2 Years Ago

2 Years Ago I was modeling for KISW 99.9 The Rock Radio Station and filming the Comcast Calendar. I was Miss September. http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid30881435001?bclid=1556123991&bctid=28755369001
Oh how things have changed. I miss that tight tummy, but I love what my tummy produced. My whole world is so different and I wouldn't have it any other way. What were you doing 2 years ago?

Organize Challenge Day 2

I have been dreading this challenge. Mostly embarrassed of posting the before photo. The computer desk is Brad's space. So I am trying to let things go and let him be messy in one spot. I can't take it any longer! Something has to be done. First of all....the desk is a mess, super unorganized, and so plain. There is nothing on the wall, no shelves, no nothing. My sister in law is borrowing my couches while she is going to live in Oak Harbor for a few months, so it will be perfect timing to get our den decorated the way I want to. I hope to get the hardwood floors sanded, a huge project I know, but I am hoping it will be worth it. I would like to paint an accent wall, hang up photos, shelves, a guitar holder so Brad's guitar can be displayed. I would also like to paint the desk dark brown and maybe put a monogram on it to make it look fancy. For now I'll just organize it and get to the other stuff a little later, when I have more time.

Okay.....Here is the before photo of the desk. This is where the printer is. The printer does not work so I'm not sure why we even have it still. I need to get a new one. The storage boxes underneath hold cords for all of our electronics and makes them easier to find. This system is working great, but I think I would like to label the cords so that I know exactly what they go to.

Tonight I'll work on getting the after done and post photos when I complete the task....wish me luck.

Update as of March 8, 2011. I still haven't completed this project. I need shelving, storage and some paint to make this desk pop! Stay tuned. I'll get this project done soon!

Organize Your Life in 21 days

My friend Kristen just posted the most amazing challenge on her blog today and I have to join in. Organize your Life in 21 days. Anything organizing I'm in!!!!!

Here is the blog that she is following. They have weekly challenges and projects. Sounds like so much fun. Yay....there are more people who love to organize like me. Maybe I am normal :)
http://abowlfulloflemons.blogspot.com/

Tara's Biggest Fan

My friend Tara is talented in so many ways and I must say I am a huge fan of hers. She is the lead in the play "The Philadelphia Story" here in town. I can't wait to go see her in the play next week for closing night. She also recently was in the play Chicago. It was amazing and I was singing all that jazz for weeks afterwards. You could hear her beautiful singing voice over others and her stage presence was amazing! Last night I went to my old high school to watch her sing the National Anthem for the Oak Harbor High School Basketball game. She always amazes me. Her voice was incredible....I even had goosebumps from her singing. Hopefully she'll submit to the Seattle Seahawks and sing at one of their games. I'm guessing that once they hear her voice and see how pretty she is, she'll get picked right away. It was very weird going to my high school again. Everything is the same, but oh so different. I can't believe I graduated 10 years ago. I'm so happy to have Tara as one of my dear friends and blessed to have her in my life. I'm one of her biggest fans.....although I think Gen is a bigger fan than I am :)

Grace Community

For the past couple of months we have been going to our new church New Covenant. We recently just celebrated the new name of our church, Grace Community! Brad and I wanted to find a church that was a little smaller than the previous church that we were going to. It was important to me to make friends, be able to volunteer, and have a sense of community. Our previous church was a wonderful church, but when we went to church you would see new people every time we went so it was hard to make any friends. Our friend Andy, who is the new pastor of our church, asked us to follow him to his new church and it seemed like the perfect fit for us. I enjoy going every Sunday that we can and volunteering to help where I am needed. They have an infant and toddler room that is perfect for Lily. It makes it so easy to bring her with us and interact with other kids her age. I can't wait til she gets older and is able to go into the kids classrooms where they do activities and play. Brad is leading the Men's Group on Thursday nights there and starting this month I'll be teaching little girls in the classrooms. So excited and happy that I get to spend time with little ones. When we first started going to church there I was helping design their weekly bulletin, I love creating publications so it was such a fun project to work on. I am also going to help organize some of their storage rooms. The church is huge, but there are a ton of rooms with stuff in them that need a little help organizing....you know my love for organizing, so I'll fit in just fine :)

This church has been such a blessing to Brad and I. I love the direction that this church is going in and I am so happy to be a part of such a wonderful place. If any of my friends would like to join us sometime, we'd love to take you with us. Its such a happy and fun place to be!

Baby Wyatt

Saturday January 29th, I hosted a baby shower for my darling friend Courtney. I knew she would never let me throw her a shower honoring the arrival of her 3rd child, baby boy Wyatt due in March. Courtney and I have become good friends since we meet at our church so I had to come up with something special for her. She had never had a baby shower so I thought it was so important to make this an amazing day for her. I called her the day before and invited her to lunch....I'm so sneaky. With the help of her husband Luke, we pulled it off! He arranged for us to have the shower at the Golf and Country Club. Luke took care of the food so all I had to do was the invites, decorations, and the yummy cupcakes. A special thanks to Liz and Audra for coming early and helping me decorate the place and make it fancy. I made a cupcake tower :)

Courtney got so many beautiful gifts including hats and sweaters for all three of her kids from her mother in law. We didn't want her to see the package come so she sent it to my house and I brought it to the shower with me......so sneaky. Luke arranged for everyone to have chair massages as we waited for lunch to arrive. It was so sweet of him to make everyone so relaxed, we had such a great time.

{Sweet Baby McGill}

Saturday January 15th, my sister-in-law Anna, Jenn's best friend Arielle, and I hosted a baby shower for my sister-in-law Jenn who is having a baby in March. Since we don't know the sex of the baby, I thought it would be so much fun to have a lime green and black shower. As you can see, the mother to be was glowing. I wanted to make every detail perfect. We hosted the shower at our church New Covenant, which is now renamed to Grace Community. The church was the perfect place to host the shower. We were allowed to use tables, chairs, china, and their kitchen for free! It was so nice to have everything that we needed all in one place. We had tea and punch for the ladies and decorated each table with lime green napkins, favor bags for the guests, and then we had the guests put their gifts on the center of each table. Everyones gifts were so beautifully wrapped so we thought they we make pretty centerpieces. My sister-in-law Anna and I had such a great time making the cupcakes and putting the favor bags together late into the night. Its so fun to be able to hang out with her and chat in our jammies, giggle, and watch trash tv. Here is a photo of the baby shower cake. I tried to order one, but the snow up north stopped that from happening last minute. I was so bummed, but I made a cake and cupcakes so everything turned out great. I really need to take cake decorating classes. I make so many different cakes and cupcakes, it would be nice to learn a few tricks and different design ideas. I'd also like to save some money and make Lily's birthday cakes every year. Our friend Lexi had a challenge in front of her....I asked her to get lime green flowers for us.....she pulled it off, they were so pretty. I also asked for her to make corsages for the mother of the mom to be and the mom to be. The pins were made from a design off of the Jones Design Company [www.jonesdesigncompany.com} tutorial page. They were so adorable and so easy to make! I want to make some hair bows for Lily with them soon. Anna was awesome at putting the food together. Everything was so good and it looked so pretty. She really put in a lot of work making every detail nice. I'm not a fan of baby shower games so Arielle came up with an amazing idea. All of the guests at the baby shower decorated onesies with fabric markers. There were so many cute designs.

I even dressed Lily to match the shower, lime green with these adorable little overalls. Our baby is such a happy girl and so excited to meet her little cousin!

Life....

As you can tell. I did not get to the organization challenge. Life happened. Teething baby, go do this and that, grocery shopping. I did manage to get my house clean and laundry done so I consider it a small success. So once again. I'm starting the organize your life in 21 days challenge. Get it together Nikki. Once the challenge is over it will be cake and I have have a much smoother running household. I can be super mom.....I think.

{Ma Ma Ma Ma Ma}

Last night Lily was yelling ma ma ma ma ma! I thought she was just making noises and then she reached for me, smiled and said ma ma ma ma ma! I was so happy that her 2nd word was ma ma :) We won't discuss what her first word was......da da. :)

{The List Maker}

Most of you who know me know that I love to make lists. I enjoy crossing items off as I complete them. I make a list for everything. I recently just updated my weekly and weekend cleaning checklist and I thought I'd share it with you. It really helps me remember what needs to be done every week and also keeps me on track. I typically print it out and set it on the counter as a reminder to get moving. Its better to print the list on a thicker card stock paper so it lasts the entire week. I also use a highlighter to cross tasks off the list as I complete them. Obviously this list is for my home, but you get the idea.

{weekly & weekend cleaning checklist}
https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=explorer&chrome=true&srcid=0B4rPjs058ltyYTY1NWQ2YjEtOTgzYy00YjNjLWFmOGUtZDNhMmJiYTM3NmE1&hl=en&authkey=COGfmt4E

{master grocery list}

I also have a list for groceries that I need to buy. I got tired of making a list every time I went to the store. So I found a master grocery list on http://www.freeprintable.net/ that I print off, post on my fridge, and then cross items off as I need. (go to their website and then type in master grocery list in the search box) I found that not only do I get everything in one trip that I need, I also can find coupons in advance, and save a lot more money. You can go to their site and post off a ton of different lists. This one I saved to my computer and edited it to match what kind of foods we buy. Check it out. Its super helpful and a timesaver.

I was worried about posting my lists because you all would know what a cleaning Nazi I am....but oh well. That's just me :)