3 little Miracles

3 little Miracles

Saturday, October 31, 2009

Lucky Fiona Halloween Collar arrived

Our beautiful dog Maggie had a spa day yesterday with her best friend (my mom's dog) Holly Berry.  I was praying that her new collar from Lucky Fiona would be in the mail after we brought her back home and gues what . . . . . it was.  The best part is, that along with the collar that I originally ordered I also got this fantastic Halloween collar as a FREE bonus.  So, Maggie is sporting her Halloween doggie bling and she is looking so beautiful, its even as if she held her head perfectly still so she could show it off ;-) 


Show us Your Life - Halloween Costumes



Today is Show us Your Life - Halloween Costumes over at Kelly's Korner and I wanted to share some photo's of my boys over the past few years.  I generally try to pick a theme for each year so the boys costumes correspond, I know that won't last as they get older and want to pick their own costumes.  I pick their costumes based on what the boys are into that particular year and this year it is Star Wars.  This is the first year Davey has picked his own costume and I picked Jonathan's based on his choice.  So here is a tour of our past few years of Halloween costumes.

Halloween 2009 Star Wars

Jonathan is Yoda this year

Davey is a Storm Trooper, but every time I went to take his picture he lifted his mask
(he wasn't allowed to carry his Storm Trooper gun to school).
 

Halloween 2008 costume theme was Spiderman

Davey was Spiderman (Batman is Davey's best friend TJ from preschool)


Jon was Spiderman's sidekick THE Spider

Halloween 2007 theme Toy Story

My MoG was Woody and Jonathan was Bullseye the Horse.  This of course was JonJon's first Halloween and he was only 2 months old.

Davey was Buzz LightYear

Halloween 2006 Eeyore


Davey was Eeyore

Halloween 2005 Davey's first Halloween Tigger

Davey's 1st Halloween and with his brand new kitten Crocket
(Get IT!  Davey Crocket  LOL )


Already my brain is thinking of what we may do as a family next year, my thoughts are Wizard of Oz, Charlie Brown and the Gang, OR Scoobie Doo and the Gang.  Show Us YOUR Halloween!!!

Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Halloween Family Tradition


Some of my favorite shows to watch as a child around Halloween were the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown


and of course the greatest movie ever, the Wizard of Oz. 


Now I get the joy of continuing the family tradition by watching these programs on TV with my two boys and my husband.  It is wonderful being curled up on the sofa tonight with Davey cozied up beside me and Jonathan tucked into his Dad's lap, watching Charlie Brown tonight.  Both boys are totally focused on the cartoon and keep asking for the pumpkin patch back every time the commercials come on.  It isn't quiet the same watching these wonderful films on DVD (although I do have them) it just seems better watching it on TV with the commercial breaks giving us a chance to run for more popcorn, hot coco, or go potty.

Did you watch the Great Pumpkin Patch tonight with your kids?  What wonderful family traditions do you all enjoy this time of year?

Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Wordless Wednesday - PBJ




Abby leaves Biggest Loser and is READY TO FLY

Tonight my favorite Biggest Loser constent went home because she said she was ready to "FLY" and ready to "Dream Again".  Abby sacrificed herself from the Biggest Loser ranch so that others, who in her opinion still had more work to do, could keep working on their personal battle that got them there.  Abby's tragic journey to being on BL started 3 years ago this month when she lost all of her family in a head on collision when another driver going 100+ miles an hour hit their family van 5 miles from her home.

Abby is a 35-year-old teacher from Mabank, Texas, who tragically lost her husband, 5-year-old daughter, and two-week-old son in a fatal car accident in October 2006.  Since that time Abby felt no desire to go on and said that "By the Grace of God I was able to get out of bed each day."  In  a speach given to a high school auditorium filled with students shortly after she left the BL ranch, Abby told the students that if the man that killed her family that day was standing on the stage beside her right that moment, she would tell him "THIS is your chance to start over".  She went on to say that we can let lifes tragic moments define our lives, or we can choose to let them make a difference in us and try to make a positive impact on others.  In eposide one when Abby introduced herself, she said "I wasn't in that van for a reason, God has a plan for me and He isn't done with me yet." 


She has been searching for a way to finally get back to a "normal" life and felt this wouldl happen when she lost the weight. She is a high school teacher and is a favorite amongst the students, often being requested by students that are not even required to take her classes. She enjoys inspiring students to achieve their personal bests, but often feels like a hypocrite since she is not doing the same.


Abby recently went back to school and graduated with a Master's of Education degree maintaining a 4.0 grade point average. Abby desperately wants to live a healthy lifestyle enabling her to make the most of the next step in her new "normal" life.

I am sure that God does have a plan for Abby, and I think she is already beginning to fulfill the work He would have her to do within herself and in this world.  I pray for her continued success and can't wait to see her at the finale.  I know that Abby's precious family is looking down on her with pride in the DREAMS she is beginning to have again, and the wings she is sprouting to FLY into GOD's PLAN.

"Mom I can't find my ___________"

All the time Davey comes whinning to me "Mom I can't find _______" and about once a month I move the BIG BEAST, my sectional sofa, so that I can vacume and dust all the baseboards.  This is what I most often find




The FULL collections of toys gathered from under my sectional

What is the place in your house that you don't clean often that your kids toys always seem to hide?

Friday, October 23, 2009

Inspiring spaces

I LOVE picking up new magazines on the newstand or getting ones that I know I already love in the mail.  When I have a free moment, with the boys down for naps or off playing with Grandma, I curl up on the sofa with one of my favotire interior design inspiring magazines and pour over the pages.  I usually hold onto these jewels for several months, exploring their pages over and over again, until it is time to make room for new friends and inspiring pages.  When it is time to say goodbye, I pour one more time through its beautiful images and tear our my favorite ideas and then I laminate some, pin some to my design board in the office, and place others in my dream file for future reference.



Today was one of those days when I had a few moments to myself and so I used my time wisely to carefully go through 2 French Country magazines and 1 Southern Lady and wanted to share a few of the inspiring spaces that I fell in love with.  First, is this DREAM KITCHEN from Southern Lady magazine May/June 2009 issue.  I love this space so much, the beautiful detailed white cabinets, the highly detailed crown molding, the surface space of the counters, the amount of storage, it all screams COOK IN ME!






My next inspiring space is from French Country magazine.  This is a room I dream of having ONE DAY, a room that is so cozy where the sofa screams to me "come curl up with a book and a cup of hot tea" so casual and welcoming.  I love the white, yellow, and red, so warm and inviting and yet clean and uncluttered.  Sadly I could not get the other half of this picture scanned in well, there was a white wing chair facing the sofa with a yellow and red damask print back pillow in it and the slip cover a tiny bit of red embroidered detail near the top of the wingback.  IN addition, their was a large red and white buffalo check sofa floating in its  own space.





So what magazines and spaces inspire your inner interior decorator?

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Sickness AGAIN!

SICKNESS again falls upon our home.  Friday I took the boys to the doctor on for their H1N1 vaccine's and Jonathan's flu shot (they didn't have flu shots for Davey's age group).  Well wouldn't you know it Friday night JonJon started coming down with a fever and his nose was running like the niagara falls.  In the middle of the night on JonJon woke up and threw up, but we figured that was do to the drainage down his throat.  THUS, we kept our plans for the next day, I had a Southern Living at HOME booth at our communites annual Chili Festival, and my husband was working on a Habitat for Hummanity house.  Half way through Saturday my niece Calli (watching the boys) texted me and said JonJon had gotten sick right after lunch (again I kept thinking this was due to the drainage).

However, on Sunday the fever continued and we kept him home from church and then again Monday from school.  Mind you, this whole time JonJon is totally his active self only with a slight fever and runny nose.  Well this morning around 1:30 JonJon woke up crying and I went to him, only to find he was chilling so bad his teeth were chattering, when I checked on him again an hour later he was very warm, and by 3:15 his fever was 103.8.  So I moved him out to the sofa where I worked on getting his fever down by stripping him down, giving him motrin, and rubbing his back with a cool cloth.  Just about the time I got him settled and asleep on the sofa I heard Davey crying in the bedroom, I went to check on him and he too was burning up, his fever was 102.2. 

So at 4:15 in the morning I am on our big sectional sofa with two HOT boys and my poor husband is worrying about walking out the door to go to work and leaving me with 2 sick boys.  Fortunately their fevers went down and they are presently weak but content on the sofa watching cartoons.  BUT, I can tell by how Davey is acting that we are not out of the woods.  We will see what the day brings, but I think it will be a doctors visit ;-(

Monday, October 19, 2009

McLinky - FANTABULOUS FOTO FREE FOR ALL

Jonathan doing what he loves best . . . . . . Playing in the MUD.

 Davey going where he isn't supposed to go . . . . . . BUT doing it with JOY!
MckLinky Blog Hop

Friday, October 16, 2009

Show Us your Life - What you Sell (Southern Living at HOME)


Today over at Kelly's Korner she is encouraging her blogging community to Show us What you Make or Sell, unfortunately I can't post to it because she has added the stipulation of it being homemade products, but I thought I would post here anyway.  This is a wonderful chance for me to tell you more about my home business, Southern Living at HOME.  Southern Living at HOME is a direct sales company that sells Decor, Entertaining, and Organizational products for your home and yard.  Southern Living has a long standing tradition of creating beautiful and inviting spaces in the pages of their magazine and the parent company continued that tradition when they created our company Southern Living at HOME.

7 years ago I took a leap of faith and prayed with my husband about leaving my design career to focus on my health and starting a family, and God blessed our petitions.  It is so amazing looking back at how God worked during that difficult time in my life and yet I knew right away when He introduced me to Southern Living at HOME that it was a perfect fit for me.  Now 7 years later I am a Stay-At-Home-Mom and Qualified Star Consultant for Southern Living at Home and building my own team.

I attended my first Southern Living at HOME party in August of 2003 and fell in love with the beauty, quality, and style of the product I saw in the consultants home that night and in the pages of the gorgeous catalog/magazine, I joined 1 month later. Prior to becoming a consultant with Southern Living At Home I had been working for several years following the path of my degree's in Interior Design and Architecture. However, I was looking for a way to use my degree's and design skills with a business I could run from my home. I wanted a healthier, more Christ centered, and more self-satisfying career that I could allow God to be the leader of its growth and direction.



I knew right away that with Southern Living at HOME I could choose to put God first, family, and career in that order. Southern Living at HOME blends easily with my personal design taste and with my families' lifestyle. I truly do love the products that I sell and that makes it so much more fun and easy to share Southern Living at HOME with my family and friends.  The BIG Bonus is being home with my sons and having the freedom to schedule parties when I want to, it is so wonderful because it allows me to make my family my priority.



I feel so blessed to have begun a career with Southern Living at Home and I look forward to many more years of Making the MAGIC happen through parties and friendships! Southern Living at HOME makes a career with them so easy, because the product kit is beautiful, the benefits are fantastic, the rewards are incredible, and the team support can not be beat.


Right now Southern Living at HOME is providing fantastic incentive to join the Southern Living at HOME family.  For $199 you get the normal starter kit worth over $500 plus after you sell your first $500 witin 30 days you will also earn these additional 3 products FREE.

If you think that Southern Living at HOME might be the right fit for you, contact me at lcole@ec.rr.com

To see our full catalog or view the Hostess/Customer specials for October and November along with inforation on this months Pottery Sale, go to my business homepage at www.southernlivingathome.com/lauracolenc

Thursday, October 15, 2009

Wish List Wednesday (a day late)



I am a day late but I had a few things on my wish list this week that I wanted to share.



First I am wanting sunny skies this Saturday at the annual Havelock Chili Festival where I will have a Southern Living at HOME booth.  I really am hoping to have a good day with lots of new contacts and of course SALES.

ThenI have a few things that I am wanting to help me with improving my workout time, and my quality of understanding on how my workouts are impacting my body.

I want this BodyBugg, you may have noticed these on the arms of the Biggest Looser contestents.  The BodyBugg tracts your heart rate, calories burned, etc. and then you can upload the info to your computer for tracking.

"The revolutionary new bodybugg makes it easy to manage the calories you consume and burn so you always stay in control of your weight. Get started with a personal phone coach. Then manage your results daily on our user-friendly web based program."


Then I want a good pair of sneakers, and I have been looking at the Nike Zoom Vomero 4 the are a little pricey at $130 but I think in the long run (no pun intended) they will last me longer and be more comfortable on my feet for workouts.


Finally, I want a good radio that I can load up my own CHRISTIAN music to listen to, or I can switch to FM mode so I can listen to what is on the TV's at the gym.  I am looking to buy this PE registered Brand from Pro Ebiz LLC, it has the following features, 8 GB MP4/MP3 Player with FM Radio, Camera, Voice Recorder, USB Portable, and 2.8-inch Touchscreen.



What is on your wish list these days?

Wednesday, October 14, 2009

End of day Ramblings

It has been a very long day and all of my men are now tucked into bed, why I am not in bed myself I do not know.  I was going to do a "Wish List Wednesday" post but I just don't have the energy to put it all together.  So I am capping of my long day with my favorite fall drink, a cup of hot chocolate.

This mornings activities included running the boys to preschool, going to the church to take inventory for Wednesday Night Supper before grocery shopping, grocery shopping for Soup & Sub night at church, returning the groceries back to the church so David and I could cook this afternoon for 20+ people, picking out flooring samples for the church foyer and baptistry rooms, running the samples back to the church, picking up the boys from pre-k, then taking them home for lunch and naps, then back to the church to cook Italian Sausage Tortellini Soup and prep the subs, serve dinner, then prayer meeting, and finally home for the night.

SO, tomorrow I might blog about WLW (one day late) or I might take a day off from the computer, we will see what the Lord has layed out for tomorrow.

OK so MAYBE I am a little over the top OBSESSED . . . . . . with Childen'r books

I think it might be fair to say that I am a little over the top in my obsession with children's books.  Last month I bought 5 new books for the boys to add to their library bringing the grand total of children's books in our home to 178.  YEP you read that number correctly and that does not include the antique children's books that I collect and keep out of reach of the boys.

Today the preshool sent home 2 more Scholastic Book order forms and I have already made my shopping list for 10 more books. 

I just can't seem to help myself, I love reading so much and want to pass on my love for the written word to my boys.  I actually started collecting children's book in my hope chest back in the late 80's, I started with a collection of Disney Gallery Books, and began writing inscriptions to my future children inside the covers.  I wrote simple messages that corresponded to the story and spoke of my dreams of them and for them.  I may one day have to open up a reading corner room for children.  One of my favotire movies is "You've Got Mail" because in the movie Meg Ryan's character owns The Shop around the Corner, a children's books store where she daily has the Story Lady Hour and she reads to the children with her magic Story Lady hat on.

So here are just a few of my favorite books that I love reading over and over again to the boys.



One of my most cherished moments with the boys, is each day when I tuck them in at night and read, sing, and say prayers with them.  Often times I let one of them choose a book from the shelf and then we cuddle together on Davey's bed and read and explore the pages of the book selected. 

Do you have a bedtime reading routine with your child or children?  What are some of your favorite children's books that you either read to your children or you remember from your own childhood?

Monday, October 12, 2009

Family Weekend to Asheboro Zoo - Day 2

Day 2 of our family weekend to the Asheboro Zoo started off with overcast skies and a 40% chance of rain showers yet to come.  We began our day with a drive over to the historical Pisgah Covered Bridge built in 1911, it is one of only two original covered bridges still standing in the state.  The Pisgah Covered Bridge park also had a very nice walking path in the woods and so we did a nice little nature walk before moving on to day 2 of the zoo.




After wandering the paths around Pisgah, we headed on over to the zoo to see the polar bear and other animals in the North American portion.  Just as we entered the zoo it began to spit rain, but nothing hard enough for us to put on rain coats or duck for covering.


We really loved the Sea Lion exhibit because there were 4 large sea lions in the tank and they were swimming around like crazy.  It is amazing to watch these large beautiful creatures move around in the water with such grace.


Wilhelm the Polar Bear was being rather lazy for out visit today and stayed on top of this large rock napping.  Every few minutes he would slightly open one eye to take a look at the crowd but never stirred more then that.

I can't really share the pictures of our next animal visit, because the Otter's were trying to make a family ;-) fortunately the boys thought they were just playing a wrestling game in the water LOL.


They had these really great play and explore stations throughout the NA part of the zoo and this really helped the boys run off some energy.




North American Black Bear, they looked so cute I wanted to pet them.


David and David Jr. pedal to make the sculpture move.


Grizzly Bear

Honey Bee Playspot




After the final ride on the carousel we hopped on the tram and rode back down to the North American entrance to head back into town for lunch and then back to the hotel for naps.  After naps Grandma and Grandpa Haynes were meeting up with us on their way back from their Tennessee vacation and we were having dinner together at the Rockola Cafe and then back to the hotel for a swim. 

It was a fantastic two days in Asheboro and then home on Sunday with Gram and Gramp following behind.  I wish we could have stayed longer to go and find some of the local pumkin patches, hayrides, and cornmazes, but we ran short on time and money ;-) but overall it was a fantastic weekend as a family and one we hope to repeat again soon.