Queen of ALL THINGS AWE-SUMMM!!!

This is the first award that I have ever received so I'm feeling a lil giddy about it. ha! i'm such a dork! Thank you Brandi for awarding me my first. :)

The Rules Are:

*List 7 Things That Make You Awe-Summm!

*Pass It On To 7 Bloggers Who Are Awe-Summm!

*Be Sure To Tag Your Awe-Summm Bloggers To Let Them Know!

*Then Link Back To The Queen That Tagged You!

7 Things that make me Awe-Summm:

1. I have a wonderful husband and he treats me like a queen and loves me no matter what...even when I am having a terrible day and being the biggest witch in the world...he makes me want to be a better person everyday.

2. I know that I am a good mother and there isn't anything that I wouldn't do for my sweet little boy. I will always ALWAYS put him first.

3. I have the best mother in the entire world and I have always said that when I have kids, I want to be as kind, giving, and loving as she is to her children.

4. I am a child of God. He is my strength when I am weak.

5. I strive to be the best at everything that I do. Failure is not an option.

6. I'm very kind-hearted and loving.

7. I'm just AWE-SUMMMMMM!!! period. :)

7 Bloggers Who are AWE-SUMMM:

1. Amy

2. Jennifer

3. Holly

4. Hannah

5. Courtney

6. Amanda P.

7. Anna

Country Roads, Take Me Home...

Every time I go back to my mom's house in Texarkana, I never want to come back to Little Rock. I have so many wonderful memories living out in the country. There is nothing better than listening to the crickets chirping, birds singing, catching turtles, frogs and lizards, smelling the brush burning, and hearing NO TRAFFIC. As I got older and got into high school and college, I absolutely HATED living 15 minutes away because it was soooooo far from my friends. But now that we live in the city, I appreciate the country life so much more. It's Heaven. Simply Heaven. Don't get me wrong, I absolutely love our house in WLR. I love that it was the first home that I'd purchased and I love that it's not even a mile from Target, yes, the location you just can't beat. I love our neighborhood too. But we have a small yard. that is infested with crab grass and as soon as you walk outside, you hear traffic EVERYWHERE. Non-STOP. our dream is to find about three acres of land right outside of Little Rock. I want Graham to be able to run around outside like a wild child who's been locked up for days. with his shoes off. barefoot. like I did as a kid. and run through the woods without a worry in the world. ahhhhh, i loved growing up in the country. you could run around naked in your yard and not have to worry about any neighbors seeing you. not that i did. but i could have if i wanted to.

We had so much fun taking the boat and jet ski's out on the lake and finding our lil fishing spots throughout the day. We got out on the lake Saturday around 11am and didn't come in until 9pm. graham absolutely LOVED being on the boat! We didn't catch a whole lot of fish but I do have to brag and say that I caught the first fish of the day. Certainly not a keeper but the first one at that. :) If you know me, you know that I LOVE to fish and that I'm pretty good at it too. Yes, I had to toot my own horn. toot. toot.

Sunday afternoon, the guys went back out fishing but they went to the ponds around the house. Chad caught a HUGE catfish but didn't want to worry about cleaning it so he threw it back...Mimi was quiet upset about it. She wanted that fish! ha!

It was such a great weekend and we can't wait to do it again!

The 42 day challenge is going well! By Saturday morning, I had lost two pounds. I worked out while I was at mom's. She has an awesome treadmill...I love it. I would try to talk my husband into letting me buy one but I don't think he's going to go for it since we already have an elliptical and a bike. I get so bored with those. That is where my ADHD kicks in.

Graham started talking A LOT more this past weekend. He had us all laughing til we almost peed our pants. He is saying "va va va", "gu gu gu", "ba ba ba", "fa fa fa" ALL OF THE TIME.

Tagged

My friend, Jennifer, tagged me so here goes:

8 things I'm looking forward to:

1. Seeing Graham at noon to help out with the babies while the teachers are at their Teacher Appreciation Luncheon...he always brightens my day.
2. Getting on the road to Texarkana.
3. Going fishing tomorrow.
4. Getting a lil bit of sun.
5. Lunch...I'm already hungry and it's 10am.
6. Getting in shape!!
7. Buying a new house.
8. But getting bills paid off first.

8 things I did yesterday:

1. Worked
2. Went to the doctor.
3. Went to Wal-Mart.
4. Got Gas.
5. Cooked Fajitas.
6. Packed for T-town.
7. Washed Bottles and Dishes.
8. Played with my lil boy.

BORING!!!

8 things I wish I could do:

1. Be a Stay At Home Mom.
2. Be back in my size 2's.
3. Be Naturally thin and eat whatever I want and not have to work out.
4. Let go of the people in my life who really aren't true and good people.
5. Live closer to my mom because 2 hours really isn't close enough.
6. Make time go a lot slower because my baby is growing up wayyyy too fast.
7. Be better at staying in touch with my friends and family that matter the most.
8. Have my parents around FOREVER.

8 shows that I watch:

1. Ghost Hunters
2. The Hills
3. Bizarre Foods w/Andrew Zimmern
4. The Millionaire Matchmaker (patti rules!)
5. Grey's Anatomy
6. Hell's Kitchen
7. Keeping up with the Kardashians
8. Deadliest Catch

And I tag EVERYONE!!! :)

Can you tell it's a slow day in the office???

Quickie

I forgot to mention that our 7 1/2 month old is NO LONGER using his paci. We are soooo excited that we don't have to worry with those things anymore. they can become quite the pain in the neck. What started it all was his stuffy nose a couple of weeks ago. We would put the paci in his mouth at nighttime or whenever he usually would like it and he would spit it out. So I just took it away altogether and didn't send it to daycare anymore. He surely doesn't seem to mind. I'm so glad that he's over it now rather than trying to wean him off of it when he's older and much more stubborn...

We are leaving today to go to see Graham's Mimi and Poppi in Texarkana. they bought a fishing boat/party barge so we are taking it out this weekend for Graham's FIRST FISHING TRIP!! We are so excited!!!

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Crawling???

ALMOST!!

Cutie Pie

graham loves this recliner and loves to try to "rock out" in it too! It's so funny to watch because he knows if he throws himself forward and backward hard enough that it will rock back and forth. they catch on so quick!!

42 Day Challenge: Day 3

Today is day 3 of our 42 day challenge and so far so good...i haven't cheated yet although I have been SOOOOO tempted. I had a Reese's Peanut Butter egg in my desk drawer and it's been staring at me and begging for me to eat it...so I gave it to my co-worker. It was really hard to do because let me tell ya, I DON'T give away Reese's!! But I did. Yay for me. I have also REALLY REALLY REALLY been wanting some french fries too. But I am not going to do it. Nope, I refuse. I am NOT going to cheat. I haven't been able to exercise as HARD as I want to but at least I am still exercising. also, my eye balls are floating from all of the water that I consume all day. and any day now I should turn into a rabbit from all of the salads that I'm eating. Saturday we are to email or text Tanna and let her know how much weight we have lost and if we have used any cheats. I think our weight loss goal as a group is 365 pounds. I'm so happy to be a part of this group cause everyone is awesome!!

I'll try to post tonight with pictures of Graham and his latest happenings...he's such a doll. Man, do I love him!

ahhhh-kay

every night I call and talk to mimi and I put her on speakerphone so I can let graham hear her voice. so saturday while it was rainy and yucky, I made several calls to mimi because...well....because quite frankly, we were pretty darn bored. we had outplayed ourselves on the floor, in the jumparoo, in his walker, in his excersaucer, on the bed...we had played with everything that we have for Graham to play with...so on one of the SEVERAL calls to Mimi, she was talking to Graham and telling him how excited she is to see him this coming weekend and she can't wait to take him out on the boat and take him fishing...and she said (in her broken English that we all just absolutely love...the way my mom talks...it just makes my mom, my mom), "Graham, you be good this week and I see you this weekend." and as if he REALLY DID UNDERSTAND WHAT SHE WAS SAYING, he responded right back, "ahhhh-kay." Mom and I both heard it and I about did a back flip off of our couch. It was the cutest thing in the world. I really do think he was seriously talking back to his Mimi. :)

This little boy talks all of the time. Honestly, I don't know where he got this from...I CAN be a talker if I want to be but for the most part, I am pretty quiet...and Chad is the exact same way. graham likes to say "ka" a lot. that's his favorite. So we "ka" like birds...a lot. ka ka ka...ka ka ka...

he is now sitting up on his own without having to hold himself up with his arms...and then I see his chubby lil legs turn purple and it really freaks me out. does this happen to anyone else's kiddos??

Graham is also starting to rock back and forth on his knees so I guess this means he is going to start crawling soon. He already rolls everywhere he needs to go...he also likes to spin himself in circles while he is on his belly. silly boy.

So, this morning was Day 1 of the 42 Day Challenge and so far so good. Woke up (well, didn't really WAKE up since I pretty much stayed up all night and I guess it was from anxiety about today so let's say that I GOT OUT OF BED) at 5am and did 30 minutes on the elliptical and a few arm exercises. This evening Chad and I will do the rest of our strength training. I've already had three bottles of water and I am getting a great workout just from walking to and from the bathroom.

For breakfast I had a bowl of Kashi GoLean Crunch (an awesome cereal if you don't like yours to be soggy).

For Lunch, I had a small salad.

My snacks for later on will be grapes, fat free yogurt, and a plum.

For dinner, I am cooking a YUMMMMMYYYYY Chicken Gumbo Soup...it's low fat and super good. I got it off of Baptist Health's website. It's one of our faves and SUPER EASY to make...

Chicken Gumbo Soup

Ingredients:
1 lb Boneless, Skinless Chicken Breast, Diced

3 cups Reduced-Sodium, Reduced-Fat Chicken Broth

3 cups Water

1 cup Chopped Onion

1 clove Minced Garlic

1 tsp Salt

½ tsp Pepper

1 Bay Leaf

1/8 tsp Sage

¼ tsp Red Pepper Flakes

¼ tsp Thyme

1 cup Chopped Fresh Tomatoes

1 cup Corn Kernels, Frozen or Fresh

1 cup Okra, Frozen or Fresh

2 Tbsp Canola Oil

¼ cup Whole Wheat Flour

2 cups Cooked Brown Rice

Directions:

Place chicken in a large stockpot with 1 cup broth and bring to a boil. Add additional broth, water, onion, garlic and seasonings and simmer for 20 minutes. Add tomatoes, corn and okra and simmer for 15 minutes. In a separate pan, heat oil, add flour, and whisk until the mixture is golden brown and bubbly. Add 1 cup of the soup broth to the flour mixture and whisk until smooth. Add mixture back to the soup pot and whisk until dissolved. Simmer 30 minutes. Stir in rice the last 10 minutes of cooking.

Yield: 6 servings (serving size: 1 cup)

NUTRITION PER SERVING

Calories 271, Fat 7g, Saturated Fat 1g, Cholesterol 44mg, Sodium 480mg, Fiber 4g

Watery Weekend & a Challenge

This is the first time Graham has EVER napped on his belly

The flash woke him up...oops...I really did feel terrible...i did...really

Mom, seriously. Stop. these flashes are killin me.

LOL

Okay, my eyes are adjusted

I'm happy again! :)

Poor lil G-man is sick again. We made it over a month without a cold and then Monday rolls around and BAM...He has a runny nose, sneezing and a hacking cough. And all...I mean ALL of his nursery mates are sick too. And then Mommy got sick. But we are hanging in there. We kept Graham inside all weekend because it rained ALL DAY SATURDAY and a lil bit today. I made my way to Sam's and to Kroger for our groceries for the week...plus, I needed a lot of healthy food for the 42 day Challenge that I am starting tomorrow.

You can read all about it here:

http://tcpreciousmoments.blogspot.com/

I am so excited and so pumped that I have all of these ladies and fella as a support and motivation group. I really need this because ever since I was diagnosed with thyroid disease, I've just been down in the dumps and my energy levels have been down so I really haven't been working out and I can definitely tell. So this is great motivation to get back to it. I cannot and WILL NOT let my group down. :) Tomorrow is the first day of the rest of my life and I am going to make the best of it. I want to be healthy and strong for my lil boy. And I also wanna feel sexy for my hubby again too. ;)

Well, no time to chat...need to get Graham in the bath and ready for bed. We are all going to bed super early tonight because Chad and I are getting up at 5am so we can work out. I will probably be a zombie tomorrow but it will all be worth it...right?

BTW, I forgot to mention that Graham is sitting in a shopping cart like a big boy! I will have to take a pic next time. Chad and I both have pictures on our phones but I have NO CLUE how to transfer them from phone to computer. yeah yeah yeah...i'm probably the only person who doesn't...it's so cute though! This makes shopping so much easier for me now. Now I can go to the grocery store or go strolling around Target without worrying about carrying him in his carseat (which by the way, is IMPOSSIBLE now since he weighs 20 lbs.). We went to Hobby Lobby Friday and we had so much fun! It's a whole new world for Graham. And the beginning of so much fun shopping with Mommy. :)

Saturday Sunshine

today has been absolutely GORGEOUS so I got Graham and myself ready and we went walking around the neighborhood and then he sat in his stroller and watched me prune the heck out of my rosemary bush. it needed it bad!!! So I decided to wack it down to nothing. looks so much better too!!

Graham has now developed separation anxiety from me and Chad. BAD! We can't walk out of the room without him screaming his poor head off. This is going to take some getting used to because he's never been that way before. It started when we got back from Branson. I read in one of my books to play the "bye bye" game with him to try to ease it. It said that every time I leave him say "bye bye" and then when I return he will see that I wasn't gone for long and it should help him with the separation anxiety.

Right now, g LOVES it when we sing, "if your happy and you know it clap your hands." anytime he is getting cranky and is crying, we just start singing that and he calms down and is so happy. He will kick his feet to the tune. ha! We started doing it to teach him how to clap his hands but he would rather clap his feet.

Graham has been working on trying to crawl lately. He is trying so hard to get on his knees but it doesn't last too long.

When Graham wakes up from his nap, I'm probably going to take him to the park or I may wait until Daddy gets home from work.

I hope everyone has a wonderful Easter. I thank Jesus Christ everyday for giving his life for us.

broken or not broken???

not broken thank goodness. Thursday night, I stumped my toe REALLY bad on our bed post and I went down for the count kicking and screaming and crying and yelling...and all my husband did was laugh at me. He said that my eyes rolled into my head and he thought that quite hilarious. Normally when I do this, the pain subsides within minutes. Well, not this time. It hurt so stinkin bad all night and all day Friday. When I woke up Friday, it was so swollen and purple and it hurt to walk on it. but stupid me decided to wear heels to work anyway. Big mistake. I seriously thought I had broken it. But I decided later on Friday evening that it was just severely sprained since I didn't feel any broken bones and the pain wasn't nearly as bad.

What you are about to see is disturbing because 1.) my pedicure is AWFUL and 2.) my feet are so dry. i so sorry. Motherhood as not afforded me much time for pampering hence my hands and feet looking like poo and I'm white and pasty. But I have decided to stay white and pasty forever because fake baking is not worth looking old, leathery and whithered by the time I am 35. :) Although there have been many times I've driven by my tanning place and wanted to stop soooo bad...but I'm not gonna do it. I can't. I won't. I refuse. I need some support here. My mom is (okay I better not say her age or she will kill me) but she is in her 50's and she takes such great care of her skin and doesn't have one wrinkle on her face. I wanna look like that. okay, anyway. back to my toe. here it is. this was taken Friday night after the swelling had gone down quite considerably.

who needs mommy and daddy anyway???

lil man G has become quite self-sufficient these days...well, not COMPLETELY...he still needs us to fix his food and bring it to him but he's pretty much holding his bottle and drinking it himself. He does tend to get tired of holding it up and he will start whining which means, "mommy. help. now." Chad and I started giving him Graduates food such as the dried strawberries and bananas and the puffs. He has gotten the hang of putting them in his mouth. The other night at dinner we gave him Mum Mums which are vegetable crackers. So we just put them on his tray and let him have at it. HE LOVED IT!! I haven't let him try to feed himself any pureed food because I really don't like messes. So it may be a while before I start that.

done with his mum mums

i LOVE branson!!!

On our way to Branson!!! YAY!!! We were following Amy & David

Me driving. I have to drive or I get car sick. Graham in his seat being a good lil boy and playing...actually he was just staring at his feet.


Our view from our cabin"YAY MOM!!! We are FINALLY here!!! Now get my bottle and my veggies and FEED ME!!! This blanket is just not doing it for me!"




Had to get our seafood fix at Joe's Crab Shack.



Amy, Caroline and David Kelly...with Corbin Kelly in Amy's belly





Enjoying all of the wildlife at Bass Pro Shop



Amy and I at Branson Landing



IT'S PLAYTIME!!!!

Caroline was waving at the camera...she's so cute and SMART
Caroline loved Graham's toys and Graham loved hers

Caroline was trying to give Graham some smooches

BATHTIME!!!

"Daddy, don't you let me go! This tub is slippery!!"

Our loot

What a blast we had in Branson!! We met at Amy & David's house in Maumelle Friday morning around 9:30am and hit the road. It was such a gorgeous day for a drive through the mountains. We even got to see a camel right outside of Clinton, Arkansas. I believe it was a Llama farm that it was living on. As we were approaching the farm, I noticed this HUGE brown mass laying down and I was thinking, MY GOSH WHAT A HUGE COW!!! But then as we got closer, he lifted his head and it was a camel!! I thought that was so neat!

We arrived to Branson around 1pm and checked into the lakehouse at Alpine Lodge. This place was no Waldolf Astoria Hotel by any means but certainly served it's purpose. It was really big and we all had plenty of room and weren't right on top of each other. It had 3 good size bedrooms so Caroline had a room all to herself. She's not as heavy of a sleeper as Graham is so it worked out for everyone. The babies were starving so we unloaded everything as fast as we could and fed and changed them and then we headed out to Branson Landing. Our first stop was Joe's Crab Shack. By the time we got there it was around 4pm and none of us had eaten since breakfast so we were STARVING!!! We couldn't decide what we wanted because we wanted it ALL!!! After dinner, we walked around all of the stores around Branson Landing and had to make a stop at the Bass Pro Shop so the guys could get some lures for their Saturday fishing trip. Ben and Jerry's was our last stop for some ice cream and then we headed back to the cabin.

Saturday morning, the guys rented a fishing boat and got up at 6am to go fishing while Amy and I tended to the babies and got ready for our day of shopping! The guys got back around 11am and were quite exhausted and disappointed that they didn't get ANY fish. Amy and I left the babies with them and headed to Tanger Outlet Mall. We had so much fun and found so many great deals for the babies and for ourselves. The guys took the babies to eat pizza and then met up with us. We shopped for almost 7 hours!!! and had a blast doing it. by the time we left there and went back to the cabin to feed the babies and put them down for a nap, it was already 8:30pm so we ordered sushi to go. It was nice just to be able to sit back and relax and enjoy our friends.

Sunday morning, we woke up, packed everything up and went to eat breakfast at the Belgian Waffle House. We then went to Factory Merchandise Outlet to see what stores they had. I had to run back into Carter's and exchange the clothes that I got for Graham. I had orginally gotten him 9 month clothes but realized that he needed 12 month sizes. So I ran in to exchange those and ended up coming out with 120.00 worth of MORE clothes!!! they just had so many cute clothes and they had just opened so it wasn't packed like it was the day before when we were at Tanger. When places are so crowded, I get bad anxiety and can't think straight. I think that is why I got Graham all of the wrong sizes.

I started out driving back but right outside of Marshall, I had to have Chad drive because I was exhausted. I didn't sleep too well the entire trip because the bed was way too small for both Chad and I to be in.

I sure wish we would have taken a few extra days because there is so much to do in Branson. Graham did so great traveling back and forth. he just took naps, played and talked to us. We can't wait for our next trip with the Kelly's.

BTW, the CWA has not called a strike as of yet. Chad is still working and AT&T is still negotiating with the CWA but they are FARRRRRRRR from reaching an agreement so they are working without a contract but could strike at any point.

On a sad note, my best friend,Shauntel, her father passed away Sunday morning from a heart attack. He was only 48 years old. Tommy was a great man and he will be missed so much! please keep them in your prayers at this incredibly difficult time. Shauntel and her husband Jared are expecting their first child, a sweet baby girl named Finley at the end of July.