The spoils...

Zachariah is an only child (for now) and even better an only grandchild...on both sides. This little guy is pretty spoiled by grandparents. Luckily it's not excessive, in my opinion. But he does get some special things from time to time. We all know grandparents love to get things and do special things for their grandkids. And since Zachariah is the only one, it's even easy to see that he is properly spoiled. And that doesn't even take into account all his aunts and uncles that he has to spoil him.



Here's the newest addition to the spoilage. My parents found a cast iron pedal John Deere tractor. They got it used and still paid a lot for it. He is in love with it. We only had it outside for a short while, because it was really hot the day they brought it over. My dad was upset that my mom was bringing it. I told my mom it would make her the favorite, because she was giving him a tractor. It was actually my dad who found it and bought it. She promised to video tape it. And he was not disappointed. We told him it was from Grandpa, so he kept saying "sank you grandpa". Then he got off the tractor long enough to walk over to my sister (who was holding the video camera) and request saying thanks to Grandpa. She put the camera on him, he leaned right in and said thank you again. It was so cute. But he loves this new tractor. Unfortunately he doesn't know how to pedal it. He almost had it going one day when he was pretty determined. I don't think it will be long. I also think it needs to be moved back out of my house soon. (Matt cleaned out the garage this weekend, partially to make sure there was room to get this little tractor in and out.) So I believe the next step of spoiling has begun. I hope it doesn't get too bad.

The horror...

Here is a story from my childhood. We learned lessons then that mean even more to me as a mother now.





When I was about 10 or 11 we went to North Carolina for the first time. We were traveling with my dad while he was on business. So my mom, dad, two sisters and I piled into a tiny little Mercury Topaz for a 10+ hour drive.

The day or so before our trip my mom took us kids to a tiny little carryout in the town next to us (the town where I grew up was so small it had nothing of the sorts...the one where she took us only had this little shop and that was it). Anyway, they had great cheap candy. They had penny, nickel, dime, and quarter candy. We could get quite a bit of variety for the little amount of money we usually had. We didn't often stop here, so it was a real treat when we did. That day Mom gave each of us girls $2.00 to get as much candy as we wanted. I remember carefully picking out my purchases and paying for it with great excitement. We each came out of the store with a paper lunch sack filled with candy. Mom put the candy up and saved it for our trip.

We headed out early for our long drive. I remember keeping a "journal" of our travels. Since they pulled me out of school for a week to do this, I thought it would be fun to keep track of everything we did. I first wrote something like "It's now 4:30AM and we're heading out. I can't believe we're leaving this early, but now I'm awake and excited.". (But it was probably more youthful and silly sounding...you know...because I thought I was cool and tried too hard.)

Mom gave us each our sack of candy to hold and do with as we wanted. It was supposed to last us all day, so we had to think about that. Well, my youngest sister Mary was probably 4 years old when we went. She was super excited to have candy, and she dug into hers right away. I remember Rachel (about 6 or 7 at the time) and I giggling to each other, because we knew we'd have all this candy and Mary wouldn't have any left and we were SO NOT SHARING with her.

Since we lived in the NW corner of Ohio, it took us quite a while to drive across Ohio to the SE. We stopped for breakfast while we were still in Ohio. Mary was not hungry and my mom couldn't figure out why. She knew that she'd been eating candy (but she didn't know until later how much Mary had actually eaten already). So Mary just had some orange juice.

You're starting to see where this is going, right?

Once we got back into the car Mary started complaining that her stomach hurt. Well, Mary has always been a bit of a drama queen, so we usually took her complaints with a grain of salt. Mom probably said something like "Oh, you're fine, just try to sleep for a bit." And she did sleep...for a little bit.

Next thing we knew Mary is throwing up all over the place. Remember we're all squished into a tiny Topaz. Mary is the youngest, so she's aways sitting in the middle seat in the back. She threw up all over herself and a little on Rachel and all over the floor. Ugh. We were just about to cross the Ohio River at this point, so we were really on our way. Dad looked for a place to pull over as we were all complaining and protesting from the back seat.

He found a little run-down rest stop right along the river. We got Mary out of the car and started cleaning her off. My mom went to the restrooms to get a wet cloth. There was no running water! Lovely. There was a little hand pump that had a little water, so we were able to clean her up. My mom was trying to get a change of clothes for Mary, but everything was packed either too far back in the trunk (which was pretty tiny) or on top of the car in a big car-top carrier.

I think that my dad ended up taking the big car-top carrier off, so my mom could rummage through luggage and find a change of clothes for my sister. And that carrier was heavy and awkward and not easy to get on and off of the car. I know my mom was not happy. And when getting everything situated and back into the car, that's when she noticed how much candy Mary had actually eaten. It was way too much. She promptly took her bag away. Rachel and I had eaten one or two pieces...Mary had eaten half a bag.

Luckily we made it the rest of the way without incident. The rest of the week was fun. We spent time at the hotel while Dad was in meetings. Unfortunately it was too early for the hotel's outdoor pool to be filled. We went to the park and did little things like that. Later in the week we spent a day at the ocean after Dad was done with his work. The hotel we stayed in was pretty ugly. But that's a whole other long story.

Lessons learned - 1. Always pack one change of clothes where you can quickly access them. 2. Never give a greedy child a whole bag of candy. 3. Whenever you squeeze 3 children into the back of a small car for a long drive, someone will get sick on the way.

My 400th (seriously?) post

I can't believe this is my 400th post. And looking at how little I've been posting lately, I probably could have hit it sooner. This has been a fun journey blogging, and I hope I have many many more posts coming.

*****

A while ago, Sarah at No Whey, Mama tagged me for a Meme. I think this is a good time to do it. She did a great job with hers, and it looked like fun. (15 years puts me back before high school even, so we'll see where this goes.)

The rules: Think back on the last 15 years of your life. What would you tell someone that you hadn’t seen or talked to for 15 years? How would you sum up your life? You get 10 bullet points. A list of 10 things to summarize about you. At the end of your list, tag 5 more people and send on the love…

1. You know that guy Matt? Well, we got together in high school, stayed together, and got married (and are still happily married 8 years later).

2. Yep, I finished high school with a pretty good GPA too.

3. I went to college (got married half-way through), studied Elementary Education (and Math), and graduated with honors.

4. I became a substitute teacher.

5. I took up a few odd jobs.

6. I went back to teaching.

7. I started tutoring at My Tutoring Center Name.

8. I got pregnant, had some complications early on, was banned from driving for most of my pregnancy, so tutoring was the only thing I could keep up with.

9. Had a beautiful baby boy, Zachariah Matthew, and fell in love again (with my baby AND husband).

10. I'm still staying home with my son, tutoring, married, and loving every minute of my life.


Tagging:
1. Sarah at Semi-Desperate Housewife
2. Heidi at Mommy Doesn't Live Here Anymore
3. Shelly at Scenic Overlook
4. Erica at All Dressed Up
5. Devan at All D's

Come on in...the water's fine

So, I went ahead and did it. I have a confession to make...so far, I love it.

I'm just talking about Twitter people. You can find me at this link.

If you're there, you should add me. Leave me a comment here if you do that, so I know who you are there. I know several of you have added me already, and that's why I've already enjoyed it just after one day.

I can see that I'm going to need a program to follow tweets with. Jennifer has suggested twhirl, but I can't seem to get that to load. I'll have to mess with it some more. Or it looks like there are some other similar programs. OH, NEVERMIND, I just tried again and got it loaded. Now I don't have to hit refresh over and over. I can just leave this open like I do my messenger program. Cool!

So, anyone else wanna join me in the fun?

What pushed me over the edge was the impending arrival of SaLy's baby and Erica's upcoming surgery. I thought I might be able to keep in touch with them better through Twitter when they can't always make a long post on their blog.

Random Friday

*This morning was fun! I took Zachariah to the park and there were no kids there (after the park's summer program left), so we had the whole place to ourselves. He's great at climbing now and going down slides. I don't have to follow him every where. And I could probably sit on a bench with a book, but it was way more fun chasing him around, pushing the merry-go-round, and swinging beside him.

*Going to a park when it's getting hot will result in a cranky two-year-old. Ugh. But he ate a great lunch when we got home.

*Mmm, I love burritos. That was a great lunch. (There is a great place down the road that does make-your-own-burritos, like Chipotle, but local.)

*I need to finish getting my Pay it Forward box packaged and mailed. I'm about half finished, Joanne. I keep thinking of other things to add. I hope you like it all. Maybe I'll get a chance to get it mailed tomorrow.

*Tomorrow we're going to a wedding. This is a super great couple that is in our small group from church. It's like seeing a sibling get married, it's so awesome.

*Twitter, everyone's doing it now. Should I join in the fun? I leave my computer on most of the time, so I think I'd enjoy keeping up with everyone. I'm picturing it more like an IM type thing. Comments about this?

*Our laptop charging cord broke. It still works, but I can't move it while it's charging. Very inconvenient. Luckily it still holds quite a bit of battery life, so I can use it off the power cord for a while. Just frustrating.

*I'd love to get my house in tip-top clean condition, but I don't have the energy for that. I have been slowly working on a few things that needed done, so that makes me happy that it's getting there. Just clutter issues that never seem to go away. I'd like to just take a trash bag through my house and get rid of lots of things, but I better not right now.

Eyes on the prizes

In this blogging community I have had my eyes opened to so many new things. I have learned so much about parenting and being a better mother. I have learned about things like cloth diapering and baby wearing that I never knew about. I love it, and I can't wait to have another baby to do all these things with. It would be an awesome start to win this prize. What a way to start baby wearing.

Toddler humor

I haven't been around much. Well, I am now, but there are things I want to blog about and can't bring myself to right now. So I thought I'd share a few funny things that my son has told me lately.

*****
After eating pizza for lunch with my sister:

MD: So Zachariah, you didn't like the pizza much today? You said it was too spicy, huh?
Zachariah: No Mom, not pizza spicy.
MD: OK
Z: Pizza not spicy. Pepperoni spicy, Mom.

Oh, my mistake. For the record he was totally right! I just didn't expect that from my two-year-old.

*****
Driving in the car he always is on the lookout for tractors, animals, trucks, trains, and other fun things. We usually let him know where to look for things by saying "look at the tractor on Mom's side" or "Look, there's a cow on Dad's side". Today on the way to the store.

Z (with much excitement in his voice): Oh, Mom, tractor right dere. Tractor Zacky's* side.
MD (stifling a laugh): Yes, I see that tractor.

Oh yes, baby, that tractor is on your side. I'm so glad that you pointed it out JUST LIKE WE DO only for you.

*****
In the car on the way home today...again.

MD: Look, Zachariah there's a tractor right in front of us coming this way.
Z: No tractor, Mom.
MD: Yes, it's right there in front of us.
Z: No, COMBINE right dere, Mom.

I swear I could hear him roll his eyes at me. And of course, he was right. It really WAS a combine not just a silly tractor.

*****
Zachariah spent 2 days with my parents last week. They did lots of fun things. When they brought him back he was telling me about some of the things he did.

MD's Dad, aka Papa: Zac, tell Mommy what we saw in the creek at our house.
Z (with his eyes wide and as serious as he gets): Agergator, Mom. (translation: Alligator, Mom)
MD: Oh REALLY?
Z (nods furiously): Uh huh!
MD: OK, if you saw so.
Papa (laughing hysterically): Umm, no, that's NOT what we saw. We really saw a big heron.
MD: That sounds more like it.

You know, this is OHIO, not Florida. Otherwise I may have believed him. He is usually right (see above stories) and he doesn't let much get by him. But he has told every person he's seen lately that he saw alligators at Papa's house. I have no idea why he thinks this. Hilarious!



*Zachariah calls himself Zac-y now. I don't know how to spell that. It looks funny like "Zacy", but we spell Zac like that...just a C. So, Zacky? Zacie? Zachy? Zachie? I don't know.

Winner, winner, we have a winner

Contest over! Thanks everyone for playing along with my Pay It Forward contest. The comments are closed and I "drew" a winner. I used the random number puller that Swistle recommended and the number it picked was......

#42 - Joanne from Bebellyboo

Congrats Joanne, I will work on getting the prize around for you. I will be e-mailing you shortly to also notify you of your win. Now you get to Pay It Forward yourself. I believe you hosted a contest yourself, so you can consult Swistle's post about what to do now.

And everyone else be sure to keep an eye out on Joanne's blog to see the prize I send her. And thanks for entering.

A little birthday fun

Birthday Blessings

Instead of counting candles,
Or tallying the years,
Contemplate your blessings,
As your birthday nears.

Consider special people
Who love you, and who care,
And others who’ve enriched your life
Just by being there.

Think about the memories
Passing years can never mar,
Experiences great and small
That have made you who you are.

Another year is a happy gift,
So cut your cake, and say,
"Instead of counting birthdays,
I count blessings every day!"

By Joanna Fuchs

A blast from my past/a few turns in my baby book:

Did you notice my wide open mouth smile in photos a) on the horsey b) in the bathtub c) on the floor and d) with birthday cake smeared all over my mouth? Ha, ha!

Contests, contests everywhere!

Yeah! I love a good contest. And now Swistle has gotten everyone into the spirit. It's like Christmas in July! How fun!

1. This is a Pay It Forward contest. I hold a contest, pick a random winner, then the winner must host her/his own contest.

2. You may sign up in the comment section here (keep reading for what to comment) until 11:59 EST Friday, July 4th.

3. I will randomly draw a winner for a prize of an assortment of things that will include (but not limited to) a small Pampered Chef item, stickers for the kids (if you have them- or you can just keep them for yourself), and some other things that I choose for you.

4. The winner will host their own contest on their blog (you don't need a blog to enter, you can host the next contest on here if needed).

So enter now. Leave a comment answering these questions: 1) When is the last time you went to the mall? 2) What did you go for? 3) What did you buy?

My answers 1) I went to the mall last Saturday morning. 2) I went to get some Old Navy flip flops for $1.00 (a sale). 3) I bought nothing. I went less than an hour after the mall opened, and when I was outside Old Navy the line went from the front of the store all the way to the back. And it looked like they didn't have many flip-flops left. Not worth the hassle for me. I walked into a few more stores, then headed home with nothing.

Help, I can't decide

I recently won a contest that Sarah held on her blog. What did I win? Well, I won an awesome nursing cover from Beth at Valley Momma Boutique. Her nursing covers are really neat, so I'm quite excited to have won one. I'm not currently nursing, and I won't be nursing in the near future. But we do plan to have more babies in the future (hopefully soon), and I plan to nurse them.

The problem is that Beth has SO many neat fabrics to chose from. I'd like to get a cover that has two different fabrics. I have a few that I really like together. And there are a few fabrics that I really like, but I can't find something great for the other side. Maybe I should just pick the two fabrics that I like the best even if they don't match. Ahh, I need help.

OK, here are her fabric options. What would you pick?
Here are some options for me:
1) p7 RK Another IOTA Circles & p7 RK Funky Squares
2) p5 MM Far Out Floral Spa & p4 MM Bubble Blast
And here are some other fabrics that I really love, but I don't know what to pair them with (or I'm concerned about them being too boyish/girlish):
1) p1 AB Coriander Blue
2) p5 MM Esmerelda

I better stop there. I have a list of about 20 more that I like to. So, what would you choose if you were me? Any suggestions that I haven't mentioned yet?

How do you like your pizza?

A few months ago we got a package in the mail. It was a present from Shannon. Shannon sent us one of her awesome homemade felt play pizzas.

This pizza is so much fun. Of course, we, as parents, have had many concerns lately about plastic toys because of all the recalls and nonsense. What a better way to avoid problems, then having a handmade felt toy.

Two years old is a great age to start creativity and lots of hands on play. Zachariah loves that he can make his own pizza. He puts the toppings on just so, one by one, then takes turns feeding the pizza to us.

The box that the pizza comes in is great for storage, and Zachariah likes to deliver pizzas too. But his favorite way to do it, is to just roll it up and "eat" the whole thing like a taco.

This is an awesome toy that I would recommend to any parent with a child over 2. It would also make a great birthday/Christmas present. The pizza is well made and the toppings are so cute. Shannon makes each one on her own and does a fantastic job.

If you'd like to order your own felt pizza, go to Shannon's Etsy page. Do it now, because she'll soon be overwhelmed with orders and you don't want to wait.

Full speed ahead

So I'm better. How about all of you? Did you enjoy your weekend? We had a fantastic one. We finally didn't have any obligations. It felt nice to relax at home and just do some fun things together.

My mood seems to have lightened. I think a lot of it was hormones. Like Sarah mentioned in the comments "Sounds like backed-up hormones to me, for sure." I think you hit it. I hadn't had my period in a while, and it seemed like everything came crashing down at once. I was behind on things anyway, and then there was a death in the family. So to have that come on the same day just pushed me over the edge. It wasn't like a cliff just a stumble down a small staircase. But I was ready with things to help me feel better and it did help. Thanks to all of you who were concerned and caring towards me. That meant a lot. To check my messages and see all the nice things you said, that helped immensely. I love this little blogging community and the friendships I've formed from it.

This summer we've been trying to do more fun things for us. They don't have to be any big trips or expensive places, but just things that we'd enjoy doing together. We just go out and take care of the garden together sometimes or pick strawberries and cherries. I took Zachariah to the park on Friday. He climbed the monkey bars for the first time. He was coordinated enough to do it on his own and he loved it. Getting towards the top made him a little nervous and he'd ask for my help, but it was fun to see him try something new on his own.

Staying with this fun time we have planned to go to a parade/BBQ/fireworks this weekend at our friend's house. She has a big party every year when the little town she lives in does an early Independence Day celebration. It's a lot of fun, so we're looking forward to that. Zachariah loves parades...especially when they're full of firetrucks and horses and other neat things to see.

And my birthday is coming up soon. Maybe we can go out for dinner or some other fun thing to celebrate. Actually it's only a week away. I'm not sure I'm looking forward to being a year older though. At this point I see each year as another step to getting to 30. But nonetheless, birthdays are still fun, and I've always loved having a summer one. But if getting older means spending more time with this little one, I'll do it again and again.

Feeling blah

Thanks for the comments on my last post. It was a bit long-winded and annoying. But I was in such a bad mood that day. I'm better now, but I've been feeling really blah lately. I've been just dealing with things from day to day while I'm feeling this way. Today I realized that I should try a new approach. I need to find the things that make me happy that I can do for myself and DO THEM. DUH! I have so much to learn from Swistle. I love how she knows herself pretty well and can avoid this sort of thing by doing what she needs to get through.

After I posted last, our program director from the center where I tutor called. She was so stressed out and busy and was checking to be sure I was coming in. I knew she needed me more this week, because half of our staff is away this week. She also asked me to work more on Thursday, plus the field trip on Wednesday and Friday. I was already unhappy that I had to work on Friday (I don't usually), so her calling me all stressed out made me more stressed out...like I needed more. Then I went to work. I let my friend (who is the center director- above the other lady and my friend long before she hired me) know I was a bit stressed. She is one of the most awesome people I know. Anyway, I let her know that the other lady was just stressing me out (even more than I already was) and I didn't understand why she was worrying about things that didn't really matter or really affect me. My friend told me I didn't have to come in early today if I couldn't or didn't want to (so I didn't, I worked my normal 2 hours today and it was fine). But while I was talking to her about everything, I cried. I just couldn't help it. I think I just let my emotions get the best of me. But I think I needed that, and she is so understanding and it helped.

Today I told Matt that I'd been feeling a little blah lately. Not enough to think I'm depressed, but just a little down. I promised I'd let him know if I got worse or if I got really frustrated with Zachariah (which I'm not at all). In fact I can't believe how great Zachariah was on the zoo trip with the kids yesterday. He loved it and was fantastic all day. He didn't even get a nap, then went out to eat with Matt and I later, and stayed up past his bedtime. He was so pleasant and fun (more than normal). That made me feel good. And I found out today that the field trip for tomorrow is cancelled and I don't have to work after all. Whew, that lifted a weight off my shoulders. Maybe I will have more time to unwind and do things at home.

So after realizing that I'm a little down, I started thinking about what I could do to feel better. Some of these I've done, some I have not yet.
1) Eat a hot lunch
2)Drink Mt. Dew- I don't like coffee, so this is my caffeine drink
3)Be around my family a lot
4)Keep my kitchen counter clean
5)Keep clutter picked up- which is sometimes more work, but when it's done I can rest easier
6)Chocolate
7)Yummy snacks when I need them
8)Sunshine-luckily the weather's been great lately
9)Sleeping in a little when/if I can
10)Reading a good book...or two or three
11)Not being on the computer all the time- this is really the first I've had it on in 48 hours
12)Watching a fun show that I like on TV/Internet
13)Flowers in the house
14)Lots of hugs from my baby and husband
15)Putting my feet up when I feel like it...or getting out my foot spa and soaking them for a while
16)No fuss dinners...or eating out when possible
17)Writing letters to friends
18)Allowing myself time to just relax and do nothing if I need to
19)Chocolate...in any form
20)A good movie for no reason in the middle of the day
21)Good company to visit

This is a list I just thought of. I was trying to find things that make me truly happy. I have done some of these already...chocolate, Mt. Dew (sugar high?), flowers, TV shows, no fuss dinners (taco salad tonight)...and the rest I think I need to work on while I'm feeling this way. It will pass. Maybe Aunt Flo's visit (for the first time in 3 months) triggered it. Maybe it's the beginning of this busy summer. Maybe it's my upcoming birthday (am I feeling old already?). Who really knows. I guess I've just realized it doesn't matter why...it happens, so I'll deal the best I can.

Happenings that make me feel crazy

Ahh, I don't even know what to post, but I feel like I should post something. It's been pure craziness around here. I still don't feel settled after our vacation. We've had so many things happening.

Last week I was unpacking, cleaning, organizing around the house. Matt was away 2 different nights and Saturday morning for the local battle of the businesses activities. That just made things harder, because I was being the sole provider of my two-year-old's needs. It meant he was whinier in the evenings and needier in the afternoons. And several days he went without seeing his daddy at all. Saturday afternoon I had to leave Zachariah at home with Matt, because I had a Pampered Chef Wedding Shower to do for my friend. That went great and when I got home Matt reminded me that there was an event at a place I used to work. At the last minute we decided to go, and we had a blast even though we were both so tired. Zac got to play with Addy for a little while too, so he thought that was great. Of course I think he just found her irresistibly cute in her fluffy, pretty dress.

On Thursday afternoon we learned that Matt's grandfather passed away. He's been in the hospital for several weeks now and had some ups and downs. But in the last week we knew he was not going to live much longer. More things kept going wrong for him, and he was not healing like he should have been. Technically this was Matt's step-grandfather. He married Matt's dad's mom about 20 years ago. Matt's grandmother passed away 4 years ago, so he's been on his own since then. Even though Matt wasn't really close to this grandfather, it's the only grandpa that he'd known (the other two died when he was really young). This was also his last remaining grandparent. And it makes 5 grandparents (and great-grandparents) that the two of us have lost in the last 5 years. It's a lot to take in, but we do know that he's in a better place.

We left Sunday afternoon for the visitation. We stayed overnight with my parents, then went to the funeral on Monday. Zachariah was really great through it all. Thank goodness. After everything on Monday we came back home.

Then the crazy schedules continued. Matt went straight to a meeting that night. I was left home alone with Zachariah and needed to do something for dinner yet. When Matt suggested taking him to McDonald's I started thinking that might be a good idea. As much as I didn't want to leave the house again, I didn't think I could make it through the evening by myself with him. I don't usually take him out...especially for fast food, so he thought this was a treat. I took him to a nearby McD's that has a new playplace. He was so excited. I only made him eat a little bit, then I let him go run around. Most of the equipment was too big for him, but there is a little area for younger kids and that was perfect. I came ready with a book, so I went back there and sat on a bench right by where he was playing. We were there for an hour and a half. I think it helped having that short time to de-stress a little. Zachariah was easy to put to bed later. And when Matt came home he brought me a rose and a bottle of fruity wine. He knew I was stressed and thought that might cheer me up. It did. He's so sweet. Unfortunately I didn't get to drink the wine, because it wasn't cold. But tonight, it's all mine....well, not ALL.

Tomorrow the center where I tutor is taking a field trip to the zoo. I will be driving a large van full of kids to a destination just over an hour away. And I'll be toting my toddler around with us ALL DAY. We went last year, but Matt came and helped. Hopefully Zachariah will just have fun and will handle being out all day. I've been asked to work some extra hours this week to fill in for other people (we have several on vacation at once), and I'm hoping I can handle it. Today I talked to Matt (while I was writing this post, because I got a call from one of the leaders that I work with) about how this job is starting to get to me a little bit. I have always loved this job. I've worked there for 4 years now, and I love so many things about it. I'm there to tutor children, I only work 10 hours a week, I only work 2 hours a day, I've been able to bring my son along, and I've never felt stressed there. I'm starting to feel it. Maybe it's because of everything else going on around here. Matt knows that I don't want to do this job forever. I am only staying with it because we can use the extra income, and it's an easy way to get it. Where else could I find a job that 1) uses my teaching degree, 2) I only work 2 hours a day/4 days a week, 3) I can take my son along? No where! So the plan is for me to continue working here until Matt gets a sizable raise, Matt gets a new/better job, or until we have all our debt but the house paid for (student loans being most of that). I know this is something that Matt feels passionate about. He wants me to be able to quit this job. He would like for me to be at home full-time with Zachariah. Right now that just wouldn't work. So I have to find a way to continue to cope. Let's hope I can make it through the summer.

Here baby, there mama, Everywhere daddy daddy

Hair, hair, hair, hair, hair, hair, hair
Flow it, show it
Long as God can grow it
My hair

***

Sorry I had that song in my head. I cut my hair. A lot of hair. Like 6-8 inches of hair. My typical hair styling each morning was a ponytail. Now? Now, my hair will no longer go into a ponytail. It didn't turn out quite what I wanted, but I like it. I like that it's shorter and I can style it now. I like that it's cooler for summer. So, here are some photos for your enjoyment.

What do you think? An improvement? Of course it doesn't look like that every day, but it is pretty easy to do like that. I just don't always take the extra 20 minutes to fix it nice.

Can you tell I don't wear make-up often? I didn't even bother putting it on when I posed for these photos.

Home again

I am home now, but I am far from settled. There is always a cloud of gloom over everything when I return home from a vacation no matter how much advance preparation I may have made. While it is nice returning to a clean house, it's a lot of work beforehand. I have to carefully balance packing with keeping the clutter clear. Then when we come in the door it's nice and clean, but that only lasts until we have to bring all our luggage in. We can unpack bags and do laundry, but there is always more than what we started with. I have to find a place to put the new things that came home with us. The new summer clothes we bought must find their way into our already full dresser drawers and packed closets. Our leftover snacks and food must find a way into the already full pantry and fridge.

It still remains that there is not much to prepare meals with. There is no meal plan to buy groceries for, because I have been so busy catching up with laundry and putting everything else away. There is the endless pile of brochures and booklets that we need to go through and decide what to keep for scrapbooks and future references.

And none of this takes into account that I'll be more tired than refreshed after traveling in the car for hours on end. Then it's back to work for my husband, back to a routine for my son. And I will start my summer tutoring program which is different than the school-year, so we will have to adjust our schedules and routines for that.

Am I the only one who ever feels like she needs a vacation after her vacation?

Closer to home

We're only one day away from the end of our vacation. Tonight we're staying in a hotel. I'm trying to get the toddler to sleep in a port-a-crib (not the problem) in the same room as us (problem). One more stop tomorrow, then we're home. Hopefully I'll be around more next week to tell you about my travels and the fun things we did and great places we saw. Until then...have a great weekend!

Favorite Vacation Travels

Today's post is brought to you by Sarah at No Whey, Mama. I have enjoyed Sarah's blog for quite some time now, and I am happy that she decided to help me out by guest posting here. I told her I'd love to hear about some of her vacations or favorite vacation locations. You should also know that Sarah's daughter, Katherine, is allergic to dairy. I love that Sarah posts information and hints and tips about dealing with allergies. This is something that I was very cautious about when Zachariah was young (I have a friend who has allergies to practically everything, and it has made me much more aware.) Without further ago here is a post from Sarah:

Ashland, NH
Area Travel Guide

Planning a trip to New Hampshire? Here are a few places we like to
visit.

My mom grew up spending her summers on Lake Winnipesaukee, between Center Harbor and Meredith. When my sister and I were
growing up, we always spent our vacation at the family "camp" on the lake.
Sadly, the camp had to be sold about ten years ago. But, my aunt now has a great
house on Little Squam
Lake, so we are able to bring the kids to the same area where we spent our
summers.

Squam
Bridge in Ashland, NH
Little Squam
Lake is also known as Golden Pond because it's where On Golden Pond was
filmed.

Ashland is a
great town with a very active Historical
Society. We were able to attend their annual lobster dinner fundraiser. They
were kind enough to have hot dogs and hamburgers available for children and/or
those who can't eat shellfish.

I would also like to give a special mention to the Village
Pizza & Grill in Ashland. We went there for lunch one day, and the
service was amazingly helpful and friendly. Katherine and Eli split a
cheese-free bacon pizza and an order of pasta with sauce. All the staff was very
careful and understanding, and there was no cross-contamination of ingredients.
Plus, the food was excellent. Katherine ate four pieces of pizza, a personal
record.

Just a few miles down the road is the Squam Lakes Natural Science
Center in Holderness, NH.
We had never been there before, and it is amazing. They have all kinds of
native NH animals that have been injured and are living in natural habitats
while they recover. The black bears, bald eagles, and bobcats were our
favorites.

The Old Country Store
The
Old Country Store in Moultonborough, NH, has always been the rainy-day
place to take the kids. Penny candy! Weird old machinery in the museum! More
candy! While the price has risen to two cents per piece of candy, it's still
fun, and there are plenty of dairy-free candies available to choose from.

Weirs Beach
Usually we spend one evening at Weirs
Beach playing games at the arcades on the boardwalk. Our favorites are
Whack-a-Mole, Skeeball, and the ancient Dodge City Shooting
Gallery. We also stopped at the Hart's Slush stand for some dairy-free frozen
goodness.

Rein's Deli
Another family tradition is to stop at Rein's Deli
(Warning: the site plays music) in Vernon, CT, on the drives to and from NH.
They, too, are excellent about dairy-free orders. Katherine likes their turkey
breast on a plain bagel with a side of plain Cape Cod potato chips. I just wish
I could get her to try their fantastic dill pickles!

We had a wonderful time. It's a great place to vacation!

Saturday, Sunday, Monday

At the aquarium in Gatlinburg on Monday...









Lunch on Monday at a little Italian place in Gatlinburg (I can't believe I'm posting this bad picture of me. No make-up, and we'd been walking in the hot sun for a while.)



A short hike on Sunday after checking into our cabin...







The Horse Park in Lexington, KY on Saturday afternoon...







Lunch at Uno on Saturday afternoon near Cincinnati, OH (or rather dessert for the boys)




It's been fun so far!

Busy busy-ness

So, it's been a bit crazy here. There are plenty of things that I'd like to blog about, but my computer time has been really limited. This is the first time I've even had the computer on today (odd for me), and I'll be headed to bed soon. I have hardly taken time to read blogs at all this week. I know it will settle down again. This time of year is always crazy.

We leave for our vacation on Saturday morning. We will have Internet access while we're in the cabin in Tennessee, but I don't know how much I'll use it. I plan to relax in the hot tub a lot, enjoy my family, read lots of books and magazines, shop, eat, snack, and sit in the jacuzzi tub. Does that sound like a good vacation? Sounds like heaven to me. I know we'll have lots of things to do and I'll try to be around to tell you all about it. If not then, at least when I get back.

In the meantime, is anyone interested in guest-posting here? Maybe a way to get something off your chest that you can't at your own blog? A chance to meet new readers? A fun time? Need a change of scenery? If you'd be interested, please e-mail me. We'll work out details. I'm open to ideas (and I can give you a fun topic if you'd like). I'm thinking it would be fun to post someone other posts here while I'm on vacation. I'll be around to post them, but I may not be able to blog myself. So, if you'd like to take a pit stop here, let me know.

Where I rate

When it comes to grandparents, aunts, uncles, and other loved ones, I don't rate very well with my son. I learned that the hard way. Zachariah spent Thursday through Monday with family. We joined him there on Saturday. He seemed happy to see us at first, but then he wanted help from anyone but Matt and I. Well...then....I guess I'll just let other people help for now.

Today I knew would be tough. I knew we'd have to go through "Grandma detox". But honestly, he was too exhausted to care. He fell asleep in the car on the way home. This hasn't happened in ages. He just doesn't sleep in the car anymore. But he asked for a blanket to cover up, then he wanted his little lovie-blankie and pacifier too. He slept most of the way home and then wanted to go straight to bed. I had to talk him into putting pajamas on first.

This morning he slept in. He was happy to see me. He was happy to see his toys. He was OK with getting back to our routine and rules. I think he just needed some calm and schedule to behave like his normal self.

I missed my son for the 2 days we were apart. But I did get a lot done in preparation for our vacation. I couldn't believe how grown up Zachariah looked after being away from him. He was saying and doing new things. It just isn't possible. It just proves to me how quickly he is growing up.

Our weekend was fun. And Matt and I did make it to see "Prince Caspian" on Friday. I'll have to write up a little post about that soon. And I got my hair cut....like many inches off. I started a post about that, but I haven't taken any photos of myself yet. So, more from me to come.

Peace AND Quiet

It is quiet in my house tonight (except for the TV I have blaring). Matt is out on business tonight and Zachariah is staying with my parents for a few days. My mom has been itching to have him stay over again sometime. She had this idea to come get him on a Thursday afternoon (she only works until noon on Thursdays) and keep him until Saturday some weekend when we were planning on coming there on Saturday anyway. Well, it happened to work out this weekend. We've been planning on it for weeks now.

When my mom first brought this up I was tempted, really tempted, to say no. This is the longest that I've ever been away for Zachariah. He's never stayed more than one night away from me. I was really debating how I could keep him here and NOT let me parents keep him for that long. On one hand I knew it would be nice to have some time without him to myself, but I didn't want to leave him. What made me decide to go ahead with it was thinking about our upcoming vacation. This would give me a perfect opportunity to start preparing for our trip.

I am planning, organizing, shopping, and beginning to pack. I have been making a list of things we will need for our travels. I have started buying a few things to take along. I have not sorted through my summer clothes (I'm not really wearing them yet, because it hasn't been consistently warm here). But I am making some progress.

I have time to think about making lists. I have time to shop for some items we'll need. I have time to organize and sort some things. Unfortunately it's only a day that I have alone. And unfortunately I have so many things that I'd like to cram into that little amount of time.

I'd also like to have time to relax and enjoy this time to myself. I have been sitting and reading blogs and watching TV all evening. That's been nice. I think I'd like to soak my feet and have some good munchies that I don't have to make or share for ANYONE else.

Fun, fun

Today I am taking lunch from Fazoli's into the center where I tutor. I usually only go in for a few hours in he afternoon, so this will be fun to get together with everyone in a more relaxed time. It is a pretty easy going work environment, but it's fun just to eat and laugh with my friends there once in a while. Matt won lunch for 8 people by putting his business card into the fishbowl last time we ate there. He won the same thing less than a year ago and shared it with his office. So this time he decided to let me treat my coworkers. We only have about 7 people that work in my program regularly. It will be perfect. I go at 12:30 today to pick up pasta, salad, breadsticks, and drinks for 8. For FREE! Can't beat that. And last night I made a cheesecake to take in too. It's a cookie cheesecake (Oreos baked in it). I should go take pictures now to share with you later.

Yesterday Matt won tickets to see "Prince Caspian" from a radio station. I've had the movie release date marked on my calendar since before Christmas. I am so excited about this new movie. And I reread the entire Chronicles of Narnia book series in preparation for the new movie coming out. Then he won tickets, so now we can watch it for FREE. Matt rocks at winning things! We will be able to go out on Friday night (without a child) to see the movie. YEAH!

And Matt is signed up for another contest with the same radio station. They are giving away a BBQ grill, a side of beef, and an above ground pool. He signed up because he wants the side of beef. Ha. They were only going to qualify so many people who signed up, then they must be present at the time of the drawing to win. Well, less than 100 people qualified and he is one of them. AND he will already be at the Battle of the Businesses for his job, which is where they are drawing the winner. I think he has decent odds. What would we do with a pool? Yikes. Anyway....I'm just worried about his luck.

Babies, babies, everywhere

I'm been stalking Devan for a while now waiting anxiously for any baby news. There were rumors that she'd had her little bundle, but now we have proof and pictures. And Cade Alexander is an adorable baby boy, welcome! Congrats Devan! I can't wait to hear more about him.

And last Thursday Jana went to the hospital and delivered another beautiful baby boy. There is a post up on her site from her husband and a link with some photos. I can't wait to hear more about her new little one. Evan James is beautiful. Welcome little guy! And congrats, Jana. I'll be waiting to hear and see more from you too.

This is the 3rd baby for each of these lovely women. I can't tell you how happy I am for them. And I can't wait to have more babies of my own to snuggle and hold. But for now I will be happy to hear more about these two new precious little boys. Congrats girls!

I guess "complainy" isn't a real word

I composed a blog post yesterday, but I just deleted it. It was whiny and complainy and stressy and all apologetic. Bleck. After looking back at it today, I realized that's just not me. (Well, it is, but usually one for short amounts of time and very rarely.) Anyway, today was a better day, and I just wanted to let you all know I'm good and still around. I am reading and catching up with blogs slowly. I'm also trying to comment on some.

Here is a clip from that bad blog post about Mother's Day:
I had a nice Mother's Day. Matt brought me breakfast in bed. He also got Zachariah up, fed him, and got him ready for church. Then we went to church. Afterwards they took me out for dinner. I took a nap in the afternoon, unfortunately that was cut short because Zachariah woke up. Matt fell asleep too, but he didn't hear Zachariah get up. Matt ended up sleeping for at least 2 more hours before I got him up. He did feel really bad that I didn't get much of a nap on Mother's Day. (I'm still using that, though.) Then we went to small group as always in the evening. My present is to pick out some flowers at a later date. We looked at some on Saturday, but I know I can't plant right away so I will wait a bit longer. And there is a hanging basket stand that I want to get too.

So that's that. Nothing too exciting happened. Really there has been nothing too exciting happening here at all lately. We just have a lot of things coming up. I've been planning for our weekend away for Memorial Day. Then after that we'll be heading out for vacation. So we're slowly getting things planned and ready for that.

I have been working on some more projects in the house too. Progress makes me feel better. I'm at a bit of a stand still for our extra bedroom. I got the new (to us) bed set up and some blankets on it. I still need to get a set of sheets, but I don't have any for that size. I think I'll wait and look for some at the outlet malls in Tennessee. I've rearranged that room a little. I moved a bookshelf out and like where it ended up (in my dining room). There is another bookshelf that I've been sorting through, but we have so many things that I'm not sure what to do with. Throw away? Keep? Store? Is it worth storing? Will we really use it again someday? When was the last time we used it? Those sort of things. Mostly there are lots of books, magazines, college binders full of papers, etc. But anyway, short of that the room is coming along nicely. We plan to down-size the desk in there, since we don't use our desktop computer too often anyway. Matt actually mentioned getting a small desk (at some point-- not soon) to put in a corner in the living room, and just getting the computer completely out of that room. Then it really would just be a bedroom. I never thought that day would come. He has always LOVED that office. In fact he used to say we could never use it for anything but that. I told him when we have more kids we might need it for a bedroom, but I thought we'd have to bunk them before he gave up his office. Now he's excited about making it a spare room. Change of heart. But why? I don't know.

This post has been pretty random already, so can I just say...How can it already be the middle of May? HOW? This does not seem possible. Summer is almost here (with warmer weather than this I hope).

Zachariah has been really cute and funny lately. I have a great story to share about Mr. Smartiepants from last weekend. I'd also like to get some videos of him to post. I'll have to try that soon. I think you'd enjoy it. He's a character. So more to come later.

Some of this...

1. We kicked off our garage sale today. Our small group is hosting it. They are helping raise money for Matt's mission's trip. The garage sale idea came up last fall when Matt had no money raised. By this time (before the garage sale) Matt has more than enough money raised. So we'll be able to do something extra for the Koutiala hospital with it.

We started getting things ready for the sale Thursday night. Matt went to help. I helped set things up and watch the sale for a while this morning. We decided Matt would go to help again tomorrow. We feel like one of us should be there, but keeping Zachariah there all day would not be good. And with gas prices up, we definitely don't need to drive two cars all the way to the location that's a 30 minute drive from our house. But it's going well, and I'm excited about that.

2. We were so busy today. I had to wake Zachariah up early this morning (which I rarely do) and he was not happy with me. He was awake right away, but he cried for a while when I told him we weren't going to church. (He figured that must be where we were going since I woke him up. That's about the only time I wake him up.)

3. Every time I log into my Google Reader, I feel overwhelmed. More often that not these past few days, I just close it right away. Sorry, I'm not trying to neglect your blogs. I think I just need to focus on other things. But I'm saving them, and I'll eventually catch up on reading and commenting on my friends' blogs.

4. We just bought a new(ish) full-sized bed. Our intention is to make room in our office (which is the 3rd bedroom) for the bed. Then it can act as a guest room. I've always thought we would use this as another bedroom someday (especially after I converted Zachariah's room to a nursery), so I'm happy Matt agreed. Plus now it means I get to go shop for new bedding (we don't already have full-sized bedding). Fun! Plus it will be fun to reorganize a room.

5. My sisters both came over this afternoon, and we had a great time. Then my parents came in the evening. What a fun day. Busy and tiring, but very fun. I have photos (only of the sisters being here) to share later.

6. Have a nice weekend. Are you doing anything fun?

Crazy Days

Why does it seem like life will slow down after Christmas? I always feel like we don't have many plans, not many commitments after the holidays. So then we should have our weekends to relax and not feel like we always have things to do. Well, there are always things to do and events that come up. Before you know it January slips into February which slips into March into April and here it is May! Where has this year gone? It's almost 1/2 way over and it seems like it has just begun.

Two months ago when I was looking at my May calendar, I thought it would be great because there isn't much planned. (I thought the same thing thinking about April in February.) And now that we're here, suddenly my May calendar seems full of activity (thankfully not too much yet). Days that have meetings, get together, or other events take up space. Our vacation is looming ahead at the end of the month too. I haven't even begun to think about planning for that (packing clothes, food, etc.).

I don't know about you, but when the craziness with my schedule starts like this, I get a little crazy. I get overwhelmed with all the things that must be done and planned for in the midst of my already semi-full daily schedule. Then I don't see how I'll get it all done.

Right now we have a few things going on here and there (for instance, the garage sale our small group is hosting this weekend- set up on Thursday, sale on Friday & Saturday), and I want to make sure that I stay ahead of the game. My goals have been to get and keep things organized in this house. Spring cleaning? Sort of, but does it count when it's practically summer? I am trying to prioritize and take care of the things that matter most first.

Then there is this matter of vacation. We have the cabin booked, we have the truck ready (complete with a new cap, so we have plenty of room to take things along), and Matt is taking care of the hotel arrangements for our trip down and back. I need to make sure that everyone has enough summer clothes to last a week (or at least part of the week, since we're planning to shop for some summer clothes while we're there), think about meals, get some snacks & drinks purchased before we go. As far as that stuff goes, I've done nothing about it yet. It doesn't look like this week/weekend will be a good time to start either.

But I am, however, thinking about my own self getting ready for vacation. We would like to do some hiking while we're there (which we've always loved doing together), and I realize that I am terribly out of shape. I was working out regularly for a while in January/February until I injured my back again. I was starting to feel stronger and had lots more energy and stamina when I was working out. Well, my back has rested enough and it feeling better now. But I know I have to take it easy in order to not hurt it again. This week, though, I decided that I must work out if I plan to go hiking at all. It will still be tough for me, but I don't want to miss out just because I can't get off my butt and work harder. Matt has been working out EVERY morning for the last THREE weeks at the YMCA. He has done a lot of cardio, and I'm sure I'll notice that he has no problems hiking. So, I've gotten off my butt, and I'm off to the races. This week I have committed to working out for at least 30 minutes each day. I have stuck to that. I am starting out with some walking on my Gazelle and a few strengthening moves. I am also following my back exercise program that my chiropractor gets after me constantly about not doing. It's no wonder my back slips out so easy, I am doing nothing to strengthen it. No more of that now! I am working, and I plan to keep this up until vacation. I hope to even work up to more things if my back is feeling up to it. And I'd like to get our weight system in the garage ready to use. I would like to work on my arm and leg strength too. I'll be ready to hike those mountains.

So, next I will start on preparing for vacation. But one (or two or three) step at a time. First I want to get my house completely in order and continue exercising. I still have a few more weeks for the other preparations, and I think it will go more smoothly once I feel like things are good around here.

Still here

I'm still around. I didn't mean to disappear for 3 days after I finished 2 months of NaBloPo month. But it did feel good not to use the computer as much for a while. I will say that April's NaBloPo was one of my favorites. It was fun and I think it caused me to be a touch more creative with my posts.

Some of my favorite posts in April were: about my relationship with Matt (before we were married); telling about my college life/non-life; memories and things from my youth; updating things I've left hanging on my blog (I'm thinking of doing this more often); Top 20/Bottom 10 (fun! I just wrote down things that came to mind. Nice for a random post); about my religion/church; and my memories (showing you some old photos of me - maybe I'll have some more in the future). I see that most of my favorites were suggestions that came from you, my readers. You guys rock!

Today my mom, sister (Rachel), and my grandmother came over. My mom had called Thursday morning and asked about coming. She was meeting my dad for lunch after church (before he left on business) then coming here. She told me she would check with Rachel and see if she'd like to come too. I thought it was a fun idea. Then the church service ran over. After that we had to load/unload some garage sale things for our upcoming small group garage sale (raising money for Matt's trip). By the time we were done with that I was concerned that they might be here before I got home. I called my mom and found out that they were still on the way...and she had grandma with her.

I love my grandma dearly, but.... When we got home I told Matt I tidied up the house, but I didn't clean it to "Grandma standards". You see, my grandmother doesn't have a filter between her brain and her mouth. I will admit that she's gotten better over the past few years since my grandfather has been gone, but still. This is the woman who once told me that my dog was "a cute kind of ugly" and she was "trying to ignore the mess" after she followed me into our messy office. So, I was afraid that my little bit of tidying might not be enough. After I fed Zachariah I quickly ran around the house and dusted, put away dishes, scrubbed anything I saw (minus walls & floors). Luckily I live with a cute, energetic toddler, and that's the main reason my family comes over to visit, and nothing was said about the house (which by the time they got here was looking pretty good).