Wordless Wednesday- Spring!

Friend Makin' Monday!

I haven't participated in a FMM in awhile but since today's questions are all about SPRING, I thought I would play along!

1. Favorite things about Spring: flowers, cherry blossom trees, sunshine filled days after the long long rainy winter, Easter, being able to leave the house without bundling up myself and my toddler....

2. What I'm doing for Spring Break: um...I am a grown up with no school aged children. Spring break is irrelevant to me except that my brother is staying with us for the week! He is getting married in May and I am savoring this special time in his life with him. Plus, him and my husband are best buds so it's like Brett gets to have a friend over and spend the night, hee hee. :)

3. Favorite Spring flower: I love tulips!!

4. Do you have a garden? I wish. :( I attempted to garden last year but it was a mega FAIL. Maybe someday....

5. If so, what do you grow? I did attempt to grow some tomatoes. I don't want to talk about it though....too traumatizing. *sniff sniff*

6. Do you do Spring cleaning? Yes! I love opening the windows and letting the fresh air in! It's hard to stay indoors during the nice weather though. We desperately need to clean out our guest room, especially since it is going to house the newlyweds for a couple months after their wedding! I'm really looking forward to free babysitting spending some quality time with them!!

7. What is your weather *really* like right now? It's actually pretty Spring-y! Right now the sun is shining and it's a cool 51 but feels nice in the sunshine.

8. Snapped any weather related photos lately? Here is a pic of Emersyn at the zoo last week!

9. What's your favorite thing to do on a sunny afternoon? Go on a walk, go to the zoo, go to the park! Any of those work! :)

10. Favorite TV show right now? Biggest Loser for sure! :) I also love Thursday night shows....Community, Parks & Rec, Office and 30 Rock. Hilarious.

Thursday Tidbits

I went to check on Emersyn last night and out of no where she says, "apple" in her sleep. Too sweet. :)

It's been awhile since I posted some Thursday tidbits so I thought I would give it a go today....

*I'm super excited to go see Michael Buble in a couple weeks!!! He is just so stinkin' good looking talented!! Ha! :) Emersyn is going to have a sleepover at her Nana and Papa's; her third one!!

*I feel like my baby cravings have been quenched (for the time being) now that my BFF is pregnant. I am going to live vicariously through her for now!! Tomorrow I am going to visit a new baby though that was born yesterday. Hopefully that won't reignite any of those longings. :)

*Emersyn is ever changing and growing up right before my very eyes. Something that she has started to do which is just LOVELY is shrieking at other kids. She is so funny. I think she get's jealous or threatened. For example, at Trader Joes they have tiny shopping carts for the kids. See below:

Sorry the picture is so blurry but Emersyn is a speedy little shopper. Anyways, while in Trader Joes, we would encounter other kids pushing their own little mini shopping carts. Emersyn would leave her cart and go over to them and there cart and kind of shriek at them, almost like accusingly! I told her, "Emersyn, they have their own cart....come back and get your cart" but it was like this funny territorial thing. She was like that at the zoo today, if she was looking at an animal and another kid would come up next to her and look she would shriek like she was jealous they were there too, not because they were necessarily in her space. She has also kind of started pushing other kids. Not very often but the other night her and Estella, her little BFF, were playing on a slide together and Ems would get frustrated if Stella would just sit on the top of the slide and not go down and kind of push her. I think she is just learning how to communicate too but I hate the shrieking thing. She will also shriek at adults that say hi to her if she is in a bad mood or too tired. Oh man. The terrible two's have arrived early it seems. :)


I can't complain too much though. She is generally a very sweet and loving child. I think she is just developing a strong willed personality with really shouldn't surprise me too much seeing who her daddy parents are! :) Anyone else have experience with this type of territorial thing in their toddler?



*I have started going to the gym when I can after work. Not only do I get a chance to work out....I get a chance to READ!!! I have actually been enjoying my magazine subscriptions lately! I need to order the new Jodi Picoult book at the library now that I will have a chance to read it!

Happy Thursday everyone!

Wordless Wednesday- My Teething Toddler

BEST NIGHT EVER!!!!

Soooo I have been waiting to share this until my BFF made the official announcement via Facebook and blogland......

The weekend before last, Tiffany came to town for a women's conference. I would have loved to go with her but since my own church's womens retreat was the weekend prior, I felt like it probably wasn't the wisest choice for my budget. :) The conference ended on Saturday afternoon and then her/our friend Molly dropped her off at my house. I was SO happy to have her all to myself for an evening. We only get to see each other a couple times a year which stinks now that we have little ones. :(

Emersyn was at her Nana's and Brett was still at work so we got to chat for a good hour or so before Brett and Emersyn got home. Tiffany shared with me all the things that she felt God was telling her and the things He had revealed to her at this women's conference and I was so happy for her. I know that she has wrestled with infertility and she really seemed at peace with the Lord's timing in everything. I knew that she was supposed to "start" over the weekend but she hadn't yet so she planned on taking a pregnancy test the next morning.

Brett and Ems got home, we ate dinner and then sat down to relax. Being the impatient one that I am, I said "why don't you just take the test now?". Tiffany looked skeptical because you really should take them first thing in the morning and I only had one test. I told her no worries, I would totally send Brett to the Dollar store if this one was negative. My husband looked thrilled at the prospect of going to the Dollar store to buy his wife's BFF a pregnancy test, ha! He would have though if I wanted him to, that is just how great he is. :)

I gave Tiffany a plastic cup, the pregnancy test, and told her to go give it her best shot. I was praying the whole time. I so didn't want her to be disappointed and I wondered if it was a bad idea having her take the test at night. I was waiting outside when I heard her washing her hands. "You're not waiting by yourself are you??!!?" I shouted. She opened the door. "Nothing yet", she said. I looked at that oh so familiar dollar store test. The one that told me a hundred times that I wasn't pregnant and the one that told me exactly three times that I was indeed pregnant. My heart sank. There was just one line. I went out of the bathroom where I noticed that Emersyn had climbed upstairs to see what we were up to. All of the sudden Tiffany says, "There is a LINE". I race back into the bathroom. Indeed there was a line. Kinda. It was like super super light. I was skeptical. Tiffany was not. She starts screaming and jumping. I start screaming and jumping. Emersyn starts screaming but not out of joy, it is out of terror!! I pick Emersyn up and race downstairs with the pee test in hand. I shove it in Brett's face. I am sure he is thrilled to have my friends pee stick in his face at this point but I demand that he look at it. He agrees that it is there but it is faint. Tiffany grabs her wallet and says we have to go get another test. I tried to run out the door but Brett insisted that I stay to calm Emersyn down. He thought it was traumatizing for her mama to be screaming and then run off and I agreed. After Emersyn calmed down, we headed to Walgreens. I was in a daze. Tiffany had waited for this for so long. Did I really get to witness this dream come true for her?? She grabbed a digital test and then we went back home for a repeat of the episode above, except this time there wasn't a faint line, only a very definite "pregnant" declaration, and there was more screaming from us and sadly, from Emersyn too. Tiffany handed over the other digital pregnancy test for me to use someday since she had two confirmed tests. It is sitting in my bathroom right now, probably freaking my husband out, ha! :)

So what do you do when you find out your best friend is pregnant? You take her shopping!!! :) We went to Target and then Kohls to find a "Big Brother" t-shirt. Tiffany wrestled with not telling her husband until she got home but she asked Brett which he would have preferred and he said he would rather be told in person. We found the perfect shirt at Kohls and I can't wait to see pictures of Riley in it, holding his baby brother/sister.

Lou, thank you for getting pregnant at just the right time so that I could witness such a special event with you!!! Praying that God will bless this pregnancy and give you lots of energy.....you're gonna need it!!!

Monday Monday!

Happy Monday friends! I posted some links & pictures of a couple recipes that I made over the weekend on my other blog. I felt so domestic, my heart nearly burst with pride. :) I totally took like 25 pictures of my creations, ha ha!


Also, I have been neglecting my memory verse project for the year! I am still working on the last one but it is now in my iPhone and that will make it much easier to remember. We went to church last night and I was praying all day that the Lord would give me a verse to memorize that had meaning for this time in my life. Last night Pastor Caleb shared a great message and it included this verse:


"Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest. Take my yoke uponyou and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart and you will find rest for your souls, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light." Matthew 11:28-30


Such a great verse. I think that sometimes I grow weary in thinking about how dreams, goals, etc. will ever be fulfilled. That isn't for me to worry about. I fully believe that the Lord does not intend for us to go through this life stressed out. In fact, I believe as Christians that we are called to be different and set apart in this world. We live in a culture that strives on busyness and stress. I heard a message once that stayed with me forever.....let's set ourselves apart by NOT worrying and NOT stressing. Had I not married my husband, I think I *might* have turned out to be a rather high strung person. Brett totally mellowed me out and for that I am grateful. I long to be the kind of woman, wife and mother that doesn't burden my friends and family with my stresses or worries. I think it is so refreshing to be around people that truly trust in the Lord and don't let the cares of this world weigh them down. Worry, in a sense, is like a slap in the face to the Lord. It's like saying He isn't big enough for our problems. I don't want to be like that.

I was working on my Bible Study last night and came across this statement....

"Faith is like a muscle, it grows with use and atrophies if it is not used. Faith is not a feeling, it is an often made choice- it is the decision to take God at His word and place more value on what He says than how things look from where we sit."

Faith is like a muscle....interesting to think about. :)

5 Question Friday

I haven't participated in a Five Question Friday for a long time but when I saw question number 5, I just knew I had to play along this week!! :)

Thanks to Mama M. for hosting 5QF every week!

Shall we begin?

1. How much time do you spend on the computer a day? Hmm...it depends! On days that I work, I try not to be on the computer very much at home because I am on it for 5 hours at work. I do check in with my blogger friends in the mornings for maybe 20 minutes or so while I eat breakfast if Emersyn is playing happily. Now that I have my iPhone I have to be really careful to limit my computer time. Sometimes Brett will be on the laptop all night and I will be on my phone and at the end of the night, I just feel kinda icky like I wasted a ton of time. As the weather gets nicer, I am hoping to enjoy my mornings with Emersyn being active rather then inside on the computer!

2. Will you pay for your children's college or raise them to pay for their own way? I hope to do a little of both honestly. I hope that my children make practical choices in regards to which schools they attend and then I hope to be able to assist them while encouraging them to pay for themselves too. I think that if you pay for school entirely, they might not totally appreciate school and work as hard as if they were paying themselves. On the other hand, I think that if you don't help in anyway, you set them up for failure too. I personally moved out and got my own apartment at age 18 and never went to school because the overhead of paying for my own lifestyle caused me to work a ton and not have time for school. I want to do everything I can to make sure my children get their degrees right out of high school. This is something both my husband and I regret not doing!

3. Have you ever been in a car accident? Yes. I rear ended a lady when I was 17 but it wasn't too bad. Brett hit a guy in our apartment complex who cut a corner and came out of nowhere and that damage was pretty bad but that is a cool story I will save for another day. :) Then I was hit this last summer by a lady who ran a red light. See that story and pictures here.

4. What is your favorite book? Hmm....my favorite fiction book would have to be "My Sister's Keeper" by Jodi Picoult. I like pretty much anything that she writes. My favorite non-fiction book would have to be "Anonymous" by Alicia Britt Chole.

5. Do you make your bed everyday? YES I DO!!!!!! I can say that for the first time in my entire life!! I totally deep cleaned our room before a date night (wink wink) a couple weeks ago and we have made our bed every day since. It will be three weeks tomorrow!!! There's something about going in my room during the day and seeing the nicely made bed that brings me joy!