Monday Show & Tell-Favorite room in your home

Welcome to the first edition of the Monday Show & Tell. This week we are showing our favorite room in our home.

My favorite room in my house is my bedroom. I love my bedroom as this is where I get to relax & sleep. I love black & white, especially toile. And I love Paris, so most everything in my room reflects this.

I just got the netting for my bed. Came from ebay. Isn't it romantic? It was Mike's idea. He was watching some show on the travel channel & saw a bed in a hotel in the south pacific with netting on it like this & thought it would look great on our bed. And it does!!!



In the summertime I use this white matlasse coverlet. But in the winter, I have a heavier comforter that is black & white toile that matches my pillow shams.

I love my monogram pillow. I usually wouldn't splurge on something like this pillow, but it was on clearance!!! No I did not get it from ebay, but from JC Penney.

This old dresser is Mike's. I love antique dressers. I love my plates above the mirror and of course my black & white toile lampshade. Mike lets me put one of my jewelry boxes on his dresser. I didn't take a photo of my dresser as I didn't have time to clean off the top of it. I have a stack of papers a mile high.

Mike made this window using bevels & glue chip glass. In fact he made 2 of them. One for each side of the bed. He is really good at making stained glass. I love anything french, so I love the fleur de lis.

I took an old window & put a black & white poster of Paris from the early 1900's behind the window. I put it on the wall next to my bed. So this my view when I first wake up in the morning.


I love mirrors. I have alot of them around my house. Probably got that from my mom. I guess I am vain in some respects. Or I like to know that I am still around.

These are the french doors Mike put in our room this past year. I love them!!! Lets in so much light & great to have both of them open on hot summer nights. We do have screens so the bugs don't get in when the doors are open. But not very safe. Good thing we live in a safe neighborhood. I still need to put up my drapes. Notice our ugly teal blue carpet. We have this throughout our whole house. That is why all our walls are white, I don't want to paint until we get new flooring.

This is my favorite Shabby Chic pitcher. I use it alot in my ebay photos as background. I collect pitchers. Mostly white, but I do have some with roses. I love pink roses & I love shabby chic.

These are my Joseph birthday girls. I got both at a thrift store for less than $5.00 each. I love them. I wanted to collect them when I was a little girl, but didn't. I got the "7" one for Taylor (Eric's youngest daughter) when she turned 7, but I loved it so much that I couldn't part with it. Sorry Taylor.

I got my Avon Eiffel Tower perfume decanter off ebay. I use it in alot of my ebay photos & people are always asking me where I got it.

I love Paris!!!!! Want to go back some day.

I also collect white vases. Here are some of my white pitchers & vases together on top of my armoire in my bedroom. I'm going to paint this armoire black someday. I'm always going to do something some day. My house is full of unfufilled dreams & gotta do someday.

Well there you have a sample of my favorite items in my favorite room in my house. As you can tell, I love black & white toile, Paris, pitchers, white vases, roses, antique dressers, mirrors and Joseph birthday girls. What do you love or collect?

Next week's topic: Backyards. Submit photos of your backyard. What are your favorite things in your backyard?

Fall has arrived

Fall has arrived in Southern California. At least on the calendar it has. For the past week it has been more like summer than fall. Temps have been around 100 degrees. And the nights have been warm as well.

Danica called & asked if they could come over Saturday to swim as it was so hot. We were out shopping at the time so I asked if they wanted to come over early in the evening for dinner and swimming. They said yes & our fall celebration plan was in full force.

Now last Saturday I had planned an end of summer celebration, but Eric & Cade had been hiking all day & were too tired to come celebrate. And the other family I had invited ended up having a plugged up drain, so they couldn't come. So our end of summer celebration was a complete bust. So Mike & I went to Red Lobster for dinner instead. But when Eric's family said they wanted to come over this weekend, I made an impromtu beginning of fall celebration. Any excuse for a party.

It ended up only being Eric, Danica, Cade & my family for the fall celebration. The rest of Eric's family didn't want to make the trek over to our house (15 minute drive).



While I was fixing dinner, the rest of the gang looked at pictures I had out & reminised about old times. For dinner we had spaghetti, sausages, salad & garlic bread. We ate outside under the stars. Dinner was very tasty. After dinner we were planning on going swimming. But when we tried to get in the pool, the water was a cold 74 degrees. Usually during the summer the pool temp is in the 80's & with the temps being so high this past week, I thought for sure the water temp would be up, but we were wrong.

No one was brave enough to go into the pool, except for Cade. He jumped in the pool once, but immediately go out as it was too cold. So the rest of us opted for the warm jacuzzi instead. Eric said the jacuzzi felt great on his sore back. We didn't have the jacuzzi temp too high, just warm enough to enjoy.

We were going to watch a movie outside by the pool, but decided it wasn't worth the effort. We just visited & laughed with one another instead.

All in all it was a fun evening for a spur of the moment event. Wish you could have been there.

Kim

P.S. Don't forget show & tell Monday tomorrow. Be sure to post pictures of your favorite room in your house.

Friday Family Face-Kim

Welcome to the first edition of the Friday Family Face. This week we are spotlighting ME!!!!!

Kimberly Ann Langston St.Clair Chalfant was born on 08/21/58. This year she turned 50 years young. Kim is the oldest of 5 children in the Langston family. She is currently married to Mike and between them they have 3 boys, Brandan (his) 25 years old, Brandon (hers) 25 years old & Jesse (his) almost 18 years old. She also has 1 daughter in law Crystal 26 years old & 1 grandson named Gunner who turned 1 in August. Mike & Kim have been married for 2 years but have been together for 12 years.

Kim currently lives in Sun City, CA & purchased her first home 2 1/2 years ago. She works as an insurance agent for a small independent insurance agency selling personal auto & homeowners insurance. Kim hates insurance, but it pays the bills.

Kim also sells on ebay. She has taken a break for the past few months but is looking forward to selling again. She sells Shabby Chic or Cottage decorating style items. Her ebay name is starshinechic.

I asked Kim some questions & this is how she responded:
1) What is your favorite vacation spot or place to travel?
I would have to say my favorite place that I've been is Europe. We went about 5 years ago when Mike turned 50. I loved Paris and Venice the most. I'm hoping to go back someday.

2) What is your favorite food or drink that is not good for you?
My weakness is Pepsi. I'm fat because of Pepsi. What more can I say?

3) What has been your biggest challenge or something you struggle with?
I would have to say my weight. I love to eat & drink Pepsi. I'm a social eater. I love the taste of food. If there is food around, I will eat it.

4) What are you really good at?
I'm probably best at being busy & getting nothing accomplished.

5) What celebrity crushes did you have as a teenager?
I loved David Cassidy & Donny Osmond. Oh and the Monkees (that was more as a child)

6) What do you love about being a grandparent?
I love that I get to do all the fun stuff & don't have to do the bad stuff.

7) What surprises you the most about adult life?
That you have many more rules to follow than when you were a child.

8) What is your favorite thing to do?
I love to go shopping at antique stores or thrift stores. I don't get to do that as much as I would like. Old Town Temecula has a lot of neat antique stores.

9) What is your favorite decorating style?
I love Shabby Chic, but unfortunately I live in a household of boys. So I only get to decorate my office at work this way. My china hutch at home is decorated this way too. I also love black & white, especially toile. My bedroom is done in this style.

10) Are you a morning or night person?
Definitely a night person. I don't go to bed until midnight. The only night I have trouble staying up late is New Years Eve. Murphy's law or something like that.

11) What are you listening to?
I love oldies. Especially the 70's. I love old rock, disco. I don't listen to much current music. Mostly oldies & talk radio. I don't own an I pod.

12) What has been the hardest decision in life so far?
The hardest decision was getting a divorce from Brandon's dad. But it worked out OK as I am finally happy.

13) What is your favorite memory of Grandma & Grandpa Manning?
Going on vacation with them to Yellowstone. I went fishing for the fist time, talked to much, ate too much chicken, saw my first moose & bear and rescued a wounded bird. I was 8 years old & had so much fun.

14) What is your favorite childhood or teenage memory?
When I was a teenager we went to G&G's for Christmas. Wanted a white Christmas really bad but it wasn't in the forecast. Went to bed on Christmas Eve with no snow & woke up Christmas morning to about 6 inches of snow. It was magical!!!


15) What is one word that describes you?
Peacemaker

New features: Friday Family Face and Show & Tell Monday

TO ALL FAMILY MEMBERS:

I want to start a spotlight of each family member so that we can all get reacquainted and get to know those family members that we don’t know (children and/or spouses).

I have sent an email to each of you that I have a email address for, with a questionnaire that I’ve put together. Please answer all the questions or as many as you feel comfortable answering. You can elaborate on your answers if you want. I know it is a lot of questions, but it gives me the option of highlighting different questions & things about each person each week. I promise I won’t use all the questions each week. I’ll try & use about 10-15 of the questions at any one time.

Please forward the questionnaire that I have emailed to all your family members including children and their spouses if they have one (this mostly applies to Bunkers as I don't have Rick & Tyler's emails or Marti's kids) . Have everyone in your family (adults & children) fill this questionnaire out & email back to Kim at kasmlc@hotmail.com as soon as possible. I would also like you to email me some photos of each person to go with their questionnaire if at all possible. At least 1 photo so we will know what you look like. I should get back a questionnaire & photos for each person in your family.

Each Friday I will pick a person to spotlight & pick some questions from the questionnaire to put in blog with answers so everyone can get to know everyone again. And get to know spouses & children that we may or may not know.

Email me if any questions. Looking forward to finding out more about each of you. If you don’t want to participate, please email me & let me know.

I'm also going to have Mondays be "Show & Tell" on the blog. I will try & think up a different subject each week. This Monday 9/29/08 the subject will be: MY FAVORITE ROOM IN MY HOME. You can post photos of your favorite room in your home, apartment condo, tent, whatever you live in and describe the reasons you love this room in your home.

I hope that each of you will participate in this.

Kim

P.S. I will start this Friday Family Face off this week with Me.

Things that go bump in the night

It all started last night as I went to bed around midnight. As I was getting into bed my nose brushed up against the netting that is around our bed. Since I didn't have my contacts in I didn't see it. This scared the crap out of me (lukily not literally). I thought I had run into someone. I started laughing as I got so scared by something so minor.

Then about 3:30 this morning I got up for my nightly visit to see John. I was trying to stay asleep as much as possible so that when I got back in bed I would be able to drift back to dreamland. I was back in bed only a minute when I heard something in the back yard move real fast, then a loud crash & then the sound of something going over the fence & rustling in the landscaping (or in my case weeds) on the other side. I jumped out of bed to see what was the clatter.

As you know, I am quite blind without my contacts & I can't see much better with my glasses. And it was pretty dark out back. I couldn't see a thing. Mike said it was probably a cat. I said it must have been a huge cat as it made so much noise. I stood in our room looking out our french doors for a minute or two. I kept hearing rustling sounds around the yard, but couldn't see anything.

What was it? My heart was racing, my adrenaline pumping. Normally I would make Mike check it out, because I am such a scaredy cat, but not this morning. For some reason I felt brave (probably because I am now officially old) I decided to investigate. I grabbed Mike's flash light & ventured outside. I had no clue what I might find. My mind was racing with thoughts as to what it could have been. Was it aliens? (this was my first thought), ghosts, a bobcat, a burglar (I really didn't want to think it was this one as all I had was a flash light as a weapon)?

I flashed my light around the yard, but couldn't see anything moving except for our cat Missy. See was looking at the fence like she was trying to see something on the other side. I crept closer, when I got to where she was I could see that my little green wagon was the thing that crashed. It was knocked over on it's side with everything that had been sitting in it on the ground. Well at least part of the mystery had been solved. I found what went bump in the night.

But was caused the wagon to fall over? I nervously looked over the fence & shined my flash light to the other side. Luckily I didn't see anything. I looked over the entire yard & never did find out what caused the commotion. I finally gave up & went back inside.

Mike said "I told you, it was that fat cat that has been hanging out in the yard". He is probably right, but I still think it was ALIENS!!!!

Kim

P.S. Mike can't believe that I am writing so much about nothing. He said he could have said it all in a few words. "Something woke us up at 3:30 in the morning"

The end.

The Man Rules

I got the following in an email from Andrea. I thought it was quite funny & since I live in a household of men, I better not forget these rules.

Warning!!! Anyone over the age of 45 might want to go to the bathroom first before reading as you may wet your pants while laughing.

Enjoy!!!

The ManRules At last a guy has taken the time to write this all down Finally, the guys' side of the story. ( I must admit, it's pretty good.) We always hear 'the rules' From the female side Now here are the rules from the male side. These are our rules! Please note.. these are all numbered '1 ' ON PURPOSE! 1. Men are NOT mind readers. 1. Learn to work the toilet seat. You're a big girl. If it's up, put it down. We need it up, you need it down. You don't hear us complaining about you leaving it down. 1. Sunday sports It's like the full moon or the changing of the tides. Let it be. 1. Crying is blackmail. 1. Ask for what you want. Let us be clear on this one: Subtle hints do not work! Strong hints do not work! Obvious hints do not work! Just say it! 1. Yes and No are perfectly acceptable answers to almost every question. 1. Come to us with a problem only if you want help solving it. That's what we do. Sympathy is what your girlfriends are for. 1. Anything we said 6 months ago is inadmissible in an argument. In fact, all comments become Null and void after 7 Days. 1. If you think you're fat, you probably are. Don't ask us. 1. If something we said can be interpreted two ways and one of the ways makes you sad or angry, we meant the other one 1. You can either ask us to do something Or tell us how you want it done. Not both. If you already know best how to do it, just do it yourself. 1. Whenever possible, Please say whatever you have to say during commercials.. 1. Christopher Columbus did NOTneed directions and neither do we. 1. ALL men see in only 16 colors, like Windows default settings. Peach, for example, is a fruit, not A COLOR. PUMPKIN IS ALSO A FRUIT. WE HAVE no idea what mauve is. 1. If it itches, it will be scratched.. We do that. 1. If we ask what is wrong and you say 'nothing,' We will act like nothing's wrong. We know you are lying, but it is just not worth the hassle. 1. If you ask a question you don't want an answer to, Expect an answer you don't want to hear. 1. When we have to go somewhere, absolutely anything you wear is fine...Really . 1. Don't ask us what we're thinking about unless you are prepared to discuss such topics as baseball or motor sports 1. You have enough clothes. 1. You have too many shoes. 1. I am in shape. Round IS a shape! 1. Thank you for reading this. Yes, I know, I have to sleep on the couch tonight; But did you know men re ally don't mind that? It's like camping. Pass this to as many men as you can - to give them a laugh. Pass this to as many women as you can - to give them a bigger laugh.

Photos from Jeannette's birthday party

I am a week late in posting the birthday photos from Jeannette's birthday on 9/10/08. Eric's family (mainly Danica) set up a small surprise birthday party for Jeannette on her birthday. They invited my family and a few other friends. It was a small gathering, but fun.

Jeannette knew that my family was coming over for cake & ice cream as we always come over for someone's birthday. She didn't know some other friends were coming over as well. She was quite surprised.

Eric purchased the princess cake, but Danica made the small chocolate cake. The boys (Jase, Cade & Jesse) stayed inside the whole party (party poopers). Brandon stayed home as his back hurt (another party poopper). The rest of us enjoyed cake & ice cream. So I got my fix of chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream (you can always count on Eric's family to have my favorite kind of ice cream).

Jeannette was a good sport on turning older. She got some cool jewelry. And I gave her a gift card to Barnes & Noble (this is the gift that keeps on giving since everyone in Eric's family loves to read so they share books).

Taylor's friend Ashley was there, so the two of them were quite the entertainment (anyone who has teenage girls know what I mean). Lots of giggling and goofy photos.

All in all it was a fun evening. I love spending time with my brother's family. I think I'll keep them as family.

Kim

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Trapped

I work in the city of Moreno Valley. It is on the border of Riverside. For the past 6 months the city has been replacing the water pipes down the street I work on. They have now reached our office.
This morning Brandon & I got to work & they had started digging up the street in front of our office. We had to drive over a small pile of dirt to get into our work driveway. I felt like I was off roading. It was exhilarating (lol). Within the next hour, that small pile of dirt had grown to about 4 feet high. It completely blocked our driveway & our path to the outside world. We were trapped!!!!
I became claustrophobic. I couldn't breath. Panic started to set it. I'm not going to be able to go out to lunch!!!! Just kidding! But I was a little tweaked that I would have to stay in the office all day. I like the option of being able to go out to lunch or not. But alas, not today, I did have to stay in & eat a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Don't you feel sorry for me?

Brandon liked the piled dirt. He said it felt comforting. Like he was in a fortress. No one could get to us. I thought about it a moment & you know what? He was right. No one would be able to come into the office to bug us. No one could check on us. We could do what ever we wanted. We could go wild!!!! But we didn't. We were good & did what we always do. But it was nice for a moment to think that we could get away with being wild.

By the end of the day I was getting a bit concerned that they wouldn't get the pipes in & the driveway cleared before we had to leave. We are talking about city workers here. They quit work at exactly 4:30, not one minute later. So when they weren't done by 4pm, my anxiety level ratcheted up a few notches.


But a miracle took place the city workers finished installing the pipes & filled up the trench and they even cleared the entire driveway of the dirt pile. We were free!!!!!

Someone who needs our prayers

I don't know about you, but I love to look at blogs on the internet. I love to see what goes on in the lives of other families. It usually means more when I know the family that I am reading about, but other times, I can be quite moved by someone I don't know.

Today I had one of those experiences in blog hopping. Usually on Mondays, I check out the blogs of everyone I know & when things are slow at work, I click on blogs or links listed on those blogs. In doing so today I found out about a family who is faced with tragedy, but is using their faith and family to cope with this tragedy. I have not been so moved by something in a long time. I don't know this family, but I can relate to them (probably because I am Mormon) and the strength that family can be.

Christian & Stephanie Nielson were in a fiery plane crash in Arizona back on August 16th. Both are in the hospital with burns, fighting for their lives. Stephanie has a blog where she writes about her daily life as a wife & mother. I guess it has quite the following. I never saw or heard of her blog until today. Well her sister has taken over the blogging so that everyone will know what is going on with her sister's family since the accident. They are also doing fund raising & asking for prayers. I just loved reading how everyone in their family stepped up to the plate to take care of the 4 children of this couple and their love for each other & the gospel. I'm sure that if something like this happened in my family, that we would all do the same thing.

Anyways, I thought this was an inspirational story & thought you might be touched as well. Click on the link & it will take you to the sister's blog. This story shows how we can all be connected even if we aren't related.

Remembering 9/11

Today it has been 7 years since 9/11/01. Seems like yesterday when this happened. It will always be one of those days that you remember where you were & what you were doing when you heard the terrible news.

I was just waking up on the morning of 9/11/01. My radio had just come on & I was listening to the news people talking to a man in New York about a plane that had crashed into one of the twin towers. At the time, everyone thought it was a small plane & not an airliner. I wasn't paying much attention as the guy was explaining what he had witnessed from his apartment window.

What finally grabbed my attention was when the man's wife started screaming in the background that another plane had just slammed into the other tower. This started the man screaming & all the screaming got me up real quick. I turned on the TV to see what was going on. They should footage of an airliner slamming into the twin tower. I couldn't believe what I was seeing on my TV. They explained that both towers had been hit by 2 different airliners. Then they came on the TV & said that the Pentagon had been hit as well. I was in shock. This kind of stuff doesn't happen in America. It happens in Israel, and the other countries in the middle east, but not here.

I woke Brandon up to watch & then ran down to Mike's apartment to tell him about it and watch the TV with him. I couldn't believe my eyes when the twin towers came crashing down. It was almost more than I could bear. My heart ached for all the families that this tragedy would affect. Never realizing at the time how this would affect all of our lives as well.

Even writing about it now, takes me back to that precise moment in time. I still feel the same despair & denial that I felt that day. How could someone hate a country so much as to do this? How can there be such evil?

With so much bad, evil, pain & suffering that this event brought. It also brought some good. It brought this country together as one nation. There was no Democrat or Republican, Rich or Poor, black or white. It didn't matter what you were, we were all AMERICANS. And we were UNITED. That is the part of 9/11 I try to remember the most.

Too bad we didn't hang on to that for very long as a nation. We have now gone back to bickering with each other again. Let's hope that it doesn't take another 9/11 to remind us that we are the greatest country in the world.

I hope that all of you will take a moment today to thank God that you live in the USA and to remember those who lost their lives on that fateful day & praise the heroes of that day. And don't forget the soldiers who put their lives on the line in other parts of the world to protect our freedoms.

Never forget that freedom is not free.

What are your memories of 9/11? Where were you & what where you doing when you heard the news of that day? Write your responses in comments or you can write your own post with your tribute.

Kim

Happy Birthday Jeannette

Happy birthday to Jeannette!!!! Have a great day (even if you have to work). We need to go on another shopping trip again.

Kim's 50th birthday party

On Saturday we celebrated my turning 50 (Even though I have been 50 for about 10 days now). The party was held at my house (as I have the pool). Mom, Dad, Jodi, Eric's family-Eric, Jeannette, Danica, Jase & Cade (Taylor couldn't come as she had a babysitting job), Andrea's family-Andrea, Jamey, Zak, Nate, Simon, Noah & Marcus (Zak's best friend who is living with them right now), My friend Lynne from work & Danica's best friend & my pretend niece Bethany were all here. I had invited quite a few others, but everyone else either had prior engagements or lived to far to attend. If you were not able to come, you missed a fun party. Maybe next time.

The party started at 3pm with a pool party. We ate chips, dips, salsa, nachos, boneless buffalo wings that Jesse made, veggies for snacks. Later on Mike BBQ'd hamburgers & hot dogs for dinner. After dinner we opened gifts & had cake and ice cream. Everyone except for Eric's family left about 8pm. After that my family & Eric's family watched Nightmare Before Christmas in our outdoor movie theater at the pool. Mike has 2 bamboo pools that he puts up & stretches an outdoor screen across the pool. He has a projector that he sets up at one end of the pool & it is attached to Jesse's X-box. There are speakers stratigically set up around the pool for sound. Danica, Jesse & Mike sat in the jacuzzi to watch the movie. Eric & Jeannette sat at the edge of the pool. I sat on a chair in the wading part of our pool (so that my feet were in the water). It is fun to watch a movie outside.

It was a fun party & I thank everyone who came. It meant so much to me that you did come & shared this monumental moment in history with me.

Here are some photos of the day. Enjoy!!!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Caitlin in Peru

This is an excerpt from Caitlin's letter to family and friends:

My Peru Experience was absolutely incredible. I never expected to learn so much about love and service in a short time. I learned from the examples of the sweet children at the orphanage what it truly means to love another and look out for each other. They have so little yet give so much. I learned a very special lesson from a young girl in the village of Tuscan, Peru. In this very poor village, we bathed the youngest children and gave them new clothes (many had never had a bath), and gave blankets to the older children. In particular, I noticed a young girl who watched with much excitement as her little sister was bathed and dressed in brand new clothes. We ran out of clean water and clothes before the older sister could be bathed and she was too young to receive a blanket. My heart ached for her and I imagined how disappointed she must have been to not get anything. To my amazement, she kept smiling and continued to hug and kiss her little sister. She was so thrilled and concerned for her sister's happiness that she didn't seem to mind that she received nothing for herself. I was so touched and I keep replaying that experience in my mind.

When I went to Peru I expected to work hard and get dirty (which I did) but I did not expect to be so inspired and humbled. I saw how first hand how little these people have and how hard they must work just to keep going each day. We were able to build a security tower for the orphanage, a farm house, and a school in Tuscan so the children don't have to walk 3 hrs. to school.

If you are interested in learning more about Southern Cross Humanitarian, or taking an expedition to El Girasol orphanage or would like to donate to their projects to improve the lives of street children in Peru, please visit http://www.sxhu.org/