Loveliness of Planning Fair
Today has been interesting… We woke up to a brown out… NOT good! The last time this happened, it burned up the motor on our refrigerator. Hubby and I quickly unplugged everything in the house, and shut the breakers off, then called the power company.Before hubby left for work, I ran down to the local bakery and picked up some blueberry muffins… (Unfortunately, I forgot to get a cup of coffee though!) On my way back, I stopped and talked to one of the power company employees, and he said they were still “looking for” the problem.
Anyhow, our power just returned, and I feel connected to the outside world once more! Thank you all for all the sweet birthday comments! They truly are making my day!
Now that the power is on, and we actually got quite a bit of school accomplished this morning, I brewed a nice fresh pot of coffee and am going to head over to enjoy the first Loveliness fair of the year!
This one is all about the Loveliness of Planning! You can check it out over at Plainsong! I’m really looking forward to reading all the posts, and getting some new ideas to help me try to stay on task and organized in this new year, as well as new decade of my life! 🙂
A Birthday Gift
OK, you all know how much I LOVE comments, so today, I’m offering a bribe for all you in lurkdom “birthday” gift for commenting!
All you have to do is leave me a comment sometime today, January 16th. I will number the comments, place the numbers in a jar, and tomorrow morning, I will have one of the kids draw a winning number!
The prize will be this lovely Dotted Heart FindersKeyPurse Key Hook! Tomorrow, I will post the winner, and have them email me their mailing address directly.
A few of my memories…
I thought it would be fun to post some pictures from a few past birthdays!! It’s so fun to look back sometimes!
Here is a picture of my mom and I, right after I was born… I was born in a military hospital, and after that experience, my mom decided, from then on, to have home births. My mom did just that, and delivered the next 7 at home. However, when she was pregnant with the twins, she had to return to the hospital since they were a month early and breach, for a c-section. After the twins were born, she went back to having home deliveries and my youngest two brothers were born at home. I wish I was as brave as my mom, but I am not… Plus, I love the little mini-vacation I get when I am at the hospital! 🙂
On to my first birthday… I think my first birthday cake was so cute! Don’t you? My Grandmother had it made for me! I was the first grandchild on my Dads side of the family, so I was just a tad bit spoiled by my Grandma! I loved her so, so, so, so much! She passed away when she was only 61 (I was 13 at the time) and I miss her dearly.
Below is a picture of me with my parents… Mom is 7 months pregnant with #2, my sister Jennifer, at this point!
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Following, are pictures from my 2nd and 3rd birthdays… I just love the picture of Jen in the back ground, trying to blow out the candles! She looks so cute! I don’t miss Dad’s mustache though! He looks much better now, without it! I remember clearly the day that he shaved it off, and told us that it had been stolen!
And that’s it, at least for the next 8 years… I asked mom if the camera broke, or if she just got too busy to take pictures. She said it was both! By the time I was 4, my parents had 4 children already, and not much time for taking pictures.
I was looking for pictures from my 12th birthday, but I couldn’t find them. On this birthday, my parents gave me a “real” birthday party, and I got to invite TWELVE friends! I was so excited!
I was able to find pictures from my little sister’s birthday that year… Dad gave us rides in the tractor (in the bucket from left to right: My sis Jamie, cousin Heather, me, cousin Sara, and brother Paul). They even had a clown show up! It was such fun!
For the next picture, we skip forward another 6 years, to my 18th birthday. I got the best present ever on that birthday! My parents asked me to be the godmother to my little brother who was born the day before. I was so excited!
And the last birthday picture I found, was from my 21st birthday! Look at that big family! It is missing my brother Sean who was away at the time… In fact, for that birthday, my mom invited my hubby to join us… We started dating right after that!
Oh! Here is a great picture, taken on Jan 16th last year, that illustrates well how I was feeling…
(Chiquita just stuck her hand in the snow, for the first time ever… She didn’t like it.)You see, last year, we had an unexpected snowstorm that hit at 10am, dropping tons of snow, and closing the freeway. NORMALLY, I LOVE getting snow… However, this time, hubby ended up getting stuck in town for the night. The kids did enjoy the snow though, other than Chiquita!
Overall, such wonderful memories!
Good Bye 20’s
It seems as though there have been so very many birthdays the last couple weeks. In fact, today is actually my youngest brother’s 12th birthday. He is also my godson, and will hopefully be giving us a pipe gun demo soon! Happy Birthday!
For me however, today is a sad day of sorts… It is the last day of my 20’s. Tomorrow is my 30th birthday.
I remember not so long ago, when I was 21, giving a dear friend of mine SUCH A HARD TIME on her 25th birthday! I kept teasing her about how OLD she had gotten. Now 25 seems so very young to me!
When I turned 29 last year, I started to stress out about the big 3-0, right around the corner. However, I think I might actually have had a harder time turning 29, and dealing with the anxiety of turning 30 up ahead, than I will turning 30. I guess we will see tomorrow! 😉
Anyhow, I thought it might be fun to list out a few of my accomplishments these past 10 years, as well as a few of the goals for my 30’s!
Accomplishments of My 20’s
- Spent a wonderful year at Christendom College.
- Won a $1,000 bet I made, at age 13, with my dad, for not drinking ANY alcohol until my 21st birthday! (Had my first drink, a strawberry Margarita, on that 21st birthday. YUM!)
- Fell in love, and got married.
- Hubby & I bought our first home.
- Gave birth to Captain.
- Started my own phone directory business, so I could work part time.
- Became an Auntie.
- Gave birth to Rascal.
- Diligently dieted and got down to my wedding day weight of 125! (3 kids later, I REALLY need to do this again… Yikes!)
- Sold my directory business for more than I expected, so I could be a stay-at-home-mom. Yeah!
- Gave birth to Twinkle Toes.
- We added on to our home, to make room for our growing family.
- Started “officially” home educating our children.
- Bought a mini-van… (I consider this an accomplishment, because I had previously said, “I will NEVER drive a van!” LOL! Now, I LOVE my mini-van, it’s so convenient.)
- Gave birth to Chiquita.
- Gave birth to Snuggles.
- Potty trained 4 of those children. (Totally an accomplishment! Don’t you think?)
- Traveled to Mexico (on our honeymoon cruise), Washington DC (for my sis-in-law’s wedding) and many other states on our various road trips.
- Was blessed with 5 more Godchildren, as well as honored to be a Confirmation sponsor for one of my dear twin sisters.
- Became Debt Free, other than our house, and have stayed that way, inspite of how difficult it is on a single income.
- Celebrated our 8th Anniversary.
Started my blog to document it all. 🙂
Goals For My 30’s
(In no particular order…)
- Celebrate our 10 and 15-year wedding anniversaries.
- Work on becoming a better wife and mother.
- Declutter our home and try to become more organized.
- Enjoy our children as they grow, I only have these next 10 years till Captain will be a senior, and then off to college… (sniffle, sniffle)
- As far as more children, I’m not going to set any goals, and NO, I’m not trying to catch up to my mom… It is completely up to God!
- Lose
20 poundsa little bit of weight and get in better shape. - Remodel our kitchen and add on a dinning & family room.
- Remain debt free. (other than the house… and work hard to pay it down/off as well)
- Learn how to sew and crochet.
- Start Scrapbooking… It looks like such fun.
- Travel… of course!
- Grow in my faith and become a better Catholic.
It really has been a busy 10 years! So much has happened and I have been so very blessed. I wonder what God has in store for me, and just what I will be reflecting back on 10 years from now! It will be an exciting journey I’m sure.
Don’t forget to check back tomorrow… For a bit of fun, I have a “birthday gift” to give away to a lucky visitor!
He likes to move it too…
Snuggles LOVES his bouncy chair
Anyhow, his bouncing reminds us of that song as well… In the clip, I just played the beginning of the song, and left out all the junk. Sorry for all the silence the second half of the video.
Along the same lines, I was at Barnes & Noble last week, just me and the baby… He was asleep when we got there, so I just carried in his whole infant car seat. I sat it down as I was browsing through the Christmas Clearance items. A few minutes later I noticed a girl staring at the seat, as it seemed to be rocking itself! Snuggles was inside, pumping his legs and making it rock! I’ve never seen a baby move a chair like he can… It’s too funny!
The sounds animals make…
Kids say the funniest things… My sister told me about this conversation between her and my niece that I just HAD to share.
My niece, age 3 at the time, was quizzing my sister, her mom, on various animal sounds…
My niece: “Mom, what does a cow say?”
My sis: “A cow says, moo.”
My niece: “What does a cat say?”
My sis: “A cat says meow.”
My niece: “What does a dog say?”
My sis: “A dog says woof, woof.”
My niece: “What does a horse say?”
My sis: “A horse says neigh.”
My niece: “What does a lemur say?”
My sis: “A what?”
My niece: “A lemur, what does a lemur say?”
My sis: “I don’t know, what does a lemur say?”
My niece: “I like to move it, move it. I like to move it, move it.”
(This conversation was followed by me laughing, then giving my sis a hard time for letting her daughter watch that movie! LOL!)
Another special person…
… is having a birthday!
Today is my very, VERY DEAR mother-in-law’s birthday!
(aka: Mom, Grandma)
We LOVE you very MUCH!
Have a WONDERFUL birthday!
Happy Birthday…
… to my very dear friend Trina!
Another Year
Of laughter, joy and fun,
Surprises, love and happiness,
And when your birthday’s done,
As your birthdays come and go,
How very much you mean to me,
More than you can know.
www.poemsource.com
I hope your birthday is just as special as you are!
Having fun…
Speaking of meals…
Dinner was so YUMMY!
Hop on over to Mommy Recipes and try out the recipe for:
Chicken Fajitas in the Crock Pot
They are SO good!
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