If These Walls Could Talk.....

I'm sure they'd have quite a story to tell!

Built in 1897 on the site of a battlefield, this house has seen it's share of memories. It was one of the first built here on the hill in this New England town overlooking Sakonnet Bay on one side and Narragansett Bay on the other. It's unique features are many.

These tiles adorne the walls of one of the upstairs bathrooms. While the dark color is not my taste, these have grown on me for their unique sunflower design and I've actually come to like them.

This is the tile on our master bathroom floor. I really do like this color. We've paired it with red accents and it makes the bathroom look fresh and bright.

This is the front staircase. I love the wood railing! It reminds me of the staircase in the movie "It's A Wonderful Life" where the wooden piece kept coming off. It's quite charming!

This house has some unique light fixtures too, all from different eras.

This light fixture is in our foyer. One of the things I love about this house is the original dark wood ceiling in the foyer, living room and dining room.


A variety of vintage door pulls and knobs speak to the age and charm of this house.

I could not wait to live in a sprawling, old new england home! I love the unique qualities of it and the history it holds. With close to 6,000 total square feet, this house has been fun to explore. We haven't put in the effort to make it our own though because we knew we'd only be here for 11 months. Given the chance, I could really make this house shine and each room would have a distinct, inviting personality, but for practical reasons, I've had to supress that creative energy and save it for a home that we will occupy for a greater length of time.

I must say though, that while this has been a dream experience for me, I have learned that old homes are ALOT of work!! They are super expensive to heat and take quite a bit of energy to keep up. I do love it's charm though, so maybe in the future, we'll build or buy a newer home that is designed with vintage charm.

The best of both worlds!

More Winter Magic!!!

Everytime it snows, the excitement that flows through our house is contagious! Bren's eyes fill with wonder and then she whispers "It's snowing!" as if speaking it out loud would break the spell.

Bren loves the snow!!!! We all enjoy it, but Bren and Michael live for it! These two are hard to contain when snow is on the ground! They both want to rush out immediately to play in it and they'd both stay out way past their noses turning blue if it were up to them!


The boys had so much fun snow ball fighting! I think each of them had a face full of snow at some point. I was nice and warm and content to sit in the van and snap photos all afternoon, but man, what I would have given to have been able to get out there with them and defend my own imaginary castle with flying snowballs!

This is my favorite shot of the day. Something about it just makes me smile! I don't know if it's the oversized black gloves with the rhinestone hearts that she insist on wearing, the orange sled that she cried over and refused to use for the first half hour of the day because it wasn't purple or the fact that this is my last baby and she's just such a bundle of quirky, daring, exhuberance....

whatever it is, I love it!

Quick Update!

I hate picture-less posts, but I thought I'd better hop on here and give you some Idol reaction before it got away from me!

I was not really all that impressed with the girls on Wednesday night. There were a few that I hope go far, but I'm still with Jason Castro for the win!!

My son, Zach is pretty smitten with Kristie Lynn Cook, so I'm hoping she sticks around awhile too. Other girls I liked were Alaina and Kady.

I was in total agreement with those that were cut tonight too.

Now about Lost....WOW!!!! It just gets weirder and wilder and more intriguing by the week, doesn't it? You gotta love gold ole Jack coming through for Kate in court. Did you catch that sweet smile he shot her on his way in? Charming as ever! Any guesses on Ben's net worth or how he got all that money in the first place? Where the heck is that helicopter? And how do you think Kate acquired Aaron?

Here's my quick update on me....

I'm now weight bearing! yipppeeee! I'm weaning myself off of crutches and start physical therapy in the morning. I'm a little freaked out about it because the doctor refilled my vicodan specifically so I could cope better with whatever they are going to do to me in that room with all the elastic bands, weights and big rubber balls!

I'm sure I won't sleep much tonight worrying about the pain that is sure to come! Wish me luck as I try to get the mobility back in this stiff, swollen ankle of mine!

I really appreciate all of your prayers, encouragement and support so far!

Coming up soon is a post about this old New England house. I walked (hopped) around with my camera today and took some shots of some of it's more unique and interesting elements, so come back soon to see what they are.

Lights, Camera, Action!!!!

Today was family movie day!!!

The kids are on winter break this week from school so we wanted to take advantage of their time off and do some fun things with them.

So, we took the gang to see Spiderwick Chronicles. It was a decent movie, not completely memorable, but not a total dud either. I thought the lead character looked so much like Hailey Joel Osmond that I was sure he was a younger sibling, but the credits proved he was no relation. Good little actor though. He played twins in this movie and did a great job!


Bren has been doing awesome on her sticker chart so we let her get a treat at the movies. After much deliberation, she ended up with a kid combo pack complete with popcorn, sprite and a pack of skittles.




Michael was mortified that I had brought my camera in with me, but he managed a cheesy smile for me anyway. I'm sure that other people at the theater thought I was crazy for snapping photos too. It probably looked to them like we never get out of the house and a trip to the movies was a major event to document, but that's OK.
I'll suffer the embarrassment and endure the eye rolling of my kids to document the little things. After all, one little thing rolled into another little thing makes a life, right? And life is a major event too precious to miss!


On a side note, whatever happened to plain old cola flavored icee drinks? It seems like all I'm seeing lately is blueberry papaya blizzard swirly or banana kiwi watermelon splash! Bring back the plain old, non-neon cola for us grown ups, please... my poor taste buds cannot take iced exotic fruit blends with psychadelic color variations anymore!



And since it's Tuesday, I've got to give an idol update!!!!
I really enjoyed tonight's show and I have to say that four guys have emerged as my favorites so far!

I'd take that Jason Castro cutie all the way! He's awesome...very cool vibe and a kind of Jack Johnson sound....LOVE him!!!

Second for me is Michael from down under. He seems completely comfortable, confident and his voice is amazing. He reminds me a bit of a younger cleaned up Steven Tyler in his look and Michael Hutchins in his sound.

Third for me is David Cook....he reminds me a bit of the lead singer of dot.dot.dot from America's next great band. He also has an edgy vibe to him.

Forth is Robbie the rocker...at least I hope he's a rocker. His pop background could come peeking through in the coming weeks, but for now, we'll still call him a rocker.


I'm undecided about the two older guys...the 29 year old carpet cleaner and the 28 year old dad with the cute little son. Since neither of these guys had any camera time during the audition or Hollywood stages, I have no idea of what they can do.
Neither sounded horrible, but I don't know where their performances tonight rate on the scale of what they are capable of.


I can't wait to hear the girls tomorrow night!!



PS: I still miss Josiah! C'mon, Simon, that boy is totally memorable unlike a few guys from tonight's show! I guess he's my Sundance this year. We'll never know what he could have brought to this season, but I'm sure it would have been totally unique. I hope we see him next year!

Whacky, Zaney, Life Sustaining Friendship!!

Oh! There is just nothing like it! That connection. That person who gets you. That laughter generated by just a look. Silly days spent discussing dreams, planning adventures and sealing souls.

Your BFF.... she's the one you tell your secrets to. The one who knows your secret crush and your real jeans size. Unincumbered by life's impending responsibilities there is no other time when friendship can be so purely celebrated as it can be in middle and high school!
I was just found last night by a friend from my high school years! I just LOVE being found! In reconnecting with this friend I am reminded of just how precious friendship is. It is such a gift!

I do believe that God brings people into our lives at different times for different reasons. Not all of them are meant to stick around forever. Some are meant to be there to help you through something or perhaps you are meant to help them through something. The lessons learned from these people far outweigh the need for them to be kindred spirits for life. I see them as traveling angels, in and out of my life. Although these people are definitely missed, I'm left with feelings of thankfulness not sadness when I think of these people and the role they played.

Being a military wife, it has definitely been challenging in the friendship department! Having to uproot your life every few years as we've done over the past decade can leave one exhausted emotionally. Going to a new town and walking into social situations where friendships are already formed and roots are laid firm, is very intimidating. To find a place where you can fit in and start planting your own seeds can take alot of energy and personal investment.

When we move to a new place, it is always such a time of fear for me. Fear over whether or not I will connect with other women and form close, supportive friendships.

When I was younger, this was far easier because my little children were much more under my control and my schedule was their schedule. Flurries of activities always follow young mothers around and it seemed as if my lifestyle was designed for friend making opportunities. I met other young mothers easily and all of our kids would play together well. But, now at this point in my life, my kids all have their own interests and activities and in supporting those interests and activities my time is no longer my own. Getting "out there" to mom's groups, the gym, Bible study groups or things like that are much harder now. I have to be way more creative and really push myself to be in friend making situations. I have met some great friends over the past decade by doing just that, so I know it pays off.

I wish I was the kind of girl that has four or five friends from middle school still on speed dial! I have always admired those people. As much as I love to converse, I have to admit, I'm a terrible long distance friend when it comes to initiating contact. I'm blaming this more on procrastination and poor time management than lack of thought. The world wide web has definitely made it easier to stay in touch!

One thing I like to plug into in any new place we move to is Girl's night out. If I have to be the initiator, I will. This was first introduced to me as a regular thing by my friend Linda in California. If you don't do this with your girlfriends, you should! Just pick a night and go out to eat together, watch a movie, or gather at one of your houses and chat and giggle into the night! These nights have been the backdrop for some of my fondest friendship memories!

With as rocky and challenging as the road has been for me, I'm so thankful for all of my friends both past and present. Your role in my life, whether traveling angel or kindred spirit has been purposed by God for a reason and has helped to form me into the person I am today.

And for those of you in the Everett, Washington area.....I don't know who you are yet, but I'm praying for you. I know that God is already preparing some strong, Christian women for me to intertwine my life with for a season and I can't wait to meet you!

4th child boot camp AKA sticker chart rehab!

I've always wondered what it would be like to be the baby of the family. I have to admit though that I am a little smug in my position of first born. After all, I was anticipated first, cuddled first, adored first. I was the first to answer the question for my parents of what their offspring would look like. My smile was the first baby smile of their own they'd seen, my toes and fingers were the first they'd counted....it was all about me for two whole years!

But...that baby of the family runs a close second in the desireable family position arguement. While the first born can hang their hat on the fact that they were the first to win the hearts of their parents.....that baby can forever say that they filled up all the places in the hearts of their parents that were left unfilled by all previous children! Now that is a prestigious position!

Another fun thing about being the baby of the family is that the parents are usually no longer "spring chickens" when it comes to child rearing and many times prefer the "ignore and it will go away" form of conflict resolution. Let's face it, after three busy children, mom and dad are just plain tired when number four comes along!

Ever the crowd pleaser and audience hog, that baby of the family can very quickly become a monster in the making if left unchecked! She'll win your heart with her devious smile, but she'll also run you ragged if she's prone to generate chaos!

I knew this day was coming....I felt it looming on the horizon. Time to lasso the wild and carefree calf. I anticipate lots of dust stirring up, lots of bucking and throwing around of the torso. I even expect to be pulled from my own horse to get a mouth full of dirt from time to time. But, I've got a firm hold of my rope and I'm in it for the long ride!

Life for our last child has been anything but structured. With a house full of the unpredicatablility that teens and pre-teens bring, Bren has always been a go-with-the-flow type of kid whether she wanted to be or not.... but with Kindergarten coming for her next year, we thought it was time to implement some sort of schedule for her so that she will be used to a routine when Fall gets here.

So, we started a sticker chart for her where she earns stickers for unloading our silverware, putting her clothes in her basket in the laundry room, picking up her toys before bed every night, learning a word of the day and letter of the week and learning a bible verse of the week. From the moment we put the chart on her cork board Bren became a sticker earning machine! The girl is driven!


This weeks letter was "A". We made an Apple tree and taped it to the plastic that covers one of our drafty windows. Bren wrote lots of "A" words on the apples and put them on the tree. She was so proud of herself!!


Next week we'll do some fun things with the letter "B".
This weeks Bible verse is Phillipians 4:13 "I can do all things through Christ who makes me strong." This is her brother Michael's favorite verse so there was alot of excitement going around when she quoted this from memory for him.


We've already had to refer to this verse several times this week as we faced our biggest challenge with Bren....sleeping in her own bed. She has slept with us or with her sister since birth, so this is a big mountain to climb.

Her's is the only bedroom downstairs, so we moved an extra twin bed up into the dressing room off of our bedroom to help lessen her fear of being totaly separated from the entire family at night.
These old New England houses are so cool in that alot of the master bedrooms have rooms off of them used for dressing or a study or even a nursery. We put Bren's princess quilt and sheets on the bed and put a vase of roses that Daddy got her for Valentine's Day on a side table beside her bed. She is so excited about her new room!

Her bedtime routine starts at 7:30 with a bubble bath, teeth brushing, sticker rewards, a bedtime story and prayer.
She's very excited about everything up until the last kiss goodnight. That's when she's not so sure about any of this new stuff and I can see her weighing in her mind whether or not putting a sticker on her sleep chart is really worth all of the uncertainty she feels in her heart over sleeping alone.
I've reminded her every night about what her bible verse says. I ask her if it says, "I can't do anything through Christ because I'm so weak and scared." She giggles and says, "No, it says I can do everything because he makes me strong!"
So, I remind her that "everything" includes being able to sleep in your own room. Not totally convinced, she will try to lay down at this point. We've had to resort (since our Spring Chicken partenting time is long over and I've only got one working leg right now!) to playing a short movie for her every night so that she will stay in her room long enough to fall asleep. I know it's another crutch that we'll have to break her from, but so far, she's fallen asleep in her own bed which I'm chalking up as progress!
Sadly but not totally unexpected, she ends up in our bed or Madison's bed around 5:30 each morning, but I'll take that for now!



My older kids came home and saw this Apple Tree and said it brought back so many memories for them. I used to do all kinds of things like this for them. I had charts for everything and little crafty things that we did together all over the house.
Bren leads a much different life than they did. It's not wrong, but it's just way different. She doesn't get to have her life revolve around pre-school interests like the other ones did because she's in a family where pre-schoolers are the minority! LOL! She holds her own well though, but I'm determined to guard her special little girl time even though the majority of our kids are busy with more grown up activities which usually pull me in as taxi driver or party hostess.


Here's to turning over a new leaf!
Here's to spending as much time as you can with your little ones while they are little!
Here's to schedules and apple trees and sticker charts and princess sheets!
Here's to the letter of the week!
Here's to being able to do all things through Christ who makes us strong!!
Here's to homes filled with the drama of tweens, the angst of teenagers and the laughter of pre-schoolers to drown it all out!

Confessions of a TV junkie!!!

There is no way I am ready to pick a favorite or even a top five yet!

I think this is the best season so far, and I'm really looking forward to seeing who makes it through tomorrow night!

That boy who lives in his car who kinda bombed his last song really has my heart, but I also love the Austrailan who rocked out Queen, and the Irish girl who nailed Heart's song. I don't bother learning their names unless I know they are sticking around. I learned that lesson with Sundance!

Somehow not learning their names keeps an element of detachment for me, and keeps me from really pulling hard for them. When I start cheering for them loudly by name as they perform, I know it's too late...I'm in! And so, this season, with all the talent that has been cut already, it's way too early in the game for my heart to get broken! So, I will refer to them by their "story" or some other descriptive term until we are on far more solid ground.

Were any of you able to pick solid favorites yet?

Now, since we are talking about TV, which sadly has become a MUCH bigger part of my daily life since I broke my ankle, but understandably so since I'm on day 41 of doctor's orders to sit and ice my elevated foot........I've got to bring up LOST!!

Any other Losties out there?

You know, I never really understood the brotherhood of Star Trek fans and their conventions and secret hand signs....but I gotta tell ya, if there was a hand sign for Lost, I'd be doing it! I really enjoy the intrigue of this show. It's smart, it keeps you guessing, it has multi-layered elements that are like a puzzle to figure out and it has an insane amount of message boards full of fanatical fans with crazy theories as to what it's all about! I've only been to the boards once or twice and was a little freaked out by just how fanatical these fans are, so in order to keep from going completely over the edge, I've decided that it is much safer to adore this show from my couch!

What more can you ask for in weeknight entertainment?

My husband and I have watched it from season one and we really love the anticipation of each new episode. We love the mind game of trying to figure out all of the elements of the show. It's addictive and fun and something we like to share together.

So far, he's not thrilled with the new season. I, on the other hand, know that this all must lead to something. Something mind-blowing! JJ Abrahms is too great a producer to let this fizzle out or become some stupid island of pergatory or something lame like that. I know he's got something up his sleeve, and although he didn't really deliver a strong ending to Alias, I've got faith in him for an incredible culmination for Lost!

There are some pretty interesting theories going around out there. If you follow the show, what are your thoughts on it? Leave me a comment, I'd love to hear what your opinions are.

Ok...so back to reality.......and Survivor!!!!

This is another show that David and I love to watch together. Zach likes this one too and we make a point of sitting together on Thursdays to root for our favorite cast-a-way. This season, much like last season, we are fans of James. We also can't count Ozzy out as we feel like he was robbed of a win in his season. So far none of the survivor fans have caught our attention, so we are pulling for the favorites right now.

Farewell Fairplay! That elimination could not have gone better! Go be a great dad and stay off the reality shows, man!

Ok, at the risk of sounding like a TV junkie, I better stop now. Truth is, I probably am a bit of a junkie when it comes to certain shows...but thanks to the magic of DVR, we are able to fit them into our schedule when we want to and hey, it's cheaper than a movie!

Pass the popcorn!!!

Favorite Commercial....

I absolutely LOVE this commercial!!!
If you ask my husband about the day we met, the visual picture he paints is much like this commercial. We met in a dance club in Pensacola, Florida called Rum Runners. We were both dancing on the dance floor when he saw me. The way be describes it, he says that when he saw me it was like those cheesy 70's movies where the glossy lipped girl is spotlighted and everything else is in slow motion. When I saw this commercial, it reminded me so much of our meeting from his perspective. In honor of Valentine's Day, I thought I'd share it with you!

Self Portrait........

Reflections from the vanity mirror in my van.

I think I might start posting self portraits more often. I found a group that is dedicated to self portraits and they post themed self portraits as a community. It seems interesting and artsy to me.

If I can figure it out, I'm gonna join them and start getting in on the fun!

www.selfportraitchallenge.net