Fish and Chips Story — The Story of Us

Heather and I have been reorganizing our family goals recently and I though it may be good to share some of those goals with you and maybe inspire you to do the same.

Simplify our life — We have been cleaning out our house little by little to eliminate all the extra ‘stuff’ we have in doing this we hope to have house that is easier to clean and move as well as focusing on those things that are more important.

Purify our life –  We are also looking at purifying our life.  We want to focus less on TV and more on family and friends.  Heather and I have a big collection of games that we love to play and we would much rather have friends/family over to spend time with them.  We are truly blessed that although we are hundreds of miles from our families we have people locally that have become our family.

In the spring we are going to be starting an organic garden.  I hope that we can supply all of our vegtable needs in our own garden because.  We will be using heirloom seeds and organic methods to help us to know exactly what is in our food.  We began creating a compost pile a year ago so that we can add organic matter to our soil and begin to rebuild it and make it more productive.  I hope to blog a lot on that as the time approaches.

We decided a long time ago that our new baby would be named Abbie, but we don’t know much else.  Do we go with Abigail, Abigale, Abrielle or what?  And don’t even get me started on her middle name, we have no idea.

We were set on Abrielle Ryan but I am not sure I want both of my daughters to have the initials ARF.  Any ideas?

The wonders of being a mom: It truly is amazing the things that make you excited as a mom. Now whether this is because my life is too boring or because I can’t believe my little one is growing up on her way to being a big sister i’m not for sure. But on Tuesday Alora went poop on the potty for the first time. What a huge step, now has it been a recurring event? No much to my chagrin, but it happened and once is all the start I need. And as for the polish part of this blog, yesterday my daughter opened my hall closet and pulled out my nail polish and said “mommy do nails please.” Now who could refuse that? So she picked out a pastel pink and I did her nails, followed by her toes, followed by my nails. In an odd way what a truly girlie bonding experience. Now granted she still sucks her thumb so her right thumb nail didn’t stand a chance of keeping the polish on, but come on who’s checking that closely any way. For the 15 part Alora counted totally unprovoked to 15 3 different times on Wednesday and Yesterday. Which is so strange since I haven’t been working with her on any numbers past 10. My how she is growing, but then so is my belly with baby Abbie.

On Tuesday night I had an experience that almost brought me to tears, but I couldn’t embarass myself or my friend. Tuesday night was girls night so a bunch of ladies got together to go see 27 dresses (great movie by the way, for a chick flick). When the movie was over it was late but girls just can’t say goodnight with at least a good 20 minute conversation outside of the theater under the awning while it’s pouring the rain. So as we are all standing there and unsolicited unexpected hug comes flying out of the blue. I turn to see a good friend who used to be in our youth group and game with us. As he hugged me I suddenly realized the importance of being me. Now this may sound all deep and philosophical but as the introductions were made, small talk followed and then he walked away with his girlfriend I realized that after all I had been through that I had stayed true to myself and in the end whether they knew it or not they appreciated that. As life changes so quickly, especially for people in school, it’s amazing the need they have for real people that stay true and constant. Someone that they know in the end is going to give the same answer a year ago as they will today, because even though they don’t know who they are yet, you know who you are. So as I look back on this week and think of my theater visitor, my myspace friend requests, and my messages on my phone (all from old youth group kids) I realize that I will always be there for them and God will always be there for me.

Heather and I have been spending some time and effort in cleaning out our house I don’t simply mean shifting around the mess from one room to another, we are throwing things out.  We sell what we can and we are donating the rest, it is very much like one of those shows you see on the TLC or something.  I got rid of 1/3 of my library and will probably get rid of more in the future.  We got rid of all of the CD’s that we hadn’t listened to or ripped to the computer already, that was actually about 200 CD’s.  We still have much more to go but we believe it will be best to simplify our life in many ways.  I am even contemplating getting rid of my cell phone.

I have been reading a  blog lately called Zenhabits which has helped a great deal in finding ways to simplify my life.  I can’t suggest it enough.

My goals for this week:

To be up to date on my Bible reading
To do all the things with Alora I’ve been meaning too! (library time here we come)
To be the person I know I’m supposed to be in every situation. (regardless if I’m pregnant)
To get the shared to do list with Jason shrunk just a little bit.

So if anyone out there can cheer me on that would be great! I figured the only way I can be held accountable is to ask for help.

The following is a message I sent to myself on my cell phone while sitting down with my daughter while mommy shopped.

It is amazing as I sit here on a couch in a store watching my daughter as she pretends to sleep. She makes snoring noises and I tell her to close here eyes. She scrunches them up very tightly as the fake snores continue. I remember that I tried to do that exact same thing as I tried to sleep at a baby sitters house, not realizing that your eyes only lightly close when you sleep. I wonder if all kids do that or if this is just another moment where she reminds me of me. Now she is awake and watching me as I record this message, I wonder what else she will do just like me.

So it’s that time of year again when love mush over flows. I can’t believe that even I too am feeling to be a bit on the cynical side. It used to be great and wonderful. But now it’s feeling over rated. Be it i’m older, wiser or more of a tight wad, I’m not for sure. Before even the new year hit I saw signs for greeting cards and sickening red candy (now please don’t get me wrong I MUST have at least one bag of cinnamon red hearts EVERY year) when I hadn’t even thought about a new year’s resolution yet. So here it is almost February and I’m sick of seeing cupid.

Now please don’t let me sound all bitter. I can remember the night when i was probably 8 or so and my dad had worked on (he’s a mechanic) a local policeman’s cruiser and here pulling into our driveway was dad with the cruiser (it’s a small town folks, it was ligit there), lights on and sirens blaring and he get out all dolled up and with a dozen red roses for my mom. You can’t beat fairy tale stories like that. Or my all time classic story is 7 years ago this Valentine’s day I worked second shift. Jason, my boyfriend now husband, had bribed someone for my apartment key (i lived alone) and had snuck in while i was at work and lit 100 tea light candles and had three beautiful roses (i still have them in my bedroom today) with poems on them and a rugrats Angelica valentine’s card in my apartment. So as I am on my way home from work at 12:30 in the morning i’m talking to him on the phone saying how sorry i was i missed valentine’s day but we’ll make it up over the weekend. I get to my front door and there is a sticky note on it that says “don’t be scared, your knight”. When I open my door here are the candles and card and poems and roses and him around the corner setting on my couch in a white t-shirt and blue jeans (my favorite outfit of all time (now if i could just get him to wear “nuthuggers”)). So needless to say that was a truly remarkable Valentine’s. Followed by the next year with my marriage proposal and engagement.

So for great Valentine’s days I can not complain. But the overmarketed hype is really driving me crazy. I long for a day with just a dozen gerbera daisys (my favorite flower) and a box of chocolates ( you know the ones shaped like a heart with a little map to tell you what’s what and then you lose the map and have to stick your finger in each of them anyway! because truth be told except from my dad I have never gotten a box of chocolates, sad state i know) and a simple plain candlelight dinner. No hoopla, no frilly, no spending and exorbant amount of money, just back to the romantic basics like I love lucy and the Andy Griffith Show. You can’t tell me that Sherriff Taylor would spend over $30 for his valentine, but sure enough it would be one she would remember.

So please let’s all try to bring back the simple things. Love, romance, and a box of chocolates!

So today I discovered a new prego weakness. While I was pregnant with Alora I had an obsession for fruity skittles, there was nothing like them. I couldn’t get enough. With this pregnancy I hadn’t really hit the oh oh I must have this now point (although I’m sure Jason would beg to differ). But today,,,,, I found a wonderful new creation by Skittles: Skittles Chocolate Mix. Yes, that’s right folks, with brownie batter, creamy caramel and even s’mores. They are fabulous! It’s like having tootsie rolls but without pulling your teeth out and undoing a wrapper. Can’t beat it HUH! At first I was skeptical thinking they would be too sweet or too chewy or don’t put chocolate to a fruity company type of deal, but i really was surprised. So only time will tell if this obsession will be fleeting or stick with me the next 3 months.

And last but not least for all of those who came from my era I found a new radio station that hits the spot (makes me feel like I’m back in high school). Radio 106.7. Now i’ve only listened for a few days so don’t feed me to the dogs if i’m wrong but so far trips around town with the little tyke and this hits the spot just right. ( www.radio106.7.com for a live feed)

So that’s all for a few of my favorite things.

No this is not a story about actual poo on a shoe this is a story of how I feel today, dog poo on shoe being walked on over gravel! So Jason mentioned the wonderful Birthday party and all the family we had in for the weekend, followed by the bloody ear infection and stomach ick! Well now it’s Tuesday and Monday was covered in another bloody ear infection, 102 temperature and another trip to the doctor, whilst saying bye to nana and pap. Oh yeah and did I mention the stomach bug wasn’t from the ear infection or antibiotics, no it’s contagious, and guess what the 6 1/2 month prego mommy has it now along with a relapse of the never ending bronchitis! (And after speaking to nana on the phone, the stomach bug found her at about 1:30 last night)

So today is Tuesday! What does that mean? Mom and Alora are home with stomach bugs, bronchitis and ear infections. Sounds like a wonderful household to be in doesn’t it. Now it’s not that bad because on rare occasion it does mean my daughter will crawl up in my lap and cuddle even if it is only for fifteen minutes. But on the downside it does mean diapers, diapers, and rolls of toilet paper. So this story is about poo on shoe and hopefully someday soon it will be scraped off and everything will be all better!

Well you asked for them and now you’ve got them! New pics are up from 22 months to 2 year bday and portraits! Have fun looking at them.