Nothing Like Getting Beautified!

Today was great!  I was able to get some much needed girls time but also share in the fun with my kiddos! (well at least Haley). One of my great friends is also licensed cosmetologist and she does awesome hair!
She came over and so did 2 of my other friends and Sheena ended up doing highlights and low lights for 3 of us and cutting hair for 4 of us! I decided to go with my current style and color.

In the mean time we also snacked, chatted, and had a great time!

Sheena worked so hard and quick as we all had yummy food and drinks. We had plenty of girlie stuff to keep us busy like makeup, foot spa, and plenty of nail polishes and hair supplies!

If you are wondering what the red stuff is - it is Jello! We had a 3 year old, a 21 month old, 9 year old, 10 year old, and 2 - 12 year old boys!  We had super fresh fruit, muffins, jello, a veggie tray, and I ended up making 3 pizzas! What's a good time without good food?

Sheena continued to work and work and work at our hair! Too bad we all have long hair!

Haley was even super happy because she was able to get her hair cut and I let her get highlights as well. I know I know she is getting ready to turn 11 but I figure what is the harm. They are cute little highlights it makes her feel special to get this done with her mom!

They look so natural like her hair has just been sunkissed!

Thank you Sheena for a wonderful job on our hair! Thank you to my mommy friends for hanging out and having a great day to spend girl time together and also enjoy our kiddos together!

Do you want to have a girls day? Give me a shout on the blog or email me at codyhaley106@gmail.com - I can hook you up with an awesome hair dresser!! (sorry this is for Tucson, AZ area only - unless you want to pay for her airfare lol, I am sure she would love to have a vacation!)



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How Can They Hear?

As I share this story with you I sit here in sadness. My heart is broken .

Back in the summer of 2009 I was fortunate to meet Cody Whittaker. He came to our church in Arizona to tell us about a trip him and his family were taking to Haiti. This family was currently living in Asheville, NC and he knew our pastor at our church and so he came out to share with us their goals, missions, and passion for life.

Simply put - their passion was the Lord. Serving the Lord, telling others about the Lord, and leading and teaching others of the Lords love.  As my husband and I worked with our youth group that fall we provided the support we could and encouragement through cards and letters. Soon after the Whittaker family settled in Haiti, the country was rocked by a horrible earthquake.  Although Cody and Maria had two young daughters, Isabela (6) and Susana (4) they stayed the course through the aftermath of the quake until it was too dangerous and they flew their daughters out for safety.  Later when the family was back together they realized that Susana was not feeling well and eventually flew her to Miami, FL to find out devastating news that Susana was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer called neuroblastoma in early 2010.

All I could think was how this little 4 year old could have such a terrible disease. This family vowed to fight this disease and pray. This family's faith is unbelievably strong! I have followed the progress of Susana through the bright advances and the sad declines in her health. What an amazing little girl Susana is!

I knew over the last little bit she had declined in health and the tumors were back. I continued to read the words of her mom and dad asking for prayers but also lifting Jesus up knowing that the Lord is ultimately in control.

Today 2/11/11 at 12:15 p.m. "Susana finished her race".  I sit here in tears as I type this for you to read because my heart is broken for this family and their loss of an amazing, awesome little girl. I encourage you to check out this family's website at How Can They Hear to read about this amazing family and the unbelievable journey and struggles they have battled through.

I am reminded that we take so many things for granted. Kiss our children when we can; hug them a little bit longer; and praise the good we see in them.  Appreciate the time we have! Please remember this family in your prayers as they now face a life without their precious Susana.

Conferences, Wrestling, and Fractures?

If you have been following my blog the last several days you know that I have been working on a project to complete each afternoon/evening after I get off work. Well yesterday my project was my kids!  Yesterday was the craziest day ever. I worked half a day, went to 5 parent/teacher conference, took Cody to wrestling for the first time, and then to an urgent care that couldn't help us and then home.

The parent/teacher conferences are never particularly fun. I mean my kids get good grades but they aren't straight students and that is ok.  We have high standards but we don't expect straight A's.

I had a particular unique situation with one of the gym teachers because Haley has a note from her Dr. if she is having pain in her ankles she is allowed to sit out of PE. (due to being flat footed and something else with the tendons).  But on Wednesday the teacher told her to run and she said she needed to sit out. His story of course differs from hers slightly in the fact that he said he asked her if she had a note and she didn't answer him or said no and her story is that when he asked that she reminded him she gave him one at the beginning of the year and he didn't care and said she needed one that morning. So after her conference I went and visited the teacher and we discussed it. I did call him out on trying to say that she said she didn't have a note. I think far too often the teacher has good intentions but doesn't want to be wrong and the kid to "look" in the right. So we got everything settled and worked out nicely.

Overall I have to say that I AM SO LUCKY! My kids have the best teachers ever! I am serious, Haley has the same 5th grade teacher Cody did and his group of teachers in 7th grade are just phenomenal!!

Cody asked me yesterday at like 2:00 if he could try wrestling for the first time and oh by the way it starts at 5:30 and it is at the high school 15 minutes away. Well because I was so excited he actually wanted to do a sport how could I say no? So we went to wrestling! I thought he actually looked great!

Mistake number one on my part was not asking how long practice was. I assumed 1 hour and it was 2! So we are pushing 7:00 and I notice that he is in pain and real pain because he has a high pain tolerance. I saw him say I broke my toe. I figured if he was in enough pain he would come see me (which is a big step for me because I am over-protective mom!).

He eventually came off and looked like I could see tears but he was manning up as he says. We did leave a little early so I took him to urgent care and they didn't have xray so we waited till today. I have come and left work 3 times today.

Cody very bored in my office - thank goodness for video games!

We went to urgent care and was told he broke his toe and was told we needed to go see an orthopaedic doctor - for a toe?!

He was not thrilled with the crutches or the really awesome cool shoe they gave him! LOL
Came back to work - tried to work more and then headed back out to the specialist.

Thankfully the specialist said it wasn't as bad as the urgent care Dr. thought so we can ditch the crutches super soon, come back in 2-3 weeks, but no running, no PE, and no wrestling for 2-3 weeks. (totally a bummer about wrestling because despite the broken toe - he LOVED it!)

The last 2 days have been CRAZY! Oh the life of a working mom - glad I could be there for my oldest baby and help him know I love him and care! Everyone needs a little pampering every once in a while! So glad this is Friday!



Saving my sink and my mind!

I had already decided I wanted to work on cleaning up the underneath cabinet of my kitchen sink and after yesterday morning I had no choice so it worked out perfectly.

As I was getting ready to head out the door with my kids for school and work I noticed my faucet was leaking again. We have the kind you can pull out and then it switches from regular faucet to a sprayer. Well sometimes the nut on the back gets loose and then water runs down the back tubing and all under the sink in the cabinet. It has happened so many times I always keep a towel under there just in case. So when I saw this I though oh well just a chance to clean it all out!

After doing emergency maintenance (and why does this never happen with the hubby is home and I am not rushing and in dress clothes?) I headed out to work and knew I would finish up in the afternoon.

This is after I removed all the water, wet towels, and cleaners. We were starting from scratch!

The kids really helped me out by going through all the bottles, foil, cleaners, etc. to clean out the old stuff and keep only the stuff that wasn't damaged.

The entire process only took about 15 minutes to go through everything and place the items back under my sink. I still have some ideas for my sink like putting some racks in the cabinet to make it multi leveled and also maybe a holder for all of my foils, wax paper, etc. but for now I worked with what I had.

I know you are probably wondering why anyone would have 5 bottles of dish detergent but they were less than a $1.00 and I  had coupons and Fry's was making all coupons a dollar so I was able to get them for free so I stocked up!

Day 2 Project 2 completed and with a sense of accomplishment! That saves my sanity! Now off break from work and finish up some work stuff to leave at lunch to head to parent teacher conferences!  It's gonna be a FUN day! Can't wait to hear from you all! What kind of projects have you been doing each night?



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Operation Pitiful Pantry

I decided that I couldn't take the way my pantry was looking. Every so often I have to get down and dirty and just re-do it all!

First I went to .99 cent store to buy some essential organizing material.

I then took inventory of my pantry as it was currently.

I then took on the unbelievable task of clearing out every single thing in the pantry. I did get some appreciated help from my kids and one of their friends.

I am so fortunate to have such a big pantry and after everything was removed it really seemed overwhelming to see that I had to put everything back. But I kept telling myself one thing at a time. One project each night this week.  I cleaned it out and put some shelf paper down and then started reorganizing it. My husband came home and told the kids to help and I about freaked out and was like NO! I have place for everything lol. He said is your OCD acting up again? Hahahaha

Here is the left side of the pantry all nice and organized.

Here is the right side.

I have to say that I am quiet proud of myself for getting this all accomplished after a long day at work and somehow I cooked dinner during all of this! Now the real job is to keep it this way.  My plan this week is to complete one project each night.  That way nothing feels too overwhelming and by the end of the week - I feel very accomplished and several things will really have had an overhaul and we will have gotten rid of unwanted and un-needed waste!  How about you, what projects do you want or need to work on?

Challenge and Choices

Last week I challenged everyone to Pay It Forward and to do a Random Act of Kindness each day for a week. I want to hear from everyone! How are you doing? Have you done it yet? What happened?

I have followed through and some things I could see an immediate reaction and it was so gratifying! Other things I have done I haven't seen a reaction but that is ok because they don't know it was me and that is perfectly fine. 

One thing I have done is given some co-workers thank you cards in their mail boxes for the hard work they do and let them know someone notices and pays attention and it is appreciated. (not if any of them read this blog my cover is blown and SSSHHH don't tell any of them). I know it can be a great feeling to know someone is paying attention to the positive.

WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE?

How 5 Little Words Can Change Your Day

This morning started off like most of my mornings. Hectic running around trying to get myself and 2 kids ready while feeding the dogs and getting out the door on time. Normally I work till 3:30 but this is my 4:30 week so I am trying to take advantage of a little (very little) extra time in the morning and also make my kids breakfast (because normally it is pop tarts or cereal).


As my daughter Haley came down the steps this morning she saw me making pancakes, stirring the batter, and blow drying my hair all at the same time (ok probably not the smartest or cleanest idea, except my hair was clean!). And she looked at me and went about her business and said "You really are Super Mom!"


All was Great! What a nice morning!

32 and 18 - what does this have in common?

How do you sum up nearly 18 years in one simple blog? I am not sure but I am going to give it a try!

Well, I am 32 years old and I have been with my high school sweetheart for almost 18 years! This is our story!

We met in high school our freshmen year and went on our first date the last day of our freshmen year.

We went to many many high school dances together - glad I still don't look like I did in high school with my high 90's hair!

AND we had a few proms we went to as well!

Against lots of advice thrown our way we got married in 1996 only 2 weeks after graduating high school.

Michael joined the Army to provide a stable home for us! Little did we know that we would soon be moving from East TN to nowhere Kansas! In October 1996 Michael graduated from basic training and we set out to build our first home in Manhattan, KS.

I am so proud of all the things Michael accomplished while in the Army! He served 8 years active duty with multiple deployments including Operation Noble Eagle and Operation Iraqi Freedom.  In 8 short years we moved 7 times between Tennessee, Kansas, Country of Panama, Puerto Rico, back to Kansas, and finally back home to TN. During that time we worked through many changes within ourselves, our marriage, our jobs, and started our beautiful family with Cody joining us in 1998 and Haley joining us in 2000. I could go on and on about what a fabulous soldier, NCO, leader my husband was but that could be an entire book!!

We were so lucky to live in some very gorgeous places!

I wish our kids could remember the fun times we had when we lived overseas.

It amazes me to look back at all the pictures and re-live all the wonderful memories we have shared so far with each other, our friends, and our kids!

In 2007 we moved to the HOT state of Arizona and relocated once again!

I sure love my husband! We still act like we are 15 sometimes and I can't remember life without him!

It's a wonderful feeling to know I am sharing my life with my best friend, a fabulous father, and the strongest man I know inside and out!

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ME Time!

I am sure if you are anything like me finding time for yourself can be quiet a challenge! I know that working full-time outside the home and having 2 kids, a household, a husband, 2 dogs, and a cat can be exhausting at times (but totally worth it)!

I try to find time for myself when I can. I know most moms feel guilty about taking time away from their family to enjoy some alone time but sometimes we just have to fit it in where we can!

I really do enjoy my work and I feel very lucky to work at a place that really has some cool above and beyond perks that many companies do not. We all have gripes from time to time but I really try to stay positive and think of the awesome things my company provides. For instance...

My work is so awesome when we moved into our new building they made room for a wellness center. It isn't anything huge but they have all new equipment and there are 3 cardio machines. I am so lucky to get some ME time by taking a 15 minute break or going down on lunch or even before or after work! I think it is great because once I leave the building I am headed straight  home to the kids and I don't want to have to leave them to go back to the gym and feel guilty about more time away from them.

I spend so much time at my work like so many of you, I try to find time to take snippets of time for myself. We have a really cool lunch room with a HUGE TV and rarely do I get down there but it is there and I try to every once in a while.

 I also spend many hours in my office at work. I finally though - I spend so much money on our home and making it look nice (which is great!) but I actually spend more awake time in my office in then anywhere else and I decided I was gonna do it up nice! I struggled but since I work in a very laid back environment I decided I would make my office a FUN office!

I have games, a magic 8 ball, finger bowling, all sorts of fun de-stressing stuff in my office!

I also hung a spring rod and added some colorful curtains to my office because all the walls are white and boring. I have even had comments that it's funny how my office looks like a college dorm room! Well that wasn't exactly what I was going for but it got the job done. It is lively, colorful, and FUN! I am very productive!

I know how hard ME time can be! But try to find the time when you can sneak it in, gain some sanity, and remember the small things that make you happy!

“Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful.” - Herman Cain Quotes



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FREE - Football - Fun!

Who likes Free?  Who Loves Football?  Well I love both and today has been a great day! For those of you that are frugal and like football today would have been heaven! I love watching the Superbowl and I am taking this time during half-time to write about all my FREE stuff!

I love to be frugal and organized! I will show you some places I am organized and then again there are totally some areas I need to work on!

I went to Fry's today and I bought 295.36 worth of groceries and after all my coupons and mail in rebate I spent 107.57! That is a savings of $187.79!!

As you can tell this is one area that I need to re-organize. But this is what happens when I have my kids help and put up the groceries.

Remember the trick for being able to save this much money really takes some prep work and some time but it is very worth it in the end. I made the mistake of going on Superbowl Sunday so I just said a lot of prayers while I was in the store. Fry's is running their sale through this Tuesday where all coupons are a dollar, they are accepting manufacturer coupons and they are also running this mega 10 sale. So I always search out for the competitor coupons (especially Target they have awesome printable coupons) I then couple it with the manufacturer coupon and then try to match it to the special sale. I know today alone, I was able to get 2 tubes of Colgate toothpaste, 2 toothbrushes, a cup of yogurt, a therma heat pad, and 2 Digiorno Pizzas, and an 18 packs of Miller Lite totally for FREE! The goal now is to have everyone not eat all the extra food and actually spread it out so we will truly save more money not just eat more!

I love to be organized and I love to label things. I decided to help with the food and to try to help with getting dinner made I bought a white board and we put the menu on the board by week and also put everyone's appointments so Dad can help see who has what when to help me out since we both work full time.

 

This is my fluid working calendar - we update as needed to keep everyone up to date and try to stay organized!

I also work to keep my cabinets as organized as possible.  Because my kids are older I am able to keep our medicines not locked up. We don't have anything that would be overly harmful and my kids are aware that they don't get into even the OTC without permission.

I find this helpful to locate someone's medication when they start asking for stuff. Now that Haley has some asthma issues I think I am going to have to break their medications apart to keep it even more organized.

It seems that everyone has a catch all drawer or closet. I have one as well and I working to keep it as organized as possible. We keep all the normal stuff like sheets and stuff but it also houses the kids board games and all the extra stuff we have. That way when the kids run out of toothpaste they know where the extras are. The ones you see in the picture are the free ones I have accumulated through coupons.

Of course I am sure you notice the labels too! HaHa! I love to label things I feel like it gives everyone in the house a sense of where things to go because it seems unless they have a visual reminder they just lay stuff everywhere!

Well good luck if you are trying the couponing thing out! Or just trying to get organized. I will try to reveal some of my other crazy OCD traits! Hope everyone enjoyed the game - GO PACKERS!!

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