Flashback Friday

Does anyone else do the Thankful November thing? You list one thing you're thankful for every day. I did this last year on my Facebook page and I think I'll do it again. It's a wonderful way to put things in your life into perspective. I'll also list what I'm thankful for here on days that I do write.

Anyone doing NaNoWriMo? I am and I'm terrified.

Anyone doing No Shave November? I am not.

Old picture time!

Pre-baby, working at the cable company. That's Best friend M on the left and me on the right:

Gibbie at about a month and a half:

Gibbie's first Halloween:

We didn't carve a pumpkin when we lived in an apartment but look at our cute pumpkin family:

Gibbie as Princess Belle for her second Halloween:

Last year at the pumpkin patch:

She was looking at the camera until I told her to smile. I think she was smiling at God:

 We went to the pumpkin patch with my friend A and his incredibly family that I love as my own:

 My happy girl:

Decorating Halloween cookies with The Hubs:

I love Halloween but I have to admit that I'm ready for Christmas. I am that person who gets very excited when shopping in July and find Christmas stuff out already! Gibbie is really into it this year too. We've been watching Reindeer Cam every day, going through the Toy's R Us catalog, talking about Santa. It makes me realize I haven't discussed the real reason for Christmas yet but being a Sunday School teacher I'm sure I will get to it soon!

I might not be back until Monday. Tomorrow my sister that lives here is going to pick up Gibbie and I and drive us to Santa Fe where our sister from Colorado Springs will meet us. We're taking her a puppy that she found online and couldn't live without. We're that crazy. We'll have lunch at a park and let the kid run around then get back in the car and go home.

Happy Friday!

I Need an Assistant

So I've decided I need either a personal assistant or a maid. I think a maid would be more helpful in the long run. The house would be clean and I could still do all of my social/religious/exercise gatherings. Seriously though, I at least need someone to schedule my life for me. It's not like I have a million things to do but I sometimes wonder how it's not possible for a stay at home mom to stay home and clean. Even days I do stay home it never manages to get clean up in here!

Yesterday was one of those crazy clingy days. I couldn't leave the room without Gibbie yelling and asking where I am and why I left and don't go! It's very hard to get anything done. I am trying to get at least an hour of housework done a day but I did only about twenty minutes with a three year old hanging off of me. Today doesn't seem to be any better but things need to get done. I'm way too embarrassed to describe the state of my bathrooms at the moment so she's just going to have to chill. Clean while she naps? It's called sanity and I'm trying to hang on to a little of it by having some quiet time to watch Days of Our Lives, read, write, pray, etc. Plus, it's not like I do nothing while she naps. I do still make sure the laundry and dishes get done and clean the living room a bit while I watch TV.

What I really need is to find the perfect balance. Somewhere between giving in to my child's every request and ignoring her completely. I don't want to be the mom who does nothing but housework all day and then realize that the only time I touched my child was while putting her to bed. I also don't want to be the mom who plays with her child all day and then has to stay up late to clean and never get to relax. I'll get there some day. I just thought that I'd have it figured out by now.

Someone please tell me I'm not the only one that struggles with this! Sometimes I think I'm just really stupid when it comes to being a stay at home mom but I don't know how do it differently.

One last thought... this picture from last year's visit to the pumpkin patch is adorbs:

Weekend Review

How was your weekend? Ours was very full and very fun. From Friday night in our living room tent to Sunday night watching the Red Sox tie the series we were busy.

Saturday morning we found Gibbie's lamb that we bought her for her first Christmas and she proudly named it Little Baa Baa:

I had a cooking show on Saturday afternoon but it sounds like her and The Hubs had some fun in the backyard while I was gone.

That night we wanted to go to the new Jason's Deli at the fancy new mall that is halfway open. I past by it on the way home from my cooking show and say the lights on and assumed it was open. I was wrong but it worked out of the best because we ended up getting sushi instead.

This roll is called The Mexican Orgasm. It was so good we had two:

After dinner we went back to the half open mall to check out the new Barne's & Noble. It was very bittersweet. The Barnes & Noble that The Hubs and I met at was closed and moved to this new location. Feeling nostalgic and sad about it but the new location is actually incredibly awesome and well stocked. Everything's in order since it's brand new so it was easy to find a book for each of us! Also, I love that we say we're going to the bookstore and Gibbie gets so incredibly excited!

Gibbie was my only student in Sunday School so we decided to pack it up early and head to the zoo.

Boo at the Zoo was insanely packed but she loved trick or treating:

She had a lot of fun so I think we did it right:

Sunday night was spent at our favorite little Italian restaurant and then home to relax.

What did you do?

Saturday Link Party

What's everyone doing this weekend? I feel like each weekend in October is always packed of things to do here and there's no way to do everything I want. Today I have a cooking show to do later so there will be no around town activities. I love doing cooking shows though so it's still fun for me! Tomorrow after church we'll be heading to Boo at the Zoo with our little robot girl. I'll be back around here in a few days. Here's some fun links to keep you busy in the meantime:

*An awesome view of Paris around 1870 and today.

*These confessions of librarians made me laugh.

*I've never really stopped to think that the sound word "bark" is different in another language!

*I need to find a way to fit this into my budget! It's only $10 per month and it sounds amazing!

*I love seeing Disney Princesses out of their element. Obviously, Belle is my favorite here.

*Some of these challenges seem impossibly hard but I definitely want to try a few out.

*I recently became un-allergic to avocado and am making up for lost time by putting it on everything. I'll definitely try all of these recipes!

Have a wonderful weekend! Here's a cute sideways smile from Gibbie to brighten your day:

Flashback Friday

I am too obsessed with having a format for this blog. I get to Tuesdays and think I have to write about something important instead of just my day to day and skip it. Then the skipping turns into days of skipping and then here I am a week after I say I'm back with a random blog. Meh, if you're reading this then chances are you interested in my regular day to day so we'll see how it goes from here on out.

For now, have some old school photos.

All mamas can stand with me when I say a HOW WAS SHE EVER SO LITTLE?

Last year's pumpkin carving adventure. I should have counted all the times she said "ew."

I think she was threatening me.

Such a sweet little thing.

Did you all know I have a black sister? I bet you didn't.

Little drummer girl.

This was the first cookout we had at our house last year soon after moving in.

All smiles, as usual.

Playing with her baby while wearing her giant tutu. What a girl!

My friend made this last year when I was super excited about the return of Grey's Anatomy. The actual photo was taken pre-baby, pre-marriage, pre-engagement even. Pre-real life.

I love sharing old photos because it reminds me of how far I've come in my life. If you would have talked me when the last photo was taken I was a completely different person from when the first photo was taken.

Weekend Review

It was a completely relaxed weekend. The only thing I'd actually consider work is driving to the other side of town. I really dislike driving on the east side.

Friday night we headed over to my in-law's house to visit with Aunt B, my mother-in-law's sister. She awesome. She's sassy. She doesn't care what you think about her. She won't let anyone take a picture of her so I have nothing to show from any of our time with her.

Saturday was tent day. I promised Gibbie that we would have a tent night Friday night and watch The Wizard of Oz and paint our nails green. Then The Hubs didn't go to class and we went visiting. She was heartbroken. To make up for it I let her keep the tent up all day and the pajamas on until we had to head out.

She absolutely loved The Wizard of Oz. We watched it four times.

I've never seen her sit still for this long:

This is Gibbie "fixing" her "motorcycle" while The Wizard of Oz plays:

After The Wizard of Oz we went to McDonald's in hope for more toys from the movie but alas, they moved on. We instead ended up with Angry Birds/Star Wars Halloween bucket. She was sad for two seconds but not she's just saying "trick or treat" all the time and making us put pretend candy in the bucket.

Later we spent a lot of time in the play room waiting for The Hubs to come home from his class. When he got home it was a quick rest for him then time to go back to the east side for sushi dinner with my in-laws.

 I just thought this was cute. She's not even really blowing her nose:

 Lounging in the play room:

Sunday was church day and in my class we learned that God made our hands! I'm trying to make my class more interesting so with the help of the church secretary (OK actually she did most of the work by gathering everything) the kids played with black beans, a seashell, cotton balls, rubber bands, a rock, and traced their hands and decorated it with stickers. Gibbie loves church but about 10-15 minutes before it ends she starts asking to go home. She actually started yelling, "amen" once in the middle of prayers hoping that Pastor would get the hint or something. It was one of those delightfully embarrassing moments.

Church makes her a bit sleepy: 

After church we all napped then once again went to the in-laws for a cookout with everyone. It was great. Now, I'm ready for a great week and trying to not be nervous about my first Pampered Chef booth at a Fall Festival this weekend. Have a blessed week everyone!

I had to share today's Pier One find. Tell me this isn't the coolest turkey ever:

Thankful Thursday Done on a Saturday

So I wrote this a few days ago, published it, then deleted it on accident. Luckily I'm a gigantic nerd and decided to subscribe to my own blog on a ready just to see what it would be like. Today I was going through my reader and stumbled upon my deleted post fully intact! WOO!

OK, I'm back. Really this time. I'll say that I was having a very hard time emotionally and I was fighting with my faith. Actually, I should say that Satan was trying to bring me down because my faith was there, I was just angry. So for today's Thankful Thursday I'll start with an important one that has snapped me back to where I need to be:

*For God's grace. Only by grace am I saved and only by His grace am I here today writing this instead of wallowing in something I can't do anything about. So instead I give it to God and I move on and be my normal, happy, joyous self.

*THE HUBS! Always! This time for just letting me cry and listening to what I have to say in between sobs and not giving me strange looks when he looks over and finds tears running down my cheeks. I'm a cryer, and that scares men, and it scares my husband, but he sticks with me anyway.

*Gibbie working out with me. I started a stroller fitness class two months ago or so and I love it. I don't get to make it to every class but because it's at a park Gibbie absolutely loves it! She even gets me to do some of the work outs at home. She's always right next to me during the warm up and cool down. She's my biggest cheerleader!

*Vietnamese food! I really just don't feel like cooking by Thursday and generally that means Vietnamese food. Thursday is my night with Best friend M so The Hubs will bring home some delicious food from Saigon Taste and I'll eat with the family before heading out.

*My health. As of right now I am a completely healthy person. I've dropped about 25 pounds, I'm confident, I feel great, I know I've become a healthier person this year and I thank God I am able to become even more healthier in the coming years.

I promise I'm back so I'll see you tomorrow. Have a wonderful Thursday night lovelies.

Have some old school Gibbie:

Saturday Link Casual Get Together

Thursday I wrote a beautiful Thankful Thursday post and posted it and shared it with Facebook/Tumblr/Twitter/Google +/Pinterest and then I deleted it because I'm clumsy. Just take my word for it, it was beautiful.

Anyway, through the grace of God I'm out of my emotional/spiritual funk and I'm ready to roll. I'm going to be busy with my family this weekend so I'll just leave some fun links for you here and see you on Monday.

This is absolutely terrifying.

Only have one means I can't tell you if this is true or not but I now that all of the "1st baby" stuff was true with Gibbie.

Yet another Etsy shop that I'm in love with.

If I ever make it to New York I'll hopefully remember these tips.

It's been so long since I've blogged regularly so I can't remember if I already posted this link but I love these return address stamps so much that I'll risk reposting it.

I love this guy's blog. I also love how non parents think they are going to be the world's greatest parents when they have kids. I read something online the other day that said, "I used to be an expert on parenting and then I had kids."

Finally, something all moms need to remember.

Currently Gibbie and I are watching The Wizard of Oz. She's never seen it before today and she is in love. We have both witch toys from Happy Meals and she's so excited about seeing them on the screen. I might take her for another Happy Meal when it's over and see what toy we get next!

Enjoy an old picture of Gibbie:

Flashback Friday

Hello lovelies. I've missed you. Really, I've though about you all daily but couldn't bring myself to post a blog. I have a funny way of writing. When I'm happy I do blogging and ignore journaling. When I'm sad I whip out my journal and have it but ignore blogging. Guess how I've been feeling lately?

I'm trying to snap myself out of it so here I am forcing myself to post today. It's an easy day anyway. Here's some old pictures that have made me smile lately.

The first ones of me and friends make me smile because I like my hair. The blonde was pre-Gibbie era.

 Do all kids do this:

 Look at this itty bitty baby:

I'm trying and I'm feeling like happy will come back to me very soon. Until then, I'll force it and keep posting. Happy Friday everyone!

Weekend Review: The Color Run

Well I had a busy and fulfilling weekend. I had a Sunday School teacher training on Saturday morning and yesterday I had more fun that I've ever had sober (ok that's a huge exaggeration but it was freaking awesome). I'm turning today's post into a Color Run post. Enjoy!

Pre-race Rue:

Notice the huge bags under my crazy eyes. I don't function well early in the morning. 

My full body pre-race shot. Check the tutu, that's how I roll:

My friend LA and I getting ready for the fun:

 Post yellow station:

Post pink station:

Post orange station:

Post blue station and finish line:

As you can tell I like my own face! I didn't realize I had taken so many selfies until I started to write this post. Good lord I'm self absorbed!

This is one of my favorite shots, before it looked like we were in the middle of a disaster with colored dust all around us.

 Waiting for the dust to settle:

That was seriously intense. I couldn't see anything around me and I could barely breath. Also, I've been blowing blue boogers out my nose. I'd still do it over though!

 This shot still doesn't give the amount of color I had on my face justice:

Post race full body shot:

 That about sums me up:

 Stopped to get some post race yummies at Kiki's Mexican Restaurant:

This is when I realized just how colorful I was! Again, notice the crazy eyes.

 The Hubs met us there and just loves taking pictures of me mid bite:

I was eating the chicken mole. YUMMMMMMMMM!

 Here's a shot of him mid bite to make up for it:

Let me tell ya, Gibbie did not like the paint on my face. She came to me but then asked what was wrong with my face and went straight back to her papa.

 I am easily amused and thought the site of me taking off my headband was hilarious:

 Also, sans socks is a funny sight too:

I would highly recommend The Color Run to you as long as you don't suffer from asthma or any other respiratory disease. Also, have some one check you over after your shower to make sure you got it all off. The Hubs noticed a big blue spot on my arm this morning!

Next up is Run or Dye and my goal is to be able to run that entire race. In February there is a half-marathon and I'm really considering training for it. Do you run? Have you done any really awesome races?