38 to go

I made it! I made it through the first FULL day with the kiddos. I truly love being back and working with the kids. Including the one who looked at me today and said "hmmm what are you 26?" me: "ummm no but close." him: "27?". Why he felt the need to add instead of take away a year was beyond me but I reluctantly informed him that yes I was 27. Besides being called out on my increasing age and having a splitting headache all day, that would not go away with any amount of ibprohen or a trip to the nurses office, I had a relatively ok day.

However, I realized today around 10 am no matter how much I love and enjoying working with the kiddos, my heart will ALWAYS be home with Ella. I WANT to be the one reading stories and rocking before nap. I want to have random picnic lunches and make drawings and play kitchen games. I even want to be yelled at and told "no I do" 100 times a day. Full time is not for me but that is ok because I now know that and I can make it through until June 18th after all it is just 38 more school days!!!

And so let the count down begin :0)

PS and oh my goal is to find my camera cord and upload some pictures so hold me to a picture blog for Thursday!

The dreaded Monday...

Last night was more difficult than I thought. I did not sleep for thoughts of work and what I would wear were running rapid through my head. I have this amazing problem of being 20 pounds under my pre-pregnancy weight. Therefore, none of my "work clothes" fit. After all I have been wearing jeans and cute casual tops for the last 16 months and have had no need for these clothes thrown in the back of the closet

Clothes aside I was having serious anxiety about missing out on Ella's day. What new thing was she going to discover in her playing. Today it was the color "pink" so now she can identify both pink and blue. She is such a smart little cookie. Drop off was harder than I thought and judging by the way my make-up looked when I arrived at work the tears were more plentiful than I though as well.

However, it was a good start to the week when I arrived to learn the entire third grade was going on a field trip and I would be left behind to plan and get reacquainted with the schedule. It was also wonderful to be greeted back by such a warm staff, who also could not believe that Ella was already 16 months old. I really have missed the ladies I used to work with. Oh and the topper on my day was leaving at noon to go have lunch with Ella and pick her up early. We spent the afternoon playing "babies" and play doh and taking a nice long walk in the sunshine. I have to say that I think I am glad this is only for 8 weeks as of today I think that being a mom is so important to me that I am probably going to choose the good old SAHM gig when all is said and done :0)

In other news, I previously mentioned how my new nieghbors were using our yard. Well the reason is that they are fixing up the dump next door. We are so excited for the overhaul of the house, which probably should have been condemed. I came home today to see that the steps have been taken. The back half of the house has now been torn off and disposed off. Progress!!! It already looks so much better. Who knows maybe with the increase to our property value we can think about selling finally!

What a Saturday

Oh my so where to even begin?

Today started like any other Saturday, up and at em bright and early to hit the gym. The gym where yes we pay a pretty high fee to be members (Derrick and I like to joke about being Brad and Angelina minus the 12 kids and of course for me the awesome body) Anyway the gym has a kick boxing class the likes to kick my butt on Saturday mornings and the sore body is an excellent price to pay to get me out of bed early. We drop Ella of and hit the gym (Thanks Kelly by the way for taking her on Saturdays!) We leave both feeling bruised and battered and GREAT. I am getting closer to my goal which is to be the skinniest I have ever been and totally rock the bride's maids dress in July (a completely different story to blog about on another day).

Anyway so today the sun was shining the weather was a pleasant 70 degrees and our yard needs some major attention. This is where our normal Saturday turns out not so normal. We arrive home after talking the whole way on ways to beautify the yard. We have no clue what to do but we both know that the "hill" needs some major overhauling. we bring out the tools and begin.

Now both of us are mediocre landscapers (because yes Derrick insists we were landscaping NOT gardening) and have no clue what is what and just start hacking things out of the unruly hill that is threatening to overtake the side yard along with the street. It is going well and Derrick decided that an ax is just what we need to get the job done. Well the problem was the ax wasn't on a handle. No problem right? Just put it back on and get to work. Except in the process of that the ax head slips and lands on Derrick's knee causing a shallow yet pretty open (gapping?) cut. As I was chasing Ella around trying to force some sort of food down (an eating strike is again in process) I hear: "You need to take me to the hospital" Ummm what are you serious? No he can't be until I look and yep indeed a trip is in order. This is where the fun starts.

I run in and get a cloth to keep over the cut, load Ella in the car, find Derrick's wallet and my phone and head out to the walk in clinic that is open for only the next 20 minutes. We pull in and make it before they close. We wait 45 minutes only to be told yep in fact you do need stitches (no really?) but I can't do them so you have to go to the ER. Ummm ok now drop Ella off again at Kelly's (thanks!) and head over only to get there and realize that my scattered brain (which also forgot to fill out and hand in the papers needed to start work on Monday and random other important stuff that NEEDED to be done yesterday of course!) had forgot to take either one of our wallets out of the diaper bag which was 25 minutes away with Ella. That's ok the ER lady said I can call later with the insurance info, great I do need to be on the phone for hours tomorrow or better yet Monday my first day back getting this taken care of.

We wait in the ER waiting room where people around us have the worst diseases being spread by their constant hacking and unruly kids who probably do NOT need to be there but there is nothing better for their pajamma wearing mothers to do with them but watch free Nick Jr. Just when I thought I couldn't handle it anymore we are called back by the nurse with the WORST demeaning attitude I have ever encountered. I can barely control my tongue until she finally leaves us for the doctor to come in. The doctor by the way was quite the character. I am not sure why but every staff memeber walking by kept asking "Bob do you have everything ok?" ummmm it made me wonder what "Bob" had done to make everyone feel like they need to check in on him. 5 stiches later Derrick is hassled by the male nurse who informs him that he almost lost a vital organ had the ax slipped any further up and a lady who couldn't keep her thoughts on track trying to discuss Derrick's discharge instructions, we finally make it out only to almost have to go back when Ella feel down the front steps and landed on her face at the bottom...

Oh and did I mention that I am still wearing my gym clothes and have yet to get a chance to shower? And poor Derrick who is also in gym clothes but was told he couldn't shower for 24 hours who at this moment is trying to figure out a way to keep one leg out of the shower...

Oh and by the way 6 hours ago I had way more funny one liners about the ER characters (or at least I think they were) but now all I want is a glass of wine, a shower and a good show to help get my scattered brain back in working order. Afterall I am a working girl again come Monday!

I am WHAT?!?!

OK I am going back to work...There I uttered the words so therefore they must be true. I am in my last week home as a beloved stay at home mom. Why? I have asked myself this a billion times since I said yes to the position a week ago. My dream since college was that my soul career would be mommy to my little peanut since the minute she was born. Derrick and I had talked about it and we both agreed. I was the best one to take care of L. We did not want daycare and I would be in pure bliss watching every little accomplishment and seeing her face light up as she figured things out. Well now my little peanut is approaching 17 months and 22 pounds so she is not so little anymore. She has been walking since 8 months, running since 12, climbing and drawing. Her vocabulary is so large I lost count and its somewhere around 100 words. She uses sentences to communicate with me now. My new favorite one is when she works so hard on a drawing and I tell her it is beautiful (of course anything those precious little hands touches is beautiful) she says "thank you mum" "I draw Dad Dad" Yep all her masterpieces go to her beloved Dad Dad.

Oh sorry I got distracted bragging there for a second, sometimes I just need to because I am so full of love for that little sassafrass that I feel like I might explode. Anyway why? Well I need to rediscover me. I need to feel like I am making a difference and being appreciated. After all the job I am going to is my old job. The one I had before Ella was here. The one where I can walk down the hall and there are screams of "it's Mrs. Brown" "Hi Mrs Brown" It is seriously like having rockstar status. I will be getting up and dressed with make-up on and having lunch for a full 20 minutes instead of bites here and there. I know that the minute I walk in the door I will probably wish I were at home in my sweats sitting on the floor reading with Ella but I need to do this for myself. In order to appreicate the things I have. I know that I am so lucky that my husband takes care of us and I can choose to work or not. I know that I have a special little girl that anyone would want to spend the day with. (who is the lucky one who gets that ball of fire: Grandmama of course) But starting next Monday for the next 8 weeks I will be *gasp* a "working mom"

When it is all said and done I am almost postive it will just reinforce the fact that I have my dream job right now but the grass is always greener right?

Mother's Day giveaway :0)

Ok so I sort of already know what I am getting for Mother's Day... After all I found the Vintage Pearl through a blog and immediately called my husband up from working on saving our flooding basement. (He thought there was an emergency and was a little tiny bit upset to find out no no emergency just an urgency of an online shopper) Well a package came in the mail the other day and I KNOW its from the Vintage Pearl. I do not know which necklace he picked but it doesn't matter I fell in love with all of them. I am pretty excited and as I was procrastinating on laundry and floors today while Ella naps I stumbled across a giveaway from the Vintage Pearl themselves so GO CHECK IT OUT!!!! Here is the link to the blog: http://thevintagepearl.blogspot.com/ I hope I win I would wear their work everyday! Actually I plan on it anyway with my one necklace waiting all the way until May to see which one!

pondering

The ponderings (not sure that is even a word?!) in our house are sooo different. Ella will think over what kind of trouble she can get into. How to get her clothes off and run around in just a diaper and rainboots. Or how dirty she has to get before Mommy will let her take a bath in the middle of the day just so she can play in the tub with her baby for an hour. The other day for example she painted her hair with yogurt at breakfast knowing that a tub would be sure to follow. She of course was thrilled to be splashing in the water...



Her newest way to show that she is thinking is to say the word "ummm" followed by a long pause when you ask her a question. Last night she said she wanted to "eat eat" and when asked "What do you want to eat?" She replied, "ummmm, a pop" followed quickly by "pease" since she knows we are suckers for when she is being super cute and of course she got her pop! :0)

Derrick on the other hand is always thinking like an engineer. He can fix anything that seems impossible within 20 minutes because well he has thought about it breaking before. Or we go on a walk and while Ella and I are enjoying the flowers and trees and talking about the horses we will see "neigh", Derrick will randomly say things like, "Do you know how much power is running above us in those lines right now. Or do you know the strength of that telephone pole. I usually learn at least one new random fact on every after dinner 3 mile walk. Some nights I actually end up learning a whole lot which then will change my way of thinking for life. (For example I now will not use my phone up to my ear if it has a signal strength of less than four bars)

My thoughts? Well we already went over this. They are RANDOM to say the least. At any given time I could be thinking about Ella, Derrick, the approaching wedding of my sister, trying to fit into my dress, going back to work, thinking about if or when I should give Ella a sibling, what is for dinner, how to save $, what needs to be done, when the last time I showered was (speaking of which I am about to go head in and shower now...lol) Oh and by the way I just figured out how to load pictures to the blog...I have been thinking about that for days :0)

Overall all these different thoughts makes for one interesting house and through it all the poor dog is just thinking someone would remember to feed him...

completely random

I have to admit, I am not much of a writer. In college I was constantly being corrected and marked down for my terribly long run-ons. I can also be a bit random. My thoughts are scrambled and fast and I never know what I want to write. I started this blog as a way to de-stress. Or at least I think that is why I started it. I thought hmmmm no one will read this anyway, should probably just go ahead and post whatever I am thinking or post good things in life so I can remember to be thankful. (I have SO much to be thankful for I really truly do!) Then I decided maybe to be less random I should journal before I blog and then take parts of my journal and write about them. Well I guess that kind of defeats the purpose right? Afterall in my life I need to spontaneous it is who I am. In fact I sat down to check my email before I got started on laundry and found myself here trying to come up with something whitty to say. (was the a run-on?!) So yep the journal is bought sitting next to my bed waiting for me to write in it with my new pink pen. But instead I sat in bed trying to figure out my new phone.

I am so slow in technology. I know most people are now rocking their Iphones and they have an app for that. But I just got my hands on a Blackberry Curve and so far not good! I can't even figure out how to check my voice mail so if you have called me and I have not returned your call its because I do not know how! I think I need to get a tutor so I can use my phone soon.

Oh and one more random thought for the day. (Since I also just remembered I am supposed to be checking out shoe options for my sister who is getting married in July) I love my dork of a husband. I love how he can make me laugh and make fun of himself so easily. We went out with some old high school friends the other night since we found ourselves without a child (thanks to Grandmama and Papa) and a DD. Derrick recognized in the beginnning of the night that letting us out of the house with no responsiblity of how we were goign to get home was probably going to land us in some trouble. And yep I think we forgot we weren't in college anymore. We stumbled home around 3:30 in the morning and I made it upstairs but Derrick never did. And with good old Facebook we found the pictures that surfaced from our night of thinking we were young again. I have to say there is one of my wonderful husband that makes me laugh hysterically for hours if I happen to catch a glimpse of it! He recognizes that he does look ridiculous and this is one of the things I love about him. He is not embarrased or insecure about the picture at all. I love how he accepts this is not a good picture but it doesn't matter to him because it represents a good time.

HaPpY EaStEr!

Celebrated the most amazing Easter today! It started last night when I got to play the Easter Bunny. I never knew it would be so much fun stuffing eggs with jelly beans and placing them around the house. Setting up Ella's new tricycle and basket in just the perfect spot so she would see them first thing in the morning was a blast! I went to bed feeling happy and content at midnight, thinking I could not wait to see my daughter's face in the morning when she spotted the loot for the first time. Little did I know that at 2am she would wake up screaming for "mum" and "juice" and "paci" with a temp of 103.2 :( Her fever broke around 6am and she snoozed finally until 7.

Despite the night we had and the two hours of sleep I had Easter morning was not a let down. A big "wow" and squeals of delight were music to my ears and all the caffeine I needed in order to wake up for the day. Her little mini egg hunt was so cute (when I get a chance to upload the video I will be sure to post it!) and she insisted on jelly beans for breakfast. Hey who am I to argue with the cute little smiley face?! (Yes, I know that her dinner the other night also consisted of sherbet and whip cream. I will be accepting my mom of the year award next Sunday if anyone cares to attend).

Our morning continued with church, where Ella was the perfect little angel sitting on her Daddy's lap the whole 1.5 hours of service without a peep. Well she did say "boo" when her Auntie opened her eyes from prayer but her she is 16 months she has not yet figured out all the etiquette rules :0) We had a fabulous visit with my grandparents and then made our way to my parents house where Ella had some more egg hunting fun. We pulled into the driveway to find the bubble machine going and bubbles floating everywhere. The walkway was littered with yet more colorful eggs and stuffed bunnies and at the end was a basket filled with lots of good stuff. Grandmama and Papa went a little Easter crazy :0) Ella ran around shaking the eggs only taking the ones that had a rattle since she knew those were the eggs that contained the beloved jelly beans. (again I will post pictures once my mom sends me them since believe it or not I forgot my camera!) Dinner was fantastic and gave us just enough energy to then have the "big" kid egg hunt. I have to admit this year I plan old stunk and found a whopping two eggs! But Derrick made up for my lacking and came up with the converted "special" egg! After all the excitement we packed up the car and drove to our next stop Nana and Grampy's house!

We had another fabulous dinner and got to spend time with Owen and the twins. Nana spoiled all the kids with trips to the "spa" and then sent them all home clean and warm in their new CUTE jammies! When Ella wakes up in the morning I will have to get a picture of her wearing her new pink elephant jammies since they are the cutest things I have ever seen! Thanks Nana :0)

Now Derrick and I are going to finish up some of the downstairs bathroom project and hit the hay. This is going to be one VERY busy week!

Happy Brithday :0)

Today is my wonderful husbands birthday! Ella and I spent the morning making a birthday card. (With a pen because that is what she wanted to use) and ordering a fishing/hunting license to surprise Derrick with tonight when he opens his new wallet. I hope he appreciates his new wallet. He has had the same wallet since we first started dating 10 years ago. It is stretched out and falling apart and still has my parent's number carved into the inside from when he used to call me in high school. I am not sure a new wallet will be a hit at first but it is needed badly!

I am also thinking of trying my hand at another cake. Last weekends cake went over so well. It was the yummiest cake I have ever made and so super easy! I should have taken a picture but at the time totally forgot since of course we were running late to the dinner party.

Oh well maybe I will just buy a cake today since it is so beautiful outside and Ella and I want to play at the park and then go feed the turtles in the pond. Hmmmm maybe that's what I am going to do after all I am so not Debbie the homemaker :0)

lucky day?

To most people who viewed my day they were probably say luck wasn't with me today. However, I say heck yeah I am so lucky. The sun is out and finally shining after days and days of record rainfall that almost put our furnace under. I woke up next to the love of my life who went off to work so I could stay home and build forts and blow bubbles with my one year old. AND the leaves and flowers are growing! To top it all off on the drive home from the gym last night the peepers were peeping and I have concluded spring is HERE!

Today was also the start of my blog. I am not sure how it is going to go or in what direction I will find myself taking but I am excited to get my thoughts and ideas down. I think that being able to write (although I need some serious practice) is going to be a huge eye opener in just how lucky I am and how happy I should be!