Ladies' Night Out!

 Almost every month one of my friends has a birthday or other reason to celebrate! This month we celebrated Denise's birthday by all attending "Ladie's Night Out" hosted by the Reedley Downtown Association. It was so much fun; but then again, any night out with my best friends is always filled with lots of fun and many, many laughs! Love you all very much GIRLS!

 Shinn Photo takes AmaZiNg Photos! Don't you agree?

Happy Birthday Toast! Photos by Ashley Testa-Burk, Reedley Exponent

Date Your Mate

After a 2 month blogging hiatus I am back!  My super fabulous, beautiful on the inside and out, amazingly creative, sister-in-law, Erin (Burns, that is), asked me to share for “Date Your Mate Fridays.”   To read about the basics, CLICK HERE but be sure to come back J

I LOVED the Date Your Mate Fridays and looked forward to seeing what super fun, creative, silly or romantic ideas would be posted. I can honestly say that my husband Matt and I do “Date.” But like many couples, could probably date more often. I love Matt dearly, but let’s get real…Life happens. I am not always “in love” and goo, goo, gah, gah over him. It takes work. But, the “work” is so worth it and has made us more deeply love than when we first met. So, here is what WE think about Dating Your Mate (Broken done into organized lists-because that’s just how I am. I love lists and post-its!)

DONE IT… (Ideas we have done at least once)
~Shared a romantic dinner in the place we met (Booth #2 at Kelley’s)
~Taken the boat out for a sunset cruise on the river.
~Gone out of town. Alone. No kids.
~Hidden in the garage (curled up in the back seat of our boat with a blanket and the lights off). This is a super hilarious story I will have to share another time.
~Gone for a drive with no destination in mind.

DO IT… (Things we do regularly to stay connected)
~Volunteer/Serve together at church. I know you may be asking how this “fits” into a date night, so I will explain. On Wednesday nights the kids go to Kidzspace at our church. Our family and another family serve the kids dinner every week. Then when they head off to their classes, we eat together and spend time alone before it’s time to clean up and pick up our children. It’s been a huge blessing that’s really drawn us closer to God and to each other.
~Meet with other couples to share God’s Word, discuss a book, play games, eat good food, build friendships, and share lots of laughter. I guess you could say this is a “group date.”
~Relax in our Jacuzzi tub together. Sometimes we jump in at the end of a long day to “catch up” with each other. Other times, we just start the day off with a relaxing Jacuzzi and simply enjoy each other’s company.
~Cuddle on the lounge in the backyard and star gaze (although the dog I recently rescued now thinks the lounge is his bed).
 ~Garden together. We both appreciate a beautiful garden, so we work at it together.
~Take our children to Matt’s parents for the evening and then have a date night at home alone.
~Cook together during the summer.
~Run errands together. Yes, I know that doesn’t sound “romantic” and it’s not really. But, we call it a “date” and look forward to time to talk, have lunch and get things done without having to worry about anyone else but ourselves for awhile.
~Flirt with each other: in person, through love notes, and texting. After all, we flirted when we were first “courting” each other so why stop just because we are married?

DESIRE TO DO IT… (some things we would like to put in the DONE list)
~A Roll of quarters date-Each of us gets a roll of quarters and together we brainstorm what we can do using only our rolls of quarters on our next date.
~An old fashioned picnic, with a blanket, bottle of wine, cheese, crackers, salami and o.k. even the ants!
~ A let’s be kids again” date where we do lots of fun and silly kids stuff, like roller skating, laser tag, ice cream for dinner, etc.
~(Matt says) A car show date where we jump in our 57 wagon (of course after it is finished being restored) and head out to a car show, preferably out of town J
~An auction. We both love old stuff and would like to go to an antique auction just for the fun of it.
~A letter of the alphabet date where everything we eat and do starts with a particular letter of the alphabet.

There are so many things you can do with your spouse for a date night. Be creative. Think out of the box. It can be any time of day, fancy or casual, an hour or a day, practical or foolish, planned or impromptu… it really doesn’t matter. What matters most is taking the time to create “moments” and show each other love so when the business of life happens you have strength to power through until your next date night.  

Absence

Dear Blogger Friends,
Yes, I now, 3 weeks since I blogged. Life is busy. I miss blogging. But...playing catch up with school and "life."
Hope to be back soon :)

Creating and waiting for Spring

What have I been up to? Maybe the better question is "What haven't I been up to?" Seriously, besides being wife, mom and teacher, I have been sewing, garage sale-ing, sanding, painting, glue gunning, and oh so much more. Take a look!

I bet you are wondering what I am up to? Well, if so, you will have to wait until my projects are complete :)
In the meantime...
I will be dreaming of the ocean and all things spring.

Enjoy your Tuesday. Hope it's filled with all good things

Creative Estates, Here I come!!!

It's Official! I am registered to attend! I have Hotel reservations. Now for a flight to AZ. Oh,  and how cool would it be to win a free pass from No Biggie?   SuPeR DuPeR CoOl!  Just go here to check it out yourself. Oh, I hope I win! This would be the best early BDay present!

Creative Estates Conference

Oh my goodness! I am sooo excited! This is even better than entering the Sihouette giveaway!!!
I am entering for a chance to win a pass to the Creative Estates Conference.
I hope I win, I hope I win, I hope I win!
Havn't heard of Creative Estates? Check it our here

I found another amazing blog. I have been stalking her since 2am. OK not every minute since then, but really you have to go and see for yourself at Ruffles and Stuff

Her name is Disney. really it is. But you will have to go to her site and read more. She is so stinkin cute! So is her little girl (model of all that's supper fabulous for children)

I came across her Ruffles (and up-cycled) T-Shirt Scarf and couldn't resist making my own. 

Go here  and see her darling scarf for her daughter.

Here is mine :)

 Here is my lil Katelyn using my scraps to make a head band.

 Look what a great job she did!!! She is a much better model than me!

Beautiful girl :)

Thanks Disney for the tutorial! Katelyn and I had a fun time :)

If/when I get permission, I will post a tutorial here for you all to see. I did a different bottom that I thought would be fun :)

Have a good night!