little girls

Things I love about having a little girl:

*pink and purple toy cups of water "saved" in the fridge
*princess panties
*bottles of glitter nail polish on the bathroom windowsill
*dancing dresses
*glittery shoes and poofy dresses

Ana loves playing with her cousins. She and Jamie were having fun the other day playing on the couch in their dancing dresses.


oh, and I really want to win Candace's giveaway, (though my chances are slim) so I'm dropping her a line. She has beautiful crafts and photography and great stuff.

sometimes, this mommy business is hard

Still having a hard time getting out of this rut. Talking to my sister this morning, she remembers how every winter I get into this way. Oh, springtime, I wish you were here.

*Still struggling with Ana's potty training. We've been working on it so long, going back to diapers is not an option, but I'm getting tired of her having 2 or more accidents every day. I have a few more tricks I'm going to try. Any suggestions?

*Jack is totally regressing on the sleeping-thru-the-nite business. He's waking up 2 or 3, sometimes 4 times a night. I don't know what to do...

*The same baby wants to be held all day. He follows me around fussing until I pick him up. If he does play happily, Ana usually comes along and makes him cry. Its getting old.

*I feel like my house is always a mess and I have ZERO motivation to get anything done. The stuff we acquired over the holidays still haven't quite found a permanent place, and so I feel very much swallowed up in stuff.

*Dave got me flowers today. They make me smile.

I hoping to be able to take a trip to Poky this week. I need a change of scene for a few days. But I'll take my flowers with me. I like them.

blast from the past (or) we are geeks

Dave and I spent our evening (and half the night) taking a trip down memory lane.

Somehow, we got to remembering the old show "Where in the world is Carmen Sandiego?" and soon found ourselves searching for full episodes online. We found 2 on youtube, so we busted out the ol' pen and paper and kept score along with the "gumshoes." (I should mention that Dave won in points both times, but the second game I knew more answers than he did.)

After that, we found ourselves downloading the old DOS game, which, of course, reminded us of playing Oregon Trail on the computers in 4th grade. Remember "computer lab" day? Or racing through an assignment to be the first one on 1 free computer in the room. It was like, the best day of the week.

We were geeks.

So, then we had to download the game, and play it.

It was really fun.

I guess we still are geeks.

MOVE !!!

I love this skit. (Don't bail because of the commercial. Trust me, it's worth the wait.)

i need to remember ...

that this little girl is 2 1/2. In fact, tomorrow is her half birthday. Where has time gone? I wonder if I expect too much out of her sometimes. She understands things so well, and can do so much, that its easy to just expect her to do everything on her own. She is definitely an oldest child. Its hard to know sometime what I should expect her to do on her own and what I need to help her with.

What she's doing:

*She can dress herself. The last couple weeks she's been changing her clothes several times during the day. Usually, she wants to wear pajamas that are too small, or Jack's pants.

*She wants to watch Cars almost everyday. And she really likes WordWorld.

*She loves to do music-related things. She sings all day, and she loves the little guitar, violin and drum I made her. The other day, she was standing on the step-stool playing her little violin. She'd play for a second, then would bow and wait for me to clap. She also likes to play "name that tune."

*She likes to play games. We'll get out the Uno cards and take turns matching the color. Today we shook the boogle dice and then found the letter "A." (Any other games for 2 year olds would be helpful.)

*She still has an accident most days. I took her in a few weeks ago and she had a slight UTI. Since that's been treated she's been doing lots better, but I think it did a little bit of damage to the potty training business. Its not too bad though.

*She is very loving and appreciative. Busy and stubborn as she is, she loves to give hugs and kisses, and always says, "Thank You." A lot of times she says, "Thank you very much, Mama." Its sweet.

For everything she can do, its easy for me to forget that she's only 2!

Weekly Photo(s)

We had the heaviest, prettiest frost on everything yesterday. I don't remember seeing it that thick before. It was really cool. My biggest regret of the day was that I didn't wake up early enough to take pictures of it before work when it was perfect. I didn't get to it until about 1:30 when the sun came out and it finally started melting. This is all I could do - a fence and some weeds behind a big building where the sun hadn't hit much yet.

I liked this one the most


These were just thin weeds. You get an idea of how much frost there was on EVERYTHING this morning.

lost in a book

Though I don't profess to be a great or avid reader, I enjoy a good book. Admittedly, growing up my idea of a good book was generally confined to cheesy church novels, and I still, I confess, enjoy the genre immensely.

My siblings and I were raised to be readers and I do believe most, if not all of us, get easily neglectful when we encounter a good book. My sister Karianne read 15 books last summer. I love getting lost in a book. The house turns to ruins, my children are neglected and I can think of nothing else as I turn page after page. Which is why, as much as I love it, I don't read as often as I would like.

The last week or so my addiction has been with The Scarlet Pimpernel, which I really liked. I have never seen the play or musical and did not know the story at all, and in the last 24 hours, the story has consumed my thoughts. This time, I listened to the book on Dave's I-pod, so my housework was not neglected. In fact, when the kids went to bed last night and I picked up the "book" again, I did the dishes, mopped the kitchen floor, and cleaned the front room. Then I picked up it this morning again and scrubbed the bathroom, put away all the laundry, cleaned up the bedrooms, fed Jack twice and put tonight's dinner in the crockpot, all the while completely engrossed in the story while Ana watched PBS. I finished at about 12:30 this afternoon.

It was a great book, and I really liked the convenience of listening to it on the I-pod. Although, when it was over, I missed the satisfaction of closing the completed book and tossing it aside, as is my habit when I finish a book I like. I usually keep it close by, and peruse my favorite parts again a few times. I can't quite do that this time.

But, at least, my housework wasn't neglected. I'd recommend the book.

focus

Yesterday was a good day.

*lunch date with Dave
*afternoon nap with the kids
*one-on-one time with Ana
*scrapbooking and a movie in the evening

I finally feel ready to take on this new year. I've thought a lot about my focus for last year "capture the moments." I really feel like I improved in this area. I slipped up here and there, and didn't do quite as well as I had imagined, but I've gotten a lot better about not wasting time and enjoying my kids and life. The last few weeks have been an exception, but its a new year, and I finally feel ready to take it on. Of course I still have my winter goals that I will continue to work on. In addition, my focus for this year is:

"Charity Never Faileth"

I want to focus on being more loving. I want to show more love for my kids, my husband, my neighbor and my God. I want to be less annoyed at my responsibilities, and more anxious to serve, less selfish and more selfless, less frustrated and more friendly, less tense and more tender, less grumpy and more grateful. I want to be more kind, more thoughtful and mostly a more faithful daughter of God. I'm finally ready to take it on.

Yesterday was a good day.

a little off

I am usually very motivated this time of year to make changes and set new year's resolutions. I love the fresh start and the chance to look forward with renewed energy and enthusiasm. I like to look back and think of all the blessings I've received and notice where the hand of God has intervened in my life in the last year.

This year is different. I feel very unmotivated this time. I am tired and irritable. I have been annoyed and impatient with my kids and husband. I feel busy every day, but at night feel like I have not accomplished anything and still drained of energy. In many ways I have been exactly the opposite of what I want to be.

I'm not sure I can pinpoint why I've felt this way. There are so many things that could cause it I suppose. I'm not getting enough sleep. I don't have access to a car so I stay home. Dave is gone from 8 until 7 most days. Its cold and muddy outside, so I don't get much sunshine or fresh air. Ana has been frustrating lately and Jack has hit a hard age for me, and I find very little time to myself.

I don't mean to fill a post with so much negativity. I'm just struggling to find the motivation to change and be different. I hope to take some time today for some introspection and reflection. I think that will help. I hope to get out of this rut soon. I guess sometimes you just need to fake it until you make it. Perhaps that is what is needed now in me.

Mucho ha pasado... (tiempo mas que nada)

I haven't had much to say to all you out there recently. I am not sure why. I just haven't been motivated to write about it on here for some reason. I am sure it will come back soon enough. I have 4 things to share here today:


1. This was after almost two weeks. I had never gone so long without shaving. Erin was about to disown me and beat me up.


2. Erin and I did our first woodworking project and made a doll cradle for Ana's Christmas present. It was really fun. We saw some pictures of cradles we liked online and made our basic dimensions from that. We then drew out our own pattern and made the cradle from it. The whole thing was made with red oak. So, here it is put together and unfinished:


And here it is stained and with the first coat of varnish. We were glad we made the bottom solid wood as well as the rest because Ana has already sat in it a couple times to rock her baby. Thank you to all who helped.


3. I recently bought a cover for my ipod nano. Here it is:


If you click on the picture it will take you to the circuit city page where you can buy it for just $7. Yeah, I know you really want to buy one. I got it because I am planning on putting a direct line from my ipod to my car stereo and I want to keep the ipod safe while I am driving (possible sliding and scratching damage, just ask Erin about my driving). It has a small cartoon of a red robot. You might even call it a small cartoon of a big red robot.

That brings me to...

4. I am a
Just click on the picture for an explanation of what it is all about. I am still deciding whether my first mix will come out in late January or Early February. I had fun making the Dave-->Peru cd and Terri (the winner of the cd) seemed to like it so I think this will be fun too.