more furniture in the household...

in the midst of all this chaos over the last two months, my husband treated me to a massage on mother's day weekend. It was a Saturday appointment and I was more than happy to go, but strategically, I left a bit early so that I could just happen upon a garage sale or two. I managed to make it to one. it was 930 and the woman was already clearing out and packing up. there was this gorgeous and antique in-need-of-some-love dresser at the end of her driveway waiting for someone to make a last purchase before she closed up shop. i mentally told myself, "ok, no more than $25. " I asked and the most beautiful price came out  her mouth. FFFFFFRRRRRREEEEEEEEEEEE! "take it" she said! i somehow managed to squeeze that dresser in my sequoia with one stroller and three car seats. my car is a boat but that was still pretty impressive.

I didn't take before pictures because...well, i don't know why. i start a project and just want to get it finished so i was too lazy to get the camera. it was a wood - no paint - just the original wood color. i sanded off the edges to add some age and didn't bother to fill in the loopy parts with paint. i am sure glad i am not in the furniture business because as you can tell, i know nothing about the vocabulary of furniture -- patina, or is it pantina? cherry vs. oak - i don't know so i won't pretend to know!

i used a gray-ish white "oops" can of paint and a tad of turquoise paint to the fancy parts of the dresser. i love the outcome. so much that we rearranged my entire living room that evening and i got rid of a couch that i've been wanting to get rid of but was hanging on to just for some place to sit -- this dresser booted that couch on out and it's now in my neighbor's garage playroom.

so here's the new dresser....and i still can't believe with all of my stuff, the drawers are still empty even after being inside for almost a month now! shocker if you know how much i truly like "STUFF." i'm lovin' it!...almost as much as that framed picture of all three of my baby girls' piggy toes! that's a keeper!

Time just flies on by....

with or without me!

what has happened in the last month?
i don't even know what to blame for my absence of blogging...
and as you read on, i am NOT complaining, rather venting with a smile on my face because its "all just temporary..."

maybe i've been a bit busy with...

the girls finished their last month of preschool...
izzy now pronounces NO quite well and quite loudly...making any task with her a bit more challenging now...
maddie fell out of bed in the middle of a night tremor putting us in ER to get 7 stitches in her eyebrow at 1AM
mia got bit in the face by a neighbor's dog, a german shepard of all dogs - small bite but enough to make us all panic when the dog jumps her fence and appears out of nowhere...
the lakers have made it to the finals and lakers hold a lot of priority in this household
the dishwashwer broke a month ago and i've been handwashing dishes every day, 5 times a day, - ok, i may sound like a big brat, but wow is that a time consuming task with 5 people using dishes.
the washing machine broke and flooded the lower level of the house - dehumidifiers and fans are all that i seem to hear in my house at the moment,
we had a neighborhood garage sale and about an hour into the sale, i wrote EVERYTHING'S FREE on the chalkboard and watched people hound the stuff like it was a child's first Easter egg hunt...i was literallly too tired to count money and bargain with customers. just take it please.
what else?
my mom had foot surgery today and my dad has knee surgery on friday - and i live gazillion miles away and can't be of any help
a neighbor who foreclosed on their home let their two pet pythons loose in the neighborhood on their move-out day -- apparently we innocent neighbors had something to do with their foreclosure? one was found and captured, the other, well, we are all waiting to see who is the lucky one to encounter him!
i finally cleaned out that hazardous garage of mine thanks to my neighbor Kim who saves the day for me quite often - 5 years i have been wanting to clean that out -- we did an awesome clean out, created a toy room and craft area.
that clean garage is now worse than what it was before we cleaned it because everything that was in it was taken out or scooted around due to the water damage. good intentions.

so i do miss my blog. preschool ended today and the house should be getting back in order early next week, i pray, so hopefully a wee bit of time will open up for me soon to return to my blogging habit - i haven't been a writer or a reader lately. i will be back....

take time to be silly...

i've been sidetracked from my HAPPINESS PROJECT efforts. Well, to be honest, i lost the book for a bit. while i was away in Illinois, my husband found it necessary to clean off the bathroom vanity and stashed my pile of magazines /books that i leave by the bathtub, under my bathroom sink. i can't blame him for cleaning, but who knew to look under there for my pile. so just this week, i found my stash and there was the happy book.  my last chapter of reading was in march. catch up time for chapters "april" and "may."

love this book. i have to say - it's just such a great read!

so "may" is to focus on PLAY! may - play. easy enough to remember, right?

with the focus on  playing is the goal to TAKE TIME TO BE SILLY:

which brings me to this picture:

i posted this photo on my facebook, reluctantly, because it's "just not me." i'm not the silly mom. i am the mom who is usually taking the pictures, or the one who scrolls through the pictures and deletes the pictures of me before they can even be uploaded to the computer, because i either have black circles under my eyes, or i pushed my neck out too far to show elephant rolls in my neck, or my hair hasn't been washed in three days -- there is ALWAYS something that i find to beat myself up with. anyone relate? ridiculous, i know. i hate this about me. i grew up getting so frustrated with my mom for never wanting her picture taken or refusing to have her picture taken until she could put some lipstick on. i've become my mother!! not the lipstick part, but just not feeling worthy enough for a picture! enough already!

But I DO LOVE THIS PICTURE!

there were two comments on facebook under this picture:
1. from a high school friend --
Love the Krispy Kreme pics. Adorable. I'm sure you're a really fun mommy.
2. from my sister-in-law
!!!!! I LOVE THIS!! This will be used in her wedding someday! Can't you just see this in a slideshow?! Classic!


I smiled when i read those comments because I want to be the fun mom, the silly mom, the embarrassing mom and i am happy that someone else saw that in me in this photo. i am that mom in private, behind our own doors, when no one can see me or judge me for being too silly, but i want to be the confident mom who is happy and silly no matter who is watching. I looked through a few more pictures that i posted on facebook that same day, a small album of mother’s day pictures that were taken before attending the mother’s day tea at mia and maddie’s preschool:

and I like what I see. I am silly with my daughters. I am the fun mom. the girls’ silliness is contagious and I’ve caught it more than I realize. the girls insist on being called giggle box and goofball, two names that my mom, their nana, lovingly gave them...and quite fitting, wouldn't you agree?

and with all that silliness, i got a really good picture that i truly love - no elephant wrinkles in the neck, hair is washed, concealer covers the dark circles, and MORE IMPORTANTLY, i am happy and smiling and honored to be a mommy at the mother's day tea.

it had to be all that goofing off in the morning that created such a great picture!

( and yes, mia on the left cut her own bangs...5 months ago...let's speed up the growing back process please!)

...

now i know my ABC's...

It was headed for the trash - but I really did treasure this piece. It was originally a very colorful artsy piece from IKEA that my mom bought for me the week my father-in-law passed away back in 2003. It was a colorful splash of colors, looking a bit floral, but a bit more like just a pile of colors -- regardless of what it was really supposed to be, it reminded me of the vibrant colors in the movie of "what dreams may come...," the movie with Robin Williams that portrayed both heaven and hell. This picture matched their scences of heaven just perfectly.  But somewhere over the past few years, I decided to paint it and well, I botched it up. I couldn't let of the canvas however. So, the ABC's are a big part of our lives right now with the twins learning their alphabet throughout the last two years of preschool. A little paint and some whimsical freehand alphabet letters, and this is what I ended up with. Thank goodness for my little proofreader Maddie who repeatedly questioned me "where's the K?" as she sang the song over and over out loud. She was right - I left out the K.

You gotta be smarter than your preschooler, but sometimes, it's just the other way around!

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A few less flowers...

I'm on the bloggers MIA list once again. I have to admit - I've just been worn out. I am constantly on that endless search of figuring out how to balance it all. Having a husband who commutes over an hour a day has really changed our schedule over the past year. Jason has been blessed with becoming a State Farm Agent about 15 months ago, but his office is an hour away from where we live. So we've had a lot of time with Daddy out of the house - BUT when he is here, he is an incredible dad and husband. It's all a process of just learning how to make it all work. The talk of moving has been in the works for over a year but that too is stressful just thinking about it. Ok, I know I am preaching to the choir in terms of being a MOM who is tired, but just wanted to vent.. I went outside the other afternoon to find a few of my flowering plants                                                                          ...flowerless....

 

                                          and instead my flowers were scattered on the driveway...
But before I let loose into my speech of how not to pick the living flowers, let them bloom..blah blah...
                                                                 I saw more of the scene...

Who needs flowers on their plants when you can have a Princess Wedding with two 5 year old princesses?

I'll choose a princess wedding any ol' day over flowering plants. I saw the meaning behind this - "take time to scatter the flowers" -ok, or smell the flowers, but point being, I need to slow down, put the stress aside and soak in these little things that add beauty to my life each and every day.

a little (a lot) laundry, a late-to-arrive-home husband, a broken dishwasher? Who cares! I'd rather be the wedding photographer!

OOOOOOh, do I love those girls!