'In the cottage there is joy'

Happy Mother's Day!

I hope everyone's day was as wonderful as mine. I was spoiled rotten by my most favorite people in the whole world. I received a charm bracelet with each of our names imprinted on square tags. I also got chocolate, both from Shawn and from the Ward. We have the most hilarious Bishop. He counseled us mommies from the pulpit and told us to repeat after him...'I will take this gift, and keep it to my own.' We were forbidden to share, giggle!

I also got cards and love notes from my sweet kiddos. I will include Ty's love note, typed exactly as he wrote it and notice he spreads the love around!

'i love you mommy and i love this Sunday Mothers day and i love Sundays and i love dad too i love win he practics baseball with me and i love my hole family and i love evrebute and i love me and i think i am a good kid and i love my ants and my grani and pappa and definatly love emma and cardin.

B&B's

The current header photo is of Shawn and I at a Bed & Breakfast he took us to for our birthdays. The first time Shawn took me to a B&B was when we were in Nebraska. We were totally broke, I still to this day do not know how he paid for it or got it all planned without me knowing. But one Friday night we went to Institute Classes on Campus and out of nowhere... my best friend was whisking off Savannah and Christian with her and Shawn was taking me AWAY! It was so wonderful! He even packed a suitcase for me which was quite hilarious! And it still is one of my favorite memories about 4 years in Dental School. We have been to several B&Bs since but our all time favorite was in SanDiego, CA. We went there last summer and the hostess was adorable and her B&B was quite modern but in an old historical bungalow style house. I would say 95% of the furniture/decorations were PotteryBarn. She served us fresh fruit, crackers, brie, and juices, each morning. If Shawn wants to WOW me with breakfast in bed, he still gets the same crackers, brie, and fruits that we had in Ca. Great memories!

Cluckity, cluck, cluck...

I'm feeling less ignorant today (by no means void of ignorance, but a reduction is good)! Seems others had never thought about the questions in last post either. Things that make ya go HMMMMM. Thanks for the great info and websites referred to me via comments. I think I finally wrapped my brain around the 'order of things' from Kelly, Thanks tons! Hen still in our barn... now I'm wondering if she has eaten anything this whole time... just a mommy worrying about another mommy, grin. I'll keep you updated on the brooding process, the neighbors have little baby ducklings right now that I am desperately trying to make sure our dogs don't eat, but I've never gotten to hold a little chick, so fun!

Such a WannaBe

We have such incredible neighbors! We are learning so much from them, they are very patient, and their children (all 8 of them) are absolutely delightful. They have a wonderful son J, Christian's age, that I tend to ask a lot of questions, bless him!

When we first moved here J came over to introduce himself to me. He is very polite. I had already been watching my neighbors and admiring their huge happy family. Something I noticed was that the little girls seemed to only wear dresses. So I asked J what church his family goes to. He told me that they 'study God at home as a family.' So I boldly pushed forward and asked, 'Is it your religious belief that your sisters wear dresses?' He looked perplexed at me and said, 'Well mam, we call that playing dress-up!' I felt so silly.

Later some of his little sisters told us that J thinks we are 'city slickers' and that we're gonna take a lot of work! Boy is he right.

So today I asked J to come over because I was concerned about one of their hens. This hen had been in our barn for the past several days and hadn't moved a bit other than to blink. So I started to worry that it was hurt and wanted him to take a looksy. He authoritatively marched in, grabbed a stick and carefully peaked under the hen, and said, 'She's sitting on a slew of eggs.' Oh! And then he politely asked if the hen could stay in our barn... well of course... how exciting I thought. So hear I go again, asking one of my questions. Might I please add, right here, that I later today asked each of my children AND my very intelligent husband the same question and they don't know the answer either. So if someone DOES know the answer, please share, and please don't judge US... I am already quite aware of my cluelessness! So I asked J, 'how does a hen know that her eggs have chicks in them and aren't the normal eggs she lays each morning that you collect and eat?' Again, J looked at me perplexed and simply said, 'cause God made them that way.' Was that a dumb question? Does the rooster 'fertilize' the hen or the eggs after they are laid? How does the hen know to try and find a hidden place, lay eggs, and then know that she needs to sit on them to hatch them? So I AM indeed a country girl wanna be and I need to know this since I am too embarrassed to ask J again. That beautiful family of 10 probably got a good ole laugh over me during their family dinner tonight, oh well.

I am NOT smarter than a 5th grader... and I just proved that to my 12 year old neighbor. Still wondering though... I wish he had just explained the whole process to me... I think he is caught off guard when asked something that is such common knowledge to him. So to review... I don't care which came first... the chicken or the egg... I want to know... how did the yolk become a chick! Anyone ? Anyone? Bueller? Bueller?

Follow the Yellow Brick Road....

So, instead of yellow, brick, and a road... its more like grey, concrete, and a frontwalk... BUT yahoooo, the Callahans have a proper walkway to their front door!! So I would like to thank all those that have risked bodily harm, mainly broken ankles, attempting to enter my home... I now can offer you a proper surface and you should be safe, unless you're just plain clumsy then I can't help you much there. I will eventually line either side with stones and we will concrete stain the walk when we also stain the porches. But for now I am happy to have this done. By the way, not sure it translates in the photo, but that is an 8ft wide, 70ft long frontwalk... I fell in love with HUGE frontwalks when we went to Savannah, GA on vacation. For some reason they do them larger there and I just love it... so I copycatted!

Below is the BEFORE picture, see what I mean by risking life and limb to trek the front yard. And it is funny to note that there is a 'beachball' in the middle of our circular drive. One of my wiseguys, or maybe it was my wisegal tossed it in there. How do you know if you're a redneck? If you're too broke to landscape the center of your drive and if floods everytime it rains, therefore your kids think they have a swimming pool in the front yard!

I know I posted pictures of our house before, but hang in there with me as I do more. I came across this photo and it shows one of my favorite parts of the house, the stoned chimney. This was no small task as few people use real stone on chimneys anymore (it weighs a zillion tons) and also very few new homes are doing actual woodburning fireplaces. I wanted woodburning and real stone and had to research it with Shawn, visits to rockyards, interviewing rockguys, etc, so maybe that is why I love it so much, it was quite the process!!

Below is quite a random shot, not sure why I originally took it, but it shows a few MORE of my favorite things... beadboard ceiling on front porch, painted blue (another idea swiped from homes in Savannah, GA), and also look at my fans and house exterior lighting. I love putting something retro/modern, on something rustic or cottagey. I think these fans are cool and a little 'lofty'. The exterior lights were such a fun find, they are reproductions of street lights in NY circa 1910.. oooohhhahhhhhhh. I just LOVE details, snicker.

And yet another random shot, closeup of stone on chimney and it wraps the whole skirting on house and then up one section of front of house. I'll stop now, hopefully more befores and afters since the sidewalk was a big TO DO for 2008 and it is accomplished... moving on.

ME????? A bank robber?!?!?

I wouldn't know what to do with myself if I ever got to live a good ole boring Monday. I have a crazy entire week ahead of me. Today I hurried to shower and get off to a Presidency meeting. The phone rang as I was getting ready, the president's daughter has pink eye... meeting postponed. So I stare in the mirror... do I fix my hair... OR ballcap it! If you know me... I ballcapped it. I was out the door moments later to tackle my 'to do' list, hair still a little damp but hopeful it will finish drying by the time I reach town. I start marking items off my list one by one, thinking I'm an errand superhero! Number 4 errand... go to the bank. I must go inside because I need to do several transactions. I wait in line and finally it is my turn. I got the most precious teller and she kindly tells me I must remove my ball cap. I am so perplexed! Seriously, the next words out of my mouth are... 'But I have massive hat head because I left the house with my hair wet'... the teller, grinning, and very much feeling my pain, says I MUST remove my cap if I am to conduct any business in the bank. It DAWNS on me, all those little cameras can't see my face in case I am there to withdrawal a WHOLE LOT of money that don't belong to me, if you know what I mean. I remove my cap, dying from embarrassment, the teller did not even make eye contact with me, bless her, she was trying to stay professional and not laugh in my face. I get all my banking business complete and hurry out the door. Cap immediately goes on my head upon exiting. Then I HAD to do it... yep... got in the truck and flipped down the visor mirror and took off my hat. Just as I had feared! Why, why, WHY, must I rub my face in the gruesome reflection before me. OIH! It wasn't until 2 errands later when the Post Office guy told me I had incredible (not over stating this,he did say 'incredible') eyes, that I let go of the horrible image in my head. Thank goodness for sweet bank tellers that don't laugh out loud and PostOffice fellas that can sense when a gal is having a low self-esteem day and gives a compliment. I love nice people!! On to loads and loads of laundry... this Monday just keeps getting better and better, laughter!

"Put on the full Armor of God..." Ephesians 6:11

Christian did our Family Home Evening tonight. His topic was the 'Armor of God'. He taught a wonderful lesson, then we played a board game version of the same subject. The funnest part of the night was the boys dressing up in the armor. Had to get some pictures of that. Then we had tortilla chips and cheese dip for refreshements, YUM!! Wonderful night, we continue to have FHE on Sunday nights because of Monday night ball games and Savannah has a PTA performance tomorrow night too.

So do you recognize all the pieces? Helmet of Salvation, aka baseball batting helmet. Breastplate of Righteousness, aka the lining to Shawn's AirForce cami coat. Belt of Truth. Shield of Faith, aka box top with broken hanger which was broke just specially for the 'cause'. Sword of the Spirit, aka bamboo stick with good ole ducktape. And Sandals of Peace, aka soccer sandals. Aren't my little men handsome warriors. Bravo Christian!