Home Edition: Virkler Style

Okay, so it's not an "extreme" makeover, but ours was much cheaper, and we loved our house. It just needed a little help!

Once we replaced our monstrous TV with a more "normal" sized one, we needed to use our coffee table to hold it up. And then with storage bins surrounding everything to keep them unaccessible to the girls, this is what we ended up with.

And here's the rest of the immense living room:




So yesterday we went to Target and found a beautiful armoire, intended for use as an entertainment system. That meant we needed to rearrange the whole room (like I really needed an excuse!) and here is the final result (until I rearrange it again, anyways):





And here are the girls today, wearing their new clothes from my grandparents:

How could I forget?? I also made the dining room look its best yesterday afternoon, using the new tablecloth and placemats (A Christmas present from Charity)!


Happy New Year!!

I'm Not Here To Sell You Anything.

This afternoon, someone rang our doorbell, told Josh he wasn't selling anything (he "just wanted to clean a carpet in a heavy-traffic area so we could see how powerful it was") and spent at least two hours in our home.

I told Josh it was okay with the understanding that we did not need one and would not buy one. We did manage to get them from their starting price $1729, I think) down to $250 (for a "training model" without the shampooer) and still turned them down, but it was quite the experience. (oh, and we didn't try to negotiate, just repeatedly told him, "no," so we weren't purposely leading him on)

Did I mention he lied? Yeah. He sure did.

Anyways, a couple funny things came from that. Jasmine warmed up to him after a bit, and pulled out her little vacuum (not her new dustbuster that actually works, but her "Dyson" toy vacuum) and worked right next to him. Very cute.

And our dining room carpet does look really good (though it took far, far longer than the "one hour" to dry that he promised).

To me, the funniest moment was afterwards. The guy's boss came in to "discuss paperwork." He said, "as you know, cleanliness is next to godliness" in a tongue-in-cheek sort of way. After he left, Josh told me he wanted to ask, "yeah, so, that makes you a reverend then, huh?"

So are we the only ones to even let them in? We looked online after they left, and our experience is pretty normal. But have any of you, my family and friends, had them come in and do your carpet? As I watched him put an attachment on, I had the feeling I had done that at one point; I think maybe we had an old used one for awhile. Or else Emily (My roommate for 6 months before I met Josh) had one. I remembered using one though.

I'm Promise.

Jasmine had us completely bewildered. She kept saying "I'm promise." Yesterday it was followed by her teddy bear kissing our elbows. We had no idea what it came from.

For awhile I thought it was from "I'll be home for Christmas" when they sing "I promise you," but she never said "you." It was always "I'm promise."

Then last night, she was saying "I'm promise. I'm sheeeeee! I'm promise. I'm sheeee!" And then adding "I'm trying. I'm learning."

I thought through all the Veggie Tales songs she knows. Nothing about promises that I could think of.

Suddenly it hit me.

I am a promise
I am a possibility
I am a promise
With a capital "P"
And I am learning to hear God's voice
And I am trying to make the right choice
I am a promise to be anything God wants me to be.

What an awesome thing for her to be singing!! And how fun, since I made this layout about a year ago:

Tons of pictures

Christmas Eve and Day were wonderful. Crazy, but wonderful. We're trying to settle back into routine, which is hard after three days of visiting families, no (or shortened) naps, and tons of presents and sweets. Jasmine, Bekah and I all have much shorter fuses than normal, which is hard when Josh is back at work (he is definitely the calming force in our crew!)

Okay, time for some pictures.

First off: the night of the 23rd we had some serious winds. So this was the lovely scene we got up to in the morning (two of them fell down in previous wind storms, it wasn't all from that night)

And here's Bekah a couple days ago, having fun with Josh's hat:


Here is our gingerbread maker:







Christmas Day
Morning was the four of us, opening our stockings and then our gifts from each other.






And then to Josh's parents' for the afteroon,






And then back home. Someday we'll do new jammies on Christmas Eve, but since we got home and the girls were completely asleep, we waited until Christmas Night to open them.

"Keep Christmas With You"

You know how many songs there are that say something like that? A lot. I love them. But really, who wants to hear "Jingle Bells" in July? Do you have any idea the funny faces you'll get if you whistle "Sleigh Bells Ring" when it's 90 outside?

The best way I know to keep Christmas with you, is to not try to lose the holiday pounds (I read that people put on an average of 7 pounds between Thanksgiving and Christmas). You can look at that 7 pounds and be reminded of Christmas all year!

Yes, that was my attempt at being funny.


Jasmine and I made gingerbread men today. It was fun! and quite the adventure.
Then I decided we needed Russian Teacakes, so I went back in and made those. Yummmm!! I had forgotten that I don't usually make RT's because they never turn out for me. I don't ever mix it long enough, so at least half a dozen turn into a flat burned butter circle, and I can't get the last would-be 6 cookies to form a ball. Someday maybe...

Picture time!
Day 11: a lit candle

Day 12: a "mega closeup" of an object

Day 13: a word or letter (this is the way Jasmine thinks it goes!)
Day 14: (didn't do it yet) something green
Day 15: something girly

Day 16: a picture from inside, looking out

Day 17: (didn't do it) something sentimental
Day 18: a 2 and a 5

Day 19: something you're grateful for

Chinese Food

I am just so far behind on the pictures-of-the-day! Sorry about that! Maybe I'll do a photo-heavy post tomorrow. We'll see!

Tonight was our date. I found that one of the two closest Chinese restaurants is MSG-free, so we called to order from there and take it home. (we play a game and eat supper at home...more relaxing and no tip!)
When I called to order, I told him I wanted a number 2 combo meal. He said "Shrimp Chow Mein?" I said yes, and he said, "do you know what that is?" I was a little surprised by the question, but said that yes, I did.
I ordered Josh's dish too, and we dropped off the girls and went to get our food.

Josh went in, and I sat in the car and read. (I'm most of the way through Ann Coulter's Godless, read almost entirely at gas stations and other places when he runs in somewhere while I stay in the car. Funny book!) He was in there a looooooong time.

He finally came back out and informed me that they'd goofed up and given the food to the wrong customer. He asked what it was we had ordered, and again asked if I really wanted the Chow Mein. Josh ran out to the car to make sure. The guy told Josh, "it's not the one with the noodles. That's Lo Mein. Most people want the noodles. This one is cabbage in a cream sauce. Are you sure that's what you want?" At this point I started questioning it myself. What could sound more unappealing than cabbage in a cream sauce? Yuck!
But I stuck to my guns and thought I'd try it, even if it did turn out to be different from what I'm used to. He got our food and we headed home.

Nope. No cabbage. No "cream" sauce. It was exactly the way Chow Mein is supposed to look and taste. I suppose it's creamier than a Lo Mein, and it has vegetables instead of noodles, but I thought Chow Mein was actually a pretty popular dish, and I got exactly what I had expected!!

So we spent some time trying to figure him out.

We think he doesn't like Chow Mein, and one time he, or a good buddy of his, accidentally ordered Chow Mein and was so grossed out, they can't understand anyone choosing this one on purpose!

any other suggestions of what could drive him to questioning people's choices?

A Jasmine Translation, and learning before I make a mistake

If Jasmine tells you "Snow White is on toolbox," it means "snow is on my sandbox!"

:)

And I really wish you could be here to hear her sing along with "Feliz Navidad." It is too precious!

I made this layout last week for a couple challenges. (click to see credits)
I love to come up with ways to put multiple challenges together, and this was one of those. I was supposed to make a layout about what I "really wanted" for Christmas, using a picture of it, and in another challenge, I was supposed to have at least two words in the title, both (/all) starting with the same letter, using alphas from TheDigiChick, and containing journaling. This is what I came up with!

Now the letter is completely true. Mom and I were out shopping for Josh's Christmas presents, and there were two Schnoodle puppies there, just waiting to be bought. (I refuse to call it an adoption, even when I am in love with them) Josh and I had talked about Schnoodles being the perfect dog for us, intelligent, non-barky, medium-sized, non-shedding and cute. So here was my opportunity!

Of course, long ago I said I wanted to wait until the girls were both potty-trained before I tackled housebreaking a dog. And Josh has recently decided that dogs are more work than they're worth, and we decided to put off getting one indefinitely.

But then I saw him. He was the perfect temperament, really, really cute, and available. So I weakened. Thankfully, Josh was at work and didn't see him, so he was able to stay strong.

Fast-forward a couple days.

Jasmine's still potty-training. And it's not going very well. She just isn't interested. We have the occasional success, but they are few and far between.
And Bekah is at that "I have to see mommy in the same room at all times" stage that seems to come along with walking. Which means I hear a lot of screaming when I go upstairs to collect the dirty clothes., change the laundry, or *gasp* take a shower.

And I thought a dog would be a good idea?!?! Are you kidding?? Sure, he's cute. but add his training in, as well as the cost, and giving him any attention at all...not gonna happen.

So it's good that Josh was so strong!

"Did you find everything tonight?"

That question never meant so much, and I pray fervently it never does again.

It's late and I'm hoping to be off to sleep soon, but I had to write first, while Bekah nurses to sleep.

We went to Kohl's to find a nice shirt for me. I wanted something to wear when we go see Nutcracker (Josh's big present to me), and since we're not taking the girls, it doesn't have to be a nursing top. So we went and found two cute shirts. But while Josh was getting me a different color, he thought Jasmine was staying with me in the dressing room and I saw her follow after him.

I think you can guess what happened.

I got dressed, talked to a clerk, and heard "code yellow" over the loud speaker. A couple of them, including security, came over to get a description of what she was wearing. I tried hard not to freak out.

Wandered around, looking, calling for her.

It was probably "only" 5-10 minutes before a woman came to me, with two of her own children and one of mine. But it felt like a lifetime.

She didn't have her coat; she had dropped that off when she found the family. But I did find that, too. (thankfully we were in a clothing store, so worst-case scenario we could have gotten her a new one)

I'm still trying to calm down from the whole thing. She has some strong guardian angels keeping her safe, and God guided her to just the right person. One of my online friends told me that they teach their children to "find a woman with a stroller" if they're ever separated. Jasmine isn't old enough to have that kind of thing soak in yet, but she knows "instinctively" who she can and can't trust. (she will occasionally surprise us by opening right up to people we don't know, but they have kids her age. She can see that they're used to talking to kids her age) She found kids her size, with their mom, and the mom found me.

I'm praying that I don't dream about this tonight. I'd like some nice, easy, calm dreams tonight. She seemed a bit more snuggly than usual, so either she realized at the time, or she picked up on our reaction afterwards, that something was very wrong. I am so grateful that she was fine and that it didn't take any longer to find her.

Those backpack leashes are starting to look much better...she's a good girl and usually doesn't wander far (and we'll be more careful to be sure of that) but it might be good for my peace of mind :)

Time to catch up...

Another photo day :)

Photo of the Day #6: something sweet (two that day. Like my models?? And this is crockpot fudge, take two. First time didn't work at all; this time tastes delicious but didn't set, so we eat it with a spoon, out of a bowl.)

PAD #7: clutter (this one needs an explanation. We have mice in our kitchen, so I had pulled out all the dishes so I could wash them. I'm not exactly sure why I didn't decide to wait until they were all gone (the mice), I just didn't like the thought of mice running around on my dishes).
PAD #8: Stockings


PAD #9: Christmas Tree (taken lying down, looking up at it)

PAD #10: a smile