Tyler's vlog

I convinced him. Ha! A few things. You know I have to give a disclaimer! Haha!
First, he literally just woke up. As in, he popped out of bed and I said "you wanna do a vlog? Brad did it! You have to!" haha! Second, I don't think his accent shows very well. But it's still funny. Third, this is his second try. Because sometimes he has a potty mouth. And last, it's ridiculous.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Accent Vlog time, yo

Hi y'all! Long time, no see! Ive got to get our vacation pictures up here, but am still sorting through them! We had a blast, though! For now, I'm going to do the accent vlog that is going around. Jenna has it all on her blog, so go over there to see everyone else's!

Word of warning. Ive got a cold and it's early. I look and sound rough! Also, I just recorded and uploaded, so Im acting a fool in part. Haha! No editing. Obviously. Please forgive me. :) And I say umm. a lot.

The instructions are to say these words:
Aunt, Route, Wash, Oil, Theater, Iron, Salmon, Caramel, Fire, Water, Sure, Data, Ruin, Crayon, Toilet, New Orleans, Pecan, Both, Again, Probably, Spitting image, Alabama, Lawyer, Coupon, Mayonnaise, Syrup, Pajamas, Caught


And answer these questions:

What is it called when you throw toilet paper on a house?

What is the bug that when you touch it, it curls into a ball?

What is the bubbly carbonated drink called?

What do you call gym shoes?

What do you say to address a group of people?

What do you call the kind of spider that has an oval-shaped body and extremely long legs?

What do you call your grandparents?

What do you call the wheeled contraption in which you carry groceries at the supermarket?

What do you call it when rain falls while the sun is shining?

What is the thing you change the TV channel with?

And I totally just realized I forgot to say "sure" oops!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

My Baby Brother is 22.

I honestly cannot believe we are adults. Real adults. Pay your own way, make your own decisions, adults. Scary.

We had Matthew's birthday lunch at my Mom's yesterday after church. Tyler had to leave straight from church and head to work, so he missed out on the fun! But I took him steak and cake, so he was a happy camper!

Mom, Matthew and I. This picture proves that I'm the "future soccer mom" of the group. She's in a shirt from the juniors department, he's wearing skinny jeans. I'm in printed shorts. ha!

Mimi, Matthew and Papaw

Matthew and Danielle

My mom is so funny and made Matthew do a scavenger hunt for his birthday gifts. His girlfriend and I were dying laughing. He wouldn't ever tell her what he wanted, so she got mad that she couldn't watch him open presents! So she went this route. Best decision ever.

Hint #1 Rhymes with Slant.

Hint #2 Check your email.

The poor kid had to check 3 computers before he realized there was a gift card IN mom's laptop. ha!

Hint #3 They tried to make her go to Rehab, but she said no, no, no.

This was the hardest. It was hidden in the People magazine about Amy Winehouse's death. (still sad about that)

Hint #4 I honestly can't remember this hint... it had something to do with popsicles. ha!

Hint #5 Queen of Hearts

It was fun watching my brother being forced to play Mom's silly games. I love silly games and I will SO be that mom!

I made his birthday cake because my mom was going to get a box cake and canned icing. I admit I am a snob. Not so much against boxed cake, but I HATE storebought icing! Especially when it's so easy to make fresh buttercream. Yum! I loved his cake, but thought it might be a little girly. He said he loved it, so I was happy!

he was proud that he got all of his candles at once. 

Happy birthday, Matthew! You might make me want to pull my hair out, but I sure do love you!

Home Management Notebook

A couple of weeks ago Erin posted a home organization notebook. I have seen a few of these floating around pinterest and have been planning to make something like this for awhile. The ideas I had really weren't near as productive as this one little notebook, though. It has really been such a life saver! I know that sounds silly, but it really is wonderful. And you should make one. I already had a few of my printables saved from when I first started to get organized, so I am not sure where they all came from. But a lot of them I found through good old fashioned googling. Then when Erin posted her notebook she had a TON of printable sites to go a long with it.

I'm cheap, so I didn't want to buy a new binder. And I couldn't find one I liked. I'm still on the lookout for something I love, but I did want to make it look pretty and not just like the rest of my binders from school!

My first page is a weekly planner. All I have on here is my cleaning schedule, simple to do lists and specific prayer requests I want to focus on for the week. I actually have had this printable on my fridge for awhile, but I have used it differently than I am in the notebook. I love it because of the verse along the bottom and the prayer spot. I believe I got this from Jones Design Company.

This page breaks down cleaning weekly by room and also has daily and monthly tasks on it. I love this page.

My first tab is the "Niki" tab. Last week my trainer wrote a blog post about needing to keep track of your workouts. So I found this printable and have just begun using it. This tab also has my Junior League info!

The next tab is my "Food" tab. I have used this particular meal planner for a few months, too. Megan wrote about meal planning months back and linked to this printable. I love this. Also, I didn't have a grocery list this week because my mom randomly called and said she wanted to take me grocery shopping and I hadn't had time to meal plan.Yea, that's an unexpected blessing. :)

This tab also has some of my favorite recipes printed off in it. I also have a recipe binder. I put just a few of the recipes I make frequently in here.

The next tab is the finance tab. I added our budget and the bill paying schedule.

My fourth tab is home/auto.

The last tab is our CALL tab. It is housing all of our foster information. Like our fingerprinting info. :) I don't think most people are excited to go get fingerprinted, but when I got this email I was so excited to have another step to move on to!

I've also got our CALL folder in the back full of our paperwork yet to be done. I have a separate file for everything already completed.

I can see that I will definitely be adding to this as the time goes on, but for now these 5 simple tabs are perfect for our family! I am going to get a few pocket tabs for coupons and bills. Now go make your own and link up over at Blue Eyed Bride!

The Most Boring Blog Post Ever

Do you have a great cleaning schedule? I need it. This is possibly the most boring blog post you will ever read. 

We spent the weekend in Oklahoma with family so I have been playing catch up the past two days. All I can think about is whether or not there is a more efficient way to get my cleaning done. I'd love to hear how you do it. Do you do all your dusting on one day or do a different room each day? I usually do Kitchen/Dining one day, living room and bathrooms one day and bedrooms one day. Do you do laundry all at once or a little each day? Split it up by people in the house or do everyone's together? 

Also, I'd love to know your favorite cleaning supplies! I used to make my own laundry detergent until I started having allergic reactions to everything and switched to All Free and Clear. I use 7th generation or Mrs. Meyers sprays and soaps.

If you will, lovely blog readers, please let me know your secrets! 

The First of Many

I am not usually someone who freaks out over the small stuff. I really try not to worry about things that are out of my control. In other words. I am SO not Type A.

So this morning may have freaked T out just a bit when I panicked over not being able to find a folder. I have never in my life panicked like I did today. This particular folder is always in the same spot. But we are flip-flopping some things around and it apparently found a new home. This folder happens to have ALL of our C.A.L.L. and DHS  stuff in it. I can't really explain the amount of paperwork I thought I had lost. Months of filling out forms. Our birth certificates. Insurance information and OUR MARRIAGE LICENSE.

At one point I ended up in the floor of our bedroom sitting in a meditation position breathing deeply, counting to ten and praying. I was praying over a folder. But after I got up from my self induced calm-down-you-are-legitimately-freaking-out-your-husband session, I got back up and began to look again. And I found it. Everything. It had just fallen behind something else.

Then I posted to twitter. ;) And my sweet friend Kim "reassured" me that this would be the first of many panic attacks I have during this process. Kim was one of the first to find out we were doing this. She has 2 adorable miracle boys. One by the blessing of adoption and one by the blessing of biology. Both equally and perfectly hers. She is seriously such a blessing to me. I have asked her multiple questions and she has been so wonderful and patient answering them all. I told Kim I needed to mark this day in the calendar as one of our "firsts" during this season. She suggested I start a journal. Pretty perfect since I just bought a new composition book last week. It has a new duty.

Now that I have gotten this first panic session out of the way, we'll wait for the many more to come. For today, I am going to organize and print off the rest of the forms we have. Hopefully not too many to give me carpal tunnel.

The first is always the hardest, right? :)

Shreveport Weekend

I have tried to blog a few times, but blogger hates me and decides to not allow it! So I'm trying again! I have quite a few things to update, so hopefully the ol' blog with allow it! Also... warning... A LOT of pictures in this post!

A few weekends ago we went to Shreveport, LA for one of T's best friend's wedding. Greg was a groomsman in our wedding and married the sweetest girl ever, Carly! I'm going to be completely honest and let y'all know that I was NOT looking forward to this weekend. We were going to be gone 3 days and I really only knew Greg, Tyler and Matt another groomsman (who was also my senior prom date. haha!). I also had met a few other people, but for the most part, I was looking at a weekend of knowing no one and my husband being busy the whole time with wedding festivities. But what it ended up was SO much better! I had such a good time and got to make a few new friends and reconnect with a few old friends.

Greg and Carly's rehearsal dinner was at a steakhouse (umm yea, I'm a vegetarian, probably one of the reasons I wasn't looking forward to the weekend) and it ended up being really good! The folks at our table were super fun and we honestly laughed the entire time. The highlight of the night was most definitely when Greg's dad kissed the guy sitting next to me... on the lips... and it was caught on camera. I. About. Died. It was just ridiculously funny.

(T, Greg and Matt)

On Saturday all the boys had a get together for a cookout and all that means to me is that I got free time to shop! Ha! I actually didn't get a whole lot for me, but got quite a few things for our neices who are due this fall! I love outlet shopping :)

(I really didn't have a choice on whether or not to buy these. I told my SIL that I get the good twin. haha!)

Saturday night was wedding night and it was eventful from beginning to end. Seriously. I sat in the balcony and could see T fidgeting from the get go! At first it was driving me nuts, because everyone else was still, but I quickly realized he was the one making the good decision - locked knees are no bueno. Carly looked absolutely beautiful and they got married in a gorgeous building! I believe it is called the Scottish Rite Temple. But I could totally be wrong. haha! As they started the ceremony everyone in the balcony notices Mike (groom's dad, also best man) start to sway. The boys had been joking all day with the pastor that if he started to sway it was a sign to hurry on up! So the pastor kind of made a joke and Matt stood Mike back up. Unfortunately it totally wasn't a joke. After that first sway, he completely lost it and passed out! It was so scary! Greg, Matt and Tyler picked him up and took him out of the room and all I hear is Tyler yelling at everyone to lay him down. Apparently he had also stopped breathing. After they laid him down he started breathing again and they got the show back on the road. It was seriously bizarre and I was nervous for awhile!

The reception was in the same building as the ceremony which is quite convenient. ha! We were all dolled up and got to chat with some people that I haven't seen in years all night. My favorite was quite possibly Greg's grooms cake. So stinkin' cute! Greg went to Arkansas, but grew up in Shreveport.

Dr. and Mrs. Kintzing!

(I love these three!)

 (groom's sister, Sidney)

 (this is for real my favorite picture from the whole weekend. Hilarious. They really are best friends, Matt was the best man in our wedding. But this is totally my husband "punching" my prom date.)

 (See... they love each other)

 (Matt and Carly)

Just for kicks... this is apparently my "disapproving" face. :) I was telling T that he had to drink more water and he started snapping photos. And then Matt said. Oh wow, we have to take her home, now! haha! Needless to say, the sober girl went back to the hotel while the wedding party went to a bar around the corner from where we were staying. I'm not a night owl, anyway. ;)

And I am only sharing this super blurry picture so I can tell you how ridiculous the evening ended. This is one of the groom's friends from high school. He was at our table at the rehearsal dinner, so we got to chat quite a bit over the two days. He's hilarious and lives in China. See the random dude in the background? He's also one of Greg's friends from high school. We know him from college. We aren't fans. But shortly after Tyler took this picture of Chatham and I, Will sat down and chunked a FULL water bottle across the table at him.Out of nowhere. It almost hit me. And it did end up cutting a gash in Chatham's head!!! I was in disbelief and was pretty convinced all of the (slightly umm very intoxicated) men at the table were about to jump Will. It was insane!! And we ended our night trying to convince him to leave the party without us calling the police on him.

All in all, we did have a great weekend! And are already planning a few more trips to visit.