Rambles

I just love this warm, springtime weather. It makes me so happy that even though the wind is blowing 25 mph, it just doesn't matter. I have been home today with the doors and window shades open! Let's not re-visit Winter 2009/10 again. Thanks.

Trying to get a handle on cleaning our bomb of a house, I'm doing laundry. For some reason, I think the sound of the washing/dryer machine is one of comfort. I don't know why, but it's just a comfortable feeling knowing that in about 20 minutes, my clothes are going to be clean and warm!

Our vacuum stopped suctioning - which is part of the reason why our house is messy. If you come over in the next few days, please don't look down. My floors (carpet and tile) are absolutely gross. I took the vac to the House of Vacuums and we'll see if they can fix it. We bought it brand new at a garage sale for $20 about 4 years ago. I love great deals.

We are having a garage sale at the end of April. I can not wait. We do this every year and although this year might be a bit smaller "merchandise" wise, the fun will not be. It's going to be the day before the marathon...which I'm supposed to be training for (relay). I think I'll start tomorrow. April Fools? We shall see.

Flubs

I was so proud of myself today for baking my amish friendship bread. I was starting to feel like a real Rachael Ray. I mixed everything up, divided into bread pans...and found an egg shell at the bottom of the bowl.

Last weekend I had Justin clean out his side of the closet. He was excited because he found a pair of jeans that had been lost in the crap shoved in a laundry basket. He put them on but thought they were a little big for him - thus came out the belt to hold them up. Once he showed me the pants, he said...wait, are these yours?? Why yes, yes they are.

I was on my way to go pick up something I had bought off of Craigslist. Since I wasn't familiar with the neighborhood, I was just following the road. I noticed there was a median coming up, but thought it was a break off to another part of the neighborhood, so I stayed to the left. About the time I realized that I was driving on the wrong side of the road/median, a "nice" gentlemen reminded me with a blaring honk. Today is not my first day on the road, I promise.

We went to a deal at church the other night and left Haylie in the nursery. Halfway through the program, I looked down and noticed I had the paci with me and not with her stuff in the nursery! I whispered to Justin and he just shrugged and said they would call if they needed me. When I went to pick her up, she was in the "other" nursery because she was so upset. The lady holding her said, "You must have left the paci at home." Too embarrassed because she had to wrestle with my baby for so long, I said, "Yes, we probably did." WHOOPS!!

Duh Mom!

Multiple Choice

A green thumb I do not have. We try so hard to make our yard look nice but every year almost everything we buy craps out on us and dies. So, this year, I'm debating doing something else...but what? I'm tired of sinking money into the yard to just have it be boo boo. I'm up for any suggestions!! You can see the two lonely bushes that have survived in the last 4 years...but they are slowly dying. I've ripped out the rest of the nasty but left them for a slow, painful death.
1) Should we rip out the flower bed since it's in a weird spot anyway (the sidewalk is NEXT to our house instead of the flowers...random) and try to grow grass
2) Dig up all of the soil and try to put good, new soil in it and try again with the plants
3) Fill it up with rocks/gravel and make a rock garden
4) Do nothing and just let it look awful
5) Other: ________________

Thoughts on Sleep

In the last few days, we have had some issues with sleep. First, Haylie has been waking up in the middle of the night. Blah. The other night I must have been in my deepest sleep cycle because when she woke me up, I pretty much hit every door jamb/wall going from my room to hers. Then she has this new trick of not wanting to go to sleep JUST at naptime - even though she is crying because she is SO sleepy. But at actual bed time, she goes down no problem. What's the difference?

It's amazing to me that Justin can fall asleep in about 30 seconds flat and it takes me about 30 minutes to wind down from a mid-night awakening and then another 20 to actually get to sleep. The other night Justin fell asleep on the floor. I don't know how that is even possible! It just seems that it doesn't matter when he gets woken up, he'll be asleep in the next 5 minutes. Meanwhile, I'm laying there and random thoughts are going through my head like, did we feed the cat at all today? Or...if I were to fall through the ceiling into someone's basement holding Haylie, how could I fall in such a way that she wouldn't get hurt? See? This is why I shouldn't be woken up in the middle of the night. Someone please tell my daughter this.

Baby Barrettes

I was perusing the aisles of Walmart the other day trying to find some fun things for Haylie's hair. It's such a shame that she has lots of hair and I never put anything in it. But some of our bows are just too big for everyday fun so you can imagine my delight when I found these baby clips! They are sooo tiny yet so fun. You can tell H's hair is greasy because you can see I twirled it and it stayed! She loves her new barrettes...not really. I have to be stealth to put it on.

The Day

Yesterday was my Nana's funeral. It was a lovely service. Since the granddaughters were supposed to sing, I think I was more nervous about that and it helped me not think too much about why we were there. We get up to sing our first round of songs and I move to go sit down and almost knock down some of the flowers on the stage. Awesome. Luckily, it didn't knock them over. That would have been great - an avalanche of flowers at a funeral.

After the service we ate lunch and then got in the car to head to Shattuck, OK for the graveside. That's a 3 hour ride (one way!) my friends. Luckily Haylie slept most of the way both times. Here Haylie and Eli are knocked out on the way...
Haylie didn't like being out in the wind for the graveside service so we ended up sitting in the car and waited for everyone else. We then went back to the Shattuck C of C to have dinner and then we were back on the road. Busy busy day...and I'm relieved it's over. That's a lot to handle in one day with a 3 month old!

Here are just some fun pictures of Haylie since my blog has been "Debbie Downer" lately.

Dear Nana,

I am so glad you met Jesus today. I know you are with Him right now rejoicing with the angels in Heaven. I hope you know how much you meant to me and most of all, to our whole family. You were the true matriarch of us all - the glue that holds us all together. You were the strongest, most independent woman I know and I am amazed by how much you overcame in your life. You were so generous, kind and witty but most of all, you loved each one of us so very much. And there are a lot of us to love - but you always had enough room in your heart for more.

I'm so glad I got to see you more when I moved to Oklahoma and you came to live at Tealridge. There were so many days that I thought of you and I'm sorry I didn't come to see you more often. You have always been there for me - my personal cheerleader for everything I tried in life. You wanted to come to all of my band concerts at OC, Spring Sings, graduation, wedding & baby showers. You were there on my wedding day and wanted so badly to be there when Haylie was born. I'm glad she got to meet you, but I'm saddened she won't have the chance to get to know you. But don't worry, I will tell her stories of her wonderful great-Nana as she grows up.

I am so thankful you are comfortable now, Nana. These past few months have been so hard on you and I'm glad you can rest now. I am so thankful for each memory that I have of you and will cherish them forever. Tell my granddaddy Travis hello for me - I can't wait to meet him one day.

I love you always and forever,

Erin

It's Raining, It's Pouring...

Don't be jealous of our life. I know it's going to be hard. Yesterday, after having a rough night again with Haylie (sweet baby, we liked you more when you slept through the night), Justin discovered we had a heated floor! Whoo hoo!! Except that this is not a good thing - it meant a hot water leak at our house. Roto Rooter came out and wanted to bust our floor up to the tune of $1700. Edmond Plumbing came out and they wanted to go through the ceiling to the tune of $1600. Insurance may or may not cover it, it just depends on how much damage we have to the inside of our house. So, basically, to get any money out of our insurance, our house has to flood. Thank you, Dave Ramsey, for teaching us the value of the emergency fund.

So, Justin and I were sick off and on again through the day and we weren't able to even bathe to try to get the nasty feeling off. Today I'm home babysitting a cranky baby and two plumbers. Justin is at the rent house trying to get the sewage problem under control.

On another note, please pray for my Nana. She was moved from skilled nursing to a regular room at the nursing home and has developed pneumonia. Things are not looking good for her and I just want her to have comfort during this last phase of her life.

So when it rains, it pours! I am trying to find the positive under this dark cloud, but it's proving to be kind of tough. I'm just thankful Justin has a great job that lets him be flexible and that I can be at home to help with all these situations.

I'm just trying now to get through this week. We'll start fresh on Sunday.

I'm done.

I just need to complain for a minute. I have had the worst past two days I can imagine and it's mostly due to sickness! I'm so tired of this stomach bug or whatever is attacking everyone I know. Yesterday I knew it was going to be an especially trying time since Haylie started screaming right after she was done eating - normally she is in a great mood. Justin and I sat in the nursery the whole time during church and I missed class because I was chased down by a Nursery Nanny to come pick up my screaming child. Later, we got the news that the rent house has some major sewage back up so Justin spent the next 4 hours over there trying to pump that out. If only the renter would appreciate his effort. I go to Qgroup by myself only to realize after Haylie blows out her diaper that I haven't refilled my diaper bag (since we also had two blowouts at church) and have to borrow a size 3 (we are in size 1-duck tape anyone?) from a friend at group. J & I meet up again after QGroup and finally he gets to bed since he was not feeling well. I mean how can you feel good after swimming armpit deep in crap. I go to bed a little after him waking up only an hour later to the sound of puke. This encourages a midnight trip to OnCue to get 7Up. Finally we go back to sleep and Haylie decided that she needed to get up not once, but twice. Knowing Justin is sick, I have to figure this out on my own. Finally we all go back to sleep. I wake up knowing it's going to be an interesting day to find out that my pregnant sister has the flu and also gestational diabetes. My nephew is recovering from the flu and my mom is starting to get a hacking cough. My Nana moved rooms today and is probably going to get on hospice tomorrow. :( Then to top everything off!! I start having tummy issues and I keep burping up what tastes like burned popcorn although I haven't had popcorn in like 6 months. This isn't fair. I just had the stomach bug 2 weeks ago. *sigh*. What a day. Tomorrow HAS to be better, yes? Thanks for listening.

Have a great day!! (Thanks Laura for this photo!)

Toys & Jeans

Ever since I was 5, I have wanted my baby to wear jeans. Okay, slight exaggeration on the age thing, but seriously, babies in jeans are SO cute. The other day Haylie and I went to Old Navy and I found these jeans on CLEARANCE!!! Whoohoo. It seems no one even makes jeans for babies before 6 months so I was so excited. I think the sales clerk thought I was a little weird screaming & yelling for joy. They even have BUTTONS on her butt. I love them!

I also set up the exersaucer the other day. Man, that thing is complex - I had to bust out the screwdriver for it. Anyway, Haylie is SO thrilled to be in it. This was her first time...practically falling asleep with her double chin.

But today I think she got more of the hang of it. "Enthralled" just doesn't say it all.

Look-alike Meter

MyHeritage: Look-alike Meter - Free family tree - Family web site

0-3. Check.

3 months old today! She has become such a big girl and I love hanging out with her. She still literally impresses everyone she's around when she gets mad. I think it makes them very nervous but I promise - she just has really great lungs and she's not going to explode.

I had some major organization to do in her room today so she and her bears hung out with me while I cleaned. She was "talking" when I took this so she was very happy to be snuggled with her friends.

This picture is my absolute favorite. I was taking it last night and after the flash went off, she has this very concerned expression on her face. Well, it made me laugh really hard but my laugh was too loud and it scared her so then she immediately stuck out her bottom lip and started to cry. Too cute.

Haylie has also started sitting in her high chair when we eat! It makes a little more sense than the bumbo on the table.

I don't have any stats on her from this last month because basically I'm too lazy to get them. But she is sleeping through the night, eating about 6 times a day, is really starting to look at things and will crank her neck around like Mr. Owl to watch TV if it is on. She talks a lot and the smiles are coming on a more frequent basis.

After 3 months of being a new parent, I definitely don't have anything figured out. But she is either an easy baby or I'm just more at ease with my mothering skills. Ahh, finally.