here’s to 2007!

It's been a magnificent year for us. We're wishing for more of the same in 2008. I hope the year has been good to you as well!

Blingo rocks

My sister just won a prize for me again on Blingo. It's so awesome. I just looked at my profile on there again and I've won three prizes total from Blingo since I joined December 23, last year. Not bad for just searching the internet.

So go join. No strings attached; just search the web to win. Every time you win, I win. And then we can get prizes and be happy together. Yay!

potty report

Days 4 and 5 of Big Girl Underwear
Number of accidents: 1 (during nap - my fault for not diapering beforehand)

potty report

Day 3 of Big Girl Underwear
Number of accidents: 0

potty report

Day 2 of Big Girl Underwear
Number of accidents: 1

grrrr

I can't find my camera battery charger. I hve no one to blame it on but myself.

I'm having a hard time getting back on my diet. Must. Throw. Away. Christmas. Leftovers.

The husband has the week off. He's spending the entire time working outside on our deck.

It's potty training Day 2.

It's cold.

I'm having a bad day.

potty report

Day 1 of Big Girl Underwear
Number of accidents: 3

21 months

Dear Julianna,
Whew! It’s been a whirlwind of a month! You’re growing in leaps and bounds and I can hardly remember what all you’ve experienced this month. In just three more months you’ll already be two. Hard to believe, but its true!

So where to begin?

Jules, I’m amazed that you can say the entire blessing at dinner now without any help. The one you say goes like this:

God is great; God is great.
Let us thank Him for our food.
Amen

You can also say your prayers before bed every night. As you sit on Daddy’s lap and hold your hands together you nod your head vigorously with each word you say. Your father and I sit there stifling laughs because you look so overly dramatic, but apparently the rhythm of the nodding helps you say the words to the prayer, so we try not to laugh. Every night when we go to bed, Daddy sneaks in and checks on you and then when he comes out I always ask, “Is she cute?” and he always answers, “Of course!”


Somewhere along the way you learned to count to 13 all by yourself. You know all the basic colors and you’re well on your way to saying the entire alphabet. You can get through most of it now, but occasionally need a little prompting. It’s been so funny listening to you sing Christmas carols this month. We’ve had the Christmas stations playing non-stop and you’ll jabber along with the Bing Crosby (or whoever happens to be singing) ‘til you get to the end of each line and you’ll say the last word of each line loudly and enthusiastically.

You’re exploring more vocabulary these days. You’ve gone from calling Nanna, “Nanna” to “Yanna” to “Nanny.” I expect one day you’ll go back to calling her “Nanna” again. You used to call me “Mama”, but now you say “Mommy”. You string two or three words together at a time now to tell us what you want or need. This has drastically cut down on the number of temper tantrums we’ve experienced, for which your daddy and I are thankful.


Your favorite words this week have been “nutcracker”, “Jesus”, and “Frosty”. You call every snowman you see “Frosty.” You ask for more “Frosty” and more “Jesus” all the time. Sometimes when we’re in the car you’ll say the same word over and over and over again – sometimes for more than 15 MINUTES STRAIGHT. It can get so aggravating that we consider CUTTING OUR EARS OFF, but it’s life with a toddler I suppose and we wouldn’t trade it for the world.

This month your mama has been pretty sad, Julianna. I’ve been feeling sorry for myself and been down on myself for gaining so much weight – just pretty whiney in general. You’ve been such a trooper to learn to entertain yourself for extended periods of time and then as I’ve gradually gotten back to exercising again, you’ve been awesome at playing in the nursery at the Y or hanging out in the stroller on walks. You truly are the sweetest little girl ever.


We took you to the Festival of Lights a week or so ago and you had an absolute blast! You got to ride out of your car seat and sit on the arm rests so you could narrate all the light displays for us. I’ve been to see those lights more times than I can remember and one thing’s for sure, I’ve never enjoyed it as much as I did this year! You bring joy to my life in so many ways, ways I’d never expect to find joy again, but that’s what you do. I love you, Julianna. Happy 21 months!

Love,
Mama

she also looks like an elephant

The little one may have a touch of pneumonia. She's been on round after round of antibiotics and albuterol for cough since early October. The latest round ended Thursday and she started running a fever (103 degrees) again on Saturday. By late last night she was having difficulty breathing and her little chest was rising and falling very rapidly. The triage nurse said we may need to go to the emergency room if the motrin didn't get her fever down soon and slow her breathing. It helped. We went in for an office visit today and they gave her steriods and a nebulizer/breathing treatment machine. It dramatically helps her breathing and the steriods make her hyper. With the face mask on we tell her she looks like an elephant and she half-grins. But she is patient and very tough. It took her over an hour to fall asleep tonight, but she's still such a sweet little girl.

Merry Christmas everyone!

when you have a moment to spare

I highly recommend reading this article. It's well worth the time.

Thanks, Emily!

she’s a smart one

Me: Jules, do you want Santa to bring you some big girl panties?
Her: No! Toys!

the kindness of strangers*

Someone stumbled upon A is for beautiful this past weekend and left me a kind comment out of the blue. It made me so thankful once again to have this blog. I actually stopped to reply to the comment and started thinking about how I should blog more regularly. It is so nice to have encouragement from total strangers who stop by briefly and get a small glimpse of your life. It makes me very grateful to have my own little corner of the internet where I can not only jot down my thoughts and feelings for documentation purposes, but also where I can gain friendship and reassurance, strengthen my courage and self-worth, and save a little bit of my sanity.

Each time I get bored with the things on A is for beautiful something happens like this to keep me going and remind me why I write here. I need this space and all of you people out there in the big wide world.

Plus it's nice to get a comment every now and then that's not spam.


*I may have mentioned this already, but I recently read the book with this same title by Katrina Kittle. It was a very good read. It gave me lots to think about for days. I would highly recommend it. However (and this is a big however), it made me think about books being a lot like music albums with the explicit lyrics warning on the front or video games with the giant "Rated M" sticker. It's my opinion that books about sexual abuse, whether fiction or not, should come with some kind of warning label on the front of them. Because this is the third book that I have read since becoming a parent that has been about the sexual abuse of children without having one clue that that was what the book would be about. Third. That just turns my stomach a little bit. I read many a similar book before I had Julianna, but it's just a little different now. I just wish they would warn us. That's all. OK. Getting off my soapbox now.

i’m a copycat

I thought this idea was one of the most fabulous crafty ideas I'd ever heard of. So I copied it.

Jules is a little too young to be drawing her own monsters just yet so I just took a look at Esbee's photograph and free-formed my own little creature on some scrap fabric I had laying around. It took a little while to do because I'm an idiot and I stitched him up around the outside before I remembered to attach the button eyes and bright read mouth so I had to do that through the side hole. Anyway, Julianna seems to love him and I happen to think he's adorable. I asked her what we should call him and she told me, "Thomas." Where that came from I have no idea.

So without further ado...

Meet Thomas.








Unfortunately, I forgot to get a picture with his bow still on so just imagine him with a friendly red ribbon tied lovingly around his neck.

bibs

My friend makes these really awesome bibs (baby bibs and toddler bibs). I got a few a couple of weeks ago and got another one last week because they are just that awesome! Very cool patterns and very well made. If you're in the market for new bibs (or a nice baby gift) you should check out both of her online store(s).



Toddler Bib w/ Pocket - Airplane Fabric



Baby Bib - Christmas Stocking Fabric



More Toddler Bibs w/ Pockets - Gingerbread Men and Paisley Fabric

my favorite sister

I have the most wonderful sister a girl could ever ask for. She's kind and compassionate, healthy and strong and while she may be just a *tad* impatient at times, she makes up for it with the size of her heart and the way she consistently gives selflessly to others. Today is her birthday. Happy 27th, Tommy Tinker Rinker Stinker! Hope the next year is a great one for you!

playing with baby jesuuuhhh, manny, and josuuhh

Untitled from c525600 on Vimeo.

we are a crafty kind of people

Last week we made a few Thanksgiving crafts. A few of these were turkeys worth gobbling up quickly!

more verbs

Coveting - this machne made by ProvoCraft. I can't believe I'm going to admit this, but I actually watched an infomercial about the Cricut over the Thanksgiving break and now I just can't stop thinking about all the things I could do with this thing! So expensive, but sooooo nice! Oooooo!

Reading - Eat, Pray, Love for book club. I've picked it up a dozen times so far and still haven't made it through the end of the first 15 pages. Maybe I'll set aside more time for it soon.

Loving - the new church we've been going to. Very exciting, uplifting, and inspirational.

Hoping - to lose at least 5 pounds before Christmas. I went to exercise early this morning and I'm going to try to exercise every weekday between now and Christmas.

Feeling - fortunate. I've been praying for a friend of a friend who's 1 year old son was critically injured by his babysitter a few months ago. He's made remakable strides towards recovery, but still has tons of progress to make. I read the frequent updates on his carepage and thank God for sparing him, giving his family strength, and of course I thank Him for the health of my family.

todo

I may have mentioned before that I love making lists. I often have so many lists going at once that I lose track of what I'm suposed to be doing and then I inevitably leave one or two items on one list and move on to the next list leaving those few "undone" things forgotten. It's frustrating because I seem to go in circles, never getting anything done.

Well, sometime this past weekend I decided that I wanted to try to become more organized. I think that if I start with all of my lists I will become, in general, a better person. I want to eat less, exercise more, be more productive, spend less, etc. I realized that I needed a system to get rid of all my lists. So I bought a big dry erase board and I'm going to hang it up somewhere that I will see it everyday. (I haven't decided where yet - any suggestions?) On the board I put three sections. One is for a list of things I must get done that day. The second section is for the list of things that I need to get done soon (as in a few days or one week). The third section is for the things that I want to get done but are not high priority. I hope this helps me get my lists under control and get more things done.

Anyway, here's a peak at what's on my "soon" list this week.

• sweep the kitchen


• vacuum the den


• do some laundry


• begin this month's book club book


• put Julianna's too-small clothes away


• start wrapping Christmas gifts


• go through and throw out old magazines

Also, I am pondering how the English words "to" and "do" run together to make the Spanish word "todo" which means all or everything. Am I the only one who finds this sadly amusing?

upcoming dinner menus

• pot roast, carrots, potatoes, green beans


• BBQ pork chops, baked beans, corn


• steak gorgonzola, broccoli w/cheese, baked potatoes

Do you have anything to add? What else sounds good for dinner this week?

playing around in the leaves

The leaves have been absolutely GORGEOUS this year. Prettier and more vibrant than I've seen in many, many years, if not ever. A couple of my cousins cam over last week and we got outside for some fresh air and enjoyed the warm weather. One of my cousin's children entertained Julianna for quite a while and I got some nice photos. I love the colors of fall!

i will be so glad

...when November is finally OVER!

This NaBloPoMo stuff is going to kill me! I had almost 400 blog posts unread and waiting for me in my reader on Thanksgiving. I've managed to whittle away at that number and get it down to about 90, but I am so tired of reading posts that are there just for the sake of posting an entry a day during NaBloPoMo! I almost participated in it, but I am thankful now that I didn't because you people write so much I can't keep up! When November is over I will hopefully be able to return to my life already in progress.

Thanks for listening to me gripe! I feel better now.

twenty months

Dear Julianna,

This is the first time ever in your whole life that I haven’t started this letter before the day I needed to post it. Time has just gotten away from me and the month has gone by way too fast this time. It really seems like I just did one of these last week. And we have been sooooo busy. Running here and there for the holidays and when you finally get a chance to sit down and breathe you remember ten other things you needed to do so you get up once more or you just sit there and rest so you don’t lose your mind. ANYWAY, you’re still mama’s wonderful little girl who never ceases to amaze me.

This month you’ve somehow learned how to count to ten. You’ve also expanded your vocabulary by leaps and bounds. I can’t even begin to keep up with all the words you know now. Just now you climbed in daddy’s lap to read a book and you quickly said the name of the book, “Shapes,” a word we didn’t know you even knew. Things like that actually happen all the time now. You’ve learned almost all of the basic colors and you can point them all out to us although you can’t say a few of them. You’ve learned a good bit of the alphabet and now when we go to Nanna and Pap’s house you prompt me if I forget to start singing at exactly the right spot on the way.


You’ve also had a little bit of a “mean” streak going lately where you hit and push people when they want your toy or when they ask you to do something you don’t want to do. Mama and Daddyyou’re your favorite people to hit although you’ve managed to swat at a few others. We’ve still been using time out when this happens, but you don’t seem to mind too much.

It will be interesting to see your interpretation of Christmas this year considering that last year you hardly understood anything. This year though, I think you’ll start to get a little bit of what’s going on. I know I sure have had a blast explaining the season to you and seeing you process it all so far. It makes me feel like a kid again. I was so excited to take you to see Santa at the mall the other day and you did really well with it. It took some warming up, but you finally sat on his lap and you’ve talked about it lots since then.


We put up our Christmas tree the other day and you’ve been fascinated with the “biiiiiiiggg tree” in the house as well as all the ornaments. The nativity set that I had as a little girl has brought you lots of joy in the last week or so. You set all the pieces out in a line and then transfer them to a new location one by one and amazingly display them in the proper positions. Occasionally you pick Baby Jesus up and give him a gentle kiss.



You’ve had some fun playing with a few friends this month. You can tell that you’re learning more and more how to interact with the people around you. You recently took a bath with your friend Baylee which you haven’t stopped telling us about since and you love going to Mamaw’s house so you can go visit and play with Abby and then later tell us about how Abby cried, “Waahhhhh.”



Potty training hasn’t been going very far. You will sometimes go days without wetting a diaper, telling us every time you need to potty and then after that you’ll go back needing lots of prompting or never wanting to use the potty at all. It’s so confusing sometimes why it goes that way, but we’re still giving you all the time you need.
You’re doing really well in your big girl bed. You’ve rarely gotten out of bed at night and you’ve taken many more naps there this month so I feel we’re doing great. You’re growing up so quickly! In a few of the pictures we took the other day you look eight years old already!


Finally, I want to tell you about Thanksgiving a couple of days ago. We celebrated with family as usual and as Thanksgiving often prompts, I’ve been thinking about what I’m thankful for. I’m thankful for the early mornings you bring. I’m thankful for the messy highchairs and dirty kitchen floors. I’m thankful for filthy bathrooms and cars with squeaky brakes. I’m thankful for that extra roll or two of fat that I have gained this year and I am thankful for your small temper tantrums. I am thankful for your problem-solving daddy even when I just want him to listen to me rant. I’m thankful for money problems and always needing more hours in the day. I’m thankful for the past and the future. I’m thankful for hearing the word “applesauce” 1,822 times and for that really annoying “Candice Can-Do” book. I’m thankful for every bit of my life. And I’m thankful for you, Jules. I love you, baby girl.

Love,
Mama

for your viewing pleasure this fine Tuesday morning

The other night Jonathan and Julianna were goofing around before bedtime. Of course, Julianna got to running and not looking where she was going and she had a pretty bad fall on the corner of the table. She cried one of those silent cries that breaks your heart because you know she's hurting so badly. Anyway, after Jonathan had calmed her down and we got some ice for the huge bump on her forehead that was already turning blue we decided (what else?) to video her latest tricks. You know, since she was sitting still and all...

BTW, I'm an idiot and I took the video vertically without thinking. Now I can't figure out how to get it turned sideways so pretty, pretty please just turn your monitor up on it's side and pretend nothing's wrong. M'kay? Thanks!


Drill Sergeant Mom from c525600 on Vimeo.

things I will not buy any more of until 2009

There are some things you just really can have enough of. This is my list. I vow not to spend another cent on any of these things for at least another year.

• facial cleanser


• body wash


• fabric


• fiction books (unless they are specifically for a book club meeting)


• wine


• make up


• things that would be great for a "Dirty Santa" gift


• magazine subscriptions


• Pampered Chef products


• nail polish


• wrapping paper


• candles

got on the scale today for the first time in a looonnnnggggg time

It wasn't pretty.

I think a diet is in order.

Plus some exercise.

Maybe after Christmas.

I need to etch the date in my brain calendar and start saving up my willpower.

I am at my highest non-pregnant weight ever.

And approaching my highest weight ever period.

It is super depressing.

I haven't exercised in many, many weeks.

I will soon.

Care to encourage me?

I could really use it.

i got elfed

Hey, I just made a total elf of myself. Check it out by clicking the link below.

http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=9534351557

fun with Brady

One of my friend's little boys came over to play on Wednesday. His mom had all day training for her new job so I offered to keep him while she went in for the first day. Julianna had fun playing with him (he's only a few weeks older than she is) and it gave us something to do. Plus it was cool to try my hands out at taking care of two little people instead of just one. Good times. Anyway, they're adorable together. See?

Paper Goods

Now selling my handmade greeting cards on Etsy.

Click here to visit my shop.

More cards are being added now. Gift tags and scrapbook pages will be added later this weekend.

Just trying to make some money as a SAHM.

troublemaker

Well, I dropped Jules off at school this morning and had my first "parent/teacher conference" as a mother instead of as a teacher.

When I started to leave the preschool teacher pulled me to the side and said she needed to speak with me for a minute. She then gently told me how Julianna had started hitting the other kids in the class. She explained that she just wanted to make me aware of what was going on at school and asked that I help reinforce why we shouldn't hit people with Julianna at home. She also told me that they've been putting her in time out because of the hitting. One day she apparently took a plate from the play kitchen and smacked it across some poor kid's head.

I have to admit, hearing all of this stung. My whole body got warm and rigid while I was standing there listening to her. I was shocked and I immediately got defensive.

As a previous teacher myself, I recognized that my instinct response was the worst response I could have had. So instead of saying what I immediately wanted to say and defend my sweet, innocent child I considered the facts.

Jules hasn't really been hitting other kids in my presence, but that could be because I haven't been around her with other kids too much recently. She has started hitting me when I ask her to do something and she doesn't want to do it. Per the pediatrician, we have been trying to use time out to discipline at home. Usually she only has to sit in time out during dinner when she throws her fork or spoon or cup. We know she does this to get attention and we're working on teaching her how to act properly. But the idea of her hitting kids was a surprise to me. Not that I can't see her doing it, just that I didn't imagine her doing it at school. I fully believed everything the teacher was describing that had happened.

Anyway, to ease the conversation I guess, the teacher pointed out how she doesn't have siblings at home and that she realized that she could have picked up some of her newfound "skills" at school. We talked about using time out at home and about how Jules usually only hits me. I thanked her for bringing it to my attention and assured her that I'd do what I could to reinforce the "no hitting" philosophy at home as well.

It took a while for me to get over the whole conversation. I am sad to have to deal with these sort of little things. Of course I want my daughter to be perfect. I want her to be the "easy" kid or the "good" kid. I'm also not naive and I know that she has to learn how to live and communicate along side other people while respecting their rights too. All this just means that she's growing up so fast. And that makes me a little sad too.

Fortunately, the more I think about it this whole little discussion really made the teacher grow on me a little. From experience I know that it was difficult for her to have to pull me aside and tell me that my daughter is showing signs of being a bully and a troublemaker (i'm totally exaggerating there I know). [I absolutely dreaded talking to parents when I was a teacher.] I also know now that she really wants to help my child learn. It is perfectly normal for Julianna to want to defend her territory when another child comes and takes away the toy she is playing with. Not only will helping her learn to stop hitting teach her how to survive later as a normal adult it will also help the flow of the classroom now so I really believe the teacher wants what's best for both of us.

*sigh*

What's next though?

i just sneezed…

...and my most adorable little girl said, "bless you!"

this is one she WON’T be carrying around between her teeth

Last Tuesday, my husband's grandmother, his mother, and I all went to Old Salem to learn how to make pewter spoons. His family has a love for pewter pieces and when we heard about the class, we thought it would be enjoyable to learn how they were made and then to have a treasure to take home and add to the collection.

When we got to the class we had a little trouble locating the building and room from the dark cobblestone street. Once we go inside we noticed the room was lit with only a few lights and the glow from the fireplace (450 degrees we were told). We got a brief introduction and some instructions on what we would be doing and I chose to cast a spoon from the mid to late 1800s since the "federal" mold was already warm when it was my turn to cast. We had two other choices, but since I went next to last I knew from watching the others that it would be easiest to choose one of the warm molds.

The class itself was more than three hours of grueling detail work - casting, re-casting, cooling, trimming, filing, sanding, sanding, more sanding, stamping, and finally polishing - but it was also more than three hours of experience. I was amazed at how tedious it was just to create a simple object that we all use every day and certainly take for granted. I cannot imagine making those things all day long for a living.

During the class I would often stop and take breaks, putting my spoon and sandpaper down to rest. I began to love the small scratches or uneven places (some would call them "flaws") and I exclaimed to those working near me that those places gave my spoon "character." I'm glad to have made it.

Here. You can admire my handiwork.



Don't you love the way I stamped my initials in a diagonal line intentionally?


Now it's sitting on the buffet in my dining room, displayed with the pewter tea set my MIL gave me one year for Christmas. It looks a little out of place there, but I don't mind. It's something I'll always treasure.

clockwise or counter-clockwise? what do you see?

Left Brain/Right Brain Test

Thanks to Courtney.

another first

I don't know what this says about my parenting skills, but my less than 20 month old daughter just climbed up on the couch, turned the TV on, and changed the channel to the cartoons. And now she's sitting here quietly watching them. Another first, but certainly not one I expected to encounter this early.

playing mini golf with daddy

boo!

then and now

THEN, as an NC State cheerleader




NOW, the abominal snowman on the left*

*she was supposed to be a sheep, but as it turns out the homemade costume wasn't such a good idea

colors

Much to my amazement Julianna has learned lots of colors this afternoon. She has correctly identified blue, brown, black, pink, and green. Before today she could only identify blue and sometimes brown. Within the last hour or so she keeps repeating colors and handing me crayons and when I ask what color it is, most of the time she gets it right. I am so dumbfounded. I didn't realize kids could learn so fast! The funniest part is that when she hands me a yellow or an orange and I ask what color they are she says something like, "whojibussitpp." Hey, at least she doesn't say "blue", right?

our afternoon at the farmer’s market

nineteen months

Dear Julianna,

I’m so proud of all you’ve done this month! You’ve successfully spent your first three nights without Mama and Dada. You just stayed with Mamaw and Nanna and Pap while we went to New York for an anniversary trip this past weekend. It was fabulous to get away and of course we missed you SO MUCH, but it was so much easier than I thought it would be because you handled it like a big girl! You did whine or fuss at all. I don’t know why I was so worried about you. You played and played with all your grandparents and their toys and you had real conversations on the phone with us each day. I was so proud of you sleeping all night long and taking good naps away from home. You’re on your way to being very independent.

You’ve also made lots of progress using the big girl potty over the past two weeks. Now you often tell us when you need to go and you remind us enthusiastically afterwards that you get two “treats” (M&Ms) often by requesting a blue and a brown one. You don’t always go, but you do tell us when you need to go at least three and four times a day lately. Yay Doodle!

You switched to a big girl bed full time for nights shortly after you turned 18 months. I was so very nervous about it. Daddy put you to bed just like normal. He covered you up and walked out of the room and you didn’t get up once that first night. The nights since then have basically gone the same. You sometimes wake up in the morning and rattle your doorknob, but you’ve never gotten up in the middle of the night. You seem to enjoy sleeping in that big old bed even though you’ve been hesitant at nap time until recently. You took your first nap in the big girl bed just two days ago!

You’ve gotten so tall and skinny! You’re losing all of your baby fat! At your 18 month check up you told me all about how the doctor was going to look in your ears and eyes and nose and listen to your heart go “boom-boom” in your chest. You did cry when they gave you’re your vaccinations and flu shot, but that didn’t last long. We found out that you weigh a little over 28 pounds and you’re still in about the 95th percentile on everything. The doctor was pleased, but we expected nothing less.

You speak in sentences now. You say more than 85 words at last count and rarely have tantrums because you can’t communicate what you want. You’ve started trying to count (which comes out as two, two, two instead of one, two, three, but at least you give it a shot). You are starting to learn colors pretty well and you can say lots of people’s names now.

We’ve started putting you in “time out” for a minute for misbehavior (usually throwing your fork or hitting mommy). It’s really hard to tell yet if this has been effective, but we’ll stick with it.

You’ve started going to lunch bunch at school this month and you do pretty well with it. It’s hard to stay awake an extra half hour or so, but you’re a trooper. I’m so thankful that you’ve started to enjoy going to school to see your teachers and playmates. I think it’s been really good for you.

My heart is just bursting with pride at all you’ve accomplished recently, Doodle! The fun just never stops and I know there will always be excitement when you’re around. I love you bunches, girl!

Love,
Mama

i promise i did not set this up

I kid you not. She did this of her own free will.

she’s obviously feeling better today

I kept Julianna home from school yesterday and today because she had a fever and a runny nose. Her fever was as high as 102.4 Monday and 101.1 yesterday. This morning it was only 100.6 and several hours later only 99.1. We went to the grocery store and ran other errands this morning and then came home to eat lunch. Her appetite is back so I know she's feeling better. She has been very happy and lovey since we've been home from our trip, giving me tons of hugs and kisses at random times. Then today she's gotten a little testy again (back to normal) running away from me as we got out of the car and other such usual toddler behavior.

Yesterday when she was feeling so rotten, it was easy to get her to nap in the twin bed. A first that went well. Today we tried it again and I thought all was fine. Then she got out of bed and I put her back in and told her not to get out again that it was time to go night-night. She got out a second time and was all the way across the room playing with her lamb hanging out of her mouth by the time I got in there to her. Now she's back in the crib, supposedly napping. Instead she keeps saying over and over again, "Abby house." She must feel better.

26,280,000 minutes in five years

"Love doesn't make the world go round. Love makes the ride worthwhile."
-- Franklin Jones








Do you remember what you were doing five years ago this very minute? I do. I was walking down the aisle at “The Pumpkin Church.” My arm was locked in my dad’s and I was ignoring a couple hundred people seated on either side of me and instead looking straight ahead at the love of my life and focusing on not getting sappy.

After we said I do and my sister ran in to tell me that allweddingdaysarekindaimperfect (“Yourcakefell!”) but that it’sOKbecauseit’sthevows&celebratingthatmatters (“It’ll be OK. I promise! People can still eat it!”), we had the most exhausting fun together surrounded by our family. I remember so much about that day and yet I remember so little. Its cliché I know, but time flies when you’re having fun!

So needless to say the past five years have been a whir. Life has changed in more ways than I could have ever expected. Lots of times it’s seemed like those were bad changes, but I’ve always ended up being wrong in thinking that. Very wrong. I’m so thankful I’ve had someone so kind by my side, someone who genuinely cares about other people more than himself. I’m so thankful to share my life with someone so hard-working and someone so loving. I’m so thankful to have had a friend choose keep my feet warm on that balcony ten years ago. And I’m so hopeful about a bright future. Here’s to sixty five more years together!

Because being with you, Booger… being with you as the world goes round… it’s much more than worthwhile.

Love always,
Triple C

pictures from this week

Self-feeding


Sitting in time out


Poor cat


Holding prescious baby Addison #3 for this year


She gets her Type A-ness from both sides of the family

warning: mom, dad, and other relatives who might be easily offended should probably skip this post.

The little girl says, “Big Truck” like this:

“biiiiiiggggg cock.”

Tee hee hee.

you decide

Oreo Pizza from Domino’s??

-OR-


Black Bean and Corn Salsa from Fiesta Night with my mom’s group??



I'll take the salsa from Fiesta night every time, baby!


Black Bean and Corn Salsa
2 (16 oz.) cans black beans
1 can mexicorn
2 T fresh cilanro chopped
2 green onions chopped
1 (16 oz.) jar salsa

Drain and rinse beans. Drain corn and add to beans. Add cilantro, onions, and salsa. Stir and chill. Eat. Mmmmmmmm.

best quote from the weekend

Saturday night we watched Evan Almighty.

“Why do you sound like Evan Baxter, but look like a Bee Gee?”

No, I’m just kidding. That's not the best quote. Besides, it would be a lot funnier if you were actually watching the movie right now.

Anyway, the real best quote is this:

"If someone prays for patience, you think God gives them patience? Or does he give them the opportunity to be patient? If he prayed for courage, does God give him courage, or does he give him opportunities to be courageous? If someone prayed for the family to be closer, do you think God zaps them with warm fuzzy feelings, or does he give them opportunities to love each other?"

Ahhhh something to meditate on...

The bed

There is a four poster bed that I slept in ever since I left the crib on Burlwood. It’s been at my parent’s house since I moved out when I got married in 2002, almost five years ago today. It was my mom’s before it was mine and before that it was her aunt’s I believe.

I used to write notes and diary entries late at night in my bed and use the headboard as a flat place to bear down on. I remember fondly the night my mom came in and fussed at me for leaving marks underneath my paper on the headboard. I also remember (perhaps even more fondly) taking the finials off the posts and looking in to the mirror at the dressing table across the room as I sang New Kids on the Block songs into them as if they were microphones.

A few years ago I cleaned the drawers out and quietly reminisced when I read silly notes passed to me in middle school, lists of baby names scribbled on church bulletins, and cabbage patch kid birth certificates. Last night we moved the furniture out of my old room of my parent’s house (which is listed for sale) and into the Suburban to bring home.

When we were moving the dresser we took out the empty drawers to make it easier to carry down the flight of stairs. Apparently I didn’t get everything out that time five years ago when I came back from college, lived for a few months, and then prepared to move into my own new house with my brand new husband. Last night, lodged way in the back of one of the dresser drawer compartments we found a list of colors such as “brandywine,” “California raspberry,” “spiced cider,” and “ruby red” written on a sheet of paper. Beside each color name was a thin strip of dried nail polish. While my husband got his giggles under control, I grabbed the sheet of paper, took a quick glance and smiled fondly.

We haven’t moved the furniture into our house yet, but as it sits in our car in the driveway I can’t help but feel nostalgic as I think of carrying on its life in my own house, with my own kids, and new memories. Thanks Mom and Dad.

regarding cooler temperatures

I'm a summer lover by far, but I have to admit that after this summer...?

After this summer, I love when you get out of bed to pee and have to run back really quickly so your legs can warm up again.

Saw this meme over at Zoot's. I'm bored. So I decided to do it.

Man oh man was it discouraging! I love to read. My parents read; my sister reads; I read whenever I can. I want to teach my daughter to love to read. I guess I'm not leading by example very well these days.

Here's the meme:
Bold those you’ve read.
Italicize books you have started but couldn’t finish.
Add an asterisk* to those you have read more than once.
Underline those on your To Be Read list.




Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell
Crime and Punishment
Catch-22
One Hundred Years of Solitude
Wuthering Heights
The Silmarillion
Life of Pi: A Novel
The Name of the Rose
Don Quixote
Moby Dick
Ulysses
Madame Bovary
The Odyssey
Pride and Prejudice
Jane Eyre
A Tale of Two Cities
The Brothers Karamazov
Guns, Germs, and Steel: the Fates of Human Societies
War and Peace
Vanity Fair
The Time Traveller’s Wife
The Iliad
Emma
The Blind Assassin
The Kite Runner
Mrs. Dalloway
Great Expectations
American Gods
A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius
Atlas Shrugged
Reading Lolita in Tehran
Memoirs of a Geisha
Middlesex
Quicksilver
Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West
The Canterbury Tales
The Historian
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
Love in the Time of Cholera
Brave New World
The Fountainhead
Foucault’s Pendulum
Middlemarch
Frankenstein
The Count of Monte Cristo
Dracula
A Clockwork Orange
Anansi Boys
The Once and Future King
The Grapes of Wrath
The Poisonwood Bible
1984
Angels & Demons
The Inferno
The Satanic Verses
Sense and Sensibility
The Picture of Dorian Gray
Mansfield Park
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
To the Lighthouse
Tess of the D’Urbervilles
Oliver Twist
Gulliver’s Travels
Les Misérables
The Corrections
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
Dune
The Prince
The Sound and the Fury
Angela’s Ashes
The God of Small Things
A People’s History of the United States: 1492-Present
Cryptonomicon
Neverwhere
A Confederacy of Dunces
A Short History of Nearly Everything
Dubliners
The Unbearable Lightness of Being
Beloved
Slaughterhouse-Five
The Scarlet Letter
Eats, Shoots & Leaves
The Mists of Avalon
Oryx and Crake
Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed
Cloud Atlas
The Confusion
Lolita
Persuasion
Northanger Abbey
The Catcher in the Rye
On the Road
The Hunchback of Notre Dame
Freakonomics
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
The Aeneid
Watership Down
Gravity’s Rainbow
The Hobbit
In Cold Blood
White Teeth
Treasure Island
David Copperfield
The Three Musketeers



Instead, these are the books I've read since school got out in May. Quite the different list, no?

Three by Ted Dekker
Showdown by Ted Dekker
The Quickie by James Patterson
Keeping Faith by Jodi Picoult
Perfect Match by Jodi Picoult
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by JK Rowling
Captivating by John and Stasi Eldredge

was there ever any doubt?

You Are Totally Like Your Mom

You and your mom are practically clones. You think alike, and you even seem to read each other's minds. You're definitely you're mother's child... and that's just fine with you.

Are You Like Your Mom?

work it, make it, do it, makes us harder, better, faster, STRONGER

I just got finished reading Jes' account of her 5k: "Every Accomplishment Begins With The Decision To Try." I have to admit that I identify strongly with her secret thoughts during the race and the description of how her 5k went made it sounds exactly like a few races I've experienced. My recent 10k went the same.

It has been about 2 1/2 weeks since I ran last and reading Chirky's post actually made me miss it a little. It's such a wonderful feeling to have people cheering you on at whatever you do, but it's an even better feeling to be so proud of yourself for accomplishing something to the end. I need something like that again.


Also, because that right there is a DOUBLE CHIN.


So I'm loading up my iPod and going to start it all up once more. Want to join me?

an update on the big girl bed situation and cute toddler clothes

Ugh. This will be the second time I've written this post. The first time the little girl in typical tantrum style, grabbed my mouse and threw it across the room, delteing the post, of course.

When our weekend plans fell through in the middle of the week last week I actually started looking forward to doing nothing this weekend. And a lot of nothing is exactly what we did.

Friday night we stayed at home and watched a movie. Saturday morning we stayed at home and did nothing. Saturday evening we went to feed my parents' cat since they went out of town and then grabbed a quck bite to eat and headed to the mall to kill some time. Sunday morning we helped with the three year old class at church. Finally, last night we went back to feed the cat again and then had dinner with my sister and some friends.

It was really nice to not do much. We caught up on some emails and blogs, finally read some old mail that had been sitting in the drawer forever, read through some magazines and read some of our books, and watched a couple of lousy movies. My husband also got some work done that he's needing to finish soon. All in all the weekend was very refreshing.

And it was especially much needed after the crappy sleep I've been getting.

When we moved the little girl out of the crib and into the twin bed last Saturday night it went almost too well. She hardly made a peep. She woke up a tad bit earlier than normal and just sat up in bed and called, "Mama?" The next night was almost the same except when she woke up a little earlier than normal this time she got down out of bed and came over to try to open her bedroom door. She can't quite get our doors open yet (although she can open the ones at my parents' house because of the kind of doorknobs they have). Anyway, it progressviely gone downhill ever since.

She started getting a cough sometime at the beginning of the week and that kept waking her up at night. Most nights she would wake up and be able to get herself back to sleep pretty soon. A couple of nights we've actually had to go in there and quiet her down a little and we've actually put her back in the crib in the wee hours of the morning a few times. Friday night she was awake so long coughing that we finally went to buy some children's cough medicine which has helped some, but she still woke up early the past two mornings in a row. This morning she woke up early and has a little bruise across the bridge of her nose and eyelid (like she bumped into the headboard or footboard of the bed). (The bed is a low bed so she can get up and down herself and it's up against the wall with a bed rail on the other side.

We've also not had a successful nap in the bed yet. The first four or five days we didn't even try. Then one day she said she wanted to sleep in the big girl bed when I took her up for a nap, but the second I walked to the door she kept getting up and following me crying, "Mama!" So we keep putting her down in the crib for naps. Any tips on that?

Overall, I'd say it's going better than I expected but at the same time, I have so much anxiety about this whole transistion that I'm not getting good sleep either because I'm listeing to her on the monitor the whole night. I know that she can't go to college sleeping in her crib, so I'm not planning on making any changes in the current situation anytime soon. Through time she wil get used to it I'm sure.

Now, for the fun part of this post!

Saturday when we went to the mall I "pretend shopped" for fall clothes for the little girl. (I couldn't really shop because we're struggling with the one full-time salary thing right now.) It was fun nevertheless. Look at what I bought!

I got this sweater.

And this adorable shirt.

And I LOVE this shirt.

Plus I got this bodysuit.

Then I got this shirt...

to go with this skirt...

And I love pin stripes so I had to get this shirt

But the best (non)purchase of the night was this adorable fall tee.

I couldn't resist this T-shirt because of the extreme cuteness in the way that Jules says "Pumpkin."