Head is just above water

Do you ever feel that way?! I’m guessing if you are a mom (or even just human for that matter), then you have felt that way before. Just treading water, barely keeping the head above water – that’s kind of where I am at. I feel like there is so much going on in life, and it’s only going to get busier! It’s alot of fun stuff, don’t get me wrong, but chaos sometimes sets in. I really enjoyed the sun and warm weather we were teased with though – doesn’t that do so much to boost the moods here in MI?! And now I am looking out at snow again. Oh well – this too shall pass! It has put a little splinter in my 5k training though. I was doing so good on my training schedule and it was because we had somewhat warm weather to get out and walk/run! I don’t have a treadmill, and I’m not going to run in cold/snow, so today I didn’t do my run. Oh well – I will take a day off I guess. I have exercised for 19 days straight, which is really good for me, one day off won’t hurt. I will still have plenty time to build up my endurance for the 5k – I hope! I am so not a runner, so I think I am nuts for thinking about running a “race”, but I think it will feel good for me to say I did it!

My hubby threw me a surprise 30th birthday party last weekend!!! We had a church group skating party last Sat. afternoon from 4-6. At the end of the session my brother-in-law and sister-in-law asked if we wanted to grab dinner at Buffalo Wild Wings (which made sense b/c we were only about 8 min. from there). We said that would be fine, so we packed up the kiddos and skates and headed to the restaurant. When we walked in I had told the hostess lady that I thought our group had already checked in and she said - “oh the Huizenga group – it’s right thru those doors.” At that point I knew what was going on, because the group checking us in wouldn’t have been Huizenga, and I knew the doors she was pointing to were for parties. So she kind of blew it! So when I walked thru the door I gave a look of “you can’t fool me!” It was so fun to see all our friends there though and my girls got a kick out of the whole thing! My parents were there to take the girls home after eating, so that was nice too! Here are a few pictures of the night – we were in a party room that has the Buffalo Bowling – which is fun too and we had the whole room all to ourselves! I have a pretty great hubby and friends and family!

It was a super great night!

I have a few LO’s of course to share too!!!

As usual, full credits can be found in my gallery (link in upper left!)

MandaKay

Scrapping Weekend

I’m holed up in a hotel room this weekend just scrappin’ away! It feels good to get a little bit caught up! I’ve' got many many more Disney LO’s to do before I can ever print the book, but at least I feel like I am getting somewhere with them! So of course the post will be full of LO’s!

Starting with my 365 weekly LO:

Disney:

Misc.

I have a few more LO’s still in the works and just not able to post yet!

New SMJ Goodies

I had a lot of fun with these new kits out by Shabby Miss Jenn Designs!

My LO using the new Bella’s Attic kit

My LO with Oh Deer massive kit:

They just happen to both be about Selah, guess I felt like she has been left out lately, I don’t know.

Stay tuned to TLP for the new March BYOC coming out on Fri. – you will not want to miss it!!!

Busy weekend comes to a close!

It’s been a fun and busy weekend! We went out Fri. night to the Casting Crowns concert (Thanks Kimmy)! Sat. was errands in the morning, my mom’s nails in the afternoon, and out with friends at night! Today was church, then we actually ate home today (normally we go to one of our parent’s house!), and Kyle was gone tonight to see Brian Regan! I did take a little nap this afternoon after reading a bit! Hopefully we are ready now for a new week!

Hole in the Gospel – Kyle and I have been reading this book, and our church, along with 4 other churches’ in this are have done a whole sermon series on it. It’s so convicting. World Hope is such a great organization! They have volunteers at every Casting Crowns concert, offering people the opportunity to “adopt” a child in need, they also just brought an exhibit to a local church that people can go thru and see into the life of a child living in Africa. Kyle and I have recently adopted a little boy in Africa. We chose a boy because we have so many girls here in our home and we wanted a little boy to take care of. It is so neat to pray about him with the girls and to teach our girls that they are so blessed to have what they have and that so many little kids live in such bleak situations. I can’t wait to communicate with him thru mail and encourage him in his schooling! We actually went thru Compassion International to adopt him. Such a small way that we can give back! Also have been convicted about how it looks to be a Christian in general. This morning’s sermon was great! It is about the symbol of Christianity – the cross and how as Christians we should want to be a living sacrifice (he paralleled the sacrifices in the old testament, the ultimate sacrifice of Jesus in the new testament, and then the call for us to be living sacrifices in the new testament as well). Just really making me think about how I can better be a living sacrifice to God! And in our Marriage/Family group Sunday School hour we heard more about the life of Daniel and Nebuchadnezzar and we were challenged to rid our lives of pride. It’s kind of amazing how these all tie in too! It’s so neat to see God alive and active in our church/community, challenging us to be better Christians!

Ok – and you know I can’t finish off a blog post without some new LO’s! The first few are more 365 LO’s – I’ve been keeping up so far on a photo a day! And then some LO’s with some new products at The-Lilypad!

Whew…I think that’s it for now! Off to bed!

MandaKay

Back so soon???

Didn’t think I’d be back so soon, did ya?! I wanted to just hop in and update the 365 LO’s while I am thinking of it!

Here’s one more page I did while in the car on the way to Florida – forgot to post it!

Night,

MandaKay

Feeling Lucky

Shabby Miss Jenn just put out a new kit: Feeling Lucky, and it's adorable! Love the doodled "stickers" and it was fun to do a green LO - I don't think I use green a whole lot! And with Valentine's day and all I did a LO of my man - I'm so lucky to have him! He's such a hard worker, a fabulous and active dad, and a such a blessing in my life. I would be lost without him for sure!

I've got to get back here to post more of my Project 365 LO's and/or pics. I have definitely missed a few days - it's hard on the days I work b/c I just don't have time to snap a pic, and I am already having a hard time coming up with things to photograph. :( I am also discouraged by seeing other peoples pictures and how great they are! Oh well, I will try to keep trucking along!

Out for today!

MandaKay

Facebook

Facebook has taken over my blogging. It is just so easy to upload my pics to there and to give just snippets of information about what’s going on, that I have neglected the blog a bit. And it doesn’t help that facebooking is just so easy with having a blackberry and all. Technology – so many options, so little time! ;)

I’m blogging from Florida though today! We are on a Disney vacation! Our first trip to Disney! I’ve been to Disney about 12 years ago or so, but no one else in our family has been. It’s been a fun and busy week, and it is coming to an end tomorrow night. We’ve had so much fun! By tomorrow we will have had 8 days of Disney fun – in all 4 parks! We’ve rode on dozens and dozens of rides, watched some great parades, seen spectacular fireworks, and had a lot of fun! I have so many pictures – I think I’ve taken about 500 so far, and I put some of them on facebook, but I’ll share a few of my favorites here too, and of course I’ll be scrapping them, so I’ll share those as I do that as well! We haven’t had super good weather, but it’s better than being in MI in 12 degree weather! The worst part is the rain. Doing Disney in the rain with kids is just not real fun.

I could do so many more, but I figured most of you have seen them on facebook, so I will spare you! I can’t wait scrap these! I hope to make a whole Disney vacation book!

Today is probably our nicest day here! The kids have been swimming all morning, and this afternoon we will head to the Magic Kingdom again and catch the fireworks and all that again. I didn’t get any pictures of that the first time we did it because it was a rainy day, so I didn’t even take the camera with that day!

I haven’t been scrapping at all, but I know there is a dynamic BYOC coming to the Lilypad tomorrow – I can’t wait to play with some of the goodies once I get back!

Have a Dippity Doo Da Day!

MandaKay