has it been a week already?

gosh... time is speeding up! why?! can't it slow down every once in awhile? I've noticed that many of my friends must be busy too because as I check through their blogs, not much has been updated. I do have one friend who writes once a week... wednesdays... I know that when I check her blog wednesday, late or thursday, there will be a post there to read.

work is getting busy. Tutoring is not going very well. I drive about 20 minutes to another suburb to tutor... working directly for the school system. I love teaching, I love working with the kids, but it just hasn't been very regular which frustrates me. I set up child care, I get dinner together (sort-of) for the family, etc... for just one student. Last minute cancellations, last minute no-shows, not alot of students coming through... why am I doing this? should I be doing this right now? agh! I've thought seriously about drumming up my own business around here, in my neighborhood. I keep thinking more and more seriously as I drive 20 minutes to tutor one student!!!

And... my other job, church. It's going really well... I can get most of my stuff done during naps or before/after sweet pea gets up. I like my job and my volunteer staff seems to like me?! Only 10 hours a week, but it can take away from stuff at home. It's harder than I thought to keep things balanced... I'm too used to teaching full time or working in the corporate world - go, go, go until EVERYTHING is done and you're really tired. I have to remind myself that 10 hours a week doesn't have to feel like that.

Currently, my projects outside of mommy-hood, tutoring, or nursery directorship are working on Christmas gifts. As budgets are a tad-bit tight, I'm trying to make really cool gifts for less money. If I factored in my hours to the cost of the gifts... I'm not sure if I'm actually saving any money.

I'm also working on setting up a 'once a month cooking' club between a few friends. It's sort of like the "super suppers" or "lets dish" chains that you see popping up all over the place. At those chain stores, you step in their doors, pay a sum of money ($130-$150 or so) and make yourself 8 meals (that feed 6) to put in your freezer!!! Well, I've done it and it was really great to have meals in my freezer that need just thawed and cooked! So, we're trying to set something up between friends. Basically, I'll pick a recipe that works well in the freezer and make one meal for each friend. Each friend will do the same and we'll switch! I'll get 4 meals in my freezer!!! New meals, different tastes, fellowship with friends... how could you go wrong?

OH... does anyone want to hear about sweet pea? Well, she's over her cold and pink eye... still coughs a little in the morning. She's talking more and more and imitates everything we do!!! When I'm in the kitchen, she's up on her little chair watching everything I do at the counter. When I'm doing laundry, she's pulling clothes into and out of the hamper. When I'm upstairs, she's getting out my make-up and pretending to put on blush and lipstick. I'm continuously picking up after her... but it's fun to watch her pretend! We're all looking forward to her opening presents for Christmas... I'm sure a box of tissues would make her happy, but a few toys or books will be nice too!

Have a great day (or week... depending on when I post again).

he built a house... really, a house with a hip roof

So, we got a new grill last week and hubby put it together while watching Ohio State beat Michigan (GO BUCKS).

The grill was complete and we had this box, this very big box. So, he built Sweet Pea a house.

Once it was done, the roof wasn't tall enough for Sweet Pea to stand up in... So he REMODELED the house and added a hip roof (I think that's what he called it :)
It's huge and doesn't fit through any doors... can't get it to the basement, so it's currently still in our family room... our somewhat small family room :)
She loves it though. There a pillow in there with her... she climbs in and lays down and says, "ni, ni".
It has a window, door, and two skylights!!!
Next, dad will be painting and shingling it so we can take it outside in the spring. Yes, spring, this is a permantent toy now in our house... no need for fischer price or tiny tots houses around here!!! 

fixing toys with dad...

We found a toy in the basement that wasn't working anymore... Daddy grabbed a screwdriver to take the battery cover off and replace the battery.
Sweet Pea saw the process... unscrew the screws, take off the cover, new batteries, etc.
After the toy was fixed and we played with it for awhile, Sweet Pea turned the toy over and grabbed the screwdriver and tried to get the cover back off... too cute! 

baking with mom...

I was making cookies last friday and Sweet Pea wanted to help so bad. She grabbed her little chair and pulled it over to the counter... and wanted UP! She watched everything I did... helped me count cups of flour and crack eggs (that one was a bit touchy... she wanted to grab the egg when I went to split it and put it in a bowl).
She's playing with the empty egg carton and her little bowl of cereal. Notice the bag of chocolate chips on her table. She's always carrying these around. Yesterday, after breakfast, she brought me the bag and said, "food". No, we're not having chocolate chips for a snack... sorry.
 

Traveling to Iowa!!!

Last week, Sweet Pea and I went to visit our friend, Courtney, in Iowa!!! We hadn't seen them since we went camping in July!!! Sooo strange to go such a long time between visits... it just shows you how busy summers can get!!!

Ashton (left) and Xander (right), playing with their Thomas Trains. They LOVE Thomas... they only have a few trains, but they play well with them when they are in a sharing mood. Luckily, the trains never had to go into time-out do to lack of sharing. I love that Courtney puts toys into time out when the boys aren't sharing them well :)

(picture deleted... hubby not too comfortable... no prob.)

Yes, we did it, we put Ashton ans Sweet Pea in the tub together. Soooo mean! If they ever get married the tub pics we took are SO getting blown up to poster size!!! HA!

Pushing each other in the car... sharing pretty well... at this point in the day.
He is too cute... sorry I didn't take more pics of Xander. All in all it was a great visit, just a bit short... it's always too short though! They'll probably be moving this summer, and this is the closest we've lived to them since we could walk to their house in Cincinnati... I'm still praying they move up here (I could use some help on this one... Courtney wants warmer weather and Matt wants to go East... neither of which is here).

hanging out with dad...

Sweet pea spent a day with dady while I helped some friends cut paper for their scrapbooking business...

There were a few bottles sitting in our laundry room, waiting to go outside to the recycling. Sweet pea found them and did the funniest things...

Glug, glug, glug... Ahhhh....
(if she had a belt on, it would be open with her hand partially in the top of her pants :)

a few cute stories

STORY 1...
Last night, our neighbors watched Sweet Pea while we went to our bible study (we haven't been able to find a weekly babysitter yet... g'mas/g'pas can any of you move west a few (hundred) miles?). It was report card day at their kid's school and they did well. As a reward, a trip to Dairy Queen was in order and Sweet Pea got to participate.

They got her a cone and a spoon (I would have never thought to do that!). She had a death grip on the cone! If Jodi or Michael tried to come near her, she's squawk NO and shake her head. She just used the spoon, scooped off some ice cream, turned her head to the side as she ate the ice cream, and went back to scooping off more ice cream. She's really good with a fork and spoon, she just hasn't been able to turn the utensil into her mouth so she turns her head to match the angle of the utensil. She ate and ate and ate until she was scooping air out of the bottom of the cone - all by herself - still squawking NO if someone came near her. Finally, someone had to be the bad guy and take the empty cone away from her... they had been there for 30 minutes and needed to get home!

Oh, another thing... she didn't get a drop of ice cream on her! Amazing! They grow up so fast!

STORY 2
While my parents were here, my mom introduced Sweet Pea to the joys of Tapioca pudding. She found some that is sugar free in little cups that you keep in the fridge. Well, this morning as I was getting a cup out of the fridge for Sweet Pea, she snuck by me and grabbed a cup of pudding (what I was thinking storing them on the bottom shelf I don't know... I've moved the yogurt to the top shelf). She waddled over to her chair and started crying!!!!! I was in the process of making toast and jelly (her new favorite breakfast)... but she wanted the pudding! I cut up some grapes, lifted her into her chair, and moved the pudding away from her a bit. She seemed happy. She ate most of the grapes and most of the toast and then pointed to her pudding... I looked at her and said "if you finish your grapes and toast, you can have your pudding"... she ate her grapes and toast!!! I'm sure she didn't know what I said... but she finished it so she got her tapioca!

STORY 3
We went through the car wash this morning. I guess we haven't done that in a while... Sweet Pea was looking pretty nervous. I was making funny noises at the pre-soak/soap/etc. went by, being the goofy mom and all. When the power wash cycle started, Sweet pea got a really worried look on her face and whined a little. Then, she did the sign for "all done, all done, all done". Oh, poor thing... she wanted it to be all done! She did the same thing when we were on the merry-go-round or the little roller coast at the mall. When she wanted to be done, she looked at us with a wrinkled forhead and said in her own way, "all done, all done". Too sweet.

Books, Books, Books...

Sweet Pea REALLY likes her books. It wouldn't surprise me if she inherited some of her daddy's OCD tendancies... She could seriously read books ALL DAY LONG.
Here, she's reading to herself. Da da la ya dada yada loodea layadoo calo... with her head moving up and down and the tone of her voice changing.
Her favorite are lift the flap books with animals in them. She does so many animal sounds and get such a response from us... it makes her laugh!
I think she reads her bibles (this one and two more lift the flaps) more than we read ours!!! She likes the story of Adam and Eve... not more that she likes Noah, his story has animals!!! 

more florida pics..animal kingdom

Sweet Pea was watching people playing the drums and dancing in "africa" at the Animal Kingdom. Hubby and I really wanted to go to South Africa this winter... I guess we'll have to settle for "East Africa" in Florida...
She was a little aprehensive when we first got to the petting zoo... too cute holding onto my skirt. We didn't get a picture of her petting the sheep... baa, baa, baa over and over again.
Not sure what she was looking at here... pretty face though.
She really loves fish. She could have stood here for EVER watching the fish. There was a hippo in the distance, we didn't care much though.

So, we've been back from Florida for quite awhile, but I haven't been able to sit down and blog!!! (Halloween, work for Church, tutoring, and LAUNDRY!!!)

We returned from Mexico on a saturday, I took my parents to the airport to return home on Tuesday (that wasn't a fun delivery... ), and we left for Florida on Thursday!!! Wow! I certainly wouldn't call us world travelers, but geez.

We were in Florida from Thursday through Monday, early, while hubby worked. His company has contests in their retail stores twice a year, so twice a year they reward the retail employees with a trip. The corporate employees help run the event - a vendor show, meals, community service, meetings, etc. It was 'hard work' and I'm certainly not complaining!!!! The hotel we stayed at was beautiful - Rosen's Single Creek - nice pools, really nice rooms, etc. We also got a two day pass to Disney World!!! Yes, sweet pea went to Disney World!!! During one of hubby's work days, sweet pea and I went to the Magical Kingdom and tried to meet Mickey Mouse. I say tried because she didn't exactly like those stuffed people/animals. Goofy and Pluto were WAY bigger than her doggy, Jake. Hubby's day off, Sunday, we went to the Animal Kingdom. She enjoyed that much, much more. We went on a Safari and saw elephants, hippos, giraffes, etc. They have a petting zoo too, where she petted goats (and called them dogs... they were really small goats, about the size of Jake) and ran after the sheep saying "baa, baa, baa" over and over again. Super cute.

Sunday night, about midnight, Sweet pea began throwing up. That really has never happened before... wow. She was in a great mood though! She'd get sick and then run over to get a book for us to read her. Or, she'd get sick again and then happily take a bath (because she had macaroni and cheese IN HER HAIR!). It was pretty crazy. Hubby slept most of the time - after helping whenever I needed it - so sweet pea and I were pretty tired monday morning when we got on the plane for a 7:30 flight! Yes, a plane with a throwing up toddler! Hubby was on the phone with NWA at 4:30 am trying to change our flight with no luck. We didn't want to pay $200 to change our flight or $50 to fly standby (hanging out all day in the Orlando airport with a sick toddler - fun)... so we prayed! Luckily, God was listening because Sweet pea threw up one more time on the bus to the airport and then fell asleep as the plane was traveling down the runway to take off. She woke up shortly before we landed (more than 3 hours later). It was amazing!!! I actually had people asking me at baggage claim how I did it... such a good baby... well, let me tell you, I am an amazing mom... I rock... I can work miracles... just kidding!!!

Tuesday night, hubby and I started getting sick... that's why Sweet pea watched TV all day on Wednesday. Hubby and I were laying all around the house and 'fighting' over changing diapers and taking the dog out because we both had the flu, thanks to sweet pea!!! Everyone's well now... and sweet pea just got her flu shot (does she still need one after actually getting the flu?) and I'll be getting one this afternoon.

OK... here are some pics from florida... I have to get Sweet Pea up, we have a doctor's apppointment (just a well baby check up) soon.

peeking through a tree house... following a bigger girl's lead of climbing through the window

Goofy... very scary. I think he's used to being scary because he just sat down in front of us to pose for a picture, almost like he's done it before :)
She was blowing Minnie a kiss. It was super cute!!! 

updated... once again :)

OK... he doesn't update it often, so he's asked me to let you all know.

There are new pics on my hubby's website.

done.

p.s. if anyone would like the address, here it is...
(insert hubby's name here)sdarkroom.blogspot.com

H-A-double L-O-double U-double E-N spells Halloween!!!

OK, when I was in grade school, our music teacher taught us a song about Halloween. I still sing the song in my head today... to help me spell the word. I can't remember the teacher's name, but I remember the song.

Boy have I enjoyed checking out my friends pics of their kids on Halloween!!! They are so cute!

Sweet pea was a baby chic (we called her a ducky though... because we like saying the word ducky and going 'quack, quack')

When my mom was watching her, while we were lounging by the pool in mexico, she made her the costume. She told me how hard it was to do... so I'm happy I didn't try to take on the task! The first pic is of Sweet Pea laying an egg! She really wasn't doing anything, we just thought it was funny looking! Our church has a harvest party every year... we went there instead of trick-or-treating to the two houses we really know on the block. We left a bowl of candy on our porch and drove to church for games and candy. Luckily, all of the candy was gone when we got back and sweet pea doesn't know any different about not getting candy herself! No candy made it back into our house!!!

My friend, Jenny, had a great idea of what to do with candy that kids get from Halloween though... it's called the Switch Witch. Halloween night, parents put the candy on the front porch when the kids go to sleep, and the Switch Witch trades the candy for a great toy that doesn't rot teeth!!! Next year, that might be an option!
Since the Harvest Party pics were taken inside, and hubby and I weren't feeling well (more on that later), I took more pics today (11/2) outside before our pumpkin bit the dust. The pumpkin is already looking like an old man who's lost his dentures!
She's squeeling in this pic!!! There's actually a spit bubble in her mouth from the laughter!
This was the last smile before we went inside. She was NOT happy about going back inside!!! Yikes, maybe too much time inside yesterday... again, hubby and I not feeling well, more on that later.

That's it, her second Halloween!!!