Just barely hanging on. . .

to my twenties, that is.   It is hard to believe that I turned 29 last Friday!  I don't feel old at all, but that number just sounds old.  It makes me feel good, though, that customers at work think I am still a college student.  They always ask what I am studying.  And then I shock them by telling them I have 2 kids and have been married for 6 years!  I wonder how long I'll be able to pull that off.

Anyway, I had a really good birthday this year and basically got to celebrate all weekend!  I didn't have to work on Friday, which was wonderful!  All day long I was trying to decide where we should go to eat.  We didn't get a sitter because we were going somewhere Sunday night without the girls, so I was trying to think of somewhere kid friendly.  I was craving a good salad and some sushi, so I actually decided we would go to Kroger (Dillon's here) to eat at their yummy salad bar since there is also a sushi bar there.  Never thought I would be spending my birthday dinner there, but it is really what I wanted!  It was also nice for the girls since it was easy to pick out things they liked there.

Next, we did some shopping to spend some of my birthday money.  We ended the night by eating Freddy's Frozen Custard.  Their brownie fudge sundae is my new favorite dessert.  I also got an order of fries, and they were AMAZING!  They tasted just like the fries from Houston's/Hillstone (for those of you in the Dallas area), which are the best fries in the world.

The next day, I took advantage of Ryan being home and headed off for some solo shopping time.  I really am not a big shopper, but I decided I don't want to become stuck in that "mom" fashion rut of not caring too much about my appearance.  Obviously, my appearance is not on the very top of my priority list, but I don't think it should be at the very bottom either.  It was SO FUN to go shopping alone and get to take my time.  I find that I have trouble putting together complete outfits.  I can find single pieces I like, but tend to buy a lot of similar things that way.  So, this time, I checked out pinterest before I left.  I was armed with some good ideas and really was successful in finding everything I set out to.  So fun!  As icing on the cake, I came home to a clean house with ALL of our dirty laundry washed and folded.  What a great husband I have!!!  Here are some of my inspirations:

 

 

  

On Sunday, Ryan and I got to see Broadway's traveling production of the Lion King, which was a real treat.  I have seen a few Broadway shows before, and knew that this one would be good.  Did you know that they built a theater in NYC especially to house that show?  Nothing else is shown there.  I thought that was crazy!  Goes to show how successful it has been. 

I got lots of fun presents in the mail from friends and family, and felt especially loved by all the phone calls and messages I received.  Oh, I almost forgot, Ryan's gift to me was to have a cleaning lady come clean our whole house!  She is coming next week, and I am pumped!  He is so creative and thoughtful.

I guess I had better live this next year up since it is my last one of my twenties.  Getting older doesn't really bother me though.  I have a feeling my thirties will be just as good, if not better.

Sophie sings

Here is a cute video of Sophie singing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.  I was trying to get her to sing Old McDonald because her rendition of it is hilarious.  My favorite part of this video, though, is her request at the end: "Mommy, please turn it off."  She is so cute!

Need some extra cash?

I don't normally blog about companies or brands, but lately I have been spending some time on a website called Expo TV.  One of my friends blogged about it, and I decided to check it out (Thanks, Ashleigh!).  Basically, you submit reviews of various products around your home that you already have.  Each review earns you points.  Those points can then be redeemed for a variety of things.  For example, for 3000 points, you can earn a $25 Visa or Amazon gift card.  And really, it takes hardly any time to rack up points.  After doing 3 reviews, I had already earned over 3000 points.  Also, doing a review takes hardly any time at all.  I use the camera on my computer to record a minute long review of something, and then I upload it to the site.  So easy.  After you create an account (which is totally free), they send you emails, inviting you to review various things.  Each review earns an average of 300-800 points.  They also have a section of "Most Wanted Items" where you can earn 800-2500 points per review.  The products in every section change frequently, so if I don't see anything to review, I know there will probably be something there soon if I check back.  I usually don't like programs like this because it takes so long to rack up enough points to get anything, but this is different.  It takes much less time, and the rewards are worth it (to me!).  I figured if I earn 1000 points each day for thirty days (not necessarily every day in a row) over the next few months, I will have earned 30,000 points.  That equals out to be $250 in Visa gift cards which I can use online to buy anything I want.  I plan to use the extra money to buy Christmas gifts.  I just wanted to share this idea with others in case you might also be looking for an easy way to make a little extra cash.  If you want to know more, feel free to ask!  You can find the link for Expo TV's website here.

Celebrating 6 years!

August 19th marks the day of our wedding 6 years ago, and I am so thankful to have spent the past 6 years married to such an amazing man!  Ryan is a great teacher, a loving and fun dad, my closest friend, and so talented in so many ways.  I am so lucky to have been given him to spend my life with!  We didn't really get to do much to celebrate our anniversary.  I worked Sunday all day (I NEVER have to work Sundays, so it was a bummer that I ended up working this one) and then we had church in the evening.  Ryan started feeling kind of sick too, so he didn't exactly enjoy being left to take care of the girls all day by himself.  We did end up ordering a pizza and watching the first half of Jane Eyre after we put the girls to bed.  It's an exciting life we lead, folks.  I am looking forward to our date night on Thursday! 

Knoxville

We had an awesome trip to Knoxville this summer to see my parents and sister.  We were only sad Amelia and her husband Josh couldn't make it too.  We really enjoyed hanging out with my family.  We mostly did a lot of lounging around the house and outside in their amazing new garden/patio.  My mom and dad cooked us amazing meals every night.  We saw lots of movies at the theatre.  We went to the farmers' market, played games, and visited the splash pads around town.  The girls' favorite activity by far was swimming in the little plastic pool with a built-in slide that my parents got them.  I got to see a few close friends, but I wish we had been there a little longer so I could have seen more people.  I can't wait to go back again!  My 10 year high school reunion was this year, and I wish we could have coordinated our trip so we were there for that, but, sadly, Ryan had to be back at school at the beginning of August.  I really love Knoxville, and would even like to live there again someday.  We'll see.  Here are some pics of the trip. 

Sally: Sweet, Sassy, Silly, and Spirited (an 18 month post)

Just so happens that the four words I thought of that most adequately describe Sally right now all begin with "S"!  This post is a little late (She is currently 19 months).  She has such a big personality these days.  I think the best way to describe her is by telling you a few things I have found her doing lately:

-She is a TALKER.  She can communicate almost anything, and is putting together sentences.  She says, "I need help" if she needs help,  "I play in the water" if she wants to swim,  "See Dada" if she is missing her dad, "Go outside!" "I want _____" "Watch a show," "Eat crackers," "Put it on," "Take it off," "Jump on the bed," "Go peepee in the potty," "Gimme that," "Go away mommy," And a million other things.  I think she picks it all up from Sophie, whose talking is finally taking off.

typical Sally face

-She loves to dance.  Anytime she hears music (especially if it is rap music), she starts bouncing up and down and waving from side to side.  Her current favorite song is the gummy bear song.  If you have kids, wait until they aren't around to listen, or they will be hooked!

Walking to the park with my mom.

-She is very caring and empathetic.  Today, Sophie got hurt, and Sally came over and started patting her, saying, "I'm sorry, Sophie."  Then she would look up at me in distress and say, "Sophie crying!" Finally, she leaned in to give Sophie a hug.  She does this all the time.  Melts my heart.

She is giving Sophie a hug, and Sophie is resisting.

-She is brave!  She has no fear of new things or people.  When we took the girls to the pool at the Y, Sally was the first one to go down the toddler slide, and even though her head went underwater, she was right back at it as soon as she got up.  Sophie on the other hand, took 45 minutes of convincing before she would even go up the stairs.

She just had to climb on the big kids' equipment with all the older kids.

She loves to slide or "tobogan" in Spanish.

-She loves to read.  She comes up to me about a million times a day with a book in hand and says, "It's a sit with me" (a phrase she learned from Sophie), when she wants to be read to.  I almost always do sit and read with her because I can't resist her sweet little earnest request!

 -She is so happy and always smiling.   The moment she wakes up in the morning or from a nap, she is in a good mood and ready to start playing!  She loves to smile for the camera or at new people.

-She is a big girl!  She is 33 1/2 inches tall (87th percentile) and 29 1/2 pounds (94th percentile).  A good reason for this is that she is a great eater!  She will eat almost anything you put in front of her.  She LOVES peas and broccoli.  Funny girl :)

Sally sharing a snack with her Aunt Betsy

-Her favorite activity is probably swimming.  Almost daily she asks to play in the water, and it is hard to get her out.  She goes up to the glass door and looks outside, then up at me, and asks with big earnest eyes and a half-frown "I play in the water?"

"Mommy, I play in the water!"

She can't get enough!

-She is a little bit of a trouble maker!  She doesn't mind completely ignoring what I say, and will even do things I tell her not to with a smile, just to get a reaction.  

This is her right before she tried to kiss the camera.

She is such a fun little girl.  I am so glad we have two kids, because they show us how different kids can be even when they grow up in the same household.  I just love her to death!

Kitchen Makeover!

A few months ago, I posted here about our renovations to our basement, and I am happy to report that we recently finished most of our kitchen updates as well!  Fixing up an old house is a LOT of work, and it goes much slower with two toddlers running around.  We moved into our house about a year ago, and we have finally finished almost everything except for our bathroom, hallway, and some trim painting in Sophie's room.  It is so rewarding to see how awesome things look when you complete a project, but as Ryan put it, if we had more money to put into things, we would MUCH rather just pay someone to do it all. 

The most recent improvements we made to our kitchen were to replace the counter top and sink and tile the backsplash.  Tiling was actually fun and pretty fast.  Replacing the counter top took a solid week of Ryan working all day long (not including evenings since I was working or we would just take a break).  Turns out that popping out the old counter top and putting the new one in isn't as simple as it sounds.  We had some termite damage behind our old backsplash cover, so Ryan had to replace the dry wall there.  Also, it turns out that a lot of walls don't make perfect 90 degree angles at junctions, so we had to sand down the corner of the counter top to fit the wall.  Getting the sink in took some time too, and we had some issues with leaking and improper pipe drainage when we put the new one in.  I was SO ready to have my kitchen back since we had gone a week with nowhere to cook or wash dishes (no dishwasher or sink available to use).  We tried to use paper plates and such, but we couldn't avoid dishes altogether, so I had to wash them in our bathroom sink and lay them out to dry on towels on the floor.  It was so chaotic trying to keep the girls out of the kitchen too.  ANYWAY, with no further ado, here it is, the new Lungwitz kitchen:

the original kitchen minus the carpeted floor

It's horrible.  But there is a sweet baby in the picture!

post-painting; pre-countertop, dishwasher, backsplash, and curtains

old countertop and sink

Finished product!

We plan to build a little cabinet in this small space between stove and cabinets. (For cookie sheets and longer baking items)

up close--the counter is a speckled and textured mostly black color.  It is supposed to look like sandstone, but the picture doesn't convey it well.

yay