I have been asked by the people of the CSN stores
to do another product review...
I am more than happy to do so.
My experience with them last time was great
so I expect this one to be the same.

I try to make most of my Christmas presents
but if I do need to buy something online I will check out CSN stores first.
They have everything from dining tables, to light fixtures,
to cute shoes, baby items, office supplies,
and LOTS of other great products to choose from.

I'm excited to pick out something else that will be very useful to our family.
Or maybe just a little something to pamper myself!
I'm off to start the search for the perfect item!
And maybe start some Christmas window shopping...
it'll be here before we know it!

I won some hand soap at Bunco last night.
It's called Caribbean escape from B&BW.
I was wondering if I could just have the Caribbean escape
without the soap?

Exhaustion doesn't begin to describe how I feel.
It's hormones, exhaustion and other craziness that is going on
in and around my life right now.
I feel like an IV drip of caffeine wouldn't even begin to help.
My house is hoping that the nesting bug will kick in soon.

Greg and I were supposed to get away for an EARLY anniversary
stay at a bed and breakfast...
but it happened to fall last week while we were in MO for the funeral.
I'm bummed but SUPER glad we were all able to be in MO.

Don't know if we'll be able to reschedule or not.
The place we were going to go offers full-time church workers
two free nights a year.
But they changed the available free nights to
the first and third weeks of the month and only on wed and thurs.
Thus limiting the time we can go and Sept starts the busy season for Greg.
(that's why we were going to go in August).
I was looking forward to two mornings of sleeping till I woke up,
lazy afternoons walking around downtown Fredericksburg,
hanging with Greg just the two of us
and letting another family enjoy our kids for two days!

Oh well, I guess we'll just have to see what we can come up with for the future.
But I really could use that Caribbean escape,
think my dr. would let me fly to Hawaii at 33 weeks preggo!? me either.

I've been doing some "school" with Naomi.
She loves it.
Asks everyday, "when is it school time?"
We're having fun and if I have the energy we actually do more than just worksheets
but don't worry she loves the worksheets too.

I took some photos of the kids on Monday...
it wasn't an official "back to school" photo op,
but since everyone else in SA was going back to school
I figured I'd take some of my kiddos as well!
Here are some of my favs...















Micah loves pretending that he's Buzz Lightyear...

he does a pretty good job!
To infinity and beyond.

sorry about the randomness of this post...
its the exhaustion talking!

We've been working with Naomi on memorizing the Ten Commandments.
We sort of started at the end because we were following the
Congregation at Prayer
that is published every week for our congregation.
There are selected memory verses for different aged children.

So far Naomi has commandments 1, 8,9, and almost 10 memorized.
We're so excited for her to learn the Word of God.
She loves stickers and praise...so I told her I'd create a
Ten Commandments chart
where she could put a sticker once she has a commandment memorized.

So the chart finally got created...and I thought I'd share it with you as well,
just in case you'd like to have the Ten Commandments
hanging around your house.
I also uploaded the plain tablets because I know some
denominations break up the commandments a little differently.

I'd really appreciate it if you left me a comment if you download
these commandment charts.
Each tablet is its own 8.5x11 sheet of paper.

Please note that these are for personal use only and
are not to be sold or re-distributed,
send your friends here to pick up their own copies!

After we found out that Greg's grandpa had passed away
we began making preperations for a trip to MO for the funeral.
We started looking at flights and once we realized that it would take
nearly $700 just for Greg to get there we realized it wasn't really an option.

So we thought we could all go together and just drive.
Our initial plan was to leave Sunday (the 15th) after church
but as we talked more and Greg talked with the Sr. Pastor
we realized we could leave on Saturday and get to Frohna by Sun.
This ended up being a good thing, because if we would have waited
to leave on Sunday we would not have made it in time for the visitation.

We stayed Saturday night in Texarkana in a hotel.
Naomi couldn't figure out why there weren't more rooms in the hotel room.
I think this was her first "able to remember" hotel experience!
We had a miserable night since we didn't get in till 11pm
and then Naomi vomited three times around 6am,
we just didn't get much sleep.
But we left the hotel around 10am and headed to Frohna.
We made it there by dinner time and it was great to be with family.

On Monday all the kids went to the creek...
well, the cousins all went to throw rocks and such but our kids
already had their church clothes on so we didn't let them go.
But Uncle Doug drove them down there for a photo op.

They all enjoyed playing great grandma's piano...
we didn't all enjoy it as much as they did,
but at least they had a good time.

The visitation went fine. The Pastor had a great family devotion for us.
Then we went back to the hotel to have pizza, and for some swimming.
Greg's cell phone went swimming with him so that was a bummer.
Naomi got sick again Monday evening...not fun...
she missed the bucket because it came so suddenly.

The funeral was at 10am on Tuesday.
My kids were a little cranky but we managed to not be
"the center of attention" and held it together okay during the service.
The committal was very touching as they had military personnel there
and shot their guns and taps was played.
That always gets me.

It was a beautiful service and a great way to remember Grandpa Ruben!

After the funeral there was a lunch provided by people of the congregation.
The spread was amazing!
Thanks so much to everyone who helped make this day so special,
a great way to remember grandpa and rejoice in his life.

We got the whole family together for a group photo.
Only one member of the family is missing from the photo (besides gpa).
It was so great that everyone was there,
from St. Louis, to Indy, to Louisville, to San Antonio, to Denver
we were all there...again, to celebrate grandpa's life.

We spent the night on Tuesday in Wildwood, MO (suburb of St. Louis)
at Greg's aunts gorgeous house. It was great to have our four families together.
Naomi did get sick on the car ride to aunt Gayle's house but has been fine ever since.
I took a few photos of my niece Kiley...she's grown so much in 2.5 months!

We also did a few family photos too.
It's not very often that all of us are able to be together at the same time.
Here's grandma and grandpa with their 7 grandkids
(I should have stucky my belly in the side of the photo! ha)

And here's all four of our families!
Greg and his two sisters and parents.

And here's our little family of five!
It's weird to say that.

Love these random shots of my kiddos playing with the fountain.



Greg and I and my 32 week baby bump!

Wednesday morning everyone was packing up to drive home
and our van wouldn't start! yipee!
So, we got a jump and it worked fine.

We then went to lunch with some of the family and then we decided
to stop at Peace (where I used to work) in South St. Louis County
to say hi to Tammy and some others.
When we left the van wouldn't start again, so Tammy gave us a jump again.
Then we headed over to Walmart to get a new battery.
Luckily it was still under warranty so we didn't have to pay any money...
we just had to pay with our time.
There were other cars in front of us and these people didn't seem to be in
any rush what-so-ever...so we waited at Walmart for 2.5 hours
for them to do a 5 minute job.

The kids fell asleep pretty much as soon as we got on the road to Memphis.
We stayed Wed. night with my aunt and uncle in the Memphis area,
then headed to Plano, TX to stay with our friends on Thursday night.
We finally made it home on Friday around 2pm.
It was a great trip...exhausting but great to see everyone.
The circumstances were not great but we know that grandpa is in heaven
so we have hope in the resurrection.

So, what's up with Naomi?
Well, the little lady has vomited about every other night since July 31.
Her dr. put her on a pro-biotic for a while to try and get
rid of any bad bacteria that may be in her system.
She was still vomiting.
So, they put her on prevacid.
She was still vomiting.
So, our next step is to take her to a GI doctor on August 30th.
Her dr. mentioned being scoped for an ulcer...
but Naomi has not vomited since Tuesday night,
so we're hopeful that the GI dr. may find that unnecessary.
I'm kinda wondering if she just needed to get more
of the prevacid in her system.
And we've cut out all dairy from her diet...poor girl.

We'll keep you posted...
would you mind keeping her in your prayers?
Thanks!

The winner is...
comment #12...

brandon and jakell said... super cute & creative!!!

I think I would get some baby shower announcements for my sister in law and some address labels :)
thanks!!

Congratulations! I will email you soon with info about the gift certficate!
Thanks to everyone who entered the giveaway!
(sorry it took me so long to pick a winner)

Isn't it amazing how God puts us in the right place at the right time.

(since we all got sick at some point last week)
and then this morning Greg mentions that we should
come to church and have lunch with him.
(which isn't totally weird we just haven't done it in a while)

While we're at lunch Greg gets a phone call from his dad,
turns out his grandpa was taken to the hospital via flight for life
and wasn't expected to live very long.

I'm so glad God saw it in His wisdom for us to be there,
having a simple meal of pb&j's with Greg so we could
start to process what it all meant.

Grandpa Ruben was called home to heaven at 11pm this evening.
We are so blessed that we were able to spend a great afternoon
and fun evening with him and grandma in May while on our big vacation.

Grandpa Ruben was so kind and gentle,
soft spoken, humorous, and just all around an amazing man.
He had a strong faith in Jesus and an amazing love for his family.
We know he is rejoicing with his Savior in heaven tonight,
but we are mourning his loss here.

We will cling to the hope of the resurrection and as Naomi says,
"it'll be okay, we'll get to see him again in heaven someday"
Oh the faith and wisdom of a 3 year old.

We're in the planning stages of how we can all get to the funeral.
Plane tickets would be nice but seriously way to expensive for us all to go.
We're trying to plan how we can drive and make it work...
we all want to be there to celebrate Grandpa Ruben's life!

Here's a few more pics from our visit to the farm in May.

The creative bug has hit me strong,
the time bug has hit me even stronger...
or should I say "lack of time bug"

Oh well I do the best I can.
I've got a new print and a new painting in the store...

So, what do you think?
What would you like to see in the store?
Christmas is coming faster than we think,
can I make something for you?

My kids are small.
I'd like to think I'm not
"out of the loop"
but seriously sometimes I'm pretty sure I am.
And sometimes I'm really glad I am.

Where is this going?
The other day I got a big envelope in the mail
from American Baby.
I don't know who told all these companies
that I was pregnant but I get things for
cord blood banking, new baby stuff, etc all the time
and I didn't sign up for anything.

Anyway

Inside the American Baby envelope were lots of coupons
some which are useful and many which made it straight into the trash.
One thing caught my eye.
It was a rather large magazine type brochure from a toy company
(which will remain nameless but starts with F-P).
I was taken aback by the toys for babies.
This is why I say I'm out of the loop.
I haven't bought baby toys for almost 4 years
(Micah used all of Naomi's toys)
and I don't plan on buying any more baby toys.

But it was ridiculous,
flashing lights,
music that plays for 20 minutes,
remote controls so parents can turn the music on again without disturbing baby,
crib side attachments that project images on the ceiling,
toys that move, shake, rattle and roll.
Seriously what happened to letting a kid use their imagination?

I am NOT a big fan of toys with batteries.
Yes, there are an occasional few that I enjoy but not many.
I'd much rather my kids play with wooden toys,
felt toys, barbies, dolls, cars, trains,
things that don't talk back
make noise,
or move on their own,
you know stationary, quiet toys.

This catalog had different toys for every stage of a babies development.
Seriously do they want peoples houses looking like Toys R Us?
Because that's what my house already looks like
and we haven't bought 1/4 of the toys we have
and we don't have toys for each stage.
Can you imagine?

Babies really don't need all the lights and music.
They'd much rather hear their parents voices singing to them.
They'd much rather look at brightly colored books
and hear stories read or told to them.
They don't need TV or special videos to help their brains develop,
they need mom and dad, sisters and brothers.

Okay, I don't know where all this is coming from.
I guess I was just floored by the amount of "media"
that is put in front of kids at such a young age.

I'm guilty, don't sit here reading this thinking my kids
never watch tv and that we don't own a single toy with batteries.
But I think there are safe, good boundaries that need to be instilled.

I will admit my son is a TV junkie.
The first thing he says in the morning is "tb on"
and many times we indulge him.
But detox needs to happen
and gradually everyday "tb on" is becoming a lot less.

I guess its just that the catalog was meant for small children, babies even...
and I just wish that companies would get back to the good ol toys
that made kids use their imagination more.
I know there are companies out there that DO this and I applaud them,
maybe I just need to start looking for their catalogs instead.

I do NOT intend this post to put down any parent
who buys these kinds of toys or videos.
I simple am stating what is true in my mind
and in my home.
Whatever works for you works for you.
I just really want to get to a more simple way of life,
and toys with batteries do not spell simple for me.

Okay, sorry for the totally random soapbox.
Now back to your regularly scheduled blog reading...

So, you may remember a while ago when I told you
about the awesome opportunity I had to purchase something
from CSN Stores and review their stores and their products,
here and here.

Well, after some thinking it became obvious to me
what we could really use and what would be beneficial
for not only me but the whole family to purchase with this gift.

We have some frying pans that are almost 8 years old.
They were a wedding gift and we're very appreciative of the gift,
but the pans were starting to look really sad
and the coating on the pans was starting to chip...
and who wants black pan in their food anyway?

So I looked at one of the hundreds of stores that CSN has to offer,
and found the perfect frying pans for our family.
These pans were originally $100 but were marked down
to $39.95, and they're STILL on sale.
Go get some before the sale is over.

These Emeril pans got many good reviews from customers.
Which made me even more happy about the sale.
I placed my order on a Friday and had an email
waiting for me a little later that day saying my pans had been shipped.
Are you kidding me?
Shipped on the same day as ordered?
and even within hours?
Amazing!

My large CSN Store box was waiting for me on the
following Tuesday morning when I got home from being out.
That was quick...I was so excited!
yes, over frying pans come on people I live a simple life!

Inside the box are some directions on how to properly care for the pans.
They don't go in the dishwasher,
(which is probably why the other ones got so bad)
obviously you're not supposed to use metal objects on them,
and they have different temperatures listed
for the different kinds of cooking you are doing.

Look at these, aren't they gorgeous!!???



Greg put them to the ultimate test as soon as he got home from work.
Grilled Cheese!

If you've never heard Greg's idea for his someday restaurant
well, then that may not make sense to you...
but imagine a restaurant where all they serve is different kinds of
grilled cheese (and some soups)
and he's going to call it "MELT"
I think it's been done before but we swear it was
an original idea while we were in California visiting E&C
about two years ago for Christmas.

Back to the pans!
They worked great.
Heated evenly.
And we had a delicious grilled cheese
and tomato soup dinner
in the middle of July
in southern Texas.

Yes, we're weird and we're okay with that!



As Emeril would say, "BAM"



I loved the whole CSN Store experience.
The only problem is that they have SO many great products it's hard to choose.
But think about Christmas,
if you know what you're going to get for someone
this is a great place to shop.
The prices are great, shipping is fast and customer service is awesome!
Go check em out!!!

I know I've shared this photo before...

but it's my favorite "water" photo for now...
and the challenge this week at Paper Mama is
WATER!

Micah had just dunked his whole head in the water
and didn't like what he got.
Don't you love his curls...
I miss them...sometimes!