I know you've all been chomping at the bit with baited breath for Wednesday's mid week confessions. I apologize for not getting these things out in the morning. Go ahead....smack my hand.

Is it wrong to continue eating conversation hearts past the month of February? I got a nice tumbler of clearance hearts a week ago. I felt I hadn't received enough sugar in heart shape, and having to wait a whole nother year just felt too long. I would love to get a bag full of just the white and yellow ones. It's great tasting all the distinct flavors.

Went to a moms night out with my MOPS group. Stayed out MUCH later on a "school night", but it was very worth it. I left with sore cheeks from laughing so hard! Besides hanging out with other moms while being kid free, it was great because I felt validated when I was able to have the spot light in the conversation. They were laughing at my jokes and unique spin of how I describe life moments. I didn't feel awkward and it came with feelings of making it into the "cool group".

I've gotten kinda nerdy with making Barbie doll furniture out of wooden rulers and hot glue.

When at a big box general goods store, resisting the temptation to pass by the toy section just isn't possible. I walk down, drooling at the possibilities of placing them into the hands of the kids I work with. But didn't I mention I have to make ghetto Barbie furniture? Sigh.... 

After hosting a play date this morning, I couldn't help but feel a little anxious about dates to come with Eliza. At such the tiny thing she is, she managed to tackle at take down a 3.5 year old. It makes me wonder if my child will be THAT child who comes crying to her mother about how none of the other kids will play and include her in their games. Yeah, I was somewhat of this child, except I wanted to be the boss!.....but who doesn't ;)

Love in the Air

With our wedding anniversary being just 7 days after Valentines day, it kind of brings down the excitement of the holiday. Yet it helps to spread it out in celebration. We were blessed to have some tax money come in and go out to a nice restaurant where I could have the soup AND salad with the meal. Not to mention free baby sitting to boot! 

My creative red velvet pancake layer cake

You can do a lot with cake mix. I put it in our waffle maker and then cut the tops to make hears on the top and bottom. red velvet was out wedding cake and since then we've tried to make it a habit of enjoying it each year. 

Hey, I wore make up! Haven't since the baby shower

lovely Valentine flowers

Another habit of mine is to take any money we are gifted and use it for something for the house. When getting married, it was lots of fun nesting as we merged our lives and tastes together. Last year, we purchased a nice glider for the nursery. This time around it was new couch pillows, a leather storage ottoman and a handy Shark floor sweeper. With having a messy eater, I HIGHLY recommend this sweeper if you have non carpeted floors or throw rugs. Our place is now finally looking like adults live here!

Now to end this post, as Eliza has just entered and packing something SERIOUSLY dangerous in her diaper.

Toodles!

A sanctuary

Since moving away from home, the home I lived in for 24 years in the same bedroom no doubt, I hadn't lived for more than 2 years in any one spot. Today now breaks this statistic by one day! When living on your own and not while in college, your furnishing are resourceful to say the least. I hit up Ikea for cheap living needs before moving away from San Diego and purchased modest items. A breakfast nook like table and one LONG futon, new computer desk and book shelf were the big ticket items. An air mattress would due for my main bed. 


This was the only furniture I owned until I married


As time went on and becoming married, both Mr. G and I merged our nests together. We seemed to help bring to the table what the other was lacking. We did okay despite still lacking a few other basics. With years, out of town guests and movie nights....the faithful futon showed its age. We finally had to stack phone books under the middle after it smiled back at you when glancing from afar. There were no real arm rests and foam bolsters were added. Yet you couldn't lean up against them and stay in place. 


It was my wanna be couch.


As money has allowed, we've tried to make some modest purchases while also adopting family hand me downs (we still haven't used Grandmother G's fine bone china). Heck, 80% of Eliza's room is hand me down gifted.


But big purchase items have always seemed out of reach.


Then we became blessed by a special fund from a charitable organization that helps those in need obtain basic furniture. What a difference a new couch can make in your life. It was the   lowest priced couch we were eligible to get, but its new. Not a hand me down, thrift store, moving sale, craigslist or yard sale. It only knows one family.


Our Family

 

Going through a blogging vomit spell, so be prepared, you wonderful followers you!

I am feeling rather free and in good spirits right now. I am starting to have more clear boundaries between my work place and place of faith. I think its improved relationships for the better and the anxiety has decreased.

While being sick, I get so tired of having to have a tissue around that I just find a pre fold to wipe my hands off of the snot. This makes for a much less raw nose. This is of course in the privacy of my own home or car btw.

Sweets have been my down fall as of late. I feel *almost* like I'm pregnant again. Yet I know 100% that I am not right now.

While shopping around to find a bed frame we might possibly like to purchase and retire our franken bed, I needed to test the rugged sturdiness of them. So after a few shoppers left the show room, I hopped on and did the best impression of my husband I could (if you know what I mean). We aren't small folk and I am sure our neighbors who share our wall wouldn't mind us getting the right bed either ;)

10 Month Appointment

We finally had our 9 month well baby visit (albeit a month over due). After the sickness had hit her and being weighed with her clothes on, I was curious what her real weight would be.


With new electronic medical records, after an appointment, we get a summery of all that went on such as shots given and stats. This means more accurate growth chart percentiles. it appears we have a peanut for a daughter. In weight: 17.6 lbs. 13th %, Height 28.25 54th % and head was 5th %. Reasons for this might be from her being sick, as we did see a slight decrease in her appetite. Yet, since we seem to have such an active baby, I think she is burning more calories. Height and weight have been 50 to 75 percentile since the beginning, and even I was surprised at her weight.


Advice given was to decrease the fruits and veggies and increase the cereal. We have a follow up appointment in a month to check her weight. There wasn't too much concern on her head, as long as they see some sort of growth going on. So far, we are still in size 2 diapers and somewhere between size 2/3 shoes. Makes for many trips where we discover she is lacking one. Most pajamas are 6-9, while most of her clothes are 12 mo due to needing length. If it weren't for the cloth diaper bulk, dropping our pants would be the norm.


But on a brighter note, we had a shot with NO tears!

10 Months

Yep, when putting this together, I had originally typed 12 months. It took me a second to realize what I had done when going through and testing different type faces. No need to age her any more than she is already running towards!


Milestones
Standing up in high chair
7th tooth
Spending the night away from mommy and daddy
Moved up into 12 month clothes

Ah yes, another Wednesday has arrived for Mid Week Confessions....

I feel rather torn about Valentines day. You see, its one week before our wedding anniversary where this year will mark three years of wedded (insert your own adjective here). Right before our wedding, we went out to a sushi buffet place called Todai in Portland OR. Yet with it being Valentines day and getting to go on a special date, it felt some what low key when we were use to this day feeling much more twitter patted in the past. This year, the day before, my husband had his barbershop group come by work and sing a few songs along with a bouquet of flowers. Most of this day of love was him gone doing the same thing to paying patrons. I got to dine on tuna noodle casserole as part of the church dinner right before Tuesday night youth programming. At the end of the day, the only thing sensual was Mr. G rubbing lotion on my ashy elbows in my pathetic tired state. Yes, this is the romance only marriage can offer!

You know those pull tab spouts on soda like cans....well they are sharp. We found this out after I took one away from Eliza and then found blood smeared ALL over the lower window by the dinner table. We now know why there are those tiny band aides which never seemed to do us much good before, until now. Oh hello Mr. Band aide, I wonder how long it will take until I can figure out how to get you off my stubby thumb.

At times, I hide from my daughter after I hear "In coming" from Mr. G when working in the office. All it takes is a closed door. Or if I am doing cleaning in her room, I will hear the pitter patter and become as sighlent as possible in hopes she gives up her search.

Until next week!

What's in a Name

Not that we are trying or anything, but in my side thoughts from day to day, I will randomly come up with possible future baby names for either boy or girl. I know, weird but we do want another baby...or possibly 2 more :)


Girls: Adele, Ruby, Adelyn 


Boys: Solomon, Gideon, Vaughn


Mr. G is a tough critic when it comes to a name for his child. He is very much the tough critic as the meaning means more than the name itself. For me, it's the opposite. You'll hear the name much more than the meaning. Out of these five, the underlined ones are those which have not been shot down. Before we came to the agreement of Eliza, Evelyn was in consideration before the actual name. Yet, it hadn't settled completely with Mr. G and was up for another consideration. Then while on vacation and know what we'd really be having, I brought up babynamer.com on the phone and of all the "E" names, Eliza caught my eye.


I would be thrilled to pieces to have another girl. Heck, we've certainly got quite the stock pile of cute as can be hand me downs. I am saddened by the thoughts of if every piece of out grown clothing put away in a plastic tote will never feel the warmth of my next child. There are some stinking cute outfits with wonderful lovely patterns. Some not worn enough!


Only God knows the future and the blessings He'll entrust us with.

Tub Fun

Playing in the tub is getting more and more exciting as Eliza is finding she can move around in the water and experiment with all her toys. After a bad mishap of food in the hair, I felt a bath was in order. But check out all these expressions she gives me when the camera comes out.

So I am typing this entry while being sick but feeling blessed that my daughter slept through the night once again after a long stint of being sick and fussy. But, here are my mid week seminary confessions for you!

While its nice to have grandparents who are willing to host your daughter at their house which is conveniently placed with in a few miles of where you are staying is great.........it SUCKS when you are breastfeeding. This is the longest I've gone in between feedings. Man did it hurt and made me tired when having to take any free time I had to travel back and get some relief. Of course she was happy to see and be comforted by mommy in this special way, it was certainly work.

On the topic of breastfeeding, it bugs me to no end when my MIL tries to keep me away from nursing in public settings. It's not like I just whip my top off and plop a boob out for all to see. I am discreet and feel as though I've become rather good at not needing a cover.

While driving home, Eliza wailed in the 12 passenger van along with all our other travelers after only 1-2 hours into our travels home. We offered her cookies, sippy cup, even the mini dvd player to distract her. Then when we do arrive home and have to transfer cars in order to travel where we need to go....its discovered. We had quite the massive blow out. Maybe that was the reason for a good scream?

While at this conference, there was a lot of things I was having to wrestle with for me personally. I've had my share of nay sayers towards where we feel called to go in life. So many in fact that its made me doubt this calling. Well, it feels like a giant leaf blower was taken to this paver stone in the ground and became rediscovered. Part of me wants to just flip the bird to any other nay sayers or circumstances. Not that I will in real life, but it's the power of an attitude and confidence booster which brings those feelings to the surface.

After hearing the kind of night the grandparents had while hosting Eliza, I couldn't help but chuckle to myself. There were a few times in the night where grandpa wanted to strangle her when she wouldn't go back down in the wee hours of the night after relieving 

grandma. I think they've reconsidered some of the advice given to us from past conversations when the topic of sleep training had been brought up. I chuckle yet again to myself.