Busy Busy Summer

Wow, I guess it really has been a month since I've blogged last. Let me try and summarize a few events in our lives.

I did have my yard sale. It was fun...and then somewhere in the middle of it and became allot of work. We had a HUGE amount of stuff to sell, so we ended up doing it 2 weekends, 4 days total. There were 4 families involved and we did really well. I went to a yard sale today and couldn't believe how cheap we were selling things in comparison to the people selling today. Most of our shoes were $1.50, the shoes at this yard sale were $10.00, Our dresses were $1.50 - theirs were $5.00. hmmm I'm very curious as to whether we lost out on allot of money because we priced so low or if this family isn't going to sell very much. Guess I'll never know.

o.k. -- We finally got our first snow cone of the summer and if was unanimous, we loved it. When ever we go into town now we try to have some change so we can discover our next favorite flavor. So far we've really enjoyed Tropical storm, peach colada berry, and dragons blood. I put sour stuff on all of mine and we thoroughly enjoy them.

Jordan rolls like a pro and is now trying to perfect is army crawl. He is a true delight.

Jadelyn still goes 100 miles and hour, asks a million questions, has the best solution for any and all problems, and is really working on mastering her moods. She's really fun and sweet.

Derek finished his school semester, had a short break and is starting another one on the 25th. This time he's also adding in some night classes for a drug and alcohol counseling certificate for the youth. It takes 3 semesters to complete it and will open up more job opportunities and higher pay. We think it will be a really good thing.

I've just been living and enjoying life and been trying hard to balance everything. Oooh, I tried a few new things a couple weeks ago that I had never ever previously done. Derek and I had been planning on going to LasVegas for our anniversary (which we did) and in preparation I wanted to look extra cute. I had been working out for almost a month before (progress was made but definitely not as much as I had envisioned). In addition to that hopeful body transformation from recently pregnant to cutie batooty I decided to get nails, turn from white to less white, and color my hair in a semi-adventurous way. It was fun. It's amazing how much difference having my french manicured nails makes to my appearance and confidence level as a woman, especially when meeting new people. It might sound silly, but it's true. I have never in my life had my nails above my finger tips. In fact before I got my tips on they were half the height of my entire nail area. I had bitten them SO LOW. It took a few days to get used to using nails but now I love it. I no longer want to hide my hideous fingertips when I'm somewhere nice. I didn't realize how much ppl notice nails until I got mine done. My daughter and Conny didn't know I was going to get them done and when they saw me afterwards they noticed Instantly. They both commented on my nails before they even said hi. Conny said "neeeaa" for neat and Jadelyn told me how pretty my white long nails were and quickly pleaded for hers to be done also.

Oh goodness, I write too long about insignificant details. Anyway, I got to go shopping for MYSELF also, which I really never do. Besides recently, the only item of clothing I bought for myself, that wasn't with a gift certificate for my birthday, in the last 4 years was a pair of shoes. Really cute, brown wedge shoes that have now been chewed on by my dog :( I used to really dislike clothes shopping but I no longer dislike it quite so much. It's true I'm still slightly discouraged by the misplacement of my bosom, and I'm disgracefully cheap. But instead of pouting and not buying anything I've learned to find things that are cute and priced well, and make my misplaced frontals not so noticeable :) 2 of my exciting finds. A really cute black shirt for $3.50 from DEB. It's true. It's fun because it can be dressy or casual, and it's long (so no worry coverage) and I like wearing it. And some really really cute tan L.E.I pants for $10.00 at Mariposa. so concluding -- I kind of got an outward makeover and I really like it. It has somehow lessened stress on the inside and brought in some adventure and fun.

Conny got some new clothes too. The other day I found great prices at k-mart while I was trying to 'quickly' get her some replacement bottoms that were needed do to a bathroom accident at school. It was closer to buy somenew ones then to drive home. I got her 4 pants and 2 shirts for $22. She loves new things too and insisted on changing her shirt and wearing new pants AND shirt for the remainder of the day at school.

As a family we really enjoyed our vacation. I shall write a post dedicated to that tomorrow -- or later :) and we've also had a few heart aches. But we're leaning on each other and the Lord and increasing our faith and prayers. The older I get the more I understand human nature and it saddens me. I sometimes long for that protecting naivety I once had. Then other times I'm able to look at the personal application I can use for my life and work out the steps in my head i need to take so I never become 'that pessimistic', or 'that unforgiving', or that 'self indulgent', or that 'substance dependant'. Doing that helps me to not pass judgement and instead have empathy and compassion while I work at improving the weaknesses in my own humanity.

Hmm, I got kind of deep there for a minute. My update wasn't really that good but I'll continue to fill you in during the next few days. oh you're so lucky :) wink wink

It's nice to be back in the blogger world. I'm very excited to catch up on all of your lives.

Good night.