I'm kinda back...

Rich's grandfather passed away last Tuesday and the funeral was Saturday. (He is really going to be missed!) So, with the funeral overwith, I'm starting to get back to normal around here. The only thing is 'normal' is busier than I remember it! I don't think I realized that summer came while we were away and now I have a bunch more to do. I need to be working in the garden, potty training Blake, getting things ready for a trip, spending more play time outside and the list goes on. There is a lot more going on that tends to be filling up our weekends, too. For all these reasons, I think I'm going to continue my break from blogging-maybe for the rest of the summer. I'll probably have an occasional post up, but blogging seems to have become another chore to add to my list and I want it to be fun-not work.

Even though I won't have as many posts up, I still hope to stop by and visit everyone. I feel like I've made a lot of great blogging friends and I want to keep up with all of you, so you'll still see me around on occasion. :-)

I hope everyone has a wonderful summer! Take care! :-)

Asking for Prayers

To say that this last month has been rough would be an understatement. We lost my grandfather a month ago today and now we are about to lose Rich's grandfather as well. (Unless God has an extra miracle to send our way-we'll take it!) This is all unexpected and it has been really hard on the whole family. I just wanted to ask for prayers and let you know that I won't be around much again.

The Giveaway's 1st Birthday Bash!

Hey everyone! I was just wanting to let you know about The Giveaway's 1st Birthday Bash that will run June 5th-12th. Haven't heard about 'The Giveaway'? It's this great blog that has several easy-to-enter giveaways starting every week!

And the Birthday Bash will be the biggest week ever! There are over $2100 in prizes to be given out! Starting with a Giveaway Carnival on Friday, June 5th, a Photo Contest on Saturday, Scavenger Hunt on Sunday, regular giveaways Mon-Thurs, a LIVE Grand Prize Giveaway on Friday, June 12th, and Daily Door Prizes. This is going to be HUGE!

For more info on the Birthday Bash, here's the link.

Remember, it starts this Friday, June 5th with The Giveaway's 1st Annual Birthday Carnival! So if you are hosting a family-friendly giveaway on your blog, you can enter it in the Carnival and be entered to win a great Prize Package, as well as Friday's Door Prize!

Wordless Wednesday: Such a Little 'Guy'

For more Wordless Wednesday, check out 5 Minutes for Mom, Go Graham Go!, Healthy Moms and PB and Smelly's Dad.

Awards

I've been stockpiling awards these last couple weeks! I'm sorry to those of you who passed these on to me for taking so long in accepting!

I received the You Don't Say Super Comments Award from Cascia at Healthy Moms.


The Friendship Chain award is from Andrea at MomWriterMe.

And the One Lovely Blog Award is from Jenna at A Mom's Balancing Act.

Thank you so much, to all three of you, for thinking of me for these awards. I am truly honored and very grateful to you for the wonderful recognition! At the same time, between these three awards, I would need to come up with around 30 blogs to pass them on to. There are many blogs that I would love to share these with. Unfortunately to link to 30 blogs and inform all of them of their awards would be a bit much for me right now, so I won't be passing them on.

I, again, am very honored! Thank you Cascia, Andrea and Jenna! :-)

It's Up!

Friday was a busy day, but the basics of the play set got together. What didn't get done Friday, Rich finished Saturday, except for the canopy. The canopy will be added when the wind dies down enough for it to be safe to put on. (I'll take another picture then, so everyone can see it totally finished.)

Rich took about an hour on Friday to take all the pieces from the bundles and lay them out in numerical order. He took a break for a while to start planting the garden. I was babysitting Rich's buddy's little guy (the 5 month old) while the buddy, Dave, was working. Dave stopped back about 2:30 to help Rich put the play set together. (I still babysat until Dave's wife came, then she stayed for a while too.)

All in all, the play set went together really well. We came in about 9:30 Friday night, but Rich had finished a while before that. (Yeah-we were playing!) There were a few setbacks as you'll see in the little slide show, but if the guys could have worked nonstop, it would have been together quite quickly.

This was my first time making a slide show like this. It's a little over 4 minutes and there is actually music! (Just the sample music that came on the computer. Maybe I'll try a little harder finding some different music the next time.)


Isn't the play set great?! We're extremely happy with everything about it!

• The instructions that came with it were really easy to follow. There was even a check off list that Rich made sure to go through before starting.
• It is made of wood that we never have to stain. Plus it is a beautiful color!
• The chains are coated so the kids' fingers don't get pinched.
• The slide and swings are just awesome! You can't help but smile when you get to the bottom of the slide and I don't think I've ever sat in more comfortable swings.
• Rich loved being able to put the rock wall together the way he wanted to. (He made one side the easy side and the other side the hard side.)
• The kids just love everything. They would stay out there all day if they could! :-)

I can't thank Dad Blogs and Kid's Creations enough for this amazing prize! It is truly a wonderful play set that I know my kids are safe on and it will probably last long enough for my grand kids to play on. If you are interested in a quality swing set, definitely check out Kid's Creations. You won't be disappointed! :-)

I wanted to thank Dad Blogs again for the camera as well. Without it, I wouldn't have gotten such great pictures of putting the play set together and of the kids playing! (I'm seriously in love with the new camera! LOL!)