So Here's My Life...

The Blogger's Gift Exchange.

2012-02-17T20:18:00.000-07:00

Last month I signed up to be a part of a blogger's gift exchange hosted by bloggers, Casey, Danielle, and Alycia. The catch about the gift exchange was that you had to make a gift within a $20 limit. I got matched up with Megan.

Megan has been such a fun person to get to know, and I love the fact that she is a young mom, just like me...as long as I still get to fit into that category. The more I get to know her, the more I am amazed at the fact that we have so much in common. She has an intriguing blog about her life, struggles, and issues to think about. It's definitely worth checking out.

So anyway, the deadline for the exchange was January 31st. But both of us are serious procrastinators (and completely consumed with plenty of other distractions), so meeting that deadlines didn't exactly happen, in fact, we didn't even send our gifts out until last week! Ha. And now we are finally getting around to blogging about the gift exchange. Yes, I know. We are both really awesome like that.

Here's what I got from Megan:

A super cute picture frame that she decorated! Now I need to figure out what picture to put in there. Hmmm...

And a fun necklace made by her sister.

Isn't it cute? I think so. She makes jewelry and sells them on her Etsy called Rhi's Designs. Definitely make it a point to check out her goods. My personal favorite is the Queen Bee Necklace.

The blogger gift exchange was such a fun idea and a great way to make a new friend. So if you come across the opportunity to join, definitely do it.
:)

Pulling out the Big Guns

2012-02-15T21:16:00.002-07:00

My son is a picky eater. It drives me crazy. But he's been that way since birth, so I'm used to it. He frequently goes through stages where he refuses to eat certain things. Right now it's dinner. Obnoxious. Tomorrow morning we have an appointment with the feeding clinic to come up with new eating strategies. We've been in contact and/or working with them on and off since The Toddler was 4 months old.

We had a nice little battle at dinner time last night. Afterwards I thought to myself, "You know what? If the Toddler wants to skip dinner every night, then it's time to pull out The Big Guns."

What are the Big Guns? It's my Serious Business Strategy for keeping The Toddler well nourished. I hide vegetables and other nutritious things into the food he is actually willing to eat. Oh yes.

I've done this off and on over the past couple of years, but I usually taper off when he decides he wants to eat again.

This morning, I came up with a quick and easy way to enhance something he actually loves to eat - muffins.

I used Martha White muffin mix that you can find at any grocery store. You are only required to add milk. The package only make 6 muffins, so I used two packages to make a dozen.

Here's what I did:

After combining the milk to the muffin mix, I added a couple of awesome ingredients:

1 medium carrot (about 3/4 cup), peeled and finely grated.

2 tablespoons of Wheat Germ

Approximately 1/2 a cup of finely-chopped dried, mixed fruit (I used an electric chopper)

Then, I baked the muffins according to the package directions.

Super easy, and great results.

And look - The Toddler ate them and liked them. Here's proof:

He also requested another muffin for his afternoon snack. Victory.

And by the way - don't worry about us dealing with The Toddler's eating shenanigans. We are pretty familiar with what works and what doesn't with him at this point. We've found that with patience and creative thinking, we are always able to get him to eat again.

But if you are looking for a good resource for getting your child to eat, I would recommend the book, How to Get Your Kid to Eat, But Not Too Much by Ellyn Satter. And you can get it right here:

You're welcome, world :)

The Up-Cycled Sweater Series Part 5

2012-02-09T08:00:00.000-07:00

Today is the last part of the series, and it's also my favorite project out of all the sweater projects that I've done. Be sure to catch up if you haven't read Parts 1-4. Part 1 was a tutorial on leg warmers. Part 2 was about making mittens and a scarf. In Part 3 you can learn how to make arm warmers, and Part 4 you can learn to make an infinity scarf, and a sweater vest.

For the last project, I made skirts from mens sweaters...

I used the arms from both of the sweaters to make leg warmers in Part 1. To start out, cut apart the sweater's shoulders (after the arms have been cut off).

This sweater was a men's size large. I wanted to use the bottom of the sweater (the part that sits at the waist), as the waist for my skirt. However, as it was, it was too large to fit snugly around my waist (fortunately!). Start by measuring your waist or the place where you want the top of the skirt to fit. Subtract 3 inches from your waist measurement. Then, divide that number in half and use that number to mark off where to cut the waistline. For example: If my waist is 25 inches (it's not), then I subtract 3 and end up with 22 inches. From there I divide 22 in half and end up with 11. So that means I need to mark off a waistline that is only 11 inches long when the sweater is laying down (and trim off the excess fabric outside of the marked off waistline).

I used chalk to mark my sweater. Also, make sure that you turn the sweater inside out before marking, pinning, cutting, and sewing!

After marking off the waist on your skirt, use a yard stick or a straight surface to mark the outline of the sides for the skirt. (I don't have a yard stick, so I used a scrap board instead.)

My mom helped me. These are her hands, btw.

Then pin along the marked part of your fabric, cut about an inch outside the marked line, serge the ends, and then sew along the marked edges. (This is always a challenge for me. Seriously, I have the hardest time sewing in a straight line!) Repeat on the opposite side.

Almost done. After deciding on the length of the skirt, trim the bottom giving yourself about an inch or two to work with. Serge the bottom, fold up the fabric to where you would like the hem to be, pin it, and hem by hand (blah) to avoid stretching the fabric in weird places.

And now you have a skirt like this!

The slit in my skirt was where the bottom of the sweater's armpit started. You don't have to do it this way, I just wanted the skirt to be longer.

The next sweater wasn't as involved as the previous one because it was a smaller size (Medium)

This sweater fit my waist well as it was, there was no trimming and cutting along the sides or the waist. After I cut apart the shoulders, I measured the length I wanted my skirt, serged it, and hemmed it with my sewing machine. (This fabric wasn't as stretchy and textured as the previous sweater was, so it was relatively easy to hem with the machine, carefully.)

I also added slits to this skirt as well (to get more length). But, I hemmed the slits by hand after I serged the fabric, because I didn't think I could hem without stretching the fabric while maneuvering it through the sewing machine at those angles.

And this is the finished product.

I find that when you can't figure out how to pose for a picture, it's best to cover your eyes! ;)

I have to tell you guys, this was such a fun series to create! Although I don't do it as often as I would like, I love to up-cycle clothing. All of the projects in this series were relatively easy. I would definitely not consider myself to be a seamstress...I have a hard time sewing in a straight line! But I do have a sewing machine, and I know how to work it...or at least how to look something up in the manual and follow the instructions. So if I can do these, so can you! Don't be intimidated. Try them and show me what you got. Go and do one right now!!

Up-Cycled Sweater Series Part 4

2012-02-08T12:39:00.000-07:00

It's time for Part 4 of the Up-Cycled Sweater Series!! If you've missed the previous ones, be sure to check them out. In Part One, I made leg warmers, Part Two was how to make mittens and a hat, and Part Three was how to make arm warmers.

This time I turned a couple of sweater bodies into a sweater vest and an infinity scarf.

You may remember this sweater:

In Part 3, I cut off the arms and turned them into arm warmers/fingerless gloves. I have to tell you, I LOVE my arm warmers, but they were a little tricky to make...at least more than I anticipated. This sweater was made from 60% Cotton and 40% Acrylic. I found this to be a difficult fabric combination to work with, simply because it was so stretchy. Because of this I decided to take a simpler route for this next project.

After cutting off the sleeves, I used a seam ripper to rip the seam that held together the sleeves to the body (The seams at the shoulders). And because I am not that patient, nor do I like tedious activities (such as ripping seams), I accidentally made a couple of small holes in fabric. Oops! So I went back later and stitched them up by hand. Here's the results:

This also makes a cute sleeveless sweater for the Fall and Spring. The best part about this small little project is that there was NO HEMMING involved!!! (and if you don't tear holes in the fabric while ripping out the seams, there is no sewing either!) ;)

Then, I made an infinity scarf. Here was the sweater after the leg warmer project.

Cut off the top of the sweater, just below the armpits. Turn the body of the sweater inside out, pin the newly cut side, and hem it. I used the sewing machine...carefully.

While the sweater is still inside out, fold over the newly hemmed side, pin it, and hem it one more time. I didn't hem the bottom of the sweater (the part that sits at your waist), but if you want a more uniform look, you can repeat the folding, pinning, and hemming process at that end too.

And that's it!

Now you have a fun infinity scarf!! (By the way, this infinity scarf only took about 20 minutes to make. Bonus points for a fun, easy, and quick project!!)

There is one more part left in the sweater series. Don't miss it. It's coming soon.
:)

Closing Life Chapters

2012-02-06T15:13:00.000-07:00

Life Chapters - we all have them, but chooses to call them that. My life chapters have been defined by several events - going off to college, graduations, getting married, having a baby, and moving, just to name a few. But this weekend was the end of a chapter for me, and I didn't even realize it was closing until it happened.

Last week was a little bit of a sad week for me. The former pastor (Paul McEachern aka Brother Mac) of the church I grew up in passed away. His wife passed away about 18 months prior, and so he was alone. He went for a walk on Thursday, January 30th, and never came home. It wasn't until Sunday, when his neighbor realized his car hadn't moved in a couple days, nor had his paper been taken in, that everyone realized that something was wrong. His home was searched, but he wasn't found inside. His body was found in the desert near his home on Monday morning. Apparently he had gone for a walk and collapsed in the desert. There was an article written about him in the newspaper that you can read here.

I have known Brother Mac my whole entire life. Brother Mac married my parents and I grew up in his church. I've been told that as a baby, I used to scream when he would hold me. Every. Single. Time. And every single Sunday. He always insisted on holding me. But then one day, I stopped screaming. I got used to him. And I loved him.

He did fun little magic tricks by pulling a thimble out of your ear, or making a penny disappear into his elbow. He would pull out this ugly picture and tell everyone that this was his daughter or wife when she was younger, just to see how people would react. He would take drive all of the kids (myself included) to camp every year and insist on leaving at 1AM. He was undefeated at ping pong. And he would say ridiculous things that made no sense, just to get a reaction from us. He was quite the character. But he also had deep love for the Lord, and yearned to be in Heaven. He had a heart for the poor, for missions, and a deep desire for everyone to have a relationship with Christ.

His children had moved away married, and had children, so my parents always assisted Brother Mac and his wife when they needed something. In a way, Brother Mac was like a grandfather to us. In 2000, he retired from his church, and moved across town about 15 minutes from my parents. I had already gone off to college, and didn't see him or his wife very often. But every holiday, when they were not visiting their children and grandchildren, my parents would invite them over for dinner.

This past Saturday was Brother Mac's memorial service. My husband, son and I attended, as well as many others - former church attendees, evangelists, as well as a couple of significant leaders from his church's denomination. It was sad, but there was a sense of closure that could be found in the service too. But honestly, that closure made me feel even more sad. As I greeted several people before and after the service, I realized that this chapter in my life was coming to a close. Some of those people I hold very dear to my heart and have made a significant difference in my life. Many of those people I will probably never see again. My parents sold their house in the fall and now travel full time. Both of my siblings have moved away as well. My ties to El Paso have dwindled. I wasn't just saying goodbye to Brother Mac, I was saying goodbye to many friends and to this chapter in my life.

This was a sad realization for me. But I cannot linger in this chapter. Memories and reflection is good, but it is time to move on.

Ecclesiates 3:1-8 says, "There is an appointed time for everything. And there is a time for every event under heaven—

A time to give birth and a time to die;
A time to plant and a time to uproot what is planted.
A time to kill and a time to heal;
A time to tear down and a time to build up.
A time to weep and a time to laugh;
A time to mourn and a time to dance.
A time to throw stones and a time to gather stones;
A time to embrace and a time to shun embracing.
A time to search and a time to give up as lost;
A time to keep and a time to throw away.
A time to tear apart and a time to sew together;
A time to be silent and a time to speak.
A time to love and a time to hate;
A time for war and a time for peace."

Goodbye old friend,
I hope to keep in touch,
but even if we don't,
My life's affected much

:)

Up-Cycled Sweater Series Part 3

2012-02-02T08:00:00.000-07:00

I was planning on posting this with Part 2, but after the first two projects, I realized the blog was going to be way too long. So here's a straggler that really belongs to Part 2 with the accessories.

Arm warmers!!! Or fingerless gloves. Whatever you want to call them.

Here is the original sweater:

This was another sweater I bought during my thrifting extravaganza last week.

The first step is to cut the sleeves. Make sure to give yourself more length than you will probably need to allow room for mistakes. I used the trimmed end of the sleeves (the end that is closest to your shoulder when you wear a sweater) for my hands.

Turn your sleeve inside out, lay your hand on the sleeve, and trace an outline with chalk or a white pencil. (Sorry I don't have a photo of this.) Sew the areas that you marked off with the chalk/pencil, and then trim off the excess fabric.

While your sleeve is still inside out, flip the fabric of the fingers and thumb over and hem them. After several practice runs on leftover fabric from this sweater, I came to the conclusion that hemming it straight across with a sewing machine was impossible without stretching the fabric out and losing the shape, so I ended up hemming the sleeves by hand.

Once the hem was done, I still wasn't happy with the finished product. The arm warmers looked too plain to me, so I randomly sewed several buttons onto the hands.

...And now I love them!

One note - the sweater I used was made from 60% cotton and 40% acrylic. I've come to the conclusion that this is not the easiest fabric combination to use. It was so stretchy, I struggled to keep their shape intact while sewing. I would recommend using a different combination of fabric because of this. :)

The Up-Cycled Sweater Series Part 2

2012-01-31T21:47:00.001-07:00

It's time for another blog post about up-cycling sweaters! As you may remember, I had several sweaters set aside for up-cycling projects, but there were so many projects, I realized it would be better to split them up into a series. Part One was all about making leg warmers. You can find the first blog here.

This time, I want to show you a couple of accessories that I made.

Here's the sweater before:

It's actually a skirt. I found it when I went thrifting recently. The skirt was adorable, and in such good condition that I had to get it, even though it was too small for me.

This skirt was turned this into a cute hat, and matching mittens. This is how I did it:

First turn the skirt inside out (I used the waistband of the skirt as the brim of the hat so that way I wouldn't have to hem the bottom). Then trace the outline of the hat with a white pencil or chalk.

Pin it, sew it up, and trim off the extra fabric. (I forgot to serge the trimmed edges, but I would recommend it to prevent unraveling in the washing machine...or you could wash it by hand...every single time. But who want to do that???).

Now for the mittens.

I used the bottom part of the skirt (or the opposite end) for the mittens. Place your hand on top of the fabric and trace around your hand, fingers, and thumb to make a mitten shape. Then pin around the mitten shape (unless you have amazing confidence in your sewing skills, which I do not).

Sew that bad boy up, and trim the excess fabric. Repeat that whole process again with the other hand, because you want two mittens, not just one...unless you only have one hand. In that case you do not need to make another one. ;) (Remember, serging all the trimmed edges is a good idea, even though I forgot to do that).

And here are the finished products. My husband told me the mittens resemble saguaro cactus. I think he is right, but that is due to the fact that my sewing skills leave something to be desired. And the fact that I have a hard time following the line I traced when using the sewing machine. Ha ha.

After I finished, my son found the hat, and insisted on wearing it. He calls it the "Star Hat," because he thinks the "X's" on the fabric are stars.

I think I may let him have the hat, since he likes it so much.

Super Hero Cape

2012-01-28T22:42:00.000-07:00

Super-hero capes are supposed to be a staple in every little boy's wardrobe, right? At least I thought so. But I'm starting to think that somehow The Toddler does not agree with me...

We cut this cape out of an XL T-shirt I bought for 50 cents at a flea market last fall (I knew I could find a use for that shirt!), and we used acrylic paint on the fabric. (I've learned from experience that acrylic paint does not wash off of fabric, so I figured this would be appropriate to use it this time) :) The circle part of the cape is the collar from the T-shirt.

I've seen blogs and pins peppered with comments from numerous moms who said their little guys love or would love super hero capes. I thought mine would too.

Well he actually LOVED making the cape - or maybe I should say he loved painting it.

This turned out to be a fun afternoon project for myself, The Spouse, and The Toddler. Keep in mind that it's important to supervise your child while they use acrylic paint. Otherwise they may end up like this:

But after we finished painting and the cape was dry, The Toddler would have nothing to do with the cape.

At one point I convinced him to put on, but as soon as I pulled out the camera, he ripped the cape off and said, "I no want to take a picture." (This is the ONLY picture I managed to capture with him - notice the cape falling on the floor - he had just yanked it off his head as I pulled the camera out).

Or maybe not. I had so many cute photo ideas to try with him wearing his cape, but apparently The Uncooperative Toddler had different ideas.

Oh well.

He hasn't even touched the cape since I tried to take his picture. I've tried a couple of times to get him to wear it again. But I am always prevented with a firm "NO" by him.

At least we had a good time painting it!

I think my child may have a future as an artist. ;)

The Up-cycled Sweater Series Part 1

2012-01-25T22:01:00.002-07:00

I have a couple of sweaters that I've set aside for projects. I added a couple more to my collection when I went thrifting over the weekend. Today started out to be a windy day, so I decided this would be the perfect day for a project or two or three...

I made several items from my sweater collections, but there were too many to put them all in one post. And I'm not finished. So I've decided to do a series on the up-cycled sweater items I made.

I've seen leg warmers ALL OVER the internet, so of course, I had to make some too!!

This was a thrifted sweater before up-cycling:

And this is how I made the leg warmers:

Start by cutting off the sleeves.

Turn the sleeves inside out and pin the end that you cut from the sweater.

Sew it...in a straight line. Easier said than done (At least for me). I'm not that good at sewing.

I've read several tutorials that tell you to wear the bottom of the sleeves (the part that sits at your wrists) at the top of your calves when wearing them as leg warmers. That didn't work well for me. Maybe I have big calves, but the "wrist" end of the sleeves were too small for my calves. So I wore them the opposite way - with the "upper arm" end at the top of my calves.

The finished product!

I also made some from this sweater (My father-in-law gave this one to me. I don't think he wanted it anymore) :

And I used the same instructions from above.

Ta-Dah!!

And finally, the crazy sweater - my mom bought this for my dad several years ago, but he refused to wear it. My brother said it looked like the knitting machine blew up when it was being knit. It probably did. (I also think he got that line from the Princess Diaries movie. He is proabaly going to kill me for saying that on my blog now). Ha ha.

I also turned the sleeves inside out and hemmed the top, just like I did with the previous two sets, but the sleeves were huge near the shoulders. So when I turned these inside out to hem the ends, I also took in a couple inches along the side (the length, as in top to bottom) to get a better fit.

I am definitely looking forward to wearing all these. :)

Bargain Shopping Overload

2012-01-23T20:26:00.001-07:00

I went shopping this weekend. But not your typical kind of shopping - it was serious bargain hunting. I found out about a sale at a second hand clothing store called, Other Mothers. They were having a Quarter Sale - meaning everything was only a quarter! But it wasn't in the regular part of their store, it was in the back of their store. And this was what it looked like:

Mountains of clothes piled onto tables. Just like a glorified garage sale. Scary, right?? I thought so. I almost turned around and walked out the door. I'm the type of person who likes clothes presented in a nice organized fashion when I shop. Sifting through piles of clothing is almost unbearable. And completely stressful. But this time, even though I felt completely overwhelmed, I gathered up my courage and dug in. If I only had to pay a quarter for each article of clothing, surely I could do this. My mom came and helped me sort through all the piles. We went through ALL of those piles and found tons of clothing. And this is what we ended up with:

Two bags filled with approximately 100 articles of clothing. Some of the clothes was for me, but most of it was for The Toddler - for the next two years - all for a whopping price of $28!!! We found some major scores there - clothing from Osh Kosh, The Children's Place, Calvin Klein, and more. It was great. Here are a couple of my personal favorite finds:

I know this sweater looks like it belongs at an Ugly Sweater Christmas Party, but I think it's great! It's a hand knit sweater from Norway. It looks so crazy, but I just couldn't resist! I think I might take in the sleeves for more of a fitted look.

And I also found an awesome vintage Oscar de la Renta velour shirt! LOVE.

I wouldn't say that sifting through piles of clothes is my cup of tea, but it was definitely worth it! But I'm not planning on doing this again next weekend. :)

Things to Not Do:

2012-01-19T21:35:00.001-07:00

I need to tell you that I am really, really wise. Or maybe not so much. But I try. So I thought I should impart some of my amazing wisdom that I have acquired. Prepare to be blown away by these profound thoughts. It will change your life. Just in case you haven't figured it out, I am totally being sarcastic.

Things I don't recommend that you do:

Sleep in so long that you feel tired for the rest of the day. I know it sounds tempting, but trust me. It's a bad idea.
Allow your child who still takes naps to skip their nap. Every once in a while I succumb to peer pressure and allow my child to skip his nap. This is NEVER a good idea. NEVER. I let him skip it yesterday and by the end of the day he was bananas! And drove me bananas. Fortunately I called my parents and ditched him with them. Ha ha.
Binging on sugar. Massive crash. Blahhh.zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.
Procrastinate on updating and/or balancing your checkbook for 5 months. This is bad. bad. Bad. BAD.
Allowing your potty-trained toddler to take himself to the bathroom and then avoid checking on him for 5 silent minutes. You never know what they will come up with to do in there. (unroll all the toilet paper, play with the toilet brush wand, rub lotion all over their shirt, and pee all over a 2 foot area.)
Saying words you don't want your toddler to repeat - even words that aren't bad. Example - "Oh crappy, Crappy, CRAP!" Yes I actually said that. (leave me alone). You never know when those words will sneak out of their mouth.
Getting a mullet...not that I have, because I haven't. But I'm just saying that you shouldn't.
Food battles with your toddler...AHHHHHHH!!!

Things that I think you should do:

Make a nose out of Play-doh and stick on your child. It's awesome
Sit your toddler on the driveway with their car seat and tell your parents to come and pick him up...wait...that sounded mean. I didn't mean it like that. I meant it in a fun way...Are you confused? Oh well.
Soak in the bathtub. Because it's awesome.

Feel free to contribute to either list.

Marble Run

2012-01-17T20:27:00.001-07:00

I came across the Marble Run idea on Pinterest several months ago and started saving all my cardboard tubes. We didn't get around doing this activity until recently. Not only did The Toddler LOVE this activity, but so did the spouse and I! It's problem solving game to see just how you can get your marble to run all the way through the tubes without falling out.

We used acrylic paint (because that's all we have) and allowed The Toddler (equipped with a bib) to paint the tubes. And we painted them too. Because it was fun.

Be aware that if you give your child more than one color at a time, they may end up dipping their brush in EACH color before they actually begin painting.

And all those pretty colors may end up looking more like a greyish-olive green.

Like the paint on these tubes. But it's really ok, because this activity really isn't for us, it's for the kids...right? Right....

After the paint was dry, I hot-glued the magnets onto the tubes.

And then we put the tubes on the fridge

and played with them!

Ahhh!!! Rolling marbles through this is so much fun, I can hardly stand it!!

And when you are done with your tubes, you can also do this. What more could a kid ask for?
:)

Monster Toast PBJ

2012-01-12T08:05:00.000-07:00

I am seriously excited to share out latest toddler project with you guys today. Seriously! Ha ha. I had so much fun making Monster Toast Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwiches with the Toddler.

At the moment, there are 2 things that The Toddler adores - Peanut butter and Jelly and Painting. (Well, actually he loves Play-Doh too, but that doesn't count.) So Today for lunch we made Peanut Butter and Jelly sandwiches with Monster Toast. Nothing terribly original, but, oh so much fun!

What you need:

milk
bread
peanut butter
jelly
paint brush (a clean one!)
food coloring
ice cube tray or something else to keep the colored milk in
toaster (obviously!)

Start by mixing your milk and food coloring in the ice cube tray. Use less than a teaspoon for each color per section (they won't use it all) and one drop of food color.

Then let them paint their little hearts out using the bread and the colored milk.

Note that if they paint too much in one area, it creates a soggy milk crater. (as you can see in the picture above where The Toddler's paint brush is.)

Then toast it. Notice the milk crater in the center of the left piece of toast.

If you are feeling brave, you can allow your kid to apply the peanut butter and jelly to each of the slices of toast. I was brave, but he also needed some help. Just watch for rogue butter knives coated with peanut butter and jelly. Those are scary.

All done.

Eat it.

Or at least let your kid eat it...since they got to make it and all....
You know, now that I look at these pictures...I guess this could pass for moldy bread...ewww...

P.S. dump the leftover painted milk into their cup and add some more milk. They'll never know the difference...as long as the cup has a lid on it. Or you can tell them it's special milk. Ha, ha.

;)

DIY Chalkboard Talk Bubble.

2012-01-09T20:27:00.002-07:00

This is a belated Christmas present. I had serious procrastination issues this past Christmas season. I was still recovering from my sprained ankle, I had a respiratory infection, my blood sugar was all over the place, and I also managed to sleep wrong and hurt my neck (and I wasn't able to get adjusted until several days after Christmas). I was a wreck. Needless to say, the last of my homemade Christmas gifts didn't get finished. My husband and I just finished this one last week. (Yes, I am horrified that it took me so long to complete this.)

A couple of months ago, my son felt that needed to climb up his dresser. This was the result.

He did this, not once, but twice. TWICE!! But he hasn't done it since.

After the second time he pulled the dresser down, it was apparent his dresser had seen better days. So we replaced it. Obviously there was no hope of reselling the dresser, so we took it apart, and saved some of the pieces.

We made this chalkboard from the bottom board of one of the dresser drawers. And here's how we did it.

Even thought it isn't pictured, be sure to draw the outline of the talk bubble onto board. My husband is nice and mathematical and so he drew and measured the outline with a ruler and a protractor. A compass would also be good, but I haven't owned one of those since high school geometry...that is the subject that you need a compass for, right?

Once you have the talk bubble outline, use a Jigsaw to cut along the outline. (A Jigsaw is a power tool that cuts - in case you didn't know, because I didn't until my husband educated me.)

Then use chalkboard paint to paint the bubble. (I found my paint at Hobby Lobby) Make sure to follow the directions on the paint bottle. Mine required 2 coats of paint, and I had to prime it with chalk after it dried and before using it.

Finally, add a saw-tooth hanger and magnets to the back. (I don't have a picture of that, but I'm sure you get the idea. :) )

Serious and ridiculous fun. Oh yes.

Truthful Tuesday Confessions

2012-01-08T19:49:00.001-07:00

Guess what time it is? It's time for another Truthful Tuesday Confession. So unburden yourself with your latest light-hearted confession. What ridiculous information do you want to share today?

I haven't been feeling well. I've been having lots of problems with low blood sugar. Massive headaches, emotional outbursts, and extreme fatigue are just a few of side effects I've had. So after reading up on this issue, I've decided to follow a diet that helps regulate your blood sugar by cutting out most carbs and sugar for a couple of weeks, and the slowly add the complex carbs back in. I've been following the diet plan since Friday. Since I've cut out my sweets, I feel so much better! It's not as hard as I thought it would be, but in the evenings, I really miss eating something sweet - like a cookie.

I like Christmas, but I'm not a huge fan of decorating my house. My husband and I put up our decorations 2 weeks before Christmas, due to the fact that we were hosting Christmas at our house this year. I put our decorations away 3 days after Christmas. It's not that I don't like my house to look festive, it's more that the decorations seem to clutter things up and take up too much space (like the tree). And I have a toddler who wants to touch everything. We have about 3 or 4 less ornaments than we started out with a couple of weeks ago.

I used to HATE having incomplete sets of dishes. When my husband (or I, but usually it was him) would break one, we would glue them back together - because I didn't want my set to be incomplete. But then after The Toddler came around, broken dishes were no longer high on the priority list. They found their way to the trash. Oh well.

Goals for the New Year

2012-01-01T22:26:00.000-07:00

I'm not a huge fan of making New Year's resolutions. I used to come up with things that I wanted change about myself throughout the year, but would wait until New Years to take action. I rarely kept those resolutions, mostly because I put off taking action for so long that it became harder break the habit, and I no longer had the motivation. About 6 years ago, I wanted to start exercising consistently. But I had it in my mind that I was supposed to wait until New Years to start. And then I had a revelation - "Why should I wait until New Years to make this change? Why not do it now while I'm motivated???" Duh. So using that motivation, I developed a consistent exercise routine, and I've managed to continue over the years. At this point, exercising has become a habit. I'm not always motivated to exercise, but I've been doing it for so many years, that I end up doing without too much of a mental battle. So I want to encourage everyone to consistently look for ways to improve yourself. Don't wait until the New Year to make a change, make it at the time that you see the need to change. Use the motivation to develop a new habit. You just might surprise yourself and realize how much you can accomplish when you have the motivation. :)

For this reason, I rarely make New Year's resolutions. Instead I make them all year round. However, this morning after talking to my husband, and then listening to the pastor's message about changing things in our spiritual lives, I've decided to make a couple of my own resolutions...or maybe we should just call them goals. Because that's really what they are. (I believe that I am contradicting myself, due to the content in the previous paragraphs, but I'm ok with that.) So here are my goals for this year:

To spend more time in prayer and reading the Bible - From the time that my son was born, I've struggled to keep a consistent quiet time with God (quiet time = praying and reading my Bible). Some days are easier to accomplish this than others, but when I make the time, my state of mind is always better.
To have a more Christ-like attitude - We've all been through difficult times. I have. But it has always been a struggle to not become cynical from these conflicts.
To get back in shape - spraining my ankle has been horrible for my fitness. I've lost my endurance and gained some inches too. Sad face.
To blog consistently - If you look back to my previous posts, (don't actually do it) you will see that from 2009 to 2011, my blog was rarely updated. Sad. I want to do better at this, even if my life gets chaotic, which I'm sure it will at times, I still want to update regularly...even if it's not as consistent as it is now.
To at least consider growing my photography business - Staying at home with your child is very exhausting and time consuming. This is the biggest reason I haven't worked at developing my photography business to a larger scale. It's not that I don't want more business, but I'm afraid of gaining more clients than I can handle without neglecting my family's time. I need to figure out the appropriate work load amount.

My goals for this year are definitely not anything extreme or overwhelming, but just a couple of things to keep in mind throughout the year. I am pleased with these goals. Do you have any goals for the year? Share.

My son's goal for the New Year is to do more stunts. Like the one he did on Friday night by spinning around on an office chair and flying off at a high speed straight into a door - which resulted in a concussion, vomiting, and a trip to the ER. In case you are worried, he is fine - at least his now. My state of mind is still recovering though.

BTW - my husband and I worked on a great project this evening. I can't wait to share it with you guys. Watch for it later this week. :)

What's In My Purse - The Mom Edition

2011-12-29T16:57:00.000-07:00

On occasion I come across blog posts where people take pictures of what they have in their purse. They always seem to have interesting items. It's amusing. Well yesterday, right before was leaving to run errands, I realized my purse was really heavy. And you know, I've really had a hard time finding smaller items in my purse, so I decided to quickly clean it out before I left. And then I got an idea - to do a post about what's in my purse - the mom version of what's in my purse. Ha!

So here's what I found -

2 wallets (yes, 2 - they are both mine, and it's a really long explanation), a baby wipe container with dried up wipes, 3 tubes of hand cream, 1 bottle of hand sanitizer, a mirror, lipstick (amusing since I rarely wear makeup because I'm too lazy), tinted chapstick from Burt's Bees (the closest I usually get to wearing makeup), a comb, coupons, a busy bag (more on that in a minute), a devotion book from church, a red plastic spoon (I don't know why that was in there), a hair clip, a sugar-free lollipop, a Fiber One bar (I think that's been in there for a while), a sanitary wipe, and a ring with various baby care items - brush, comb, nail clippers, and temperature strips (I think I've used that whole contraption ONCE)

In addition to all that junk I also found:

7 cars (one is not pictured. I found it after I took this photo)

One giant pile of TRASH

which also included an old shopping list, expired Chuck E Cheese coupons (scary place), 2 nursery claim stickers to pick up The Toddler from the nursery at church, a coffee stirrer (?), a half eaten coupon (courtesy of The Toddler), and a movie ticket stub from Captain America

And 9 pens. The purple ones are from church. Somehow they always end up in purse???

I mentioned a busy bag as well. In case you aren't familiar with busy bags, they are small bags with a little activity to keep you kiddo entertained and quiet while you are out an about. I usually pull this out when we are at a restaurant, waiting for our food...and even at the coffee shop (yes, sometimes I go get coffee with a friend!!). Here's what is inside mine:

We use these paint swatches and paper clips for matching games.

So there you go! Now you know what I have (or had) inside my purse. And in case you are wondering, yes, I do have a REALLY BIG purse. (It used to double as a diaper bag before The Toddler was potty trained). What's the most unique item in your purse?

Truthful Tuesday Confessions

2011-12-20T19:52:00.000-07:00

I've decided to start a weekly (or semi-weekly, maybe?) theme on my blog - Truthful Tuesdays - where we can all confess the ridiculous actions and thoughts we have on our mind. Why? For fun.

So do you want to know my confessions today?

It took me over a year to enjoy being a stay-at-home. The first six months after my son was born were incredibly difficult, and beyond stressful, due to an unexpected move, my son's sleep issues, his challenging feeding issues, and his reflux. I felt very alone and no one seemed to understand why I was having such a hard time with my son - especially when it came to my son's feeding issues. (We ended up having to taking him to a feeding clinic for several months that helped him get over his feeding problems). There was so much stress during that time, and it seemed that everyone seemed to think I was being overly dramatic about these conflicts. I was so overwhelmed with all of these issues, it was hard to enjoy being a mom. Earlier this year I really found my groove and started enjoying being at home with The Toddler.
During the winter I sleep with socks in bed. I take them off in the bed once I warm up and usually forget to take them out. (My husband finds this annoying. I don't blame him). One time I found 8 pairs of socks in my bed.
I find Lima beans horrid. Over the years, I've tried them several times to see if maybe my taste buds have changed, but alas, they have not.
One time I walked into a wall around 5 AM when I was half awake. My husband was out of town and my son started crying. So I walked across the house to my son's room and totally missed the entry way to the hallway and walked straight into the wall. (What can I say? I know I'm amazing. I had a nice, swollen and bruised nose after that. The good news was that I didn't break it.

There you go. You should feel privileged that you know pointless information about me. Now it's your turn. Confess. You know you want to.

An Awesome Snack + An Anniversary

2011-12-20T18:57:00.001-07:00

I have a new favorite afternoon snack - Whole Grain Toast spread with Nutella and topped with banana slices. It's nothing profound or even terribly creative, however I find it so satisfying and delicious, that I look forward to making it every afternoon. It makes me sad when I run out of bananas or bread before I can go grocery shopping again. I recommend that you try this amazing, satisfying, chocolatey -goodness snack.

In other news, the spouse and I celebrated 7 adventurous years of marriage with an indulgent dinner at The Melting Pot. Have you ever been there? They serve fondue. It's amazing. We had four courses - a cheese fondue appetizer, a salad, a fondue entree with a variety of surf and turf, and one amazing chocolate fondue for desert pureed with raspberries and peanut butter. Oh, it was good. So very good. I think I want to go there again - just for that chocolate fondue.

Our younger and skinnier days. Like the spouses' hair? I like him better bald. :)

I'm looking forward to 60 more years of adventures with this great guy!

Graham Cracker House FAIL

2011-12-20T17:21:00.000-07:00

Yes, you read the title right. Fail. The other title I was thinking about using was "How to NOT Make a Graham Cracker House."

Last week my friends from the Mom's group had a Christmas party. We had a great Christmas lunch, exchanged gifts, and did a craft with our little ones. We decided to do Ginger Bread houses, but we used Graham crackers instead.

The prep was pretty simple - Graham Crackers, cake frosting, and candy. I put the frosting in snack ziplock baggies and then snipped a corner so we could squeeze out the frosting.

The thing we didn't anticipate was how difficult it would be for the little ones to put together the houses...well...actually, I did think about this, but I didn't have time to put together the houses ahead of time.

We envisioned the kids having a great time, decorating the graham crackers houses, but here's what actually happened:

We (the moms) had trouble putting the houses together, which kept collapsing.
One of the kids ripped open the ziplock bag and shoved her hand into the frosting. I'm not sure what she was planning on doing with that handful of frosting...
The kids only wanted to lick the frosting and eat the candy. And the moms did too. ;)

A failed attempt at a graham cracker house

This was my son's house. I put the frosting on. Can you see how interested he was in putting the candy on? Not so much.

Another abandoned attempt with a graham cracker house. Notice the bite mark in the cracker at the bottom of the photo, and the empty sucker wrapper?

So after about 10 minutes of futile fidgeting, we gave in and let them eat the pieces. Oh well. In hindsight, we should have constructed the houses ahead of time (like maybe the night before). That would have eliminated some of the chaos, but over I think this would have been a better activity for ages 5+ (our little ones are ages 1-4).

Notice the enthusiasm on her face as she is holding the candy? If I were to title this photo, I would call it, "My precious!!" Ha ha.

Uhhh...Oops.

2011-12-13T15:32:00.000-07:00

Do you want to know how awesome I am? Let me tell you.

Last week I went to the podiatrist (aka foot specialist) to check on my ankle. I got more x-rays, had my foot removed from the boot (finally), got a new smaller ankle brace (that I can finally wear with shoes), and was assigned to go to physical therapy.

So after I finish, I'm at the front desk, scheduling a follow-up appointment, and waiting for my papers. The receptionist was confused and gave me the address for a different physical therapy office than the one the doctor assigned to me. I knew it wasn't the correct office so after she checked with the doctor, we got it all straightened out and I got the info to the correct PT office.

Fast forward to yesterday. I have my first appointment with the physical therapist. I thought I knew where the physical therapist office was, but when I got to where I thought the office was, the address was different than the one I had on my paper from the doctor's office. So in the midst of my confusion, I look across the street to the other medical offices, and BAM! Right in front of my face is the sign for VC Physical Therapy. (Name abbreviated, because it's really not that important). "That must be it." I thought as I drove across the street and parked in their parking log.

So I go inside and sign in. And here is the conversation I have with the receptionist:
Receptionist: Can I have your name?
Me: Michelle. Michelle Sexton.
Receptionist: What time were you scheduled for?
Me: 12:00
Receptionist: Hmmm....I don't see you on here....How do you spell your last name?
Me: S-E-X-T-O-N
Receptionist: Hmmm...I just can't find it. What did you schedule an appointment for? Was it just a consult? Or was it for physical therapy?
Me: I don't know. My doctor told me to come to physical therapy here. So I called and set up an appointment.
Receptionist: And what time was is for again?

At this point, I pulled out my paper from the doctor's office with the information about the physical therapy office. And I realize, that I am at the WRONG OFFICE!!!! Ha ha ha! I was supposed to go to an office called Select Physical Therapy not VC Physical Therapy.

So I hold up the paper and say, "I guess it would help if I went to the right office!!" And we both laugh and I walk out. What can I say? I'm just awesome like that. Ha ha ha. I amuse myself.

But I will say, in my defense, when I was at the podiatrist office and the receptionist initially gave me the information to the wrong PT office, it just so happened that that office was VC Physical Therapy. So when I saw the sign for VC Physical Therapy, my subconscious remembered that name, and I immediately assumed that was the office I was supposed to go to. I should have checked my papers first. Oops.

So after I left the wrong office, I went across the street (which is where I originally thought the office was) and found the right office - Select Physical Therapy. Just so you know. I didn't get lost permanently. ;)

And now to change the subject. I sorted through the photos on my camera this morning and wanted to share a few of my favorites from this fall.

A rare opportunity to catch The Toddler willing to take a picture.

This is The Toddler doing what he does best. Picking his nose.

Love these two guys. :)

See how my son loves to take pictures? He was more interested in the pumpkin. Of course.

Thoughts on People's Thoughts.

2011-12-13T14:56:00.000-07:00

A totally random photo to share. Because you can't write a blog without putting pictures in. This is The Toddler watching the movie, Tron, in 3D while we were browsing an electronics store recently. This kid amuses me.

And now to be serious.

I rarely blog about spiritual issues, not because I'm opposed or shy about sharing. It's more that I preferr to meditate on these things in private or to speak about them face to face with someone rather than write about them. But every once in a while, I feel compelled to share. Today is one of those days.

"Fearing people is a dangerous trap, but trusting the Lord means safety." Proverbs 29:25

I read this verse today. I've read this verse numerous times. But today this verse stood out to me. Here's why - I am a people pleaser to a fault. I want everyone to like me and I want everyone to approve of me. When I percieve that someone doesn't like me, it makes me feel insecure. My security is based on what people think of me. I am afraid that people won't like me. This is an awful way to live - a dangerous trap. Over the years, I've become more aware of this personal conflict. I've stopped obsessing about what others may think of me. But it has taken years, with lots of prayer and lots of time to allow God to change my thinking. I've had to give my insecurities to God and allow him to heal my heart as I have spent time with him. The closer I've drawn to God, the less time I have spent worrying about what other people think. I'm not going to lie, I still have days when I spend a little too much time worrying about other people's opinions concerning me. There are times when my insecurities creep up inside of my heart, but I've found the best way to deal with this conflict is to stop and remind myself that people's opinions of me don't matter.

I recently got yelled at by a CRAZY lady in the grocery store parking lot of over a misunderstanding. Long story short - she thought I stole her parking spot, but what she didn't realize or see was that I had been waiting for that spot long before she had arrived. She went totally balistic on me, nearly hit my car (and my mom who met me there), reported me to the store (gasp! oh no!), and repeatedly told me that I was a horrible person. Nobody enjoys being yelled at, but honestly, I really didn't care what she said or thought about me. Actually, I found the whole situation rather hysterical, considering that she managed to show everyone around us that she had a screw loose.

That conflict served as a watermark to me. It showed me how far I have come. If this had happened to me about 8 years ago, I probably would have curled up in a ball and started crying. Well...not really. But you get the idea.

Fearing people is a dangerous trap - worrying about people and what they think of you will only lead to heartache. You can't please everyone. It's impossible.

But trusting the Lord means safety - the only opinion that truly matters is God's. And only he can bring you the true peace and fulfillment that you are searching for in others. My relationship with God puts my heart at peace.

And I am blessed. :)

And on a not-so-serious note, I have an awesome story to share with you guys about what a ninja I am. But more on that later. Ha ha.

Another random picture of The Toddler. At the dog park. Wearing only his hood. Because his head was cold. I'm telling you, this kid is awesome. He will probably kill me when he gets older and realizes that I let him dress like this.

And one more thing. My toddler puked all over his bed and the carpet at 10:30 last night. It was awesome. I have no idea why he puked. He seems fine today. Just thought I would share. Oh the joys of parenting.

DIY Christmas Ornament Chandelier

2011-12-11T19:07:00.001-07:00

Hi friends. My husband and I finally decided to decorate our house - 2 weeks before Christmas. We've been putting it off because neither one of us wanted to dig through the garage and pull out the boxes with Christmas decorations...plus there was also the issue of getting the toddler to leave the ornaments on the tree. So we weren't in a rush to put up the decorations, but since we are hosting Christmas at our house this year, we decided we probably should do it this weekend....since we are running out of time. Ha.

Here's a fun ornament chandelier I made to make our dining room a little more festive. My camera's battery was dead, so I had to use my cell phone to do photos. (sorry)

All you need is scissors, ribbon, ornaments, and a hair rubber band.

Cut approximately 7 strands of ribbon about 4 feet long. String 2 or 3 ornaments onto each ribbon and tie them at random places.

Gather the ribbon ends

And tie a knot securely onto the hair rubber band. And that's it!

Now find a fun place to hang your chandelier, and admire :)

Linking up here:

10 Favorite DIY Fashion Pins

2011-12-05T10:25:00.001-07:00

It's snowing here today. My border collie is outside in the backyard, running in circles and barking his heart out. (My neighbors probably hate us...or at least our dog). My son is sick, but sitting at the kitchen table, playing with play-doh and hotwheels, and I am sitting on the couch with my sprained ankle elevated. It's been almost 6 weeks since I sprained my ankle at the pumpkin patch. I have an appointment with a podiatrist today to see how my ankle is doing. I'm a little nervous - hoping to hear good news.

Are you guys on Pinterest? I am. I have to admit, I LOVE Pinterest. Have you ever read something online, and thought, "Wow! That's a great idea. I need to remember this" and then promptly forgot about it? Yeah, I have. Enter Pinterest - a website where you can "pin" ideas that you like onto virtual boards. Now you can categorize and refer back to all those awesome ideas you've come across online.You can also network with others and see what they pin as well as repin their ideas too. Genius! I've received so much inspiration for projects from this website.

Here are my top 10 favorite pins from my DIY Fashion board - which are clothing and accessories that I want to make and wear!

Cluster safety pins on the collar of your shirt! What a fun idea! Why didn't I think of that??

How to make sweater boots - easier than you think!

Button Necklace. Fun.

A skirt made from a men's dress shirt. I think this is different, but I still love the idea. I have a shirt or two already set aside for this project.

Fish tail skirt - made from a thrifted skirt. I would chose a skirt with a different fabric, and not cut the skirt so short in the front.

Skirt made from an old sweater. How cool is this?

Upcycled sweater sleeves made into leg warmers.

Old sweater sleeves made into fingerless gloves!

Easy no-sew poncho made from wool fabric.

Upcycled oversized sweatshirt into an awesome fitted hoodie.

Don't you think these are great ideas? I am so excited to try these projects...as soon as I am no longer confined to the couch with an elevated foot.

Are you on Pinterst? What are your favorite pins from Pinterest? You can follow my pins here:

Anna Banana

2011-12-03T11:51:00.001-07:00

This is my sweet niece, Anna. I love this little girl. I had the opportunity to do photos of her when my sister and her family came to visit us.

You can see more photos of her on my photography blog.

How to hide an uneven crocheted scarf

2011-11-30T11:20:00.001-07:00

I'm not good at crocheting. I decided I wanted to learn about 7 or 8 years ago. And so Sarah, from Undiscovered Virtues, showed me how. It was really funny. She was about 13 years old at the time. (By the way, she was quite the hysterical kid). She would tell me, "put this thingy here, and then put this thingy here, and then make it look like this." It was great. I still figured out how to crochet though. But I haven't worked at it very much over the last several years. This is why I'm not good at it.

I started crocheting a scarf, with the idea in mind that I would give it as a Christmas gift. It took me several hours to remember how to crochet, and I kept starting a couple of rows, and then unraveling them because they didn't look right. Finally I consulted YouTube and realized I was missing a couple of stitches. Ha! After that things got better. When I was about half way through the scarf, I realized that my stitches kept getting tighter and tighter. No matter how much I tried to keep things loose, I couldn't seem to make the rest of the stitches look as loose as the ones in the beginning.

So this is how my scarf ended up. Notice the bottom layer of the scarf? See how one end is larger than the other. Yeah. Oops. Apparently it's been quite a while since I last crocheted...about 4 or 5 years.

Although this is not terribly noticeable, I decided not to use this as a Christmas gift and keep it for myself. The looser end really bugged me, but I was definitely not willing to unravel the whole thing and start again. Then I got an idea - what if I cinched up certain parts of the scarf? So this is what I did.

It was a pretty easy fix. I simply threaded a large plastic needle with matching yarn, tied the opposite end of the yarn onto and edge of the scarf, and wove the threaded yarn straight across to the other end, and tied off the yarn. Simple. Then I repeated it three more times in various areas of the scarf to make it look uniform throughout.

Not so bad, right??? Well...I think so. I'm thinking I should cinch it a couple more places, and maybe a little tighter? Just a thought.
So the next time one of your projects doesn't turn out quite right, get creative and see what you can do to recover it! :)

DIY Knit Mohawk Hat (without actually knitting)

2011-11-27T20:28:00.001-07:00

I've spent the last couple of weeks crafting to my hearts delight. Actually, I'm stuck on the couch most of the time to let my ankle heal, so I've been working on knitting and crocheting projects. This has kept me from losing my mind while confined to couch.

Here's one of my favorite projects that I've done lately.

I've seen tons of photos on Pinterest for knit and crocheted mohawk hats for kids. I've been wanting to make one for my son, but I'm not that good at crocheting, and I have no idea how to knit. But one night while laying in bed and thinking about those hats, I figured out how to make one - with a knitting loom! (I've come up with some of my best ideas while laying in bed. Seriously!)

A knitting loom is a round circular frame, that allows you to "knit" by weaving the yarn around the pegs. I love this thing! I have a package with 4 different size looms and also includes a hook and large plastic needle. I've made so many fun things with these looms. Last year I made a couple of infinity neck scarves with them.

Anyway I started this project using the green loom, which has a 7.5 inch diameter. I used the red yarn for the brim, and the "Mohawk" and the blue yarn for the hat. The actual instructions for using the loom and weaving the yarn around it are included with the loom. I got my loom at Hobby Lobby.

The brim was the trickiest part of the hat. It took me three times to get it right. The first two times I wove the yarn too tight and actually broke the yarn and then ended up cutting the broken brim off the loom. Oops.

Making the Mohawk hair was easy, but a little time consuming. I made several small long and loose pom poms and hand stitched them down the center of the hat.

Here's how to make a pom pom:

Using a 2.5 inch piece of cardboard, wrap the yarn around the cardboard approximately 20 times.

After wrapping yarn, cut yarn leaving about inches to spare.

With a large needle, thread the long end of the yarn underneath the wrapped yarn, and tie a tight double knot at the bottom. (Note: if your knot is not tight enough, the yarn will fall out once it is made into a pom pom.

Next cut the wrapped yarn on the opposite end of the knot.

And there you go - a pom pom. Now make a bunch more. Use the long end to hand stitch the pom poms down the center of the hat to create the Mohawk.

Here was the final result. It was cute, but I wasn't satisfied. I wanted the brim to be longer (up and down). And when I put it on The Toddler's head, it was a bit tight. So keeping this in mind, I made him another hat using the 9.5 inch knitting loom with yellow and green yarn. The yellow brim was approximately 20 rows of stitches, and the green part was 22 rows of stitches.

I'm much more satisfied with the second hat I made, and The Toddler loves it! He wears it all the time. It's such a great feeling when I make something for him that he actually loves. :)

Total time for making a hat : about 8 hours.
Total cost for me: free - I had both the yarn and the looms.

Thankful.

2011-11-23T17:05:00.001-07:00

I usually avoid writing about topics talking about being thankful around Thanksgiving. I find them sappy. Isn't that horrible? I know. It is. Ha ha. But despite my cynical attitude, I promise I really am thankful. I am thankful for many things. But I feel very blessed to have my husband, and my son in my life. My husband is my best friend, and greatest support. My son fills my heart with love. I am thankful for them.

I took this photo of my husband and son about two years ago. My son was about 7 months old. We were at a pumpkin patch waiting for the hayride.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Adventures With a Sprained Ankle

2011-11-12T13:51:00.001-07:00

In case you haven't heard, I sprained my ankle. It was 2 weeks ago when I took my son and his friend down the slide at a pumpkin patch. We went down so fast that I couldn't stop in time and rolled my ankle at the bottom of the slide. Not my favorite moment. Ever since then, I've been wearing a fancy bionic boot...or at least that's what my husband and I call it. The Toddler runs around saying, "Mommy has an owie leg." And then he leans down and kisses my boot....when he's not feeling ornery.

Here's a couple of thoughts, observations, and comments I have concerning a sprained ankle:

When I was a kid, I used to fantasize, yes fantasize, about how awesome it would be to have an injury that would require crutches. Since then I have gotten over that foolish fantasy.

I hate/love the fact that I need to stay off my feet as much as possible. Since becoming a mom a couple of years ago, I long for the time when I can recline on the couch all day and do nothing. But now that I HAVE to do this, I find it very boring, and frustrating. I have so many things I want to get done, but shouldn't be doing.

Wearing the boot, brings me to a new level of frumpiness, that I have never before achieved. When I stay home for the day, I wear sweats and boots. (Maybe I should say A Boot). Yes boots. Because a boot with my bionic boot, it keeps my foot at the same level as my foot in the bionic foot. Otherwise, it feels like you are walking with only one heel. Very uncomfortable.

Since I look so frumpy at home, I really try to make the effort to look nice when I go out of the house. However, the bionic boot really takes away from my outfits. ;) After I would get dressed in the morning, I would walk downstairs and show my husband and say, "Fabulous!" (referring to my outfit). Now I walk downstairs and say "Almost Fabulous." Ha.

I only wear my right shoes these days. (for obvious reasons). I have a pile of right shoes at the foot of my bed. Because that's where I take them off before getting into bed at night. I believe I might have a hard time finding the matches to each of my shoes once I don't have to wear the bionic boot anymore.

I feel incredibly dumb telling people how I sprained my ankle. Especially the part about going down the slide.

Believe it or not, I really, really, really miss exercising. I feel so tired and sluggish when I don't exercise. Blah. I'm also really sad that I'm missing great cycling weather. This makes me really sad. I've actually considered trying to cycle with a sprained ankle, but I decided that would not be a good idea. Ha ha.

I've been letting The Toddler watch waaay more TV than he should lately - to keep him occupied while I rest. I feel so guilty about it.

I think having an injury and walking around with a heavy bionic boot all day must make me extra tired, because I have been sleeping way more than usual.

2 weeks down, and 4 more to go. This feels like forever.

Shaving Cream Paint

2011-11-11T20:48:00.001-07:00

A couple of nights ago, I needed an activity to occupy my son long enough to keep my sanity until his bedtime. So I consulted my "Kids Activities" board on Pinterest and found an excellent pre-bath time activity. Shaving Cream Paint. Oh yes.

All it required was shaving cream, food coloring, a muffin tin, and a brush (I used an old basting brush).

I allowed The Toddler to add the food coloring to each cup of shaving cream, which he LOVED. By the way, that greyish color was supposed to be purple. Just so you know.

Then I put the toddler the tub, and let him paint his little heart out. He had a blast.

The only drawback to this activity is if your toddler announces that he needs to pee, and is covered with shaving cream paint. Just make sure you have an old towel handy!

The best part about this is the easy clean up! Rinse the shaving cream off of your bathtub (and walls) with a cup of water! Ta-Dah! Done. And then throw your kid in the bath to finish up. And then bed. That's my favorite part. :)

No-Sew Scrap Fabric Tutu

2011-11-10T21:53:00.001-07:00

My goal for this Christmas season is to make as many gifts for others as possible instead of buying them. I have been making a mental list of the gifts I want to give my family members for a couple of months. A couple of days ago, I realized that Christmas is next month! So I need to get started on all my fun DIY Christmas gifts. I'm not sure if I will be displaying all my gifts, since several of my family members read my blog. I don't want to ruin the surprise. (Maybe I'll post some after Christmas...we'll see).

I made my niece a scrap fabric tutu for Christmas. I've seen a couple of them on Pinterest, but I ended up doing my the tutu my own way. I wanted to make a tutu that had an adjustable waist band, and I didn't want to sew it. (I don't like digging through the back of my closet for my sewing machine and then hauling it downstairs.) So here's my version on the No-Sew Scrap Fabric Tutu.

All I used was:

Scissors
A strip of elastic long enough to wrap around my niece's waist
A bunch of scrap fabric - cut into strips about 1.5 inches thick and anywhere between 17 to 22 inches long. I varied up the length of the fabric, just to add a little more depth to the tutu.

Making this tutu was unbelievably easy. First tie the elastic into a loop according to the width of the waist is. Then using a cow hitch knot, secured each fabric strip around the elastic. (Are you impressed that I knew that it was a Cow Hitch Knot? You should be. Ok not really. I googled it just before I typed it. Ha ha.) Don't know how to do that knot? Look below.

Fold the fabric strip in half and pull the middle section of the strip under the elastic. Pull the middle section, which now looks like a loop, above the elastic.

Then pull the end of the fabric strip through the loop and tighten. Repeat this with each of your strips all the way around the elastic until you have a full tutu. I would recommend putting your elastic around a coffee canister or something around that size to keep the elastic tight as you tie on the fabric.

It should end up looking similar to this.

Once you have knotted your fabric all the way around the elastic, push the fabric away from the knotted end of the elastic,

and hide the knot by tying a cow hitch knot around the elastic knot. And that's it! Easy, right? And since I only tied the elastic with a knot, I can easily loosen or tighten according to my niece's waist size.

Total cost: absolutely free!!! I used scraps from my collection, and I already had elastic.
Total time: about 2 hours. I measured the strips out and cut them with scissors, but if you have a rotary cutter, it would go a lot faster.

I cannot wait to give this to my niece! Too bad that I don't have a little girl to model this for me. So for now, you get to look at it on a hanger. ;)

Play-Doh Fun.

2011-11-09T18:34:00.000-07:00

My son has been really into play-doh lately. There have been times when he has literally spent an HOUR sitting at the table, entertaining himself with play-doh. Amazing, right?

I rarely get around to buying play-doh for him, so I usually end up making it. I recently came across a play-doh recipe on Pinterest that uses Jello mix. Kind of wierd? I thought so, but I've seen that recipe pinned several times, so I decided to try it. I have to tell you, it was great! Here's the recipe:

Ingredients:

white flour – 1 cup
salt – 2 tbsp
cream of tartar – 2 tbsp
cooking oil – 2 tbsp
warm water – 1 cup
Jello – 1 3oz pack

Directions:

Add all the ingredients together in a big mixing bowl
Mix all the ingredients together until consistent
Pour into a pan and stir continuously
Wait for it to thicken into a big ball and then place it on a piece of wax paper to cool
Kneed it for a few minutes once cooled with some flour
Add any food coloring or glitter to spice things up!
Start playing!

Try it! It's really great. It smells good (but doesn't taste good), and the texture is really great. It's pretty close to the actual store bought play-doh.

One of the keys to the play-doh success has been keeping it interesting. Over the past several months, I've been collecting random things from our house that create interesting impressions. Here's a couple of things that we use: various sized balls and unique textures, plastic animals and bugs, rulers, cookie cutters, sea shells, seeds, stamps, lids, lego pieces, nets (packaging from popsicles), forks, and even Hot Wheel cars (added by my son).

I'm pretty sure that The Toddler's favorite play-doh item are the Hot Wheel cars.

Here's one of The Toddler's play-doh creations. What unique items do your kids use with play-doh?

Halloween Festivities

2011-11-01T21:02:00.000-06:00

Do you want to know what I've been up to over the past several days? Lots! We've visited a pumpkin patch, Dressed up the toddler for various Halloween Events, taken him Trick or Treating and I even sprained my ankle! That's right, I sprained my ankle. Boo!

On Friday, we went with our mom's group to visit a pumpkin patch. Innocent enough, right??

There was a petting zoo with a cute little pony who adored the kids and stood next to the fence so all the little ones to pet him.

And we went on a hayride, where I forced my son to take a picture with me. See how happy he is to get his picture taken? (p.s. I'm wearing my mom's shirt from the 70's. My dad bought it for her when they were engaged. vintage. yes)

And The Toddler was allowed to pick out his very own pumpkin. This is the one he chose. He carries it around the house too, because he is so proud of it.

But there was this one slide at the pumpkin patch. This is the top of the slide in the picture - that big black tube. It was a bad slide. I went down it with my son and his friend. The slide was steep, and I was holding 50+ pounds of extra weight going down the slide. I couldn't slow myself down in time. So I slammed into the ground at the bottom. But I didn't drop the 2 toddlers. Just so you know. My ankle twisted outward really far. Fortunately I was wearing my cowboy boots (love those) and they have extra support around the ankles. I'm confident that if it wasn't for my boots, my ankle would be broken. It took me a couple of minutes before I could stand up. We did a couple more activities at the pumpkin patch before the pain began to really set in and we had to go home.

And now I get to wear this. Isn't that great? Not so much. Pretty certain it's a sprain and not a break - just by the way it feels. (I've had breaks and sprains before). I haven't gone to the doctor, but mostly because I'm pretty certain it's only a sprain - but there is definitely no walking on it. So the boot is my next best option. And this is how I spent the next several days - when we weren't doing other fun things.

We also went to the Zoo Boo and the Toddler chose to dress like Superman. See how excited he is to take a picture here too? I tried to convince him to wear his cute monkey costume, but he wasn't interested. Whatever. We stayed at the zoo until it became unbelievable crowded and my ankle started to ache, and I felt the need to mow people down for not moving out of the way for a lady with a gimpy leg. (aka me)

My parents also came to into town to visit us. My mom and I checked out a couple of antique shops. Because we like that sort thing - even if we don't buy anything. It's always fun to look at the unique stuff. Here are a couple of things I liked and a couple of things I found amusing.

Check out this scooter! How awesome is this???

This circley wire thing is a vintage flower holder. This would be an awesome DIY project.

I'm not so sure I understand the outfit on his manikin...hmm....

Halloween costume anyone? Nice.

So to end it all, we dressed up the Toddler in his awesome monkey costume took him trick or treating to a couple of neighbor's houses, and then took him to a Trunk or Treat at our church.

I forgot to take more pictures of his cute costume. I was busy having a sprained ankle. Ha.

We had lots of fun over the past several days (except for the sprained ankle part. That wasn't very fun), but I am glad the festivities are over. Now, onto Thanksgiving. :)

Chalk Board Pantry Doors.

2011-10-27T09:12:00.000-06:00

Last week I found a bottle of Chalk Board Paint while browsing through Hobby Lobby. Love that store. I could spend hours there...and lots of money too. I've been wanting to do some sort of chalk board in our house for quite a while, but haven't decided which project I wanted to do. Even though I didn't have a specific plan for the paint, I bought it anyway. We don't have much wall space in our house (or even extra space) so I knew I had to come up with a creative idea for a chalk board. And then it hit me - I should paint our pantry doors!! And that's what I did. Now we have a chalk board, where my husband and I can write reminders to each other and the toddler can scribble his heart out. And we didn't even use any extra wall space to make this!!!

I only painted the inside squares of the pantry doors. We have black appliances in the kitchen so the black works well.

A couple things I didn't foresee was 1.) the fact that I have a toddler, and toddlers do not stay within boundaries - especially when coloring. (Duh). And 2.) chalk boards can be messy - people accidentally lean against them, chalk dust falls to the floor, and chalky toddler hands. So I ended up creating a little more work for myself by creating another avenue for messes, but at least we will have fun in the process!

Total cost - about $4 for the bottle of chalk board paint. That's it! I already had the paint brushes and masking tape.

Total Time - excluding drying time, only took about 30 minutes to tape the edges and then paint the doors.

Loved this project. Now go and do it! And tell me what you decided to turn into a chalk board. :)

Box Car

2011-10-26T20:44:00.000-06:00

Guess what? Today I found a project that my son was interested in for a larger portion of the day! I can't believe it! Usually when I do a project, he is mildly interested in doing it - until he gets distracted by his Hot Wheel cars or until it gets tedious - aka coloring or decorating. Ha!

Today we made a car out of cardboard box! I know this idea lacks in originality, but the toddler LOVED it. We originally came up with this idea for his birthday party last year, but at the time, he was feeling too shy and was unwilling to participate in the box car making and games. So today I thought we would try again. As I was making the box into a car, he showed very little interest in participating. He did about 2 or 3 scribbles with a crayon and then declared that he was done. (Typical. The nursery workers at church says he rarely shows interest in coloring...I'm thinking that he is going to be more of a mechanically minded person rather than creative. Just a thought.)

After I finished making the box look like a car, he was so excited to use it. He ran around the house wearing his box car, fell down the stairs wearing the box car, played in the backyard with it, and even wanted to take it when we went out to dinner tonight. We said no. As soon as we got home, he resumed playing with his box until bedtime. Amazing. I feel successful - finding a project that he is interested in for an extended amount of time is quite the accomplishment. Sometimes I am amused by the fact that the simple things bring so much entertainment to a child rather than the extravagant things. :)

Notice the finger in the nose. After this shot he put that finger in his mouth. I know you wanted to know that. You're welcome.

By the way - I don't know if you can tell by the pictures, but I punched holes in the front and back of the car and attached yarn from end to end so he could "wear" the car around his shoulders...kind of like suspenders.

Have fun with this project.

Halloween Fun.

2011-10-25T21:34:00.003-06:00

Halloween is close, and this weekend we had some fun getting ready for it. We made Bert and Ernie pumpkins with the toddler. Initially he was interested in it while he was painting, but as soon as we started carving the pumpkins, he lost interest.

Painting was a little nerve-wracking - mostly because our dining room has carpet. Why didn't I think is to do this on the kitchen floor? Duh!

The toddler is now losing interest. Typical. I think that we enjoyed making them more than the toddler did.

Here's our finished product. Aren't they great? The Toddler loves them (now that we are done making them). He goes and sits down next to them and talks to them. It's hysterical.

We are trying to take a picture with Bert and Ernie. See how interested The Toddler is in taking a picture?

Still trying to take a picture.

Forced posing. Not working.

Ok. Nevermind. I give up.

Afterwards we roasted Garlic Pumpkin Seeds - which were awesome. What kind of Halloween stuff have you guys been doing?

My First DIY Furniture Refinishing Project

2011-10-22T18:20:00.000-06:00

I've been doing crafts for years, usually small stuff - scarves, belts, crocheting, bags, etc. But we purchased a house last spring, so I've been preoccupied with trying to make all of our home decor fit together in a cohesive manner. But the table we have in the dining room is old and out dated and I'm not a huge fan of it. My parents gave us their table a couple of years ago. It's the same one we had growing up - from the 80's with a nice shiny veneer finish on the top. Outdated. So I decided it needed a makeover. This was my first DIY furniture refinishing project.

This is what our table looked like before. Blah. Notice the Shiny table top.

And this is our table afterwards. In addition to our table looking outdated, we have successfully broken all but one chair. Seriously...how do we manage? We were able to manage to fix 4 of the 7 chairs with wood glue, but we still had to come up with a couple more chairs. So I went thrifting and found a couple chairs - mismatched chairs. I want an eclectic look. Remember Monica's kitchen table from the show, Friends? (I tried to find a pic of it, but couldn't...but I didn't look too hard either.) Anyway, I've always loved how her chairs were mismatched. I've always wanted to do something similar. I wanted more mismatched chairs than what we have pictured, but after several trips to several thrift stores, I've found that individual chairs are hard to find...and they cost about $10 a piece. (why??? It's just a lonely chair!!) I probably need to start checking for them in garage sales instead. I was only able to score a couple...and the dealers weren't willing to sell one chair from a set (boo). So for now, we'll use what we have, and I'll replace them as I find more chairs (that cost less than $10 a piece).

Anyway, here's how we did our project:

We had to sand the table first (the legs as well as the top) - just enough to rough it up.We all participated in this one - including my toddler...but he was using a piece of paper to sand the table. That was his idea. The girl in the yellow shirt is our crafty friend, Sarah. She is awesome at refinishing furniture and other DIY projects. (She just started blogging. Check her out)

Next we put primer sealer on the table top. (We actually had to do a couple coats) This allowed the paint to stick to the veneer finish. Notice how the table leaves are all disconnected? We did this to keep them from sticking together as they dried.

After the primer sealer dried, we took out the two middle leaves, and spray painted the legs black as well as the edges of the table. Notice how the picture looks cloudy? That was because there was so much spray paint in the air, that when the camera flashed, the light reflected off all the paint in the air. Awesome. Ha ha.

Then we taped around the edges, and spray painted the top of the table brown.

Once the paint was dry, we plotted out where each word would be placed and what letter to use, and traced them onto the table with a pen.

And painted them. Let me just make a recommendation here - in hindsight, it probably would have been easier and less messy if we would have just spray painted the letters onto the table straight from the stencil. But at the time, it didn't even occur to me. However, if you do decided to trace from the stencils and paint them by hand, I would recommend that you have a good set of brushes - it makes a HUGE difference in how well you can paint the letters and stay within the lines. :)

Here's where I made a mistake. After we painted the letters onto the table and once they were dry, I painted on the final coat - polyurethane. BUT when I did this, the black paint from the letters started to smear onto brown paint. Ahhhh!!! If you look at the bottom of the "Y", you can see how the black paint bled onto the brown paint. So I thought that maybe if I waited longer for the paint to dry that it wouldn't smear. Not so much. Same results. It got so bad I finally decided to redo the whole leaf that said "Family". So I sanded the leaf back down to the primer sealer layer and repainted. This time I used polyurethane that sprays on. (I did several coats) and then I painted on the polyurethane for a finishing touch. Much better results. No paint bleeding. The final step was to sand down all the chairs and paint them black. I used a bucket of paint for the chairs, because it ended up being cheaper than several cans of spray paint. The final step was to paint polyurethane on all the chairs and let dry.

Here is the finished project. I'm pleased with the results, but I learned a lot from this project. It was time consuming and it ended up costing a lot more than I realized.

Total cost including

3 chairs from Goodwill - $25
paint brushes
paint
spray polyurethane
small bucket polyurethane
primer sealer
2 types of sandpaper
sandpaper handle
spray paint
stencils

$250 to $300 (at least) - I lost track of how much everything cost. Waaay more than I expected.

Total amount of time - at least 36 hours (excluding drying time)

The purpose of this project was to redo our table in order to prevent spending money on a new one. But with all the time and money put into, we could have easily found a pretty decent one on Craigslist for the amount of money that we put into redoing our current one. But I like my table now, and at least I have a unique piece of furniture. So if you decide to do a project like this, make sure you have an accurate idea of how much it will cost.

Father Daughter Fun

2011-10-20T09:49:00.001-06:00

I usually don't post pictures from my photo sessions on this blog, but today I am going to make an exception. This is one of my favorite silhouette pictures that I have taken. It was done during a family portrait session around this time last year. It was toward the end our the session and their toddler had had enough picture taking for that day. Her father swung her up in attempt to get a couple more shots before we ran out of light. It wasn't a photo I had planned on doing, but as he was playing with her, I was compelled to capture the moment. It's one of my favorite pictures. It's funny how the unplanned photos can end up being the most memorable ones.

If you want to see more silhouette photos, you can click here. They aren't mine, but they are definitely fun to look at.

And if you want to see more photos you can check out my facebook page, my photography blog, or my website. :)

By the way - I have some more projects I finished and will be posting them soon. Watch for them!

Impromptu Dinner

2011-10-17T18:46:00.003-06:00

Do you want to see what we had for dinner tonight?

Here it is! Home made pizza! Oh yes. We had a several ingredients that we needed to use up - including pizza crust, leftover spaghetti meat sauce, mushrooms, and spinach. I also added cheese (of course), and ham. Super Easy, and Super Delicious. What has been the best dinner that you've made from leftovers?

check out more dinner ideas here.

On My Bike Ride this Morning...

2011-10-17T14:26:00.000-06:00

I went on a bike ride this morning. I love riding my bike. It's one of my favorite things to do, and it's an awesome way to get exercise. I try to ride 10 -15 miles at least once a week. This morning I thought we would change things up a bit and ride the trail down by the river. Let me tell you it was complete chaos. But before I tell you the story, here are a couple things you need to know:

My son always comes with me on a bike ride. I pull him in one of those trailer-chariot things.
I always take our dog, Brody - a Border Collie with limitless energy, on about a 3 mile run for the last part of my bike ride (I ride home to get him, attach his leash to the chariot, and have him run next to us).
Brody has not been walked in 2 weeks and has been driving us crazy with his excessive barking. He REALLY needed to have a walk (run).
We have an unfinished backyard, and it has been a while since we bathed him. He looked like a homeless dog.
Before our bike ride, my son and I bathed him, so I wouldn't feel embarrassed to be seen with dirty homeless dog.

So now that you know all this, I will continue with my story:

We don't have a bike rack on our Expedition (but we should get one) so it took me 20+ minutes to figure out how to get one bicycle and one giant chariot into the back of the Expedition. I ended up taking out the back row of seats (that took a while), and taking off the front wheel of my bike in order for everything to fit.
In the car, on our way to the river trail my toddler was feeling extra ornery and tried to kick everything in reach of his feet. He got in trouble.
By the time we got to the river trail, had the bike assembled, the trailer attached, the toddler in his chariot, and the dog on his leash, it was windy. Incredibly windy. Like 20+ mph. Awesome. But at least it's a flat trail!
After about 3 to 4 miles, it's apparent my dog is tired. But I wanted to ride further. So what did I do? I put the dog in the chariot with my son. Then I realized that at some point my dog pooped while we were riding, and he had poop all over his rear section (So much for the bath). It just so happens that I had a towel in the chariot (I don't know why). I wrapped the towel around the dog's rear and set him inside the chariot with my son. At that moment I had a spontaneous nose bleed. (awesome) I didn't have any kleenex and I refused to stand on the side of the trail, pinching my nose like a crazy person (there are just some things I refuse to do in public, and this is one of them). So I get back on my bike and keep riding, sniffing up the blood, wiping it on my cycling gloves, and trying to keep the blood from gushing out my nose.
So despite all this, I keep riding. Keep in mind that its really really windy. My son is not fond of the wooly beast sitting next to him in the chariot and screams bloody murder. For the next ten minutes. That was awesome. All the walkers and the cyclist looked at us. I'm sure they truly thought I was nuts. Probably was/am.
Finally we turn around. (It's been about 6 or 7 miles). I get the dog out of the chariot. My son is relieved, but covered in dog hair. And still aggravated. Our dog has a reputation for getting in peoples' kool-aid. This is how the toddler was feeling at the moment.
I make the dog run along the bike the WHOLE WAY back. But I was nice to him. I didn't force him to go fast like I usually do. And I stopped every couple of miles to give him water (that I poured into a energy bar wrapper, because I didn't have a bowl for him - aka diy dog dish).
We finally make it back to the car. And the dog decides to jump into the back of the car as soon as I open the back hatch to the car. With his poopy butt. (ahhhhh!!!).
I load everything into the car, including toddler and dog (with the towel) and drive home. When pulling into the driveway, I realize that I had been driving with the emergency brake on. The whole time. (That explains the wierd smell.) And the toddler took off his shoes and one sock and tossed them somewhere in the car. They are still in there (the shoes and sock, not the toddler.)

Yes, that was my morning. I give you permission to laugh. How can you not? I'm sure everyone thought I was nuts on the trail this morning. That's ok. Despite the chaos, it was a really neat ride. There are some amazing fall colors along the trail - plus it's a pretty easy ride. (almost completely flat). So who wants to join my next week? I promise I won't bring the dog next time. :) Ha ha.

I passed by this sign this morning on the bike ride. I just not so certain I understand the sign about the alien???

Jewelry Frame.

2011-10-13T23:22:00.000-06:00

Here's another project that I worked on recently. I found this idea on Pinterest, but the blog that it was posted on didn't give instructions on how to make it. Really, how hard could it be? Not hard at all! Here's how I did it.

Here's the original frame - just your average thrift store find.

Spray paint & let dry.

I cut 3 fresh small branches from the tree in my yard. (Don't worry, the tree will be fine. It's been through a lot, and it's still alive). Freshly cut branches work well because they are fairly flexible.

I wanted my paint on the frame to have a bit of a distressed look. Steel wool works great to achieve this look, but I didn't have steel wool. So I used an old grill brush and scrubbed the paint down until I got the right results. (Just a note - make sure that paint on the frame is completely dry before bringing in your house and laying it on the kitchen floor while you scrub! Otherwise you may be scrubbing paint off your floor later. Speaking from experience. Did you know I'm impatient?)

Next I drew 3 dots on the inside of the frame to mark where I wanted the branches to sit. Make sure to do this on the opposite side as well.

Then I drilled small holes (about 1/8 inch deep) into the frame on the marked dots. (Make sure to not drill completely through the frame.) This is the part where the husband helped. Until the this point, I didn't have much experience with a drill...other than playing with the one on display at Home Depot.

After this, I measured and trimmed the branches to correct length and whittled the ends of the branches to make them small enough to fit into the drilled holes. Ok, actually my husband did that part. Because he's nice.

Then I put a drop of glue in each of the drilled holes, moved the branches into place, and wiped off the excess glue. And that's it! Finished! Almost.

After I thought I finished the frame, hung it, and put all my jewelry on it, I realized that the top branch was down too low and it left a huge gap. Duh! I should have placed it higher on the frame. I hated that there was all that wasted space above the top branch. So I put a couple of hooks underneath the top of the frame and hung a couple of bracelets. Problem solved.

I loved doing this project. My husband liked it too. Especially the part about teaching me to use a drill (seriously!!!). And I really love that now I have all my jewelry hanging on display and easily accessible instead of digging through a pile of tangled necklaces (don't tell my mom!) in a jewelry box to find what I want.

Total Cost - $4 (the frame was $4, the branches were free, old grill brush instead of buying steel wool, and I used leftover spray paint from a previous project).
Total Time Spent - about 1 hour (not including the drying time, and the fact that our drill's battery was dead, so we had to charge it before we could use it. blah)

Easy & fun project, even for an impatient person like me! :)

DIY Wall Art

2011-10-13T22:10:00.000-06:00

I've done a serious amount of DIY crafts over the past several days. I'm like manic or something, but I've had so much fun. So here is one of the projects that I worked on:

I found this project on the blog A Beautiful Mess and had to try it.

I found this painting (minus the words) at the Good Will for $10. I found the vinyl letters at the Home Depot for about $3.50. But the problem was that the sentence I wanted on my painting had a lot of letters, specifically a lot of "L's". The package I bought only had 2 or 3 "L's". So instead of buying enough packages to fill my letter quota, I found some vinyl cling stickers at the dollar store, traced the letters onto the stickers, and cut them out with a box cutter. (I'm cheap!) You can also use contact paper, but they were out at the dollar store, and I didn't want to drive to another store to hunt some down.

After I placed the letters where I wanted them, I spray painted the entire canvas. Once the paint was dry (about 45 minutes), I peeled the letters off.

Ta-Dah! The finished product. I love it. It's a little hard to read because there are so many colors, but I'm still pleased with the results. We hung it in the entry way above our front door.

Total cost of the project - $15 (canvas, vinyl letters, and vinyl wall cling used to cut up. I didn't buy spray paint. Instead I used some that I had leftover from a previous project)

Total time working on the project - about 2 hours (excluding drying time. It would have only been about 30 minutes if we didn't have to trace and cut out all the extra letters).

This was a fun project. You should do it!

Pumpkin Spice Latte!

2011-10-11T14:22:00.000-06:00

My husband made me coffee this weekend! Not just any coffee - a Pumpkin Spice Latte! I'm telling you guys, he is amazing. :) I've been craving Pumpkin Spice Lattes since the beginning of September, but I'm also cheap. So I can't justify buying a $4 cup of coffee more than once every 2 weeks or so. (and that's for the small size) Instead I googled "How to make a Pumpkin Spice Latte" and found the recipe! So this weekend we tried it, and I have to tell you, it was great. You can find the recipe here.

Enjoy!

Tips on Saving Money with Coupons

2011-10-07T20:43:00.001-06:00

I've been fighting the inevitable. I'm sick. I just have to admit it. Blah. It seems that I am more motivated to blog when I am sick - probably because I don't have energy to do anything else! Today I had plans to join my mom friends on an outing and to go grocery shopping. But I have done neither. Instead I've spent the day on the couch....as well as taking care of my son.

Since today is usually my day to go grocery shopping, I thought I would share a couple of tips that save me money. I don't talk about this too much, but I love couponing! That's right, I am a coupon clipper. I guess I don't talk about it too freely because of the crazy reputation that some of the couponers have as "food hoarders". So before I go any farther, I want to let you guys know that I am not anywhere near being close to people on the show Extreme Couponing. I do have a very small food stash (that fits into my pantry), but honestly don't have the room in my house to have a stockpile of food. So I get what I need and sometimes a little bit extra, but that's it! All of my "skills" that I've learned have been gained through trial and error, friends, and online coupon research.

Here are a couple of tips that I've learned along the way:

Keep in mind that the shopping trips that you see on the show Extreme Couponing are exaggerated! The people who go on that show plan and gather coupons for months before their shopping trips. The purpose of their shopping trip is usually to purchase as much as they can by spending the least amount possible. Have you ever noticed that they rarely buy fresh produce or meats?? (I said rarely, not never). On the show, it's less about buying what you need, and more about buying what will provide you with the biggest discount. The purchases made on that show is more about the "wow" factor than anything else. So don't feel bad when your purchase is more than $25!!
Clip as many coupons as you can! One of the biggest resources for coupons are newspapers. They have different inserts - Smart Source, P&G, and Red Plum. When you come across several coupons in a paper that you find useful, buy another paper or two. That way you can buy several of those items in the coupons at a discounted price (or you can buy the coupon inserts without the newspaper online). You can also find coupons online on websites like Coupons.com, print them out, and use them at the stores. Also stores like Kroger offer digital coupons that you can download and use in their stores when you belong to their rewards program.
Keep your coupons organized! When using coupons, it's important to be able to keep track of them and find them quickly and easily. There are different ways to organize them. Some people use boxes, some people use binders, there are many ways. I use a three ringed binder with baseball card holders to keep my coupons and organize them by isle.
Join a rewards programs. There are so many stores that have rewards programs - Kroger stores, Albertsons, Walgreens, CVS, the list goes on. Join the rewards program at the grocery store that you shop at, or consider shopping at a store that has a rewards program. I shop at Smiths, which is a Kroger store. Their rewards program mails coupons to me after every quarter to use exclusively at their store. I also get rewards for using their pharmacy and I get discounts at certain gas stations when I shop at Smiths as well!
Wait for the items to go on sale before using your coupons! I hear this argument all the time "Well, I've realized that even when I clip the coupons, it's always cheaper to buy the generic brand." Wrong! The key is to wait until that item goes on sale and then use the corresponding coupon for the item. This way you get double the discounts! And don't just buy one (unless it's all you have room for)! Buy a couple of them if you have more than one coupon for the item!
Plan your shopping trip. Before you go on your grocery shopping trip, it's very very important to make a list of everything you plan on buying, otherwise you will end up a disorganized mess, and won't save nearly as much money. I use the app Grocery IQ on either my iPad or my cell phone. It allows me to make a list, add quantities, check off items, and make notes. Wonderful. I'm sure that some people think I'm crazy when I walk around the grocery store carrying an iPad, but I'm not so worried about that. :)
A couple of online resources - There are so many of online resources to help you get started saving money and using coupons. These tips are just a couple of ways. Here are a couple of websites that I find useful. Coupon Divas, Hip2Save, and Couponing101. There are plenty more. Just try a google search for "how to coupon" and you will get a wealth of information.

Couponing is not hard, but it does take a little work and a little organization. Anyone one can do it, it's just a matter of getting the hang of things. It's totally worth the effort when you see how much money you can save. You can do it!

Marble/Ball Ramp

2011-10-06T11:45:00.002-06:00

We found this idea on Pinterest a couple of days ago and did this while my son was sick. It was a fun activity that involved relatively quiet play - which I find ideal for a sick toddler. You can find the detailed instructions on the blog Made by Joel. (p.s. this blog has so many fun children's activities). It was originally intended to be a "Marble Run" made from a cereal box, but we don't have marbles in our house - not when you have a toddler who puts everything in is his mouth. (Case in point - while I am writing this, he is playing with Play-Doh, and I just caught him putting it in his mouth. Of course I made him spit it out....in case you were wondering). So instead of using marbles, we used larger balls - about the size of a golf ball.

This only took about 5 minutes to make - cut one panel out of the cereal box, cut that panel into 3 strips, and then tape them to the inside to create ramps (and make sure to cut holes at the bottom of each ramp so the ball can roll to the ramp below).

My son thought this was such a fun toy. After using it to roll balls down, he used it for a car ramp for his Hot Wheel Cars. It's funny to see what ideas your kids come up with.

DCB

2011-10-06T11:14:00.001-06:00

I think I am walking the fine line between staying well and getting sick. I am trying really, really hard to not get sick. So instead of doing a workout this morning, I decided that writing a blog would be better. Last night my husband and I went to the David Crowder Band Farwell Concert. We didn't get home until midnight. Just so you know, since becoming parents, that is really, really late for us. I think this is contributing to my near sickness.

Here are a couple shots from the concert last night. The tickets said that we weren't allowed to bring cameras so I had to use my camera phone - so I apologize for the pictures lacking in quality.

This was a band called Gungor. Before last night, I had never heard of them, but now that I have, I love them! They did an acoustic set, and it was amazing. The guy playing the cello actually beat boxed while playing the cello. Fantastic. The girl played all kinds of different percussion instruments as well. I felt so inspired to play music after seeing them last night.

And these two shots are the David Crowder Band. The guy in the center is David Crowder. I'm not going to lie, he was a odd looking guy. The fact that he was wearing a hat totally threw me off. When he first got on stage, I didn't even realize it was him until he started singing. I honestly though he was one of the stage tech guys!

This is what he normally looks like. Still pretty odd. :) But I am convinced that he is a musical genius. I've loved his music since the first time I heard it. We had such a fun time at the concert last night, but I have to be honest, it's been several years we've been to a concert. We are definitely not as resilient as we used to be. It was so much harder for us to stand on our feet for so long this time. And I totally hated the fact that I had to stand in an area of 2x2 feet without moving too much for several hours. (But I've been to concerts way more crowded than this one) And I'm kind of tired this morning. But it's all good. It was totally worth going to, especially since it's their last concert. :)

If you have the opportunity to go to one of the concerts, I totally recommend it. You won't be disappointed. :)

Bead sorting.

2011-10-05T16:39:00.002-06:00

My husband and son have both been sick over the last couple of days so we've done lots of projects. I did one this morning that was lots of fun. We used two of my son's favorite things - a container of multicolored beads and an ice cube tray with fun shapes. (He is constantly rummaging through my cabinets to find the fun ice cube trays - which I find annoying because the rest of the contents in the cabinet end up all over the floor.)

My son is still not that great at recognizing colors, so I wanted to do an activity to work on colors. So I had him sort the beads into different colors using the ice cube tray and we talked about the colors as he did it.

He was fascinated by all the different colors of the beads at first. I had to explain it to him a couple of times before he understood what to do. He wanted to grab the beads by the fistful and dump them into the tray. But eventually he figured it out, and enjoyed himself.

But after a while, his impatient nature took over and he decided that picking up beads one by one was a little too time consuming. So instead he started picking the beads up with his mouth and dropping them into the different categories. I made him stop after a while. It was too gross....and I kept thinking about how those beads would stink after we finished.

So then he decided that he was done. Oh well. I know he enjoyed it.

This was as far as he got - not bad for a 2.5 year old....at least my 2.5 year old. :) I think we will do this activity several more times. It was entertaining for him even though he lacked the patience to finish sorting the beads....maybe larger objects next time?

I made this!

2011-10-02T18:13:00.004-06:00

I've been doing a lot of browsing on Pinterest lately and have come across numerous diy necklace projects. They all look so fun and fairly easy. So I took that inspiration and came up with this:

I'm not going to lie. I love it. Now I just have to put together an outfit to go with it. Making this necklace was so simple. The hardest part about it was tying knots in the correct places to make it all balanced. And I just realized that when I took the photo above, the necklace was crooked. It's not crooked in real life.

I wanted to do something similar to the Helmut Lang necklace I came across on the blog, P.S. I made this. I don't have leather scraps but I do have tons and tons of blue fabric leftover from my wedding decorations. I'm always looking for new ways to use my blue fabric. These are the supplies I used to make the necklace.

Thread three separate 18 x 1.5 inch strands of fabric with beads in random order.
Knot them in random places.
Safety-pin the three beaded fabric strands together at one end and knot them together.

Repeat on the other end of the three fabric strands.
Knot the ends of your unbeaded strand to the three beaded strands tied together
After all the pieces are knotted together and balanced just how you want them, losen the knots from the unbeaded strand, put a small dab of hot glue inside the knots, and tightened them back up (to keep it from coming untied).
Finally trim the ends outside of the knots. Tah Dah!!! Fun.

Note: the fabric I used was polyester or something similar so it does not unravel easily. I didn't hem the fabric, I used it with raw edges.

Inspiration.

2011-09-30T16:49:00.001-06:00

I want to revive my blog! I really do. It seems that I whenever I write a blog these days, I always start out by saying, "I want to write in my blog more." That's the truth, but it seems that between managing a house, being a wife, AND being a mother, the blog seems to take a back seat to everything else. A lot of times I'll start writing a blog, but then something else demands my attention - a toddler who let the crazy dog in the house and tracked mud in the house, dinner that needs to be made, the dryer buzzer goes off...you know. But I miss blogging. And I want to do more of it.

I've been thinking about starting an additional blog too...Something fun, and not so much about life. I don't want to tell you guys about it yet, but it's in the works (along with all my free time). I will let you know when I start it. Speaking of blogs, what is your favorite blog to read? And why? At the moment, my favorite blog is A Beautiful Mess. It's such a neat collection of fun, creative craft ideas, decorating, snacks, and vintage fashion. I find it very inspiring. Mad Props to Sarah, who introduced it to me. This is her blog, and she is just getting started.

I've been feeling very crafty lately, and have been working on several projects. (Amazing, because I haven't felt this way since before I was pregnant. Maybe it's that we bought a house, and I finally feel free to decorate) The biggest project I'm working on is my table. I refinished it and painted it. It's so fun. I can't wait to show you guys. But in the midst of my project, I ran out of money! So the chairs to my table aren't finished yet. So my project will have to be put on hold until the next paycheck. (Paying the mortgage has to take priority!!) I also have immediate plans to do a wall art project like this one

One project at a time though! This morning I hosted the Moms Group from our church at my house. I made Salted Caramel Hot Chocolate.

It tasted amazing and it was a huge hit! I highly recommend it! (And to be honest with you, I found it way more satisfying than Starbucks' Salted Caramel Mocha Frappuccino...I'm just sayin'. I found wall art project as well as the recipe for the Hot Chocolate on the Beautiful Mess blog :) I'm telling you, it's such a fun blog!!

The Potty Training Blog.

2011-01-19T12:32:00.000-07:00

My son is taking a nap. I have a mountain of clean laundry on my couch that needs to be folded. I decided I would rather write a blog.

I've been questioned frequently about our potty training experience over the past several months, so I thought this would be a great subject to blog about it. But I also want you guys to know, that just because I did this so soon with him, doesn't mean that I look down on anyone who doesn't do it as soon as I did or the same way I have. I strongly feel that the age and method of potty training is up to each parent(s) and what their situation is. There is no single "right" way to do it.

In June I took him to his 15 month check-up. His doctor gave me a couple papers about potty training. At the time, I thought to myself, "Are you kidding me? There is NO WAY I will be potty training this boy anytime soon!" But I read the papers anyway (so the seed was planted). Around that time I started sitting hi mon the potty before bath time and pouring warm water over him to get him to pee in the potty instead of the bathwater. Soon after that I got an email from Babycenter.com about Julie Fellom's Diaper Free Method - a potty training method for toddlers 15- 27 months. I was still opposed to the idea, but I read it anyway. Over the next couple of weeks, I kept thinking about that method and started to come up with more and more reasons to try this method.

WHY. I ended coming up with several reasons to potty train so early. Here's a couple: 1) To save money. Diapers are expensive. I'm always looking for ways to save money. Less diapers = more money saved 2) He was already sitting on the potty before bath time and had no objection to it. He was at a stage where he was interested and receptive to the idea of using the potty. It was fun for him. What if I let this stage pass by without taking advantage of it? Would he be as receptive as his was at the time at a later date? Not necessarily. 3) Having my son potty trained before the next child comes around would be amazing. Less diapers. Less work. Starting him at this point would give him plenty of time to adjust to potty training before another kid comes around. 4) Time of year. It was still warm out, and this method requires your toddler to wear less clothes. Starting during the summer would keep him from freezing due to less clothes. This method also takes approximately 3 months to complete. If I started then, I could be finished before the holidays came around. (At least so I thought). The more I thought about this the more I realized that I had too many reasons to at least try this method.

THE PROCESS. One thing that I've heard over and over from mothers is that potty training can be difficult and stressful. So before we started, I mentally prepared myself and made a goal to keep this from becoming a stressful process or a power struggle. According the the Diaper Free Method, it takes 3 days of diligent teaching and supervision and then 3 additional months of follow through. (You can check out the link if you want to know more about the method). We started him when he was 17 months, which was at the end of August. After the first 3 days, he had a solid understanding of the concept, "You cannot poop or pee anywhere you want. You need to hold it until you sit on the potty". But he had a hard time getting started peeing on his own (he had mastered the skill of holding it). Because he did so well controlling his bladder, we kept working with him. Since he struggled with peeing on his own, I started to research potty training. I learned that there are three different stages of muscle control that need to develop and they all develop at different times. First is the ability to control your bladder, like to hold in your urine (I think that develops around 15 months). Then the muscle control to poop. And finally the muscle control to start peeing - typically around 22 months for boys. (I talked to his pediatrician about all the muscle control needed, and he said that muscle control can happen sooner for a child, but it depended on the child) Along the way hemastered pooping on the potty, but we were still hung up on starting to pee on his own or peeing on command. So I started using warm water again to help him start peeing. Over the next several weeks I debated on quitting and restarting at a later date, but I had 2 reasons that kept me from doing so: 1) Levi was so good at controlling his bladder and was getting better by the day at pooping the potty 2) If I stopped now, I was afraid that it would reinforce the concept that wearing diapers was an option, which in turn might turn into a huge battle later when we started again. So we kept going. Throughout the next couple of weeks and months, I had to make a conscience decision to keep this process from being stressful. We stopped using water, and then started again. If something about the process was getting stressful, then we would change up our method or tweak something to a way that kept things stress-free. Around Thanksgiving, he should have been finished with the process, but still had yet to master peeing on command. At this point we were pretty sure that he had the developed the muscle control to control to pee on his own, but we needed to take the time to work with him on it. But when the holidays came, our schedule became busy, very busy. It was difficult to find time to work with him on this. So he had more accidents than I would like to admit, and he even reverted back when we went to my parents' house....just because he knew he could get away with it. But after we came home Joel and I took 3 days to work with him and help him pee on command. And it worked. Beautifully. These days he takes himself potty or tells me he needs to go potty several times each day. He has an occasional accident, but we are going more and more days without accidents. He still needs help getting his clothes off. If he sits on the big potty, he usually needs help getting up. He also still wears diapers when he sleeps. At this point I would consider him to be potty trained, but I've found that term to be relative. So this is my definition of potty trained. He understands the concept of being potty trained and practices it. He pees and poops on the potty. He has bladder control and uses it. Its a rare occasion for him to have an accident in public. There are still things we need to work on - like standing up instead of sitting when he pees, his aim, and pulling up and down his pants by himself, but I think that he has accomplished a lot considering the fact that he is only 21 months. :) And we only use 1 or 2 diapers a day!

THOUGHTS. I have a peace about starting him when I did. I tried to keep this as stress free as possible. Any time that the stress level began to elevate, we evaluated what part of the potty training was stressful and then adjusted our process to alleviate the tension. It was never a power struggle (but I had to be careful how I reacted to accidents to prevent it from becoming a power struggle). I never forced him to go potty and I never strapped him to the toilet until he went potty! And I also feel confident that he has not acquired any emotional trauma by learning so early. ;) This wasn't a easy process, but this definitely wasn't the hardest thing we have been through with him (His first year of life was way more difficult). Some people say that this is more like training the mom than training the child. Maybe so, but I've found the reward to be worth the trouble (my life is no more chaotic now than it was when he was younger by adding potty training onto our plate so soon). Plus, I RARELY change a poopy diaper. Let me tell you friends, that is awesome.

QUESTIONS. Questions that I get asked from time to time: "Now that you've gone through all this, and know what you know, will you do it again with your next child?" My answer - Yes? No? But probably yes. It's hard to say. It really depends on what is going on in our life at the time. From what I've read, toddlers who started after they had turned 20 months tended to have better success. I think that next time, I will probably be inclined to wait until the next one reaches 20 months. But it truly depends on what is going on at the time. I might want to save on diapers again next time! "Knowing what you know now, if you could go back, would you do it again with him ?"Probably. I think it may have been easier to start around 20 months, but that would have landed our start date in the middle of holiday chaos. Not a good time to start. If we had started after the holidays, I think it would have been harder because the house is colder in the winter. So yes, I probably would have still started him when I did. Another question I hear is "Don't you worry about him reverting back when you have another child?" No. I don't. I'm not saying that it won't happen, but if it does, I know how handle it - the same way we handled it before. Levi had a couple moments where he reverted back, but we had to stay consistent, and keep a closer eye on him and he always went back to using the potty. Even if he were to revert back, I know that he has a solid understanding of potty training, so it's not like all our work would be undone. If we were to have a baby 9 months from now, he will have been using the potty for over a year by the time the baby would be born. (I'm not pregnant. Don't misconstrue what I'm saying;)) That's one year of experience using the potty.

I don't think that I am the potty training expert. My knowledge is limited to the experience I've gained from my one and only child. From this experience, I've learned a lot, and I have a better idea of what I would like to do with the next child, but it doesn't mean that I will be able to. I've observed that while one method will work with one child, the same method may not work with another. He has taught me that although I may have plans to do things a certain way, it may not come into fruition. I learned that with the pacifier, with breastfeeding, and his eating...to name a few areas. So I have plans and hopes that things will go according to my plans, but I have to remain flexible in case they do not. But for now, I know what has worked for my own kid. :)

New Beginnings

2011-01-12T21:36:00.000-07:00

Lately I've realized that more and more of my friends have blogs and I never even knew about it. Finding their blogs makes me miss writing on mine. I just have such a hard time sitting down for an extended amount of time to type out my thoughts - especially while my son is awake. You would be amazed at the amount of trouble he can get into in less than 2 minutes...well...at least, it amazes me. And drives me crazy. We are always busy, but these days it's a different type of busy. We have a lot of changes going on around here. And before you get too excited and jump to conclusions, let me just tell you - no, I am NOT pregnant. So here's what's up in our house -

Potty Training - Yes! We are potty training the little one. He is currently 22 months and we are nearly done (at least I think) with the training. I haven't done the traditional potty training method, but rather, Julie Fellom's Diaper Free Method. I have found it rather scary. But it has definitely worked. Levi poops on the potty regularly, and pees. He's a little more hesitant to pee on the potty, but he's definitely made a lot of progress. I got a lot of negative feedback from people about potty training Levi so early. I understand why, but one of the biggest reasons I chose to do it now was to save money on diapers. It's been a long road, but not a difficult one. (Potty training him has been a piece of cake compared to his first year of life). I have a peace about starting to train him when I did. I will try to make an effort to blog more about our potty training experience later. I have way too much to say about this topic to keep it within a paragraph.

House Hunting - We've been house hunting since late October. After much thought and discussion, we've decided to search for a house in the neighborhood that we currently live in. We like it out here. We've been on the lookout for a one story house with 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, and a back yard that is NOT the size of a matchbox. However, through our searching we've realized that there are numerous bank owned 2 story houses priced within our budget...at least it seems. So we've been looking at homes, putting in offers, and looking at more homes. We've put in 4 separate offers on 4 different homes. The first three offers didn't work out. We are currently in the midst of negotiating an offer on the 4th house. We'll see if this one works out. But at this point I am definitely not willing to get my hopes up...especially since the first 3 haven't worked out. My desire is to be able to buy a house sometime this winter/spring and be completely unpacked by late spring. Hoping. Hoping. Hoping.

New Church - God has recently redirected the pastor of our church to a new ministry and he resigned. After much prayer and with regret, we also felt that the Lord is redirecting our family. It has been hard to leave a place where we have personally invested so much of our time, energy, and resources into, but we do not have a peace about returning to the church. And so we cannot stay. One desire that has been on our hearts lately is finding a place for The Toddler in church. He could definitely use more social interaction, and what better place to find it than a church with other children his age? This has a large influence on the church we choose be a part of. I'm nervous to join a new church, but I'm also looking forward to making new friends and my son making new friends!

So we will see where this new year leads us, and I'm excited to see where we end up. And nervous too. Lots of changes. And now I have lost motivation to write anymore because my bedtime is drawing near. Yes, I go to bed early. I am a mom. And I need all the sleep and energy I can get so I can chase after my toddler each day. :)

Morning Chaos

2010-07-07T16:08:00.002-06:00

At the moment, I have some extra time - the boy is napping, the house is relatively clean and organized, and it's too early to start dinner. So I thought I would share my morning with you guys. This morning I woke up feeling unrested (Is that a word?) and as a result, I was agitated. I also managed to blow my nose too hard and got a nose bleed. I hate these - I get them often if I'm not careful, and they can last up to 60 minutes, due to my allergies. Not a great start to a day.

After breakfast the little one, Brody (our dog), and I went on our 3.5 mile power walk - the boy in the jogger and Brody leashed to the side of the jogger (and forced to walk calmly). While we were walking down one of the trails in our neighborhood, a short stocky man was approaching us with a giant 70 lb St. Bernard dog. He moved off the trail as we got closer as if he was going to let us pass. While we were passing, he tried covering the dog's eyes (who does that to a giant dog with success?) but without success and spotted us (mainly Brody), ripped himself free from the owner's grasp, and charged straight for Brody. Now at this point, most dog owners would run after their dog, but did this guy? NO!!! Instead he stood there shouting in a frantic and panicked voice, "OH GOD, OH GOD, OH GOD!", leaving me to try to defend both my dog and my child from this giant beast dog who was chewing on my dog's body. It all happened so fast, and I had the wrist strap from the jogger around my wrist (like a nice responsible mom) which ended up inhibiting my movement. I tried to release my dog's leash from the jogger, defend the jogger with my poor son strapped inside and beat that stupid beast dog off of mine - all at once. Didn't work out so well. I was also yelling at the beast dog, "NO! NO! OFF! GET BACK!" Finally because the man kept standing there like an idiot, I shrieked at the top of my lungs, "NNNNOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!" Mainly for shock value, and to get the man to pull his dog off of mine. I'm pretty sure that 1/3 of our gigantic neighborhood heard me. No joke. Finally the man came over and pulled the beast dog off. He kept saying, "I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry." I was so furious, I said nothing to the man, walked away. Brody was fine - not panicked, and fortunately not injured. Just a bunch of slobber marks where the dog chewed on him. Fortunately, the little one did not witness any of it because this all happened behind the jogger and he wasn't able to see what was going on. He only heard the commotion. After about 400 feet the little one started whimpering. So I stopped to comfort him, and kiss him. He had the saddest look on his face. I, on the other hand am furious with this stupid owner who managed to jeopardize the safety of my dog, myself, and my son because he couldn't control his dog. Why would you take a dog for a walk when you can't even managed to control him? And what the heck happened to the leash he was on when I saw him approaching us? And thanks for standing and staring while your dog attacked mine. Thanks a lot.

So moving on. When we got home from our long walk, I put the dog in the backyard, walked back to Levi who was patiently waiting in the jogger and noticed that my son was wearing only one shoe. ONE SHOE!!! One!!! I looked around, searched the jogger - nothing. Thanks boy for taking off your shoe on the walk. Apparently I was so furious and distracted after the dog incident, that I had failed to notice when my son pulled his shoe off and tossed it out of the jogger. (I'm usually pretty aware of what leaves the jogger during walks). So I put the jogger inside, strapped him into the bike seat, and got on the bicycle. Fortunately as I was doing that, a friend of mine called just as I was about to leave. She also walks the same trails I do, and came across a shoe that looks just like his. She told me where she found it, and I rode out to get it. (She saved me a lot of time and energy) and then rode back home - about a 2 mile ride. I would have to say this wasn't the best day to do long walk and then turn around and immediately go for a bike ride with a 20 pound kid on the back - especially since my energy level was on the low side due to the lack of sleep from the previous night. But I do have to laugh. When it rains, it definitely pours. At least I have something to laugh about. My friend said that it's a toddler conspiracy to remove their shoes at the most inopportune times. I have to agree. And I'm really tired.

The Happenings

2010-05-14T13:22:00.000-06:00

It's been quite a while since I've written, so I thought give you guys an update on the things that have been going on around here. First of all - major victory! The boy takes good naps now!!!! How did I do it, you may ask? Several different ways. 2 books I found useful were, Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child by Marc Weissbluth and Pre-Toddler Wise by Bucknam & Ezzo. Between those two books I learned a lot about sleep and how to fix his issues. Other than reading the books, I made his bedtime earlier, shortened his first nap, and stayed consistent - but I will admit, at times I thought I was going to lose my mind dealing with a child who was determined not to take good naps! It took about 2.5 months to work out it, but we did it!!!! Celebration! I can't even begin to tell you guys how much more pleasant my life has become since we have finally conquered the napping battle and I no longer have a consistently cranky baby! These days he only takes a 30 minute nap in the morning (but sometimes it's just a rest time if he isn't tired) and then a solid 3 hour nap immediately after lunch. I LOVE IT. Do you guys know how much I can get done in 3 hours? TONS!

But I do have to say, the boy has had more cranky moments over the past couple of weeks because he is getting 5 teeth at once! 4 molars and 1 more in the front. Poor kid! And let me tell you all of these teeth are coming in SO slowly! 3 molars have started to peek through his gums, and the other two are close behind. His track record so far has been to get his teeth at least 2 at a time. At least we get it over with quickly.

Change of subject. I've recently gotten to the point to where I feel like I need to get a job. An extra income would be incredibly helpful right now. However, the job market scene is kind of scarce right now. And to be honest with you, I'm not willing to work odd hours, nights, or weekends. (We do have to have some family time). And I want a photography job with steady income. So that narrows down my options even more. I found one job that I really wanted, but never heard back from them after I submitted my resume. Honestly, I was kind of shocked that they didn't at least call me back, (because I think my resume looked great) but I think it was because I wasn't willing to work on Sundays. Anyway, I've had my eye on the photography jobs out here (with steady income - not commission, good hours, free weekends - at least not on Sunday), and I really haven't found a good fit. Surprise, surprise. So after a lot of contemplation I've decided to pursue free-lance photography full force. My goal is to get 2 jobs a week, which will also give me time to edit the photos in a timely manner, and still spend lots of time with my boys! So Joel and I have reworked my photography website over the past several weeks, and the other details that come with it - blogging, twitter, facebook, etc - all of these things to drive traffic to my website, make my site appear on the first page of the google search engine, and get my name and business out there. So make sure to check out my brand-spankin-new photography website, read a couple of my photography blogs, follow my twitters, and hit the Like button on my facebook fan page (all of which are also linked to my site under the About Me section). And if you're in my area, hire me!

TV & a birthday party

2010-01-20T09:52:00.001-07:00

I was going to go walking this morning. I was all ready. So was the baby. I was just about to get the both of us bundled up to walk in the cold. And the I noticed frozen mix falling from the sky. So nevermind. I guess we aren't going after all. So disappointing. I think the boy was a little disappointed too, despite the fact that he is required to wear a snow suit that inhibits his movements (just picture the kid from the movie, The Christmas Story, and you will have an idea of what he looks like wearing it).

So I decided to blog instead.

Over the past couple of months, my TV viewing habits have increased tremendously. It's terrible. I blame it partially on all the feeding issues the boy had when he was first born. Feeding times were always so stressful, I needed something else to focus on while feeding him, to help keep my stress level down. But as feeding times became more successful, the amount of TV I watched didn't decrease, but rather increased. Finally I got to the point to where the TV stayed on all day long, whether or not it was being watched. Terrible. I started to feel like a couch potato or maybe a zombie as I would stop and gaze at the picture on the screen as I was passing through the room. Depressing. But finally, I decided that enough was enough. I was tired of not being productive and getting so distracted. I turned off the TV. I miss my shows from time to time - Friends reruns, The Office reruns, and several chick flick movies that air during the day for women like me who stay home with their kid(s). But you know what? I get so much more done. And sometimes I can even find time to read, a far better choice. It makes my brain feel smarter. Ha ha.

Tomorrow the boy will be 10 months old! He doesn't walk yet. That's ok. But I'm pretty sure if he wanted to, he could. He walks along things quickly, and has great balance. I just think he doesn't feel the need to walk yet. I think he feels it's too hard, and that crawling is much easier. Whatever, son. My son's first birthday is 2 months away. I've been tossing around birthday ideas in my head for a couple of weeks. But I feel conflicted. He does not like to be the center of attention. He gets so stressed out and cries. Poor child. I totally understand. I want to invite lots of people to celebrate with us. But I'm not sure it's a good idea. I know that for a fact that he would spend the whole time clinging to me and be incredibly fussy. So I think we need to keep the party small. I haven't decided how small, but pretty small. Probably. I'm worried about hurting the feelings of those who don't get invited. But at the same time, I need to keep best interest of my child's well-being in mind - especially if we are giving him the birthday party. I mean, what's the point of having a party for him, if he's miserable the whole time, right? Just something to think about. I still have 2 months to decide what to do.

Ok that's it.

The Great Day of Thanks.

2009-11-30T21:50:00.001-07:00

So I've pretty much come to the realization that I just don't get around to blogging as much as I used to...and that's just the way it is. Oh well. I guess that's life when you have a baby.

The boy is getting bigger and bigger by the day. He is seriously so much fun. I fall more and more in love with him as the days progress. And he becomes more and more pleasant too! He is a little monkey these days - always into everything. He moves so fast. I've decided that I'm not in any hurry for him to learn to walk, even though it seems like it's just around the corner. I'm pretty sure that when he learns to walk, he probably won't want to be held much anymore. At least that's what I've witnessed with other people. I enjoy holding my baby.

We spent last week with my family in Ruidoso. We stayed in a log cabin out there. It was such a fun vacation for us. I forgot how nice it was to just sit around and do nothing. I don't get to do that very often anymore. Not since the boy came along. Here's a couple of the highlights:

- We celebrated my brother's 22nd birthday out there. We bought him a Transformer's watch, the 3rd season of Spongebob Square Pants, and a Snuggie. Yes, a snuggie. Then we hid them around the cabin and sent him on a scavenger hunt to find all of his presents. It was hysterical. Justin punished us by putting on Spongebob every time the TV was not being viewed.

- My son and my sister's son got to play with each other. It was so fun to watch. Those boys are so funny together.

- Beautiful 3 story cabin in the woods with a view of the mountains. Peaceful. Relaxing. Wonderful.

- Lighting a fire in the fireplace during the evening the first couple of nights. So nice. We had to stop lighting a fire because my brother had an asthma attack. Boo. But my brother's health is more important than a fire. Ha ha.

- Doing a lot of nothing. We really haven't had a vacation since before the boy was born. It was definitely needed.

We had such a great time. Once holiday down, two more to go.

Fall time

2009-10-22T12:48:00.000-06:00

I just want you guys to know that Fall is my favorite time of year - the change in weather, leaves changing colors, the State Fair, the Balloon Fiesta, Pumpkin Patches, Thanksgiving. I love it all. So now you know. Consider yourselves informed.

Yesterday the baby turned 7 months old! I can't believe that time has gone by so quickly. As the days go by, this boy fills our hearts with more and more love. I LOVE this little guy - but I do admit that sometimes he makes me want to pull out my hair. Life is busy. He is crawling these days. I've baby-proofed the house and he loves his new found freedom. My life has recently gotten so much easier because of his new found mobility. Such a relief. He is also getting his first tooth! It has taken forever to come out, but I can finally see a little white dot on his lower gum where his little tooth is breaking through! He was such a little booger a couple of weeks ago when this tooth first started working its way up. He's not nearly as fussy now as he was a couple of weeks ago...except yesterday. Yesterday he was stubborn when it came to napping. (I'm pretty sure it was due to teething) He was SOOO tired but he refused to take any naps, despite all my efforts to get him to sleep. Eventually I got him to take a couple small naps yesterday. He also went to bed really early last night. And got up late this morning. That's what happens when you refuse to sleep. You know what else he's doing these days? Pulling himself up to the standing position. He's been doing this for about two weeks. It's so exciting, yet so nerve wracking - at least the falling part is for me. He also walks like a little speed machine when we hold his hands and walk with him. It's hysterical to watch how fast his little legs go.

Last weekend we took him to a pumpkin patch. It was such a fun thing to do with him. He totally had a blast, even though he had no clue what was going on. We took him from place to place at the farm showing him the goats (that tried to eat me), and the bunnies, walking through the corn maze, watching the pumpkin cannon (which scared him to death...poor kid), on the hayride. He even got to play in the dirt for the first time. It was so funny to watch him. (our backyard is landscaped with rocks) Next year will be even more fun when he's older. I'm looking forward to it.

I have a confession. My dog, Brody, is driving me nuts. Absolutely nuts. This dog has an excitement level larger than I can handle. He makes me crazy when I walk him. I've read books, I've watched videos, I've read articles all on dog training. I've yet to find anything to work to keep him under control. And in the process I am going crazy. So we've decided that desperate measures must now be taken. We are going to take Brody to private dog training lessons. Seriously. We've got to figure out how to deal with him or else he will have to find a new home. I'm very optimistic about these lessons.

You know, it's kind of weird. Now that I've had a kid, it seems like he is the only thing I have to talk about. When someone asks how I'm doing, the answer always depends on my child and how he is doing. If he's doing good, then I am too. If he's having a hard time, I am definitely having a hard time. Now I understand why parents talk about their kids so much - because that's usually the most interesting thing to talk about.

Currently

2009-09-23T10:19:00.000-06:00

Life is busy these days. (Seems like it always is) But I do like to keep you guys in the loop with what's going in our lives. So here's an update ;

The baby turned 6 months old on Monday! Amazing, because there were times when I never thought we would make it this far. Yesterday he has his shots, and so today he is feeling a little droopy. He weighed 14 pounds 2 ounces, and is 27 inches long. I have a long and skinny child. Just like me...and my family. He is doing so much better these days. He still has a temper. He is still a little booger. He still fights going to sleep, but now he doesn't scream for hours during nap time. He takes naps consistently every day and only cries for about 10 minutes at the most when I first lay him down. It makes me so happy. He can do all those lovely baby tricks like rolling over, laughing, etc. Now he gets up on his hands and knees and rocks. He almost has the crawling thing figured out. But for now he scoots all over the place. It's so funny. And cute.

I have lost all of my baby weight and then some. So exciting. I totally love being thin again. I'm also no longer tired from having a baby. I finally feel better. Normal. Such a nice feeling. It took a while to get to that point because he was such a bad little napper, every time I started to take a nap, the baby would wake me up. It totally made me nuts. And sleep deprived. I really really really hope our next child doesn't fight sleep as much as he does.

Last week I had the most embarrassing moment of my life. At my dr's appointment I asked my doctor if she was pregnant. She wasn't. SO TERRIBLE. I recommend never doing that. She wasn't very happy with me after that. Not only that, but I also managed to create the world's most awkward checkup. That was really terrible. But in my defense (not that I really have much to defend, because I don't). I heard a rumor that she was pregnant/trying to get pregnant....and when she came in, she was slouching over and looking at him in the stroller and propped her clipboard on her stomach. It just created the illusion of a small baby bump. Anyway, I definitely learned my lesson and will NEVER ask someone that again. Never. So much for a good patient/dr. relationship.

We have settled into our new house. We like it a lot. We love the neighborhood. There are plenty of parks and walking trails that encourage you to exercise. I love it. I still haven't finished unpacking. It bothers me. Oh well.

So those are the basics for now. I take oodles of pictures of the baby regularly, but I recently posted some of my favorites on facebook. Most of you guys have facebook, so you can see them there. :)

Yay for August!

2009-08-03T09:45:00.001-06:00

Ok. It's August 3rd and we have all survived. All three of us are still alive, in one piece, and still love each other. Ha ha. July pretty much proved to be the most difficult month of my whole entire life between packing, moving, and dealing with Levi (just to name a few of our struggles). But we made it. Moving was chaotic and so fortunately for us, we have great friends and family that helped us move and unpack and take care of the baby. At one point, I was so exhausted, I felt just as exhausted as I did after I had given birth (minus the swelling). He also reached the point to where he had had enough too. A couple of friends watched him while we were packing and moving. At the end of the week, he had a complete melt down when he woke up at a friend's house. He spent the rest of the day with us and was fine. Ha ha. He made it clear how much he missed being with his mom and dad. And we missed him too!

So now we are in our new house. We like it. We love the neighborhood. There are things we miss about the old house, and a lot that we don't. Although we like it here, there is still a small amount of adjustment. That's ok.

The baby continues to get cuter by the day. He is turning into a rolly-polly and rolls over all the time. I don't like it when he feels that he should roll over when I'm changing his diaper. Speaking of changing diapers, the other day Joel was changing the baby's poopy diaper, and he stuck his hand in his poop like three times. Hysterical - because I was not the one changing him. Ha ha. The baby also has learned to growl, and makes his growling noises all day long. So funny. We have also been seeing a Pediatric Gastrointestinal Specialist to help deal with the baby's feeding issues as well as visiting a feeding clinic. Both have been tremendously helpful and not only is he eating better, but also sleeping better. In fact last night he slept from 10:30 pm to 7:15 this morning!! yay! so exciting. I'm really looking forward to him dropping that late evening feeding so I can start going to bed earlier. And speaking of sleep, I have a little boy who fell asleep on my arm while I've been typing this blog, so I need to go and lay him down for his nap now.

2009-07-07T10:52:00.000-06:00

I really don't have the time to writing this. I have way too much to do right now, but there is so much going on here, that I thought I should update on what's been happening with us lately.

The baby is still quite the handful. There are days when that little boy drives me nuts. (just to be honest). We recently took him into a specialist to do a swallow study, which allows us to see what is causing his reflux, and how exactly it effects him. We learned he has a difficult time swallowing thin liquids, due to his forward tongue thrust. So we've learned how to work with him. He is still incredibly difficult to deal with these days. Feedings can be quite stressful. We have a pediatric GI specialist appointment next week to see what can be done to help him.

Joel's mom had a minor heart attack a couple of weeks ago. It turns out that everything is ok, and she is doing much better.

We found out on July 1st that we have to be out of our house at the end of the month. The owners have decided that they would like to put this house back on the market. I have no idea why you would want to do such a thing when NOBODY is buying houses these days. Quite the stupid move, if you ask me. So we have been scrambling to find another house. We would like to buy, but probably won't be able to quite yet. I'm sad about it, because that means we have to move at least 2 more times before we get into a house. I HATE moving. I found a house yesterday and put in an application. I'm pretty sure we will get it.

On top of all that, I am STILL so tired. So tired. So these next two months will be spent packing, moving, unpacking, and taking care of a fussy baby with reflux. I'm so frustrated. I'm so stressed. Sometimes I feel like it can't possibly get any worse. I know it can, and sometimes it does. Some days I feel like I am on the verge of losing my mind. But I still have it. For now.

My Hands are full.

2009-05-29T12:46:00.001-06:00

I haven't written a blog in 20 days! That's probably the longest I've gone without writing a blog. At the moment Levi is sitting on my lap as I write this. He can hold up his head now - he's a little wobbly, but he still does a great job. Every once in a while I have to stop typing to adjust him because he'll slump over too far. It's funny. He also coos and smiles. So cute.

Tomorrow the baby will be 2 and a half months old...or 10 weeks - whichever you would like to call it. I'm not going to lie. I've had my hands full with him and these last two months have been so hard. Levi is a strong willed, fussy child. At his two month check up, the pediatrician wrote on her notes "difficult temperament". I just had to laugh - because it's so true. On top of the fact that he's so strong willed, he's also had his issues. He's struggled with breast feeding for quite a while. I've gone back and forth between the pediatrician and lactation consultant several times. I think that this week we have finally figured out his issue - Levi's stomach cannot handle dairy products. I've been on a strict no dairy diet for several days, and Levi has been doing so much better and so much happier while he eats and afterwards . Such a relief. I'm still not completely sure that dairy is his issue, but I think it is...I'll have a better idea by the end of next week.

Even though we've made a lot of headway on his feeding issues, I'm still not out of the woods yet. Levi is a TERRIBLE napper. Like the worst EVER! I spend about 2/3 of my day fighting with him to get him to take a nap! I've read and read and read about causes of napping problems, but the biggest issue is that he just doesn't want to take a nap - no matter what I try. Some methods work for a while, but in the end, they stop being effective. Sometimes, depending on his mood, when I try to sooth him by stroking his forehead, he'll turn away, and move his head back and forth, so I can't calm him down. (How in the world can a child so young have such a strong opinion??) It's really funny, but not when he's doing it. I've tried every technique in the book. Some of them work on him sometimes, but nothing really works consistently. Yesterday I tried putting one of his hats down over his eyes so he couldn't look around, but he was able to move his head back and forth until he could see again. Little stinker. The thing that works the best is putting him in the swing and covering the whole swing with a blanket...but I can't let him sleep in there all the time. What am I going to do when he gets too big for the swing?? So I have reached the point to where I have decided to stop fighting him on this issue. The pediatrician said to not worry about it too much because he gets enough sleep at night. (He does take naps during the day, but they are short - 45 to 60 minutes).

One more confession - secretly I feel jealous of first-time moms who have calm, easy-going, laid back babies and I hope that their next child will be the complete opposite! Ha ha. That's so mean. But it's true. (I apologize in advance to all who fit in this category if I have offended you.)

One month old. He's really not as red as he looks in the picture.

Sitting in his jumperoo that he is waaaay to little for. The thing swallows him.

Crossing his eyes is his best trick. Ninja skills.

I hate to admit this...

2009-05-09T17:02:00.001-06:00

but this baby has been such a little toot. That's right. Over the last week or two Levi has decided to become an insomniac. Nap time has become the most miserable part of the day for me. For the most part he still sleeps well during the night time (thank God, I couldn't handle this at night as well), but his nap times during the day have been a nightmare. He absolutely refuses to sleep! I've tried everything - swaddling, not swaddling, rocking, singing, patting, rubbing, white noise, music, etc, etc, etc. Nothing has worked. I've checked my milk supply (which is fine), it's not gas, it's not that I need to extend his wake time either (he gets grumpy after an hour of being awake). I'm at the point to where I am letting him cry it out, because I feel like I am out of other options. He has reached a new level of screaming in the process - which is miserable to listen to. AND if that's not bad enough, today he has screamed through most of the 3 naps that he was supposed to take. At some point this kid has got to wear out, but it hasn't happened yet. Suggestions and advice are welcome!!!!!

The Birth Story

2009-04-07T20:19:00.005-06:00

So...the birth story. Here it is...for those of you who would like to know. (I won't be offended by those who choose to not read this!)

On Friday (March 20th) I had a OB appointment and learned that not only had I already dilated to a 3, but that the baby could come at any time. However, despite that information, I really didn't believe that it could possibly be any day - let alone the following day...

Later that day I was working as a judge in a Fine Arts Festival for teenagers. The judging went late into the evening, and I felt strange. I kept feeling a little "pushy" - and kept making trips to the bathroom about every half and hour or so. I didn't really think anything of it, because I had resigned to the fact that weird things happen to you during pregnancy. Ha ha. I've gotten used to it.

I wasn't able to get home and go to bed until around 11:30 PM later that night - pretty late for a pregnant lady. That night (morning really) I woke up around 3 AM because I could no longer sleep. I kept having cramping feelings in my lower abdomen. At that point I realized that labor may actually be a possibility...and then realized that I didn't have an overnight bag packed yet. (What can I say? I'm a procrastinator.) So I got up and walked around the house, setting aside items I thought I would need to pack in my bag while Joel slept. I spent the rest of that early morning trying to get everything in order so that we could go to the hospital (We even had to put the car seat in the car too...seriously, we had nothing ready yet). With every moment, the possibility of having a baby become more and more of a reality.

Sometime during those early hours my water broke without any warning and let me tell you - wow, those contractions started coming fast and hard. I hardly had any time to adjust to the quick progression. They definitely didn't increase gradually like the contraction that my friends had during labor. We ended up going to the hospital as soon as we had gotten our stuff together (overnight bag, car seat, showered, dog fed, etc - we had a lot of details to get into place)(probably around 9 AM).

After we had gotten to hospital, checked in, and confirmed that I was actually in labor (duh - that was quite apparent to me), they moved us into a delivery room. I spent the next several hours working through the contractions without any medication. I got several compliments from the nurses, telling me how good I was doing working through the contractions. But I was running on about 3 hours of sleep since I had spent most of the night awake with contractions and each contraction came on so fast and hard, I hardly had time in between the contractions to relax and prepare for the next one. Fatigue was quickly setting in, and with every contraction my energy level and ability to mentally work through the pain began to dwindle. On top of that, every time I changed into a different labor position, it brought on a new contraction - and it was always stronger than before. And what made things even more frustrating for me was the fact that I was intensely thirsty this whole entire time. I desperately wanted a drink of water, but all I was allowed to get was ice chips. (boo)I was wearing out quickly. Eventually I consented to a mild pain medication (I don't remember what it was) but it did very little to ease the experience. With every contraction, the idea of an epidural sounded better and better. Finally I reached the point to where I could no longer work through the contractions. I was physically and mentally exhausted. A nurse came in to check my progress. I had dilated to a 6. She said at this rate, I was dilating about a centimeter and hour - so that meant I had to deal with 4 more hours of this before I was ready to push. That did it for me. There was no way I could possibly handle four more hours of this AND have enough energy left to push this baby out. I was worried. I caved - and I did it. After about 10 hours of unmedicated labor (well - except for the useless pain medication I got), I asked for an epidural! I didn't want to do it, but I was at the point to where I felt that I didn't have another option. I desperately wanted to do a natural delivery, but was overwhelmed by fatigue.

Joel got sent out of the room. The anesthesiologist came in with the nurse, I signed consent forms, and they told me I was then required to stay in my bed (that was not a problem. I didn't want to move. Every time I moved, it brought on another contraction. No thank you). The hardest part of the epidural was holding still through a contraction that spiked into the triple digits while the anesthesiologist was sticking a needle into my spine. Oh the pain! My nurse was nice enough to allow me to squeeze her arms through the contraction. She was so nice. Once the medication had worked through my body, I felt much better. Let me tell you - I REALLY didn't want to get an epidural, but that was THE BEST thing I could have done for myself. I really don't regret it. At that point, I was finally able to relax and ended up sleeping until it was time to push. I needed it. It felt good.

Sometime after around 7:30 PM, the nurse informed me that I was ready to push. So the doctor and nurse came in, and the doctor said, "Are you ready?" My response was, "Uhhh, I guess so." She gave me a concerned look and asked, "What's wrong?" I said, "Well...that's a really big thing to push through a really small opening!!!" They laughed. I wasn't trying to be funny. Just honest.

I began pushing as the nurse coached me along. The time moved quickly. I didn't even realize how much time passed as I was pushing. Every once in a while I would stop and ask Joel how much of the baby was showing. Eventually when he crowned (meaning the biggest part of the baby's head was coming out) the doctor came in to catch the him as he came out. I asked Joel to see how much of the baby he could see. The doctor asked me if I wanted a mirror. "NO!" I said in horror. (Gross! I don't want to see what was happening. That would be horrifying. No visuals, thank you very much). I will never ever forget the feeling of discomfort as Levi was crowning. Never in my life have I felt such discomfort from an extreme amount of pressure in my lower extremities. My thighs, lower back, and lower abdomen almost felt like they were on fire and being pressed to their maximum capacity...and that was with the epidural (I did allow a lot of the epidural to wear off while pushed, and increased the levels conservatively). It was not fun. Finally after about 2 and a half hours of pushing, Levi came out at 10:03 PM.

They immediately put him on my stomach as the cleaned him up. Everyone in the room paused as they waited for him to take a deep breath and let out a scream. When he did, everyone let out a sigh of relief and continued what they were doing. I held him for the first time. I couldn't believe I was finally holding the baby that I had carried inside of me for almost 9 months. I didn't hold him for too long. I started to shake uncontrollably. I couldn't hold him anymore because I was too unsteady. I was shivering, and yet I was told that my body felt hot. No matter how hard I tried to control the shaking, I couldn't stop. I was freezing cold too. I begged to be covered up. It took a long time for me to warm up - I ended up running a fever for a while after that, it lasted for a couple of hours, but eventually went away.

For the next couple of hours, Joel gave me glass after glass of water and fed me jello. (It seemed like a good idea at the time). Let me tell you, I was so stinkin' thirsty by that time, I could hardly stand it - especially since I had been thirsty since about noon earlier that day. I remember being so exhausted afterward. The nurse and doctor were around me talking, and I would fade in and out of coherency. It was the weirdest thing. All I wanted to do was sleep but they kept talking to me. I had to think really hard to answer their questions. Labor and delivery was truly exhausting and the most physically demanding experience I've ever had. Completely and totally surreal. It wasn't fun, but totally worth it because now I have this amazing baby, who I am in LOVE with, and it gets better and better every day. Sometimes I look at him in amazement and just think - I can't believe that I pushed you out of me! How in the world did I do that?

So that's my story. I was in labor about 17 hours and pushed for about 2 and half (I sympathize with women who have been in labor longer than that). He was born on March 21st at 10:03 PM and weighed 7 pounds, 9 ounces and was 20.5 inches long - and was 3 weeks early. I'm glad he came out when he did. 7 pounds and 9 ounces felt gigantic coming out - I can only imagine what a 9 pound baby would have felt like! By the way - today was his due date!

Here I Am!

2009-04-07T13:44:00.000-06:00

I'm still alive. I think about you guys often. I miss blogging. I have so much to tell you guys and so little time to sit down and write it. I've started to write the blog about the birthing experience about 3 times but never finish - usually because I start writing it in the evening and get too tired to finish it. Evenings are exhausting for me. So here's a couple of thoughts about what has been going on. (And I promise to write about the birth soon)

-The baby is now a little over two weeks old. This Friday would have been his due date. I'm glad he came early - especially since he was the size of a normal newborn despite his early arrival.

-The baby gets cuter by the day and he looks less and less like a child fresh out of the womb. I like him a lot. I think I'll keep him. We've also discovered that he has a firecracker of a personality. His temper amazes me. I've never seen a child so young with such a fierce temper.

-Labor and delivery were terrible. Yes they were. Serious pain. The most uncomfortable feeling I've ever had in my life was when Levi's head was crowning. All I could think about was how much I wanted to get him out of me. I hope I never feel anything worse than that. If people only knew how terrible labor and delivery could be, there would be no need for birth control - especially those unplanned teenage pregnancies. The whole experience of labor and delivery was completely surreal. I still can't believe I pushed that kid out of me. So weird.

- I was horrified to find out that after delivery your whole entire body swells up and gets seriously puffy...well...at least my body did. I don't know about everyone else. I didn't even recognize myself when I looked in the mirror. That was freaky.

-I have 10 - 15 pound of baby weight left to lose, but I'm pretty sure that my hips have become permanently wider. Oh well. I don't care that much.

-I was supposed to be judging a Fine Arts Festival for teenagers when Levi was born. I find it hysterical that I went into labor on that particular weekend. What are the odds? I was so sure he wouldn't come that weekend, but he did. Ha ha.

-I am so tired these days. I really should be taking a nap.

-I gave my son a pacifier, even though I didn't want to. He has a habit of sucking on his hands and sometimes even his thumb when he's upset. I would much rather deal with a pacifier than a convince him to not suck his thumb anymore when he's older. You can always throw away a pacifier.

-Over the years I've changed literally hundreds of diapers, but Levi is the hardest to change. He squirms and flails like crazy every time I get near his diaper. He really hates his diaper being changed.

-Levi was born on my mom's birthday. I was super excited to realize this. And the numbers of his birthday go in a descending sequence 3-21-09. It's fun. Joel pointed this out.

-And one last thing - my sister had her baby four days after I did. both her baby and mine both weighed 7 pounds 9 ounces. Our baby was a tad bit longer than his cousin.

That's all for now. Hooray for not being pregnant anymore!!!

Uncomfortable.

2009-03-17T10:06:00.000-06:00

My level of agitation is so high right now. I feel like my whole entire body is so swollen right now - my feet, my ankles, my hands, my fingers, my face, even my nasal passages are swollen (i can tell because it feels like I have a stuffy nose right now). I'm so uncomfortable and aggrivated right now. I always get a little swollen over the weekends, because they are so busy for me, and I don't have as much time to rest, but once the weekend is over, I can get the swelling to go down. But the amount of swelling I'm currently dealing with is not normal for me. I've been on the phone with the doctor. I have orders to stay away from processed foods for a day or two (not that big of a deal for me, because I rarely eat them anyway). I also have to call the doctor again today if this swelling doesn't lessen by today. I haven't seen much progress over the last 24 hours, so I have a feeling I will be calling their office again later today. Arg! I am so uncomfortable! I really really really hate being pregnant today.

Not So Bad.

2009-03-02T12:47:00.000-07:00

So the Prepared Childbirth Class that Joel and I took this weekend was not nearly as bad as I thought it was going to be. When I first got pregnant, I was hesitant to learn all the horrible details that were involved with pregnancy and childbirth. So I made it a point to learn the information as I needed to know it, or was ready to handle it. I was seriously nervous about going to the class this past weekend, because I was afraid to learn everything else that I hadn't learned about childbirth. But apparently I knew more than I thought I did, because none of the information traumatized me or caught me off guard (like some of the other couples in my class - you should have seen how large their eyes got to learn some of the stuff. It was hysterical. those poor people). I think the worst thing I learned was about C-sections. But the video they showed was just computer animation, not like a Discovery Channel real-life version. Overall, I'm glad we took the class, and now I have about a month to prepare myself mentally for what is to come...and to pray for God to give me the courage to endure childbirth. Yes, I am nervous about birth!

Two random pieces of information to share with you guys:
1) my belly is getting very large (I assume you guys all know that) but it's starting to resemble a basketball. It's really starting to look like I shoved a basketball inside my shirt. I find it amusing and frightening at the same time (geez, how much large am I going to get? I don't think I want to know the answer).
2) I have been craving oranges and orange juice like crazy these days. I guess my body needs more vitamin C? I have to make sure that I regulate how much I consume. Too many oranges create unpleasant results in your digestive system!

Baby is big.

2009-02-20T11:04:00.000-07:00

I'm currently 33 weeks pregnant. Yesterday I had a sonogram and then a doctor's appointment afterward. During the sonogram we found out that this baby is a big baby. When the technician measured his belly, she said, "Wow! That's a BIG belly!" Then she started measuring other parts like his head, and his femur. After she was finished measuring everything, she told me that his length was several weeks ahead of schedule, and that he was incredibly tall for his age (I wish I could remember how long he was, but I forgot). Then she gave me his estimated weight - over 5 pounds. At this point, I believe they are supposed to be right around 4 pounds. AND THEN she told me that he is currently in the 70th percentile! WHOA! What the heck?? Apparently I have a large baby inside of me. After that I had my appointment with my OB. She said that if he makes it all the way to 40 weeks he should be in the 8 pound range. (Ahhhh!!) But then she also told me to cut down on my Carb intake, because carbs make your baby grow faster. That makes me so sad! I really love carbs - and I eat them frequently. So I will have to lower my intake of pasta and bread and muffins now. Did I mention how I love carbs? I love carbs. I really do. But if I don't lower them, this baby could get too big and then wouldn't be able to fit between my hips for delivery...and then I would have to have a C-Section. I really don't want that. So I've decided that consuming carbs is NOT worth having a C-section. Not at all! So from now until delivery, my carb intake will be much lower.

And on the same note about having a gigantic baby inside of me, I must confess that I am officially nervous. I am nervous about labor and delivery. Yes, I am. Here are the two things that make me nervous - 1) I haven't decided completely, but I am leaning toward a natural delivery. No pain medication. My family thinks I'm crazy. And perhaps I am. I've been told by several people who've gone the natural way that the recovery is so much easier. But still that is a lot of pain. I know. I know I could do it, but the real question is - once I'm in labor, will I want to or be willing to do it??? 2) Since I have such a gigantic kid inside of me, the issue now is "Will he be small enough to fit through my hips?" Oh, this makes me so nervous! At first I was going to blame Joel for the size of our child, you know, since my husband is so big. But then I started to think about it, and remembered how big people tend to run on both sides of my family, despite my average height. So it's a lot more likely that both mine and Joel's genes together have created one big tall baby. I am nervous. (Dear God, please do not let me have a C-section! Amen)

Life Lessons & other things I have learned from pregnancy

2009-02-17T11:35:00.001-07:00

* listen to advice. think about it, and then decide for yourself whether or not it is something to act on.
* on that same thought - when you are told something, consider the source in which it is coming from. just because someone says things happen a certain way, doesn't mean they do. i had someone tell me that you can't tie your shoes when you are pregnant. i am 7.5 weeks away from my due date and can still touch my toes - and yes, i can still tie my shoes too.
* no matter how much you try, no matter how air-tight your argument is or how valid your point may be, some people cannot be reasoned with.
* chose your battles wisely. some issues are worth addressing, while others are not.
* the world is full of people who are paid not to think - like those who work for insurance companies and business offices. far too often, just because they say the answer is "no" doesn't mean that it really is. it just means that they don't know. don't be afraid to challenge them on this. it's your money, not theirs.
* ignore people who have nothing nice to say, and seem to be determined to deflate your hopes.
* if you are pregnant during the flu season, get a flu shot. that was one of the smartest things i've done during pregnancy, and it saved me from getting sick at least twice (excluding the last two weeks that i was sick - which was one of the most miserable experiences of my pregnancy, specifically because there was very little medication that i was permitted to take)
* true friends are willing to work through a conflict, or at least overlook a conflict that may come up in the friendship. those who cut you off, are not worth keeping.
* if you have plans to become pregnant in the near future, and have maternity coverage with your insurance, make it a point to know your coverage backwards and forwards. make sure that you know exactly what it covers. and then explore other options for coverage outside of your insurance. believe it or not we would have been better off NOT having maternity coverage with our insurance because there are so many other programs available that will cover all or most of your maternity costs if you do not have maternity coverage with your insurance. over the last couple of years, we put far more money into our insurance coverage for maternity than they are willing to cover. So after the baby is born, we will probably drop our maternity coverage and go a different route next time.

You are more than welcome to add your own lessons learned through pregnancy if you would like.

As far as the pregnancy update goes, I've experienced a couple of things lately - I think I have lost my mind. Some days are good, while others are just plain terrible. I spent Thursday through Saturday in a daze. I cannot even begin to elaborate the extent of my mental fogginess. It was terrible. I had the hardest time keeping track of what I was doing, and remembering what I needed to do. On Friday I went grocery shopping and spent half of my time circling the store and retracing my steps, because I would repeatedly forget to pick up and item from that part of the store. So frustrating. I've also increased ability to randomly drop things (like my cell phone - i really hope my cell phone makes it to the end of this pregnancy), or spill things. It seems that I am constantly forgetting to hold up my cup when it has liquid inside - like water...or orange juice. It's really bad. It seems that my baby has been sucking up my brain juice.

Speaking of the baby, it seems that he is becoming more and more particular these days, specifically when it comes to the position that I sit, recline, or lay. If I slightly off-centered, he will kick and squirm until I reposition myself. He also doesn't enjoy when I wear pants with the panels that cover most of your belly. He kicks at the elastic all day long until I change my pants at the end of the day. And frequently when I am trying to sleep, he will wiggle and squirm until I am no longer able to sleep and forced to get up. (My child is waking me up and he hasn't even come out yet!) I have a feeling that this baby is going to be a highly opinionated child.

And I have recently realized that I've been experiencing Braxton Hicks contractions (pre-labor contractions that start after about 20 weeks that prepare your body for birth). But the funny thing is that I didn't realize what they were. Last week late at night, I kept having a pinching feeling in the lower part of my belly that seemed to come every couple of minutes. I was a little confused about this whole thing, but because I was so tired, I went to bed. I had a couple more of those pinching feelings, but they stopped after I layed down. The next morning I called the doctor to ask about those pinching feelings. After a series of questions, she was able to determine that they were in fact, Braxton Hicks contractions. I was like "OH! Man that explains a LOT!" Apparently I've had them for at least a couple of weeks, but didn't realize it. I thought when you had Braxton Hicks, that you would feel your whole torso contract - not nessicarily the case, so I learned. I laughed for a while after that. Sometimes I just amuse myself.

Preparation

2009-02-11T13:51:00.001-07:00

As of tomorrow, I will officially be 7 months pregnant. Two more months left! Last night I realized that my baby will be full term (38 weeks) in only 6 weeks...so he could possibly come as soon as six weeks from now. The reality is growing and sinking in more and more by the day. But I'm still not scared. At least I don't think I am. I feel ready for him - as ready as I can be without the parenting experience. Someone told me recently that I had no clue what I was getting myself into, no matter how much preparation I've made (classes, books, babysitting, etc) that I was in for a huge surprise. Basically they were trying to tell me that I had no idea what I was getting myself into. That wasn't very nice of them, and by the way they spoke to me, it was quite obvious they were deliberately trying to make me feel foolish and inferior to them. But you know what?
1.)- that person is not a nice person, and obviously has some personal issues to deal with.
2.) - they haven't kept in contact with me over the past ten or so years, and therefore really don't know me, my experiences, and obviously misinterpreted what I was really saying.
3.) - they were 23 when they had their first child. I'm 28. (btw, I'm totally not putting down those who've had their children earlier in life than myself) There is quite a difference - a lot changes between those years. And I know for a fact that I have had way more life experiences than they had before they had their first child. I am not the same as this person, and they seem to think that I am in the same position that they were when they had their first child.

Realistically I understand that I cannot be completely 100% prepared for this - of course not! But I do have the understanding that there is a lot of sacrifice, attention, stress, etc that goes with raising a child. I understand that my life will never be the same. I understand that everything will change. I understand that there will be problems and complications to deal with. I understand that I will lose a lot of sleep taking care of my child (but, wow, after being up all night and unable to get more than an hour of sleep last week when I was sick, I totally feel like I can handle all the late nights with my baby!). That's what I mean when I say that I am ready. I am ready for this change. No, I don't know exactly what will happen. But I'm ready to embrace it. I am as ready as I can be without the parenting experience. And that's what I mean when I say that I am ready.

On a slightly different note - Joel and I have started to get Levi's room ready. The theme we chose is monkeys with a green and brown color scheme - incredibly cute. You can see our theme here at Babies 'R Us. The room is currently a disaster area, because we have to find new places for several items we used to keep in the spare/guest bedroom that is now becoming Levi's room. At this point, we could easily fill a four bedroom house instead of the the three bedroom that we have now!

At the beginning of this blog I mentioned the fact that I will be full term in six weeks. I intended to elaborate on that thought a bit more, but got side tracked with the whole subject of being personally attacked by that one not-so-nice individual. So back to that thought. The possibility of Levi coming in six weeks as opposed to 2 months, really caught me a little off guard. I don't know why...it's only a two week difference, but I guess it's different way to think of these things. But that's ok. These past 7 months have been one giant waiting game for me. Sometimes (well, most of the time) I can hardly stand the anticipation, and want to fast forward to the end of pregnancy. But I'm still not nervous. At least I don't think...but I have started to have weird pregnancy & delivery dreams - mostly that he comes too early (before 38 weeks) and I want to put him back inside of me and continue to grow him! Weird. So if having those kind of wierd dreams is some sort of way saying that I have subcontious fears, then maybe I am nervous and don't even realize it. Perhaps I am in denial. Or maybe I'm just crazy!

And btw, does anyone have any creative, economical suggestions to celebrate Valentine's Day? I'm trying to figure out a way to celebrate Valentine's Day this year without spending more than about...oh...I don't know...ten dollars!! Ha ha.

sleepless - once again.

2009-02-06T01:36:00.001-07:00

It is currently 1:15 a.m. After several hours of laying in bed without any hope of sleeping, I have decided to get up. I am sick. A sick person came over to my house at the end of last week and was kind of enough to share their cold with me. Thanks for being so considerate as to getting the pregnant lady sick. Thanks a lot. I would really like to call her right now and give her a piece of my mind. Apparently there is not a lot of medication that you can take while you are pregnant. How convenient. My sinuses are so congested that I can do nothing but sit up in order to breathe. Unfortunately I cannot sleep sitting up, unlike some people (my husband). So I took one plain Sudafed, the only decongestant you can take during pregnancy. It's so ironic that it's non-drowsy. Yes I feel very non-drowsy from the Sudafed, yet drowsy at the same time. I don't know what to do. I sympathize for insomniacs. Seriously. This is the second night in a row that sleep has alluded me. Last night, no matter what I tried, I felt like I was suffocating when I tried reclining or laying down to sleep due to my sinus congestion. So tonight, I tried my other option - non-drowsy medication. Now I can't sleep because the Sudafed is keeping me awake. Man, I am in bad shape here. This weekend my mom is giving my sister (who is also pregnant) and I double baby shower I am now convinced that I am going look as bad as I feel for the shower. This will be my second consecutive night in a row without sleep. I wonder how many nights in a row I can go without any sleep? I may soon find out. Someone mentioned to me earlier that that's how motherhood will be. Arg! Do you think it's very appropriate to tell me something like this right now? Did you really think that would help me feel better? Thanks for the encouragement. People can be so insensitive sometimes.

Update

2009-01-29T12:00:00.000-07:00

I've been meaning to write a blog for a while. I've started to write a blog a couple of times, but never end up finishing them, and I'm never motivated to even save them to finish later. The real issue that keeps me from writing is pregnancy. Pregnancy is actually going very well right now, but my body has been very sore - mainly my upper back, which in turn keeps me from sitting at the computer in the office for extended periods of time. I've found that our office chairs just don't quite offer the upper back support that I need these days. But today Joel is working from home! (yay! I love it when this happens) and that means his laptop is here too! So I am writing this blog today from our couch - much more comfortable than the office chairs.

Here's what we've been up to:

So today I am 30 weeks pregnant! That means only ten more weeks of this! I am soooo excited. I also think that Levi is almost in the head down position at this point. His movements and kicks are in different places now (more on the top and bottom of my belly rather than the left and right sides).

I'm not as irritable as I have been in the past reguarding pregnancy. I still get those comments from people about how I big I am. Yes, they still aggrivate me, but not as much. And occasionally I still want to slap those who speak those comments to me. (You know, I already feel fat, but thanks for the confirmation) These days it is a lot easier to disregard those comments, probably because my hormones have subsided more.

At my last appointment, my doctor said that my weight gain is looking much better than the previous appointment. That made me very happy. All that hard work has paid off. I seriously don't know how some women (like my sister) manage to only gain the minimum amount of weight during pregnancy with such little effort. I have to work very hard at not gaining too much weight. It's a huge challenge. It's even more difficult this week, because it's too cold for me to go walking outside (35 degrees is too cold for a pregnant woman to exercise in, especially when she can't move fast enough to warm up). I guess I will settle for doing yoga today.

My doctor has requested that I count how many times he moves during a certain time every day (Kick Counts) and then write them down. From what I've read, the average baby moves 8 times every 10-20 minutes during their daily "active time". Levi usually moves at least 8 times in about 5 minutes. I have a feeling that this little boy is not going to be very laid back. And I anticipate that he will be a very active child. We'll see.

Last weekend there was an explosion near our house! Seriously. I have no idea what it was, but on Saturday evening Joel and I were on the couch when we heard this massive boom. It was so loud that not only did it shake our house, but also the dishes inside the kitchen cabinet. We never found out what it was. There was no report on the news, nothing on the internet, and it seems we may never find out what exactly shook our house, but I'm dying of curiosity....still.

During the fall we realized that our car needed some seriously expensive work done on the brakes, among other things. We couldn't afford to repair everything at once, so we got the most necessary work done in order for our car to remain drivable (and safe). The funny thing was that when Joel took the car to the mechanic's shop, the mechanic showed Joel exactly what was wrong, and how to fix it (assuming that Joel really had no clue). Well Joel in fact does know how to work on cars, so after we got the most crucial damage fixed on our car, Joel and I decided skip the mechanic shop, and have him fix the rest himself. So over the past couple of months, we've set aside money to fix one problem at a time. (finding the time to work on the car has also been another issue). Last weekend, we finally got one of the last problems fixed on the car. Now all we need to do is get the car aligned. But then guess what happened? Our gas gauge broke! How nice! Ahhh!! Just when we could finally see the end in sight, something else goes wrong! Grrr. That's ok. Joel knows how to fix that too - the big issue will be finding the time to work on it.

Right before Thanksgiving, I did pictures for a three generation family. It was lots of fun. And yes, I am finally getting around to putting them up. Here are a couple of my favorites. The rest you can find on Facebook.

Dear Hips -

2009-01-20T23:22:00.000-07:00

Please do not get any larger. I liked you guys the way you were before Levi entered the picture. I have always admired you. I am nervous to see what you will be like after this experience. Please, do not feel the need to expand anymore. This would make me very happy.

Sincerely,
Michelle

2009 Goals

2009-01-15T14:38:00.001-07:00

I don't necessarily believe in making New Year's Resolutions. It's not that I'm opposed to them. I completely support working toward improving yourself. I guess what I don't completely believe in is waiting until the New Year to start something that you should be doing now - like exercising more often, changing your eating habits, etc, etc. Why put off obtaining a goal until the new year when you are motivated to do it now, or at least see that you need to change? I've found that when I put off reaching a goal I know I need to reach, the more difficult it becomes to obtain it - mostly because I've gotten myself into the habit of NOT working towards it. I'm more the type of person that works towards a new goal immediately when I realize I need to change something instead of waiting until the new year. That's really why I don't believe in the resolutions.

BUT with all of that said, I have to admit, that today as I was walking, I realized that I too have set goals for myself to accomplish this year. I guess I've been mentally setting goals for myself over the past couple of weeks? Anyway, I thought I would share them with you guys. And plus whenever you voice them, it makes you that much more accountable toward reaching them. So here they are.

To have my dog leash-trained by the time Levi is born. And when I say leash trained, I mean not pulling me, walking beside me without stopping to smell every tree and bush along the path. Here's why - I plan on doing a lot of walking after Levi is born, and I want my dog to be well trained enough walk calmly beside the baby jogger. We've been working on this for a while, and we are making significant headway towards this goal. Brody gets better and better on a leash every day.
To lose all the baby weight I've had to gain through this pregnancy in a healthy way. (I'm sure you guys all assumed this...especially considering all the blogs I've written obsessing about my weight) No crash diets or excessive exercise. And hopefully I will be able to shed all those pounds but I've also read that after pregnancy sometimes you tend to permanently gain a couple of pounds. And yes I do plan to nurse Levi, which will also help with weight loss.
To increase our financial income while staying home with Levi. Joel and I are currently in the process of developing website businesses and selling them online. Joel has taught me the basics of creating the beginning stages of a website, and then he adds the graphics and other stuff. I'm also in the process of learning HTML. We are both hoping to have this process down to a steady routine by the time Levi comes, which in turn would be a steady second income without me having to get a work outside the home.
To be a good mom. I have confidence that I can do this. I want to be a mom who is flexible, who doesn't stress out about minor injuries on my child, and not too overly protective. I also want to be one who has a "plan" to work towards putting my child on a schedule.
To make significant headway on the photography course (through New York Institute of Photography) that I am working through, and hopefully to finish it by the end of the year...but I don't know how possible that may be considering the significant change life approaching in less than three months.
To find the balance between my role as a mom and wife, my involvement in our church, and my time spent as a photographer and creating websites with my husband. I have a feeling this may be tricky.

So there you go. And now you know what I will be focusing on this year. And by the way today I am 28 weeks pregnant, officially in my THIRD and FINAL trimester, and I can still touch my toes and do yoga stretches standing on one leg. I am pleased. Now if only I could keep my eating habits as good as my exercising habits....

the baby update.

2009-01-05T13:52:00.000-07:00

I'm currently 26 weeks pregnant. I will officially be in my third trimester at 28 weeks, which is about a week and a half away. My due date is getting closer and closer. I have also started to count down how many weeks I have left rather than counting up how many weeks I am pregnant.

I had a checkup on New Year's Eve. The doctor said my baby has a good, strong, healthy heartbeat. That made me happy, especially because of my asthma.

We are currently in the process of figuring out how the heck we will be paying for our baby's birth. We definitely have a plan to pay off his birth, however it will be a slow, drawn out process, where payments are made on a monthly basis. I don't think my doctor's office likes our plan. So we are in the process of exploring other payment options. We'll see what happens. Sometimes the issue stresses me out, but hardly ever. My baby is coming whether or not they want him to. Ha ha. They'll get their money - it just may not be the way that they prefer.

The more time progresses, the more I get asked this question, "So how are you feeling about the baby coming?" And this is my answer - I am incredibly excited, and my excitement grows more and more by the day. I'm looking forward to meeting this baby that I've been carrying inside of me for 6 months. I'm dying to know what he looks like. Joel and I don't have everything quite in place yet - like we don't have all the furniture, clothing, etc - but that will come together as time progresses. We have a basic idea of how we plan to raise him (scheduling, feeding, sleeping, etc) but are still spending time informing ourselves so we have more details in place. But emotionally, we definitely feel ready for him. The idea of raising our children does not scare us. We aren't nervous about Levi's arrival. We've known each other for 6 years now, and have been married for four of those years. We feel confident in our relationship and our team working skills and believe that we are ready for this next step in our lives...well...as much as you can be ready without the actual experience that prepares you. We both definitely feel ready for him. I do have a little anxiety, but it's only about labor and delivery, and the physical recovery process postpardum.

We've also signed up for a birthing class next month. I'm looking forward to figuring out what kind of labor and delivery options to choose, but I'm dread learning about the gross parts - like the delivery. Ahh! I have to say, that ignorance is bliss! When it comes to pregnancy, I enjoy NOT knowing all the horrible details that come with pregnancy. It's less to worry about. Speaking of which, I recently came across some women who seem to be very concerned about me in regards to the fact that I have not decided the details of my labor and delivery and my laid back attitude towards informing myself. They amused me. I promise I will make a decision with enough time before labor, just not yet. I really am enjoying my ignorance for the moment. And it's one less thing to worry about.

I could be wrong about this, but I really don't think that postpardum depression will be an issue for me. Why? I think I will be a much happier person once my baby is living outside of me rather than inside. Just a thought.

Joel took some belly shots of my last night. I might put them up. I may not. I don't like them. My face looks fat. That seems to be a problem these days. I don't like having a fat face...ok well...I really just don't like being fat. I may share them. Maybe not.

2008

2008-12-30T12:03:00.000-07:00

2008 has proven to be quite the eventful year - and probably the most eventful that we've had together so far as a married couple. Here are the highlights of the past year:

The Big Move. We moved away from the town we met. Our first big move as a married couple. I learned I do not like moving (never really did anyway) but I learned that more conflicts seem to rise when a married couple has to move. Ha ha. We drove each other nuts through the whole moving process! I consider moving a great opportunity to work together as a team...but I don't want that particular opportunity again any time soon!

New church. What a neat place to be a part of. Before Joel and I had even found this church, we had a mental "checklist" of characteristics in a church that we were looking for in the next church that we seeking. This new church fit our "checklist" to a tee. I love this place.

New jobs. Joel got a job as an engineer and I got a job as a photographer in a studio. I learned a ton from the studio, but ended up quitting in the summer, due to repeated scheduling conflicts and the fact that we had big change coming our way...
New adventure. I started doing free lance portrait photography outside of the studio. I had plans to move a little quicker in this business venture, but life interfered.
Pregnant. Our long awaited baby was finally on his way into the world. Many people have assumed that this baby was an accident. But let me assure you that, we've planned this baby for YEARS. Before this baby was on his way, we wanted to make sure that we had plenty of time to spend together as a couple before adding children to the mix. I'm so glad we did. We now have confidence in our ability to work as a team and raise children. And the pregnancy timing was also planned. I planned on being pregnant through the winter to have a baby during the spring time. However getting pregnant wiped me out, and I found it difficult to accomplish my tasks and goals without a nap.

Reunion. I had no plans to attend my 10 year class reunion, however was persuaded by a close high school friend. I'm so glad I went. I had a great time seeing several of my classmates from high school, regardless of the fact that I was not in the "popular" clique through high school. It also gave me a chance to prove to myself that I was no longer the same insecure girl that I was throughout high school. It was great to have a point of reference to measure my personal growth. I feel proud of myself.

Halloween. Normally I could care less about this holiday, but this year I decided to take advantage of my "unique" condition. Joel and I dressed up like Juno and Bleaker from the movie Juno. It was hysterical and we had a great time.

Holidays. Oh the holidays. Such a busy time of year, and once again, they were quite busy with various Christmas parties, Thanksgiving with my in-laws, Christmas with my family, and lots of celebrations in between. I was dreading the Holidays this year, due to my pregnant state and never knowing who was going to do what to draw attention to me and make me feel like the awkward pregnant woman that I already feel like. Fortunately for me, none of that happened. And I couldn't be happier. And I also made it a point to be more tolerant of people too - I even allowed someone at my husband's office Christmas party to rub my belly. I didn't even give them a dirty look. I should be rewarded.
Anniversary!!! We celebrated our 4th anniversary this month. It was amazingly exciting for us - mostly because we were able to look at how far that we've come as a married couple and a team. This year has been such a great year for us, and moving provided a great opportunity to us to draw even closer together and solidify our team working skills. I'm so pleased to be married to Joel! And to celebrate our anniversary we ate at our favorite asian restaurant called the Banana Leaf, and then went for a very frigid walk (it snowed earlier that day) on the River of Lights (which is a Biological Park near a river completely decked out in lights for the Holiday season.)

We still have New Years to celebrate tomorrow before the year is officially over. Tomorrow we will be joining several people in our church for a progressive dinner. I'm totally looking forward to it. And you know what? I'm totally going to be honest here, I've caved in over the holidays and allowed myself to indulge in more holiday snacks then I probably should have...so after tomorrow, I'm back to my healthy eating again. I hope my holiday indulging doesn't effect me too much down the road!

4th Anniversary

2008-12-17T10:03:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow is a special day for Joel and I. We will be celebrating our 4th wedding anniversary! I have to say that being married to Joel is one of the best things that ever happened to me. I love him so much more than I did when we first got married. He is my best friend, my spouse, my companion, my lover, my support system, still my original rival (in a fun loving non-destructive sort of way) and so much more. Now four years later, we've been through job changes, moved to a different city, changed churches, and are on our way to starting a family. Life hasn't always been easy. We've had some very difficult circumstances to deal with over those years (which have not all been mentioned), but I'm so glad we have each other to lean on (and of course, God!). I am happy. I am happy with my life. I am happy with my marriage. And I am more than happy to be carrying Joel's child. I couldn't have asked for a better man to have a baby with - and the best part is that I'm married to him! I look forward to what is in store for us. I look forward to the fact that our family of two will soon become a family of three. And I know that in a society filled with divorce and infidelity, no matter how hard things get, we have confidence that God will help us through every moment, and we will make it through. Just wait and see.

Here is proof that Joel is not as angelic as everyone thinks he is. This is just a taste of the real Joel.