My Bags Are Packed

I had a difficult time deciding what to title this post. It could have easily been called Husband of the Year Award!! You see, my bags are packed and in less than two hours I am heading to the airport to travel to DC. I will be spending three days with my best friend - with no girls or husband. Then, my husband and girls will be taking the 14 plus hour drive to meet me at some other friends in Richmond. The amazing thing is this was my husband's idea! How blessed I am!!! I will miss them, but I'm also excited about a few days "by myself" with a good book and maybe some knitting. Speaking of knitting - I finished my first sock!!! Notice I said, "sock" the singular noun - I still have another one to go in order to have a pair.

The Pacifier

Bring up the word pacifier among mom's and you will get a lot of different opinions. However, right now that is not what I want to talk about. For our family - the pacifier has been a wonderful thing!! Our oldest daughter was pictured leaving the hospital with the paci flinging right in and out of her mouth. Our youngest daughter has learned to enjoy her paci as much as her sister did. We do have a couple of rules with the pacifier - when the child turns two - they only get their pacifier when sleeping (naps & bedtime) and when they turn three - they all get thrown out. Let's just say we are a "cold turkey family".

Well we just had a major melt down with our 2 1/2 year old daughter (at the paci only while sleeping stage). She was getting ready for her nap and got her paci a little early (Mommy is a softy), she was doing her pre nap routine (i.e. going to the potty). Well, she had her paci in her mouth, and she must have opened her mouth while she flushed the toilet and the paci "flushed away". Yikes!! She was so upset, she was shaking and the tears were a flowing! We do have back ups paci's but this one was her favorite. She said, "we need to call Daddy so he can get my paci out of the toilet". How do you explain to a 2 1/2 year old that it is gone? I hope this isn't a preview for when she turns three.

50 Things!

I enjoy reading different blogs and I have seen a number of blogs in which people write about 50 things about them - so here it goes:
1. My daughter was born on my birthday
2. I ran my first 5K race at age 35
3. I once had a summer job doing construction work
4. It was working for my Dad
5. I have been in 5 car accidents
6. None were my fault
7. Since 1991 I have always owned a Honda vehicle
8. None of them have been a mini van
9. I knew my husband less than four months before we were engaged
10. We were married in less than a year from meeting each other
11. I once spent a birthday in California
12. Both my parents and in-laws are celebrating 40 years of marriage this year
13. My favorite color is green
14. I graduated from college in four years
15. Without going during the summer
16. I have never watched an entire episode of Saturday Night Live
17. I have been caught crying while watching the Olympics
18. Fall is my favorite season
19. I enjoy watching football
20. I belong to a fantasy football league
21. I know how to shoot a gun
22. I have actually gone hunting
23. I have one sister
24. I had an epidural with both of my labors
25. I think the epidural is one of the best inventions
26. Costco is my favorite store
27. Sometime we go to Costco for lunch (to eat samples)
28. I'm not a night person
29. I'm not a morning person
30. I'm not an afternoon person
31. I'm a late morning person
32. I don't like roller coasters
33. I am a bag person
34. I'm not a shoe person
35. I like to decorate
36. My surroundings are important to me
37. I enjoy Country music
38. However, I don't get to listen to it that much
39. I like to look at magazines
40. I enjoy reading
41. Breakfast is my favorite meal to eat out
42. Coffee and tea are my favorite beverages
43. I have learned to like diet coke
44. I don't like potty training
45. I was a home economics teacher for eight years
46. I am really bad when it comes to technology
47. My family means the world to me
48. My faith in Jesus is the most important thing
49. My husband is my greatest gift on earth
50. This list was suppose to be to 100 - I made it 50

I encourage all of you to share 50 (or 100) things about yourself!

One of Those Days

I don't know if I should laugh or cry today - I think I did both!! The day started out great! Both of my girls slept in to 7:40 AM!!! For our family, this is sleeping in and I'm sure the time change helped.

I was getting the girls breakfast and I noticed a "smell" coming from my youngest daughter, "Livie, did we have an accident?" This was after an entire week of no accidents. So off to the bathroom and a quick bath.

Then, it was time to drop off Kelsey at preschool and Mommy & Livie went to Meijers. This was actually a successful trip. I dread going to Meijers, but all was well.

After the preschool pickups and lunch was started Livie was crying in her room (did I mention she was in a timeout?)Well, I ran(okay I walked) up to her room to see what the problem was - yep she was wet - another clean up and carpet clean up as well.

Then lunch..... followed by another accident with the big "D" - which meant two loads of laundry, mega carpet cleaning, bathroom cleaning, wall cleaning (don't ask) and another bath!! I'm leaving a number of details out and pictures.

It was definitly one of those days....

Good Night!!

Here is a picture of my youngest daughter, as I try and put her to sleep. As you can see - she needs a lot of extra's in order to go to bed. I don't know how she is able to sleep and keep track of all of her "bed buddies".

My Journey

It has been a little while since I last blogged. Even my husband (who wasn't too excited about me having a blog at first) asked me if I have blogged recently. Well I could say that I have been busy (which is true of every Mom), but the big reason is that I have been debating about how much to share about my "journey". For some of you, you have heard me talk about this and I'm sure some of you are wondering, "what is that girl talk'n about?"

So, let me explain. I have been struggling with the "What do I do when I grow up?" syndrome. (Which in my case should be called, What do I do when I reach middle age?)I'm sure some of you can relate. Well, over the summer I bought a notebook and I really felt like God was telling me to take the next year and learn as much as I can about areas that interest me. So with notebook in hand and many books, I read and wrote about my thoughts, tips and events that have happened.

You might be asking has this helped? My answer "well kind of yes, and kind of no". I have seen some possible doors open / some close and some I'm just not sure if they are swinging. I continue to realize this is a year process and I am growing. One thing that was brought to my attention last week was the importance of writing a mission statement - what really is important / what do I value and does my life model what I believe to be true? This is something that I need to work on and will hopefully lead to clarity in the future. Please feel free to ask me how this is coming along.

If anyone is interested in the books that I have read / am reading - I would love to share them! A lot of them deal with "simplicity", being a Mom, finances, family, etc. I found a lot of them used off of Amazon.com - what a great resource!

So we will see what happens - and where God leads. I'll keep you posted and hopefully in a few months (or longer) I'll have some clairty to share with you all!

Warning!!

Do not put these things together - sippie cup, Sprite, purse and cell phone. The other night we went out for dinner, and since my youngest is almost potty trained, I didn't bring her diaper bag. So, I just threw her sippie cup (filled with Sprite) into my purse. Well, we got into the restaurant and I noticed my purse was "dripping". The sippie cup had leaked all over my felted wool purse. So after a quick trip to the restroom - I cleaned everything up, but I noticed my cell phone wouldn't work. I couldn't tell if it was on or off, and I couldn't make any phone calls - oh boy! We ended up taking it back to the cell phone service place and sure enough it was toasted (or should I say soaked!). This meant I needed to get a new cell phone. It is amazing in the 13 months since I got my last cell phone how much they have changed. If you are wondering - my purse is fine. The beauty of it - I just washed and felted it some more. So please listen to my warning - no sippie cups in purses!