A T T H E P A R K ' S

Joy to the world! The Merriest Christmas's to all of my wonderful readers!  This Christmas was the first we've had in our own home just the two of us in the last five years.  This weekend we stayed with my side of the family across the mountains and then last night we had hubby's side of the family over for dinner, Christmas Eve service at our church and a movie in the theaters (The Hobbit).  We slept in this morning and enjoyed some much needed rest.  We leisurely opened our Christmas stockings this morning as we watched the snow fall and then put on the movie Christmas Vacation.  It is a holiday tradition to watch it each year but it might soon become a Christmas Day tradition.  We already gave each other our Christmas gifts before Thanksgiving when we purchased snowboards, boots and bindings for one another.  We are excited to use them in the new year for sure!! Much love on this beautiful white Christmas we have here in the mountains.  Hot apple cider

As some of you may know from my Facebook post last night, I have just been diagnosed with gluten intolerance.  Before you understand the significance of this discovery, let me back up a bit.  In 2008 I was diagnosed with Infectious mononucleosis, or for short Mono.  It took my body a good six months to slowly recover and after that my health really began to deteriorate (I developed Shingles in 2004 but that's another story).  Also in 2008 I was diagnosed with sleep disordered breathing (Upper Airway Resistance Syndrome) and was put on CPAP .  From 2010 through 2011 I had become sick almost continuously for roughly fifteen months straight.  From upper respiratory infections to bronchitis to the flu to the common cold I was busy trying to get "healthy" every day.  I wanted to work out and was committed to getting my muscles back (mind you that I competed in track and field all four years of college) and tried multiple times to get into a new habit and routine.  Every tim

Finally I have finished and am so excited to share with you this fun snowflake project .  I found the idea off of, guess where, Pinterest of course!  My original thought was to hang the snowflake as a wreath on my front door for Christmas time but since it can get pretty windy here I thought the snowflake would be too light weight and decided to bring it indoors.  This really is super simple and I hope you try it out too!  I won't post a long tutorial but you can check out the photos below. What you'll need:   Jumbo Craft Sticks (Joanns)  (First I tried actual popsicle sticks but they were too narrow and small) Hot glue gun Small Wooden discs (I used two different sized hole punchers and punched out circles from small shipping envelopes) Craft paint (I used a silver metallic spray paint) Ribbon of any color Protractor Drop cloth or newspaper Instructions: Arrange your sticks using this pattern or make your own Hot glue sticks together Spray paint sticks S

source We have been in our home almost three years now and it seems lik e time has flown by!  There are so many changes and upgrades Hubby and I wanted to do as soon as we moved in but life happened.  Between both of us working full time, going to school, and limited funds (we are also restoring our '71 Mustang), there isn't a lot of time, energy and $$$ at this point in the game .  Between simple home repairs and maintenance there doesn't seem to be a lot of time for projects.  Welcome to home ownership!  For me, it is so helpful though to make a list of my dreams and goals I want to achieve so that I get a v isua l idea of the plannin g process.   Plus it feels so good to cross something off the list!  Yes I am one of those women who loves to cross things off .  There is simply not the same satisfaction when you delete a task off of your smart phone .   We have truly done a lot but there is much to be done.  So without further ado, here is a list of our goals a

Good morning all!  And hello December!!  So I know there are some of you who start decorating for Christmas the day after Thanksgiving but our family tradition is to start decorating on December 1st.  So today marks the first day where I can officially get the Christmas decorations out and blast the Christmas music!  Since I don't have much energy, my hubby graciously helped take the bins out and unload the goods.  I came across a Jingle Bell Hanging Candy Cane that I purchased years ago.  Every year that I take it out, I always struggle with where to place it in the house.  It doesn't really hang well since it's so heavy and since it's so long it takes up a lot of room on a coffee table so...this year I decided to upcycle!  This project took about ten minutes and was FREE, can't beat that! Let's see the before picture and I apologize for the horrible blurriness.  I didn't check the photo until the candy cane was already dismantled. For Christm