A Week's Worth of Ramblings

Well, I'd say it's about time for another post. It's long overdue. I don't have anything in particular to write about today, so I guess I'll just tell you a little about what's been going on lately.

Sunday, Elijah and Eric went outside to feed the fish in our garden pond. Eric has been filling up two 5 gallon buckets with water each day and let them sit out for 24 hours to get the chlorine out, then the next day he pours them into our garden pond. With this extreme heat lately, our pond has been evaporating very quickly. Well, Elijah thought the buckets looked like fun and decided he would go for a swim. Since then, he has been doing this every night this week when Eric fills them up.

Monday, of my best and dearest friend's came up this way to visit (she lives in Charleston). I've known her since we were in 4th grade...we shared a locker. It's been about a year since I've seen her, so we were long overdue for a day out together. We went to lunch and then downtown for ice cream and a walk down by the river. It was really nice. I had Elijah with me and along our walk to the river, we passed a water wall, so we stopped to let Elijah play in it. He had a blast! Of course he was soaked when we were finished but since it was soooo hot outside, I don't think it seemed to bother him. Then, when we got down to the river, there were ducks. I happened to have some animal crackers in Elijah's diaper bag, so we fed them. There was this one little duck who only had half a bill for some reason. Anyway, I had my toenails painted yellow, and it kept trying to eat them haha.

Thursday night I received a phone call that was rather...well...disturbing. I answered the phone and the lady on the other end said, "This is so and so from Graceland Cemetery. You have been chosen to receive a complimentary burial plot. Do you already own a burial plot?" I just told her I wasn't interested and hung up. It kinda caught me off guard haha.

Yesterday, Elijah wanted to paint. So I grabbed a piece of old canvas I had lying around, some paints, and an old brush and let him get to work. After about 30 minutes, he ended up with more paint on him than on the canvas, but I have to say, his painting is pretty cute (even if it is just a bunch of paint blobs). Here's his work of art:

I'm a proud momma!

Then about 11:30, we watched the space shuttle launch for the last time. It's pretty sad...I remember like it was yesterday, watching (a few times) the space shuttle take off. My dad and I would sit in front of the TV and he would start the countdown with me and when it got to 10 seconds left we would get louder as we counted down until it got to 1 and then I'd shout "BLAST OFF!!!!" It makes me sad that I won't be able to do that with Elijah anymore. He watched it, but thought it was an airplane and didn't think too much of it other than that.

3...2...1...BLAST OFF!!!

On another note, my favorite band in the whole world announced their fall tour. I am so excited. Don't judge me or stop ready my blog when I tell you who my favorite band is...Hanson. I am so excited. My sister and I are planning on going to see them in Charlotte on October 25th. This will be my 6th Hanson concert. I've had the priviledge of meeting them a few times before. They are really great guys! Anyway, I think we're going to have a few friends go with us this time. Amber and I went last year in November to see them in Charlotte. We went on the barefoot walk they do before the show to raise money and awareness to fight poverty and HIV/AIDS in Africa( and yes, Hanson does the walk with their fans) To learn more about The Walk, click HERE. I just have to say, it was a really awesome experience and I will definitely be doing it again at this concert. If anyone wants to go with us, let me know. :)

Me and Amber on The Walk last November

Taylor Hanson stopping to speak to the crowd halfway through the walk

Our feet after the walk

We took The Walk...

Will you?

Well, I will be quite busy this next week as I have 5 jewelry shows to do. Also, my best friend, Cathy will be moving back up to NC for a few months because her husband is coming home from his second deployment to Afghanistan in a week or so. They'll be moving back here when he officially ends his time with the Marines in December...I'll be so excited to have her back here permanently. Anyway, she and I are having best friend's night out on Friday, so between the five shows and my night out with Cathy, I will be quite busy next week. So I may not have time to post. I apologize in advance. But keep checking back just in case I do. :)

Have a great week guys! And thanks for reading!

Photobook

Check Out the Photo Book I just made for Elijah. It's for his 1-2 years. I''m doing one every year.

Click here to view this photo book larger

Messy Smurf

Just a fair warning to all you parents out there in Blog Land....do NOT buy your child(ren) the colored bubbles from Crayola.

It will turn your kid into a Smurf.

Don't believe me?


I've got proof.....

First it starts at the mouth

Then it spreads to the arms...

And then to the hands...

Until finally, your normal looking child, has completely transformed into a full-blown Smurf.

Buyer Beware!!!

 *Disclaimer: My child was not harmed in the making of this blog post, nor did he turn COMPLETELY blue, just partially. A good bath, heavy on the soap, and he cleaned up just nicely. Me on the other hand, it will NOT come off of me. I am still blue and spotty no matter how hard I scrub. Could be the Smurfitis kicking in..."La la la la la la, sing a happy song!"

Depression, Sickness, & Cabin Fever

As you may have noticed, I've been missing in action the past few days. I apologize. I've been trying to post something so you wouldn't think I fell off the face of the earth, but I just couldn't do it. It's been a rough week for me.

I suffer from depression and sometimes it just gets the best of me. It's not always necessarily triggered by something in particular, although sometimes it is. But it's also cause by a chemical imbalance in the brain. Anyway, I've been down and out for the past week I guess you could say. Everything just seems so hard to do. Laundry, dishes, even getting on Facebook.

I finally got around to cleaning the house a little yesterday, and now you can't even tell. It actually looks a tornado may have gone through my house. *sigh* It makes me feel like, why even bother? Really. I think I need some help.

Also, since Friday, I've been dealing with extremely bad pains in my stomach and nausea. Which, makes things even worse. Things always seem to come kick you when you're already down.

I feel bad, like I'm letting everyone down because of this. I didn't go to church on Saturday. I run the slides that display the lyrics to the songs on the screen during praise and worship, but I text my friend Hannah, who is over the volunteering and asked her if someone else could take over because my stomach was hurting to bad to sit there. She found someone (Thanks, Hannah) but I still felt like I was letting people down. Also on Saturday, I had every intention of calling my uncle and wishing him a happy birthday, but I just kept putting it off thinking I would do it a little later in the day when I felt better. The problem is, I didn't ever feel better, so I never called him. The same goes for Sunday, when my cousin's birthday rolled around. She and I are very close, as we've always been. She's more like my sister than my cousin. We're just over 3 months apart. We were always playing together growing up. Then senior year of high school she moved in with us so she could go to school with me. She now lives in Arkansas so I don't get to see her as often as I would like so the phone really is our main source of communication. You'd think I would just suck it up and give her a call and let her know I was thinking about her. But....I didn't. (Jess, if you're reading this, I love you and I'm sorry I didn't call you to wish you a happy birthday).

Another thing that's been bothering me lately is good ol' Cabin Fever. Everytime I log onto Facebook lately, I see a post from a friend about how they're going on vacation for 7, 8, 9, 10 days to Disneyworld, the beach, the mountains, some foreign exotic paradise....etc. All I can think about is how I wish it was me; I can't help but feel a little twinge of jealousy. It seems like it's just rubbed in my face everytime I log on to see what my friends are up to....I don't think we're even going to get a vacation this year. Even just a night out would be nice. I'm sorry, I'm not saying this to sound ungrateful or make you feel bad for me. I guess I'm just trying to vent my frustrations and let you know what's been getting to me lately.

So, I ask you to pray for me. For my depression I'm battling, for my stomach pains, for my cabin fever haha. It sounds silly, but really.... And also some unspoken things. I just need some help right now. Thanks everyone!

Movin' On Up

Sorry to keep you hanging as long as I did.....Eric got the promotion!!!! YAY! We are super excited We still don't know all the details yet (pay increase, job description, etc.) but we are so thankful! I'll keep you updated on things as they progress.

Well, today's the first day of summer. But with the way the heat has been all spring, I feel like summer started a long time ago. My sister and I are taking Elijah to the waterpark tomorrow. It will be a much-needed time of fun and relaxation. I'll be sure to take lots of pics to post. I'm wondering how Elijah will react, because he's kind of funny about water. He loves to take a bath (most of the time), he likes to play in the sprinkler, he likes to play in the big pool as long as you hold him, but he doesn't like kiddie pools. In fact, he actually starts freaking out if you try to put him in one. So I'm not sure how he'll feel about a whole park full of water.

I think this summer heat has been draining me. I've been so tired lately. I don't know if I should blame it on the heat or a certain little 2 year old who likes to wake up at all hours of the night. We've been up since 3:30 this morning, and believe me, I wasn't happy about it. Regardless, I'm so tired, I've been slightly absent-minded.

I sell Premier Jewelry (If you want to know more about it, let me know), and I was thinking my first show was this Friday. It totally slipped my mind that I have one tonight until last night around 6 o'clock. I can't believe I forgot! I have it marked on my calendar and it's on Facebook because my hostess posted an event invitation for it (that's actually how I realized it was tonight). So, needless to say, I went into panic mode last night and started trying to get a million things ready for the show. I still have a million things left to do, so I better get off of here. I hope everyone has a wonderful day.

Oh, and thank you to all of you who stopped and said a prayer for us the other day! You are awesome!

I'm going to leave you with a little song in honor of Eric's promotion....also, it may give you a good laugh too. Enjoy!

Prayer Request

Hey Everyone! I've been slacking on my posts the past few days. I apologize. Hopefully I'll have something soon. The past few nights Elijah has been having troubles with his night terrors again, so he has been sleeping two hours a night tops; which means, so have I. I've been to exhausted to concentrate on writing a post. But I promise, I'll have something soon.

Anyway, the reason for this quick post today is to ask for your prayers. Eric is a candidate for a higher position at his work. The CEO may be making his decision today, so I just ask that you lift us up in prayer. This promotion would be a HUGE help for us financially. There are 3 other people who are also candidates for the position, but Eric has gotten great recommendations from a lot of the directors there, so this would be awesome!

Also, if you could just pray for this whole night terror thing with Elijah. Running on no sleep is really wearing all of us down. Thank you guys! You are awesome!

What Are Your Priorities?

Good morning, friends! I know I promised Part 2 of yesterday's post today...it's coming soon...I promise. Just a quick post to tell you I had a long-time prayer answered last night.

This may sound stupid to you, but it really means a lot to me...my husband quit playing Farmville yesterday. You know, the game that has pretty much taken over Facebook? Well, I felt it was pretty much taking over our family time. My husband would disagree with me on that, but I have to say, Elijah and I were feeling pretty neglected as of lately. I used to play but I gave it up in December. I realized it was taking away from my time with Elijah. Those are precious moments I will never get back.

There are so many things out there that can consume our time with our families. This one was taking over at our household. I've been to the point where I've felt like just breaking down in tears. One of my primary love languages is Quality Time. If you don't know what a love language is, I highly recommend you read The Five Love Languages by Gary Chapman. You can also go here to take the test and find out what your love language is. Anyway, that's one of my primary love languages...so without the quality time, I've pretty much felt unloved. Don't get me wrong, I know my husband loves me, but sometimes you just want to know that someone cares enough to stop what they're doing and ask what they can do to show you they love you. My other primary love language is physical touch. That's another story for another day ;-)

Whether you realize it or not, everyone feels loved in a different way. I suggest you take a few minutes out of your busy day and find out what your spouse's, children's, best friend's, etc. love languages are. When you figure them out, try to show that person love in their own special way. Show them, they are a priority to you. You'd really be surprised at the turn around you may see in how they act toward you. It's amazing really!

My husband's work banned games from the internet, so he wasn't going to be able to keep up with it...which would mean more time at home spent on Farmville....it was going to be too much to keep up with.  I know he's going to miss it, but we have really missed him. Here's to hoping things start looking better for us and Farmville is gone for good ;-)

Now if you'll excuse me, it's time to get off of here and play with my son. :)

Stereotypes

I think we've all been guilty of stereotyping at one point or another in our lives, even if we don't realize it. Ladies, you know when your husband does something stupid or says something that annoys you and you roll your eyes and mumble under your breath, "Men...". You're stereotyping your husband. I've bene guilty of it too. I automatically assume that just because my husband says something stupid, that it's typical of every man to say the EXACT same thing. And Men, when you get the credit card bill at the end of the month and you discover that your wife has gone on a shopping spree in addition to the enormous phone bill she racked up that month. What do you do? Think "Typical woman....I'm going to have to surgically remove that phone from her ear and credit card from her hand." Not everyone is like that though. I can tell you for one, I hate talking on the phone and I hate shopping too. Call me crazy. But whether you realize it or not, we stereotype on a daily basis. Sometimes they're innocent enough and meant in a joking manner (like the examples mentioned above), but sometimes stereotypes can really hurt someone.

A few days ago, one of my best friends posted a status update on Facebook. She said "I miss South Carolina"(She's from Illinois). She had a couple people respond. The first one called her a "hick". The second person said, "some quick south carolina facts: has the most mobile homes of any state.
is ranked 9th for persons in poverty.4th highest in traffic fatalities.1st in violent crimes."

I don't know why, but this really bothered me. Maybe I shouldn't have taken it so personally, but let me tell you why I did. I grew up in South Carolina. I've been here for all 25 years of my life. I love it! I couldn't imagine living anywhere else. Sure, I love to travel! I've seen about half of the 50 states; each has their own great qualities. But South Carolina is just...home. I can't explain it really. It's the type of place where people take the time to get to know their neighbors. When you need a helping hand, there is always someone ready to help you out. Like Mayberry...only a little more modernized ;)

So, when these people said that, I naturally took offense. For one, I'm not so sure they've even been to South Carolina. If they had, they would see we were a lot more than those statistics they must have googled to give their comment a little more pizzaz.

1) Not everyone is a hick. You think South Carolina, and you automatically assume we sit on our front porches, rifle in hand, waiting on the next possum to walk by so we can have supper that night.

This is not my family; though they are entertaining, not my family.



This is my family. I think we look pretty normal. In fact, we're so well-traveled, we're in Texas in this pic :)

As far as South Carolina having the most mobile homes of any state....what's wrong with mobile homes? I lived in one for the first 20 years of my life. That's where I grew up. Where I called home. I have many great memories there. Just because you live in a mobile home, doesn't mean you're trashy. There are some really nice mobile homes, actually. Some I bet you wouldn't even know were mobile homes.

Surprising, huh? As far as ranking 9th for our poverty level...I can tell you right now, my bank account might not be flowing over, but I'm happy. I am blessed to stay at home with my little boy. Yes, we've made sacrifices, but I wouldn't trade it for anything. I don't need a checking account with 6 or 7 figures to be happy. I'd rather be poor and happy than rich and miserable. True happiness does not come from material things. It's not from things of this world. You can't take them with you when you go. My happiness comes from having a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. So if that's what it takes to be truly happy, I'd take 9th in poverty level any day.

Stereotypes are just an assumption from people who don't have real knowledge on the facts. It's either they don't take the time to really find out for themselves or they are just being ignorant. Do me a favor, next time you catch yourself stereotyping, stop and take a second and rethink what you just thought. Put yourself in that person's or group's situation. You might just find yourself getting to know someone better and make a new friend or two that you normally would've thought yourself superior to.

*Stereotypes part 2 is coming tomorrow.

That boy's a running fool!

Last night Elijah was so hyper. So Eric and I thought we would just let him run all of his energy out. After about 10 minutes or so of him going non-stop, I turned to Eric and said, "This reminds me of Forrest Gump."

You know the part where Forrest goes to college to play football. The stadium is packed. The ball gets thrown to Forrest and they tell him to run. He takes off running across the field and doesn't stop. The players from the other team are all diving after him, but he just dodges them and keeps on going. Then you see the coach on the sideline and he turns to someone and says, "That boy's a running fool!" Yeah, that's Elijah. He has one speed, and that's running.

Here's a clip from Forrest Gump. It's not the one I mentioned above, but it pretty sums up the energy Elijah has lately.

"From that day on whenever I wanted to go somewhere...I was running!"

This is the video of Elijah. Please excuse the huge mess of toys scattered all over the floor. It comes with having children lol.

*Note, I had another post ready for today. It was really long and took me FOREVER to type out. When I clicked post, it disappeared and I couldn't get it back. So I'll be posting it as soon as I have time to write that out again. Thanks for sticking with me :)

Amazed!

In the past two days, my page views have jumped up tremendously! This excites me. I have people viewing from Germany, Australia, Brazil, Canada, United Kingdom, Malaysia, and of course, the US. WOW! Really? I had no idea what I wrote people would be so interested to read. But, I think it has to do more with the fact that my dear friend, Hannah Norris aka Sadie Mae's Mommy follows me (actually she's my only follower right now lol). There have been a tremendous amount of people linking over from her page. So, thank you, Hannah! And thank you to those who are reading and giving this stay-at-home mommy a chance to blog about her crazy life once in a while. I'll try not to disappoint.

Could you maybe start following my blog? Don't leave Miss Hannah all alone ;-)

We Hit A Milestone!

Yesterday, we hit a milestone with Elijah...he used his big boy potty for the first time! I'm so proud! I honestly wasn't even expecting him to go. I'm just trying to get him used to the idea. So he was sitting there and the next thing I know, the potty started singing the potty song(it's one of those ones that has sensors when the child goes potty). I called my sister and she was so excited she said she's taking him out for ice cream tomorrow and getting him a new toy. Yeah, she spoils him!

On the subject of my sister, I have to share what she said yesterday. For those of you who don't know her, she's absolutely hilarious! Never a dull moment around her. Anyway, I called her and she didn't answer but about 5 minutes later she called me back. I asked her what she was doing and she said she was on her way to the gym after work but she was stopped at a gas station so she could get a candy bar first. Hahaha only Amber.

So, Eric's work has a box suite at the Bilo Center and when a concert or event comes to town, they let their employees put their names into a raffle to get tickets in the suite. I knew that Josh Groban was coming, so I told Eric to enter the raffle. Well, they drew names last week and we won a pair of tickets. I was so excited! Friday (I think) Eric asked me if I had seen the tickets. I told him no, I didn't even know he brought them home yet. He was like "Well, maybe I left them in my pants pocket." Great...good place for them. My first thought was "OH NO!!! I just watched a load of pants earlier that day." So I ran to the hamper and frantically started searching through all of his pockets. Nothing. Next, the dreaded walk to the washer and dryer. Opened the dryer, and there they were...in two pieces and stuck together. My heart sunk.

I emailed the box office and the man wrote me back and said he would have them reprinted and I could pick them up at will call. Things are looking up, right? WRONG...Then I found out last night that Josh came down with food poisoning and the concert has been canceled. Nooooooo!!!!!!! I really needed this night out. Elijah has had the case of the terrible two's for a few days now. Just one night out would have been nice. Oh well. As Eric reminded me, to quote the Beatles..."oh bla di, oh bla da life goes on...la la la la life goes on."

Well, that's all I got for now. Maybe more later. I'm exhausted. Elijah's been on a no sleep kick for two days now. Which means I am too :)

Highlights of the week so far

Ok, since I've missed a couple days, I'm going to fill you in on the highlights of the week so far. I'm sure their are still many more adventures to happen before the weekend comes to an end.

Tuesday my cousin's little boy Isaiah came over and played with Elijah

This is a remote control manual...

This is Elijah thinking that the remote control manual is a telephone

He had a pretty good conversation with whoever was on the other end

Wednesday was also my Mom's birthday. Elijah danced with her.

Aren't they so cute?

When we came home Wedneday, Elijah found a fish in the pond.

The only problem was, It was a goner.

For some reason I can't get this pic to rotate. But yesterday Elijah expressed interest in using the potty for the first time so I sat him down on it. He wanted some toilet paper so I gave him some. Well....he decided to build a nest with it in the toilet. The joys of potty training *sigh*

I went in the bathroom to get ready today, when I came out, Elijah was asleep like this on my bed.

So as you can see, it's been an interesting week so far. Can't wait to see what's in store for the weekend!





Memorial Day Festivities

Ok, I am a slacker. I admit it. Wow! Has it really been almost 5 months since I've last posted?!?!?! I'm going to fix that. I don't think I have any steady followers anyway.

Yesterday was a beautiful Memorial Day. We had a cookout with some friends and family. I'm so thankful to those who have served and still are serving in the military for all they do. Because of their sacrifices, we could enjoy a lazy Monday afternoon playing on the sprinkler and just relaxing on the front porch with our friends. Thank you!

Miss Isabel looking slightly unamused.

Kyler and Elijah getting ready to play in the ball pit.

Cinder licking the water off of the net.

Kyler wanted his picture taken.

Amber forcing a smile.

Adrienne rocks out on the ukelele.

Elijah showing off the barbeque chips on his mouth he's saving for later.

Baby, It's Cold Outside.

Ok, new blog. And my goal is to actually keep this one going all year (and hopefully even longer). Please comment if you can; it motivates me to write more.

We had the first snow of the year here in South Carolina. The most we've had since 1989. I measured 7 inches in some parts of our yard. Then early this morning, the ice set in. The roads are pretty much not driveable. Elijah and I both fell walking down our front porch stairs.

Eric had to go to work on a delay this morning at 10 o'clock. He had to scrape about 2 inches of ice and snow off of my car first. The ice makes for good sledding though, which is exactly what we are going to do later on this evening when Eric gets home. There should be some pretty good pictures with that too ;-)