What’s Happening Lately (in pictures)

The last couple of weeks have been busy—but a good busy! I have a good feeling that this summer is going to be a fun one.

We have been lucky to have my dad working in the area. My mom tags along and that means we get to spend some time with her.

That also means that we get to go swimming at their hotel every once in a while.

Now that the weather has gotten nicer, we have been spending a lot of time outside! It’s wonderful. Finally! We had a picnic with a friend and enjoyed a nice walk.

My business partners and I had a gathering to share our products. It turned out really well and was really fun! Definitely going outside of my comfort zone, but I made some new friends in the process so it was worth it.

A new friend came to spend the weekend with us and it was a lot of fun! We actually grew up knowing each other but she’s a bit older than me so we never really connected. We have a lot in common—so that’s good! We spent a lot of time outside, relaxing, and chatting.

Little Miss Sunshine’s second birthday is coming up so we’ve been looking for an outdoor play set. I was looking at new ones but realized how expensive they are for a nice sized one. I did a little searching and I was able to find a used Little Tykes climber for $30! It is in great condition because it was always kept indoors.

Little Miss Sunshine just loves it! She goes down the slide over and over again.

We had a picnic with grandma today! Another beautiful day meant we had to spend it outdoors. The rest of the week is supposed to be rainy.

This was Little Miss Sunshine’s first time playing in the sand. She absolutely loved it. It was pretty cute.

So that’s what I’ve been up to lately! I feel like so many areas of my life have improved. I’m getting out more, making more friends, going outside of my comfort zone, and otherwise feeling more fulfilled.

But what is it about this struggle with my weight that makes me feel like I am worthless? I’ve got to get this figured out. I do know that I’m taking the steps to do that—it’s just a process.

What have you been up to?

What’s Happening Lately - Picture Post

The weather is absolutely beautiful today! We spent some time outside without even needing to wear coats. I cannot wait for spring to arrive!

Here are a few pictures of what we have been up to lately.

We’ve been spending time at my parent’s for a couple of weeks, which is always fun!

Little Miss Sunshine has become grandma’s little shadow!

LMS is at that very observant stage and likes to imitate everyone. When she saw papa lay down on the couch with a blanket, she had to do the same thing.

She also thinks she’s hiding if she can’t see anyone! It’s the cutest thing. Here she is hiding.

I found the cutest pair of shoes! I have been wanting a pair of Sperry’s for a long time but haven’t found any that were the right price. I’m loving these!

Hubby and I checked out a local coffee shop called the Wired Cafe. They were just closing, but we had just enough time to order a latte. It had a nice atmosphere, but the coffee wasn’t amazing or anything.

We visited a cute little BBQ place too. I would like to go there again sometime—the food was delicious.

We celebrated my mom’s birthday early. She loves white cake, so that’s what she got!

I’ve been enjoying the new pina colada shake! The flavor takes me right to the beach. I experimented by making 1/2 a strawberry shake and 1/2 a pina colada shake and mixing them together—that was fabulous too!

What have you been up to lately?

Surgery Day

Last night was my first night away from Little Miss Sunshine since she was born. I was nervous, but everything went just fine. I told her a few times that when she woke up from her nap that Grampie would be there and Mama was going to be with grandma but I'd be back tomorrow. She would think for a second and then she would wave bye-bye to me. She did this every time! 

So anyways, I made it safe and sound to my parent's yesterday evening. It was odd not having to set up a pack-n-play or go through a bed time routine!

My mom broke her arm and separated her shoulder back in September. The doctors kept trying to let it heal and had her in physical therapy and everything and she kept telling them that it was incredibly painful, etc. Nothing improved.

Finally, they figured out that the bone was not fusing back together because she had a bone fragment between the two parts, etc. So after all of this time, she is going to have surgery to fuse the bones back together. Hopefully she will be done with all of the pain soon. She is looking forward to having a pain block after the surgery since she has been suffering in pain all of this time!

So that's what's going on today. 

Have a great weekend!

Visiting Jane

When baby girl and I visited my parents last week we had quite a bit of fun. When my brothers, sister & families arrived, my parents treated us to a visit to the Burpee Museum of Natural History. We have become such a big family that we got the group discount!

It’s hard to believe that I grew up in Rockford, IL but never went to this museum, not even on a field trip! Burpee Museum is most known for its Jane display. Jane is “the world’s most complete and best preserved juvenile T. rex”.

It’s pretty incredible that these creatures once roamed the earth!

I would have loved to have spent more time reading the information, but hubby and I kept pretty busy chasing around the one year old. She had so much fun exploring a new place and wasn’t afraid of the giant creatures or dinosaur noises.

We saw the Savage Ancient Sea: Dinosaurs of the Sea exhibit, which is a traveling exhibit.

Here is my SIL, myself, sister, and mom.

The kids had a fun time “digging for dinosaur bones”. The one year old played in the area too but she is always moving and hard to get a picture of.

I told the kids to pose like they were about to get eaten by this monster, but only one obliged. lol

This little guy seemed to enjoy the experience and having grandpa answer questions.

I think what I found most fascinating was the GeoScience display. I’ve always been intrigued by rocks, ever since I was a child. I had never seen fluorescents before—pretty cool! And of course I loved looking at the gems.

There was this neat display that showed what a mine looks like underground. It made me anxious just to look at it. I can’t imagine how miners go down that far into the earth! Eek!

Sadly, I didn’t get pictures of either.

Eventually we had to put the little one in the stroller to keep her under control. She was tired by that time so she was content. Here we are by the mammoth.

 

We would love to visit again when the little one is older. It was a great escape from the torturous heat outside!

I recommend visiting if you’re ever in the area!

Redeeming my 10 lb. Reward and Planning my 20 lb. Reward

I met my 10 lb. goal back on May 8th and this past weekend I finally got around to redeeming my reward for losing 10 lbs. My chosen reward was a pedicure. I also wanted to treat my mom to a pedicure for all of the help & support that she gave me when I was first diagnosed with PPD—so it finally worked out that we could go.

I also gave myself a spray tan, brightened my lips, whitened my teeth, added mascara and eyeliner, removed the freckles on my nose, reduced the size of my nose and did a little nip and tuck to a couple of areas too. Full disclosure, I had fun “photoshopping” this photo—lol I’ve never done that before and started playing around and had some fun. I kind of like my new nose! hehe

Anyways, the pedicure was absolutely wonderful. The place that we went to pampered us. It was the best experience that I have ever had getting a pedicure and it wasn’t even that expensive.

It was a good reminder that I need to start taking time like that for myself every once in a while. It was rejuvenating. Ok, this is what we actually look like. haha

I had a great time with my mom chatting and laughing. It was a lot of fun!

While we were browsing the brochure of services, I decided what my 20 lb. goal will be. I’m going to get a facial! I’ve never had one before and it just sounded really nice. I think it will also make me feel good about myself, like getting the pedicure did.

Have you ever had a facial? What did you think?

Neal’s Violet

Both excitement and nervousness ran through my veins about the at-home school project that my third grade teacher, Mrs. L, had just assigned. I was lucky because I had been assigned the state of Illinois, the most coveted of the 50 states of all of my classmates because it was home to us. I couldn’t wait to tell my mom when she picked me up from school! She would be so excited, I just knew it.

At the end of the school day, I flung my backpack on one shoulder, the way that the cool kids did, and made my way to the parking lot where my mom was waiting. The assortment of key chains attached to my backpack jingled and made a pat-pat-pat sound with every step. I wanted to run to get there as fast as I could but I had to appear calm, collected, and cool.

“Hi mom! Guess what?,” I exclaimed immediately after I climbed in the car and closed the door.

“Why hello! I don’t know, tell me,” she replied with a laugh.

“Mrs. L assigned us a state project and it’s due in two weeks. I have to get started tonight so that I get it done in time. Can we work on it after supper?,” I inquired.

“We’ll just have to see. Why don’t you tell your dad about it when he gets home,” she sighed.

I waited anxiously for dad to come home, the table to be set and the meal prepared. The news was bouncing around in my chest, hardly to be contained, but I waited until after we prayed and dad had eaten a few bites of the meat loaf before I let it out.

“Dad, I have a very important project for school that I must get started on right away but I will need help,” I requested with urgency.

“Oh yeah?”, he said as he took another bite, “did you tell your mom about this?”, he said in between chews.

“Yeah. She said to tell you about it,” I responded.

“Oh did she now?,” he chuckled as his laughing warm brown eyes met my mom’s grinning baby blues.

I giggled because they were giggling.

“What’s so funny?,” I asked.

“Nothing. Nothing at all,” my dad said with a smile and another playful glance at my mom, “I’ll help you with it another night.”

Looking back, I’m sure my mom was exhausted with the unending tasks of trying to take care of four children, cook the meals, clean the house, take care of the dog, do the laundry, pay the bills, and care for an elderly friend, just to name a few. When dad arrived home at the end of a long work day, all he wanted to do was eat supper with his family and then sit in his recliner, read the newspaper and relax. But a child doesn’t have a clue about all of the work that a parent does and to me, this time-sensitive project required immediate attention.

Every night after supper I asked if we could work on my project. It seemed like it was an eternity until he finally said yes, but in reality it was only a few days. When the stars aligned, we got started on my important project.

Dad always had fun with these projects. He has always been a dreamer at heart and he had the perfect idea for Illinois mobile construction. We sat at the kitchen table carefully cutting rectangles out of a white poster board and I did my research on the state of Illinois, thrilled to have the time and attention of my dad all to myself.

Dad cut small wooden dowels into foot long pieces and used a knife to cut small kerfs into the wood. He began the tedious process of connecting the dowels with clear fishing line and hanging shorter pieces of fishing line from the dowels where the pieces of poster board would attach and the creation began to come alive. My mobile was going to the best one! I was so proud of how talented my dad was.

Each cut-out poster board rectangle contained facts about the state of Illinois on one side and a hand-drawn picture on the other. The state bird was the cardinal, the capital was Springfield, Illinois was the “Land of Lincoln, the state tree was the oak, and the state flower the viola which is part of the violet family. My dad helped me draw some of the pictures and then I colored them in, but the picture of the violet was up to me.

“I can’t do this—it’s too hard to draw,” I whined.

“Yes you can. You just have to try,” he wisely advised.

I tried again, getting more and more frustrated by the minute while flecks of pink eraser began to cover the table. My older brother of four years, Neal, had been sitting at the table watching.

“I’ll draw the violet for you,” he kindly offered.

“Okay,” I accepted.

I remember taunting him while he drew the picture and told him it didn’t look like a violet, even though I hardly knew what a violet looked like myself. I could be so cruel sometimes and I didn’t really understand how hurtful words could be.

“Believe me, this will look awesome,” he assured me, “just wait until I’m done.” He made his way to his room to finish the drawing in private and away from my critique.

He spent considerable time drawing the flower so that it was perfect. Proudly, he emerged from his room with his masterpiece and handed it over to me.

“This is ugly,” I laughed, “it doesn’t look anything like a violet. I don’t want to use this. It’s dumb.”

His heart having been crushed, he escaped back to his room and closed his door. I never saw his tears, but my dad did.

“Give me that picture,” my dad said angrily. He looked at the drawing like he had never seen something so beautiful before.

“This is perfect! I never could have drawn a picture so well,” he said loud enough for Neal to hear.

He opened the door to Neal’s room and said, “Neal, you color this in and I am going to keep it on the mirror over the dresser and I will treasure this beautiful violet forever.”

“But I want to use the picture in my project,” I complained, suddenly seeing the value of it now that dad had approved it.

“Nope, it’s too late. You didn’t appreciate it and now it’s mine. You made Neal cry, you know,” he said sternly, “you will have to draw your own flower and you also need to tell him you’re sorry—and mean it.”

I understood how much I had hurt him, but I was too proud to show I or even admit it—instead I was mad and angry. I offered him several unapologetic “sorry”s at my dad’s insistence that each “sorry” I offered was not truly from my heart, and retreated to my room in tears.

It broke my heart that I had disappointed my dad. I felt horrible for the way I had treated my older brother who had only been trying to help out of kindness. My heart ached, but I never truly said I was sorry—even though I was, but had not yet learned the humility to admit that I was wrong.

I drew a violet which, in my mind, never measured up to the one Neal had drawn. I was ashamed of it. I felt like it ruined my entire project.

I brought the completed project to school in sadness. My heart was heavy as I presented it to the class. My classmates “oohed” and “aahed” over its greatness. It was most definitely the best one there, but I only felt ashamed. No one in my class knew how hurtful I had been to my own big brother, and the perfect score I received wasn’t as gratifying as I had imagined.

As the years passed, I felt a pang of guilt every time I saw the violet proudly displayed on my dad’s mirror; a constant reminder of the effect of hurtful words.

My Illinois state project mobile has been long gone, but I can still see Neal’s violet so clearly. The soft pencil strokes that had been so carefully and artfully drawn; the purple petals and the green leaves colored perfectly within the lines—imprinted in my mind and on my heart.

I will always remember that the official flower of Illinois is the violet and that one should always accept gifts from the heart graciously and with kindness.

This post is in response to the prompt “something someone gave you” from the 52 Weeks of Gratitude Challenge.

I’m back!

Hello everyone! It has been quite a while since I posted—which wasn’t intentional! I decided to go to my parent’s last week and I forgot my laptop at home so I just decided to take a little break.

I had good intentions to stay on track and I even brought along my scale so I could weigh on Friday. However, I didn’t. The Weight Watcher app quit working, so that was one problem…and really annoying. Otherwise, I enjoyed my time and don’t regret it.

I did step on the scale on Friday and quickly stepped off and decided to just skip the weigh in and give myself a break. I meant to get back on track on Friday, but once again I didn’t…until today. Hopefully I can undo some of the damage by Friday.

I was nervous about making the almost 4 hour drive alone with baby girl since I didn’t know how she would handle it. She did awesome though! She slept about half of the way there and I was prepared with lots of new toys after that. On the way home, she was up almost the entire way home but I get her entertained with her toys and snacks. She just looked out the window quite a bit too. Whew! I’m so glad that went well so I know that I can do it again.

We had so much fun but it seemed to go by super quickly. My sister and kids came for one day and baby girl had so much fun being around other kids and my nephew who is about a month older than her.

It was nice having a big fenced in back yard for her to walk around and play in. I had fun playing baseball with the older kids. It has been a really long time since I had the energy to do something like that.

My sister and I went to Old Navy for a little shopping. I found a couple of things on clearance that I’m loving. Here are the little shopping buddies.

And of course it’s always nice to be around my mom. I wish we lived closer! Baby girl adores her too.

I feel like I got a lot done over the weekend too…like I said, I’m so happy my energy is back!! I found a really cute chevron tote on a for sale group for $5, so I snatched that up. I sorted through all of baby girl’s toys and put some away for storage and others in bins on a shelf so they’re not all over the place anymore. It looks so much more organized.

I also consolidated baby clothes that have been sitting around, did some laundry, washed up the infant seat, and cut up fruit. This morning I went through my tank top drawer and made some decisions to get rid of things. Almost everything is too small and there is no point in holding on to things I won’t be able to wear for a long time—besides, they can all be replaced someday if I want to…I’m a bargain shopper so it’s not that big of a deal. I’m going to list them all for sale or take them to consignment to get a few extra bucks.

Slowly but surely I am going to get our house in order. When I was at my parent’s, I just loved how much it felt like home. Everything is so clean and perfect and in its place with no clutter. The backyard is beautifully landscaped, weed free, and full of beautiful flowers and plants. I kept thinking about how I wish we had a house and yard like that, but then I realized that I can MAKE our home like that…! And I’m excited to do so!

Well, I better get going so I can get some things accomplished during nap time!

How was your week?

Things Remembered #HAWMC

I never got around to posting yesterday for HAWMC so I will go ahead and post two HAWMC posts today.

Today’s topic is to blog about an item I’ve kept that reminds me of a time in my life, whether good or bad. I went with the first thing that popped into my mind—the dogs pictured above.

They remind me specifically of a woman named Ethel, who was always old to me, when I was a child. These dogs always sat on a shelf in her living room. My mom did a lot of things for her like running her errands, taking her to doctor’s appointments, going shopping, picking her up for our church meetings, and just checking in on her to chat. I loved to tag along with my mom anywhere she went, so during the summers and when I wasn’t in school I would go along with them.

While my mom helped out or chatted, I remember loving to look at all of the things on her shelves while I listened to them chat. She had so many trinkets and interesting things, but I especially liked these dogs.

She would also hire me to come over and clean for her and that made me feel pretty important as a child. To this day, I cannot dust my living room without feeling guilty for not dusting the legs of my coffee table. She taught me the proper way to dust—which was to remove every single item from the surface, dust each item, and dust the table. You must not forget to dust the legs of the tables. The same concept applied for the shelves in her living room and so I dusted these dogs many a time. She was a far better housekeeper in her day than I am, that’s for sure!

Sometimes she would invite us over for a dinner that she labored hard over. She made the most delicious pies—chocolate, lemon merengue and I remember a red velvet cake before they were popular. She would have homemade rolls, jams, fresh berries and veggies from her garden, fresh canned pickles, and home style foods. Her food always tasted good.

It was from her that I learned of growing old. I remember finding a butter wrapper in a piece of pie when she got to the point where she couldn’t see well and my mom telling me not to say anything but to simply complement her on how good the pie was. There was the time she used cayenne pepper instead of cinnamon in her famous cinnamon rolls, or the time she used salt instead of sugar. I remember feeling incredibly sad in these moments.

And then she had to go to a nursing home and when we visited she wasn’t really Ethel anymore. Her mind was gone. Instead of the smell of freshly baked bread that so often filled her home, her new home smelled of stale coffee and urine—and it was heartbreaking. I remember asking her for the recipe to her chocolate pie and she told me the most absurd ingredients—so I never got that recipe, but she felt special for being asked.

I saw my mom comb and braid her hair for her and pull the whiskers from her chin so that she could maintain a sense of pride. She would lay a blanket over her shoulders for her because she was cold. She would spoon feed her broth to try to get her to eat.

And then one day, my mom asked if there was anything that I wanted from her house to remember her by—and I chose these dogs. Her family didn’t want them, so they were mine. Every time I see these dogs I am reminded of Ethel, but I am also reminded of the lessons I learned from seeing my mom take care of a friend.