From Baby to Three

We have officially made it to Maddy's birthday week. In exactly one week she will be turning three! It seems just like yesterday I was in labor with her. I will never forget her birthday story and the emotions I was feeling that day. I will never forget the ride to the hospital wondering if we would ever get there. I remember when we did get there I just started crying...some emotions from labor some being scared to death of the IV I was fixing to get. I will never forget how God answered every single one of my prayers I had been praying for nine months, one which included the nurse getting the IV tech to numb me before putting the IV in. I will never forget the moment Maddy was born and how scared I was she wasn't going to make it. I don't know how long it really was, but it seems like they had to work on her forever before they finally got her to cry. Like most moms, I think back to the day she was born and all the events that transpired on her birthday. I find myself quite emotional the closer it gets to her birthday. Here's a look back...

 newborn

 one

 two

almost three!!!

MIA

I have been missing in action lately. I have been trying to get everything ready for Maddy's birthday party that is next weekend. She is so excited her birthday is very soon. She became a little more interested in her countdown to birthday calender this week.

I haven't really had a chance to put stuff away since we've moved in, so we had things laying everywhere. With company coming next weekend I knew it was time to get busy and get our house presentable. I have a wonderful mom who has taken time out of her schedule to help me accomplish this task. It's not quite finished, but it will be by next weekend. Above my cabinets in the kitchen are some fall foliage with lights intertwined in them. It's really pretty...especially at night with the lights off.

 The pumpkin is not really spikey lol. Zip ties hold it together and I just hadn't tucked them in at this point. Maddy LOVES her pumpkin. She asks me everyday if that is her pumpkin. I'm so glad I got it because seeing her excited over it is worth just about anything.

This candle has really brought that "homey" feel to me personally. It's pumpkin spice and the first day I lit it, I about melted. I had no idea a candle is what would make me feel like I was "home" but it sure has.

From here on out I will be taking advantage of the "end of season" sales stores hold. I've got a great start to my decoration collection, but there is always room for more :)

Another reason I have been MIA is because I've been working on Maddy's slideshow. I got it done last Saturday and was trying to burn it to a dvd. Sunday went by and it still wasn't done, then Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday. I had decided if it wasn't done by this weekend I would have to stop the process and try to condense the slideshow down. Do you know how hard it is to get a year's worth of pictures and video into the allotted space they give??? My computer helped me out because I woke up Wednesday morning to find my computer had installed updates over night and shut down. That wasn't the worst part. The worst part is the changes I had made prior to starting the burn process apparently didn't get saved. I spent 4 hours trying to fix it on Thursday. I did finally get it to work out and now have it on a dvd. I'm making a "party" dvd that still needs some work, but it'll get there :) I have missed blogging a lot and will be very excited to share her birthday party.

I told myself I wouldn't really take a "big" vacation this coming summer, but I found myself talking about planning a Disney cruise with my mom for next year. I really don't know what we will be doing vacation wise this coming summer, but it's fun to think about. I would have loved to be able to give Maddy a disney cruise this year for her birthday, but even if I could financially...I still haven't recovered from last year's cruise lol. I would definitely go on a cruise again right now if it were handed to me, but I might hesitate a bit because there were some really rough patches with Maddy last year. Don't get me wrong...she did do a great job on that trip, but her age was NOT the best age to go lol.

Me and a friend got to talking this week about weddings and it got me thinking again about what my dream ring would be. I'm not worried about the dream dress...but the ring is a different story lol. A while back I had told my mom that whoever marries me has to get my ring from New York. At that time I said it didn't have to be Tiffany's, but just some store in New York. I had decided to not have such high standards as far as the ring goes and just had a certain look I wanted. Well, after looking up rings yesterday I decided to go back to my original statement lol. It must come from New York City and preferably Tiffany's, but I don't want a $30,000 ring. I want this ring.

Yes, I was laying in bed trying to find the ring they used in Sweet Home Alabama and finally figured out it was the Tiffany Lucida ring. Ta da!!! I may buy this for myself :) Ok...back to reality lol.

This weekend I will be finishing up Maddy's party shopping...I need to finish getting the party favors and shoes for her Minnie Mouse outfit and then the weekend of her party I need to get the food and stuff for punch. We are having Minnie's Punch :) I hope it tastes good...maybe I should make some first to be sure. I think these are pretty much my thoughts for now...I'm going to go play around with her slideshow and if I can figure out a way to break it down to fit on youtube I will post it.

Hope you all have a great weekend!!!

A Very Mickey Birthday

It's that time of year again. Most people are talking football come September, but in my household we are talking birthday. Maddy is trying to patiently wait for her birthday to get here, but bless her heart it's a bit hard on her. It seems to be everybody's birthday but hers lol. I made a countdown calender for her so she could see when we were really close to her birthday, but it's a bit too plain and boring to her. I know I've mentioned her party in this post, but I've been in full party planning mode. Here are the invitations that are being sent out and the shirt she will be wearing.

I find myself thinking of party things as I attempt to put my house in order. One thing for sure...by September 23 I should have at least a clean living room and kitchen :) Next time I move I will definitely plan for a week off so I can put everything away instead of trying to balance everything while working overtime. I still have quite a lot of work to do to get ready. I need to finalize her slideshow, clean house, order balloons, get the fruit, napkins, plates, eating utensils, drinks, and a card. I only have 17 days to accomplish this. In the words of The Little Engine That Could, "I think I can, I think I can, I think I can."

I don't want her to hurry and grow up, but for her sake I'm ready for her birthday to get here so she can have some cake. She associates the word birthday with cake. It's so cute because whoever's birthday it is, I will use my step dad's as an example since his was the last birthday, she will say, "I gon have some of his birfday?" She is really asking if she is going to eat some of the cake. This year Maddy will be 3 and I seriously wonder where the time went. I am so very proud of her and love her more than words can say.

I think it's time I get some sleep lol. Good night :)

Midweek Rambles

Yay!!! We made it to midweek! This week has been a breath of fresh air for me. This is the first week that I haven't had overtime in a year. Ok, so the week of July 4th we didn't have overtime, but besides that we have been on constant overtime. This week I have been able to really enjoy Maddy and I find myself not wanting the week to end. Don't get me wrong, I'm very much looking forward to the weekend but I have really enjoyed getting to have this time with Maddy.

I am so proud of Maddy! I'm proud of her all the time, but it's like she keeps adding proudness to my pride or however that should be worded lol. I have been able to work with her on her memory verse that she had to say tonight...she is a fast learner! Every day we would recite her verse and this evening she told her teachers the verse and got her first patch/badge. What made me so proud is to see her eyes sparkle when I came to get her. She seemed to really be very proud of herself and she was such a big girl carrying her bag on her shoulder and walking to the car. It may just be one of my mom moments I was having but I really was just very proud of her.

I can't believe how grown up she looks :(

This week we have really been working on her listening to me or any other adult. She seems to think she is the head of the household and I knew I had to get that under control before it was too late. Having two extra hours a day to devote to her may not sound like a lot but it has done wonders. It took one night for her to realize that what mommy said went and that was that. Sure, she has her moments that she doesn't listen...I don't expect her to be perfect, but she really has done a very good job this week.

At night she likes for me to come check on her. Here lately I have always checked on her after she had already fallen asleep. Last night I decided to take a picture of her for two reasons, one she just looked so peaceful asleep on her bee pillow and two I wanted to be able to show her that I really did check on her.

She is just such a blessing and I am so thankful to be able to be her mom!

I didn't do a meal plan this week since it's kind of a crazy week. I still have tons of left overs from last week so I'm eating those for my lunches and fixing Maddy something quick. She's been wanting mashed potatoes lately so I cooked her some last night after I got done with work. Most of our meals this week include mashed potatoes because I cooked a little more than I normally do. There also wasn't a lot of items on sale last week that could be turned into a meal so it just all worked out to have left overs.  I'm hoping this week there will be more useful things on sale.

God is so good!! I had been having a bad feeling my mom was going to get plastered one day pulling out of my driveway. I kind of saw the wreck as she left my house Monday night, but luckily she turned to the right instead of to the left so I knew she wouldn't be wrecking that night. I dismissed that bad feeling until today. She picks Maddy up on Wednesday's so I can get my time in at work and go to church. She is usually here a little before 8 a.m. but never past. This morning I was sitting with Maddy waiting on her to get here. I heard this loud noise that sounded like somebody just dropped a load of metal. I looked at the clock and it was 8:02. I decided to go look out my window and I saw a car stopped in the middle of the road. I was confused until I looked to my left and saw this black vehicle laying on it's roof. I panicked because my mom drives a black car and my bad feeling just came straight to me. I ran to get my phone and I was begging her to pick up....she did. I was so relieved I just cried because I just knew that was going to be her. She was two cars behind the wreck and had she been here when she usually gets here she probably would have hit the other car head on. Talk about making ya feel sick.

Tonight's orchestra practice is something I really needed. At first I just felt so lost and confused because I couldn't get the music, but after the music minister prayed his prayer I was actually able to worship in practice. I needed his prayer and I feel like I actually went to church and heard a message. God has been so good to me and I am just so thankful for everything He has done. Last month was really tough on me but there is a reason for that whether I find that reason out now or later. I'm so thankful He has a plan for my life and all I have to do is trust and follow Him. I'm trying my best to do so without question or complaining, but sometimes I slip.

I hope you all are enjoying your week! Only two more days to go and we get to have another weekend :)

A Beary Good Weekend

I tried writing my Midweek Rambles last week, but I could not get the picture part to load. I don't like posting without pictures, so I just decided to wait. Now here we are at the end of a great 3 day weekend. This post will probably be random since I didn't get my randomness out lol.

I stuck to my meal plan for most of the week. I only have pictures through Wednesday.

 Maddy is starting to get a little hard to feed. She's not a picky eater by any means...her problem is not wanting to take time out to actually eat. She did ok with the beef and mashed potatoes. She ate a little chicken and then said she was done. The best she did was on Wednesday. Bless her heart...she has to eat her dinner in the car on the way to church. I had some lunchable's on hand and it worked out perfect. She loved her ham and cheese crackers.

I may have mentioned this before but we have a kitten that has decided to take up residence at our house. It showed up out of no where but has a collar with a bell on it. Every time we open our door it just looks at us and you can tell it's saying, "Oh just let me in...you know you want to...ain't I purdy?" with it's eyes. I have to just ignore it because one day I did make eye contact and oh my goodness lol. I'm not even a cat person. I'm getting a little frustrated because it digs in my roses on our front porch.

The above video was taken last weekend at my mom's house. She decided to call the flower bed a garden all on her own. She started off saying, "Sprinkle, sprinkle, sprinkle, sprinkle." She's a mess :)

I tried french braiding hair that same weekend and didn't quite get the hang of it. My mom braided all three grandkids' hair and I let Maddy sleep in hers. When she woke up on Sunday this is what it looked like:

She has such beautiful hair!

We had our first boo boo at our new house on Friday. I'm not really sure just what happened. I was in the process of getting the right key to unlock our door. Maddy was standing on our step and next thing I know she's going down. I imagine she just lost her balance, but she scraped her arm on the corner of the step and it left a pretty good mark.

She jumped up and first thing she said was, "BUT I DON'T WANT BAND AIND." I think she was holding back her tears until she could get that out because she had to take a minute before she could talk and as soon as she got those words out she cried. I felt so bad for her. She made me nervous how she was holding it because she acted like it was a more serious injury than a scrape...luckily it wasn't. 

That is my random wrap up. Now here comes our exciting weekend. For the first time since we've moved we had a slumber party at Nana's house on Sunday night...including Manny. Maddy got to play for a little bit when we first got there because I had to use my chicken before it ruined. I made white chicken chili in the crock pot. Maddy is an orange fanatic...good thing she is a Vols fan lol. I think she ate at least 5 clementine's in a row Sunday night. She had to have a big bowl. She watched Bob and had her oranges.

We both had a bit of a rough time going to sleep. She didn't fall asleep until approximately 10:45 p.m. I fell asleep somewhere around 11:15, but woke back up at 3 a.m. and could not go back to sleep...it was a bit frustrating. I finally got back to sleep and next thing I know Maddy is waking me up asking me if it's time to go to the mountains. We had plans of going to Cades Cove today to try to find a bear. I'm so very excited to say that we were successful in this mission...thank you Lord!

The last picture is to show all three of us sitting in the back. During the bear viewing Maddy was asleep in her carseat, so my mom and I were sitting on the toolbox of my step dad's truck. Once she woke up we pulled out chairs and sat. Maddy was not in a good mood when she woke up and made me a nervous wreck but once we were almost done she decided to actually sit down in her chair...go figure. It was such a pretty day and the mountains were gorgeous! On our way home we ate at Calhoun's on the River and it was so yummy! It's so hard to believe that it's been a 3 day weekend and it's all over. I keep telling myself in just two more months we will get 5 days off (Thanksgiving), in the mean time I'm looking forward to Maddy's birthday...and so is she :)

Weekly Meal Plan

I'm lacking a lot of photos here lately and wanted to change up my blog a little bit until I can get some more pictures. I'm going to post my weekly meal plan for the week. As I've mentioned before I try my best to coupon. I had been looking in cookbooks and pinterest for recipe's that sounded good and that I had most of the ingredients for. I would then build my shopping list on the items I didn't have. I have found that I go over my budget by a good bit by doing it that way. This week I have decided to build my meals around what was on sale and what I already had. I showed you all my publix trip here. It was mostly dog food and powerade. I did get a pack of chicken breast because it was on sale for $2.99 a pound. I also went to Bi-Lo and got a dozen eggs($1.04), london broil roast(on sale for $2.99/lb), baby carrots(.99), and Sara Lee bread ($1.24). I was able to make a meal plan from there. Tonight we had the london broil roast, mashed potatoes, corn bread, and green peas. I must say it really hit the spot! Here is Maddy enjoying her dinner.

Ok, so maybe she was in the middle of talking to me and trying to get out of eating dinner today lol. She isn't much into meat but ate all the rest and even asked for more peas. I love that she loves food like she does and love how broad her tastes are. Ok, back on track :) Tomorrow we are having Paprika Chicken with Mushrooms or Alice Springs Chicken (pinterest inspired). I'm not sure if I have everything for the Paprika chicken so I made a back up just in case. Wednesday is our hectic day so I'm actually not cooking. I am eating left overs and Maddy is either eating at church, eating a hot dog, or eating a lunchable I picked up at Wal-Mart for $1. Thursday is Beef Tips w/Rice and corn. I know corn isn't something you'd normally eat with beef tips, but Maddy loves corn and since she isn't too much into meat she may only have corn and rice. Friday is White Chicken Chili night. I'm not a normal person when it comes to food or drinks. I don't only eat soups/chili's in the fall/winter or drink hot drinks in the fall/winter. I can eat and drink at any given point of a season. It is starting to cool down, but has still been pretty warm. Saturday and Sunday we eat our left overs or eat with my mom. I don't like to waste food and I have actually wasted a lot of the pizza casserole I made two weeks ago. I'm having to figure out this cooking thing so I don't waste a lot of food,but have enough all at the same time. I think this week will be better...I hope anyways lol.

I hope you all had a great weekend and are off to a great start this week!!! If it's already a rough week then just remember only four more days to go and for some people it's a three day weekend :)

*Jeremiah 29:11

Publix Savings

I decided to start showing my actual coupon trips on here. Today Publix was my main store, but I also went to Bi-Lo. Here is what I got at publix minus a thing of chicken breasts:

It's hard to tell exactly what there is in the picture so here is the break down:
30 32 oz. powerade's for $1.00 each
2 Kens marinade for $1.50 each
1 Peter Pan Peanut Butter for $1.70
1 32 oz. Mayo for $2.74
1 10 oz. A-1 sauce for $1.88
20 13.2 oz. canned dog food for .65 each
Perdue Boneless Chicken Breast for $4.75
2 packs of hot dogs for $2.59 each
Lipton Tea Bags for $1.30

I also had a few coupons. $.40 off mayo, 2 buy 10 powerade's get 5 free, $.70 off ken's marinade sauce, and (2)$1.50 off 10 cans of dog food.

My total came to $52.01 and I saved a total of $44.92

I have a pretty low weekly budget for groceries that I am trying to get down to. I miscalculated this trip so instead of being under I went over because I have to factor in my Bi-Lo trip and tomorrow I am going to Wal-Mart to get Maddy's milk, breakfast bread, and papers. I'm getting so close to my allotted budget.