my new friends.

for 5 years, we have had this fridge.

it came with the house when we bought it.

can't complain about one less item to buy when you're buying your first home.

yesterday, i did the unthinkable and let justin pick out big ticket items for us.

without me.

 and he found this.

this is our new whirlpool side by side fridge.

i have ice and water on the front now!!

it's the stainless look and matches the dishwasher we purchased last year.

unfortunately, this fridge will not move with us whenever that time comes.

do you see how honkin' big that contraption is??

massive.

it was a task and a half for the lowe's guys to get it in the door!

i love it, though.

we actually looked online first, but didn't see this one listed on lowe's site.

lowe's.

my favorite store.

did you know they give 10% discounts to military??

we are best friends now.

this beast was on sale for $898.

we bought it for $785.

tax and all.

be still my cheapskate heart.

we will get my other big item next weekend.

a new smoothtop range.

i will finally have accurate temps in my oven and more than 2 working burners.

absolutely thrilled.

oh, the best part.. online the range was listed for $749.

it's a samsung and marked as a best buy in the consumer reports.

lowe's had it on sale til the 15th for $599.

$599 people!!!

purchase price--$573.

man i love sales, discounts and tax returns!!!

oh--totally off subject...
i was putting mederma on emily's battle wound tonight and felt something poking
finger....it was a stitch.
a stitch!!!
as in not cut out on tuesday with the other 8!!
as in it's going to leave a gnarly scar.
ugh.
my poor daughter.
justin's mom is going to cut it tomorrow after work(she's a nurse).
we thought there were only 8, but there were 9 stitches.
this one is mixed in with her dark eyebrows,
so there's no way to see it.
here i've been wiping her wound all week and listening to her say "OUCH!!"...
and telling her it didn't hurt.
good grief.

art of dance.

a big dance hit at our house is the high school musical 3 soundtrack.
i can admit that i love it.
a lot.
but they may love it more.

makes them wanna moovvve.
the movie, however, not only makes them wanna moovvve,
but is also a learning tool on how to dance.

can you see her hand on his shoulder??

she taught herself how to do that by watching the movie.

i have never danced like that.

i am not a dancer, at all.

spinning and twirling.

that's what it's really about.

emily kept telling aiden, "spin me!!"

taking a bow.

aiden's was more like a little lowered head and that was all.

emily is a tad dramatic, as you can clearly see.

missing.

here are just some shots that i've taken while i've been missing. i did get that camera from my friend...thank you wilson family!!! we have really been enjoying it. all of these shots were taken with it. i have plenty more, but they are in RAW files and i couldn't load them. ergh. just more stuff to teach myself.

i've been painting.

emily's head with stiches. she got her stitches out this past tuesday.

not as traumatic, thankfully.

we celebrated birthday's at my mom's.

my brother in law, perry, had his on the 2nd of feb., carrie's was jan. 20th, conner's and my mom's on feb 10th and jack's on jan. 27th.

my little snuggler, nephew aj. he took a little nap with aunt susie.

this just cracks me up.

the coulter family. my sister just got her hair cut for locks of love.

the messes.

another mess. disposal went out. mike, our youth minister, use to be a plumber.

we heart him. so i said, "hey, if you're not busy, can you tackle this on friday??"

he of course said no prob. well, i forgot that he had surgery on his mangle foot(he got run over by a humvee when he was in the army a couple of years ago...sounds funny and painful all at the same time)just a few weeks ago. here he was...in my kitchen....walking cast and all.

good grief. i felt so bad for asking. he did a fabulous job, though.

i took my old roomie, lisa, out for a birthday breakfast at sugar sister's

this a.m. she just turned 28 on thursday. this was the ONLY shot that i didn't use raw for.

oh well. it's cute.

while i was at breakfast, i got a text from our friend ashley(justin's bff from maize hs) that

she and her new hubby just found out they're expecting a baby!!

congrats, ash and sequius!!

glad you can join our club!! :)

and this is the new beast. the screen isn't sitting on the drawer now,

but whatever. i love this thing. we just got it yesterday, so i'm just now getting to play

around with it.

stitches.

i've been told i am just like my mom.

overprotective.

and i am to an extent.

i've been trying to not be that way when i am at

my sister's watching all 5 kids(hers and mine).

i let them play in a room and do their own thing,

not hovering and stopping their fun every 5 seconds.

well, that doesn't really work for me.

i will still let them have fun, but lay down the rules

a little harsher on my own kids.

as i speak, justin is putting emily in time out for running in

my sister's house.

yesterday, i had to take emily to the minor emergency for stitches.

i, of course, took pictures of the head wound.

emily and her cousin alyssa were running and playing "chase"

in the basement as i was cleaning up from dinner.

i heard the scream(not the, "he hit me" scream, but the

"i can't catch my breath, that hurt so bad" scream)

and went running down the stairs.

brendon met me at the bottom of the stairs saying emily

hit her head on the fireplace.

crap.

then he said that her nose was bleeding.

double crap.

i immediately think of justin's mom and how she just had

surgery on her broken nose.

i finally got a clear shot of emily from across the room,

bloody face and hair.

she had hit her head just above her right eyebrow on the

front of the brick fireplace.

next to it, was a smaller, deeper gash from where

she caught the corner of the brick that was next to the one

that left the previous mark.

she had been playing dress up and was wearing alyssa's

white vet jacket, which was all red.

i whipped the oversized jacket over her head and

shoved it to her head.

lots of blood.

thankfully, i can handle blood.

you can bleed all you want and i will be able to

calmly assess the situation.

i just kept telling her through her screams just as

i would if she had a papercut,

"you're okay. it'll be just fine."

i made my sister rush home from her kid's conferences

so i could get her out of the house.

justin was on his way to class,

but ended up leaving as soon as it started and joining us at the er.

emily was very calm throughout the remaining night.

more so than i ever thought imaginable.

she's my panicky child.

aiden got stitches at 22 mos and never cried,

just sat there and watched the doctor stitch it up.

emily was not that cool.

though i had told her exactly what they were

going to do, we couldn't account for the severity of the wound.

it wouldn't numb properly with the easy, non-traumatic numbing gel.

they had to shoot it with a syringe.

then came the blood curdling scream, the pale faced mother

and the less than brave daddy wearing the police uniform.

i could tell he wasn't a fan of the whole ordeal.

i was on the verge of either throwing up or passing out.

or both.

i don't do well once all of the blood is removed and people

start messing around with the wound.

ugh.

feeling sick again just thinking about it.

it's not enough to just stick the area and inject the meds.

no, there was a lot of moving the skin around with the needle...

okay, i have to stop.

the visual was too much last night.

to do the stitches(through non-stop screaming, btw), they covered

her eyes with a towel, which did nothing to subside the screams.

the doctor doing it wasn't quite a doctor.

i think she was either an intern or first year resident.

i watch too much grey's anatomy.

anyway, she only put 3 stitches(as justin tells me, cause i couldn't watch

most of it) in emily's long cut and two in her short one(that i DID see).

the gap on the large wound was massively wide though, so when the

older doctor came in and checked her work, he had her add a total

of 3 more to the wound.

the large ended up with 6 and the small with 2.

i took photos of the different stages of trauma. :)

there's one with the wound at mary anne's, minus all of the blood.

a few with bandages and one with the stitches.

oh, and one with her orange popsicle at the end. :)

i took them with my camera phone and sent them to jen,

so hopefully she can post them sometime.

today, emily is the owner of 8 stitches, a large gauze bandage and a

once white vet jacket.

alyssa said she didn't want it back and that emily could keep it.

ha ha.

(and justin is watching the 5 kids while i am on the computer, in case you were wondering. :))

The snow is making us crazy

**a post from germany(natalie) in Germany. beautiful pics, Nat!!!**

This is what our village, Oberstaufenbach, looks like as you enter it. Yes, it is pretty, but I think it is making us crazy. We have been stuck in the house much more than normal. I usually don't stay at home because of weather, but there is a nationwide salt shortage. This causes the roads to be much worse than they should be. This is the most snow we have had since we moved here in 2006. Of course it hits the winter I am training for a half marathon. The trail I run is under the footprints you see between the road and the fence. I miss my trails. I have the treadmill, but it does not allow for the "me time" I usually get when I run because the girls come in every 5 minutes and talk to me. Since I am not getting my usual escape, my patience is shot. This combined with the boredom of being at home all the time is making us crazy. The girls are getting some good sledding in. Christianna is between Frank and Kaitlynn. She likes sledding more than Kaitlynn, but does not like walking in it. This is the view leaving our village. This is Kaitlynn, "her boy" Aidan, Christianna and Ethan between our two houses. If you notice behind Ethan, the steps to the front door are tile. Needless to say we go through the garage, its much safer. This is a backyard shot.

creative juices.

this is what chillin' looks like.

she has no idea which hand to use, so she uses both.

painting hearts...and faces.

emily loves brown.

saturday.

a little trip to the salvation army today.

this one is for me.

this was my favorite book when i was in like 1st and 2nd grade.

i checked it out from our school library a lot.

i was happy to bring this home today.

along with some others. there's a brand new copy of 'the nose book'(dr seuss type), matilda...more for me, too. it's by roald dahl...i love him. there are a few missing books that the kids had taken off with. winnie the pooh and a couple of sesame street books. $6 for all. justin was working in the room and i had to help, but i made a quick run to the basement to see what 'macguyver' was doing. just this.

almost a year later, and the door is hung up.

my new headboard.

sorry i had to black and white this pic..it was too bright and yellowy.

i hate the energy efficient light bulbs.

this is the lovely gap.

i want to put columns on the sides of the door for decorative touch/to hide the gap. heidi, start looking!

there will be a shelf on top, too.

that's it for our saturday.

i'm spent. oh, i almost forgot.

justin got to pick out his own valentine's gift today.

they had seasons 1-4 of lost on sale at target for $17.

i've never seen them lower than $38 and he's been wanting them forever.

he picked out season 4 as his v-day gift.

i love gifts that we can both benefit from. :)