As I am...

OK, so I really do have a reason for my lack of blogging this week. No, not a bunch of more excuses. Talk about busy, look what I got Michael for Christmas...

Introducing Buddy!!

No, I really wasn't smoking anything, I promise! Here's my story and I'm sticking to it! On Wednesdays and weekends, when Michael has the day off, I do a little independent contracting in my free time. What does that mean? Well, I run around doing whatever I can get people to pay me to do, that is legal, of course! Well, I was off doing one of these jobs when a maintenance guy came into a shop with this precious pup and said he had found him and they were calling animal control. Well, being the softy I am I started playing with the little guy, loving on him and all and they said I could take him if I wanted him. Michael has been pining for another dog, if you remember all of our dog travesties back in the fall and I knew he would just love this guy. Before I was out the door he already had a name and a place in my heart. This little stinker that has decided to make my house his own personal litter box, the chord to my laptop his favorite chew toy and my pillow his dog bed, has just drawn everyone of us in. He is such a little lover, he just wants to hug and play all the time. I really think this ones a keeper!

It's funny how God just works things out sometimes. We were looking so hard for a dog for so long and they just never worked out. We gave it to God and said, "If you want us to have a dog you are going to have to drop one in our laps." Don't you know he did it? He's pretty amazing that way!

Anyway, Buddy has been keeping me on my toes. Not to mention looking for work when I have a moment and just altogether keeping up with the peanut! Plus, I've had steering committee meetings, friends to shop with, playdates, cookies to bake and our MOPS Christmas dinner to attend. This has been a really busy week! Particularly for someone who doesn't have a car I tell you! But it's been a good week too and God has provided in really great ways to get me where I'm going when I need to go. Have I told you I'm thankful to Him lately? Well, I am. He has really provided exactly what we need.

I did want to mention one very big prayer request for you guys, my friend Susan, over at Let My Lifesong Sing, lost her brother very suddenly this last week. She actually started blogging about two years ago to have a place to go to just get out her thoughts and feelings when this same brother was paralyzed in an accident. She has such a love for God and for her family and church members, she is just a wonderful encouragement to me as her faith has only grown through the years. It has been a hard couple of years for Susan and her family and this was just a devestating blow to them, including to her mother, of course. Please remember them in prayer tonight, as you thank God for the loved ones in your life. And, if you are so inclined, please go visit her blog and let her know you are praying for her.

Thank you my dear readers!

Amy

Santa Baby

My New Favorite Picture
First of all, can I just say how cute the above picture is? I almost considered using it for our Christmas cards. She just looks like a little snowbunny. The funny thing is the coat is absolutely swimming on her and it's only 18 months. (She's nearly 22 months!) She is such an itty bitty. Her 12 month coat still fits. Crazy!

Santa Claus is coming...
So yesterday the peanut and I went to Wal-Mart for a few items. While we were there who was there ho ho hoing but old St. Nick. Since the peanut has been walking around the house for the last week saying "Santa" I thought this was my opportunity to have that perfect picture and for free! Woo hoo! Of course, when it came time for the man in red all I got was kicking and screaming. And, that was just from Santa. :) He definitely did not want a crying baby on his lap and made it pretty clear to me. Yeah, good times at Wal-Mart.

Mommy Dearest
For those of you that are parent's, what do you remember as being one of the sweetest moments with your kids? I have to tell you, I had one this week. The peanut said, "I love Mommy" for the first time today. Is that the most precious and heartwrenching thing you ever heard. It makes the crying at Santa seem like pretty small potatoes.

Yummy Yummy Yummy I got love in my tummy
Today I made the most yummy breakfast. Crepes!! They were oh so good. Sorry no picture but we had to gobble them in a hurry before church. It was actually a quick recipe instead of the one that usually takes several hours or overnight. I found it on allrecipes.com and it was really good! Here it is for anyone interested: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Basic-Crepes/Detail.aspx

I'm in a hurry to get things done
The next few days should be pretty busy. Besides my usual mommy and wife stuff, I am going to be making three desserts for a dinner my MOPS group is putting on for lower less privelaged families. I think I'm going to make cheesecake with blueberry topping, pretzel sticks dipped in various chocolates for the kids and a Christmas cake. The pretzel sticks are the most work but they are so yummy in the end!

Bye, Bye, Bye
OK, yours truly is tired. And I mean seriously tired...I think I'll go to sleep...zzzzz....

Trick or Treat

We have had a busy last two weeks. Lots of playdates, a couple of trips to the doctor, a trip to the zoo and a super fun day of trick or treating have made me one tired mommy!! We have a real fun zoo program here where they do all kinds of cute kid things, like the bouncy house...

...trick or treating and pumpkin bowling. Since we have a zoo membership it's super nice that we can go there and just have a fun free day!

The weather here has been so cooperative. The peanut got to jump in a big old pile of leaves I raked for the first time too! She loved it! In fact, yesterday I opened the door for the dog, she walked right out and went right back to that pile of leaves. So cute! I got a couple of real cute shots that day too...

Then tonight it was dress up time. She was the cutest ladybug you ever did see! My sister's daughter wore the costume last year so it was free...my favorite price! And people could not stop oohing and ahhing over it. Adorable!!

My husband was Peyton Manning and the dog was dogzilla! Hilarious! I wish I had a better picture of it for you. You should google dogzilla costume and see it better. So funny!

The peanut got the worst ear infection of her life, which is saying a lot since she had one consistently for 6 months before she got tubes last year. I felt so bad for her as we had no idea and she was so fussy last weekend. We figured out the pressure must have been building and it finally just burst. It was horrible. So, she's on antibiotics (which have been burning her poor little tooshy to no end!) and ear drops now. Hopefully it will clear up soon!

I have a respiratory thing going on...what's new with that though. Nothing a little streroids can't help, right? :) Yep, they don't even mess with antibiotics, go for the strong stuff with me! LOL

One of my friends from Seattle was out last week (I lived there 4 1/2 years ago) and she has a daughter the same age as the peanut. It was fun catching up and was funny that it seemed like it was just yesterday that we had seen each other last! Aren't those the best kind of friendships?!?!

So that's what's going on in our lives...how are you doing?!?!

Wait for you

So I know I’ve been absent with the exception of memes and pictures for the most part. This weekend was busy, busy. Trying to fix the very leaky faucet and lawnmower, having dinner with my parents, church, dinner with missionaries from Hungary, baby shower, etc…, just altogether busy. Mostly a lot of running around, which I am going to continue soon. Michael’s going to be home shortly and then off to Wal-Mart again. I tell ya, now that we live in this small town, we live at the Wal-Mart. There’s just not much else to go to. I’ve really been wishing there was a Menards, I love Menards. They have everything there, it’s the best!

Little Ms. Independent no longer holds my finger when she wants to go somewhere, she just goes. Today in the library she wanted to go one way and I wanted to leave. So, I started walking out the door, saying, “Bye, bye” the whole way. Yeah, I had to pull that one out. Anyway, she comes running up to me, holds up her hand and clear as day says, “STOP!” The same way I talk to the dog. Oh yeah people, my hands are really full here!

She’s also decided she likes cartoons. Particularly Little Einsteins, which is a good one for her to like. She’s so funny though, she’ll go into the loft, grab the remote control and give it to me as if to say, “Turn on my cartoon Mama!” Smart she is.

And, the magic eraser has become Amy’s best friend. That thing takes off crayon, can you believe it? Right off her toys. Mmmm hmmm, that’s my new nemesis. Writing utensils.

So now you’ve gotten the update. Exciting I know, just a day in the life…

Snakes and Snails and Puppy Dog Tails

OK, so there are really no snails in this tale, but the rest of the title is true. It's only Saturday night and the weekend has been so eventful already. I just feel like the last two days have been rushing by as I've been so busy! All self imposed, but busy nonetheless!

A picture of the peanut today...cute!!

Yesterday, a new friend I met at preschool storytime at the library, came over for a playdate. Her daughter is a couple of months younger than the peanut and they were so cute to watch play together. They are still at an age where they are not really playing together, together but more near each other. They are learning though and gave each other some hugs and kisses as they day wore on. After they left, the peanut slept for 3 1/2 hours! That is crazy! And she only woke up because I had to go deliver a meal to someone who had a child. We then went to the park for a bit and came home for our nightly routine.

We woke up this morning and had to take the dog we got 2 weeks ago, Jake, back to the Humane Society. 2 days ago he attacked Ellie Mae, the most passive dog on the planet, and we knew it wouldn't work. They didn't tell us she was aggressive when it came to other dogs and food. When Ellie would just go near a bone or food she would go nuts on her. It totally just didn't work. We were sad because we really liked him, but we have to protect Ellie, and the peanut for that matter. What if she would have put her hand near her food? Not good!

Unfortunately, the humane society we got her from was an hour and a half away so we had to go all the way there to drop him off. My husband wanted to look at some other dogs, which we did and didn't see any other dogs that would fit us. When we were pulling out though, the dogs that had been brought out to the community were being brought in and so they stopped us. Of course, they had a beagle, which I now have laying next to me. Yeah, we got another one. We said we never would again, but they just seem to fit our family well. Her name is Daisy.

Seriously, is this dog not just too cute? Unfortunately, we have no idea how it happened, but when we went in to give the peanut a bath she got out of our five foot, very secure fence and got hit by a car. At least that's what the lady across the street said. We didn't hear anything, but I suppose it could have. We caught her in the field behind us, she's not hurt at all, thank the good Lord for that. I could really, seriously smell alcohol on this lady's breath so I just don't know. Anyway, we are going to have to chain her up when we are not out there with her until we can figure out how she did it. Maybe she scaled it, the little Houdini. I'm just so thankful she is ok.

Also, she's obsessed with the chickens. Totally my fault since I let them out in front of her to wander for a bit. She chased them and actually had one cornered sniffing it, you could hearing that thing squwaking forever away! Luckily my hubby got down there quickly enough to get the poor girl, ugh! What have I started?!?!

Oh, and as for the snakes, my husband found one while mowing our yard today...ugh! I hope he's not taken up residence in our much too high yard of weeds. I'm telling you, it doesn't rain in forever and the grass doesn't grow then all of a sudden it rains a couple of days and the grass goes nuts but you can't cut it because it's so wet. Oh man our grass is long after just 1 week! Crazy!! And I shouldn't even say grass, holy cow is it a huge pile of weeds. And there's so much of it forget trying to stop it. Our yard is huge all of a sudden! Love, love, love it!

Well anyway, it's about time for bed. Tomorrow is another big day of church on another side of town, Hungary meeting and then my goddaughter's 2nd birthday...busy, busy day!

Take care all and thanks for visiting!

Finally, some relief!

I was just looking at the weather report and it seems as though we are going to get a break from the craziness. All this week highs are going to be above the freezing point. Yup, it's true, and I couldn't be happier. I think I got frostbite last night on my toesies. Also, it means some of this snow will dissipitate. (Well, there's a 10 cent meteorological term if I've ever heard one! Hope I used it right.)

We had a pretty good weekend. Friday night we had pizza and went shopping at Wal-Mart. Yes, I know, we are pretty exciting that way. :)

Saturday we spent the day baking cookies for a youth event that night. We made sugar, peanut butter and chocolate chip. That was a whole lot of cookies going on. Of course, most of them didn't get eaten, so guess where they are sitting now? Yes, half are in my belly, half are on the kitchen counter. Michael needs to take those to work for goodness sake!

So we went to the youth event, it was a Valentine type thing but meaning love for God. It was a really nice event and the kids seemed to enjoy it, so that is good. We go to a really small church in a tiny community where there are other small churches, so the churches have banded together for youth events so there will be more than 2 or 3 at each one. It's been a great thing and about 25 kids were there.

Sunday we went to church and then Michael took Lilla over to his parents house for the day. Yes, that meant 6 whole hours of free time for me. Holy cow, it was great! I relaxed, took a bath, watched an episode of House on DVD, played with my blog (of course!) and cleaned. It was so nice just to have that time. I'm thankful Michael gave it to me.

So that is about the tall and short of it. Today I need to drop books off at the library, get an oil change and other errands like that. Hope you all have a good President's Day!