HELLLOOOO!

Wow, its been 5 days, seriously where has time gone!? So glad I got a chance to schedule a bunch of posts while I was busy keeping up on the house, and taking care of my sick, then teething toddler. I feel like I have had so much going on in my life the last few weeks. I have so much to tell you all about. If A stays asleep for a bit longer I'm hoping to start pouring out my thoughts. I really need to. I need to empty out everything. What better place than on my blog?

So here is just a preview on things that should be coming to my blog soon, TTC, in-laws, cake decorating, bathroom redo, and lots and lots of A. Get ready blogger friends!

Park Day.

A few weeks ago we had a park trip, and we called up C to make sure A had someone to play with. They had a blast! I can't wait to take A back to the park more often!

Dirty Underwear in My Driveway.

" why man leave dirty underwear in my driveway "

Blog friends, that is the phrase someone used and they found my blog. Strange right? Though there was dirty underwear found just at the bottom of my driveway. It was pretty darn gross. Darn high school boy, sneaking over to his girlfriend's house at night, leaving his trashy little car in front of my house. He must have been a hurry to leave. Poor kid forgot his underwear.

I was just looking through my stats and thought hmmm, that's weird. Here are some other ways people are finding my blog....

"boogie nights gel nails"

I don't remember having boogie nights gel nails, but whatever :)

"hg6te"

Huh?

"sahm housewife"

Finally something normal.

"mommy summers"

That's me. Thank goodness, no more weirdness.

How do people find your blog? How did you find mine?

Hats.

I took A hat shopping. 

 

She tried on a few hats.

 

 I love it.

 

She didn't really care.

 

She ended up picking this super cute hot pink one, with a huge hot pink flower on it. Love it! Can't wait for her to use it more!

Me & A

I don't know if I've told you this before, but SJ doesn't take very many pictures of me and A together, and as you can imagine (or as you know) it's very hard to get a picture on your phone with a squirmy toddler. Did I just say toddler? Good gosh! Where has time gone!? So here are a couple of us. Because, we are together all the time, and you know you want to see us!

Leash.

Okay let's not use the word leash. It sounds like something for an animal. I'm going to say animal backpack with a long tail. What am I talking about?! 

I used to see people walking their kids, like animals. I would always say, "That WILL NOT be me". Well guess what....

 

Yup, that's C, walking A around with a animal backpack, with a long tail. Ladies, I need it. Since A started walking she wants to walk everywhere, ALL the time. I worry about her, so I found a couple super cute backpacks for her, that just happen to have a tail that I can hold onto! I love it. 

A loves them. C loves them. He loves to walk A around the store. It helps me feel more at ease, knowing that if I sneeze for a second, that A won't disappear randomly, she'll be connected to me. My little adventurer. She needs it. 

I don't know if you are like me and say they are awful and such, well they work. Don't judge them till you are in that situation and need them. I need them. They help me keep A safe and close by, and let her feel independent like C. It's a win win situation.

Crab Salad

Stupid phone isn't sending the pictures, I'll add them later, A is having a melt down.




16 oz of elbow macaroni, cooked & drained (wash with cool water so it's cold)
2 celery stalks
a few green onions (add as much as you like, I don't care for green onion too much so I add very few.)
miracle whip
fully cooked imitation crab

So pretty much you combine all of it after you have it chopped into small pieces. I bought the imitation crab shaped in legs & used two legs, I just shredded it with a fork then went over it with a knife till they were nice and small. Add as much miracle whip as you'd like!

Enjoy!

Shiny.

A found the jewelry counter at Macy's.

 Notice the monkey backpack? I let her wander over there to see what was so awesome about jewelry.

She loved it.

She was yelling at grandpa, I'm pretty sure she wanted him to buy her something from in there. She's a shopper. All girl. Knows that the shiny is where it's at!

Pressure.

I used to sleep pretty well at night, now I fall asleep at least an hour after my husband does and I wake at a random time usually between 1 & 4 and stay awake for about an hour. I just lay in bed, waiting to fall back asleep. Listening to A sleep usually.

Usually it's this hour at night that I have ideas, post ideas. If only I could remember them come morning. So I did what I thought I wouldn't do again. I added the Blogger App to my phone, again. I had it and loved it, but found myself feeling the need to try and write posts as often as I could. Trying to keep up with new ideas. So I deleted it. Figured I needed to give myself a certain amount of time to blog.

Now it's back. I've had it for about a week now. It's actually been nice. In the strange hours that I wake and have nothing to do, I can start to write posts. It's nice to see drafts start to build up on my blog. It's nice to remember what I wanted to blog about.

What I like best though, this time around I feel no pressure. No pressure to post, to try to be new & exciting. I enjoy blogging, I really do, but it's not a priority in my life. Its there if I want it, out of my mind if I don't. I still link-up occasionally, when something really tugs at me, or grabs my attention. But I mostly write about me and what I want to write about. I feel better when I write (& when I work out, which is something new I'm trying too).

Thanks for sticking by. Understanding that sometimes ya just get lost in blogging. Because I now know, who it is I want to be and I know how to get there.

Cycle Day 1, Take 2.

We're coming up on our second CD1 since stopping BC. I don't know how I feel about it right now. Sitting in the 2WW this time around doesn't really have me feeling much. I used to be all over the place, trying to prepare myself for whatever it was going to bring. Daydreaming of baby clothes, due dates, or preparing for AF. I was emotional. This time, I'm feeling calm. I know whatever is going to happen will happen.

Who knows if SJ and I will ever have more than just A? God does. He'll let us in on the plan when it happens. I'm not sure how I can be so calm right now. It's not like we're trying but lets face it, as soon as you're off BC and you've been through the TTC ringer once, you're not normal. I know when the big O is, I know about implantation, so on and so forth, I'm there again. This time I'm different.

I like it. It helps to have A with me. I know that no matter what, I have A. She's my baby. I grew her. Heck I'm still growing her, which reminds me I need to do a nursing update. I need some help with weaning. I have a few things I'm trying but it's always nice to get another person's perspective, and by that I mean another non family member. I'm sick of my in-laws or my own family trying to tell me what to do with A. But that's another blog post for another day.

All I know, is SJ and I are very blessed to have our little A. We know so many people that don't see kids as a blessing like we do. They want them for show. It's sad. You can really see it in the kids. Ladies, thanks for all your support. Wish I had more to tell. Hope everyone is doing well.

A hand.

At one point we were looking at jobs in other states for Skyler. I didn't love the idea of leaving but with no in state jobs replying I finally made the suggestion, we should start with the states surrounding us.

That's just what we did. It was a Sunday, we were sitting in our study looking at jobs in surrounding states, I was worried, not sure if we'd find something. I didn't want to leave my family, they are all I really have, no close friends, we've all grown apart, no new friends, my family is it. It was exciting yet overwhelming thinking of the possibility of us leaving, me having to be alone.

Then it happened, I felt a hand on my shoulder, a hand that left me feeling comforted, a hand that told me everything was going to be okay. This hand told me that I was being looked after, that my family was being looked after. I told Skyler, what happened, I told him whoever had done that was looking out for us, a guardian angel.

The next day, Skyler got a call about a job, an hour closer to us, better pay, growth potential. I prayed for weeks about Skyler finding a new job, prayed for comfort in the process and just when I thought everything was going a different way I got that sign. I don't know if I'll always remember that moment, but I most definitely want to have it written down. It's one of those moments where you realize you're being watched over, protected.

Fur Baby Friday

Meet Dakota, my brother's German Shepard Husky mix. He will be turning two later this year.

He's quite big compared to our little 3 pound yorkie, Scout, but A loves him.She likes to wrestle him and walk around holding onto him.

He has such a kind heart and let's A climb and poke at him as much as she wants. His poor tail has been stepped on many times by little A.

So glad A loves dogs, I don't know what I would do if she screamed every time she saw one like some of the other kids I know.

Chalk

 A had her first experience with chalk the other day. She loved it! We sat off to the side of my parent's house, where the were two gates & a wall by her and her cousin C so they couldn't run away. It was fun, until the wind came and we had to go inside. Here are a few of the pictures we got!

Brown Sugar.

Linking up with Shelley today!

I made my own brown sugar. See it all started when I wanted to make cookies with A, but we didn't have any brown sugar, so I got out my cookbook and looked up a substitute.

1 cup granulated sugar

1 1/2 TBS molasses 

Simple enough right?

Right. All you do is mix the two together.

And you get this. Friends, it even tasted pretty darn good!

And I used it to make cookies!

They tasted great too! Couldn't even tell a difference.

 

My future SIL noticed that when I bake chocolate chip cookies they're always so huge! Like puffy, they don't flatten out like the store bought rolls do. Well when I make cookies, I leave out the granulated sugar. Just add in the brown sugar that it calls for. They are puffy and a little less sweet. Makes me eating about 4 of them right after they cool off, a little better diet wise, ha! 

Thanks Shelley for the great link-up!

Singing.

A has started to enjoy singing. I love it, she sings in the car, and even in the show now, its adorable. I haven't recorded it yet but I got some pictures of what she does with her mouth when she sings, LOVE IT!