This blog will return to it's regularly schedule program on New Years.

I am going to take the rest of the year off. I've got some cleaning to do and I've got a house full of sick people. (Jenny, I'm sorry you got sick!!!)

Hope your Christmas rocked....our's did!

Christmas Card

Well, I only ordered 50 cards this year, so that is all I am sending out. I decided I wanted to do something different this year. Last year I just ordered photo cards from Costco and they were great. But, I wanted something with more photos. So, I found a digital kit and came up with this. I really like it. (No Sherri and Michelle...I do NOT need an intervention!)

Well...

I now have one ornament on my tree. I took the others off so that I could start decorating the tree. Then the photographer called and said she was on her way over to drop off the CD, so I forgot about the tree and spent some time going over and over the photos. I love action shots and with a 2 year old...that's pretty much all you are going to get. There were a couple of posed ones, but very few. I spent some time working on my Christmas card. I decided instead of going to Costco route this year, I was going to do it myself. (Well...sorta. I bought a digital kit on line.) I am having one printed at Walgreen's to see how it looks. If it looks okay, I will go ahead and order them and have that out of the way. Here is another photo from Sunday. Can I just say, I am married to an amazing man? I probably don't tell him enough, but I crazy in love with him. (I know he reads this blog, so I hope this makes him smile.) He's the world's greatest dad too. Miss K is pretty crazy about him too.

I need to get to bed. It's like 2:30 in the morning. The last time I did this, I woke up feeling like I had a hangover and I hadn't even been drinking!

Blog ya later!

Family Photos

We had photos taken this weekend. This is just one of the couple hundred or so that she took. The photographer is Jennifer Dunaway. She was super sweet.

Where is it?

Have you seen my holiday spirit? I'm not sure it has arrived yet. I don't know what to do. I've got a million and one things to do, but I can not get motivated to do any of it. I have a cookie excahnge that I am attending on Saturday, but I've not even picked out a recipe. I have another exchange for my mom's group the following Tuesday and my house is a disaster area. My dining room is trashed. Can't even see the top of the table. The tree has been up for over a week. It had maybe 4 ornaments on it. I need to take them off and really decorate the tree.

(Looking at the photos I took with the point n' shoot makes me think that it is ruined. It got left outside in the seat compartment of Miss's K wagon for days...in the rain.)

I think I am depressed. I honestly think it has to do with babies. It seems like a lot of my friends who have kids Miss K's age are pregnant with their second child. Did we make the wrong decision? Should we have tried one more time? If we do decide to actually adopt a baby, how long will that take? It just makes me a little sad. My neighbor recently had a baby girl, so I get some new baby smell when I need it.

Gotta snap out of it.

Miss K has been a little sickly lately. Nothing that every other kid in town doesn't already have. Constant runny nose. Thankfully, she has learned to blow her nose and she thinks it's funny to do it, so that works. I would hate the thought of trying to actually hold her down and suction it out!

I gotta run. Blog ya later!

Potty Progress?

It probably won't be major to mom's who have potty trained in the past, but this is a big deal to me. Miss K hates the potty. She would sit on it fully clothed, but take her clothes off and she would freak. I thought it was the little potty that she hated, so I bought one of those inserts that you put into your regular toilet seat. She freaked at that too. We decided not to push it. We took the potty with us to Michigan and it basically just took up space. It came home and had just been sitting downstairs collecting dust...lots of dust. We are trying to get the house ready for all our Christmas company, so I cleaned the potty all up and brought it upstairs. It made it as far as the hallway, but not to the bathroom. So, this evening, I see Miss K carrying it down into the bonus room. She leave it at the bottom of the stairs, runs over and asks me to take her shirt off. I take if off. "Now pants, Mommy. I do diaper." She takes the diaper off and runs for the potty! She sat on it for a long time. Then she got up and acted like she was flushing it. She sat on it a couple of times before she decided she wanted her diaper back on. Now, she didn't go in the potty, but I think she is getting the idea. Brian and decided that we weren't going to push it and were going to wait until the first of the year to actively start trying to get her to use the potty. Yeah! The day before Thanksgiving I told Miss K, "All Mommy wants for Christmas is for you to use the big girl potty." "No Mommy!" "Mommy will even buy you Dora big girl panties." "Okay Mommy!" I need to find that potty training book I bought this summer and start getting ready!

I'm a big baby

So, I had my second dentist appointment this week yesterday. I really like my dentist. She's a hoot. Anyway, I have a bunch of dental work, all minor, that needs to be done. I am trying to max out my insurance for the year. I had two appointments this week and then I have another one in a week or so. That's the big "let's block two hours out" appointment. I know you are thinking...OMG! Hollye has rotten teeth. Not the case! I guess you could call this "proactive dental work". She just wants to treat small places before they become rotten teeth. Am I explaining this very well? ANYWAY. So, I went in on Wednesday. Sit down. They give me the numbing gel. The dentist comes over, turns the gas (I love the gas)on and then gives me like 5 shots in my gums. I felt it. It hurt. Ouch. So, she goes off to treat another patient while I am getting good and numb. I sit there. And sit there. I'm freezing. I'm still sitting. She finally comes back, apologizes for taking so long and starts drilling. I about came out of my skin. She could tell by the look of horror on my face that I felt every single bit of the drilling. She poked my lip and asked me if I could feel it. YES!!!! She cranked the gas back up and gave me about 5 more shots. Let's just say...I couldn't feel the left side of my face for HOURS.

So, today is my day to stay home. No running around or anything like that. Well, I thought. I forgot the I made a playdate with one of K's little friends for later this afternoon. I hate to cancel because she has been talking about this friend all day when she heard me on the phone talking to hr friend's mom. Maybe we will go and stay for an hour. Luckily, they live less than a mile from us. Maybe I can get a few things done before we head over there. I NEED to get my cookie recipe picked our for all the cookie exchanges that I am in. I've got so much to do!

Blog ya later!

I can't even think of a title...

I am so glad Thanksgiving is over. Family stresses me out sometimes and this was one of those times. I also want to use this blog post to announce my retirement from party planning. I will not throw a shower of any kind, birthday or retirement party for anyone other than my husband or child. At least I know that they are thankful.
So, today I took Miss K to the Stingray Reef at Opry Mills. Those little suckers are creepy, but cool. A lot of the kids that we went with were really into touching them. The mommies...not so much. But, it's a great deal Tuesdays are buy one get one free. Admission is $3.95 for all day! And hey...kids 2 and under are FREE! So, my friend and I got in for $4 and change and our 3 kids got in free. We bought shrimp to feed the rays. Those were BOGO too. But, this mommy was scared of the rays and just threw the shrimp in. I did TRY to feed them by hand, but I chickened out. K kept telling me...Feed them Mommy! There were also seahorses that K loved and kept
asking if we could ride them. The best thing...the carousel. You can ride it all you want...for free with admission! We just stayed on it and rode it about 10 times in a row. Then we went and had lunch...came back and rode some more. Also got two more Christmas gifts bought. Oh...make that three! I am almost done. Brian has given me a couple of ideas, but I need to wait for payday to finish my shopping. Can't wait to be done. I've got a LOT of stuff to do between now and Christmas. My brother and his family are coming for the holidays and I can not wait! We are going to have such a blast. But before they get here, I have THREE cookie exchanges to attend, one of which I am hosting. I also have two more dentist appointment and a bunch of other things. I really need to work on my calendar this week to make sure I don't overbook myself like I usually do.

Okay, I have to get to bed. My child has school tomorrow and get to spend my second day this week at the dentist office. Trying to max that dental insurance out!

Blog ya later!

And so the holidays begin....

We are in Michigan to start our Thanksgiving holidays with the inlaws. Thanksgiving on Thursday. Shopping on Friday. Baby shower on Saturday. Family Christmas party on Saturday. Yes...family Christmas party before December even gets here. Don't get me started on that whole situation. I've already had a heated discussion with my inlaws and Brian about it this evening. It ended with all of us laughing because we all agree that this party is stupid. All because a couple of family members thinks that they can not have a Christmas party without the ENTIRE family in attendance. If it wasn't for the shower, we would pack up and be out of here first thing Saturday morning. My husband's extended family is wacky. And wacky is a nice word compared to what I REALLY want to say!

What a dummy

Yep...talking about myself. Miss K has school photos today. (How cute is a class picture of 2 & 3 year olds going to be???) She's all dressed in one of her cutie dresses from Gymboree. (Yep...another Gymboree outfit. It's an addiction. I need a 12-step program.) She looked so adorable and was swishing the dress around and laughing about it. She even thought the bow looked cute this morning. I took her outside and she let me take some pictures of her and it was so sweet. I get home. Pull the camera out. NO MEMORY CARD.

Dummy. Dummy. Dummy.

Miss K got her first haicut....

and it did NOT go well at all!

My funny child.

My child is too funny. She is watching the Wonder Pets in our room while Brian and I flip between the football game and some movie in the living room. She keeps running out into the hallway and giving us an update on her show. "The camel is thristy!" "Tuck help him." It's crazy all the stuff she is learning and what she remembers. If you tell her something, she will remind you about it later. And she will tell you what she is doing....even if it is something she isn't suppose to be doing. (Like coloring her hands with markers.)

She just came out here to ask us to open a tub of play-doh. Brian informed her it was time to go to bed and she took off running and yelling, "I watch Wonder Pets!"

On the scrapbooking front, I actually made cards this weekend. I am in a card swap at the local scrapbook store and I had cards I needed to turn in on Saturday. I made there Sunday morning. Luckily, I wasn't the only late one! So, tomorrow I have a meeting at Starbucks with my mom's group. I plan on getting there a bit early, taking the laptop and sorting photos. I need to place a LARGE order for photos. I've got a couple of gifts I need to complete and one of those includes about 200 photos of our vacation early this summer to Texas to see my parents when they were back in town. I've also got a couple of baby albums that need to be finished. I've got all the paper cut for them, I just need to print out some stuff, put the albums together and give them to the person I am making them for. Reminds me, I need to email her for some information...

I'm watching the Colts/Chargers game and I am so sad. I'm Peyton's biggest fan and I am so bummed that this will be 2 losses in a row for him. The poor guy threw 5 interceptions this game. Poor Vinitari.

My goal for this week is to have a photo with every blog entry. Blog ya later.

So tired

I am so tired. I was suppose to go to my friend Sherri's house tonight to hang out, but I woke up with the worst headache ever. I've been going non stop for weeks now. I need a break. Today I wanted to stay home and just veg, but that didn't happen. I had made a committment to my mom's group to be at the Pottery Barn Sing-Along. I hate to disappoint people, so Miss K and I headed out to Green Hills and met up with our friends. We had a good time. (That's Cowboy Joel in the photo.) She wasn't into like last time, but I think that was because I wouldn't sit on the floor with her. I was snapping photos. So, if Mommy wasn't going to sit, she wasn't either. She decided to play with all the stuff in the store. Can I just tell you...I love Pottery Barn Kids. I could do some serious financial damage in that store! Tomorrow is a busy day. We have GOT to get our house cleaned. It's a wreck. I would be embarassed for anyone to walk in my house right now. So, with that being said, I am headed to bed so that I can get up at a decent hour and start cleaning. Well, I need to turn a load of laundry. I hate laundry. It mocks me.

I'm pissed. Yes, I said pissed!

Okay, we had a yard sale a couple of weeks ago. We had a couple of large Little Tikes toys for sale. I was thinking of donating them to the school, but I thought Kennedy would have some issues with them being "hers", so we decided to sell them at the yard sale. A guy pulled up in a truck, asked us what we wanted for a couple of the toys, we told him. He asked if we had anything else. Brian told him we had a tunnel with a slide attached in the backyard. He wanted that too. He specifically told us he was buying stuff for a needy family. Okay, so Brian gave him several things in additional to the big stuff for WAY cheap. I mean, it was going to a good cause...WE THOUGHT!

Today I head to this consignment store that some told me had easel's. K likes to paint and they use them at school. I went by yesterday, but they were closed. They had 3. I was going to buy all 3 of them and donate two of them to K's school. I get there and there is a guy sitting out front. He works there....looks familiar. I see the woman, she looks familiar, but I have no idea why. I tell them I want the easels. They only have two left. I look around some more and they have a lot of stuff. I see the guy back a truck up and it hits me! THEY WERE MY "It's for the needy" PEOPLE!. More like, It's for the GREEDY! So, I went in to pay for the easels. I asked the lady if she could give me a deal since I was buying two of them, ,and "they were for the needy". She looked at me kind of strange. Then told me no, she couldn't discount them. I should have just walked out, but I've been looking everywhere for the dang easel since new, it is almost $80. I called Brian as soon as I got in the truck and told him about it. He was pretty pissed off to. If they hadn't said anything about it being for the needy, I wouldn't be mad. It's people like this who are the reason that a lot of people do not donate to charities or volunteer for things.

If you live in the local Nashville area and you want to know where this was, email me and I will let you know. I wish now I had not bought the easel's from them. I won't ever buy anything from them again.

Like I don't have enough stuff to do....

Remember last year when I decided make the Advent calendar? Well, I told myself I was not going to take on any projects during the holidays again. I was even thinking of skipping my hot chocolate cones this year. But Brian helped me make the decision that we were going to make them. (That reminds me...I need to order the bags today!) I am attending not one, not two, but at least 3 cookie exchanges this year. So, I need to start looking for a cookie recipe.

Anyway..to get back to the point of my post. I checked out Stacey Kingman's blog yesterday and dang it....if there isn't something on there I want to make. Dang it! Looks a LOT easier than the button trees that were the rage last year. I have to head over to Hermitage to pick up an easel that I want to get for Kennedy. She likes to paint. I also have to stop at Hobby Lobby and return some party supplies since I decided to add another color to the theme for my SIL's baby shower. So, I guess I will pick up some cones while I am there. I mean...how long do you think it will really take to make these? And the fact that I already have 8 beaded cone trees doesn't seem to make a difference. I still feel the need to make these! Why do I do this to myself?

Piano girl

Lately I've been hanging out with a mom that I really enjoy spending time with. We enjoy some of the same things...shopping for our kids, going on fun outings with our kids, going out for drinks after the kiddos are asleep and daddy's are in charge. Another thing we have in common is our girls. They like each other...for the most part and are the same age. They also attend the same MDO program, so they are excited when we get together to play. One of the places that we went to was the Discovery Center in M'boro. Miss K found the piano and she was LOVING it!

A Happy-Sad Day

My neighbor across the street had her baby girl today. I was so excited for her. We picked her son up from school and took him to the hospital to see her. Miss K and I stayed around to see the new baby and she kept saying "I get baby sister?" I wanted to cry. I am so happy for my friend, but I am so sad for me and Brian and Miss K. If things had gone the way they should have for us, I would be just about ready to have a baby myself.

Okay...I'll blog ya later. I don't want to get all sad.

Just a test!

Trying to see if I can upload photos

Today was a lazy day.

We didn't even leave the house. (I did have class tonight, but the weather was awful, so I made the decision not to drive.) I got a little bit of laundry done, some events scheduled and I actually watched a movie that didn't have any cartoon characters in it! (I know...aren't you shocked?) I even got a little bit of Christmas shopping done. Gotta love Amazon and the free shipping. For those of you who know Miss K, you also know that she has an unnatural obsession with Dora the Explorer, Diego and Max & Ruby. (As I type this at 10pm, my child is sitting on the sofa watching Diego. Yes, it is 10pm and she is still up...don't judge me. She napped until almost 6pm.) Anyway...I saw this Dora dance pad thing and knew that she would love it, so I ordered it along with a musical tea set. (I'm trying to upload photos, but blogger won't let me. This is the first time this has ever happened to me. Oh well.)

Okay...blog ya later when I actually have time to really post.

Recipe?

I am looking for a really good recipe for red beans and rice. I use to HATE when my mother would make this stuff for us when we were kids. She would make a big pot and I swear we would eat that stuff for a month. (Well, it seemed like a month!) So, if you have a really good recipe for red beans and rice...SHARE!

I've got like 3 blog posts that I am working on that I've got to complete and get posted. I've signed up for this thing where I am suppose to blog everyday during the month of November. Good gravy. Like I don't have enough stuff to do.

Blog ya later....with photos.

Do X-rays make you cry?

I am sure that is what the dental assistant at the dentist office thought yesterday. I had a rough day with Miss K. She was just defying me on everything. Well, as much as a 2 year old can. I had to meet Brian at the dentist office so he could pick up Miss K and I could get my teeth clean. True to form...he pushes it on the time. He arrived at 2 on the dot. I like to be early to doctor's appointments. I guess I shouldn't complain...at least he wasn't late like he usually is. So, I sit on in the chair and the first thing the hygenist tells me is, "okay Hollye, we are going to do a full set of x-rays on you and a panoramic x-ray as well." I just busted out crying. Right away she is asking me if I am okay. I started mumbling something about my wild two year old and my never on time husband...all between sobs. I am sure she thought she had met the nuttiest patient she had ever seen. I told her I was fine and we got on about the business of x-rays and cleaning teeth. I was embarassed as hell, but oh well. I get to see the assistant 4 more time in the next 4 weeks, so I better get over it now!

So, last night I went with my mom's group to see the movie, Gone Baby Gone. I was looking for a chick flick, but there wasn't anything out that sounded good. This movie was pretty good, not great. The ending wasn't something I expected. It really left you thinking, "if I was in that position, would I do the same thing?" After the movie we headed over to the Cheesecake Factory for dessert. My friend Michelle ended up with this cake thing that was HUGE. We all laughed when they brought it out. I think she tooke 2/3 of it home with her, minus the ice cream.

I wish I could say that this was a slow weekend for us, but it isn't. We are playing cards with our neighbors across the street later tonight. She is headed to the hospital on Tuesday for a schedule c-section. So, we wanted to play cards again before the baby came. Saturday I've got to do the usual house work stuff that has been seriously neglected this month. Sunday is a birthday party and a class. I think I need to get more sleep. Siz hours a night is not working for me.

Okay...I'll share some photos later. I've got to get going. Blog ya later!

Halloween

Halloween for us was not just Trick or Treating. We had so much to do for Halloween. It started with a party for one of our mom's groups. Good time. A couple of trips to the pumpkin patch. Another party with another mom's group. A pumpkin carving party and a Halloween Parade. A party at school and FINALLY trick or treating. Miss K walked almost our entire little neighborhood and TorT'ed with the big kids for TWO HOURS. She was not shy about asking for more candy either. She told one neighbor, "I need chocolate!" My crazy child.

We are still busy....

It was pointed out to me Friday night that I hadn't blogged since October 9th. Thought I should do some updating. Lots has happened since I last blogged. Miss K got croup and ended up getting a ride from the doctor office in an ambulance to the ER. Because her breathing was still bad, we got to spend the night at Vandy. She finally got over the croup, but was still a little sick. Then Brian and I both got sick. (I finally went to the Minute Clinic at CVS today to get some meds because I was STILL sick.) Let's see...since I've blogged we've done the following:

*rode in an ambulance

*spent the day in the ER

*spent the night on the hospital

*got sick

*had a garage sale (we made $300!)

*went to a Halloween party at CEC

*went to the Bounce Factory

*made a black and orange tutu for Miss K

*made invitations for a baby shower

*lost my cell phone

*went to another Halloween party

*went to school a couple of days

*found my cell phone

*went to a sing along at Pottery Barn Kids

*shopped Gymboree

*took a garland class from Julie

*went to a pumpkin carving party at a friend's house

*shopped Gymboree...again, with a trip to Costco thrown in

*went to a Halloween parade and cook out in our neighborhood

*uploaded a ton of photos

I know I've missed a ton of things, but needless to say, we have been busy here. I leave you with a photo of Miss K in her Halloween costume. It's called Sweet Pumpkin Pie. I got it from Gymboree. I love this costume.

Blog ya later!

I've been busy!

I think I got bit by the "busy" bug recently. Monday I dropped Miss K off at school and headed home to clean. The only thing I really got done was a quick trip to Target and cleaning my upstairs hallway carpet. Let me first say...I have 4 animals. Two cats, two dogs. I need to vacuum everyday, but I don't. I need to do my floors everyday, but I don't. So, my first step in cleaning the carpet was to vacuum. I won't admit to how many times I had to empty the cannister. I do think though, that the Hoover is about to bite the dust. I really want a Dyson Animal, but we can not afford to spend $500 on a new vacuum right now. (I started an envelop to save for it. ) Then the steam cleaning. I am glad that we decided to buy that thing instead of renting one the first time we needed on. Best $350 we ever spent. (Bought it 5 years ago when we had money and no child.) Anyway, my mom watched our dogs while we were out of town and let's just say....she didn't watch them closely and didn't clean up. So, did a LOT of spot cleaning and steam cleaning and more vacuuming.... I think we are going to have to get new carpet pretty soon. But remember...no money for new vacuum, so no money for new carpet. Pick Miss K up from school at 1, bring her home and put her straight down for a nap. Then I started cleaning the stairs. My stairs are hardwood and they show everything. So, I took water and Pine o' Pine and wiped down the baseboards and the facing of the stairs. I removed all the scuff marks on the facing with my handy Magic Eraser. (Love those things.) Then I cleaned each step with wood floor cleaner....by hand. All of the chemicals I was using, you would have thought I would have remembered to put my nice yellow gloves on. Nope, I forgot. Anyway, I noticed during all of this...my walls need to be painted. Gross. Ain't gonna happen right now. Anyway, the stairs look so good.

Tuesday was another busy day. We get up and head to Lowe's. On my list...new drawer pulls for Miss K's bathroom and a new rag for my hardwood floor mop. I got the drawer pulls, no rag, 2 mums, potting soil, stakes for my rubber tree and twine. Then a quick stop at the mall for lunch. I was going to buy Miss K some Converse high tops, but she did not like them being up so high on her ankle and kept stomping around the store trying to get it off her foot. We ended up with Dora hair clips instead. That's Miss K's latest obsession...Dora. She calls her Dory though. I only have one video and I can recite it word for word now. We are teaching K to say some of the words in Spanish. My parents (dad and stepmom) thinks that is neat. It's hilarious to hear her yelling "Hola!" Anyway, Miss K goes down for a nap and I get to work outside this time! Clean the front porch off, pot the mums, sweep up the HUGE mess I made, pull up some funky tomato looking plants that are growing in my beds, dig in the garage until I FINALLY kind my pumpkin door mat. (K calls it a punkin.) 2:15, drag K out of bed with a promise of seeing her friend "L", get dressed and head to the pumpkin patch. Awesome place. I was very impressed. So impressed that we are going back again this week with some more friends and then probably again on Saturday morning so Daddy can enjoy it too.

Wednesday will be busy too, I just haven't decided what I am going to do yet. I know that I need to drop off a donation to Goodwill, go by the bank, wrap some gifts, get packages ready to mail and run to the post office. Okay...it's late and I need to get to bed. Miss K has school tomorrow, so I have to get up in the morning and get her stuff ready. I love Mother's Day Out!

Only my child...

So, we are still on vacation. LOVING it. All we do is swim at the pool, try the beach out for about 30 minutes while Miss K screams. We've read a lot of books. Miss K has become CRAZY for Dora. It's been a lazy vacation. I told Brian that this has to be one my favorite vacations. (New Orleans with the C's was awesome too.)

Anyway...Miss K has been sleeping in a big girl bed. Last night apparently, she came into our room at some point. She didn't get in the bed though. Best we can figure out, here's what happened.... We wake up to this SCREAMING, but it sounds really muffled. Brian jumps out of bed and finds Miss K...UNDER THE BED IN OUR ROOM! We assume she came into the room sometime in the night and went to sleep on the floor at the foot of the bed. Because she is a WILD sleeper, she must have rolled under the bed or something. Brian said all that was her foot. Her entire little body was under our bed. It really freaked her out because it took her quite a while to calm down. I mean, it would have freaked me out too. That was at like 5 in the morning. When I woke up, I asked Brian if she was really under the bed and he said yes. I started laughing. It makes me laugh every time I think about it.

Hello from beautiful Destin!

We spent most of Saturday driving, but it wasn't a bad drive at all. Miss K was on her best behavior for most of the drive. About the last 30 minutes she was mad. And to be honest, I was too. I was ready to get out of the car. Miss K actually slept in Sunday morning. And, she is sleeping in a big girl bed while we are here. She had been talking non-stop about "go to beach" since we left Nashville. So, our first stop this morning was to the beach. She did NOT like the beach. She walked maybe 5 steps in the sand and started screaming. I, on the other hand LOVED the beach. This is my very first trip ever to Florida, so I had no idea what to expect. I grew up in the Houston area, so the beach to me was Galveston Island. I don't think I can ever go back to Galveston and enjoy myself again. Destin is amazing. The sand is so fine and so white. And the water. It's AMAZING! It's so clear. I am not normally one to get into the water at the beach more than up to my knees. I actually wanted to go swimming in this water. It was so beautiful.

So, we are going to keep trying the beach every day with Miss K. Thankfully, she does like the pool. The pool here is zero entry, so she can walk in and not have to cling to me or Brian while in the water. There is also a small ledge that runs around the pool and she like to sit on that as well. I think we will be spending most of our time at the pool. And yes, she more those sunglasses pretty much the entire day....everywhere we went.

So glad....

that the GM strike is over. No, my husband isn't a union worker, but it affects him just like it does every employee at all the plants and and all the suppliers....and so on.

The day the strike started, I got no less than 5 phone calls asking me if Brian still had a job. Talk about stressing me out. But then again....I stress out over every little thing.

Can I just tell you....I am so ready for my beach vacation.

Ponies

I remember My Little Pony from YEARS ago. Imagine my surprise when I found out they were still around. My daughter is the very proud owner of about 9 of them. She loves them. My good friend Margie gave Miss K her first pony for her 2nd birthday. My child is crazy about those silly ponies. Many times when Miss K goes to bed at night, she has 2 or 3 ponies in bed with her. (Those are in addition to the monkey, the bear, and two babies.)

So, Miss K started school last week. It's been great. Monday was her first day. It was kind of like an "open house". They only attended 9-11 while the director went over the handbook. She made an apple tree and was so proud of it. She showed it to everyone in Target. She napped for 2 1/2 hours. Tuesday we went to the Jump Zone. She went crazy on those slides. She worked up a big sweat. She napped for 3 hours. School on Wednesday. Napped for 2 1/2 hours. Thursday we went to the Adventure Science Center. That place is great. It reminds me of the Children's Museum in Houston, but a much small scale. She had a blast. She napped for 3 1/2 hours. So, needless to say, I've run my child ragged the past week. We've got another busy week planned and then we are headed out of town on vacation. I'm really looking forward to the beach. I did ask Miss K if she wanted to go to the beach. She said no....

Another vacation

We are getting ready to go on another vacation. To the beach...again. We are going to Destin this time. We looked for a place to stay for a long time. We needed a pool that had a zero entry for Miss K. We finally found one that was actually available. And, it was an awesome price. Most of the stuff we saw was like $1200 a week. We got ours for almost half that. Can't wait!

On another note....my husband could use some prayers if you think about it. Just some stuff at work. Nothing bad at all...just some possibilities that we didn't think would happen right away couple possibly be happening a lot sooner. It's a little stressful for me.

Okay...it is a BEAUITFUL day out. I am running to take my BAD dogs to the groomers and then K and I are going to hit the park for a bit. I have a photography asssignment for my class, so I want to try and get that done today. So, maybe I will have some photos to share tomorrow!

Blog ya later!

Halloween Costume, new cars? and a photography class

So, I bought Miss K a Halloween costume this summer. She likes JoJo Circus and I found the costume on the Disney website, so I bought it. One problem...she won't wear the hat part and that is where the hair is. So, it looks goofy without the hat. I went in search of some cute costumes. I did great her first two years, so I wanted something just as cute as the flower and the Heffalump. I found a monkey, but I wasn't in love with it. Then I found this cutie costume from Gymboree. (You know how much I LOVE Gymboree!) It's called Sweet Pumpkin Pie. I put the head piece on her at the store and she smiled and said, "I'm so pretty Mommy!" She thinks the shoes are a hoot too.

So....today when I picked Brian up from his doctor's appointment (the Bob Barker treatment, Renee!) we drive by the Saturn dealership and he makes a comment on the new Saturn Vue. Then he surprises me and says that he is looking at trading BOTH of our current cars in and getting us both something new. I am perfectly happy with my Trailblazer, but he pointed out that it is our "family car", the one we use the majority of the time and it no longer has a warranty. We haven't made any kind of decision and probably won't until the end of the year. Maybe there were will some better rebates out by then.

I finally did something I've wanted to do for a long time. I signed up for a photography class. It is every Monday from 6-9. I am really looking forward to it. One of my friends is also taking the class. I am so looking forward to learning more about my camera.

Okay...gotta run. Blog ya later!

Something I never thought I would say....

I am beginning to think that people need to be screened before they are allowed to reproduce. I honestly think that there are some people in the world who should never have kids. Who in the world thinks that it is okay to take your 2 year old daughter to a brothel...leave her strapped in her carseat INSIDE the HOT freaking car for TWO HOURS while you and your buddies attend a "private function" in a house full of prostitutes? Well, some stupid dad did. He did manage to leave the windows cracked, so that is how the security guard was able to hear her crying. It was 95 degrees outside that day. Don't you wonder how hot it was in that car? STUPID. STUPID. STUPID. Someone needs to strap is stupid ass into a car seat and leave him in a hot car with NO SHADE for two hours and see how much he likes it.

Okay...off my soap box.

Yeah Me!

Have you ever done something in your house and then just been so pleased with yourself? That's me today. Well...I actually did it on Monday. I cleaned my laundry room. Big deal you say? HA! It's a big deal for me! It's where clothes enter, but never leave. So...LONG ago, (honestly...it's been so long I can't remember when it was.) I saw some super cute Rubbermaid baskets on kellidarrsuperstar's blog. Loved them. Ran out and bought like 5 sets. I was DETERMINED to get my laundry room in order. Well, like most (umm...all) of my projects, I bought the stuff and just let it clutter up my house. So, now that we are back home, I have decided I've GOT to do something. I am living in a house full of clutter that would qualify me for Clean Sweep. (I wish they would come to my house.)

So...Monday I got the BUG. My entire house needs to be purged, but it is all so overwhelming that I start in one place and get so sidetracked that it never gets done. The laundry room is small, so I decided to tackle it. The first thing I did was clean the floor up. So much CRAP on the floor. Stuff that didn't even belong in there. I got all the clothes into two hampers. Then I cleaned off the dryer. Why do I stack stuff on there? Well, because it is easy and there isn't any place else to stack stuff in there. Then I tackled the monster. Monster=clothes. I don't know what my issue is about clothes. I've got LOTS of them and don't wear 1/4 of them. So, I went through and took out what I wanted to keep and folded what was going to Goodwill. Then I took the extra hanging rod out of the room. If it is there, I will use it. Then I tackled the shelf. Again...more crap just stacked. This is where my lovely baskets come in. My entire shelf is now BASKETIZED! It's awesome. The only clothes that are in there are the dirty ones in the hamper and a basket full of towels and sheets that need to be folded. I was so excited about how awesome it looked, I ran out Monday night and bought a new ironing board cover. Brian still needs to rehang my storage thingy that holds my ironing board and iron, but he needs to patch the wall where it pulled out a while ago (that means several years....) Then...I went BACK through the clothes that I said I was going to keep and decided all but one thing could go to GW. I was so freaking pleased with myself. I kept telling Brian to come look at it. Even Miss K thinks it's "pretty". She even helped me with the laundry yesterday. I usually don't let her in there because it is so cluttered. Now, she can go in there anytime she wants! No photos. I need to find my thingy to download my photos with. Then I will post of photo. Brian told me I should have taken a before photo. I know I should have, but honestly...I would be too embarassed to actually show it. In the end, I had two large trash bags of clothes for Goodwill, a half trashbag full of trash and one old broken hamper full of wire hangers.

Here is a question..... Do you clean your washer and dryer? I wiped the outside of everything off with my bleach/eater mixture, but what about the insides? I mean, I clean my lint trap on my dryer after every load, but nothing to the washer. Any suggestions?

HOME!

Praise Jesus!

It was so freaking cute!

Today was the day I've been waiting for since the ultrasound technician told me I was having a girl. Today was the first day I put pigtails in Miss K's hair. I giggled the entire time I did it. She was not happy with me, so they look really wonky. But...they were there. And they looked so cute. And she wore them for FIVE hours! I'm still giggling thinking about how cute and grown up she looked. She looked like a "big girl". She's not a baby anymore and that makes me oh so very sad. But seeing those cute pigtails cheers me up!

Packing again....

Miss K is leaving for her own little mini vacation today and I am sad. She is actually going to stay with Brian's parent's for the rest of the week. Brian and I will use this time to PACK OUR BELONGINGS!!! We are moving HOME! Can you tell I am a little on the excited side?


Okay...I've got to get K's bags packed, lunch for both of us, naps and then a quick Target run before we head out to meet Brian's parents for dinner and to drop K and the doggies off.

And, because I need to post more photos, here is a cute one of Miss K from our week at the beach. Oh...speaking of the beach, we are going to Destin in October. Yes, I am going to subject my child to the beach all over again. We really want to go on a family vacation with just the 3 of us. We've been talking about Destin since before K was born. Now, we are going. I've found a condo, I am just waiting to hear back from the owners about the contract. As soon as I get the final approval, I will post the condo. It's really nice.

Oh...and this is how Miss K felt about the beach

Used my SIL's awesome big 'ol lense for this one. I really need that lense. I LOVED using it! Click on the photo to see the huge tears on her cheeks.

Beach Photos

I mentioned that we hired a photographer, Amy Bly, to come out and take some photos of my family on the beach. (If you are ever in Galveston and need a photographer, I highly recommend her.) This was the first time in a LONG time that we have all been in the same place at once. Granted...my youngest brother showed up about 30 minutes into the photo shoot. But, at least he was there.


Here are a couple of my favorites from that day. (She took over 350 photos.)

My super cutie pie, Miss K

My hubby, Miss K and Big L. I think they were playing with a sand crab or something.

The whole dang family
My niece Miss T, my younger brother Frank, who tried to DROWN me, Big L and me. Yep...we got REALLY wet, but it was so much fun.

End of my rope

I've never been so ready for a vacation to be over. I am so stressed out. One little thing happened today and it snowballed and pushed me over the edge. Needless to say, I WAY over reacted, but at that point, I was so over the whole thing that I just lost it. I should be hanging my head in shame over the way I acted today, but my head hurts so bad from all the crying. I turn my rental car in at 9 am tomorrow morning and head to the airport. I am so ready to go home.

And to my wonderful sister-in-law, Jenny. Thank you for being Switzerland. Thank you for being the calm one. Thank you for opening your home to me. Thank you for being you. I am so lucky to have such a wonderful sister. I am glad that we got to spend more time together this visit. I do look forward to spending more time with you.

Grandparents Rock

I will be the first to admit...my dad and I disagree on how to raise a child. But, he loves his grandkids like crazy. I was really worried about how Miss K would react to them since she hadn't seen them since Christmas. I shouldn't have worried about it one single bit because she is head over hills in love with her Papa. She loves Nana too, but she LOVES her Papa. She and her little cousin Little L are crazy about him. The minute Little L thinks Miss K is going to get near HIS Papa, he runs over to Papa and jumps in his lap. It's too funny.

So, today I picked up my nephews, Big L and Little L from "school" so that I could spend some time with them. I told Big L I would take them to Bounce USA. You know...one of those places that has all the jumpy things. Now, I was taking a chance here because we took Miss K to a place while we were on vacation in July and she screamed when you put her near one of those things. Well...not this time. My child was WILD. Running all over the place climbing and jumping. So, my parents show up and my dad jumps right in. I convince my step mom to join in as well. They had such a blast. Miss K can climb up the "stairs" to the slide all on her own. And much to my horror....she can even do the stairs of the one that the stairs are like a 90 degree angle. FREAKED ME OUT.

Now...here are why Grandparents Rocks. They jumped and climb and slid along with the kiddos. It was GREAT. We had a great time at the beach. I hired a photographer to come out and do a photo shoot on the beach with my family. What a BLAST!

I'll update on my vacation when we are finally done. Miss K and I leave for Michigan Saturday early afternoon. Lots going on. We will be moving back to Nashville in a little over two weeks! YEAH! I am so excited.

This morning....

the first thing Miss K said to me when she woke up was, "No go beach, Mommy." Does that give you any indication as to how our week at the beach went?

Happy Birthday Miss K!!!!

Two years ago....

Two years ago today I was a nervous wreck. It was a Sunday. I was having an early dinner with my husband, my parents and my inlaws knowing that the next day, our family of two was going to become a family of three. I was scared to death. I was not prepared. I didn't know the first thing about taking care of a newborn. And the pain. I was so afraid of the pain. I don't do pain at all. What was labor going to be like? Was Brian going to pass out when I got my epidural? But I was so ready to meet this amazing little creature that had taken over my body for almost 9 months. When I went to bed that night I was wondering...what would she look like? Would she have red hair? Is it really a girl? Because if it's a boy, we are so screwed! I was bordering on the brink of an anxiety attack, but my neverending morning sickness demanded all of my attention as it had for the past 38 weeks. And that night was the first night in about 34 weeks that I did not receive a shot in my tummy. So thankful that part of the whole pregnancy was over.

Monday morning at about 5:45 am we headed to Williamson Medical Center. I am not sure if I told Brian just how freaked out and scared I was about what was about to happen to me. As it turned out...the labor was pretty easy and uneventful until it came time for me to push. Then it all went down hill from there. In the end, I had a c-section and there she was. I don't recall a lot about the whole day, but I do remember being in that operating room and telling my doctor that if she didn't have red hair, she could just put her back. I heard all the nurses and the doctor laugh when the pulled her out and informed me she didn't have red hair. I remember holding my daughter for the first time and crying my eyes out. Crying that I now had this amazing little girl. Crying for the big brother that she was never going to meet. Crying because my entire family had been there to be apart of this little miracle. I cry alot...did you know that? I can cry at the drop of a hat.

So, tonight Brian and I put our little miracle to bed. I told her that when she woke up in the morning, she was going to be a big 2 year old. She didn't seem to care much about that. All she wanted to do was hug and kiss her mommy and daddy.

And because I need to start posting more photos, here is a photo of Miss K at Brian's parent's house. She had just spotted an airplane and had to point it out and make sure that we all knew that she saw it!

ETA: She started screaming about 20 minutes after we put her down. So not normal for her. Brian and I went in to check on her and I noticed our cat, Socks was in there. Miss K was holding her fingers in a funny position, so I think the cat might have tried to bite her. Brian brought her back into the living room and got her calmed down. He told her it was time to go back to bed and she needed to go get in her bed. She ran in her room and said, "bad kitty". Then she looked under her bed to make sure the cat wasn't in there. LOL...Brian and I couldn't stop laughing.

My daughter...

My daughter is a riot. All day yesterday she walked around asking me questions. I was putting trash under the sink....she knows it is there, but she asked me, "what's in there?" I told her trash. To which she responded, "trash". I am loving this age because she understands so much. I just can't seem to make her understand that it isn't okay to feed to dogs from the table. And no, she doesn't just feed them the "bad stuff".

A new word that she said yesterday was "muffin". But the way she says it is, "muffone". She must have said it a million times yesterday and was quite mad when I wouldn't let her eat a "muffone" whenever she asked for one. The first thing she did this morning when we got up was ask for milk and a muffone.

Miss K also has a new favorite toy. We had her birthday party last Thursday while we were in Nashville. My friend Tracie and her daughter came to the party and gave Miss K a LP Airplane. I am not sure if I have ever explained my child's obsession with planes. Buses too. So much so, that when I heard about the toddler and mom who were removed from a flight because the kid kept saying "bye-bye plane", I got concerned. Miss K will scream "It's a plane!" over and over again when she sees one. Just makes me nervous. It seems that people are less tolerant of toddlers than ever. I understand that there are some toddlers who are out of control, but for the most part...they are toddlers and sometimes they get a little excited. I am taking my portable DVD player and a stack of videos to keep her entertained. And I will make sure that I pick up a number of snack once we get through security. That will cost me $50.

Well...must run! Blog ya later.

Usborne Books

I'm having a book party. Check it out. Usborne books are awesome. We have a few. We recently got one of the puzzles and Miss K and I are loving it.
So, please check out my on line book party.

Hollye's Book Party

Today's the day...

We are having Miss K's birthday party today at Chuck E. Cheese's. I know..that place is nuts, be we are doing it on a weekday, so it shouldn't be too bad. Plus, with us living out of town, I didn't have time to get everything organized and my house cleaned up. Plus, I am probably spending a LOT less doing it this way! I just have to stop by and pick up the cake I ordered and we are off. I ordered one of those cupcake pull apart cakes. Much easier for little hands to deal with.

Here is one of the photos we had take yesterday of her.

I am off to find my CF card. I have no idea where it is and my friend Tracie agreed to take photos at the party for me so I could actually enjoy my child for an hour or so. Thanks Tracie!!!

Day 1 of Projects...completed

Well, we are back in Nashville. And let me tell you, we have a list a MILE long of things that need to be done this week. That doesn't include all the doctor appointments, dentist appointments, vet appointments, hair appointments, portraits, birthday party (MY BABY IS TURNING TWO!) and stuff we have to do. Today's list went something like this...

* Take Betty Boop to vet (she is having eye surgery on Monday.)
* Trip to Home Depot to pick up supplies for all the projects. (We actually made two trips to HD, one to Target and a slushie run to Sonic.)
* Take railing of front porch apart.
* Remove and rebuild one wooden column on front porch. (Yeah...shabby construction. They didn't use pressure treated wood, so it rotted.)

We actually got all of it done. Well, Brian did about 99% of it. I tried to help take the railing down, but I broke the drill bit off in one of the screws, so he made me start sanding the other columns since we will be painting later this week. Torromow's list is LONG too. Pressure washing the fence, the deck, the railing from the front forch, the front porch itself and the front porch swing. We own one pressure washer and will be borrowing the neighbor's so that we can get twice as much done. Thankfully my mom is coming over today to hang out with Miss K so that we can get some stuff done. She heard Brian's skill saw yesterday morning and attached herself to my neck for about 15 minutes.

I will post photos and a recap about our trip to Wisconsin soon. We had such a great time. You really don't realize just how much you miss your friends until you see them again.

Gotta run. Blog ya later!

Happy 4th!

Did you enjoy some smores today? We sure did!
On vacation still...will update more later!

We are off!!!

Two weeks vacation baby! I love it when Brian is off like this. We are off to visit some of our very favorite people....Mr. & Mrs. C. (Yeah...like from Happy Days.) We are WAY overdue for a visit with them. The last time we saw them was for breakfast after Christmas 2005. So, it wasn't a very long visit.

Okay...gotta jet. Need to pack the laptop, load the rest of the stuff, pick up Brian and hit the road!

Blog ya later!

Oh my...

I found this photo tonight when I was looking through my June photos. I need to lighten it up a bit, but wow....this kiddo is freaking adorable!!!!

So...we've got this parrot...

And it repeats EVERYTHING you say. Oh my. I've so got to watch my mouth. Twice in the past week, I've screwed something up and I've used the "S" word only to have it repeated right back to me. Oh joy.

Here's a funny Miss K story. Early last week we had gone to McD's for lunch. I was sitting on the sofa reading a book and she walks up and points at my cup and says, "It's a burger". (But sh used this funny Boston accent.) I looked at her like she had grown a second head. I looked at the cup, and sure enough, there was a drawing of a burger on the side of it. I laughed and laughed. So, she said it over and over again all day. Imagine my surprise when we drove past McD's and she says, "It's a burger!" Oh crud. No more McD's for us for awhile!

So, Friday we played this game...I would say a word to her and she would repeat it back to me. I even got her to say her name! I was so excited. She said it twice, but hasn't said it again. Then on Saturday I was chatting with a couple of the Amish girls who work for my mother-in-law and I told them that Kennedy was a mess....meaning she is wild and crazy. And I kid you not, the child shook her head in agreement and said, "a mess!" We all just busted out laughing!

The kitchen that we ordered for her birthday came in last week, so we went ahead and put it together and let her play with it. (This thing is HUGE!) We figured since we are going to be gone a lot this summer, we wanted her to get to play with it as much as she can. She LOVES it. She likes to cook for Mommy and Daddy quite a bit. I have to be careful with her because I've caught her hiding stuff in the cabinets. I gave her a piece of cheese at lunch and several hours later she goes in there and pulls it out to show me. Then right before she went to bed tonight, she came running in with a milk cup...from this morning! She had it hidden in that dang kitchen!

I mentioned that we are going on vacation soon. Brian is off for two weeks starting this Friday. Yeah! So, we are headed up to Wisconsin to stay with some friends for about 4 days. Brian's best friend and his wife. He and Brian use to work together in Arlington. Then we transferred to Nashville. Then they moved to Wisconsin. We have seen them since Christmas 2005, so we are really excited. They have two kiddos. One of them, who just happens to share my birthday, is 6 months older than Miss K, so I know she is going to have a blast. I am just worried about how my child is going to act. The Terrible Twos are in FULL effect. I just know that I am going to be embarrassed by how she acts. Some days she is a complete angel and other days she is possessed! I took this photo of her the other day when we went out for a walk. She stopped to smell the flowers I had potted on the back porch. After she smelled all of them, she had to make sure that Carmen smelled each and every one of them. She was in such a great mood and did great on our walk....then she turned into a lunatic and started stomping around in the landscraping and screaming. Then she started spinning in circles and finally threw herself down on the grass. It was 8am in the morning, so all the morning commuters going to work go to see her in all her glory. All because I wouldn't let her play in the street...in the traffic. I am such a mean mommy.

Okay...it's late and tomorrow is a day full of things to do to get ready for our 2 week vacation! Oh...after we are done with our visit in Wisconsin, we are headed back to Nashville to work on the house to get ready to move back home. And, we are going to celebrate Miss K's second birhtday while we are there. Fun, fun!

Ok...blog ya later!

My second layout.

I am sorta getting the hang of it. I've got ton of things to tell you all about Miss K, but it is late and I need to go to bed. Check back this weekend for new photos!

Oh my...I just ordered Miss K's halloween costume. It's a cute costume I've seen before, but I really like it and the price was too good to pass up!

Not to sure....

So, I am taking an online class in digital scrapbooking from Jessica Sprague. I am not sure how I am going to like this whole digital thing. It will be nice if I decide to make a gift for someone and I want to make more than one copy. Like gifts for the grandparents. Or maybe an album of our trip to the beach with my family. Which, by the way, I can NOT wait for! I am so excited! I get to see my parents, my brother, my SIL and their kiddos. And my best friend and her kids too.

Anyway...here is my first digital layout...

SWING!

We went to a wedding reception of a family friend last night. Miss K found the dance floor. Another little girl was being swung by her mom and Miss K is one of those "monkey see, monkey do" kind of kids. She she put her arms up for Brian to swing her. The look on her face the first time was pure horror. But when he put her down and she was walking around like she had just downed a pint of whiskey, she was ready to do it again. And again. And again. Get the picture? Oh...and Mommy had to swing too. Then we had to swing the monkey. I was so glad when we left. My arms were starting to hurt!

So, my parents have been living in Qatar since the beginning of the year. They are coming back to the states for a month in July/August. My dad mentioned maybe getting a beach house for a week. I was all for that. Well, my awesome sister in law jumped on it and went in search of the perfect beach house. One of my requirements was a pool. I know...goofy, but I am not a fan of the beach. I would have preferred a private pool, but we were a little late in making reservations. So, we found one that had a "communal" pool. So, it is ALMOST the perfect beach house. But, it is on the beach front and we can walk to the beach by going across this little bridge.I can not wait. I am so excited. I've been emailing my SIL, Jen about all the stuff we need to take/buy/cook/do...all that stuff. My parents LOVE to eat out, but we are going to have anywhere from 10-12 people in the house at all times, so eating out won't be all that fun. Added to the fact that we will have a 2 year old, a 21 month old and a 1 year old with us , might make dining out a lot less fun! I already went in search of a second bathing suit for myself and I am going to Old Navy this week to pick up one for Miss K. And I want to get some cute beach towels. I am going to have to plan carefully since K and I will be flying to Houston ALONE and I have to take luggage with clothes for both of us for two weeks, cloth diapers, car seat, stroller, camera bag...I am sure that there is stuff I am forgetting.

I just can not wait! We have a very busy summer ahead of us. Lots of traveling, but we will get a chance to see so many of our friends and family that we haven't seen in awhile. I am most looking forward to Miss K getting the chance to spend time with her cousins. I grew up living on the same street as one set of my cousins. We played together all the time. I hate that I don't have that for Miss K. I've recently mentioned moving back to Texas to Brian. Even though we would be 4 hours from family....it would be only 4 hours. And to be honest...I miss Texas. Everything about Texas...except the heat.

Okay...gotta run. I've got about 30 baby cards to make and a 2 page layout. Gotta get on that since we are flying to Nashville Wednesday.

blog ya later!

Yes, we are still alive!

Things are slowly getting back to normal in our household. We got home Monday evening from a short visit to Nashville. It was nice to be home. We got a few things done, but overall we just hung out. Brian and I were even able to go see a movie one night. Miss K stayed with her Meemee for the evening. I was a little nervous about it, but everything seemed to go okay.

So, while we were home we looked at houses again. Of course I found a floor plan that I really like. Then Brian tells me Monday night that we probably won't sell our house, but of the other houses in our neighborhood start selling for more, he might change his mind. Good gravy. Make up your mind man!

So, we are going back to Nashville in July for a week, so while we are home, we will be doing some repairs to the house. One of our columns out front has started to rot, so it needs to be replaced. Since we are doing that, we are going to remove all the railing, paint all the columns and pressure wash the rails. I told Brian that I want to change the color of the shutters and the front door. I am not sure he is up for all that in July. We shall see. Might also have a yard sale in July. It will be wicked hot, but I have so much CRAP that I need to get rid of.

Lots of stuff has been going on with Miss K. That kid is a chatterbox. She is saying so many words. She is at a point now where if you say a word to her, 8 times out of 10, she will repeat the word to you. She will point out things and say the word...bus, plane, duck, puppy, etc... She will tell you what she is doing. Like...I brush when she is brushing her teeth. She puts her cup and her plate up on the counter when she is done. It's too cute. And she understands directions and routines. Her "daily chore" is feeding the dogs. We've been having problems getting one of our dogs, Betty Boop, to eat, so Miss K has decided that only way to get her to eat is to feed her each piece of dog food by hand. Hey, it works and I can actually make dinner while she does this!She also understands what to do with a diaper when it is "poopy". She knows that I have to shake it out in the potty, throw the wipes in the garbage under the sink and then put the diaper in the pail. (In case you are wondering...we cloth diaper.) She has started drinking out of a big girl cup. I only let her have it with water because she tends to play with it. She likes to pour it out on the coffee table and then get a towel out and wipe it up. One of her favorite things to do involves her bath toys. I keep them in a plastic basket and in the linen closet. Every night while her bath is filling up, she will take the toys out and put them in the basket. Then when she is done with her bath, she puts them back in the basket. When you ask her if she is ready for a bath, she goes to the linen closet for the toys. It's just amazing all the stuff that she is doing. She is such a grown up little lady now. She is also a master at throwing a fit.

Okay...it is late, so I need to get to bed. The weather is suppose to be crappy this weekend, so we are going to try and spend as much time as we can outside tomorrow and Thursday. And Brian's birthday is this weekend, so I need to get my act together on the gift thingy. I'm so bad about that these days!

Blog ya later!

A family of three...

It seems that a family of 3 is what the Cross family was meant to be. Mother's Day started with me in the ER of a small town hospital. Having gone through a miscarriage before, I thought I knew what to expect, but this was totally different. It was like I actually went into labor. Thankfully I was blessed with an awesome ER nurse who understood I was in very intense pain and an ER doctor who was right on top of giving me something for the pain. I am still in a bit of shock. I was actually starting to get use to the idea of having a second child. Brian and I were talking about names, potty training Miss K, moving Miss K to her big girl bed so that we would have a baby bed, possibily moving before the baby was born....just a bunch of different things you plan before you have a baby. Now...we are just trying to decide on where we go from here. But we do know that we can not go through all of this again. I can not physically or mentally go through losing another baby again.

So, Miss K and I are staying with my in laws for the week so that I can heal and have someone help me with her. I've been having a hard time picking her up. She is not a little girl. She and I are spending some time playing on the swing set her grandparents bought her, drawing on the sidewalk with chalk, counting, singing Wiggle songs....I am just enjoying my daughter.

No photos. I've taken some, not a lot, but I've taken them. My inlaws still have dial up, so I can't upload any photos. They are getting cable internet tomorrow, so maybe I will get to upload some later this week.

Okay...I am headed to bed. Blog ya later.

ARG!

What's worse than being pregnant and having MAJOR morning sickness? Being pregnant with major morning sickness and having a REALLY bad cold! I think I am DYING!

ETA: Add a sick toddler to that too. At least she puked on her dad and not me.

Ready to share....

First of all...I want to say that I am sorry for anyone who thought I was very sick. To the person who thought I might have cancer...I am so sorry. Nothing that bad.

First of all...let me say that Brian and I have had a plan for our family. Miss K was a blessing to us. But, because of all the problems that I had with my first pregnancy, everything that went on with Miss K, and the recommendation of the oncologist, we decided that Miss K was enough for us. Well....God has other plans. So, the Cross family will be adding a 4th member in November. I am a nervous wreck who has been SICK for weeks. Taking care of Miss K has become somewhat of a challenge for me. I know that women have babies everyday. I just don't do it well or gracefully. It will take me a little while to get use to the whole idea of having another baby.

So, that is what is going on with us. I have a cold, so I am off.

Blog ya later.

New words everyday

The past couple of weeks have been big at our house. Miss K seems to learn a new word everyday. Now, she doesn't continually use the word, but it seems she will say it a couple of times and then not use it again for a couple of days. Saturday...all day it was 'baby' and 'puppy'. She has said each of those words before, but like I said, she said them once and then they went away. But when they come back, they come back BIG. Today's new word is APPLE. Let me tell you....this kid LOVES apples. One night Brian was eating a Granny Smith apple. Miss K walked over to him, took it and started eating it. We were shocked because the apple wasn't sliced. It was still on the core and everything. So, a couple of days later she and I were at Panaera having lunch with her gymnastic friends and she grabs the apple off the tray and started biting into it. She ate half of the apple like that! Everyone was laughing because she was going crazy with it. Today I was getting her lunch ready and she went over to the fridge, opened it up and took the apple out and started saying, "apple". She is constantly saying "oh boy!" and "oh gosh". Can I tell you I LOVE this stage. Except...can someone explain to me while my child throws herself on the floor in a tantrum every 10 minutes or so? And we won't even go into her great escape yesterday. She has learned to open the sliding door. She and the dogs made a break for it yesterday. Thankfully my new neighbor Amy saw them all outside. Seriously took 10 years off my life. Remember...I l ive next to a pond.

We are leaving Friday afternoon to head to Nashville. We will be there for a week! So, I hope I get a chance to see a lot of my friends while I am there. I've got a LOT of organizing to do while I am there. I've got to get Miss K's clothes sorted and stored. Right now they are just in a HUGE pile in her room. And I've got BOXES of scrapbook supplies that I need to get rid of. I think I will have one day where I will let people come over and look at stuff and then the rest of it will be DONATED. We are talking 3-5 large moving boxes. I think one box is full of nothing but pattern paper. And my husband helped me box it all up and never said a word about all the stuff I was getting rid of.

Well...I hear my child waking up from her nap. Blog ya later!

Long time no blog....

I know. I said I was going to be better about it, but things happen. Our family is dealing with some stuff right now so we are in need of some prayers. I am not ready to share just yet, but trust me...when you pray, God knows exactly what you are praying for because I pray about 10 times a day.

We spent 19 hours Wednesday/Thursday without any power. That really stunk because it was cold. Miss K and I spent most of the day away from home staying warm at places like McD's, Tuesday Morning and our favorite cookie bakery that has great sugar cookies. I think I actually did a happy dance when the power came back on at exactly 1:41 pm yesterday.

Brian's parents are coming to visit us this weekend. I am looking forward to that. I love my in laws and they are so great with Miss K. I am hoping to get some time to work on my scrapbook room while they are here.

Here is a photo of Miss K from Easter Sunday. We had lunch at a friend's house. She was wearing this cute outfit. Imagine my surprise when my friend opened the door and her daughter was wearing the same exact outfit in pink!

I am crazy....

Brian and I have both given up all Coke products...regular and diet. What in the world was I thinking?????

Have you ever told someone a HUGE secret and made them PROMISE not to say anything to anyone? I did that to someone yesterday. You know who you are....I'm sorry. You know I love you.

Prayers Please

This is photo from March of 2006. This is K's birthday buddy. This beautiful little boy passed away this afternoon. His parents put him down for a nap and he never woke up. Please pray for his parents. They are living every parent's worse nightmare. Hug your children tight.

Busy little bee

So, Miss K's personal library keeps growing. I found a bookshelf at Staples for $15. It fit perfect in her closet. So, Brian put it together last night. I decided to go ahead and get it in her closet and the books on it before we left for the weekend. Here is how it looks...

And here is how it looked 1 minute later...

Oh well. I am sure I am going to spend the rest of my life picking up after her.

Anyway...we are off to spend the weekend with my inlaws. This starts the week of our crazy traveling over the next month. We leave Thursday to drive to Nashville for Easter. Brian drives back on Tuesday and Kennedy and I fly back on Friday. Then we head straight to Brian's parents house again for the weekend. Then we are back in our apartment for 4 days and then back to Nashville for another week while Brian is in a workshop. Speaking of Brian and work....today is the last day that the plant in Spring Hill is operating. It will shut down today and they will start the teardown of the equipment to retool the plant for a new product. I have no idea when the plant will reopen. I think it will be at least a year.

Well...my child is crying. I am sure that she is tired. Doesn't help that she woke up this morning at 4ish. I woke up to her counting...1, 2, 3! She was WIDE awake and ready to play. Mommy. Not so much.

Blog ya later!

Good news and bad news

The good news is...my email is working again and I didn't lose anything. Yeah! The bad news...my cleaning people came LATE today. They usually come about 10:30. So, I scheduled Maxie and Betty Boop grooming appointments. Miss K and I headed to Hobby Lobby. It's a bit of a drive, but this week was a good sale. We get home about 1:45 and the cleaning people never showed up! Bummer! So I called the scheduler and she tells me that they don't guarentee a time, just a day. 2:59pm...5 minutes after I put Miss K down for a nap, they show up. CRUD! I only get the service every other week and I missed the last service becasue K wasn't feeling well and I didn't want to have to leave. So, they are going to try and reschedule for next week. Know what that means? I gotta clean. I have to scrub the toilets, showers and floors. Those are the things I totally dislike doing. I'm bummed. Bummed.

No photos. CF card is still missing in action. I have no idea where it could be. Luckily, I downloaded everything before I "lost" it. Gonna have to find it before we leave for Easter. Or buy a new one. Bummer. More $$ that I don't have.

Blog ya later.

Disaster

My email is gone. All my addresses are gone. All my stuff is GONE. Guess tomorrow Comcast is going to start rebuilding my email. I am bummed. I've lost email addresses of people I don't know how to get in touch with.

$100 Store, Baby Dreams, and Geese VS. Ducks

Do you ever go into the $1 Store to grab a few cheap things and walk out of there with you bank account $20 lighter? I always get suckered in at the $1 Store. Worst than the $1 Store is what I lovingly refer to as the $100 Store AKA Costco. Note to Hollye....you can not grocery shop at Costco for a family of 3! I mean, you can if you don't want to shop again for months. I mean...how long will it take us to eat 96 slices of cheese? I love Costco though. I get 90% of my photo printing done there. I also love their baby wipes. When Miss K was an infant, we used their formula. We love their muffins also. I buy them, we eat on them for a couple of days and then freeze the rest of them. The muffins are huge. Miss K and I share one for breakfast and Brian has one on the way to work in the mornings. One thing you can not beat at Costco is the snack bar. I mean seriously. You can eat there CHEAP. A hot dog and a coke for $1.50. And the hot dog is HUGE. I can't eat it all. Slice of pizza...$1.99. This HUGE chicken ceasar salad that can feed 2 people is $3.29. K and I had lunch there for $5.61 yesterday and we had about 2/3 of a hot dog left and 1/2 a salad. I was going to grab 2 more salads for dinner last night, but the line was long and the kid was grumpy. (My child is in a permnanat state of grumpy.)

So, K has not been sleeping well since oh...Thanksgiving. She wakes up in the middle of the night about 4 times a week and the only way she will go back to sleep is if she is in our bed. For those of you who really know me, you know how I feel about the whole kids sleeping with parents issue. Anyway...apparently she woke up this morning around 4. Brian brought her into our bed. She is dead alseep and all of a sudden it starts.....she's talking. Then she is laughing. The she starts singing. The tune was the ABC's, but she only knows the first 5 letters. I ws trying so hard not to laugh, but it was hard. Five minutes later Brian's alarm went off and she shot up like a rocket. So, our day started early.

Our apartment is situated infront of a pond. Up until last week, it was frozen. Monday afternoon, the ducks showed up. Tuesday the geese showed up. I heard them WAY before I saw them. They show up about 7 and honk so that everyone knows they have arrived. So, K and I have been watching them from our living room window. She screams when she sees them. Yesterday she was sitting on the coffee table while I was reading a book to her. All of a sudden she starts say 'hi' and waving. I notice a mom and her son outside feeding the ducks and geese. Duh....why didn't I think of that? K heard the word 'outside' and she was ready. We grabbed so old hamburger buns and went out to feed the fowl. I tried to engage the other mom in conversation, but she wasn't friendly at all. Oh well. I tried. Anyway...we were feeding the fowl. Well, we tried to feed them all. The geese kept honning in on the duck's territory, so the ducks hardly got anything. I felt bad for them. So, this afternoon the geese had gone and just the 2 ducks were out there. We grabbed our hot dog buns and went to feed them. The dang geese showed back up. Oh well. The ducks did get some, but they were diving for bugs I assumed and one of them came up with a frog in his mouth. K screamed. I was kinda startled. Do ducks eat frogs? He dropped the frog into the water, but picked it up again. I grabbed K and we headed toward the house. Bad frog eating duck.

Okay...no photos because I have LOST my CF card! Gotta find it tonight because we are headed to Canada tomorrow. Just to say we have been there. Plus...I wanna go to Hobby Lobby again! HA!

Blog ya later!