Did you know this?

Check this out! I just recently found out about this nifty little tidbit of information and of course, I had to share it with you.

Okay, so you probably already know this, but can honestly say that if I would have know about this, I could have saved getting totally irritated on many occasions at my hubby.

We both have our own vehicles that we drive on a regular basis. I, like many moms, drive the mini van (go ahead Tim...get your jab in now!) and Andy drives his car. On the weekends, we usually take the van and he will drive. I always try to plan the gas tank to be low close to the weekend, just so that he'll fill it up instead of me.(oh, not really....okay, just sometimes) Anyway...when you drive a different car most of the time, when it comes time to fill up, he would always ask me what side the gas tank was on.

So I'm not the most patient person in the world, and I'd get a little testy and say..."the left...still...just like the last time you put gas in the van" Geesh...how many times do I have to tell him. (that really sounds "not nice" surely I don't really sound like that, do I?)

Anyway...look what a learned while co-piloting the church van on our recent ski trip!


Do you see it?

Right above the F to indicate whether or not you have gas...(my engine was off at the time of this picture...I do happen to have a full tank!) See that little arrow and the words "Fuel Door" oh my gosh...that arrow tells you what side the gas tank is on. How cool is that!

Really, I honestly never knew that!

I'd love to know how many of you knew that before reading this post and I love even more to hear from someone, okay anyone, who didn't know this either!

Happy Wednesday!

Girls Getaway!

* Great food and ALWAYS dessert!

* Giggling so much you have to cross your legs just so you don't pee your pants!

* Great deals on shopping, and more shopping...did I mention we did some shopping!

* Getting absolutely nothing done on my scrapbooks. I spent most of my time on my laptop trying to figure out digital scrap booking. Any tips from those of you who do digi would be much appreciated.

* Just being goofy and giggling with the girls! It was a great girlie weekend!

Shopping & Scrapbooking with Sassy!

So I'm off again for another weekend trip. This time it's with my girls for a little shopping and scrapbooking. It can't get much better than that! It's kinda like tradition now...this group of girls, we have a ton of fun and bring home a ton of stuff!

Remember this photo of the van packed to the gills!

One of the girls (we'll call her Sassy) has a birthday on Sunday, so her hubby contacted the rest of us way back when to set up a little surprise for his lovely wife. He made all the arrangements and all we have to do is get our meals...it's pretty much a no brainer don't ya think!

So look out T.J.Maxx, Marshalls, & Home Goods....You too, Potterybarn, Crate and Barrel and The Container Store...we're on our way!

Oh, and if you happen to drive around like this guy,

please stay far away from us...we are on a mission to have a fun weekend...we don't want you and your drum sticks gettin in our way!

Youth Ski Trip

Here are a few of my favorite pictures from this past weekend. We had a great group of kids and no major drama. There had been many different reasons for my reluctance to go, but thankfully God gave me a little shove and sent me on my way. I'm so glad He did!

In this van were 9 teenagers, the driver (Brian), the co-pilot (myself) and of course, Ginger Patricia Sullivan (aka....the GPS) We couldn't have done it without you Ginger!

Hannah & Katy ready to take a ride on the chair lift!

Cori, Kyle and Aaron...lookin pretty fashionable on the slops!

Katy, Hannah & Caitlin (I think Katy must be gettin her face out of the sun!)

On the lift!

Abbey and some of the boys! You did a great job Abbey...way to go!

Nate & Aaron!

The guys!

Thanks to Hayley, several of us learned to play Dutch Blitz! And really got into it, I might add!

MUMC Youth Ski Trip 2010!

Happy Birthday Nana!

Even though she's not with us here on earth anymore, we still want to celebrate and remember her birthday today! I'm sure she's having a grand celebration in heaven today.

We love and miss you very much!





I found this the other day and wanted to share...enJOY!

Pray!

Andy and I are leaving in the morning to go on a ski trip with the senior high youth kids from church. It's going to be a great weekend and I'm really excited to just hang with my girls (well, okay..it'll be fun hangin with the boys too. Their kinda fun to be around!)

So if you have a few minutes this weekend, please think about our group and say a little prayer.

Pray for safe travels (it's about a 5+ hour trip)

Pray for great conversations with the girls and that God gives me the words they each need to hear.

Pray for our connections with each other and the new kids we meet to grow stronger and deeper.

Pray that our LOVE for the Lord grows deeper and that others see His love through our actions and service.

Pray for my parents who will be taking care of our kiddos back here at home. This is the longest time we have both been away from them (I know, it's way over due, but when you have a child with anxiety issues it makes it a little tough....plus we LOVE being with them!)

Pray for great fun and no injuries at all!

Thanks so much, I'm sure I'll have a ton of pictures to share with you all when we get back, so stayed tuned!

WFMW! - What to do with all those photo Christmas cards!

My late mother-in-law taught me this nifty trick...so I totally can't take all the credit for it. Every year after Christmas, I take all the beautiful photo Christmas cards that we get and turn them into this little piece of art work.


Okay, it's just a cheap cork board hanging on the wall inside the door of our computer/craft room...but what I love about it is that I get to look at all your pretty faces all year long.

Do you recognize anyone you know?

Can't find your picture? A few lucky pictures made it onto a special frame on the fridge this year...I think I might have to get another cork board next year!

Check out more Works for me Wednesday over at We are THAT family!

My little light switch!

For Christmas this year, the kids both wanted Star Wars double light sabers. You know the ones, where there is a regular size light saber on one end and the other end holds a smaller secret light saber ready to defend the enemy just when he thinks you're done for.

Santa is a wise man and he does his job very well...he knew that it would be best to bring a blue one from the good side and a red one from the dark side. (If Santa would have asked me, I certainly would have told him to bring just one...they could share it right?!)

So as our Christmas morning was starting to slow down a little, the kids were eager to get their light sabers out and have their first double light saber duel. (Yep, that would be me laying on the couch looking at my blog book....oh, and please excuse the mess, Christmas morning is a time that almost puts me over the edge.)



"Go get her Luke!"

I think it's hilarious how Max can turn it on and off like a light switch. He's like that with everything. He'll start crying for the smallest little thing and then he can turn it off just as fast as it started. (I think he gets it from me, but don't tell anyone!)

More Snowfort fun!

You can view a clip from the local news showing Andy's cool snow fort here:


That's Max at the beginning of the clip too...shoveling the sidewalk! Charlie (the dog) did a pretty good job, don't ya think?!?

I've made the switch!

I've been a loyal Oprah fan for a long time.

When the kids were really young, it was one of the things I always looked forward to. That and the mailman coming to my house. It's sad, I know, but I love getting catalogs in the mail and I loved looking at them, while I watched Oprah. It was kinda my "mommy time" back then.

I would even go to the extreme of putting a movie in for the kids and watching Oprah upstairs just to have a little peace and quite during that one hour. I know none of you do that, right?!

I still love Oprah and all the wonderful things she has done over the years. She has helped so many people. Women and children especially! What a blessing she is.

However, over the past several months, I have made a switch. I now watch Ellen!

She is hilarious! I laugh out loud every time I watch her! And I love how laughing out loud (all by myself) makes me feel.

So thanks Ellen for making me smile, every single day and for helping me to not take things so seriously!

You ROCK!

Great Gift!

My husband is wonderful. He is a great guy who is always willing to help others. He is compassionate and sensitive to other people's feelings and he is a super great daddy.

He is NOT the best gift giver.

Now don't get me wrong, I have received some really awesome gifts from him. And he has surprised me on several occasions, but I think he has a hard time coming up with cool ideas on his own.

And that's okay...I still love him!

All that said, I have been dying to tell you all about one very special gift I received this year.

A book of my blog!

A 220 page, hardback book of ALL of my blog posts in 2008! (That's when I started the blog!)

I had been working on blurb.com for quite a while and getting very frustrated. I was trying to make it perfect and get it exactly the way I wanted it. It stressed me out so much that I stopped.

So after getting the idea from a friend, he worked on "my book" every night after I went to bed. Of course, he got a little perturbed at me since I changed my header and background the night before he sent it off to be printed. Oh well.

I have looked through this wonderful book so many times, reminiscing over old posts and reading comments from all of you. It's wonderful! Now I have an instant scrapbook of all the fun little things that have happened in our lives that year...which is just the reason why I started this blog in the first place.

I can't wait for the 2009 version!

♥ Thanks honey, this was a wonderful gift and I LOVE it!

Great minds think alike!

Every morning I write a little something on my prissy plate. It's just a fun little part of our morning routine. Sometimes it's different activities going on that day and other days it's something silly. Yesterday morning was so cold and the only thing I could think of was this!

As I was going through backpacks after school, I found this in Max's backpack.

Obviously, Max's teacher and I were on the same wavelength!

Like my plate? You can order one of your own here! Tell Kelly I sent you!!

More snow fun!

Another thing we did while Andy was off work for the holidays was to take the kids on their very first ski trip. We didn't go far, just about a hour and a half away to Snow Star. I'm sure I could have found a hill or two around here...but they wouldn't have had the get-ya-back-up-the-hill-convenience. (which is very much needed in my case!)

We left about 7:15 in the morning and the thermometer in the van read 3*....I glared over at Andy and warned him that it better be a lot warmer by the time we got there. It was. It was a whopping 24* that day. The sun was out and it turned out to be a pretty nice day.

We layered the kids up...got their boots, skies, goggles, hats, gloves and sent them off to their first ski lesson. We paid a little extra for that, but it was well worth it. They did great!

Wish I had some more pictures, but it's a little hard to ski down the hill while taking pictures (at least for me)...I'm just thankful for the few we did get!

Andy and Maggie on the magic carpet!
(the-get-ya-back-up-the-hill-convenience I was talking about earlier!)

Andy's wishing that the next time we take a picture like this...it's in Colorado!

Hit of the neighborhood!

Over the Christmas break, while my hubby was home from work, he got a lot of work done on the basement. We are pretty much down to hanging my stuff back on the walls. It's very exciting. But during his many breaks from working on the basement. He did a bit of construction outside with the kiddos. Their very own igloo.


It's almost as tall as the kids...and it has sure been a hit in the neighborhood. In fact, this morning at the gym, I had several friends come up to me and say how cool the snow fort is. A few even said how they're kids tell them to "slow down" when they drive by...just to see it better. My first child's (Andy) love for the snow is rubbing off on my kids, and I couldn't be happier.

I think it's going to be around for a while. It's only 10* here today....with wind chills below zero. We'll probably still have an igloo in May!

Poor Boy!

The kids were both playing upstairs and I was getting some much needed cleaning done around the house. I was getting a lot done, when I finally realized that it was a little "too" quite. As I went to go check on the kids, I could hear them both giggling in the bathroom. Oh no, this can't be good.

This is what I found...she can talk him into anything!

I think we've been cooped up a little too long!