"One and done"?

I've heard that phrase a lot lately and it makes me sad. Now, I'm not knocking it or trying to offend anyone, so don't get your hackles up. :) I read this article in Time tonight and thought I would share.

I'm an only child. My parents tried for almost 2 years to get pregnant with me. They were on the verge of starting fertility treatments (no small feat for a young couple in the 70's) when they turned up prego with yours truly. After I was born, my mom became pregnant 3 more times and miscarried all 3 babies. Devastating for her, as you can imagine.

Growing up, I wanted a sibling soooo badly. I didn't even care if it was a boy or a girl. Granted, we lived out in the country (and I mean, OUT- my school, grades K-12, was housed in a series of trailers). But I had close friends and we saw them a lot. I just wanted a brother or sister. BAD. As I got older, around 10 or so I imagine, I decided it wasn't so bad to be the only.

Now that I'm much older, I long for a sibling. It can nearly bring me to tears. Does that sound silly to those of you with siblings? Well, here's my thought. When my parents are gone, it's just me. Yes, I'm married to a wonderful man. And yes, I have two beautiful children who are the light of my life. But they don't know the me that was 7 and crawled in the dog house with Brandy and her puppies. They don't know the me that moved to AR and cried for weeks. They don't know the me that almost didn't make the cheer squad in 8th grade. They don't know the me who hated high school but cried through the entire graduation. They don't know the me who made so many mistakes and had so many good times and cried and laughed. A sibling would. And a sibling would know what I'm feeling when my mom and dad are gone.

Do I sound morbid? I'm not trying to, I promise. My parents have both had serious health problems. My mom cannot do anything about hers. She can manage it, but no cure. That means a shortened life span. My mom and I are super close, and I can't even think about that.

I'm tired from leading 11 kindergarteners around VBS for 3 hours this week, so maybe I'm just feeling extra emotional. But when am I not? ;)

I would love to hear your thoughts, even if they're different than mine!

While you're on a blog roll, check out Megan's post on friendship. I haven't commented yet, I'm still fermenting mine. :)

Have a great day!

Ta-daaaa!

Before = BORING. Our entire house, with the exception of the playroom, was this boring off-white color. Ugh. It's just like living in a cloud, except not soft and squishy. We picked out some paint for the dining room in December, when we painted the kitchen. So we finally got around to it.

After = EXCITING! I am so happy with how it turned out. And no, I didn't feel the need to clean up before I took a picture for you. That's how we roll. I loooove it, don't you? ;)
One of my favorite parts is this ledge thingy above the bar. I have big plans for it, but that will have to wait for another day. :) Incidentally, you can see the kitchen paint from this angle also. I have been looking high and low for a 'before' kitchen picture, but I think I deleted the one I am thinking of since I looked like a whale in it. ;) We took down some hideous fruity wallpaper and painted it that wonderful berry color. We also got rid of our stainless steel side-by-side fridge that couldn't open all the way due to the wall directly next to it. We got a french-door, bottom-mount black fridge instead. I love it!

On a side note, my birthday was this weekend. Yep, I'm the big 3-1. Woo! We had a good weekend. Saturday, I spent the day with my mom and my aunt. We got pedicures, ate lunch at PF Chang's, and did some shopping. I just let myself enjoy being out and didn't worry about what time it was. Consequently, I got home at 6! Sunday, Livy and I were going to go to Different Strokes, but they went out of business! Who knew?! So we just ran around and hung out. It was nice, just the girls. :) I didn't get many pictures, but here are some from birthday dinner at Noodles. Hope you had a great weekend, too!

Befores-and-Afters

We've been busy, busy sprucing up our home. Yes, we've lived here for almost 3 years and we're just now getting around to some of this stuff.

This is our living room, we had a mirrored star hanging there since shortly after we moved in. I bought it on super-duper clearance at Kohl's. Unfortunately, Wes hated it. With a capital 'hate'. Woe is me. I finally took it down and make a little project to put there. It turned out kind of bumpy, and I'll probably re-do it but I hung it to get a feel for it. I think it's a little bare, thoughts? (I think we also need some flowers or something on top of the TV, but that's neither here nor there.) We also just added the black thing for accessories, we previously had everything on an end table. Yep, that's how we roll. (Also- ignore the giant piles of laundry. It's clean, just not put away.)




Here is what I'm reh-he-he-heally proud of- the picture wall. I've had these frames for at least 2 years, if not longer. They came in a box of 7 for $10.48. That's right, people, about $1.50 each. Score! I bought three boxes, with grand ideas of a wall gallery. Two years later, they're still in the closet, in the boxes, in a ginormous Target bag. A few weeks ago, I bought these. They were a silver-color, so I decided to paint them with some extra copper-y spray paint I had laying around. I originally had a different plan for them, but I think they really 'make' the wall.



Now I can tell my children, 'Yes, someone really DOES live here!"


I was going to post pictures of our kitchen makeover as well, but I can't find them now. Since I know you're just dyyyyyying to read this post, I'll just have to promise to do it later. Stop snickering behind your hand, I really will post it! Sometime. :)

Friendly Beasts

Livy had her Christmas program last night at church. She did such a great job!! Last year, she wouldn't even walk down the aisle to come into the auditorium. This year, she went up on stage and everything. We are so proud of her! We read and talked about "The Berenstain Bears Get Stage Fright" before, and I think it helped. LOVE this girl more every day!!

Cloth!

So, I've been wanting to try cloth diapers, but I can't seem to convince my husband the outlay of moolah is worth it. Especially since we're still using diapers that were given at various baby showers, etc. So I'm entering a drawing to win some! Woo! To check them out, go here Fuzzibunz and wish me luck! :)

Video time!

Keegan smiles & 'talks'!



Livy 'reads'! Hilarious!!

Favorite time-wasters...

Here are some of my favorite ways to waste time. Check them out, you won't be sorry... :)

www.passiveaggressivenotes.com
awkwardfamilyphotos.com
cakewrecks.blogspot.com
www.annoyingcoworker.com
www.yardsalebloodbath.com

A word of warning, you should probably have a bit of a funny (and I don't mean in the "funny-ha-ha" way) sense of humor to laugh at these. :)

Passive aggressive notes and awkward family photos are my favorites!