What I have been doing with my time

Ok so one of my new kicks for right now, well I have always loved it but just got back to doing it frequently, is reading.

I am using my local library and its connection to bigger libraries to get whatever I want, I just have to be patient.

A lot of what I am getting is patterns for crochet or sewing and stuff like that. Then there are the teacher books, and I am STILL looking for a job. Two of the books I have checked out this summer though are regular reads and I loved them.

The first was Kate Gosselin's new book.

I Just Want You to Know: Letters to My Kids on Love, Faith, and Family

I was an avid watcher of Jon and Kate Plus Eight. I have many feelings on the topic but I really don't want to get into them here because its none of my business and that's my new mantra this year. Also Kate does a really good job of removing that drama from this book. There is no hate for Jon and its very faith filled. Mainly it is just excerpts from her journal and love letters to her children. It is very uplifting and also reminiscent of the show from the good old days. It also gives a behind the scenes look at things you saw in the show. I have loved her two other books and this one was no disappointment, but I would say you can't be a Kate hater and read it, you would just be too prejudice. You wouldn't believe how many mean comments I got just from having the book in my purse.


The next book I read was a short paperback thriller that 5 minutes for books had a review on. Well the review was actually on the second in the series. So I checked out the first one. Its called Bundle of Trouble (A Maternal Instincts Mystery) I loved it. It was the first thing I have read that actually described how I felt about being pregnant, having a baby and being a new mom. It was like Diana Orgain was me and I her. I would wake Clayton up at night to tell him how much this was exactly how I felt. It was a quick read and I am now onto the second one, Motherhood is Murder.

It is sitting on my nightstand just waiting on me to finish....

After I finish these I have a whole stack waiting on me...time to get reading while Lilly is napping!
Now for a cute pick of her!

Laying low

I have been laying low because I have been really busy and blogland just makes me busier not only do I spend hours looking and liking but then I spend time adding to my "to do list" and that makes even more things for me to do.

Right now I am only focused on getting a job to do my part for my family. It is hard because I am struggling right now. I want to stay home with Lilly. I see more and more everyday how much she needs me. I looked at a job today that if I got it would mean I would be home with Lilly during her waking time only 3 hours a day. I about threw up. That breaks my heart. Teaching seems to be less of a betrayal of my daughter and more of spreading the love and I would have more time with her too. It is so hard for teachers right now, at least in my area. I can only pray and give it all to God that the right thing will happen. My family needs me to work but I need to be home with my family.

The other part of my time is spent coming to terms with my daughter turning one in just a few days. It is hard as I am sure most of you know. I am trying to create a free and memorable party. I am trying not to cry. She is getting so big and she is getting so smart.

When she wants something she looks at it and says "here, here" with her hand out at the object. it soooo cute. She says "hi" and "dada" and "momma" perfectly. She plays well with Allee and Holly her cousins that are 3 and 5. She dances to anyhting resembeling music. She watches the shows on PBS and Nick Jr now. She sleeps in her bed and has for over 2 months. But among all this good she also...

bites. 2 weeks in a row she has bit at church. One time really bad and the next not so bad but now she is in isolation at church which goes against why we take her isntead of leaving her with my mom. We wanted her to get to play with other babies since she doesn't go to daycare. If it doesnt change soon then we might have to reevaluate. I love her so much!

Bucket List Summer 2010

1. Go to the Zoo
2. Go to the Botanical Gardens
3. Go to the Park
4. See Luke-man
5. Lilly's first Birthday Party and all it involves
6. Job Hunt
7. Morgan's sweet 16 party and shirt
8. Decorate Morgan's room
9. Make charm bracelets
10. Go see Eclipse
11. Get new S Meyers book
12. Teach Morgan to crochet
13. Finish Morgan's messenger board
14. Walk 100 Miles
15. P90x
16. Top 100 Movies
17. Top 100 Children's books
18. 10 of the top 100 books
19. Go to Ghengis Grill for lunch
20. Make my first quilt ever
21. Make a stroller Cover for the Umbrella Stroller
22. Make Roman Shades
23. Finish Embroidering Nursery Rhymes
24. Make Luke a bow tie and matching one for Cade
25. Finish Allee's beach dress
26. Make myself a skirt for church
27. Make one of each of my new patterns
28. Make some nice burp clothes for go-to gifts
29. Turn spongebob shirt into good tote/bag for libary
30. Read a book of the Bible every month
31. Crochet a blanket
32. Crochet a scarf for myself
33. work ahead on some Christmas presents
34. Blog MORE
35. Get back into Meal Planning

Laziness has overtaken me

At first I thought the reason I haven't posted in almost a month is because of laziness and then I remembered why I haven't.

The first three weeks after my last post were busy busy at work. Then work was over and it is now summer break. I was so excited to think about all the time I would have off to shop and lay by the pool with my sweet baby. Then I remembered I AM UNEMPLOYED!

I am in job search mode like there is no tomorrow. In fact there might not be a tomorrow if I don't have a way to help support our sweet little family.

I have been looking but since I am a teacher by trade there are close to zero jobs out there right now. I am looking up to an hour in every direction. I have like 20 applications in but no results. I am really starting to sweat this. I just really need a couple of breaks and then I can do the rest.

Mainly though, I just have to put it in God's hands and I know that but I am struggling as you can tell.

One thing from this time off though, is we found a house! Right now we live in the equivalent of a pool house. It is wonderful to be able to stay here and save money but since we are only making what we need to live there is no saving going on. Plus later in this year our family has offered this same sweet deal to my brother and sister-in-law. They need this place for her and her son to live while brother is in Afghanistan.

I know it sounds silly to say we found a house and we have NO money in the same breath but we spoke to a lender friend of my Realtor Mother-in-law and she said we are in perfect shape once I have any form of employment. SO that is what we want.

Let's spend sometime on the house. It is perfect. We both love it. It is a 3 bed 2 bath completely renovated. It has a detached office but Clayton lovingly refers to it as his laboratory since he is a scientist. Then there is a small add-on room that is a ....CRAFT ROOM!!! I love it! No pics tonight I am tired so not going to even try.

Over Half Way There

So even though I have not posted my "official" Summer 2010 Bucket List I wanted to let you know that I am over half way there on crossing off Top 100 Movies. I crossed off 2 movies today and that put me to a whopping 51 titles down 49 to go and I have at least 6 waiting on me in my DVR or in library rentals. This is really motivating on a lot of things. I know it is only movies as my husband says but I am excited to do this. I have 5 reviews waiting in the "to be written pile" and 1 movie that I am in the middle of and can't seem to finish (that tells you how good I think it is).

So look forward to:
The Best Years of Our Lives
The Searchers
Rebel Without a Cause
It Happened One Night
Dances With Wolves

coming soon....and also

Today was my little sis-in-laws birthday party...she turned 3! Her main gift was this extreme tree house that is about 100 sq feet. In it is her play kitchen so I made her a bunch of crochet food. It was all inside a reusable Wal-Mart sack so she could shop like Mommy. I made her ice cream sandwiches, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, tomato slices, lettuce, and cupcakes. I am going to make a lot more of this food for her and my daughter to play with in the kitchen. It is so much nicer than plastic food and I am so much better at it than felt food but maybe I will try that too!

I also started on a dress for Alexandra. Started...not finished so she will get it asap! It is gorgeous so far so I will take some pictures and see if yall like it!

Another Big change around the house is the hubs and I are starting P90x tonight and Lills in already down for the night so any minute now he will tell me its time! I am so nervous! We'll see how it goes. Maybe I will keep you daily updated.

Busy Busy Bee

Ok I am little more happy with the blog now. I was so unhappy that I did not blog for a few days purely because I did not want to look at it. That is sad.

I am working on a bunch of this right now and like I said before May is extremely busy.

First we had our anniversary weekend and it was exactly what we needed. I loved every minute of it. First we checked into our hotel after dropping Lilly off and it was a nice nice room! It had a hot tub in the room right next to the bed that could have easily fit four adults, luckily we only needed it to fit 2! Then we went to dinner at Razzoos. I love it there and plus we wanted to have a few drinks and they are good as well. We went back to the hotel and crashed. Saturday we got up and went shopping. The area is new to us and so nice. Went to World Market, Joanns, a local toy store, and a few other places. We had lunch at kincaid's then back to hotel to rest and watch tv. We left a little early for our dinner reservations and stopped at Barnes and Nobel grabbed a few books and then off to the Melting Pot for some Fondue-goodness for our anniversary dinner. The booths are so sweet and you get to sit close together instead of across from one another. There was a sweet HAppy Anniversary card on the table. We did not skimp either we got the 4 course Big Night In dinner and it was amazing. Clayton's favorite part was the dessert and the 2 Long Island Ice Teas he had so I drove home to the Hotel. We tried to sleep late the next morning but by 8am we were up in excitement to see our sweet Lilly girl. It was the best feeling in the world when we walked in my parents to pick her up and she smiled, put her arms up and laughed. She also said Dada but I will ignore that...

Fast Forward to Mother's day weekend.

Friday night we went with a bunch of Clayton's family to see the Ranger's beat Kansas City. We took Lilly and she loved it. It was a place where she could people watch and be loud, her two favorite things! She fell asleep no lie during the final pitch of the game and slept through the 15 minutes of fireworks following the game. She went straight to her crib when we got home and slept through the night!

Saturday morning we got up and got Lilly ready to go see her manny and Pops. They were keeping her while we went downtown to play in a 42 tournament. It was put on by the Fort Worth Aggies Club and it was gonna be tough. 42 is an Aggie past time. Our only goal was not to get put out in the first round...and we didn't! We made it three rounds and almost 4. It was so much fun!I can't wait to play in another one.

Sunday was Mother's Day and Clayton and Lilly gave me breakfast in bed. It was a dr Pepper and package of Donuts! I love it! We went to church and then visited all the moms. It was a good day!

This week is high clean mode. My bestie from college is coming to stay with us this weekend and I want to feel at ease when she is here. This week also is the get-ready-for-the-carnival week. This weekend we have a school carnival and I have to make 770 of Bakerella's cake balls. Thats a bunch so I am starting tomorrow. Wish me Luck! We have a lot of plans with Amanda so I will post on how those go later.

Also this weekend is my almost 3 year old sisters birthday! I have gotten her a bunch of stuff but I am also making her a dress and some crochet food. I will make each a post.

I also have finished 4 more movies on my list and need to finish writing up their reviews.

Summer is getting near and I need to post the actual "Summer 2010 Bucket List" for Morgan and me so we can get started.

have a good time till the next,

New Look

Ok so you might notice I have a new look... I hate it! I can't fix it and make it what I want. My posts all look different now. Like my movies post looks normal in the preview but in the actual post it looks terrible. I am miserable about it. I spent 3 hours on this last night and thought it was great BUT my Lilypie tickers things don't fit on the side, some of my posts cut off on the right side, and now my posts are all wonky. I wish I knew more about blogging or could afford someone like Blog Fairy to do it for me. The only part I like is the linkbar across the top so I can have tabs.

I may spend all night again trying to fix it. We'll see.