Mental excercise.

My children sustain me.

They do this while I am in aerobics.

When we are lifting weights and the instructor is counting down repetitions, and I

just.

don't.

think.

I can do.

one.

more...

...with those last four lifts, I think of my kids:

Paige {pant}

Trevor {grunt}

Preston {GRUNT}

and Gavin {sigh of relief}


Truly, this works.
Plus, I'd feel really bad if I didn't finish and left one of them out.

Spring Sports Finale

This last weekend the kids finished their sports for the season. The boys had their last kickball game at the Peoria Sports Complex where the pros do spring training. The boys thought it was so awesome. They even displayed all the kids names {for some reason, it didn't take when I took the pic of Preston's name}.

So here are our Royal Blue T-Rex Cardinals {Steve let them pick the name}:

Coach Daddy is the best, seriously. He is so phenomenal with little kids.

****************

Paige finished strong with volleyball. She scored 5 points at one turn up to serve!! She is a great server and isn't afraid of the ball. {My camera died so not a lot of pics!}

{wierd, but cool.}

Go Lady Tigers!

Cousins!

This past weekend my brother and his family came down from California to visit. The kids had a blast with their cousins and we got some great photo ops:

Trev, Elijah, and Pres

And there are their twins, Rachel and Lauren.

Paige & Elijah getting their groove on.

Swimming in our backyard in the 100 degree heat!

Aunt Becca and Gav

Preston attacking Uncle Jared while he traces Lauren.

My little brother and I before they left.

Trevor's Preschool Graduation

These little people are so adorable. Trevor looked forward to this occasion with much anticipation.

Doing their Mexican Hat Dance song.

Thank you Miss Jaimi--you're awesome!

My first landscape.

I painted this.

What d'ya think?

I painted it for my friend's bedroom re-do, below. Now I wish I had a copy for my house, too! Now I'm not afraid to start that mural for my boys' room...

Bedroom Re-do

A few weeks ago, I had a blast helping my friend spruce up her master bedroom. Here is a before:

And after some chocolate paint and a few warm touches:

{We still have more to add up there.}

Mother's Day

Me and my peeps on Mother's Day with my stash.

{yes, that is a scrub brush--it was on my list, along with salad spinner--I'm officially a mom}

Currently...

...I am typing with sore, paint-covered fore-arms. Another one of my spontaneous painting projects: I just painted an accent wall in our guest room with some left-over paint and I love, love it. Steve came home from Young Men's and I had the roller in hand. His response, "Your late-night energy astounds me."

...I am listening to my husband yelling at the TV for someone to "help protect the pilot!" in the movie, "Snakes on a Plane". Seriously. This is true.

...I am going through the list of things to do before my little bro and his family come to visit tomorrow. Sheets, towels, mop....

...I am wanting to set up my dearest friend from the "Y" days on a date with Steve's cousin...

...I am debating if we go see "Stomp" in NYC. Already have "Mary Poppins" tickets, but heard Stomp is awesome, too. Ooh, or maybe "West Side Story"...

...I want to bake my delicious, no-fail chocolate chip cookies. See? Late-night energy.

...I am thankful for Paige's 2nd grade teacher. They are studying fairy-tales and she sent home a permission slip for the kids to watch Shrek (PG) in the classroom next week. I have never seen any of these movies all the way through, but have seen enough that we don't let our kids watch them--crude, rude dudes and way-too-adult humor. {I apologize if you're a fan, but we're on my blog, so there it is.} So, I emailed teacher and said that Paige would sit out...I found out Paige was the only one who would've been excluded and my mommy-guilt set in heavily...well, in the end, teacher decided she didn't want Paige to miss out so she changed the movie all-together.

This is when I know Heavenly Father cares about the tiny sparrow that falls, about the tiny details of our lives: See, my Paigie was sad, and I felt sad about her being left-out. But in the end, after trying to stick to what my gut told me {aka the Spirit}, He blessed us both with a happier outcome.

...I need to stop typing so I can watch the recorded A. Idol and see who is in the Finale!

Me. In a 4x3 box.

This was the biggest waste of time...and also fun. 'Cause we all know wasting time can be much fun sometimes. 'Specially when it's all about you, you, and you. Here's how:

step 1: go to flickr.com
setp 2: in another window open http://bighugelabs.com/flickr/mosaic.php
step 3: choose 4 columns, 3 rows
step 4: answer the following questions in the search bar of flicker. pick your favorite photo and paste it into your mosaic.

step 5: when done, SAVE your mosaic before you do anything else or you will lose it.

1. What is your first name?
2. What is your favorite food?
3. What school did you go to?
4. What is your favorite color?
5. Who is your celebrity crush?
6. Favorite drink?
7. Dream vacation?
8. Favorite dessert?
9. What you want to be when you grow up?
10. What do you love most in life?
11. One word to describe you.
12. Your nickname.

What do you look like when placed in a box?

P.S.: For those who did not have the pleasure of sitting through Humanities 101, my #11 is "The Thinker" by Rodin. No, I do not describe myself as a disrobed, ochre-colored man.

P.S.dos: Let me forewarn you about questionable photographs that you may or may not encounter as you type in perfectly innocent answers to the above questions. {Thanks for nothin', Flickr}.

A Big Apple bite.

We just finished making our reservations for our NYC trip in 3 weeks--wahoo! We are going to be staying at the Crowne Plaza at Times Square. Which seems to be insanely placed right where it indicates--Times Square! {Note to self: bring earplugs for sleeping at night.} We debated staying there or more upper West Side with tree-lined streets and close to Central Park, but our overwhelming advice was, Stay close to the action.

This will be our 10th Anniversary trip, just my husband and me. Oh, what will we do with ourselves?...We'll paint the town red, that's what!

Why New York? Well, first of all, Broadway, hello? I must see Broadway, and since my chances of seeing it from center-stage-looking-out are slim to zero, I will take the Mezzanine!

Secondly, this trip began 10 years ago when Steve and I were engaged. I had already planned a trip with my roommates to the City That Never Sleeps--we had tickets, ready to go. Well, then Mr. Owens came along, put me on Cloud 9 {which is really far from NYC}, and asked me to marry him on a day that would be just weeks after the planned New York trip....

I decided not to go. I did not see wisdom in spending all this money just weeks before we were to become poor newlyweds anyway. Not to mention the fact that the mere thought of being away from him longer than a night's sleep seemed like a rare form of torture. {P.S. I still feel this way.}

He always promised to take me there and so, a decade and many credit card points later, that day has come. We are giddy with the prospect of New York Bagels, New York Pizza, New York Bakeries....oh, and other stuff that's not food.

Anyone been there? Any fabulous hole-in-the-wall haunts that we should know of? {Danielle, remind me of the name of those you were telling me about...}

**And lastly, we are crossing fingers that the Swine don't interrupt our plans.**

Fathers and sons campout

The countdown was over.

Our boys got down and dirty and had a grand adventure.

The verdict:

**Oh, and in case you were wondering--I got a sitter for Gavin, and Paige and I had a girls night out at the Hannah Montana Movie. { I actually thought it was a really cute movie and am quite interested in the soundtrack. }

A visit from Her Majesty.

I feel famous.

Bakerella just visited our blog and commented. Commented!

She was requesting pics of cake-pops or balls that any readers may have tried, so I clued her in on my attempt. And then she graced us with her cyber-presence.

Excuse me whilst I go make more poor man's attempts to duplicate her delicious brilliance.

Excess

Never go to excess, but let moderation be your guide.

~Marcus Tullius Cicero

Moderation. An inspired notion. I think a person {let's call her, Visa--no pun intended} can live in moderation of most things, content with what she has. However, in regard to the following items, we can see that these words of counsel have fallen on deaf ears. Translation: See below for items in which a person can simply have TOO many:

Pillows. Someone stop me.

Cards of greeting, coming out of my ears. Mostly found on clearance that I just couldn't resist. Thank you. Thinking of You. Happy Birthday. But mostly, Blank, just because...





Ribbons. rIbBoNs. RIBBONS.

Cookie cutters. Everything from A-Z. {Literally. Can you see the alphabet?}

Maple leaf. Check.

Miniature chili pepper. Check.

Rubber ducky. Check.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

On the contrary, there are certain things in which a person may never want to be found in moderation. For example, her love of God and family, or her devotion to her beliefs. Right? These are things in which we would not want to be found "lukewarm". {I just read this talk, and so I'm on one. Now, back to the lighter side of things...}

The following are more things, tangible or not, of which this person would prefer her life always be in excess:

Hearty laughter.

Time.

Skim milk. Honestly.

This...

...and that...

...and this...

...and an extra dose of this, please.

Never too much of this.