my oh my.

can it be true?

i'd like you to meet:

pure happiness.
total bliss.
impulse.
too much of a good thing.
an empty wallet.
hours browsing.
endless homeschool resources.
unadulterated joy.
the love of creativity.
the love of all things pretty.
and sparkly.
and, and, and…

together, held by the same steel beam.
together on the same slab of concrete.
together.

did they know they’d make such a beautiful team?

yes, i am a complete and utter hobby lobby geek and now, a newly found mardel's nerd. and very happy to be both.

i should be in bed, but...

-i can't even tell you how much i want to open my window and blast my voice through the courtyard about how much i love 'half price books'. you heard me...i love them! the best way i can explain it is they are the thrift store version of barnes and noble. plus {!}, they offer a clearance section of many popular books for one dollar. $1!! eek! it's my new happy place in my new town. if you can't find me, i will be in the back corner of the kid's section, sitting on the floor, coffee in hand, flipping through one adventure after another. while the girls happily play in the adorable little playhouse sitting in the middle of, what's better known as, 'half pint books'. it's too cute for words really. and it's all within reach...this could get ugly *wink.

-it was a little strange to see a "follow us on facebook and twitter" sign on the side of a gas station car wash...and why would i want to 'follow' you? that may be taking the whole internet networking a bit far, huh?

-one of the stop signs in our local target parking lot read, "STOP circumcising babies!" umm...k? weird? yeah, just a little bit.

-i just had one of the most carefree days in a long {very long} time. i adore hanging out with my girls - like, a lot. i also enjoy hanging out with...well, me. i also find a huge amount of comfort in not being sick {funny, right?}. and a girl's night is like rejuvenating my adult soul, reminding me i can have intellectual conversations with people my age. mix all of that together - no wee ones all morning for 4 hours, me time {may or may not have included shopping}, being germ free, and smartical {it's a 'me' word} convo with friends {a.k.a. girl's night; a.k.a. more me time} - you get a pretty rockin' day. oh, and in the middle of one pretty sweet day, you throw in a couple hours of family time at the zoo = complete. and though these kind of days are rare, i am thankful they are just that...rare. because truth be told, my average kind of days filled with family tend to be the happiest ones of all {and i know for a fact i don't want to hang out with just me on a regular basis - kinda boring}.

-i'm reminding myself to carry my simple blessings of today with me throughout our weekend. because our weekends? aren't so 'typical'...friday is like our monday with a one-day-sort-of-weekend thrown in the middle of a mushed together week. here's to living joyfully in the midst of this season!

update.

here's a few nuggets of news you can nibble on -

-we had an awesome move this past weekend with about seven guys and two friends of mine that helped me clean {they actually *like* to clean - imagine that}. we were out of our apartment with a clean inspection in less than 2 1/2 hours! previously, we were settled in a space of 750 sq ft. and are now in 950, giving the girls a *much* bigger room, an actual hallway, and a larger living room with a dining room that is somewhat 'separate'. it was such a blessing to move so early and knowing we can be settled here the whole time is really refreshing. there's no movin' up from here...at least, while we're 'here'. *wink

-the girls recently had their vaccines and it was pretty traumatizing - for all of us! jess did a great job sitting still in my lap as she took her four shots, but i had to have a nurse hold miley girl. for twenty months, she's a little fireball - strong and mighty. she took her six shots like a champ, but with a set of lungs like you wouldn't believe. i'm so thankful those are over...for now.

-i've spent the last two days decorating for christmas {while putting away other things}. let's face it, we'll be gone all day tomorrow and i'm hitting black friday on friday. three days after thanksgiving is just a little late for me to get the decor out. and it just felt appropriate once we unpacked and warmly settled into the new place. digging out what christmas decor i was able to bring, it probably ended up being 1/4 {if that} of what i own. the rest sits sadly in a garage back home. *sniff* i should just be thankful that we brought our little tree...and had room to put it up!

-i've been feeling pretty exhausted lately. with some unforeseen situations that the Lord has mightily been working out, i think it's been subconsciously taking a toll on me. i don't think of myself as getting "stressed out" very much, but i think our spirits sometimes tell us differently...even if we seem to be 'keeping our cool' amidst the storm {big or small}. with all of that said, i'm so small in this big world, especially in the palm of such a huge God. yet, He somehow makes me feel bigger than my mountaintops. *smile

plans. sch-lans.

i planned for yesterday to be busy, but still full of intrigue and anticipation. a little grocery shopping. a stop at the paper store. home for lunch and naps. up for a mini-playdate. then, off to a cheap family dinner consisting of some sort of cheeseburgers or chic-fil-a for the first time {details eminent}. my favorite activity was coming in the later evening...the ginormous fall fun fest at our church. 300 volunteers and a parking garage reserved just for the evening's festivities. something we had been planning as a family for over a month. something we had been looking forward to the most this fall {maybe besides jacob passing his midterms with flying colors - which he did}. something that i, personally, was counting down towards.

the day didn't exactly end up as planned.

it was a morning of grumps and high fevers. a morning of wet, sick eyes and sleepy, weak bodies. a morning of lukewarm baths and mini plastic cups full of purple medicine. it was an afternoon of the hubby home so that i could do my needed errands. errands now done on my own and in a hurry. hubby home with a sick chicky. it was an afternoon of an unexpected dr visit after spiked fevers and an unexpected suggestion to go to the emergency room. this news slowly morphed itself into an early evening of flu masks and motrin doses. and an obvious realization that our fall fun fest was becoming something of the past.

it was mama and jessa, bonding in an unusual way as we sat in a little hospital room watching word girl on pbs. i figured she had some sort of flu. my concerns were for her continued high fever {104}, her pale face, weak legs and feelings of nausea {which took care of itself moments before the dr walked in}.

she stood barely over five foot. a white mask over her own face. she made friendly conversation as her skilled confidence started looking over my little girl. it didn't take long for her to determine what was attacking jess' body.

tonsillitis.

strep.

respiratory infection.

ear infection.

four things she's never had before. four things that was making my little peanut feel miserable. four bugs that didn't belong.

four things that weren't part of my planned day.

our night was full of present appetites that were satisfied through pepperoni pizza and chocolate ice cream. a night that our living room was supposed to be empty and instead, was full of sweet giggles that were missed earlier. full of hugs and snuggles. full of thankfulness that recovery was beginning.

i am so thankful for a quick er visit {approx. 2 1/2 hours all together}. thankful for very kind receptionists, nurses and doctors. thankful that i chose to take her in. thankful that she was able to start her doses immediately.

now wishing that it was *only* the flu.

duck and run.

what do you get after spending ten minutes down at the pool in 102+ degree weather at 4:30 in the afternoon?


a freak hail and wind storm in less than two minutes from walking back in the door. thank goodness for dark cloud formations as a fair warning.

it was so severe the hail was kerplunking in the pool causing waves, pelting itself off our windows and sounding off car alarms in the parking lot down below. we saw a convertible take shelter off the road under the nearest covering. it snuck up in an instant causing black shadowy clouds and rivers in the parking lot. the ice chunks were incredible! never seen any like them. these big hummers were half melted by the time i captured them perched on our window sill.


after a good fifteen minutes, the glass shattering sound had stopped ringing in our ears and the honking of horns ceased. welcome to texas...where everything is most definitely bigger.

OMgosh.

if i ever said that i liked packing, just virtually slap me silly right now. and do it hard cause i need some sense knocked into me real good.

i remember five months ago feeling this exact same way as we stayed until 10:30pm cleaning our sold house on that monday night. my body physically wants to shut down...i simply can't lift one more thing or bring my brain to make one more decision. wanting to give up is a good way of putting it. but alas! we've done it and the truck is packed full. we ordered a sixteen footer and quickly realized that it's bigger than what we're taking to texas, which only means even more downsizing. eek! i know what i'll be doing this next week...

we're heading out tomorrow morning for my hometown. we'll stay there until saturday, spending the week with my family and friends saying, "see you later". come saturday, the essentials will be aboard and we'll set out for our six day journey. i look forward to detouring through the grand canyon and just seeing some of this great country that we live in. pictures and blogging will be expected along the journey. i'm just sayin'.

i just needed to take a minute to record how surreal this moment is. this specific night - our last night here. i've lived here for nine years and it's become a place i happily call home. it's beautiful, unique, and many lovely people that i call friends and family make their place here. i met my best friend who became my husband here. we fell in love here. we made our first home here. we had our babies here. we felt safe. we made friends. we made awesome memories. we've been impacted in a big way and will take each experience with us on the journey. a journey that holds an immense amount of growth. an irreplaceable amount of joy. and a journey that will simply change our lives.

know that we love each of you in a special way that have touched our lives and caused us to have the courage to take this step of faith. you've been there as our cheerleaders...with love, encouragement, and support. you are our family.

thank you.

and like i said before, it's just a "see you later".

it's a funny thing, really...

...procrastination.

i find myself doing everything BUT starting to pack. i have all kinds of reasons, starting with, "oh, it won't take that long anyway." and filling my time with thrift shopping for more summer clothes for the girls, blogging and being twitterpated with twitter (ha! didn't see that one coming, did ya?).

we continue to get borderline ecstatic with our re-location plans. we received more word about our housing with an actual official specific apartment. we have a room with a park view, which sounds lovely, and rooms that are right up my 'loving everything mini' alley. small. tiny. tight quarters. it'll be good and cozy - bonding our family in ways we've never imagined? all of this solidifies an address and makes everything a little more real than it did before. now, if it would only sink in that i'm leaving family and friends behind for a long, solid three/four years. blah. ick - i don't want to think about that right now.

which brings me to the procrastination. there's always a real reason behind all the "cover-ups". in a way, it feels like we just unpacked boxes. four months ago, we slightly settled into our place of transition, knowing it would go by in a flash. it just seems too soon to start wrapping my fragiles neatly in bubble wrap. too soon to start putting things away for the five day journey. too soon to "clean out" again (watch out, you may be getting offered more baskets, vases and little birdies to watch over while i'm gone). because did i mention that our new place is going to be small? no, i mean...small. as in, i have to find simply the bare essentials that i want coming with us. the girls have to leave behind their kitchen, their table & chairs set and other toys that just won't fit. i'll be leaving behind cute decor, wall hangings and furniture that just won't fit. jacob may have to leave behind his bike, definitely his kayak and other boy things that just won't fit. sacrifice - it's just stuff - our goal is so much bigger than a few household items, a daily chant i hear running through the core of my being. hey, at least we don't have to leave each other behind. and that, my friends, is what keeps us going. togetherness.

we've been continuing to make plans with my wonderful parents, who are driving with us along the long journey. by the sounds of it, our last day in town is tuesday, june 16. we would love to get together with anyone that we haven't seen in awhile before we head out. maybe a big dinner at tomato street? i know jessa has made it known that we are definitely stopping there at some point before we move. she is very serious about her spaghetti. anyway, our move-in date in dallas is june 26th. we must make it to my hometown, pack everything that is in the dallas storage pile, load the trailer and be down south by then. blistering heat, i am not looking forward to meeting you.

okay, so posting about all of this may have motivated me a centimeter of the way to start organzing myself to pack. hope you all have a lovely saturday...and go to the MOPS garage sale if you get the chance. i went yesteday morning and found a couple of treasures. it was mostly good to support the group i love so much for next year. great work ladies!

hasta luego! wait...wrong country.

15 shirts, 5 cami's, 4 pairs of pants, 1 pair of capri's, 1 skirt, 1 pair of slippers, 6 pairs of shoes, 1 jacket, 2 sweaters, 1 zip-up, 15 underwear{s}, 4 pairs of socks, 3 sets of pj's, 1 stuffed toiletry bag and 2 thank you gifts for my aunt later...i have one full carry on.

layer one:

final{?} result:

2 magazines, 1 book, 1 journal, 2 pens, lip gloss, 1 now-working camera (hallelujah!), 1 big lens, a small bag of baby goldfish, trail mix, beef jerky and sour patch kids, 1 quart sized bag stuffed full of 3 oz liquids, 1 cell phone, 1 cell phone charger, 1 camera battery charger, 1 camera usb cord, 1 wallet with passport, plastic and green, 2 compact flash cards, 1 mini flashlight, 1 pair of sunglasses, 1 set of notecards, 1 travel-size case of baby wipes and 1 itinerary later...i have one full over-the-shoulder bag.

see you on the other side of three weeks...unless i gloriously have access to the internet and blogging! wouldn't that be dreamy? yes, yes it would. but i think nonetheless, i will be in a bit of a dreamland anyway. blessings as you transition into the beautiful month of may! *smiles!

counting down.

you might get a little tired of hearing about my preparations for my trip, but seriously, it's really the only thing on my mind right now. so if you're reading...you'll just have to bare with me and wish you were going too. *wink.

when i was back home last week, my seester michi, thoughtfully bought me a fabulous new brown journal for my trip. i was keeping my eye out, a new journal was very high on the mental list of things to get before i left. the pages are so crisp. new. empty. waiting to be filled with my adventures abroad. i absolutely adore handwritten journals. i still swoon over my piles of sticker-ed adolescence filled with pages of crushes, heartbreaks and serious reflections. there is nothing like setting my pen to a fresh close-lined piece of 5 x 7 paper. and the little rubber-bandy elastic thing that holds it shut? i love that little detail to help hold in any memorabilia i lovingly stuff inside.

i can just see it now...i will probably spend most of my journal time writing about how much i miss the hubby and my two girls. how much i wish jacob was scaling the eiffel tower with me, enjoying lunch on the river and whisking me down the cobblestone streets. i'll probably fill the pages with tears over how big the girls are getting as i spend eleven hours in the air, dampen the thousands of dollars worth of art at the french museums with my weary sobs. please pray that i will not be one big ball of pathetic. please. i know, i know. i will be in a gorgeous-breathtaking-never-seen-before-to-my-eyes place. this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity (hopefully not, jacob? he may or may not have signed something before we were married that bonded him into taking me to italy at some point in our lives. i may or may not still have this smallish contract tucked away in a very safe and private place). so i think it's best to just accept the fact i'm going by myself, without my love and without my chillins', and fully know that they are in loving and capable hands. and miley, you better not learn to walk while i'm gone! though, she has officially taken her "first step". just one, but i did see it with my own eyes. i told my mom, very lovingly, that if miley decides to stand up and start walking, to just push her back to the ground. in a very gentle and loving way, of course. psh.

the girls will be camping out at grammy and papa's for three weeks. jessa is very excited, and just to warm my little heart, she did say that she doesn't want me to be away for that long. she assured me that she would miss me. big ball of pitiful and pathetic, here i come! i usually put lengths of time {car rides, sleeping time, etc.} in terms of television shows. for example, the trip to grammy and papas is four hannah montana shows. or roughly one disney princess movie. i think you get the picture. it might be a little overwhelming to say that mommy will be gone for 1,008 hannah montana's or 504 movies. we might have big alligator tears. and jessa might shed a few too.

i will spend this week soaking up my girls - in between loads of laundry and packing three people for three weeks. planning {as best i can} dinners for the hubby, making last minute trips to the store for last minute necessities and squeezing in very important play dates. this morning, we spent some time outside in the fresh country air (despite the bambi carcass on the side of the road that couldn't’t help but send unpleasant aromas up my nostrils, causing my already sensitive gag reflexes to kick in) walking, tossing rocks and playing pooh sticks, minus the bridge.

tonight is dinner at my in-law's, with family. after last night's dinner with our dear friends, ken and judy {new "precious legacy" blog in my sidebar}, i just feel spoiled to get another dinner out. i really reap from time spent with loved ones. it is truly a blessing. i hope you enjoy your lovely sunny tuesday!

please tell me how i'm not supposed to desperately miss these sweet faces?!

european vacation itinerary.

honesty, i'm freaking out just a little. i went to walley world today to purchase my cute travel size toiletries and liquids for my quart size ziploc. have i mentioned that we're packing carry on's only? yes, it's true. i believe i have the capability do this, with room to spare. i really have no choice...and i plan on bringing home souvenirs for special someones. so, i'm at walmart. feeling a little rushed with the whole fam waiting in my wings as i hurriedly decide what i need on my list. yeeeah, i'll be going back later this week to polish the checklist. freaking out, i tell you. in ONE week, i will be flying high, soaring over fluffy white clouds, hopefully fast asleep against the arm of my chair. or my gran'ma?

about two weeks ago, gran'ma sent me the itinerary for our european vacation. it goes a little something like this:

monday - fly out
arrive in denver 2.15 hours later
jump a plane to london, arriving at heathrow 9.16 hours later, which i think is tuesday by now - take a train (my first one!) to beautiful farmland

wednesday - take hop-on-hop-off bus to windsor castle, tower of london, parliament and st. paul's cathedral

thursday - british museum

friday - take train to sellindge, england - stay in bed and breakfast

saturday - canterbury

sunday - village hall service

monday - dover castle

tuesday - fly out to nice, france

wednesday - arrive to auntie and uncle's villa

thursday - tour provence

friday - drive to venice, italy

saturday - tour venice and murano

sunday - travel back to nice, france to auntie and uncle's

monday - rest?

tuesday - monaco

wednesday - not sure?

thursday - depart nice and fly to paris; sacre coeur (sacred heart) church & place du tertre (artists square); dinner in montmartre

friday - eiffel tower and bateaux mouches (seine river lunch cruise) and louvre; dinner at le relais de l'entrecote

saturday - ile de la cite area - sainte chapelle; picnic near the pont neuf at place dauphine and notre dame in the afternoon

sunday - tea/pastries on the champs-ellvsee - arc de triomphe; sadly, depart paris and arrive back in london

monday - from london, back to denver, back home.

*gulp. am i ready? nope. am i excited? totally!

whirlwind.

it's been quite a whirlwind week. i'm back in my hometown helping my sister-in-law per her requests with organizing, pricing and purging for...a BIG yard sale! who else better to come to the rescue? *wink. if you only remember last summer and my peril attempts and finally my successes, you would totally understand. this was the only time i could come before my trip, which is only in ten days! eek! i think my stomach just did a flip.

i saw my lovely gran'ma today, the one whisking me away on this once-in-a-lifetime adventure land. she's not close to being ready either for our departure, so in a strange way, that makes me feel a wee bit better. i still need to find a skirt because i will be hanging out with my auntie nanny. in france. sooo...that means i need to look posh. or make attempts. if that's even possible. i don't think i've shown these legs for...oh gosh. too long. they will shriek in their paleness. save your ears, i beg of you.

with that said, i've had a lot on my mind lately about stuff. life stuff. moving stuff. vacation stuff. family/friends stuff. God stuff. stuff that just keeps swimming around in a pool of cycles up top. one of these days, i'll throw them up onto my little piece of journal here.

OH! and hello!! i can't fail to mention the greatest thing in all of humanity...okay, so maybe the greatest thing in my mind. the hubby started his very own piece of happiness in blogland. yay babe! keep it going...and you can find him here:

liftingeyes{dot}blogspot{dot}com or a little click action in my sidebar.

enjoy your weekend!

on a few {late night/early morning} thoughts...

...first of all, it's 1:30 in the morning and my body doesn't even feel an ounce of sleepiness. darn those meds. so i sit. tv droning on a channel that i could care nothing about. my mind racing with thoughts of exciting things to come. now that the burden of my teeth has been lifted, i feel a bit more free to be giddy about the near future. as in...packing my new bag for big adventure!


i was visiting vanilla lavender's blog of pictures from her recent trip to italy and it just hit me. i've been more nervous than anything about my coming europe trip. nervous to be gone for so long. away from my hubby. leaving my girls for three weeks (gosh! am i horrible or what?!). scared that i'll get us lost. but as i looked at the beauty of the streets through my computer screen, a wave of unexpected excitement overwhelmed me. i'm going there! eee-yikes! my auntie sent me a link to our venice hotel. this is the outside eating area. gorgeous!
there are so many things i need to do to get ready! new shoes! cute shirts! new skirt? get my camera cleaned! buy another cartridge! i can feel my mental list getting exhausted. it's time to bust out the paper, pen and highlighter and get to list making!

my mama went home today. i knew she had to leave at some point, but the stay never seems long enough. i miss her. i almost feel like i retract in my healing when she disappears. i revert back to a five year old that needs their mommy when their sick. it's innately chiseled in my nature. hold me? i found comfort in movie night with the family. miley didn't even want to go to bed without watching bolt. which, by the way, is the cutest.movie.EVER. in my opinion. slightly exaggerated, but still too cute for words. well, not that i like staying up all night, but i think 2:10 in the am is a bit reedunkulous (why wouldn't spell check like that one?)! so, do i say good-night or good-morning?!

eek!

as i sit here, i should be getting ready to head out in a bit. but i'm scared. the curse of driving in the snow is overcoming me. i have a perfect view of one of my windows looking outside. as the crystal pieces fall in numerous numbers to the covered ground, i'm hesitant to join the driving crowd. i've been told to not let my fear overcome me, especially as i'm behind the wheel. so is it true? is the snow like a horse? it can smell your fear? i would believe it. what can i say, i'm a snow-driving-weenie.