Well, HEY there!

So, it's been awhile since I blogged.  My life is, as usual, completely, insanely busy!  It's been one thing after another ALL summer long!
-Anna finished school on June 10th.
-Anna had a ballet recital on June 11th.
-We left for California on June 14th.
-Reed pulled in on June 15th and we toured CA. (San Diego, L.A. Disneyland, Salinas and Monterrey!)
-We flew into VA on June 21st.  ALL 3 OF US!
-We had a yard sale on the 25th.
-We went to the lake on July 1st.
-We came home from the lake on the 3rd.
-We took Reed to the airport and then had to go get him again on the 4th because of electrical storms.
-Reed went back to San Diego on the 5th.
-Anna went to the lake again for Grandkids Week on July 15th and came home on the 20th.
-The boys I babysit came back from their vacation on the 25th and we were back to our normal routine on the 26th.
-Anna went to Centrikid Camp with our church on August 1st.  Tab went with her as one of the church chaperons.
-Anna came home on August 5th.
-I had a 31 Gifts party on August 6th.
-This past week is the week of the birthdays with Stu's on the 14th, mine on the 17th and Bray's party on the 19th.  His actual birthday is tomorrow.
-This week, I will have the boys on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.  I'll have Bailey on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday and Riley on Thursday and Friday!  WOW!

We've taken in our fair share of the Regal Summer Family Films.  We've been bowling.  We've hit the playgrounds.  We want to attempt Busch this week but I'm sure it will exhaust me! Anna and I've been hitting the theaters a lot too. My community group multiplied in July so Anna is going to my mom's to spend the night on Tuesdays (I love this!).  AND, I'm planning a wedding and have been to Richmond a couple of times just for that.  (Can you say HOBBY LOBBY?  HELLO!)

So amidst all the chaos, one of the things I've been learning to do this summer is to love my home.  I've redecorated the living room.  It's almost nearly done.  I'm just waiting for the art work to get here!  Reed had charts here but for the life of me, I can't find them!  They need to go one the walls along with some NEW photos a sweet friend from church took for us!  You can check out her work here: http://fowlerphoto.net/site/#/home/  It was VERY sweet of her to do!  I still need to get them printed but I'm waiting on those charts.  I've been working on the kitchen some too.  I made new curtains and am getting rid of the cherries!  The cherries have been around for a really long time!  I've had cherries in my kitchen since before Anna was born!  That's like 10 years, people!  So, what look am I going with?  I want it to be a little country but not 80's country...new country with bold patterns and colors, a few chickens and maybe some rustic things thrown in there.  I rearranged in there last night and am still working on a couple of things for the room.  But, I'm really excited about it.  I even got some antiques with my birthday money for in there.  AND, I'm also slowly but surely working on my bedroom.  I've pieced together my bedding.  I've been working on it since...February maybe?  I found a brushed satin comforter at Target on sale in grey and that's set me on a mission to do grey, white and purple in our bedroom!  I found a duvet at Ikea that I love and then there will be 2 purple bed pillows, a dust ruffle and a decorative purple purple pillow.  I bought purple curtains and am looking for 2 small grey rugs since we have hard woods up there.  I'm even going in a completely different direction in our bathroom and it will totally match which also excites me!  It's a TON of work and Reed's still not home so I'm doing a lot of it myself.  I'd really been in a funk about my house.  I don't love my house when I'm in a funk over it.  BUT, I must learn that I need to make the best of what we've got and love it anyway.  This is all leading somewhere...I'm hoping that SOON, very, very soon we will have a regular "Loving your house" post.  I'm hoping to do it on Wednesdays because once school starts I'll have 2.5 hours free.  I hope to spend it writing the blog somewhere cool like Starbucks or Barnes and Noble but I'll probably be running home to take pictures and end up writing at the kitchen table or plopped down on the couch.  I can't wait to share some of the things I plan on doing.  I feel like my house is finally becoming ME and I'm very excited about that.  One of the reasons I've always loved my dining room is because I love how it looks in there.  I love that the furniture has sentimental meaning to me.  It's the one room I probably won't change...much although even in there, I'd like to change up the wall color and the curtains to brighten it up a bit.  So, see, there's lots to be done!  Stay tuned...