a documentary {in pictures} of a happy girl and her bed-head

Kim, if you're reading this, I stand corrected. No amount of Noodle and Boo anything can fix brillo-pad bed-head. I think Vaseline may be our only hope!

Laughter is the best medicine . . .

The tooth fairy came . . . about two years too early!

Other appropriate titles for this post might be "My Snaggle-Tooth Sweetie" or "Benjamin and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day".

A perfectly happy Friday afternoon turned sour unexpectedly. After surviving three days of non-stop 102-104 degree fever, Ben finally woke up well. It was so good to see him full of energy, talking non-stop, back to his busy-little-boy normal self. After a week cooped up in the house, some sort of an excursion was fast-becoming a necessity. We high-tailed it to see Daddy at the office, a rare and special treat. While happily bopping in and out of his dad's office, Ben tripped. Not the kind of trip where you gasp and catch yourself. This was more in keeping with a major league baseball player diving into home, face-first. And his pearly whites made direct contact with the leg of a chair.

I knew he was hurt. His mouth was hanging open and he wasn't making any noise. I scooped him up and began the trusted whispers of 'hang on' and 'it's okay, baby', but Greg was behind me frantically telling me to look at Ben's mouth. CRUD. It wasn't good. We ran down the hallway to the bathroom and started trying to put cold wet paper towels in his mouth, but this was a serious injury. Paper towels weren't really helping. At all. Greg took over in the bathroom and I called my precious dentist who told us she'd stay on the phone to walk us through pushing the teeth back into place. Um, WHAT???? We decided we'd meet her at her office. Nothing beats five o'clock traffic on a Friday with your traumatized, screaming child in the backseat and a super-cranky one-year old who wants her milk. Never mind the fact that I was now hysterically sobbing {I suffer from major dentaphobia}.

The next part gets a little fuzzy. Some of the details include me holding a terrified child on my lap while the dentist tried to push the tooth back into place. I distinctly remember the tooth flying through the air and lots of blood. Ben was screaming. Something was said about part of the tooth still being way up in there . . . I promptly excused myself to the ladies room, where I laid down on the bathroom floor and put my feet up on the toilet. More hysterical crying on my part . . . Lots more, actually.

We're probably not entirely done with this bump in the road . . . Two more teeth are question marks . . . Root canals may be necessary. X-rays will help to determine if his permanent teeth might have been damaged. I seriously wish we had dental coverage.

The best part is my Ben. He's okay. He was okay long before I was okay. Tonight he's checked out his new gap in the mirror about seventeen times. And he's just darling with the new window in his smile. He looks a wee-bit more of mess to me, but I'm his mother, and I'm allowed to think that.

Aunt Coco checked on us this morning and wanted to know how we were going to spend our day. I told her we'd probably just play on the drive-way {we love to do this, it's a huge driveway, and we haul out all kinds of ride-on toys}. Coco said, "I think you should stick to the grass."

My precious friends have cheered me. My family has supported me. I've never felt so loved. It's going to be okay.

Pictures soon of the little darling.

What's old is new again . . .

This sweet old rocking chair was in my nursery. My mother refinished it some thirty-something years ago, while awaiting my arrival. I'm told often that I was a bad colicky baby, and that my mother rocked me non-stop for the first year of my life. After spending several years in my parent's attic, and then several more in my garage, it finally received it's long awaited make-over.


Somehow I managed to stuff the chair in the front seat of my car. I sped over to The Collection so Gretchen {owner and master painter} could work her magic! I adore Gretchen and her two lovely daughters. I also adore their store! Paint, distressing and glaze made the old chair look farmhouse-old. Sweet, soft linen from Calico Corners was chosen to go with Cameron's soft grey walls . . . Once the paint dried I hauled my little rocking chair to the upholstery shoppe for some fake down and a corner-pleated flat welt cushion.

Voila! It was finished & delivered Christmas Eve's Eve. Perfect timing to go under the tree, a little bit of family history for my Cameron-Girl. We've already logged some serious snuggle time together, rocking happily away in her sweet room.

Big Daddy & Kate, thank you for saving this lovely chair. Thank you too for Cameron's Christmas bucks, which paid for it's new look. I think it just made heirloom status.

A spoonful of sugar . . .

103.2 is not fun. Sweet Benjamin has only just recovered from a round of the crud. The runny nose {his and hers} and late-nite coughing {mine, all mine} is behind us. A round of antibiotics cleared up an ear infection. Sadly, a nasty new virus showed up today.

This is Ben's constant companion. Bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, ready to play monster trucks or hide-and-seek. A perfect 98.6 degrees.



R&R is hard to come by with Cameron by one's side! I think their expressions say it all!!

Old favorites & a new look

Keep calm and carry on!
-The Queen of England

We lived very simply but with all the essentials of life well understood and provided for: hot baths, cold champagne, new peas and old brandy.
-Winston S. Churchill

Be pretty if you can, be witty if you must, but be gracious if it kills you.
-Elsie de Wolfe

May the warm winds of heaven blow softly on this house. May God bless all who enter here.
-unknown, but may soon find it's way into my home, traced softly on the stairs . . .

Love feels no burden, thinks nothing of trouble, attempts what is above its strength, pleads no excuse of impossibility... It is therefore able to undertake all things, and it completes many things, and warrants them to take effect, where he who does not love would faint and lie down. Love is watchful and sleeping, slumbereth not. Though weary, it is not tired; though pressed, it is not straitened; though alarmed, it is not confounded.

The expression we live by . . . The one that best reflects spilled milk, cookie crumbs, lost keys and more . . . C'est la vie!

My mother and I still talk about writing a book of favorite quotes, bits of wisdom, cherished words otherwise stored in our minds. Maybe we'll accomplish that goal, cook all the recipes, and stay caught up with the children and their laundry. Maybe not! That's life!

Double Trouble

Try my patience. Melt my heart. One right after the other.

They're trouble, these two, and they're usually two steps ahead of me!

The Odd Couple

She'd dance the night away with Rocky if her big brother would let her . . .

Deep Thoughts by Benjamin James

Greg enjoyed nearly two weeks off over the holiday. We've gotten very accustomed to having him around . . . Monday morning Daddy left us, much to our dismay.

Me: Ben, today we begin Daddy Detox.

Ben: I think we're going to need some walkie-talkies and some chocolate.


Recently, hanging out in the kitchen with both kids, we had the following conversation:

Me: Ben, do you know who I love?

Ben: Um, who?

Me: Well, I love you & Cameron & Daddy. And Ellie! Oh, let's not forget Kate & Big Daddy, Coco & Dustin & Paige, Mimi & Papa, Aunt 'Lissa, Uncle Bread, Ca-Cay, Jacob & Matthew. I love Jesus & God, too. And I love Sadie and Tessie.

Ben: Well, I love you and Daddy and Cameron and Ellie . . . And Mommy?

Me: What Ben?

Ben: Cameron, well, she just loves herself.


This past week Ben whacked his precious friend Sam in the head. Sherry {Sam's mom} overhead the altercation, and walked into the room to find Ben kissing poor Sam and saying, "You know Sam, I wouldn't hit you if you didn't make me so mad."

A Clean Slate

2010 will be busy. But I think it might have a little more room in it for some of my big dreams than it's predecessor.

Design. So many ideas with a shoe-string budget. Soft linen window treatments for the living room and study. I'd love to go ahead and get a seagrass rug for the dining room. I adore my living room seagrass, and I also dig the price tag. The utility room is begging for a giant message board, complete with a lovely linen fabric and some nailhead trim. I want to repaint {well, for Leo to repaint} the exterior of our home. I want to change the front door & the doorbell hardware. Greg wants new interior door hardware, and I want to paint all the doors a soft dove-grey. Still need to find that fireplace screen. The kitchen deserves it's own post, so I'll save that for later . . . Big changes & little changes for this sweet house.

Personal goals . . . Read the Bible more. Pray more. Love harder. FOCUS. I really need to work on my patience with the little people who love to try it. Blog more. Take more photographs. Long walks with B & C. Cook from scratch. Write letters. Be on time. Make sweet tea, from scratch, with the help of the sunshine. Garden with my children.

There are things I don't want to do . . . Stress so much. Yell {I hate yelling}. I'm cancelling any magazine I take with four-letter words. This list should be my longest, so I'll have to keep working on it!

I love fresh starts. I'm a girl, so a happy ending holds sentimental value. But there's nothing like a clean slate, a new beginning, a blank piece of paper. 2010, here I come!

In the Spot Light!

Prince Charming really outdid me on Anniversary No. 9 this year.

Before I post any pictures, I'm going to get personal {sorry}. I love design. It's a big part of who I am. I know that when God planned me, knit me together, He knew I'd love beautiful things. And while I do, very much so, love beautiful things . . . I am so blessed to know that they are, in fact, just things. So please know, when I go on and on about paint or hardware or lovely little garden gems or anything French, it's just a great love of mine. The greatest love is Him. I also happen to be pretty sweet on the gift-giver mentioned above.

Okay, her long-awaited debut . . .

I loved this house the minute I walked in the front door. I loved the windows and the light. The living room has two-story ceilings. The previous {original} owner never put a chandelier in the room. It was boxed/wired, thankfully, so I seized my opportunity!

To Greg and Uncle Bread {Brett}, and of course Ms. Michele for the van transportation and Mr. David for the truck-loan, thank you for all your hard work. Benjamin wants to say thank you for bringing a twenty foot ladder to his home {he's alone in his gratitude}.

I love it. I think it's perfect. Rock on, Ms. Italian Wooden Chandelier, rock on with your bad self!

Catching my breath . . .

Whirlwind!! That describes Christmas around these parts! So do the words wonderful, cozy, family-filled. Three kiddos, three puppies, six very hungry happy grown-ups {myself included} made for a house bursting at the seams with JOY!!

I only took seventeen pictures. But I had a blast. Usually I'm behind the camera. This time I was in front of the kitchen sink so much, that when I found the break I craved, I jumped right in, camera happily forgotten!

Christmas Eve candlelight service, lasagna frozen through after an hour of cooking, a Christmas tree loaded with goodies, Santa's many fun surprises, stocking for the big kids, too. Most of all, the gift of forever in heaven with our Maker.

Coco, Dustin, Paigers, Kate & Big Daddy . . . Thanks for making the long trip South. It was the best Christmas ever!

Gerg Schmerg

Sorry Ladies, he's taken.

And he just became a lot more desirable.

He's officially an architect!!

Anybody need custom house plans?

Bonnie's Apple Walnut Salad

There is nothing like Bonnie's Apple Walnut Salad. It's perfection. And the red is so pretty on a holiday table. Super easy, super special . . .

1 egg

1/2 cup sugar

1 cup buttermilk

1 tbsp vinegar

1 tbsp flour

several red apples

walnuts

Combine flour & sugar, add egg, add vinegar, add buttermilk. Cook until thick, while stirring. Cool. Pour over diced apples and walnuts.

Darling Bonnie and her family are so very dear to me. They've been friends of my family for many years. Their son Stephen passed away yesterday. Please cover Bonnie & Red's family with your prayers.

For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 8:38-39

Power Cookies

Power Cookies

2 c. brown sugar
2 c. white sugar
¾ cup butter
1 c. shortening
4 eggs
2 tsp. vanilla
3 c. flour
2 tsp. salt
2 tsp. baking soda
3 c. oats, uncooked
2 c. coconut
2 c. craisins
1 c. choc chips (I use more like 1-1/2 cups)
1 c. chopped nuts

Cream the brown sugar, white sugar, butter and shortening together. Beat in the eggs and vanilla. Combine four, salt and soda; beat into first mixture. Add remaining ingredients and knead into first mixture. Drop by heaping teaspoons, 2 inches apart, on greased baking sheet. Bake in 350 oven about 10 minutes or unit browned. Let cool about 1 minute before removing from cookie sheet.

If dough is cold I cook an extra couple of minutes . . .

*Can roll into logs, wrap, chill/freeze then slice and bake.

Duck, Duck, Goose!

There were lots of ducks, much to Ben & Cameron's delight, at the little Shadowbend Pond on Thanksgiving afternoon. Cameron was the only goose!

Another "After"

The stone is complete! I'm pleased as punch with how it turned out! The game plan is to lose the glass doors, and get a pretty fireplace screen. I'm currently drooling over the following . . . Another project I'll be working on is getting my youngest to sit on the sofa, not the coffee table.

Thankful

I am so thankful. All of this, every good thing, gifts from my Father. I am so thankful.
-James 1:17

Before and after . . . Almost!

Picture taken from MLS listing . . . As in, before we even moved in.

I knew the mantle would have to go as soon as I entered the room.

I took this picture during inspection. It doesn't really capture the early 90's feel of this glossy orange oak mantle and slightly peachy flesh-toned tile. The giant TV space to the left of the fireplace had more of the glossy orange wood above it. The cheery yellow paint clashed perfectly!

Still trying to figure out the best solution {not to mention least expensive} to the lovely glass doors with brass and oak trim. Take out the doors? Paint the brass? Remove the old mesh screens currently covered with dust?


Today the paint is dry! And not a moment too soon. About an hour after Leo {my fabulous painter} left Benjamin put his sweet little hand print right in the middle of the new satin finish on the bookcases.

Stone surround and hearth go in tomorrow morning. Construction dust is happy dust!

It's going to be pretty just in time for the holidays!
Stay tuned, more pictures soon.

House Notes Part Two

The hideous family room fireplace is GONE!!!! Wet paint today and tomorrow. Pictures by Monday, promise.

We're good. We're great! Survived short but miserable colds. Cameron survived another round of teething. We may even get out the play-room Christmas tree this weekend.

More soon . . .

In the mean time, here's my handy-man and his make-shift tool belt.

Aunt Coco can't believe he's already stuffing his undies!!! Aunt Coco doesn't have a boy!