Rollerblading.... hmm....

Ever since... forever I have been trying to find a work out routine that I can enjoy enough to do consistently. Given I LOVE horseback riding which is really an awesome work out, but with two small children at home and not being able to board my horse in a place that allows for riding in freezing temperatures (like an indoor arena??) I am unable to ride the 3 or 4 times a week it would take to get sufficient excercise from it. Heck - with having a new born it seems I can only ride once a month - maybe - if I'm lucky! So my bestest friend Amy suggested I try rollerblading. I looked at them online and saw cheepest end they are $50, I didn't want to put the money into it just to find out I don't like it. But then my friend Laurie offered for me to borrow her roller blades! I was like yes! She brought them this week and today was the first time I was brave enough to try it. Let me tell you what - I loved it!! It's a great work out, but it doesn't exhaust me within a quarter mile like running does. Plus it's low impact and according to all the 'calorie burning' counters on line, it burns around as much calories as running does. It really seems as if it's something I can do for a long time to actually get the excercise I need! I still have about 30 lbs to lose to get to where I was before I got pregnant, so hopefully this will help to keep me on track! Today I did 4 miles on the roller blades - about 45 minutes worth (broken into 2 sessions mind you...) I'm sure I'll be sore tomorrow! I can already feel it! Anyway, wish me luck - I really do have a desire to be more active and healthy.

Plus, I did go to see Twilight Thrusday night! And I LOVED it!! It was a good depiction of the book. There were a few things that disappointed me about it like the fact that they kind of flew through the story to fit it all in the movie, so I worry had you not read the book, you would be confused about what was going on. And the special effects really kind of... um... sucked - no other word for it! But all in all it was a good movie and I will definately watch it again and probably buy it when it comes out on DVD! The guy that plays Edward is hot enough to watch again and again and again *sigh* he he!

Twilight!!

About the time I started blogging (not long ago!!) I started reading the twilight series because my friend, Laurie, said it was great and lent me the first book. The first quarter of the book was OK, but I wasn't real into it - then all the sudden it got amazing! I couldn't put it down!! SO GOOD! So I finished it last Saturday, and she gave me the second book. Needless to say I finished it in 4 days!! And I'm a really slow reader. Now my house is destroyed and my children and husband are being neglected cause I just can't put these stinking books down. I just started the third! Well, out of my new found obsession I couldn't wait to see the movie! Laurie and I are going tonight... at midnight... to watch the premier show. It opens tomorrow, so they are showing it at 12:01 a m. We are watching it on the ultra screen, which I guess is 3 stories high! I just can't wait! I will blog tomorrow and tell you all how it was.... if I'm awake that is! Not real sure how I'll get up at 6 when I probably won't even get home till 3! ha! Totally worth it tho I think!!!

Christmas pictures

Ha ha - thought this one was funny.... photographer accidently hit the button. This shows how we were really feeling! LOL!

Cutest baby in the world!! Savanna - 3 months old.

Cutest boy in the world!!! Joey - 3 years old.

We had family pics done today! So fun - NOT! I find it ironic that the pictures show such a happy family where as in between shots we're bickering and carrying on because one or more people are not cooperating! I'm glad we got them done tho - They always turn out looking so nice - and I can't wait to get the christmas cards and mail them out!!!

Savanna's room - my favorite room in the house!!

Happy baby loves her room! :)

The view when you enter her room. I didn't get a good pic of the rug, but you can see the corner of it here - it goes PERFECTLY with the room - found it at home depot!

The view looking at the changing table

The turtle behind the changing table - notice the amazing detail! I LOVE IT! Notice how amazingly real the grass looks, too.

One of the 3 large flowers on the walls.

The view over her crib.

The view looking at the window (we will eventually have a ceiling fan, but until then the stand up one works....). My mom made the quilt hanging on the back of the rocking chair. I found the rocking chair at walmart!

The PERFECT table! I couldn't pass it up - found it at www.companykids.com The vase and flowers are from Savanna's Aunt Angie - goes perfect with the room!

Kris' pile of stuff he still has yet to hang. he he!

Happy frog by the rocking chair - again, notice the amazing detail!

Tree frog by the crib

Well, since we bought this house nearly 5 years ago I have decorated one room... Joey's! The plain walls were definately beginning to get to me, so when I found out I was pregnant again, I got all excited about doing another nursery!! Then to find out it was a girl I got pictures of pink and floofy in my head! I couldn't wait! So the plans started... and got more and more advanced! After contacting a painter, he stood us up. Hmmm - strike one! So I called him back, and he never returned my call. SO we figured we would try Kris' cousin - he has a painting business. I really didn't want to go with family cause that always adds another level of business vs. personal, but I figured we'd try it. Well we made an appointment with him and go figure - he stood us up, too! I called him the next day and he apologized profusely - it really wasn't his fault, but I told him I had someone else in mind that I knew since Kris' cousin was so busy. He understood and told me he'd be there if the other person didn't work out.

Well the other guy is a guy who has 2 horses and he boards at the same barn I keep Olivia. He said he paints on the side and showed me a picture of a BEAUTIFUL mural he did. I made an appointment with him and he showed up! A big plus in his direction! I told him what I wanted to do, and he said it's totally doable. The more he painted the more talented I found out he was!! He was amazing!! You've got to check out the close ups of the pictures he painted! I told him I wanted green and pink stripes on the bottom, a chair rail 3 feet up, and light purple on the top with a boarder around the chair rail of grass with some turtles and/or frogs mixed in and a few large daisys on the wall. I was picturing like stick frogs/turtles and just big puffy looking daisys. I had no clue how lifelike he would make everything! I SWEAR I will NEVER re-paint this room! It's just too amazing! And he barely charged anything at all - I was amazed at how cheap it was!

Also, Kris put in the pergo floor and the chair-rail all by himself! I was so impressed. I was nervous when he said he would do the floor himself, but he got it done in one day and my jaw dropped when I saw it! He did such an amazing job! All in all we got an amazing room - yea it cost some money, but I love it! And I'm sure Savanna will grow to appreciate it! My next big project in this house will be to re-do our drab living room.........

Last Chance Corral - yup - I'm a true horse lover!

I will post more on this subject later, i'm sure, but be sure to check out the Last Chance Corral's blog every now and then. They are an AMAZING organization that takes in nurse mare foals and any other horse that needs help and some love. Be sure to look at their older posts and find the one about King - I think that post is titled 'a new arrival' and was posted in October... I think. Once I figure this blogging thing out more I'm sure I'll know how to post the link, but don't have time to figure it all out right now.

As most of you know I LOVE horses - I have a real passion for them. I really appreciate what the LCC does - gives horses the chance they truly deserve. The first horse picture is my baby, Olivia. :-) Just thought I'd stick one in there! The second one - the one of the black horse - is off of LCC's blog.

Beginning a Blog and Halloween 2008

Alright - so here I am - starting a blog! My sister, Amanda, has been trying to get me to start a blog for a while, so I probably won't tell her for a while I have started one until I get this established. I am sure it will take me a while to figure things out as to how to post and put up pictures and stuff, but I'm sure it won't be bad. The main reason for my starting this blog is to begin journaling more for my kids. I worry I don't write enough down about their early life - I'm HORRIBLE about taking pictures and keeping baby books up to date and stuff, but I think maybe if I start blogging, then I can print these out to be part of their baby books and some day they will appreciate me 'giving in to the dark side' and creating a blog.



I figure my first post can be about Halloween this year. My kids were soooo cute! Obviously they were the cutest ones out there! My son, Joey, was a fireman. He won't stop talking about it! He especially loved the hatchet. Thank you to my sister for allowing me to borrow the costume! And my daugter, Savanna, was a cow! That was a hand-me-down from Joey's first Halloween in 2005. So this year I spent $0 on costumes! Priceless! And both were so cute. As always, Joey got WAY too much candy! He thought when we got home he would get to eat it all. In his words "I eat my candy all gone mommy?" Ha - try convincing a 3 year old that that's just not how it works! I did fairly well not eating much candy though - I had committed myself to not eat any at all - well - that didn't happen, but I did good to not eat too much!

At any rate, wish me luck at this whole blogging thing - I know my blog will be a LONG time in the making, but hopefully it won't be a total flop!