Tag! I'm it!

Woo-hoo! I've been tagged by Adventures of a Wee Mason Man to participate in a game of tag! I'm supposed to answer some questions about myself and then tag five other people. So without further ado..


1) What one thing (other than the internet) are you likely to lose hours of your day doing in if time allowed?

Reading! I don't get much time to read my own books (I don't count school books!). Between school and work it was hard enough to find 20 minutes to myself and now with a baby, well...you know! But if I find the time I will be gone, for hours and hours. I'm like my mom in that way and I take that to heart. I believe imagination is important and a good book can really relax me because it takes me away from everything in this reality and puts me in another time and another place. Often, on a bad day of clothes shopping (fat days suck but we all have them) I will give up and go buy a book and it makes the whole day worthwhile!!!

2) What's the best thing that's happened to you in the last month?

Is it sad that that's a hard question to answer? This may sound weird, but going back to school. I feel like I have something to do for myself. I'm so close to earning my degree, I've attended the info session for my teaching program. I'm so close I can taste victory!!! When I am doing schoolwork it's my own hour or so to have quiet time and accomplish a task that's outside of household chores or entertaining a baby. It sound selfish, but it's far better to admit you need those moments than to repress them.

3) What's the worst thing that's happened to you in the last month?

I am reaching a personal limit of exhaustion that I've never known. PPD? Possibly. I find myself on the verge of frustration and limited patience that I've never known...sometimes with my 7 month old child. I don't know who I am sometimes. Between work, school, house chores, a child attached to my hip, etc. While everything I do is necessary, sometimes I feel very blurred. I'm also missing some sleep and I think a few solid nights of uninterrupted snooze would be of great benefit. My husband is helping out as much as he can, but it's very hard for him to relate and for me to explain emotions that I've rarely dealt with before. This is a very trying time for me personally and I'm trying to take it one day at a time and not get overwhelmed.


4) If I were to hand you $3000, what would you do with it?

$1000 to Autumn's savings. $500 for Christmas. $500 debt. $200-300 for new clothes for myself and Shawn...I really don't have a fall wardrobe since last fall/winter I was pregnant. And Shawn goes thru pants like a toddler that plays on the playground everyday thanks to work!!! The rest I would help my friend Heidi finish raising her funds for the Avon Walk for Breast Cancer and I have a few other friends who are raising funds for various walks. I have a niece due Oct 14th that I'd like to buy something nice for since I usually don't have extra money to spend on those I love. I'd also probably take Shawn out to dinner for a baby-free date.

5) What's your most favorite and least favorite food?

My MOST favorite food? In general I could say ITALIAN! But being more specific, I LOVED stuffed shells. In fact, right after I had Autumn my sister-in-law, Debbie, brought me the MOST AMAZING stuffed shells I've ever had.

My least favorite food? I don't really think I have one. I eat just about anything. I will admit that I've never tried anchovies and I refuse to even try. Most of the time I will try just about anything, but I draw the line there. Just because.

Now, my five people:

My bff & her adorable son Caleb!

Autumn's boyfriend, Demetri;o)

Sara...the blogger I MUST meet one day...b/c we'd be great pals!

This girl just captures my youth! The Girl Can't Help It

This little guy, Faelen, & his mama, Ruth! He's so cute!!

My five questions:

(1) Since you're all female...if you could have a guy's mind for just a minute...what question or piece of understanding would you want to take away from the experience?

(2) What was your favorite childhood place of travel?

(3) Can you pat your head and run your belly at the same time? (DO IT!)

(4) If your life had followed a different path from what it is right now what do you think you would be doing right now? Or perhaps, what do you wish you could have done perhaps in another lifetime?

(5) What is one goal that you've set for yourself to complete in the next year?

Thankful Thursday! (x2!!!!)

(This is a post-dated post from last Thursday night. I was just about to finish it when an emergency came up and I had to go to work. So you're getting two Thankful Thursday posts! ENJOY!)

September 23 --

~Yummy bacon & cheese biscuits that my husband spontaneously made tonight. It was dinner. It was not a single bit of healthy and I loved every bite!



~Hubby for watching Autumn tonight so I could attend a teaching program info session tonight. I know...he's the daddy...it shouldn't be a big deal, but it is. I'm slowly but surely starting to take steps toward becoming a career woman and he supports me every step of the way and will do whatever necessary to help me get there. I love him!



~Wine.



~The fact that hubby already did some of our laundry. Yea...he's been earning brownie points this week.



~A 92! on a research proposal for one of my papers this semester. It wasn't deserved. Professor knows it and so do I. But she knows the work I CAN do, so I'll be making better efforts in the future for the rest of this paper.


September 30 --

~Adorable, healthy newborn babies!!!! My brother and sister-in-law had their first baby a few weeks early, but everything went very well and Madison is just a beautiful baby girl. I'm SOOOOO excited for them. CONGRATULATIONS!

~VACTION! This evening we leave for vacation. I'm very excited. I'm NOT excited about the homework I still have to finish (maybe I should be doing that instead of blogging? Hm...), the packing that's not done, Autumn's first ear infection:o( or this crummy rain that will make the roads awful this evening. Other than that, I'm VERY EXCITED!

~caffeine. it's what i live on these days. coffee & sweet tea!

~Rainy days so the hubby can stay home with monkey. Even though it means less work and less money, I prefer to look on the bright side!

~Oh, and my birthday! It's Saturday. I actually could care less. I keep forgetting that it's here. However, the thought that I'll be relaxing on my birthday instead of home and stressing about everything makes me very happy:o)

Wordless Wednesday!!!

Popping in

To update you about my little girl. This blog is about her, no? Today was a wonderful day. Daddy was home from work, so Autumn spent most of the day with him instead of going to Aunt Tara's. She slept in til 9:30 (she was up a few times in the night, which is still normal for her right now) and I only got to see her for a few minutes before heading to class. Daddy & Autumn went for a walk, he sang to her! (first time I think he's ever admitted to this), they played, etc. She was wonderful for him. And he embraced every moment of it. I didn't pick her up until almost 3!!! I love these days when I get to leave her at home with Daddy. I love the one-on-one time they get together and the happy smiles I come home to. I know Shawn truly loves to spend time with our daughter. It took me awhile to realize that we have our own ways of playing with her, but each is special and she will grow up having her own special relationship with him and that melts my heart.

She's growing up so fast. She has this personality and these quirks that make her so unbearably cute. When she's tired she gets super-giddy. She blows rasberries and bubbles and babbles uncontrollably when she's overdue for a nap or bedtime. When she's mad, Lord knows she can tell you! I love hearing her voice...I can imagine what it's going to sound like when she really starts talking and it's the sound of an angel.

She's starting to rock on all fours and occasionally can scoot her knees forward. She goes backwards like a champ! It's horrible, but I laugh because she looks forward and wants to go forward, but gets so frustrated that she ends up going the wrong way. She has this look of, "What the heck?! I want to go THAT way!" She will be crawling in no time. And then...help me!

When she curls up to sleep she needs to touch something. When I nurse her, it's my face. When she lays in the crib, it's one of her security blankets usually. She snuggles her blankets.

I am looking forward to our vacation next week so much. Not just because a vacation is much needed for Shawn and myself, but because we get to take our daughter with us. This is our 4th annual trip and every year has celebrated something special: Year 1 - our engagement, Year 2 - our marriage, Year 3 - our pregnancy, Year 4 - our first baby! Our trips have become a staple in our relationship and a testament to how much we've grown with one another. I cannot wait to show Autumn all the beautiful sites and spend so much one-on-one time with her away from all the distractions of everyday life.

From an artistic perspective

this is just part of my current life...

coffee...unpainted toes...frumpy clothes

wine....bills....

library books for research stacked everywhere!

Making an effort to STOP!

This is the second thing in 24 hours to remind me to stop using my cell phone in the car -period. End of story. It has to stop. What's sad is that the truth is that we ALL know it's bad. It's a distraction. Last night I was watching Dateline that had a whole thing on cell phones. Made me sad on so many levels. And then, this morning, I read this blog and it's awfully sad to see what can happen when you're just looking for your phone, which I know I do sometimes, too:o( I hardly travel very far, so the phone calls, the texts, the wondering if I just left my phone at home...it can all WAIT! And if it can't? I better put my ass on the side of the road or pull into a parking lot. Also, I will learn to put it away when I should be spending more quality time with my family.

Honestly, I will quote a little boy last night from the television that said "I wish cell phones were never invented."

7 months!

Autumn is 7 months old! 7 going-on-17! Not really, but one of the greatest things about her lately is her attitude and personality. She's always had these wonderful faces like "What are you talking about?!" or "Who the heck are YOU?!" or even "You're crazy. I don't care if I came our of your vagina. I don't know you!" Lately though, her babble really lets you know how she's feeling. When she wants your attention she lets you know - by babbling REALLY LOUD. If you don't pay attention to her, she will babble louder and get progressively louder to the point where it's obnoxious and you feel like you're talking to a 5 years year old when you say, "My goodness! What is it child?!" Sometimes, especially when feeding, she's just "Wah! More! Now!" Daddy feeds her a lot these days while I clean up the kitchen from dinner or do some other chore. It's great listening to them spend this time together because she is so vocal and so is he! He talks to her and she just babbles right back! Melts my heart everytime. And occasionally makes me burst out laughing!

Physically, my child is strong. My hair will testify to that! The child can pull hair like there's no tomorrow. And when she's in my arms she has a tendency to grab the underside of the arm, the fatty part, and then squeeze and it hurt likes hell! My 7 month old can make me say, "Ow! That hurts!" Future bully in our midst?! Her legs are super strong as well. She's not crawling or walking, but she can stand against the couch and hold herself up while reaching for items on the couch. She has tried to pull herself up in her crib from the belly position. No success yet, but I think we'll be dropping the crib mattress soon.

In regards to her mobility, I LOVE this stage she's at. She is just the right amount of mobile. She loves independent play and being on the floor with her toys. She by NO means stays on the "play blanket" anymore, which means I'm vacuuming much more often to keep dog hair out of her digestive system. She rolls and scoots backwards and somehow just manages to get around her her toys. Occasionally she'll go back enough to get her feet underneath the couch. I just love the fact that she can get around and enjoys getting her toys by herself, but she's not mobile enough to the point where I'm blocking off sections of the house and afraid to leave the room for half a second lest she disappear. I know when she does learn to crawl, she will be fast and furious and I might lose her a time or two;o)

On her checkup on Friday she weighed 16 lbs! This is awesome news. She's not quite back up to 50%, but she's definitely above 25%. 16lbs is where she "should" have been last month. By 9 months she should just around 19 lbs. I think we're fully capable of doing this. She loves food, but with the schedule we're on and going by what she gained in the past month I feel confident that we're doing a great job at feeding her what she needs without over-feeding her. Percentiles are important to show that she is eating a balanced diet and growing properly, but I definitely do not want to stuff her full of food and start a bad habit of overfeeding.

What else has been going on? Autumn is doing an awesome job spending her Tuesday mornings
with Aunt Tara and her Thursday mornings with Aunt Becky. My time away from her has gotten easier and I know I'm always leaving her in good hands, but it's always nice to get her back. And yes, I still check in on her between classes!!!

The beginning of next month we'll be getting ready to go to the mountains for our annual NC Mtn. trip. Shawn and I are very excited to be making this trip with Autumn. We're excited to hike with her and take her to the aquarium in Gatlinburg. We are in dire need of a vacation!

That's about it. I see that I haven't actually missed too many posts....I guess you have all been busy, too!

It's thursday...

And I'm not being thankful. Awful I know. Not because I don't have anything to be thankful for, but my brain just isn't up to. Nope. I'm exhausted. Tomorrow's Friday, which means NO class:o) Work @1230! BUT...baby checkup @ 9am. Seriously. Who made THAT appointment? Me? ME?! WTF was I thinking.

Anywho...tonight I'm stripping diapers. As Autumn's Aunt Becky put it so lovely, "her diapers stink and are leaking" which means...time to strip! And man, I must be using too much detergent b/c I'm stripping her "clean" diapers and there's only about 4 of them right now. And I'm on my THIRD cycle of hot wash and there's still so many suds. Crap. And then I still have to wash the rest of her diapers and then strip those. What a long night I have ahead. ^*#^O#&%^#&$^*^(*&%(&^%

Yea.

In other news...my baby girl is 7 months today! I have an update to do, I know. She's getting so big and I love her smiles and her playfulness and her attitude (oh yea, she has one!) and just everything about her. Where does the time go?

PLEASE HELP!

I just recently found this "Stats" tab on my blog. And it's SOOOOO cool! The most fascinating part of it? See how far my blog has reached. I'm not a "big" blogger and I'm not out to become one - it's just not my thing and I really don't have the time, BUT, it's really cool seeing people from other countries have found this blog. I've reached...US (duh!), Canada, Japan, Russia, United Arab Emirates, Brazil, UK, Latvia & Taiwan!

And with this revelation of reaching so far across the world, I'd like to reach out for help! My good friend, Heidi, is trying to do the Avon Walk for Breast Cancer, but she needs to raise $1800 before she's even allowed to walk! That's a LOT of money!!! She's already raised half...$900!!!!...with the help and generosity of some awesome people, but she still has $900 more to go. And time is running out! The walk is in...OCTOBER! AH! So, even if it's just $5 of $10, that money goes a long way to help those fighting breast cancer. She would REALLY appreciate your help! Thanks!

Here is her site to donate: http://info.avonfoundation.org/site/TR?px=5431976&fr_id=1980&pg=personal