Sunday Snippets

Our Week in Review

• I gave Isaac a haircut.  I've cut his hair short before but this is the first time I actually gave it some style.  I think he looks quite dashing!  I'll post a picture of it someday, I promise.
• Isaac turned two!

 

I feel like he's been 2 for the last 8 months or so with all of his
naughty mischief and "terrible two" behavior.

• We took Isaac out to dinner for his birthday on Saturday.  He ate so much food his belly was popped out as big as it could be!  On the way home Dylan and Livie started exchanging silly and nonsensical jokes, they were having so much fun that they laughed their heads off almost the whole car ride home.  We hardly ever have experiences like that so I really cherish that memory.

Sunday Snippets

Our Week in Review

• Alivia lost not one but two of her front bottom teeth, so now she has three teeth missing right in front, her new toothless smile makes me laugh.

• It was Spring Break this week for Dylan and we did absolutely nothing, but we are still alive and kicking so I guess that's something positive.  
• It's been hovering around 80 degrees this week, I might just die this summer, I already just sit around sweating all day I can't imagine it being 20-30 degrees hotter.  I think a new wardrobe is in order as well, all these layers of thick clothes just stick to me like glue and make me really grumpy.
• Mr. Giovannoni's co-worker and friend had us over for hamburgers on Saturday. It was an absolutely beautiful Texas evening, not hot, not humid, just beautiful.  Their kids are a little older than ours but they all got along very well and a fun time was had by all.  
• The ladies from our ward play evening volleyball every first and third Thursday of the month.  I finally made myself go and I had a really great time.  I'm looking forward to having this little "out" for myself.  Plus it's great to get to know people outside of a church function.  I had no idea some of these ladies were as fun and feisty as they are.
• Isaac decided to smear his daddy's Chocolate and Peanut Butter protein powder in the front room this week.  What on earth will next weeks carpet smearing be?
• The Mr. and I had a very awkward encounter tonight with our neighbors.  I believe her first words to us ever where "Do you planning on doing something about your bathroom window?  Apparently their kitchen window and our bathroom window (which is a rather large window) are directly across from each other and she doesn't like that!  Homes down here in Texas are about six feet apart and because of HOA rules there isn't usually a fence in between homes along the sides (which just happens to be where her kitchen window and our bathroom window are).  I've never noticed their kitchen window because our bathroom window is heavily frosted from the inside and you can't see what's outside.  I'm sure my cheeks were just flaming, how do you even answer that question...By the way I'd like to introduce myself...I'm Michelle and this is my husband Derik!?! 
  

Sunday Snippets

Our Week in Review

• I bought cedar fence slats and built seven beautiful raised garden beds.  Now to just get some dirt so I can get things planted.  All the stores are ripe with colorful flowers and vegetables just begging me to buy them.  
• Isaac took advantage of me having the refrigerator unlocked while I was making dinner and smeared BBQ sauce in our front room carpet. 
• My new neighbor Stacy invited the kids and I over for lunch.  She is so nice to us, she is a beautiful person inside and out. She has had no reservation in making us feel welcome. She went totally overboard too, she made a beautiful centerpiece that had fruit and chocolate dipped strawberries as well as chocolate dipped pretzels.  I felt sort of sheepish when I showed up with sliced oranges and apples in some old Tupperware. 
• I yelled at a pest control man.  I felt horrible after it was all said and done and I'm sure he thought I was a very nasty person.  When I was out in my backyard finishing building the last of my raised garden beds, Alivia informed me some one was at the door.  I had been in the backyard all morning and I hadn't bothered to put on all of my supportive underwear, if you know what I mean.  So I just told her to ignore the door.  But he refused to go away and was yelling through the door.  So I came in the house and shut the blinds, after all he must have been crazy to think I was going to answer the door for a perfect stranger with out my husband being home.  He walked towards the side of the house so I continued closing the blinds, hoping he'd catch the hint, when to my utter horror I found him staring in my back door window right at me.  he started yelling to me about how I wouldn't answer the door out front so he let himself in my back yard.  I opened the door a crack and yelled at him that we didn't have a pest control person and that I wasn't interested in paying him to be ours either.  He pulled me a very nasty face and stormed off.  After I calmed down and I was certain he had gone I opened my front door, he had sprayed around the front and sides of our home.  It got me thinking that who ever lived here before might have paid for services for the year and he was probably just doing his job.  I felt bad for yelling at him, but seriously, you don't let yourself into peoples private backyards and yell at them through a door, that's just not smart nor appropriate.  I'm already terrified of being robbed and unable to protect myself and our children from the wackos and thieves down here, while the Mr. is at work, so finding a stranger in my backyard staring and yelling at me through my windows terrified me. 
• I bought Dylan a brand new pair of shoes two or three weeks ago.  I noticed today that he has already popped both big toes out of the front of the shoes, I am not happy about that!
• I briefly turned on our AC.  It's getting really warm down here.

Sunday Snippets

Our Week in Review

• We were lucky enough to have visitors this week.  Mr. Giovannoni has a second family, they took him in under their wings when he was in high school, they treated him like family, they were just what he needed!  I know Derik loves them with all his heart and so do I.  So we were tickled pink when they asked if a few of them could spend the night at our home as they traveled from Florida to San Diego.  It was so good to see them and we ENJOYED every second we had with them.  It was way to short of a visit if you ask me but I'm so grateful we got to see them.  

• Isaac's little face currently looks like he has Elephants Disease.  He fell chasing Dylan and hit his head on the warming drawer of our oven, over the coarse of the next few days he bumped the same spot over and over so he had layers of bruising.  Then the mosquito's thought he was a tasty treat one night and eat his little face alive.   To top off his already bruised and miss-shaped head he tripped and fell on a coat Dylan had plopped at the bottom of the stairs and slammed his head into the corner of the banister, so now he has a very nasty goose egg/bruise that travels the entire length of his forehead and onto his cheek.  Poor child looks AWFUL!
• Despite his bumps and bruises he still finds all sorts of trouble to get into.  This little boy has been watching spider man cartoons with his siblings and look what he does now!

 That is right he now walks up the refrigerator!

• Alivia loves our neighbors across the street, she is always sneaking over there and hanging out.  She is a stay at home mom with two small children and I think Alivia is determined to make us be the best of friends.  She is a very kind and friendly neighbor, which makes me happy since our neighborhood is so quiet and most everyone else keeps to themselves. 

• Dylan is loving scouts and doing very well in school.  He is catching on to things very quickly and testing very well.  He volunteered to give a talk on Sunday which neither the Mr. and I remember until the morning of, so I sent him to primary with a copy of a friend magazine and told him to read something out of it.  I've become that kind of mother lately, how sad.  
• The Mr. surprised me with a box set of old classic romance movies, I love stuff like that!
• I planted a few azaleas and a hibiscus shrub in my front yard, They are doing so beautifully that I cannot help but look forward to getting out and getting more plants to grow.  The walmart down here has hibiscus trees, I just have to have one of those!
• I'm keeping myself busy with little projects here and there. I was inspired by this piece I found on pinterest.

 

It was just the whimsical sort of thing I was looking for. So with this idea in mind I set out and made my own with what I could find at Hobby Lobby.  Here is what I made.

• We are discovering the joys of home ownership (and I say that quite sarcastically) the bathroom upstairs has a leak, and it is currently ruining our kitchen ceiling. Apparently this was a problem before we bought the house, but no one bothered to fix it right.  Last night the Mr. and I could actually hear the water dripping in the ceiling after the toilet was flushed.  So we've shut off the water and are beginning the process of finding someone who can fix the mess!  It's time like these I wish my dad or "Grandpa" Ernie was around to help us out. 

Sunday Snippets

Our Week in Review

• I introduced my children to NO TV Thursday when we moved down here to Texas, but in matters of fairness I think I'm going to change it to No Technology Thursday.  It's only fair that if I'm going to deprive them of something they enjoy, that I do the same for myself.  That's right folks I am going to unplug myself from all digital devices on Thursdays.  It's amazing how many good things I can find time for when I'm not sitting in front of the computer.  If we don't end up going insane from "boredom" (as my kids whine about every Thursday) we might implement it on Tuesdays as well.  We'll just take baby steps for now.  
• I did my first babysitting gig this week.  Poor girl is an only child and between Isaac thumping her with toys and Alivia's lack of personal space and boundaries, the poor thing just wanted to go home! 
• The plants in our yard are sending out new starts and leaves, some of the bushes are even starting to put out little blossom buds.  It will be garden planting time down here in the next couple of weeks and I'm really excited and somewhat terrified, (between the bugs, the heat and mildew/fungus issues) to give gardening a go down here.  
• I walked the kids to the library on Saturday to check out books for us to read.  The kids were super excited to check out our new and very large library. 
• The Mr. and I spoke in Sacrament meeting, while it was a privilege to be asked to do so, I (and I imagine the Mr. too) feel so relieved to have it over with.  From what I could here over Isaac's yelling and Dylan and Alivia's giggling, I thought that Derik did a terrific job with his talk. 
  

Sunday Snippets

Our week in Review

• I finished up some decorating so hopefully I'll get pictures up of our home for any one who wants to see them. 
• Mr. Giovannoni and I had our ten year wedding anniversary.  The Mr. bought me a Silhouette machine and I'm so excited to put it to use. 
• Alivia got to go to a Valentines party this weekend with some new friends from our church ward.  She had a lot of fun.
• I finally made it over to the library (and the sad part is it's literally across the street from our subdivision entry), and got myself a library card.  Next week I might attempt taking the kids.  It's a BIG library and it's attached to the local college so it busy too.  
• I'm attempting to cook recipes I've found on pinterest.  I found two recipes this week that are definite keepers.  I love having the internet as a tool to find and try new ideas. 

A Decade

 

To get the full value of joy

You must have someone to divide it with.

Mark Twain

10 years ago we married.  

 And we started out like this.

and then we were given not one...

 

But two...

 and then three...

Children to love.  

Image

And this is what it did to us...

HA HA just kidding...sort of.

All joking aside. 

We have a beautiful home, a beautiful family and a beautiful life!

I considered myself high blessed to have made it together this far in our journey into eternity.  

Happy 10th Anniversary Mr. Giovannoni.

I thank you for your love and commitment. 

I thank you for being the other half in which I get to divide my joy with.  

Thank you for staying with me and loving me even when I find it hard to love myself. 

And last but certainly not least thank you for three terroristic yet wonderful children, it was having them that made me understand our Heavenly Fathers love for his children, faults and all. 

A decade of lessons, love, joy, sorrow, frustration, patience and growth. 

Here's to many many more.