Friday on a Thursday

This post is a two-fer of Friday posts on a Thursday ... I guess I'm really excited about Friday this week!  (no real reason, I mean does Friday need one?)


First off ... Five Question Friday! oldie but goodie

1. Have you ever had surgery?

Yes, three times; 1) I had my tonsils out at 5.  I still remember them putting the gas mask on and telling me to count down, and then after the surgery I ate Popsicles and Jello, and my pediatrician brought me a kitty stuffed animal in a box with holes so I thought the cat was real.  2) I had my wisdom teeth taken out when I was 15.  My mom took away the loratab a day after because she thought I would get addicted to it.  3) I had an emergency c-section to deliver Leah.  I have never known the meaning of helplessness as being a brand-new mom who had to have help to shower.

2. Ever ride in an ambulance?

Nope, and I'm perfectly cool with that

3. How are you in a medical emergency? Panicked? Calm?

Crazy.  Definitely not calm, but I like to think I'm a helpful panicked.

4. Do you have a garden? Flowers or veggies?

No, but I would love to one day plant a veggie garden, granted I can keep them alive long enough to eat them
(I have a black thumb)

5. When did you move out of your parents house?

well, I lived in Auburn during school, came home twice for the summer, got knocked up and lived at my parents house for about 2 months until I married Andrew.  So, I guess I moved out on my wedding day ... 7/7/07

and now something new (which I totally love); Facebook Status Friday!




I so get Facebook more than Twitter ...

Here's some of my favorites over the last few weeks:

Christy

the clock is telling me it's 8am. i keep telling it, it feels like 7am. Happy daylight savings time.

Leah came over and showed Audrey and I how she can bite her big toe. I told her not to do that again, only to turn around and see Audrey biting her big toe.

Leah just read me a coloring book ...

wow ... go KY and SEC ... and there goes my chances of winning a bracket challenge ... I'm happy and sad at the same time, lol

Andrew and I were talking about how to discipline our girls when they get older (read like high school) and one of his options was to take away their jet pack, lol!

favorite photo this week from a coffee house in downtown Birmingham

Andrew

why does cleaning wear you out so much? I really need a vacation so I can get a legitimate "day off" of work...

Finally getting my direcTV hooked up! One week without TV was too long!

ESPN "McClover's 2004 teammate Junior Rosegreen, who also went to Dillard High School in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., said McClover bought the car with money from a Pell Grant and that it didn't cost $7,000.

"That is bogus," said Rosegreen, who called McClover "a damn storyteller."


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and then my favorite from a random facebook friend (who really is a friend of my younger sisters) ...

(before you read this know that 'Rump Shaker' is the name of a 5K run)

Casey

Rump Shaker Run tomorrow!!!!!!  Support colon cancer!

Happy Thursday; Friday day!

What I'm Loving with Pictures

It's Wednesday, and today I am loving my pictures ...

and

Extra time with my girls

Monday our sitter called in sick, so I stayed home in the morning and my dad came over in the afternoon.  I love getting to spend extra time with them!

Spring!


Living close to my parents.
It's taken my awhile to really understand just how much I appreciate living closer to them.  This past weekend we went to their house, just because.  Dad and I went on a hike.  It was wonderful to share with him something he loves so much.


oh, and I'm also loving photo collages ... can you tell?

So what about you?  What are you loving today?

linked with:

Slice of Life

I adore the absolute thrill and happiness on my dad and my Mema's face as Audrey makes her way down the slide!

Scavenger Hunt Sunday

1. Decay

A mushroom walks into a bar, and he goes up to the bartender to order a beer. 

The bartender points to a sign on the bar wall and says, "Can't you read: NO MUSHROOMS SERVED!" 

And the Mushroom says, "Awww c'mon, I'm a fun guy".


'fun guy / fungi' ... get it?  no, oh ... 

2. Groups of Three

Awesome Easter eggs

3. Kitchen

*November 2010*  this is a bit old ... hence the formula, lol ... oh and now there's more alcohol bottles by those two wine bottles

4. Things that make you go hmmmm...

I didn't even tell them I had ice cream, but the second I sat down both girls bee-lined straight to me for a bit of my snack.  Oh, and my dad is sitting on the couch eating the same thing, but they didn't bother him once!  hmmmmmm

5. "ME" Time

taking pictures, finding pictures, editing them, looking at pictures on the computer, reading tips ... all that is my 'me' time!

Join next week for:

1. High Key
   
2. Bedroom (April 2011 Photo Hunt item)
3. Something Tiny (April 2011 Photo Hunt item)
4. Off in the Distance (Looking for Strawberries' suggestion)
5. Stripes (Flower Photography suggestion)

365 Catchup Week

wow, I am way behind on posting my weekly 365 pictures.  I'm still taking them and getting all caught up today!

Day 63.  wine glass reflection
Day 64.  i made tissue paper balls to hang over the kids toy/craft area
Day 65.  with leftover tissue paper, Leah made a bow and wore it around for days
Day 66.  the sun was shining in just the right way to take some cool shadow shots
Day 67.  Mardi Gras king cake decoration!
Day 68.  just me laying on the floor taking pictures of how many times the kids ran in front of the coffee table
Day 69.  Audrey sitting at her desk

Day 70.  weekend breakfast; grape jelly on toast, yum
Day 71.  Leah playing at Grandma's house
Day 72.  a heart shaped cloud
Day 73.  Leah 'framed' at Walmart
Day 74.  Audrey in the backyard
Day 75.  Happy Saint Patty's day green beer
Day 76.  we went to the beach!  sandy Leah feet

Day 78.  Leah and I at the beach
Day 79.  Audrey walking towards the ocean
Day 80.  dogwoods blooming in our front yard
Day 81.  Tank the cat versus a frog
Day 82.  a bush in our front yard.  i don't know what it is, but the flowers are beautiful
Day 83.  Audrey eating yogurt by herself.  she would not let me help her at all
Day 84.  passed this old house in downtown Birmingham.  I love to imagine what life was like when this house was young

Here's a video of day 83; my super smart and determined 16 month old eating yogurt all by herself


linked with:

30 before 30

A year ago E from E, Myself and I challenged her readers to make a 30 before 30 (or other milestone) list.  

(I just love her yellow book button)

As a birthday present we are updating the status of our lists.  I not only updated mine, but I amended it.  Last year I had different priorities, like getting a master's in education and becoming a teacher, which God has shown me isn't the plan for me.  

So, here's my updated and amended 30 before 30 list:
btw ... I'm 25, will be 26 on April 15th

• Live in a house we moved into a house when we moved to Birmingham
• Go see a Dave Ramsey live event
• Be debt free
• Publish an original story
• Write a book
• Go on a cruise...without kids
• Take a family vacation to Disney World
• Go to a blogging conference
• Print original photos to hang around our home
• Take the girls to an Aquarium
• Write a piece of hand-bell music
• Make a good latte at home -- I can make an awesome cafe au lait
• Throw a rocking vow-renewal and party on our fifth anniversary (July 7, 2012)
• Do something crafty and be happy about it
• Get to my goal weight
• Hold a bible study at my house
• Bake a holiday meal by myself
• Have a random guy at a bar buy me a drink!
• Host/plan a family reunion
• Go see a movie at the I-Max
• Give special homemade gifts for Christmas
• Plant my own vegetable garden
• Walk in a half-marathon
• Play 18 holes of golf with my husband
• Take a scrapbooking class and finish baby books for both girls
• Teach piano lessons to someone
• March in the Auburn Alumni Band
• Go to an NFL football game, preferably a Titan's game
• Go visit a winery.
• Have another baby? (I've got 4 more years here...)

Wow ... umm I need to get working on these!  So, I've made a new tab to help keep me going on knocking off more on my list!

What about you?  Do you have something you want to do before you are 30 or any other date?

Looking Back

5.) Share an old journal entry.

For this prompt I went back to my LiveJournal account I wrote in during college.  First I found an extremely depressing entry, but I decided to save that for another day and instead compare my 2005 self to my 2011 self.


This entry was originally posted on 7/27/2005
10 years ago (July 1995): I was starting 5th grade at Greystone Elem. I had the same 4th and 5th grade class because i opened a new elem school that my mom teaches at now

5 years ago (July 2000): High school, sophmore year...the first year we won state in football, lol. I would be at band camp around now. I was also going through my off again on again Chris stage...we dated for about three years, kinda when i felt like it. i know, bad, i'm sorry, i got better at this whole relationship thing, i hope.

1 year ago (July 2004): I would be ending my last few weeks on the mountain working with Mountain TOP. That was an amazing summer, for real.

Yesterday: I woke up really early for lab, didn't finish my lab competely before i had to leave for my 11:30 test, which sucked, went to logic and worked on notecards for my chem test, went to Panera and ate good food and made more notecards and then went to work. It was a good night, i made 75 dollars, but I closed, so i didn't get home until about 2...but that's all today

Today: woke up way to early, studied, got coffee, took my organic test (which wasn't too bad) skipped the rest of my classes...watched My Fair Lady (which is a great musical), got TCBY, ate dinner, worked on my scrapbook, and yeah, that's about it right now

Tomorrow: Go to lab (8 am, stinks) go to econ class, hopefully my lab won't run too late since i did miss today. Andrew's making linner, chicken alferado and good bread from panera, going to work at 4, home around 11, then prolly sleep or reading.


oh how different college life was from my life now.  and just for fun ...
Posted on 3/24/2011
10 years ago (March 2001): Middle of my sophomore year in high school.  I was an awkward kid trying to fit in and date a guy on and off and not look like too much of a nerd.  I was also playing for the JV soccer team.


5 years ago (March 2006):  Andrew and I had just passed the first year of dating.  I was very much in the middle of the 'finding me' and rebellious stage.  So, most people go through that in high school ... mine was in college


1 year ago (March 2010):  I was working at Vanderbilt in Nashville and still adjusting to life with two beautiful girls.


Yesterday (3/23/2011):  I went to work for 9.5 hours, took Audrey with me to Walgreen's for ketchup for dinner, ate a fabulous meatloaf my husband cooked, gave both girls baths and put them to bed, then folded clothes with my husband while watching basketball.

Today (3/24/2011):  I'll go to work and train the new night guy.  I want to start using the my fitness plan app on my iphone to track calories and get this diet going.


Tomorrow (3/25/2011):  I'll go to work and smile because it's Friday.  This weekend I want to decorate the trees in our front yard with eggs and ribbons.


It's fun to compare different times in my life.  There are good times and bad times to all the different phases, but I do love the phase of life I'm in now.


Wanna play along?  Go for it and let me know in the comments!

All Work and No Play

I'm a working mom, a full-time working away from my babies, mom.

It started as an essential.  I have the degree which should mean a head up on jobs and a better salary.  I have always worked for my family, to provide them with the best life possible.  Working is no longer an essential for me since my husband has been blessed with a great job, but working provides the best possible future for my children and less stress in our lives.

Working does add stress in other ways.  It's harder for me to make friends, and since we choose to pay a sitter to watch our children instead of daycare, it's harder for them to make friends as well.

So, one of the first things I did when we moved here was find a Mommy's group for playdates.  I found what seemed to be a wonderful group, stating in their description opportunities for stay-at-home moms and working moms alike.

Except they lied.  I'm sure they lied without meaning too, but maybe it never occured to them that someone who works 5 days a week, 8-4:30, would still want to do play groups, and stroller walks, and picnic lunches, and all the things that make a moms group great.  I say it has never occured to them because they never schedule events on Saturdays.  Ever.

The only event on the weekends are the 'new Mommy meetups' to enter the group.

I'm just frustrated with it.  I just want to go on a stroller walk on a Saturday morning (they have them during the week) or go to a park with another mommy.  I want Leah and Audrey to make friends, and maybe then I can have someone to talk with as well.

I don't know how to go about it though.  I don't want to stay in a group that pulled me in with false advertisments (oh and I've mentioned adding weekend events to them and still nothing).  Leah starts school in August ... should I just suck it up until then?

But wouldn't it be nice to have a community where working moms feel included as well as stay or work at home moms? 

Am I just complaining?  perhaps, but where else can I complain than here...

Beachy Beach

The past three days were spent with sand, sun and cold water.  As well as car rides in the ever spacious rented van, but it was all worth it just to see this.



and this

The girls absolutely loved the beach.  My sister is in graduate school at University of West Florida, so my parents, me and the girls traveled down to visit her and the beach.  Poor Andrew had to work, but he is for sure coming next time!  The drive from Birmingham really wasn't bad at all, and Leah was so very excited to see the beach.  Audrey took right to it.  I have two little beach babies.

Of course this started the tales from my parents of how when I came to the beach around their age, I wouldn't take my tennis shoes off in the sand and preferred to sit on a chair on a towel than dig in the sand.

Leah and Audrey, not them, they took straight to the messy sand and ice cold water.

Day 1


Day 2


Day 3


It was a wonderful vacation, but I had to go back to reality today.  That's alright, because I spent the day doing what I do when I come back from vacation; reliving memories through pictures and try to figure out a feasible way we could live on the beach!

Life gets in the way

One of my pet peeves in when people seem to always start a post with "I'm so sorry I have been away for so long." so I won't start this post that way.  my bad

I'm not really sure why I haven't been around.  I mean, sure, I'm busy.  Work has become increasingly hectic because one of our efficient instruments is broken, so now I have to use the very accurate but super time consuming one.  That limits the amount of time to ponder what to blog about, and then way limits the amount of time to actually write a post.

And then there's just everyday life.  Who really wants to read what cereal I ate or how messy I got at work or how my car broke down again.

so ... I'm currently thinking about a direction I really want to take this blog towards and also planning on writing scheduled posts too!

One fun thing ... I got an iPhone!

Hate Consequences

They say every person is equipped with a 'fight or flight' response.  When it comes to dealing with my own problems, I think my response has been tinkered with to 'flight or flight faster'.  I hate dealing with my problems, my mistakes, my stresses.  I run.

But you know, you can't run forever.  Eventually my strength fails, my legs slow, and I am surrounded by mistakes and disappointments. 

I have always found comfort and security in music.  I so Hate Consequences, by Relient K, is me.  I swear, they wrote this song about me.  Read it and see ... and I challenge you not to cry at the end.

I so Hate Consequences

And I'm good, good, good to go
I got to get away
Get away from all of my mistakes

So here I sit looking at the traffic lights
The red extinguishes the hope that the green ignites
I want to run away I want to ditch my life
Cause all of my mistakes keep me awake at night

And after all of my alibis desert me
I just want to get by
I don't want nothing to hurt me
I had no idea where my head was at
But if my heart says I'm sorry can we leave it at that
Because I just want for all of this to end

And I so hate consequences
And running from you is what my best defense is
Consequences
Oh God, don't make me face up to this
And I so hate consequences
And running from you is what my best defense is
Cause I know that I let you down
And I don't want to deal with that
It just now hit me this is more than just a set back
And when you spelled it out, well, I guess I didn't get that
And every trace of momentum is gone
And this isn't turning out the way I want

And after all of my alibis desert me
I just want to get by
I don't want nothing to hurt me
I had no idea where my head was at
But if my heart says I'm sorry can we leave it at that
Because I just want for all of this to end
And I spent all last night
Tearing down
Every stoplight
And stop sign in this town
Now I think there might
Be no way to stop me now
I'll get away despite
The fact I'm so weighed down

All of my escapes have been exhausted
I thought I had a way but then I lost it
And my resistance was once much stronger
And I know I can't go on like this much longer

When I got tired of running from you
I stopped right there to catch my breath
There your words they caught my ears
You said, "I miss you son. Come home"
And my sins, they watched me leave
And in my heart I so believed
The love you felt for me was more than
The love I'd wished for all this time
And when the doors were closed
I heard no I told you so's
I said the words I knew you knew
Oh God, Oh God I needed you
God all this time I needed you, I needed you

And I so hate consequences
And running from you is what my best defense is
I hate these consequences
Because I know that I let you down
Now I don't wanna deal with that
written by Relient K

copied from here
linked with Mama Kat's Writing workshop under prompt 5.) A song with significance.

How to make a King's cake

I love Mardi Gras and Ash Wednesday and Lent and Easter.  You could say it's the best holiday time ... and you don't even get gifts.  Crazy; I know.  So this year, I decided to make a mini King's cake!  (that's the cake that usually has a baby inside)

• First, decide the best time to make the cake is when your husband (who knows how to cook) runs to the gas station for ice
• Pop open a can of Grand biscuits
• Smoosh the dough and attempt to flatten
• Wish you had a rolling pin, but since you don't grab a turkey baster to make do
• Attempt to roll the dough into a rectangle.  Shrug and accept a cloud shape as good enough
• Smother in butter, sugar and cinnamon
• Roll
• Get messy
• Tell whining babies they have to wait for the cake to actually cook before they can eat it
• Freak out when husband calls and says 'fold it like a calazone' because your doughy sugary mess is in the shape of a paper towel roll
• Argue over the phone and just accept your little fat circle

• Husband gets home and tells you cake does not look right
• Sulk because you are certain you messed up the cake
• Distract kids while the cake is cooking for 35 whole minutes
• Pull out short fat little King's cake
• Smother with way too much cream cheese icing
• Add sprinkles

• Keep fingers out of icing
• Cut cake
• Eat, be merry, and enjoy!

Happy Fat Tuesday friends!

Scavenger Hunt

better late than never ... or something like that.  At first I was totally overwhelmed by these ideas, but I figured, well you can't get better if you don't try right.  Ok, here goes ...


Diptych

with passi meets without passi

Book

my new favorite thing is checking out the 'new' book section at the library

Fill in the Blank

"When I think about how much mess is in my living room, I just have to put off cleaning until the las second."  (just so you know ... it's clean now)

Taste of Italy

I heard a rumor that Italians drink wine ...

Reminders

this has been on our chalk board since we moved in over 6 months ago and sometimes I still need to look at it to remember, lol