Page 59 | A Small Snippet | A snapshot into the small snippets of life...to expose the Bigger Picture

Jun

15

::housekeeping::

Hello to all you out there in blog-reading land!!

i’ve got some housekeeping issues to share with you today!

I swept up all this junk in my house the other day. You would’ve thought I hadn’t swept in a week, but it had been only a day and a half. One of the cons of living on the beach….but I’ll gladly take it!

but this is not the kind of housekeeping that i’m gonna talk about today. I know you’re all very disappointed today, I’m gonna talk some blog housekeeping…

first off…i never spent much time in the beginning of starting this blog on a blog design. Just downloaded some free stuff from the worldwideweb. But I realized the other day that my background somehow just disappeared, and I don’t know how to get it back. So it made me start thinking that I should use the opportunity to jazz up this site a bit. Problem is, I don’t have the time nor the knowledge on how to do so. So if you see some changes around here, and then if you see some changes back, maybe you can just excuse it cause you’ll know that its just me playing around trying to figure things out! And…if any of you reading are really cool web designers who would be willing to design some pretty cool blog stuff for me that would suit my style, let me know. or if any of you have great tips for me, PLEASE tell me! I need help!

and while we’re talking blog, I have to tell you that I probably would’ve shut this thing down LONG ago if it weren’t for you guys, my readers. Sometimes it becomes a burden, and I get discouraged that this little blog is just a waste of time. But it seems like somehow in those times I always get some kind of comment, email, or conversation that encourages me to keep pluggin away. But I have to be honest…if it weren’t for my handy dandy site meter that allows me to track how much traffic I get on this thing, I would really think that I have about 5 readers, most of whom are family!! I am absolutely floored everytime I check in on my meter by the sheer quantity of you who read this blog. I am BLOWN AWAY!! I don’t get it….i really don’t…and I kinda think ya’ll are crazy for reading this small little snippet so faithfully!! (maybe i’ll actually start referring to you too as “crazies” instead of “my readers”!!) but anyway, thank you SO much for being my “crazies”! You all are the absolute best! Even though I don’t know who all of you are, I know that you are out there. i’m grateful and its the only thing that keeps me doing this whole blogging thing.

For example, a few months ago, I received this package:

A teacher from Alabama who just happened upon my blog one day contacted me after I had posted some stuff about shark’s teeth. She said her 1^st grade class was studying sharks and she was able to pull up my blog in the classroom and show them all a picture of a real shark’s tooth! I thought that was great…but I got so excited when it dawned on me that it would be so super easy to send some actual sharks teeth her way for the kids to see in real life.

I had my kiddos make a little video teaching that 1^st grade class how to find a sharks tooth on the beach, and we sent a little package her way, so excited to share a bit of “our beach” with some sweet kids in alabama.

Totally unexpectedly, a few weeks later I received a package from that class with individual thank you’s and drawings from each student, along with a picture of the whole class. It made my heart want to burst! (thank you SO much to Ms. Hill’s Class!!)

That’s the kind of “community” that made me start this blog in the first place…as a place to share life with one another. That’s my vision…to give you a peek into our small snippets with the hope that you’ll share your’s with me too!

So while we’re on the subject of you, my dear blog reading crazies, I thought i’d ask you for a favor. I am really trying to consolidate this thing, and get a good system going. I’ve failed big time in being a quick responder to emails and comments, mainly because I simply didn’t know a good way to do so, and they were coming at me from all angles and I can’t keep up as I have been getting emails coming to a number of different email address!

So here’s the deal…from here on out, if you could, would you PRETTY PRETTY PLEASE leave your comment or question in the comments section of my blog on whatever post you desire, as opposed to emailing me, facebooking me, or replying to my emailed post if you are a subscriber, and that way it will all come to one spot. In return, I am making you a PROMISE! I here do so solemnly ~~promise~~ – will try my darn hardest best – to be a quick responder and will respond to questions and comments back at you in the same comments section where it was posed. So if you ask a question, check back in that comments section for a response. Or sometimes I might address your question in a future post. Or if you leave a contact email, I will possibly email you directly if needed. But either way, I will get back to you! That would make my life much more simplified, and it would serve the original purpose of this blog, which was to create a type of community amongst my readers, as sometimes the best thing about a post is what you all write in the comments section!

If for some reason you aren’t able to post comments, let me know and i’ll get the problem solved for you. (ufkimball@aol.com) otherwise, i’ll look forward to communicating with ya’ll in the comments section! (btw…if that really just rocks your world too much, don’t just be silent. Let me know and i’ll still be happy happy happy to hear from you, even if it is through emails

With that being said, I would LOVE to hear from all of you, since I know ya’ll are out there!! I have to confess…I am the WORST at commenting on other peeps blogs…the worst. But i’ve made a goal to try to do so more often, cause now that i’m a “blogger” myself, I realize just how important those comments are. They really are what keeps this little boat afloat! So please please communicate with me!

moving onto some fun stuff…my kids came to me the other day like this:

as i was in the process of making these cupcakes and i had just told them that they couldn’t have any because they were for a baby shower i was hosting.
they thought that if they were “pregnant” then they could come to the shower and eat a cupcake. those smart little monsters!

we held a simple little Ice Cream Sundae shower for a friend from church. not too many details to share, but i thought you might enjoy seeing some pictures!

this is presently my view out my back window. its so smoky here from all the wildfires, so i’ve kept the kiddos inside today, but as soon as the hubs got home, he was easily convinced to go toss around the football for a bit before dinner.

and speaking of dinner…its already 5:30 and i haven’t started on that or the dessert that i’m supposed to have finished up for a meeting here tonight. i gotta run!

but since this was such a long LONG post, i’ll sum up the important stuff for you!

I am thankful for you, Crazies
if you are reading, PLEASE let me know you are reading so I can know you, instead of being just a number on a meter let’s have some community on this blog!!
please try hard to only leave comments and questions in the comments section, and then check back there for the answers! (i’m excited about this!)
if you can help me design a cool blog, i’d love you till the day I die!

peace out, Crazies,

28 Comments

Jun

09

what i did today…

i had the idea to snap some pics throughout my day to capture what a typical day might look like around here. thought you might be interested…or not…

either way, its post material, so here goes!

(note…in all honesty, this is over 2 days, not one. i started off strong one morning, and then bombed on capturing the afternoon. so this is one morning and the next afternoon, but you get the picture. its still kinda a typical day!)

the bug and i usually start off the morning with some kind of exercise. although i should use the word exercise loosely…i’m sure if a trainer checked out my exercise routine, he/she’d laugh her brains out while explaining to me that my “exercise routine” is probably the reason that i can’t get rid of certain problem areas (such as the spare tire i carry around in my midsection…or the wiggly jello thighs…)

but on this particular morning we opted for a walk on the beach!
we walked down the beach about a mile or so to check on our turtle nest that we are waiting to see hatch! no progress yet!
sometimes instead of a walk, we’ll do a little Exercise TV routine from ONDemand….some kind of combination from the choices below. (its okay…laugh away!)

here’s the deal…some of you have asked me about exercise and how to stay fit, and since i’ve made the promise that i will get back to all your comments at some point, i will use this opportunity to quit skirtin the darn question! j/k

first off, let me honestly tell you what immediately pops into my head when i hear any question relating to how to stay fit:

“you wouldn’t be asking me about my exercise routine if you saw me without clothes on!”

sorry for the visual…

but basically….i’ve got no good answer! cause if i seem fit at all, its most likely cause i’ve learned to wear stuff that covers up my problem areas. that, and my skin complection is kinda naturally tan, which in my opinion makes everything look thinner and fitter than it really is! i’m being dead serious….so don’t be fooled! so i guess my answer to the question of “how do you stay fit”, is:

1) wear baggy clothes that hide things

2) go lay out (kinda kidding on that one)

3) things aren’t always what they seem

not the answer you were looking for, i’m sure, but an honest one

after our “exercise” the bug and i played a quick game of Candy Land…she won!

later on, i enjoyed lunch…coffee-table picnic-style, with Rapunzel, while watching Tangled.
one of my favorite lunches is Kashi blueberry waffles with some peanut butter and syrup…quite possibly causing a sugar high…followed quickly by a complete mid-afternoon crash…but i’d still say its worth it!
we took a quick ride to Target to get a few things. i’ll show you our finds.

i had some money to spend that i had received as a gift, so i went out on a limb and did something that i said i would never do…and i bought a romper:

And i’m just a tad bit afraid that I am not cool enough to sport it!

we also came home with some necessities:

i’m loving the coral nail polish…just the color that i’ve been looking for this summer! (its presently on sale at Target…Rimmel Sunset Orange in case you are interested!)

and that compact is a new thing at Target. its a cheap makeup line they carry called ELF, and you choose your colors to add to your compact for $1.00 each, so you can personalize to your taste! kinda fun! go try it out!

and i have to say a word on that mousse. its really really good. like…REALLY REALLY good. this is what it does to my hair, with about 15 seconds of effort. love the time and energy i save not having to blowdry or straighten!

(i feel the need to confess that i am in fact wearing this same exact outfit again today. that’s how i roll around here and why i could NEVER participate in that cute trend i’m seeing on blogs called What i Wear Wednesdays! although…if i did participate, it would provide ya’ll with some comic relief, i’m sure!)

we also snagged some of our new fave snack from Target. dehydrated fruit (strawberries, bananas, and peaches). they melt in your mouth. literally. we fly through these bags…they are the perfect beach snack:

Bella napped (still a necessity for her…and for me!) while i worked on editing some photos from a shoot last weekend. (i’ll post some of these photos in my Before and Afters post coming up that i was talking about!)

check out my handy dandy notebook full of photoshop how-to’s. i’m D-Y-I-N-G to take a for-real photography and photoshop class in the fall at a local college. i’ll keep you posted!

after naptime, the bug and i pick up canaan from school. we have to wait in the parking lot for about 15 minutes, so this is what i plan on doing during that time:

i am a shirker and a slacker when it comes to reading the bible, and this bible reading plan is crazy awesome for peeps such as me! you can download it here.

but in all honesty, those 15 minutes are usually taken up with this:

and its a good thing that i don’t have a really cool, updated phone that can get on the internet, cause then that reading plan would really never have check marks on it!! (but JC would still love me…blows my mind STILL!)

canaan come home from school with the sweetest thing! each kid received a book titled, “I am Special” where every classmate contributed a page.

here are a few examples. this just makes my heart want to explode!! what a great opportunity for kids to get to tell each other something meaningful and thoughtful as well as receive compliments from their classmates! i just love everything about this project!

later that night, we had plans to take Jake’s mom to dinner for her birthday, so as we sometimes do, we decided to pack the crazies’ dinner to save some money. my sweet Canaan decided that he wanted to help me out, so he did the whole dinner packing thing by himself:

here’s what he came up with on his own:

carrots and italian dressing

yogurt

ham, turkey pepperoni, and provolone cheese

and a lollipop for dessert!

i was pretty impressed!

the restaurant was on the Intracoastal, so the kids watched the fish jump and looked for sharks with their aunts while we waited on our dinners:

i couldn’t convince them that sharks don’t live in the Intracoastal. they’ve had sharks on the brain ever since the Boy reeled in these two sharks on the same line all by himself the other night:

we finished dinner then ate our cupcakes that we had made earlier that afternoon:

while pretending to ward off the coming storm with our umbrellas:

after going home and going to bed, we woke up this morning for the very last day of 1st grade!!

i’ve been singing in my head all day, “School’s out for Summer!!”

here’s a comparison…my boy on the first day of 1st grade and on the last day of 1st grade.

PLEASE STOP GROWING UP!!

he just looks SO much older!

well…that about wraps it up for today! i have a little girl up from her nap literally right up next to my face saying in my ear…”i really want to play a game with you RIGHT NOW! are you gonna play a game RIGHT NOW??! PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLLLEEEEEEASSSSSSSEEEE!!”

really wish i could see a peek into each of ya’ll’s days too!

3 Comments

Jun

06

some things to share

This blog has been boring lately. i feel like i should apologize, but maybe i can just make it up to you this summer??

but for today, how bout checking out my new kicks?
they are an updated version of jellies and i love the style even more now than i did when i sported them back 1988. i had to buy a pair of shoes to go with a bridesmaid dress, and that BOGO sale had these beauties just screaming out at me from the shelves.

I’ve been swamped…with end of the year festivities, tying up loose ends, getting everything prepared before things shut down this summer for my kids to attend their two new schools in the fall, and most of all, i’ve been distracted in all my “free” time with photo editing.

It turns out that I have a love-hate relationship with Photoshop. I love the results, but hate the time it takes to get them!!

but i’ve got a post coming up that I think you might enjoy. Some before and afters…what i’ve been learning with Photoshop. And most importantly…an opportunity for those of you who are FAR better than me at this stuff to critique my elementary work you think i’m kidding…i’m dead serious. I want to learn….i need critique!! (I say that…but in all honesty, it really might hurt just a tad if you are too harsh…but bring it! I’ll get over it!)

here’s just a little something something to wet your whistle.

subtle, but makes a world of difference!

And just for fun…while i’m on here, I thought i’d show you a cake that I made the other day.

I learned a lot along the way, like how if you frost the very edge of your cake layers in a line of buttercream frosting before spreading on your raspberry filling, then it won’t seep out the sides and tint your white frosting pink. Or how you should sift your powdered sugar before mixing into the butter to get a smooth frosting consistency…learned that the hard way! But mostly I learned that i’m not a cake decorator and that if you choose to battle with buttercream frosting, you will probably lose and be left with powdered sugar all over you and your kitchen floor…with your 4 year old repeatedly telling you what a mess you’ve made!! In case I wasn’t clear, the frosting won! But i’m thinking this could make for a cute b-day cake someday for the above mentioned 4 year old!

And i’ll close with this: