And the Disney Countdown Begins!!!

I am so excited about this Christmas because the hubs and I are giving the kids a Disney cruise for their "big" present. Well, we are not setting sail for a few months, so I wanted to come up with a way to keep their excitement up for the trip. By the way, we are sailing to Mexico and we have dear friends coming along with us! We are so blessed!!!

Anyway, I decided the little bits needed a countdown calendar to look at each day, and I wanted to incorporate some fun facts or questions about the trip. I scoured the web and mostly pinterest to find some great ideas for a Disney theme countdown. By the way, my friend that is coming on the trip is making a countdown too, so hopefully she will share about hers on her blog...I can't wait to see what she came up with.

There are tons of great ideas out there! I love the cookie sheet calendars that have coordinating magnets with them, but this would not work for me because we have quite a few days left and there just was not enough room on a cookie sheet. However, I do want to make one of these for Christmas next year! I also did not want a huge poster hanging in our house for months.

As it happens, I saw where someone else had used a clipboard and Mickey Mouse heads for a countdown, thus the idea was born. I would make a cruise theme clipboard with pull off "portholes" for each day and make sure to have special trivia questions printed on the back of each porthole. For those of you that want to make your own clipboard countdown and save some time, grab a bunch of the Disney paint chip cards from Lowe's and write numbers on them...plus it is free!

After a few sheets of special scrapbook paper, a clip board from Michael's, hours on the computer creating Minnie and Mickey portholes, some ribbon, and mod podge, I had a cute clipboard countdown. Now I just have to wrap it up and place it under the Christmas tree. I hope the kids have a great time counting down and answering all the questions about Mexico and Disney. Just Saying and Praying!

Awkward Family Photo

I am terrible at blogging. I recently got a job (will write about that another day) and my time to sit at the computer and write is just about gone. Today has been a quiet Saturday at home with zero activities planned, so I had to post about my lovely anniversary experience and how I scored my very own awkward family photo...with lasting memories to boot. Oh, and if you haven't checked out all the awkward family photos online here is the link: AwkwardFamilyPhotos.com, and here our anniversary story:

Hubs and I celebrated our 8th anniversary last month. We are not the types to go all out for these kind of things (maybe we will for year 10 or something). Seriously, every day we spend with each other is a celebration (there! had to go a tiny bit mushy since it IS our anniversary I am writing about). Anyway, we decided that since this was a big day we should at least go out to eat. Since we are not the best planners in the world, we neglected to get a sitter. Next best thing...Benihana (Hibachi grill)! We thought that Benihana would keep the kids engaged while we talked about love stuff (not really, but sounds good for the occasion). Well this plan worked out well! Their behavior was as good as we could have hoped for. Everything was LOVELY, until it came to the end of the dinner. You see, at Benihana they ask you if you are celebrating anything specific. I should have just kept my mouth shut. Trying to redeem ourselves from our lazy attitude about the day, we (okay...I) let the server know that we were celebrating our anniversary. I really thought that I might get a free dessert or something, but what we got was an awkward balloon heart that the kids fought over and an even more awkward family photo.

Let me frame this awkward family photo in words: 8th anniversary, ugly balloon heart, happy couple in Tshirts, one kid refusing to get in the picture and one kid grabbing her mom's boob (she did not mean to).

Well, that is it...our 8th anniversary and life in one snap shot. Hey, at least they behaved!

Here's to many, many more years living just like this (because I love every minute of it)...just saying and praying!

There's a party in my tummy...

So yummy! So yummy! These are the words from a Yo Gabba Gabba tune that really gets stuck in your head. I wish that my kids would sing this every time I cooked for them, but meal times seem to be a hit or a miss. They have their favorites and I try to hide as many veggies in these favs as possible, but I really want them to appreciate food and learn to love the veggies. One vegetable they love is corn! They will eat it any way I serve it, so I love to try new ways to prepare corn and the other veggies they do love. The recipe below is for a corn souffle! This was a hit right away with them, and now I have yet another way to prepare one of their favs.

Corn Souffle

Ingredients: 1 can cream style corn, 1 egg beaten, 3 T butter, 1/2 cup milk, 2 T flour, 3 T sugar

Combine all ingredients. Pour into a greased baking dish. Bake at 350 for 1 hour +, or until knife inserted in the middle comes out clean.

We are having this tonight, and I hope that they gobble it down and ask for seconds. Just saying and praying!

You Get What You Pay For

Yesterday the whole family (we have two family visitors in town this week) went out to the beach. We went to Fort Ord Dunes State Park. It was so beautiful out there and I love the walk to the beach. You have to walk through a valley between two big sand dunes. There are plenty of pieces of driftwood out there to sit on and get comfortable. The kids wore bathing suits and tried to brave the cold water, but mainly played in the sand and enjoyed trying to dig to China.

The adults had the most fun. We had bought an awesome kite from REI before heading out. I was a little hesitant about the price of the kite. The most I have ever paid for a kite is probably $10, but I wanted a really cool kite like you see all the other people flying. REI is awesome about returns, so I was willing to take a chance on the kite. We ended up paying $57 for the Jazz stunt kite...not the most expensive one, but not the cheapest.

I am sure you can find this kite online or somewhere else cheaper, but we are fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants kind of people and we wanted to fly a kite THAT day. All you planners out there can do some price comparisons. Anyway, I had an awesome time flipping and zooming this kite at the beach. It would make all these great noises as it zoomed through the air. It had two lines and was for beginners, so it was very fun to learn how to control it in the air. It was a kite dream come true. I have always hassled with kites and run as fast as I could to make them get air, but this one was so easy. I guess you really do get what you pay for. Now I am thinking about the more expensive one for the next trip. Just saying and praying!

Celebrating Your Travels with Home Decor

You can share and celebrate all the places you have been and seen in unique ways. I like to use wall art and creative home decor. There are so many options and ways to get creative, but here are a few of my favorite.

I love my grouping of vintage postcard prints for all the states we have lived in. Still need to add a California print, but then that would mess up the symmetry. Some say "Greetings from" and some are the states with interesting landmarks marked. I ordered the foam backed prints from art.com and framed them myself.

One of my dear friends in Alaska had a map that she put different colored pins in marking their travels. You could have a different color pin for each person in your family. It was a great conversation piece and one that everyone talked about. I love, love, love this one from Frontgate. It is magnetic and even has an engravable magnetic plaque. I would rather my kids use the magnets to mark the places we have been.

Speaking of magnets, buying state magnets and arranging them on the fridge is a wonderful thing for the kids to do. It would be fun to search for and collect them on each trip.

There are some really great pillow options out there too! The felt state shaped ones on the end are customizable. You can get different colors and have the heart placed anywhere you want. I bought one of these for my Sis-in-law from http://www.alwaysfits.com/, but you can purchase them from a seller on etsy as well. Better yet, make your own! The first pillow is the cheapest of the three, and has a vintage feel, and the middle pillow is hand embroidered and can be found at http://www.uncommongoods.com/. All of these would make great gifts!

Another different home decor idea are lampshades. Below are two that I found online while shopping around. The first shade is covered with vintage California postcards. The second ones from uncommon goods have the "greetings from" motif. Not sure if these would go in my house, but they interesting none the less.

I try to pick things up as I go. If I can make a sled work in California, I am sure anyone can make any treasure work in their home.

I think the best home decor ideas to help me celebrate and remember all the places I have been are the ones I pick up on my travels. Oftentimes they are the most inexpensive (or free) but precious things I have. So I will try not to be afraid to display those things that help me remember and see where I have been and where I am going.

Just saying and praying!

Extreme Couponing

Today I tried my version of the extreme couponing thing. The best I have ever done before is clip a coupon and hope I remember to use it, so this time I wanted to take it a step further and shop the ads and print online coupons. I wanted to give this couponing thing a real good effort. Well here is how my one stop couponing shop went.

My grocery store had a special where I could buy 3 boxes of cereal and get 3 free, then I stacked on two manufacturers $1 off coupons (printed from the internet). So, my 6 boxes of cereal cost $9.28. Not bad considering I got three different kinds.

I used a store coupon I had for some beans, an internet coupon for fruit snacks, and really studied the weekly ad to make sure I was buying the right things at the right price.

I did find one surprising coupon online. It was from KC Masterpiece. They had a coupon for $2 off pork ribs when you bought one bottle of their BBQ sauce. That sounded like something I might enjoy for dinner tonight, so I printed the coupon and hoped it would work on the pork ribs. I had no idea you could use coupons on meat, but low and behold my pork ribs ended up being $2 less. When I asked an associate where the BBQ sauce was, she said I had just missed a buy one get two free on KC masterpiece products. That would have been an awesome thing considering there is also a KC Masterpiece coupon in the sunday stuffer (I was just too lazy to go looking for the paper). So if I had bought that stuff 2 days ago I could have gotten 3 bottles of BBQ sauce for around $1.69 and have still gotten my $2 off the pork ribs. Can you see how this could be addicting?

All in all, I spent 63.08, and thanks to coupons and buying store specials I saved $42.75. That is 41%! Not bad for my first time. Downside, I spent the WHOLE morning looking at the weekly ads and scouring the internet. Not sure if it is worth it, but I will definitely try it again. Today I am happy I saved a little money on things we buy anyway. Just saying and praying!

Constant Tourist

As a military family, we are constantly moving from state to state. For some of you out there this might seem like a terrible thing to have to do, but for me it is so much fun (I am really just trying to convince myself here).

So here are my top ten reasons I love to move (for those of you in the same sort of boat, make a top ten for yourself...who knows, it may make the next move a little easier)

10. Moving is an excuse to get rid of things you no longer need or like.
Go ahead and have that yard sale!

9. You can turn your move into a vacation.
I like to plan fun hotels to stay in like The Great Wolf Lodge, or pick interesting side trips along our way.


8. While packing or unpacking, I always find those long lost treasures I forgot I even had.
This last move I unpacked a box with the cutest little antique ice cream dishes that I had purchased years ago and were not unpacked from the previous move. They are now proudly displayed in the china cabinet.


7. The kids think it is Christmas.
I swear mine kept asking if they could unpack more "presents". I kinda feel the same way. I really enjoy opening the boxes!

6. You get to meet and make new friends.
Although it is hard to leave friends when you move, moving has afforded me the opportunity to meet the most interesting people. I have made wonderful, lasting friendships that take one phone call, text or email to start right back where we left off. Friends, I love you all.

5. Moving makes me realize how small a world we really live in.
It happens every move...I meet someone that went to my same college (WAR EAGLE) or knew one of my friends from high school and many more crazy coincidences. The military aspect makes the world feel even smaller. We tend to bump back into other military friends all the time, and look forward to the next time it happens.

4. I think I get a little bit more organized every move.
Not sure how many moves it will take to get to Martha Stewart status, but I am well on my way.

3. Moving is an excuse to buy new things!
I have friends that bought a travel trailer just for their cross country move. For me, I just moved to California, so I think it is high time I buy some rainbow flip flops!

2. Every time we move somewhere new, family wants to come visit.
I consider this a huge positive. I love sharing my life with my family.

1. I get to be a constant tourist!
I try to make the most of every new place. I want to see it all and find every tourist trap I can.

Here's to my friends from all different lands.
May your next travels be safe and full of fun!
Many blessings for my two traveling brothers.

Just saying and praying!

Anywhere But Alaska

"Anywhere but Alaska!" Those were the words I spoke when hubs asked me where I would like to move next. As the words were leaving my mouth, I knew without a shadow of a doubt, Alaska was right where we were headed. It did not matter the context, I had said "Alaska" and Alaska it would be. That was in October 2008 and now, 2 plus years later, I miss Alaska terribly. God knows the desires of my heart before even I do, and this move was yet another prime example of his generosity. I am humbled and grateful at the ways my Savior chooses to bless me, despite me. What matters is the God did send me to Alaska, and I am forever grateful to him for ordering my steps in this most divine way.

In a way, my time in the Last Frontier, was a time of growth and exploration. I felt like I was seeing deeper and deeper into the heart of God just by being around such natural beauty. He created all these things. It was his will and he should be praised for this. Revelations 4:11 says, "You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they were created and have their being." Again, it was his will and I am so blessed to get to experience this pleasing nature. Praise God! I saw the aurora borealis dance across the sky, experienced the winter and summer solstice closer to the polar caps than I ever had before, watched bald eagles soar across Sunday morning skies, laughed at a Great Dane chasing a moose down my street, looked upon the gorgeous mountains surrounding me, marvelled at a breaching humpback, walked along a glacier, wondered at the mass of a floating ice berg, caught a perfect-for-eating size halibut, crossed a frozen lake on a snow machine and just enjoyed every minute of God's creation in Alaska. It does not matter where I am, I can find joy in His creations, but there is something amazing about being in God's will and Alaska at the same time. Hope he has plans to send me back sometime. Just Saying and Praying!