Reality. In.Your.Face

http://vimeo.com/26792244

Please take the 3 minutes it takes to watch this video and educate yourself. So that....

You can pray.

You can spread the word.

You can change the life of a girl somewhere who you many never ever meet.

P.S. There might be a screening in your hometown and you could see the entire documentary not just a snippet. I am thinking about hosting one in Atlanta.

go away go away

I don't want the school year to start.

I am not ready to go back to work.

I am not ready to leave my precious baby in the arms of another for 8 hours.

I am losing sleep and trying to put my feelings the Hands of the Almighty.

Please pray for Molly as she makes this transition from being at home to being at day care.

Don't be surprised if I end up on....

The people of Wal-Mart website.

For.Real.

Today Molly and I decided to make a quick lil trip to wally world. She decided to have an explosion in her diaper while I was happily driving to the store. When we go the store I picked her up out of her car seat and to my dismay found her to be soaking wet.

"Silly Molly" I said, thinking that it was just a little pee.  But then....

I realized it was not anything little and it was not just pee.

So sweating and frantic and alone I put her in the trunk of my car to change her diaper. I know, I know sketchy. I felt like any moment someone was going to report me to the police. She cried. I wanted to cry.

With no clothes in her diaper bag to re-dress her in, we strolled into walmart looking for wipes and clothes. We found both and I was so embarrassed. Poor Molly. Almost completely naked with a pink bow in her hair and a mommy whose make up and melted off.

While we were shopping I picked up some extra wipes for her diaper bag...just in case.

Good News

I found my camera cord!

small things

Its the small things. Molly smiling at me with her gums. Molly scooting to me when Allen lays her down on our bed. Molly waving her arms in excitement at the sight of a slice of watermelon. Molly reaching out to pet Eli's scruffy face when he comes near.

Its love. Pure love. Head over heels love. Its love that is given freely and expects nothing in return. This summer has been such a GIFT to me and I am really sad to see it go. Two more weeks of fun with my darling daughter and I intend to soak up every moment and every memory.

Words that evoke happy feelings

Glitter
Lovely
Sparkle
Love
Romance
baby
Primrose
Joy
Twilight
Sunrise
Moonlight
Ocean breeze

The basement: a whole lot of stuff

Do you remember that awesome movie Home Alone? It was and still is one of my absolute favorites of a movie. Every December I pull out the movie and Allen and I will watch with our own Christmas tree twinkling in the background.

In the movie the young boy, Kevin, is afraid of the basement because of the dark furnace at the bottom of the stairs. In real life I am afraid of our basement because of the amount of junk/dirt/mess we have at the bottom of the stairs. Its not good.

It could so easily be better. It really could. I know that over night we can't turn the floors into our dream floors or put sheet rock up on the walls but we can clean. I mean, I do own a dust pan and a broom.  I think that a large part of our problem lies within too much stuff.  We really have too much stuff. Allen and I both keep things that have memories attached to them. Maybe its t-shirts from a college event or a coffee mug that was a grandparents but it starts to pile up. We have a lot of things and pieces of furniture that we do not need.

Take for example my love of blankets. I love blankets. I love to feel cozy and wrapped up. So we have quite a few around the house. Every once and awhile I think " what about homeless people, wouldn't they love this blanket?" "Do I really need this blanket?" And year after year I keep my stash. How silly is that? How selfish is that? Something will be done about that this weekend. But it doesn't end there really. We have pieces of furniture that our grandparents or great grandparents owned. Or we have old clothes that we might one day fit into again. We have bent nails and old pots and pans. Just. Too. Much.

I am going to look into goodwill and see if they can come by the house and pick up a few things. Things that I know were mine from college that Allen doesn't have attached too. I can freely give those things away. His things are going to much harder to deal with. He wants to "save" them for a garage sale. I totally appreciate his desire to make a little cash but at the end of the day I know us and we are not planning a garage sale any time soon. Hopefully once I start sorting through things and giving them away he can see the stuff that is left that he needs to deal with.

I am going to document the slow going process of basement clean up. It will not be pretty, these pictures that I share. But hopefully it well help me get my tukus movin!

Lovely.

I had a lovely morning.

Molly slept until 8am when her usual rise and shine is at 7am.

I got to make my coffee and take care of a few household needs before we started our day together.

I got to talk with the Lord about many things on my heart.

I got some rest even though I was wide awake.

I witnessed Molly waking and playing in her crib for the first time.

What a lovely morning it was. It was truly a gift.

Eli and his duck

It is funny to me how animals can put a smile on a person's face. Or how they can lift someones spirit when they are feeling a little blue. I am amazed that the kind of bond a human can share with an animal. I have read in newspaper articles how animals can prolong the life of a person because of the joy they bring to people. I know that I feel good when I come home and I see two tails wagging furiously because I simply walked into a room. I love that when I say to Maggie "lets go for a walk" she gets a little pep in her step and goes and gets her leash and brings it to me. My dogs provide me with lots of joy. They also provide me with frustration and elevated levels of stress when they are too loud or when they disobey but so do people.

And once in awhile I will notice (like actually pay attention for more than 5 minutes) and I see that they are doing something cute and likable. For example: this morning while outside Eli found his duck toy. His duck toy is a plush mallard duck that honks when he squeezes it. When he was younger I allowed him to play with it in the house but since he has gotten bigger it is just too much for our small spaces. So outside the duck lives.  Sir Duck spends most of his time in a "dog" basket on our front porch. Today Eli found Sir Duck and had a good ole time in the front yard. When I opened up the front door to let him in he forgot all about Sir Duck and came running in. Then as if a light bulb went off in his brain he quickly turned around and when trotting back to the door. Well I had closed the door determined that Sir Duck would not become another thing for me to pick up. Eli stood at the door and looked at me. He used his puppy dog eyes and whined for me to let him bring his toy inside. It has been 40 minutes and he still wants it. He has paced the floor. He has rested his chin on my knee. Finally at 9:40 he gave up and is asleep on the rug. I know that the next time I let him out it will be like Christmas for him when he see's his beloved toy.

Just a small slice of my morning to share!

I drank humidity

Today on my morning run with Miss Molly I drank in some humidity. I do not ever remember a summer being this HOT. Or this HUMID. I mean, I stepped outside the house and already my glasses were fogged up and my palm were sweaty. Molly dealt with it the only way she could, she slept.

Walking up and down the hills of our neighborhood help me realize what kind of shape I am in but the humidity just makes it about 100xs worse. Later we went to meet a friend for lunch at a local taco stand. Waiting in line to get inside my back started sweating so off came my cardigan. Then my neck started sweating so I put my hair in a pony tail. Then my chest started sweating so off came my bra. For.Real.

Luckily I could pull it off in the dress I was wearing, thank you wal-mart.

Anyone else experience this insane heat wave?

I am amazed

at how much laundry my household produces. Two big people one tiny person.  With the introduction of solids came the increased laundry load but only by a slight amount.

Any tips?

Nap time

Is almost over what's a girl to do?

Should I:

clean the kitchen?

do some laundry?

wash the dishes?

make my bed?

waste time on the internet?

watch tv?


you know what? I don't care because its the summertime 

The great thing about being a mom...

The great thing about being a mom is you get to be a kid again.

For example: The amount of laying on the floor and playing with toys has dramatically increased. My dancing and singing skills are a bit dusty but they are definitely getting a good work out. Making silly faces and rhyming words are part of my daily routine.

One of the hard things about being a mom is that the job is never done.

For example: This summer one of my "goals" was to be able to get Molly on a good nap/sleep schedule. We have done that well thank to Molly and her easy going ways. However, the schedule I put her on was one appropriate for a 4-6 month old. Well in about 2 weeks she will be the grand old age of 7 months. So that means re-vamping the whole schedule again. Then about 3 weeks after that I enter the work force (I am in denial) and Molly goes back to day care. I am sure everything will change then ... again. So yesterday and today during Molly's nap time I took some ME time. I slept. I browsed the world wide web. I got a little bit more organized. Tomorrow I will be reading up on the change of schedules for an older baby. Wish us luck!

Randomness and such

1. I am going to miss my morning "me" time so much when school starts.  Days this summer have gone like this...wake up early, feed molly, play with molly, make real breakfast (more than a slice of bread or granola bar) drink coffee, play with molly, molly naps and I become the most productive person ever. Cleaning, writing, paying bills, reading, catching up with friends etc. Oh I will miss this so much.

2. Spent time at the lake yesterday actually on the lake and realized what a culture it is. Boat people and lake people. Friendly to the nines.

3. Pet peeve. When you are talking to someone on the telephone and you think they are listening but you realize that they were not because response is inappropriate. Example: me: " Our neighborhood has been experiencing some car thefts lately" Person: " oh that is wonderful!"

4. I would love to have our backyard be a place of fun. So in order for that to happen I need: mosquito's to not exist. Dog poop to magically disappear. The lawn to be mowed. Money to appear in bank account so we can spring for cushions (eli ate our couch cushions earlier this year) and some citronella candles. And the heat to dissipate about 15 -20 degrees. Don't think that is asking for too much right?

5. I found a great recipe for a heirloom tomato pizza. Too bad the other adult in this house won't go for it. Should I make for myself?

6. I need a good pillow. Every morning I wake up with back and shoulder pain. Where do you get good pillows?