Cool job

My husband had a cool security detail this week. His unit worked with the secret service to protect past president Jimmy Carter. Jon is the first on the left. Jon said one of the secret service agents got sick and hurled the entire time they were underway. LOL. This is pretty cool. It is not very often you get to do stuff like this. In other good news, my hubby passed his tests and moved rank. He is now a second class. He was totally stoked. (hows that for an 80's flash back? Stoked) :) We are so proud of him!!!!

Merry Christmas

This is Shayla in her Christmas dress.

The cookie party

Last night I went to a cookie party. I have never been to one before and it turned out to be lots of fun. You have to bake half a dozen cookies for every person that comes. There were fourteen of us there, so we had to bake seven dozen cookies each. It sounds like alot of baking, but most recipes make 2 dozen or more, so it really is not to bad. The good part is you go home with seven dozen cookies, same amount you came with, just a bunch of different kinds.

I picked a new cookie I had never made before. They were called Andies Candies Cookies. I picked them caused they sounded good AND mostly cause one batch made ten dozen cookies. I thought it would make my life easier. :) I was right.

Last night at the party we voted on best cookie, most original cookie and tastiest cookie and I won for tastiest cookie!! How cool is that? I love to win stuff. Here is my award winning cookie recipe. It is made with those andies mints that you can buy at walmart or walgreens. The recipe said you only needed three boxes, but I had to use 4. ENJOY!

Andies Candies Cookies
Makes approx. 10 dozen

3/4 cup butter or margarine

1 1/2 cup brown sugar

2 Tablespoons water

2 eggs

2 cups chocolate chips

2 1/2 cup flour

1 1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

3 boxes Andes candies

In sauce pan over low heat, melt butter; add sugar and water. Then add chocolate chips. Stir until partially melted. Remove from heat; stir , then cool for 5 minutes. Add eggs and dry ingredients; mix with a mixer on low speed until blended. Chill 1 hour. Make into little balls and bake on an ungreased cookie sheet at 350 degrees for 10-13 minutes. While still hot, put Andies candy mint on each cookie, let it get soft then swirl mint with spoon. Cool on baking rack.

thirty, flirty, and thriving!

Yesterday was my thirtieth birthday. I cannot believe I have left my twenty's. I am no longer "twenty-something." I am officially old. LOL. The good news is that we got to come to D-town after all. So I was able to spend my birthday weekend around family and friends. Friday night was appetizer night with the pregnant princess. Saturday was a massive shopping morning and that night we went to an expensive restaurant with Kdarling (aka pregnant princess) and ate like kings and queens.

I am so blessed. When I was a teenager my mom started an awesome tradition with me that we still continue today. It is a birthday week. Every year, the week leading up to your birthday, you get one present a day. In general the gifts are small and sorta 'build up' as the week progresses. The gifts are normally small inexpensive things, nothing major. It has turned out to be the best tradition. I love it. Last year, my baby girl turned 12 and I started her first birthday week. I love traditions, especially ones that involve me getting presents. Who wouldn't?

What cool traditions do you have?

The tooth is here!!

My baby has her first tooth!!! Somehow I thought once it came in, it would stop hurting. Today has been the worst day ever, and it is only half over!! Poor baby.... poor mommy. I am excited though, she has a tooth on her bottom front. Maybe tomorrow will be better.

Lysh sings

Lysh is a member of a homeschool girls choir. They went to two nursing homes and sang for the residents on Monday. That is her on the back row, third from the left. Jon's only job was to take some pics. They all turned out to be grainy and out of focus. I don't know how he manages to take such awful pictures with our brand new camera.

This is me, lysh and her friend on Tuesday. (I am the short one in the middle). We were going to a small town about 45 minutes away. There is a little famous place there that is a big tourist attraction. It is called "Rogers Christmas House." It is actually five separate houses, all different Christmas themes. It was supposed to be cool, but it turned out to be kinda sad. We went with another couple friend and made a whole day out of it, so it turned out to be fun.

The Week of dresses - Part 2

This is Thursday. It is hot here in Florida. We wore this dress to meet Shay's new doctor. I will blog more about that awful experience soon.

This red dress is one of 3 Christmas dresses we have. It is really almost too small, but it was cute. This is Friday.

This is Friday afternoon. It is not a dress, but it was so cute, I took a picture. She has so many matching outfits. It is now cold again in Florida. We went to the mall.

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This is Saturday morning. It is still cold, so this a long sleeve dress. It lasted about an hour and that stupid flap kept hitting her in the face. I took it off and put a one piece on her. :)

Here is our church dress for today. It is so cute. Complete with tights and shoes!!!!!!! It was warm though, so she was a little over dressed. It was over 80 today in Florida.


So when we got home, we put on this dress, it is nice and comfy to play around in. It is also short sleeve. It was a hot day.

The week of dresses - Part one

SUNDAY - This baby is so cute!!!

MONDAY - Dress one. This yellow dress was alysha's when she was a little girl. Sweet!!!

MONDAY - Dress two. Dress one was itchy. :) This is a powder blue long sleeve dress.

TUESDAY - This little dress had a sweet little sweater that matched. It is in the high 80s now, so we are back to short sleeve dresses.




WEDNESEDAY - Sitting in my recliner playing with mommy's phone

randomness

Shayla has morphed into a fussy girl. It seemingly happened overnight. I do believe she is teething, do to her gnawing on stuff and her upset tummy. I do hope there is a light at the end of the tunnel. If all her teeth do this to her, her mommy just might not survive.

It seems like I have had a lot of disappointments lately. Shayla's doctor, who I LOVE, suddenly stopped taking our insurance. I was so upset.

The biggest upset of all was finding out we will not be able to go home and see family for Christmas. Hubby's command decided not to give them holiday time off, like the other command used to do. He normally gets 9 days off at Christmas/New Years. Not this year...... But, either way, Christmas is coming and it is something to look forward to. It will be just the four of us.

On the other hand, my 30th is also coming and it is NOT something to look forward to. Since I will not be in my hometown, I will not even get to do anything really cool. I guess there will be no party or fanfare on this important occasion. Interestingly enough, I am really not dreading turning 30. I won't sink into a deep depression, like some do. I just wanted to celebrate in a cool, adult, childless kinda way. wink wink.

Just to add to my doldrums, I noticed my hair is growing back. (Remember, it fell out after I had The Sweetness) Unfortunately, I am seeing little tufts of new growth that are mostly devoid of color - white.

Speaking of old.................My oldest will soon turn thirteen in two months. Yikes! It just doesn't seem real. When we go out in public, people have a hard time believing she is mine. Not because I looking amazingly young, but mostly cause she looks like she's 16 or 17. One gentleman in Quizno's the other day could not believe she was my daughter. She told him how old she was and he turned to me and said, you look like your about 13. Lol. Ummm.... I wish. People say crazy stuff to us daily, I always respond with, "I'm older than I look" and just smile.

Going places with Shayla all dressed up is like being movie stars. Whenever I put on her little princess dresses and we go out, we get lots of attention. Yesterday we went out to a local place for brunch. People just stop and stare at that little baby girl. We felt like movie stars, all eyes on us. She is such a pretty little thing. That seems to happen when I dress her up, I am getting used to it, but I am not sure I really like all that attention. :)

Speaking of attention. When you have a baby, strangers like to give you advice that you did not ask for. I went to the mall Friday and walked around while Lysh was at the movies. One little old lady stopped me and said to Shay, "You need some socks on your little feet, why don't you have socks on?" She looks at me for effect. THEN - I was sitting in the food court and Shay was in her stroller, facing me, and I was letting her play with the plastic bag. One younger woman comes up to us and says to shay, "That is dangerous, you don't need to play with that." One day I am gonna say what I am really thinking, which is not nice enough to post on my blog. But, I was a nice mommy and said, "she's ok, I am watching her." Strangers are stupid. :) This is something that happens alot. (BTW, the little old lady touched her feet and then recanted her statement because Shays feet were so warm.)

The picture is of Shaylily's head. Lysh thought it was cool how the water droplets looked. :)

On a fun note, I have dubbed this week "The Week of Dresses." Shay has so many dresses that we really never get to wear, so we will wear a different dress everyday this week. I will be taking pics and posting them all along.

Shayla Shots

This is Shayla in Alysha's six month outfit. I wish I had a scanner so I could put the two girls side by side. Shay is so WHITE!! Alysha was so olive skinned.

I am loving that look!!

I had to change the background, that pink was killing me!!

seven months old

My little ( and I use that word loosely) baby girl is seven months old!! She is teething up a storm, which is to say that she is in pain and therefore not a happy-go-lucky girl. Not fun for mommy. I took her to the doctor this week because she was pulling on her ear. Her ears look great, they said she was just teething. They weighed her and she was 20 lbs. WOW!! (Although they weighed her with her clothes and diapers on and they usually take all that off.) I just cannot believe she weighs that much already. Her legs are so fatty, they have like five rolls on them!! It is so cute. But, I do hope she slows down on the weight gain. Her belly just cannot get much bigger. I think once she starts crawling and pulling herself up, she will slim down. At least that is my hope. She is pretty much outgrown size three diapers.

She is such a big girl. They grow up so fast. She likes to play patty-cake now. It is so cute. She likes to mimic what you do. Her favorite thing to do is cough. She just laughs and smiles when you cough and then she coughs back. Babies are so funny. She is also into "real" stuff to play with. Like our real phone or remote control. Forget about all those "baby" toys down on the floor, she wants all the things she is not supposed to have. Isn't that interesting how babies do that. ( That is a trait that continues into adulthood for some people - always wanting what they don't have.)

She is not crawling, but scooting backwards across the floor. She can turn herself in circles on her tummy. It is hilarious, she is ALL OVER the floor. I think it will not be long before she figures out how to go forward. Then she will no longer be limited to one area - then she will keep me hopping.

And one final note...............ROOOLLLLL TIDDDDDDDDEEEEEE. The Iron bowl was so awesome. They kicked some auburn butt. Next week it will be the Tide and the GATORS!! I live in Gator nation, so this will be an awesome game!!!

surprise baby shower

I just got back from D-town, visiting family and helping to throw a surprise baby shower. It was so fun. Kdarling was totally and completely surprised! I had to lie like a rug to keep it that way, but it was worth it in the end.



That is me with KDarlings finger in my face. :) It was a really fun time. It was more like a family reunion, we all knew each other from different places. It was a really neat intimate gathering of friends. Kdarling got lots of cool things for the baby. None of which I got a picture of. My cohort in all this, JAMMGD, got lots of pictures. She and I have been friends since middle school. It was really fun seeing old friends again.

The food was excellent. I made the OREO truffles (thanks Hila!!). There was chicken salad, cheese dip (that was divine!!), fruit, veggies, and cake. I just love shower food.

shayla shots

Here are some shots I took of Shayla in her pretty butterfly dress. This is another reason I don't get anything done, I am always doing "photo sessions" with the baby. It is so fun. What a happy girl.

sleep precious sleep

Maybe I bragged to much about having a baby that sleeps twelve hours a night and jinxed it? My sweet little shayshay started waking up in the middle of the night about two weeks ago. sigh. I got out my handy-dandy baby bible and it actually said that babies who were sleeping through the night will experience irritability and interruptions in their sleep patterns about this age because of ........ TEETHING. I was some kind of spoiled putting that baby down at 8:00 every night knowing she was not gonna be up again until at least 8:00 the next day. The doctor said there are not any teeth coming through, but they will have the symptoms long before a tooth actually pushes through the gums. She advised me to give her some Tylenol, which I did and it works wonderfully. Still, I miss those perfect nights of sleeping without interruption....

For every one step forward I take, I feel like I take three steps back. Seriously. I look at the clock towards the end of my days and it is like, 4 or 5, and I think, "What have I done all day?" My days are a whirlwind and I cannot seem to get a handle on them. It is a wild ride and most of the time I love it. It is just that so much gets left undone. No matter how hard I try, my laundry piles up and my kitchen gets dirty. I will make valiant efforts to stay on top of things, but at the end of the day, there is so much I did not get done. Case in point: I decided last week I was going to get on the treadmill once a day. I decided I was worth making 20 min for me and so Monday morning I got up and said today was the day. At 8:00 that night I thought, "I don't know what happened, but I will not lose heart, tomorrow I WILL get on that treadmill." By Wednesday, I let myself off the hook. I am busy beyond words and I just do not have time to take care of myself. Luckily, all my clothes still fit me, albeit not as good. I love my family and friends dearly, but I never find time to get on the telephone. So, if you do not hear from me, just know that I am thinking of you guys often.


* Jon still has not passed that stone, but he is in plenty of pain.

happy birthday

HAPPY BIRTHDAY
TO MY WONDERFUL HUBBY!!!

my awesome weekend, part 2

Saturday
Saturday morning we got up and went to a community garage sale. Let me just say, that is the way to go. Just drive to one place, get out and hit garage sale after garage sale. Your not in and out, in and out of the car. It was fun. I got a few things for cheap. Shayla slept through the whole thing. Then we went home and fed Shaylily, got back in the car and drove an hour to see my old friend Wendy. She was having a family reunion and we crashed it. We had a great time. She met Shay and we talked, just like old times. She and I used to work together in D-town. I miss old friends. :) We stayed until the afternoon and headed home, what a full day!!








Meanwhile, I get a call as I am heading that way that my hubby is on the way to the ER. sigh. He has a Kidney Stone. That would be the second one he has ever had. Poor guy. He was at work and suddenly was in so much pain he thought he was gonna hurl. They gave him some pain pills and told him to go home and pass it, it was only 3mm. He went right back to work. (He is in pain, but still has not passed it as of Tuesday.)

Sunday
This day was exciting because I was going to see my mom again after seven days of no contact. She had been on a 7 day Caribbean cruise. We met with her right off of 75 in O-town. My mom has ALWAYS wanted to go on a cruise, this was her dream cruise. Unfortunately, she was sick the whole time. She said it was like being on a roller coaster for 7 days and 7 nights. (that would be my worst nightmare and the reason I will NEVER cruise) But, we got to see her and she got to hold the baby.

We left there and headed back to the Greek festival because they were supposed to have famous greek dancers from south florida there. Well, they didn't. In fact, they had an out of shape old man up there dancing in a very revealing outfit. haha. The music scared shayla, so we had to leave all the fun and sit outside. On the flip side, we tried a chicken soulvaki sandwich. It was very good. I wanted a gyro, but Alysha would not eat lamb. :( We went to the dessert section and they were pretty much sold out of everything!! Lesson learned, get your sweets early. I got Jon an eclair, me a baklava, and we tried Kok. Kok (pronounced coke) was strawberry cake layered with strawberry filling topped with whipped cream and strawberry glaze. It was really good.






Of course, everywhere we go with Shayla we get all kinds of attention. Every other person stops us to see the pretty baby, it is like going somewhere with a superstar. no autographs today...... tee-hee. She is a pretty little thing. Those greek ladies just oohed and aaahhhed over that baby. Greek people have the neatest accent. They also tend to be loud, maybe they were just talking over the festivities, idk?


At the greek fest with Shay. Isn't she precious in that dress? K. Darling, notice the socks on the little baby feeties. :) (Remember: you can make pics bigger by clicking on them. :) Meemaw)

shayla's six month check up

We went to the doctor today. Shay-Shay now weights 18lbs 11ozs. That is a 3 pound jump from three months ago. She is 28 inches long. That puts her in the 75% on weight and ABOVE the 95% on height. The doctor said she is perfectly healthy and doing great. She was impressed with the length, she asked how tall Alysha was. Of course, Alysha is now taller than me, so i just have tall kids. They do not get it from me, I am 5'1 something, in all my glory.

She got her shots and this time she cried a little bit. Normally she doesn't, but she was done crying before we left the room. Sweet little thing. She is such a happy baby. She just smiled and put a show for the doctor. She likes the doctors office. It is so bright and pretty.

I will blog part two of my weekend soon..... until then, here are some shaylily pics.

my fun filled weekend - part one

I had an action-packed, fun filled weekend and the pics to prove it. :) There was so much to do and look forward to.

Thursday night we went to the Greek Festival. It was really neat and had really good food. We had a combo plate, so we could taste everything. It had souvlaki, tiropita, spanakopita, pastitsio and dolomado. The tiropita was our favorite. It was filo pastry filled with cream, cottage, and feta cheeses. All the food was so flavorful, but not spicy. I like the way it tastes. Then we got Tiramasu and a greek canoli for dessert, pictured below. The Greek canoli is different than a regular canoli. It is filled with a cheesecake like filling. It was great! oommpaaa!
(Jon did not go, he had bronchitis, I left him asleep on the couch. The tiramasu was for him.)











Friday was Halloween! I dressed up my girls and we went to Yankeetown. Jon had to work and the USCG was doing a haunted house there at the station. Alysha and her friend were Japanese girls and shay was tigger.







































We went walking up and down riverside drive to get candy. Shay fell asleep in the stroller. After all the walking we just hung out at the USCG station and watched the people go through the haunted house. (Shay hung out upstairs with her big sis.) People amaze me. So many little kids cried that night, and parents just laughed. One little girl and her dad came up to the haunted house and she asked "is it scary?" Everyone says, "noooo" including her father. That little girl came out crying her eyes out. Her parents flat out lied to her and then laughed about it. There were so many little kids who were scared and just started crying standing outside the house. Parents just thought this was 'cute'. (there was one guy with a chainsaw that would 'chase' the kids out of the house, loud and scary) Maybe I am strange, but I would never scare my children like that. But, on the flip side, it was entertainment for the rest of us to watch these kids come running screaming out. Some laughed, some cried. All the coasties had a great time. If you gotta be at work, might as well have a little fun. :) They call it Public Relations. lol.









Shaylily all tiggered out.

Lions, foxes, and birds.......ooh my

We have birds that live in our garage. They have a nest in there so we try to leave the garage door open as much as possible. (remember, I live in a bird sanctuary). Yesterday, Alysha and I came home from running errands and as I came into the house a bird flew in!!! Right over my head!! I was not scared, but freaking out a little. I mean, what do you do now? Alysha, on the other hand, was scared, so she is panicking.

Thank goodness my hubby was home. He starts shouting out instructions to me from the couch, where he was sitting holding Shaylily. How did he immediately know what to do? I mean, there is no handbook in the parenting manual that says, "what to do when a bird flies into your home." (For that matter, there is no parenting manual. ) He tells me to close all the bedroom and bathroom doors. He then proceeds to open the doors and tries to 'shooo' the bird out the doors.

In the meantime, Lucky Sunshine, my little lion/kitty has decided he wants a piece of the action. For some stupid reason, that bird starts flying real low and Lucky gets his lucky paws on it. Don't worry, Jon got to Lucky before he could really hurt him. Lucky did have that bird cornered on the floor, under a desk. Lucky had himself and real, live playpretty! Needless to say, we had to lock Lucky up in one of the bedrooms, for the birds sake.

Jon managed to get the little birdy out the florida room door and outside after a few minutes of flying around. We were afraid it was gonna hurt itself in the house, banging against stuff. At one point it flew into my fake tree I keep in the corner. haha, too funny. (just a side note: Alysha hid in the bathroom until all the fun was over.)

Yesterday afternoon I saw a Fox walking around in my back yard. How cool!! It was such a beautiful animal up close. He just walked from the backyard to the front yard and then headed off into the trees. (I have woods on each side of me.)

mommy and baby girl

I found my feet!!

This baby lays around and plays with her feet all the time now. She can now officially put her big toe in her mouth. She likes to put her little feeties in her mouth. :) So cute. (And an addition to the list in my previous blog about things you can do as a baby, but not so much as an adult - lol)

How sweet is that face?

She is laying in her crib. She likes to play in there during the day. That gives me even more time to do housework! She is so easy to take care of. I think it will be cool when she can sit up on her own without falling over.

random pics

Smores dessert. We made this while meemaw was visiting last week. :)
YUMM-O * Recipe in the comments.

Alysha's new border in her room. It is textured. It looks great! We have been looking since before Shay was born. We painted the bottom of the wall a pretty green color. The top half was already wallpapered a cream color before we moved there, so cream it stays. :)