Helping Moms work Smarter, not Harder
When my brother was little, he had a pet frog that he found outside and named Farkle Sparkle.
He let Farkle Sparkle go free, but that cute little frog came back to say “Hi” every year.
Yes, every year, Farkle Sparkle came hopping up onto the patio, much to little Brett’s delight.
Well, Farkle Sparkle has found a new home at our house.
That’s right, Adam met Farkle Sparkle for the first time the other day.
And not only did Farkle Sparkle move 15 miles over to my house, but he brought the neighbor’s cat and became a toad, too!
Crazy stuff, huh?
I’m taking a little vacation later in the week.
Four days, in Minneapolis, with 2000 other Creative Memories Consultants! I’m pumped!
Nancy O’Dell will be there. (She’s working with Creative Memories on a new line – she is a HUGE believer in preserving memories!)
And Nick Kelsh. You all know how I love Nick Kelsh.
And I will be there! Woot!
I’ve got some posts scheduled during that time, so you may not even notice that I’m gone.
But, I really want to share the fun, so I’m having a SHOWCASE SPECIAL! Order $25 or more off my personal website before Saturday, July 31, and get a FREE GIFT!
Not sure what to get? How about some TRADITIONAL SCRAPBOOKING supplies?
Paper…
Tools…
Pens…
Embellishments…
Or maybe you’ve been wanting to get started in DIGITAL SCRAPBOOKING…Creative Memories has a very reasonably priced, easy to use software program that can help you out.
Not a scrapbooker? How about one of these?
Or this?
Or, pass the word along, or surprise someone with a gift!
Go!
Right now!
Order $25!
I’ll send you a gift when I get home from Showcase!
I’ll match your gift to your order. Order digital? I’ll send you some digital artwork. Order traditional, and I’ll send something that you can use with your scrapbooking. Either way, you and I will both be really happy!
Shoot me an email or comment here with any questions!
You’ve seen my current kitchen here.
It’s not a big kitchen, but it’s a heck of a lot bigger than my first kitchen!
This was the kitchen the first time I saw it:
See that little stove? It was broken. The first time we cooked in it, the oven went to 600 degrees in 10 minutes. Yikes! The previous owner moved across the street, and when we asked her about it, she said she never used it because they ate most of their meals at her mom’s (who also lived across the street.) This was a grown woman, with two children, who never used her oven. Seriously?
My aunt and uncle had a perfectly good stove that wouldn’t fit because we only had room for an apartment sized one. So it went in the basement. And for over a year, we used the cooktop upstairs, and I carried my pans up and down the basement stairs to bake. It was handy for frozen pizzas in the man-room, though! We did finally replace it though.
Anyway, the total floor space was about 6 x 4. You literally could not have more than one person in there. The best thing was it had 2 pull out cutting boards. We used them as counter/prep space. I don’t know what we would have done without them.
Pretty crazy, huh?
But in the two years we lived there, we added some of our own touches, to make it a little more comfortable, at least.
But notice that I never did paint over the spots where the mini-blinds were attached.
The terrible stove corner…you couldn’t stand in front of the oven to open it – not enough room. The weird corner is a brick chimney. I would have loved to expose the brick, but it seemed like a lot of work. :)
The inspiration for the room: vintage pyrex dishes. I still have a huge collection, in boxes, in my garage, that I can’t bear to part with.
Remember this cute little table? It sat directly across from the fridge. The door to the basement was on the wall to the left, next to the stove.
This was above the stove – a really cute little area. I had some trivets hung in between the shelves and stove top.
A messy look at the shelves Bart built to match the previous built ins. Right before we moved, I put simple white, cotton curtains over 2 out of the 3 in order to hide the mess and make more storage. You can see some of my pyrex collection. It was so fun and whimsical. :)
I look back at these pictures and remember how simple life was without the farm and Adam and I’m a little sad. But then I remember the drunk college students who stole my pumpkins, and partiers who walked up and down our road to the bars loudly every Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights, and the crazy neighbors who yelled at us when we left, and I’m glad we moved. :)
Maybe this should be a Wordless Wednesday Post. I’ve never linked up there.
Oh, well. It’s just too darn cute to wait. :)
This is Adam’s best friend, Tay-tay (Tanner.) Adam lays in bed at night and talks about him. I ask who he played with at daycare, and it’s always him. There is a 6 week age difference (Tanner’s younger) and they have been together for over 3/4 of their short lives. They fight, of course, like 2 year olds do, but in the end, they make up and hold hands again. :)
We took them to the county fair last night. We saw the animals, tractors and spent a kazillion dollars on the rides (I think they rode the cars 5 or 6 times.) They shared juice, cookies, and goldfish, and the first of many fair experiences with each other.
Two farm boys, destined to visit the fair together MANY times as they grow up.
My dad has a thing for old tractors.
And he also spends quite a bit of time on a message board for old tractors.
And he used to be a tractor mechanic.
And when the implement dealer announced they were closing, and Dad was losing his job, the first thing he did was take the big, black parts manual home.
So, when some Dutch guy started asking questions on a chatboard about restoring an old John Deere, guess who had all the answers? That’s right.
Two years later, Dad was still pecking away with his pointer fingers on the keyboard, trying desperately to learn how to send his buddy Wiecher (pronounced Veeher) pictures of spring planting in Iowa. And Wiecher was packing his bags.
In June, Wiecher, his wife Marion, and friends Peter (another tractor enthusaist) and Gerrie came from Holland to see us! Well, mostly to see the tractors, but to see us, too!
They flew into New York, rented an RV, and drove to Iowa via Niagara Falls, Chicago and Minneapolis. A long drive. Then, they parked in my parents yard for a week and toured area farms, visited implement dealerships, and went to the big Two-Cylinder Expo in Waterloo, Iowa.
Although we were all nervous to meet each other at first (Wiecher admitted they were nervous, too) I cannot even describe how well everyone got along. They spoke English well enough to understand my dad’s teasing and jokes, and we were all very at ease around each other. I truly hope we get to visit them someday, too. But it’d be pretty cool if they bought a retirement/vacation home here, too, which they did mention! Wouldn’t that be fun?
Isn’t the internet amazing? Of course, we bloggers know the power of internet friendships, but isn’t it cool that two men in their 50s, half a world away from each other, found each other through a common interest and the World Wide Web?
Very cool, indeed!
