Potty Training...Start Your Engines!

I have been so excited lately because whenever Maddy "dirties" her diaper she will look at me and point and say "dirty." I ask her if she is dirty and she says, "Yes." I then proceed to ask her if she needs a new diaper and she says, "Yes." For the most part if she says yes to a new diaper she will not fuss one bit when changing her diaper. She isn't full force ready to start potty training, but she is making steps in that direction. It's a bittersweet moment really. I want her to grow as a person and learn to become independent, but on the other hand I want her to stay my little baby forever. I think I am going to purchase her potty this weekend and put it in the bathroom and whenever I go to the bathroom, she can just sit on her potty and let her get comfortable with it. Once she starts having more and more dry diapers for naps and shows a little more potty training readiness, I will then start the task of potty training. That sounds so weird...I can't believe she is as grown up as she is...where did the time go??

Third Times the Charm

I've been meaning to write this for a while now, but something has prevented me everytime I go to write it. I was trying to think of what I could write about tonight and I was gonna write about mine and Maddy's weekend, but then this hit me so here we are. A few months ago I announced on facebook that Maddy would soon have a new little cousin to play with. We found out that she is going to have a little boy cousin. This is a new concept to me as I had envisioned it being a girl, but it will be a cute little boy.I'm hoping Maddy will adjust to seeing me hold a baby. With baby Aria she always wants me to step away from here lol. I completely understand her feelings on it though because from day one she has always had my undivided attention. She is my world day and night. Maddy is a good little mommy. She always wraps her baby up in a blanket, put her on her tummy, and pat her back until she is asleep. She also loves on her baby and makes sure she has her passy, then puts her back to sleep. I hope since she is growing and learning to play mommy she will be ok with her new little cousin.

Weekly Hit

This week's song actually was not picked based on how I am feeling lol. I am going in abc order and this week was the C turn and this just happened to be the first song up. When Carrie Underwood was on Idol I was rooting for her to win. I thought she would remain a down to earth person and thought she had a really good voice. When she sang this song on the show I immediately fell in love with it. This song says it all...Jesus take the wheel...lead my life. While I am in a rough spot in life right now this song couldn't have come at a more perfect time to remind me to let go and let God. All I can do is my best and He will do the rest. For the record I am not really a big Carrie Underwood fan. I think she has let the fame go to her head and she appears stuck up and snsnobby and I can't stand that. She also doesn't want to be known from American Idol and I think that's really sad cause if it wasn't for the show she wouldn't be where she is today. I wish all celebrities would remain "human" and not let their fame get to them.

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I have no real topic to talk about tonight...well...actually that's not entirely true, but I'm not going to just come out and say what I am thinking about tonight lol. I have no idea what is wrong with me...well..I kinda do. Today has just been a horrible day and the worst part about it is I am pretty sure I put the stress on myself. My day got started off wrong because when I dropped Maddy off at daycare this morning, her teacher scooped her up to take her with her to talk on the phone and I didn't get a chance to give her a hug and kiss and tell her I love her and bye and that I'd be back. When I got in my car it was all I could do to keep from boo hooing because I could just see Maddy thinking I would be in her room when she got back and then finding out that I wasn't...I didn't like how that might have made her feel. She may have handled it just fine I don't know, but it's important to me to let her know that I love her and that I'll be back for her. So I fought back tears all the way home. Once I got home and to work it just went downhill from there. I am not handling the stress from my job very well at all. It can't be healthy to stay this tore up all the time. I'm to the point of just throwing in the badge and if need be filing bankruptcy and just start completely over. At one point today I was so ready to do that, but the Lord keeps whispering in my ear the word "perserverance." I know the Lord has everything under control, but knowing that doesn't always make it easier. I definitely had a Job moment today to where I was comparing my life to somebody else's and in my head I was thinking about how I try to live for the Lord and it seems I struggle so much and people who aren't living for the Lord seem to just get stuff handed to them. My life has been nowhere close to easy, but one thing I can say is in every circumstance the Lord has brought me through and I end up a stronger person. There are many ways He has shown that He is leading me and I try to take comfort in that, but right now I just feel so defeated. No matter how hard I try it's just never good enough. I'm so tired of dealing with everybody's thoughts and opinions on how I should handle Maddy I could scream. I am so tired of everybody's thoughts and opinions on my job I could scream. I am so tired of everybody's thoughts and opinions on my relationships I could scream. Is there anything I can do right that makes somebody say, "Hey you're doing a good job." I constantly feel like I am being tugged and pulled on. If I don't do what this person thinks I should do then I'm a horrible mom, or if I do something that person thinks I shouldn't do then I just don't know what I'm doing or I'm being ridiculous...blah blah blah. Now that I have done my complaining and whining I am ready to move on to something a lot more exciting to talk about lol. In the middle of my wanting to just up and quit my job today I got an email from my academic advisor that was was welcoming me to college. The only thing I have left to do is complete a workshop, then I will officially start my classes. I haven't fully decided on how I am going to work school. I am starting out with my associate's that prepares me for a teaching degree. Originally I was going to get my bachelor's degree in teaching so if my daycare doesn't work out I could at least get a job with Hamilton County as a teacher somewhere. When I was enrolling I told my advisor what I was wanting to do and he told me that I might want to consider getting my associates in teaching and then going back and do the business aspect of things since running a daycare involves a lot of business. I had never even thought of that and I do think that's a good idea, but between the two I'd rather have my teaching degree. I saw on tv the other day though that Penn Foster actually has a daycare management type degree and all they require is for me to already have my associate's. So now I am contemplating once I get my associate's degree maybe transferring over to Penn Foster and go through their daycare classes. It's a lot to think about, but for now I will just take it one step at a time and only focus on passing my classes. I am nervous over that because if I fail a class then it ruins my financial aid. That's not adding any pressure at all for me to do well lol. When I got that email today I began to see a small glimmer of light and was so thankful to know there is an end to my current stress at work in sight...it is still a long ways off, but it's at least there. Before I saw no end so it gave me a little relief. I am going to do some research to see what is involved in running a daycare and if they require any degrees. If no degree is required then I may try to start work on getting it started now. It seems like Maddy's daycare owners said from the time they got the idea to start the daycare till the time it opened, it took 5 years. I may be wrong on that though because I know they have been open for 5 years and this year will be 6, but either way it does take time to get everything in place.I know if I can just get a building and loan and all that good stuff that my daycare will do just fine. I feel confident in the ideas that I have in order to make it successful, but the Lord will always be in the center of my daycare. I am starting to pray over my daycare now and I am asking the Lord to go before me and prepare the way. If you know someone who has started a daycare outside of their home and they are willing to give advice, please feel free to comment or email me. I have no idea about how to get things started and can use all the advice there is. I do believe I have made this quite lengthy already, so I will call it a night. Thanks for listening to me whine, this has prevented me from spending the rest of the night crying myself to sleep. I am now going to research daycare's. Good night!

Free Photo Books

Everybody likes free stuff right? I found this incredible offer from Picaboo.com. You get a free photo book that includes 20 pages. You simply click the link in my blog, start creating your book, and voila. I just tried it out and sure enough you get the book free. You do still have to pay for shipping, but it's only $7.99. The book itself costs $39.99 plus tax, which made it $47.98. The offer is good only to new customers of Picaboo and it only goes through March 22, so if you are interested in getting this wonderful deal you better hurry and click the link and get started. I will be looking for more great deals from them and will definitely let you all know what I find. Happy photo-booking :)

Random pics

Well, I do have a few things I could talk about, but I just don't want to right now so I found a cd of pictures in my car and am just now looking through them to see what they are. I am soo excited because it has some pictures from Florida that I thought were gone forever...the water that year, 2008, was so amazing. I bet you are thinking the first pics I show are that of Florida...WRONG!! lol. The first picture I am going to share looks a whole lot like Maddy...this picture is actually a my youngest niece Abby. We were celebrating her birthday at Ryan's and I am guessing she is maybe 3?

I will post a picture of Maddy now so you can try to compare them:

These probably aren't the best pictures to compare too, but they resemble each other a whole whole lot.

This is a picture of Manny as a puppy. He was the cutest little puppy but he kept me up literally every 4 hours! He loved being with me at the apt and would follow me around and try to get me to play. The few times I actually washed dishes(haha)he would always climb up on the dishwasher and try to help me. It was so cute...to this day he will still follow me around the kitchen, but he doesn't try to climb in the dishwasher anymore. I hope someday really soon God would bless me and Maddy with a home of our own.

This is another Maddy look alike..that is Abby again, but I have no idea how old..i guess 2.5

Here I am taking her down the slide...it was hard climbing up there with her in my arms lol. I used to have short hair too...it's so amazing how things change over time.

This is my beautiful niece Sara after she had just gotten her ears pierced. She was 5 and she was so proud of herself for not crying, but you could tell she was in pain.

Well...I think I have shared enough random pics now lol.

Weekly Hit

I wish I could say I have this song in support of the troops over in Iraq. To be honest I ran across this song soon after I got dumped. I was hurting so bad and this song was catchy and made me feel better so I got it. I can say now though that this song is for all the men and women who have served in our military. I cannot imagine what they along with their families go through on a daily basis. It takes a strong and special person to be in the military as well as be a husband or wife to a military person. If you have served in the military, I say thank you for fighting for me and Maddy.