Not Sure if They Make Em Quite Like This in Oklahoma

Buzzing Yellow Sunset....
   Feels like you could Catch that Light....
      Rainbow Loping through the Other Side of the Sky....
        An Upside Down Smile...
            Dazzling Raindrops Falling...
                 Cool Shocks to the Face....
                      Yellow Firing Up to Red Overhead....
                               Praises to the One Who Made it all special for us....
                                       Here in Carterville, Illinois

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The Blues

It seems like we've got a little case of the blues around here.  Just a line in a song or an old picture or a stressful moment can start the tears flowing from just about any one of us.  We miss home!  But we are busy doing our best to create a happy new home, in this case, Kami's new blue bedroom.  Tantalizing Teal is the color by Sherwin Williams.  And it involves black and off white and a really cool chair from Pier One.  Can't wait to have it finished up for her.  In the meantime, we'll just paint our blues away.  

James 1:2 ~ ² Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters,^[a] whenever you face trials of many kinds, ³ because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. ⁴ Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.

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Oklahoma Homegirls

 We were so thankful and happy to have some our homegirls come visit us this weekend.  My pledge sister Ashley came with her two girls, Nicole and Savi.  We gave them a little taste of our life here in Southern Illinois.

 Girls in the paddleboat on the lake behind our house.....

Savi caught a fish... and the pole was broken! A funny moment. 

 Every moment is a funny moment with these two.

Homegirls since they were little.

 Underwater pictures made possible by the Lifeproof phone case.  Cute.

Endless entertainment.

At Italian Village, you can write anywhere you want to.  We regressed to 7th grade and wrote Annie & Ashley BFF ~ hahahaha

Goodbye friends! Thanks for coming all the way from Oklahoma!!! Means so much <3

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Dirty Dog

I think he's loving Southern Illinois. :)

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A Very Pinteresting Day

Life since March has left me feeling quite a bit like Dorothy.  And No not clicking her sparkly red shoes.  

I feel like I have been on a 4 month ride inside a tornado and have landed in a strange new place.  I've wanted to blog about whats happened so much more, but honestly, it's hard to know where to start.  

So I decided to start with today.  What happened today.  And it had a lot to do with my most favorite site, Pinterest.  If I was stuck on a desert island and could only have one social media, I would choose you, Pinterest. :)

What happened today was that I got up and cut a banana into banana coins, as we call them.  I gave the kids 3 small bowls, one of chocolate chips, one of dried cranberries and one of Cinnamon Toast Crunch cereal.  I asked them to "decorate" their bananas. Another one of our sayings that started when Luke said he wanted to "decorate" his  baked potato.  Anyway,  you know your son "gets you" when he says, "hey mom, you should take a picture of this and put it on Pinterest."  Just gave me a big smile.  That and the fact that he ate every bite!  

Then today Kami and I decided to try a fun recipe off Pinterest.  We prepared white cake batter, separated it into 5 bowls and added neon food coloring.  Then we had a little fun and plopped in different colors of cake batter into the muffin tin.

We used almost every drop of the batter and licked a little of it too.  It did NOT have a bitter food coloring taste like I was afraid it would.

A little dollop of icing and some bright sprinkles later, and we had created some great cupcakes that Kamryn took to a swim party.  And she said every crumb and sprinkle were eaten. 

Also, Ellie and Luke and I went to a different swim party this afternoon and I pulled out an old Pinterest favorite for this one.  We assembled banana coins, peanut butter and vanilla wafers and rolled the whole thing in more sprinkles for a fun kid-friendly treat.

Speaking of the swim party, this is where I about had a Pinterest Heart Attack.  My new friend Mandy Rose, who I actually got connected with before moving to Carterville, graciously asked us over for a little swim together.

Her house is very pinteresting (forgive me for using that again, but IT IS!) Click on her home tour from her blog to see what I'm talking about.  It's gorgeous! And great inspiration for me as I work on our new house!

Speaking of that, everyone keeps asking me to post pics, and I'll do that soon!  It's a great house and the whole family loves it.... we are getting used to it, but for now, I'll be honest:

There's no place like home.

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