Not Me! Monday Video Style

I certainly did NOT take a ton of videos this weekend. And I most certainly am NOT going to post them all!

Letters of Intent

Better late than never right! :D

Dear Winter;
Please go away. We are sick of being sick. I'm sick of being cold. I'm sick of paying $300.00 electric bills. I'm sick of the wind. I'm sick of the snow. I'm sick of the annoying plastic on my windows. I'm sick of the water for the animals freezing almost immediately after I give it to them. I'm sick of not seeing the sun. I'm sick of being stuck inside all the time. I'm sick of looking pale. I'm sick of wearing 4 layers of clothes just to run to the store. I'm. Sick. Of. It. Please go away. Please let spring come. Please?

Sincerely,
Sick of it!


Dear Ice Cream:

Thank you for being delicious all the time. I love you.

Sincerely,
Your biggest fan

Posts From Another Mother

A few weeks ago my friend Ashley and I put her heads together and decided to do some guest blogging. We opted to do posts and the differences between a stay at home mom and a mom that works outside of the home. Ashley is a fantastic friend that has gone from an online friend to a friend in real life. I think you'll find what she has to say very interesting. And don't forget to check out my guest post on her blog!



"Ashley Here! If you don't know me, I am the author of What's on your mind, you ask? and a mother of almost 3 year old Hayden. I have been friends with Shaun for about 2.5 years also.. This friendship with this awesome lady is the product of online message boards. I am so happy I found a group of girls to hang with who understand me.


Anyway, I have been working ever since Hayden was born. It wasn't really a decision for me, it was more of an expectation. I knew that until we could get to a secure place where my husband was making enough to cover half of my pay, I wouldn't be able to stay at home. And you don't even know how much I longed to stay at home with Hayden. I did have the ability to stay home for the first 8 weeks. Benefits of a state job. When I headed back, we only needed a part-time babysitter: 4 days a week, about 4 hours a day. I worked 1st shift and my husband worked second. It worked out well because then, my mother in law watched Hayden during those times. We'd give her money when we could but we never officially had to "pay for a babysitter" at that time. I can't say that I never once felt guilty about working. I missed a lot of his firsts that way. I almost felt like he was growing up without me. But I was doing what needed to be done so he had what he needed.


In 2008, I went part-time at work... working 20 hours a week. Having no car payments gave us that ability. That's as close to stay at home as I got. I worked 3 days a week and loved it. I got to see Hayden take his first steps and didn't feel like my child was growing up with someone I didn't trust. But, that only lasted for a short time. We needed to move out of our 2 bedroom apartment so back to full time I went. But it proved to be harder because my husband has also started school. Which meant we needed 4-5 day babysitter, all day.


The search for a babysitter kinda was easy for us both times... we found people we trusted after the first interview. But when I saw both times.. I mean we had to fire our first babysitter. I realize now that she wasn't very truthful to us from the beginning. She never mentioned exactly where she lived until we needed to know because she knew she lived 45 minutes away from my job and 30 minutes away from our home. We stuck with her though until ... lets just say we has an unfortunate mishap with my face and her dog and all was lost. We once again relied on my mother in law (during school break thank god so the hours weren't long) until we found another babysitter... 2 minutes from our house, cost were less, and the nicest lady I've met.


I can't say that I've ever felt judged by a stay at home mom at any point of time. I did feel like I wasn't able to do as much because I worked. I would have loved to cloth diaper Hayden but I felt that we me working I wouldn't have the time to do it.. and I wouldn't want to put that on anyone else. But i can say that I think we have found a good balance between work and family time. Yes, my husband works full time and is in school so he isn't home as much. But we have 2 nights where we are all together and all day Sunday. Hayden gets his private time with both of us so I think he understands.


So don't think that you can't be a working mom and a mother. Just think of it as an added challenge that you can always conquer."

Wordless Wednesday

Tomorrow is Ben & I's 4 year "dateversary." (The anniversary of when we first started dating) I was going to wait and post this tomorrow, but well, I have an awesome guest blogger tomorrow. So, I thought it would make the perfect WW post. This was taken right after Ben and I started dating. I was much skinnier then :D (Excuse the poor quality. It was taken with a disposable camera)





Go to 5 Minutes for Mom and see what others are Wordless about.

Not Me! Monday

I certainly did not get sick this week. I mean, I JUST got over a cold. There is NO possible way that I got another one.

I also did NOT decide that a coat wasn't necessary cause I was just running in and out of the doctor's office. Of course, that means that the car did NOT break down. I mean, that would just about figure right?

I would NEVER decide that we were having chicken nuggets for dinner because I didn't feel like cooking dinner. That's incredibly unhealthy and I always serve a balanced meal.

I would also NEVER spend the entire weekend telling my husband "I told you that you should have fixed the alternator a month ago." That would just be rubbing in the fact that I was totally right and he (who was a mechanic in the Army) was totally wrong. Nope! I would also NEVER do the "I was right dance" over and over again. NOPE! NOT ME!

I would NEVER accidently drop my cell phone in the toilet. Then I would NEVER call the warranty department and tell them that my phone just quit working. That would be with holding the truth and I would never do that just to save a little money. Nope!

I would also NEVER put my almost 3 year old, that never naps, down for a nap just so I could take one myself. NOPE!

I would also NEVER tell the babysitter that it was ok to serve my child cereal for dinner. NO way! I would have a hot meal prepared for both of them. I would also never tell the babysitter that if she decided to serve lefovers to load it with cheese cause that's the only way my very stubborn child would eat it. NOPE! Not me!

So, what did you NOT do this week? Don't forget to link up at My Charming Kids.

She's so close!!

Brinna is *this* close to crawling. I just know I'm going to turn my back and she's going to take off. Please excuse the crappy quality of the video. Our camera is pretty much shot.

Pupcakes and Friends

Adelae and I made some pupcakes (cupcakes) last week. I got all crazy and made all different colors of icing. (Ok, I didn't make the icing..I bought a tub and just added food coloring) As a special treat I let her and the girl I babysit have one after lunch. The first thing I said was "Now be careful and don't get the icing all over the place."





Does it look like they listened?