If You Give Nikki A Razor Blade

You know those children's books, "If You Give a Moose a Muffin" and "If You Give a Mouse a Cupcake"?

I feel like I could be the main character in those books most days. Asher always jokes, that when we clean up the kitchen every night after dinner my job is to rinse the dirty dishes and load the dishwasher. I don't clear the table, or put the food away, or even put the clean dishes away. He says that if I put the food away I may end up cleaning out the entire fridge, or if I put the clean dishes a way I may decide to reorganize the cabinet. Ha, he knows me well.

I had one of those days Thursday, and decided that I wanted to document it. It was kind of funny how one simple project snowballed on me.

Thursday morning started out like a typical Thursday. We did school in the morning and then I planned to finish up a small project before doing some cleaning. (I normally do floors on Tuesday, but waited until Thursday because I wanted to finish a few projects up first.) You may have noticed in the recent Dining Room Reveal that the bamboo roman shades were closed in all of the pictures. I had recently painted the window frames white, and had not yet scraped all of the paint off of the glass. This was the one project that I planned to do so that I could vacuum everything up while I had the vacuum out. Sounds simple enough, right?

I got a razor blade out and scraped all of the paint off of the window panes. As I was inspecting my work, I realized that there was some paint on the outside of the windows that had never been scraped off. It has been there since before we moved in it. I went outside and scraped all of the paint off of the outside of the windows. At this point I look at the windows and realize that they are FILTHY! No wonder I never open the blinds! I just thought it was because the windows needed to be painted white.

This is where it all gets kind of crazy. Our yard is not fenced in, but there is a chain link dog pen  behind this side of the house. The water spout in located in the dog pen, but we can't keep a hose there because our sweet Izzy likes to chew on things. I went and got a hose and drug it across the yard so that I could wash the windows. Of course I don't realize that I got the hose that had the end cut off until I had it all ready to go. I decide that a spray nozzle isn't necessary. This was not a good call, by the way. No spray nozzle means lots of extra water coming out of the hose between the time you spray the window and then walk to the spout to turn it off. Extra water plus dog pen equals mud. Lots of mud. Anyway, I washed the windows. ALL of the windows across the back of the house. I couldn't reach the top of the windows so I grabbed the  brush we use to wash our cars. (Note to self - rinse brush really well before you wash the car.) I had a brush, so of course I can't JUST wash the windows. I scrub the little bit of siding that is above the brick, and the eaves of the house. While I am at it, I might as well do the same thing to the back door and the sidelight windows. I just couldn't stop.

It's probably a good thing that Asher got home from work at this point. There is no telling what else I would have tried to do. Asher grilled dinner and then after I got the kids bathed, kitchen cleaned, and kids in bed I finally got back around to vacuuming and mopping my floors.

So, if you give Nikki a razor blade....

The worst part about not having an iPhone for 12 days.

Oh, hi!

It looks like I have abandoned my 31 day series on Choosing to Become a Less Selfish Wife and Mommy, but I do intend to finish it. It just won't be done in 31 consecutive days. We ended up taking a week long Fall break from school, which meant I was being fun mom, and then we spent last week sick with the Flu.

I had mentioned that I would be without my iPhone for 11 days while I waited on my new one to get here, and wanted to do a follow up post to tell you how it went.

It turned into 12 days, but who was counting?

The worst part was that we forgot to feed our dog almost EVERY. Single. Day! She got fed every morning, but we rely on my alarms to remember to feed her lunch and dinner! Poor girl. She had a late lunch and late dinner every night. Am the only one that uses my alarms for everything?

Other than the alarm thing, it really wasn't that bad. I had a loaner Blackberry that I hated, so I basically left it on the counter and didn't touch it much. I did spend a little more time on my laptop during the day, but not too much. I also missed having quick access to my calendar, but mostly it was a nice break.

Randomness

• Hi, I really am still around.  I wasn't planning to take break from the blog, but we have had some "stuff" going on that was more important. Family First - Always. I'm going to go ahead and say upfront that my posting may be really consistent OR super sporadic for a while. Just hang with me, please.

• I really want to pick back up with the 2 Bills 2 Blow series, but I have no one lined up. Anyone want guest post? If so, just shoot me an email and I'll get you on the schedule. 

• I haven't been blogging, but I have still been doing stuff around the house. I've got some fun organizing posts coming soon. Oh, and I have rearranged a ton of stuff in my house. (does it ever end?)

• Henry turned 2 yesterday! Seriously, how did this happen so fast?  I need to do a whole post about his b-day, but I will tell you that he is not a fan of Chuck E. Cheese. Oh well, I tried.

• That is all for now.

Trying to Play Catch Up

Oh my, I feel so behind. I am going to attempt to give you some tidbits instead of dedicated posts for a few things.

- Do you remember the Sesame Street Live show that I gave tickets away to? Well, the show was way back on Nov. 15th. We went and had a blast. I love the look on Henry's face. That boy danced, clapped, and said ooooooooo a whole lot.

The Vee Coporation was great to work with. They held our tickets for us at Will Call since we don't live in Montgomery and everything went smoothly. The show was great and we made some fun memories with our boys.

- The day before Cade's birthday party I was being a whiny butt! I was pouting because things were not going like I wanted with a particular decorating project and I just wanted to start over. We don't use credit cards and I didn't have the cash to just go buy all new stuff, so I pouted and whined. NOT GOOD! My husband reminded me that when I want something I can simply use my faith and believe God for it. At first I just wanted to keep pouting, but really, who wants to be miserable like that. I knew he was right. I prayed and asked God for a few things and simply rolled that care onto Him. When I thought about it the rest of the day I just thanked Him for those things. The very next morning I was headed to the grocery store to pick up a few last minute things for Cade's party and drove by a yard sale. I saw what looked like bolts of fabric and decided I would stop on my way back home. When I came back women had arm loads of fabric. There wasn't much left, but I spotted the perfect fabric for my kitchen windows. (one of the things I was whining about the day before) I didn't know exactly how much was on the bolt, but it looked like it might be enough, if not I could use it for something else. The fabric is Designer Ralph Lauren fabric and was $2 for the bolt. Did you read that? $2. I got home and measured and it was plenty to do my kitchen windows.  Oh, and it was $2. I was so excited because it was an answer to prayer and a reminder of how much my God loves me.

I could have just told you about the great deal on the fabric, but I wanted to share the whole story. God loves us so much. He wants us to let Him order our steps every single day. He wants to be involved in all of the little things in our life, not just the big stuff. He wants to bless us.

- We spent Thanksgiving in Jacksonville, FL with my husbands family this year. We didn't do any Black Friday shopping, but we did go to Homegoods. We don't have one here, so it was a nice treat. The store was packed because it was Black Friday, but it was still fun to look around.  Our vehicle was pretty close to  it's max capacity on the trip to FL, so I knew that I couldn't purchase anything that would take up much room, but I did come across this really cute sugar dish. Did I need  sugar dish? No. But, it was cute, colorful, SMALL, and I wanted to buy something. So it came home with me.

Please Help Kellie

 source HGTV

I don't usually ask for stuff like this, but I am going to today. I am a huge fan of Design Star. If you have a fav then please vote for you fav, but if you don't have a fav or don't even care about Design Star at all, could you please vote for Kellie Clements. She has been in the fan favorite lead for quite some time, but the gap between 1st and 2nd place is getting  a little to close.

You can vote 10 times per day,  per device. THANK YOU!

In other news, I didn't complete all of the items on my  "Just Get it Done List", but I did make some good progress that I plan to share with you.

We are still settling into our new homeschool routine as well as a new keeping up the house/laundry routine, so hopefully I can get back to blogging more regularly again.

I hope everyone is having a great Monday.

Completely Random

Instead of a bunch of different short posts you get one long random one.

- I haven't been in the mood to post lately, and I'm completely okay with that. Friday Favs are officially dead. You are welcome. I have about 10-15 house/decor related projects that I could post about (some are pretty great), but I'm just not in the mood. I already said that.  I have no desire to write about them right now. Decor/DIY type stuff is still my fav thing to do, but for now I'm just not feeling it when it comes time to sit down and write about.  I'm sure it will show up at some point, but for now, I'm not going to feel pressured to do Decor/DIY type posts.d

- I think that part of the reason I'm not into writing about Decor/DIY stuff at the moment is because I'm working really hard at being more intentional with my children. I want to enjoy them growing up and really be present with them each day. I don't want to be halfway playing with them and really thinking about some DIY project that I could be working on.

- Henry was sick all of last week. Having a miserable baby makes it really hard to eat well and exercise.  I realized during that week that the whole Body for Life eating plan would not be a lifestyle change for me. Normally at this point I would just choose to bale and start eating everything in sight. Nope. Not this time. I will push through. (ok, the real truth is I did eat whatever while Henry was sick, but I'm back on track now and have been all week.) I'm back to counting calories. I haven't been successful with it before, but this time around I have a smart phone so it's been much easier to keep track of. So far, so good. I was scared to weigh myself and give an update on monday so I chose not to.

- Henry's vocabulary is starting to grow. This week he has added cookie (he started yelling it as soon as we walked into publix - he wanted his free cookie), popcorn, and Mimi.

- Cade starts Kindergarten, and we are going to home school. I said that I would NEVER home school my children. Some of my closest friend home school their children, but I was still very closed to the idea. I purchased a K-4 curriculum last fall so that I would have something productive to do with Cade each day. You know, just for something to do, not because I wanted to home school. My heart started to change. I still wasn't sure that we would home school, but I was more open to the idea. By the time it was time to register Cade to see if he would be accepted into the magnet school I was pretty sure that I was going to home school. I still registered for the magnet school and of course he was accepted. I was still leaning towards home schooling. I didn't know "why?" I felt it was the right thing, but I still felt like it was the right direction. Cade is extremely social and smart and I knew that he would with out a doubt enjoy regular school, but I just couldn't get settled on it. So I gave up his spot in the magnet school and decided to home school. FOR SURE.  It still bugged me that when someone would ask my Why?, I didn't feel like I had a good reason. I just knew that I would trust God and do it anyway. I am so glad that I trusted God on this one. One night this week Cade brought me a book by E. H. Kenyon and asked me to read it to him. The title of the book is Identification (A Romance in Redemption). This is a deep book that I have never attempted to read, but have heard about. I read the first 7 chapters to him that night. He didn't want me to quit reading. A day or two later he brought me a stack of books to read to him, a few new books that he had just gotten, The Pokey Little Puppy, and Identification. He reminded me that we were on Chapter 8. We read Chapter 8. I looked at the stack of books and the Lord said to me (in that still small voice) This is why you are going to home school him. I realized that the reason I was going to home school Cade was so that I could determine what is taught to him. God is so good. It's always nice when you know you are doing the right thing that he shows you why. I was happy to know that I didn't miss it. I can now say that I am excited about this new school year. I'm excited to see what God has in store for us.

Have a great weekend!

Random Goodies

-Just in case you are wondering where I have been all week, I have been covered in paint. I finally made myself finish painting the living room and den. I am so happy to have that behind me. I hosted a girl's night friday night so that was pretty good motivation. Pics to come next week.

- I helped my MIL spruce up her living room this week. I have found that I really like helping people work with what they have.You don't have to spend a lot of money to update your home, you just have to get a little creative. I think I am going to start offering some design services (with extremely low rates) in the near future to help people with this. If you have a room that you need some help sprucing up send me your pics and I'd like to help you. Until I get rates set up I'd be happy to take on a few free rooms. Email me for details.

- I ordered the brown/cream chevron fabric and it came in this week. I'm really excited about having new curtains in the dining room. Realistically, it may be a few weeks before I can actually get started.

- I found a link to get a free Valspar Paint SAMPLE, complete with roller, tray, and $5 coupon. I haven't started painting upstairs yet, so that coupon may come in handy.

- Here are some GREAT free printables. I am sure that several of them will be showing up in my house soon.

- Please come "like" nikki's nacs on facebook. I post links to local craigslist finds that I think are good finds, links for free printables that I come across, and other random stuff that doesn't make the blog.

I hope you are all enjoying your weekend.

the newlywed game?

Katie at Cleared for Takeoff, and Jana from The Daily Dover recently asked their husbands some questions Newlywed style. I found it rather entertaining, so, I did the same. We have been married for 12 years so I'm pretty sure we don't qualify as newlyweds anymore. He SHOULD get these right.

1. She’s sitting in front of the TV, what is on the screen?

HGTV

most likely

2. You’re out to eat, what kind of dressing does she get on her salad?

Ranch.

yep


3. What’s one food she doesn’t like?

mayo 

not entirely true, I don't like excessive amounts of mayo. (He eats it on fries and crackers, gross)

4. You go out to eat and have a drink, what does she order?

 it depends on where we go

 he is exactly right


5. What shirt size does she have?

  L

  he is being nice, these days mostly XL, but I'm working on that

6. What shoe size does she have?

10

yep


7. What’s her favorite type of sandwich?

cheesebuger

really? not even close. Chicken salad on toasted wheat




8. What would she eat everyday if she could?

lemon pie 

nope, something spicy (some type of chinese or thai food)

9. What is her favorite cereal?

Lucky Charms... I don't know

NEGATIVE - I don't know that I've ever even had Lucky Charms. I know that I've never bought them in the almost 13 years that we have been married. Honeynut Cheerios or Rasin Bran

10. What would she never wear?

A jock strap

HA! He nailed that one. 



11. What is her favorite sports team?

The Orlando Magic


That is quite funny, actually. I'm really not into sports at all. We went to an Orlando Magic playoff game on my 30th bday and had a blast. Now I  don't mind watching them on occasion. 



12. What is something she does that you wish she wouldn’t do?

let me pour the coffee while I think about that one....
try on ALL of your clothes before we leave the house and then leave the ones that didn't make the cut on the bed 


Very true - I do that every Sunday morning before church

13. What is her heritage?

Irish/Native American

right on

14. You bake her a cake, what kind of cake?

Strawberry

negative-I still like it, but it was my fav when I was 5. I'll take something chocolate. He thinks that because I like fruity chewy candy I prefer everything fruity over chocolate.


15. Did she play sports in high school?

lol, NO

He's right again. I played the trumpet in the band and was the Drum Major my Senior year.


16. What could she spend hours doing?

reading blogs

very true

17. What is the unique talent that she has? 

amazingly artistic

Thanks, babe! I like to think of it as crafty.



18. What is her type of coffee?

black

yep, at least twice a day

There you have it folks. After 12 years of marriage my husband knows most things about me, well, except what I like to eat.

a random list

-Henry's new fav thing is to get himself suck under furniture.
-Cade has a new "pretend" friend that has been very entertaining for us all.
-I've been patching and painting walls, re-hanging pics, making baby food for the first time, slowly cleaning the blinds (they are nasty), redoing my etsy shop, sewing lots of p&s ruffled wrist straps to add to the etsy shop (trying to perfect the exact look and size before I sell them), sewing other random stuff, still weeding through clothes, cabinets, drawers, and everywhere else trying to get rid of STUFF. Our tiny house is overflowing.

just a regular day

Just a regular day.
Lots of hanging out.
Running errands.
Still cleaning out closets and the garage.
Still trying to get rid of stuff.
and, A little spray painting.

Just a regular day.

A New Look

This week we have had a blast with my niece. 

We have done lots of swimming, playing, and hanging out. 

That would be the reason for the lack of posts this week.

I have been working on changing the look on my blog. 

I think I am finally happy with it.

At least for now.

The plan for this weekend it to finish up a TON of painting projects

that I currently have going on 

so that I can show you what I've been up to.

I'm hoping to have some good before/afters.

Who Are You?

I want to know who you are.
There are a LOT of you that read this little blog on a regular basis and don't usually comment. That is okay. I know that it takes a little extra time to leave a comment and we are all busy. I understand that. I really do.
BUT, just this once, I would like to know who you are. PLEASE!

Who are you? what's your name, how old are you, marital status, kiddos
Do you rent or own your home? Just curious, we rent so it makes me have to be a little more creative.
Tell me something random about yourself. I play the trumpet.
What kind of posts do you like to read on nikki's nacs?

Ok, I'm looking forward to hearing from you. Please don't leave me hanging...

bad babysitters, cameras, and curtains

How is that for a title?

bad babysitter
We are turning of the TV for 4 days. Cade needs a break from the TV. He is quoting way too many commercials and thinks he NEEDS everything he sees. I let him watch a lot more TV when I was pregnant and not feeling so well, but I didn't put a stop to it. So, now we are turning it off for a few days and will then put some serious limits to it. How much TV do your kids watch?

cameras
Mine bit the dust this weekend. It was very sad. I am currently trying to figure out exactly what I want. My first thought was, now I can get a DSLR, but then I would still need a point and shoot to carry in my purse. The most important thing to me is to not miss anything my children do. So, I'm trying to figure out what I want to do. I need something that shoots well in low light, because our house has very poor lighting. If you have any opinions or suggestions send them my way.

curtains
Henry has started waking up at 4am and not wanting to nap much. Very frustrating. My brilliant husband closed his curtains yesterday and he slept like a champ. He look a long nap, he slept 12 hours through the night, and has been napping extremely well today. I wish I had thought about the curtains sooner.

Reunited

Have you been wondering where I have been?

Well, I have been reunited with Jillian, and she is kicking my rear once again.

Operation-quick- you -NEED- to get skinny -because summer -is almost here- is in full swing.

I have ton of projects to show you as soon as I can find the energy to write some posts.

Do you remember my project list? It is getting shorter.

Happy Weekend!

Apparently Sleep Really Is Important

See the cutie? He decided that instead of sleeping he would rather get up 2-3 times a night again several nights in a row. It really wasn't so bad at the time (I do enjoy the extra cuddling during feedings through the night), but the lack of sleep has started making me do stupid things.

1. I bought bone in rib-eyes and thought they were boneless. Not a big deal, just humorous. I bought them and marinated them and still didn't notice the bones until my husband said, "Um, honey, I thought you got boneless steaks." I said, "I did". He said, "you marinated these and really didn't notice the big bone." Me, "nope."

2. I made banana pudding wrong and didn't realize it until I was finished. For the pudding part I normally mix vanilla pudding with cool whip. I just made vanilla pudding a wondered why it was yellow and not white after I layered the whole dessert in my trifle bowl. Again, not a big deal, but still funny.

3. This one is actually very bad, and I got kind of shook up about it. Thank the Lord I'm covered in the blood of Jesus and no one was hurt. I ran 2 red lights in 2 days. I don't mean ooops, I almost made it under the yellow light. I mean I was watching the traffic instead of the light and just completely ran a light. Not. good. at. all.

The husband and I were discussing all of these things and I finally realized that I'm just exhausted.

So, if you don't see many post from me this week, it's because I'm really just trying to catch up on my rest. I apparently really need it.

Tag...

Jesse from Good Girl Gone Glad has tagged me in this fun blog award.
Thanks Jesse!

To accept this award I must list 10 things that make me happy and then pass this award along to 10 fabulous blogs!


10 Things that make me happy are as follows:

1. My Husband
2. Hearing my son laugh
3. Knowing that son #2 will be here soon
4. Sunday afternoons with my family
5. Drinking black coffee (I'm really missing this)
6. Sleeping in
7. Driving in the car by myself in complete silence (you know what I mean if you have a talkative little kiddo)
8. Hanging out with my sister
9. Lunch with my mother every week
10.Spray paint

Now to pass it on:

Intentionally Katie
Blooming in the South
The Proper Pinky
Hug and Release
Just Another Day in Paradise
Bower Power
My Life in Transition
History of the Harveys
The Briggs
Good Food, Good Friends, Good Life

The New Computer and Photoshop Elements

So, I've been missing for a few days, but it isn't because the baby has arrived.

I got a new (new to me) Mac PowerBook that I am trying to learn and get things transfered to. I would show you a picture, but I can't find my camera cable right this minute which is really quite strange. Anyway, I also now have Photoshop Elements that I am trying to learn. If you have any Photoshop Elements tips or tutorials to share please send them my way.

When I return I will have have pictures of something.

Becoming a Fan!

Do you Facebook? Did you know that is good for more than just staying connected with your friends?

I'm sure most of you do, and most of you already know this, but just in case you don't.

There are benefits to becoming fans of some of your favorite stores, restaurants, and online shops.

Examples
The Children's Place - they post about their specials so you always know what's on SALE. It makes it easy to know when to shop and stock up on your kids clothing. Right now their yoga collection is $2.99. Offer ends Monday. There is usually a new item on SALE every week.

Shutterfly and Snapfish - Do you order your prints online? If so become fans and get special coupon codes. I like to wait until they are offering deals to order something.


Other Useful Stuff
Do you want to track how many miles you have walked or ran? Do you want an easy way to keep up with your weight loss? Did you know their is an application on Facebook called Fit-ify? You enter your stuff and it tracks it for you. Just search Fit- ify and it will come up for you.

I'm sure there are tons more, but these are a few that I use. If you know of any other Fabebook Applications that are actually useful I'd love to hear about them.

*I was not paid by anyone for the info in this post. These are my own opinions.

ROLL TIDE!

source



ROLL TIDE!
#13 National Championship
It's a good year!

SALE

I am still getting the house ready for baby and Christmas. Actually, I haven't started on the Christmas part, but it is coming soon.

I wanted to let you know that I am selling some of my Southern Living at Home stuff on eBay. I am a former consultant with a lot of stuff and need the closet space for baby boy. I listed several things today and will continue to add to it. If there is anything particular that you have been looking for let me know. If I have it I will get it listed on eBay for you or if it hasn't been listed we can do a transaction through Paypal without ebay.

Did everyone have a good Thanksgiving? Is your house ready for Christmas yet? I feel very behind.