Wardrobe Challenge, Week #5

Monday



Tuesday

Wednesday

In my selection for Wednesday, I decided to inventory my clothes against what I have already worn in this 'challenge' to see if I was truly nearing the end. 

Come to find out, after selecting my outfits for Wednesday and Thursday

(I *have* to get back on board with selecting my outfits at the beginning of the week - but moving put a rather large kink in that system), I realized I still have 10 tops that I haven't worn!!

Thursday



Wardrobe Challenge, Week #4

Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday

Thursday

It feels like I'm coming to the end of my wardrobe, and it seems like the most challenging part is simply remembering what I've worn and what I haven't!



Scripture Memory - Verse 16

If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you.
James 1:5 (NIV)

Here is the link to the LPM blog for Verse 16.

Wardrobe Challenge, Week #3

Here is the third week of my wardrobe challenge....Monday, August 8th - Friday, August 12th.  The photo section of this challenge is most helpful for me so I can remember what I've worn and haven't worn!

True to the suggestion last week, on Monday night I decided on the outfits for the remainder of the week and took all of the pictures.  What a stress reliever to not have to worry about what to wear!  A tip if you're going to do this, though...be sure to check your calendar so you know what meetings/appointments are (currently) scheduled for you.

Monday, 8/8

Unfortunately, I was dealing with a sick kiddo today, so my wardrobe isn't a 'work' wardrobe.

Tuesday, 8/9

Wednesday 8/10

The color seems very off in this picture, but the top is actually a nice shade of purple...promise!

Thursday 8/11

Friday 8/12, also...Graduation here in Aggieland!!  I'll certainly be sporting my Aggie gear today!

Experiment: Mini Pizzas!

Don't they look yummy?

I'll let you in on a little secret.....

...they were.

Better yet, they were SUPER SIMPLE!

Take your Grands biscuits, preheat your oven to the specifications on the container (or don't, I didn't). 

Tear the biscuits in half and place into a greased cupcake container, making it thin on the bottom and up the sides, like its own container.

Put a spoonful of spaghetti sauce in the dough.

Put some cheese on the spaghetti sauce (I used 2-3 cubes of cheese we keep cut up for Jacey).

Put a piece of pepperoni on top of the cheese.

Bake per the specifications on the biscuit container.

Pop out of the cupcake container and place onto a place.

Let cool (if you must), and eat!

Good Attitude Award

Let it be hereby known, 

that on Wednesday, August 3rd, 

Tatum Elizabeth Hapes was awarded the 

"Good Attitude Award!"

She was bestowed this award for 

"Being an AMAZING helper!" 

from Miss Christina in Montessori I 

and it was also noted that she had a 

'Great Attitude and had a WONDERFUL afternoon!!!"

She was so proud!  

This picture doesn't do her smile justice. 

Not one single solitary bit.
I love the days when the pixels are like this.....

Weekend fun!

It had been a-g-e-s since Jules and I had gotten a chance to catch up, so we tried to get together this weekend to do so.

We planned a zoo trip, then decided to hit the splash pad.  The kids had loads of fun, and we decided that we would have to make our family get-togethers at *least* an annual occasion.  We also decided that we would have to meet up sans kids to actually get a chance to catch up on each others lives. :) 

Here is our day in pictures.

The kids were worn.out. by the time we got home, and quite honestly, so were Matt and I! 

Wardrobe Challenge, Week #2

A friend of mine had a great idea about laying out my clothes for the week ahead of time.  I'm not sure why I don't do that with myself, since it's something I use for Kellen during the school year to stay organized.

So...I may give that a shot.  The upside, I won't have to worry about picking something out each morning, but even better is that I'll be able to look at what I have worn vs what I haven't to keep up with the challenge!

Week #2 of the Wardrobe Challenge (Aug 1 - 5)

Monday (as you can see, this wasn't exactly a 'work' outfit. Tatum got sick Sunday night and we had a sick girl, stay home day)

Tuesday

Wednesday

Thursday (no, I don't normally make it a practice to wear a bathing suit to work, but I took a group of students who are participating in our summer research program to Schlitterbahn on Thursday.)

This is the awesome group of students I spent the day with at Schlitterbahn!

Again, Friday was a 'Spirit Day', so Aggie gear!  Two weeks down, and no problems, other than my trying to figure out my system for remembering what I've worn and what I haven't!

Our vacuum sucks!

And I'm certainly glad that it does!

Matt and I received our vacuum as a wedding present from his Nanny.  Unfortunately, it hasn't been working as well as I would like it to for a while.  It's a twin chamber bagless upright - a good vacuum - so I've been cleaning what I can on it, checking the brushes on the bottom, you name it, trying to figure out why it wasn't working at its initial power.

And I couldn't figure it out.

Then one day, I was walking around in Wal-Mart, looking at prices for a steam cleaner for the carpet (not buying one, but considering that the vacuum isn't doing such a hot job I wanted to see what options were out there for some deep cleaning action), and I stumbled across replacement filters.

Um, yeah.  We've had the vacuum for over ten and a half years and the filter has never been replaced.  I have cleaned the filter in various ways such as putting a bag around it and knocking it senseless on the ground and taking a cleaning toothbrush and 'brushing' it off, but replacing....never even crossed my mind.

So when I saw the filters, a lightbulb went off.  But of course, I couldn't buy one then, because I wasn't sure of which one I was supposed to get.  And I made a note to myself on my Blackberry.  Fast forward a month or so (I really wish I was kidding) and I finally remembered to check the specifics on the vacuum and put the information into my Blackberry note for the next time I was at Wal-mart.

Which was Monday.  So I replaced the filter.  And while I was at it, I rinsed out the HEPA filter, too.  And cleaned out the 'twin chambers'.

Who knew that a ten year old vacuum could look almost brand new?

Now that I've shattered any notion that I had it 'together' on the home front (as if anyone who reads this might think that anyway!), I just want to say....I'm really glad that my vacuum now sucks again!!

Operation: Girls room clean up!

So in what seems like a not-so-recent illness bout of Jacey's in June, I attempted to do some reorganizing.  I wanted to tackle the girls room.  Well, more specifically, their bookshelf.  So I began this project in June.

Here is the "before" picture.  Crazy, right?

So I went through all of the hair and head accessories.  There are some headbands I have for Jacey that would leave all kinds of marks on her big ole head.  So I quickly purged through those types of things.  You know, the small bows made for babies with just a little hair.  Can't use those - especially on a little girl with no hair!

I hung up all of the bows (how in the world we manage to get so many royal blue, red and purple bows is beyond me!) and realized that I need another bow hanging solution.  That's a project for another day, though.

Then I tackled the books.  I did a quick purge for any books that were messed up (=9), then decided to inventory what was left.

There were 93 books.

93!

And this is *just* the girls room!

That just seems like an absurdly large number of books to me.  So I'll probably go through them for another purge and donate some.  And just in case you were wondering, the Dr. Seuss books are in Kellen's room...so I can't even blame that number on those kinds of books.

After some discussion with some friends, I think I've realized what bothers me about the books, and it has to do with the quality of the books we have, not so much the quantity.  Anywho....

Next up, the toy bins.  Do we need that many toys?  Many of them are for Jacey, and after looking closely at them, I realized that many of them were not age appropriate.  They were all too little for her.

*sniff* *sniff*

My baby is not so much of a baby anymore.

*sigh*

At any rate, here is the finished product.  Tatum played dress up this weekend, so the dress up bins on the bottom aren't 'staged' for photography - this is how they look.

All-in-all, I'm pretty happy with the way this turned out.  I am thrilled that Tatum likes to play dress up so much, and I wouldn't dream of impeding her creativity, so I don't mind the craziness of those bins.

Now....for the rest of the room!

Looking at the big picture

If you're questioning the 'bigger picture' for your life - how you're going to make an impact, what you're supposed to do, what it all means....especially as you clean up spilled milk for what feels like the hundredth time in a day or put away the toys that have once again escaped from their homes - remember.....God already has it figured out.  All you have to do is obey Him and trust.

Follow Him when it doesn't seem to make sense.  Be faithful in the little things.  Those little things add up and make it oh-so-easier to be trusting and faithful in the big things.

“Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight."  Proverbs 3:5-6 

'...in all your ways acknowledge him...'  

As you're cleaning up that milk. 

As you're picking up those toys. 

As you're doing another load of laundry.

As you're cooking another dinner.

As you're scrubbing the floor.

As you're vacuuming.

As you're kissing the foreheads of those precious children.

As you're hugging your hubby tight.
As you're holding hair back as a child gets sick in the middle of the night.
As you're disciplining.
As you're redirecting a child to acceptable toys.

In all your ways... 


Those little moments, those little tasks, those little - seemingly insignificant, mundane things - make up the little pixels of the big picture of your life.


What does your picture look like?

Scripture Memory (Verse 15)

My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry.
James 1:19 (NIV)

Here is the link to the LPM post!

Review of Running - July

2 - 4.5 miles
10 - 4 miles
11 - 3 miles

Monthly mileage = 11.5 miles
Miles per day = 0.37 miles/day

2011 Mileage total =144.28 miles
2011 Average Mile/day (212 days) =0.68 miles per day
*Current deficiency of 67.72 miles

This was a horrible, no-good running month.  The longer runs felt really good, but the family schedule was just all around crazy...and prohibited me from being able to run during the week.  Unfortunately, there were at least two weekends when my neck and back were so outta whack that I didn't want to risk running and possibly injuring or exacerbating whatever was going on with it.  One of those weekends was the weekend of Jacey's birthday party, when it was hurting so badly that I ended up going and getting a massage so that I could at least pick up the sweet princess.

Ug.

And the heat and humidity here....whew!  I'm hopeful that when the schedules settle down a little that I'll be able to work on this consistency a little more, but will be able to do so without fear of a heatstroke - even at 5 AM!

My journey took quite a hit this month, but as long as I'm still pressing forward and working towards accomplishing my goals, I'm not going to beat myself up.

How are you doing on your goals?

Wardrobe Challenge, Week #1

Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday

Thursday

And remember...Friday is a spirit day, so no worries about a fancy 'outfit' on Fridays.

Purse purging

In a post earlier this week I talked about my friend coming over to help me finalizing my closet purging.  What she also helped me do was go through my purses.

I love purses.

And shoes.

She had already helped me go through my shoes many months ago and I threw out quite a few pairs that haven't been replaced.  (As a side note, I now believe that my hubby has more shoes than me, and I think this is just hilarious.)

Have I mentioned how much I love friends like this?

Anyway, in our going through purses, she pulled out a few and stuck them to the side.  She put the ones I knew she would in the 'keep' pile, and some of the ones she put in the 'no' pile I felt a little twinge over.  She suggested I look through them and be sure they were cleaned out before I made a final decision.

As I was pulling things out of one of them, I came across a list of gifts from a baby shower that had been thrown for me.

It brought back such fond memories.  Sweet, right?  Especially considering that my sweet baby Jacey is now a year old.

Except that this gift list wasn't from a shower held for Jacey.

Oh no.

It was from a shower held for TATUM.

Yes, Tatum.

Over four years ago.

That clinched it.

Any doubt I had about whether or not to let go of that particular purse was gone, as it was crystal clear that it had not been used in over four years.

But it made me wonder....why did I feel that twinge when I initially thought about getting rid of that purse?  Why is it, for that matter, so hard to get rid of most anything, even things we don't use that much?  Or haven't used, in the case of this particular purse, in years?

These are the things that clutter our closets, fill our homes, cause us stress, require cleaning, yet we can't bear to part with them?  Why?

In the past few weeks as I've been getting rid of things it's been so nice to pass them on to other people who can use them.  It's hopefully blessed others and helped them, which causes me to feel like I'm doing good, it's made my house look better - cleaner and more open, it's made it easier to keep things clean around the house, and it's caused me to want to keep purging.  The more I get rid of the more it seems I want to get rid of...like a weird purging cycle.

So my question for the day...what are you holding on to that's weighing you down?  (And you can go as deep with that question as you would like).  What kind of baggage are you carrying? Purge it!  Get rid of that excess baggage now and for good!

Wardrobe Challenge

I've been going through my clothes, paring down.  Not necessarily because I'm concerned about my space (although my hubby might like to have more than just his jeans in our 'shared' closet), but because I have realized that I have a lot of clothes.  My 'a lot of clothes' may not be a lot of clothes to some, as this is certainly a relative term, but hear me out.

I work in an office from Monday through Friday.  It's a fairly casual office, but it is a work environment, and depending on my schedule and meetings, there are some days that require me to be 'dressier' than others.  Fridays are typically more casual, especially in the fall when you'll normally find me in a maroon shirt - many times it's my TAMU jersey, a departmental shirt, or some other A&M gear. So do the math with me here...that leaves me four days during the week for 'outfits'.  Continue with that math and I need 16 'outfits' for a month - not counting Friday 'spirit' days.

I bribed invited a friend to come over for dinner earlier this week and asked her to go through my closet with me and help me purge my clothes (again).  I was mainly concerned with my tops and jackets.

Here's my newsflash:  I am not a fashionista.

Stop laughing.

No really.  Stop.

Ok. Now that you've picked yourself up off the floor, I'll continue.

So I asked this fashion-forward friend of mine to help with what I was hoping would be a final purge of my closet.  She determined that a handful of my tops were not 'work' tops and forbade me from wearing them to work.  Ever again. Then she got me into this decade and tossed out a few more shirts and jackets.

I was expecting that, which is exactly why I asked this particular friend for her help.  We all need friends like this who we can trust to be brutally honest with us.  I love her.

So after this purge, my inventory of spring/summer/fall work tops (hey, I'm in Texas and my 'winter wardrobe' of long-sleeve tops doesn't really count in this mix since I only wear them for maybe a month - tops...everything else can be short sleeve, sleeveless, and dressy tanks) totals 22 items.  These are the tops, not the jackets and other accessories. Note: this count does not count tank tops, t-shirts, etc

If I factor in the Friday spirit day piece, and start my clothes on a rotation, this clothing count should take me over five weeks to fully wear.  Let me say that a different way to fully state my point and the reason why I initially thought (and kinda still do!) I had (have?) too many articles of clothing.  

I should be able to wear something different to work every day for over five weeks.  

If my clothes are on a rotation, I should only wear something ten times in a year (assuming weather conditions remain such that I can wear the same clothes year-round, which as we know is not the case).

Written in that manner, the amount of clothing I have still seems somewhat absurd to me.  And I've purged.  Really purged.  Is this still too much??

I still have a few articles of clothing to the side in my closet that I'm hoping to fit back into after I stop nursing, but there really aren't that many of them (less than a half dozen tops).  I also have some pre-pregnancy clothes that I'm not ready to admit defeat on quite yet.

I have realized that I'm in a clothing rut.  I tend to wear the same things over and over again (at least it feels that way to me).  Now that I've come to this clothing revelation, I'm going to experiment to be sure I'm wearing everything in my closet that I'm keeping.  And if I don't like it, don't feel comfortable in it, or don't feel confident while wearing it, it's gone.

Period.

And I'm going to photo journal it.  I'll try to post weekly on my wardrobe selection, so we'll see how that goes.

Wanna go on the challenge with me?

Happy birthday, Kellen!

Eight years ago yesterday, I began my parenting journey with Matt when we were blessed with you, Kellen.  I still remember so many vivid details about that day.  Matt and I took Bailey for a walk trying to 'move things along' and I had to continually stop for contractions; calling and talking to the doctor to check in; taking a warm bath to try and relax to discern whether it was real or false labor; timing contractions; calling and talking to the doctor again; taking our good ole' sweet time getting to the hospital in large part because Matt didn't believe I was 'really' in labor; having the doctor check me and then convince Matt that - yes, the baby WAS coming.  I remember scarier things, too....having to be put on oxygen because your levels weren't looking all that great, getting pitocin to speed things up, the doctor trying to break my water only to realize there really wasn't any 'water' to break, but then you got here, and despite having a perfect knot in your cord and the cord wrapped around your neck - twice, you were perfect.

And we were parents.

Parents totally and completely in love with you.

Eight years later and we're still totally and completely in love with you.

Happy birthday, Kellen!!

You have developed into such a wonderful young man!  I still call you my sweet baby because you will forever be that to me, but you are growing up before my very eyes.  So responsible, you enjoy - no thrive - on helping.  During school, you want to make everyone's lunches and get everyone's breakfasts ready.  You take your jobs very seriously.

You were such a great helper with Tatum and are even more so a help with Jacey.  When she wasn't quite as mobile and 'wiggly', you would get her up in the mornings, change her diaper and clothes, and bring her to me so I could feed her.  Once she started getting a little bigger, it was harder for you to do that, but you still are at her beck and call.  If she cries or needs something, you are typically the first to get to her to help.  In fact, you got her in the middle of the night last night when she was fussing.  It is so obvious that you ADORE her that it melts my heart.  And if she cries, for whatever reason, it just seems to literally break your heart.  You absolutely cannot stand it.  Period.  So much so that if she's crying and you can't help - you have to leave the room or walk out of the house.  You can make her light up like no one else in the world.  She has a smile and laugh reserved just for you, and you know it!

And Tatum....oh you two are typically so good together!  As she's getting older, the bickering is getting a little more common, but it's not bad.  You're typically good about sharing your toys with her, reading to you, and taking turns playing something she wants then something you want.  I couldn't ask for too much more.  Well, except maybe for the toys to go back to their places all of the time, but you guys are actually pretty good about that, too.

As for you and your dad, this year in particular has been your fishing year.  You guys have both really taken to fishing and that seems to be your 'thing' to do.  You get up virtually every Saturday morning and go fishing - typically to Jack's place, or to Central Park, and fish.  I'm thrilled that you get to spend that quality time with your dad!  And I am really touched that it happens to be fishing...which my Pap would have loved to do with you both if he had the opportunity.  I'm glad that you got the chance to meet him, even if you don't happen to remember it.

And us - we enjoy doing lots of stuff, don't we?  Our 'special nights' with picnic dinners and movies; you helping me bake a cake or brownies; reading, or playing games.  You are just so much fun to be around!

You're getting to spend a lot of time at your Maw Maw and Paw Paw's this summer.  I'm so glad that you're getting that quality time with them and that they're able to keep up with you!  Some day you will realize what a blessing this time and these memories are that you're getting to create with them.  I hope that you cherish the memories you're making.

About you this last year:
Sports/Activities:
Awana's at church
Upwards Flag Football
Upwards Basketball
CS Little League
Cub Scouts
Taekwondo
(Yes, you keep VERY busy!)

You enjoy your sports, you enjoy watching and sometimes getting to go to the Aggie football games, but the best and most important thing about the last year is that you made the most important decision of your life this past fall - while fishing with Daddy at Jack's place  - and accepted Jesus as your savior.  We are so proud of you and pray that we help to mold and shape you to grow in Christ!

So, to celebrate your birthday, we actually had a family celebration this past Sunday (on Jacey's actual birthday, but her birthday party was the day before - so it was ok).  I made a green dinosaur cake (at your request) and you opened just a couple of gifts.

But they were things that you had been asking for for quite some time....since before Christmas, I believe....

And I think you were excited to finally get them!  So we all have to admit that you outgrew your Leapster....

We did a small family party because the big celebration was a trip to the Ringling Bros & Barnum & Bailey Circus ON your actual birthday.  So we gave you the tickets on that Sunday so you could look forward to the circus, then went last night.  You had a BLAST!

 

The tigers were taking a nap before the show.

You and Tatum could have spent a very long time just watching the elephants!

 

Exploring the elephant tooth on display.

Did I mention that you and Tatum would have happily spend the evening just watching the elephants stand around?

 

You and Tatum decided to get tattoos on your hands - both of them - and Tatum quickly made friends with this performer, who gave you guys LOTS of extra tattoos.

Dress up time!

Who's the ring leader?

 

Tigers!  Tatum was enthralled and I'm not sure she blinked at.all. the entire time this part of the show was taking place.

The Bionic Brothers. And yes, they were *THAT* amazing!

 

These ladies bent in ways that just made me hurt watching them.  Absolutely amazing.  It made me want to go home and stretch.  Not that I did, but I thought about it.

 

Another set of folks whose feats of strength were quite amazing!

 

Snakes!

And this guy, Mighty Meetal, managed to hold over a half a ton on his legs.  

That's weights and a handful of people just balanced ever-so on him.  

Incredible.  Paw Paw was duly impressed.  

This was by far the act he was most looking forward to during the show!

 

There were SEVEN people riding motorcycles in this cage.  SEVEN!!!  

 

A little someone was thrilled!  

Everything was 'awesome' and she couldn't pick a favorite!

 

With their costumes and bouncing around, they looked like little flames bouncing all over the place!

Getting ready for the grand finale.

The kids had such a good time!

Happy birthday, Kellen!  I hope that you not only enjoyed your birthday celebration on Sunday, but your birthday Skype with Aunt Boo, Mommy and Jacey, and your circus celebration.  You had quite an eventful birthday yesterday!

Your mommy and daddy love you so very much and are so proud of the gentleman you're growing into!

Shoes

I follow the Hendricks blog, and many of the posts there are some of the ones getting me thinking 'deep thoughts' here lately.

And some of the posts just open my mind to things I never knew existed.

Like sandals that could be tied in different ways.

With different colors.

Made by gals working to pay for their education.

In Uganda.

Where it seems like this type of experience just doesn't happen all that often.

If you want to learn more, check out the post here!

An effort thwarted

So I've been trying to reduce, reuse and recycle around here, and in general, lately.

But it would appear that my efforts are thwarted on the car seat front.  Jacey has now officially outgrown her infant carrier and base.  I have a new (to us) car seat that I installed late Monday afternoon once I had official doctor's growth stats indicating that she had 'graduated' from her carrier.

Sidenote: The thought occurred to me...I can no longer contain her in her carrier, which was a wonderfully calming method of containment for her in the mornings as everyone else was rushing to get ready and out the door.  No really...she many times would take a short cat nap in the mornings by the door and/or on the way to school.  She'll now be another set of feet in that crazy run-around mix!

We still have Kellen's infant seat (the same one Tatum used) that's 8 years old.  And bases...boy do we ever have bases.  We have given a couple away to some cousins for their second vehicle, but I still think we have three or four of them.

And it doesn't seem like - other than giving it away to someone - that I can get rid of this stuff in any other method other than the trash.  And that is just a shame because there is good life left in Jacey's carrier!  (I'll accept that Kellen's is too old and needs to be trashed, or recycled, but info on how to recycle said carrier would be greatly appreciated!!)

I can't take it to a resale shop and sell it.  I can't even donate it to Goodwill.  So I guess I will check around for ladies I know who are close to having kiddos and see if they're interested!

Update as of noon:  The carseat and bases have officially found a home and I'm beyond thrilled!

Scripture Memory (Verse 14)

“‘For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,’ declares the LORD.’” Isaiah 55:8 (NIV)

Click here for the latest LPM blog post regarding the Scripture Memory Verses.