Thoughts from the wife of a "wind farmer"...

21 Months Old

2012-01-14T12:41:00.000-07:00

This past month my little boy has become an imitating sponge! We have noticed a BIG change in Parker developmentally these past few weeks. It's quite amazing actually! Here are some of the awesome things he's begun doing:

He makes animal sounds for: horse, cow, sheep, goat, cat, dog, pig, and duck.
If you ask him what a train says he'll say, "Choo-Choo!"
He began nodding his head yes.
He imitates things that we do. Sometimes we do silly stuff on purpose because we know he'll do it too!
He now tries to repeat words back to us.
New words that I can think of are: down (I don't really like that word though because he always says it when he wants out of his high chair or out of our grasp!), ready, fork (ork), spoon (ewn), elbow (belbow), that, plane (lane), bed (be), cow, horse (hor), turtle, room (roo), play (pay)
He is trying to learn how to jump. He's quite good at it on our bed!
He began using his step stool at the bathroom sink. He loves placing it in front of the vanity and then back in it's spot where it belongs when he's finished.
He can put together a wooden puzzle with not much help. Sometimes I'll have to say, "turn it around" and he does what I tell him.

It astounds me how much he really knows. Sometimes I will ask him a question and he'll answer me or point at what I'm talking about. I'm always shocked that he knows what I'm telling him. Those of you who are seasoned mothers are probably laughing at me right about now!

This past month we also celebrated Christmas. I wanted to post a blog about it, but time got away from me. He totally grasped the concept of unwrapping a present and he had a blast with it. One of his favorite gifts was a singing dancing snowman. He loved pressing the button to make it dance and he would run around the room and dance along with it. He also received a Little People Runway that he loves playing with.

Speaking of playing, he has very recently grasped the concept of being able to play in his room with his toys. His Grams was here the past few days and I would constantly hear him tell her, "roo. pay." He desperately wanted her in his room playing with him!

He loves having simple tasks to perform. I can say to him, "go put this in your room/mommy's room." And he will! He loves to help me load the washer as well and he likes it when I make my bed (mainly because he climbs up on it and falls onto the pillows).

I'm sure I've mentioned this before, but it's worth repeating, my little guy loves to DANCE!!! He can shake his hips like you wouldn't believe! I have it on video and hopefully I can upload a video on here soon. It's a hoot!

Parker has always had the most amazing eyes. When he was born they were a dark navy blue. Eventually they turned to a shade of gray. Now I'm fairly certain that they are actually GREEN! They are really different than any eye color I've ever seen before. They are beautiful!

He got his 4th hair cut. And the hair dresser totally botched it. It was so dark in the house (yup, you read that right) that I took him too that I didn't notice how crappy of a job it was until I was in some better light. I know not to let her near his hair again. At least in pictures it doesn't look bad!
I think I may have touched on this issue on my last post about Parker, but he has become quite the expert at throwing tantrums. If he doesn't get his way he will let you know fast. He bursts into tears and will hold his hands up and if I don't pick him up he doubles over at the waist and is down on the ground on all fours. In a crazy way they're kind of cute.

To make up for all those tantrums, he does some pretty cute things. For instance, he'll pick up a book and as he's flipping through the pages he says, "read, read, read, read". I guess he's really "reading" his book!

I am 21 months old. I weigh 25 pounds and am 31 1/2" tall!

Full of mischief!

A Great Blog Giveaway!

2012-01-14T12:03:00.002-07:00

There's not much time left, but click here to enter an awesome blog giveaway!!!! And, check my blog later for a post about Parker!

And the list keeps getting longer...

2012-01-12T19:13:00.000-07:00

I was in such a hurry to post my 2012 goals that I forgot these few that have been weighing heavily on my mind. To check out my other goals click here.

Write a will. I think Greg and I have learned the hard way that a will is a very important document for a parent to have. I think this would just be a responsible thing for us to do.
Open a Savings Account for Parker. Sometimes Parker receives money from various family members and I like to put it aside for him to use when he's older. It only makes sense to protect this money in a savings account.
Go to a concert. Greg and I love going to concerts but we haven't been to one in years. I'm hoping we can go to a concert that we will both mutually enjoy, and not my husbands beloved Jason Boland *gag*.
Begin working on my Brokers license. I really think that this is a goal that most Realtors hope to achieve. I would like to start doing my classes this year.
Become active in the community. I don't really know how I'm going to do this yet, but I keep having an urge to give back in some way. Plus, it will be a good way to meet people!
Learn CPR. Way back when we owned a home that came with a swimming pool I thought it would be in my best interest to learn how to do CPR. But, I procrastinated and never learned. I also have this weird theory that all parents should know how to do CPR. Am I one of those parents myself? No. Which means I'm a pretty big hypocrite. I don't necessarily care about being "certified", just as long as I would know how to do it in case of an emergency.

Awesome Commercial

2012-01-07T09:56:00.001-07:00

2012 Goals

2012-01-05T14:01:00.000-07:00

Here it is: another year, another batch of goals!

Give my blog a makeover. Since my hubby is no longer a "wind farmer" it's time to re-name this blog! I'd love to have a tab to click on to buy my jewelry, too! Hopefully I can figure this out.
Drink more water. I should have learned my lesson when I got too dehydrated this summer, but nope. Anyone who has ever spent a day with me probably knows I am horrible about drinking eight glasses of anything in a day. I don't even finish a full beverage with a meal. So, I'm hoping that by the end of the year I'll be able to guzzle down 8 glasses of water a day. This is truly a challenge.
Read 10 books. Ten books that I already own, to be more specific. I counted the other day, and there are 37 books on my book shelf that I have never cracked open. That's a little ridiculous.
Get caught up on Parker's baby book. When I packed all of our stuff up from our Colorado house I thought, "I'll be unpacking in a month and I can catch up on his baby book then." Well, we all know how that turned out. Six months later I finally unpacked the box with his baby book; and still haven't got caught up on it. This needs to be addressed, pronto!
Have a tan. I mean a real, honest-to-goodness, I've-been-at-the-beach-all-day, kind of tan! Not the, I-just-got-sprayed/laid-in-a-bed/rubbed-orange-lotion-all-over-me kind of tan. Granted, this will probably take all summer to achieve because I'm a big believer in sun-screen (yes, you can still get a tan wearing sun screen; it just takes longer).
Take Parker on a fun outing every other month. Not only do I feel like my little guy misses out on social interaction with other toddlers, I also feel bad that we live in such a remote area and he doesn't get to experience very many things. I figure a special trip every other month can make up for it, even if it just means driving an hour to play with a friend.
To only eat out 75 times the entire year. Yup. Re-read it and let that soak in. Considering our family eats approximately 1,095 meals a year, I have a feeling this is going to be pretty hard. But, I'm going to attempt it nevertheless. I've already added a little running tally to the top right of my blog so you can keep track of how often we eat out, along with *gulp* how much money we spend doing so.
Refurbish Parker's rocking chair. This is pretty self-explanatory. I have everything I need to do it, I just need to make myself actually get the job done.
Personalize my home-office space. Our new home doesn't have a room I can designate for a home office, so when we remodeled our kitchen we added a built-in desk. I have a vision in my mind as to how I want it to look. And, since it's in the heart of our home, I also want it to match the "beach" theme I want our house to have. Lets see if I can make it work!
Learn how to make fork jewelry. I know this was on last year's list, but I never really had the time to give this hobby a go. I can't tell ya'll how desperately I want a fork ring just like this.
Learn how to crack an egg with one hand. Because that would make me feel like a complete culinary bad a$$.
Exercise at least four times a week. Granted, I'm not going to be hitting up the gym, but I do have this awesome inspiration I found via pinterest.
Source: iowagirleats.com via Felicia on Pinterest
I am also dying to have a hula hoop! I plan on re-visiting my fifth grade hula hooping club days! Oh, yeah!
Contribute to our family financially. This means make my family some money, and not cost us some money like I did last year. Hopefully real estate in this sleepy lake town will start hopping real soon, if not, I'm gonna have to figure something else out. Any ideas?
Find a church to attend regularly. Preferably one that my husband ~~won't gripe about~~ would attend with me.
Take a wild guess. If you've been reading this blog for the past few years, you probably have a small idea as to what this is. I just know this is the year I'll accomplish this goal!
Write a will. I think Greg and I have learned the hard way that a will is a very important document for a parent to have. I think this would just be a responsible thing for us to do.
Open a Savings Account for Parker. Sometimes Parker receives money from various family members and I like to put it aside for him to use when he's older. It only makes sense to protect this money in a savings account.
Go to a concert. Greg and I love going to concerts but we haven't been to one in years. I'm hoping we can go to a concert that we will both mutually enjoy, and not my husbands beloved Jason Boland *gag*.
Begin working on my Brokers license. I really think that this is a goal that most Realtors hope to achieve. I would like to start doing my classes this year.
Become active in the community. I don't really know how I'm going to do this yet, but I keep having an urge to give back in some way. Plus, it will be a good way to meet people!
Learn CPR. Way back when we owned a home that came with a swimming pool I thought it would be in my best interest to learn how to do CPR. But, I procrastinated and never learned. I also have this weird theory that all parents should know how to do CPR. Am I one of those parents myself? No. Which means I'm a pretty big hypocrite. I don't necessarily care about being "certified", just as long as I would know how to do it in case of an emergency.

Oh How Pinteresting

2012-01-04T12:23:00.001-07:00

I'm linking up for the "Oh How Pinteresting" blog party today!

I love how popular these "keep calm" signs are becoming. I saw this one and fell in love! I can't wait to have one in my house!

Source: Uploaded by user via Rebekah on Pinterest

We hosted a large New Years Eve party and I did this trick below! I just took the pan out of the freezer 30 minutes prior to adding the cubes to my beverage server. I used a butter knife to pop them out.

Source: industriousjustice.blogspot.com via Felicia on Pinterest

I bought the frames the other day to do this! I can't wait!

Source: realdanagentry.blogspot.com via Hillary on Pinterest

The only reason I'm posting this is because I made it on Christmas morning.

Source: jimmydean.com via Felicia on Pinterest

Unfortunatley it was disgusting!

That's OK, Pinterest...I still love you!

Did I accomplish all of my goals for 2011?

2011-12-22T15:33:00.000-07:00

Nope.

Actually I did slightly better than I thought considering this year did not turn out the way I had thought it would. Meaning: I had no idea we would be moving, let alone moving twice! Yikes! So, I feel like I can't be too hard on myself. Then again, is that just me making excuses for myself? You be the judge.

To read my goals, click here.

1. To print, label, and organize all the photos that are on my laptop and place them in photo albums.
*SIGH* I'm so disappointed in myself, so lets just not even talk about this, OK?

2. To learn and use baby sign language with Parker
I actually did this! Parker can sign the words: milk, more, again, please, love, and all done. Now that he is starting to talk more I don't really push the sign language. Really there is one other sign that I would like to begin using and that is the word, "help". I think that one would come in handy!

3. To use coupons
I do occasionally use coupons. In fact, I've even began shopping at my local Homeland because they double coupons daily! However, I haven't been printing coupons from the Internet or actually buying the Sunday paper to get coupons. My mom has actually been helping me with this goal! If she gets the Sunday paper, she saves the coupon section for me and gives them to me whenever she sees me. Since I don't see her on a regular basis, I don't get coupons all the time.

4. To paint all the closet and bedroom doors in our house
I did this! And just in time for us to sell our house! ;) Take a peek for yourself: Don't the doors look better white?

Our master bedroom the day we bought the house.

Our master bedroom right before we sold the house. Much prettier with white doors!

5. To bake a pie.
Sadly, I didn't do this. But, now that we've moved back to Oklahoma I have visions of both my mom and my grandmother actually helping me bake a pie. Doesn't that sound like a lot more fun?

6. To contribute more to my family financially
This is a tough question to answer. If I want to get technical, I've actually cost our family more money than I have made us. How is that? Well, I started selling real estate again. Which means I had to catch up with my continuing education ($100), then I had to sign up for the MLS and the Board of Realtors ($765), order business cards and car magnets ($135), purchase name riders for my For Sale signs ($85), and then I just had to pay my dues for membership for 2012 ($749). So far I have had one sale and my commission check was $645. You do the math.

7. To learn how to make spoon and fork jewelry
I didn't do this.

8. To begin working on my book again
I didn't do this either. But, I did read the few pages that I had written...does that count?

9. To host a few more Bling On A String trunk shows
Nope.

10. To finish The Harry Potter series
Finally! Right when I was beginning to mentally beat myself up, the last thing is something I did! Does it really count though when I was in the middle of reading the last book when I added it to my goal list? At this point, I'm going to say YES!

Tons of Fun!

2011-12-22T13:05:00.002-07:00

I would guess that is how Parker would have described this past Monday. I was determined for my little boy to see Santa Claus, even though the closest mall is an hour away. Luckily we needed a few items at Home Depot, so Greg was able to be persuaded to go on a day trip. First, we had a delicious lunch at Cheddars. We sat right under neath the cool big fan that seems to be the trademark at any of the Cheddars I've ever ate at. Parker saw it and said, "Ohhhh!" Our table also happened to be near a big fish tank. Parker was fascinated by all the fish and was constantly leaning over in his high chair so he could see them.

After our yummy lunch we headed over to Home Depot to get the few items we needed. From there we were off to the mall! I didn't have plans to do any shopping, I really just wanted Parker to see Santa and that was all. We arrived at the Santa station a little after 1:00, only to find a sign that read, "Santa will be feeding the reindeer's from 1-2:30. That didn't go over too well with Greg. He instantly began naming off all the things he could be doing instead of walking around a mall. I suggested that we just walk around and see what stores were in the mall to kill some time. Sadly, there are not many stores in that mall at all, but we did come across one "store" that caught our interest.

It was one of those kids arcade type places. The bonus was that they had a huge room full of several different inflatable bounce houses (the kind I always hated when I was little). Greg instantly turned into a kid again and said, "I don't mind killing some time in there. Parker will have fun in the bounce houses." We asked how much it cost to get in and were stoked when we found out that kids under 2 were half price, and adults got in for free.

Parker hadn't had a nap yet (and this is the kid I keep on a tight schedule, so being up at 1:30 with no nap is not normal for him!) so when we first placed him in a bounce house and Greg and I jumped up and down he looked at us like we were crazy. That is, until Greg took him down a big inflatable slide!

Look at that smile!

From there, it was game on! We ran, jumped, climbed, and went down lots of slides. They had one of those big jungle gym type things that you see at Chuck-E-Cheese's. Basically there is a lot of climbing and crawling to finally get to a big slide. We did that several times. Obviously I wouldn't let Parker do it be his self, so either Greg or I would be in the lead, then Parker would be in the middle, and the other adult would bring up the rear to help push Parker up if he needed a boost.

He loved climbing! This is when he was getting tired and needed some help from daddy.

After climbing on the jungle gym for what seemed like hours (but in reality was only about 30 minutes) we went back to tackle the bounce houses again. We found one with an itty bitty steep slide in it and Parker LOVED it! Greg and I would take turns as to who would be at the bottom of the slide so we could each see his huge smile. Once he would reach the bottom he was instantly signing "again" and we were more than happy to accommodate!

Towards the end we showed him that not only could he slide in the bounce house, but that he could JUMP! Parker has never tried to jump at home, but he did great in the bounce house!

Look at that grin! PRICELESS!

We left shortly after so Parker could see Santa. We were tired, happy, and agreed that it was by far the best $4.00 we've probably ever spent! It's safe to say that we'll be going back.

By the time Parker got to sit on Santa's lap, he was one tired little boy. And rightfully so, since it was 3:30!

So tired he could barely keep his eyes open!

I actually expected him to cry when we sat him on Santa's lap since he was so tired. The picture that I was given to take home with us has him looking at the camera, but he looks totally spaced out! I'm OK with it, though!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Christmas Traditions

2011-12-16T14:49:00.000-07:00

I have to admit, even before I got married, I longed for the days when I could begin my own family holiday traditions. Call me sappy; I'm OK with it!

I know this may sound tacky, but I love going to the movies on Christmas! Maybe it's just because I'm such a movie lover, but there are usually several movies opening on Christmas Day, and the theatres are always packed. Now that Parker is in our lives, I think it will be several years before we can continue with that tradition; and I'm fine with that! However, now that Parker has blessed our lives, these are some of the fun Christmas traditions I hope to keep up:

The Christmas Count-Down Calendar. This was Greg's when he was a little boy. His grandma made it, and I love that now Parker gets to use it, as well. He already knows what I mean whenever I say, "Do you want to do your Christmas calendar?" He eagerly holds his hands up so I can lift him up to see it. I will point to the day that it is and say the numbers aloud. Then I'll grab whatever Christmas tree ornament is in that day's pouch, and will lift it until it barely peeps out of it's hiding spot. Once I move my hand out of the way, Parker excitedly pulls it out. He loves examining each days ornament! After he has thoroughly examined the goody, I hold him up and let him place it on the tree. Obviously I have to pin it for him! On Christmas Day he will be able to pull a Santa Clause out of the pot under the Christmas tree.

Another Christmas tradition I plan on starting this year is allowing Parker to open a gift on Christmas Eve. That gift will be a new (yet freshly washed) pair of pajamas for him to wear to bed that night. These are his Christmas Eve pajamas for this year. I actually purchased them the day after Christmas last year for a mere $2.00!

For the last few years, I have bought a Christmas tree ornament that reflects something that happened in our family the previous year. For instance, last year I bought a "Baby's First Christmas" ornament. This year I opted to use something even more personal for our yearly ornament. I placed Parker's first pair of walking shoes on the tree. I need to see if there is a way to actually get them preserved as an ornament. My mom bronzed a pair of my first shoes and they are on a plaque. I don't really want to have a plaque of Parker's shoes sitting in my house, so I think the Christmas ornament idea is pretty neat! As a bonus, Parker loves pointing at the tree and exclaiming, "Shoes!"

Those are a few of my Christmas traditions. As Parker gets older I plan on adding more traditions, including ones that involve the true meaning of Christmas.

What are some of your Christmas traditions?

He made the list!

2011-12-16T13:34:00.000-07:00

The "nice" list, that is!

At least, that's according to Parker's sweet niece, Zoe, which means it must be true!

A few hours left for FREE SHIPPING!

2011-12-15T12:50:00.000-07:00

I meant to post this yesterday and then something came up....but, I'm offering a twenty-four hour coupon code for free shipping at my etsy store. And, the coupon actually expires today at 5:00 P.M. CST, but since this is being announced so late I will extend the coupon to 8:00 P.M. CST. Just enter coupon code 24HOUR at check out.All sales will mail out on Friday, which means it should arrive in time for Christmas! Head on over to www.blingonastring.etsy.com and shop til your heart's content!

20 Months Old

2011-12-12T19:00:00.000-07:00

It just hit me that this post is beginning with the number 2! *GASP* Before I know it I'll be planning a second birthday party. My little boy has really begun playing with toys more this past month. He was recently given a Little People barn and he loves playing with that, as well as a toy tool set. He also loves playing with balls and flipping through books. I have to be careful when he has books all to his self though, because he likes tearing them up and eating them as much as he loves looking at them.

I wrote in my last month old post that he began watching Sesame Street. I should probably clarify. The DVD that we have is an Elmo DVD, so technically he loves ELMO! He can spot anything elmo related a mile away! In the morning when I get him out of his crib he has three things that he immediately asks for: Dada, Billa (what he calls our dog, Shady. Long story as to why he calls her Billa), and then MELMO (elmo)! I should probably get a back-up Elmo DVD because we would have a problem in this house if something ever happend to the one we have.We celebrated Thanksgiving this past month and went and stayed with our Aunt Jackie. Parker had so much fun! She had a lot of different toys for him to play with. He also got to play with his sweet cousin, Hillarie. He gave her lots of hugs and affection.

Parker has really mastered feeding his self well with utinsels. He loves using a fork and has also gotten much better with a spoon. In fact, this month I finally began letting him eat his cereal without helping him. He used to turn the spoon over, but that is no longer an issue. I can't complain that my son is a picky eater. He is generally a very good eater! Luckily we are not vegetarians, because he loves meat. His favorite meats are ham and hamburger meat.I know that Parkers vocabulary is expanding but I proabably won't remember all the new words he can say. Some of his newest words are: walk, knock, phone (wone), and turtle. I am also continuing to work with him on his body parts and he has recently learned where his cheek, chin, and fingers are.I put up our Christmas tree one evening after Parker went to bed. The following day I decorated it while he was napping. He was so fascinated by it once he woke up. I only decorated the top half that he couldn't reach. He is constantly putting anything and everything into his mouth that I didn't want to risk him putting an ornament hook in his mouth. After the newness of the tree wore off he has pretty much left it alone.

This past week we had our friends Randy, Shannon, and Braxton down to visit us. Parker was thrilled to have a kid in the house to play with. I use the word "play" lightly because there is such an age difference between them that they actually don't really play well together. But, Parker loves watching him and is thrilled to have him around. We went to a circus one night and it's safe to say that Parker was fascinated by what he was seeing.

A few days later I took the boys to a Christmas parade. They had a blast! There were two motorcycles in the parade and Parker would point at them and say, "bike! bike!" I think we may have a future biker on our hands!I am 20 months old today! I weigh 26.2 pounds!

I'm surprised I haven't been fired

2011-12-02T11:55:00.001-07:00

I began working at my real estate office in the middle of October. That means after four years of not being a member of the normal "work force" that fuels the economy, I had to scour through my closet and try on all my (old) work clothes. That was not a fun day. I sold real estate back in 2006-2007 and now that we have moved back to our home-state of Oklahoma I decided to get back in the game. My office is extremely small: there are three Realtors in the office, including me. What's common in a real estate office is a term called "floor time". This means if a phone call comes in about a property, or someone is wanting to list their home for sale, that particular phone call goes to the Realtor who is on floor time. In my office, we do not have a secretary. Instead, each of us stays at the office two days a week and works the floor. Since we just moved to the area, and since I don't know a lot of people, the days that I am on floor duty are spent scouring the internet and wasting time. Just kidding...I do try to make my days away from home and my toddler count! However, after only two weeks in the office, I was sure my broker was going to fire me. My second day on floor duty was on a Saturday. Saturday's are short days and we are open from 9:00 to 12:00. Greg had already agreed to do a job for someone that day and that meant I had to take Parker to work with me. On my second day. I had told the broker that I may have to bring him with me to the office occasionally but that I didn't want to make it a habit. She was totally cool with it, but I felt a little twinge of guilt for taking him to the office on my second day. Halfway during the job that Greg was doing he relized he needed to go to Lowes for supplies. He drove right by the office so figured he'd stop in and check on me. He was there maybe five minutes and wouldn't you know my broker walks in the door. There we were: me, my husband, and little Parker sitting down in the middle of a room strewn with plastic food. I groaned inwardly because I did not want her to get the wrong impression of me and I didn't want her to think that I didn't take my job seriously. Eventually Greg made the comment that he was getting hungry and when was I leaving. My broker over heard and said, "You can leave early if there's nothing going on." At this point it was 11:00 so I said, "Ok, thank you." She left prior to us and I quickly gathered up everything and the three of us headed out the door. I left my vehicle there and we made a trip to Lowes and then to Chili's for lunch. While eating my phone suddenly rings. It was my broker and the first thing she says is, "Are you alright?!" My response was, "I'm at Chili's in Durant eating lunch, so yup, I'm pretty good." Her follow up to that was, "Oh, well, I had to stop back at the office and your car is here, the office was unlocked, and there are a set of keys in the door. I thought you had been abducted."CRAP! My heart sank! I forgot to lock the door? I left the keys in the door? It was all rushing back to me. I had put the keys in the door (to save time) while Greg used the rest room. As I was loading Parker into his car seat I realised he needed a diaper change. I rushed back into the office, quickly changed his diaper, then went back to the truck to load him up. Apparently in my haste I forgot to lock the office door!!My broker said she was glad I was safe, but I couldn't help feeling horrible that on my second day I had done such a major blooper. However, my mistakes didn't end there.The following week I was rushing around the house before I went to the office for floor duty. I was running late (which stresses me out to no end) and I could not find my sentri card for the life of me. A sentri card is a credit card-looking device that Realtors in this area use to open lock boxes on properties. I didn't have any appointments to show properties, but I wanted to have it on me in case someone called the office and wanted to see a property. I finally convinced myself that I wouldn't get any phone calls from people wanting to see properties so I dashed out the door. Wouldn't you know, an hour after I arrived at the office my broker called and asked me if I could do her a favour and show one of her customers a property she had listed. My reply was, "sure if I can find my card." I'm not sure she realised what I meant, but I dashed off to my house first (luckily the house I was showing was only a mile away from my house) to search for the card....again.Ten minutes after I was supposed to be at the property to meet my brokers client, I still had not found my sentri card. Dejectedly, I called her to admit my fault. She sounded disappointed but told me to call her buyer to let her know the situation. I called the buyer...and received no answer. I decided to drive to the property with hopes that they were still there and I could explain what was going on. I pulled up, and saw a van a few houses down that was parked in front of another home that was listed for sale by another office. The lady in the van waved at me when she saw me pulling into the drive way, so I walked over to where she was. I explained that I had lost my card that would have given me access to the lock box and she said that I could ask the other Realtor to open the door for me. That sneaky little buyer had called the Realtor from the other sign and was planning at looking at two different properties with two different Realtors (that irriates me to no end, but she wasn't my buyer so I kept my cool)! Now, this is a small town, so word had already spread that a new Realtor was in my office. Believe me when I say that it was not a highlight of my career when I had to introduce myself to a Realtor from a different office and tell her that I had lost my sentri card, and could she please unlock the door so I could show the property to my broker's client. Luckily after that incident, things began running a lot smoother. Until a few days ago. I was in the office along with my broker. The Fed-Ex guy showed up to deliver a package and asked if the recipiant worked at our office. I looked at the name and told him that I didn't know who the person was and that it didn't belong there. So, he took it and left. My broker was on the phone when he came in. About twenty minutes later she asked if Fed-Ex was dropping off the package for her brother-in-law. Of course I knew nothing about it and had sent him off on his merry way. She said a few swear words and then set off on trying to track the fed-ex guy down. I have to admit, I didn't feel too bad about that since I had no idea she received mail for family members at the office, and the package didn't have our offices name on it.Like I said in the title, I'm surprised I haven't been fired. Luckily, today I had my first closing. I'm hoping that has redemed myself and now my slate can be wiped clean!

19 Months Old!

2011-11-13T19:51:00.001-07:00

Parker is officially 19 months old! And I'm pretty impressed with myself that I'm getting this post written on the actual day he turns 19 months! Sadly I realized that I forgot to take a picture of him today (Opps!) but oh well, I'll try to take one tomorrow and add it then. And, I just realized I forgot to meausre and weigh him. I'll add that to tomorrow's list as well! I'm sure he won't change that much in a day!The eighteenth month was pretty fun for Parker. I started working full days at the office twice a week, which means Greg watches him those days. I can tell that Parker really loves those special days when he has his daddy's full attention. He is such a daddy's boy!

I wrote in my 18 month old post that I did the CIO method to get him to sleep through the night. A few days after writting that post I decided I also needed to let him CIO before he went to bed. I'm so glad I did! Prior to that I would spend at least thirty mintues leaned over his crib, patting his back until he fell asleep. The first night I laid him in bed and left the room he cried for maybe five minutes. The following night it was about 30 seconds. He continued with the 30 second cry for the next few nights, until one night he just magically didn't cry when I left the room. Horray!!!!!!!!!!!! Yes, I was pretty pumped about this little feat! The down side is that I really have no idea when he wakes up in the morning. Since he figured out I don't run into his room anymore when he cries, I think he lays awake until he absolutely can't stand it and then he wimpers. There have been numerous times that I would go into his room around 7 and peek at him, only to have him pop up and start talking to me. Other times I'll hear him rolling around and I know that he's up. He got to spend lots of time with family again this past month (another bonus for moving back to Oklahoma!) His grams came and watched him a few days while Greg and I were both working. Then, we went to Norman and stayed at his Papa and Nana's for a long weekend. While we were there his grandma (technically his great grandma C), granny (his great grandma L), and grams (my mom) came to visit him as well.

While we were there he got to go trick or treating for the first time! He was a little handyman! I was so excited about the outfit that I created for him: a shirt I ordered from cafepress and a toolbelt from etsy. Sadly, Greg made fun of the toolbelt, saying it looked more like a waitress apron. And, I have to admit, he's right. Oh well! The best picture I have of him is with him wearing this witch hat. I did have a construction hat for him to wear, but it was too big and he kept taking it off. He had a blast and loved hanging out with his cousins!

I don't know if I've mentioned this in other blogs, but Parker loves to dance! It all started with a toy guitar that he has that he will "play" and he dances to it. I love it and hope he continues to love dancing! His favorite dance is when Greg imitates the music to Michael Jacksons "Smooth Criminal".Parker LOVES other kids. If he's around his cousin Zoe, or his friend Braxton, he is constantly going up to them and hugging them. Granted, both kids are older than Parker and after awhile they get tired of it. It's still pretty adorable to witness.

As I mentioned in a previous post, I took him to a pumpkin patch. It was a fun outing for my cute little toddler.

He now has a new favorite food: bananas. Anytime I open the pantry he immediately points to the bananas (even if we're out he points at where they are normally kept) and says, "nana". He also has a new found love of ICE. One habit my husband has that drives me bonkers is that he loves to chew ice. I'm afraid I may have a son who has inherited that habit as well. This is what Parker usually does when he completes a meal.

He calls it a hat. Silly boy!Parker still loves dogs. One really exciting event that has happened in our house is that we finally have our dog, Shady, back! Our awesome granny was dog-sitting her for the last six months, since the cabin we were staying in in Texas didn't allow pets. We brought her home two weeks ago and Parker is over the moon to have a dog to "play" with. I use the word play lightly because Shady is old and doesn't play. However, if she's inside, I can often find Parker snuggled up next to her on her pillow. His new favorite game is to chase her around the kitchen island with his popper toy while I'm making dinner. Hopefully I can catch that on video soon. Prior to bringing Shady home there was a neighborhood dog that continually made an appearance in our front yard. Her name was Billa, which is a name that Parker quickly learned. According to Parker, Shady's name is also Billa.

Other words that Parker began saying this past month were: banana (sounds like Nana, and it's funny to watch him say it because his tongue gets in the way), luckily that made it easy to teach him the word Nana (Greg's mom), and he also began saying PaPa while we were at their house. He also began saying "mower". In case you're wondering why he says mower it's because before we got a golf cart (a required item in a lake community!) Greg would give him rides on the riding lawn mower. He also says ice (eye) and boot (boo). I'm sure there are several other words but they are escaping me at the moment.Parker loves books! In fact, the other day I spied him in his room doing this:

He had received the boots in the above picture at Christmas last year. They are finally the size that he can wear so I put them on him for the first time last week. It was a struggle to get them on him, but I finally got his feet in. I was kind of apprehensive about putting them on him because I am in no way a cowgirl, but they are sooo cute on him! While I was at work that day, Greg had to put them back on him after his nap. He taught Parker to push (complete with a loud grunt) and it makes it so much easier to put them on. In fact he thinks it's a game and begins signing "again" after we put the first boot on!Parker has finally perfected the kiss. He will randomly come up to me or Greg making a loud "mmmmm" sound and his little mouth will be puckered up. What's cute is when he knows one of us is leaving the house, he will pucker up and expect a kiss (and rightfully so!) before we walk out of the door.Stay tuned; I'll post a pic of him soon!*side note-I just began using Bloggers new settings and for some reason it didn't save my paragraphs...sorry! And, if anyone can tell me how to fix it I'd love to know!Here is my 19 month and 1 day old little boy! He weighed 23.3 pounds!

What's wrong with this picture?

2011-11-12T08:05:00.003-07:00

Yesterday before I put Parker down for his nap I took his pants off because they got water spilled on them during his lunch. While he was napping I ran to the store. Parker woke up while I was gone, and when I got home I found him outside "helping" his daddy. So, obviously Greg was the one who had to put Parkers pants back on. Can you see what's wrong with this picture?

Hopefully this makes you laugh as hard as I did!

Family Pictures

2011-10-29T07:28:00.010-07:00

Last month I got to do something with my husband that we've never done before. We took family pictures!!! For those of you who are on our Christmas card list (probably the only people who actually read this blog!) I know that you have been receiving photo cards from us for the last few years. I can assure you that none of those photos have been taken by a professional photographer. This really was a first! I had been planning our outfits for months! (Yes, I am such a girl). You see, when I knew we were going to be remodeling our (beach) house I wanted to have accents of aqua, turquoise, green, and orange. I also knew that whenever we took our family pictures, they had to be taken on the beach, and those colors had to be incorporated! I am determined to have a "traditional" family photo hanging on the wall behind our couch, so the colors in our clothing had to match our decor. Making sense now?

I know I've mentioned my friend Misty on this blog before, but she recently began doing photography (and I'm jealous...it's always been a hobby I would love to get into as well). Lucky for me I got the best friend discount, but I assure anyone reading this who may live in South East Oklahoma, she is a great photographer and her rates are very reasonable! Be sure to check her out and like her on facebook here. (And tell her I sent you!)

These pictures were taken at Lake Texoma, just a short walk away from my house (jealous?) Sadly the lake is closed right now due to blue green algae in the lake from lack of rain. The upside is that meant we had a deserted beach! Thank you, blue green algae!

With that being said, here are a few (OK, more than a few) of my favorite pictures:

My New Favorite Crock Pot Recipe

2011-10-19T13:12:00.003-07:00

Last week I tried out a recipe from my Fix-It-And-Forget-It cookbook. (By the way, I think if someone owns a crock pot, they should also own that book!) It was so awesome that I'm making it again today and I thought I'd share it!

Kielbasa and Cheese Casserole

3 cups uncooked noodles
oil
2 beef bouillon cubes
1 cup boiling water
1/4 cup flour
2 Tbsp. butter, melted
4 oz. cheese, shredded
1 lb. kielbasa, sliced
1 small onion, chopped
2 ribs celery, diced
2 carrots, grated

1. Cook noodles until barely tender. Drain. Toss with small amount of oil.
2. Dissolve bouillon in boiling water.
3. Combine all ingredients in slow cooker.
4. Cover. Cook on low 8 hours.

I have a habit of making myself notes in my cookbooks. I have convinced myself that really good cooks do that all the time. Please don't rain on my parade. What was my note for this particular recipe? YUMMY!!!

BTW-the recipe also called for a 2 oz. jar of pimentos. I omitted those but wanted ya'll to know it's an option. Bon Appetit!

Fun at the Pumpkin Patch

2011-10-18T12:42:00.007-07:00

This past weekend a friend and I took our kiddos to the Pumpkin Patch at Woodbine Farms. (If you check out the website my nephew's pictures are on there...he's the one with the green shirt) We had a lot of fun. Here are some pictures of the day.

I'm pretty sure things like this only happen to me

2011-10-17T08:32:00.003-07:00

Do you ever have moments when you say to yourself, "this only happens to me"? Well, I had one of those moments last night.

I was turning out all the lights so I could go to sleep and as I was about to turn off the living room light I saw a big moth on the wall. Since I don't like holes in my clothes, I figured it would be best to kill it. I opened the pantry door to get the fly swatter, and what do I find? A HUGE spider on the floor. I hurried and grabbed the fly swatter and gave the spider several swats (I had to make sure he died!). From there I turned around and went into the living room where I killed the moth. After I disposed of the moth I went back to the pantry to pick the spider up with the fly swatter so I could dispose of it (I wanted to make sure it didn't come back to life. They do that, ya know). Once that was taken care of I cleaned the mess up off the pantry floor with a Clorox wipe. Yes, I wasn't exaggerating when I said it was huge {shudder}.

After that I finally made it to the bedroom. Greg was already in bed, but lucky for me he waited for me to turn off the light. I say lucky because I happened to look on the bed and notice another moth. On my pillow!!! I whacked it a few times with my slipper, then went off to the bathroom to grab some toilet paper so I could pick it up and throw it away.

Once I get back in the bedroom, I reach up to pull the chain to turn off the light (we like to sleep with the ceiling fan on. Don't you?). I kid you not, as I'm reaching up I spotted an itsy bitsy spider (no pun intended) on the ceiling. It was so tiny that most people probably wouldn't have bothered to wait until it moved out of the range of the swirling fan so they could stand on top of their bed to kill it. Not me. I happen to know for a fact that an itsy bitsy spider turns in to a HUGE spider in a matter of two weeks tops and that it WILL crawl all over me while I'm sleeping and then my son will find it when it's crawling around on the floor and he'll promptly pick it up and eat it. The itsy bitsy spider had to be dealt with right then and there.

After tossing the wad of toilet paper with the now-dead itsy bitsy spider, I went back into the bedroom and thought...OK, at this rate, I may as well inspect all the walls to make sure there aren't any more unwanted pests in my room. Low and behold, I look above my closet door and what do I see? A daddy long legs! Before I could stop myself I blurted out, "You've gotta be kidding me!" I went back to the pantry and retrieved the fly swatter and got rid of what some people consider a "good luck omen".

On second thought, maybe the daddy long legs did bring me good luck because I didn't find any more bugs in my bedroom after that.

One and a Half!

2011-10-13T09:27:00.007-07:00

My little pride and joy is exactly a year and a half old today! And my what big changes he had this past month!

The most exciting being that a couple weeks ago we finally finished his nursery (OK, it's only 95% finished, but it's close enough that he can use it!) which meant that for the first time in five months he had a room to sleep in all by himself. I was pretty nervous about how it would go...and he slept just like normal! Which meant, he still woke up a few times during the night and I had to rock him back to sleep. Since he is the age that he is, I was growing a little tired of this. I decided that since we are now in a place where we plan on staying awhile, that I would try the CIO (cry it out) method.

I'm sure I did it wrong the first night because as soon as he started crying I went into his room. He began signing and saying, "milk" so I left the room to pretend that I was getting him some (I say pretend because I never give him liquids in the middle of the night. No sense in starting that habit) and went back a minute later hoping he would lay down for me without me having to rock him. That wasn't happening so I decided to leave the room. The crying lasted for 15 minutes and then he began saying, "mama, mama" so....I caved. I went in and said, "Lay down", which he did, but a minute later when he realized I wasn't in the room with him he began crying again. Within 10 minutes he was asleep again. The whole process lasted 28 minutes. This was last Monday. Here's what happened the following nights:
Tuesday-He slept the whole night!
Wednesday-He woke up (I didn't go into the room at all), crying lasted 7 minutes.
Thursday-Crying lasted 1 minute

Ever since last Thursday, he has SLEPT THE ENTIRE NIGHT THROUGH!!! And what's even better, is he is sleeping in longer. He used to wake up around 6 and I would bring him into bed with me. He would then either fall back asleep or we would just lay there for a bit. Now he's not waking up until 7:30. This really pleases me because he only naps for an hour and a half. YAY!!! Now, if only I can get him to fall asleep on his own for naps and bedtime without me leaning over the crib patting his back. I have a feeling I'll be trying the CIO method again real soon!

Now I have to brag about how smart he is! Greg has been working with him on learning different body parts, and he now knows where his hair and his feet are. He also knows where his teeth are, and if I tell him it's time to brush his teeth he sticks his finger in his mouth and mimics brushing his teeth. Speaking of teeth, one of his bottom molars broke through the gums on Monday.

He learned to sign and say the word "please". He doesn't sign it correctly, but I know what he means which is fine with me. He'll catch on with the right way eventually. He has also began to say the words: more, golf cart (which is his absolute favorite thing), truck, juice, cracker, and cookie. There's probably more but these are the only ones I can think of off the top of my head.

Despite the fact that he is my little angel, he does have some "not so great" qualities about him right now. He has been disciplined several times for constantly putting things in his mouth that he shouldn't and he thinks when you tell him "no" that it's funny. It may not sound like much but there's only so many times he'll stick acorns (or a screw, or a rock, or a washer, etc.) in his mouth, and we tell him no, or chase him around so we can try to get whatever is in his mouth out of his mouth without being bitten, that one can handle. Lets just say he is very rambunctious and keeps us on our toes.

He has never met a stranger and wants everyone to pick him up...be it the internet service technician or the waitress at a restaurant, he LOVES people! Especially kids! I hope to find a play group to join soon so he can have more interaction with other toddlers.

We have a fake fish aquarium type thing in our living room that Parker loves. It's a tall cylinder of water that sits on the floor, and when it's plugged in the water bubbles and there are fake fish that float around. If that things is not plugged in when Parker first goes into the living room, he will let you know about it. He'll point and yell and say "uh, uh, uh" which is what he says whenever he wants something. He's even gone so far as to try to plug it in himself!

He also began making the craziest sound this past month. I don't know how to describe it, other than to say it sounds like he's saying "HA!" but with a hiss sound to it. It makes my own throat hurt when he does it. I think he does it when he does something "bad". For instance, he'll throw something on the ground and then make that sound. He'll do it repeatedly. It drives me crazy, but it's just part of what makes him Parker.

We took our first family pictures this past month. I have only seen a few of the images, but this one is an adorable picture of Parker. No..that's not a back drop. This was taken at the beach that's a short walk from our house!

He had his third hair cut this past month. He did really well considering the lady had him sit in a booster chair. The previous two times I held him in my lap while his hair was cut.

He has finally began to show an interest in more of his toys. Especially this toy dog. He frequently carries it out into the kitchen and I'll find him laying down looking at it or hugging it. He'll really love it if I ever put batteries in it!

We bought him a wagon this weekend. I can't say that he loves it, but I pulled him around on it for 30 minutes the other night. Every kid needs a wagon, right?

I am 18 months old today!!! I am 31" tall and weigh 25 pounds.

17 Months Old

2011-10-13T08:44:00.007-07:00

Because I've been so busy lately (view the post below if you don't believe me), I never had a chance to blog about Parker's 16th month! Greg was off work for several weeks during that month, so we were knee deep in remodeling our lake house. Parker proved to be quite the little helper.

However, when he wasn't "helping" he was being entertained by various family members who volunteered to watch him so we could focus on remodeling. (Thank you!) Which, was great for more than one reason because he was able to spend quality time with relatives that he hadn't seen in a long time!

Remodeling wouldn't have been complete without several trips to Home Depot. Luckily the trips were a little more entertaining for Parker because of these fun carts.

Another fun outing was when I took him to the pet store (AKA the free zoo). He was fascinated by all the animals and loved watching the busy mice.

He enjoyed his first popsicle! I should have taken a hint from Braxton's dad and taken his shirt off. Let's just say I'll do that next time!

Parker has really grown to love books. Here he is with his favorite person, doing one of his favorite activities.

Parker began saying the word "Boo!" this month. And he gets very disappointed if you don't act scared or surprised when he says it, too! There were a few other words he began saying as well, but I can't remember which ones they were. He also began signing the words "again" and "love" (although I don't think he has a clue what love means, he just thinks it's fun to cross his arms over his chest.)

He had three new teeth come in!!! The last of his bottom four front teeth and one upper molar on both sides.

I noticed that he began following simple instructions and would be surprised when he knew what I meant when I would say things. For instance, "Let's take a bath" would send him running to the bathroom. Other simple commands he follows are: "Give that to mommy/daddy" and "Pick ____ up". He's such a smart boy!

I am 17 months old! I am 31" long and weigh 23 pounds.

A Leap of Faith

2011-10-01T18:25:00.005-07:00

I know it's been awhile since my last post and that's because life for our little family has been nothing short of hectic! We have totally begun a new chapter in our lives. Here's the scoop: we won the lottery!!! Nope, just kidding, but that would be awesome, huh? OK, now this other stuff probably isn't going to sound as cool and exciting, but that's alright. Here we go.....

1. Greg quit his job. Yup, my husband is no longer a wind turbine technician. To catch some of you up; we packed up and moved from Colorado to Texas back in April so that we could be closer to our lake house. As you'll recall, we were not having any luck finding a new house to purchase. Perhaps this was fate, because a few weeks into his "new" job (which was with the exact same company that he worked for in Colorado) he began to hate it. I will spare you the gory details, but lets just say that poor management can really make or break a work place.

Ever since I've met Greg he has talked about being his own boss and having his own business. But, we all know that having your own business is a little scary. OK, it's REALLY scary! Once Greg began loathing his job, we started plotting a way to change our lives. It kind of happened faster than we anticipated, so things are kind of a crazy mess right now....read on.

2. We moved back to Oklahoma!!! To our lake house, that is. This happened just under two weeks ago when Greg quit his job. Don't get me wrong...we had been plotting a move so it wasn't completely sporadic. All of our stuff that we had in storage when we moved to Texas was slowly moved into the shop here at our lake place. This past week has involved unpacking and trying to attempt to fit all of our stuff into a house that is smaller than any of the other homes we've ever lived in. To add a little more confusion to the mess.......

3. We are remodeling our house! This began almost a month prior to Greg quitting his job. The living room and dining room are finished, the kitchen just lacks the backsplash being tiled and a little trim work, and Parkers room was just finished on Tuesday. We plan on remodeling both bathrooms soon as well, but they will have to wait. I want the house to look "beachy" so it has a little different feel than any of our other houses. I think my decor will make it more beachy and I haven't had time to shop for un-tacky beach accessories yet, but it's on my never ending to-do list! Don't worry, I will post before and after pictures in a future post. Now I mentioned that this is the smallest house we've lived in; it only has two bedrooms. Our last two houses both had four bedrooms. Are you starting to understand why I said unpacking is slightly difficult. Because of this, Greg is currently building a guest room/hobby room in our shop that's next to the house. If everything goes according to plan that space will be finished by next weekend. (I'm telling you our list never ends). Everyone who knows me well, knows that Greg and I always finish remodeling and then sell a house. We are busting our butts so we can have this house finished so we can actually live in, and ENJOY, our remodel! We are also trying to work quickly because....

4. Greg is starting his own handy-man/remodeling business! The guy has skill, let me tell ya! Although a few people have not been very encouraging about this move because of the economy, Greg is optimistic enough to believe that he will be able to stay so busy with work that people will hire him to do that he won't have enough time to work on our house. With that thought in mind, we are doing every thing we can to quickly make this "house" feel like a "home". Finally, this whole "new chapter in our lives" wouldn't be complete if we didn't also throw in the fact that...

5. I have re-activated my Oklahoma real estate license and will begin working full time next week! I hung my license with a broker in town back in July (told ya we'd been plotting) with hopes to buy up a couple of rental properties before Greg quit his job and we were both self employed (ie: no lender will probably touch us for a loan for the next few years). Unfortunately, I forgot how long it actually takes to get the ball rolling when you first hang your license with an office and by the time I was able to start scoping out properties, there weren't any we were interested in and we weren't willing to wait around for them to pop up either. Things have changed since 2007 when I put my license on in-active to travel around the country with Greg, but I'm excited to jump right back in! My office is extremely small: just me and two other ladies. In a weird twist of fate, one of the ladies who used to work there just quit to work in another aspect of real estate, and they said I could have her office!! This is a bonus for me, because if I ever have to take Parker to work with me, I can somewhat corral him! And, since I know you're wondering, no, I don't plan on putting Parker in a day care just yet. Greg will watch him on the days that I'm at the office answering phones (which is two days a week) and if I'm showing properties and Greg is off on a job, I'll just take him with me. However, we are both prepared that if both of our businesses take off, we will have no other choice but to put him in day care.

Whew! I feel like I can breath better now that I'm able to tell the world what we've been plotting/scheming/dreaming about for the last several months. What is odd about our whole situation is that I'm not stressed out about it at all. And let me say, I can get stressed out pretty easily! I know that we're taking a leap of faith by Greg quitting a job that more than provided for our family, only for us both to begin working without a guaranteed steady pay check. I was more stressed out when I couldn't find a house I wanted to purchase in Texas. Maybe I'm being completely naive, but I know that faith the size of a mustard seed can move mountains. And I have faith that we are exactly where we need to be, doing exactly what we need to be doing.

Blog Party Wednesday

2011-08-16T12:20:00.007-07:00

I'm linking up with Jamie again for her blog party! Click the picture above to see what others are loving today.

I'm LOVING that yesterday was my birthday!

I'm LOVING that we are going to our beach house this weekend and will start remodeling Parker's bedroom!

I'm LOVING that my husband bought me a hammock for my birthday! I can't wait to lounge on it and read a good book while sipping on some sweet tea and listening to Parker play with his toys in the yard.

I'm LOVING that I had a new feather added to my hair today.

I'm LOVING my awesome hubby and sweet baby boy!

I'm LOVING pinterest (still) so I'm linking up for this fun party as well!

Here are my pinterest pins of the week:

Using PVC to organize straighteners and curling irons on a cabinet door. Genius!

I'm not such a crafty gal that I have tons of ribbon laying around, but for the few bolts that I do have, this is a much nicer way to keep them organized rather than floating around in my sewing machine cabinet drawer.

Baked mozzarella cheese sticks. Yummy!

A cute and nice smelling way to store my make up brushes.

The inspiration for our kitchen cabinets at our beach house. We are staining them grey and I'm sooooo excited about it!

Just because I love blown glass.

Happy Wednesday, y'all!

I'm joining the club!

2011-08-16T06:56:00.013-07:00

The thirty club that is! That's right! Today's my birthday and I'm THIRTY!!!

Yes, believe it or not, unlike most women, I'm actually excited and happy to be thirty. I read on a website that women have two different outlooks on turning thirty. One being that a woman is excited and happy to continue living her life as a responsible adult. The other is that a woman is sad to see her youth end and questions her decisions as a young adult. If it's not obvious from the statement at the beginning of this post, I'm in the group that is happy to be turning thirty. And why wouldn't I? I have some great thirty year old role models!

Natalie Portman I was so happy to watch Natalie win an Oscar at this years Academy Awards. She is always a delight to watch on screen and although I haven't had the opportunity to watch Black Swan, I have no doubt that she deserved the award. Not only is she a new mom, she's also intelligent, poised, and beautiful. A perfect thirty year old role model!

Misty
She is one of my best friends (and I creepily stole one of her facebook pictures. Ha, ha, it's ok because I doubt she'll even read this!). I'm so happy that we met in college and have continued to maintain such a great friendship. Not only is she a fierce independent woman, she is also a homeowner, she is not afraid to speak her mind and stand up for what she believes in, she would pull over on the side of a road to help a turtle cross the street, she works full time as a social worker and sees things that I can't even begin to imagine, and for the past year she has selflessly devoted her time and energy in being a foster mom to a cute baby girl. I should probably mention that she's single...which is inspiring to me because I know for a fact if I were a single woman I would not be able to do what Misty does. Isn't she beautiful (both inside and out)? A perfect thirty year old role model!

Alicia Keys Ever since I first heard Alicia Keys belting out "Fallen" on the radio I have been a fan. I think her voice and piano skills are amazing. Although she came onto the scene at a younger age, I always appreciated the fact that I never saw her in any tabloid magazines acting like an idiot. She's talented, inspiring, beautiful, and is also a mother. A perfect thirty year old role model!

Now you can see why I'm so excited to become a part of the Thirty Club!

Despite turning thirty, when it comes right down to it, I'm still one of these at heart.

Which means I still love getting these.

I'm always excited to see what my husband will give me for my birthday (because as much as I love getting presents, he is the only person I actually expect a present from). He told me that he ordered my gift online a couple of weeks ago. He was pretty disappointed to find out that what he ordered is actually on back order. (Which in my mind means it must be pretty awesome, right?)

My hubby is never the greatest at keeping secrets so he began asking me if I wanted any hints. At first I said no, but as my big day approached I started to get giddy with anticipation and I finally broke down and asked for a hint. I'll share them with you so maybe y'all can help me guess what my present is!

Let me start by telling you that I told him on more than one occasion that a "perfect" birthday present would be one of the following:

1. Britney Spears concert tickets
2. Invisalign
3. A fork ring

He promptly told me that my present was none of the above. :)

Here are the two hints he gave me:

1. I can't take it with me to the bathroom (random)
2. It's not white

Yup. That really narrows it down. Hmmm....

I'll be honest, at first I was thinking he was probably going to buy me a kindle or a nook or one of those e-reader type things because he hates all the books I have. However, I'm pretty sure if I really wanted to I could take that with me into the bathroom. I'm stumped! Oh well!

Now, for those of you who are approaching thirty and you are not too excited about it, maybe you can look at it this way: thirty is just a fancy way of saying you're EIGHTEEN plus twelve years experience!

16 months old!

2011-08-13T08:21:00.009-07:00

Little Parker is 16 months old today! And my oh my is he ever an active toddler!! Just ten minutes ago he figured out how to pull himself up on top of the coffee table. (Yikes!) Two days before he learned how to pull up into the rocking chair. Luckily he can get down from the chair easily but I'm afraid he'll just crawl right off of the coffee table and hurt himself.

I mentioned in my last "month old" post that he was still in 12 month old clothes. About four days later I had to eat my words and he began wearing his 18 month wardrobe. Now that he's becoming such a big boy I'm finding myself wishing I would have held him more as an infant. I know people kept telling me to enjoy him as a baby and to not worry so much about other things. I think I used his swing way too much and am now wishing I could turn back time. But, I digress....

Parker's vocabulary expanded quite a bit this past month. He knows several words, although he may not say the entire word. So, as of now, here are all the words Parker says (if he doesn't say the word right I'll write next to it how he pronounces it).

1. DaDa
2. MaMa
3. Uh-Oh
4. All Done
5. Dog (daa)
6. Ball (Baa)
7. Baby
8. C'Mon (mon...complete with the finger motion!)
9. Outside (ahh saa)
10. Book (buh)
11. No
12. Pretty (preh)
13. Nose (No)
14. Eye
15. Belly button (ba ba)
16. Cheerios (O) (And his mouth forms the cutest little "O" you've ever seen!)
17. Hi
18. Bye
19. Bug (buh)
20. Bubble (bub bub)

He has not learned any new signs but I'm still doing a few different words with hopes that he'll catch on.

I wrote above that he is saying nose, eye, and belly button. We have been teaching him body parts. What's amazing is he knows where they are, both on him, or on Greg or myself. If you ask where his belly button is, he'll lift his shirt and point at his belly button. If you ask where his nose is, he sticks his finger up his nose and says nose. Ha, ha! He knows what ears are as well but he doesn't say it. One day he had a bug bite on his knee and I pointed at it and said, "Boo-boo." He found that super hilarious and laughed and pointed at his knee and repeated the word, "boo-boo". I continued to do it a couple more times, but figured I'd better stop because I didn't want him referring to knees as "boo-boo's".

He has taken a great interest in learning how to use a spoon or fork (or my favorite, a spork!) to feed himself. I hate to admit it, but this is something that drives me crazy! Although I know he needs to learn how to use those utensils, it tends to slow down the eating process and now he wants to eat only if he's holding on to his silverware and half the time he wants mine, too. I'm sure this is common but normally when he's feeding himself he turns the spoon or spork over before it makes it into his mouth. As long as he's eating yogurt or applesauce it tends to stay on the spoon until he puts it in his mouth. I've also begun using plastic plates with him and he does a pretty good job about not picking the plate up and tossing it to the ground or dumping his food. His favorite foods include: cheerios, fruit, goldfish, yogurt, vanilla wafers, cheetos, macaroni and cheese, meatloaf (a man after my own heart!), corn, and peas.

Parker's favorite things are:

* playing outside
* watching Baby Einstein ( I only let him watch about 2 episodes a week )
* being chased around the living room furniture
* taking a bath
* dogs
* He loves it when I sit on the floor and he runs in circles around me
* When I make the bed. He thinks it's a game.
* dancing
* bubbles

This is proof that he is a growing boy! He surprised me by being able to reach this off of the bathroom sink.

He can also open drawers and pull things out, and he's bugun reaching onto tables and pulling things off. Another favorite activity is to dig in the trash. Which means the trash cans are placed on top of tables (haven't you heard, that's the new "in" centerpiece), and tables and countertops are either empty or everything is pushed to the center so he can't reach it.

Shhh....

I've reduced Parker down to one nap a day and it's after lunch. When I was giving him two naps a day he was always cranky after his second nap (which usually only lasted 30 mintues) so I decided to eliminate it. Now he typically wakes up happy and stays that way for the remainder of the day.

He was so focused on his Baby Einstein video it surprised me when he looked up and gave me this adorable grin.

He loves being outside!

I am 16 months old! When mommy weighed me last weekend I was 24 pounds and was 25 inches long!

Our First Date

2011-08-11T11:57:00.004-07:00

of 2011. Seriously folks! The weekend before last the hubby and I got to go on a date! And since our lives have been so hectic, it was our first date since October. Do the math. That's ten months! I could have grown an entire human being in my belly since the last time Greg and I were able to leave Parker with someone we trust so we could enjoy a date night! Or, in this case, a date morning. What did we do?

Drum roll please....

We went on a Poker Run!

What's a poker run you may ask? Well, let me try to explain. Poker Runs are public events that are usually used to earn money for a charity. They can be done in cars, boats, or in this case, by motorcycle! Basically each contestant pays the entry fee. Then you are given a map of different places to "draw a card" kind of like playing a game of poker. I've only been on two poker runs. The first everyone left as a big group to the next place. This particular poker run was a little different in that everyone left at different times. While there were about thirty bikes in this poker run, we arrived with our "group" of six and they are who we rode with the entire time.

We had five stops and at each stop we drew a card (Or in this case we drew poker chips with numbers written on them). At the end of the poker run they added up the numbers we drew from each stop. Then, the person with the highest and lowest hand won some money. Now that I have thoroughly confused you (and myself) I'll move on. Sadly, we didn't win any money. But, the poker run was to raise money for two of the local schools. And although we didn't win money, both winners actually turned their money back over and donated it to the school as well which was really awesome of them to do.

However, we did win a trophy. Why? Well, the organizers of the poker run were giving away two trophies. One went to the best bike and the other went to the best bike group. Both trophies were dedicated to two men in the community who had passed away but who were both bikers. One of those said bikers was my father in law (I would like to note that neither men had deaths that were caused by being on their motorcycle). There were several people down in the neighborhood that our lake house is at and they were the group of six that we rode around on. We were voted the "Best Group" and that happened to be the trophy with my father in laws name on it. I think the voting was a little rigged, but needless to say our group won and they gave the trophy to Greg.

After the poker run our little group wanted to go to a bar and have a drink in my father in laws memory. We stayed there about an hour and enjoyed some cool beverages before heading back to the house.

I have to give a huge shout out to my mom for driving down to the lake house the night before to spend the night with us so she could watch Parker since we left at the crack of dawn. I know she was more than happy to spend the morning with him and I was more than happy to have a small break.

Since I've obviously slacked off when it comes to blogging, y'all should not be surprised when I say I forgot to take my camera on the poker run. Luckily I asked my mom to take a quick snap shot of us before we left!

Although I'm not going to hold my breath, I hope I'll be able to blog about another date with my hubby pretty soon!

Blog Party Wednesday!

2011-08-10T06:12:00.006-07:00

I'm linking up with Jamie again for her blog party. Click here to see what others are loving this Wednesday!

Here's what I'm loving today:

Chocolate peanut butter? Yes, please! (It tastes great on vanilla wafers!)

I have never been a beer drinker. I just can't seem to acquire the taste for it. However, I sampled this this past weekend and oh my word! I think I can probably drink an entire bottle!

One of my favorite bands is Augustana. Thanks to my Augustana station on Pandora I've discovered this beautiful song. I can't get enough of it!

I've mentioned a few times how addicted I am to Pinterest. So I'm pretty excited to join a new blog party. So, without further ado I'm now linking up for:

Here are some of my favorite pins from this week:

These rolls of wrapping paper are hanging up in the ceiling of a closet. Which is usually wasted space. Genius! Now I can clear them out from under my bed!

I've become a little obsessed with driftwood lately. I think this is beautiful, simple, and it makes me want to drift away to sleep!

Marbleized finger nail polish! I'm excited and a little daunted to try this!

I love these magnets! We made them one time at a MOPS meeting and I decided then and there that I would make some with alphabet letters because I think they look classier than the cheap plastic alphabet letters that I always see kids playing with. This way my son can be learning his letters in style!

Isn't this adorable? I'm thinking it's a must for our lake house!

In case you haven't heard the news, drop side cribs are now banned. Meaning stores are no longer allowed to sell them and people are not supposed to re-sell the ones they currently have. Rather than just throwing your drop side crib in the trash, refurbish it into an adorable bench!

If you'd like to join pinterest comment me your email address and I'd be happy to invite you to join! And, I love all my pinterest followers!

*I have no idea how to make these pictures actually link back to the boards I have them on at Pinterest. Help!*

Happy Wednesday, Y'all!

What I'm Loving Wednesday

2011-08-03T05:27:00.007-07:00

I'm loving that after a 3 month hiatus, I'm finally linking up with Jamie again for her WILW blog party!

I'm loving that this past weekend the hubby and I got to go on a much needed date!

I'm loving that we got about 20 minutes of rain at our lake house last weekend.

I'm loving that I'm going to refurbish a rocking chair this weekend. It used to be my husbands when he was a little boy and I'm excited to bring it new life for our little boy to use and enjoy! Stay tuned for before and after pics.

I'm loving watching my friend Kelli on this season of HGTV's Design Star!

I'm loving that I've been loosing myself in a good book: The Choice by Nicholas Sparks.

I'm loving that the country station I'm creating for myself on Pandora played a song by Aerosmith the other day! (I don't like most country artists so a lot of the "big" country artists have been banned from my station!)

And, I'm loving these things as well

Happy Wednesday Ya'll!

Tasty Tuna Salad

2011-07-24T09:59:00.003-07:00

Last weekend our friend Travis came down to the lake house and spent the weekend with us. I love it when he stays with us because one of his favorite things to do is cook. Which means HE cooks for US! Yay!

I have always been a fan of tuna fish, but have never actually had tuna salad. I've always just mixed it up with some mayo and considered it good to go. Travis changed that for me! His tuna salad is super yummy and way easy! Here is how to make it:

2 cans of tuna, drained
3 hard boiled eggs, diced (he discarded 2 of the yolks which I loved because I'm not a yolk fan)
A spoonful of sweet pickle relish
*Here's the kicker* Ranch dressing until it looks really moist.

I made it for lunch today and I did half mayo and half Ranch dressing. It's tangier if you use all Ranch dressing.

I love easy, simple recipes! Especially since I'm not the kind of gal who can look at her pantry and just whip something up. Cookbooks and recipes are my saving grace!

My newest crush!

2011-07-22T11:33:00.004-07:00

Wanna know what my latest obsession is? It's pinterest! And I am in LOVE! First, who doesn't love looking at awesome pictures of items that peak ones interest? I know I sure do! But this website takes it one step further. I can plug in a word, say driftwood, for example, and it pulls up all kinds of pictures with driftwood. Pretty cool, huh?

I discovered pinterest when a friend of mine suggested I check it out after I posted a question on facebook asking where I could get ideas for remodeling our lake house. When I think of a "lake house" I picture a cabin with lots of decor involving fish. Maybe because that's what every lake house that I've been in at Lake Texoma is like. Since I'm not that into fish, I figured I had to do something different. Since there is a beautiful sandy beach within walking distance from our lake house, I figured why not have our "lake house" look like a "beach house"? I may not be able to see the beach, but at least I'll know I'm close by and can still feel like I'm "at the beach" or "on vacation" when I'm inside!

We're going to begin a total renovation of our "beach house" beginning in late August and Pinterest has absolutely been a good source of inspiration for Greg and I. I'm not the type of person who can instantly visualize what a room or house will look like. I like to see pictures and drawings. This is where pinterest has been a huge help. My thinking is that we'll have the main area of the house painted in a pale gray (my new favorite neutral) and hopefully we can find some cool "beachy" flooring. Then, I'll accent with pops of turquoise and orange, along with some lush greenery. (I'd love some actual palm leaves if anyone wants to mail me some!

With that being said, here is the board I curated on Pinterest with ideas for our "beach house"!

15 Months Old!

2011-07-13T09:38:00.009-07:00

I'm not gonna say it, I'm not gonna say it, I'm not gonna say it. Oh, who are we kidding? I can't believe how much Parker is growing! There! I said it! Parker's 14th month was jam-packed with lots of fun and exciting things. First and foremost, he had his SECOND hair cut! He did so much better with the whole experience this time, which made it easier!

Here is my little man before:

And here he is after, complete with his very first SUCKER!!

He also got to spend a lot of quality time with his Aunt Sheila and his cousins James and Magdalene who were visiting from China.

He is becoming a little monkey! He frequently climbs into this all by himself!

He spent a long weekend at his Grams house in Oklahoma and while we were there we went to one of my favorite places: Wintersmith Park in Ada, OK. It was there that he got to take his first train ride!

He got to meet two of his great aunts: Great Aunt Dottie and Great Aunt Alice. Unfortunately I don't have any pictures of him with his Great Aunt Alice (How did that happen?) but here he is with his Great Aunt Dottie:

This is just one of my favorite pics I snapped of him at his Grams house. Who could resist that sweet smile and kissable cheeks?

Remember how I mentioned he is turning into a monkey? Here is more proof!

Of course we still like to take trips to the beach when we stay at our lake house. It's amazing how much even that event is changing. At first I could sit him down on the edge of the water and he was content to let the waves roll up his legs. The past two times we've been he has been more of an explorer. He will happily walk around in the water or the sand and I have to keep an eagle eye on him. The water doesn't seem to phase him at all.

I'm not sure if I've mentioned this before, but he loves anything with a steering wheel! Typical toddler! We have been taking more of the "big" toys we have had in storage down to the lake house when we go and it's so cute how quickly he learns how to master the toys. This is his new favorite toy and he loves to be pulled around on it.

I'm still working on sign language with him, but he hasn't mastered any new words. My sister had him signing "please" for a day but I haven't had any luck with it myself. He loves when we help him drink out of a real cup and he also likes it when we give him a sip from our water bottle.

As far as food goes I gave up the "baby food" a few months ago but forgot to write about that! He loves fruit, goldfish, and BEANS! LOL! Pinto beans, red beans, black eyed peas, you name it he loves it!

He has become quite inventive this past month as well. He has learned that if he uses the handle of a broom, or his toy hoe, that he can knock whatever he wants off of a table onto the floor. He also likes to use the handles to pull down paperwork I have magneted to the fridge. Needless to say, his toy hoe is now only used outside and I try to hide the broom as best as I can.

As of this past week he is starting to play in the bathtub more. Before he would just stand there and bang on the wall or play with the spout. Now he is actually splashing the water and showing a little bit of interest to his water toys.

Speaking of toys, his favorite toy is....a STRAW! A straw can entertain him for quite awhile!

He knows what his belly button is! And he has a word for it! He calls it his "ba ba" and he'll pat his belly or raise his shirt. Now I'm trying to teach him "nose"!

I know that Parker has recently had a growth spurt because I noticed that his footed pajamas are now a little too fitted and stretched out. However, he is still in 12 mo. clothes. If I put 18 mo. clothes on him, the bottoms fall off and the shirts almost come to his knees! We also bought him his second pair of shoes yesterday because he has outgrown the first pair.

With that being said, I have no idea how much he weighs (I don't have a pair of scales at the cabin) or how tall he is, so check back next week and hopefully I will be able to get those measurements this weekend. Until then, enjoy the pictures I took today at a vintage ferris wheel on someones property here in Jacksboro.

I am 15 months old today!!!

Jumping on the Bandwagon

2011-06-30T09:51:00.003-07:00

I'm loving the new trend of having feather extensions put into one's hair! I was dying to have it done after seeing a few of my friends from OKC and Dallas with feathers in their hair. I was pretty surprised when I discovered a store here in little 'ole Jacksboro that was selling feather extensions. I love feeling like a rock star without the permanence or maintenance that I would have to do if I dyed or high lighted my hair. Here's a pic of me with my green and blue feathers.

A bittersweet weekend

2011-06-17T10:01:00.007-07:00

I had been looking forward to last weekend for several weeks now. Our good friends Corey and Christina were driving down from Colorado to meet us at our lake house. Greg took Thursday and Monday off so we could enjoy a long weekend with them. Items on the agenda included fishing, boat trips, hanging out on the beach, the amazing catfish buffet restaurant we all love, the Sand Bass festival, and a few adult beverages along the way.

However, things didn't turn out as expected. On Wednesday afternoon Parker threw up his snack. He then proceeded to throw up his dinner and his bedtime cup of milk. It was stressing me out and next thing I knew I was throwing up. And, I also had diarrhea (gross, I know). I assumed it was just because I was worried about Parker and left it at that. I fell asleep on the couch (Greg put Parker down to bed for the first time ever) and was miserable. I was freezing cold, yet I wasn't running a fever. Eventually I dozed off, but would wake up hot and just couldn't get comfortable. Around 3 A.M. Parker woke up crying and hungry. As much as I was afraid to give him milk I did just that. Seconds after he had a sip he snuggled in my arms and was trying to fall back asleep. That's when it hit me all of a sudden. I broke out in a sweat and I thought I was going to poo my pants (gross, I know. I'm sorry for being so disgusting). I yelled out for Greg and told him he needed to help me and to take Parker. As soon as he did I took off for the bathroom. That's when I began to feel dizzy. I stumbled to the bathroom like a drunk person and tried unsuccessfully to sit down on the toilet. I knew something was wrong with me when I was too dizzy to sit down where I kept aiming for. I finally made it to the toilet and I remember thinking that I was going to die. I remembered praying for God to help me and that I couldn't die for Parker's sake. (Yes, maybe I was being a drama queen). The next thing I knew Greg was placing a wet shirt on my forehead. I say "the next thing I knew" because I passed out and apparently I was yelling for Greg to take me to the hospital and he got in the bathroom just in time to see me have a vacant stare, my eyes to roll back in my head, and for me to slump over and hit my head on the sink. I'm sure it was a scary sight for Greg. As I sat there I still didn't feel quite right and knew that there was something wrong. Since I'm the type of person who always daydreams and over-thinks things I instantly thought I had some form of cancer and envisioned tons of CAT scans and MRI's and doctors telling me I would only have two months to live. Needless to say, we loaded Parker up and off we went to the ER. No, I don't have cancer, and as far as my health is concerned I'm pretty sure I'm A-OK. Apparently I was dehydrated. 4 IV's, a liquid breakfast, and a nasty lunch that I didn't upchuck, later I was able to go home. I still felt weak and tired but we decided to go to the lake anyway. I had asked the nurse if I was contagious and she said no. Corey and Christina were leaving that morning and they had decided to chance it and head South anyway so we hoped everything would be OK the next day. Parker had no other problems and held all his food down that Thursday.

We roll into "town" at the lake several hours later and stopped at a gas station to grab a bite to eat. (That's a lake community for ya!) Their kitchen was closed so we had to go someplace else. When we got back in the truck Greg said, "I've got bad news. When I got out of the truck I felt really dizzy." My response was, "Uh-oh" (proof that I spend all day with a toddler). I hoped maybe he would feel better after he ate since my husband is hypoglycemic. Unfortunately, I thought wrong. By 10 that night Greg was throwing up and had diarrhea. I was still exhausted from my day so we all went to bed fairly early that night.

On Friday Greg still felt bad and spent all day in bed. I was feeling a little bit better so Corey, Christina, Parker and I ventured down to the beach that afternoon. I made a lasagna for dinner and by the time it was ready Greg was feeling a little bit better. He noticed that Eric, the guy who lives behind us, was home so he said we should invite him over for dinner. We told him we had both been sick so he said he wouldn't stay long and that he would wash his hands. At this point Greg was feeling good enough to plan a fishing trip for the next morning. We had other friends who were showing up at our place later that night, Mike and John. I asked Greg if we should tell them not to come since we had been sick but he said, "Nah". (Typical guy for ya). Since they planned on getting up at 4 in the morning to begin fishing we all went to bed early again.

Parker and I stay at home while everyone fishes, it's just too much for me to force a toddler to tag around for an activity I don't really enjoy anyway. So, imagine my surprise when at 9:00 A.M., Corey and Christina pull into the driveway. Apparently Corey suddenly broke out into a sweat and began feeling dizzy and nauseous, and Christina wasn't feeling very well either. Within an hour Corey was throwing up and later that day Christina had as well. They spent all day closed off in the guest room and I felt horrible. So much for me not being contagious. In fact, as horrible as this sounds, later that afternoon Greg, John, Mike, and myself were sitting at the kitchen table. Corey walked out of the room and we all took one look at him and started laughing. Greg said he wished he had a camera so he could take a picture of him so later Corey could see it to see just how bad he looked. I feel bad for laughing but, well, he looked like crap. Again, I felt horrible.

That evening was The Sandbass Festival in Madill. One of my favorite bands was performing, Steel Magnolia. Originally I was going to ask my mom to come down and babysit Parker so we could have a night out with our friends. However, I quickly decided that my mom didn't need to catch whatever bug I had and decided Parker could tough it out and go with us! After all, a late bed time never killed anyone! ;) We left Corey and Christina at the house and Greg, Parker, John, Mike, and myself headed into town. The festival had several booths to check out and even this cool beaver!

Now, one of my weaknesses is fair food. I had full intentions of scarfing down something utterly unhealthy. But, since being sick, I still didn't have my appetite back. I didn't eat a single thing, which I guess is for the best. Eventually Steel Magnolia took the stage and they rocked!!! I'm not the biggest country fan, but they have that "newer" country sound to them. They actually won the reality show "Can You Duet" that Greg and I watched. I was so happy when they won and was excited to get to watch them in concert. The bonus was that the concert was FREE! Unfortunately an hour and a half into the show Parker just got to be too much to handle and we left before they finished their set. Luckily I got to hear them perform the few songs that I know, so I was happy.

The following day was Sunday and since Corey and Christina were feeling better that whole crew went fishing again. They came back around lunchtime and we made plans to go out to eat that evening because Christina had "cabin fever". I can't say that I blame her! Mike and John were leaving that afternoon, so we made plans for the 5 of us to take the boat to a marina where you could eat. We ventured by boat over to Lowe's High Point Marina. I had never been there before, and it was awesome! There is a yacht club there, and boat slips full of huge, beautiful boats. The restaurant was on a dock overlooking the water and featured yummy food and a full service bar. I couldn't believe Greg and I had never been there before, but am now looking forward to going back for years to come. Parker was so good on the boat ride there (probably because he was sleepy and hungry) but not so good on the ride back. As in, he only wanted dada to hold him and had a fit if anyone else did. We capped the night off with a few smores back at our place, and then off to bed.

The following day was Monday and it was spent relaxing and then cleaning (Me, wishing I had Lysol spray and that it wasn't so stifling hot outside so I could have opened the windows to let out all those germs!) Sadly we found out that our neighbor, Eric, got sick as well. It just blew my mind how quickly something like that spread. However, here's the kicker. I kept waiting to hear that Mike and John got sick after they left. Go figure, they smoke like chimneys and drink almost a 12 pack of Coke a day, and neither of them got sick. Figures!

Now you know why I had a bittersweet weekend. It was sweet because our friends came down to see us. Yet, it was bitter because we all got sick!

14 Months Old!

2011-06-15T14:24:00.004-07:00

Parker turned 14 months old on Monday! My little boy is really starting to develop quite the personality. Everyone comments on how friendly he is, which I love. He constantly breaks out in a huge GRIN and he loves to wave at people. One thing we've begun to notice is that he loves to wave at cars as they drive by. I have no idea where he learned that from, but it's so precious!

I mentioned before that Parker loves going outside. Its gone one step further this past month. Now, whenever he is in the mood to go outside, he will come to me, grab my hand, and actually pull me to the door. He also recently began saying "outside". It sounds very much like "all done" but I can tell what he means.

I was finally brave enough to take Parker to the beach by our lake house. He sat at the waters edge and was content to let the waves roll up his legs. I'm looking forward to many more trips to the beach now!

Another first time lake activity was taking him out on the boat for the first time. That was quite interesting! He acted like he couldn't walk with his life jacket on so he was pretty upset. Then, I got a crash course in driving the boat because he only wanted his dada to hold him. We've gone out on the boat again and he did fine for the first part and the second half was only good if Greg was holding him. It's quite the event to take him on the boat but I hope that the more we expose him to it, the easier it will become!

We took him to his first parade one night. Luckily it was his first one so he didn't know how lousy it was! It was seriously over in ten minutes, and that's only because the tractors that lead the parade (Yup, you read that right) were a little bit faster than the horses that had the rodeo queens on top of them. Ahh...life in a small town.

This past Saturday, Parker even got to go to his first concert! I'll blog more about that in another post.

I am 14 months old! I weigh 24 pounds and am 28 1/2" tall when measured standing up!

13 Months Old!

2011-05-25T14:27:00.008-07:00

Considering the fact that Parker is now almost two weeks into his thirteenth month, this post is obviously over-due. However, so much happened in Parkers twelfth month that I couldn't just over look it!

First and foremost, he began WALKING!!!

As odd as it seemed since he's over a year old, Parker got to celebrate his first Easter! We spent it at the lake, and unfortunately we didn't get to go to church because yours truly forgot to pack Greg's church clothes. Opps! There's always next year!

His favorite Easter treat was this metallic egg from his Grams. He was so excited when he opened it and discovered....CHEERIOS!

Next, Parker finally began using some of the baby sign language I've been using! His first sign was "more" as in, "I want more food". He also began doing the sign for "milk" although I think he uses it when he wants a drink in general. He began signing the word "eat". Unfortunately, he doesn't do that one correctly! The sign language is to tap some of your fingers on your mouth and it took me awhile to realize that he does this sign, but instead of tapping his mouth, he taps the side of his head! (Think, Winnie the Pooh!) I know what he's trying to say though, so that's all that matters to me! Last but not least, he began signing AND saying "All Done" when he finishes his meal. It is ADORABLE! However, he generally follows up "all done" with the "more" sign! LOL! It's also pretty cute if we are in the car for a long period of time he will start saying and signing "all done" which we interpret as: get me out of here!

Parker loves being outside! I recently began letting him walk outside. The uneven terrain is a little challenging for him, but I think he's about got it mastered now. Being the over protective mom though, I usually let Greg take him out! I would probably hold him back from exploring too much, where Greg just keeps a watchful eye on him and lets him be free!

Speaking of Greg, Parkers favorite person is his DADA! Which is also a word I hear all day long. I'm pretty lucky if he says the word "mama" once a week.

I am 13 months old!!! I weigh 22 pounds and am 30" long!

Our Temporary Home

2011-05-11T10:02:00.000-07:00

As I stated in this post, we are living in a "temporary home" until we are able to find a new home for us to purchase. We are staying at Hidden Lake RV Ranch in a cute, cozy cabin. I was really nervous before we moved in because the cabin has an open concept. As in, no bedrooms! Why did this make me nervous? Because Parker doesn't sleep through the night, and Greg needs a good nights sleep since his job is very physically demanding (not to mention dangerous). Luckily, Parker has been doing much better at night! I'm sure this has something to do with the fact that I now feed him oatmeal and yogurt before he goes to bed.

The cabin is fully furnished, so we just brought some clothes, toys for Parker, Parker's crib, a few toiletries, and food. There are a few pictures of the cabin on the website that I have linked up above.

The best thing about our temporary home is the location. It's on a 96 acre ranch, that has lots of walking trails, which I LOVE!! It also has a "lake" that is fully stocked with fish, which Greg LOVES! If he gets home early enough he is content to "go fishing" while I "go hiking"!

The owners of the ranch have a gator, which is a type of ATV. One night they gave us a gator ride which was a lot of fun.

There is even a little play area right outside of my front door. Parker loves to play on the swings, and, now that he's walking, he even gets to play in this cute cabin!

An added bonus is that there is a hammock in a secluded spot!!! I love the days that I am able to walk, Parker falls asleep in his stroller, and I can lounge on the hammock and loose myself in a book. Perfection!

Parker's 1st Birthday Party

2011-05-03T19:44:00.026-07:00

One year ago a star fell from the heavens and landed in our arms...

The phrase and picture above are what I had printed on Parker's First Birthday Party invitations. The day was so special and it's safe to say it was an event I will remember for the rest of my life.

His party had a colorful star theme and one of the items I desperately wanted was a custom birthday shirt for my special birthday boy. My sweet friend Kellie has her own childrens clothing line and I knew that she offered birthday shirts. I took it one step further by requesting a coordinating shirt for myself as well. The shirts arrived a few days before the party and Greg and his family gave me all kinds of heck for not getting a coordinating shirt for Greg as well. I figured Greg would not have wanted to have a matching shirt so I didn't bother to ask him. I still don't think he would have wore one, but he's not letting me live that one down any time soon!

Aren't the shirts adorable? To place your own order, visit www.we3hoots.com!

Before the guests arrived we had a quick little photo shoot!

Friends and family began arriving shortly after our photo session. I had pizza and fruit ready and waiting for the guests. I didn't want a super formal party and that way every one was allowed to eat and mingle at their leisure. There were plenty of younger kids there and I made sure to have goody bags for them as well, filled with bubbles, sunglasses, and rubber duckies. They had a great time playing in the backyard! I'm pretty sure the adults had just as much fun as the kiddos since there was plenty of opportunity for conversation and laughs.

Once everyone had a chance to eat, I decided it was time to let Parker open his presents. The first gift I had him open was from me and Greg. Since he began taking his first steps we bought him his first pair of Stride Rite walking shoes. I also decided to get him a birthday card that sang a song when it opens. I remembered buying one for one of my nephews when he turned one and how much he loved it. Parker was no different. I eventually had to hide the card behind my back so he would focus on the other presents that he had to open! Parker was truly blessed with such great gifts from friends and family. THANK YOU!

He had to take a break from gift opening to give his cousin, Zoe, a kiss!

And, of course, he had to taste almost every single gift, wrapping paper, and bow!

This is Parker with his favorite gift: The Alphabet Train from his Uncle Russel and Aunt Sharon!

Once all the gifts were open, it was time for cake!

The cakes were made from Fancy Cakes. I thought they were awesome, although I thought the hand writting on them was a little sloppy, but oh well. Parker had his own white cake, and the cake for every one else was a delicious strawberry.

Everyone sang happy birthday which he loved! It was only after I got him situated in his high chair that I realized we did not have it recorded on our video camera. So, I asked everyone to sing to him once again!

Prior to his party I told Greg that I didn't think Parker would be the baby that would just smear cake all over his face. Greg disagreed, but, my theory proved to be true! Parker had never had anything sweet before so he wasn't quite sure what to think about the frosting. After several attempts to get him to eat the cake, I finally gave up and put some Cheerios on his tray, along with mashing a few into the frosting which he happily plucked out.

His facial expression says it all!

Can you spy the Cheerios?

Overall, the party was a huge success! I had a great time, and I think Parker did too! Here are a few other snap shots before I sign off!

Funny Signs!

2011-04-27T17:17:00.003-07:00

Within three days I saw both of these signs in and around Jacksboro, TX:

One was while driving down a highway. There was a sign hanging from a guys fence that read, "ALL THIS STUFF FOR SALE". That just struck me as funny!

The doozy is this one: I was at one of the local grocery stores and spotted a booth tucked away in the corner of the "bakery" (The bakery is just a nook in the store where all the bread is located). Hanging on the wall above the table is a piece of paper with this phrase written in black magic marker: "Clean up after your break. I'm not your mama".

Believe me, the next time I grocery shop I'll be sure to have my camera with me!!

A Quick (OK, it's pretty long) Update

2011-04-25T10:10:00.005-07:00

Things have been HECTIC in our household since I blogged back in March. The biggest event that happened was that we moved! However, the move did not go as we had expected.

When we wrote up our contract with the builder of the new home we would be purchasing in Graham, we told him that we needed to sell and close our house in Colorado before we could close and purchase the new house he was building. He was kind enough to let us rent the house until ours sold so we would only have to move once. We wrote the contract stating those terms and everything was peachy keen.

Unfortunately, two weeks before we were scheduled to move into the house the builder called me and told me we needed to schedule our closing date. I told him our house hadn't sold yet and reminded him that our contract stated that we would rent. He informed me that he couldn't rent it to us because technically the house wasn't his and his bank wouldn't let him, and insurance wouldn't let him, and so on and so on. My response was, "you didn't know all this before we wrote the contract?" His response was no but he continued to pressure me to purchase and close the house even asking if I have ever heard of a bridge loan. I told him we weren't going to do that because we were actively trying to sell our house and that I was confident it would sell. He threw that in my face and said that he was banking on the fact that I told him it would sell fast. I replied that I never said that it would sell the day the sign went in the yard, but that I was still confident that it would sell fast. (At the time it had only been for sale for three weeks. I also didn't tell him that I was doing For Sale By Owner). Long story short, I told him we needed to be released from the contract since he was no longer willing to follow through with his end of the bargain. He said all he had to do was call the title company and the earnest money would be released, but I knew better after selling real estate for a couple of years. I called the title company myself, they faxed me the earnest money release form, Greg and I signed it and faxed it back, and then we waited, and waited, and waited for the builder to go by and sign the paper.

In the meantime I had two weeks to find us a new place to live. Which meant we had to rent and wanted a short term lease or a month to month lease since we really want to buy once our house in Colorado sells. I spent a full day when I should have been packing making phone calls and scouring the internet. Low and behold I finally found an ad online for a furnished cabin in the town of Jacksboro, which is 30 miles away from Graham. I called, and the owner was more than happy to do a month to month lease and we signed the lease the next day. I must admit, I'm LOVING our temporary home. It is on a 90 acre RV ranch with a fully stocked fishing "lake" that Greg loves. There are hiking trails that Parker and I explore and even some swings that I can push him on. The one downfall: the cabin is one big open room. And Parker doesn't sleep through the night. I was afraid it was going to be a bad situation for Greg since he never realized how much Parker was awake during the night since I turn the monitor off in our bedroom when I am taking care of him. But, I began feeding him a bigger snack before bed and amazingly he is sleeping better through the night. Normally only waking around 3:00 for a nursing.

Since we were no longer moving straight into our new home, I was then forced to pack for several different situations. I had to pack boxes for storage. Then I had to pack for the necessities we would need in the cabin. And finally, we were spending a week in Oklahoma before we made our final move to Texas, so I had to pack for Oklahoma. It was crazy and I'll just leave it at that.

During all of the chaos of packing I was still actively trying to sell our house. And by active, I mean active. I had it advertised in the newspaper, online, and even on the local radio stations (One station asked me to come in and read the ad and I was more than happy to do so. I loved getting a chance to flex my theater muscle. After all, radio is the theatre of the mind. At least that's what the Manager of the radio station told me. She was impressed that I nailed the reading in one shot. But she also has DJ's on her radio station who say "Ummm" every two seconds. I'm just sayin'). We had an open house every Saturday and Sunday, and sometimes on Mondays. I don't know if many of you who are reading have ever had an open house before, but let me just say that when you do, you want your house to look a certain way. As in, you want it to be PERFECT and CLEAN. Which meant that half of my week was spent packing, the other half was spent cleaning and staging the house for sale.

We were scheduled to do the big move on Saturday, April 9th. That meant the previous Sunday was my last open house. As fate would have it, a young couple came to our house and fell in love with it. The following evening they brought their entire family over to look at it as well. The next morning I got a phone call from the potential buyers mother. Apparently her financing wasn't going to work out, which was a bummer, but the good news was that she was interested in purchasing it since her daughter couldn't. By the following Thursday we were under contract and although I wanted to call the builder up and rub it in his face, I kept my cool since he still hadn't released us from our contract. I know that at that point we could have proceeded with the builder but Greg and I just felt that things were happening for a reason and that this would give us the opportunity to look at houses more thoroughly and not rush into something.

Obviously, the few days prior to the move were a whirlwind and were it not for the help from friends who came by to help us load the U-haul or baby sit Parker, I probably would have had a nervous break down.

Now, in the past, any time I drive away for the last time from a house that I'm selling I turn into a big bawling mess. I figured this time would be the same since it was the home I brought Parker home too from the hospital and he spent most of his first year of life there. Maybe I've gotten jaded in my old age, but I didn't shed a single tear as I drove away. I'm not sure if that's a good thing or not. Maybe a good cry would have done me some good. But I had other things to stress over at that point. Like Parker's birthday party and then moving into a place I had never seen before. You know. Just normal things that happen every day.

The week in Oklahoma was great. I got to visit family and friends and had a great time at Parker's first birthday party (blog post coming soon)! The following Friday we drove down to TX and began settling into our "temporary home". The next day we drove into Graham to do some shopping at Wal-Mart and we drove by what would have been our new home. I was pretty surprised to discover a Realtors for sale sign in the yard. He still hadn't released me from the contract yet and since we had wrote a closing date of May 1st I knew he hadn't told the listing Realtor this information. I didn't hesitate a second to call that Realtor and explain the situation. They were very surprised but by Monday they had went to the builder and had him sign the paper work we needed to be released from the contract. The irony of the whole story is that they are now trying to close our house in Colorado by this Friday, which means we could have closed on the house here in TX by the date we established in the contract. If only that builder would have treated us better he could have had a sale. Instead, the house is still not completed. I told Greg things worked out just the way they should have because what would have happened is that even though he told us it would be finished by April 14th, we would have arrived that day ready to move in and would not have been able too.

Instead, now we have the joy of house shopping. I say that sarcastically. Don't get me wrong. I love looking at houses and could tour them all day long. But I don't like it when I'm willing and able to buy a house and the houses that are available for sale are priced at market value, yet we would still have to dump $30,000 into them to bring them up to date. Nor do I like the price of property taxes in the great state of Texas. Holy Moly! $300-$500 a month going to property taxes are ridiculous. Every one has told us that it's OK because Texas doesn't charge state tax. Well, we pulled out Greg's pay stubs and we would happily pay $120 a month in state taxes to not have to pay a larger property tax.

So that's where we are. We have an appointment to look at two properties tonight, but I'm not holding my breath. One I am in love with but it's at the top end of our price range. The other I haven't seen and it says it's updated but most people just throw some white paint on walls and call a home updated which just doesn't fly with me.

Wish us luck, and hopefully soon I'll be able to blog about purchasing a new house. And hopefully this time it wont fall through!

Parker is 1 year old!!

2011-04-14T12:05:00.013-07:00

What a busy time this past month has been for my little Parker! He survived the confusion of packing and moving all of our belongings out of our Colorado house, and he celebrated his first birthday at his nanny and papa's house in Oklahoma, which is where we are until we venture down to Texas tomorrow.

I packed away his calendar that I mark all of the exciting "milestones" on, so I'm relying on my memory for this post (which means I'll forget to write something really important)!

He began walking with a push toy that he has. I'm sure most of my friends and family saw that on youtube. Then, last Thursday, he took his first steps! Granted, life has been a little hectic and fast paced for Parker this past week, so I haven't really seen him try to do that very often. He does like it when someone holds his hands so he can practice walking.

He loves watching his Baby Einstein videos. Sometimes they will hold his attention for twenty minutes, other times he will only tolerate them for thirty seconds. He loves watching the puppets on that show, and of course he loves anything that has a dog on it!

He has finally began to take an actual interest in books. Before, whenever I would read to him, he would just look away or try to eat the pages. Now he actually seems to look at what I'm reading to him. I do have to use books that have very simple pictures and not a long story line.

He began blowing kisses. Although he doesn't actually blow them. He just covers his mouth, and as he takes his hand off he tries to say, "Muah" but it just comes out as, "Ahh!" It's precious!

He is fascinated by other kids. I had several friends who either baby sat or came over with their baby so I could get some packing done these past two weeks. He is very affectionate with them and loves to give them kisses. Unfortunately, Parker's kisses quickly turn into bites. That's something I'm trying to work with on him, although I'm not sure how to break his habit at this age, especially when he thinks he is being sweet.

As far as food goes, I know I need to be more adventurous on allowing him to try more "table" food, but things were just so hectic that I relied on the tried and true 2nd and 3rd stage baby foods. I think once we are more settled into a new routine in Texas I'll start letting him have more fun exploring new foods. He does love feeding himself and his favorite food is still Cheerios! I'm pretty sure he can spot a bright yellow Cheerio box a mile away!

His new favorite activity was climbing up the stairs. He loved it so much that if I started going up the stairs with him in my arms, he would practically leap out of my arms so he could climb up them himself. What really cracked me up was that he knew what the phrase, "wanna go upstairs?" meant. If I said that, he would immediately begin to speed crawl to where the stairs were so he could have a go at it!

I can now tell him to say, "Hi" or, "Bye" to someone, and he will wave at them and say "I", without me having to wave. I was pretty impressed by that!

We are currently staying at my mother-in-law's house, and while we are here Parker has been having a lot of fun with this partiular toy:

Unfortunately, a few days before the big moving day Parker began showing the symptoms of the same illness he had a few months ago. I had already scheduled to have his one year well-baby doctor appointment for Friday since we would be in Oklahoma on his birthday. It started out as a runny nose on Tuesday, then vomiting on Thursday, and finally diarrhea on Friday. The doctor did prescribe him an antibiotic since we would be driving an eight hour trip the next day and warned me that the meds might make his diarrhea worse. (Greeeaaattt, was my initial thought) Parker and I would be driving in the truck while Greg drove the U-Haul so I was not looking forward to the drive. Luckily, Parker was a little champ on the trip. He didn't have diarrhea and he only cried for a total of maybe ten minutes during the entire drive! Tomorrow I have a three hour drive ahead of me so hopefully I will continue to luck out with a happy baby! Unfortunately, he did begin running a fever on his birthday and it has not broke today, so I'm hoping it's just a reaction to his meds or that it's just a reaction from all the stress and running around we've been doing. I'm trying to take it easy today for his sake.

I am 1 year old today!!! On Friday I weighed 19 pounds 9 ounces and was 28 1/2" long.

See ya later, alligator!

2011-03-24T08:55:00.003-07:00

I have lots to blog about, but no time to blog! We load up the U-Haul in 16 days and I haven't even put a dent in packing! So I'll be signing off until around the beginning of May.

Tune in then for what could possibly be 10 blog posts in a week! Ummm, no promises though!

11 months old!

2011-03-19T13:47:00.006-07:00

Parker turned 11 months old last week! Which means birthday celebration plans are well under way! However, this was absolutely a busy month in the land of Parker!

The day after he turned 10 months old he celebrated his first Valentines Day! I celebrated by buying him a cute onesie.

That week he began waving! It's adorable! He also began giving high five's but he's very stingy with them and someone has to be really excited about the whole ordeal in order for him to give one.

We finally installed all new laminate wood flooring in our middle level. To celebrate I brought Parkers walker upstairs. Before he would just sit in it and play with the toys. But, within a few days he figured out how to walk in it! I won't lie; it's not his favorite thing to do. He is very independent and prefers to be let loose on the floor! His absolute favorite thing to do is to get into everything he's not supposed too! I finally gave in and gave him his own drawer in the kitchen filled with items he can play with. That doesn't stop him from getting into others as well, but it slows him down a little.

Parker went to Texas for the first time! (Driving through on the way to Oklahoma didn't count). He really broke in his new car seat during that trip.

I know I blogged about this, but I have to remind every one that he had his first hair cut this past month as well. That was pretty traumatic. For me. I'm finally starting to get used to how he looks, but that's probably because it's starting to grow out already and I can see a glimpse of his curls!

A few days later he began trying to stand alone! Five times in one day! Good thing diapers help to cushion falls! On the other hand, he has absolutely mastered the art of cruising (walking while holding on to objects).

He began saying his third word: uh-oh! Now it's almost a game to him. He will drop an object, and exclaim, "uh-oh!" Of course Greg and I encourage him and he eats it up!

The tenth month seemed to be a great one. Until he caught his first illness. It began as just a runny nose, then progressed to not wanting to eat, along with throwing up, then he became dehydrated, followed by diarrhea. Part of being a new mom meant he was dehydrated because of me. The doctor told me he seemed fine he just had a virus and it had to run its course but that I needed to keep up with his fluids. Any time I gave him water to drink he was vomiting within minutes. The day after his doctors appointment Lamar was hit with snow and Greg had a snow day. Parker was still not himself. He had no energy and just wanted to be held and cuddled which was not normal. Being the oblivious parents that we were, Greg and I thought, "cool, maybe we can watch a movie and he'll just snuggle with us".

After a few hours we realized something was just not right. He was completely limp and his lips were turning a slight purple. We decided it was time to go to the E.R. They said he was dehydrated and tried unsuccessfully to give him two different IV's. After drawing blood and running test the results were negative for strep, flu, and RSV. They resorted to giving us a bottle of Pedialyte and told me to use an adult straw, and to have just a little in the straw and give him very little every 5 minutes. An hour and a half later I had given him the whole bottle of Pedialyte and he hadn't thrown up! If I had known to do that the day before I think we could have avoided the whole situation. Let's just say it was a lesson learned the hard way. It took Parker several days to get back to his normal self. I can safely say his appetite is now back and he is as perky as ever!

He still takes a morning and afternoon nap, but I have a feeling I will be cutting out the morning nap pretty soon. I did begin to worry that he wasn't getting enough nutrients since I have been slowly weaning him so I began supplementing with formula this past month. He's not the biggest fan of it though. He will typically drink an ounce of it before each nap and I also use it to mix up his cereal in the mornings.

As far as sleeping through the night...well, that seems to have gone out the window. He wakes up several times during the night and I will either lay him down and pat him on the back and he falls asleep or we have a rocking session that can last up to an hour. He is waking up a little bit earlier which does not make me the most pleasant person to be around ;)

As far as his eating habits, he is still on stage 2 baby food. I began trying to feed him stage 3 but then he got sick and I resorted back to what he was used too. He did add mango's and blackberries to his menu. I'm sure there were some other things but they are slipping my mind. His absolute favorite food are cheerios! If he doesn't have a couple handfuls after each meal he throws a fit. I'm pretty sure he eats as much cheerios after each meal as an adult would have for their morning bowl of breakfast.

The past few months I have kind of been guessing at his weight. I don't have a baby scale so what I have done is weigh myself, then weigh myself holding Parker and I subtract the difference. I've always come up with him being about 19 pounds. When we took him to the ER he weighed in at 17 lbs. 5 oz. My jaw about hit the floor. Granted he hadn't been eating but it did kind of concern me. Well, when I did my version of his weigh in last Sunday I came up with about 19 pounds again. As far as how long he is, I didn't even bother. That little guy is a squirmer!

I am 11 months old today!!!!

What I'm Loving Wednesday

2011-03-09T13:31:00.004-07:00

I'm linking up again with Jamie for her Wednesday blog party!

I'm loving that after several days of being horribly sick, my little baby finally seems to be on the road to recovery and is finally acting like himself again!

I'm loving that I'm hostessing a Celebrating Home party tonight!

I'm loving that tomorrow our friends Randy and Shannon, along with their little boy, Braxton, are arriving at our house and staying through the weekend!

I'm loving that I have about 18 episodes of Sex In The City on my DVR!

I'm loving that one of my best friends from college, Angela, is engaged! Better yet, I'm loving that her and her fiancee, Vaughn, are entered in the Crate and Barrel The Ultimate Wedding Contest! Please click here to vote for them! I would love to hear that they won this contest; they totally deserve it!

I'm loving that out of nowhere the other day my husband told me how much he loves how I look in my new skinny jeans and he thinks we should buy a few more pairs! (I wasn't even wearing them when he said that!)

I'm loving that the ad about our house for sale began running in the newspaper today!

I'm loving that we are having an Open House this Sunday!

I'm loving that I will be able to enjoy our remodeled house for about a week before I have to start packing for our move to Texas!

Happy Wednesday, ya'll!

A Few Minor Changes

2011-03-03T07:25:00.004-07:00

You know the saying,"When it rains, it pours?" Well, that seems to be the case around here. We spent this last weekend in Graham, TX because my husband asked his manager if there would be any way he could transfer there. Of course, the manager of the site wanted us to come to the city so he could meet Greg and so we could make sure we liked the town enough to transfer. We were pretty confident that Greg would be transferred successfully, but there was always the chance it wouldn't work out. Luckily, everything worked out and Greg was informed on Monday that he has to start work at the new job site on April 18th.

We love the town of Graham! It's bigger than Lamar, where we currently live. There are a few department stores, a lot of cute boutique stores, several parks, a community theatre (I told Greg I was dying to be on stage again!), a movie theatre, a drive-in movie theatre (!), bowling ally, lots of mom and pop restaurants as well as the usual fast food joints, a few shoe stores, and even a ranch resort with an awesome steak house with stellar views (We actually stayed there this weekend...blog post soon to come!) Graham also happens to be an hour and a half away from Fort Worth, which makes this city girl very happy! I have cousins who live in Ft. Worth, and I'm excited about being close to museums, a zoo, and of course lots of cultural events to expose Parker too! Even better is that we will be two hours away from a property we recently inherited, and we will be three and a half hours away from most of our Oklahoma family.

As if that isn't change enough...there is more to come. We didn't waste any time in scooping out the local real estate. In fact, we spent a couple weeks prior to our trip to Graham scouring the internet and talking to a local Realtor. Our last four houses have been foreclosed properties that required a lot of remodeling. In fact, we are only 95% finished with the house we live in now, but are quickly working to finish it. My husband is getting a little tired of working on houses, and kept saying that he hoped our next house would not require any work. Apparently he was telling the truth, because this is a picture of our new (and I mean NEW) house!

It's not completely finished. In fact the elevation is still missing the shutters, and then all of the cedar wood will be stained a really dark mocha color. We were able to pick out the carpet and I even made changes to the bathroom mirrors (the builder was going to install those plain mirrors but I was determined to have decorative framed mirrors). I'll post more pics when we move in next month.

The changes don't stop there! Yesterday Parker had his first hair cut. Here is a picture of my sweet baby before:

And here is a picture of my young man after:

I'm actually having a harder time adjusting to Parkers hair cut more than anything else. Greg assures me it will grow out a little and he'll have some curls before he blows out his candle on his first birthday.

So like I said, just a few minor changes....

What I'm Loving Wednesday!

2011-02-23T09:32:00.007-07:00

I'm linking up again with Jamie for her blog party. Click here to see what other people are loving this Wednesday!

Today, I'm LOVING that we finally finished remodeling our upstairs bathroom! Here are the before and after pictures:

This was our bathtub before. The tiles were falling off the wall so for over a year now we have been taking showers with plastic hanging over the tile walls. Ghetto, I know. Those shower doors were disgusting as well. Rusty and covered with hard water spots. We removed those a long time ago and have just been using a plastic shower curtain liner.

This is the vanity. Sometimes, Tiffany blue just isn't a good thing! The floral print boarder near the ceiling was also a nice touch!

There was a wall of wallpaper next to the toilet. Can you say random? Also, the long wall to the right had the same wallpaper as well. And, who likes having carpet in a bathroom? Not me! Gross!

Here is one of our "work in progress" pictures. My husband loves to watch Holmes on Homes on HGTV, and the orange subflooring is a product that Holmes uses instead of using cement board prior to laying down ceramic tile. We are no strangers to laying tile (my hubby used to do it as a side job) but this was the first time he used this product. Since we had just painted the walls orange, it literally looked like the room was glowing. We thought it was pretty funny.

Ta-da! The finished product! Complete with new texture, paint, flooring, tub and shower surround, curtain rod, and towel rod!

This bathroom is upstairs, where three of our bedrooms are located. If a new family purchases this home and has a family of four, they could each have room for a towel on that super long towel bar. Want to know a secret? It's actually a curtain rod! (My husband's idea!) Also note the newly painted white doors! I'm slowly making progress on one of my goals for 2011.

This is our new toilet. It's elongaged, which is so comfy! ;) Also, we moved that cabinet from our kitchen into our bathroom, where it just makes much more sense. I painted that white and installed new hardware.

The vanity area looks much better! I painted the vanity and installed new hardware. We also installed a new countertop, faucet, towel holder, lighting, and decorative mirror.

Now that the bathroom is newly remodeled, what I'm also loving today is that my friend Bri is having a Celebrating Home party! Maybe I'll find some fun bathroom decor to purchase!

Happy Wednesday, ya'll!

My Hot Date!

2011-02-18T12:45:00.005-07:00

We finally finished remodeling our master/upstairs bathroom (pics coming soon)! I told myself that as a reward, I would indulge myself in a nice relaxing hot bath. My husband is out of town for the weekend, so this was my hot date for the night!

I don't take baths very often (I'm more of a shower gal), but when I do, I like to do them right! We made this as our craft at the last MOPS meeting, and that was sometimes the only thing that got me through all the painting I had to do. I love treating myself to a reward after a job well done.

Here are the instructions to make your own Ginger Soak:
2 cups baking soda
1 cup Epson salts
2 Tablespoons ground ginger

I have heard of people soaking in tubs with baking soda and Epsom salts (Gwyneth Paltrow does it), but have never done it myself. About 30 minutes after my bath my skin felt pleasantly tingly. I'm not sure if that's normal, but I sure liked it and felt very refreshed afterward.

My companions in the bathroom were these two items:

Capped off by an episode of Sex in the City! I planned on having a mini SITC marathon, but I was so relaxed and tired after my bath I barely made it through one!

Once I finished watching my show, I sprayed some Deep Sleep pillow spray from The Body Shop onto my sheets, and I hit the sack and slept like a baby!

10 Months Old!

2011-02-17T12:17:00.007-07:00

Since my last "month old" post was a few weeks late, it really feels like Parker reached the 10 months mark faster than he should have! He sure is a happy, beautiful baby boy. Unless, of course, I'm trying to get him to take a nap! ;)

Nap times are still an issue in my house. I'm already curious as to when the day will come that I'll be able to just put him in the crib, and he'll just fall asleep on his own. I've at least nipped the cradle swing, bouncing up and down motions I used to do. He just got too heavy, so now I just rock him and sing to him. One negative thing my little boy has learned to do is pinch though. This normally happens when I'm rocking him. And it's not a pinch with his thumb and finger. It's actually grabbing a wad of my skin and gripping it super hard. It hurts!

He is not sleeping through the night anymore, and I think teething may be to blame. I have stopped picking him up and rocking him though, now I can generally just lay him back down, pat him on the back for a little while, and he'll drift back to sleep. He does wake up anywhere from 3:00-5:00 for a nursing session.

I've added a few more foods to his menu: ham, turkey (which he gobbles up, ha, ha!), blueberries, and as far as "real" food goes, I have given him cheerios, yogurt, and bites of cheddar cheese! He also has begun drinking white grape juice (which I dilute with water).

He is quite the expert at climbing up stairs, which is why we now have baby gates galore. He also got his third and fourth teeth in, all within two days of each other, with another two fighting to make their debut very soon.

One thing I'm not too proud about is that he has learned how to throw a fit. This happens whenever I'm trying to either confine him to his high-chair, car seat, or changing table (he would much rather be crawling around exploring). He arches his back and stiffens up and lets out a wail/scream so loud you'd think I was doing some real bodily harm to him. I'm sure this is just the beginning.

I took him to the park and pushed him in a swing for the first time. He likes it, but only lasts in it for a few minutes before he's over it. Whenever we have a nice day, he really enjoys walks in his stroller.

Now that he's an expert at pulling up, he's working on cruising (walking holding on to furniture). His favorite activity is opening any door that has not been baby proofed and pulling all the contents onto the floor. He especially loves when I give him free reign in his nursery and he can pull all his books onto the floor.

He loves to be chased! If he is crawling on the floor and someone walks towards him and says, "I'm gonna get you!" he speed crawls away while squealing in delight. It's precious!

He is quite the independent boy and has no problem playing with a pile of toys all by himself.

I have to try my best to keep the floors clean because if there is a speck of who-knows-what on the floor, he will pick it up and chew on it. What's funny is he knows when he has something in his mouth that he shouldn't. If I try to get him so I can take it out, he speed crawls away from me, and then once I have him in my arms he's arching his back away from me. There is nothing too gross for Parker, either. Some items I have pulled out of his mouth include: carpet fibers, wood chips, rocks, paint chips, pine needles, Christmas tree needles, grout, leaves, dog food, and the list could go on and on.

He loves going into the bathroom and banging on the toilet and bath tub. Boys are strange!

I began brushing his teeth this past month. He LOVES it! I'm sure it feels good on his sore gums, plus the baby toothpaste is pretty tasty!

He got to experience playing in the snow for the first time! At first he fell back into the snow and just laid there with a content expression on his face. I'm not sure what was so interesting to him. Either the blue sky or the slightly cool feeling on his back. I love how the pictures turned out, except for my rookie photography mistake: I didn't have my back to the sun. Stupid shadows.

All was good until his hand fell out of his mitten and he got a fistful of the cold, wet substance. Needless to say tears followed and our snow experience lasted all of maybe five minutes.

I finally graduated Parker from his infant car seat to his convertible car seat.

He attended his first super bowl party.

I am 10 months old today! I weigh 19 pounds! Mommy has no idea how long I am because I won't lay still long enough for her to measure me!

Funniest. Picture. Ever. (in my opinion)

2011-02-15T22:01:00.005-07:00

Apparently I should have changed the lyrics to "Teardrops on my guitar" to "Teardrops on Parkers walker"!

It could be worse....

2011-02-10T16:32:00.002-07:00

I know I live a very charmed life when the downfalls of yesterday included:

* Realizing that corell plates are NOT shatterproof. In fact, a mere 3 foot fall will result in thousands of itty bitty shards of glass all over my kitchen floor and even on the top of my oven (How did that happen?)

* Parker caught his finger in the floor vent for the first time. Crying and bloodshed followed. Poor baby.

* Discovering that my DVR decided not to record the last 8 episodes of Sex in the City. I'm sooooo far behind now!

* I made my *delicious* homemade apricot cobbler from scratch for the second day in a row, only to have it once again turn out horribly. It was like a scrambled egg on top. No idea what I did wrong both days.

* Using the last of the apricots I froze this past spring and not being able to enjoy them.

At the end of the day, I told myself: It could be worse.

What I'm Loving Wednesday

2011-02-09T15:50:00.006-07:00

I'm linking up with Jamie again for her Blog Party!

I'm loving that we started remodeling our upstairs bathroom last week and are almost 90% finished. (8% of which is all the painting and finishing touches that I have to do. I really shouldn't be blogging right now!)

I'm loving that I got not one, but two new pairs of boots! Here's a pic of one of the pairs!

I'm loving that I bought my first pair of skinny jeans. Now I just hope they continue to stay in fashion for awhile!

I'm loving that when I opened my mail box today I had a hand written note from one of my besties!

What I love even more is that she'll know I'm talking about her when she reads this! (In case you think I get bombarded with decent snail mail on a regular basis, I'm talking about you, ADeidra!)

I'm loving that yesterday a woman from L.A. bought one of my slinky bracelets!!!! (Order yours at www.blingonastring.etsy.com) I'm going Hollywood, baby!

I'm loving that tonight is the season finale of Live To Dance!

Happy Wednesday, ya'll!

9 Months Old!

2011-01-28T15:20:00.012-07:00

As usual, the time is just flying by at a rapid speed! But, a lot of exciting things happened during Parker's eigth month!

He began saying mama! Although I don't think he really knows that it's supposed to mean me. However, I'm not complaining!

He celebrated his first Christmas!

He got his second tooth!

He began drinking water from a straw sippy cup!

He said dada! And what's funny is that we happened to be on Skype chatting with my sister in China. I had just told her that we were working on him with saying it but with no success. Wouldn't you know Greg would walk into the room, I would say, "Parker, say dada" and he said it! I know my sister probably thought I was lying when I said he hadn't said it yet!

He had a special visitor one day! One of my best friends from high school stopped by on their way home from visiting some of their family in Colorado. Her little boys were very entertaining for Parker!

He had his first black eye. Obviously, I'm not proud about this one. I had all of his rattles and toys in the living room in a decorative metal bucket. I'm sure you can figure out how this story ends. Needless to say the decorative bucket now has a nice new home in our coat closet. Luckily, it was only visible when he had his eye shut. Everytime I tried to sneak a picture of him while he was napping he was laying on his tummy with that eye down on the mattress so I don't have any pictures of it.

I began using baby sign language with him! So far he hasn't signed anything back, and for the most part he thinks it's funny. If I ever want a big smile from him I just sign the word "sleep" and he thinks that's just a riot!

He began pulling up! Baby proofing is in full swing here at our house!
(Dontcha just love how my idea of baby proofing is to place pillows around the entertainment center?)

I added chicken, pears, and strawberrys to his growing menu.

He loves when I play patty cake with him and he has begun clapping his hands. It is just the cutest thing ever! He absolutely loves it when Greg places him on his shoulders. A sure-fire way to get him to stop crying is for Greg to do that with him.

He LOVES Shady. We have a little game that we play each night while I'm preparing dinner. Parker will be on the kitchen floor along with Shady (who seems to think I'll be dropping food on the floor for her.) Parker takes this to be that Shady is chasing him. So he will speed crawl to me and try to climb up my leg, all while looking at Shady and laughing at her. He is just the cutest thing.

His new favorite toy was a wooden spoon, but Greg thinks that's a dangerous toy so I have placed the wooden spoons back in the drawers where they belong.

He now LOVES going to the grocery store! I officially graduated him from the infant car seat to just riding in the cart.

Luckily we went to the doctors office for his well baby visit the day before he turned 9 months old, since the next day we were in Oklahoma. At that time he weighed 19 lbs. 7 oz. and was 28" long!

Sadly, I didn't have my camera with me in Oklahoma so here he is at 9 months, 2 weeks, and 1 day!

What I'm Loving Wednesday

2011-01-26T11:39:00.009-07:00

Click here to see what others are loving this Wednesday!

It's hard to believe that just two weeks ago I blogged about what I was loving that particular Wednesday. Little did I know that just a few hours after posting that blog my husband would receive an unexpected phone call saying that his Dad passed away.

It's strange how such a normal Wednesday can take such a drastic turn. Greg received a phone call that his Dad wasn't doing well after a surgery to remove a hernia. He decided to come home because he thought we may be making a trip to Oklahoma. I was completely unaware of what was taking place and was out running errands with Parker when I got a phone call from Greg asking where I was and when I'd be back home. I knew that his dad was having complications after his surgery but I never once thought it was something that was life threatening. However, I could tell in my husbands voice that something wasn't right. Once I got home Greg said he thought we should head towards Oklahoma, where his Dad lives. I frantically began packing and shortly afterwards we received the phone call that no child wants to ever get. His dad had a massive heart attack and passed away.

The 8 hour car ride to our grandmothers house in Oklahoma was long and depressing. It was also pretty quite since Greg was driving and I didn't want to ask questions and get him upset. I thought about what I had done earlier that day and inwardly scolded myself for blogging about something as trivial as a scrapbook.

Several days later we had the memorial for Carl. The chapel was packed and several friends and family members spoke about memories they had of Greg's dad. Some of the stories were humours while others were touching. Greg's dad lived on Lake Texoma and after the service that is where Greg and I headed to spend a week. During that drive I had more thoughts crossing my mind. In the end, I realized that I shouldn't have berated myself for blogging about something as simple as a scrapbook. Carl lived life to the fullest. And I realized that part of living life to the fullest is embracing the small things in life that give us pleasure.

With that being said, this Wednesday I'm loving:

That Greg had the honor of having his dad stand beside him at our wedding and proudly serve as our Best Man.

I'm loving all the fun memories Greg and I have with his dad at Lake Texoma.

I'm loving that we were able to make one of Carl's wishes come true: He became a Grandpa in April. The cherry on top of the sundae was that I gave birth to a beautiful baby boy, Parker. Greg was the last of our family name, and now Parker will continue to keep our name going. (Hopefully he'll have a wife who will give birth to four boys just to insure our name doesn't end soon!)

I'm loving that Carl drove eleven hours to meet his grandson when he heard I went into labor.

I'm loving that despite the distance between us, Carl was able to spend time with Parker on a handful of different occasions.

I'm loving that Greg and I will keep Carl's memory alive with stories that we'll be able to share with Parker as he gets older.

Happy Wednesday, ya'll! Enjoy and embrace today and make all the small things count!

What I'm Lovin' Wednesday

2011-01-11T16:43:00.007-07:00

I'm linking up with Jamie for her Wednesday blog party again!

I'm loving this brown paper bag scrapbook my sister had one of her friends send me! I can't wait to put some of Parker's pictures from his fall photo shoot in it and proudly display it for years to come!

I'm loving that The Elks Lodge is having a chili and dessert bake off on Friday night! (I'm entering a chocolate chip bundt cake!)

I'm loving threadUP.com It's so neat it deserves its own blog post, but there is a link on the right hand side of my blog so you can check it out for yourself!

I'm loving that we are going to Durango this weekend with some friends! What I'm loving even more is that we will be staying in a log cabin for FREE!

I'm loving that this was a MOPS week!

Happy Wednesday, ya'll!

A Really Good Friend

2011-01-08T11:20:00.007-07:00

I have a lot of friends, but the really good friends are sometimes hard to come by. Luckily, I have been blessed with quite a few really good friends. One of which I wanted to blog about today!

*You know you have a really good friend when you have a ton of memories that you can reminisce about!

*You know you have a really good friend when you can totally be yourself around them.

*You know you have a really good friend when you can still have a great time gossiping about people you went to high school with.

*You know you have a really good friend when you get "real" emails from them a few times a month, not just forwards and jokes.

*You know you have a really good friend when they send you cards that are always spot on.

*You know you have a really good friend that despite not having seen each other in eleven years there isn't any of that awkwardness when you finally do have a reunion.

*You know you have a really good friend when they spoil your baby.

*You know you have a really good friend when despite living in a different country you still know what's going on in their lives.

*You know you have a really good friend when they help to support your healthy habits.

*You know you have a really good friend when you know they forgive you for not emailing as often as you used too.

*You know you have a really good friend, who remembered that when I received amazing perfume for my birthday, that I was still a little tiny bit disappointed when I didn't receive the one that was at the very top of my list.

*You know you have a really good friend when they mail you an amazing Christmas present and all they are getting in return is a lousy blog post....and you know they won't hold a grudge about it! (right?)

I love you, Nora! Thanks for always being a really good friend!

My 2011 Goals

2011-01-07T09:33:00.004-07:00

For the third year in a row, it's time for my yearly goal list! (I can't believe I've been blogging this long!) Here we go!

1. To print, label, and organize all the photos that are on my laptop and place them in photo albums. Yup, it's appearing on my list for the third year in a row. I think I'm starting to get on every one's nerves about this now...but putting this out there really is helping me! Let's see if this is the year I can finally mark this one off the list!

2. To learn and use baby sign language with Parker. I probably should have started this months ago since he's almost nine months old, but I don't really know where to start with this. I'm hoping the library will have a book or two that I can borrow to learn some basic signs.

3. To use coupons. I was so inspired by the "Extreme Couponing" special that TLC did last week that I decided it was worth the time and effort to begin clipping coupons again. I actually went to the store yesterday and used coupons so I'm hoping I can make this a habit. I'm going to Wal-Mart today and will be buying the supplies I need to make my own coupon book to take with me on shopping trips!

4. To paint all the closet and bedroom doors in our house. When we first began remodeling our house our plan was to replace all the closet and bedroom doors with raised panel doors and to paint them white. Currently they are all the brown stained wood flat slat doors. My husband recently decided that since we won't be living in this house very long anyway, it really isn't going to pay us back to replace perfectly good doors. However, thinking about all the priming and painting I'll be sneaking in while Parker is napping already makes me want to pull my hair out!

5. To bake a pie. Two pies to be more specific. I actually love pies but have always been too intimidated to bake one. I have two favorites in mind: my mom's lemon meringue pie and my grandma's chocolate cream pie. Did I mention I plan on making the crust from scratch?

6. To contribute more to my family financially. Greg would love for me to find a well paying full time job. I would love to find a stay at home job so I don't have to put Parker in day care. I'm open to any suggestions!

7. To learn how to make spoon and fork jewelry. I have to say, I've been obsessed with spoon jewelry for a long time now. My mom can vouch for me! The other day I was doing some browsing through etsy and I was curious if anyone had a spoon jewelry store. Guess what else popped up. Fork rings! I was hooked. The next day I told my husband what he could buy me for my birthday (which is all the way in August). He asked what it was and when I said a fork ring and that it cost $150.00 he looked at me like I had lost my mind. But I promised him that it wasn't just a piece of jewelry....it was a piece of art! They are absolutely stunning!

I pulled up the rings and my husband said that he thought I should try my hand at making them myself. He even did a little research for me! I love it when my husband seems supportive of what could be a new jobby (job + hobby) for me!! I think it helps that since I would have to use some pretty heavy duty tools I would be working in the garage and my husband loves any excuse to hang out in the garage!

8. To begin working on my book again. Notice I didn't say specifically how much I would work on it! The only thing that is somewhat motivating me is when I occasionally overhear my husband talking on the phone to someone about my blog. He always tells them that I started writing a book and he doesn't know why I quit. Again, it's nice to know I have his support!

9. To host a few more Bling On A String trunk shows. I think this one is pretty self explanatory! To visit my store click here!

10. To finish The Harry Potter series. This one was on my very first goal list. And, sadly I still haven't finished the series. However, this is one goal that I'm cheating a little bit on. That's because I'm reading book 7 (the last one) right now! Sneaky, aren't I?

There you have it! What are your goals this year?

What I'm Loving Wednesday

2011-01-05T15:37:00.003-07:00

Today I'm loving these NUBY sippy cups. I've been trying to get Parker to use a sippy cup since he was about 3 months old with not very much luck. He's never taken a bottle so you can only imagine my frustration. I had heard of other moms having luck with their babies using straws. I figured it was worth a shot and I bought him a package of two for Christmas.

Let me just say, Parker took right to them! Granted, he does chew on the straw a little more than I would like, but I am also happy that he is finally getting big drinks of water! Yay!!!

I'm also loving ebay!! I've been a member of ebay for several years, but this past week we sold a few items that we had laying around the house, which was nice. Then, I bid on a brand new Britex convertible car seat and won it for $100 less than MSRP! I was double excited because I already had a certain Britex carseat in mind to purchase that was in our budget, but the one I won is actually a better one! Woot, woot! To top it off, last night Greg found flooring for the middle level that we think we might like. We ordered a sample and if we like it, the cost will be far less than what we originally planned on spending!

Happy Wednesday!!

A Review of my 2010 Goals

2011-01-02T15:16:00.003-07:00

Last year around this time I posted (what has become an almost "annual" blog tradition) my goals for 2010. Thankfully I did post them, because knowing that I would have to give my readers my year-end review is sometimes the only thing that kept me on track! So, here we go:

1. To be a better blogger. Well, if you're one of my faithful readers, you probably know that goal went right out the window. In fact, you're probably not even reading this because you pretty much gave up on logging in each week to see a new post by yours truly. Sorry! It's safe to say that taking care of the baby, keeping a clean and tidy house (my husband will laugh if he reads that), and making jewelry pretty much consumes most of my free time. Don't get me wrong! I still love blogging and reading all the comments, so have no fear, you can still read my "thoughts" from time to time!

2. To grow an herb garden. Hmmm....apparently when I made these goals I forgot that I would be giving birth in the spring, which I'm sure was the ideal time for me to plant that cute herb garden I daydreamed about. It's safe to say that idea went right out the window as well!

3. To call my mom more often. I do feel like I'm a lot better at this. However, that came at a price. I think I was calling her once a month until around August. Then, my step-dad was involved in a bad accident that left him being hospitalized for over two months, and eventually landed him in a nursing home. During that time, my phone calls increased to a few times a week. Now, I'm trying to call once a week. Sadly, sometimes an unexpected accident is what it takes for one to realize what's important in life.

4. To complete Parker's baby book. Thank God I posted this as a goal for the whole world to see! Do you want to know what I obsessively worked on last week? You guessed it! Parker's baby book. In fact, one evening I was working on it and my husband asked what I was doing and when I said, "working on Parker's baby book" his response was, "Why?" I didn't bother to tell him it was because I had exactly twenty-seven hours to get caught up because I knew he would think I had gone off the deep end!

Luckily, I did do a pretty decent job of updating a few things here and there each month. But the biggest thing I was dreading involved all those pages about the gifts he received after he was born, along with the gifts I received for him at my baby showers. I have been extremely blessed with awesome family and amazing friends who showered their generosity on our family. Which, meant I didn't want to write all those wonderful items down because I knew it would be time consuming. Luckily for gifts I got in the mail I would write down on a piece of paper and so that really helped! Now, I know what you're thinking; why didn't I just write them down in the baby book as I received them instead of on a piece of paper. Here's why: I want the baby book to be filled out using the same pen. I don't want blue ink mixed with black ink or ball point mixed with uniball gel. Yes, I am a freak of nature. One thing that really helped me whenever I did make time to add to the book was the awesome "baby's first year" calendar that one of my aunts sent me. It came with all kinds of stickers for things such as "clapped hands", "rolled over", "gave kisses", "doctor's appointment", you get the idea. That calendar has been so great in allowing me to keep track of things! And, in case you're wondering why I've been so diligent about my monthly Parker posts, it's because I am supposed to add a picture of him each month. (Yes, I am also a little bit anal about the calendar as well. I always use the same blue pen to fill out his monthly stats!)

There are a few parts of Parker's baby book that make me sad. One of which is the section where I'm supposed to clip a newspaper clipping announcing his birth. The hospital was pretty on top of things, having me fill out a form that they submit to the newspaper for the announcement. Now, this may sound silly, but after I brought Parker home from the hospital, I had anxiety about leaving the house. The idea of having to go to the gas station to buy a paper completely stressed me out. In the town I live in, the newspaper is only printed three times a week. I asked my husband numerous times to stop by the gas station to buy a paper in case Parker's birth announcement was in it, but apparently that was not high on his priority list. I also asked friends to let me know if they saw it in the paper. Sadly, no one told me. I even called the newspaper to see if it had been printed two months after he had been born, but no one could tell me a concrete answer. Our library doesn't keep newspapers on file. The newspaper website is of no help. Needless to say, there is no newspaper clipping in Parker's baby book announcing his birth and that breaks my heart.

5. To host a Christmas Cookie/Ornament Exchange party.Instead, I had my first Bling On A String trunk show at the beginning of December. I figured hosting two parties back to back would be a little too much to handle. But, I would love to do this next year!

6. To be a good Mommy. This is a tough one. I try really hard to be a good mom. And some days I really feel like I am doing a pretty good job at parenting. I read books and websites about parenting. I take care of Parker's essential needs. I make an effort to play with him each day. I give him lots of kisses. But, then I have a moment. And at those moments, I always think, "Oh gosh, I am the worst parent in the world. How could I have done ______. Like the time we were out and about and I suddenly realized I hadn't changed his diaper in five hours. Or the time we were at The Elks and it dawned on me that (duh!) I had forgot to feed him his dinner! (Just so you don't call DHS on me, I had nursed him...just forgot to feed him his solids an hour later. And, he was in such a happy mood I had no reason to think that there was something "wrong" with him). Or like last night when I placed him in the bath tub and the water was too hot (first time that happened in eight months, so I guess I shouldn't be beating myself up. Parker paid me back by peeing all over me as soon as I lifted him out of the water). All I can say is; I try. But, I don't think I'll be winning a "Mom of the Year" award any time soon.

7. To print, label, and organize all the photos that are on my laptop and place them in photo albums.I have a really good excuse as to why this goal wasn't accomplished for the second year in a row: it takes money to print off pictures. For some reason when I made these goals I forgot about the teeny tiny fact that we have a whole house to remodel, along with another person to feed, clothe, and diaper. However, I did make a lot of progress this year! I did get two whole photo albums filled! One of which has all of the photos labeled (It's the type of album where you label to the side of the picture). I even printed off a lot more of the pictures that were taking up space on my laptop. However, I haven't quite got everything printed off. On the bright side, ever since Parker has been born, I've been printing off pictures at Wal-Mart once a month. And, up until November, I was great about immediately labeling and dating the back of the pictures. See: Progress!!!

8. To pay off the hospital bill after having the baby. Well, this didn't happen either, because of the reason listed on #7. Luckily, the hospital gave us an interest free payment plan which allows the balance to be paid off in a year. Trust me, we will be doing a happy dance once it's paid off!

9. To be a MILF. I actually think I've done pretty well about keeping up with this goal! Being a mommy proved to be the best diet for me. Along with finally having a "normal" lifestyle and not living in a fifth wheel where I basically sat around all day. I'm happy to say that I am finally back down to the size I was trying to achieve by dieting. However, my new found look does come with a price. Most of my friends are dieting, so when they see me, they say things like, "gosh, you're looking too skinny" or "I can't wait until I have a baby so I can loose weight", all of which are said with a tone of disgust. As if how dare I be skinny after becoming a mother. Although I would love to whip out a copy of the charts that show what a normal, healthy weight is for someone who is 5'2" (I fall right in the middle, thankyouverymuch) I just smile and hold my tongue. At least one person is truly happy for me: my husband! Along the same lines, I also have limited myself to wearing sweat pants twice a week. It honestly doesn't take any more effort to put on jeans and a cute top than to walk around all week looking like I rolled out of bed. I may not wear make up every day, but I do feel like I've been pretty good about trying to be a MILF! ;)

10. To bring the balance of our Harley down to a certain amount I have in my head. Refer to #7. Sadly, I was the queen of minimum payments this year.

11. Not to be such a control freak. That depends. According to #4, I guess some reading would take that to mean a big, fat, NO! However, I am pretty lax about other things. I made reference to spilt milk in my original goal list. And, since Parker spits up ALL THE TIME, it's pretty safe to say that I'm completely over having clean carpets. If he spits up, I pretty much just dab the spot with a burp cloth and call it good. Unless it's green. Or orange. Gross, I know. I'm sure if I had nice, brand new carpet, I would be signing a different tune!

12. To breast feed Parker for his first year. So far, so good!!!

13. To be more frugal. Well, this didn't happen. I would love to say we bought a membership to Sams Club, but we didn't (in our defense, it is two hours away), and I tried scouring the internet for coupons, but it was so time consuming and always for products that I didn't necessarily use to begin with. Luckily, Huggies and Pampers occasionally sends coupons for diapers and wipes, and I happily use those!

How did all of you do with your 2010 goals?

Merry Christmas!

2010-12-25T13:45:00.007-07:00

I was so excited to deck the halls this year! That's because for the past four (five?) years I haven't been able to decorate for Christmas. We were either living in our fifth wheel "traveling" (and there really wasn't extra room for a tree) or we were in the middle of remodeling and I didn't want to bother with getting extra decor out that would just get dusty. You can just imagine how much fun it was for me to be able to unload all of my Christmas decor. Some of the items I forgot I even had! Greg knows that sometimes I can get an idea in my head and I will stop at no means to follow through. However, he told me not to buy any additional Christmas decor and to use what we had. I obeyed his orders, only because I figure this means I can buy double the amount of "stuff" the day after Christmas! ;)

I was dying to purchase matching stockings and have all of our names embroidered on the top. But, since I had to stick to the "no purchasing" rule, I had to make due with our old stockings. I did go out and purchase a stocking for Shady and it literally drove me crazy that once I put some treats in her stocking that it didn't hang the "right" way. At least I know not to purchase that particular stocking tomorrow for the whole family!

This may sound silly, but one thing I was really excited about decorating was our mantle. I've never had a mantle before! I was happy to finally put the stocking holders I bought last year to use! However, they were originally brown which I didn't think was festive enough. Luckily we had some silver spray paint on hand, and I think after a few coats they were finally up to par!!!

I had to get pretty creative in decorating the mantle! Luckily I had a strand of pre-lit garland, but I knew that and the stocking holders weren't going to have the look I wanted. I have always loved pine cones, so I posted a question on facebook asking if any of my friends had a pine tree in their yard so I could come and pick some pine cones. Luckily one of my friends did! I gathered as many as I could and when I came home I spray painted some silver, others I used glue to add silver or gold glitter, and others I left in their birthday suits. I decorated with them in several places in the house! Talk about decorating on a budget!

I had a plain cylinder vase on hand that I stuffed with various pine cones as well as a few red bulb ornaments. After I placed that on the mantle, I knew I needed to add a little bit more height to achieve a more desirable affect. I resorted to placing a few pine cones in some martini glasses. I thought it turned out pretty cute, and I was proud of myself for once having my own original decorating idea!

Although my stockings didn't match, my sister happened to give this to me. Pretty cute if you ask me and at least I was able to use it along with the other hodge podge of stockings! After all, Parker can only use this stocking once, right?

Every year I like to buy a Christmas ornament that represents something for the year. Obviously, this little guy fit the bill! It even has a place on the back where I can write in Parkers weight and length. It's safe to say it will be one of my favorites for years to come!

Here are some other snapshots of holiday cheer in our house:

This is a count down to Christmas wall hanging that Greg's grandmother made when he was a little boy. It's the only holiday decoration that Greg had when I married him, and I love how it has such a sweet sentimental value to it. I'm sure Parker will love using it when he gets older.

This is a live wreath that one of my friends gave me for a Christmas present. I've always wanted to have a live Christmas tree, but this was the next best thing!

Parker with his stocking.

He likes chewing on his books rather than flipping through and "reading" them. Today they were extra yummy because Father Christmas brought Parker's second tooth! (Unfortunately it's also causing him to run his first low-grade fever. Poor guy!)

One of the toys we bought him was a box of little squirtable tub toys. We took a starfish out and that proved to be his favorite new toy. We pretty much had to open all the other presents for him because he wouldn't put it down!

We ventured out to The Elks Lodge this morning to join other members for free Tom and Jerrys. This is an eggnog drink that is made with powdered sugar. They were pretty yummy! To continue our festivities, I'm cooking a big, yummy dinner for us to enjoy. The menu consists of ham, sweet potato casserole, broccoli rice casserole, cranberry jello salad, croissants, and a pumpkin roll.

MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM OUR HOUSE TO YOURS!

My First Bling On A String Trunk Show!

2010-12-21T17:16:00.007-07:00

On December 9th I had my first Bling On A String Trunk Show! I've been brainstorming about doing a trunk show since August. And it took me that long to get enough inventory made....it's not always easy getting jewelry made with a baby in the house! When all was said and done I had 60 pieces of jewelry available for sale at the trunk show. I was nervous if that would be enough, or if people would be disappointed that there wasn't very much jewelry to choose from. I finally decided that I had to start somewhere and I could always explain that to people if they brought it up (luckily no one did)!

The days leading up to the show were really busy for me! Making sure every piece was tagged with a price, cleaning the house, stressing out, making and sending invitations and evites, and did I mention stressing out? I finally know how an artist feels before their first art show. Would people like my jewelry? Would they think it was over priced? Would they think it was poorly made? Would any one show up? The doubts were endless.

I invited around thirty five people to the trunk show. I had nine people attend. I tried not to let that discourage me. I've been told to always expect a fourth of the people you invite to attend an event, so I guess I did pretty good! I did have one lady attend who did not make a purchase, which of course hurt my feelings. I mean, I for one always intend on making a purchase (even if it's a small one) if I attend a trunk show or a direct sales party. I mean, that is the purpose of going, is it not?

I included a few special offers at my show. I entered guests into a drawing for a free necklace for every $20 that they spent. By the end of the night I had seven entries! I also marketed my slinky bracelets at a "buy two, get $5.00 off", which was a big hit. People loved my large slinky bracelets!
Here's a picture of one of my large slinky bracelets that is currently available for sale at www.blingonastring.etsy.com

After all was said and done, I had sold fourteen pieces of jewelry! I made a deal with my husband, that I would take 25% of my sales and invest it back into my business. I'm hoping that amount will allow me to replace the items that I sold and hopefully make a few more pieces. I figure this way I can slowly build up a decent inventory for future shows! I do hope to have a trunk show at my house every season (four times a year). I would also love to have people volunteer to host a trunk show at their house. I would give them a few hostess "bonuses" as well.

For those of you who have been encouraging and praying for this little venture of mine, I really appreciate you! You know the saying that God works in mysterious ways? Well, I am a firm believer in that. Back in my days of selling real estate, I always knew that if I worked really hard to generate business that God would see my efforts and would reward me. It would never be a result that I expected, but it always panned out nevertheless. For example, I would do mail outs to my entire neighborhood in hopes of landing a new listing. The following day I would receive a listing referral from a friend. In my heart, I always knew that God was rewarding my efforts. The same seems to be true for my Bling On A String business. I had several people tell me that they couldn't attend my trunk show but that they would call me one day just to come by and look at my jewelry. Well, of course people will say that, but do they follow through? Usually not. However, a week later a girl from MOPS that I invited called and said she wanted to come by! She purchased a pair of earrings. I totally wasn't expecting that, but it made my day! Then, the following day, another pair of earrings sold from my etsy store. The bonus was that the person who bought it was a complete stranger. I love it when random people discover my shop and like what they see!!!

Here are some of the pics from my trunk show. Of course, I forgot to take pictures until it was already over, so some spots on the table look a little bare.

8 Months Old!

2010-12-15T15:37:00.018-07:00

Parker is a few days past 8 months old now! I really don't want to write, yet again, that time seems to just be flying by...but I can't help myself! Time really is flying by! Some VERY exciting things happened in Parkers world this past month! We took a trip to Oklahoma for Thanksgiving! We didn't get to see nearly as many friends as we would have liked, but we did see a lot of family! And, I would post pics of Parker with all of his extended family, but there are just so many that would take awhile! But, here are a few cute pics from our trip home.

One of my best friends, Shannon, made this adorable Turkey onesie for him! Is that not the cutest thing? I loved it! Thanks, Shannon!

While we were "home" I desperately wanted to have Parker's picture taken with Santa. I had heard in the past that the "best looking" Santa Claus is at Bass Pro Shop. Unfortunately, we just couldn't seem to make our way up to downtown OKC, so I settled for the Santa who was at Sooner Fashion Mall in Norman instead. Parker did great! I was curious what he would do once Santa took him. He looked at him kind of funny, reached for his glasses, and then gave him a big smile. We had a picture taken (not on our camera, so I won't be able to post it on here) and he gave the best smile on the second click. Everyone who was waiting in line behind us said, "Aww" when he did. As satisfied as I am with the picture, a few weeks ago a fellow friend of mine posted pics on her blog with her kids visiting Santa at Bass Pro. Needless to say, he was a much better looking Santa!

Parker loves it when I sing "Row, Row, Row Your Boat" and do the motions with him!

When we got back to Colorado Parker had what I thought was his first illness. Luckily, the doctor disagreed. He just had a major runny/congested nose. Let's just say Parker got a little unhappy with the bulb syringe and would begin crying at the mere sight of it! Luckily he is much better now!

As far as food goes, we have added green beans, apples, and peaches to his menu! I try to get him to drink water out of his sippy cup. He loves "drinking" from it, but I think more than anything he chews on it. I actually bought him some straw sippy cups for Christmas to see if he can get the hang of those better.

At the beginning of December a big milestone happened! He crawled and sat up all in the same day! He could kind of sit up for awhile now, but always toppled over after a few minutes. I had read that babies should be able to sit before they can crawl so I was starting to get a little worried. Now when he sits, he is leaning on one arm. If I put him in the normal sit, or tri-pod, position, he still doesn't last that way very long. Now that he's crawling, I can barely keep up with him! Child-proofing is in full swing here at our house!

A week after he finally mastered crawling, he began clapping his hands. He doesn't make any sound when he does it, and he doesn't do it very often, but it sure is cute when he does! The evening of the day he clapped his hands, I had him in his nursery playing on the ground. I was doing something in the bathroom and walked by the nursery to go into the office. Out of the corner of my eye I saw something that shocked me. Parker has a little fisher price chair with a desk attached to it that has a singing lamp and book attached to it. Parker has always been fascinated with it, constantly crawling or rolling over to it and banging on the seat with his hand. Imagine my surprise when I walked by and saw that he had pulled up on his knees for the first time to get a little bit closer to the desk! He doesn't pull himself up to his feet, just his knees. In fact, he doesn't ever place his feet on the ground correctly if you hold him in a standing position. I hope this will be a problem that will correct itself shortly.

Parker is all BOY! He loves BALLS and DOGS! In fact, chasing a ball on the floor is what made him learn to crawl! His most recent favorite toy also includes: a plastic cup!

Another random fact about Parker is that he always has a scratch on his face. I just cannot keep his nails trimmed short enough.

He loves to be carried in his baby bjorn. It comes in very handy during shopping trips. Too bad he's getting so heavy now that it hurts my back!

This is a typical Parker pose in his car seat! He loves to chew on the puppy's ear!

I am 8 months old! I weigh 19 pounds and am 27" long!

This is another one of my favorite toys: the doorstop!

I'm gonna get you, mama!

Christmas Card Drama....Again!

2010-12-09T14:21:00.003-07:00

Some of you may remember the Christmas card drama I had a few years ago. Well, go figure, two years later I'd have some drama again.

I did a Christmas photo shoot with Parker with intentions of using one of the pictures on our Christmas cards this year. The pictures turned out fairly well and off I went to upload our 2010 Christmas cards onto www.shutterfly.com I knew they would be arriving any day now so I was super excited when I heard the UPS man pull up to my house. I was in the middle of nursing Parker but I know from experience that UPS will leave packages on my front porch. As soon as I was finished nursing I quickly ran downstairs and retrieved my package.

As I tore open the box like a little kid I couldn't help but feel a quick flutter of excitement! I knew this year I wouldn't have the same problem as I did the year before. I pulled one of the pictures out of the box to do a quick once-over when I quickly let out a cry of horror. There it was. Plain as day. I spelt my son's name wrong.

I probably wouldn't be too upset were this not my son's very first Christmas. Especially since his sweet little face is the only person pictured on the card. I even planned on placing one of the cards in his baby book. How will my little boy look back as he's older and be able to see how excited I am to celebrate his first Christmas with him when I sent out a Christmas card calling him, "Parer"?

So much to blog about....

2010-12-07T16:11:00.002-07:00

But so little time to do so!!! In an effort to motivate me to blog here are some tidbits I hope to blog about soon!

*Thanksgiving
*My first Bling On A String Trunk Show
*Decking The Halls
*Parker turning 8 months old (because lets face it....he's not quite there yet but at the rate I've been going he'll be 8 1/2 months old before I blog about it)
*How badly I sucked at keeping up my New Year Goals this year. There. I've said it. Now maybe I can quit stressing out about the fact that I still have a few days to go and maybe just maybe I can at least cross off a few of them. *cough*yeah right*

:)

7 Months Old!!!!

2010-11-18T11:48:00.013-07:00

My internet has been hit or miss lately so this post is coming a little later than I would have liked!

This past month went by way too fast!!! Parker mastered rolling over both directions, and now loves that he has so much more freedom! We have quickly learned that our living room just isn't big enough to accomidate his budding curiousity! He loves to just lay on his stomach with a variety of toys in front of him. He does what we call the "superman" pose; he lays on his tummy with his legs slightly lifted off the floor and he kicks like crazy! Actually, he looks more like a frog than superman but somehow that nickname has stuck!

We have been getting together for a baby playdate for the past two months now. Right now I think it's more of a "mommy playdate" since the babies aren't really interested in each other at the moment. I think that will slowly begin to change though. Here's a cute pic of the four boys at one of our sessions.

He has added a bunch of food to his list this past month: squash, sweet potatos (his favorite!), peas, bananas, oatmeal, and carrots. I also give him a "treat" called a baby Mum-Mum. This is basically a rice cake. As funny as it sounds, I think he could really care less about eating. He is easily distracted while I'm feeding him. He would much rather chew on his spoon, watch Shady (our dog), or chew on the fabric of his high chair. Luckily, he always finishes his meal, even if it takes me fifteen minutes to feed all of it to him.

One of the funnest moments of this past month was my favorite holiday: Halloween! My mom saw a pea in the pod outfit at Family Dollar, and since she knew I labeled all my pregnancy blog posts as "pea in the pod" and since one of my baby showers had the same theme, she could't pass it by. I have to say, he is the most adorable little pea ever.

Funny story: When I showed my husband these pictures, his first comment wasn't the typical, "Oh, he looks so cute", or "You did a good job on these pictures". No. It was, "We have carrots?!" Yes, my husband enjoys his vegetables!

A woman who attends the same Bible Study as me also gave me a cute Pumpkin costume for him to wear. This is the first time I ever took pictures with my little pumpkin like this. I think he thought it was fun, what do you think?

We got to attend a fun costume/cocktail party.

I took him to Wichita for a night to meet his god-parents. (Silly me, I didn't get any pictures). I took him to church for the first time. Unfortunately that didn't go as smoothly as I would have hoped. Maybe I'll venture back in another couple of months! His very first tooth is slowly trying to make it's grand debut. It has broke the surface but I can't see it, I can only feel it. So far he's been a very good teether.

I have to say I believe I may have a future model on my hands. I always seem to get big smiles out of him when I want to do a quick photo session. I even took him to get "professional" pictures taken one day. This was a fundraiser for MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers) and I personally thought the actual photographs were overpriced so I only got the big picture that I paid $10 for. However, the photographer kept commenting on how good he was. He said he had been dealing with crying, screaming babies for the previous two hours and was glad to have such a happy, photogenic little trooper. Of course this instantly made me have visions of them asking if he could be the new "face" of this particular company, but that's just the consumate daydreamer in me!

One magical milestone happened this month: he began giving me kisses! It actually took me awhile to figure out what he was doing. They don't tell you in baby books that baby kisses aren't like "real" kisses. My sister had told me that baby kisses are open mouthed and slobbery. So one night, in the middle of my slumber, I woke up with an ephiphany: Parker had been kissing me! (Am I the only one who wakes up in the middle of the night because my subconscious has finally made something clear to me?) This is how it normally happens: I'll nurse Parker. While I'm burping him he'll turn his head and place his mouth on my cheek. At first I would laugh and say things like, "There's no milk there" or "That's not the boobie!" He always has a huge smile on his face when he does this. Once I finally realized what he was doing my heart just melted. I think he's proud of the fact that he can finally show affection back. Now I try to force it, which doesn't give the same affect. Apparently always placing my cheek in front of his face doesn't result in an instant kiss.

As these months are passing with a faster rate, I find myself falling more and more in love with my little bundle of joy. This makes me extremely happy because I actually struggled with a little combination of the baby blues/feeling like I didn't love him enough issues when he was an infant. I now realize that I was completely exhausted and that some of my feelings are normal for women. The icing on the cake is seeing how great Greg has become at being a Daddy. I think Parker really is the pride and joy of our lives and I'm so happy that we have created this special little boy.

I'm seven months old today! I weigh 19 pounds and am 27 1/2" long!

Six Months Old!

2010-10-13T12:48:00.010-07:00

I cannot believe Parker is half a year old today! It literally blows my mind. The icing on the cake is that he is turning out to be such a happy baby! This previous month had a few "firsts" for my little guy.

He ate his first solid food. Although, I don't think he's a big fan of rice cereal.

He drank from a sippy cup...granted he only "drinks" from it on accident. He mainly does a lot of chewing on it!

He wore his first pair of shoes.

He went to his first play group. I thought he might be a little young for this, but we learned motions to "Row, Row, Row Your Boat" and he loves it! We sing it everyday now and I always get a huge smile from him as we row away.

He played with another baby for the first time, (this is his friend, Kazwell).

I'm currently working with him to learn to roll over the "other way". He will only roll in one direction. The past few days I have been trying to entice him to roll the opposite way with a toy. He tries really hard, then gets frustrated and rolls over the direction he usually goes, and is surprised to see that the toy he rolled over for is actually further away!

I'm also trying to work with him on sitting unsupported. This usually results in him flinging himself backwards. Oh well.

It wouldn't be a proper "month old" post if I didn't talk about his naps. Have you guys heard of Scentsy? If you haven't, you're missing out! (My sister in law sells it; here is her website so you can check it out and shop 'til you drop.) Well, Scentsy has a new line of nursery warmers. One of which happens to be a "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" warmer which matches Parker's nursery perfectly! My friend Courtney and her Mom gave one to me for Parker.

The first day I had the warmer on, Parker took an hour and a half nap. I thought something was wrong with him. As you know, I'm usually lucky if he naps for 45 minutes. This continued the next day, and the next, and the next, etc. I firmly believe that the Scentsy is basically like aromatherapy for my little angel! He has even slept for 2 hours and 15 minutes! This is both for his morning and afternoon naps. I can tell these naps are what he has been needing because he is so much happier lately! And as a bonus, the whole upstairs smells wonderful!!!

I'm 6 months old today!!! I weigh 17 lbs. 8 oz. and am 26 1/2" long!

I sure have grown a lot since the last time Mommy tried to take pictures of me inside Daddy's guitar case, haven't I?

And....She's Back!

2010-10-09T12:44:00.006-07:00

That's what one of my friends wrote on facebook when she saw that I had re-launched my etsy store a month ago. I love creating fun jewelry, but my challenge when we first arrived in this town was that there was not a bead store. So, I put my little hobby on hiatus. However, while I was pregnant, I knew I had to make myself a breast feeding reminder bracelet. Some of you may remember this one that I made for sale a couple years ago.

The great thing about breast feeding reminder bracelets is that not only are they an easy way to keep track of the last time one has fed their baby, but it also plays double duty since one is supposed to switch it from one wrist to the other after a nursing to "remind" the mother which side to begin nursing from. Mine worked perfectly for me after giving birth. I was on a strict nursing schedule (every hour and a half) including waking both myself and Parker up during the night because he had lost so much weight. It was draining and I was seriously sleep deprived. For the life of me I never could (and still can't) remember which side I had left off on. The switching from wrist to wrist was such a life saver for me! Unfortunately, I broke the clasp that the charm is on after a few weeks. And, go figure, there wasn't a store near by for me to buy a replacement clasp. Although the "time" charm could no longer be used, I was thankful that I could still use the bracelet to remind me which side to have him start nursing from.

That's when it hit me. A breast feeding reminder bracelet can only be used by a select group of women. However, a bracelet that any woman could wear, but that could double as a reminder bracelet, seemed easier to market. And thus "Slinky Bracelets" were born! What I love about them is they are so versatile! They can be easily added to complete a "look" since there are no clasps to fumble with. A nursing mother can switch hers from wrist to wrist to "remind" her which side to begin nursing from. An enthusiastic sports fan can show her spirit by wearing one in her teams colors. How fun would these be for high school teenagers to wear one in their school colors on game days? I have high hopes that my "Slinky Bracelets" will catch on. So, with that being said, please visit my little shop at: www.blingonastring.etsy.com

My ultimate goal with Bling On A String is that I can begin producing enough sales in jewelry to allow me to continue to stay at home with Parker. I am not in any way expecting this little vision of mine to happen over night. But, I know that a small business like this cannot have success without the support and encouragement from family and friends. In the upcoming months I hope that I can have enough inventory of hand made jewelry that I can begin having a few trunk shows here and there. I think jewelry is something very personal and most women like to "try on" before they buy. Your prayers and positive thoughts for my little venture would be greatly appreciated!

I know that Christmas is right around the corner, so please consider buying a special lady in your life a gift from Bling on a String! I'm open to custom orders, but those will take a little bit longer to produce and ship. Slinky Bracelets are only $15.00 and would make a great stocking stuffer!

As of right now I am only selling on Etsy. I accept payments via paypal and in order to make a purchase you will have to sign up for an account on www.etsy.com, but it is free and literally only takes a few minutes!!!

Thank you so much for your support! Anyone wishing to "re-post" this blog has my permission.

www.blingonastring.etsy.com

Happy Fall, Ya'll!

2010-10-04T08:23:00.002-07:00

China Cabinet

2010-09-28T15:34:00.004-07:00

About a month ago we (meaning Greg) finally took the time to refurbish the china cabinet we found through Craigslist! Here's a shot of it "before".

Pretty old fashioned if you ask me. Our original plan was to paint it black, and then scuff it up to give it a rugged look. In my mind I loved how the wire work on the glass doors were going to give it an almost Gothic look. I thought that would be pretty neat with my crystal I plan on displaying on the shelves.

However, Greg convinced me that we should just do away with the doors altogether. Mainly because it was going to be extra work for him! Ha, ha! But after thinking about it, I decided he was right. The cabinet does not have lights on the inside and since crystal is clear I wasn't sure if anyone would really be able to see it through the doors. So, away they went!

The other thing that surprised me was after it was painted black, we decided not to scuff it up! I just thought it had a kind of elegant look and we decided scuffing it up could always be done in a few years if we get tired of how it looks then! So, here it is, complete with some of my crystal! What do ya think?

5 Months Old!

2010-09-14T11:21:00.007-07:00

Parker turned five months old yesterday! I can't get over how fast time seems to be flying! I took him to the county health department yesterday to have him weighed and measured, only to be told they were remodeling and to call in a week to schedule an appointment. I was pretty disappointed. So I returned home and decided the only way I'd be able to see how much he weighed was to try to weigh him myself. Apparently scales aren't used to a baby being placed on them. They said he weighed 0 pounds! So, I weighed myself, then I weighed myself holding him. I know he weighs 18 pounds, but I don't know how many ounces. He is 25 1/2" long.

Most of his fourth month just coasted by with no big milestones. He did receive his second round of immunizations. I was so proud of how well he took the two pokes, only crying for about twenty seconds after the second shot. Three hours later, he was boo-hooing up a storm! After spending thirty minutes trying everything I could think of to calm him down, I finally administered his first dose of baby Tylenol. Luckily, the effects of the medicine kicked in fairly quickly and he fell asleep in my arms. I'm really not looking forward to his next round of shots!

Unfortunately I spoke too soon about finally learning how to get him to take naps. I still battle with him every day. And now he knows the routine!!! It doesn't matter if he's exhausted or not, as soon as he realizes what's about to happen, the whimpering begins! I mentioned before that he liked to be rocked. Now, as soon as my bottom hits the rocking chair, the screaming begins. I have to quickly jump up, hold him upright against me and pat him on the back for a little while while twisting my body from side to side. Once he's settled down, I drop him into a cradle hold. He usually wakes up then and whimpers, so I then add a slight bounce to the twisting motion. (Side note: I keep having people ask me how I've lost weight. Maybe they should begin standing with their feet shoulder width apart, twist from side to side at the waist, then add a bounce in with it, all while holding 18 pounds of weight! Do non-stop reps for five minutes.) Then I slowly walk backwards to the rocking chair. I rock him for about a minute or two, then reposition my hold so I can place him into the crib. Stand up slowly...walk to the crib...lower him in. If I'm lucky he stays that way. Sometimes I have to repeat the whole process again. If I'm having a really good day I get to do it three times. Yesterday was extra special; I got to do it four times! He then proceeds to nap for about 30 minutes, tops.

His hair is continuing to grow at a rapid rate. I am kicking myself for never measuring it when he was born. To date it is 2 1/4" long. Unfortunately, he has inherited my wavy/curly hair. I say unfortunately because I'm not really a big fan of guys with curly hair. I've resorted to using massage oil to try to keep it somewhat tame. I truly hope that when he grows up, he can have really cool hair. And not a big frizzy mess like mine can be. When the day comes that he begins caring what his appearance is, rest assured, Mommy will be right there with the hair products!

Another thing that is constantly growing are his finger nails! Those things are sharp! Despite my best efforts, he always seems to have several self-inflicted scratches on his little face.

Obviously, the biggest event for Parker happened recently. He rolled over! And I was fortunate enough to catch his second roll over on video after having missed his first roll over. Funny me for thinking that it would take him a lot longer to learn how to roll back over from his tummy to his back. He had been trying from back to tummy for over a month but I had never even seen him try during any of his tummy time to roll to his back. The little smarty figured it out five minutes after his second roll. Of course it was while Mommy was taking a bathroom break. Regardless, I am so proud of him!

He had his first baby sitter this past month! Well, technically my father in laws girlfriend was the first. She let us go out to a bar one night while we were in Oklahoma, but he was already asleep by the time we left and slept until we got back home. This was the first time I left him while he was still awake. We went to a neighbors Patio Party, so we were only a few houses down the street. One of my good friends and her husband came to the house and watched him. The party wasn't as fun as Greg and I had hoped, so we were only gone for about an hour and a half. It still counts though!

I'm a huge fan of Britney Spears. She has a song (I'm forgetting the name at the moment) that she wrote about her baby boys. One of the verses says, "I smell your breath, it makes me cry." Of course, she means it in a positive way! Ha, ha, without the actual song to hear I can see how one would take that the wrong way. Before I had Parker, I always thought that was kind of gross. Who would want to smell someones breath? Well, I have to say, I love the smell of Parkers breath! It has the sweetest scent to it, which is surprising since his diet consists of strictly milk! My favorite part of holding him in my arms is when his mouth is open and I can smell the wonderful aroma that escapes from it.

Other random Parker tidbits: he loves to be outside! He is fascinated by leaves on trees and generally likes being taken on walks. When I hold him now, it feels like he's beginning to "hang on". He is a "morning person", always cooing and smiling, whereas night time he begins to get a little fussy. He loves to pat my face when I'm holding him. I'm sure it has nothing to do with the fact that I always pretend to eat his little hands. He's starting to last longer periods of time in his bumbo chair. His Daddy can make him laugh better than anyone else.

Again, I sucked at taking pictures this month. So, these are literally all the ones I took:
Ready for a walk to the park!

I like being in my crib a little bit more now that I have a friend in there with me (courtesy of the crib mirror)

I am 5 months old today!

I love checking my feet out when I'm in my Bumbo!