OUR 4th of July pics...

These are just a few but I forgot to post them! We had a nice 4th! We just hung out at home and later walked up to the park to watch fireworks!

16 AND PREGNANT & ADOPTION

Last night I watched a show called '16 and Pregnant' on MTV. The title for the show is self explanatory...the girls are 16...and pregnant. It's a 60 minute documentary taking them through pregnancy, how they cope and the difficulties of raising a child at such a young age. Usually these young girls have dead beat and immature boyfriends and generally come form broken homes. They struggle tremendously and som even drop out of high school.
Well, this story in particular, was a bit different. Two young teenagers ultimately decided to give their baby up for adoption. These young kids put their own feelings aside and soley thought of what was in the best interest of the child. They were both from broken homes, the bio father had a dad who was in prison for 10 years and the bio mother's own mom had a difficult time raising her and drug issues. The first concern they had was; they DID NOT want their child to be brought up they way they did. They felt their child deserved the very best life and they KNEW they couldn't do that at the given time. Through the entire pregnancy, these teens' parents fought and fought them NOT to give it up for adoption. But they surprisingly stood their ground and went with what they intuitively felt was the right thing to do.
This show was EXTREMELY moving, motivating and eye opening for me. As I have ALWAYS been a HUGE SUPPORTER of adoption, this show has given me more conviction of the SELF-LESS and MOST LOVING act of what is, adoption. I felt these young parents should be looked at as role models for other young teenagers who may get pregnant. Even single parents who struggle with their own lives. With the turmoil and pressure from family, personal anguish and sacrifice, they set that aside, didn't enable the feelings and stood up for what was right. I can only imagine the pain and emptiness you'd feel as a biological parent, who has 9 months of bonding, delivers the child into the world and still has the strength to give that child to a loving and and established couple the blessing of an Eternity. What is more self-less and giving than giving your CHILD, knowing you're not capable to give it a great life, to a family who CAN'T have children and yearn a longing for them. If adoption was more advocated and easier to do, I know there'd be a better youth. So many children, IN THIS COUNTRY ALONE, are born into very devastating and horrible circumstances. And we've got hundreds of thousands of loving couples who yearn for children.
With these circumstances, the children don't have a choice but the parent does. I don't know anything more unconditional loving and selfless than giving your child the chance to live a great and prosperous life! I was astounded and proud of this young couple, despite the sadness they went through, continually thought of this precious little baby girl and the best interest of her future. You could feel their pain. You're heart just broke but you were so touched by that amazing act of service and love they did. And espite the sadness, they were all filled with pure joy, giving this amazing gift to a couple and seeing their faces light up, was just amazing.
This young couple truely thought of this new life. They didn't think of themselves once. Not once. I was bawling my eyes out. Seriously sobbing. I still choke up thinking about it. Honestly, there's no other kinder and more loving act of service, than giving your child, that' you're uncapable to taking care of, to a family that can amd desire to.
I suggest you watch this show. It will touch your heart. I know it did mine and I'm a HUGE HUGE HUGE supporter of ADOPTION!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It's a pure act of LOVE.

just a few summertime flowers...

planted and cared for by yours truely...

I'm the HOMEMAKING QUEEN!!

Don't fight me when I say I'm the homemaking queen! ;) I think I've got my arms full of projects that I can't cover in one blog post..but I'll sure try! hehe

Other than sewing (except handsewing a few things here and there), I've got loads a stuff I'm doing...but I yearn to sew pretty badly...I'm just waiting for my machine from my dad's wife. It's a Pfaff. I'm super duper excited.

My biggest project of all is my YARD!!! My home stood vacant for a year and the entire yard was neglected. We had to pretty start from scratch. I did things the 'old fashioned way' and its working out thus FAR! Check out the grass seeds poking through the soil! YES! I tilled, fertilized, weeded and seeded my yard ALL ON MY OWN!!! The grass coming up is VERY rewarding! I also planted some plants and flowers. Here are a few pics of my proof of hard work:





I'll keep you updated!!!!

I've also done some refurbishing to two pieces of furniture. I was given an old beat up side table that needed som emajor TLC. I saw the beauty in it and redid the entire thing! I sanded, stripped, repainted 2 coats of Ballet Slipper Pink color, distressed by hand, clear coated and added pink crystal knobs. It goes absolutely perfect with my ultra shabby chic living room! Check it out:





A few months ago we bought a bare birch kitchen island form IKEA. It's a solid birch island. I polished it with bees wax (2 coats) and stained the bottom half with a red. While polishing, it stained the wood as well and brought out all of the tree knots and swirls. It's just perfect now for my rustic kitchen. It's going to go sooo well with our NEW white STAT style cabinets from IKEA and SOLID BIRCH countertops! IT will also have a large farm sink (DOMSJO SINK FROM IKEA) and a few of the cabinet doors will have the country style glass windows. Oh..I can't wait!
Here's the island I redid on my own:




I also found the cutest plates from Target. They went PERFECT with my kitchen and they're PLASTIC!! Which means we can use them DAILY! This serving platter was just a must have for my table centerpiece. Check it out:


This is the serveware set I plan to get and display in my glass door wall cabinets:
They're a replica of Hermes Collection!!!

Can you just visualize the awesomeness??!! I sure can!

SO MUCH TO BLOG ABOUT!!!!

IT's been over a MONTH since I posted anything new or monotenous! ;)
Well, since then, we ventured out to Maryland by car, back and forth the Country 4 times total in a 10 day period. We quickly learned we will never drive that much ever again....I better knock on wood. I think we've covered almost every State in the MidWest. And sorry to the Midwest lovers when I say this, but...we weren't very impressed...to put it lightly. It's terribly humid, it has alot of bugs, it's flat and there were Anti-Abortion or 'be saved or go to Hell' Bulletins EVERYWHERE. It was kind of bazaar. It's cool to express your zeal, as to put it, for your values but I think highway bulletins every few miles is a bit extreme...just sayin'...
We passed through Denver, Witchita, Topeka, Indianapolis, St Louis and Kansas City. Out of all of those Cities, we liked Denver the best. Colorado is actually a pretty cool State. Of course we drove through Ohio, Illinois and West Virginia as well. I will never live in the Midwest...'nuff said.
The upside to our long trip was seeing Mater(my stepson) and our friends from Maryland. Mater was supposed to come stay with us this Summer but as soon as we hit Indiana, his mom changed her mind and wanted him to go back home. It was a huge bummer but we didn't fight it. We were just severly disappointed. :( Hopefully next year things will go smoother and he can make it out here for a nice visit! We really want him to feel he's a part of our family. :) No matter how far away we are from him.
Here are a few pics from the trip: