California!

I am so overwhelmed, and so excited at the same time.

I mean, I have plenty of time to plan and organize and get all the details sorted through, but I am going to CALI! I am so freaking excited. I've never been to California and I've never been on a plane. Dustin has never been to California and he has never been on a plane. This should be interesting...

But the plane tickets are purchased. We are going to be in the very sunny, very hot, California September 10 thru the 19th. Not enough time if you ask me, but it's better than no time at all. I am so excited to see my Aunt Cindy, Aunt Betty, Aunt Theresa, Uncle Jim and all the cousins I have there. Samantha will have lots of play dates with the little ones I am sure, and I know Aunt Cindy and Aunt Betty are thrilled to spend some time with her. And we return the feeling. :-)

But as far as planning goes, thats about all we have decided. The days we are going. There is so much to do there, so I'm forseeing lots of conversations about different things we will try to do while there.

I would love to go to Las Angeles (HOLLYWOOD!) and San Diego. Both are a little trip from where we are staying, but I think (from what I see on the maps) they should both be doable. There is also Disney Land and Sea World... so much fun! I am still trying to figure out how we are going to get Samanthas stuff there (her car seat, stroller, pack n play, high chair, etc.) but I think we will be okay... Then I have to worry about toys, clothes, extra clothes, and extra extra clothes. Although I suppose we will have access to a washer and dryer if for some reason she goes through all the clothes that I do bring. ah. oh well. Anyways, I am so excited! I have been sooo excited all day since purchasing the plane tickets and I have spent more than enough time on the phone with the airline trying to figure out what we can bring ON the plane, and how this all works (traveling with a child). They were beyond helpful at Southwest Airlines :-) The lady I spoke with made every attempt to try to ease my mind and explain how everything works.

Anyways, thats about it for now... I'm sure you will hear more about my upcoming trip throughout the next few months!

This is going to be our FIRST family vacation :-)
(If you don't count the trip we took to see my grandpa, which I guess was a vacation, but it was only for a few days, so I don't count it as much as I do this one!)

anyways, thanks for reading! ;-)

my weekend

My weekend. Oh what can I say? It was wonderful. Glorious. Amazing. Best in a while.

Dustin and I started out our weekend by going to the Dollar Tree and Jewel. Picked up a few things from both places and it started POURING on us while out. So we were both soaking wet by the time we got home. Saturday, Samantha slept in til about 10am (YES!) and I got ready to go meet Miss Ann Marie for lunch! So much fun! Then Dustin and I went on a DATE! Yes, a DATE! A real, honest date! We went to dinner at Chilis where I got myself a yummy drink that made me feel pretty buzzed and then headed out to the movies. Hot Tub Time Machine. It was funny. After all that, we got to spend some "us" time together :-) Sunday morning woke up around 10am AGAIN! Yippeeee! We got ourselves up and ready for the day before picking up Miss Samantha at my parents house. Yes, she got to have a sleep over with grandma and papa. She had a lot of fun. It was so nice to spend some time with Dustin, just the two of us. It was very much needed.

Yesterday, my mommy had surgery. She is recovering well at the hospital still until tomorrow sometime. Also, I realized yesterday that my niece doesn't like me very much. Yeah, she sure loves me, and yeah, sometimes she wants to be by me, but sometimes she is just downright MEAN.

She has a boo-boo on her head, and I was trying to see and I gave it a kissy... she slapped me across the face! OUCH! So she got a good "NO HITTING" talk and then I forgave her :-) Of course. We went downstairs and picked out a balloon for grandma (yeah, we were at the hospital when this all happened!) and then we went to get lunch. When we were back upstairs, she sat next to me and Auntie shared some fries with her. Then she got her beloved bag of cheetos. enough said? maybe not.

So anyways, she is sitting there eating those yummy, cheesy, delicious looking cheetos, and I asked her for one. "NO". oh. hmm... So my mom asked for one, and off she goes. There you go gramma! And my dad asks for one... There you go papa. I ask for another one. Nope. She would NOT share. So papa asked for some more and then made a show of "sharing". She got MAD and wanted them BACK! Anyways, I ate them and they were delicious.

So my sister was getting ready to leave and I asked for a hug and kiss. No. Oh. Well then. So mom gets a hug and kiss and Cassie tells Mariah they are not leaving til she gives me a hug and a kiss (at this point, I was getting my feelings really hurt and why would I WANT a hug from someone being forced to do it!) But then Mariah starts running to me and I think oh yay! Here comes my hug! yeah. No. She ran straight up to me and HIT ME! So needless to say, she got time out and another talking to. But I'm thinking I need to spend some one on one time with my gorgeous niece.

My wonderful morning... gone.

So my last post this morning was all about how great of a day I was having.... yeah, well... not anymore.

I had this amazing weekend planned... Tomorrow I was supposed to get together with some of my mommy friends and go to the mall (yay shopping!) BUT Samantha now has a cold. And not just a slight runny nose cold. It's a full blown, runny nose, terrible cough cold.

So Dustin sends me a message letting me know that this morning her cough started and I am going to want to cancel tomorrows plans with my mommy friends. Hmm... it actually was something like this: "most mothers would be furious with you for bringing a sick child to a get together". So as I am getting ready to type out this response pretty much saying "BUT i want to go, so i WILL go" I realize that he is right. I would be so mad if Samantha got sick because someone else didn't "care" if their child was sick. So boooo!!!!

And THEN! Dustin and I had plans to go out tomorrow NIGHT for a date night. So now those plans are not quite cancelled, but put on a "we will see if she is okay to go to the sitter" which was SUPPOSED to be my parents, but I can't really expect them to watch my sick child, so if all else fails, his mom may watch her. We will see. I'm really hoping our date night doesn't get completely cancelled, because I was really looking forward to it. So.

My best friend texted me and asked me what my plans for tomorrow were. So I told her ALLL about my ruined plans and she asked if we wanted to go to the park. Well, for now, yes! As long as Samantha is not worse, we will go hang out at the park for a bit, because she doesn't care that my daughter may very well give her kids a cold. :-) I love my best friend! So tomorrow is supposed to be absolutely gorgeous... we are going to get together and play at the park for a little while and then hopefully my date day/night with Dustin is still going to happen.

Sunday it's all up in the air. We will see how it all goes, but I am thinking if it's nice out another day at the park might be in the plans as a family day :-) We shall see.

Monday my mommy is having surgery, so keep her in your thoughts and prayers. :-)

The best morning this week...

This has by far been the BEST morning of the week...
#1. It's FRIDAY!
#2. I am awake and HAPPY
#3. I got a FREE coffee at McDonalds this morning!

I went to McDonalds this morning to get a very large diet coke... so I had something to drink at work today. Large diet coke - a buck! Can't beat that! And then decided to get a fruit and yogurt parfait. yummo. Also a buck. So my total is 2 - something. I drive up to the first window. Pay. Drive up to the second window. The lady proceeds to hand me a very large caramel frappe. (MY absolute favorite coffee drink from there!) I told her I didn't order one of those... I ordered a fruit and yogurt parfait and a large diet coke. So she says "uh oh. That lady got your parfait and no coffee" For one... HOW in the world do you leave McDonalds WITHOUT the coffee drink you ordered... For two... How do you take a BAG instead of that yummy coffee drink you have no doubt been wanting all morning?

Anyways, she gets me my parfait, and my diet coke and then hands them to me. The coffee is still sitting on the counter and I tell her "You can give me that coffee, if you want" while smiling. So she looks around, no one is watching and HANDS ME THE COFFEE!

I got soooo excited! And now I'm sitting at work... large caramel frappe about half gone, a full diet coke with NO ice (so it doesn't get watery) for later today and a fruit and yogurt parfait to have for breakfast very shortly. All for 2 dollars and some change. Not bad. Not bad at all.

An eventful morning

Sleeping soundly this morning, I was happy. When the alarm clock went off alerting me that it was time to start my morning routine, made me unhappy. I was tired! So I groggily got out of bed, walked to the alarm clock and hit "snooze, snooze". Two hits of the button gives me another 20 minutes to doze off. When the alarm sounds again, I get up and press snooze off!!!??? Well, back into bed I go for the next 10 minutes hour! I guess I got into a fight with the alarm clock this morning, but I'm still unsure of who won... I mean, I did get an extra hour of sleep, but I was also a half hour late for work. Oops.

So I got out of bed at the exact moment I should have been walking out the door. Hopped in the shower. Got ready to go to work. Left for work. Hmm... forgot a lunch... and breakfast? oh no. Today is going to be quite the day.

Oh well. The day is started and I'm sitting here at my desk with a nice cup of the most delicious coffee. Slowly waking up... yes... waking up. After I'm already at work. Nice.

Full Blown Walker!

We now have a full blown walker, and by that, I mean she will walk completely on her own now. We don't need to bribe her with food or toys, we don't have to sit on the other side of the room saying "Come here Samantha! Come get mommy!" She just lets go and GOES! She is so fast already too! I knew this was going to happen...

She took her time to walk, being cautious... She hasn't fallen except outside where the ground is not even and when she wants to sit down, although I don't really consider that falling... she is just plopping her butt wherever she wants to sit.

So now she goes, goes, goes. The gate needs to be up 100% of the time, much to the dismay of Uncle Matt. She is FAST! And the stairs are right there! So... gate up, child running on the loose! haha. She also loves the stairs, and she tries really hard to get climbing before anyone really notices. Next goal is to figure out how to block her from the stairs.

That should be really fun.

Playing with Daddy

Mommy's turn!

And just because this is the cutest picture!

Photography

So since I decided to do photography as a business, I haven't had much luck. I'm not entirely sure HOW to promote the business or advertise... I've tried Craigslist and I have had 3 paying jobs.

Two came from craigslist, and the other was a referral from one of the craigslist clients. But my last job was forever a long time ago. I don't WANT to give up, but as of right now, I am not seeing any options. Creating a business takes money. And I just don't have that money to spare, unfortunately. I try. But things come up, and then the money that I had saved for more equipment needs to be spent.

I do have one more job coming up in a little less than a month... Shooting a video for my co-workers sisters wedding. Fun stuff. But nothing I can use in my portfolio. I've tried offering special deals and in my opinion, the prices that I do have regularly are very fair and accommodating in this economy.

So where do I go from here? Any tips/suggestions? I will take them, gladly!

do we have a walker YET?

More so than last time I posted...
She now will walk back and forth between people and things, but only if you tell her to and stand her up yourself. She still isn't to the point where she will pull up on stuff and take off. And she definitely can't stand up from a sitting position without pulling on something or someone yet. But she is getting VERY good at walking short distances.
Here's a video of my little munchkin doing her thing. (Excuse our mess of a house please)!

Mothers Day

Mothers Day. Ahhh... What could be better? A day that is specifically meant to celebrate mommies. And a day to bask in the joys of what motherhood means. This day is not all about presents... It's not all about how much money you spent. It's all about being a mommy. Being one of the most important people in your childs life.

My day did start off perfectly. I was sound asleep... Samantha woke up around 9:15am (thanks Samantha! Mommy loved to be able to sleep in a bit!) Dustin got out of bed and grabbed our munchkin... and brought her along with the most beautiful card back to bed. We cuddled in bed while I read a card that just about brought me to tears. And then another card from Dustin. And then just one more card, that is more of a picture frame with a poem inside. Thats for my desk at work. I got some flowers too. Those were/are gorgeous. But mostly, I just enjoyed being with my baby girl.

After we got up and ready, we headed to my mommys house to celebrate her for a while. I made her breakfast, with the help of Dustin and my sister. Biscuits with sausage gravy, scrambled eggs, and hashbrowns. It was DELICIOUS! We hung around there for a while. My mommy and daddy got me a gorgeous picture frame. I can't wait to find the perfect picture to put into it. Probably a family picture. And then I will likely bring it to work to put on my desk. Like I don't have enough pictures on my desk already... See?

and here:


And this is that cool picture frame card I was telling you about:



After hanging out at my parents house, we went home and hung out there. Went shopping because I needed some new jeans. Went to Walmart and guess what? None of their dressing rooms had locks on the doors. Sooo... just bought some in different sizes and now I have 3 pairs to return and keeping 1. haha. Anyways, we had a good day and a good night. Bratwurst and homemade french fries, baked beans and broccoli. Yummm.... Ended the night with cleaning my room. But it totally needed it.

Anyways, I hope you all had a great Mothers Day! And I hope that you all enjoyed the day as much as me :-)

Samantha,
Thank you for being mommys precious baby girl. I love you more than you will ever know.
Love,
Mommy

Doesn't anyone know stealing is WRONG?

Stealing. Bad. Bad. Bad.

Someone is stealing stuff from work. I don't know who, I don't know when, I don't know WHY! But someone is doing it. This is what is missing (that I KNOW of)
something similar to this although I can't find the ACTUAL one we have. and a brand new 24 pack of AA batteries. I'm sure if I did a complete walk through of the office, I would find more stuff missing, but why, why WHY do people steal from their offices? I mean, really. It's stupid.

And an edit to this post:
It's sad. Really, really sad that all of our office supplies are now locked up. The only people with keys are me and the manager... but it's really sad. I mean, if someone needs even a rubber band, they have to come ask me to get one. It's really come to that... ugh. people.

accomplishments

I would like to happily state that I have scheduled my first post. It won't post for some time still... 2 months and 6 dayas to be exact, but it will be here eventually.

I am very excited with the stuff I have figured out for my blog. With the help of Danielle and this blog

I hope you all enjoy my posts, which will eventually become more scheduled, rather than 5 posts in a day! haha. I'm still getting used to it. So bare with me :-)

Changes, changes everywhere

I have made a few changes to my blog, including my web address...
since the last one had my daughters full name, I changed it. So my links to my older posts are not working at this moment. I will try to get those updated shortly.

Edited to add:
The links are FIXED!

random thoughts

I want twins.

Not really. But I really want a cute little "twin" nursery. So cute! Little matching cribs and all this cutesy matching stuff.

But no. no twins. thats a lot of work.

Birthday Pictures

So you may remember my post about her birthday here

But it is lacking pictures.
So here are some. very late. pictures.

These were taken courtesy of JcPennys Portrait Studio







And these are from her birthday party!
Auntie Megan and the birthday girl!

The gorgeous present that my niece, Mariah decorated for her

Singing Happy Birthday

Digging in

Giving mommy a bite

Daddy and the birthday girl

Uncle Matt sits in

Uncle Adam and Auntie Amy

Using a spoon!

Fun smiles!

My little driver?

Yup. Thats right. Samantha drives now. She even has her own car. See?


She loves driving around in this thing, honking the horn and drinking her juice. (She gets sooo mad if her cup is not in the cup holder). She sometimes will bring her baby and she will sit on her lap or on the floor by her feet (I told her she needed to use a car seat, but so far, no luck on that one). Or sometimes she will bring her cell phone and talk while driving. But the best one so far... talking on her cell, drinking her juice and driving. Well... I think we might need to put off on getting her license for a while. lol.

Gramma and papa bought her this car and she adores it.
So thank you gramma and papa!

To Die For Blueberry Muffins

Do you like blueberry muffins? And do they normally come in a package and look like this:
(the one on the left, Otis Spunkmeyer muffins)

hmmm... well after looking at that picture, I can't help but think "That looks good!"

But how about this:


It might not be as perfectly formed, but it is 100 times better tasting! 100% real blueberries and from scratch! And sooo easy! Here is the recipe

A tip: My muffin liner muffins came out great, but I ran out of liners and had to do a couple in a greased muffin cup. These ones didn't turn out so "pretty" I would recommend only filling the cups 3/4 of the way instead of the "right to the top" they call for.

A visit to grampas house

Picture this: Myself. Dustin. sister Cassie. Samantha. Niece Mariah. In one car. For a very long trip.

So we've got me driving. Dustin in the passenger seat. Cassie in the backseat with the 2 girls.
It's a FULL car. We have a 7 hour 10 hour! drive ahead of us. So we leave after I get home from work, take a nap, finish packing, get the car loaded up, stop at Walmart... longest "get ready to go time" ever. Anyways. We finally are on the road! YAY! Then my sisters phone is dying. And she needs it. So we stop at Target (about a half hour from home). She buys a phone charger. We continue driving. We drive about another 30-40 minutes. Samantha starts screaming at the top of her lungs. What is wrong with my poor child!? So I get off the highway, pull in to the gas station to see what the problem is. She is a little wet. But all that screaming due to a wet diaper? hmm... weird. Anyways... I go in.. change her. she screams some more. I give her some tylenol. WHAT is wrong with my child!? Doesn't help. Give her some mylocin. She seems okay while someone is holding her, but we have a very looooong car ride ahead of us. I spot a Dennys. YES! We go get some food and let the girls stretch out a bit. Samantha goes "potty". Messy, but she seems to be feeling much better! So we get back in the car and head back to the highway. Drive for a long while. Kids are sleeping on and off. Stop to get gas. Mariah wakes up screaming at the top he HER lungs. Stop at a rest area. Contemplate getting a hotel so she can sleep in a BED... decide no. Too expensive. Call around when she continues yelling. Find a motel for fifty bucks a night. Perfect. Right? Nope. still too expensive for me and I just want to GET there already! So we keep driving. About 5 miles down the road of the motel exit, what happens? The only thing that could possibly happen to make this drive ANY worse. Cop. Cop.. Cop. uh oh. Did I slow down in enough time? Um no. Here he comes. Lights on. Crap. Pull over. Cry. Yes, cry. Pay the cop for the ticket (kinda convenient if you ask me, but still a pain). Ticket = 75 dollars. Crap. It would have been cheaper to get off and sleep at a motel. ugh. So we continue driving. Oh, there's our exit (2 hours later). YAY! But no. We still have an hour and a half before we get there. Longest drive EVER. Finally get there at 5am. YES! Set up Samanthas pack and play. Go potty. Go to bed. Wake up around 11:30ish? Jeez. Anyways, we just pretty much relaxed all day on Friday and hung out... we went to see the farm across the street. They have horses, cows, chickens, roosters... Samantha had fun. Mariah loved it. We went back to grampas house. Had lunch. A big yummy sandwich from the deli. hung out. Went to Walmart and the Chinese Buffet for dinner. yummy food. Headed back to grampas house (anout half hour drive). Hung out and went to bed. Saturday woke up with a burst of energy. Made a yummy breakfast of eggs, hash browns, bacon and toast. (FRESH farm eggs!) hung out and visited. Grampa, Dustin and I went to the casino and left the girls at the house with Cassie. Had some fun. Lost 20 bucks. oh well. Headed back to grampas house and had a yummy steak and baked potato dinner, complete with corn and a salad. Had delicious strawberry shortcake for dessert. Some pop corn later. went to bed. Woke up on Sunday with a slight "I don't want to go home yet" feeling. Got all ready to go and we left around 10am. Got home around 8. I won't torture you with the details of the ride home, but it did go better than the way there. We made it ticket free by 8pm. We stopped A LOT to let the girls stretch out and exercise their legs. We had a GREAT time and I can't wait to go back (although, when we do, I think it's going to be a 2 part trip!)
Here are a couple pictures from our visit:



My grampas backyard. Completely 100% gorgeous out there!

Fun on the trampoline!

A walker? Not quite, but ALMOST!

Samantha has been taking a couple steps at a time for a little while now... but never more than 3-4 at a time... She does stand all be herself for up to a minute at a time, before she realizes it and then falls down.

Dustin and I dropped her off at my parents house on April 14th so they could spend some time with her (and maybe we had something to do, I don't remember!) Anyways, I went to pick her up and my mom said "She walked" and i couldn't believe it. I told her... she has been doing that for a while... because she would lunge for you and kind of fall forward. But she said, no. She is walking. She was walking back and forth between my mom and dad all night. So I got all excited, sat down on the floor with my mom and tried to get her to show me. She wasn't being cooperative. So I made my dad come in and try with my mom. And sure enough, there she goes! like 3-5 steps at a time and so steady! I was amazed and instantly sent Dustin a text letting him know that we have a walker! So I took a few videos, and headed home. Since then, she is very picky on when she "walks" but she does stand on her own for a while. I couldn't believe that my baby was SOOO big. She is growing before my eyes and it's CRAZY!

Anyways, the posts are going to come pouring in for a little while, because I have so many things I want to update everyone on!

And since I'm lame...

This is my 5th post of the day.
BUT I wanted to share some pictures.
So here they are.

And yes... April 2010 and we are wearing Santa jammies.


My broccoli lover

What was that mom?

well that's funny!

Does this bowl make my head look big?

And last, but not least... this is how I found her sleeping one night when I checked on her before I went to bed...


Oops... and one more.

Another post? YES!

Another post to link up to a new giveaway!




Check it out. Blog makeover. Fun! Mine totally needs a re-vamp, as I said here

New blogging goal

My new goal is not to post regularly, at least not quite yet. It's to make it look PRETTY! I figure, maybe once it LOOKS pretty, I will WANT and be MOTIVATED to keep updating it. So we shall see. It's going to take a while, since I have NO idea what I'm doing, but google is my friend, so we shall see what I can find!

blogging? my friend or enemy?

We shall see. Only time will tell.

Check out this link

Piggy Paint nail polish! How neat? Who woulda known? Surely not me?!

Anyways, I also adore her blog, and with time and practice hope to get into the same routine as her and Ann Marie (remember this link here

Well, I JUST found out how to do that fun linky thing, so woo hoo for me and woo hoo for google! haha. Google is my best friend most days :-)

oh jeez

So it's been a little while yet again, but here I am. Posting as promised. (way late though, so does it really count?)

Anyways, this past week we were ALL sick. No fun. Flu. Gross.
So Samantha has been pretty fussy lately off and on, but we all seem to be 100% now. Yay.

I was off work for a whole week, and although that sounds like oh so much fun, it's really not. Being sick kind of takes the fun out of it.

My new goal is to head out to garage sales this summer and also the goodwill store. I want to start finding some good bargains, like my pal Ann Marie. Found here . She is oh so talented!