Thankfulness

This year I am thankful for:

The people in my life.

My husband: Who works so hard each and every day. He provides for his family. He laughs and jokes constantly. (Mostly at me.) He's thoughtful and kind. Sound minded and smart. He puts up with me and my craziness.

My boys: Who wake me up way too early in the morning and don't go to bed till way too late. Who make me laugh and give me snuggles. Who tell me they love me and tell me I'm ugly. These boys stretch me in ways I never knew He intended. They are they're father, so very kind-hearted and they are me; fiesty and stubborn and willful. They show me a mirror of who I am and who I want to be.

My parents: Who would do anything for us. Who babysit when they can and stop by to pick the boys up for lunch or to take them to the toy store. Who let me borrow nail guns, and nails, and bowls. And for the free peanut butter and juice boxes that were in the garage, and free picture frames that have been in the cabinet for years. And for the vacuum cleaner they are going to buy me for Christmas along with the trip to Cabo I'm taking 2010. The list goes on. And on. And on.

Neighbors: Who chase live birds out of my house, pick up dead birds from my entry, bring over bags of candy when the boys are playing baseball in the front yard, build bikes for us, let us use their garage for electricity and tools.

Church: Who grows us, leads us, loves us with God's love.

My girlfriends: Who are like sisters to me. We laugh and laugh and cry sometimes. Often we go to the mall, watch each other's kids, head to Disneyland on a whim with, have coffee together, gab about silly movies, discuss education, banter about Hollywood.

and Life in general.... a home, health, the Bible, a car with butt warmers (because you need those on Thanksgiving when its 80 degrees right?), safety and freedom, access to the Internet, DSLR camera to record memories, hair products, the "lions" who are playing with each other as I type this, magazines, fresh squeezed orange juice, faith in a good God, candles, TJ's spicy apple cider, the book Little Women, the journey of a life with opportunity.

And I am thankful for you bloggy buddies. Truly thankful for your comments and emails, and insights into your lives all over America.

May God bless you tomorrow on Thanksgiving and always.

"O taste and see that the LORD is good; how blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him!" (Psalm 34:88).

New Moon... LOVE

A few of my girlfriends and I went to see New Moon on Friday.
And I must say it was so GOOD!!!

A few girls even went back last night.

New Moon the movie was almost as good as the book, but much better than the first movie.

Scrawny, clammy, and cold is just not my thing.

I, myself, am a total and complete Jacob fan.

I think a few of the Edward girls are now also.

Have you seen it? What'd you think?

Building Up Fun

Monkey had a few friends over on Saturday to celebrate his birthday. He played just like a big kid, running around for hours on end, not once asking me for help or permission to do anything.

It was a nice mid-morning/early lunch kind of day.

(Because lots of 4 year olds have 2 year old siblings who still take naps.)

Like this guy. And this guy.
Of course these two are always side by side.

Miss R was building up lots of things.

And so was Mr. T.

And these precious ones let us borrow buckets and buckets of Legos.

And the nice friends that we have even brought over some fun gifts for the Monkey.

Oh, and why did I bother to clean my house?
Can someone remind me next time that they really don't care.

And the final project of the week

This is the view from the doorway leading into my kitchen. Notice how there are NO cabinets on one whole wall of my kitchen. I never understood that. My only thought is that they would have closed up the kitchen too much. So, I have no cabinet space, like literally, NONE.

To combat the need for more cabinet space, Mr. Dunbar made these shelves for me.


The inspiration being the cafe shelves from Ballard's. (Which are $99 each plus tax and shipping at $20.95. They would have cost almost $250.)

But a little of Mr. Dunbar's time, okay an entire Sunday afternoon, and this is what I got for around $45. (Directions are from Beneath My Heart.)


I think he did a pretty darn good job.

And to end this post on a cute note with bed head.

You are four!!

And I'm the one who scored!

Happy Birthday Monkey!!

Let's take a brief look at your past year...

Watching the Globetrotters with Daddy.

Valentine's Day with Mrs. J the best pre-school teacher ever.
Monkeying around with your brother.
Fun in the tub.
Look at that face.
Easter egg hunting.
Binoculars at Elephant Bar.

Climbing on the school playground.
Playing at the beach...
With a smile that melts my heart.

(If you leave a comment for him, I'm sure he'd be delighted.

XOXO everyone.)

Just to continue the saga...

So I couldn't just paint the bathroom, I had to clean the closet as well.

Then I took these frames and painted them.
So now they look like this.
The bottom one actually, I still need to sand the edges a bit more.

I've also been using this...
and this...
to press these. (Curtains) Because your friends will know whether or not your kitchen curtains are pressed and starched. Right?

This post is totally like airing out your dirty laundry. I feel liberated. Ha.

I blame my mother

Over the next seven weeks we are having a few different events at our house. Which I am super excited about and they are going to be good times, memorable experiences for everyone. (Hopefully.)

But I have issues.

About having people at my house.

And I blame my mother. Because it all began with her.

Let me just give you one example and then you'll understand my issue. One month before I graduated with my BA and my graduation party invitations had already been sent out, my mom decided that the downstairs needed to be re-done. So she had it painted, ripped out the carpet, put in new carpet and tile, had the downstairs bathroom re-done, and had the office and living rooms re-decorated. My dad was moving couches on the morning of the party!!

So, I vowed to never be as bad as mother. (I lied.) Poor Mr. Dunbar has been working frantically and faithfully over the past two weekends to get as many "home improvement" items marked off of my list.

Here are the before pictures of the bathroom:

White bathroom.

No accessories except for this picture hanging above the toilet.

There is this huge mirror that had those old fashioned (dirty) brackets holding it up.

Probably since 1960, at least.

We put this light fixture in, and yes it usually has all of the votives,

I just re-hung this one for the picture.

After pictures:
We added moulding to the mirror.
Just like Rhoda from Southern Hospitality.

And I painted the bathroom to match the tile.

With the white walls the moulding just didn't POP.

Now I think it does.

And I added a few accesories.
A little " The Loo" sign, a fluer-de-lis, and a tip towel.

So the bathroom is complete, now I've got to tackle the rest of the house.

Am I the only one with this issue?

(Love you Mom!)

Veteran's Day

Dear Veteran's,

Thank you for your service, your dedication, and your sacrifice. Thank you for putting your country ahead of yourself. Thank you, family members, of servicemen for your sacrifice and support of these spectacular individuals. I pray that God will keep you all safe.

Most Sincerely,

Mrs. Dunbar and Men

PS Here's a funny picture for you!

Have a bright and cheerful Veteran's Day everyone!

One more PS: I told Monkey to remember to wish Papa a "Happy Veteran's Day". When he saw Papa this morning he ran up to him with a flag and said, "Happy Valentine's Day, Papa. "

Because the camera was in the kitchen

I snapped a few shots of the process of making the best, and I mean yummiest apple sauce/ topping, ever.

Originally made to go on top of pork chops (you know Pork Chops and Applesauce?)

This stuff is good, like really good.

It can go on top of pork chops, pork tenderloin, ice cream, or just eat all on its own.

I like to add whipped cream.

First take 4 Gala apples and slice with apple slicer.

Then dice into bite size pieces.

Get out the golden raisins.
You'll also need a lemon.

(Mine was already zested for the pork tenderloin.)

Toss apples into sauce pan.

Add the juice from the lemon, 1/2 cup golden raisins and 3-4 tbs. of brown sugar, and a cup and half of apple cider.

Next add a tsp. of cinnamon and half tsp. of nutmeg.
Over medium to medium high heat, let it boil for almost 10 minutes.

At this point your house will smell divine. Did you ever make apple sauce in school? Have an apple day? Remember that scrumptious smell? Yup, now your home can have that same aroma.

Eaten as a treat with whipped cream and cinnamon.
But again, its original purpose was for the top of pork tenderloin.
Seriously, this is good stuff.

I'm sure it'd be even better with chilly weather out, but I wouldn't know about that.

(Recipe is adapted from Racheal Ray.)

Finally, Baking Weather

Today the boys and I had a relaxing day at home. The weather was about 80 degrees.

You know that's "baking weather" in November for SoCal, don't you? (It's as good as its gonna get.)

So, we seized the opportunity to bake some chocolate-chip oatmeal cookies.

My sues chefs hard at work.

These are my favorite cookies to bake.
And our final product:

Just in case you'd like to make these deliciously easy cookies:

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

1 cup butter, softened

1 cup packed light brown sugar

1/2 cup white sugar

2 eggs

2 tsp. vanilla extract

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. salt

3 cups quick cooking oats

1 1/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

2. In large bowl cream butter, brown sugar, white sugar.

3. Beat in eggs, one at a time.

4. Then stir in vanilla extract.

5. Combine flour, baking soda, salt. Then stir into creamed mixture.

6. Mix in oats and chocolate chips.

7. Drop by heaping spoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheet.

8. Bake for 11 minutes.

(Recipe from allrecipes.com.)

YUMM-EEE!!