The worlds worst blogger award goes to... ME!

O.K.-O.K. I guess we know the answer to my first entry on what kind of blogger I am going to be. I know this is just an excuse, and they're a dime a dozen, but this is one of the busiest times for a photographer. I have been having a blast taking pictures of many wonderful families, seniors and weddings, and even FINALLY got pictures taken of my own family-YEAH!!! So, needless to say, I am hoping that I will do better at this blogging thing after the Christmas season. I do have a lot that I still want to blog about from Halloween, Tayla's 2nd birthday, Thanksgiving, and everything in between. And lots of fun pictures as well. Hopefully I can get to that soon! :) (don't hold your breath though!) I am also going to do a photography blog as well, so keep an eye out for that. (again, it might be wise not to hold your breath on that one either- like most things in my life, I have great intentions!) Anyways, thanks for those who haven't given up on me!!

At the start of this Christmas season, Merry Christmas!! And though this is a busy time of year full of stressful shopping, parties, worries about buying that perfect gift, and how to pay for it all, please don't forget what Christmas is all about; the birth of our loving, caring, forgiving Savior, Jesus Christ. In the midst of it all, always remember to keep "Christ" in Christmas!!

Washer Woes

You know those series of events that life hands us that start off as a minor inconvenience and by the end you are laughing just to save yourself from tears!?! Well, that's what kind of "weekend with the washer" we had! The first event started on Saturday with a simple load of laundry. I put a load in the washer and went about my merry 'ol way. The next time I stepped into the laundry room, about 3 hours later, I was in about 1-2 inches of water! "Oh great, not again!" You see, about 1 1/2 years ago the same thing happened. It ended up being a little hole in a hose at the bottom of the washer, so 15 minutes and a pretty penny later, our washer was fixed. Anyway, back to this years flood. Well, to paint a little picture of the mess we had, I hadn't done laundry for about a week or so (o.k.- it was about 2 1/2 to 3 weeks, but who's counting-we had clean undies, that's all that really matters, right!! I'm not always this bad of a mom, I promise!!) So I had 2-3 loads of clothes on the floor (the baskets on the shelves we already over-flowing :), 4-5 big blankets on the floor just waiting ever so patiently for their turn in the big water park, and 2 boxes, just needing to go outside, all sitting in an inch or two of water. Who knew that a washing machine could hold that much water!!! Now, you would think that all the clothes and blankets already on the floor would have soaked up all the water, but the inch or so of water on the floor was what wasn't already soaked up by the clothes and blankets. So, out come the towels- ALL the towels. By the end of this whole mess, I seriously felt like the only cloth-like thing left in the house that wasn't wet were the clothes on our backs, and to tell you the truth, they were pretty wet too! :) Oh, did I mention that all this happened about an hour or so before I had to go to work. So I did what any prudent person would do- I shut the door to the laundry room, told Adam not to worry about it, and went to work!! (after all, the washer flood fairies would surely have it cleaned up before I come home.) Well, guess what? To my great surprise- there are NO washer flood fairies!! So, what better Sunday night activity than to go to the laundry mat! I had never been to a laundry mat before- holy cow, what a rip off!! But I guess, where else can you do approx. 35-40 loads (unfortunatly, I'm not exagerating) of laundy in 3 1/2 hours. If there is such thing as a washer and dryer hog- I was one that day! I had probably 70% of the washers and dryers in that joint going all at once, all filled with my wet, smelly clothes and blankets. I do feel that it was a bit of a blessing though, I am finally caught up on my laundry-$45.25 later, but finally caught up-halleluliah!!

A few days later, Adam and I went and bought a new washing machine. Man, they have some pretty fancy-shmancy washer and dryers out there! I'm pretty sure they have some that are smart enough to help our Government get our economy out of this big mess, but no one understands their language- they are appliances after all! (o.k.-it's official, I should be banned from posting at 4:30 a.m.when I have been up all night at work-sorry!) Anyway, back to reality- We bought a nice, but not too nice, washer and came home happy to have a working washer again. (Last thing I want to do is get behind again!!) Adam and I quickly took out the old and put in the new and put in a load for a test drive. "Wow, it is so quiet and it holds a lot more clothes and a lot less soap than our last washer. Maybe this hasn't been so bad!" Oh, but NO!!! Then entered Mr. Rinse Cycle!! And to our greatest delight, another flood!! Yes, you read that right- more water not draining down the pipe into happy water land!! I quickly ran in to the laundry room to discover that the water wasn't coming from the bottom of the washer like last year but from the drain the big hose from the back goes to. Our stinking drain was clogged- that's all- it wasn't our old washer after all!!! SPLENDID!!! So $4.87 and 1 bottle of Drano Max later, our problem was solved. Isn't life so simple!!!!! Anyone need a washer- for some reason we have TWO!!!!! :)

Oh, by the way, I'm back to laughing about it now-I do LOVE our new washer!! :) Sorry for the long post-I'm trying to stay awake!!!

My road to Blog Town

Well, after a long, hard fought battle of me telling myself that I already have plenty of things to occupy my time, I have decided what's one more thing gonna hurt-so I am entering the blogging world. You know it's bound to happen when your kids do something cute and you think, "oh, that would be perfect to put on a blog." Or when you have an ever so rare, profound thought and you think, "oh, that doesn't happen often, I could put that on a blog." So, it's done- it's started- but I cannot, however, promise how long it's gonna last. I am the worlds worst journal writer, so I am a little sceptical about the longevity of my blog! :) But I do LOVE talking about my kids and husband and all the sweet things they do, so who knows-I might actually be good at this blogging thing! Actually, I can see one of two things happening. I will either go to the extreme and post more often than anyone would ever care to read-OR- post every few months or so. But the bottom line is I'm really excited to give it a whirl and hopefully do a better job of keeping record of my wonderful family and our crazy, amazing life! Thanks Kilee for being my tour guide through the world of blogging- you're the BEST! So, ready or not bloggers- here I come! :)