These Shoes Were Made for Walkin'...

Lately, I've hit a wall with losing any weight, but I'm pushing on.  I'm trying to do what I know I need to do, and remember how much better I feel when I do it.  Exercise is hard for me.  Really hard.  I hate it.  Unless it's swimming.  And then I love it.  But even with our above ground pool, there is only so much you can do in 4 ft. of water, and I don't have a swimming buddy to go with me to the one on base, since my family has declared a no swimming alone policy for me.  Well, I think I've hit on something that I can stick with.  I'm walking at home with Leslie Sansone.  These workouts are actually no joke.  Ask Jason..he did one with me over the weekend, and he was for real sweating (and he's a marine who is used to working out!), I felt a bit justified after that.  I typically try to do a 3 or 4 mile video for 3 days straight, and then I take a one day break and start again.  I've been doing it for a little over 2 weeks, and I don't hate it.  I feel better, better blood sugars, and I'm sleeping better.  Plus, my back is feeling stronger, and my right foot has stopped hurting me (heel spur or something?).  I was able to buy several at Target and Amazon, so switching it up helps too because I'm not doing the same video, watching the same people, and doing the exact same moves every day.  I have workouts that are 1-2 mile if I don't have a lot of time, all the way to 5 miles.  I'm slowly getting to where 4 miles doesn't cause me to collapse at the end, so hopefully the 5 miles is not too far away.  Plus, J took me to get new shoes.  Shopping for anything always motivates me a little more.  Plus, these pretty blue and pink shoes are just so bright and fun, that I look forward to wearing them.

So, I've been starting my days with a Tinker Bell mug full of coffe, and I'm striving to get back into devotions every morning.  Then I strap on those pretty tennis shoes, and walk.  Even if I'm not seeing it on the scale, my body is feeling it.  And that's what I keep reminding myself of!

Piggy McFatterson

That's my dog.  Kojak.  A.K.A. Piggy McFatterson.  I was looking through my phone and realized I had several pictures of him that I haven't blogged about, so this is a post all about him.  Anyways, he acquired this name because he has no self control.  He eats all of his food, hardly ever leaving a single piece, and even if he has just finished off his bowl, he will finish off the neighbor dog's food, his love/hate relationship girlfriend's bowl (even though technically, they are dog cousins since Lola is Ashley's dog), or any object on the floor resembling food.  Last vet visit, he had gained 5 lbs.  Apparently, that is not good at all for animals (we have had to cut his food back).  Me...heck...I can put on 5 lbs. in a day:/ #womanproblems.  It doesn't help, either, that my mom loves him and feeds him popcorn, and chips, and scraps from cooking, and says that he looks good with a little weight on him..he super duper loves her.  Aaaanyways, now that I have explained the reasoning behind his nickname, Kojak has been the best dog we have ever had (besides my childhood dog, Abby, who lived to be old and feeble, and faithful to the last day).  He has such personality, and makes us laugh.  A lot.  He thinks he is human.  And he thinks he weighs 10 pounds.  Add about 50 more to that 10, buddy.  He really wishes he was a lap dog.  And he tries to be.

 

After this late-season cold front moves out, and it warms up again, he's getting shaved.  We leave his fur long for winter, and while I love him furry and think he's so cute with lots of fuzz, I hate. HATE. the fur cleanup.  I vacuum up fur pretty much every dang day.  J has gotten better about brushing/raking him, because it's his decision to leave him furry in the winter (My vote was to keep him shaved and buy him sweaters.  My vote was vetoed.), so therefore it is his job.

 

This was last week.  We get this much fur everytime we brush him.  I do not know how it is physically possible for him to still have so much!

 

See, even Kojak is shocked at the amount of fur!  This picture gives you a better idea of just how much fur comes off of him, as you can see it is the size of another dog.  And no, it's not actually another dog.

Another thing you should know about Kojak, is that he thinks his sole purpose in life is to play fetch (and to follow me everywhere, and eat, and try to herd cats--that always goes well--and children, but you throw a ball, and everything else no longer matters).  His favorite toys are his rubber ring, and his ball.  The ring is for indoors, the ball is for outdoors.  Although, he frequently tries to tote them everywhere.  He can only have rubber (the kong type of rubber) toys because we have yet to meet another toy that can survive him.  I'm just glad that destructiveness has never been shown towards our house or furniture.  He is so stingy with his toys, and J loves to annoy him.  This particular night, he was wearing his ring as a hat, or a halo..but that's not very fitting;o)  You can just see the spitefulness in his face...

Kojak..not pleased.  He did not stop staring him down, and when he didn't throw it for him, he stalked him.

 

And stalked him.  This went on for a good while until he became really annoying and wouldn't stop circling, whining and grunting.  Spoiled brat, he did finally get what he wanted.

 

And we wonder why he is like he is...

 

 

What A Week..

First, I want to say how blessed I am that yesterday marked mine and J's 8 year wedding anniversary.  It came and went, and wasn't the best one, but it is not just about the day.  It's about everyday of the past 8 years.  I have found my true love, and I was fortunate enough to be able to marry my best friend.  Not everyday is easy, not everyday is fun, but I wouldn't want to do it all with anyone else, and we work at it, we love, and we keep God in our marriage, and for that, I feel we have been blessed with such a wonderful and strong relationship and bond.  He is always, without fail, there for me.  He's my rock.  Growing up, I saw that firsthand with my parents.  They supported each other, and my mom could always depend on my dad.  They were each other's biggest fans, and nobody could come between them..they were always united, and from then on, I knew I wanted that.  Needed that.  It took some time, and there were a few frogs before I found my prince, but just like the song says, "God blessed the broken road".  A lot of times, daughters with good dads look for men like their dads, and I found one.  Jason is funny, smart, driven, brave, strong, not afraid of hard work, a provider, and so durn handsome.  I am so thankful for him and for our marriage, and I look forward to the rest of my life with him, and what our future together holds.

With all of that said, this week my sugar britches has what the docs think is E. Coli.  SHRIEK!  You hear so many bad things about this mess.  It's true.  We are waiting to hear the official results of the tests hopefully tomorrow, but he has all the signs and symptoms.  It started Sunday night, and here we are on Wednesday still battling it.  We think it may have been from the sushi he ate over the weekend.  I stay away from that stuff like the plague (plus I think it's nasty), and hopefully he will from now on too!  He has been soooo sick. Yesterday, he tried so hard to feel better, and he did for a little bit, he even tried to go to dinner (against my warnings), which ended in to-go boxes, and rushing home.  Without too many icky details, it's been like the worst stomach virus you can imagine.  Add on top of that, horrible cramping, fever, and dehydration resulting in IV fluids today.  Who knew symptoms can come and go...he thought he was on the mend yesterday, and then he started all again last night.  Being in the military, you can't just call in sick (dumb, if you ask me), so he had to go report in and go straight to BAS (the base doc), but now he's home again (he insisted I stay home and not drive him because he was feeling some better this morning, and I didn't sleep but maybe 2 hours..I still feel like a bad wife for that).  I am sitting here typing this as he sleeps on the couch.  I feel so sorry for him, so helpless.  Plus, I'm pretty sure he's ready to throw his bottle of Gatorade at me if I tell him to drink one more time, he'll thank me later.  Maybe.  He's feeling better today than he has yet, and no more throwing up today (crossing fingers!)..he has extremely low energy, but his appetite is coming back.  He was starved when he got home, and so I researched the best things to try and made him some toast and scrambled eggs...so far, so good.  It settled and that has been about 1 1/2 hours ago.  Please pray that this is the end, and he can recover.  We are supposed to celebrate our anniversary with a few days at Myrtle Beach starting Sunday, and hopefully he will feel like going, we are really looking forward to a little getaway.

This is where Kojak has been every minute that J has been home.  Right by his side.  And when he's in the guest room, he's outside the door, and when I go in to check on him or help him, he is hot on my heels, crying.  He does not like when one of us is sick, he is super intuitive.  Last night, I was watching t.v. when I heard a bang/boom noise, and thought chalked it up to the nearby ranges doing bombing drills last night, but then I kept hearing a strange noise I wasn't sure of.  Kojak, who was surprisingly laying by my feet last night, got up, went to the bedroom door, and just stared and kept sniffing at the door jamb.  I got up with the quickness then, and J had fallen out of bed and was throwing up.  Thanking my lucky stars that I put a trash can by the bed.  J said he is our modern day Lassie;o)  

So, Kojak and I are holding down the fort.  I'm ready for this week to turn around.  But, I will uphold my part of the vows, and this is definitely putting that "in sickness" part into practice!

Gigantor Basket

After pining over all the large quilt baskets on pinterest, blogs, etc., Momma and I came across a wonderful basket at TJMaxx in Charlotte over Christmas.  Unfortunately, I had no room to shove one more single thing in our car to go home with us.  So, I reluctantly left it.  Then a few weeks later, when we were spending the day in Wilmington, we walked through that TJMaxx.  And wouldn't ya know, they had my basket there too! I was so happy and snatched it up immediately.  With basket prices being upward of 75.00 for this size, I was really excited at the 50.00 price tag.  It's a soft weave which makes it a little floppy, and I was able to fit 5 blankets in it (one being in the bottom that you can't see, just in case you are counting them, and thinking that I can't count, heehee), including a large quilt.  I finally convinced J to get rid of the fish tank as all of the little fish were dying, and the algae eater was getting too big, and murdering the small fish.  I didn't think they were supposed to be murderous, but ours was.  Psycho.  

It freed up that corner that I had dreamed of having a big basket of blankets in, and so that's exactly where it went.  I rearranged some of the wall decor, and added a bit more over the basket.  It's a much better corner now.  Plus, the surround sound speaker isn't sticking out like a sore thumb quite as badly.

It makes me want to dive in and take a nap.  Ok, so it's not quite that big, but you get the point.

Doesn't that just say it's cozy nap time to you!?  It does me, especially on these chilly winter days.

The Pink Has Taken Over!

I love to decorate for Valentine's Day.  I don't typically decorate with much pink, so when the opportunity arises, I do so!  I love pink, it's in my top favorite colors, but is hard to use in year-round color schemes.  If it were just me in the house, there would be much more pink.  But it would be sad, because I'd trade pink for J's companionship any day:)

I added some color on my bookcase with a few pink blooms, some hearts and free printables found on pinterest and other blogs.  The print in the pink frame can be found here.  The print in the sweet little birdie frame (that I HAD to have from World Market a few weeks ago when J and I spent the day in Wilmington), is here.

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Now before anyone gets too excited and starts thinking how sweet J is to be doing the dishes, he's actually just cleaning his phone case.  But I still can't resist that sweet, goofy face:)

After cleaning out all the glitter and fake pine needles from my centerpiece box that we made last fall, I decided to fill it with all of my white and red candles.  Perched in front is my sweet little love bird salt and pepper shakers from Cracker Barrel.  They're smooching.

I left up one of our Christmas trees by the back door, and added a strand of red, pink, and purple lights from AC Moore, and decorated it with heart ornaments from Hobby Lobby.  I left the twine bow on top and the burlap sack skirt from Christmas, because I just really like them.

I got some bigger red and pink hearts, and some little clay hearts with all sorts of cute love quotes on them.

I filled my favorite vase with pink and white hydrangeas.

On/at my buffet/pencil leg table, I draped a ribbon garland over the window that is wrapped with another strand of the pretty little lights, and added a heart wreath from Target.  I made some topiaries this year with styrofoam balls, a wooden dowel, and a clay pot.  All the flowers came from the Dollar Tree.  Even at 1.00 a piece for the bouquets, this project got expensive.  I love the outcome, but it went more smoothly in my head.  I had to use A LOT of flowers.  I ended up having to go to 3 different locations.  Ridiculous.  The original plan was to do two identical ones, you will see the Plan B version on the mantle.  I just trimmed the flower buds close but still leaving about a 1-2 inch stem, then hot glued them into the styrofoam.  I painted the pot white, and polka-dotted it with pink.  The wood dowel is hammered into a piece of wood and glued in the bottom, then covered with dried spanish moss, the wood dowel goes all the way through the pink one, and topped with the white one.

This is my new, absolute favorite lamp.  It was in the clearance section of Hobby Lobby.  Don't know why, it was in wonderful shape, and it has KEYS on it!  For 27.00 it wasn't even a question.  I had no idea where it was going, but I knew it was going home with me.  There was a group of girls stalking me for it, as it was the last one, and everytime they passed me, they would comment on how they just loved it, and how cute the keys were.  I didn't let it out of my sight.  It ended up being the perfect size for the table.  Another clearance item was the little wooden box.  The top was just a plain piece of padded burlap.  So, of course, it got a stenciled key on it to match my lamp.  They are the perfect pair.  Add a yummy candle, and a grapevine ball, and it finishes this little corner of the table.

In the middle sits a little bird perched on a heart, holding yet another key.  With my coupon, I got this at Hobby Lobby as well for 40% off.  I'm tellin' ya...it was a good trip to Wilmington.  (Same day that I got the bird pic frame.)

I added one of my favorite Willow Tree figurines since it goes nicely with the love theme, a red candle on a white stand (that you can't really see), and framed this cute little printable with a glass heart frame from Walmart for about 4.00.  It's kind of light, but it says "Keep Calm and Love On".  It can be found here.

I added a little stuffed heart to the swag on the entertainment center.  It's looks hand stitched and has lots of cute buttons.  I think the colors worked perfectly with the scrap fabric garland already there.

My mantle!

A little banner I made the other day.  I printed out vintage music sheets found here.  I really LOVE this website, she makes all sorts of free antique printables.  Tons of stuff there that I want to frame!  I cut out a simple square banner shape out of them, and distressed them a little more with my distressed inking stamp pads.  Then, I cut out the letters with my Silhouette Cameo, glued them on and added some primitive shaped hearts in between.  I glued them to some braided twine, and voila!

Plan B topiary.  I combined the leftover buds, and "planted it" in a pink pot.  It's a smaller one, and works well for the mantle.  It's accompanied by a candle in some milk glass and another Willow Tree.

I made this big wooden sign out of a piece of finished plywood.  The design is mine, and if you would like to use it, you are more than welcome to.  I will include a picture of the outline at the bottom.  To get this look, I used all acrylics.  I used different pinks to paint patches first, then covered it all with Antique Parchment by Apple Barrel.  Then I sanded to let the pink come through a bit.  To get the design onto the board, I colored the back with a pencil over the picture/words, and just traced on the front.  It leaves a nice outline for you to paint in on the board.  I painted the picture/words with FolkArt Lipstick Red.  The border is done in Apple Barrel's Honeysuckle Pink and Cameo Pink.  Then it got another good sanding.  To finish, and give it a more aged look, I heavily watered down some brown paint, brushed it on, and wiped it down.  I accompanied the sides with a few more printables.  The one in the red frame is here.  The one in white is here.

Candelabras, milk glass, and flower buds finish up the other side of the mantle.

Another view...

And a bit of pink and red by the front door.  A heart welcome twig swag sign and some pretty daisies in a blue mason jar.

 

And, for anyone interested in the design on my Valentine sign, here you go.  If you use it, please don't sell it or claim it as your own.  Please link back to me if you do use it or post about it.  Thank you! 

 

Note:  My board was 28x24, I uploaded it to blockposters.com to get the size I wanted for my board.  It will print it out in regular size sheets for you, then you just tape together to get your poster.

 

Christmas Is My Favorite!

You will notice a theme throughout this post.  There will be a lot of the use of the word favorite.  But I can't just choose one thing.  I love it all!

New snowflake pillows courtesy of felt and fabric glue:)  I needed something to match my new very warm, very snugly snowflake blanket.

Our pretty Christmas tree.  I love lots of lights, and lots of color.  We don't have a theme.  It's just lots of meaningful ornaments from over the years together.  That's the best kind for us!  Guess how many lights is on that 7 ft. tree!  1400 baby!  I told you I like lights!  And then there's all those brightly wrapped gifts, it was so nice to get done early this year!

A shot with the mantle.  It has a colored lights garland to compliment the tree. 

I used the reindeer burlap picture that I made a few months ago, spread some big pinecones under it, added some red candles and holly sprigs, then topped it with the "no peeking...no sneaking...no shaking" sign.  I bought that specifically for my husband;o)

A pretty framed Santa picture in our guest room.  I love this picture...it was cut from a gift bag!

A few more guest room decorations.

One of my favorites.  A sweet little snowman lamp with a shade that shines different Christmas scenes when turned on.  I inherited it from my Momma.  I adore it.  It warms up this corner in the kitchen perfectly.

Christmas goodies tins, big white poinsettias, pinecones, and snowmen line the high bar in the kitchen.

More poinsettias in my favorite sisal rope vase.

One of my favorite Christmas pictures at a tree lot.  If you look close, my hair was really dark, but I still love the picture even though I'm back to blonde.  On the other side, a cross-stitch Merry Christmas from my Momma.  Half the stuff I have is thanks to her!

Corner by the tv cabinet.  Snowflake plates, and a vase full of sparkly curly thingies.  Such a technical name for them.  There's also a hand stitched primitive letter to Santa on the table in a frame, can't see it too well, but refer to this post to see it better.

Another cozy Christmas blanket to match another pillow that I made.  I stenciled this design on canvas drop cloth and painted it in with red acrylic paint.

A basket full of ornaments, grapevine balls, and jingle bells.  All wrapped in a holly berry swag.

My pencil leg table with some more favorite decorations.

Another primitive letter to Santa, Jingle Bell candle sticks, a small tree with a burlap skirt, and a flocked wreath.  One of my favorite areas to look at this year.

A little tree in the mudroom greets visitors, and our Jason and Christie snowman plaque hangs over our ugly alarm system box, I think I need something there year round now.

My most favorite nativity scene.  I collected these pieces over several Christmases, and finally got them all 2 years ago.  I look forward to setting this up every year now, changing it slightly from year to year.  My mom and I found a branch vase filler with lighted stars on it, and it works nicely as the night sky background when it's dim in this room at night.

Our little centerpiece box redesigned for Christmas with flocked pine branches, pinecones, and holly berry sprigs.  The candles light up the middle.

And lastly, another small tree by the back door with wooden ornaments and a burlap skirt sits atop a little chair.

I love our decorations this year.  It never seems that I get to enjoy them for long enough though.  Our house has felt really warm and cozy this year.  It may get to stay up a little longer than usual...

Merry Christmas everyone!  I wish you a wonderful day filled with love and joy, surrounded by family and friends.  And my most favorite thing about Christmas....remembering the real reason we celebrate Christmas, I am so thankful that we serve such a loving God who sent His son to save us.  Let us celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ, our Lord today and remember how very blessed we are!