Cafe de Valentine

so, i enjoy blogging and i promise to get better at it. we've now had this blog for over a year and i still have no clue what i'm doing. up until yesterday i had no clue how to add blog buttons on my side bar. hooray for me, i figured it out all by myself! now, how do i make my own button? that is the question of the day. also, i'm determined to figure out how to post a link within a blog as just one word. like blah blah blah i like the boots found "here" and the word "here" is the link to the boots i like. etc. get it? i just discovered how to put a picture up on my header. that's cool. i like it. i've vowed to get way more involved in photography. i'm now going to be the crazy lady walking around with her camera 24/7. hubs already makes fun of me when i take pictures of old trucks, or random flowers, or the same thing over and over again. i also now need to be diligent with figuring out photoshop elements 7. i need a class or something...

so ryan and i aren't quite ready to have kids yet. my type "a" personality has a lot more planning to do before that can happen. *who will watch the kid(s) while i work? *how will i afford to take time off for maternity leave? *how will we afford to decorate the nursery? (this is important people) *what if i have to go on bed rest during pregnancy? i don't have disability insurance *is it worth having kids if someone else watches them 7 hrs *do i trust the public school system to teach my kids? would i want to pay for private school? do i have the patience to home school? could i even home school while working? there are a million more things that i think of, trust me, this head of mine never stops. one thing i always thought i knew was that i was created to be the mother to boys. girls scare me. of all the years i worked at the school i always related better with the boys. i used to babysit girls and i had fun with the dress up and coloring and watching the princ...

life has an interesting way of changing all around you without you noticing it. i often wonder what happened to the season that hanging out with friends, drinking coffee, seeing movies, dreaming up perfect dates, and stressing about the final exam was my whole life. some of those friends fade as you move into jobs/careers, you marry, you have two families to accomodate (see previous post) and you now cling to your few married couple friends to help you learn how to do marriage (see previous post). then you learn that there are HUGE "issues" money, jobs, kids, family, health, houses, etc. i've moved from celebrating birthdays and weddings and baby showers to watching people struggle with infertility, losing children, having miscarraiges, and watching someone my age die of cancer. life takes turns that we sometimes don't see coming. do i live my life in such a way that in enjoy the here and now? or am i always looking for what's to come? when you're young, you c...

so i was reading a post today over at Big Mama's blog (if you haven't read her blog lately, you should. she's hysterical and funny about all the things that we often find "discouraging". bigmamablog .com) she was talking about gals in their early twenties. mostly single gals and the struggles that comes with finding a husband. i was interested because that was me for many years and i have a huge heart for girls in that role. however i also think that your heart beats for different things as your stage of life changes. while i still have a passion for wanting girls to be patient in that in find their own fit in life and be content where they are rather than long for the married phase, i now have a burning desire for married gals. marriage is a huge joy in my life. i found an amazing husband who loves me, serves me, provides for me, helps around the house, does ALL the yard work, takes me on little get aways, handles our finances, got me out of dept, taught me how ...

fall means a lot of things to us around here. we anticipate it with much joy. *not dying of heat stroke *remembering what long sleeves look like *pumpkins! *hay rides at the pumpkin patch *beautiful leaves on the trees *mums! *scarecrows *thanksgiving with equals FOOD! *christmas shopping *pumpkin spice candles *little kids in cute costumes *red starbucks cups! *FOOTBALL! go bulldogs! *caruthers fair *pie *crisp mornings with the windows open and coffee in hand *shorter days (too bad the word day didn't get shorter with the daylight huh?) *family get togethers and this year... *baby CARSYN, our first nephew! (pending arrival on or before nov 10th) *tara's coming to visit! (she's really coming to see carsyn, but i won't let myself believe that)

today is sept 24. the first official day of fall was two days ago. i should be breaking out the long sleeves, close toed shoes, scarves, hot chocolate, blankets, sweatshirts etc. i should be snapping pictures on the side of the road of these leaves. i should be able to head to the park to gaze at the beautiful colors. instead i'm turning down the air, wearing tank tops, staying indoors so not to have heat stroke, and hydrating myself regularly. it's still hot, it's still sunny, and i'm just plain sick of it. i just can't put out my pumpkins and scarecrows and fall wreaths when i'm sweating profusely . i just can't. so until that forecast changes a bit, it's still summer here to me. regardless of what the calendar says. my seasons are dictated my the thermometer these days. we're supposed to have an " el nino " year this year which means LOTS of rain. we'll see if that happens. we sure need it. big things are happening around her...

i have a long list of projects i'd love to do. great ideas come from blog stalking i tell you! i've never been a creative person as far as coming up with projects or ideas. i am however pretty good and duplicating someone else creativity. my most favorite gal "thrifty decor chick" has hundreds upon hundreds of fantastic ideas that i hope to someday recreate. check out her fantastic blog, but this post is my favorite. http://thriftydecorchick.blogspot.com/2009/03/my-most-favorite-room.html i'm not having kids anytime soon, but i want these built in shelves in our spare bedroom that would one day be a nursery. i also want to add the crown modling around the top and the chair rail around the middle and do stripes on the bottom half of the room. the issue comes when i try and decide what color to do the stripes knowing it will one day be a nursery and not wanting to have to do them all again. maybe we could just build the shelves and do the molding and not add the ...