Fabu-less

I really love this lantern. It's $269. I'm unwilling to pay that much for a light fixture right now, possibly ever...I'm cheap that way. I think it's really beautiful. I've wanted to improve the lighting in my entry way for a while, but I was just waiting to find something that was more affordable...or for the one pictured above to go on super-mega-ultra clearance, which rarely happens at "the barn."


Oh, but wait...I found something...

First, the before...not bad, just builder standard, too small, kinda blah...it's traditional, but its resemblance to a certain lady part has always kinda bothered me...hmmm...those parts are fine and all, but just not on my ceiling.

Last weekend I found Restore. Restore is an outlet for the Habitat for Humanity organization here in valley. It sells overstocked/unneeded supplies from current building projects as well as donated home improvement/home interior related items from the public at very low prices. It's located on Dobson and Southern in Mesa, AZ.

Here it is! I found my lantern at Restore for $20; I'm just thrilled with the deal I got on this! It's not perfect {it's brown, not as big or clean looking}, but it's just about as close as I'm gonna find for that price. JT hung it for me {ever so sweetly} on Saturday.

{Excuse my dust, as you can see my lazy paint job when I just painted around the old fixture...a method that I'll use again for this one (got the blue tape up already.) New problem: I have no idea what that paint color is! I got it from a friend who had some left over...I'm off to tackle that challenge, or maybe I'll just paint a bunch of white circles on the ceiling.}

Christmas #5, Chihuly, and a Christmas Tree Postmortem

We had Christmas celebration #5 with our aunt, uncle, and cousin over the weekend. I think we're done now. Really, for sure, done with Christmas.

We also went to see the Dale Chihuly {glass artiste extraordinaire, probably best known for this} exhibit at the Desert Botanical Garden. JT and I are fans of his work and were thrilled to see his pieces in person. His art is truly a great study in form and color...Awesome!

And a final note: It was suggested that wrapping three strands of Christmas lights up and down the entire trunk of a Christmas tree is a great way to add some sparkle. It certainly did add some sparkle, but I don't think that person had to wrestle those lights off of a dead, crispy tree. Ouch!

Good Bye Christmas of 08, hello 09!

Whirlwind Christmas Tour 2008

A breakdown of the stops on our Christmas tour:

Christmas Eve: Attended EVBC Christmas Eve service in the early afternoon, went to dinner at Gramma and Grampa Hendricks' house, attended another Christmas eve service at Sun Lakes Community Church, then back to their house to open presents.

Kiddos in the new Christmas Eve Jammies

Christmas Day: Got up early, opened a few family gifts, ate our traditional cinnamon rolls for breakfast, picked up the rental car, loaded it up, and headed up the hill to Payson to spend Christmas with Great Gramma B and Great Grampa Ray and various other cousins and family. It rained all day. It was beautiful. We almost got trapped by the rising river at the entrance to their home, so we had to leave before dinner. Tragically then, we ate Christmas Dinner at Denny's (the only thing that was open)...boo.

We spent that night in a hotel. I forgot to pack my toothbrush, contact lens solution, and contact storage case. JT had to go to two different gas stations in the freezing rain to find what I needed. He's so sweet.

Day After Christmas: Drove up the 87 to Clint's Well where we saw a lot of snow...We were totally under-dressed to play in that much snow, so we had to be content to just look. It was amazingly beautiful to see the pines draped with snow, their branches sagging under the weight of it.

Live ADOT image
It was 27 degrees...I'm such a cold weenie that there was no way I was going to even get out of the car to snap a pic, so this will have to do...

We drove back down the 260 to Prescott to have Christmas with Nana Hinton and Grandpa Tim. Had turkey and all the trimmings and opened gifts. We got home at around 11:30 Christmas night.

Day after the day after Christmas: Had a box of presents on the porch from Grandpa Trottier...more presents to open.

The kids are: s.p.o.i.l.e.d. and I am: e.x.h.a.u.s.t.e.d.

We are blessed to have so much family nearby, but I think next year we are staying home. : )

Done...well almost

I've got a few last minute things to finish up, but for the most part, the tree has been trimmed, presents purchased, halls decked, presents wrapped, and stockings hung.

I feel like it all came a bit too quickly this year. I heard yesterday that we had 5 less shopping days this year than last because of where Thanksgiving fell on the calendar...that's why I'm so behind! I felt a bit relieved hearing that.

I'm mildly obsessed with color coordinating my wrapping paper and ribbon. This year I went with white, silver, stripes, snowflakes, and this awesome teal/aqua color. I love that color so much its going to end up on some wall in my house somewhere!

Oh, and for those still waiting to receive our family Christmas cards, not gonna happen this year... I'm very sorry to disappoint. Come to think of it, I think Shannon was 2 the last time I actually sent out Christmas cards...Resolution #1: Send out Christmas cards next year! {I think I resolved that last year too}

Here's my blogosphere Christmas Card:

For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulders, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Isaiah 9:6

Merry Christmas to All and Have a Blessed New Year!!

Busy Decking the Halls...

I tackled some Christmas Decorating this weekend. We got our tree and put up some decorations. I've always wanted a foyer to decorate for the holidays. This is our 3rd Christmas in this home, and I'm finally getting around to sprucing it up a bit.

This was a fun little project. I wrapped some silver ribbon around some garland that my mom had given me. I got a couple of boxes of silver balls from Walmart for $2.50 each and got the beaded wreath from Home Goods (that store is dang.er.ous!)...and voila, a lovely, silvery, Christmasy foyer.

And, hey look, it's snowing on my blog. Got this cool snow widget here. Learned about it here.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

Another Savers Score

I picked up these lamps at Savers for only $7.99 each.

I plan to use them with this little plan below for my workspace in the dining area in my kitchen. I want to get two identical desks with the silver drawer unit in the middle. I'll put the printer on top of the little table underneath to get it off the desktop. One desk will be for the computer and the other will be for other projects and for the kids. Both desks will be topped off with my nifty thrifty lamps! Hopefully, I'll be able to make a dent in my Ikea office wish list for Christmas. I can get the two desks, the table, and the drawer unit for under $150 {Gotta love Ikea!}. The Tobias chair is $99, and I want two of them...so, we'll just save buying those till next year! : )

Ikea Office Space Wish List

I look forward to posting before and after pictures soon!

Wow, time to dust off this old blog o' mine. I always resolve to post more, but never seem to find the motivation...

But my beautiful girl turned 9 this week, so I've found some resolve in wanting to record the occasion. Instead of a party this year, we decided to just spend the day together as a family. Shannon had a half-day at school, so it worked out perfectly. We started out the day with Krispy Kremes for her class.

After that, we had a little mommy/daughter shopping time. Then we picked up our boys and headed to the movies. We all enjoyed the movie Bolt (Great movie! Hilarious and clever), feasted on really bad mall food, and finished off the day at Yogurberry. The perfect end to a really great day.

I'm so proud of my Shannon. She's a witty, smart, kooky, wonderful, imaginative, loving, energetic, enthusiastic, precocious girl. We are truly blessed. At 9 years, we're half-way to adulthood (that's a very scary thought...man, time goes so quickly) We've got only 9 more years to mess her up shape her into a fine, upstanding young adult. I pray earnestly for God's help...I think the next 9 years with her are going to be quite the adventure!

Love you, Shannon Grace.

Shot #113

I've made it a little over 3 months. The drug company sent me a lame card to mark the occasion of 90 sticks in 90 days.

I never thought I would see the day when giving myself a shot everyday would become part of my routine, but it has. They said it would, but I strongly believed that poking myself with a needle would be anything but routine...oh, the blessing of time to change one's perspective.

I'm doing much better actually. I've spent all summer waiting for summer to be over, and now that it is, I feel almost back to normal. {Heat in some MS'rs exacerbates symptoms, unfortunately that's me, and unfortunately the desert is my home.} Even in just the last 2 weeks, I've felt more like myself, like the fog of fatigue that's been hovering over my body for 6 months is finally lifting. I feel free. I pray that these 111 sticks are working their way to repairing the damage that MS has made to my brain. I feel like they are.

I also stopped taking a drug called Provigil that was supposed to be helping with the fatigue. Turns out it was making it worse. I was losing weight rapidly, my heart raced all the time, and then I started having thoughts that were a little out of character for me...the type of thoughts that are listed on the drug information under stop-taking-this drug-immediately-if-you-experience-these-symptoms...so, needless to say, I stopped taking the medicine. I still have days that are hard to get through, but those days seem fewer than before. I do feel much, much better.

I pray that the desert summer of '09 will not be a repeat of the one I just endured. Hopefully, by next year I'll have enough Copaxone in my system to prevent an attack, and therefore, I'll be spared the fatigue that comes along with it.

Sunday, JT and I hiked up to Wind Cave at Usery Mountain Park. It was a tough climb for me. I felt pretty weak, but I also felt really invigorated to be in the mountains, enjoying the beautiful {yet dusty} view of the valley below, and breathing in the crisp November air. I pray that I can use this winter to get strong {read: get back to the gym!} and continue to heal and end up on the other side of this relapse stronger than I was before.

Through this whole experience, I've grown by leaps and bounds in my faith. I'm so thankful for that. God always answers prayer, whether the answer be yes, no, or not yet, He always answers.* It has also been reinforced to me continually that this life is not all there is, not even close. The tight grip I have on wanting more stuff and desiring easy circumstances grows ever weaker in the grasp of the Father's Hand on my life.

*Borrowed that from Mark Driscoll. You can hear the awesome sermon he preached on prayer here.

I think I'm happy...for now.

I did a little more tweaking to the blog, and I'm happy with it. I'm still not happy with any pictures of myself currently in iphoto for my profile. I have this one up...it's my grandmother...if you know me, it's kinda freaky how much I look like her. I think this was taken sometime in the late 1930's. She was probably around 20 years old. Her birthday is next week. She would have been 91. She passed away in November of 1992. I'll leave her up for a while in honor of her passing.

Happy Hallo-Reformation-ween Day

October 31st is Reformation day. This day in 1517, Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses to the Castle Church door and changed the world.

Oh yeah, and it's the day that we gorge ourselves on candy and dress up. Hail to the official start of the weight gain holiday season.

Let the Chocolate Insanity Begin!