Troubled Days

Believe it or not I just got Maddy to bed 30 minutes ago. It's been kind of a different week this week. Every day Maddy has just absolutely refused to walk into school. She has started asking to be carried and then won't get off you once you get inside. Once you do get her down she refuses to put anything up and just screams, "NOOOOO!!!" When I ask her why it's always, "I just want to go home." She has a favorite teacher who she will normally talk to, but she wants nothing to do with her. If I told her I would stay, then she'd snap right out of it. Normally this type of behavior would make me think something happened at school, but I really don't think this is the case...I think it's something else. I could be completely wrong, but I really don't think so. Not only is Maddy having separation anxiety, she is having a rough time going to sleep. Last night she called for me twice and she was under the covers both time. I would go in there and she would say, "Mommy I'm ready to get up now." She got upset when I told her it was still night night time. She told me one time that she was scared. It probably doesn't help that some people think it's ok to play like monsters are after them...yeah...thanks for that. 11:00 p.m. seems to be the magic number. Tonight was my fault she stayed up so late, but honestly she went straight to sleep. Wednesday's are chaotic around here. I have been letting her stay up and play when we get home from church while I finish working. Tonight was no different. What was different is I went ahead and gave her a bath. I wondered why I was so tired when I was rocking her...I got my phone and saw it was 11:00 p.m. I had to finish tying her friends valentine bags and then I had to put Maddy's valentine's bag together from me. I wished I had remembered to either ask my mom for a heart cookie cutter or buy a cheap one so I could make heart biscuits for her breakfast tomorrow and to get strawberry milk. Yeah, deep down inside I am THAT mom that likes to go all out and make it a fun day but we won't get to do all that this year. It's amazing how fast time has gone by. I didn't even get to get her an adorable outfit...I do, however, have a red heart shirt that will do just fine.

I wish Maddy could understand her feelings enough to tell me exactly what is going on, but I know she can't right now. It kills me to leave her when she having a rough time. I know it's part of life and I know that she is just fine when I leave but more than anything I just want to scoop her up and tell her she can go home. I also know that that would not be in her best interest. I'm hoping tomorrow will be a good distraction for her. She knows it's Valentine's day even though she doesn't really understand what that means. Her school has done a great job of preparing them for tomorrow. I don't have a lot of pictures...but will post a picture of Maddy's treat bag she will get in the morning along with the treat bags we are sending to school.

It was kinda hard to get a "good" picture of the treat bag. It doesn't help that I am just so ready for bed so it is what it is lol. I will share pictures of the goodies in Maddy's sometime this weekend or next week. I hope you all have a GREAT Valentine's Day and enjoy eating all the goodies...I will enjoy seeing all the cute kids that are posted on Instagram, along with my own cute kid and looking at all the hearts. For some reason I LOVE hearts...when my family sees a heart they think of me...we just go. Maybe one day I will understand my love for hearts, but for now I will just enjoy them :) <3 p="">

Be Mine?

Tonight me and Maddy put together valentine treat bags for her friends at school. For her first valentine's day she was not in a daycare...she was home with me. My mom watched her throughout the day so I could work. Her second valentine's day I think her class was too young and didn't hand out valentine cards. Her third valentine's day we just got cards and she showed me who she wanted each one to go to. This year we went with a little goody bag. We got Bob valentine cards and they are so cute!

To go along with the cards we got kitkat bars and mini fruit roll ups. Maddy did it all herself, with the exception of writing the names. She kept asking me, "Which friend is this for?" and I would tell her and she would say ok...they would like this one. She seriously took her time in finding the perfect one for each friend. It kinda seems like she has two crushes...their names are River and Trenton. They aren't her first crush. I believe she had a crush on a little boy in a previous class but I can't think at the moment. I know she has a crush on one of her Sunday school helpers named Mr. Jarrod. I mean we are talking cheeks turning bright red and everything. He is a big help...she has separation anxiety something awful. She never had that as a baby, but as she's gotten older she has a real hard time separating from me. Anyways, Mr. Jarrod knows he is Maddy's favorite and can distract her so I can leave when he is there. Here are the pictures of Maddy making her treat bags.

It was fun to do something different for a change. We first had dinner, then worked on the treat bags, then got to eat a little left over candy, and then we had frozen yogurt lol. I mean it's only Valentine week once a year...may as well enjoy!

Our Weekend

This weekend I took Maddy to get her dance gear. I had only planned on getting her tap shoes, but I decided I may as well go ahead and get it all lol. We got her tap shoes, her ballet dress, dance tights, and ballet shoes. Honestly they are the cutest things ever!! She is in a size 9 shoe now, but for her ballet shoes she took a 10 and her tap shoes she took a 9.5, however, we may need a 10 sooner rather than later. I really want to get her a cute dance bag to store her clothes in, but I don't know if it would be worth the money at this point. Maybe next year I will know better whether she will want to keep dance up or not and then can decide on the bag, but then again I will probably end up just getting it lol.

I really wanted to play dress up with her and take a lot of pictures, but I didn't because I don't want her to get used to "playing" in them ...it's quite pricey when you buy everything at once and think about the fact that she is a growing girl and I will be buying several outfits and shoes throughout the next two years of daycare. I  had to fight back the tears as I got them because I can just envision her all decked out in dance wear and it's just beyond cute!

We also picked out valentine cards for her friends at school. She wasn't too interested in picking them out like she was last year, but she was distracted by her computer. I finally just had to grab one of each and throw in the buggy and asked her to pick one. I thought it would be hard for her to choose because they had Hello Kitty, Minnie Mouse, and Bob....she chose Bob. We also bought a little candy and some treat bags. I will post pictures later this week. I was able to sneak in her valentine gifts as well :)

I'm so proud of myself! I have been trying to cut down my mello yello intake. I turn 30 in a month and my body has already changed for the worse. It holds EVERYTHING I put in lol. I decided to start working on my lifestyle change now before it got too out of hand. I did pretty good last week...my ultimate goal is to get myself down to just one a day. While I work that's a little difficult because my job is high stress and since I tend to work round the clock I need things to get me through and keep me awake...although the caffeine really doesn't affect me. I have only had one mello yello today and also had some water. My food intake was very healthy...half a grilled pork chop, mashed potatoes, squash, and green beans. I was able to get my work out in and I feel so good. I wish I could do this everyday...it's a goal I'm working on for now.

Today at church Maddy's small group went and passed out candy to the adult small groups. They gave Hershey's Hugs. There is nothing sweeter than getting something from a 3 year old. They of coarse got to bring some of those Hugs home :)

I'm hoping to get to bed before 1 a.m. today. I cleaned and cleaned and cleaned today on top of work out so hopefully I will just let myself sleep.

Picture Randoms

I don't have really have any "topics" to talk about per say, but do have a lot of pictures on my phone/camera. My posts may be random picture dumps for a while lol.

Maddy stayed home from school today. It was totally unintentional, but I'm really glad we got to spend the day together. Small mom confession...I have my alarm set for 6:45 a.m. for the weekdays. Since I seem to have gotten stuck in a habit of going to bed  anywhere between 1 and 2 a.m. during the week, it's very rare I actually get up at that time. Usually I snooze until time to get Maddy up. This morning...I remember snoozing one time and then when I woke up and saw how light it was outside I knew I had really overslept. I woke up at 8:11 a.m. I knew there was no way I would be ready to walk out the door by 8:30 a.m. Maddy's daycare has a policy that if they aren't there by 9 a.m. then you have to wait until 2:30 p.m. before dropping them off but you have to let them know you are coming. I figured it'd be 9:30 before I could get there and I'm on overtime this week so it just worked out better that she stay home. When I told her she was staying home her eyes lit up and she said, "YAY!!!! That's what I wanted to do." She grabbed her drawing board as we call it and sat right beside my desk and drew this. She said, "Look mommy, I drew Hello Kitty" When I looked down I was shocked because it really does look like Hello Kitty lol.

If you've read my blog for any length of time you know I coupon...that's how I afford groceries for us. There are lots of good benefits from couponing one being you get to get a lot of goodies that you might not could otherwise afford. One of my deals were the Softpretzel brand of frozen pretzel's. I don't like pretzels without nacho cheese sauce. I didn't have any so I decided to try Pace picante sauce...it was pretty amazing. I don't know why but I was also shocked to see there was only 1 fat gram per pretzel. I didn't put the salt on it so it was a pretty healthy little snack.

These are Maddy's new shoes. Funny story kinda. First of all I had to bring a shoe box to her school last week so they could make a Valentine's box this week. I don't buy many shoes and when I do, I usually throw the box away. I was just going to go to payless and grab a cheap pair of shoes for Maddy so I could get the box. I was going to be proactive and buy a half size bigger so she would have something when her foot grew. I decided to have her try it on and realized her foot had already grown. She's been wearing a size 8.5 and I have no idea how long she has needed a 9. Oops! I grabbed a black pair of flats that she uses for dance and church. Sunday morning we were getting ready for church and I could only find one of her shoes. Mind you it was the only pair she could wear. I searched high and low and everywhere in between and the shoe just was not here...anywhere. So we headed to Wal-Mart and I got her these heart shoes that light up and then another black pair like I had bought at Payless. I think the devil just sits and waits for Sunday morning to roll around because every morning is a battle to get to church. I usually struggle to find my keys and almost had to say no church because I just couldn't find them...but I eventually did. If it's not shoes or keys it's no make up...it;s always something.

This past Saturday me and Maddy had a movie date. It finally snowed here so I threw on Maddy's snowsuit and didn't even bother fixing her hair. The past two times I've told her it might snow she got so excited and wanted to build a snow kitty. When I woke up and saw how hard it was snowing I ran to get her and we hurried to get outside. She remembers us watching Lady and the Tramp one afternoon while we ate popcorn and then we fell asleep. She is always asking now to watch Lady and the Tramp and eat popcorn and tells me if I'm tired I can lay on her couch and love on her. Saturday night we actually watched Despicable Me instead. She did pretty good...she watched most of it but towards the end she got up and played.

I see these advertise all the time on TV but never cared to try them because I really don't like sausage. They were on sale two weeks ago so I bought them. They were normally $6.99 at Publix, but they were doing a B1G1 and on top of that I had a coupon. I only bought one because it was the cheapest price. They actually were pretty good. I wouldn't pay full price for them, but if they go back on sale I would buy again. I do recommend not freezing them though.

Maddy's school has come up with a creative way to raise money for iPads and other education electronics. The director will cook every once in a while. They recently held another dinner and I must say she is a WONDERFUL cook! This time was spaghetti, rolls, and salad. I'm really not a big spaghetti fan..I like it baked with lots of cheese. I was reluctant to try hers but was pleasantly surprised. The rolls..they were amazing too. When we got home we went straight to the table to dig in....Maddy really enjoyed it lol. FYI...I really do fix her hair...this is how she comes home everyday...she plays super hard and of coarse during nap time it gets all messed up.

Maddy received her first award on my oldest niece's birthday. She doesn't know what this is just yet, but it's something I will treasure forever. She is in dance year round at her school and she just progressed to the next level. It will be interesting to see how long she will keep dance up. I don't think it's something she will do once she is out of daycare, but she may surprise me.

This was roughly two Sunday's ago...we were getting ready for church and once I got her PJ's off she ran to her couch laughing saying No, I'm cold let's snuggle. I wish I had written down exactly what she said because it was super cute. I wanted nothing more than to lay back down under the nice warm covers and go back to sleep but I'm always so thankful to go to church.

She wears her glasses upside down because when she tries to put them on the right way herself, they fall down...this way they don't fall down...smart girl she is lol. She was all about her chocolate in that moment...right now chocolate is not candy...it's chocolate lol.

I need to go workout now before I fall asleep...actually that's why I'm staying up so late is because after I work out I'm pretty pumped. I hope you all have a great end of the week!!!

Swinging the Day Away

I decided to take a break from all the cleaning on Sunday and go enjoy the pretty day. I grabbed my phone and earbuds and got to swinging on Maddy's playground. Swinging is so soothing. I mean I know it's a real form of therapy from working with a former student, but I forgot how good it felt to swing. The swing soothed me and the music lifted my spirits. By the time I was done I was so pumped! Pandora has become my new best friend. I wish cars would come with pandora loaded in them, but without the jacked up prices lol. I have all kinds of pandora stations and I love to shuffle through them. Here is a glimpse of what I listened to.

You can't really dance a lot on a swing, but I danced as much as I could. I plan to do this a LOT more often lol

20 Questions

If you're on Pinterest I'm sure you've run into the "20 questions to ask your kids each year" thing. I had one pinned, however, I couldn't find the questions so I just searched for one until I did. I asked Maddy this past Sunday as we played outside. These were ALL unprompted, but I did have to help her understand what some of the words were, such as sports and holiday:

1. What is your favorite color? Purple, blue, and orange
2. What is your favorite toy? choo choo train (she doesn't even have one lol)
3. What is your favorite fruit? "nanas" bananas
4. What is your favorite TV show? Mickey Mouse and Doc McStuffins
5. What is your favorite thing to eat for lunch? Pizza and pineapple
6. What is your favorite outfit? shoes
7. What is your favorite game? Red Rover Red Rover
8. What is your favorite snack? Pizza
9. What is your favorite animal? Giraffe
10. What is your favorite song? ABC's
11. What is your favorite book? ABC book
12. Who is your best friend? Ella and Courtney
13. What is your favorite sport? Football
14. What is your favorite thing to do outside? Swing
15. What is your favorite drink? Chocolate milk and water
16. What is your favorite holiday? Halloween
17. What do you like to take to bed with you at night? Horse (she never takes her horse...she usually takes baby)
18. What is your favorite thing to eat for breakfast? waffles and pancakes (she has a waffle most mornings and she won't eat pancakes)
19. What do you want for dinner on your birthday? cake
20. What do you want to be when you grow up? Mommy....can we say melt my heart?!?!

I hope to remember to ask her these questions each year...technically it should be February 3 each year, but I kinda like doing it around her birthday...we will see. She actually asked me to teach her a sport a while back. I refuse to say on here until I can actually play that sport with her because unfortunately there are people who like to "creep" on my blog for all the wrong reasons and I refuse to just hand out information :x (my lips are sealed lol)

The Manny Diaries Part 3

Today was a lot more eventful than just laying with mommy while she works. Today I actually got to go somewhere!!! I was so excited I about jumped clear off the porch. Once I saw where we were going I wanted to go right back home. Apparently humans like to hurt us dogs with these needle things. Anyways, mommy was so nervous (whatever that means) that I would be hospitalized by next month. I tried to show the doctor how active I have been lately and it paid off. After they took my blood the doctor said he could tell I was feeling MUCH better than I was! I think he was a little amazed at how much better I was doing. Mommy had to open her mouth and tell him I was starting to itch again, which concerned him. I am now back on two pills instead of one...can we say yuck?! He told mommy that they would try doing a pulse dose where I will take it for seven days straight and then just on Saturday and Sunday after that and it would possibly be for life. He brought in a piece of paper and started talking to mommy. He said my BUN was 43.7, which was DOWN from what it was the last time we were in there. Last time it was around 60 something. My creatinine was at 2.5 which is also down from last time and cut in half. The doctor told me I did really good and my mommy just loved on me a lot. The doctor also told mommy she had been doing good as well...as if SHE is the one who has to give up all the good stuff...pssh! I have to go back next month for another check and if I'm still feeling okay then they will leave me alone for 3-6 months.  Mommy said she wanted to say a few things so here she is...

God is so good!!! He cares about what we care about because He loves US!!! I have spent many nights praying over Manny and of coarse crying my eyes out begging him not to die anytime soon. I also chose to tell him just about everyday that he was going to be okay...that was my grandmother's advice. I have thanked God for this wonderful news. The vet said he hasn't "cured" him but that he's just helped his quality of life and helped maintain it for a longer period than it would have been. I was so impressed with him because he was able to notice in his own words that Manny had a little more "pep in his step" I can't remember his exact weight but it was 27.8 or somewhere around there. The most he has ever weighed is in the 28 range so he is practically where he started. I plan to continue to pour prayer over him. I know at some point all living things pass away, but I want at least 4-5 more years although he was only given up to 3 years. God can do the impossible. His vet seemed surprised that his numbers came down because he expected him to be in the hospital next month according to his rising numbers. Now then I ask...what is impossible for God? ABSOLUTELY NOTHING!!!

He's my little sleeping beauty :)