The Longest Post Ever ;)

I seem to have gone from blogging all the time to rarely blogging these days. My heart hasn't been in it lately because apparently my life is so entertaining people want to stoop to "stalking" ways. It's really sad to me to think that some people think you can control other people...you can't. It's not cool to be obsessive or possessive either, so you may as well give it up. After this post my blog will be kept as private. If you are interested in keeping up with me and Maddy...in a healthy way lol...then you will need to "follow" us on here.  Blogging is a great tool to record memories and I have already not been able to write all of our memories on here due to this one person, but that all changes. Anyways, I am done with my stalker rant now and will continue on to better things :)

I never posted Easter on here. I do not have many pictures from Easter due to a couple of reasons. I got to bed Saturday (Sunday) night around 12:30 a.m. I woke up Sunday morning at 2:43 a.m. feeling horrible. I could tell I was running a fever and really just felt horrible. I stayed up the rest of the morning wondering what in the world I was going to do. My entire family was coming to my church because my youngest niece wanted to get baptized on Easter. I couldn't miss that. I couldn't go to church but not play in the orchestra without my family wondering what was wrong with me. I couldn't not go to church for reasons I cannot say on here. I had no idea how I would make it through church because I had no strength and had no idea how I would even play my flute. I decided I would take some Tylenol and that would get me through until after church. Before I go on, let me say that I honestly thought all that was wrong with me was I had a cold or even just allergies. I figured out later that was not the case. I woke Maddy up around 5:45 a.m. so she could see her Easter basket and have a little candy before we had to get ready. We had to be at church by 7:15 a.m. (we normally have to be there by 8:15) to practice before the first service started. The orchestra played in both services, which is not something we typically do, so Easter was just very busy. Maddy has not been up that early since she was a baby. Trying to get her out of bed was worse than pulling teeth lol. I felt so bad having to wake her up so early. At first she wasn't interested in her Easter basket...she just stared at it. I sat down by it and she finally asked what it was. Funny story...a few days before Easter we were laying in my bed and she was looking around my room. I thought everything Easter was put up, but she pointed at a bag and said, "Look! my surprise!" I look at what she sees and there is her Easter basket that you can see through the bag. My heart sank. I jumped up and said, "Hurry!!! Close your eyes and lets go!" I know I totally did the wrong thing but I panicked. I almost bought her a new basket, but I decided throwing away money was not a smart idea. When she kept staring at her basket I couldn't help but wonder if she had remembered seeing it in my room. Oh well!  I was not thinking straight due to feeling so bad and only having 2 hours sleep and it didn't register to me to grab my actual camera to take pictures. I tried taking pictures on my phone, but right as I pulled the camera up my battery died. We made it to church which surprised me to be honest lol. Maddy looked so adorable! I was not impressed with the dress selections this year. I'm actually not impressed with any of the new fashion this year for Maddy. I found two dresses that were ok, but nothing gave me that "aha!" moment. I went with a peach colored dress and got her a little white cardigan to go over it. Maddy made the dress look so beautiful. I am now in love with her dress. Maddy was not cooperative in taking pictures this year. I snapped a couple. I'm hoping her spring pictures from school will showcase her dress better than what I was able to get. We spent the day at my mom's with my family and then had an Easter egg hunt.

Maddy was starting to shut down during both of these pictures. She was starting to pitch fits. After she ate her oranges she got mad and came running to me, crawled into my lap and next thing I know she is fast asleep. I treasure the moments she falls asleep in my arms because one day she is going to be all grown up and won't want to cuddle with mommy.

She kept rolling around on me and ended up all sprawled out lol. I could sit and watch her sleep for hours.

She woke up right as the easter egg hunt was about to begin. I was so thankful she got a good nap in! As the week went on I began to wonder what kind of cold I had. I mean I know there is only one cold, but this cold was knocking me dead on my feet. I was beyond exhausted. I felt like I had been given drowsy medicine around the clock. I had no appetite, but thought maybe my sinuses were draining into my stomach because I also felt a little nauseous. What scared me is my hands tingled something awful and I would feel like I was going to pass out and if I had not laid down I probably would have. I thought my blood pressure was elevated and I was about to stroke out because my lips went numb as well. Mind you this entire time I am working plus working my OT. The problem is I am on production so I was not meeting because I couldn't keep up and if you call in you get a mark against you and it affects your year end performance rating. I decided to call in on Thursday because there was no doing anything. I literally slept all day with the exception of taking Maddy to and from school and my mom dropping some soup off.I ended up calling her Friday night for help. She got hold of a blood pressure machine and my blood pressure was fine. Another symptom I had was the sweaty/clammy feeling all over. I told myself it felt like I had the flu or something, but I didn't think it was the flu. I didn't feel better until the following Sunday. I decided I probably did have the flu and was very thankful when it was all said and done.

My mom and step-dad got chickens so they could have all natural eggs and know they did not come from any kind of growth hormones. My mom took us down to see their new baby chickens and to let Maddy feed them.

I'm excited to say I am well on my way to getting back into shape. I fell off the weight watcher bandwagon with my back to back illnesses and realized I hadn't noticed any real change from the first week I started. I may have lost weight, but I don't keep a scale in my house and my stomach was not slimming down. I was still drinking at least two mello yello's a day and I felt like all the processed foods were not good for my body. I have definitely noticed how much my body has changed since I've had Maddy. It holds on to everything and weight doesn't fall off as easily as it used to. I am still an advocate of weight watchers, but I can't afford to buy all their foods ( not that you have to, it was just more convenient for me) and I felt like what I did eat, my body was just holding on to. I've read so many people that have cut out a lot of processed foods and everybody states it works. This last week I decided to do my own version of dieting and it has really helped. I am so happy to say I am down to only ONE mello yello a day and I've noticed that I could probably go all day without one. I don't drink enough water and I'm sure once I increase my water intake I will notice another difference as well. I do drink a lot of sweet tea, which I know is not all healthy but it is better than soft drinks and juices. I do drink some water. My diet consists of mostly salad. I know my body needs other nutrients as well so I usually have just a salad for lunch and then I make sure to eat some kind of protein for dinner. Most of the time I add protein to my salad because I just love salad. I don't put cheese on my salad, but do eat regular ranch salad dressing and put as much as I want on there. My stomach is loosing inches and I notice I am feeling better about myself. I got an unexpected mini vacation starting Friday of last week. I woke up Friday morning to my work computer not working. Windows just went kaput on it so they had to build me a new one. It is supposed to be here tomorrow. Yesterday I was able to do TWO Jillian Michaels DVD's. I did the six week six pack (I actually only did about 20 minutes) and then did Ripped in 30. I have several of her DVD's and honestly the Ripped in 30 is one of the best ones. It does work most of your muscles altogether. I am feeling the burn today in my stomach and other places lol. Once I get back into working nonstop I'm sure I won't be working out as often, but if I could keep up this routine then I would definitely be beach ready by July.

This is a really good white chicken chili recipe if you need one. I only put in a quarter of a teaspoon of red pepper so Maddy could eat it and it wasn't too hot.

Two weeks ago our pastor started church with these two bible verses. I was fighting back tears because it was as if God came down right in front of me and spoke to me. The music we sang that Sunday was everything I needed and I soaked in the words. That church service I felt as if it was just me and the Lord and I was so thankful that God cared enough about me and how I was feeling that day to give me just what I needed. God is good all the time! I think these verses are very fitting for the tragedy that happened in Boston. My heart breaks for the people that were injured and killed. One thing I know for sure is that God did not cause that to happen.

We had another severe thunderstorm risk last Thursday, and are expected to have another one this Thursday but I am not sure it will happen this Thursday...we will see. I snapped a picture of the storms rolling in. It wasn't too bad where I was, but my mom said it was pretty strong where she was at the time. I did end up losing power sometime after 12:30 a.m. last Friday morning so the winds must have gotten strong once I went to bed.

I snapped this picture yesterday of Manny. He loves to climb on Maddy's trampoline. He just stands on it most of the time. I'm glad I could entertain both of my children with just one toy lol.

One of the things I've been able to do while waiting for my computer to be shipped is clean up like normal people do. Maddy plays in her closet a lot. She pulls everything out to make room for her and her toys. I decided to make room for her play area in her closet. It was also a great place to store some of her toys because she is running out of room in her room. She has yet to play in there since I've set it up and didn't seem to thrilled to have her own space in there. Oh well...at least I tried lol.

 We went shopping Saturday. Our first stop was Old Navy. Maddy did so good for that trip. She let me put her in her stroller and we took her computer...she was entertained the entire time. The people in the store, however, were rude and every time I tried looking at something someone would plow me over to try to look at the same thing. I finally got tired of trying and decided to call it a day. We had two other stores to go to, but we got a late start and I wanted to give her time to play outside so I thought we would break it up. I decided to go to one of the stores to get our fruit bowl and then we could go home. Maddy stayed awake all the way until maybe a minute before we got to the store. We spent an hour and a half just sitting in the parking lot before we got our fruit :)

We did make it outside. I've enjoyed being able to spend more time with her while I've been off. I say this every time I have any time off, but I am very envious of all you stay at home moms. I know being a stay at home mom is hard...I really do understand that. Life is hard no matter what kind of walk you are in. I would rather my stress level be from staying home with my child, than to have it be from work. Again, I am very thankful to have my job...God has truly blessed us and proves time and time again He will take care of us. I do wish I was in a position to stay home with Maddy though.

I do believe this is a wrap for this post. I will be switching my blog to "private" so I can continue to record our special memories. I hope you all are having a great week so far and remember...only two more days until the weekend...if you read this on Wednesday :)

Picture Dump

I wanted to finish posting the pictures I wanted to post in my last post before Easter got here. Having Easter in March is throwing me off a bit. I prefer Easter to be in April but oh well :) This will mostly be a picture dump.

If you've been reading my blog you know I am very interested in weather. More specifically severe weather. Just to clarify, I do not wish a tornado on ANY city, person, house, property, thing. I would love to one day see a tornado up close and personal, but in an open field where nobody or property or animal gets destroyed. Anyways, I got myself a birthday present. The picture on the left is the app I got. I've been wanting this app since last year, but couldn't justify spending $10 on it. I thought my 30th birthday was enough to splurge lol. It's what I think most storm chasers use. If it's not, then it does exactly the same thing as theirs. I have been trying to learn to forecast by watching youtube videos or reading online...I know, they make a program for this, but as I learned in a podcast yesterday they do not teach you about storm chasing. I am very interested in storm chasing and even though I don't have a written bucket list...it's definitely on my list I have in my head. If I had $7,000 plus air and hotel fare then I could storm chase with the one and only Reed Timmer in the dominator. Unfortunately I do not come from that kind of money and the only way I could actually save enough is if I wanted to save approximately $550 a year and wait until Maddy is 19. The right picture is my town's first severe weather day. It was on my birthday of all days. We were supposed to get severe thunderstorms, but the temperatures didn't get as warm as they were supposed to and the storms weakened. Georgia got the brunt of the storm and actually went tornado warned. Every morning I look at the severe weather outlook map to see when to expect these strong storms. April 1-3 started out looking like a widespread tornado day, but the models show the storm weakened and moved south. South Texas is supposed to get some strong storms and possible tornadoes on April 1, but we are still too far out to tell exactly what is going to happen. Ok, enough weather talk...I'm sure some of you all fell asleep lol.

He isn't a "celebrity" so to speak, but he was on Discovery Channel's tv series Storm Chasers. I got so excited when I saw he was following me. I'm nobody special to him I know but he's the only famous person to follow me on anything. We almost share the same birthday and he isn't much older than me and we have the same passion of storm chasing. He was born on March 17 and is 33 years old. I was born March 18 (but my mom labored with me all day on the 17th) and I am 30 years old. He's a good match for my future husband...jk lol.

This was so neat. My mom chose THE perfect theme for my birthday. She chose to center it around my favorite bible verse, Jeremiah 29:11. I actually have a canvas with that verse or part of it hanging in my house. I had a friend send me a card that knew nothing about my party and what my theme was. When I opened it up and saw what verse was on there, my jaw dropped. My mom told me that this verse was for me and Maddy and honestly I just felt God's presence during my party. I had to walk away because I was about to get emotional, but it was a very neat party.I have some major life decisions to make that are scary. The thing is I don't really have to decide...it's more like an answer to prayer has been given so there is no doubt about what I SHOULD do, but my prayer being answered forces me to step out of my comfort zone and into the unknown. Even though I have prayed so many times about this and my mom has prayed for me about this and I am getting what I want, I find myself saying, "But God what about this and God what about that." I have to make that leap of faith, but it's really hard to step off that ledge. Anyways, I feel that God is showing me through my own birthday that He is here for me and will take care of me and Maddy and He has a plan for me, for her and for us...I just have to trust in Him. I do find comfort in knowing that He does have a plan and that ALL things work together for the GOOD :)

We recently had a Just Between Friends Consignment sale. When Maddy was younger, I used to buy her entire wardrobe for that season through this sale. As she has gotten older, the selection just isn't there. I still go to check or will go for pajama's. This year I was primarily going for toys for her reward box. I spent around 30-45 minutes shopping...I really think it was more like 30 minutes, the rest of the time I spent in line. The line was ridiculously long...it was about a 2 hour wait no joke. The top picture is just what was in my bag and then the bottom picture is my favorite outfit I got her. I actually think it was the only "outfit" she got. She got some PJ's and then quite a few toys.

This farm came from the sale and she has a ball with it. Here lately I have found her playing on her bed with her farm, Noah's Ark, and castle lined up on her bed with all her "peoples". It's really cute and I'm so glad she enjoys playing with them all.

These are NOT spring temperatures! I was shocked to find snow in our forecast. It did snow Monday and Tuesday. I'm ready for much warmer temps.

Here I am unknowingly spreading my stomach bug germs...oops!

These videos are Maddy singing her songs. She loves to make up songs, which is partly shown in the twinkle twinkle one.

I finally found a chicken crock pot recipe I could use. This is what we are having for dinner tomorrow night. It's in the crock pot now actually. I've been trying to find recipes for the crock pot using ingredients I already had. The only thing I did different is add seasonings such as garlic and nature's blend, omitted the peppers because I didn't have any, and added a can of black beans. I've learned to read the reviews before I cook because most of the time the recipe is bland. I'm not sure how it's going to taste but will find out tomorrow.

I hope everybody has a good Easter and remember what it's is all about...Jesus raising from the dead. I am so thankful that He died for MY sins and rejoice in knowing He is not dead, but rose from the grave.

I'm Back!

I had no intention of taking a little blog break but everything happens for a reason. In the midst of my little break I did have something fun happen...I turned 30! This was a huge milestone for me. I don't know why but it was. I wanted to go all out for my birthday and I did...just not at all the way I wanted to lol. I knew I was going to have a party even though it was originally going to be a surprise. As much as I would love to go into details about my party I don't feel comfortable right now. I am seriously contemplating turning my blog private and allowing only certain people to read it so I can post these details that I want to while still maintaining my privacy. The day of my party I felt fine all day. I actually didn't even know anything was wrong until 3/4 of the way into my party. I felt so bad because I had just exposed everybody that was there to this yucky bug without even knowing it. I did make it through my party and once I got home things took a turn for the worse. Obviously I will not give you every detail but the symptoms I had were a high fever (103 nonstop), lower back ache(hurts just like when you have the flu), nausea, other issues lol, and you get so dizzy when you stand up that you cannot walk. When I stood up for the first time I was trying to get me some Powerade to try to settle my stomach and thankfully it was dark so I was holding onto my bed because if it weren't for me holding on I would have fallen. My legs almost felt non existent. I was dizzy as well. At one point I almost decided to crawl because walking was so hard but I just bent over and slowly walked as I held on to anything that was around. I also was beyond freezing. I took a hot bath with the water as hot as it would go and was still shivering and I bumped up the heat pretty high but it didn't really help. My poor mom had to come at 5:30 or 6:00 a.m. to help me and I contemplated asking her to take me to the ER. I've had stomach bugs before but nothing like this. I showed no signs of improvement on Sunday and was worried I would be stuck being sick on my birthday. I prayed and prayed Sunday. I had my birthday off and didn't want to spend it sick lol. I woke up Monday morning to my fever drastically reduced. I ended up going on with the plans I had originally set for that day, but it was very tiring. I did have a good day and was so thankful for my mom's help. I will say only one person ended up getting sick and funny thing is they weren't even at my party. I feel like God helped protect everybody and I was so thankful because I didn't need that on my back...I would have felt HORRIBLE! That's the most exciting thing that has happened since I've blogged last.

Something I found funny that Maddy told me on Friday (March 17) was that she was just talking to herself. She had been talking to herself and I stopped working to see what she was saying. She turned around and looked at me and kept right on pacing saying, "Mommy, I was just talking to myself!" It was so cute and funny. She also did something else but I am having a hard time remembering.

Our Spring has been very cold lately. We went from a potential tornado risk on March 18 (my birthday) to snow. The snow isn't sticking...it's just spitting snow but the temps are just so cold. Next week we have another potential day of tornado risk as long as the models don't change too much. I really am a weather geek and should probably just go ahead and get a meteorology degree.

I'm going to post pictures that I've missed posting but may need to break them up as to not overload this post.

 I received this in the mail from a friend along with the fun "30" confetti and present :)

We were waiting to go to my birthday lunch. It was such a nice day out. She looks like she is in trouble or something, but she wasn't and was in a good mood. The sun was really bright. She picked out her own shades at the store when I got mine...she's got good taste.

We were at Olive Garden for my birthday lunch :) I don't have many pictures of us together so I decided to be cheesy and take one of us at the table. For some reason she was not interested in sitting in her own chair. She usually does really good sitting in her chair but on that day she wanted to sit in my lap. I cherish these moments because they don't last forever.

 I am only posting this pic because I thought we looked a lot alike here. Our "serious" facial expression is the same. I think the older she gets the more and more she looks like me.

It's not everyday I take pictures of myself with Maddy...I had to have some fun on my party day lol

My "diva" crown I wore during my party. I also had on a pin that said something about being 30. 

You can definitely tell I was NOT feeling good here lol. It really is a miracle Maddy didn't get sick. 

These two pictures were from my mom. These were on March 17. This is probably the longest time I've spent away from Maddy. I told my mom I was thankful I had some phenergan because otherwise I wouldn't have been able to sleep. They spent the day at a local park and outside. It was also the first night Maddy spent away from home. I wanted so bad to be around her but I did not want to risk her getting sick. My mom knew how hard it was on me not being able to be around her. When I saw her smile it instantly made me feel better on the inside...I LOVE seeing her smile. The top picture is at my mom's house. They got chickens a while back and Maddy got to see them for the first time. She also got to help gather the eggs. My mom said she didn't really know what to think about the chickens but she enjoyed getting the eggs.

She rode her bike for a mile and a half. She's known how to ride this from the first time she got on. She still can't steer her car though. I can only assume it's partly because school has trike like toys and also whenever she's in a car she just enjoys the ride, which is what she does with HER car...pushes the gas and sits lol. Hopefully this year she will get the hang of driving...not that I want to rush that lol.

This girl gets all into her sleep. I'm not really one who should be talking because I do too. I wake up and I'm all over the place lol. I went to check on her and whereas it's hard to tell in this picture, her face seemed so peaceful. She has sleep problems. She is scared to go to sleep, therefore, she will keep herself awake as long as she can so when she does fall asleep it's not good sleep. I was glad to see her more relaxed. I went to check on her tonight and she is sprawled out again but on her back. I hope these sleep issues go away as she gets older.

I will post the rest of the pics on another day. I've had a really rough day today and am ready to relax a little before going to bed...I actually need to be in bed now. I've been oversleeping a lot lately with this time change and stayin up this late isn't going to help me any. I hope you all are having a better start to your week than I am :)

I'm Losing It

As I approached the last two weeks in my 20's, I decided to get my mind set right and was determined to get on a lifestyle change that would help me kick this extra weight I've been carrying around. I started off last week trying out the 3 day military diet. I was skeptical to even try it because it claims you can lose 10 pounds in 3 days. Anytime you lose weight THAT fast, chances are you will not keep it off. At first my goal was to lose some weight...not 10 pounds although I do need to lose 10 pounds, but I decided not to make it about weight and make it about decreasing the amount of mello yello's I drink during the day. I struggle the most with this while I am at work. As stress piles on me I tend to get up and get a mello yello to give me that extra humph that I need to make it through the day. I knew this diet was going to be hard and technically I started cheating from the start because your two choices of drink are coffee or tea. I didn't have any tea made and I didn't want coffee. I told myself I would have one mello yello and then drink nothing but water. Here is what the first day looks like:

I also didn't have all the foods I needed so I had to improvise, which also is something you shouldn't do because the foods they have chosen works with the chemical reaction your body has in breaking it down so it won't hold as much fat. I did surprisingly well during the first day. I actually had to break my dinner up because I was so full I could not eat it. Day 1 I only got hungry at one point and that was the stretch from lunch to dinner. Day 2 and Day 3 is where I struggled...no more caffeine, strictly water to drink. I managed to get through day 2 but day 3 I just didn't have it in me. I do think I slimmed a tiny bit from what I did do because I was drinking a lot of water and was only having 1.5 soft drinks a day. I felt like I needed something that let me have the foods and drinks I wanted and when I wanted them. I have done weight watchers in the past...like 8 years ago and it did work. I went ahead and signed up for it online last Wednesday night. It hasn't even been a full week, but I can already tell that I have at least lost some inches. No, I don't mean literally lost inches but I have slimmed down. Pants that were starting to feel tight are no longer feeling that way. I am almost to the point now to where if I could get my stomach toned back up I might actually be able to get back in a two piece. I mean I have a long way to go before that actually happens but it's amazing to me how far I've already come. The best part about it is it is SO hard not to cheat. You get weekly points as well as your daily, so if you go over your daily points you start eating into your weekly points. You won't gain weight if you use your weekly points, you will just maintain your current weight. My first real day on it I ended up eating into my weekly points, but it was only because a silly salad without dressing was 30 points by itself plus my guesstimated amount of dressing I did use cost me 4 points so 34 points. I didn't feel bad about it though because I hadn't eaten very much. I woke up still feeling slimmer and I knew I was going to be happy with this plan. I know this isn't for everybody, but it works so good for me. For the most part I am only having one soft drink a day, however, if I need another one I can but it will cost me 5 points. I don't find myself hungry throughout the day. I have noticed my appetite has already shrunk too because the frozen meals they have I used to still be hungry after I ate, but now I do good to eat a whole one in one sitting. I can eat half a meal and be stuffed. It's all about the choices you make...you can go for that yummy hamburger over there, but it's not going to stay with you for very long and you will use up all your points, or you could go with that baked chicken and vegetables that will not use up a lot of points and keep you full. I am a huge pasta lover and I will go ahead and admit that on my 30th birthday, which is coming up, I will be indulging in some Olive Garden that will send me over my points the entire day plus some of my weekly points. I've already looked up what my points will be for what I eat. Here is the breakdown: The yummy salad is only 2 points. The breadstick is 4 points. The chicken alfredo....30 or 33 points. Plus the coke I will probably drink...a gazillion points lol. A 12 ounce is 4 points. A grand total of 43 points. My daily allowance is 26 points so I will almost use up half of my weekly points. I do have a plan for this day though. I will choose not to eat until I get there and I plan to do portion control and eat maybe a quarter of the alfredo and I hope I can make myself drink water, but I hate ordering water in restaurants because it's tap water and I can taste the chlorine...yuck! Anyways, I think you get the point. I don't know if I've lost weight or not because I don't keep a scale in the house nor do I care to step on one. I'm going off of how I feel and how my clothes fit to tell if it's working or not and it is! Here is how the app looks:

As a little tip I just wanted to point out that I think this go round with weight watchers has been easier for me than it was last time because I started a diet prior to joining. The last time I joined I had a point allowance of 29 and they did not count carbs. Now I only have 26 points and they do count carbs. It does make it harder because I love my carbs, but so far I've been fortunate in not feeling hungry and being able to stick with it. This could all change a month down the road, but in the few days I've been on it it's been great. I love that I get to decide what I want to eat and when I want to eat it. I love that I can still have candy or cake or soft drinks if I really want them, but I have to live with the consequences of possibly being hungry due to having no more points. I hope this time next year I am still feeling good about where I am going with my health and weight and will at least be close to my pre-pregnancy weight/body because I can tell the changes my body has already made in preparation of turning 30 and it just loves to hold on to everything :)

Night Sky

If you've been reading my blog, you know Maddy has woken up many times in the middle of the night letting out blood curdling screams. If you've been reading my blog you know Maddy, like most toddlers, despise bed time. The older she gets the worse her fear/anxiety gets. Here lately she has been wanting her door open and the hall light on. In her defense I will say her room is extra dark and as an adult I myself want some kind of light in there. I meant to grab a night light at the store but totally forgot. In the mean time I had been giving her my flashlight, which she loved, but she keeps it on all night so by morning there is no battery left. I don't know about you all but I certainly can't afford to buy two batteries for 365 days. I decided to look on Amazon to see what they had because I knew they could ship it faster than if I waited for the weekend. I had planned on going with the kind you plug in the wall and even started preparing her for it. I stumbled across one that caught my eye. It's a Kinderglo portable night light and comes in different animals. It is SO neat! I got it today and she is LOVING her new light.

These are the different kinds. We got the moon one...it's actually called "Quarter Moon." I chose that one because she could easily carry it or hold it. It also changes different colors, but it isn't too bright. I was actually worried it wouldn't be bright enough but it's just perfect. I just went to go check on her and she was all kicked back in her bed with her light right beside her.

Not a great picture I know but you get the point. She calls it her night sky and I thought that was adorable :)

Birthday Fun

My niece's birthday is February 1. I felt so bad for her because with my other niece she had to wait over a month to celebrate her birthday due to sickness in the family. I joked with my older niece and asked her if she was sure she didn't want to postpone her party. She laughed but quickly said NO! Well, her original party did get delayed due to more sickness in the family. We finally had her party today and it was a blast! We used our church's indoor play area. All the kids had a blast.

After our time was up the whole family packed up and headed to Ichiban, a Japanese restaurant. I guess I should have added that I chose to start the military 3 day diet today because I didn't realize we were going to eat. I had done so good all day until dinner. Looks like I will be starting my day 1 again on Monday :)

Maddy is so scared of the fire when the get the grill going. I was hoping she had grown out of that, but it petrifies her. Now all she is talking about is the fire lol. She seemed to like all her food. She even made her own concoction that was disgusting! She poured the white sauce into the soup and actually ate it saying it was yummy. Yuck!

What you can't tell from this picture is the meltdown we had prior to this. She has had no nap today on top of playing her heart out for two straight hours on top of waiting 20-30 minutes before we could even sit down. She kept telling me she was ready to go eat. All I had on me was candy and she was starving and tired. She was banging her fork on her plate, on the table, on the menu, and then ended up poking me. I did not let her keep banging her fork due to germs and her possibly breaking the plate. She then wouldn't sit down in her seat and then she just lost it. My uncle had an extra pack of goldfish on him and that got her to eventually calm down. I told her she could pour them out on her plate and use her fork to eat them because the whole fit stemmed from her not being able to have her fork. It was rather interesting and felt like all eyes were on us.

She liked the soup, but it was a bit spicy for her. She wanted to eat it though. She also tried the salad, but she got a big glob of ginger dressing and I'm sure it didn't taste too good.

This happened soon after the fire. She sat like that for the longest time. She then watched a little more as the chef caught an egg in his pocket and then cooked. She wanted to get down because she was so tired, so my step dad cuddled with her.

Once it was time to leave she decided she wanted to climb back in her seat and eat. I finally was able to convince her to put the rest in a box to take home. Yes, I did let her eat lol. She was playing with her soup concoction but did not want to put her food up. Needless to say when we got home she went straight to bed. I let her play computer in bed on Friday and Saturday nights. Tonight she played only a few minutes before I heard it turn off and all has been quiet. Now it's time for me to clean and hopefully get some decent sleep :)