Remembering the Good 'Ol Days

Jody's super fun giveaway gave me a chance to remember my favorite vacation (so far). 4 years ago, before we moved to KS, before we even thought about Lil Major, before I started this blog, The Colonel and I took an amazing vacation to Ireland.

We spent a full week sightseeing, celebrating my BFF's wedding, and acting like locals in Ireland. It was the best vacation we've ever had. The Colonel golfed on the links, I sipped mimosas and ate fruit and cheese. We had tea in the afternoons. We slept in a castle. We drove on the "wrong" side of the road. And I'm so ready to go back!

Here's a picture of us at the Rock of Cashel. This was the first day that the sun came out...I think it was on day 3 or 4.



It's not my favorite picture of us on our trip, but it's a picture from my favorite trip. My camera broke right when we got to Ireland (figures!), so I had to rely on photos from others, and somehow I never kept digital copies of all of them. I DO have an amazing scrapbook from our trip that I will treasure always.

Can you give up your coffee for one day??

I've posted about our friends who are working to adopt two little boys from Eastern Europe. These two sweet boys both have Down's Syndrome, and they're in danger of being transferred to a mental institution for the rest of their short lives if my friend doesn't get there first to bring them home.

At this point in their journey, they've submitted all their paperwork, and they're just waiting for the immigration services to tell them to travel and start the process in the boys' country. Of course, there are TONS of expenses associated w/ traveling so far away... and they may have to stay for as long as a month. Not to mention that they have 9 other children who will need cared for while they're gone.

If you can spare some change or give up your coffee for one day or skip that ice cream cone....it would be so awesome if you could donate just a bit to the Nance's. All the info about giving and praying and what comes next can be found here.

I'm so excited and can't wait to meet these little boys!

Mama Bird

A Mama Bird showed up at my house today. I have no idea where she came from, but she sure got a lot done. Yep, it was me. For the first time in a REALLY long time I was productive...all...day...long.

I never had any nesting instincts when I was pregnant with Major. I wanted to be "ready" for his arrival, but I never had any sudden bursts of energy or major organizational urges. But, this time...wow...I feel the need to purge my house of all unnecessary CRAP (and there's a lot!) and clean things that have never been cleaned since we moved into this house.

So, either the nesting bug found me or my decision to get my booty out of bed at 6am and enjoy some ME time on the deck with the paper and my coffee and a gorgeous morning got me motivated for my day. I didn't even realize how much I got done until I started thinking about it. Here's what got accomplished today:

* coffee and paper on the deck
* two loads of laundry folded
* taught my class at the Y
* trip to the grocery store
* started organizing stuff for our garage sale
* went through all my scrapbooking stuff and pulled out a bunch to sell
* sorted through too small clothes in Major's room
* completely cleaned and dusted Major's room
* cooked dinner for my family
* vacuumed the main floor
* cleaned all the screens, windows and blinds in my family room (and if you've seen my house, you know it's ALL windows)
* worked an hour doing my internet job

Whew...that's a lot for this girl! So now I'm sitting on the couch enjoying some So You Think You Can Dance. Yeah baby.