Afternoon Walk

"It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood, a beautiful day for a neighbor, won't you be mine?"

I miss Mr. Rogers.

He was one of my faves as a kid. One of my husband's too. I just loved his grandpa-ness. My husband loved that he was Marine...

Anyways, how's that for an attention grabber? :)

What I really meant to blog about today was the gorgeous weather (hence my little singing at the top of the page) and how we've spent the time outside.

It wasn't obnoxiously windy today which was wonderful! We went on not one, but two walks. And we left the stroller at home. Yep, babykins walked all by herself!

Here are some pictures of us out walking a couple weeks ago. Not that we went much farther beyond the driveway...

She takes that snuggle lamb everywhere!

Today the only picture I got was the aftermath of the walk...

Since she insisted on walking herself, she kind of had to deal with some consequences. We learned that walking down a really steep hill can be tricky. And that you got to keep your balance or else you face plant on the sidewalk.

Thankfully she only cried for about 1 minute, then acted like nothing was wrong. Let's just say, she won't take after me in that respect. When I hurt myself, I would cry all day, all night, get sympathy from everyone and anyone, and throw a big pity party. She's a daddy's girl, all the way.

Was Discouraged, Now Stilled

Oi-vey! That's what I have to say after today.

It started out very well. We all slept in. One of my oldest and dearest friends came over- and we had a blast! Maybe I should of had her come over this evening- that way my day could have ended on a much better note.

I think sometime around nap time I got the mail. (Side note, getting the mail is pretty much the highlight of my day, although I'm not really sure why.) In it was a Netflix movie (yay!) and our annual letter from our homeowners insurance company. Now our premium does tend to fluctuate, but this was just ridiculous! They upped it by $200!! (Another side note, what happened to the "no new taxes" thing Obama? ah-hem... I better stop before I get REALLY riled up... 638 days left!) So needless to say we spent a good portion of the afternoon shopping for different homeowners insurance.

Again, babykins decided to put on her cranky pants this afternoon. Why she feels the need to even keep her cranky pants is beyond me. So I had a whiney pumpkin on my hands. Love her dearly but when she follows me around for hours, tugging at my legs, and whimpering- it's draining. She went to bed at 7- a good half hour/45 minutes earlier than normal. And she went right to sleep so I guess that's a very good sign.

I prayed at least 3 times this afternoon for patience with her.

I listened to a recorded conference call for my Mary Kay business. That was great, minus that babykins wanted entertained the entire time so I kind of half listened to it. 

I put on Facebook that I really wanted to go to our church's Good Friday service tonight. I wasn't even sure how I was going to do it because it was a family service which means they don't have childcare. I was picturing me chasing her around the sanctuary for the entire hour and a half and not getting a thing out of the service, other than a good workout. Around 6 I realized we weren't going due to the extra dose of cranky pants. Was I disappointed? Yes and no. In a lot of ways it was nice to just put her to bed and then have the evening to re-group, but I still would have liked to go. I even tried to listen online, but for some reason they didn't broadcast it. I was more disappointed about that...

So now I sit, quietly in my house, debating on taking Tylenol for my headache. I am then realizing something. 2000 years ago Jesus hung on a cross in excruciating pain. In all kinds of pain even! Physical, spiritual, and emotional pain. He didn't have the luxury of painkillers. He endured the pain. For us. All the sin of the world He took upon Himself because He loves us. In His great love, he took on the yuck I dealt with today. He took on my frustration, my impatience, my anger, my unforgiving spirit, and my downright grumpiness. He's willing to take it away, but I have to release it. I have to say, "Lord, take it. I am sorry for living that way today. Help me to be more like You. Take away the parts of me that are sinful, destructive to me and others, not glorifying to You, and please replace them with the fruit of the spirit (love, joy, PEACE, PATIENCE, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, GENTLENESS, and SELF-CONTROL)." I added the caps to those 4 specific ones because boy do I need those today! I need all 9 of them of course, but those 4 were really lacking today.

I am now deciding to give today's yuck up. Circumstances come and go. Ups and downs happen. Life is cyclical. The bad and the good are going to come. So do I panic about the bad? No! I am now choosing to have a stilled heart and spirit in the power of Christ. "Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature..." Galations 5:24

I am crucifying my sinful nature.

This has been a good Friday. A very Good Friday.

Walk For Life 2011

EEEK I'm so excited! I absolutely love this time of year. The sun is out, the trees are blossoming, the snow is melting, and it's a great time to be outside! And now on top of all that awesomeness- The Walk for Life is only 2 months away! It'll be the perfect time to get outside, get some exercise and support an absolutely amazing cause!

We walked last year and it was so awesome! Our daughter was only 5 months old and slept half the time. This year, I picture her wanting to play with terrorize the ducks at the park while we're walking, swing on the swings in the playground, and run around in the grass until she falls over a dozen times. She absolutely loves the outdoors! Now, she may be overwhelmed by the 1500+ people at the park all at once and all the tables and games going on... but I guess we'll cross that bridge when we come to it.

Click here to go to my fundraising page. It has lots more information about the ministry and pictures of my wonderful family. I have a great incentive for all my Mary Kay customers when they chip in!!! For every dollar donated, you will receive 50 cents in Mary Kay products FREE!!!!

Before I leave you all to my date with my laundry, I just want to ask for your prayers with this ministry. God does amazing things through this and I just ask that you'd intercede on behalf of the people who are in need of this ministry. You and I will probably never meet the people that it serves, but they will be truly blessed!

Thoughts for Today

I really don't have anything awesome to say. I know, shocker right? So we'll just wing this like I kind of always do. :)

I have become obsessed with Glee. I am seriously thinking of cutting our Watch Instantly part of our Netflix just so I can not be glued to it. First it was all 10 seasons of Stargate, then Stargate Atlantis, now I'm going back in time to high school with Glee. And it's funny because there's so much of Glee that I absolutely cannot stand! But I love the music... that part of me will probably never die. Maybe it's that I wish I could be in some sort of group like that, although I'm almost positive I won't be. So I get to live it through Glee. :) The other stuff that I hate about the show I'll just suffer through, although I'm pretty sure I shouldn't... Netflix has become my obsession, and yeah... that's not such a good thing.

My kid is the crankiest of the crankiest. Nothing seems to make her happy anymore! The only thing she seems to really like is going outside which we'll do fairly frequently. She has discovered dirt as well. She ate the potting soil out of one of my plants the other day and then discovered pebbles at the park. For being a girly girl, she really likes dirt!

The house renovating is almost done. We just have to put new baseboards on and other border things down and then re-organize the house. The problem is that we've been so worn out from all the other stuff that we've just got the house back to being functional and we're leaving it like that. We haven't even put back the covers that go over the cold air intakes, which is proving to be an issue, because my child took my body wash and threw it down in there. So whenever we decide to  have our air ducts cleaned out they will find some really old body wash... Of course, then she tried to put herself in the cold air intake... the big issue with that is that she fits in it and would think that our air ducts are the coolest thing ever and they made them just for her!

My husband went to work today with the only carseat we have right now. My parents have the other one. This means I am stuck at home when I need to go to the store to get stuff. Oh well, tomorrow's another day. Here, I'll be positive for a minute, I will be able to get all kinds of stuff done at home that have been nagging me.

Well I'm off to do housewifey stuff. If I can find the screws I may put that cover back on the air duct... we'll see. :)

Almost Done

We are very near the finish line with our D.I.Y. project. I took some pictures, but you know me, I won't post them for a good month or so. Just trust me on this that it looks 1000 times better than before. And that's still with carpet padding still being used to protect the new floor, boxes holding our canned goods/spices/cleaners, piles of trash that need to go out, and an ever growing stack of dirty dishes.

Talia is finally getting to move around a little bit more without being confined to her room or the downstairs family room. I have no idea how she would last on a road trip or, worse, a plane trip... It would probably consist of a lot of screaming and shrieking. I would probably spend the time praying for sanity and telling her "no" and "be quiet." Wonder if they make baby Benodryl... That could make a possible vacation, well, possible!

I remember telling myself a 2 weeks ago that I was bored and needed something to do. I am so exhausted now between all the random fixing-upping we did that I won't even look at any home improvement stuff for at least a good 6 months. I am far from bored- ready to keel over is more like it. I think my husband has keeled over a few times by now. I think he's liking his job more right now so he can escape the insanity here. Between working on the house and making it back to normal and taking care of Talia I am beat- and I can't imagine how my husband feels. He's working full time and working on the house full time. I'll be glad when this is all over and I go back to just maintaining the house with basic stuff like laundry and dishes and diapers.

Remember how I said I have an ever growing stack of dirty dishes? Why, Sarah, why don't you put them in the dishwasher and make yourself a little less crazy? Oh I would.... but we don't have a dishwasher anymore. I can just hear the gasps, see the eye brows raising, and the shock coming from all of you. We took out our dishwasher to realize that we had a ton of mold growing underneath it because of the wonderful rednecks who installed it. It was constantly leaking and whenever you would open it during a cycle it would smell like seaweed. Yep, seaweed. So we opted to take it out and replace it with cabinets. If you've ever seen our kitchen you know we have been in desperate need of cabinet space. So the extra drawer and cupboard won to the modern convenience of a dishwasher. I'll let you know how the whole washing by hand constantly thing goes...

On a side note 653 days left! Praise the LORD!

More Random Thoughts

Today was absolutely beautiful! I think I got the start of my summer tan, and yes farmer tans totally count! I was loving having all our windows wide open (which reminds me I need to close them before it gets any colder in here...hold please... phew alright done) and we took a stroller walk. We also swung in the back yard and then Daddy took baby outside and when they came back in a little someone was covered from head to toe in dirt and grass. I would have been slightly irked that she was dirty, but she was too happy. 

I keep breaking my "no TV" rule. I decided way before she was born that I wouldn't let her watch TV very much at all. My husband was worse- he didn't want her knowing what a TV was! Well for about the past week I've had the TV on about 1 hour per day... and I'm going crazy because of it! I love that she likes the shows and they keep her entertained so I can get stuff done, but I hate that zoned out look on her face when she's super engrossed in Word World, Veggie Tales, or Sesame Street. It's not that the shows are bad, but I didn't want the boob tube to become the babysitter... The up sides to this? One, I'm liking the shows too and end up watching them with her... ah-hem... Two, some classics never die like Sesame Street! Three, she's going to Grandma and Grandpa's house tomorrow for 2-3 days!!! YAY!!!

Okay and the reason I'm so excited about pawning my beloved child off on my parents is this: We've been renovating our home and trying to do that in a timely manner while keeping a 15 month old toddler entertained is entirely impossible! She's been under lockdown. The lockdown is consisting of either her room, her playpen, her highchair, or downstairs in the family room. She'd be fine with most of these if she had 115% of our attention... that's the problem. Grandma and Grandpa can be much better attention givers for the time being and she will have the run of their house instead of being confined. This is also why I've had to put on Sesame Street and Word World to distract her from the banging of hammers and such. Word World rocks by the way... just saying... "it's time to build a word, let's build it, let's build it now!" k I'm done.

During this renovating process we're discovering things about our child. She is terrified of our shop vac. It's been dubbed "The Big Scary Monster" that mommy and daddy have to turn on from time to time. She also REALLY wants to play with the ripped up carpet, loose nails/screws, carpet padding, and piles of junk that are laying around. She hates that we have to tell her "no." 

Some tips for house fixing-upping: (yup made that phrase up too)

1. Don't throw carpet padding away until you're absolutely completely done! Why? It makes a great barrier on your floor if you're painting the walls. It protects your hardwood floors from scratches if you're moving furniture back and forth like we are. We've had to move furniture a lot because we're working in sections. We finish a section, then put carpet padding down so our couches don't tear up our nice new floor. Plus the padding stuff is really comfy to stand on while you're working.

2. Don't EVER EVER EVER put multiple layers/rows of carpet tack strips down. I currently have a grudge against the people who did this to my home... We've been poked in the feet countless times because they never heard the phrase "less is more." They thought, "Hey you know what this house needs? MORE nails, tacks, screws, and staples! We won't fix the problem, we'll just put more screws and nails in and it'll be good to go!" UGHHHHH!!!! I think we pulled a good 20 screws/nails out of our banister that we took down. And at least 80% of them were bent, broken, stripped, etc. I swear the people who "fixed up" our house before were very closely related to the Beverly Hillbillies. 

3. Don't use 3 inch nails for attaching baseboards and don't nail them in every 2 inches!! Again, here's my rendition of our builder's thought process (read this in a very redneck accent- it'll help get my point across), "We better nail these here boards on real good! You never know when one of 'em might just jump out and bite you! Heck, they may even raise up and start a riot- maybe even beat us to death in our sleep! Better nail 'em on there so they don't get any sneaky ideas." I swear they could have had better results using all those nails on voodoo dolls... oooh... OR I could take all my baseboards with nails galore sticking out of them, tie some fishing line to all the nails, and make the world's largest homemade guitar!!!! HEHE!! That's my next project.

Okay so now I'm just going crazy and a little Mad Hattery-ish... So I'm going to go now before I turn into Dr. Evil or the Joker- for my safety as well as yours... Good Night!