30 Days of Thankfulness: Day 11 - 20

Continued from Day 1-10....

Day 11: I am thankful for all of the men and women who have served or are currently serving for our country! 

Thank you!

Day 12: I am thankful that I was taught how to cook. I love to cook meals for my family, and I love that they LOVE to eat whatever I make them!

Day 13: I am thankful for weekends or days off! As short as they may be, I am thankful that they do exist.  Not only do I get to spend all my time with baby girl, but they allow me to get all most of my cleaning done that I have slacked on over the week.

Day 14: I am thankful for the days that we can just spend at home....when we don't HAVE to go anywhere. It is nice to hang out, just us 3, and stay in our jammies all day long. 

Day 15: I am thankful for my parents. Without them, I wouldn't be here today!

Day 16: I am thankful for having a roof over my head and food to feed my family with. 


Day 17: I am thankful for growing up in the area of the world where my parents chose to raise me. Gotta love small town living!


Day 18: I am thankful for days where my daughter is in a good mood!  I very much dislike when she is having PMS. (I SWEAR)!


Day 19:  I am thankful for the times that Ryan and I can just get away and have dinner and go see a movie without the little one tagging along. I love Olivia to death, but sometimes it is just nice to go out and have an adult conversation without worrying if anyone has to go potty!


Day 20:  I am thankful for Education. I am thankful for being lucky enough to go to college and earn a degree in Early Childhood Education.  Even though it probably won't ever get me hired on at a grade school, I still am thankful for having that degree!




Coming soon: Day 21 - 30.

Did that just happen?

Two blogs in one day....watch out!! lol. 

Two events happend today that I MUST share with you. Both I can't believe they really happened, but they did. Here goes:

1. Olivia had to pee outside today at a rest stop. We were on our way to Chester to Reid's Harvest House after church this morning. In Ellis Grove, she said she needed to potty. We didn't know what to do because there is NO WHERE to stop between Ellis Grove and Chester. We came across a small rest stop and decided to pull in. We noticed when we pulled in that there was a board over one of the doors, but we thought that maybe it was just to hold the door shut or something. We were wrong. Both doors were boarded shut...I guess because they don't want to pay someone to clean them anymore or something. Well, they need to put a sign up or something because There is mass amounts of fecal matter, urine, and toilet paper/paper towels wadded up and in the corners of the outside of both of the bathrooms!!!!! EEEWWWWWWWW!!!!!!!  We were not about to have Olivia try to potty on top of that so we took her away from it and as cars are driving by on the highway, here are Ryan and I holding Olivia  so she can pee without getting her clothes wet. Ryan had her arms, I had the feet. BAHAHAHA!   It was the funniest sight I've ever seen!  Too bad we were both needed to help her potty, because if not, I would have had Ryan tape it to embarrass her later in life!  (LOVE YOU LIVY!)

2. We were nearly ran off the road by a semi  today. As we were on our way to Chester, by their golf course, a large semi was coming around the corner. There was a bicyclist on the semi's side of the road, but they were in the rocks off of the road. The semi could have easily slowed down and gone around the cyclist without having to swerve, but because they weren't paying attention (most likely texting) they swerved into our lane causing Ryan to swerve into the curb and into the grass to avoid getting smeared across the high way!  Yep...no joke, it really happened!  We were thankful that God was watching over us to help guide our car in the proper place on the road to avoid an accident. I even told Ryan that someone was there with him helping him drive, because it didn't even feel like the tires left the highway. It was a very smooth transition from road, to curb, to grass, to curb, to road, that it almost felt like we were being guided.  Thank You Lord for saving our lives today!

30 Days of Thankfulness: Day 1 - 10

Over the next 30 days I am going to post something that I am thankful for every day. I got the idea from someone on Facebook, but I'd rather do it on here and try to train myself to start blogging every day!  

So here goes:

Day 1: I am very thankful to have family that love us so much.  I'm not just talking about my blood family, I mean my married family as well! We are very blessed. Our family is doing us a WONDERFUL favor by saving us a day care bill. Everyone in Olivia's life, loves her so much that they all decided to take one day a week to watch her. Olivia is learning her days of the week by who watches her that day. (Nu-Nu/Johnny-Monday, Mama Tammy-Tuesday, Granny- Wednesday, Mommy-Thursday, Mama Jaci-Friday) bahahaha. The great part is that if someone can't watch her on their day, they will usually switch with someone else or we even have back up, if no one is available. (Ryan's parents and my dad.)   Sometimes I wonder if they truly know how thankful that we are!  And that we wouldn't make it without them. "It takes a village".....more like it takes a family!  

We truly are blessed to have such a great family!  


Day 2: I am thankful that Ryan and I both have jobs. Are they perfect, no, but we are very fortunate that we have both found employment and have kept it. With so many out of work and looking, we are grateful for what we do have. 

Day 3: I am thankful for my husband, Ryan. We have been together since April of 2000, and married since March of 2008. He has seen me at my best and worst, I can trust him with anything. He is my best friend. Like every couple, we do have our occasional argument, but we get through it, and it makes us stronger. I couldn't ask for a better person to be my soul mate. I love him for who he is more every day of our lives together.  

Day 4:  I am thankful that the Lord blessed me with a baby girl. Yes I do want at least one more child in the future, but one is enough for now. I love my daughter so very much. She brightens up my worst days just my smiling at me. She and I usually get to spend every Thursday together at home, just us two. I LOVE every minute of it!  We just play and laugh all day long!  My wish for the future is that when she grows up, she and I will have that best friend mother/ daughter relationship that I see, and envy, with so many other mother/daughters. I love you Olivia!

Day 5:  I am thankful that Ryan and I have finally found a church that we actually enjoy going to. We have not officially joined yet, but we will be looking into it very soon. We love that Olivia has some family that goes there as well. We want Olivia to grow up to love the church that she belongs to and we want her to enjoy what she is hearing during the service. We want for her to WANT to go to church and not like she HAS to go just because Ryan and I are making her. We are very excited to start this new chapter of our lives. 

Day 6: I am thankful for my friends, old and new. I am thankful to still have friends from high school that I know will always be there if I ever need them....even though I miss them terribly!  Never really getting to see each other but 2-4 times a year really isn't enough and I truly do miss my friends. It is always so nice when we do get to visit, that I never want the day to end.  I am thankful for the new friends I have made through work. It is really nice to have people to talk to, (that you actually get along with), who work with you, and understand the day to day stresses of working at a preschool/daycare. Thank you friends, for being there for me!

Day 7: I am thankful for the things in life that make me laugh so hard that I cry!  After laughing that hard, I always feel full of joy...almost rejuvenated. It is an absolutely wonderful feeling!  My daughter and husband make me laugh each and every day and I am so very thankful for that! 

Day 8:  I am thankful for nap time for by daughter. I love my daughter like crazy, but there comes a point in the day that I just need a break. This break usually happens at the same time every day...when she starts whining about EVERY LITTLE THING, and nothing will please her, it is time for nap!  It allows her to recharge her battery, and lets me recharge my sanity! LOL

Day 9: I am thankful for Doctors and health insurance. Without them, we couldn't diagnose the minor/major problems with our bodies. I have been having some issues with my heart and finally got it checked out. I had to get blood work, and make an appointment for and EKG and possibly have to wear a heart monitor. Hopefully everything will be good news after all is said and done, but it is nice to have a doctor that I can go to when I have a problem, and know that I can afford to make an appointment and not have to suffer with the discomfort. 


Day 10: I am thankful for books. During nap time at work, if I am not busy with anything else, I get to read a book from 12:00 - 2:30. It is so nice to have a designated time to actually read a book, uninterrupted. I love books that suck you in, and having that 2.5hrs to read is very nice!

play date and birthday party fun!

Olivia's play date with E went very well!  This was E's first time not staying with family while Mommy left and she was a little upset, but quickly calmed down once I started Tangled (Olivia's favorite movie). They played hard, cooking, wagon ride, climbers/slides, sand/water table, coloring, reading, baby dolls, all sorts of fun

Here are a few pictures from their play date and a video: 

 

Holding hands & watching Tangled

watching Tangled

busy cooks!

 

sand/water table play

wagon ride!!

Here is a video of them dancing to Tangled:

 

E's B-day was really fun too. Olivia sang the whole b-day song before E blew out her cake. Olivia did GREAT while E was opening her gifts. She kept covering her mouth and saying "oh my goodness!" when she would open a gift Olivia liked. It was really cute!  

Now it's onto another work week and another busy weekend ahead!

Enjoy the week.

PTL, We might have done it!

Olivia slept in her bedroom all night last night! PTL!!! 

We struggled with getting her to sleep in her bed pretty much since she was born. She wasn't necessarily sleeping in our bed, but from the time we brought her home, she always slept in our room..first, in her pack-n-play (bassinet feature), second, our bed, and third, we finally broke down and put her mattress into our room on the floor so that she could be in our room, but not in our bed. A friend from work actually gave me the idea to put her bed in our room because she knew someone that had to do it and it worked for them. 

From the time we moved her bed, she always snuggled with me in bed and fell asleep, then once asleep, Ryan would move her to her mattress, and most nights, she would stay in her own bed. Usually if she woke up, it would be after Ryan got up and she could hear him getting ready and would crawl into bed with me. No big deal. 

Here is her bed now:

Yesterday, I spent the entire day cleaning her bedroom and getting it ready for her play date with E tomorrow. I knew that I couldn't leave her bed empty like it was because it is a safety hazard. So, I washed all her bedding, made it up, and sure enough, after she fell asleep, Ryan carried her to her room and she never made a sound!  I slept like crap of course, because I didn't know if she was okay. I think I woke up like 15 times to 'pee' and check on her. lol. 

When I woke her up this morning, I praised her for staying in her bed all night long. She jumped into my arms for a hug, and then said, "I don't like the scary monkey!"  I assume that she was having a dream of some kind, so I told her that she doesn't need to be scared of a monkey and that mommy and daddy would tell it to go away. She then said, "Okay, But Daddy and Papa Bob need to shoot it!"  HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!  

I love that she always wants them to kill her bad dreams away!

Enjoy this beautiful day!

Being busy....that is an UNDERSTATEMENT!

We have been so busy lately, that I truly haven't had 10 minutes to sit down at the computer since my last blog!

We have had something to do every weekend since September 17th!  Wedding, Parade, Apple Picking, Appelbaum Training, Pumpkin Picking, etc. and we have every weekend full until October 29th!  Between work, cleaning, cooking, and trying to keep my sanity when I don't actually have a weekend off, I"d have to say I am pretty beat.  But today is my day off during the week, so here I sit at 8:00am while my baby girl is still asleep. 

Here are a few of my favorite pics from apple picking this year:

                         

SUCCESS!

TASTING

GIVING DADDY A TASTE

RIDING A RIDE

IN THE APPLE

DRIVING THE GREEN TRACTOR

DRIVING THE RED TRACTOR

She really did have a blast!

So, on a bit of a sour note, my dish washer broke! This really does suck!  I know that this may sound silly, but it really is hard to wash dishes in my sink. Because of how our house was made, our sink is like only 4-6 inches deep. Why they didn't put a deeper sink in, I have no idea, but whatever. I can only wash 2 things at one time without making a watery mess, and I can't let anything soak in my sink, because again, it's not deep enough. But believe me when I say that I am not opposed to doing dishes in the sink (like some may think). I am NOT lazy and I am not a bad person for Not wanting to stand for an hour to wash dishes from the weekend when we haven't been home while I have a screaming 2 year old that just wants me to play with her or sit and watch Tangled. I've grown up in a time where we always had a dishwasher. Don't tell me that I am being lazy, when I was raised with a dishwasher.  This dishwasher is only 3 years old. We bought it when we first moved in. The town we live in has such hard water, that we believe the calcium deposits burned up the motor. Ryan and I are not even sure we want to replace it right away because we don't want the same thing happening again. Some of our neighbors said they have even purchased a water softener, and it still doesn't help. So for now, no dishwasher. Just hope I don't break my hands, because then we are really screwed!. LOL

Today Liv and I are cleaning her room for a very special guest that is coming on Saturday. Liv is gonna have a play date with one of my best friends daughter. She has not stopped talking about it all week!  Every morning she wakes up and says, "E, coming today?" and I have to tell her not till Saturday. She can't wait for her to get here. 

The rest of our October looks like this:
Oct 8 - Play date with E

Oct 9 - E's b-day party

Oct 15 - 16 - Ryan's sisters b-day and Pumpkin Picking, just us 3

October 22 - bonfire

October 29 - 30 - free at the moment, however I am sure that someone will want to do something and we will have to go.

October 31 - HALLOWEEN!  We are taking Liv trick-or-treating this year for the first time.(we normally just hand out candy somewhere). She picked out her costume already and LOVES it!  I have to do some quick alterations to it because they only had it in a size 4T, but all it will need is some Velcro and with will be perfect!  

hopefully my next blog won't be a month from now!

   

better late than never, weekend wrap up

WOW did we have a busy weekend!

Saturday we attended Shara & Scott's wedding & reception. Livy was so excited to see Ms. Shara in her dress. She kept saying she looks like a princes....like "Cin-da-lella". It was too cute!  She didn't make it through the whole ceremony before crashing out on my shoulder though. Livy was excited to dance at the reception!  This was the first time Ryan and I have let her go on the floor with only some other kids. She had lots of fun dancing with some other girls that attend the day care I work at. But of course, all fun must come to and end. I noticed her looking around trying to find me to tell me she needed to go potty, and when she found me and started walking toward me, of course she had to get plowed over by some idiot child who thought the dance floor was a running track!  (SIDE NOTE: I HATE WHEN PARENTS DON"T WATCH/CONTROL THEIR CHILDREN AT WEDDING RECEPTIONS!! WATCH YOUR FREAKING KID YOU IDIOT!!)  This kid ran into her so hard that her face slammed into the ground. She had a red spot on her cheek where she smacked the floor with her face, and the next day she woke up with a bruise on her lip!    After she fell, and we made it to the potty, I decided that I would just go and dance with her. She really enjoyed dancing while I was there with her. She wore me out shaking her groove thang!  Just after 9:00pm, we decided to leave since she was getting really tired. She crashed as soon as we got home that night. 

Sunday, we got up early for church and after, we went out for a nice breakfast. I was dumbfounded when Liv asked me for pink meat for breakfast. I couldn't figure out what she was wanting until I read the menu and discovered she was wanting ham and eggs for breakfast!  LOL! sometimes she just cracks me up.  After church, and a full belly, Liv and I crashed for a nap.  Ryan woke us up around 1:00 to get ready to go to his parents house for the Evansville Parade. This was Livy's first parade where she could collect the candy herself. She really enjoyed getting all the candy...she just couldn't believe people just give away candy. I was a little irked when a lady handing out beads didn't just throw them on the ground like everyone else. She actually CHUCKED them at Olivia!  They hit her right in the face!  And I don't just mean like 2 necklaces, I mean like a whole wad of 5 of them!  Liv didn't cry or anything, but it still upset me as to how stupid this lady could be.   After the parade, we headed home and met Olivia's great, great aunt and uncle and cousin Jenny for dinner where Olivia stuffed her face with salad and pizza. When we got home, we all crashed out from the long weekend. 

Enjoy the rest of you week!!