Lucky Number 7 :)

Today is mine and Arnold's anniversary. 7 years ago, on a cold and rainy Saturday afternoon, we got married in the church I grew up in. I was worried that it was dreary and rainy outside, but everyone told me rain was a sign of good luck on your wedding day ;) My mom was so great helping me plan the entire wedding, pick out my dream dress, and keep me calm on that day. 

I remember sitting in a back classroom, eating Burger King with my bridesmaids, right before getting ready. Although I wasn't really eating at all, I was too nervous. I remember my Aunt coming in the room, she had just gotten in town from Raleigh. I remember everyone helping me get into my dress, and my friends doing my hair and makeup. I remember Arnold's mom following everyone around with a video camera, making everyone a little bit crazy! I remember walking up the stairs to the sanctuary, everything blurring together, I was just trying to remember that day. I remember my dad taking my arm in his, the music starting to play, and us eventually walking down the aisle. I remember the bright red rash that showed up on my neck and chest (I get it whenever I am nervous!) and it showed up in all my professional pictures ;) I remember the look on Arnold's eyes when I saw him standing there, and how there were tears in his eyes. I remember looking at the front row and watching my parents, and there were tears in their eyes, too. I remember saying vows, exchanging rings, and that special wedding kiss. I remember being so excited and nervous that I accidentally left my bouquet with my Maid of Honor instead of carrying it out with me. I remember eating snacks and making small talk with everyone at the reception. I remember Arnold feeding me wedding cake, and not being "mean" and smearing it all over my face :) I remember walking out to his truck, and everyone blowing bubbles at us. I remember Arnold carrying all his clothes and stuff out in a big plastic bag (classy, right?!) I remember driving to the cemetary and placing my red roses on my grandma's graves before driving to the mountains. I remember wearing my "BRIDE" shirt that I handmade myself. I remember calling our parents' to let them know we got there ok. I remember eating Wendy's in bed that night instead of a fancy dinner, because we were just that tired. I remember the first time Arnold called me "Mrs. Deal." :)

I love you Arnold, thank you for 7 of the best years ever :)

At our wedding reception

Me with my dad, before the wedding :)

What I'm Loving Wednesday!

~I'm loving how well Arnold is doing with his weight loss. At the beginning of this year he decided he wanted to eat healthier and do better and he has already lost 7lbs! I can tell he is excited, and I am so proud of him.

~I'm loving that all my shows have come back after their Holiday break. I am especially looking forward to Modern Family tonight. Gloria is supposed to have the baby.. eeeek! I love babies ;)

~I'm loving that Brooke ended up selling a ton of Girl Scout cookies.. 122 boxes to be exact! I know actually Arnold and I did all the work, but it is fun to see her so excited. And she even gets a special patch for selling over 100 boxes :)

~I'm loving that I got my sister-in-law hooked on The Hunger Games, finally! I gave her the first book for her bday and she has already read all 3 books now and watched the first movie! So we are ready to go see the 2nd movie.. hurry up November! :)

~I'm loving that Arnold and I rented a movie and hung out last night after the kids went to bed. We got "Pitch Perfect" because I heard it was really funny. It ended up being pretty good.. a lot of parts were really silly but I was cracking up.. and I loved all the singing and dancing of course ;)

~I'm loving that my good friend Chrissy, who is due with her first baby in June, found out she is having a girl!!! She is in shock because she swore she was having a boy. But I assured her it will be great, and I cannot WAIT to go shopping for cute girly things! Her name will be "Eden." Isn't that cute?!

~I'm loving the facebook games Candy Crush and Pet Rescue. I am usually NOT a facebook gamer, but I decided to give them a try. Wow, they are major time sucks! But I am addicted to trying to get to the next level. I somehow got Arnold hooked too, and he isn't even on FB that much anyway! I am stuck right now and it's driving me crazy!

~I'm loving that Arnold started a new "side job" recently. He is in a trio with 2 other guys he knows. They are going to play out and hopefully make us lots of extra money! Can't hurt, right?? :)

~I'm loving that I found another lalaloopsy doll for cheap, on the FB yardsale site. I go pick it up tomorrow. It is "Little Red Riding Hood" and so cute! And we don't have that one yet, so a new one for our collection! What is it about those dolls?!

~I'm loving that my Sister-in-law invited Brooke over to her house sat night for a sleepover with my neice, Bekah! Brooke is going to FLIP OUT. She is always asking me why she can't go have sleepovers with people. They have big plans.. movies, snacks, and playing Kirby on the Wii ;)

~I'm loving that my brother Alex is coming into town this weekend! My mom just told me. I don't get to see him much! And now he might get to come to Arnold's show Sat night! Yay!

~I'm loving that we finally got Brooke into see the Neurologist. They didn't have an appt until Feb 6th, but at least we have one now. We hope to figure out what is going on with her! I hope she is ok! And we'd better not forget about the appt, because they charge an $100 no-show fee! yikes!

~I'm loving that I just sold some of my books on Ebay! Extra money for our anniversary day next week!

~I'm loving that we have made it to mid-week! Come on weekend! I can't wait for you!! :D

Weekend in Review

Friday was a typical day around here. Brooke and Caleb went to school and Rachel and I stayed around here and didn't do much. Brooke has spelling tests every friday and usually she does GREAT on them. But something happened this week, and she came home with a 58 on her test!!! I was shocked! Her explanation was that Rachel had kept her up the night before, and she didn't get much sleep. :-/ Sheesh! Always blaming stuff on her sister, even at this young age. I guess more studying is in order this week! Friday evening I stayed up late and watched five.. yes seriously five.. episodes of Grey's Anatomy. We kept trying to turn it off and go to bed but it was soooo good. So much happened in those episodes and I was on the edge of my seat (literally) and it was so good! We finished Season 2 and are officially into Season 3 now :)

Saturday, Arnold and his dad took Caleb to the Monster Jam in Charlotte! Caleb had never been to one, but they knew he would want to, so his Paw got tickets and they decided to have a boy's day. They asked Brooke if she wanted to go, but her eyes just kindof glazed over when they were explaining to her what it was all about (ha!) So since they were going to be gone, the girls and I decided to have a girls' day. Unfortunately it was really cloudy and rained off and on, so we didnt' get to do much outside like we had planned. But we did go meet my mom and try out Sweet Frog! Once again, I am behind on the times. But I am glad we went, because it is awesome. You pick from several kinds of frozen yogurt, then you pick from TONS of toppings, including candy, nuts, sprinkles, fruit, and all sorts of things. THEN you even can pick from an assortment of liquid toppings like strawberry, chocolate syrup, and all that. Then they charge you based on the weight of your cup. So the more toppings the more expensive, but if you like that kind of thing, it is great! The girls got strawberries, blueberries, rasberries, gummy worms, cherries, and nerds.. and then I had to cut them off, ha! It was really yummy though, and I can't wait to go back soon so Arnold and Caleb can try it out too. Did I mention, I even liked the colors in there? Bright green-- my favorite color! :)

Right after the icecream I took the kids to a park close to our house. It was actually around 70 degrees that day, a near-record high for this time of year. So I THOUGHT we would get some play time in. Within 10 minutes or less of being there, it started raining though. So we went on home. The girls got to ride their bikes around the carport for awhile, shielded from the rain, while I cleaned out our minivan. Man, that thing can get dirty quick with 3 kids! I found books, papers, toys, old sippy cups (eww) and more. But it always feels good to get it cleaned out. Anyway, later that evening Arnold and Caleb got home. And we were right.. Caleb had had a blast, and couldn't stop talking about it. when Caleb gets hooked on something, that is all he will talk about for awhile. I am now wondering if he will want a monster trucks birthday party ;) His Paw even bought him an icee in a big Gravedigger cup, and he brought the cup home and asked if he could use it at dinner. He was so cute about the whole thing, I am glad they had fun :)

Sunday I had baby class again. We somehow ended up with EIGHT kids, and it was crazy nuts in there! Most of them were toddlers though, so we moved them up to the next classroom. My buddy, Connor, was back again this week and as soon as he started fussing I took him to the rocker to feed him his bottle. I talked to him the entire time, and he laid there staring at me, and after awhile he spit out his bottle and gave me the biggest grin! It just melted my heart! Man I miss my kids being that small, I swear I teared up a little bit while rocking him. Mamas of babies.. enjoy it while it lasts!!! I am glad I was busy with him, because it seemed to be a crappy day (literally) for the kids, and they all decided to poop at once. Thank goodness Kim was awesome enough to change the diapers ;)

We didn't do much the rest of Sunday.. not much to tell. But It was a great weekend. And I am looking even more forward to this weekend because we have a TON planned! :D

The kids all playing their electronics

Outside of Sweet Frog on Saturday

Eating their icecream

My icecream.. chocolate with reese's pieces, and a cherry on top. Pretty boring to some, but it's what I like! Check it out, they even had green spoons!! That makes me happy :)

Playing at the park for the short time we were there

Me carrying around baby Connor on Sunday at church. He is SO sweet!

The girls after church in their new outfits. Caleb sort of photo-bombed at the last minute ;)

Weekend in Review

Friday morning I had to take Brooke to the dr. We had scheduled her for an appt to talk about her having problems with attention and focus at school. More on that later. Thankfully my mom came up with me and watched Caleb and Rachel in the waiting room while we went back. The kids were still off of school on Friday. They had FIFTEEN days off at Christmas break, can you believe it? I was starting to go nuts, as you can imagine ;)

That evening Arnold and I went out with some friends. It was actually two couples.. the guys are in the same band he is in. They decided we should get the wives together and go out and hang out. I am glad they suggested that because I could always use a night out! The kids got to spend the night at their Grandparents' house, so they were happy. We were going to go to Longhorn, but when we got there they said there were 50-60 people in line before us! Insane! Who waits that long for food?! Anyway, then we decided to go to O'Charley's instead, and only waited about 10 minutes or less.. much better :) I got this chicken sandwich I had never tried there before, and it was really good. Arnold is on a diet right now, but sort of "cheated" that night and got his fave. blue moon beer, and along with his steak and salad he ordered the peach pie. He said since he had already screwed it up with the beer he might as well get the pie, too ;) Despite all that, he has lost some weight and I am very proud of him! :) Anyway, the night was really fun.. we ended up there at the restaurant over 2 hrs, and I think towards the end they were trying to kick us out, ha. They suggested going to a local bar after that, and I said ok because I didn't want to go home yet. But it was somewhere I had never been before and it was a major hole in the wall and everyone was dancing and it was LOUD in there. I felt clausterphobic and we ended up going home. I felt so lame and old but at least we had fun most of the night! :)

Saturday morning early we went to pick up the kids at mom and dad's house. Then we did a little shopping. I love hitting up consignment, thrift, and used book stores on Saturdays when I get the chance.. It is my new "thing." I get very excited over good deals and awesome finds! I took Arnold and the kids to a bookstore I had discovered thanks to my friend, Jackie, and they all picked out a new book. Brooke is now into the "Magic Treehouse" series.. can't believe my little girl is already starting to read chapter books! Then we went to a kids' consignment store and I got some jeans and stuff for the girls. I also ran into Goodwill and found some great "easy reader" books in great condition for the kids, and a "doctor" Barbie for Brooke. It was a good morning, if I say so!

At 12 noon we met Arnold's family over at Village Inn Pizza. His sister turned 40 on Saturday! Even though that is a "big" number, she does not look it and she is still awesome ;) We all got together to celebrate, and sort of celebrate Arnold's bday too, which was on the 1st. We had to wait because poor Jenn had the stomach bug earlier in the week! We had a great time, ate lots of pizza and salad, and the kids got to see lots of family and cousins.. they were having a blast. We gave Jenn her gift too, I had gotten her the "Hunger Games" book because I want her to get hooked so she can go watch the movies with me! :) And a set of homeade coasters like we made our moms back at Christmas, and a pretty cross necklace! I love picking out gifts for other people, it is always so much fun :)

Sunday I got up early and went to church.. it was first Sunday so my week in the baby class! Arnold was tired and said he would bring the kids to church later on. We had several babies in there this week, so thank goodness we had 3 workers in there. A new little guy I hadn't seen before came in this week, only a few months old, and I got to feed him his bottle and hold him while he slept.. it was heavenly! I even sniffed in the wonderful baby smell from his head.. no I am not weird, I just love babies! ;) Turns out he has some heart issues, and I don't know the whole story, but we had to keep him away from the other kids and be sure to use lots of hand sanitizer, because it is extra risky if he gets sick. Poor little guy!

That afternoon we all went home and ate lunch and the kids played in their rooms for awhile, while I caught up on even MORE Grey's Anatomy. It is getting better and better as I go on.. best show ever!!! I am so glad my friends convinced me to finally give it a shot ;) My faves are turning out to be George (he is loveable and a dork like me!) And Miranda-- she is hilarious and always cracking me up. Can't wait to see what else happens in future seasons! 

Hope everyone had an awesome weekend! :)

Checking out some guitars at the music center on Saturday. Arnold is starting to give the big kids guitar lessons, and wants to eventually get them their own "student" guitars. 

Brooke and Rachel checking out some birds at the pet store on Saturday. We went in there to pass some time, and got the kitty some new toys and the dogs some chew bones :) Rachel loves the animals and now tells us she wants a chinchilla for a pet, ha! :)

I found this kit at Target to make a homeade Valentine's Day banner. The kids all helped decorate it, and we hung it up on our mantel over the weekend :)

Lunch at Village Inn on Saturday. Haha, Jenn is on the phone and Brooke has a piece of pizza in her mouth. Classic picture :)

Caleb asked for quarters for the little machines up front, and got a tattoo. He wanted Arnold to put it on him right away and he was so proud, lol! :)

What I'm Loving Wednesday

 

~I'm loving that there are only 4 more days of Christmas break for the kids. I love my kids soo much but after being out of school this long they are bored, and driving me nuts!!!

 

~I'm loving that I totally surprised Arnold the other day with his bday gift. I stopped by Barnes and Noble and got him a big coffee-table style book on Led Zeppelin, and a "Classic Guitars" calandar for work. He loved both things.. I'm just glad i found something!!

 

~I'm loving that we spent New Year's Eve with several friends, at my friend Joanne's house. We had snacks, played games on the Wii, watched tv, and just had a great time. I think it is going to be a yearly tradition from now on!

 

~I'm loving that we were able to get out and do something for Arnold's birthday yesterday. We went and had lunch at Shell's. We wanted to do Village Inn (his fave) but they were closed!

 

~I'm loving that we found out that Brooke's dental work tomorrow will be covered by Arnold's flex-play spending plan at work. It JUST went into effect yesterday! Man, God was really looking out for us, we were going to have to pay hundreds out of pocket!

 

~I'm loving Grey's Anatomy!!!! I know that I am late on this like everything else, but I got HOOKED and now try to watch episodes every night! I am on season 2 now. The story line is great. I am trying to close my eyes during the nasty parts because I do not like blood!!!

 

~I'm loving that we have the possibility of a Friday night date this week! Just found out about it and have to ask around for sitters but I am excited! :)

 

~I'm loving that the movie "Pitch Perfect" finally came out on dvd. I have been wanting to see it! I hear it is hilarious.

 

~I'm loving that our "Ebay bucks" are sent to us tomorrow. I am going to try to use them on a new book I have been wanting. It isn't much but at least it is money off my next purchase!

 

~I'm loving that we were finally able to schedule Brooke a dr appt. They are wanting to check her out because of her history of seizures, having trouble at school with attention/focus and all that. I am really hoping to get some answers! I just want her to be well and able to do well at school!

 

 

 

And here are a few pics from New Year's Eve :)

 

 

Me with one of my best friends ever, Joanne :)

 

Celebrating at midnight with some sparkly juice :)

Caleb being anti-social and playing his Nintendo DS

 

I don't really care for this pic because I look like the man of the relationship, haha! And what is up with Arnold's face? oh well.

A New Year

So another year has started. And I say this every year but I want this year to be good for us, and better than before. I want to try harder and accomplish more.

 

 

Some things I am looking forward to in 2013:

 

-Arnold's 31st birthday (actually today!)

 

-Celebrating our 7 year wedding anniversary

 

-Getting taxes back and hopefully paying off our van

 

-Planning big bday parties for the kids (look forward to that every year!)

 

-Meeting one of my very best friend's new baby this Summer

 

-Celebrating my 28th Birthday

 

-Rachel starting preschool (even though it will be bittersweet!)

 

-Seeing Caleb start to play team sports

 

-See Brooke bridge up to a Brownie Girlscout!

 

-Me starting back to college in the Fall!!!!

 

-Hopefully taking a family vacation somewhere

 

 

 

 

Some Goals I have for this coming Year:

 

-Getting my house/life organized. I have lots and lots of ideas, tips, etc stored up from magazines, pictures, pinterest.. now just to put it all into action.

 

-Get our finances in order. We had a tough year this past year. We want to pay off some medical bills and other stuff and get back on track.

 

-Save money and budget Christmas better this year, I went overboard in the past!

 

-Starting to exercise more regularly. I'll admit, I hate it. But I feel so much better when I do it! And if I start losing weight, that is all the better :)

 

-Going to see one or two of my favorite bands in concert sometime this year

 

-Read through the Old Testament of the Bible. I read parts here and there but want to pace myself and get through the whole thing.

 

-Learn how to juggle being in college, Arnold's jobs, the kids' activities, my volunteer stuff, church stuff, friend time, and all the other craziness of life!

 

-Have a date night with Arnold once a month or every other month. We need the time.. I miss our frequent dates back before kids!

 

-Read at least 40 books this year-- shouldn't be hard at all.. as I love reading :)

 

-Plan mama/child dates with the kids throughout the year so they can get their one-on-one time with me. I have done this a few times and we all enjoy it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

So there are some of my jumbled thoughts! Anyone else have goals/ideas for the new year??

 



Weekend in Review

This weekend was crazy but lots of fun. Friday Arnold went down to Charlotte with his dad, he had a dr appt with a surgeon about a possible back surgery he thinks he is needing. So I spent the whole morning with the kids here at home, and we tried even more to clean up the Christmas mess and put all their new stuff up. That evening I really wanted a girls' night, I needed to get out and get some time away after all those days in a row with the kids, festivities and stress! So my friend Erika and I went to dinner at Wild Wok. I usually don't branch out and go get food like that, but it was really good. I got the chicken and broccoli over noodles with teryaki sauce. Then we went to the mall to do some shopping. I originally wanted to get myself some new clothes/things because I really needed some, but like always I ventured off course and ended up buying for the kids. It was hard not too, with all the good After-Christmas sales going on! I got the kids some cute new animal winter hats at Children's place-- Brooke got a raccoon, Caleb got a monster, and Rachel got a kitty-- and a few other things. Then we went to Gymboree and they were having a big sale And I had a coupon, so I got Brooke a new dress and some new hairbows.. they have the cutest hairbows there!!!! Then we went by Bath and Body Works and that was just a split-second decision but I'm glad they went because they had some of their shower gels on sale for $3 and I also got my first ever car scents and they smell so good! Erika copied me of course and got the same car scents and other things I was getting ;) She just thinks I'm cool! ha! ;)

Saturday we got to sleep in and it was awesome! The kids got right up and started playing on all their new electronic devices and while I usually limit that kind of stuff, I was glad for the extra rest time! ;) We all went out as a family and decided to hit up some after-Christmas clearances. I guess everyone else had the same idea because it was packed everywhere we went. We had to go to Target of course, and while I didn't find a ton, i had to get some Christmas hershey kisses, christmas bodywash, and other random little things. We also went to a few other stores, including Style Exchange.. I love that store now! I found myself a new top, and a new necklace. Some of the stuff looks "young" but a lot of it still works for me ;)

Later that afternoon I decided to have a "girls afternoon" with Brooke. I needed to go to Gymboree and exchange a pair of pants my mom had gotten her that were too tight. They only had two sizes of the pants left, and thankfully one was her size, so yay! Then we went and got a soft pretzel... which I mentioned before was mine and my mom's tradition when I was a kid and we went to the mall, so that was neat ;) We ran into Arnold's cousin Beth and her kids there too, so brooke was all excited to see them :) Then we went into Kirklands and I LOVE that store. I want to buy so many things to decorate my home but never have the extra money while we are in there.. so maybe at Tax time? ha! We also went to a few department stores.. bottom AND top levels so Brooke could ride the escalator.. one of her favorite things to do :) After the mall we went to Kohls and totally scored. They had everything up to 85% off clearance. They have some awesome sales, and I got Brooke some new outfits for school, a baby gift, and I also scored myself some new pj pants and fuzzy slippers :) Lastly we went to Target to do some grocery shopping. I stayed the course and only got the groceries, I was proud of myself because Target is my weak spot!!! :)

Sunday morning we got ready early and went to church at 9:30 because it was the 5th Sunday of the month and I worked the baby class. We had 5 kids in there this week and it was sooo much fun. The kids were all in great moods and were sitting on my lap, asking me to read books to them, and we had a great time playing. Those little babies melt my heart! I would have 100 more babies if they just STAYED that LITTLE! ;) Then we went to the 2nd service and it was wonderful as always.. I am loving that we are back upstairs and they have the big band out playing on Sundays. Can't wait until Arnold starts playing with the band-- he auditioned last week to be a part of the praise team-- yay! :) Anyway, after church we went to grab some lunch at Cookout. Best place, but we don't have one near us, so we don't have it often!

Sunday afternoon Arnold and I decided to go to the movies for his birthday. His birthday is really tomorrow but we celebrated early. Thankfully his parents said they would watch the kids while we went. We ended up getting there late and had to sit on the VERY front row, so we had to hold our heads back and watch.. I hate that! But It was worth it to go. We don't get dates very often, and especially not to go to the movies, so it was fun. We went to see "This is 40" which is SORT of a sequel to "Knocked Up" but just focuses on one of the couples. I love Paul Rudd, he is adorable and always makes me laugh. The start of it was a little slow, but it got better, and it was really funny at parts.. some parts were sad.. a lot of it was true-to-life! Crude at times, but that is to be expected. Overall we enjoyed it. It was long though-- about 2 1/2 hrs long! A date was just what we needed :)

I hope everyone had a great weekend and has a fun and safe New Year's! :)

 

 

 

 

 

Playing hungry hungry hippos

The girls in some of the new pjs they got for Christmas

 

Lunch at Wendy's

 

First time putting together a lego set. Brooke got Olivia's treehouse for Christmas. It was fun and I was proud of myself! ;)

 

The kids after church on Sunday

 

Riding her new bike this weekend. She had her first crash and got a little scraped up but she was brave and is doing ok now :)

 

Caleb trying out his new bike