how I saved myself $700.00

I have been eyeing this mirror since we moved into this house. We have a large mantel above our fire place, and I went looking for something to hang above it. I found this mirror from Pottery Barn and totally fell in love, however, the size I needed was 700 dollars! YEEEIIIIKES! That doesn't even include the 70 dollar shipping and 60 dollar deliver surcharge. It goes without saying, that mirror was never going to hang in my house.

Fast forward to August, when I was searching for the end of Pinterest I found a DIY option for that beloved mirror. I looked at the instruction and it didn't seem all that hard, so I talked it over with my dad and he seemed to think it was totally doable ( this was when john was gone, so I'd be going it alone). Talking with my dad was as far as I made it. A few weeks passed and I came across the mirror on my friends blog. She had DIY'd it and it turned out fantastic. Around that time I also found out that my mom would be coming out for a visit. If you know my mom, you know she is the queen of all things DIY. She can literally do it all. She sews and quilts like nobodies business, she can make pottery, stained glass and lay tile. She can now add basic wood working and frame making to her list of skills because she did this entire project on her own. I wish she had a blog, because she's the one that really needs to be showing this puppy off. Any who, here it is. It measures about 45inches X 45 inches and is the perfect fit for my mantel. I absolutely LOVE it! Thanks mom for all your help and hard work. *you can't really tell in the pic, but each mirror has bevelled edges just like the pottery barn*

Hopefully I'll make it back with a better picture and the mantel decorated a bit for Christmas, but for now, this pic with a  bad crop job, the topiary off kilter and the sad fall pendent will have to do.  

Look (great) Grandma!

The jingle bell hat has been passed down (normally he doesn't wear sideways, but John put it on him) :)

 The other night one of our friends had the squadron over and we sat around the fire pit. It sounded nice and dare I say relaxing, until we got there. The fire pit was in the front yard ( I use the term "yard" very loosely because it was rocks and cactus, like all NM front yards) which was near the street. So, it meant that John or I spent the entire night saving Bram from falling into or diving into the fire, blocking him from bolting into the street or steering him clear of all the cactus waiting to skewer him. It was a great time, with great company, but after an hour my nerves and patience were shot.

Go grab a cup of coffee

and sit down, because this is going to be a long one ;)

Most importantly, after 130ish days, our family is whole again!

 Soccer season ended a while back, and whew, glad that's over! The season initially got off to a  slow start, and getting Ambrose on the field require a whole lot of threatening and bribing, which made me rethink my choice of enrolling him in soccer for another season. However, as the season went on, he did improve, and by the last game, he required no threatening and only the bribery of a medal and cupcake. Successful season indeed ;)

 While John is gone, life takes on a real life Groundhogs day like quality. I did the same thing over and over and my sole focus is to get out on the other side of the deployment with my sanity in tact and my two beautiful boys happy and healthy. So, for me, it's key to find some kind of structure to our day and ways to fill the time outside of our home (because while inside, we all go stir crazy).  So, we were outside a lot!

Here are a couple pics of our Halloween. Ambrose was an astronaut and Bram was a scarecrow.

Well, that's it for now, because my Internet is taking 20 minutes to upload each picture, and for Pete's sake, I can't sit here any longer.