Author: Laurie

About Laurie

Work-hard-kinz

Laurie12 Comments

Katri posted a hilarious post about “Guilt-kinz“. You’ve got to check it out and be sure to read the comments. Seriously, you guys are too funny! Gramma just sent the boys a box with a Webkinz for each kiddo. The boys are crazy for them!

I’ve been thinking about it for a little while and realized that they represent something completely different to me personally. Since my sister and I have become really close the last couple years we’ve talked a lot about our childhood. Usually I never even think about how I grew up, it just seems like lifetimes ago. Anyway to make this post shorter, I grew up poor but in a middle-class neighborhood. My dad told me later that he made $24,000 when I was in high school. I can’t even imagine raising 5 kids on $24k a year. No wonder he asked my brother and I frequently for money for food for the family.

Anyway, what I’m trying to say is that I feel so grateful that Jason and I have worked really hard, made the tough decisions, and focused on our goal of giving us and our children a financially secure life. So to me a “pop-culture” item like a Webkinz is such a luxury that I feel very blessed to be able to provide for my kiddos. They’re “Work-hard-kinz” for me.

What are Webkinz to you? Work-hard-kinz, Bribe-kinz, Nap-kinz, Guilt-kinz
About Laurie

What Did I do Today?

Laurie16 Comments

I babysat a 4 month old and a 2 year old. I was a little worried because I thought Drake would be jealous. Oh no. He loved the baby and was very gentle with him. Good Boy.

He enjoyed the baby’s car seat too.

Here are some fellow bloggers right in my church (above pic)! I knew Jen had a blog but I thought it was a food blog. Y’all know I can’t cook so I haven’t visited much. Now, I’m excited to see what’s been going on in her life. Mandy just moved in today and has been reading my blog. It was so fun to meet her. Yeah!! They completely rock and you’ll have to check out their blogs.

Tonight we had an ice-cream social for church. I had 3 goals. One to finally meet people, two to bring up blogging, and three to introduce a friend who just moved in. I’m proud to say that I did all 3! It was really fun to try to work in blogging into every conversation I had with every person there. FOTFL!! It gave me something to do and I quite enjoyed it.

I got everyone to liven up a bit and give me the ‘Rock On’!

Fun night. Thanks ladies. Life is just more fun with a camera. (btw: I’m not liking my hair down. Any suggestions? I see my hair dresser next week.)

Home Decorator

Welcome Katrina!

Laurie9 Comments


Summer Theme

I want to welcome Katrina to the blogging world! Yeah! Be sure to check out her blog and leave her a nice comment. You’re going to love all her decor ideas.

So I’ve practically been begging Katrina to take pictures of her seasonal table top decor. She finally did. Katrina decorates her formal dining room table according to the season. It’s like nothing I’ve ever seen before! It’s so beautiful and every arrangement is unique, warm, and colorful. I feel like she should show it to the world. So enjoy!

btw: I added the rolling pin picture into the post below. Katrina said it was her fav so in her honor I added it. I also added a link to my boys Cowboy bathroom.

Home Decorator

As for Me and My House, We will Serve the Lord

Laurie25 Comments

ONEHM has challenged us to post pics of our homes. I really hesitated posting mine, because only the boys rooms are finished. I have a ton of painting and window treatments to do. We moved in 1 1/2 years ago but I had a baby. I guess I just thought I’d be farther along by now. Ok, enough of my disclaimer. (I know that was silly.)


Here’s my formal dining room. I want to paint it soon – any suggestions? I’m still looking for fabric for the window treatment.


Living Room


Kitchen. After I paint the kitchen, I’m going to have vinyl lettering put under the rolling pin that says, ‘I Kiss Better Than I Cook!’. (he he)


Breakfast Nook


Master Bedroom


Master Bathroom

Here is my second flower arrangement attempt. Now I need to figure out what color to paint my bathroom and what kind of faux paint for this niche. Any suggestions?


Stair Way (Boys will be Boys)


Media Room


Davis’ Rocket Room


Dylan & Drake’s Sports Room

I’ve posted a lot of decor stuff from my house already:

I’ve had so much fun seeing everyone’s homes and getting tons of decorating ideas. Be sure to share your’s too!

Girly Girl

Birthday Dinner

Laurie6 Comments

We had a girls night dinner to celebrate my friend’s birthday. We had such a fun night with great conversation. We each brought the birthday girl a flower, put it in a vase, and I attached a Friends Are Like Flowers poem. We also gave her a gift card to Hobby Lobby. You can print out the poem free on Executive Homemaker.com

Friends are Like Flowers Poem

Friends are like flowers each unique in their own way,
put them all together what a wonderful bouquet.

Some are really brilliant full of light sharp and clear,
while other are more subdued to both you can adhere.

You are a flower in my garden that makes up my bouquet,
my friends you all make a very impressive display.

I also like the saying, “Friends are like flowers because they let each other grow seperately without growing apart.”

Near the middle of dinner we realized that the left side of the table blogged and the right side didn’t. Yeah, I have 2 new blogging friends! Here we are Blogger vs. Non-Blogger. We’re duking it out. 😉

Business Owner

1st Day of School

Laurie3 Comments

My kids are finally in school and my exhausting summer has officially ended. Time to celebrate! Here we are at Pei Wei for lunch. Yummy!

I folded a ton of laundry that was on my lazy boy in my room. And I finally had some time to think and get together something that I’ve been wanting to do for a while now…

The ‘Great Tip Award’ from TipJunkie.com. It will work just like all the other meme’s we’ve been doing. Please follow the rules to assure the integrity of the award. It will be a blog version of Maven’s so to speak.

I award this to:
  • Rochelle for detailing her entire house and all her home improvement projects, complete with before and after pictures. I have been inspired so much by her talent and decor tips. Every time I’m over I see something new and get a new idea.
  • ONEHM for always sharing her amazing digital scrapbooking layouts complete with what kits she used. I love her layouts so much and am inspired by her dedication to doing something she really enjoys.
  • Skip to my Lou for always having great tips and ideas. Her latest post is on how to do a Shrimp Boil. Seriously, how fun is that! She even posts how-to pictures for every recipe, craft, and project. She’s truly amazing.
Now it’s your turn to tag. The participation rules are simple:
1. If you get tagged, write a post with links to 3 blogs that also have great tips.
2. Link this post so that people can easily find the exact origin of the meme.
3. Optional: Proudly display the ‘Great Tip Award’ with a link to the post that you wrote.
4. Optional: Submit the tip(s) to be featured on TipJunkie.com.
Please remember to tag blogs with real merits. The goal is to spotlight inspiring ideas that make life easier, fun, and/or more beautiful.
Business Owner

Inspired Blogging

Laurie10 Comments

I was going to splurge and get my boys a monogrammed backpack this year. However, I was in The Children’s Place and found these backpacks for $12! They boys asked for them and I thought, “That’s a no-brainer“. So I bought them and was a little bummed but moved on.

Then last week I was completed inspired by Mique’s back to school post where she not only monogrammed her kids backpacks herself but also made them some really cool tags too. I was back to being excited and drove over to Micheal’s that day (yes with all 3 boys) and they picked these iron-on letters for their backpacks. Yeah!! (I feel a lot better considering how many of these backpacks I saw at school today.)

So I got an e-mail from Mer who was inspired by my placemats. Don’t you think hers turned out so great! I really like the fabric she chose. She wanted to know how I frayed the edges and I e-mailed her back with pics and told her I cut all along the edges and then washed them.

I’m constantly inspired by you amazing ladies. What have you guys been inspired to do?

Blogger

Tiara Award

Laurie15 Comments

Julie, or crazymamaof6, awarded me the Tiara Award. I am truly honored that she would think of me for this great award. I do actually have my own tiara. I bought it for myself when a friend of mine and I had a shopping day to celebrate my birthday. My 3rd boy was still an infant and I was feeling seriously juked in the girl department.

I award just a couple of the fabulous bloggers I know that have inspired me….

  • Heather from Unwrapped, because she has a kiddo that has some health problems and recently went through surgery. Not to mention, she’s oober creative and just had a girl’s craft night with a bunch of friends. I’m completely inspired by her creations and her mothering.
  • Wendi from Dancin Queen, because I’ve really been impressed by her sincerity and warmth on her blog. She talks a lot about her beliefs and what inspires her spiritually. I feel strengthened and challenged by that.
  • Lacie from Forever Flamingo, because she recently moved away from her amazing group of friends to a very small town. I’m encouraged by her optimism and her consistency in learning to love her new surroundings. I’m also strengthened by her strong faith.

The tiara award is a fabulous thing , pass it on to those that inspire or impress you. Those that might need a boost or a little love. Share it and love it and pass it on!

Girly Girl

Great Girl Day

Laurie11 Comments

My life is seriously cutting into my blogging time. Dagumit, what’s up with that!?! (j/k) Friday night Jason and I went out to dinner with 3 other couples to celebrate my friend’s birthday. We met at Outback Steak House (yummy) and then went home and played ‘Imagine If’. It was a fun game although I’m horrible at it. I just decided that I rock to the beat of a different tune and so not being able to think the same way other people think is fine with me. 🙂 What do you think, good justification for coming in last? ha ha

We had a really great time. My husband gets along well with all of their husbands so it couldn’t have worked out better! It’s such a fun group of friends.

(Thanks Rochelle for photoshopping me in the pic! You rock girl.)

Friday night I got home late and baked the potatoes for baked potato soup, cooked the bacon, made braclets for the girls, and made the black bean salsa. Saturday morning I got up early cleaned and finished cooking. I hate to cook.

Anyway, here are my book club! They rock. I picked Atlas Shrugged by Ann Rand. We had such a good conversation today. I really liked it.

Afterwards, a couple of us went to the Funky Monkey boutique. Here’s the blue ring I got. Yeah! It’s so fun and I’ve been playing with it all day. Jason set up a double date, so I got a babysitter and we went to dinner and a movie with my man’s BFF and his wife. We had a great time.

Mother of Boys

Grandparent Post

Laurie15 Comments

Remember how I said that I can tell what I do alot by what my boys do? Well here’s another example. I came in to the living room and this is what I saw. All the boys where wearing my headbands. Yes, even Drake. In fact, he had one around his head and one around his neck like a necklace. Here, he did not want Dylan to grab him.

(Notice Davis has his tounge out! 😉 I guess there is a little of me in him after all. So proud.)

Another thing I’ve been doing a lot lately is getting Sonic drinks. My friends are famous for them! I just keep forgetting to buy sodas at the grocery store and have had to resort to going to Sonic. The thought of dragging all 3 of the boys into the store just for a case of Diet Coke is exhausting.

When I wasn’t looking Drake grabbed my drink. The route 44 is almost as big as he is! The funny thing about it is that it was pretty much empty. So all he could taste was the watered down Coke and a LOT of lime. 😉

I cut Drake’s hair finally. It was an impromptu cut. We were in my bathroom and I grabbed the electric clippers and cut it as fast as I could. It’s not perfect but it will do. Here he is posing for the camera. He’s such a cheese when he sees the flash.