Wednesday Randoms

I've written more than I thought I would prior to leaving for vacation. This week has been one more crazy week. I feel like I have a black cloud over mine and Maddy's head. Maddy went back to school today (if I had a job that actually understood what it was like to have a sick child, I would have kept her out all week), and she seemed to have had a good day. I worried about her all night last night (I think she knew the minute I was starting to fall asleep because just when I fell asleep she would wake up crying....I know that's not true...her poor mouth was hurting) and all day today. I worried about her teachers not being patient with her if she started hurting...I worried about if she could eat anything for lunch (luckily they had mashed potatoes, which she can eat)...I just worried about her hurting and me not being able to be there to hold her hand or hug her or let her know I'm there. I felt like it was her very first day at daycare. I was supposed to have a meeting first thing this morning, so my mom took her for me. If I had to take her I just know I would have bawled my eyes out because I really did not want her to have to go. Throughout this whole ordeal I have learned something about Maddy that I really have no idea where it even came from. The first incident happened on Monday. Me and my mom were in the kitchen and Maddy had wandered off into the living room. Out of no where she just screams with everything within her. She was playing with the flashlight (I used it to look in her mouth and she loves playing with it). We went running to her and the split second I saw it looked like she was trying to free her hand from the flashlight cord. I thought it must have gotten stuck and it scared her. I scooped her up and told my mom to help take the flashlight. I saw my mom was able to just take the light so I began to panic some over what was wrong. I asked Maddy what happened and she said a fly. I thought she was just saying something and was really scared of the light or something else I couldn't figure out. The look on her face and the way she was shaking you would have thought she saw a ghost or something that would just really shake you up. Tuesday came around and if a fly got near her she would start to cry and run. I realized at that point she is absolutely petrified of flies. When I put her to bed tonight I went back to finish my work and next thing I know my mom is yelling at me (I was watching a movie with earbuds in my ear) saying Maddy was screaming. When I took my earbuds out sure enough Maddy was screaming with everything within her. I knew it was a fly because I now know that scream. I asked her what happened and of coarse she said a fly. I would like to know where this fear of flies came from because we've had flies in the house before and she thought they were funny because we were always chasing them with a fly swatter. After the fly incident she would not let me leave her room unless I was getting the fly swatter. Needless to say both me AND Maddy are definitely going to need a vacation after the week we have had. So far the only real chance of rain in Florida is Friday and that is our last day there...we head back Saturday morning.

I still don't have an official date as to when I can move into my new house, but I do have a phone installation date of June 21. I will be out of town, but my mom was kind enough to offer to be there while they get my phone set up. I just need my internet and then I will be moving in. I really wish I could doc my work somehow because it is ridiculous that I have been paying rent since April 21 and they have YET to move me. If it took me that long to do my job I would be jobless.

Speaking of jobs, I can't/won't go into details yet but I have a great job opportunity coming up. If I can get involved it would allow me to take the time I need off when Maddy is sick. It would give me my evenings back and I would not have to work till 10 p.m. every night. It would take a lot of stress off me...it already has really because being a single mom I have no choice but to keep my job or Maddy isn't taken care of. My job is practically impossible to keep for a lengthy amount of time (for me anyways) and I stress day in and out over what if I lose my job. I now know what I can do if I were to lose my job and that relieves me so much. I'm going to pray about it, but my heart and mind are already geared towards going for it.

Maddy helped wash dishes on Monday.  She enjoyed playing with the bubbles mainly. I can't wait to cook/bake with her...especially during Christmas.

Hope you all have a great rest of the week...hang in there if you are having a rough week :)

Icky Sickness

Mine and Maddy's weekend was not at all anything spectacular. I don't think I've ever wished for a Saturday to hurry and end but I did this past Saturday. Maddy woke up at 4:50 a.m. I went in her room to comfort her and she tried to get up, but I told her it was still night night time. She went back to sleep for a little bit and then woke back up. By 6:30 a.m. we were up, dressed, and ready for the day. Her mood that day was very up and down. I knew by 7:00 a.m. I was in for a very long day. We spent the day at our new house trying to unpack, but she didn't understand why mommy wouldn't play with her all day. I tried to make time to play with her but when I did she just watched tv. I did get her to take two naps...both in the car. I thought she was just super tired, but her naps didn't really help that much. My uncle had to work on my car because it would overheat and it almost left me stranded. He was supposed to work on it on Saturday. When he was ready Maddy was still asleep in the car. I accidentally woke her up and when I got her out I noticed she felt warm  and didn't look ok. I kept asking her if she was ok and not sick and she would just stare at me. She perked up when she got out of the car so I thought everything was ok...until my mom asked me if she was warm. My heart sank because I knew that meant she was getting sick and it wasn't my imagination. While my uncle worked on my car she played pretty hard...she wore me out to be honest. Once he was done with my car they went to build his granddaughter her playset because the instructions said with two people it would take 12 hours...that's just crazy!!! I plan on getting Maddy her own playground set for her birthday, so I guess we better start building a few days before her party lol. Anyways...as they were working on the playground Maddy just went down hill. She sat in my lap for the longest time and almost went to sleep. I realized she was refusing to eat...she tried so hard to eat but just never would. She would drink ok though. I remembered a couple of days prior to Saturday she asked for some ice for her ear. We finally got home around 10:48 p.m. and I went immediately for the thermometer. Sure enough her temp was 101.4. I took her down to PM Pediatrics, which btw, I no longer have an ounce of trust for . I found out she weighs 29 pounds which is really good for her! At her two year check up she weighed 27 pounds so I'm glad she gained her two pounds. The nurse practitioner came in and asked what was going on and I mentioned her ear was hurting but she had also been around strep throat. She checked her ear and said it was infected and took a look in her mouth and said oh yeah, she's got strep...there's puss pockets all in her throat. She didn't do a strep test to confirm and gave her a strong dose of amoxicillan. By the time we got home it was 12:30 and I had to change her while she was asleep because she was konked out! I found these...

Maddy is at the age where she refuses medicine if she's in pain or it tastes bad. When I got her allergy medicine it came with a free sample of chewables and she thought they were candy. When I saw this tylenol type chewable I knew I was in luck. If only all her medicines could be chewable/meltaways. She said she didn't want it at first. I told her it tasted like gum (she's on a big gum kick right now). I let her hold it and by the time I turned back around she was eating it. She said it was yummy and was willing to take another one. I think that is what let her sleep so good. Sunday morning I tried to get her antibiotic in her...she drank it just fine and even said it tasted good. I was so thankful. As the day progressed she quickly deteriorated in how she felt.

We literally laid around and watched movies all day. She did try to eat. She started off with mashed potatoes then she wanted this:

Pickles and tomatoes. She couldn't eat the tomato but did some of the pickle. I noticed she was holding her cheek and decided to look in her mouth...strep shouldn't hurt on your cheek. It looked so horrible! There were sores all over the roof of her mouth...in her throat and on the sides of her mouth. I felt quite certain that instead of having strep she had another case of hand foot mouth disease because it had been in her classroom last week.

These are accurate pictures of what her mouth looks like, and this is hand foot mouth. I did look up strep and only found one picture that looks a bit similar to hers, but I don't see her glands swollen at all and because it is on her cheeks as well I'm pretty sure it's HFM. She was up all night Sunday and got up super early again. She was still running a fever last night so I have kept her home today. So far she hasn't run a fever, but she is in a lot of pain and is so very tired. I have some video of her playing before I knew she was sick...it's amazing how strong these little ones are because they can sure tough it out when they are pretty sick.

A part of me knew I should have left my uncle's while they worked on the swing set...next time I will listen because she was definitely not feeling good at all!!!

She is about the same today, but the sores do look some better. Her mood is not so great, but I can definitely understand why. My mom took her out for a bit in hopes she would take a nap and so I can get some work done...work waits for no one!!! I hope you all had a much better weekend than we did :) I'm on beach countdown...early Sunday we are on the road headed back down to Panama City Beach, FL...I just hope she is feeling MUCH better by then!

Pampered Chef

I have always loved Pampered Chef products...well..once I was introduced to them years ago lol. I've never really had a chance to use/buy them because I've never really had my own home. Now that I have my own place I have a need for their products. My mom ordered me a ton of products that will be very beneficial in my new home. I thought I would share what all I got. Some of these I have never used myself so I will have to come back and update once I use them.

Here is the lovely bag it comes in :)

These are flexible cutting mats. They come in a three pack and I love how colorful they are! There are two different sizes available. These are 11x15. These are cutting mats and I will use them for that purpose, but I will save at least one to be used to roll out smaller pastries on as well.

This is a neat gadget...it's a cut n seal. This cut n seal will make crustless pb&j or any other kind of sandwich you would like. It beats paying $3 or so for the crustables at the grocery store when I can make my own! It comes with recipes for things such as pizza and cherry cheese turnovers. I cannot wait to use it!

 As you can see this is the Hold N Slice. It just helps hold the food steady so you can cut things up without worrying about cutting your fingers lol. This is a must for me because I am so clumsy!!!

This is pretty explanatory. The good thing about ordering the pink one is for every one sold in 2012 $1 will go toward the Help Whip Cancer organization. I like unique things so I love the pink!

This is a must have for moms!!! I have used this numerous times and it is such a big help. It's an apple wedger and works very well! Saves so much time when preparing apples for little ones.

I am a huge cook book addict! I think I could buy just about all the cookbooks there are and still want more lol.

This is an egg slicer, but it will also cut strawberries and kiwi.

Who doesn't need a good cutting board! I had cutting boards, but they were wood and ended up splitting while in storage.

Last but not least is this covered baker. I've heard these things are awesome for making chicken. I have not personally used this, but have eaten chicken cooked from it and it was amazing. I can't wait to use my products!

If you are interested in Pampered Chef please let me know and I can get you hooked up.

Midweek Ramblings

I meant to write this last night but there were a few variables as to why I didn't. First of all it was a huge tv day for me...or should have been. Two shows I watch premiered last night...Kendra On Top and Dance Moms. I missed Dance Moms due to the fact that I was stuck at work, but I made it for Kendra. I had to flip back and forth between Kendra and 16&Pregnant Life After Labor. By the time the show was over it was 11:00 and I needed sleep as I was going to try to be up at 4 a.m. today. HA!!! One of these days I will learn to quit trying to be up at 4 unless it's a Friday because that's the only day I can make myself get up and that's ONLY if I desperately need the time. Oh yeah...I forgot to mention Tuesday is also Giuliana and Bill. Next week the final season of Teen Mom premiere's so as sad as I am that Giuliana and Bill had their finale last night...it helps some because I have too many shows coming on Tuesday's now.

I've been trying to get a new blog design since Easter has come and gone. I found one I liked, but Photobucket seems to have made some changes and now I don't know how to add pictures to my header. I hope to get it fixed this weekend, but I'm gonna be pretty busy so who knows.

I may finally get to move into my new place soon....I'm hoping by next week. My manager finally decided to respond to my email that I sent her on April 26 to let her know I would be moving on May 5. I had to forward the April email and ask if there was anything I should be doing to get things moving. Her response, "Oh you've moved already?" Talk about being so frustrated!!!!

I've talked about Maddy's appetite before, but I took a picture to show you just how much this child can eat...

She eats a whole one of these with no problems, but when it's all gone she asks for more and usually eats at least half of a second one. She has food going into her mouth round the clock it seems. I think one day I will do a food diary for her and post on here to show the amount of food she consumes in a day lol. I'm not at all making fun of her...I'm just a bit amazed at how much food she really can eat, but doesn't gain a pound. I'm pretty sure her pediatrician questioned my mothering skills where she is concerned because she has always been so tiny. At one point she told me that she was okay with where she fell in weight, but if she didn't gain at least two pounds by the next check up she would be a little concerned. She did mention she was probably just small because I was small (yes I wanted to hug her right then and there lol) but she also wanted to keep a watch on Maddy and make sure there wasn't anything wrong. I stressed out until time for the next check up and thankfully Maddy had gained exactly two pounds...I said Whew in my head lol.

Have I mentioned that we leave for vacation in just 11 days (only 7 work days)? I'm so ready to get out of here again and forget about my problems! I've been looking up restaurants online so I know where we can go and where we can't and I have it all planned out...no I'm not really a planner but I had to this time due to financial reasons. We are going to try some new restaurants because I'm kinda tired of the same ol same ol. Sunday night we are just going to eat at the hotel because after driving all day I don't think either of us is going to want to get back in the car. There are three different restaurants in the hotel so I'm not sure which one we will be eating at. I want to go to The View because you're supposed to have a good view of the beach but price wise I don't know what any of them cost and that will be the determining factor.

Insert random picture here :)

Last Friday we celebrated my cousin Aria's 2nd birthday. She had a chipmunk theme party at Harrison Bay. They had yummy BBQ  with baked beans and potato salad and of coarse....cake and ice cream. Maddy really enjoyed herself.

 The birthday girl enjoying her cake

This is the view from the deck. The pool is just amazing and being able to see the lake is neat as well :)

Saturday me and Maddy just stayed home for the most part and played. We played car and baby and stroller. Maddy loves to pretend she's going to the store like we do all the time. She really is going to be a good little mommy some day. We went to see what Pops was building in the back yard and we found some pretty flowers.

The biggest news is we finally went "big girl panty" shopping. I pulled all the ones that were her size and let her pick. She chose Hello Kitty. I was going to show you all the picture I took, but it just seems so awkward now so I decided not to lol.

Yesterday at school Maddy had her first water day of the summer and she really seemed to enjoy it. I told her the night before about water day so she woke up ready to go play in the water. She went to school in her bathing suit and when I picked her up she seemed so happy. I asked her what she did in the water and she told me/showed me she jumped in it. I can tell she had played in the water because her hair looked funny. I'm glad she loves the water :)

That's all the ramblings I can remember for now. This may be my last post until after vacation because I need to get the rest of my stuff out of storage before the end of this month and I'm also in the process of getting ready for vacation still so if I don't post again I hope you all have a great weekend and week next week and be prepared for another few posts full of vacation pictures when I get back!!!

Thursday Randoms

I really don't anticipate keeping this going all the time, I'm just getting excited...again lol. I will start with the fact that my pictures from Florida did not get erased. Some how my mom ended up with my card. I think I left it in her computer that day and when she went to her computer she thought it was her card. I'm not going to post a lot of pics as my vacation posts were pretty much nothing but pics, but I do want to show off a couple.

As you can see she really had no problem with sand this year.

I decided to try out Social Cam and it's pretty fun. Here is the first video I took. I used the 1970's filter and a little bit of music. I will def be using this more frequently because it's an easy way to share all of Maddy's cuteness lol

Maddy is still thinking about her vacation. She informed me Tuesday that she was going on vacation, gettin new car, eat bite bites (blue to be exact i think lol), and play in the water. I told her no, you're going to school and she was quick to say, "NO! I gon get my new car, eat bite bites, go on vacation and play in water!" It was so cute. Lucky for her...and me...we have another trip coming up really soon.

Blogger-Templates
I've been working on helping her understand that Nana and Pops won't be there in hopes when the day comes for us to leave she won't have a meltdown cause she thought they would be going too. 
I am thankful that tomorrow is Friday because it feels like this week has just drug on. If it weren't for my cousin's birthday party being tomorrow I would so be getting some more pizza!! I could eat that philly cheese steak pizza for a few days in a row all the time lol. Maddy remembered that we got pizza last Friday, which I thought was neat. 
That is all for now. I was going to show you something I found on my weather app, but I want the conditions to actually be there. Basically it tells me where to expect hail and severe hail and other information about the storm that really doesn't mean too much to me...yet. We were supposed to get some pretty good storms today, but they are weakening and moving upwards so no storms for us...no severe ones anyways. 
I hope you all have a fantastic Friday and an even better weekend!!!

Memorial Day Weekend

It is so hard to believe how fast long weekends go by. My system at work is down, so I have been unable to work...darn right?? Friday night was a refreshing to me because I was able to enjoy my time with Maddy and not stress out about getting my time in. I decided to get us a special (to me) treat for dinner. We ordered pizza to bring home. I have fallen in love with the philly cheese steak pizza from domino's so I got me that and Maddy a small cheese pizza. I don't know how many pieces come in a small, but Maddy ate all but three pizza's of it. I was quite amazed!

 Because she had a normal day of playing at school, she didn't really stay up much later than her normal bedtime. She went to bed around 7:45 p.m. and that gave me the rest of the night to do whatever. I almost didn't know what to do with myself. I thought about working out, then cleaning, then watching tv but I just couldn't decide what I wanted to do. I think I ended up sitting on the couch and watching tv. Me and a friend decided to watch the same movie on Netflix and talk about it through text...that is actually very fun to do lol. We watched Somebody Help Me and it was one messed up movie. Afterwards I ended up falling asleep. Saturday I was going to try to take Maddy swimming, but other plans took over and we weren't going to be able to. We just stayed home and played outside and boy was it ever so amazingly hot. Within five minutes of just standing outside I was dripping with sweat. We only got to play outside for maybe an hour before we went back inside for a little break. By this time it was around 2:30 and Maddy had not had a nap and her attitude was showing it. I put her down for a nap and then I plopped down on the couch once again to watch some tv. It took Maddy a little while to go to sleep, but when she did she stayed asleep for a while. She didn't wake up until 5:30 p.m. so I knew bedtime would be delayed. When she woke up we went to Sonic to get me a drink and her some dinner. I love that she can tell me what she wants now instead of me trying to guess what she wants. At first she wanted mac & cheese. I asked her if she wanted to eat mac & cheese from home or get something there. She said, "Ummm...hot dog!" I read her the menu and she still chose hot dog. I asked her one more time and she changed her mind to hamburger. I was amazed at how fast she was eating. She normally plays with her food, but there was no playing involved...she got right down to business and ate the entire thing before we got home.

I love watching her eat!!!! When we got back home we just played and watched Caillou. I put her to bed a little after eight and cleaned up a little. Me and my friend decided to watch the sequel to the movie we had watched Friday...Somebody Help Me 2. The sequel was much better than the first, but they are still strange. After the movie I watched some more tv...I really don't get to watch THAT much tv so it was a treat for me lol. I went to bed sometime after midnight. I was surprised Sunday morning because I actually woke up before Maddy. That hasn't happened since I've had her. I woke up at 8:15 a.m. and decided to clean up the rest of our mess before she woke up. She woke up at 8:30. Her dad visits on Sunday so I pretty much just stay in my room. We did run to the store and back to sonic to get me a drink and Maddy some ice-cream. The rest of the time she played outside.

Can you see the pure joy on her face??? This girl is just head over heels about her car and that just makes me so happy. Out of all her toys I'd say her car is by far her favorite, besides baby lol. She still doesn't really have the concept of driving it yet, but she had gotten to where she would turn the wheel if you told her to. She hasn't gotten to ride it in a while with us being on vacation, so we will have to work on that again. I did forget to mention in my vacation posts here, here, here, and here about Maddy's potty training! Before we left on vacation, which by the way, we are leaving on OUR vacation in just 19 more days (only 13 work days) Maddy had been doing so good at school in using the potty all the time with only one time in her diaper. I noticed two nights before we left on vacation she woke up with a completely dry diaper. While we were on vacation each morning she was dry I asked her if she wanted to use the potty. She was so happy to use the potty like a big girl and she did each time. She had to tell her Nana and Pops what she had done. She had gotten to the point to where she would tell me each time she had to potty. While we were on vacation I felt like she was pretty much potty trained lol. Once we got back home it has seemed to go backwards. She isn't dry in the mornings anymore and she doesn't always tell me she has to potty and she even has reverted back to her little potty. I know these things take time and this is all normal. She is doing super well with the potty though. I had a reason for putting that right here, but now I forgot where I was going with it so please excuse my random potty training story lol. Monday she helped Pops mow the grass and Nana do some laundry. I fed her lunch, which of coarse was mac & cheese per her request. After lunch it was time to hit up the pool. We live 10-15 minutes away from the pool and right as I pulled in I found her like this:

I drove around for a little while because my car sometime overheats if you let idle for a while. After I circled around twice I decided to just park and turn the car off. I was going to wake her up once an hour had passed, but she woke up on her own just a few minutes shy of the hour because it was getting so hot. We stay at the kiddie pool and it was so unbelievably crowded. Both pools were so crowded you could barely move. I am upset with the management of the pools because they let things happen that really should be addressed. Kids that are really too big for the kiddie pool come in and fight each other and try to dunk each other and splash other people and are just kinda unruly. I know the point of a pool is to get wet, but when you have a two year old who is already afraid of the water and doesn't like water being splashed in her eyes, it just makes you wish the lifeguards would monitor the pool a little more closely. Towards the end Maddy got splashed in the eyes one too many times and she decided to fight back by splashing back. Up until that point I wouldn't let her splash other people because it's a respect thing, but when they kept splashing her I just let her go for it. We did have a good time despite the rudeness of the people there. I hope now that the holiday is over the pool will not be as crowded as it was on Monday.

Memorial day is a time of reflection for the men and women who died for our freedom. I am very thankful to each man and woman who has/is serving our country.

The End

Our last day at the beach was a more relaxed one. Me and Maddy had trouble getting to sleep the night before, actually, we kinda had sleep problems all week. I love going on vacation with Maddy because we get to snuggle up in bed and cuddle...not something I get to do here at home. I had to snap a few pics throughout our stay of her in bed.

Yes, we were laughing hysterically over nothingness. These are the moments I will treasure forever...especially once she is grown and on her own. We woke up at 5 something and then got up around 6:30 a.m. I knew she was gonna tire out fast that day and I was right. We woke up to clouds and I was a little bummed since it was our last day there. I decided to look on the radar and found out there was a storm out at sea but luckily it was moving away from us.

Maddy's mood was up and down the entire morning. My mom had taken her in for a nap on Sunday to let me have a little time to myself. I was so thankful for that time too because I hadn't gotten to "lay out" in almost three years. I was not expecting any time to just lay out, but it was so refreshing. After hearing Maddy give me down the road my mom took her once again for a nap around 9 a.m. I didn't quite know what to do with myself. I sat outside for a while in hopes the sun would shine, but it never did. Around 10:30 I decided to go in and lay down myself cause I didn't sleep much the night before. When I woke up Maddy was still asleep and the sun was just a shining. Me and my mom walked the beach a little, then headed back in to see if Maddy was still asleep...she was. It was around 11:30 which meant Maddy had been asleep for almost three hours...tired much? I don't think Maddy woke up until noon or 12:30 and then we all headed down to the beach.

Maddy was real scared of the water, but she finally let my mom carry her down to see it. She got to where she was ok if it touched her as long as she was held. My step dad took her on out some and she just had a ball. After the beach we headed up to the big pool and Maddy just played on the stairs. The pool was a lil chilly for us lol. We then got ready to go to one of my favorite restaurants down there called Breakers.

As you can see it overlooks the water and is just a relaxed setting. I think Harpoon Harry's has bought them out or something and the menu changed from the last time we were there. It was a decent meal, but I don't think I would get it again. I got the seafood platter which consisted of scallops, oysters, stuffed crab, and the fish of the day. I substituted more scallops for the oysters. Maddy had the burger but she was having a meltdown due to being so tired so she didn't eat much. My mom intrigued her with her interesting stories she can make up, which I was able to catch on film lol.

All in all it was a great trip and I'm so glad my mom and step dad were able to see Maddy on the beach. I'm also very grateful to them for allowing us to go with them and crash their vacation. I can't wait to go back!!!