Toughen Up Tuesday!

All right. Coming home from vacation feels good, but I am worn out. I have to do laundry and clean the house etc. etc. etc. After all of my complaining I realize something; I need to toughen up. After all, I'm blessed.

Sure I may be tired, and I may have to do the laundry, dusting, vacuuming, dusting, sweeping. mopping, cooking etc. (I'm telling you...I'm Cinderella.) So, I take a break before I even start and turn on the news.....what do I see, Oklahoma City flood victims insurance is not covering the costs of their houses.

Got me to thinking; hey, it could always be worse. I try to stay positive but I do complain. I don't want to go to work, I don't want to clean, I don't want to cook. You know what though, I have a job, and food to cook, and a house to clean.

Okay, I tend to talk/blog about blessings a lot, so on to another subject; Potty Training. It's going well, Claire even went twice this morning! The chart seems to be working, but I've had a few people tell me to keep a jar of M&M's by the potty and let her have one every time she goes. So, I bought the jar today, and the M&M-mini's. Let's see if that works. I'll try to keep you all updated on my progress. Until next time, God bless.

They Say You can Never Come Back Home...

They lied. Christopher, Claire, my grandma and I all drove to Corpus Christi to go to my sisters wedding. What a trip it was. We had some good times, like stopping at the Czech Stop, and Claire starting to tell me that she had to potty...only if I asked, but you have to start somewhere. And some bad times, like when Claire peed through her diaper and her car seat soaked it up (...YUCK!) or when I forgot to get myself a t-shirt as a souvenir.
The wedding was kind of scary. I was the matron of honor. I DO NOT (repeat, DO NOT) like standing up in front of people. Unless I have lines to recite or something like that I'm a total wreck. I'm just glad that the attention wasn't on me.
I had a chance to get some girl time in. I got my nails done with my sister. It has been such a long time since I've had that done. I just wish that they had used a better polish. My nails were gummy for 3 hours, even after sitting under those nail drying lights.
The first full day that we were out there my nephews, dad, step-mom, grandma, and sister went to the aquarium. It was a lot of fun, I even got to pet a sting-ray. I just wish that I could've gotten Claire to touch it, but she was short that if I would've put her over the water where the sting ray was I would've ended up dropping her. But she LOVED the turtles and the under water dolphin tank.
That night Christopher and I went to the ocean to watch the waves under the full moon. It was so beautiful. I love that I can just sit in silence with my husband and feel totally safe and at ease with him. Everyone should be so lucky as to marry their best friend.

Happy Fathers Day

A Little Girl Needs Daddy
A little girl needs Daddy
For many, many things:
Like holding her high off the ground
Where the sunlight sings!
Like being the deep music
That tells her all is right
When she awakens frantic with
The terrors of the night.

Like being the great mountain
That rises in her heart
And shows her how she might get home
When all else falls apart.

Like giving her the love
That is her sea and air,
So diving deep or soaring high
She'll always find him there.

Thankful Thursday...

To continue on with my Thursday tradition of post topics here are five things that I'm thankful for.
1.) I'm very thankful that I got to work in town these last two days. It was so nice to be close to my family, and I ended up getting a lot done around the house too.

2.) I am thankful that my husband finally got a reliable vehicle. I have been praying on that one for a long time.

3.) I am so thankful for the time that I had tonight with Claire. I got to paint her toe nails for the very first time ever. And she was in such a good mood, we had a lot of fun.

4.) I am thankful for my friends. I met a friend through Cafemom. It just so happens that she lives in the same town as I do, AND we have daughters that are close to the same age. Today she announced that she's pregnant. I'm so happy for her!

5.) I am very blessed to have the home, friends, family, and life that I do.

TV Tuesday

Meet my new obsession. I know, I know. I'm a full grown woman in my mid-twenties and I'm quickly becoming addicted to a teenie-bopper show. Sad, but it's the little things that bring happiness....right?...right?!...RIGHT?!
Quick update on the potty training front, we've had good and bad days. Usually when she wakes up in the morning we can get her to go potty before we leave for the day and then again when she comes home from day care. Not today. She was not having it.
Christopher woke her up for me and she was not happy, she would cry, and whine. I got her to sit on the potty, and gave her her potty books. 99% of the time she's happy/excited to get a book and pretend to read it. Not today, she cried and fussed and just was not happy at all. Then when she got home she would sit on the potty, but not actually go. Oh well, it's a journey.
So I will close with the loves of my life. God has truly blessed me.
You can't tell that she's a Daddy's Girl can you? hehe.

Just Call Me Cinderella...

It's Saturday and today I have decided to clean house. I'm already tired and want a maid in case you're wondering. Why did I decide to clean?
I'll tell you why. I want my family to be able to live in a house that's nice. It may not be the biggest, or best, or anything like that, but it'll be clean, In my mind a clean house equals a less stressful house.
So far I've gotten the carpets vacuumed and steam cleaned. Left on my list is dusting, sweeping, mopping, and scrubbing the bathroom. And maybe even giving the dog a bath.
While I'm doing all of this Claire has been amazing. I'll stop every 15 minutes or so and give her hugs and kisses. She's been playing with her dollies and reading her books.
Potty training on the other hand hasn't been good today or yesterday. She's earned stickers for her potty chart every day but these two. Well, the day's not over yet so hopefully that will change.
That's all for now. Until next time, God bless.

Thankful Thursday

I usually do "Thankful Thursday", let me tell you, today it was a little difficult. I'm going to try not to gripe after all this is a post that concentrates on my blessings, not my miseries, as we should do in life.
So, I'm not to gripe about my morning from h-e-l-l. Instead, here are my blessings:

1.) It's not so crazy at work. Meaning I actually have time to get my sanity back in between those crazy customers.

2.) I got around this morning without having to rush. You have no idea how much stress that takes out of my day.
The h-e-l-l didn't start until I got to work, I'm not worried though, I try to live my life right, if this person wants to be nasty, then God help them I guess.

3.) I didn't have to cook tonight. Thank you left over tacos and Spanish rice.

4.) Claire's potty training has gone very well at home. She even earned another star on her chart today! I do think that my day care provider is getting a little frustrated though.
What we're doing is putting her on the potty every half hour or so (and giving her a potty board book, and the potty chart/star thing). It's working at home, she only has accidents during nap time, and even wakes up in the morning with a dry diaper. For some reason it's not going so great at day care though.

5.) I have a Lord that loves me and beautiful family. I walked in the door after work today, Christopher and Claire had made a pallet and were watching a movie together. It was too cute.

It's Potty Time!

It's that time.....Potty time! I have started trying to potty train Claire. It's only been a few days, and wow, I'm already exhausted. I had a few methods in mind, but to tell you the truth, I have no idea what I'm doing.
The first thing that I tried was potty board book. These seem to be working so far. Although the first day I was ready to scream. I decided that these books were strictly bathroom books. Let's just say that Claire had a PROBLEM with that.
She loves to be read to and she also likes to pretend to read. So she wanted to take these books out of the bathroom. I had to keep bringing them back to the bathroom and putting them up. that did NOT go over well. Now I think that she's understanding better though, at least she keeps them in the bathroom. I also made a potty chart, she seems to really like that.
Anyways, that's what I've been up to, now I just have to figure out what we're going to do about potty training when we take our little road trip in a couple of weeks for my sisters wedding. Wish me luck. Until next time God bless.

Potty Training....

Is wearing this momma out! So, it's that time, Claire is wearing pull-ups and starting to use the potty. I'm excited and sad to tell you the truth. My little baby is not such a little baby anymore.
So, I've read somewhere that I needed to designate certain toys or books for the potty only. That's exactly what I did. I got 2 potty books. One that has Elmo on it and one that has a little girl on it. (And I swear, if I were to turn Claire into a cartoon she would look like this little girl.) Both of these books have buttons on them that either, flush or say something.
So far it's working. She LOVES her potty books and can't wait to read them when she's on her little potty. I'm taking her to the potty every 20-30 minutes. She's gone 3 times today with only one accident during nap time. It's just hard trying to get house work done in between potty breaks.
Wish me luck, until next time, God bless.

Thankful Thursday...

In this world I have many blessings. Here are a few of the blessings in my life:



1.) My husband, daughter, me and some friends of ours all got to get together at the lake and had an awesome time. (And only 1/3 of this house hold got sun burned....and it wasn't me or the baby!...Poor daddy/hubby.)



2.) I have found someone to watch Claire this week while my regular day care person is on vacation. Not only that, but she comes to my house! That means that I don't have to get up early to get Claire Bear around!



3.) I don't have to cook Saturday! My father in law has realized that he hasn't seen his grand-baby since April so he offered to cook for us. He offered to do it over at our house if we wanted, but we figured (or rather Christopher did) that we would make the trip.



4.) I'm getting caught up on laundry from this weekend. Lame, I know. But now we have clean clothes to wear.



5.) Claire used the potty today!

Oh, by the way, here's your daily dose of Claire....feel free to say your ooohhhhs and aaaawwwwwws.