Tuesday Things

-We, and by we I mean Alan, are painting our front door black.  The door needs 1-2 more coats and after a coat of primer, the surrounding white wood will be painted black also.

I'm also in love with this screen door.
 I need one for the front and back door, please.

via Pinterest

..and the idea of having curtains for the side windows.
I actually love this entire entryway.
I have also thrown out the idea of painting our interior doors coordinating colors with the rooms..

via Pinterest

-Thanks to my amazing husband for taking completely over for Madison Sunday. I was a zombie all day. I came down with some sinus issues Saturday afternoon and couldn't function at all on Sunday. He took her to church and to run errands and after her nap, he took her to the State Park to play for a few hours so I could get some rest. Thanks to Riley for napping with me from 7am-12:30pm and for napping most of the day but unfortunately she's come down with a cough herself, but thankfully no fever. I hope this house gets better soon!

- I cancelled my Emeals account. I've had this for years. It helped me tremendously in meal planning and grocery shopping. I've come to find that most of the recipes aren't that great though. I was finding myself replacing 1-2 meals that I knew we wouldn't like with freezer meals or leftovers. While planning my own menu and grocery list is taking me for.ev.er, I'm trying to shop for 2 weeks now and I am actually spending more money on groceries than when I had Emeals(including the emeals monthly charge). I'm trying to plan my meals around sales and coupons and using up all of an item in things and making simple meals a few times a week. How do you menu plan? What are your go-to meals?

-Our library has a ton of Summer activities going on. At least once a week, there's an activity that I, or Alan, can take Madison to. There are actually a few activities a week but most are during their nap times. We will be venturing out this week to the magic show that's going on. Mommy/Madison date while Daddy can rest at home.

-I have completely caught up to Parenthood. I'm so bummed to now have to wait for the season to start back. I have now started How I Met Your Mother. I've watched a few episodes and it's pretty funny. I'm also watching The Bachelorette. What shows do you recommend? I'm looking for some series I can find on Netflix or Hulu.

-I feel like I've fallen off of the blogging world lately. I'm trying to come up with weekly ideas so you will be hearing more from us! I will try to do a weekly update, Summer activities list of things I'm doing with Madison along with some week/weekend in photos posts. Anything you want to see, leave me a comment or email me and let me know! I've gotten horrible at blogging but it is something I enjoy.

Sunday Social- June 9

1.  How did you come up with your blog name? Well it's mine and my husband's name :) Neither of us have nicknames and I'm not creative enough to come up with something catchy.


 2. What is your favorite thing about blogging? Keeping a journal of our lives. I can't tell you the times I've referenced back to something.


3. What is one thing you have discovered because of blogging and now can't live without? That there are sites that will matchup coupons with sales/items. AllthingsTarget and IheartPublix are my favs! I've gotten a ton of stuff free or super cheap just by scanning these sites! 

4. Facebook or Twitter? and why? Facebook. I've tried Twitter and I just don't have the time to keep up.



 5. If one celeb read your blog who would you want it to be? Umm.. Taylor Swift, Miranda Lambert, Kelly Ripa.. I have no idea!


6. What is something you want people to know about your blog? That I take a lot of time and energy to write these posts and share them with everyone. I hope people like reading them and enjoy learning about us or seeing things that Madison does that you wouldn't have normally seen/known. I am, by far, not a writer. I write like I speak.......without the southern twang :)



 

New look!

My friend, Lauren, over at Xo Gingersnapps, kindly offered to make me a blog and Facebook header. I had no idea the direction I wanted to go but I knew I wanted 3 birds. After putting the tree decal in Madison's bedroom before her being born, I have loved birds. Her bedding had birds on it and I'm just drawn to them now for some reason. Lauren added all the other pretties on there for me. Pretty well for not knowing me in person, right? I've always wanted a header but never had access to make my own. I appreciate it SO much, Lauren! Please go visit her page by clicking her name above. She's a very religious wife and stay at home mother who also bakes and cooks yummy things! She's very sweet and I know you'll like her!

I also added an Instagram widget so now it shows a preview of my past few pictures on the right side of the page.

If you get email updates and want to see my new blog's face, click HERE

Moving to Bloglovin'

If you follow me with Google Reader, you may have noticed they are shutting down soon. I have moved over to BlogLovin' for my own blogs that I read. Here's an easy link to follow me!


Follow my blog with Bloglovin

New blog things

I'm trying to revamp the blog. Trying to gain more followers and get my current followers to comment, give me suggestions and invite their friends. I have started a Facebook page strictly for the blog and turned my Pinterest and Instagram accounts to Alan and Crystal accounts. This is my only hobby and I've grown to really enjoy posting more and more. I'm no decorator or chef but I like writing.

All that said, I've change the background color and fonts again. I know most of my followers are by email and you don't see it. If you want to see it, go here:

http://alanandcrystal.blogspot.com/2012/12/new-blog-things.html

I also added an "About Us" section that allows new visitors to learn who we are in a nutshell. Married and parents, basically. I have added keywords to all of the posts and you will see those listed on the right. See that big bubble of words, some bigger than the other? Those are keywords. If you remember there's a post with a recipe or if you just want to read all the posts about Madison, just click on whatever keyword you want. Madison is obviously the biggest word because she's the most talked about. You can also type in keywords at the top right in the "Search this blog" bar.

Don't forget, my email suscribers, that you can simply reply, as some of you have, to the blog update email and I will respond in email. I am also getting emails now when someone comments and I try to reply within a few hours. If you want to comment, just scroll down to the comment box and enter your comment and then on the "Comment as" dropdown box, click on "Name/URL" if you don't have any of the accounts listed at the top. Tada! You can comment! You can also comment anonymously if you don't want me knowing who it is. I don't secretly see it, it's totally anonymous.

Is there anything you'd like to read about? I know I blog a lot about Madison and lately I've been trying to blog more about other things but sometimes I get in a rut! Give me some ideas if you have them! I'd love to hear from you!

Photo Friday..

I made some color and font changes to the blog last night. If you get email updates, make sure to visit the site to see the changes!
http://alanandcrystal.blogspot.com

Like them? Easy to read? Let me know what you like or don't like!

Here's my Thursday in pictures..

liquid breakfast.

M's breakfast.

new outfit.

lunch with mom and stepdad

candle outlet loot

tired girl missed her 2nd nap

Baby with Nimmie means tackling cleaning...

..and decorating for Christmas

late lunch = brownie, milk and wine for supper. Yay for being an adult.

a movie while I 'eat' and Alan goes out with guys from work.

and throw in some blog drafts while I 'eat' and watch the movie. 

Got our lights on!

What Wilma did while we decorated

First post! - by Crystal

Hey ya'll! This is the first post to our new blog. This past year has brought some new hobbies for both of us, great things and some major changes in our lives. I (Crystal) keep up with a lot of blogs and love keeping up with people that we know personally and I even keep up with people that I've never met but feel like I know them in real life. I hope you will enjoy this blog as much as I like following other people's blogs. I will try to update as often as possible without boring you to tears. Sometimes we go months with no activity in our life and sometimes it seems there's never a dull moment. This week took a major turn for us. We have had a complete mixture of emotions from sad to confused to angry back to sad to angry to relieved to happy to what.the.hell.now. I will give you the very short summary below-

Crystal lost her job on Monday. The owner of the company I was working for came in around 10am and said that she has decided to move to Charleston to open a retail shop. That she would be closing our doors that day. 30 minutes and a small box of my personal belongings later, I was leaving that office for the last time. 4 years doesn't seem like much. But I made some great friends there. Friends that I miss so much! Well enough about that. I'm moving on and not going to give it any more room on this blog than that!

So this week has been a roller coaster of emotions, needless to say. I have the most amazing husband ever. He took time off, without notice, on Monday to spend the afternoon at the Unemployment Office. Then on Wednesday when I had to apply at One Stop. He's patted my arm every time he walks by or just lets me cry without asking questions. He's been so supportive during this hard time. When I thanked him for doing all of that, he simply said "I haven't done anything". He's so humble and selfless and I'm so thankful for him. I'm not quite sure how I snagged such a great guy but not a day goes by that I don't thank my lucky stars that I have him. I love you babe!

I promise the next post won't be sad or sappy or depressing :) Happy almost Sunday!