Make Your Own Bug Spray

I absolutely HATE bug bites because my kids and I have a bad reaction to them! This past summer we spent a week in South Carolina and anyone who has ever been there in the summer knows that there are millions of mosquitoes that come out at sundown.

My husband's aunt told us about the BEST BUG SPRAY EVER....and we are in love!

Just mix half and half of water and gold Listerine (any brand will do...we picked this up while in South Carolina and it works great!)

It is great with kids because I don't have to worry about them getting chemicals in their clothes or their bed after spraying them down.

I am sure that anyone up North is not worried about bug bites during the end of January....but we are covered in bites after soccer practice last night so I decided to mix up a new batch of spray!
xoxo

Making Progress on Loft

I finally made new curtains for the kid's loft area! I will be posting more pictures after this weekend, but I am just too excited not to share these curtains.
The horizontal stripe at the top was a beautiful accident! I originally cut the fabric too short, so I had to think of a fun way to extend them! Love when an accident turns out so wonderful!

xoxo

Ultra Race

This past weekend my hubby and I ran in a 100 mile Ultra-Marathon!
We were asked to sign up and since we are avid runners, we decided to sign up for the cause. It was definitely a crazy challenge and nothing like we have ever done before.....but all worth it!

I was assigned the last leg of the race at MIDNIGHT.......which sounds crazy enough in itself! To make it all even more interested....the entire trail was in the woods.....on a dirt/sand/mud trail......and I would basically be alone! (I honestly didn't realize these details until I arrived at the race, which is probably a good thing!)

Chad ran first (he was the 8th leg of the race) and I waited at the finish line as he finished his 8 mile run. The look on his face scared me a little bit as I asked him about the trail and if I would be okay out there running.

My leg began at midnight and I just ran off into the woods not exactly knowing what I was going to face. I blasted my music to hide the howling noises that I had heard as I waited at the start line.....and ran my heart out looking for these little glow sticks to guide me thru the scary woods! It was SOOOOO dark and I only saw a few other runners, going the opposite direction as me the whole time I was in the woods!

I was making great time, and felt so proud that I was concurring such a serious fear of being in the woods alone........until I realized I had made a wrong turn and came across a drink station for the second time! I had added a mile to my distance at this point and just laughed it off and was thankful that I had trained so hard! I started to get SUPER annoyed with myself when I passed the SAME drink station for the 3rd time.......and realized that I would now be running 10+ miles in the woods that night! At this point I informed the guys at the water station that if I passed this station again they were going to have to call for someone to come and pick me up because I was done! :) OOPS!!!!!!

Once I found my way in the correct direction I ran my heart out and finished my now 10+ mile leg in 1 hour and 45 min! I normally wouldn't be so proud of this time....but seeing as how it was all on loose sand and dirt and I had to rely on the tiny lamp on my head to guide me...and had to walk thru the loose mud that had been made when a few wild boars had tried to nest on the path......I felt great!

My super sweet hubby was there to ride his bike with me on the last mile and was soo proud of me! It wasn't until I crossed the finish line that he mentioned to me that he was sooo shocked I even finished the race because he had been scared out of his mind out there! ha!


I absolutely love facing these awesome challenges with my best friend, and have never been so excited to see his face as I did when I had come out of the woods that night! :)
xoxo

New Years Fun!

I have been missing from the blog world for a bit, but I have some fun ideas I have been working on and I AM BACK!

We spent our New Years in Northern Virginia with my sister and her family! It was such a great trip!!!!!!!!!
Chad and I grew up there and it is always so nice to go back "home" and show our kids where we used to hang out.
Here is just a little piece of our vacation in pictures.....


I bought yard and taught myself how to crochet a scarf on our 14 hour car trip from Florida to Virginia!

My sister and I took our girls to the American Girl store in DC! It was so great! I absolutely love enjoying it all with them!

My sister and I on the metro into DC! I road backwards and seriously almost got sick! I have been away from the city for too long if I can't handle the metro anymore!

Love this picture of my family! It was super cold out and it was fun to bundle up in all of our winter gear!

Love being in the city with my hubby! We used to skip school and walk around there when we were in high school!

The kids were super bummed that we couldn't go in and just say hi to the President! ha!

We went to see ICE and froze our tails off in the 5 degree weather! It was sooo fun! They had a fun little ice skating rink set up at the end and it was so much fun! Love seeing my Florida babies doing winter sports that Chad and I used to enjoy!

We downloaded the 2011 ball drop on the ipad and played it on the tv via AppleTV. We celebrated "midnight" at 9:00 with the kids. They were sooo funny and so proud of themselves for "making it up until midnight". So fun!

After a 14 hour drive home it was sooo nice to be welcomed by my little Roxy!

Kids didn't start back to school until this past Tuesday.....and as soon as I dropped them off I came home and painted my nails in some fun polish. I think it is fun, but for the past three days Kacey has been begging me to take the blue off and just do all of my nails in glitter. ha!

I have spent the beginning of 2012 training for an upcoming 100 mile relay race that I signed up for. chad and I are both running a 12 mile leg, and I am training like a crazy lady!

Hope your new years is off to a great start!!!!!
xoxo