veras for everyone

this is my sister kathy and I as we start our journey to ft. wayne, indiana for the vera bradley factory sale. our time slot was from 3:00-6:00 pm; we left at 7:45 am with the plan of meeting mom and aunt karen for lunch at noon. we were both jazzed and ready for a great day of shopping. we weren't even a block away from the house when kathy pumped up the volume on her "must love dogs" cd; we deemed it the "chick music" for the day. after finishing our mcdonald's 'not so healthy' breakfast (day off from weight watchers), we called mom and aunt karen to see how jazzed they were. let's just say the older folks were still waking up and hadn't hit their excited stage yet.

we made it to panera with time to spare and with more excitement than we had planned. mark and i had been dealing with mr. kempthorn on the purchase of a new chrysler town and country van. so throughout the morning and lunch my cell phone was ringing off the hook! off the hook would also describe the deal we got on our new van!!! mother's day weekend is going to be very special for the entire family, as we take delivery on our new van.

now back to the sale details...

kathy and I are back home safe and sound with many treasures! we both stayed within our budgets and only came home with two items each for ourselves. aunt karen outspent everyone with a receipt that read a gazillon dollars. okay, okay, she was also purchasing for christy and elizabeth, so we knew going into the sale that she would blow us away, and she did!

we also purchased vera bags for friends and family. lisa- these bags are for you! i hope you love them!

in love with everything we found, we slipped into dream land...dreaming of next year's sale already! check back for more pictures of actual sale-those are on mom's camera. oh, and don't forget the new van, pictures of that will follow as well.

thanks for a great day kath, mom, and aunt karen. it was special to spend the day with you doing one of our favorite things-shopping for vera! but more important was the time of bonding and blessings.

vera here we come

my sister kathy came up to visit this afternoon, so we can leave early for the vera bradley sale in ft. wayne, in. mom, aunt karen, becky, katelyn, and carly will all be meeting us there. we'll try to take a few pictures during the sale so you can get a feal for the size of it. looking forward to a girls day out.

ducks in a row

it's monday. sorry i've been away. i had a busy finish to my last week and a full weekend. one of my many blessings was adding these flowers to my kitchen table. my favorite! from our sideyard.

we're gearing up for a trip (michigan to philadelphia, pa) for andelyn's graduation from pbu. i've been getting my "ducks in a row" for a stress free family trip.

connor enjoyed talking while miss cindy gave him a great cut!

i started the layout and pack the boys process.

and of course there are the knitting projects to do while riding:

i have frogged this throw four times! the stitching isn't that hard, just can't get it. this is a christmas gift for a special someone. looks like i've gotten it back on track!

we decided tonight that we'll be stopping in maryland for a quick visit to my aunt lynne, aunt bonnie and grandma's house. in addition, my best friend lisa's house will be on our route home! she'll be the saving grace of my "thorpe" that i've been trying to start with absolutely no success!

and i just purchased susan b. anderson's book itty bitty hats and yarn to begin a basic (easy) baby hat. can't wait for this project to begin.

and my last project...will be what i start with. i'll be making granny smith apple dishcloths for connor's preschool teachers and attach them to pc hand soaps. you can't see it, but in the middle of the cloth is an apple. i think they're cute!

thanks for stopping by today. talk to you later! love, k

creative play

baseball fever has hit our house. the boys are watching, playing, practicing, and reinacting at every turn. sunday before we left for church the boys had set up a virtual "baseball card game." we had two teams of baseball card players. the cards were at every fielding position and batting as well.

spencer was scoring the game with his bb notebook while connor was "running the bases."

not growing up a boy, i don't quite understand this obsession with baseball. the constant tossing and catching of the balls in the house sometimes drives me crazy. i look at mark for reassurance that i'm not going totally "batty" and receive the reassurance that yes, this is how boys are. mark remembers doing these exact same things when he was growing up-down to the play by play commentary of the winning home run out in our virtual world series stadium (our backyard). i wonder how his mom felt. was she the ultimate defender of her son at games? did she practice with him in the backyard? did she go somewhat crazy with the constant motion? i'm sure she was all of these, just like this mom who loves her boys.

it's a blessing to see that in our world of electronic gadgets, tv shows, and fast pace living, that imagination isn't dead. moments like these will live in my memory for always.

give back garage sale

seems like every year during February and march, I begin to get spring clean out fever. I feel the boxes of "stuff" in the basement begin to close in on me, the large amounts of laundry calling me to pare down, and the garage, oh the garage. so I started collecting and paring down items we just didn't "need".

we've participated in several city wide garage sales with much success, so I planned on sharing the treasures I was finding with others. then I started thinking...mark and I have been so blessed this year- special family moments, unexpected work bonuses and raises, family health- all blessing from God. so how could I use this garage sale to bless others?

my first thought was a "free garage sale." every item would be free to a good home, which I first heard about from flylady. then I thought "dollar stores are so popular right now, what about a dollar sale?" after brainstorming with mark, we decided to price each item at $1 and donate all the proceeds to our local food pantry.

after paying the entrance fee and being listed on the city wide map, late last week my enthusiasm for the idea had slowed down. thinking about the time I would need to invest in the final clean outs and setting outs discouraged me. but my ever faithful husband made the final call that yes the dollar garage sale would happen!

mark created and printed five signs to explain the purpose of our sale. I wasn't convinced (in fact mocked his belief that shoppers would read the signs) anyone would read the signs and that everyone would be asking us how much items were. boy was I ever wrong. each and every person who came up the driveway stopped and read mark's sign posted on our "garage sale ladder".

the day had no early shoppers, but was officially started after this van load of family and friends attended our sale.

we were having the sale to give back to our community, yet our community gave back to us on that special saturday. comments like "this is my favorite garage sale because of what you're doing", "I can't find anything to buy, but here's a donation", "this is really great, what you're doing here". God was in every detail of the day- beautiful weather (it usually rains), grateful customers (for the deals and the purpose), and the blessing of people (some who will hopefully pass it on).

hopefully our little idea and garage sale will inspire others to pass blessings along. we may never see any of our customers again. we may never know which ones took our little idea and expanded it and made it bigger and better. we may never know, but God knows, and He blesses.

our goal was to raise $100; collecting $1 at a time this goal could have been difficult. but with God in every detail, this goal was blown away. we raised a total of $261 from sales! connor and I will deliver our $300 donation this thursday.

play ball

after a week and a half of sickness in our house, we braved the cold weather, filled our pockets with kleenex and traveled downtown for our first tigers baseball game. we purchased tickets from lisa - upper deck behind home plate - perfect seats to see it all. spencer was our family photographer for the evening.


we braved the cold through the fifth ining. all the exciting action happened after we left. tigers finally won!! a fun family evening. thanks mark!

tender heart

sometimes it's just the little things that make all the difference. after feeling sick (run over by a mack truck sick) all day, connor reached out to me in the most tender of ways.

"mom, would you like me to pray for you?"
"I don't like it when you're feeling sick."
"mom, can i lay with you?"

these four year old moments will soon be gone, so i've tucked these quotes away in my quote journal to keep for always. i love you little connor.

feeling blue

yesterday was to be my laundry and knitting day. it was... for awhile... then I started feeling awful. i have an awful cough, chills, headache, and general whole body stiffness! the finisher in me had to finish a silly dishcloth for my gift drawer stash. i used the new Sugar 'n Cream self striping yarn and like the end product. i'm going back to the couch for a nap.

spring fling

two days of sunshine put me in high gear to get the dust off our home. I promised myself I would do our bedroom and STOP. I wiped each baseboard, caught all the dust bunnies (they come with hardwood floors), polished the floors, dusted all surfaces, washed the windows, and paired down.


don't you just love a freshly made bed? and special treasures?


did I mention I was going to stop after our bedroom? that didn't happen. the outside windows had to be next. they're now so clean I can take a picture from the outside looking in.

didn't have time to knit today. looking forward to it for tomorrow in addition to laundry!

the blog begins

well, i've done it! this is the start of my own blog!
there's no guarantee that this will be interesting or a place you'll visit often, but this will be a place for me to express my thoughts and feelings, share my life experiences, honor my creative side and relax and have some fun! so i hope you'll visit often, become an online friend, and enjoy.