Works for me Wednesday

Here is something that I just recently discovered. Tubby time can be hard on all of our backs bending over the tub. And equally hard on our knees kneeling there for extended amounts of time. My MIL would always get my exercise ball and sits on it in the bathroom to do her makeup and she left it in there one day. So I thought hmmm maybe I could sit on this to bathe Anna. Let me tell you it is great. It puts you at just the right heigth. You do have to bend over a little but if you do it right you can even make it like a stretch lol. It is great and most definitely works for me!!!

Click here if you want to see more Works for Me Wednesday.

Tackle It Tuesday

So here is my on-going Tackle It Tuesday!!! I managed to get a little more done while Anna napped Sunday. I feel like I have made some real progress; even though I still have a LONG way to go! If you want to see the before pics you can look here.

Thanks for stopping by and if you would like to see more Tackle It Tuesday or add your own please go to 5 Minutes for Mom!!!

It's Finally Friday!!!

Woo Hoo!!! It has been a very long week this week. I don't really know why. It just has been really long and hard. Anna had a rough night last night. She tossed and turned and cried out and nursed. It was a long night!!! I need a nap this morning, unfortunately, thats not going to happen. I did get some really cute video of her yesterday. If you want to see you can go to her blog. This was our outside time. I was trying to get some more weeds out of our flower bed but Anna wasn't into it. She wanted me to draw on the sidewalk with her and sing ring around the roses. So I figure those weeds have been there so long whats a few more days right.

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It took us an hour to get home last night. We were stuck in a horrible traffic jam. What usually takes 20 maybe 30 minutes was an HOUR!!! Anna was not happy at ALL. She made that known to me and the other cars around us that their windows down. I even got some pity looks from them. Prior to having Anna sitting in traffic was just a pain in the rear now sitting in traffic is a major catastrophy!!! I was about in tears with her by the time we got home.

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We are getting together with some friends at the park this weekend. I am looking forward to it. It will be nice to just relax and enjoy myself. Remind myself that all is good and we survived another week lol.

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Oooh I almost forgot my hubby had the best news last night. Next Monday is the last day for his Monday night class!!! So that means he will only be in classes on Wednesday and Thursday I am so happy!!! I know Anna really misses her Daddy and by Thursday you can really tell by how she is acting. So having him home that extra night is going to be great!!! Welcome Home, Daddy!!!

A rollercoaster night!

Do you know the feeling of thinking you have had it and can't really take any more? I was there last night just tired, exhausted just thinking about all that I need to do with the house etc. Then Anna starts acting so cute for me it really just lightened my heart! She was being a very good girl while I got dinner started and then she suddenly laid down in the floor and said night, night. After I responded in kind she started making the cutest little snoring sounds! She is such a joy ~ I am so blessed to have her in my life. Later she was playing in her drawer I mentioned HERE! She decided to dump all of her toys out and climb in. She was so cute I had to get some pictures!!!

I know I probably shouldn't encourage such behaviour but look at those pics and tell me how I could resist! She really is such a good girl but last night for really the first time ever she got in trouble. It broke both our hearts but she was just pushing me to my limit. She kept slapping at me - I am going out on a limb here to say that anyone with a toddler knows all about this. Well, she kept doing it and doing it and I kept trying to redirect and distract and it wasn't working. So I popped her little hand and the instant I did it I felt so guilty. She started crying and hugging me - it was just terrible. It broke my heart I felt like in that instant all the trust that we had been building had been shattered. Please tell me I am wrong!!! I still feel terrible about it even though she doesn't seem to be phased today.

Tackle it Tuesday on Wednesday!!!

I hope I am not to late to get in on the fun. I am going to show you some embarrassing pictures here so please don't judge me. I haven't managed to get into my garden since I had my daughter 18 months ago. Just imagine how terrible they are. So I am tackling this project but it will take more than one Tuesday to fix it. So I will continue to Tackle this project until completion! Check back in to see my progress and remember PLEASE don't judge me :*)



So brief description: I didn't think about doing this until after we had started. By we I mean me and Anna. She was a good little helper. So the picture on the left is the flower bed and the picture on the right is how much we had already pulled out when I took the picture.




OK so on the left we have kind of where I was focusing. If you can really focus anywhere while trying to do this and chase an 18 month old around. We have a fairly busy street so if Anna moved more than a foot away from me I was on the move. The picture on the right is the full garden. The pics aren't that great cause by the time we finished it was dark.


This is to show how much CRAP we got out of the bed. Now remember this is an on going project and please don't judge me lol. Thanks for checking it out and check back next week to see what kind of progress I have made.

If you want to see more Tackle it Tuesday go to Here!!!

Works for Me Wednesday!

So here is my first go at this, let me know what you think.

I have a very high needs toddler that likes to be the center of my world! She generally is but sometimes I have to cook dinner ;) So in the kitchen we have set up a drawer that has her toys in it. Some fake food, a bowl or two and some big serving spoons so that she can prepare her own dinner. She loves to go in the kitchen to "help" me cook dinner. I will assign her tasks and if she needs a little extra incentive to stay away from the stove or whatever I will even put a little water in her bowl and let her stir it up. This has worked great for us and she knows which drawer is hers and which ones are not. We also have a cabinet with tupper ware stuff in it that I will let her rummage through.

So this works for me and Anna! If you want some more fabulous ideas head over to Rocks in My Dryer. Thanks for stopping by!!!

My Pregnancy with Anna

I have been reading about others having a hard time with pregnancies and getting pregnant etc. and thought I would share my story! It may be long (that is fair warning ;))

So my hubby and I tried to get pregnant for just over a year. We were preparing to go in for the dreaded tests but before we did my doctor recommended doing the ovulation tests for a few months to make sure I was ovulating. Well it turns out we were ovulating but not when it typically happens so the second month of doing that we were pregnant! I will never forget the day I took the test. It was in the morning before work and I didn't tell hubby I was taking it but the positive sign came up pretty quickly. I was in shock (if you have ever tried to get pregnant for a long time and finally get the positive you know what I am talking about.) I walk out of the bathroom in a daze and tell hubby "umm, I think I need to call the doctor." He is like whats wrong are you ok. I said "yes, I umm just got a positive on a pregnancy test." Well hubby went into shock too. He had told me not to tell him until I was sure and not until a Friday afternoon lol. Well, can you tell I didn't think about all that. So I called the doctor from work and they said come on in and we can check everything out for you. So I went in they did the blood test and I was definitely pregnant! She wanted me to go in for an early u/s to see how far along I was and to make sure everything was ok (due to some spotting). She didn't have an u/s machine so she scheduled me to go to the hospital to have it done. I go in and they won't let hubby go back with me and in fact said they wouldn't do one unless there was a problem. So I tell her about the spotting and she grudgingly does the u/s. She said oh well this shows you as having just a sac so you are having a miscarriage. I was devistated - we called the doctor and she said to come back in and we could do another blood test to see if my hormone levels were going up or down. Well, they were going up but there were a few things that freaked me out in that office so we decided to switch doctors. The new doctor did an u/s and we saw and heard the heartbeat I was in tears!!! The sound of your babies heartbeat is a precious thing. Something that you will never ever forget. So at this point everything is progressing great. I had naseau and food aversions. Smells bothered me so bad and I was in tears every other hour! but you know that is fairly typical lol. I got to feel her move for the first time around 18 weeks. I had a Snicker's ice cream bar and she just started rocking and rolling in there. Another one of those moments you never forget! So, we go in for our u/s at 20 weeks to check out the baby and see if its a boy or girl. She is measuring everything and making sure the anatomy is all right. Well, the little stinker wouldn't spread her legs for us. And she was measuring smaller than she should. So we schedule another u/s for 24 weeks. We go back in and she is still measuring small although she was perfect in every other way. They were a little concerned but not overly. They scheduled another u/s for 26 weeks. After that u/s they determined that I had IUGR. (Inter Uterin Growth Restriction) So here we go off to see the specialist. We had to see them 2 times a week every week! We had a few scares - I had to be put in the hospital twice because Anna was not reactive. The first time I can't remember how far along exactly I was but it was somewhere around 30 weeks. They told me I would have to stay in the hospital until she was born. I was so upset. They ended up seeing enough of an improvement in her after me getting a few bags of IV that they let me go home. (So stay HYDRATED) Anyway, I had to go back to the hospital at 34 weeks they decided to go ahead and deliver her. We called our parents to come for the big event. They did an AMNIO to see if her lungs were ready. There are 2 parts to an AMNIO - one tells you immediately if the lungs are mature and the other takes longer but it is a better reading. So the first one said she wasn't ready - the c-section was cancelled and everything looked good with an u/s so I was released. (Her lungs were ready according to the second part) I had a scheduled c-section at 36.5 weeks and she was only 4 lbs and 5 oz. She was so itty bitty but so absolutely perfect!!! We were sure she would have to go to the NICU but thankfully she didn't. She got all cleaned up and I finally got to my room and they brought her to me. You don't know the feeling of awe until you hold this little being that came from the love you have with your hubby!

I have been trying to write something for the past 30 minutes and nothing seems to be working for me today. I don't know what my problem is today. I can't seem to stay focused on anything at all. I have a thought sweep into my head and then it flies right out before I can hold onto it. So I will just ramble and see where it leads me.

Anna has been such a delight lately. She can be the sweetest kid on the planet. She loves to hug and kiss although she has been withholding her kisses lately for some reason. I think she likes it when I try to steal them from her. She is growing up all to fast. It seems like just yesterday when we discovered we were pregnant!!! Now she is this independent little being with a mind of her own. She is talking up a storm if she wants you to do something with her she will grab your finger and say "get up" and then drag you where she wants you. We have this glass owl on our storm door. It is one of those magnetic things that you stick on either side of the door and it stays up because of the magnets. Well Anna LOVES this owl. She likes to reverently touch the owl and kiss the owl. So the other day she takes me to the door and points up. I have decided that I know she can talk so I should encourage her.

Me: what do you want?
Anna: She pointed again
Me: if you want to see the owl just tell me and I will lift you up
Anna: she pointed again (mind you I was not being a meany I knew she could say owl!!!)
Me: well I am going to check on dinner when you can say owl I will pick you up
Me: I came back and said are you ready to see the owl
Anna: she pointed again
Me: well I am going to fold some clothes
I took about 5 steps and she started chasing me going "owl - owl - owl" so I run over to her scoop her up offering tons of praise and we go see the owl for a long while!!!

So that is where my rambling lead me lol. Not exciting but a cute story to add to Anna's book!!! I have started copying all of my posts that pertain to Anna and also all the posts from Anna's blog. I am taking these posts and adding them to a notebook divided by months and making a journal for her. It is turning out really cute. I figure I should do something since I haven't done a baby book! Bad Mommy!!!

My Grandma: Annie

So we went to see my Grandma this weekend. It is so very hard seeing someone that use to be so young and vital get so old and run down. She is almost 90 years old and I guess if you take that into consideration she is doing GREAT!!! She is getting pretty forgetful and she doesn't really have the use of her legs anymore. She can get around if she has something to hold onto for support but that will exhaust her. She has a very bad heart going about 5 ft in her wheel chair being propelled by her arms and feet will be about all she can do anymore. This is the lady that planted a vegetable garden every year and was always on the go - always into something. Word is I get my nosiness from her although I don't think we are nosey at all we are just curious. (Curiosity killed the cat - but satisfaction brought it back)

She is Anna's name sake. Annie - she has had a long full - sometimes trying, sometimes fun and sometimes normal life. She got pregnant out of wedlock back in the day that that was unheard of - she was given the song and dance of I am going to war and may never come home. Her parents sent her away to have the baby and give it up for adoption. Back then they made you take care of the baby I think she said for about 3 months. After taking care of her little girl she realized that giving her up for adoption was not an option! So she called her Aunt and Uncle and got permission to come live with them. She snuck out of the home during the night and got on a train to go home. I would think that took a lot of courage!!! She later met a man literally twice her age - she was 25 and he 50 got married and had 5 more children (unless I forgot someone) She had a few miscarriages in there too. She was pregnant for a very LONG time. Her husband (my Grandfather) passed away when my Dad was 13 so she had all these children to take care of ALL by herself. Now my Dad was next to last so most of them were old enough to help out but still... So she started getting her kids to call her Ms. Annie when they would go to local dances because well what man would want to talk to her if she had all these kids running up to her saying Mommy Mommy lol. She got married again but he turned out to be an alcoholic if I remember correctly. (I hope that is right because I don't really remember him well). She divorced him (again - I think lol).

I would go stay with her for 2 weeks out of the summer. She lives in the country and we would work in her garden, read books and take walks in her brothers pasture. We would go swimming in the pond and fishing. I didn't really appreciate when I was growing up what a courages and amazing woman she is - she is after all just my Grandma. I have since growing up discovered what an example to me she can be if I just open my eyes. I happen to live in the town that she was sent to to give up her baby. She came to visit and we searched all over the place until we found the home; it is no longer a home for pregnant girls it is now a nursing home. Only 1 of the original buildings is still standing but we went and looked around. I could actually feel the peace that came over her while we were there. I think she was able to put that whole experience in the past and have some closure. I love my Grandma!!! I didn't realize before but a lot of the things I enjoy in life were nurtured when visiting her! I will just conclude this by saying if you still have a grandparent out there go spend some time with them. Find out what life was like for them when they were growing up. Older people have so much to give and so few to give it too.

Wednesday Ponderings

I am sitting here at work (taking a break ;)) Thinking about all the things that I could be doing if I were at home. You know laundry, dishes, any cleaning in general. Then I think about what I could do if I were with Anna. You know play with dolly's, her little people slide, get BIG hugs and kisses. Or if I was with my DH. We could snuggle up on the couch, watch a good movie or one of our shows, talk about whatever and well you know whatever. Then I think about all the crap I have to do here. This week is killing me and I am only 2 days into it. It is 10th of the month bill time. I know to lots of you out there that doesn't mean a thing but to me it means mountains of bills and paperwork. Checking prices, calculating discounts and entering into the computer. Sounds like fun right haha yeah I know I was kidding. Anyway, the moral of the story is there is always something better that we could be doing. You know the old: the grass is greener thing. Hmmm, I wonder what doing all of this is better than?!? If you can think of something this is better than let me know!!! Cause honestly at the moment it really isn't coming to me. Well, that is all I have to say about that.

What would we do without...

My In-laws!!! They are the best in-laws a girl could have or a guy for that matter. I have been sick since the earlier part of last week. I have been run down and exhausted because unfortunately when you have a toddler in the house life doesn't slow down for you. They were coming to see us this past weekend and my house was not up to in-law standards! With DH taking 3 classes and me and Anna being sick it was a lost cause. So bless my in-laws (Lynn and Charles) for coming in and not saying a word about it. And on top of that Saturday morning we were having a fundraiser for the youth in our church so my DH and I had to be at the church at 7am. So Lynn and Charles spent the morning cleaning our house (I know so embarrassing but SOOO VERY MUCH APPRECIATED.) Its not like we live like slobs but you know the floors needed cleaning and the toys needed to be put away etc. and I couldn't muster the strength to do it.

I forgot to mention how wonderful they are to Anna!!! They adore this child. They try to eat her up every time they are in the same 5 ft. of her lol. As I tell my DH all the time everyone needs someone that thinks they are perfect!!! Anna's 2 someone's are Lynn and Charles!!! So here is my shout out to the best in-laws in the world Lynn and Charles!!! Thank You!!! Thank You!!! Thank You!!!

Blog Party

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Let's talk about being sick and more.

I have a terrible headcold and so does Anna. Yuck! Yuck! Yuck! We are both miserable. I think the hardest part, well one of the hardest parts, for me is looking into Anna's eyes and seeing how bad she feels. Knowing that I can't do anything to make it go away. I don't know about anyone else but I hate for my daughter to feel bad. I would rather take a double dose rather than let her get it. Unfortunately, life doesn't work that way and we both end up miserable. We were both terribly cranky last night. It made for a very long night until bed time. Bed time finally rolled around and Anna went down without any trouble. However, about an hour later she was up because she couldn't breath. Bless her heart, I so felt her pain. Her Daddy just went ahead and brought her to our bed. I nursed her back to sleep and drifted off to lala land myself. Apparently, during the night Anna would whine and sit up and I was none the wiser, her Daddy informed me this morning. I said no wonder I feel like I had a pretty good nights sleep. I guess I slept through it all. That is the beauty of still nursing. It manages to put her right back to sleep anytime!!!

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Another advantage of still nursing is that yesterday she didn't really eat anything but she nursed plenty. So I know that she was still getting what she needed and was staying hydrated. Just thought I would throw that in if anyone reads this and is considering nursing! You know when I was pregnant I didn't want to nurse. My DH talked me into it. He told me all the advantages; better health, bonding, it is FREE!!! I think the last one was the one that really intrigued him lol. So I gave it a shot and I said I will do it for 6 weeks that is it! Well umm we are at 18 months just a little over my goal lol. We really only nurse for naps and bedtime now. I figure once we get through cold and flu season we will gently start nudging towards weaning. I am not really ready but the thought of nursing a 3 year old scares me.