ARE YOU KIDDING ME???

I was just browsing craigslist, like I do everyday, and I came across a picture that I has really upset me!

It was of a man pushing his baby in a stroller with a cigarette hanging out of his mouth!

COME ON!

Dude do you not know what that does to a baby??? And if he HAS to have one while walking his baby down the street he probably does it in the house too! Can we say lung cancer? ear infections-which lead to ear problems, growing problems and the 1,000,000 other things this causes????

Granted I MAY be jumping to conclusions, he may not have it lit and he may NEVEr smoke around her............but i doubt it!

It aggravates me to no end when I see a pregnant woman smoking. Does no one ever tell them that its like holding a pillow over your baby's face for the 4-5 mins it takes you to smoke it? Is it REALLY worth that? These people are so selfish! Too selfish to have kids if you ask me!

Oh the ongoing project....

It seems like FOREVEr ago that we started this kitchen remodel, and we STILL aren't done! Back on 6-18 I wrote a post saying we would have a new kitchen in 2 weeks..........hahaha........wow was I wrong! It's now 10-6-09 and we are not finished! I will have to give Graham alittle break, he is in the middle of his MBA and for the past 8 weeks he had 2 classes and it about killed us all! He would work all day, come home, eat dinner play with Addie for about 20 mins and work on school till midnight or so and then the entire weekend. It was HORRIBLE, and he will start that again in about a month, argh!!! Anyways, we FINALLY got the wall out, support beam in, the countertops in, the cabinets painted (OH MY GOODNESS WHAT A NIGHTMARE, another post another day!). Graham has put up all the dry wall but has yet to mud it! I have painted all the walls except for the part that needs to be mudded. HOPEFULLy, one day we will finish this nightmare! Here are some of the pics!

* These pics are SO out of order but I don't feel like moving them all around!*

Obsessed!

I am COMPLETELY obsessed with this website:

http://chefscatalog.com

If you love to cook, and love high quality products, this is the place for you!

I LOVE LOVE LOVE just looking around at all the neat products. I have started a wish list for xmas. If Graham could come up with about $8000 (as of this moment) I could have everything! ofcourse I don't see that happening. But I have listed them from most important to least. I HIGHLY recommend you take a look at this website! I'll post some of the must haves later, right now I am about to head out the door to go to Montgomery for my niece's birthday party tomorrow AND then the BEACH on sunday for a whole week!!!! YAY me and Addie!

I'm Running around I'm so EXCITED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

AHHHH! I am SO EXCITED! I just Pre-ordered a copy of this:

The Pioneer Woman Cooks! It goes on sale October 27th! I have tried SEVERAL of her recipes and never once had one turn out bad! I LOVE her, I spend HOURS and HOURS searching through her website, reading her blogs on photography, family, cooking, mainly her life! You should really check it out! http://thepioneerwoman.com/ one look and you'll be hooked I swear!

So everyone go on over to Amazon.com and pre-order the most WONDEFUL cookbook ever!!!!!!

My little sweetheart!

Addie will be 19 months old on Thursday! Where has the time gone? I mean really, everyone always said it would fly by but you don't realize it till you have a baby!

She is into EVERYTHING these days, she tests me beyond belief! I don't know where she gets that from??!?! The other day she was taking a nap, and I was trying to do laundry and clean. I hear her wake up but figure I have time to put one more load in. As I am switching the laundry out I hear a commotion in her room................then I hear her RUN to her door, well run INTO her door, fumble with it a few seconds and finally get it open. Then she runs down the hall, finds me and says, "Mommie I poop!". I'm thinking, 'OH GREAT! where did you poop?' since she went to bed with a diaper and pants on and now she is only wearing her tshirt. Addie gets my hand and runs me into her room where I find this:

Her pants laying in the floor at the door, her diaper laying beside her bed and POOP on the floor beside her rug! I was thinking how glad I was that she had pooped because it had been a day or two and I was worried. As I am standing in her room I just look at her and she looks up with a BIG SMILE and says, "Mommie I poopied! AND WIPED!" lol. I look around and she had wiped herself with a blanket! and she was ever so proud of herself!

Kids sure are funny! How in the world do you not laugh at them? Earlier on Friday I was changing the laundry out and Addie was standing at the door, I said, "Addie, go get Pink and your blanket, it's time for a nap." This is when my child grew into a teenager in all of 5 seconds....she rolled her eyes, turned around and said, "OHHH SH**!". REALLY? HOW DO YOU NOT LAUGH AT THAT?? I turned my head and cracked up. Ofcourse I got myself together and told her that was a bad word and we don't say it but man on man, that was a hard convo to get through without laughing! (BTW-she didn't hear that from me, she heard it from her father who got in big trouble over it!).

I hope you all have a great day!

Dreams

Oh how I want a B&B! Since I was a little girl I thought that would be the perfect business to own. Graham and I could work together, my children could play at home, we would meet all kinds of neat people, I WOULD GET TO COOK BREAKFAST AND COOKIES EVERY DAY!, I would clean, and sit on the porch in the evenings with our guests and learn about their lives! How wonderful does that sound? The only problem is I don't know where I want to have one at. I suppose it would be nice for it to be around here BUT then again I want a house with history in neat new city!

I change my mind on location all the time! When we drove up the east coast for our honeymoon I wanted one in Mass or Maine, I went a two mission trips in high school to Cape May, NJ and wanted one there, then last year we went to Wyoming and ofcourse I wanted one there. Wyoming is one place Graham and I agree on. Mainly because he wants to have a ranch, BUT we could have a ranch B &B!

I look constantly at different ones for sale, today I found this jewel of a place on the Maine coast:

This charming place is in southern coastal Maine and has 10 rooms with 2 suites! I LOVE IT! It's within walking distance to town and beautifully landscaped all for $1.3 million! lol! Actually, that really is a pretty good price!

And then there is this one in Cape May, NJ:

This one looks across the street to the ocean! It too has 10 suites and ALOT of history in the home all for $1.2 million!

ahhh dreams! I wish Graham was as adventurous as I am. I really would just pack everything we could and do it!

What a crazy few weeks!

let's see......after the whole "chemical Pregnancy" as the docs call it (I still consider it a baby that I miscarried) we have had some serious conversations about Birth control and Hines #2.

WARNING: I'M ABOUT TO GET REALLY PERSONAL!

There I warned you ;)



I decided to leave the IUD out, you can read below about some of the reasons behind this decision. But I have tried several pill forms of BC and they all throw me WAY off and I am CRAZY. I used the Ring when we first got married but that resulted in Addie (haha). So we thought maybe we would try to get pregnant (not that it is hard for us, apparently) and then Graham 'get fixed' (I LOVE THAT, it's like he is a dog or something,ha!) and I would get my tubes tied also. But we were faced with all the fears of having another one....Have we had enough time with JUST Addie? Will she still get enough attention? Do we have enough money for two(NO! but we didn't have enough money for one either!)? And ofcourse I thought of the stupid stuff, Where will we put another baby(Graham wasn't too keen on the idea of moving, JUST YET)? How will I get to take naps if I have two!? (Stupid, I know!) and I was worried about not getting to buy Addie EVERY cute outfit I can find!

I'm still not convinced we need another baby. I think deep down I want another, but I went through alot to get Addie here. How can I do that while taking care of Addie too? Graham on the other hand WANTS ONE NOW! Easy for him to say he doesn't have to carry it for 8 or 9 months! After much consideration, we have decided to TRY and wait till the end of next summer to get pregnant again. We are planning a trip to Disney World next Spring with Addie. I KNOW, I KNOW she's too young! We think she will LOVE it! She may not remember it when she is 20 but we will. And it's NOT going to be the only time she gets to go (we plan on every other year as the kids grow up). Graham and I have always agreed, trips are IMPORTANT. We have taken SEVERAl awesome trips.

Pregnant? Not Pregnant? Pregnant?

Sunday night- I wasn't feeling myself so I took a pregnancy test.......it was faintly positive! After freaking out for alittle while I became concerned because I have an IUD.

Monday- I called as soon as they opened and told my doctor what was going on...they told me to come on in as soon as I could. At my appointment they did 2 urine test....both negative. So they did an ultrasound..negative (but did find a large cyst). To MAKE SURE I wasn't pregnant they did blood work and sent me home. That afternoon the nurse called me back and told me that the bloodwork showed that I was indeed pregnant and I needed to come back in Tuesday. Monday night was very hard. We know we want more babies but this was out of the blue and we weren't ready. I know I know when are you ever ready for a baby? But all of you that have had a shocker know what I mean. I went through the all the "stupid" questions: Have we had enough time with Addie alone? Where would we put another baby? Are we ready to start all over? Finally, after talking with my mom I felt better and by Tuesday I was even alittle excited.

Tuesday- I go back to the doctor and have my IUD removed and make yet another appointment for Wednesday for more bloodwork to determine how far along I am.

Wednesday- I cart Addie and Ellie (with the help of my wonderful cousin Jordan) to the doctors office to have labs drawn. That afternoon I get another call saying the hormone levels went down and it was a "chemical Pregnancy". SERIOUSLY??? I was finally okay with this and excited! So once again I start to cry! (this was seriously the 100th time since Sunday!) It really was for the best because if I was pregnant and the baby was due when I thought it would be, it would have been due right when graham was finishing his MBA....not a good time. We would have made it and it would have been fine but still not ideal. Okay so this brings me to why IUD's are BAD!
A Chemical Pregnancy is an extremely early miscarriage. Most the time this is due to chromosomal problems with the fetus so the body rejects it. It's also a very common thing and even more common with IUD's. In most cases the woman will test positive before she has missed a period (very early) but a miscarriage occured before you can see the heartbeat on an ultrasound. Most women don't even know this happens. -that's what scared me the most, could this have been happening every month? could I have been pregnant several time and the stupid IUD miscarry it? OH MY GOODNESS! What am I doing to my children!
With all this said, I want to encourage every woman out there THINKING of an IUD to reconsider. Granted I loved the IUD until I found all this out....and it probably does say it in all the information they give you to read before you get one but who really reads that? I don't want anyone else going through this, I had a miscarriage in November due to my IUD but didn't have it taken out (it wasn't the same situation as this time, the baby was further along. My doc also told me it can take a few months for the IUD to get in perfect position). Oh how I wished I had just taken it out then. So please, research the IUD's before jumping into it, there are alot of things that can happen with it. So many that some doctors won't use them! That says something in itself! I'd be glad to share more of my experience with you if you are thinking of an IUD, so please let me know.
Thank you for the prayers this week. I am better today knowing that God is in control and he does everything for a reason. That sure is a hard concept to take in huh? We are better and will just continue to get better. If you could still keep us in your prayers the next few weeks that would be great. Thanks again!

Julian Michael's is kicking my B***

I am SO sore! Monday I started Julian Michael's 30 day Shred and let me tell you..........it's tough! BUT it's awesome! The reasons I Love it:
1. 3 mins of strength, 2 mins of Cardio and 1 min of Abs. So when you are getting tired of jumping jacks or butt kicks you are about to stop and go on to something else and you just have to push yourself for 2 mins....how hard is that?? Even a person with NO motivation can do this! Come on it's 2 mins!
2. The entire workout is done in 30 mins!
3. I feel AWESOME when it's done
4. Even though I am SO SORE I am still looking forward to my workout each morning! (That has NEVER happened to me before!)
5. Lastly.....Everything I have read about it says that people who do it everyday loose weight usually about 20 pounds in 30 days! I can do anything for 30 mins a day for 30 days!

I totally recommend everyone doing this workout! Even better...If you have Comcast On Demand workout 1 and 2 are free right now, so you have NO excuse not to atleast try it!!

Good Luck! Look forward to pics in the next few weeks!

Random

I know it's been like a month since I posted but we have been EXTREMELY busy around here! We started the kitchen remodel and it's still going on. Graham knocked out half the wall between the living room and kitchen and started the dry wall and cleanup of the wall (still not done). Last week I painted the walls LIME GREEN, and LOVE LOVE LOVE it! I was VERY nervous about it at first but I am so glad I stayed strong and went with the crazy color, it looks really good. Last night I started sanding and painting the cabinets. WHAT A JOB! It really sucks, luckily I don't have ALOT of cabinets. My plan is to get them all painted by Friday. Actually I WILL get them painted by Friday because I just started and it's a complete mess! Mess+ 2 little girlies= trouble! Graham went last week to the countertop place to order the color we agreed on and it came up to like $200 more than we thought because of the finish on them. I told him to wait and let me look at some more because I wasn't INLOVE with them enough to spend that much money on them. After alot of looking and arguing with him we have picked another color, so I am calling to order them today. It should just take a week to get them back. SO MAYBE, just maybe we will be down with the in 2 weeks (after the countertops get in Graham has to finish the dry wall, he can't finish it till the bar piece comes in ). Did I mention we have something planned for every weekend from this past weekend till sometime in OCTOBER! Seriously! AND Graham has 2 classes instead of 1 for the next 8 weeks, which is taking MOST of his time! I keep thinking if we can just get to Nov we will be fine but then it will be Thanksgiving, and Christmas! AHH! Oh yeah, Graham has planned a get-away for me and him for our anniversary in October too! He won't tell me where he is taking me but says its really pretty and I will love it!

Addie has climbed out of her bed 2 times now SO I am on the hunt for a new "big girl" bed for her. I figure since we are changing that we should just go ahead and redo her room, as if I don't have enough projects going on........by the way, I started sewing again last week :). Anyways, Dottie has given her and antique chest so I have totally scratched the idea of hot pink walls, zebra prints, black furniture etc and I am going for a sophisticated "pretty" little girls room. My friend Heather showed me what her friend was redoing her little girl's room in (does that make sense?) and I LOVE IT! Since I don't really know her friend I figure it's okay to copy, hehe. Here is a picture of the bedding........

isn't it BEAUTIFUL?? I love it BUT I don't love the price....for everything we "need" it would be about $800! Seriously?? Who pays that much money for a little girls bedding??? I showed it to my mom and she said we could do it. So I am just going to order a few things and we are going to make the quilt ourselves, I love having a crafty mom! Currently, Addie's room is painted pink and green stripes so I am just going to paint over the pink stripes with white. It will take awhile but I am going to slowly buy her and antique chest, nightstand, and vanity, which will grow with her through her teenage years. For now we are just going to get a white toddler bed but eventually she will get an antique big bed. I think it will be very cute.....just don't know when I will get around to starting it :)