Yes, STILL

Last week, I talked about some changes I wanted to make in my home life. Well, its been a week since I wrote that, and I can happily say I am well on my way to making those changes! Not all of them, mind you. But hey, you gotta start somewhere, right?

Every morning now, while I'm eating my peanut butter toast, I've been doing a Bible study instead of scrolling through facebook. (Well, technically, I do both. My Bible study only takes a few minutes. I don't rush it, but when I'm done, then I allow myself to check facebook/instagram.) I'm reading through a study called "The Excellent Wife Day By Day." I think that's the title. I've blogged about it before. I really like it. I actually started it earlier this year, but forgot about it, so I just picked up where I left off a few months ago.

I've been a LOT better about not using my "technology" once I'm home with C. "Technology" meaning the iPad (unless I need to look up a recipe). Once I consciously decided to stop looking at it so much, it wasn't too hard to enforce the new rule. When I get home, I turn the iPad to silent, so I don't hear when I get new e-mails or facebook messages. It goes on the shelf next to my rocking chair, and I don't touch it until I sit down to rock C. During the week, this rule hasn't proven to be very hard for me to follow, but it was tougher on the weekend, for some reason. I found myself picking up the iPad several times over the weekend when I could have been doing something more productive. But, I was better than I normally am, so that's something!

So far, I haven't been able to get back into meal planning yet. DH knows I want to do it, and I say every day that I'm gonna start. I haven't quite found the time to start yet, though. Hopefully tonight. Actually, I fully intended to make a meal plan on Sunday night. I went to the grocery store and got a bunch of good staples like chicken. But C has been pretty sick - more on that in a minute - so that's been preventing me from doing anything "extra" these past few days. Hopefully tonight I can complete at least Phase 1 of meal planning - making a list of everything that's in the freezer, fridge, and pantry so I can begin to formulate meals based on what we have. That's how I started last time, and it really worked. Then, once I use up what we already have, I can make plans and shop based on that.

Budgeting hasn't happened yet, either, for the same reasons listed above. I'm not stressing about it, though. I'll get to it eventually.

So here's the real purpose of this post. I said that C has been pretty sick. Well, she actually has pneumonia. Thankfully, we caught it before it became too serious. Her and I have both been sick with sinus infections for several weeks now.  Both of us were on antibiotics. The drugs didn't help me much, and 4 weeks later I am still congested. C got better, but then last week started to get worse again. I just assumed her sinus infection hadn't been cleared up, and maybe she needed another antibiotic. She was acting just fine, so I decided to wait a few more days and see if she got over it on her own.

Saturday, she seemed pretty tired and cranky off and on, but that's not too unusual for her on the weekends, so I didn't think much of it. Sunday morning, she was acting like herself, and she had a good time in her Sunday School class. During church, she started feeling bad, and wanted me to hold her, which is highly unusual for my child. After her nap, she seemed much better, so we played outside for a few hours. But that afternoon, she started coughing more and more, and by that night she was coughing almost nonstop. I still figured it was just allergies/sinus infection. As the night wore on, she felt worse and worse. We did everything we could to stop her coughing and make her feel better, but nothing helped. Finally, she fell asleep while I was rocking her. I noticed she was breathing very rapidly, but I didn't know what to think about it..

Yesterday morning, I took C to the walk in clinic at her pediatrician. She got a breathing treatment because her lungs sounded "junky." After that, the doctor made the diagnosis - pneumonia! She said it was because her sinus infection didn't clear up. So I was partly right. We left with a prescription for another antibiotic and an inhaler. She's already doing much better than she was, though my mother-in-law says she's not eating today and is laying around more than usual. Hopefully it won't take her long to get back to normal.

But during this time of her being so sick and not wanting to eat much, I am so thankful that she is still breastfeeding. Yes, she will be 3 years old next month (woah!) and she still breastfeeds. And I'm not ashamed of it. I don't flaunt it. I don't make a point to tell everyone I know. Mainly because most people just don't get it and think its gross. Its not gross to me. Its just natural. C hasn't shown any signs of being ready to wean, and I haven't felt the need to make her. If it ain't broke, why fix it, right? I plan to post more about breastfeeding soon, but for now I'm just thankful for it. Because even when she's not eating, I can still know that at least she's getting nutrients from my breast milk, and she's getting awesome immune system-building stuff (technical, huh?). She's been asking for milk a little more than usual the past few days, and I've just been going with it. If it makes her feel better, and provides her with some nutrition, why not?

Fall Changes

Ah, life. I feel like I'm so busy all the time, but when I look back and try to write about what's been going on that's had me so busy, I come up empty-handed. What have I been doing with myself?? I've come to the conclusion that just life in general is busy and crazy. Even when I don't have events going on. And that's okay. Its my life, and I love it. ( :

Not all the time, of course. Well, maybe I shouldn't say that, exactly. Its not that I have true moments when I just hate my life. Hate certain situations, yes. Either way you look at it, I'm not happy-go-lucky all the time. My glass is not always half full.

I'm on the quest to find a new blog to follow. I know, I know, I need another blog to read like I need another hole in my head. But this blog I'm looking for will be different. All of the blogs I follow are written by stay-at-home-moms. And I love that. For them. I'm truly happy that these women can be with their kids every day. And I love that they have enough time to blog so people like me can read and learn from them.

But its hard to relate to SAHMs. And I feel like maybe they can't really relate to women like me, who have to work full-time and still figure out how to manage a family. I would love to be able to stay home with my daughter (and any future kids we may be blessed with), and I would love to eventually homeschool her, but right now that's not a possibility. No, I'm not giving up my dream of doing just that. Maybe one day it'll happen. But its time to stop daydreaming and start living in the here and now.

I'll still follow my beloved blogs by the SAHMs - they are good inspiration for me, and I truly love reading their stuff. I just want to find a good blogger who is a working mama. There's got to be some of us out there, right? Or are we all just too busy to do it all and blog about it? Cause I know that's my problem. I struggle with keeping up with all my normal, every day stuff - throwing a blog into the mix is almost impossible. Which is why this baby doesn't get updated daily. Or even weekly sometimes.

I want to read about someone else who is struggling like I am. Struggling with having to be away from home 50+ hours a week and not having enough time after work to get things done that need to be done. Struggling with the fact that I leave my child every day to be raised by someone else. Struggling with the fact that I miss out on so many moments with her, and that I missed so many of her firsts. Struggling with coming home and trying to be the wife God has called me to be, and the mother He has called me to be, all while being exhausted from working all day. Struggling to cook good meals for my family when I am home just a few waking hours every day. Struggling with wanting to spend time with my daughter after work, but needing to wash clothes and cook supper, etc.

Don't get me wrong, I know SAHMs struggle, too. I know they're busy. I know that. I know when you're home all day with a toddler or a baby its hard to get stuff done, and I know how an entire day can go by without you realizing it. But its still a different struggle. Cause us working moms have to deal with all that, plus our mommy-guilt over not being with our kids all day. At least, I do. Every day, it kills me to leave C with her grandma. Even though I know my MIL is doing an excellent job with her, and C is shaping up to be a nicely mannered girl.

So when I get home at 5:45 with her, I want to just drop everything and play with her, make memories with her, do stuff with her. Instead, I have time to take just a few minutes to talk with her, maybe read a quick story, then I have to rush around and start supper, do laundry, what have you. Otherwise, I'll spend my entire Saturday doing nothing but cleaning. As it is, I spend at least 1-2 hours on Saturdays just cleaning. And I feel guilty for doing that, cause Saturdays are supposed to be our days together. Guilt is so powerful.

Sure, C helps me around the house. She likes to "help" in the kitchen when I cook - but not all the time. She likes to help get clothes out of the dryer, or put them in. She likes to help hang wet clothes on the drying rack. She likes to "sweep" with her little broom while I sweep the house. So we're spending time together, and I have to remind myself that that's what's important. It doesn't really matter what we're doing. And I know that having her help me do housework is good for her.

But some nights I lay her in her bed and think wow, we didn't do anything fun tonight. We just worked. And it makes me sad.


So, I'm gonna make a few changes in my life. (Again. I feel like I am constantly doing that! But I guess that's good, cause it means I am constantly trying to improve myself, right?) Three weeks ago, my iPhone was stolen. (Yeah, that was a fun day.) Since then, my boss hasn't given me a new one. At first, I was pretty bummed, and couldn't wait for a new phone. Now, though, I kind of like it. I didn't realize how attached I was to that thing. I still have my other cell phone, so I've gone back to using it. I can talk and text on it, and that's it. Sometimes it would be nice to have a smart phone (like when I need directions!), but for the most part, I don't need it. Its been nice to be "unplugged" a bit. I don't have my phone attached to my hand at all times anymore, so I'm not constantly checking facebook and my email. Or taking random pictures. I have, however, taken way more "real" photos with my nice camera.

However, I still have the iPad. Its big and bulky and heavy, and I don't like using it, but its easier than my laptop, so I do use it quite a bit now. I don't use it to check email and facebook as much as I was with the phone, but I still do it more than necessary. So I'm gonna put a stop to that. Starting tonight. Tonight, I will not touch the iPad until I'm rocking C to sleep. Instead of taking a few minutes after supper (and before bath time) to scroll through facebook, I'm gonna play with my daughter. I'm gonna squeeze in as much time with her as possible. When she's asleep and I lay her down, I'm gonna put the iPad away for the night. If I don't go right to bed, I'm gonna talk to my husband. Instead of ignoring him like its so easy for me to do.

And tomorrow morning when I'm eating my breakfast, instead of opening up the iPad and checking facebook and Instagram, I'm gonna do a Bible study. It just hit me earlier today that during breakfast is the perfect time for me to do Bible study. I always eat alone, since DH is gone by then and C's not up yet, but every morning I eat and stare at the iPad. I attempt to do Bible study at night, after C is asleep, but I'm normally too exhausted to do it then, and some nights I don't even lay her down until 11 or after, then I need to get to sleep myself. So breakfast and Bible study it is. I'm kinda excited to start tomorrow. And I wish I had thought of this sooner!

What else? Well, I'm finally gonna make a budget. I've been talking about it for a year almost, and its time to get serious. That's my plan tonight, actually. I want to sit down with DH and get him to help me. I want to be smarter with my money. Even if I'm never able to be a SAHM, I need to do this. And if I'm ever gonna be able to be a SAHM, I need to do this. No matter how you look at it, I need to do this!

Starting this week, I'm also gonna get back into meal planning. I haven't done it for several months, and supper time has been so stressful. This time, though, I want to do it a little differently. I want to meal plan and shop accordingly. The last time I did meal planning, I just planned meals based on what we had already. Which was fine, and its a good way to go through your pantry/freezer/frigde. I'll be doing that again, and then when its time to buy groceries, I want to shop with a plan of what we'll be cooking. Eventually, I want to try once a month shopping, but at first I think weekly or hopefully bi-weekly shopping will do. We need to cut out these little quick grocery store trips. And I want to cut out all this eating out we've been doing lately. (Well, its only once a week or so, but it adds up!)

The last change I want to make is to employ a home management schedule. I started one a while back and stuck to it for a while, but for whatever reason I just abandoned it. I need to go back and think on that, figure out what went wrong so I don't make the same mistakes this time around. My house cleaning goal is to do a little bit every day, so that I can have the weekends to have fun. A little cleaning on Saturdays is okay, but I don't want to be doing heavy cleaning every Saturday. Plus, more often than not, I end up gone for at least part of the day on Saturdays, so my house needs to be in order prior to that.

In reality, I end up just doing the bare minimum during the week (keeping the kitchen clean, washing clothes, sweeping - which is a daily task for me), and on Saturday mornings I find myself having to vacuum, dust, clean the bathrooms, etc. Luckily, it doesn't take me all day since I live in a small house. But I feel like I could be using my time better during the week.

No, I don't have a lot of time between the time I get home from work and the time I put C to bed, and I want to spend as much time with her as possible, but I also want to spend as much time with her on Saturdays as possible. If that means sacrificing just a few more minutes with her each night to do something quick (like wiping down the bathrooms so they don't need to be scrubbed on the weekend), then so be it. More likely, it'll mean "sacrificing" a few minutes on facebook each evening. I can do that. I'm already halfway there, since I don't have the easy temptation of the iPhone to deal with anymore. I can do it!

Okay, normally when I write things down and blog about it, I do it. Hopefully that'll be the case this time. This blog will hold me accountable, like it has for so many other things before. Wish me luck! Oh, and if you know of any bloggers who are in my situation, please share! Cause I truly want to read about other women like me! ( :

Today Is Definitely Monday

So, its really hard to blog about green smoothies all the time. I mean, there's only so much you can say about them, without being a blog dedicated to them and their healthy goodness (like Simple Green Smoothies). All the pictures I take of my smoothies look the same, so that's boring. Oh well!

On Friday I made a smoothie called Peaches n' Cream. It was okay, definitely not my favorite. If I remember correctly, it had spinach, almond milk, frozen peaches, and a banana in it. The actual recipe called for coconut water (or milk?), but I didn't have that, so I used my almond milk. Well, my almond milk is actually vanilla flavored, which I hate. So all I could taste in this smoothie was peaches and vanilla. It really tasted like homemade peach ice cream. My husband would have loved it. I will probably try the recipe again with regular almond milk, since the vanilla taste was way too strong for me.

This weekend, I fell of the green smoothie train. I just didn't fell like messing with the blender and everything. On Saturday, DH got up early to go hunting, and C slept in her crib until almost 9. And you can bet this mama was in her bed until then, too!! It was glorious sleeping in like that. It put me in a rush the rest of the day, but that's okay, it was worth it. The rest of the morning, I ran around the house like a mad woman, trying to get some cleaning done. I was pretty proud of what I accomplished before lunch. After lunch, C and I headed to my mama's church, where we helped prepare for my Grandma's surprise birthday party.

The party was yesterday, and it was a success. Grandma turns 90 tomorrow, and we always go out to eat or have a girls' weekend with her, but this year we wanted a big shin dig, and that's exactly what we had! Around 200 people came out to celebrate that woman with us. It was awesome. We treated it like a wedding reception - tons of food and the fellowship hall was decorated to perfection. (Well, I thought it was! haha) It was exhausting, but worth it because Grandma was happily surprised and had a great time. I was the official photographer, but I left my memory card at home today so I can't even look at the pictures. :( The plan is to make Grandma a photo book of the party. Hopefully I'll have time to get that done this week...

Today I made a green smoothie that is normally my favorite - Berry Cold Fighter. But today I just wasn't digging it. It was all I could do to force myself to drink it, and I left a few sips in my cup. I'm probably just getting run down from everything going on lately. On top of everything else, God has put it on my heart to try to help out my husband's brother and his wife, who had their baby last weekend. I've intended to make them a casserole for 2 days now, and haven't had a chance yet, so that's on my to-do list for tonight. That, and laundry (why is laundry so never-ending??!), and cooking supper, and cleaning the kitchen, and taking care of C.....argh. Exhausts me just thinking about it.

Okay, enough complaining! Today at work I'm workin on a sort of personal project. I'm updating/organizing my desk space! I'm super excited about it, and I'll post about it when its done. ( :

Weekend Recap

Is anyone else completely bummed that its Monday again? I know I can't be alone here.  ( ;

This weekend was awesome, and it flew by way too fast (as weekends generally do).

Saturday was a busy but relaxing day for me. How can it be both busy and relaxing, you ask? Well, I got a lot of housework done, which means I stayed at home all day. I'm always relaxed at home. ( : I've been really slack lately about getting any cleaning done during the week; the past 2 Saturdays I've had to do some major cleaning. This week I'm gonna try to get back on track and clean a little each day so I can have more play time on Saturdays.

Cleaning time kept getting interrupted due to chickens. Yep, you read that right - chickens! DH has been selling a lot of chickens lately, and Saturday he brought home 25 to resale (resell? hmm...). So while I was cleaning up inside, he was rigging up a temporary holding pen for them. Well, I guess the first time he didn't make the pen quite sturdy enough, because quite a few chickens escaped. He called me to come outside and me and C helped him round them back up. Chicken wrangling is fun, let me tell you. Later, it happened again! I think they were flying out. DH and his brother came home to pick up a tool or something and noticed some more chickens were out. Luckily, we caught them all and they didn't escape anymore. So far, DH has sold all of them but 5, and he thinks they'll be sold this week. He's makin money so I can't complain!

Saturday afternoon when C woke up from her nap, I took her to my mama's house. Normally, I stay with her so I can visit with my grandma, but this time I dropped her off and headed back home. And I rode Sunshine! I haven't rode her in a couple of weeks, so I was curious as to how she'd do with cantering. I rode her in the back pasture (which is about 5 acres total) and she did great. We cantered quite a bit! She picked up both leads with no hesitation. Her right lead was very ugly, though. It felt like her back legs weren't extending like they should. So obviously she has some tightness in that ligament still. But its such an improvement from where she was! I know if I was able to ride her more often she'd be so much better. Normally my riding picks up in the fall, so I should be having more saddle time soon. ( :

Yesterday we headed to the coast. Somehow, its September and we've only been to the beach twice all summer. (The 3 of us went back in May for our vacation - to the Outer Banks - and then me and C had a girls' day at the beach a month or so ago. We went to the Pamlico River a few times in July, but that's not really the beach so it doesn't count.) Considering how growing up I was at the beach practically every weekend all summer, it amazes me that I haven't been more often. Especially now that I've finally found a sunscreen that doesn't get me sunburned (Mary Kay!). Not having a place to stay this year has been the main issue, though. My parents sold their place last year, and we can't afford to get a hotel room all the time. Anyway, maybe next year we'll make it out there more often.

We decided to head to Topsail Island/Surf City. My uncle has a trailer there and we planned to use his private outdoor shower to change into our bathing suits. Luckily, when I called my uncle to ask permission to do that, he told me where his key was hidden and said for us to go on in and make ourselves at home. ( : We spent a couple of hours on the beach when we got there, then headed back to the trailer and got cleaned up a bit. We had a nice lunch at my favorite restaurant at Surf City - Island Delights. After that, C took a nap on the couch at the trailer and me and DH enjoyed quiet time - and I enjoyed not having to hold C while she napped!!

Late yesterday evening, we headed back to the beach for a sunset stroll. We went to the south end of the island and it was truly magical. The beach just has a different feel on that end; the sand is softer somehow. The light was gorgeous with the setting sun, and there were very few people out there. We walked for quite some time and C picked up seashells the whole time. It was perfect.

The whole day was just perfect. The weather was beautiful - not too hot, but warm enough we could get in the water without freezing. We laughed all day and made some good memories. And I didn't get sunburned! All in all, it was an awesome day.

It sure has made today miserable, though!! I hope everyone else had a great weekend! ( :

Weekend Recap and Other Awesomeness

Ugh, I am SO unmotivated today! Mainly because I can't take a decent breath. I don't know if I've pulled a muscle from all my coughing spells over the past 10 days, or if I have pleurisy (which I get all the dang time, so you'd think I'd know), or bronchitis, but my right lung/chest HURTS when I breathe. I'm still coughing, though not as frequently as I was last week. I can now breathe through my nose, though I still have to blow it quite a bit. I guess not being able to breathe deeply makes you tired, cause I have no energy today.

Yesterday afternoon, I ran around in the yard with C, kicking balls. It was fun, but man did it wear me out! Am I goin to the doctor?  Nah, probably not. If I thought I had a sinus infection I'd be there to get some drugs, but I don't think they can do anything for this right now. So unless I get a whole lot worse, I'll just complain about it. :P (Just kidding, complaining will cease now!)

We had a great weekend. Saturday morning, me and C headed to town to find some tap shoes. On Friday during my lunch break, I went to the consignment store and bought her some tap shoes, but they ended up being too small. I also got a few leotards and skirts, which thankfully fit just fine - yay for consignment! I found some ballet slippers at Target, and they were too small as well.

Of course, Once Upon A Child (consignment) didn't have any tap shoes in C's size, but luckily I got a full refund. Next, we hit up Michael's, where I scored some ribbon on clearance for $1. I made a beautiful hair bow for her, and forgot to take a picture (haha). I'll try to get on that (and a bow tutorial) soon! We exchanged the ballet slippers at Target for a larger brand, then went on a search for tap shoes.

Luckily, we hit pay dirt at Payless. C is totally in love with her shoes and wants to wear them all the time. And I have to say, she's pretty much a natural at tapping. ( :

Hopefully that video will play! If not, here's a still:

She tapped all over the house for me, and after her long nap (in her CRIB!!), we went to my mama's house, where she tapped for her, my cousin, and my grandma. I love that kid. ( :

Yesterday, she was alternating between the tap shoes and the ballet slippers to dance for her daddy - so cute.

After church yesterday, we headed to my aunt's for a birthday lunch for my cousin. We had a good time, and got to eat some of my aunt's delicious chocolate pound cake with cream cheese icing! Yum. Of course, we stayed over there through nap time, and when we got home, C wasn't about taking a nap. So her and I played outside while DH worked on the chicken and rabbit pens.

C and I had so much fun playing outside. We played with the balls, she rode her tricycle, we swung on the swingset, and she had a blast on the slide. I cherish times like that. Then one of DH's friends stopped by to show us what he bought at the livestock sale that morning, and somehow we ended up with 6 guinea keets! When they get big enough, we'll turn them loose so they can eat bugs around the farm. Our farm will never be quiet again! If you're not familiar with guineas, they are LOUD - like, obnoxiously loud.

Anyway, after we got over our new bird excitement (note my sarcasm), C and I hopped on Sunshine bareback. Then C kicked me off so she could ride by herself, haha. I didn't feel up to giving her a "lesson," so I just walked around with her. She didn't care! I'm so glad she loves horses already. ( :

Speaking of birds, our baby ducks are still going strong! Well, 8 of them are. We lost 1, but that was expected cause he was very weak. I'm happy. Mama duck is doing a great job at protecting them. They hang out in the pond a lot, but have also been hanging out around the chicken pens - which is pretty farm from the pond, so they must be strong babies.

All in all, it was an excellent weekend. The only thing that would have made it better if is I had felt better. But I can't complain, since it was a drastic improvement from the previous weekend, when I couldn't do anything but hack and blow my nose.

At church yesterday, my pastor preached on Psalm 121. This is my favorite Psalm, and probably my favorite Bible verses. I'd never heard a sermon on it, and I was impressed.

This Psalm has gotten me through some tough times in my life. It reminds me that God is always there for me. My pastor's message was about much more than that fact, though.

It inspired me to be better about my Bible reading and studies. Well, I should say it inspired me to DO it again. Sadly, I've really gotten off track with that. At the beginning of this year, I was reading the Bible daily with my Bible In One Year app, plus I was doing other random studies through books I found. I also read several books about building a closer relationship to God. I'm not sure what happened, but I stopped doing all that gradually. Its just easier to read "fun" things, like trashy romance novels, I guess. But you know what? Lately, I've been feeling not quite myself, almost depressed at times. I was just thinking on Friday how I needed to get back into the Word, cause when I was deep within it, I didn't feel this way. And then I heard this sermon yesterday - coincidence? I think not. My God is just awesome like that. ( :

So, I'm jumping back in. I'm gonna pick up where I left off with my "The Excellent Wife Day by Day" devotional, the BIOY app, and a couple of other books I recently purchased. Fill myself with spiritual goodness, reconnect with my Maker, have peace again. Who's with me? ( :

Good Weekend

Not much to report here. Which is actually good, cause it means I haven't been running around like a chicken with its head cut off like I normally am (and who came up with that expression anyway?? Its awful!).

We did have a somewhat busy weekend. Well, really just yesterday was busy. Saturday, not much happened, thankfully. Me and C slept in, which was heavenly. After breakfast, DH came and picked her up and they spent a few hours together. (That sounds like we're separated, doesn't it? Nope. He's just gone usually on Saturdays - working. This weekend he was feeding a friend's animals, so C went with him to do that Saturday, and then they just hung out at his business together.) Meantime, I got some cleaning done at the house. Much-needed cleaning, trust me! When DH and C got home, it was time for C's nap, but of course she wouldn't go to sleep. I did spend an hour laying down with her trying, though. Not that I minded the trying; I was doped up on Benadryl all day, so I welcomed the rest! (Yep, I got a little sunburned on my neck after our beach day, so I've had a bit of an allergic reaction. Nothing terrible though, thankfully.)

It was super hot and humid Saturday. So much so that I didn't want to be outside at all. Around 5 I did take C to my mother-in-law's house to go swimming. That was fun. My child is like a fish in the water! Whoever invented arm floaties, I salute you. Though I wonder if they'll make it harder for her to learn hold herself up in the water without them...?

And that was our day. We had a super simple supper (thanks, Hamburger Helper), and C was asleep by 8:30 (thanks, no nap!). Of course, she didn't stay asleep that early. :/ I put her in the crib and she woke back up, so I ended up rocking her until 11pm - yawn. While I was doing that, DH was in the kitchen cutting up fruit.

We helped DH's mother host a baby shower yesterday for DH's brother and his wife. They're expecting a boy in September. I love my MIL so I wanted to help as much as possible. And DH is all about helping his mama, which I think is so sweet. Plus, both of us absolutely love stuff like this. People are always telling us we should go into the catering business. We'd love to, actually.

When DH's brother got married, we took over the bridal shower. My MIL is not good at stuff like that, so she just took directions from us. We went a little overboard, but I have to say we laid out an impressive spread. I have some catering background; growing up, my parents owned 2 restaurants, so I was a waitress for years and years. My dad also did some catering on the side, and I liked to go help him. I guess DH just naturally has the talent, cause he doesn't have any professional experience. He's good, though.  ( :

One of DH's cousins got married last fall, and she actually wanted us to do the food for her wedding. We almost took the job, but in the end decided it would be too stressful, since we would have to miss the actual wedding, and C was the flower girl so that wasn't happening!

So when my MIL asked for our help with this baby shower, we of course said yes. We were mainly in charge of fruit, but we organized and arranged/decorated everything. I wasn't able to help much with the cutting of the fruit, since I was stuck in the rocking chair for hours and hours. Once we got to the church yesterday, I set about arranging the food table, deciding what should go where, and which bowl/platter should be for what food. DH was busy making an adorable baby carriage out of a watermelon, and a beautiful fruit platter (which I had to help him with, haha - he doesn't quite have the eye that I do for stuff like that!). I was really proud of how it all turned out:

Terrible picture, really doesn't do any of it justice. But I just grabbed my iPhone and snapped a quick shot. And that's the only picture I took all day yesterday. Before people started showing up for the shower, I was too busy running around making sure everything was like I wanted it (I'm sure that was annoying to some people, but oh well, haha), and then once people arrived I was busy talking and making sure none of the food or punch ran out. After the shower was over, we all pitched in and had the church cleaned up pretty quickly. That's the worst part of doing stuff like this. I should have taken a picture of my kitchen table! DH and I supplied most of the serving dishes and platters, so when we got home we piled everything up on the table. And its still sitting there. We were just too tired to deal with it last night. Guess that's my project for tonight...yay.

Normally, events like these leave us pretty stressed out, which means tempers are flaring and we end up mad at each other. Yesterday was just fun, though. I don't know why, but this really brought me and DH closer together and we just laughed and joked with each other all day. Once the shower started, DH stayed in the kitchen so he could be ready to mix up more punch quickly, so I kept sneaking back there to see him and steal kisses - it felt like we were dating again. ( :

So yeah, I'd definitely say we had a good weekend. We need more like this! Well, not more showers to do for family, since we spent so much money on it. We don't have anything planned for this week or next weekend. I'm hoping for a relaxing week, and maybe I can convince DH to spend Saturday at the beach or something. ( :

One Thing After Another

My poor baby girl just can't catch a break lately. First she had the UTI, then she got the stomach bug, and now it appears she's got vaginitis (AGAIN - I hate antibiotics for that reason!!) and some sort of really strange rash. :( She's a tough cookie, though - none of this is slowin her down much!

The stomach bug lasted almost a week. It didn't stop all at once, it was very gradual. And thankfully no one else got it from her, which makes me think maybe it was, in fact, related to the antibiotics and not actually a virus (though she did have a fever for a few days, so who knows). At any rate, I'm super glad that its over. There is nothin worse than seeing your child in pain and not being able to help. And her little tummy was causing her a lot of pain!!

Every time C is on antibiotics, she develops vaginitis (basically, a yeast infection; not sure why her dr calls it something different). I mean every. Time. Its so frustrating. I know we can try to prevent it by getting her to take probiotics and eat yogurt. But, seriously, have you ever tried to get a toddler to consume something she didn't want?! Its near bout impossible. This time, I bought gummy bear probiotics, and I just knew she'd love them cause they're basically candy. Nope. She wouldn't touch them for days. Until we saw a commercial on TV and the littler girl ate some. Even after that I've managed to get C to eat maybe 2 of them. They taste pretty good to me, so I assume she just doesn't like the gummy texture. *sigh*

As for yogurt...she used to love the stuff. She'd ask for it. But maybe she ate too much of it and got sick of it, cause now she rarely will eat it. My MIL can't get her to eat it at all anymore, and I can only occasionally. I got her to eat one container of yogurt when she was on antibiotics this last time. After that she wouldn't touch it. So I pretty much resigned myself to the fact that she'd get a yeast infection at some point, and I've been watching for it.

Its probably been building up for the past several days, and we just weren't able to see any outward signs (i.e, redness) yet. Well, I saw the tell-tale redness last night. Thankfully, the last time we dealt with this the dr provided us with a ton of Nystatin cream, so I won't have to take her back to get a new prescription. She's already had 2 doses of the stuff, so she should be improving pretty quickly. But the stupid yeast infection makes her have accidents, just like with a UTI. Its so frustrating. I think its because the infection makes it burn when she pees, so she holds it until she just can't hold it anymore, then has an accident. Cause she's not just been having small accidents (like she did with the UTI - that was a tiny amount of urine every 20 minutes or so) - this is like a lake every few hours! Big mess to clean up. My MIL told me last week that C was still wetting her pants quite a bit, and I told her she's probably messed up from bein sick, just to give her time. But now I'm thinkin its the vaginitis that was brewing. *sigh*

The good news is that the Nystatin usually works really fast, and then she'll stop having accidents. I know the pattern. Luckily, she doesn't have to be on antibiotics very often since she's a pretty healthy child (other than recurrent UITs, and we are seeing a specialist next month about that). She's had 2 ear infections that we treated with antibiotics. The only other thing she's taken them for was UTIs. I think that's pretty good for 2.5 years. Anyway, the faster she gets, the better cause we're all sick of dealing with accidents! Yesterday she peed on my bed and my couch. And I don't mean a little bit. It looked like someone had spilled a gallon of liquid both times. Oh, and she did the same thing in the carseat over the weekend. *sigh!* You can't get mad at her though; she can't help it. We're just workin through this until she gets back to normal.

Now for her rash...this one has us all completely stumped. I noticed it Friday night. She was super ill Friday evening (that means she was in a bad mood, for all you non-Southern folks!) and we couldn't figure out why. She ate a lot at supper - I had cooked fried pork chops, fresh green beans, and fresh potatoes, and she ate everything, which surprised us. After supper, the 3 of us went outside to feed the animals. When we got back in, I noticed what looked like a bug bite on her shoulder. I had forgotten to put bug spray on her and it was at the edge of dark, so I assumed it was a mosquito. Well, in the bath tub later, I could see the spot better and it didn't look like a mosquito bite. It almost looked like fire ants had got on her. She had 6-8 little whelps and the whole area was very red. Wasn't bothering her though.

Then I noticed she had another really red area on the back of her neck. By the time we got out of the tub, I was noticing red places (and some with whelps) on several different areas on her body. None of the areas were bothering her, so I wasn't too worried. Until I was literally watching them pop up! It was crazy. When they got on her face (around her eye), I got concerned. So I gave her Benadryl. She hadn't had anything to eat that was new to her, and hadn't been exposed to anything new at all recently.

Saturday morning, she looked better, but as the morning wore on, I was seeing more red places pop up. And then it got really weird. She'd get a red area and a whelp that looked like a bug bite, and 30 minutes later it was gone. You could literally watch it pop up then disappear. Crazy. It still wasn't bothering her, so I just let her go about her day as usual. The 2 of us went to my MIL's pool that afternoon, and I'm sure the chlorine didn't help her at all. When we got back home, it looked like she had eczema on her thighs and butt. I rubbed her down with lotion and got her to sleep, but she slept fitfully. That night I gave her more Benadryl. DH kept saying take her to the dr, but I knew they'd tell me to do what I was since it wasn't bothering her at all.

Yesterday the places were a little itchy to her, but not enough that it interfered with her day or anything. For church I put her in a super soft dress with no inside seams, and during church we were watching her get redder and redder, and little whelps popping up everywhere. And then disappearing. After church I let her be naked at home, because it did seem that any type of fabric was irritating her skin. That did help some, but she was still getting red places.

I gave her more Benadryl last night and this morning at first she looked much better. By the time I dropped her off at my MIL's, though, I saw several red places - on her feet and around her right eye. :( I've looked online and all I can find is reactions to changes in diet or things like fabric softener. Well, I've been using All Free & Clear for years now, and I don't use fabric softener cause I'm allergic to it (and it ruins cloth diapers). Absolutely nothing has changed lately. The only thing I can think of is maybe she's developed a sudden food allergy. But to what?? Over the weekend she ate a ton of bread and crackers, but that's normal for her. My girl loves her carbs, haha. I don't even want to call the pediatrician because they're gonna want to see her, and we are NOT doing that again right now. I hate exposing her to all those germs in that place, and I know her immune system is weak right now, since she's been dealing with so much. No, thank you. So I'm not sure what to do. I'm gonna keep researching and keep praying that it doesn't get worse. Maybe its a delayed reaction to the antibiotic she was on? Her last dose was Friday night. But she's had that drug before, several times. I'm at a loss!!

Sorry, I know this post was terribly boring for people other than myself. But I wanted to document it for later. I really hope I haven't passed on my freak gene to my daughter. We all know that Nikki has unexplained health issues that come and go. :(

I'm Alive!

Whew! The last few weeks have been insane. I say that a lot, don't it? But its always true. Of course, looking back, all those other times I said that were nothing compared to the past 2 weeks for me. Most of my business has been work-related, and thankfully I've been able to come home in the evenings and basically just relax. Which I have desperately needed, let me tell you!

In short, my company has been experiencing a lot of major changes lately. My office has broken away from our parent company and with that has come a ton of work for me. I love being busy at work, so its been okay, but there have been a few times that I've wanted to pull my hair out! On top of all the changes and new stuff to deal with, I had to train 2 employees for our parent company. Of course, everything was happening all at the same time, so it was pretty stressful. Which is why I haven't even thought about my blog. I do plan to go back and finish blogging about our OBX trip, cause I definitely want to remember that! And we've taken more trips since then, so more memories to log. ( :

Here's a brief rundown of what's been going on since I last posted (3 weeks ago!):

I think I blogged about my eye issues recently. If not, basically I've been suffering from extreme dry eye for several months now. A prescription for Restasis is pending, has been pending for weeks now (my insurance doesn't like to cover expensive drugs like Restasis, bleh). Anyway, I had another appointment the week after our OBX trip. My eye dr put plugs in my tear ducts, and it has made a huge difference. For a few days, I didn't see much improvement and I was pretty disappointed. But finally, I can wear my contacts almost normally. I still can't wear them every day, and I still normally take them out early in the evening, but its such an improvement. If my RX for Restasis ever gets approved, I'm sure I'll be able to wear contacts like any normal person.

The weekend after our OBX trip I didn't do a thing. At least not that I remember. I remember on Sunday we were supposed to take C to a birthday party, but neither of us felt like going so we just lazed around the house. It was lovely. Thankfully, we hadn't even mentioned the party to C, so she didn't know what she was missing! Terrible parents, huh? ( ;

July 1 was supposed to be a quiet day for me at work, but I got a call early that said 2 people were on the way for me to train, and they were 15 minutes away! Yikes. (For the record, it wasn't my boss that called me. He found out after I did that these girls were coming.) Unfortunately, I didn't teach them much since they were unexpected. Plus, the 3 of us went to lunch and then they had to leave around 2. Oh well. The next 2 days, I had one girl here. Thankfully, she was really smart and nice, and having her here wasn't much of a burden. I had a ton of work-related problems to deal with, though. The first and second weeks of July were horrible in terms of work problems. I spent hours every day on the phone with support people. Fun, fun. I think I've got almost everything sorted out now. Whew.

On July 3, my best friend had some important surgery. So on top of dealing with all the work-related mess, I was worried about her all day until I heard she was okay. Well, sort of. She had some major reactions to the surgery and the drugs. It was pretty scary for a while there. But she pulled through and is now almost back to normal. ( :

Also on that day, my boss told me not to worry about coming in on Friday (we were already closed for the 4th). I think he felt sorry for me since I was so stressed out and working so hard. So I had a 4 day weekend!!

The 4th was spent in a frenzy. We had a ton to do to prepare for our annual July 4th cookout. I made sure to enjoy the day, though. After I got some initial cleaning done that morning, me, C, and my mama played in the pool for a while. Then, while I got C to sleep (on her crib mattress on the floor again), Mama cleaned my bathrooms for me. DH was a huge help around the house that day, too. Between the 3 of us, we got that nice nice and clean. So that the family could demolish it that night, haha.

Our yard has been pretty soaked lately. It rained for 40 days and 40 nights here. That's not really an exaggeration. I've never seen so much rain at once. Literally, every day for a long time now it has rained. Our garden has drowned. Our animals are swimming. Its been bad, though not nearly as bad as some people have had it. Anyway, because the yard was so soaked, we set up all the tables in the driveway. Of course, people still managed to get dirty and track all that into my house. I was amazed at how much dirt we swept up that night. But everyone had a great time. We had over 30 people show up for the cookout this year. And it was nice cause we didn't have to rush off for fireworks at 9. (This year, our town held fireworks on July 6th for some reason.) Which also meant we had guests in the house until like 10pm. But C got to play with her cousin (who is 3), and they had a blast together. I love having both our families together like that.

The next day was Friday, and DH decided to head down to the river for the day. His aunt and uncle have a place near the Pamlico River, and they have a boat. Its where we went back in January, when I got the pictures of the eagles. Its about a 2 hour drive from home, so not bad at all. When we got there, we rode the boat to Washington, where we got out and walked around town for a while. That was nice, even though it was about a thousand degrees. C absolutely loved riding the boat, as long as her uncle didn't drive too fast! When we rode back to the dock, we let C play in the water for a while. The Pamlico River is really brown and muddy from all the rain eastern NC has had lately, so it was pretty gross, but that didn't stop C from having fun! We didn't have her bathing suit with us (we knew on the boat we wouldn't be stopping to swim or anything), so we just let her play in the water in her clothes. She loved that. We stayed until after supper and got home that night around 10pm.

Which is when we discovered that our air conditioning was broken. It was 85 degrees in our house. WAY too hot!! My brother works on heat and air units for a living, so luckily he was able to come over that night and work on it some. I don't know anything about A/C units, but he couldn't do much Friday night. So we turned up all the fans and slept almost naked. Saturday morning my brother came back and worked some more. He got it working, sort of, but said it would take a long time to cool the house. Well, most of our windows don't open (hello, old house) so we weren't able to get a good breeze going through there. It was miserable. I stayed long enough to get the floors vacuumed and mopped, and did a few loads of laundry, then C and I left for Mama's. We played in Mama's little pool for a while, then took a nap in the wonderful A/C.

DH wanted to head back to the river that night, and since our house was still 85 degrees, he didn't get an argument from me! We packed up and made it there before it was too late. We spent the day Sunday on the boat fishing. Now, I don't have any patience at all for fishing. But this was actually kinda fun to watch. I didn't participate cause I had to hold C and make sure she didn't fall off the boat. But DH and his uncle were net fishing, which I'd never seen before. They had this super long net and would set it up, then his uncle would drive the boat in circles and we'd be really loud. The idea was to scare the fish into the net. It worked pretty well. We caught a good mess of fish this way, mostly spots. Even C wasn't bored with everything.

I, unfortunately, discovered that day that I now have a true allergy to the sun. I applied SPF 50 sunscreen every hour or so all day, and didn't get a sunburn, but after a couple of hours I broke out into a rash on my legs. It was wonderful. I ended up having to cover my legs with a towel. And lucky me kept having a reaction for days after the sun exposure. Like, I'm still a little itchy, and its been over a week. Ugh. Every night last week I had to take Benadryl just to sleep, and some days I had to take it at work, too. Which I hate doing!!

Anyway, we had a fun time at the river. Once again, after we got off the boat, we let C play on the little beach. This time in her bathing suit. ( :  She had a ball. I think we made it home that evening by around 6. Our house was still pretty hot, but we could tell it was getting cooler.

By Monday morning the house was blessedly cool, but DH had decided that we'll be getting a new unit. My brother patched ours up so it'll work for a while, but sometime in the very near future we'll be shelling out a couple grand for this thing. Gotta stay cool, though!

Actually, yesterday afternoon I noticed the house was getting hot again, and DH had to go tinker with out unit again. Hopefully it'll still be cool when I get home from work today.

Now for the sickness. My poor baby has been suffering through another UTI lately. :( She started having a lot of accidents, and after a couple of days I started to wonder if it was her kidneys again. Last Tuesday night, she peed 5 or 6 times in 40 minutes, so I knew something was up. I tried to get her doctor to just test her urine without having to see her, but they insisted. So Wednesday after work, I took her in. Her urine looked clean under the microscope, and I was confused. Of course, I didn't want her to have a UTI, but I knew somethin was wrong. They cultured it "just in case." Well, early Thursday morning I got the call that she did indeed have an infection. It took until after lunch for her antibiotic to be ready, but we did manage to get 2 doses in her that day.

Almost immediately, the antibiotic made her have looser stools (sorry, TMI probably). But that's normal, so I didn't think much of it. Saturday morning, she had a few bouts of explosive diarrhea. Poor baby. She still acted okay, though, and she wasn't peeing as much. So I felt comfortable leaving her with my parents while I went to see my friend that had had the surgery. C ended up staying with them for longer than I intended cause she took a super long nap. Again, that's normal when she's fighting an infection, so I didn't think much of it. She was really whiny and clingy after her nap, but after a while she acted better. Her and I drove to town to pick up a pizza for supper, and she ate 2 pieces, plus some bread bites. Then after her bath that night, she told me she was freezing and started crying. Then I realized she had a fever. :(

She actually slept pretty well that night, considering. But yesterday morning, she woke up with a bad stomachache and immediately went to the potty, where she had diarrhea. That continued all morning. She was pitiful, and it broke my heart. I was thinking the antibiotic was affecting her, so I called the doctor, who insisted on seeing her again. So the 3 of us headed to town, where we learned that she most likely has a stomach virus. On top of her UTI! Poor baby. :( Probably picked it up the other day when I brought her to that germ-ridden place, and her defenses were already weakened. Ugh. Sot he doctor didn't do a thing for her.

After the appointment, she was feeling better, so we picked up some groceries and ate at Outback. She barely ate though, and was really tired. Once we got home, she napped for a little while, but woke up with a tummyache again. After a while she was feeling better again, and seemed like herself. We actually had fun yesterday afternoon. She had a few more bouts of pain/diarrhea last night, but then slept in her crib until 4:45am. Unfortunately, it all started up again this morning. Fever and all. I hate seein my baby sick! By the time I left for work she was feeling better, thankfully. Hopefully she'll be over this soon. And hopefully we won't get it. I've already been feeling nauseous for the past several days...ugh.

So that's my busy busy life for the past 3 weeks!! Whew!

Playing Pro

Once we made it through VBS last week, I expected the weekend to be relaxed and carefree. Well, now that its over I can't quite say that was the case, but it was fun nevertheless!

I got up early Saturday morning and did a ton of cleaning. My house had been basically neglected all week last week, so I had a lot of catching up to do. C helped me (or kept me company, haha) with most of the chores, but thank goodness for Sesame Street on Netflix when it was time for me to vacuum and mop!

We ate an early lunch and played outside some more. C had been acting tired all morning, so I decided to put her down for a nap early. By 1:15 she was out on my bed, and I was able to get up and leave her there! This is such a big deal to me. Remember for months now she has to be held for the entire nap. I prefer her to nap in her crib (so I can change my sheets if need be), but I'll take what I can get at this point. While C napped, I scrubbed the bathrooms and finished up the laundry, then I settled down on the couch to transfer videos from the Flip camera to the computer and flash drive. Of course, then I got wrapped up watching old videos, like C's birth and some of her "firsts" moments. Bittersweet!!

After C had been asleep about 2 hours, she woke up and called me. I told her I was on the couch, so she walked in there and climbed up into my lap and laid her head against my chest. I thought she was watching videos with me, but when I looked at her again, she was sound asleep! I held her until I was done transferring the videos, then I eased her down onto the couch, and she did not wake up. It was amazing (lol). She slept about another hour there. I wasn't being quiet at all, but I didn't want to wake her up because I knew she'd be ill if I did that. So she slept a total of 3 hours Saturday! Which of course meant she stayed up way too late that night.

Saturday evening, I left C with her daddy and I headed to the local college to take my niece's senior pictures. That was so much fun! I shot almost entirely in Manual mode, and I was so proud of myself. My sister helped me with poses and props, and she did a great job. My niece was crowned homecoming queen and prom queen, plus she's a very talented soccer player (she got a scholarship to play soccer this fall!), so we had an interesting array of props to work with. I was absolutely exhausted when I got home, but it was worth it. I haven't had a chance to edit any of the pictures yet. Most of them I will be able to leave as-is, but some need some lighting work. If I had one of those light bouncer things or an external flash, things would have been a little easier...! But I'll save up for photography accessories. ( :

is she beautiful or what??

I was also having a weird problem with my camera that was really slowing me down. I'd get the exposure settings just right, take a gorgeous picture, and then the settings would get out of wack. There has got to be a way to lock the settings until I move them again, but I haven't been able to figure it out yet. :/ And I've asked 2 professional photographers that I know, and neither one knew how to fix my problem. So the quest continues.

Anyway, late that night, I posted some sneak peaks of the session to facebook and got a lot of compliments. My sister and niece were really happy with what they saw. I just hope they like the rest of the shots as much!


Yesterday was of course Father's Day. I gave DH his present Saturday nice since I knew Sunday would be busy. We gave him a nice electric razor and he loved it. Men are so hard to buy for, so I am thrilled when I actually get him something he likes! haha

We went to Sunday School, and C went to the nursery class by herself for the first time. It was weird (but nice) not to have her in our class, distracting us. She enjoyed her class and the teacher said she was very well-behaved. We left after that because we had a family reunion to attend. The reunion was fun and we ate some really good food there. And C made friends with one of her cousins, who she nicknamed Pecan for some reason. It was hilarious! (By the way, around here, we say "Pecan" like PEE-can, not pe-CAHN.)

C's inner demon escaped when we got home, haha. She napped part of the way home, and I had hoped she'd go back to sleep on my bed, but that didn't happen. She was wide awake, and of course DH and I were exhausted and just wanted a quick nap. C was overtired so she was being kinda bad and driving us insane. We can laugh about it now, but yesterday afternoon we definitely were not laughing!!

Finally, I decided to play Just Dace on the Wii with C. That made her stop whining and she had fun. Plus I got in a good workout. ( :  After that, we headed to my other sister's house for a Father's Day cookout. We don't see my sisters and their kids often, but I always enjoy spending time with them. My other niece is pregnant with her first child, so its an exciting time. And I'll be doing her maternity pictures and her newborn session, so I'm looking forward to those challenges!

We got home after 8 and we had to feed the animals, so it was close to 9 by the time we were getting our baths and getting ready for bed. I could tell C was exhausted but she was holding up well. She was out in her crib before 10, which was wonderful. Then DH went to bed because he had a headache. I should have gone to bed, too, but I stayed up doing research for our upcoming trip to the Outer Banks of NC. By the time I decided to call it quits for the night, I still had to wash my face and all, and after that I was wide awake, so I read for a while in bed. Like until 1am. (Bad Nikki!!) Not long after I finally drifted off to sleep, C woke up crying. I brought her to bed with us and she kept us up pretty much the rest of the night. I think she was just overtired and couldn't sleep well because of that. Toddlers are so finicky!! So I feel like I've been hit by a truck this morning. Hopefully tonight I can get to bed earlier. And hopefully C will sleep better, in her own bed!

DH's cousin is bringing her newborn baby down to visit everyone today, so I'll finally get to meet that baby. I'm excited about that, even though I know its gonna send my baby fever into overdrive, haha. Everyone keeps asking me and DH when we're gonna have #2, and its hard to know what to say. We want another child, but we're not sure when. Both of us are pretty much just open to God's timing, though. That's how we were when we conceived C. We were cool with having a baby right away or having to wait a while. We'll see what happens. ( :


This is random, but I don't want to forget: Saturday morning me and C had been in and out of the house a lot. I was hanging out clothes on the line and she'd go with me, then we'd play on the swing set for a while before coming back in so I could get more cleaning done. At point point she asked me if we could go back outside, and I told her we could in a little while. She said, "but Jesus is outside!" I love that kid. <3

Weekend Recap

We have been having some seriously great weekends lately! We've had places to be and things to do but nothing too stressful. Mostly I've just tried to really enjoy spending time with C. I've really loosened up on my house cleaning obsession, haha. Not that I've ever had a spic-n-span house, but I have finally learned that a little dust on the furniture is okay. As long as the bathrooms are cleaned, floors are swept, dishes are washed, and we have clean clothes, I'm good.

The floors being swept are kinda my issue, though. I'm a little obsessed with it! Well, my husband would probably say I'm extremely obsessed, lol. I sweep at least 2 times a day. I hate dirt on my floor!!! Luckily our house is not very big so sweeping doesn't take long at all. ( :

Anyway! Like I said, this weekend was pretty great. Very relaxing, and I didn't get anything done that I planned. But that's okay. Me and C had some fun!

Saturday morning we went to my brother's house. His girlfriend has a 3 year old boy (K), and C likes playing with him. They played inside for a while, then jumped on the trampoline outside. C loved that. We may have to purchase one in the near future...haha. After that, we headed to the jewelry store. I am finally having my ring sized down. Turns out my finger is a lot smaller than I thought! I'm only getting my engagement band sized down. The wedding band will still be loose, but it'll be held in place by the other ring. I wanted to make sure I could at least wear one of my rings if I go through another pregnancy! We also dropped off a bracelet that my husband bought for C on her birthday last year. Yes, it was in December, and yes, its taken me 6 months to get it sized. Whoops. Its a silver charm bracelet and he got her a beautiful charm with a "C" on it to start.

After lunch (which we ate on a beach towel in the living room - C thought that idea was genius!), me, C, and my mama headed to my sister's house for my niece's graduation party. We got there before most of the younger people, so we went swimming in the pool. C had a blast! She has absolutely no fear of the water. I can't decide if that's good or bad! I didn't have a float for her, so I was just holding her while she kicked her little feet (so cute!), and she kept sayin "let me go, Mama!" Uh, yeah, that didn't happen! Then she wanted to climb up the ladder and jump into the pool. She was having so much fun but it was kinda stressful for me. I was so worried that she'd slip through my hands or something. I am definitely getting her some of those little arm floats. I can see a lot of pool time in our future this summer!

Yesterday was my husband's family reunion. He and his dad were in charge of cooking the pig this year, so DH was out of the house by 3am to get it started. So C and I went to Sunday School alone. Before it started, C told one of the women in our church that I wouldn't give her any Cheerios (she has turned into a tattler lately, lol), and the woman said "well, if you come to our class today you can have Goldfish!" That was all it took for C to want to go, haha. She normally comes to our class during Sunday School. She eats Cheerios and is actually very good about being quiet, so we've never taken her to the toddler class. But she liked it! I stayed the whole time just to make sure she'd be okay. Hopefully next week I can just leave her in there and go on up to my class.

(This reminds me: last Sunday during church, C walked down the aisle to the front all by herself for Children's Moment! She is growing up way too fast!!!)

The reunion went well. We had it in the church fellowship hall this year, which was wonderful because of the A/C! (We normally have it outside at my in-laws' house.) The food was delicious, C went to the potty several times (yay!!), and everyone had a good time. It made my baby fever intensify, though! There were a few pregnant women there (one of which went into labor last night and had her baby earlier today!), and a few new babies. Made my uterus ache, lol.

After the reunion, C passed out on our bed. And for the first time in months, she napped without being held!!! It was glorious to be able to get up while she was sleeping and do stuff. I did cheat, though: I nursed her to sleep, then eased off the bed. Hey, whatever works, right? This was huge. I can't remember the last time she took a nap without being held. If you try to lay her down for a nap she wakes up screaming. So we've all just been going with it. Its hard to complain when she sleeps so well at night.

During her nap, DH and I actually had whole conversations. Doesn't sound impressive, I know, but it is hard to have a real conversation with him when C is around! She's good as gold when we go out, but at home she likes the spotlight to be on her, haha. (She comes by it naturally, me and DH are both kinda like that!) And she's so stinkin cute its hard not to let her have the spotlight! I'm hoping that this nap-by-herself thing is gonna become the norm.

I also made her shirts for Bible School while she was asleep yesterday. Bible School starts tonight, and I am so excited! This will be C's first one, and I think she'll love it. I'll be staying with her, but it'll give me a chance to hang out with one of my friends, since her little boy will be in C's class. It'll be a fun week, but a rushed one. Bible School starts at 6:30. I usually get home between 5:30-5:45, so that doesn't give us much time to get cleaned up and get some supper in us. I told DH we'd probably be eating a lot of sandwiches and microwave dinners this week. (I should have prepared by making some freezer meals for this week. Hindsight is 20/20!) I'm going to the grocery store later to stock up on things that are super quick to cook/prepare.

Wish us luck this week as we rush around to get to church every night! It will be a busy week all around for me. I've got an eye doctor appointment later this week, and I'm curious to see what he says about my eyes. I've been having a lot of pain in them for a while now, and I can no longer wear my contacts, which makes me super sad. I despise wearing glasses. I'm also going back to the chiropractor again this week. He's been working on my TMJ, and he thinks that's what caused my trigeminal neuralgia a few weeks ago (did I blog about that? I can't remember!).

This coming Saturday I'm shooting my niece's senior pictures. That should be fun. I've got a ton of ideas for her. Oh, and that reminds me! Last week I purchased a tripod for my camera! I'm super excited about that. I've been wanting one for a while now. This baby goes up to 5', maybe a little more. I didn't use it much this weekend, but I did snap a quick picture of me and C with it...

Sunday is Father's Day, which will be another busy day. After that, our weekends should calm down a little. Let's hope so, cause I need a beach day STAT!! ( :

Riding: Then & Now

I just spent a while looking at my old blog (sorry, folks, it is now private!). I started blogging in 2004, and I didn't have much of an objective other than to record my life. Eventually it turned into a bit of a horse training blog, where I documented my horses' progress and my own progress with lessons. I blogged quite frequently, and most posts were just random thoughts. I enjoy reading my old posts. But there are things on that blog that I don't want random people reading now (I have changed a lot over the years), so no one can see it now but me (and I rarely update it anymore). Reading all that old stuff reminded me how much I love to blog, so maybe now I'll do it more often. And it reminded me that I don't have to stress over what to post - I can just write what I feel. ( :

But looking back over all my old posts did make me a little sad. Horses used to be such a huge part of my life. They still are, but in a different way now. It used to be my dream to own my own horse farm, where I could train and teach lessons and board. I would still love to do that, but I realize that will probably never happen. It takes a lot of money to start a farm. So while I realize my dream of a big horse farm probably won't ever come to be, horses will always remain a part of my life. I hope one day C will share my passion for horses and we can ride together. Which is why I introduced her to horses very early on, and she goes out there with me every evening to feed them.

I used to keep track of every time that I rode my horses. I wanted to keep them in good shape in hopes that we'd be able to go to a show (which basically never happened). But I rode them 4-6 times a week unless I was sick or they were injured. I made a lot of progress with them, and I'm proud of what I accomplished. 

When I was in college, I worked at several horse farms and absolutely loved it. I got to ride a lot of different types of horses, in several disciplines. I learned a lot and became a really good rider. Thankfully, I haven't forgotten anything and when I get back on a horse now, its like I haven't missed a beat. (Though my muscles may protest the next day!)

This was when we were both at our best. I was training her heavily in dressage and she was doing really well!

I got Sunshine in 2006, and she came to me with very minimal training. I worked with her and bonded with her, and before long she had turned into an awesome mount. Its amazing to think in 2006 she didn't understand what I wanted when I told her to stop and go, and now I trust her with small children in lessons!

These days, I'm really lucky if I get to ride once or twice a month. Its just not easy to find someone to watch C for a few hours on the weekends so I can play with my horses, especially when there are so many things I have to get done. I know it won't be like this forever, so I'm okay with it. One day, C will have her own life and she'll be spending the weekends with friends or her grandma, and I'll be lonely and will be free to ride again. Until then, I'll take the far-and-few-between rides I do get to take, and just enjoy seeing my horses every day (since they're right beside my house) and getting to interact with them. And I love seeing C interact with them. She has decided this week that she loves Sunshine. C stands by the fence when Sunshine eats and watches her, its so cute.

One day, I'll get her to be that soft again with a loose rein like this...

When I do get to ride these days, most of the time I just hop on bareback. I may take Sunshine out on a quick trial ride, or I may do a little work in the arena (not too much, since we're both out of shape). I don't ride Wiley bareback, though - he is super uncomfortable without a saddle! When I ride him, I basically just walk/trot and reinforce the training he received before I got pregnant. He hasn't regressed, he just hasn't moved forward since then. And that's okay. He's 8 now, which means he should be trained and totally rideable, but I'm not stressed over it. He'll be mine until he dies, and I don't need to prove anything with him (or prove anything else, I should say - I already proved to myself with him that I can break a young horse by myself!). One day, I'll get him back into regular training - I still have dreams of him being an adorable hunter pony.

me and Wiley in 2009

earlier this year. can you say fat pony?? haha

I don't have many pictures of me riding Sunshine bareback like I do most of the time now. But here's what it normally looks like:

And I love it. ( :

C likes to "go fast" - which is just a very slow jog, haha. I'm glad that she enjoys being on a horse. I love being able to share something so special to me with her. I can't wait for the day when she can ride by herself!

If you had told me 5 years ago that I wouldn't get to ride very often, and that my horses would all be fat and out of shape, I'd laugh in your face. And then swear that would never happen. Its funny how things change, huh? I haven't lost that part of who I am, I've just added on to what is important me, and had to adjust everything else accordingly. And that's nice to know. I like knowing that my passion for horses is still there, and that I still remember everything I learned in all those lessons I took and experiences I had.

Who knows? In a few years maybe I'll be with C at a fun show, cheering her on from the sidelines. ( :

A Little Bit of Everything!

So. Lots been going on around here lately. Which is why I haven't written anything here in a week. Sorry. I have a crazy busy, amazing life! And really, I don't do anything - go to work, come home and take care of my child and our slew of farm animals, go to bed, and start over again the next day. But somehow, my days manage to fly by and every night I'm left wondering, where did today go??!

I've said it before, though, and I'll say it again - I love my life. I really do. Sure, if I had it my way some things would change - like me working a job outside the home, for instance. Clearly, though, that is not in God's plan for me at this time, so I'm cool with it. My point is, I'm in an incredibly happy period of my life right now, so forgive me while I bask in it.  ( :


Here are some super exciting things that have been going on lately (brace yourselves, this is gonna be legend....wait for it....dary! (LOL Yes I love How I Met Your Mother!)

My college friend MM came down last Saturday and spent the day with me and C. We had so much fun. I haven't seen MM much since she got married in 2010 (I was her Matron of Honor when I was 7 months pregnant!) cause she lives 2 hours away now, but every time we're together its like we've never been apart (and how corny does that sound??).

We ended up taking C to my mama's so we could ride the horses. Which is when I finally admitted that something is goin on with Sunshine. The last time I rode her (several weeks ago) she was struggling at the canter and seemed pretty off. I hoped she'd injured herself in the pasture, and decided to let her rest until I did anything about it. (She was totally sound at the walk and trot.) Well, MM couldn't get Sunshine to canter more than a few steps. I hopped on her, thinking she was just bein a brat, but I could barely get her to canter either. And this horse is never a brat with me. I've started Sunshine on a joint supplement in hopes that this is the beginnings of arthritis and the meds will help her feel better. I'm tryin to avoid a huge vet bill. Especially since she's only lame at the canter and seems totally happy otherwise. And its not like she's in regular work anymore (I don't currently have any lesson students and I get to ride so little its pathetic).

I also don't currently have a vet. Mine quit a few months ago, went back to working with small animals. Bummer, cause I really liked her. I have 2 in mind to try. I think they're each about an hour away, just in opposite directions. So I'm sure I'll get hit with a hefty farm call. But I don't have a choice. Large animal vets are far and few between around here. My horses are due for their spring shots (I usually do them in June), so I gotta get on the ball about finding a vet. And I will definitely be mentioning Sunshine's canter issues with the new vet, whoever I choose.


This past Saturday, I made something I've never even tasted before - zucchini bread! I love zucchini and I've heard about the bread, but had never even seen it. Saturday I decided to try it out. I have to say, it was delicious! Unfortunately, I forgot to take any pics. Its not very tasty looking, anyway. C absolutely loved it. DH wouldn't try it, of course. haha.

We planted our garden a few weeks ago, but its gonna be a while before we see any produce. We usually plant much sooner than this, but we've had so much going on. So for now we're getting our produce from a local farm. In fact, on Saturday, DH borrowed their produce trailer and set it up at his business for the day.

C loved that trailer - she said it was her house. She'd get in there and tell me to go around to the side, then say "what do you need?" A little saleswoman! Takes after her daddy, I guess.

DH will have the produce trailer again next Saturday. He really enjoys doing stuff like that. If he knew it would work financially, I think he'd quit his job and be a full-time farmer/small business owner. I pray one day he can do just that.

I have unofficially been dubbed as the social media person for DH's business. So far, I've just created a facebook page, but I'm hoping to do a website/blog eventually (not that I know anything about creating a website, or successfully running a blog, for that matter!). His business is so small, so I'm tryin to do what I can to help him advertise. You gotta do what you can to help your man achieve his dreams. ( :


In case anyone was interested, I have been keeping up with my yoga. I've been surprised (and proud of)  myself! I've started getting up earlier every day (except weekends, haha) to feed the horses and then do some yoga and strength training. I feel so good, too. And I've gained like 3 pounds of muscle! Woohoo!


This past week, I have discovered 2 beauty products that have been pretty amazing so far. The first is coconut oil. Now, I've used coconut oil for a few years now - as a diaper cream for C. Its great for cloth diapers, as I'm sure I've mentioned before, and it really helps when she used to get a little red occasionally. Since she's been potty trained, the jar of coconut oil has just been sitting there. I've always had clean hands when I used it, so I wasn't worried about it being gross - I wanted to find a use for it.

And then a blog I follow had a post last week about washing your face with coconut oil. What??! Sounded crazy to me. But I know this girl has sensitive skin (like me) and doesn't use anything outrageous on her face or her hair. After reading her post, I looked further into it. Turns out, lots of people know about washing your face with coconut oil. Where have I been??

That night, I tried it. Uh, I was pretty amazed. I have super dry skin (like I seriously don't think my body produces oil at all, which is not as nice as it sounds, trust me), and the coconut oil really moisturizes my face. I can't tell you how it works to wash your face with oil, but trust me, it does.

I've said before that I am a Mary Kay rep. I love my Mary Kay products and am super loyal to them. I will probably never use another foundation, eye color, or mascara. But I've never been quite satisfied with the skin care products I've tried. Everything just dries my skin out even more. To the point where I'll get literal scales - ew. For a while now, I've been washing my face in the Timewise 3-in-1 Cleanser for Normal/Dry skin, and it did a great job of cleaning my face and exfoliating it. I was using the matching Timewise moisturizer, but earlier this year I discovered an all-natural line at a local shop (its also made locally), and fell in love with their facial cream (which actually contains coconut oil), and it has really helped my dryness. (They don't actually have a cleanser or I'd already be using that, I'm sure! Well, they make soap and have a facial soap, but I'm not about to put soap on my face!!)

Anyway, the coconut oil really works. I just rub a good amount onto my face (sometimes I wet it first, sometimes not), then take a rag that's wet and hot, hold that on my face for 30 seconds or so, then gently wipe everything off. I don't wear a ton of makeup, so its not like "wow! Look at all the makeup that came off!" But I can tell everything comes off. My skin feels very soft and moisturized after washing now, but I follow up with my cream anyway, since I am so dry. So far, so good.

I read that coconut oil is also great for other things beauty-wise. I've used it on my cheekbones to highlight them. It looks really pretty for a few hours, then the oil absorbs into my skin and the effect is gone. Maybe for someone with less dry skin it would last longer?

I also tried using coconut oil to take off my eye makeup. I wasn't crazy about that one. I had to work extra hard to get it off (and again, I don't wear much), and then my eyes felt greasy for a while after, and I had a hard time seeing that night. I'll be sticking with my Mary Kay Oil-Free Eye Makeup Remover, for sure. I've tried a lot of other brands in the past, and they all bother my sensitive eyes. Mary Kay's doesn't.

Finally, I've been using coconut oil as a body moisturizer. I just slather it on right after I get out of the tub or shower, and it doesn't take long to absorb into my dry skin. I have noticed that I stay a little greasy for a while, but I actually like that feeling, since I am so dry normally. Unfortunately, the coconut oil doesn't last all day like I'd hope, or even over night. I still have to apply twice a day. But its cheaper than regular lotion, and until I find a better solution, I'll stick with it. Last night, I even rubbed C down with the coconut oil after our bath, even though her skin's not particularly dry right now. She wasn't greasy at all afterwards. I think its one of those things that works differently on different people. I know my friend Jessica over at Moving Mountains didn't care for using coconut oil as a body moisturizer.

Next, I want to use coconut oil as a hair conditioner. My hair is like the rest of me - super dry. Most people when they condition their hair just condition the ends, right? Well, I rub that junk into my scalp and let it sit a while. Every single time. I've tried lots of different brands of shampoos and conditioners and have yet to find one that handles my dryness (without making my hair limp and lifeless). So this week I'll try coconut oil. We'll see how it goes.

Oh yeah, I also tried it as a shaving cream for my legs. It worked great, but I'm concerned about it gunking up in my razor. So the jury's still out on that one.

The other day I went to Target and found this adorable little container to house my coconut oil, since the bottle it came in was ugly (I got it at the grocery store, FYI, in the section with the other cooking oils).

The lid doesn't screw on or anything, so its probably not great for traveling, but I like it. Plus its easy to reach in and get the oil out (which is solid at room temp but quickly melts to a liquid with a little heat, by the way). I also picked up that cute little tray. I figured it would be nice to house the stuff that I normally have to move individually to clean under.

And this brings me to my newest beauty discovery. See that white and blue spray bottle? Its called Not Your Mother's Beach Babe Texturing Sea Salt Spray. (Say that 5 times fast.) My sister-in-law works at a beauty supply store and gets a good discount on their products. She told me about this spray and let me try hers. Wow. It was love at first spray, haha. If you have any natural texture to your hair at all, I think this spray will work for you. My hair is naturally (dry and) slightly wavy, but not enough that I can let it go all by itself. I normally straighten it, but every summer I try to just let it be natural (since the frizz/dryness conquers the straightness eventually). This spray brings out my natural texture and kind of amps it up. It really does look like I've been at the beach that day, which is a look I love.

It does dry my hair out, but I've been counteracting that with some extra serum while its still wet. This spray I have found works best when I let my hair air dry over night and just spray it on the next morning. I've been so happy with my hair the past few days! No pictures though, sorry. DH even likes it, so its a win-win. ( :


Alright, this post is long enough! Until next time.

Oh, wait. I'll leave you with a comparison pic of C. To the left is her in June of last year, and the right picture was taken this weekend. Time flies! *sniff, sniff*