Nice Matters

Thank you to Katie at Boasting in My Weakness http://bimw.wordpress.com/! She chose me for the Nice Matters Award. I really appreciate this award because I often wonder if my blog matters. So go over and check out Katie's blog!

I also get to choose 7 people that I get to give this award to. Here are the qualifications, “This award is for those bloggers who are nice people; good blog friends and those who inspire good feelings and inspiration. Also for those who are a positive influence on our blogging world. Once you’ve been awarded please pass it on to 7 others who you feel are deserving of this award.” Now I will list my seven:

1. The first person that comes to mind is Bree at Buhtafly Wings. She is a blogger that I've been reading for a long time. I feel like I have a lot in common with her and her blog is great! She also drops by my blog often to leave me comments and encouragement. http://www.buhtafly.blogs.com/

2. Hope at Hope for the TaTa's receives this award for sure! She is very inspiring and has a great blog. Again, I always enjoy receiving her comments at my blog as well. http://hopeforthetatas.blogspot.com/

3. Blackpurl has a blog that is inspiring and I should read it more often! I know she reads my blog because she always leaves me a nice comment. http://blackpurlsknitpickings.blogspot.com/

4. I am awarding one to the Hoosier Family. Definitely stop by and see this great blog. http://hoosierfamily06.blogspot.com/

5. Here is one for Mandalyn at Grace & Hope. Another place I enjoy visiting. http://mygraceandhope.blogspot.com/

6. Michelle at Military Mommy is on a blogging break, but I still think that she deserves this award. http://militarymommyblog.blogspot.com/

7. My final award goes to Mike at Something about Parenting. I am a little sad to admit that I often forget to stop by his blog, but he deserves this award for always leaving me the nicest and encouraging comments! http://somethingaboutparenting.typepad.com/

Back to Preschool

My little boy went back to preschool this week. He has a new teacher, both new to him and new to the school. She seems to be super friendly and he has adjusted much better this year! He only attended preschool for a few months last year when he turned 3, but his teacher wasn't very friendly. I saw her this morning at the school and she wasn't talking very nice to a little boy in her class. It made me really thankful that my son doesn't have her again. The teachers aid in his class is new this year, but I actually worked with her when I was a senior in high school. I had a co-op job through my school and this lady was my boss in an office. It's a little strange having her be my sons teachers aid. I did some things in high school that I would change if I could, and I know she knows about some of them. I guess we all make mistakes when we are young! It just makes the situation a little awkward. I'm focusing on the positive of having a really great teacher. She tries to interact with my son and that helps him want to stay at school. I'm looking forward to a good year!

100th Post

Well, somehow it seems I missed post number 100 and have reached 102! However, I am still going to do my 100 things about me in honor of reaching and unknowingly passing my 100th post.

1. I live with my husband, daughter & son.
2. I am the youngest of two girls.
3. There is 6 1/2 years difference in age between me & my sister.
4. I gave birth to both of my kids with a midwife.
5. I love pregnancy and birth!
6. My favorite color is pink.
7. I love bags and purses.
8. I love cherry print clothes, bags and etc.
9. I love to eat at Olive Garden.
10. My husband is 3 months younger than I am.
11. I would be a shop-a-holic if I had more money.
12. I love to wear summer shoes.
13. I love every season except for winter.
14. I love to talk to people.
15. My kids are 26 months apart in age.

16. My dream job would be a Doula (professional labor assistant).

17. I have emetophobia.

18. I was excellent at reading and English in school.

19. I was horrible at both math and science.
20. I never had any relatives that lived in my home town other than my immediate family.
21. My Grandma has Alzheimer's disease.
22. My Grandpa is 81 years old and healthy as can be.
23. My mom was a stay at home mom.
24. My dad has always owned his own businesses and been his own boss.
25. I love to take naps.
26. I love to go to weddings.
27. I have naturally curly hair.
28. I love to vacation in Florida.
29. I love going to nice motels/hotels.
30. I like a variety of types of music.
31. I'm not very patient.
32. I snack when I'm bored.
33. I love ice cream in a freshly made waffle cone.
34. I do not ride amusement park rides.
35. I despise haunted houses and haunted attractions.
36. I love taking my kids to the pumpkin patch in the fall.
37. I love reading historical romance when I have time.
38. I would love to have a third baby if my husband wanted one.
39. I could never babysit other people's children.
40. I only have nephews.
41. I enjoy watching t.v.
42. I don't like air conditioning unless it's really hot or humid.
43. I'm almost always cold.
44. I love fleece blankets.
45. I love crawling into bed at night.
46. If we rent movies at home I'm pretty likely to fall asleep.
47. I require a lot of sleep.
48. I am not a night owl or a morning person.
49. I don't drink alcohol very often.
50. I have never been drunk.
51. I only wear one ring on each hand.
52. I am close to a lot of my husbands family.
53. I bowl on a league with my mom.
54. I am not very athletic.
55. I would love to go to Paris someday.
56. I don't enjoy flying, but I will.
57. I love tea, hot or cold, but is has to have sugar in it.
58. I love strawberry smoothies with whip cream.
59. I love Cool Whip. I will even eat it plain.
60. I don't like store bought birthday cake.
61. My house doesn't stay clean very long.
62. I don't like cleaning, but I do like organizing.
63. I love having a dishwasher.
64. When I was growing up I never had chores to do.
65. I try to always accept other peoples beliefs even if they are not my own.
66. I love to watch A Baby Story.
67. I had both of my kids without epidurals or pain medication.

68. I had an unplanned water birth with my son.

69. I am terrified of bees, crickets and grasshoppers.

70. I do not like to drive on the interstate.

71. I love the ocean.

72. Going to the doctor always makes me nervous.

73. I prefer female physicians.

74. I had dental surgery when I was 6 years old.

75. I honeymooned in Gatlinburg, Tennessee.

76. My birthday and anniversary are both on the 31st of a month.

77. I love Christmas.

78. My husbands family always asks me to bring Taco Salad to family get togethers.

79. I make a delicious Butterscotch Snack Cake.

80. My mom & I have a special chocolate chip cookie recipe.

81. I always make my kids Knox Blocks jello to take to school.

82. I like to have flannel sheets on my bed in the winter.

83. Between Coke & Pepsi, I'm a Coke girl.

84. My wedding colors were periwinkle blue & yellow.

85. I wanted tulips at my wedding, but apparently they don't do well in July heat.

86. I like snapdragons.

87. I love the food we have at Thanksgiving.

88. I rarely ever buy things that aren't on sale.

89. I love Gymboree, but I can't afford it!

90. I work at a Children's Boutique.

91. I've mostly worked office jobs.

92. My husband owns his own business.

93. I love good portrait photography.

94. I try to always take my digital camera with me.

95. I try to scrapbook for my kids, but I'm about a year behind.

96. I buy and sell on Ebay.

97. I love reading blogs.

98. My hips are way bigger then my bust! LOL!

99. I love my husband!

100. I love my kids!

Top Momma

Hey! I just found out that I'm a Top Momma! Go there and give me a vote so I can stay on their main page. Very exciting!

http://www.topmomma.com/mommas/referal/842

Welcome Baby!

At 12:16 a.m. this morning we welcomed a new baby cousin into our family! She weighed 8lbs 7oz and was 20 inches long. She's doing great although her mom is a little sore. The baby has a sister that is going to be 3 in October. When she was born she was 7 weeks early and only weighed 4lbs. So this new baby is double the size that her little sister was. I'm very happy for our cousin because her labor was quick and fairly easy. She was able to have natural childbirth and a good experience. Her last birth was induced due to severe pre-eclampsia and she had an awful time. I'm hoping to go see them tonight after work!

County Fair Ends Drought

The County Fair has officially ended the drought that we've been experiencing. Everyone has been excited about going to the fair and it's various activities and now for two days straight it has poured rain. I can count on one hand the number of times we've had rain this summer, thus leaving us with a drought. Now it's raining like crazy with more to come! It's great to have the rain, but sad when the kids have been looking forward to this all summer. The whole town is saying "leave it to the fair to bring the rain." This won't be the first time that it's basically been a wash out. Oh well! At this rate we're taking a boat there!

~Off to the Fair~

We are off to the fair! Our county fair starts today and my daughter has been counting down. She loves the games, food and a few of the rides. My son on the other hand loves the rides, food and some of the games. LOL! My husband was able to get a booth for his new business at the last minute. He's really excited about the opportunity to have thousands of people exposed to his business name. My mother-in-law also has a spot for her business and is heading up our Little Miss & Mister pageant. I've been helping her with that, so we've all been super busy.

My poor sister-in-law got a couple of hair line fractures in her foot a couple of weeks ago, so she's not going to get to do much at the fair. She's 12 years old, so it's definitely a disappointment for her.

I got my son's preschool packet in the mail yesterday. He'll have a brand new teacher this year.

We go on Monday to find out who my daughter will have for a Kindergarten teacher. I really don't know most of them though. All my grade school teachers have pretty much retired. That makes me feel pretty old! Speaking of school and getting old - my class reunion is tomorrow! I can't wait to see all my old friends.

Surprise for the Kids

My husband has been so busy this summer! He started his own business in May and he's working 6 days a week-plus some. We haven't had as much together time as a family as we would all like so he decided to give the kids a little surprise on Saturday. When he got off work we left home to go for about an hour drive. My husband also had to get fitted for a tux, so we just told the kids that we were going out of town for that. After the tux fitting the kids were hungry and kept asking their Dad if we could get something to eat. Well this is were he surprised them by pulling into Chuck E. Cheese! Our 3 year old son doesn't ever remember being there, but he knows who Chuck E. Cheese is because we buy their brand of snack cheese. So, he was totally amazed to see that there was a real place with Chuck E.'s face on it. My daughter was so happy as well. I think she told her Dad thank you about 20 times throughout the evening. It was honestly a lot of fun for all of us. I was just a little nervous because I think those type of places are so germy! That's O.K. though. It was worth it because it made the kids so happy. My husband definitely earned the super Dad award for volunteering to take the kids to Chuck E. Cheese!

Heat Wave

There is a heat wave here in the great Midwest. Just a couple of weeks ago we were having unusually cool weather and now it's been in the mid to upper 90's for about a week and it's supposed to continue for another week at least.

Here where I live we are preparing for our County Fair to start next week. We all hope that the heat will disappear before then! My daughter is counting the days until the fair starts. She loves everything about it. We have one of the biggest county fairs in our state. This will be the first year in many that my husband isn't competing in the Demolition Derby. Since he started his own business in May he hasn't had the time or money for this hobby of his.

We are also counting down until school starts. My daughter will be riding the school bus to Kindergarten this year. I asked her the other day if I was allowed to cry on her first day of school and she told me no! I don't know where the last 5 1/2 years have gone. It's also a terrible year for her to start school. Our local school system is in a major transition period because of failed school levies. They shut down two buildings and integrated all grades into the same buildings rather than by where you live. It's a real mess and there is a lot of controversy going on. I'm hoping things clear up before next year or we may have to consider some schooling changes.

I hope everyone is enjoying their last few weeks of summer!

How We Met

In honor of my Anniversary this week I thought I would tell a brief story of how we met.

My sophomore year of high school I met a guy. He was good looking, charming and had a great family. We dated for two years and had a lot of ups and downs. I met a whole new group of people by dating him. It was funny because he was a very controlling person and most of his friends liked him, but didn't like the way he treated me. Anyway, one of his friends and I became pretty good friends. When my high school sweetheart and I broke up (right before my senior year) this friend of his had just started dating someone and it was pretty serious. So, I started dating a whole string of guys and my friend would tell me why each of them was totally wrong for me.

Towards spring of that next year I told this guy friend of mine that I had feelings for him that were more than just friendship. It turns out that he felt the same way. It took him a while to break it off gently with his girlfriend. They had been dating for about 9 months and she had already bought a prom dress with plans to go with him. So, he took her to prom and I went with his cousin (as friends). The day after prom we started officially dating. Of course this "friend" is the guy I ended up marrying! We were together for a year before we became engaged and then we were together another year before we got married.

I'm so thankful that I met him! You never know what road will lead you to the person you're meant to be with.

Inflammatory Breast Cancer

Please go to this blog and read about Inflammatory Breast Cancer. This blogger is a mom and she has personally been affected by this disease. She wants us to pass the word around so that women are aware of the symptoms of this deadly form of Cancer!

http://toddlerplanet.wordpress.com/2007/07/27/because-im-not-ready-to-move-on/

Anniversary

This week my husband and I will celebrate our 8 year wedding anniversary. It's hard to believe that 8 years have come and gone since our wedding day. We were 19 & 20 years old when we got married and a lot of people thought we would never make it. I'm not saying we've made it to our 50th, but I'm still pretty proud of having reached 8 years. We've seen several other couples marry and divorce, so we're happy to say that we're still together.

We had some challenges getting to the wedding. Two weeks before we were to be married I received a call from the church saying that the ceiling had started to give way and we weren't going to be able to have our wedding there. So we had to scramble to find another location and notify all of our guests of the change.

My mother-in-law and I were having it out over my sister-in-law. She was singing in the wedding, so I didn't have her as a bridesmaid. My mother-in-law wanted her to walk down the aisle no matter what and I simply refused. She was singing and that to me was more important than any walk down the aisle. My wedding coordinator (thank God for her!) had to confront my mother-in-law on the wedding day to clear up that my sister-in-law would be up front to sing and that she wasn't making a grand entrance down the aisle!

The actual ceremony was beautiful and went off without a hitch. Then we came to the reception. We had just finished eating when a big storm blew up and knocked out all the power. The DJ had no way to play music, there was no air conditioning in July and no lights in a building with no windows. My husband had to leave his own reception to return with a generator and a stereo system as the DJ wouldn't hook his equipment to a generator. So we now had music, but no lights and no air. Tons of people left early! When it came time to throw my bouquet I threw it high and hard. It landed directly in the punch bowl. I definitely wasn't laughing by this time!

The power came back on right as we were leaving for our honeymoon. As we were driving south for our honeymoon trip it started pooring rain and when we approached a bridge our car suddenly lost all power. My husband steered us into the only available place after the bridge which was a liquor store. He locked me in the car and started to walk for help when he saw a truck of drunk men pull into the store and decided to come back for me. We were able to coast the car down a hill into a motel where we found a police officer. The police officer only had one hand and a hook on the other. I AM NOT KIDDING! I started crying and saying that I was going to call my mom to come and get me! This was not what I had imagined. A tow truck came to our rescue. The guys towed us to their 24 hour shop and took a part off of their boss' car to be able to fix ours and get us on our way. These two tow truck/mechanics were our angels that night! You should have seen me, in tears, wearing a white outfit, hair all done up and sitting in a greasy shop at 1:00 a.m. in the morning! After our two guardian angels sent us on our way we had a fabulous honeymoon.

We always say that perhaps a bad wedding means a good marriage!

28 Week Twins

UPDATED - I just found out that Baby A is 2lbs 11oz and 15" long, she already has had her breathing tube removed. Baby B is 2lbs 9 1/2oz and 15" long, they are planning on removing her breathing tube yet this afternoon. Their mom did have steroids prior to them being born because she was hospitalized last week when they thought one of the babies water had broken already. So, so far so good! I hope that they both continue to do well!

My husbands cousin gave birth yesterday to twin girls at 28 weeks pregnant. When my husband spoke to the daddy last night he said that so far the babies looked good. I haven't heard anything more today and I want to know how they are so bad! The problem is that they live 13 hours away from here and I always talk directly to the little girls' mommy and she's in the hospital! I'm worried about the babies. My sister had a 33 week preemie and he appeared to be fine right after birth, but complications arose a little later. He's fine now, but you just never know. I don't know the babies names or anything yet. Getting information from men and through men is never as detailed as I would like it to be! Anyway, say a little prayer for the girls if you pray and I'll keep everyone posted.

Old Friend

I got together a week or so ago with an old friend of mine from school. She is the only girl friend that I've kept in touch with over the years. We both always laughed about how we mostly had guy friends and we could only stand each other as far as female friends went. Even now we're each others only close girl friends and we have totally different lives.

I work part time and have two kids. My family is my life and everything pretty much revolves around it. She works full time, has no kids and just recently got divorced. Her life with her ex-husband kind of fell apart when she had a miscarriage last fall. It had taken them 7 years to decide to have a family and then their first attempt failed. It was kind of the final straw in what had been a rocky relationship.

She now has a new man in her life that is the total opposite of her ex. I was really shocked by him when I met him. My friend was always the dominant type and hated that I dated guys who were a little controlling. Now she is with a man who is controlling with a capital C. I didn't say anything though, because I would never want to hurt our friendship. She is already talking about marriage to him. I worry about her and want her to find some happiness! I know she wants a family really bad and I think that's why she wants to hurry up and settle down.

One thing I love about her is that we can be apart for a long time and when we get together we are right where we left off. That's one way I know that I have a true friend in her!

Wordless Wednesday

From 5 1/2 years ago!

Surprise Day Off

Yesterday I got a surprise day off work. I was supposed to work, but then got a call saying that I didn't need to come in. I was a little disappointed at first about losing my hours, but that didn't last too long. I loaded up the kids and off we went to enjoy our day! We got lunch from McDonald's and took our food to the park. The kids ate, played and we all took some fun pictures of each other. I showed the kids the swinging bridge and they both thought it was really neat. Then we left the park and got some ice cream. It was a beautiful day for all of us!

Photography

I absolutely love photography that is centered around maternity and newborns. I think that those are the most beautiful and priceless photos. I wish I would have done pregnancy pictures, but I didn't. I also didn't get any newborn professional photos done either, with the exception of the traditional hospital photos. I would love to do this type of photography myself, but I live in a small town and I doubt it would get much support. People here would much rather just go to the Wal-Mart Portrait Studio where it's so much cheaper. Anyway, if anyone else enjoys photography I found the most awesome website! It is www.buttonsandbowsphotography.com. I guarantee you will enjoy your visit.

At Work - Kids in Tow

My kids are at work with me today. My babysitter forgot to remind me from two months ago that she would be off today. My mom had to be somewhere else and two other family members who could usually fill in are out of town. So, I brought the kids to work with me. We have had two milk spills already! Thankfully there is a pizza delivery on it's way to save the day! The kids already got bored with coloring books, Tow Mater from cars and the movie they decided to bring. I will be so glad when we can go home and they can terrorize each other from there.

Blog Community

I enjoy the blogging community so much! It's amazing how you begin to think about and care about the people that you meet through the computer. There are certain people whose stories I go to and check in on how they are doing; moms that have cancer, moms who have lost children and moms just going through the same little things that I do. I feel for each and every person who is facing a hard time. I also realize how much I need to appreciate my life and it's circumstances. I also enjoy reading about the people that just have ordinary lives like I do. Thank you to everyone who reads my blog and to those that allow me to share a little portion of their day and blog as well!

A Sad Reminder

We live in a smaller town and just yesterday someone from here was killed in a construction accident. It was a sad reminder that none of us, no matter how young or old, are promised tomorrow. This man was young and had young kids. My own husband worked in construction with him in the past. Thankfully my husband is now working a different type of job. I can't imagine receiving a phone call that my husband had been killed at work. You send them off each day feeling confident that you'll see them that evening, but sometimes in life things change. I am reminded today to always be sure that my kids and husband know that I love them.