surviving

To those who check this blog normally sorry I've been absent, I've been in survival mode and it's taking me a while to get out of it. At the beginning of February both kids developed a ugly croup cough it sounded worse than it was. They never had a fever and it didn't seem to effect their mood, they just sounded terrible. After two weeks of coughing one day Delilah just stopped coughing the same day James got a fever and went downhill fast. We went to the doctor and long story short he was on a nebulizer at home for two weeks. Those  very sad, very sick, very exhausting two weeks just happened to be the same two weeks Collin had to go to China for work. CHINA!! We are still in survival mode due to having our routine so messed up, James cutting molars, Collin trying to shake his jet lag and my exhaustion, but I think we are almost out of this crazy funk. Its even suppose to get into the 50's this week. Here's to life and surviving ... and wish me luck because Collin is leaving again. 

Ten on Ten: February

Once a month on the tenth taking a photo an hour for ten consecutive hours. Finding much life and beauty among the ordinary things of our day! 

I've titled this month "These are a few of my daily things" James developed a bad respiratory infection so we stayed home watching TV and not doing much. 

Nebulizer for James used once every 4 hours for the little tyke :(

I love my camera and d loves the lens cap

Roku: This is an amazing little box that streams channels to your TV mainly use it for Netflix. I don't know how we lived without it, especially on days like today.

Go UTES!! That fresh values card has worked at the kroger in SC and now the one here in MI, I will NEVER take it off my key chain.

This is an old school baby monitor but for some reason it is AMAZING you can hear a pin drop in James room and I crank it right now so I can hear his breathing.

I love my pepper mill :) that's all

I'd like to say I used this today but I didn't but I did put it away :)

Valentines decorations

I love holiday decorations. The last few years the only holiday we decorate for is Christmas, and I feel bad about it, because I know Delilah would LOVE it. One afternoon when James was sleeping D wanted to make Valentines (she wants to make Valentines year round). So I grabbed a bunch of scrapbook paper I wasn't to fond of and cut out a bunch of hearts for her. As she was gluing I thought "She better not glue them to the wall" then another thought ".... hey we should glue these to the wall." Delilah was in heaven as she was sticking them to the wall.. .. she was also singing Feliz Navidad.
If I had of known they would be this cute I would have picked cuter paper. I tried to take one off and yes, it will be a disaster to remove them but nothing a little water and elbow grease won't take care of. For how much Delilah loved this simple decoration, I think I will try to do it more often.

Lucky Girl

Lately I've been a little obsessed with D's hair. She lets me to do it everyday and doesn't complain to much as long as I'm quick and don't pull too hard. I love when the other moms at preschool tell me how cute it is and ask how I did it, or when strangers tell me how pretty it is (well sometimes the stranger thing is a little creepy). I know her hair a pretty color but I feel like I contribute to it's beauty by having it, lets say, "arranged" well.  As beautiful as her hair is it does have it's tricky parts, and I call her lucky not because I'm amazing at hair but because I just happen to know how to take care of this specific kind of hair from my own personal experience.
She has those beautiful ringlets, but the top layer of her hair is all straight, so I try to arrange it so the top is pulled back allowing her curl to show. I always had to do the same thing when I would wear my hair curly for the same reason. Another thing we fight is frizz, luckily there are products out there that we can use to help control the frizz and I also know when to and when not to wash her hair, along with how to dry it to reduce frizz. I wish these products had been available to me when growing up.The reason I use the word "lucky" is because friends, I was not so lucky. 

I'm going to out my mom here, that poor woman did not have the same hair as me and she struggled finding ways to do it. In her defense it is difficult hair but, at one point she decided it would just be best to cut it all off and go for the orphan Annie look. Well she nailed the orphan look.....

I don't think I got as many "wow her hair is so pretty" comments and my sweet Delilah does. Does this mean that I am living vicariously through my daughter like those moms on toddlers and tiaras? I hope not because those women are crazy!

Please know that my mom has since owned that this was a terrible decision and apologized  for this disaster of a cut. After this cut grew out I mainly wore braids until I figured out how to use gel, a diffuser and flat iron. I think the emotional scars from it have almost healed and maybe I will attempt to tame my curls again.  I hope one day Delilah will appreciate everything I went through so she could have her beautiful tame hair. Also when you see her hair in a mess just know it could look worse.... A LOT worse. Love ya mom ;)

a year ago today

I looked like this

30 Before 30: January

Here we go, my first month down and I've started on several of my goals. 

Here's the report. 

I'm down 7 pounds. Not an amazing start, but I met my goal, and I'll take it. I wanted to take this slow and steady as to not get burned out and quit. 

Bleh... I made a few things off pinterest this month but ... I'll wait until I do a successful one.

I am on my way to meeting this goal. 

I bought a pair of quality jeans and boots. Its a step!! 

This month I had a fun opportunity to read a book to Delilah's class. Reading and cutting shapes are the only volunteering her class is currently in need of, I signed up for both.
I read one of Delilah's favorite books "Grumpy Gloria" to her class. It's a cute story about a bull dog who is grumpy because his little girl owner got a new doll and Gloria is jealous. It was fun, granted most the kids didn't know what it meant to be grumpy and Delilah did keep giving away the story.

January 10 on 10

kicked the habit

D developed a nervous habit of biting her nails. There was a day when Collin went with her to a firestation with her preschool class. He said she just bit her nails the entire time. That day I went out and bought this...

($3 wal-mart)

I remember my parents putting this on me to try to get me to stop sucking my thumb. I also remember powering through the disgusting taste and it not working, but I thought I would give it a try with D.
After two days of spitting and needing to wipe her tongue off on a towel and get a drink she stopped, and hasn't started again. :)

Yay! Now to get her to stop picking her nose.....

30 before 30

Well I've finally got to writing my 30 before 30 checklist. I'm excited about it, this is going to be my year. Since August of 2006 I have been trying to get pregnant, pregnant, or nursing, I think it's time for a little me time. I'm excited to finally have a dead line, some of theses things have been on my mental to do list for a LONG time. So here's to the last year in my 20's!!

The plan is to post a monthly update on the 17th of each month.... here we go.

Merry Christmas

past years...

and then I was 29

Well I only have a year left in the twenties.

I think I'm old enough and mature enough to move on to my thrities but, just in case I'm not, I'm working on a list of 30 things I need to accomplish before I'm 30. So far I only have 24 things on it so as soon as it's finished I'll share it with you.

Oh.. and my Birthday was great, real laid back, new pair of wedges, boots, and jeans. 

Eggs this year

past years... HERE

7 years

This is two days late due to some technical difficulties but I still wanted to celebrate our 7 year anniversary with the blog world. I know it's cliche to say it's gone by so fast but it has. Yet looking back on our wedding pictures I see two very young naive kids. It's crazy to think how much we have changed in the last 7 years.. I guess I am finally starting to feel like an adult.

Routines {UPDATED}

Having two kids has thrown me for a loop. It's been ten months and I feel like at most times I'm still in survival mode, and my house shows it. I kept trying to get into a good cleaning routine but when you have to stop cleaning because someone is crying, we have to run out the door, or someone needs a hug it seems like my house is always just trashed. At the end of the day when the kids were in bed I would clean up but just the surface. Then one night I went to put the kids in the tub but realized it was so grimy I had to clean it before I put them in it and I couldn't remember the last time I had scrubbed my tub. So I did what I always do when I need a solution, I googled it, "cleaning schedules" to be exact. All the cleaning schedules I found were pretty descriptive and included things like "clean out the garage" or "yard work"  two things I currently don't have to worry about (although I would LOVE both), so I decided to make my own. 

I laminated it and put it on my fridge. I haven't had it for over a month yet, but so far I think it is helping. 

Another thing I wanted to do was to try to help Delilah get into a routine. I didn't really want a chore chart for her just a reminder chart really. I have seen a few adorable charts floating around but none of them met our needs, so here is what I came up with for us. 

I printed these out framed them and showed them to D, she loved them. She loves checking off the circles ... we'll see how long it lasts.

Blanks: You should be able to click on these to enlarge them then right click and save image as.