Give thanks

Summer enjoying some pie with Grandma before she left for work.

I hope everyone had a Happy Thanksgiving! Ours was really nice except for Chris had to work 3rd shift Wednesday night so he was not able to join us at my parents. He enjoyed a frozen pizza and football for his Thanksgiving. Summer cried the about 35 minutes of the drive home because she was tired, I wish she could figure out how to go to sleep in the car seat.

I really like this time of year when you can take it easy and reflect on the things you are thankful for.

I am so thankful for my little family. Chris is thebest husband I could ask for. He is supportive, helpful and he puts up with me! Summer is the most beautiful little girl I know, she is loving, funny and the light of my life.

My extended family is a hoot, we always have fun and there is always a little drama which we laugh about. I'm thankful for the holidays we spend together. I'm thankful that my sister Jac and my nephew Tyler are moving back home, just in time for Christmas. We will have the whole family in the same area for once!

I am thankful for Summer having great grandparents.

I'm thankful for my pets, Onyx, Bailey and Bear. They can be a BIG pain, but they do bring a lot of joy into the family.

I am thankful for my life that is FULL of blessings, we have health, all our wonderful senses, laughter, Chris provides for the family so I can stay home and raise our children, for those little things that bring a smile to my daughter face. We are all so very blessed, it brings happiness to my day just thinking about how blessed we all are. We are also happy for little miracles.

I've been MIA...

I'm sorry I have been so busy lately I have taken a blogging vacay. We are off to the Grandparents for Thanksgiving! I will be back blogging Friday. Everyone have a great Thanksgiving!!

WAL*MART employee of the month

Chris and I left Summer with Grandma Teri to go do out grocery shopping at walmart last night. Dang you walmart, I hate you but I love your prices! It is nice to get out alone just as a couple even if it is a trip to the store.

When we are all finished up I pick a line that had only a few people in it with a few items. When we get up there for our turn, Chris is getting all the stuff out of the cart and I get to meet walmart's employee of the month! Lucky me! She was a heavy set women, looked possibly pregnant but I believe she was too old to be bearing child, with thick wavy blond and gray hair pulled back into a pony tail. She was wearing no smile, was moving quite slow, I think because she was in a very bad mood. There was a little girl probably 18 months old in a cart shouting by customer service, and our cashier kept giving the evil eye too and grumbleing under her breath. I pretended not to notice. Chris looked up towards the little girl and our cashier said, "annoying in'it?" Chris did not hear her, she then goes on to say to herself, "She's entertaining herself, and annoying the rest of us." I was thinking yikes! I picked a bad line!

This was all before she even got our reusable bags ready to bag our stuff. Most employees do not like bagging with the reusable bags and our EOTM did not either. She takes all my bags and starts shaking them and says to me, "You really should wash these, there is pet hair on them, that is so unsanitary!" In a snotty, uptight tone. I then told her that I tried washing one and it balled up and that they were not washable. So she grabs a bag looks at the tag and sees it reads, "hand wash only." She raised her vioce and said. "hand wash only? That is ridiculous! They are supposed to be reusable!" And adds, "I'm allegic to pet hair" with the same tone and started sniffleing dramatically and wiping her nose on her shirt. I looked over at Chris with wide eyes but he was oblivious to the whole thing, still busy getting our things out of the cart. When we left I'm sure the poorwoman waiting behind us got an earful of my pet hair bags. Chris couldn't believe what he had missed, he probably would have said something smart to her, if he had heard though.

We have pets, and my bags have a few pet hairs on them, but it wasn't like I let the dogs roll around on my bags. I will use a lint roller before going to the store next time, in case I run into Mrs. Sniffles again...

Ball-ll

Summer has a fascination with balls, she loves to take Bear's tennis balls from him and throw them to him. She gets so excited it is really cute. In fact anything that is round is a ball to her.

Recently though she has nocticed the "l" sound on the end of the word ball. So instead of saying "bo" she really tries to put the "l" sound on the end. It cracks me up! Take a look! She was ready to get out of the high chair and play.

A beautiful day!

We got outta town! We did! We really, really did! I know that sounds totally lame, and this would not be an accomplishment for most. But for us this is huge! I woke up this morning and before we even got out of bed I decided I wanted to go to see my mom who lives 45 minutes away.

Summer is a nightmare in the car, she cries, sobs, and screams, it makes my stomach hurt, it is so bad. I have not been to my hometown since before Easter, so probably 7months. Crazy I know!

I got her diaper bag prepared with enough stuff in case we made it there but couldn't make it back home. LOL! In the back of my head I thought it was silly, b/c we would only make it 10 minutes out of the city before she started to act up. I let her eat her breakfast in the car, I gave her a baggie of grapes. My Lord it worked! Now they didn't last the whole time obviously and she still did very well. A lot of prayers were said today.

Grandma was so happy to see her, she hasn't been there since she was really little so she didn't remember anything at all and everything was new. She was excited about everything, especially mom's dog Oz and the cat. She was giving grandma kisses like crazy it was a really fun day! We went to see great Grandma Faye and she had nothing but compliments to say, which, if you know her, that really is something coming from her! (Sorry Grandma Faye, you know it's true. LOL)

Unfortunatley, I left in such a hurry this morning I didn't think to bring my camera, so I'll throw in some recent pics of my Summer bummer.



Dancing queen

Little pigtails

Collar Chaos!

I don't know how this all started. But I come into the living room and Summer is wearing Bailey's collar around her neck and loving it! It is kinda funny because our dogsfreak out if they we take their collars off, especially Bailey. So i took Bear's off him and put it on Bailey, she was happy as long as she had one one. Must be like that naked feeling you get if you take off your watch or ring. =D Bear was like what about me? Here's how it went down!

Feeling cool in Bailey's collar

Chris is responsible for this sillyness

" That kid is grabbing for (my) collar dad!"

The Mexican Stand off, poor Buddy Bear!

Where's mine?

Bear got his collar back moments later, Bailey on the other hand had to waitfor her's to dry, since Summer threw her collar in the shower.

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

It is recyleing day today, and this subject is so fun for me so I'll tell you what is all means to me!

"forever in a landfill"

Reduce

Reducing what we use, such as electricity, and the need to buy new things. I have changed a whole lot since I got interested in all this. If we need something, we think, "Do we need it to be brand new?" Or could we find it at a second hand shop? I wanted to find a juicer, well I bet the goodwill has one, and it needs a home. And if I don't have to buy one new, that is reducing the new amount of things that are manufactured, and that is a good thingfor the earth.

If you are a mama like me, you can breastfeed, which is best for baby anyway, and cloth diaper, did you know each diaper takes approximatly 500 years to "go away."

Plant a garden if you can it is an amazing expereince! Your hard work pays off all summer long. Summer and I ate zuchinni almost everyday for lunch, we love it. The seed packet probably cost $1.30 and one zuchinni at the store is $1.50. Makes more sense to me, to put a little work in and your rewards are great!

Water is where you can try to conserve as well. When I use water I think of how those African ladies have to walk a long way just to dip their one little bucket in the water and carry it all the way home. I bet they don't take their water for granted. So it always makes me think. What you are supposed to do is run the stream of water the width of a pencil, and shut your water off while brushing your teeth. Also if you can hand wash your dishes, that uses way less than your dishwasher.

Electricity is where we try to help out too. Chris wanted all new windows for this house and I was skeptical, but I'm so glad he made that decision. Also we never leave a light on in a room that we are not in. With our DVR, if we pause the TV and are going to be away from it for awhile, I shut it off now. There is controversy about this one in the house, I believe if you unplug things, then there is no way it is using any energy; Chris on the other end thinks if it's not on and plugged in it is fine. So I try to unplug things when not in use. We used to not care, we where energy hogs, but now we are aware of it. I remember we would leave the basement light on for days at a time. When Summer and I go for our walks I see outside lights on or central air units running when it is 62 degrees out, because I am aware of those things it drive me crazy! Shut off your lights, sunlight is great light, especially for outside, and try opening your windows! =D I wish some people would wake up! Since we have started all of this our electricity bill has gone from $199 a month to drumroll please....$116 a month, cha-ching that is a lot of savings people!

Reuse

Reuse is something that was a weird concept for me. We live in such a greedy and convenient world. Disposable everything from cups to plates, razors, and bags. I now try to think of how I could use things in a different way. Like sour cream and butter containers, I can use them as poor man tupperware or a crayon holder. Before with my Ziplock bags when I was done with them I would throw them away, no matter what was in it. Now if it had meat in it I pitch it, but they have plenty of use in them, so I reuse!

Freecycle is another great way to reuse. If you have never heard of this, it is a green group in your area that recycles the stuff they don't want. This reduces the need to go buy something if someone offers something you need. The best part is when you are doing a deep clean and want to gets rid of a lot of stuff most likely someone else could use it! I have gotton rid of an old recliner, decoratives cornstalks, miniblinds from our old windows, extra veg from my garden and a box of test strips I didn't need. By doing this you are not filling up the landfills and giving your old stuff new life! To find your local freecycle click here! We got a water softener from freecycle, cool huh!

Recycle

If you don't recycle you should consider it. For some people in some towns/cities it is easier than others. You can go to your cities webpage and find your towns recycleing info, such as what number plastics yout town accepts and if they take glass or not. Any paper including paper towels can ne recycled as long as there is no grease, so if you get pizza take out the box will have to be throw BUT you can take the top "lid" off and recycle that. Once you throw something in the garbage, it gets taken away form your house, but it will sit in a landfill forever or take thousands of years to actaully "go away." So many things can be recycled and made new again, give it a try!

I'll list some paper goods that are recycleable you may have not thought of, and if these are being made into some thing new they arebnot clogging up the landfills.

Paper towel and tiolet paper rolls

Paper plates, no grease remember!

Junk mail

construction paper

wrapping paper

any cardboard

Happy Greening!

Trying to find fun inside

For Summer's 1st birthday her dad and I gave her two rocking horses. One is special, b/c it was made for me by my uncle Jim when I was little. It is still a little big for her but she likes to ride it if you hold on to her. The other is a soft fuzzy pony that talks and gallops. She was afraid ofit until now. Ride um cowgirl! She actually gets it rocking all by herself.

We went for a walk today and then played in the yard, although it was pretty nippley outside. We can not watch TV all week thanks to the drool monster who shorted out the remote, I don't watch a ton of TV, but no TV, UGH!! Even though Summer has a couple hundred books, we can't read them. She always wants the one you have! Good thing she can entertain herself with the strangest things, like for instance, this bucket.

What's that dog's, you want in?

Visit from the Grandparents

Sunday we had a fun day. Grandpa and Grandma came to visit, and Brandi and Jayden came over. Dad took us all out to Golden Coral, and was very yummy. We all went before poor Chris had to go to work, so he had to eat and fun and miss out on the fun. Summer was eating likea little piggy! We could not believe how much she was eating! She ate, rice, mac'n'cheese, roast, chicken noodle soup, and a little dessert. We also discovered she does not like beets. I'm mean, nah! Fortunately, Brandi sat with Summer and supervised her, Chris and I got to enjoy our meals! It was so long since that has happened. Grandma brought Summer a crabby face plastic baby doll, and she won't put her down, she loves her! Mom and Dad got their hair did by me and of course look fabulous. I miss doing hair just a little.

In other good news, Summer went to her Grandpa and hung out with him for a while.

Mom, Brandi and I were hanging out in the back yard, for those of you that don't know we have two big dogs. LOL! When we went inside mom noticed she stepped in some poopoo, with her good sandles. She was sooo mad she said something really mean to Bear. You know he has feelings to mom; and may may have been Bailey's. This is how she walked around until she left. Sorry Mom!