimes complain

about the kids and them pulling their usual antics, misbehaving in stores, constantly fighting, and just not plain listening. But seriously, I would rather have all this and more than live a life without my babies. They are what keeps me grounded and sane (though they drive be bonkers at times).

We were heading out the door yesterday and I decided to get some pictures of them, they happily obliged, I guess they're used to the papparazzi coming at them with the camera. I'm just going to milk this for as long as I can, I know pretty soon they'll start shooing me away.

My beautiful babies, just look at those faces :)

This is my Princess Jasmine....you can tell by that look that she's a fiery red head and boy does she have the temper. 

 

Last but not least, my Prince Nicholas....the one full of witty and funny comments. He keeps us all laughing :)

Am I bragging too much??? I really don't want to bore you or even worse, scare you away from my blog. Just wanted to share their latest pics, I'm sure my family in South Africa is thrilled right now :)

It's extremely hot here today, the temperatures have been no lower than 100 the past few days and it's really getting on my nerves. How much heat can a person endure before loosing their marbles??? I must be pretty close, it's to the point where I don't want to leave the house at all, for anything, even milk. Is that a bad thing???

I have all that laundry to put away, you know the one mentioned in my Tackle it Tuesday post below. I've also been trying to redecorate a bit around the house. I don't have the money to pay for expensive things, I just use what I already have.....if you just take something from one room and use it in another, you'll be amazed at what a difference it makes.

The kids have been begging me to go play in the sprinkler out back, so I think it's time to get it set up and let them burn off some energy. Me, I'm going to get back to sewing Jasmine's dresses, like this ONE, and also work a little more on my embroidery. Should make for a great afternoon.....at tall glass of Iced Tea, some sewing and later I'll sit down to write some letters to the family back home, and I don't mean email, I mean pretty handwritten letters, pretty paper, pretty envelopes and the beauty of actual pen on paper. Nothing better than that is there???

May God bless you with a beautiful day,

TACKLE IT TUESDAY!!! July 25

Well ladies, my project for today is this:

Whoever said or thought that laundry for 4 people is not a lot, surely hasn't lived in MY house. This is all the laundry I did this weekend, yes I was a bit lazy last week and instead of doing my usual twice a week laundry, I left it for Saturday and Sunday. Needless to say, I spent the weekend pretty much glued to the washer and dryer.

This is what I'll be tackling today, and I promise I'll post pictures when it's all done.....I COULD cheat and just take all the clothes out and put them somewhere and then take a pic of the empty baskets.....but really, what good would that do, I would just end up with laundry piled up somewhere else in the house right??? LOL
I'll probably take pictures of me putting the laundry in their rightful places, so you KNOW that I'm actually working and not slacking off.

What projects are you tackling today, and are you brave enough to share the pictures with us? If you are, then please, just run, don't walk, over to Janice at 5 Minutes for Mom.

Here we are at another Treasure Tuesday and again I'm eager to share my treasures. My stepmom has told me many times that she loves reading these entries and I've actually brought her to tears......wasn't my intention, BUT they are tears of joy and not sadness, so all is good :)

Crocheted Doilies.......Yes, that's what my treasures are today. Many of you probably think I'm being silly, but really they mean a lot to me.

When I was growing up I remember seeing them all over our house and my grandmother's house, I remember touching them and appreciating the intricate designs. See, the women in my family all have a great affinity for crocheting, something which seemed to bypass me, I can knit I can embroider and I can even do candlewicking, but don't ask me to crochet because I just can't seem to get it right.



For years, I watched them make beautiful doilies, some were given to friends, some were even sold in stores, and I started asking for them and collecting them before I got married. I now have a beautiful collection of crocheted doilies, which I proudly display around my house.

I use them everywhere, in my veggie basket, under my coffee machine and toaster, in the bedrooms on the dressers, or the nightstands.....just everywhere I can think of. As my grandmother's got older, they stopped making them as much, if any at all the past few years, so these beautiful treasures are going to be treasured by me right along with my treasures from last week, my Crocheted Potholders.

What kind of treasures do you have laying around your house? And what beautiful memories do you have attached to them? If you want to join in on the Treasure Tuesday posts, just head on over to Faithful Mommy's blog.