Whew With Some VIdeo!

My week just feels like one constant stretch of bad day after bad day. This week started with some flooding around our town due to tropical storm Lee. The rain caused me to lose a $10 coupon I had because I did not want to get Maddy out in the bad weather. On top of a high dollar coupon expiring, I ended up with the stomach flu. Today is my first real day of feeling better and completely fever free. My poor mom has had the same kind of week and I added to her pile by seeing if she could get Maddy for me on Tuesday. Thankfully she was able to do so because I felt so puny! My mom and step-dad took Maddy out on a dinner date to O'Charley's. She had a hamburger and fries. Since I have been feeling so bad this week I didn't take one look at school but remembered I had something due on Wednesday. I tried so hard to complete the assignment but around midnight I just couldn't hold my eyes open anymore and my throat and ears started hurting pretty bad and then I took my fever and yes...my fever decided to return. Trying to work with a 102.6 fever is basically pointless so not only am I being questioned on why I did this and that at work and why I'm not meeting my numbers, I started this week out not meeting because I couldn't sit for any length of time. I know I am kind of all over the place right now so let me try to sum this up: Monday...woke up to flooding rains, lost a $10 coupon, was completely exhausted the entire day then I became sick and realized why I had been so tired, Tuesday...first day back to work for the week due to Labor day, my manager is on me about last week's numbers, running a fever, extremely nauseous and had to lay down for most of the day, got way behind in this week's numbers, had to get my mom to get Maddy and take care of her. Wednesday...Woke up with a horrible headache...started feeling some better and was able to sit up without getting sick...still did not meet my numbers at work, fever went back up, got a zero on my school assignment. Now here we are to Thursday. I at least made my numbers but I needed to produce a higher number. I will find out tomorrow if I met what my personal goal was, which is just what I was behind split in half. I have tons of school to make up and I'm still so tired. Now for a more positive outlook. One thing that has helped me get through this week is knowing that in exactly two weeks from today me and Maddy and my mom and step-dad will be headed down to Atlanta, GA to catch a plane to Ft. Lauderdale, FL. We will spend the night in Ft. Lauderdale and then when we wake up Friday we will catch a shuttle to miami to jump on our ship that is taking us out of this country!!!! I am soooo excited. I am praying the weather cooperates. Maddy already has some of her suitcase packed and this weekend I will probably go ahead and pack her clothes. Here in TN our weather is starting to cool down some. We are still going to have some warm days, but I don't think Maddy will need two more months of summer clothes so I am starting to put some away.  I have another post that I may try to do tonight after I work on school some, but if I don't have time tonight then def tomorrow because I am really struggling with my emotions right now. Thank you for taking time to listen to my ramblings and I will end by posting a video of Maddy.

Here is what our house is like when the cousins come over to play. All their hair had the just got out of bed look to it because it was the day after fourth of july and we were all exhausted lol.

I try to film in short segments so I can post on here without boring everybody. I sometimes get carried away in trying to get her to do something that I forget about the time. I don't know how to edit my video's to shorten the time of them so you may just want to watch the first 30 seconds of this one. One of these days I will get the hang of all this editing stuff lol

This shows more of Maddy's personality. I love how she says, "No!" and that's usually how she says it all the time unless she is really mad, then she screams no or just lays in the floor screaming and kicking. Right after she hit her car with her golf club if you look closely you can see her trying not to smile when I said, "Ouch!" I've never known a child that would intentionally try not to smile or laugh...she has done that for quite some time now and she looks like my uncle, mom, and me when she does that...so cute!

Vlog

So I have run across something that is new to me...I know it is nothing new to society, but I am way behind times.  Apparently some people are making video blogs to document their life and posting it on youtube.  I watched this lady discuss her pregnancy journey and found other people who are doing the same. For the record I did not do a search on YouTube for pregnant people lol. It was a video that popped up from another video I watched that showed one of the babies from TeenMom. Seeing this vlog made me wonder how in the world you would get people interested in watching what you have to say about your life.  I do not think I could ever do a vlog because I rarely fix myself up and I will not post a video of myself without being all "dolled" up hehe. Have any of you had any experience with vlogs? What are you opinions of them? I think they are really neat if you have time, which I do not, but I would also imagine they could be faster than writing out a blog. I kinda want to intertwine the normal blogging with video blogging and do my own thing. It would be fun to do a video post here and there. I might have to experiment with this a little and see how I feel about it. I do have a tendency when I talk to start going off topic and rambling about other things that had nothing to do with my original topic so vlogging may not be an option for me at all lol. I think it would be neat to upload a video of me and Maddy at the computer while I'm doing a vlog, but she needs to learn to listen to mommy first. Well, I am done with all my required assignments for tonight, so I think I need to hit the bed and get some much needed sleep. I really hope I can not stay behind this week in school and actually get a little ahead. I hope you all enjoy your labor day and I may try to show you all the cute clothes I got Maddy today :)

Working Out

I needed a small break from school and thought I would go ahead and write about mine and Maddy's weekend. We really haven't done anything real special or neat or fun, but did get our usual retail therapy in lol. For the record I am not rich nor do I have a lot of extra money...I do coupon and I do take advantage of sales as I can. With Labor day being tomorrow, most stores had some really good deals. I do not generally spend much money on myself because I care more about finding cute things for Maddy instead of wasting money on me. I decided to break down and buy me a couple of things this weekend.  I am joining the YMCA one way or another. I am really interested in doing Zumba and when my mom told me she wanted to go the zumba class I knew I had to go ahead and join. I love fashion even though you could never tell from the way I dress. After becoming a mom I feel confused on how I should dress. I used to shop in the junior department but the clothes that are out today are just disgustingly gross and not very modest. I can't find many cute things I can wear in the women's department so I find myself avoiding buying anything at all. I want to change this because I think I will start feeling a little better about myself. I am taking baby steps and decided to get me a couple of cute workout outfits for the gym. I got my first outfit at target and will post a pic below straight from target's website.

Sleepy

I will apologize up front for this post being on the complaining side of emotions. I just need to get it out so I can hopefully move on. I noticed in my last two classes I was starting to lose my steam.  I thought my not being able to stay awake was from me just not wanting to do the work. I have started out these set of classes falling asleep before I finish my assignment.  For whatever reason I just cannot hold my eyes open anymore. I'm beginning to wonder if I burned myself out with my first two set of classes, or if the work load is just getting heavier. I am very disappointed in myself for turning my first two assignments in late. I am trying something new tonight. Instead of staying in my room, which desperately needs to be cleaned, I am staying in the living room with lights on! I'm hoping this weekend I can get a little ahead in my classes that way I can actually get some sleep here and there lol.

In other news...this afternoon when I picked up Maddy I got to see a little more of how she acts while away from me. I must say she was being very silly. She was on her hands and knees on the circle rug and she was going back and forth making some sounds and then just laughing. Her teacher thought it was funny as well. I'm so glad she is starting to come out of her shell at school so her teachers can see what an amazing personality she has. I must say it is all thanks to this class.  I didn't realize until her last class that she wasn't really talking. This class she is using her words and laughing quite a bit from what her teacher said. They are working hot and heavy with her to become potty trained, but are not forcing it. This week they are working on turn taking which Maddy already knows that concept a little. She likes to hold the cup and take a sip and then let me take a sip as well. I think that is all the Maddy update for now. I guess I better go hit the books because I have two assignments to do tonight that will require quite a bit of time :) I will end with a music video because I'm not a big fan of just using words on my blog lol.

Weekend

There was nothing super special happening at our house this weekend.  I had finals to prepare for so me and Maddy pretty much stayed close to home.  We did get out Saturday to go to Babies R Us and a few other places. I had been wanting Olive Garden and was planning on waiting until I got paid and attempting to take Maddy by ourselves, or invite her dad along for the company and low and behold my family decided to celebrate all the August birthday's for dinner and went to....Olive Garden! I got this

and Maddy got this: 
In case it's hard to tell I got chicken alfredo and Maddy got the kids cheese ravioli. She actually pointed to the menu to tell me what she wanted to eat this time. I was just going to let her share off mine but I couldn't resist letting her choose what she wanted. She ate very well and had a grand ol time. We had lots of babies (lots for my family anyways). We had baby Aria who is no longer a baby anymore. She is 15 months now and is walking. That is such a miracle! Maddy was very fascinated by her. Then we also had my new nephew Aiden. He was sporting his "My aunt is awesome" onesie and I loved it! We also had Maddy of coarse and then my youngest niece Abby. Her sister Sara was at a friend's house. This was the first time in a long time since me and Maddy had visited with the entire family and we had a great time! I stayed up most of the night Saturday to try to finish my final project, but I came no where close.  We spent Sunday with Maddy's dad and they played while I worked. I ended up having to ask for his help with my project because I was just completely confused on what needed to be done. Compared to most broken home situations I have to say Maddy lucked out because we have always decided to put Maddy first and try our best to be friends. We have our ups and downs with each other, but never anything serious. He was willing to stay and help me until I finished, which btw wasn't until 2:15 a.m. I hope you all had a great weekend as well!!

Hooray for Maddy!!!

Maddy began her new classroom on Monday, August 22.  I have been kind of leary of this room from things I had heard. When I picked her up Monday afternoon and saw everything they do in that room I was simply amazed. This class writes out what they do each day and on her first day they talked about colors and talked about salty and sweet stuff and got to eat food that was salty and sweet. Maddy absolutely loved eating the lemon according to her teacher. This class also works with them on potty training, which I was so thankful for. Every day I got her I would check her sheet to see if she went "potty" and for the first three days she did not. Yesterday, August 24 (I am putting dates in for my future reference ) I almost forgot to check her sheet because I was so blown away at the Spanish words she was being taught. I finally remembered to look just as I was fixing to pull out and saw YAY!! near her diapering section. I looked over and sure enough at 2:05 my baby went pee pee in the potty and then she told them she had to go pee pee at 4:50, but she had already gone in her diaper. I was soooo excited! I really don't mind changing diapers and I never have, but I was worried I might have introduced her to the potty at a time she wasn't ready and had ruined her potty training experience. I bought her potty back when she was approximately 18 months. I let her explore with it and see if she would "potty" while I pottied. She never seemed interested in doing that up until recently. She does not like sitting on her potty, but I think it's because she is a very active person and having to sit still for even one second is hard for her. So when I saw that she actuallly pottied I was just so thankful that I didn't mess up potty training lol. I don't have any pics of her on her potty (I don't think and if I do it'd be nothing inappropriate) but I did get some black and white pics of her playing in the tub on Tuesday :)

Cruisin in style :)

I'm so excited because the two things I wanted to get Maddy specifically for the cruise and one is for daycare have all arrived.  Maddy has her first luggage set that contains a rolling suitcase and a backpack.  Both are personalized and for the price I think it was a really good deal. The suitcase I wanted to get her was $100 from Pottery Barn Kids and this mama does not have that kind of cash to spend on luggage she will outgrow. Instead I found just a plain one at One Step Ahead and I am thrilled.

The picture makes it look really big but it is specifically for a child.  I'm pretty sure this was not intended for a two year old because it is a little big for her, but she can roll it around just fine.  She already knows how the handle works, but does not have the coordination to hold the button down while pulling up just yet ;). I forgot to take pics of the backpack. It looks just like this though and is definitely to big for her right now, but she will grow into it. I believe Maddy is all set for her birthday cruise now...she has the luggage, the carry on, and tons of clothes...what more could a girl ask for lol. The second thing that I ordered for Maddy is her first backpack. It is actually the same print as I wanted her suitcase to be and is personalized as well. I just love Pottery Barn Kids even though I really can't afford it. 

 Her backpack is brown with pink polka dots as you can see. This is a preschool size backpack and obviously will not hold a whole lot. They said it goes up to when your child is 42" tall I believe. I originally was going to get this as her carry on for the plane to hold her food and drink and toys, but her luggage came with a bigger backpack so I decided to use that one.  I wasn't going to get this backpack because for the size it is pricey in my opinion. Maddy's daycare diaper bag is really filthy and I wanted something a little cuter so I bit the bullet and got this and found out the shipping was free, which made it a little more reasonable to me:) The straps in the front are perfect for putting their coat in so it will help take up less room on her hook. They have the hooks crammed together so this will be just perfect!

 The inside of the backpack is just empty space. I was very impressed with the zippers though because they have attached a string thing for them to pull that is stretchy. I didn't test her zipping skills out, but I bet she will be able to open and close it herself. I had to snap pictures of her sporting her first backpack as any mom would do. Today I have felt like she was going to her first day of school because she started a new class today and with her having been home a full week and us having special mommy-Maddy moments I was scared she would have a rough time adjusting. You add the new backpack to it and I think that is how I will feel when she does start school, but with a lot more tears lol. 
I just had to share the excitement with everybody as I really enjoy finding cute things for Maddy!