So I haven’t been watering the garden that was here when we moved in because I had planned on pulling it up once everything was dead and moving in to another area in our yard. Well these little tomato plants just wont die. There’s a bunch of new tomatoes growing now. Even with my son picking them and these cute little tomato worms eating them they still continue to grow. Maybe my black gardening thumb is changing to green? LOL

I know cute and bugs shouldn’t fit into the same sentence but I can’t help but find these things cute.

And I have no clue what this little thing is. I was just minding my own business when he flew up and landed on the bush next to me.

For more inspiring photos, check out:
The Bonafide Life, Better in Bulk, From Dates to Diapers, Not Your Momblog, The Divine Miss Mommy, Colorado Moms, Rajean Blomquist, High Impact Mom, BrainFoggles, The Centsible Life, Rachel Ferrucci, Lil Kid Things, Resourceful Mommy and Zensible Mama and link your own photo stories.

My baby little man big boy is growing up so fast. He is our last child and as much as I love seeing all of my children grow it simply is not fair that it happens so darn fast. Someone tell my kids to slow down and not grow so fast cause they sure aren’t listening to me!

For more inspiring photos, check out:
The Bonafide Life, Better in Bulk, From Dates to Diapers, Not Your Momblog, The Divine Miss Mommy, Colorado Moms, Rajean Blomquist, High Impact Mom, BrainFoggles, The Centsible Life, Rachel Ferrucci, Lil Kid Things, Resourceful Mommy and Zensible Mama and link your own photo stories.

Not sure if the caption should be “arrrr matey” or “Imma gonna get you” or “grrrrr”. Either way this boy cracks me up every single day with his silly little faces & his giggles. 

For more inspiring photos, check out:

The Bonafide Life, Better in Bulk, From Dates to Diapers, Not Your Momblog, The Divine Miss Mommy, Colorado Moms, Rajean Blomquist, High Impact Mom, BrainFoggles, The Centsible Life, Rachel Ferrucci, Lil Kid Things and Zensible Mama and link your own photo stories.

This week I am doing something slightly different. I am adding in a picture of a sunrise in addition to my sunset picture. Sunrises are equally magnificent as sunsets and so not celebrate them right along with a sunset.

A beginning and an end in one place. 

Since my computer and I are not seeing eye to eye this morning I am posting the only pictures I can access right now, and because of that they are of two different states.

The first picture is a sunrise over my old home in California. We had the perfect viewing area for sunrises because there was nothing but a huge field off to the east.

And this second picture is a sunset over Georgia. Ah, Georgia. You know we only spent a short time there but I really loved it there. We had a decent sized home but the amazing part was it was on over 3 acres. There was even a barn in the backyard. Granted we never went inside of it but still it was cool. And the greenery, so much greenery surrounding you, you couldn’t help but feel relaxed in such beautiful scenery. And of course the backyard faced west, prime for sunsets.

Have a sunrise and/or sunset picture you want to share? I would love to see it. Please link up below so I can come and share the love.

Keeping with last weeks theme here is how I found my boys the other day.

Yes that would be my seven year old in my three year olds toddler bed. I assumed his brother kicked him out of his bed but he told me the next morning he wanted to sleep there so he did LOL

And where was little man? Why on the floor next to his big brothers bed wrapped up in the comforter and using his pillow. 

These kids crack me up.

For more inspiring photos, check:  The Bonafide Life, Better in Bulk, From Dates to Diapers, Not Your Momblog, The Divine Miss Mommy, Colorado Moms, Rajean Blomquist, High Impact Mom, BrainFoggles, The Centsible Life, Rachel Ferrucci and Zensible Mama and link your own photo stories.

Moving is nothing new to our family. We have moved twelve times in eleven years. A little excessive yes but after this move we will be out of the moving game for a long long time. Can I hear an amen! One of the things I had trouble with when we would move was getting to know a new area and the people. I am shy and getting out there hasn’t always been my strongest suit. Over the years it has lessened but it can still be difficult especially when going to a place you’ve never been before or if you do not know anyone. 

Here are some things that I have found to help.

These are some things that have worked for me. But I knew there must be some more out there so I asked a few of my fellow blogging friends if they had any suggestions. Here’s what they came up with.

I would like thank all the wonderful ladies above for their input. I hope these tips are as helpful for you as they have been for me. If you have any suggestions that have helped you when you have moved I would love to hear them.

Anyone can tell just by looking in my closet or at the clothes I am currently wearing, although I do love my Old Navy pajamas.  My “sense of style” isn’t horrible but I do go for the more comfortable clothes as opposed to the cute, stylish, and a little more pricey options. But that still doesn’t mean I don’t drool wish like some seriously cute clothes.

I am trying to think of excuses completely justified reasons for me to get that cupcake dress. And that Erin Wiggle Dress is seriously to die for.

Now what fun is dress shopping if you aren’t going to at least look at some shoes. If you can’t tell by now I like a little bit of the retro look. One of the things I love about retro looks coming back is you can easily add in some personal touches to outfits especially with shoes. You can go completely outrageous shoes and still pull off a fabulous outfit.

Here are some shoes that I love.

I wasn’t a wine drinker until recently. Well actually it all started a few years ago when I came across a sweet wine called Moscato Bianco by Robert Mondavi. All it took was one sip and I was in love. The sad thing about finding a wine you love is when you run out of it and go to buy another bottle only to find out your new love has been discontinued and that you will never again be able to taste it’s perfection. I searched high and low holding onto hope that maybe some random place will have a bunch in stock that they bought before it was discontinued. That hope was squashed after a year of searching. But luckily I have found a few replacements that satisfy my quench for a late night relaxer that I can enjoy while reading a book.

I am not a wine aficionado so those that are may view this as an abomination for even doing this but hey, I am channeling my inner Jewel from Cougar Town and calling this beauty of a glass my “Big Bob”.  Yes I drink my white wine in a red wine glass, and no it doesn’t matter to me that it is not it’s intended use. Say hello to Big Bob, my red wine glass that I gladly pour white wine into, because hello it holds more then a white wine glass does! Last night I enjoyed a glass, or two with some friends and they brought over Chardonnay. Not normally what I drink but I have to say I was pleasantly surprised and might be making a switch.

Sorry it’s such a bad picture. My camera died so this was taken with my phone. Here is another picture so you can see exactly how this glass looks.

Despite popular belief I am not perfect (come on, go ahead, laugh, you know you want to. I am). In fact I am far from perfect. This is not a whoa is me post. This is a recognizing my faults and idiosyncrasies that make me me.

So here we go.

-I am a procrastinator

-I bite my cuticles

-I pick my nails

-I grind my teeth in my sleep

-I bite my lips and cheeks when I am nervous

-I am an emotional eater

-I have my clean laundry basket filled and over flowing with clean clothes to fold

-I have clothes in the dryer that need to be folded

-I let dishes pile in my sink

-My house needs to be vacuumed

-The kids trashed their room and it hasn’t been cleaned up yet

-I have a habit of turning my phone on vibrate and missing all my calls

-I do not like to leave voicemails

-I love sweets, and carbs, and well all food

-In fact I may or may not have a package of oreos hiding in my pantry.

-I hide stuff from myself so I forget I have it that way I don’t eat it all in one sitting

-I am terrified of death

-I come from mixed religions

-I pray but I am not Christian nor am I Jewish, I find religion fascinating just haven’t decided which side of the fence I am on

-I give great advice but don’t practice what I preach

-I have lost a lot of my patience

-I give up too easily (I am getting better at that though)

-I get so sucked into a book that everything around me kind of fades off, not always a bad thing but being a stay at home mom it’s not best to read during the day

-I don’t take care of myself as far as making regular checkups. That goes hand in hand with the procrastination but that is also something I am working on

-I am a walking stress ball

-I stress over the small things

-I have a semi webbed toe but I was not born with it

-One of my small toe nails grows a new nail every few years ever since I cut the tip of my toe off when I was younger

-I have a lazy eye but I might be the only one who notices it and only in pictures

-I don’t particularly care for my smile

-I have eczema (it sucks when the weather changes)

-I have allergies

-I haven’t been able to breath out of my left nostril for two years now

-I have a temper

-I wish I didn’t have a temper, I never used to and it drives me nuts that I do now

-I cry at certain songs, Israel Kamakawiwo’ole-Somewhere Over the Rainbow gets me in tears every time I hear it

There you have it. This is me. I am comfortable with myself. Everyone has things the don’t like about themselves but I am done looking down at myself because I am not perfect. Because you know what, no one is perfect. That’s the wonderful thing about being human. No one is ever perfect and we all have things we don’t like or would like to change. All of the things I listed off a part of what makes me me and you know what….I love me!

My youngest has a lovey and his name is Teddy.  I originally bought it for my oldest over seven years ago but he had absolutely no interest so when my daughter was born I gave it to her. And just like her brother she had no interest. I loved that teddy just for the simple fact that it was the first toy I bought for my son so when my youngest was born I gave it to him and surprisingly he latched on and has never let go. His lovey goes with him everywhere.  He has even tried to take it into the shower & bath. I left the house without it once & will NEVER do that again. When I wash Teddy he will stand in front of the washing machine and cry. So I usually try to sneak it in there while he is busy doing something.

Today was wash day & his Teddy was in desperate need of a bath (seriously, it was getting nasty) so I turned a movie on for the kids & gave him an Iron Man toy & sneaked away with it. 

Introducing Mr. Teddy

It might be a little hard to see just how dirty he is so I attempted at a close up shot. 

I received a box of Tide Ultra in clean breeze scent and thought cleaning Mr. Teddy would be the perfect test subject.

So here we go, testing is in progress.

Little man didn’t notice Teddy was gone until about half way through the wash cycle. There was a lot of cuddling and hugs while he took his “bath”. And I know you are all waiting for it, the final result!

Here he is folks, a fresh smelling, no more stained Mr. Teddy!

There is a definite color difference on him, he looks almost brand new!

Can you see those little fingers, that would be little man wanting his Teddy & I was mean enough to tell him to wait & let me take a picture really quick. Horrible I tell you.

I honestly couldn’t be more pleased with Tide Ultras new laundry detergent. As if the clean scent it comes in wasn’t enough it also got rid of stains on Mr. Teddy that I have been trying to get out for over a year now. It’s also very easy to use with the spoon inside the box with easy instructions on the side of the box telling you what measurements you need based on laundry load size. I used to use dry detergent before having kids but switched to liquid. I’m not sure why I did that but I will definitely be switching back. It’s easier to use & less messy then liquid. With three kids in the house stains are a standard but with Tide Ultra stain removal quality it’s really a no brainer.
P&G is doing a wonderful job in the Future Friendly campaign to raise awareness on saving water and reducing waste. You can check out their facebook page which has a lot of useful tips on how to help achieve these things.