Happy Birthday Sweet Friend....

Most days it is still hard to believe that Karlena is gone. Today would have been her 37th birthday...and it is sad for me not to be able to celebrate it with her.

I think one of the hardest things for me still is that I miss so much that bond that we had. She knew me, all of me and loved me in spite of all of my faults. I still have one of her messages on my phone and I got to hear her voice again a few days ago when I was checking my messages.  Her voice always had a smile in it.  No matter what she was going through...she was positive.

I loved that about her!

As a side note - it seems as though I am pregnant in just about every photo I can find right now of us together! :)  She was SOOO excited when we found out we were having a girl, and that she would carry on her name. Oh how I wish our girl could know her in this lifetime. :(

I guess days like this are just a little harder than some. For me I wish things were different...I am certain that she is having a wonderful birthday in Heaven. But I would love to celebrate with her here too!

I have said it before that Karlena had such an amazing legacy...she taught me so much about loving God despite your circumstances, trusting in His plan for our lives...even if it is a hard road to walk.  I am so grateful that I have those memories of her to hold on to...and pass down to my kids.

The picture below is Karlena with Elijah. She loved him something fierce too. She was their Auntie Karlena!  I have a picture of her in our girls room...hopefully she will love her memory like I do and realize how special it is that she carries her name.

Karlena it is safe to say that you will never be forgotten. Today especially I celebrate you, your legacy and the gift of friendship that you gave to me for so many years. Happy Birthday Sweet Friend.....

Exciting News!!

I have been so excited to share this news with you....but had to wait awhile until everything was in place before I could take pictures and share all of the details here.  

Some of you already know what changes our family has faced the past months. We have felt support and encouragement from so many people - in so many different ways and just feel grateful for each and every one of you!  Our family's success is in large part due to our extended group of family and friends that have walked along side of us. And of course we thank God who has led us to this place. Our faith and family has grown through this experience and our hope is that we can glorify Him as we move forward!

As of May 1st Dominic is a business owner!! Well technically he has been working on this for a few months....but the lease on his rental space starts May 1st and he will finally be able to meet with clients in his new office space!

Introducing....Legal Estate Planning Solutions, PLLC!!

Oh my goodness I can't even tell you how proud of him I am! Opening your own business is scary and exciting all wrapped in one.  There are so many details to finalize from office furniture and where to buy printer paper, creating a business card etc. But we have had fun planning out all the details and are excited that by opening his own office in Marshall he will be able to be home much more often, instead of traveling across the state all week long.

Dominic's focus will be solely on Estate Planning - so if you need a will or power of attorney, a trust or farm/business succession planning - he's your man!

Yesterday we did some final set-up and cleaning at the new office space and I have a few pictures for a sneak peak! We will be having an open house soon and I will let you know when that is later and hope you might be able to come see the entire space in person!

This is his waiting area/lobby...

His office space...

The conference room...

And another view of the conference room.

And hopefully soon his sign will be up here too. The sign has been the most difficult to coordinate and will take much longer to be made and delivered. So it may be the middle of May or longer before it is ready. But it is exciting nonetheless!

His office is located at 1411 East College Dr, right between the steakhouse and the bowling alley! It should be very easy to find him!

Again we can't thank you enough for all of your support as we have prepared for this next step for our family. God has blessed this process and we all love Marshall so it is exciting to set down real roots and make this town a long-time home for our family and Dominic's business.

Oh Boy, we are in trouble!

 

I was in the front sitting room talking to Gabriel for just a minute, maybe two...and then went into the kitchen and found this.

What happened to my sweet girl that just sat down nicely to play with toys?? Apparently she has figured out how to pull back a chair and climb up that and onto the table to play with the napkins.

We are in trouble!!

 

Of course after I took the picture I had to take her down and tell her no that she couldn't climb....she wasn't happy being told no! But first the table and then what??

 

Any tips for discouraging this kind of climbing??

A "Thirty One" Party!!

I don't do these types of parties very often, but after I attended a Thirty One party last month, I thought it would be fun to have one of my own!! And Ami our Consultant is fairly new to the Marshall area and this is a way for her to meet some of the wonderful people that live here too!!

So this coming Thursday - April 19th, starting at 6pm, we will be having a Thirty One party at my house!!  And I would love it if you could come!  I know that some of you don't live close...but I still wanted to post this open invite and a link to shop online if you are interested!!

This is the lunch bag that I ordered at my last party.

I love that it is insulated so it keeps things cold, and it is the perfect size too!

 

And in April if you spend $31 you can get ANY purse for 1/2 off!! I am really excited about this part. There was a purse that I really wanted and now I can get it for 12/ price!! YAY!!

So if you are available I would love to have you come this Thursday...there will be food and desserts and fun products...and just some good ol' girl time! :) If you don't have and need my address leave me a comment and I will e-mail it to you!

If you can't come but want to take advantage of the great specials they have this month - click here to access the online catalog!

Hope to see you Thursday!!

A Week in Review

Has another week already passed? I meant to post before..during...and after Easter and it just didn't happen. We had a fun weekend with both families. Good meals, 2+ Easter egg hunts and Karlena's first bang trim by our good friend, and old stylist Angie!

Angie always said she wanted to do Karlena's first trim so it was fun to be able to visit Beresford again and catch up with her too!

Elijah really enjoyed looking for eggs this year. My sister had a great idea from a co-worker and had different colored baskets and matching colored eggs for each of the kids. That way we could tell Elijah to just look for the blue eggs and there wasn't fighting between kids!

When we were in Parker I think the kids hid and re-hid the eggs at least 2 times. It turned out to be beautiful weather all weekend!

We had Gabriel's school concert this week. Here in Marshall they just do 1 big concert at the end of the year, instead of one in the winter and the spring.  It was an AMAZING show!

It was just the 2nd grade classes - I think there are 7 of them and they did music and dances and then a musical. Gabriel had a line in the play..."Yeah, like Science" :)  He did a great job - they all did. So very impressed!

And we ended off our week with a PTA carnival at the school. It was packed, but the kids had fun and came home with some candy and prizes!

How was your week? Do you feel like me that the days are just flying by?? I have so much that I want to get done this weekend and I am afraid it can't/won't all happen! Enjoy your weekend friends!!

My Idiosyncrasies, Jeff Daniels and more....

I was talking with a friend this morning about traveling and vacations and having a bunch of laundry to come home and do and I shared how I can't stand having dirty laundry in my suitcase.  It is one of those "weird" things that is only me and that caused me to think about some of the other things that are my unique idiosyncrasies.

Can you relate with any of these??

I NEVER sneeze only once. I blame my dad :) because he doesn't either. Is that hereditary? I am sure of it....I guess its something that always makes me think of him when it happens.

I always put my M&M's in a pattern before I eat them. Here, let me show you!!

If I have a pile of M&M's like this...

I start by eating the brown first - always the brown first. The brown will never be found in my "design"..sorry brown!!  Then I organize the M&M's into a pattern...usually a triangle.

Then I pull off full rows and eat those until the triangle is gone. 

Please tell me there is someone else out there that does this?? I am going to go with the idea that only really, really smart people do this!! ;)

Ahem....let's see....what else?

Oh - I always leave the socks for last when folding laundry. I can't stand folding socks...Dominic knows this and will help do those. He knows how to speak my love language!! <3

And my least favorite parenting "job"...if you can call it that is clipping fingernails and toenails. I am TERRIBLE about remembering to do this and especially with boys they need to stay short. Unfortunately for Dominic he often "gets" this job because it really is just too gross for me!

Ok complete topic change now!

Today was daddy daycare at the Smith home. Markel was off for the day visiting her daughter (and hopefully having a wonderful time) so Dominic had the 2 littles all on his own. I guess it was a pretty good day. He even sent me a text with a picture of Karlena sleeping on his chest. sigh.

And when I got home he has all these pictures of Jeff Daniels on the computer. You know, the guy from Dumb and Dumber. The one in the blue suit if you aren't familiar...

via

And he says that Karlena has the same haircut. I say no...but what do you think?! :)

 

She wasn't particularly pleased when I took this photo tonight. We just made he come inside and just like her brothers she LOVES the outdoors!

But really...I know her bangs need a trim...but she isn't sporting a Jeff Daniels haircut is she? I am in denial. See by this time all of our boys had haircuts. But I can't cut her hair because then she will look like a boy. How do we best get her through this weird hair stage though?

Moms of girls can you help?!?!

I made a homemade caramel cheesecake to bring to work today and for the first time it didn't crack after I baked it. It was so perfectly beautiful...I should have taken a photo. And you know why it didn't crack?

Because my husband is so smart - seriously I am jealous he heard this first - and told me to try wrapping a damp towel around the base of the spring form pan while baking...and it totally worked!! He say or heard it somewhere and remembered and told me...so I tried it last night!

It was really good if I do say so myself. Could very well be a downfall to all this "shredding" we have been doing. Day 8 by the way. Should be day 12 or 13 but twice we went 2 days in between workouts...so we aren't quite on track. But I am doing more than I was so I feel good about it!

Well I better end this long rant. I hope that you have a wonderful start to your week! Blessings friends!