ten years ago today...

I married my best friend. Somehow, after ten years, three kids, one house (that may or may not ever sell) two dogs, five cars, eight surgeries, one NICU stay, tens of thousands of diapers and days when we wondered if, surely, we were insane, there have been many more days and years of nothing but sheer wedded bliss. How bout we go for 60 more? I'm game. I love you so much it's stupid and am so glad you are my best good friend. You are the peanut butter to my chocolate and that is mighty high praise!

on the hunt

today, i'm on the hunt for a water bath. a what? a water bath. that's what i said. wanna know why? b/c this precious little thang that we all know and love posted a recipe for apple butter last year and danggit imma make it tomorrow. problem...i gotta get one of those there water bath thingies. in the off season.

looks can be deceiving

so i haven't been a real regular in the updates. mostly that has to do with the absolute pain i get in my left eye when it comes to fighting and eternal waiting for my pics to post. i figure you wanna see cute kids, not listen to me drone. so i changed my layout...trying to update and whatnot...it's a little busy, but so am i.

This was Halloween...

get felt up

it's that time of year again. the one where i tell you to grab a loved one or at least don't be shy and grab yourself. october is breast cancer awareness month. it's time to save the ta-tas folks. my meemaw died of breast cancer, but fortunately she didn't suffer. unfortunately, it was too late. tell all the women you know (and even the boys b/c they can get it too.)

love 'em.

squish em.

save 'em.

thankful thursday

Thank you will never be enough to say for all of the prayers and thoughts and words you have sent up for me and for the Griffies family.
I'm thankful for:

• laundry, dirty dishes and piles of toys
• getting to be here to take care of all of those things
• my hubs whom I adore. everything about that man makes me giddy and lovesick today
• a God who gives us a home in Heaven and gives me another day to try to 'get it right'
• curly red hair, straight copper penny hair, and curly golden brown hair and the heads all of that hair resides on. i'll sniff it and run my fingers through it every day.
• friends who pray for you and for families they don't know
• that i knew susan. she was a good friend, a wonderful wife, mom and Christian. she was also a wicked prankster! there are too many laughs to count.

no words

susan was a wonderful Christian, wife, mom and friend. God, wrap your arms around the three angels she has left behind to find her home with you. no words will ever bring them complete comfort. only You can be their solace.

URGENT PRAYERS NEEDED!!

susan and claire

tony and jonah

i have a friend from college who underwent a surgery today on her brain. i'm thinking she was going to have angioplasty. there was supposed to be a really low incidence of complications. however, a friend from troy called to let me know that susan has had a stroke. she called a few minutes ago to let me know that they have taken her back into emergency surgery because she is having swelling in her brain and they need to relieve the pressure.
Update: The docs are having difficulty getting Susans BP stable. She does have increasing pressure in her brain and they don't know why. They are considering putting a drain in. The CT results will be in an hour to an hour and a half. With ...the blood thinners she has been on prior to today, all this is "tricky."Her Doc said he "does not like what he is seeing." Tony is hanging in
there but we DESPERATELY need your prayers.

this couple is awesome. tony was micah's roommate at the christian student center. we were very close. they struggled with infertility for years. we prayed for them fervently during those years. they now have twins that are basically 8 months older than ally claire. they are actually some of the first people we told about her (it was when they called to tell us the twins were born.)

please please please pray for susan and tony. she is young and healthy, so has that in her favor. but she is extremely critical right now. you can find her blog on my blog listed as susan. here is a snippet of the background on her issue.

I have been having numbness/tingling in my fingers on my right hand for a while. The doctor thought it was carpal tunnel. I had a couple of times when my whole right side went numb so he finally sent me for an MRI and then an MRA when the MRI showed something going on in my left middle cerebral artery. With the MRA, they found some narrowing of that artery that was causing TIAs. 2 neurologists later they have decided to send me to a neurosurgeon in Tampa at USF (September 2). He will decide whether to do an angiography to determine the severity of the narrowing and decide where to go from there. In the meantime, I am on a full dose of aspirin, Plavix (blood thinners), and Crestor (my cholesterol was high last time they checked). I haven't had any symptoms since I was put on these lovely drugs (I was having symptoms a few times a week before that).

buying time rewind

i posted this before, but in my crazy life, sometimes i just don't even know what to say. i am lucky to have a complete thought most days. we have 3 kids with 2 in soccer, one in 1st grade, one in preschool and one into everything! our house is back up for sale, which isn't all that great considering the state of the housing market right now. but hey, He will provide, right? oh, did i mention that i was asked to be a substitute school nurse? how cool is that? i hope i'm able to do it a few times a month. it would be a seriously awesome way to get my foot in the door for that when all of the kiddos are in school.

so, when you know you need to pray for these little ones, but you're not even sure what to say, here is something you can stick on your fridge when you are fixing the umteenth sippy cup of the day or standing there by your microwave cutting those hotdogs into itty bitty bits.

it's a calendar for praying for your kids.

ps--if you'll notice the date, i started this post 2 days ago. who wants to tell me an easier way to get my pics to upload to this piece of you know what?

it's about that time of year...

still to come...the rest of our summer.

summer in review (part 1: AC's bday)

i started this post august 2nd. it's now the 13th. do the math folks. as per usual...blogger fail with picture uploading. i have been a complete loser in posting since...we'll go with january. i don't know that i have ever let it go a whole month without posting, but now i have. and because of that, i decided i'd just make this one EPIC and HUGE and tell you all about our summer. i'm hoping i can remember our summer, it has been so crazy and i don't tend to have the best memory. hence the reason i started this little blog.
it all started back in june with this little punkin' lovin' right here.

On June 10th, she turned TWO! I have no idea where the time has gone. June 10th is always a little bittersweet for micah and i b/c of her rough start, but God blessed us with a strong (willed), healthy, beautiful angel girl and we have cherished every stinkin' moment with her. She is just so different from the boys. it has been the most fun watching her. she talks a mile a minute (as long as she knows you and is comfortable with you) and i think she actually talks pretty clearly. On her birthday, she went from sleeping in her crib to sleeping in her big girl (toddler) bed.

then she ate her breakfast holding her birthday balloon (cause isn't that how you do it?)

on her actual birthday, we had cupcakes (where instead of trying to blow out the candles, she thought she'd be cool and pinch the flame out...no fear.)

then, she hosted a "tea pahty". they happen daily around here. if you are lucky, you can dress up in fairy wings and plastic heels and a tiara. (brothers, be glad i have opted to keep your future egos in tact by not producing evidence of such dress up demands.)

a few days later, we had a Dora "pahty"...

and JoAnna (and her mom Monica) came to stay the weekend with us...

and we had a bouncy house that even daddy enjoyed...

and we played in the pool...


so, thanks for hangin' in there with me...if anyone still is. and if you are, please leave me a comment b/c this has been aggrevating to say the least. all of these pics were loaded one by one with my fingers crossed. so, at least tell me how cute sissy girl is. and yes, that is what she calls herself...sissy girl. up next, the month of july where we went to tybee island.

bookworm

a week or so ago, i strolled through books a million during a much needed night time mental break. i had no idea what i was going in there for, but it's rare that i need an excuse or am looking for anything specific. i picked up 4 books for my summer/beach reading. i haven't read a single review as of this posting, so i'm hoping i picked well. i'd love to hear if any of you have read these or if you are interested. click on the link to take you to amazon and you can read the reviews.

Love The One You're With by Emily Giffin
The Same Sweet Girls by Cassandra King
Between, Georgia by Joshilyn Jackson
The Sweet By and By by Todd Johnson

i don't usually make book recommendations, but all of these sounded like good summer reads. i'll be sure to let you know. what i did figure out is that i must have been feeling my roots that night because they are all about southern women or have some tie to the south. what can i say? i love it down here.

Tasty tuesday::peanut butter texas sheet cake

I found this recipe in the Gooseberry Patch Our Best Quick & Easy Recipes Magazine. "Texas Sheet Cake" is usually chocolaty, fudgy goodness. this is obviously a different twist. and since i am a firm believer that peanut butter is the next best thing to chocolate, i thought i'd give it a try. and i'm glad i did. give it a try!! you won't be sorry!

Peanut Butter Texas Sheet Cake
2 c all purpose flour

1/4 c creamy peanut butter
2 c white sugar

2 eggs beater
1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp baking soda

1/2 c buttermilk
1 c butter
1 c water

peanut butter icing (see below)

chopped peanuts for garnish

Combine flour, sugar, salt and baking soda in a large bowl and set aside. Combine butter, water and peanut butter and a saucepan over medium heat: bring to a boil. Add to flour mixture and mix well and set aside. Combine eggs, vanilla and buttermilk. Add to flour mixture. Spread batter into a 15x10 jelly roll pan. Bake @ 350 for 25-28 minutes or until cake springs back when gently touched. spread peanut butter icing over warm cake and garnish.

Peanut Butter Icing
1/2 cup butter
1/4 cup creamy peanut butter
1/3 c + 1 T milk
16 oz powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla
Combine first 3 ingredients in a saucepan over medium heat; bring to a boil. Remove from heat. Stir in powdered sugar and vanilla. Mix until spreading consistency. (careful, it will drip a little over the side of the cake so keep bringing it back to the center.)

yall better leave some comments...

it's not spectacular and probably doesn't live up to the build up, but i lurve it. i'm not sure how i lived with this insanity for years, but i did.

more ugliness

and AFTAH...

thank you lowes, for MDF and black gloss spray paint.

my hubby built those shelves and even a work table to go on the other side of the 1901 dryer and it hides our hampers/extra laundry baskets.
this was the boys' room before when it was only luke's room. it's the best before paint color i have.

now...it's...living room color. i don't remember what that is, but since the house is back on the market kill me now it was a better choice for touch ups. cause those boys are wild.

now, a few notes...
we have cancelled our trip to gulf shores b/c BP are morons. however, i'm going to see paula over in savannah/tybee island!! we'll be swangin' through atlanta on the way there and on the way back to check out the zoo and acquarium. it should be tiring as all get out fun!!

next, i never did see those stinkin quarters. i checked for 17 days and the docs office told me to consider them passed since the xrays 10 days prior to my last call showed them to be in the large intestine and he has no problems. works for me.

4 letter words

right now i have about a jillion of them running through my head. me and blogger are at a major war. i have just spent 1.5 hours on a honkin post showing off what i have been working on around here. and do you know that with the touch of one button, not even my hubby could retrieve it? why? b/c it apparently "autosaved" a couple of seconds after that change. people, imma say it loud and proud. i hate with a bunch of bad words blogger. you can see that i had to resort to flickr below just to get one thing shown. if i'm in a good mood, i'll work on it again. however, my baby girl turns 2 on thursday and her dora party is saturday. so in the next few weeks, if blogger will get it's head out of it's hiney (cause this blog is at most PG) i'll try again to show you why i'm so neglectful. anyway, let's just say that i "redid" my shelving/storage in my laundry room, painted the boys room, and have been working on garage organization...oh, and our house is back on the market. (i'll take that valium in the economy pack please, kay?) and i'm just gonna say it...i have a date with edward for the whole stinkin trilogy on june 29th. that may make it a little better. maybe.

cause i like to keep it real

IMG_2383
Originally uploaded by btuckerrn

if i could get all of these to post together, i would. but i can't. and i hate blogger.


also, if you click on the picture, it will take you to my flickr photostream. you can see what i did to my laundry room and i think i put in a picture of the after of the boys room. it used to be cherry. now it's...um...whatever color the living room is.

sometimes life doesn't just get in the way

IMG_2382
Originally uploaded by btuckerrn

it straight up attacks you. this is part of the organizing/decluttering i have been doing. i call this the great toy clean out of 2010.

i'm a real mom now...

hi. i'm seth. and i like to cause a commotion on a regular basis. today, my special trick was to swallow not one, but two quarters! my mama, the nurse...she doesn't tend to be a nurse when it comes to one of us. however, today, she kept her cool...ish. she called the doctor to see what needed to be done since i was breathing, but had thrown up. of course...the answer was to take me to the local children's hospital, that is 40 minutes away. mama was none too happy with the drivers. they don't seem to understand flashing lights on a minivan going 75-80 mph just might indicate an emergency. maybe that's normal driving where we live. who knew? the good or not so good news?? those quarters were already in my intestines. so as the saying goes "this too (or is it two lol) shall pass."

pray for my little bum. i gotta feeling that won't be fun.


on the flip side, my poor brother was freaking out! he was scared they were gonna keep me for a week and he didn't like that idea. huh. who knew? i mean, you remember when this happened? (scroll down to mid post) yeah. good to know my worst enemy is also my best friend.

when it gets out of control...

i've mentioned my control issues on here before (meaning i may be slightly OCD sometimes). folks, mama is about to go to town on some organization. this year with luke being in school and the boys starting in sports and sister becoming everything that an almost 2 year old is...yeah. it's been a little overwhelming this year. however, with 2 weeks left in school for luke, today being the last day of MMO for seth, and baseball being over in 2 weeks, now is the time for me to pounce. cause did i mention that we are putting our house back on the market? **sighs...**we are. so this means i'm about to go into cleaning and decluttering and organizing overhaul around here. lucky for you, there will be before and after shots. i'll say right now, i will be keeping it real. i mean, really real. you may be "shamed" to be my friend with the before shots. (oh, come on. you all have those closets or those dark corners...or those clothes that have sat in a basket since last week...or month. i know i'm not alone.) so if it seems like i'm going in to hiding again, i'm probably buried under a mountain of clothes, clutter, or kids. you may want to check on me.

upcoming projects:
repurpose coat closet for more storage space
build table and new shelves for laundry room
put together storage units and clean out garage (major dread!!)
sew curtains for boys room
repaing boys' room (another major dread)

do i have volunteers who wanna help?