Fruit Fly, Gnat. Whatever

For the past week or so we have had a problem with fruit flies. Gnat's. Those freaking little annoying bugs that fly around and for some strange reason that I can never kill. We had this problem last year and I thought I had remedied the problem only to find they have returned. Are they seasonal? I clean my kitchen at least 5 times a day and I spray everything down with clorox spray. I spray lysol on everything, I clean the disposal with bleach and hot water and also with those disposal cleaning packets (I love doing that by the way) that really gets down there and gets all that yucky stuff out. I even cleaned the trash can lid yesterday just to make sure they were not attracted to that. I do keep fresh fruit out on the counter but have done that all year and don't understand why they only now seem to be around. Hopefully it's seasonal but I sure am getting tired of them. I am even embarassed to have small group tomorrow for fear that these little freaky flies might land in someone's hamburger. Ooops. Sorry about that! Anyone else having this problem. They sure are bugging me!

All Good Things Must End

I really dislike when things I enjoy come to an end. Today was the last meeting for my weekly Bible Study I have been doing for the past 10 weeks. I so thoroughly enjoyed these lessons and learned a lot from it. Now I may not have perfected implementing it all into my daily life just yet but it surely is something I will keep working on. I KNOW I've grown in my faith and I am way more trusting in GOD than before we started. I think I have a better understanding of who GOD is and who I am. The lessons were so beautiful and eye opening and the lady that wrote the curriculum is brilliant! I also got to know a few ladies that go to my church but I've never really spoken to and gained so much from each of them. It was a great group of ladies. And now it's ending and I am a bit sad. And not just this but my Pilate's class that I have also been doing the past 10 weeks is ending on Friday. I have enjoyed the Pilate's as well and not only was it a chance for me to gain some strength in my body but also was a chance for me to sort of rekindle an old friendship. My best friend from junior high and high school( we were inseparable) and I took this class together. We had lost touch through out the years and reconnected through facebook! I enjoyed getting to see her every week and chat through our pain.......I mean Pilate's. Surely we will keep in touch but again it just sort of makes me sad when something has to come to an end. It's kind of like a chapter is ending and I don't quite know the title to the next one.

I am thankful for both of these opportunities and feel like I have grown in faith and body and I can tell I am stronger. I can't wait to see what the next few months will have in store. It is going to be Summer soon so I know it will be interesting. Thank you GOD for these 2 wonderful experiences I got to enjoy and I'm trusting you that great things are still to come. Happy Wednesday!

But I NEED it

Okay well I don't NEED it, but I sure, really do want it. Thanks to Amanda G and Karina B, all I can think about these days is getting me a new wallet. It just so happened that I was considering replacing my old one because it does not match my purse all that well. Now, not just any wallet will do. It has to be A Hobo International Lauren clutch wallet. I feel like that little boy from A Christmas Carol that wants that red rider bebe gun and it's all he can think about. But at least I won't shoot my eye out. These little thingys are amazing! And if you've seen the contents of my wallet and if you want to be right you will agree that I NEED one.

Out with the old

This is our current countertop in our kitchen. I'm not going to say white ceramic tile as a countertop and back splash is hideous because we all have our "taste" but it just doesn't work for me. The grout is dirty and dirt and stains show up no matter how many times a day I spray them with clorox cleaner. I did not like it when we bought the house and it was one of the things we said we were going to change. And I am happy to say.....It's time for that change!

This is also the sink that was in the house when we bought it and it's old and also stained and despite the fact that I too spray this many times a day with the clorox bleach cleaner, it just does not stay white and sparkling clean. So that's a changing too!

But I have to say that my least favorite part of the kitchen is the backsplash. I just laughed when I saw it when we looked at this house because the house we had before this one had the same exact tile backsplash ( except blue ) and we had to change that one out too. Bye Bye green tiles.

I can't wait to have our new and improved kitchen. We picked out our counter top and it's a beautiful black granite. Upon first glance you would just say it's black but it has some beautiful color variations that will go nicely with our stainless steel appliances. The official color of it is black pearl. The new backsplash will be slate tiles that also have lots of color variations that will pick up some of the color in the countertop. Here is the granite.

I ordered our sink online yesterday which is also a black granite sink. I unfortunately was not able to get either one of the ones I posted on but the one I did get was more similar to the top picture than the bottom. It also is bigger than the other 2 and we got it at a GREAT price with free shipping! Can't beat that. I am so excited to get started and see it all together. I hope it looks as nice in reality as it does in my head! I am sure there will be more posts to come about the remodel. Especially since my jack of all trades husband decided to do the demolition part himself to save us a little money. So yeah, he'll be tearing out old contertops and backsplash, and removing the old sink. I'm only slightly nervous.

HELP

I'm totally copying Sara H. in asking for help with something I can't seem to decide. I go back and forth on which sink to go with for our new kitchen remodel. They are only slightly different but the top one is about 60 dollars cheaper and slightly smaller. Gary likes the bigger, I like thesmaller because it's cheaper. I can't decide!

Time for a New Look

I was playing around with new blog layouts today and spent way more time on it than I should have. Something about Bella's nap time makes me want to veg out in front of the computer and check facebook, emails, read the news of the day....all with out interruptions. Very relaxing. This is what I came up with ......well I didn't come up with it....I just found it and copied it. I love changing things around. I love making things pretty and the best part of changing your blog up is that it's free! Now only if it were that easy to change myself up or my house like that. Wouldn't it be so much fun if one day you just get tired of the look of something like your bedroom or kitchen or your wardrobe and Voila! A Whole new look for free. Yes, I think I could live that for sure.

Nobody did it

It's always very interesting to me when strange things happen around here and nobody is to blame. Does nobody live in every one's house? I made some cupcakes today for small group and have them sitting on the stove all nice and neat. I happen to notice that 2 cupcakes have little bitty finger prints on them and I know I did not put them there. I casually say to Bella, " Bella, do you know who put these fingers in the cupcakes?" She immediately said, "Hannah". So I ask Hannah the same thing and she says she has no idea, maybe Papa! Yeah right, he was not even home when I noticed it. Some one is LYING! Both of them are sticking to their story that they did not do it. I have my suspicions and mom's suspicions are pretty much always right. But I don't want to out right call one a liar when I really don't know. What do you do when you know one of your children is lying. It makes me sad. I like honesty at all costs.

Surprises

I am not big on Surprises. I always seem to find out before I can actually be surprised. It's strange. I guess it's hard to hide things when you're married, especially when you are in charge of balancing the check book. You're going to see the evidence. Duh! Anyhow our 5 year anniversary is tomorrow and we do plan on going out to dinner just to quietly celebrate. We already had our big "celebration" when we went away last month to the Mississippi Coast and so I was not really expecting gifts. To me that vacation was our gift but my kind hearted husband had a few surprises, or not so surprises, surprises and I accidentally found them both before he could give them to me. The first was that he had taken my wedding band ( I have not been able to wear it for months) to the jewelry shop to be repaired. The ring actually snapped apart and one of the diamonds fell off and I have been too cheap to take it in to get repaired so he did it for me. I thought that was sweet even though I would not have wanted to spend the money on it for me. Then I got surprise # 2 in the mail yesterday afternoon( he said he thought he'd be able to intercept it) The new or updated CHLOE! It's one of the 2 perfumes I have been wanting and he got it for me. I love it! I love love love perfume. I feel so loved when people buy me things. Thanks babe!

Easter Sunday

We had a great Easter Sunday. We got to sleep in because we had the Sunday off from greeting which is a big treat for us. We went to late service and I must say Anthony's Sermon was really good. I was a little skeptical about him doing an easter sermon based on a movie we had not even seen so we stayed up late the night before and actually watched Slum Dog which turned out to be a really great movie. Loved it. I'm glad we watched it. After church we spent time at my sister Michelle's house eating, hanging out, and watching the kids hunt for eggs. We did not have the confetti eggs this year. We completely dropped the ball on that. After indulging in some delicious key lime pie we headed out to conclude our evening at another church service just down the road from our house, called Austin New Church. This church to me really epitomizes what a church should be. They are so active in serving others and the community and it's very inspiring to me. My Best Friend of my younger years ( middle and high school) invited us to see her and her husband give their "story" of how they were disconnected from church for so long until they discovered this new church and how they have been healed or are in the process of healing from their past hurts ( from their church) and how their faith and love for Christ has been resurrected/restored. How appropriate for an Easter Service. It was very moing. Anyway it was a great ending to the day and I got to hear Amazing Grace ( well Chris Tomlin's version anyway) and I just love that song. What Amazing Grace we receive! And all because he loves us that much.

The girls Easter Baskets

So much fun to look for the eggs

my easter girls

Praise God

So things went well at my dr.s appointment. He did the nerve/muscle testing on my right arm and said from what he could tell things looked normal and healthy. He did not see any reason to test any of the other limbs. The test it's self was pretty uncomfortable so I was fine with that. They basically sent electricity through my body and shocked the nerves to see if they reacted normally. OUCH! It was freaky. I thought my normal twitching was bad....this was like...WHOA! Then he had to insert needles into about 6 different muscles along the hand arm and neck and test the muscle for any abnormalities. That was not fun either. It was kind of like acupuncture but much worse. He said he had no reason to suspect muscle or nerve disease but did say that limbs can be affected differently. For instance one limb of the body could test normal while another might not. But since none of my limbs showed clinical muscle weakness or wasting he had no reason to believe further testing was needed. He said he is pretty confident of the initial diagnosis of Benign fasciculation syndrome being accurate. He did say that if his prognosis was not good enough for me that he could refer me to a neurologist for extensive testing on all limbs and also the tongue! Eww.... I think I'll pass for now. I told him if he was sure that I did not "need" further testing that I was fine with that. Further down the line if things get worse or I start having more symptoms not related to BFS I can choose to do testing then. SO....for now I am just going to sit confident in his diagnosis and leave this in GOD's hands.....not that it was not in his hands all along, but I am just going to move on. Will I have my freak outs when my muscles are jumping all over the place...maybe but I think I will be okay. He did suggest a seizure medication that has been known to help with muscle twitching but I am not one to jump to quickly to drugs. I have researched a few natural/homeopathic remedies that I think I want to try first. So we shall see. Thanks for all the prayers and for those of you that encouraged me to stay positive and trust in GOD. I am sure it's through the faith of all of you that I am okay. Praise GOD!