Happy 13th Anniversary to us!

Traditionally, the 13th Anniversary gift is Lace.

As much as Matt would love to buy me something lacy I was really set on...

 CARPET!!

Luckily, the alternative gift to lace is a textile.  (proof right here)

Guess what? Carpet is a textile.

Woop Woop!

Getting carpet is a big, expensive, and stressful ordeal.

It's also good for organizing an entire house.

Our old carpet came with the house which was built in 2004.  We moved in in 2005 after it was a model home for a year in the neighborhood.

The carpet and carpet pad were builder grade and they suffered through a lot of activity (and cat puke) in the 9 years we have lived here.

Not all the carpet was bad.  We talked about only replacing the downstairs carpet, stairs, and upper hallway but I knew I would not like seeing the old carpet clashing with the new.  So it was all or nothing.

(Matt had them save some of the good old carpet to use in his basement shop.)

The guest room carpet was flawless.

Preparing for the new carpet was the most stressful.

The installers would move the furniture but we needed to get everything off of the furniture and the floor.  We took this time to go through every room of our house.

Take the guest room closet for example.  It was jam packed full of stuff. I pulled everything out and laid it all over the room.

Piece by piece I organized, donated, threw away and put away.

My organizing madness.

(yes, all that came out of one closet)

I/we did this in every room of the house.

It was tough and painstaking but it was also refreshing to get rid of so many things we did not use or need.

We filled up box after box of garbage, not to mention trip after trip to Goodwill and the recycle station.

Somethings I just couldn't part with.  Even silly things like all of my old cassette tapes (mostly singles.)  We do not have a cassette tape player so I can't even listen to them but they are full of teenage memories for me.

We went room by room organizing and getting everything off of the floor.  The entire upstairs which includes 5 bedrooms are all carpeted.  We had to get creative with where to store everything since UN-carpeted area was rare.

The bathtubs were prime real estate.

Finally it was CARPET DAY!

In just two days the two carpet installers ripped out the old and installed the new.

I enjoyed chatting with them about carpet and their choice of music. (They brought their own boom box.) I even bought them pizza for lunch.

 Room by room they did their measuring.  Then they ripped up the old carpet to expose the cheap carpet pad.  Next they removed the pad and scraped away to get all the glue and debri off the floor.

Snapshots of the carpet demo from the rest of the house.

It was crazy to see the house all torn apart.

Eventually the old was replaced with new.

New Carpet room by room.

I love the new carpet.  It is so soft, fluffy, welcoming and colored in such a way I'm sure it will hide many many stains.

(I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one who loves the carpet.)

I'm also thrilled that we got our house completely organized:

empty of clutter and full of clean lines.

BUT......

This anniversary wasn't just about me and my gift of new carpet. 

I did buy Matt a Metallica t-shirt and he loves it!.  ;)

Happy 13th Anniversary to us!

Romy Has a Favorite

Sometimes the kids like to fall asleep in our bed.

Romy (the cat) does too.

He's welcome at first...

but eventually he makes himself unbearable by snuggling right up to her face.

Romy loves his girl. 

She's Wearing My Clolthes

She's Wearing My Clothes!

I bought this shirt in Italy and thought it was cool.

How is a Punk Baby not cool?

Well that was in 2001.

Since then, us newlyweds finished our drink for two (or three,) had babies and watched them grow up (way too fast) before our eyes.

Now...

She's Wearing My Clothes!

She won't wear it to school because she's too embarrassed.

And so it begins....

First Day of School 2014

School started August 6th so I'm only almost a month behind.

(August plus Atlanta equals HOT, HUMID, and STICKY so we might as well send our kids back to the air-conditioned School.  No one is playing outside anyway.)

Tyler

3rd Grade

Lauren

5th Grade 

(already?!)

My babies

Dueling Brands

$$Nike vs. Under Armour$$

(hopefully these backpacks last for awhile)

And they're off.

I hope this school year lasts forever.......!

 I'm not ready to send my baby girl to middle school.

Baby Vogue, Don't Forget Lauren

Baby Vogue

Don't forget about Lauren.

Tyler happened to see my last blog post and he agreed that he was pretty cute.

(Usually the kiddos don't like it when they see I've blogged about them.)

Lauren asked if she was cute too.

She was and still is.

Look at those EYES!

Lauren: One Year, Five Months

(This has been another public service blast from the past.)

(You're Welcome.)

Baby Vogue

Baby Vogue

Eat Your Heart Out

Look at those EYES!

Tyler: One Year, Three Months

(This has been a public service blast from the past.)

(You're Welcome.)

Life on Two Wheels

We've Made It!

Lauren and Tyler, finally, know how to ride a bike without training wheels.

My job as a parent is done! 

(j/k)

Check him out!  It just clicked that day and he was off, up, and away.

Lauren has been riding on two wheels for some time but she just now saved enough money to pay half of the cost for a new bigger bike.  (A deal she made with her Daddy.)

Check her out!

Way to go kiddos.

The world gets a lot bigger when you can ride a bike.

Practice Makes Perfect

Lauren is all about earning money these days.

She asked her Daddy how much he would pay her to mow the lawn.

He said $20 and she said, "Um YESSS!  Teach me how!"

There's a bit of a learning curve on Daddy's new mower but I'm pretty sure she'll have it down in no time.

Meanwhile, Tyler practiced on his new skateboard. 

 Practice makes perfect Kiddos.  Keep it up!

3/4 Family Picture.

Love Them!

Weekly Menu 8-9-2014

Matt and the kids are at Taekwondo so I have some extra time alone to plan and post next week's menu.  The picture above is my thought process.  I search on-line or in my cookbooks for recipes, assign them a day on an index card, write down everything I need and finally organize it on my grocery list.  I'm sure there's an app for all of that but this is how I prefer to do it.  ;)

Weekly Menu 8-9-2014

Saturday: Chicken and Orzo Soup & biscuits

Sunday:  Peppercorn Crusted BBQ Ranch Burgers with Chili Lime Crunchies

(I just discovered the Iowa Girl Eats blog and love it so far!)

Monday:  left-overs or pantry meal

Tuesday:  Pork Chops and Applesauce & salad

Wednesday:  Naked Salmon Burgers with Sriracha Mayo & fries

Thursday:  One Pan Italian Sausage and Peppers Pasta & bread

Friday:  Jerk Shrimp with Caribbean Quinoa & salad

Saturday:  Key West Grilled Chicken Sandwich & Grilled Avocados

Sunday:  BBQ Chicken Chopped Salad

I'm pretty excited for next week's eats!

Throwback Thursday

Throwback Thursday is a Facebook/Instagram,  #hashtag#, meme thingy (or something like that.)  You post an old photo and wait for everyone to laugh at it.  I posted this photo on Facebook but thought it was too cute not to share on the blog.  Enjoy! 

7-7-2007

The night I won my Parent of the Year award! 

Their intestines have never been so silky smooth and powdery soft.

The New Walk Around the Block

This evening we took our first ever

Family Bike Ride Around the Block.

Tyler finally learned how to ride his bike without training wheels and is now comfortable with making the 2.5 mile loop.

I'm kicking myself that I didn't take a picture.

This bike riding milestone got me all nostalgic thinking about the first time we ever made a family trip around our block.

Kids in the stroller and us parents pushing them from behind.

I also remember walking with Tyler in the front pack and pushing Lauren in the stroller.

June 2006

(Tyler -  2 1/2 months;  Lauren - 2 yrs & 3 mos.)

Time flies!

Do your best to enjoy every minute of it.

Camp Winshape 2014

Camp Winshape 2014

This is our second year with Winshape Camps and I absolutely love it.

The kids were there for two weeks in July and they both had a lot of fun, grew in their faith, and became more independent and confident.  Plus, Matt and I got some time to go to NYC and practice being empty nesters.

Of course, the kids were both nervous to go.  Tyler didn't show his nerves on the outside but we could tell he was a bit anxious.  The night before camp he had a nightmare and walked in his sleep. In the weeks (months?) leading up to camp Lauren, on the other hand, would ask her Dad and I if there was anything she needed to worry about with Camp Winshape.  She asked this every. single. night.  Most often with tears in her eyes.

Matt being the more patient parent calmly answered all her questions and calmed her fears.  He even wrote out her worries with a list of suggestions.  She kept this in her journal she took to camp.  Don't you wish Matt was your dad?

I truly believe this helped her immensely.  There were some tears when we dropped her off but she quickly recovered and really had a great time.  We were blown away by how much more confident they were when we picked them up.  They were talking a mile a minute about all the fun they had at camp.

With all that said let's get to the important stuff.  The pictures!

Tyler in his bunk.

No tears from this guy but I thought he may have been close.

Settled in and ready to go.

Lauren with her cabin mate and softball friend Abbie.

On her bunk

They were so busy having fun, going on adventures, playing sports, swimming, crafting and learning about Jesus that there was no time to be worried, scared or sad.

Check them out!

Lauren

Tyler

As it is with all good things, they eventually must come to an end.  And after two weeks I was sure ready to see these two faces again.

We picked them up on Family Friday, watched their closing ceremonies and enjoyed Chick-fil-A for lunch on the campus.

Tyler's counselor told me that T accepted Jesus Christ as his personal savior at camp.

Way to go Tyler!!

We're all looking forward to next year.

To celebrate the end of camp we went to the Braves game that evening. 

looking very Brave-y

It definitely wasn't a full house but it was fun to watch and the Braves won.

The best part was just hanging out as a family.

Camp Winshape