WARNING: Rebecca D. shows flagrant disregard for the rules of punctuation... She uses ellipsis with wild abandon... Punctuation interventions have been done to no avail... If you are offended by such irreverence to the rules of grammar... The very glue that holds our society together... STOP READING NOW... Move on... There is a little button at the top that says "next blog"... You would be well advised to use it... You were warned...

A Stumble Down Memory Lane...

Monday, February 27, 2012

I was just reading Taylor's post... (click here to read it) In it she talks about how she is sick and her sweet husband encouraged her to stay in bed, because he'll watch the kids... I think we know how that usually goes... It brought back so many memories... One in particular...

Like when the girlies were little and I was so sick I could barely stand. I had been in bed all day and around 2 PM decided to stumble out to see how everyone was doing. I walk out to the living room and there were my daughters (ages 3 & 6) using my salad spinner as a Barbie pool. As if that wasn't enough to take in, at some point they decided to up the ante and add dish soap, LOTS of dish soap, like 2/3 of a bottle of the green Palmolive (they were "soaking in it"), in the middle of the living room, on my three week old light beige carpet. Cate was in her brand new Easter dress (before Easter) and the Sparky was wearing Lion King panties, red rubber boots and about 25 hello kitty band-aids... When I asked where their father was they said "outside" in unison.

(This picture was taken the next summer... I was on actual film back then and a currently too lazy to scan one from the summer in question in and this one was already scanned in... Just shrink them a little and you get the picture...)

I went out the front door and there he was, in our driveway, replacing the brake pads on my car... When I asked him who was watching his daughters he said he was, so like the maternal glutton for punishment I am I asked him when was the last time he "checked" on them? His answer?? (Wait for it...) "They are fine Rebecca, they are watching that Barbie Nutcracker movie, just go back to bed." That is when another thought occurred to my illness addled mind... I turned back to my dear, sweet, beloved husband and asked "When did you go to the auto parts store?"... He informed me that he had gone that morning. So I had to ask... "What were they wearing?" His answer, "How should I know, they dressed themselves." So I had to ask, "Did Sparky have on clothes?" By now he was a bit agitated, and said "Of course she did, at least I think so, she had a pink coat on." (FYI: The aforementioned "pink coat" was her sister's winter parka... It was April, and really warm out.)  I stood there for about two minutes trying to get my brain to unscramble what to do next, then I simply said, "You might want to peek in on them" and turned around and went back to bed.

All I know of the aftermath is I had a wet spot on my rug for about three days from the amount of water it took him to dilute the soap and suck it up out of the carpet...

Wedding Update:
I just landed a major score!
Remember this beverage station Cate wants?
Well, these are the jugs we wanted...
 
BUT... It is $69.00 over at Pottery Barn...
 Quite a bit over our budget!
Then last night I found this...

Only $14.99 at World Market... AND... The cheaper on holds a whole gallon more!
Serious score folks!!
Thanks for listening,
 

Crawling Out Of The Vacuum...

Saturday, February 25, 2012

Blog stats are driving me crazy... I never used to think about them, but now I look at them several times a week, and it ain't pretty folks... I average over 100 views per post, but I average only 4 comments... I feel like I am yelling into a vacuum... I try to inspire comments, you know, by asking questions and such, but to no avail. I wrack my brain... Am I boring? Am I not writing about interesting topics? Is it because I have randomly disappeared twice now? Am I really this pathetic? Then I realised, I too am part of the problem... There are about 20 blogs I visit almost daily, and a list of over 80 more I pop in on when I have a few moments... I love each of these blogs, but I only comment about 1/3 or less of the time... No more... We take the time to write these posts, all of us for various reasons, but we all want to know someone is listening...
 And I am listening... I've prayed for Tate's surgery... I tried to listen to Sherri's radio broadcast... I cried over Joyce's "frontdoor" post... I continue to pray for 'licious's father... I am continually inspired by Mandi... I've cried and rejoiced with Edie... Taylor has made me laugh so hard milk has come out of my nose... I am continually frustrated that Carrie rarely updates her blog and each time she does she is half the size of the last time (you go girl!)... I love hearing Katie's classroom antics... I wish Nina was the little sister I never had... Am enjoying following Dawn on our similar journey to the alter with our daughters... The list goes on and on... But the "lurking" has to stop...
Today I am crawling out of the bloggy vacuum and committing to commenting when I visit. Even if I just say "Hi" I want you to know I took the time to pop over and see what's new with you. Every one of you bloggy friends (both those named above and those of you I ran out of time to name today) make my life richer because you share a part of your self with me... Some of you are "big time bloggers" and don't need my shout-out or comment (since you get hundreds) and some of you are like me who get very few... It doesn't matter... I am committing today to comment every time I visit... Be prepared for a lot of un-witty banter and unhelpful advice y'all... You were warned!


Thanks for listening,

Wedding Sneak Peek...

Friday, February 24, 2012

Today I had planned for weeks to be the day that I start to paint the kitchen cabinets... I woke up early, not at all deterred by the rain, knowing it was supposed to end early and the dampness would not be a problem... Alas, my back had other ideas... I couldn't sleep last night so I wandered to the living room where I curled up on the couch and let reruns of Law & Order lull me to sleep... When I woke up this morning I was a little stiff and sore, but otherwise I was fine until about an hour after I got up... I bent over to pick up a newspaper off the living room floor, and didn't stand back up... I was frozen in pain... I don't want to spell out all the (boring) details, other then to say it is a back spasm, and it is painful. I have pills that make me really fuzzy headed I can take or I can sit in one particular spot, in one particular position and be fine... So other then a trip to the doctor and walmart (for the aforementioned fuzzy head stuff and a cart full of other stuff we apparently could not live one more day with out... What is it about Wal-Mart? Does that place have a subliminal cover charge? Do you have to fill a cart in order to leave?) and a trip to the quilt shop (to fulfill a promise to Sparky... I was moving super slow... I'm sure the woman there thought I was nuts!) I have not moved from that spot very often... So much for my ultra productive day... Instead I spent the better part of it on Pintrest... (Where else would a wanna be blogger while away her hours?)

Pintrest has actually been very helpful... As Sparky, Cate and I scour the blogosphere for wedding ideas we can "pin" them on Pinterest and not lose track of the ideas... So i decided to show you a little sneak peek of what we have "pinned" and/or decided on so far...

Location: We chose a local (of course) event hall... She wanted a barn, but that was harder to pull off then it sounds and this place has the "rustic" feel she wants...


 (photos echohillinc.com)

As for the dress, she wanted something simple that would show off her shoulders without showing too much cleavage and without being strapless... Since she plans to wear boots with it she wanted it to be traditional, but not overly "fussy"... Here is what she chose...

(davidsbridal.com)

As for the bridesmaids dresses she wanted then all to match, but to be flattering on each girl who range in sizes from 0-12... She also wanted them to not be overly expensive and something they will wear again... This is what we chose...

(Pintrest)

(target.com)

These are jersey knit "convertible dresses" which is basically a skirt with two long tie attached that can be styles dozens of ways. We found them in the above color at Target.com for less then $35.00 each!

The Invitations...
(weddingchicks.com)
She chose these sweet mason jar inspired invites that are customized into her colors. I love the RSVP card... It is set up like a little mad libs! It kind of sets the fun, casual tone they are going for.

The Guys...
She labored over what to have the guys wear... Until we found this wedding on DIY Bride... She and Jackson like this, so it's a hit!
 (diybride.com)

The Decor... We are mostly doing it ourselves, so we are very glad she choose a rustic, home-spun kind of theme...
How sweet are these for table numbers?
(bridetobe.com)

The Programs...
(intimateweddings.com)
We will continue the mason jar motif on these...

This seemed like a cute idea and compromise...
A "wish" tree

(stylemepretty.com)
His family does "money trees" at weddings... It is a tradition they are really fond of, but Cate isn't, so this is a compromise... People can write little wishes for them on the tags we will provide or they can attach cash to the tree with little ribbons we will provide...

We want to do sparklers for the send-off...
(stylemepretty.com & mydiyweddingday.com)
It just seems like a fun way to end the night.

The Flowers... Most of them will be really simple, but Cate is totally in love with this bouquet so we will try to get it made for her...
(google.com)
We will have the florist do simpler versions for each of the other girls (she has 4 attendants) , but the rest of the flowers we will do ourselves.

Other decor inspiration photos...
(elizabethannedesigns.com)
This is not her cake design, it is in a magazine so I will have to scan it in later for you to see, but we like this table set-up... We won't be outside, so this will be a little different, but similar...

A cute drink station idea...

(google.com)

Guest book table inspiration...
(ablissfulnest.com)
I like the bird cage for cards and I saw some cute ones at Homegoods the other day. I also like the idea of putting a jar of mints here... (although these are actually bubble gum, but we have to do our own clean-up so there will be no bubble gum)

Tables...
We will mostly be working with round tables (as you can tell from above) so picture this general set up on round tables...
( weddingchicks.com)
We won't be doing the fancy napkin thing, but plan to put a menu card at each place with one of three word puzzles (that Sparky has designed) on the back... A mad lib, a search a word or a cryptic puzzle... We will put a little jar of pencils at each table and hopefully if there are any of the seemingly inevitable lag times the guests will find them fun.
For the kids we are doing up a bunch of these...
(ashleyannphotography.com)
To put in a basket on the welcome table...
 
Well, that's it for today... There are so many more ideas we are working on, but hopefully these will give you the idea of what we are going for. Yes, we have been and will be super busy!
 
Thanks for listening,

Sock Monkeys & Shower Curtins....

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

(Seriously folks... If I don't start coming up with more creative titles for my posts I think the bloggy police may shut me down... Now back to your originally scheduled thought...)

My world is blahhh... Not my life, no, my life is in techno-color... It's the world outside my window... We have had very, very little snow this year. It has been unseasonably warm, like 35-45 degrees every day except the one to two days a week it drops into the teens or low 20s to remind us it's winter. I know a lot of people are really liking the mild temperatures, but what the lack of snow means to me is a world full of grey and brown... When it snows, the landscape is magically transformed into a glittery wonderland. We complain about shoveling it, but there is nothing like getting out there together and clearing our driveway together, lobing the occasional snow ball, our breaths coming out in little puffs of smoke... As we near completion, I head inside to get the cocoa going and usually a nice big breakfast of pancakes or waffles... We've earned them! Then we all hunker down in the living-room and usually start some DVD marathon... Sometimes it's a movie series like Lord of the Rings (extended versions, of course) or Harry Potter or the Pirates movies, or even the Bourne movies... Anything we have at least three of... Sometimes we whip out one of those nifty little boxes that contain a whole season of some show... Firefly is my personal favorite, but we have quite a few "seasons" of a wide variety of shows that have been purchased when spotted on sale just for this kind of day... But not this year... Oh, no... The shrink wrap remains on the movies I got for Christmas... If we can't commit to eight hours of viewing they shall remain hermetically sealed until we can! This year we have had no blizzards... We have had two "snow days" but they were mostly because it was too icy for the buses to run... Not the same... Nope, my world remains brown and grey... Yuck...

So last night I decided... enough! Yep, I'd had it with disappointing winter and I am declaring it Spring in our household! I took down the post Christmas, winter shower curtain and put up the early spring one I had in reserve...
Wait, did you know I change my shower curtains all the time? No, well you really should be doing this folks! Shower curtains are relatively cheap (most are under $40) and can make the room feel fresh and different in seconds. I keep my bathroom decor pretty neutral so I can go crazy, but even if you are locked into a color scheme, I bet you can fine new curtains out there to match it... I have a whole bin of shower curtains I pick from. Whenever I see one I love either on clearance or at least cheaply priced I pick it up and add it to the bin. I limit myself to 24, so occasionally I weed out the ones I haven't used in a few years to make way for new ones. I find if I own bath rugs in chocolate brown, red, medium blue, and beige I can match almost every shower curtain on the market. I also pick up cute window valances from time to time in those colors, but find that the beige and brown ones tend to go with everything I add... I like change and for things to look and feel new and fresh, and the shower curtain thing tends to cheer me right up...

On another subject, back in January a friend of mine asked me to help her plan her son's first birthday party... I was thrilled to be asked. I never get to do little boy parties, but the downside was we had four days... Aghhh... Sparky and I went over for lunch and presented her with our ideas... I guess you could say Sarah became our first "client"...
(here she is with the birthday boy)
She jumped at our first idea (so we wasted several hours coming up with three doable choices...) which was sock monkeys. It turns out she made a sock monkey for her then boyfriend (now husband) for their first valentines together and have exchanged several over the years as they spy them in stores. They even bought a huge one for their son for his first Christmas just a month before, so sock monkeys it was!

(here is the banner we made)

She wanted something memorable, because her husband's mom always did big theme parties for her husband and his siblings growing up. We have very little time and money to pull this off, so we stuck to the things that would have the greatest impact.

Like water bottle labels...
 
I designed this little guy up for the labels and banner... For some reason my computer would not let me place the nostrils where I wanted them, so I did the next best thing... We printed everything then took a sharpie marker and drew them in... On each one... Ok, it wasn't the "next best thing" but at 12 midnight the night before she was picking the stuff up, it was the best I could come up with.

I didn't go to this party so thing were not set up the way I would have... But I still think it turned out pretty cute.


This was the first sock monkey she made and he was supposed to be part of the "candy bar" but she decided not to do a candy bar and spread the candy jars throughout the room. I personally prefer the impact of all of it together, but it was her party to set up however worked best for her.

Here is the birthday boy...
He had a blast and that is what matters!  


Thanks for listening,

Showering and Stuff...

Monday, February 20, 2012

No I didn't go away again... In the last two weeks we attended two showers (one baby and one bridal), hosted one baby shower (not one of the aforementioned ones), took the teens on a youth trip and to a concert, and got sick.. got a little better... over did it... and... got sick again... I have been a little crazed...

Let's start with the showers... First the one we (Sparky and I) hosted... It was for one of the sweetest people I know Rachel. She was the assistant to the former youth leaders, she would plan the games and help with worship. Then they suddenly felt called away from our church the spring before we moved here. Rachel has pretty much single handedly kept the youth group going while the church prayed for new youth leaders. (If they knew it was us they were praying for they might have kept quiet! Careful what you pray for folks!) Anyhow, I do not know how she managed to work full time, be a wife, a mom (to a two year old), a member of our worship team, AND lead youth. Paul and I spend a great deal of our week and energy on this ministry and feel like we could double the time we put into it easily... I don't know how she did it...
Anyhow... Sparky and I asked if we could throw her shower. She had baby Makenzie Grace the day after Christmas but wanted to wait for her shower until after she arrived. I, in typical Rebecca style, left my camera at home, so the shower Sparky and I spent the better part of two weeks working on is basically unchronicled... One of the ladies there took candid photos and let me use them so they will have to do...


Here is baby Makenzie Grace and you wouldn't know it by this picture, but her mom tends to not dress her overly girlie. Because of that, Sparky and I felt we had more freedom to be a little non-traditional.
(Isn't she sweet?)
Since we were in a time crunch, since we loved the colors and most importantly since this was a who different circle of friends we decided to use the orange and turquoise color theme we used last summer for this shower. We did mix it up with splashes of other bright colors (note the napkins and flowers)

I designed this little guy to use on the banner (That you can kind of see above... It said "Welcome Mackenzie")  and on the custom water bottle labels...
We searched thrift stores for vases that Sparky and her boyfriend spray painted. (Yes, that's Cate and half of Sparky.)

We tried to mix up the decor and make it "girlier" then the other shower...
We played some less traditional baby games and the lady in this photo with the kleenex on her nose was the unsuspecting "strait man" to my shtick... She has an awesome sense of humor so she didn't mind at all... It was fun to get up in front of a group and keep them laughing... I forgot how much I enjoy this kind of thing.
Here is the new mom, Rachel...
Since I wasn't the one with the camera I didn't get any good pictures of the tutu outfit Sparky and I got for her... I love these little tutus for babies and little girls that are available all over ESTY and the appliqued onesies... Too cute!  I know, we could made these things ourselves, but there is only 24 hours in a day! (That last line was answering my conscience... Sorry about that.)

We did not buy these, but I just wanted to say how cute this trend of putting "stuff" on babies butts is... Hearts, monkeys, duckies... Too cute, but keep in mind this is only cute if you are under three and have diaper butt... (Teenage girls and middle age ladies, we, the general public do NOT want to "read" your butts... I don't care how "juicy" you think it is!)

This shower was a 10 AM brunch last Saturday... We set it up on Friday afternoon since at 4 PM Friday we were leaving for this...

It was about two hours from our church so had to leave early...
to rock out... (rock on??? I don't know which...)

Risk life and limb in the bouncy house... And be home by 12:45 AM...
Then in the morning I had to be up and out by 7 AM to return the van we borrowed for the trip and be back at the church to finish setting up for the shower by 9 AM... Saturday night a local church was hosting this concert...
The guy opening this concert is our pastor, and a bunch of kids from our youth group were going so one of us kinda had to go... Oh wait, did I mention that Paul was sick? No? Oh yeah, to make life that much more fun Paul woke up Thursday with the "crud" I am currently dealing with. He went with us to Waterville and even started the night hanging with us, until during the concert part of the night he lost all perspective when a guy (who later turned out to be a youth leader) repeatedly rubbed the back of his hand on Sparky's chest. He claimed to be "caught up in worship" and unaware of his actions but I think four times is a bit of a stretch... Anyhow, Paul handled it, but then decided to go lay down in the van since his first thought was to "rip the guys thought out throat the back of his neck." (He is not a violent guy and was extremely diplomatic even to this guy, but he did feel like he was loosing perspective, and needed a nap.)
Back to the above concert...
Here is our talented pastor Ray Thombs opening for Mark Harris...
Here he is when he opened for John Waller last fall singing one of my favorite songs of his...


And that was just last weekend... This week I got sick on Thursday and we had a pretty equally full weekend! Ok, not as full... We did head back to Waterville for another baby shower and we had a bridal shower on Sunday afternoon... But these we only had to attend, so it was much less stressful... Oh, and we reached the four months to the wedding mark... We have been very busy in that area, and I'll fill you in very soon... So that's what I've been up to, how about you?

Thanks for listening,

Hodgepodging for Love...

Wednesday, February 8, 2012



1. What is something you are loving right now?

Spray Paint... I am currently making these for a baby shower Sparky and I are doing the decor for...

I found them first on pinterest but they are the handy work of one of my favorite DIY and Decor bloggers Katy over at Centsational Girl... She doesn't need my props though since she has about six gazillion followers... Here is the link to the tutorial on how to make these...
I will blog my before and afters soon...


2. Paris, Venice, New York, and Rome are considered four of the most romantic cities in the world. Which one would you most like to visit?

Paris... Hands down... I have been so close to going twice now... Someday!





3. Are you a romantic?

Not really... I appreciate it in movies and such but it makes me nervous in real life... I consider Paul bringing home Chinese takeout because he knows I had a bad day romantic, but the traditional stuff... candles, rose petals, etc freak me out...





4. What's your favorite love story made for the Big Screen?


While You Were Sleeping 
Hands down my favorite... She was lonely and developed a fantasy of what love would look like in her life, only to discover it looked very different and was far more beautiful... If you have been under a rock for the last 17 or so years go to the Wal Mart right now and root around in the $5 bargain bin until you find this movie and watch it today!!






5. Everyone loves Pooh bear and friends...which character are you most like and why?



I didn't take the quiz, but I would guess Kanga...




6. What's the best chocolate something you've ever eaten?


Oh there are so many really good chocolate things... The flour-less chocolate torte my cousin the pastry chef whose bakery closed and moved to the big city makes would have to win though... A runner up would be the white chocolate bread pudding at Shepard's Pie here in Rockport... Yummo!!


7. Share a favorite quote about love.


"You know you're in love when you can't fall asleep because reality is finally better than your dreams."



Dr. Seuss

8. Insert your own random thought here.

I have youth group tonight and I should be writing my devotion and working on my newsletter right now. I am using you wonderful ladies to procrastinate... Well, I'm off...