So Behind

Sometimes you get so behind on blogging, you just shrug your shoulders and think eh, oh well!  The thing is, I want to blog about day-to-day things, because it's like a journal.  But I also want to blog about my thoughts sometimes.  Just because I like to let the thoughts flow out of my fingertips in the form of words.  It's therapeutic.  But I also want to sit down and read a good book.  And I want to...  About a million other things.  And there just isn't enough time in the day.  So I'm trying to commit to writing at least once a month here, on Sundays.  Which means it will probably always be the day-to-day (or should I say week-to-week) adventures of my little family.  And that's okay :).

So, one of the things I have yet to post is Halloween pictures.  So I'll get around to that today -- a whole month late.

 I decided to be Rainbow Brite.  Lynnaea wanted to be Rainbow Fish (she came up with the idea all by herself!  And Jeremy made it happen ;)).  And Corbin was a hatless Smurf.  I would have loved to put a hat on him, but he would never have tolerated it...  But it was cute enough.  And easy enough.  So that's what matters :).

 I found an authentic 1980s Rainbow Brite ribbon in my mom's old sewing stuff right after we moved here!  I kept it....  I mean, how cool is this find!?!

 Above is my little Rainbow Fish.  She is so precious.  And below are Corbin and I.  We went to our friends The Mitchells' house and trick-or-treated with them.  I'm thinking we may just do trunk or treat next year.  Same results with a lot less hassle!  I'm such an old fuddy duddy.

The following week we did a lot of the usual stuff:  play dates, library story time, etc.  We made a turkey craft.  I put a thankful tree on the wall and we've been adding leaves to it with something we were grateful for that day.  Lynnaea walked around outside with a pot on her head.  Silly goose.  Oh, and did I mention she wore a "dress-up" princess dress every day for about 2 weeks?  Unless we left the house, she was wearing one!  So thankful for kind friends who give us stuff like that when their kids outgrow it!  Because my girl LOVES them!

And then, since the Peanut Festival was in town, we went to the pre-school day!  Which I thought was going to be much smaller than it was.  Haha.  But it was free.  And cured me of my desire to pay to go back.  My main reason for going back would have been for fair food (since they didn't have concessions open during the pre-school thing).  But I couldn't see spending $20 to go back just to spend more money to eat.  Yep, old fuddy duddy.

And then I voted.  And watched Facebook blow up with hatred.  That was really a sad thing, honestly.  I'm thankful that's mostly past.

That weekend was the Peanut Festival Parade!  For the first time, I went and stayed for the whole thing.  It's mighty convenient that my dad lives right there a block off Main Street. We parked at his house and walked over to the parade.  The kids had fun.  The cement mixer that dropped out a bunch of peanuts in the middle of the road was definitely cool!  But we also really enjoyed the marching bands -- and, of course, my princess enjoyed all the princesses!  We took the double stroller so Lynnaea and Corbin had a convenient place to sit -- and it was shaded!

Then came the week of a double ear infection for Corbin (see previous post).  That was awful.  My poor little man.  Thankfully he is all better now! 

Somewhere along the way, I managed to snap some napping pictures.  Aren't these babies so sweet?  To see Corbin laying so angelic-like in his sleep you would never the boy is really hell on wheels.  LOL.  Oh, but he is the cutest little thing.  But just wait until I get to the selfie-stick story...  You'll understand what I mean.

We went to the Gaucho Farms Sustainable Farm Day with some friends...  It was fun.  But I was a little disappointed that I paid $15 for one picture...  Here's the picture.  Originally she said she always sends one initially and then you can work out a deal for the rest, but she usually just sends them all if you request it.  So I'm thinking she would send all 5 pictures eventually and it would be a great deal for the 5 minutes she spent taking our picture...  Alas, not so much.  Her email informed me that it would be an additional $15 per picture.  Well, you win some, you lose some.  I'm not planning to do business with her again, so there you go.  But at least Lynnaea had fun holding a baby chick (and Corbin had fun trying to strangle it...) and we got a picture ;).  Plus we did lots of other fun stuff!  Hayride, boardwalk, see turkeys and cows and chickens, sample stuff, zip-line, climb on hay bales.  It was good stuff.  Corbin wasn't interested in a picture at the end, though.

On Tuesday of this past week, we went to the library at our usual time, even though there wasn't story time...  Well it just so happened Russell the Hedgehog was out of his tank, and Lynnaea got to hold him and Corbin got to touch him!  I have pictures of Corbin touching him (and cheesing), but it's such a hassle to get photos from my phone to the blog that I'm just leaving it with this picture):

She was so excited to get to hold him all by herself!

That night, Jeremy figured out how to make the selfie-stick I bought (hoping to use it for my THRIVE business stuff eventually) work with my phone.  I didn't even try...  I am sure I would have eventually figured it out, but I ain't got time for that.  So I let him do it ;).  This is a dorky picture, but I post it for a good reason:  it's the only decent picture (of 4 total) I got using the selfie stick.

Because the next day I set it on the table so we could take it with us when we went to Georgia to visit family for Thanksgiving (thinking we might want to do a group picture while there)...  And Corbin found it.  And since Corbin's first instinct when he puts his hands on anything new is to see if he can break it...  We'll just say he found out the answer was yes.  He broke the bracket that's supposed to hold the phone in place right off the whole thing.  Ugh.  At least, since I always wait to buy stuff until it's not really cool and hip anymore, I got it really cheap.

So we drove to Georgia Wednesday evening when Jeremy got off work.  2.5 hours one way, and I didn't want to do it twice in one day with kids.  So we went over Wednesday and spent the night at my dad's cousin's house.  My dad went too.  We enjoyed visiting with everyone and had a delicious Thanksgiving dinner before heading home.  Got to see one of my 2nd cousins that I grew up with in Panama.  We both have kids the exact same age, just flip-flopped (he had a girl first).  So we snapped a quick picture before we left.  Also, my Aunt (she's really my cousin, but we've always called her aunt) Janie rented a humongous bouncy house for the kids.  And Jeremy.  It was a hit!

LOL...  He and I both look so tired in this picture. 

Anyway, we got home about 8:30 on Thursday.  The joy of having a potty-trained child is that they always have to pee at the most inopportune moments during a road trip... Like when you're on the back-roads of Georgia without a store in sight.  Sigh.  But we made it without accidents!  Woohoo!  Lynnaea rocks.

And last night we watched our Thanksgiving tradition show a couple days late :).  Gotta love some B.C. Thanksgiving!  I'm excited that Lynnaea is getting old enough to find it funny :).  Because I think it's hilarious!

And I'm calling this good!  I'm sure there are plenty of details that I missed.  Plenty of funny moments that haven't been documented... 

Oh!  But I did find out something exciting!  So for the last 3 months, THRIVE Life has had a contest for anyone who wants to participate.  Basically you create a new recipe using at least one of the items in the monthly specials.  Naturally, because I love my THRIVE and I love experimenting and trying new things in the kitchen, I decided to try it out!  I submitted a recipe for Cauliflower Tots.  And I won!!!  It was so awesome!  I won the 3 ingredients from November's specials that I used in the recipe (cauliflower, scrambled egg mix, and Chef's Choice seasoning blend) plus some freeze dried cookie dough bites!  Which is really exciting for me :).  Anyway, they posted a video on their facebook page and everything -- and granted, they totally mispronounced my name...  But that's just to be expected.  I still am really excited about winning :).  If you want to check out the recipe, you can do so here.

So yep, that's that!

About Those Last 2 Weeks...

I can't believe it's been 2 weeks.  The time is flying.  I'm 35+ weeks pregnant (yep, the baby's still in there.  Here's a picture to prove it!)

That's tonight.  I'm huge.  And I feel it.  There's nothing quite like having your belly precede you everywhere you go...

It's been busy lately.  Last week I went to a THRIVE Life event called Power Up!  It was fun to go with my friend Rebekah and try new recipes (we got to make several of them right at the table in like 10 minutes!) and just learn and such.

Last Saturday, it was a beautiful day, so we went to another local state park.  We paid for that Discover Pass to be able to park in the State Parks, so I figure we better use that thing!  Fortunately there are a lot of State Parks around here.  And the one we went to Saturday happens to be close to my in-laws' (or at least semi-close), so after we ate a picnic lunch there and let Lynnaea experience the creek and look at creek creatures (pictures to follow below), we headed out to visit the farm.  Lynnaea has a love/hate relationship with their cows.  She loves the idea of them.  But as soon as we go see them and she's close and they moo (they are fenced, of course), she freaks out.

This was after she tried dipping her feet in the creek.  It was cold (she told Jeremy "cold") and she didn't like it so much.  So we put her shoes back on.  But just seeing this picture made me realize how big my little girl has gotten!  Look at those long legs!!!  She's getting tall.  Sigh.  My baby is growing up.

Getting her feet dried off to put her shoes back on.  What a sweet girl :).

And here she is checking out the creek critters her daddy caught for her. She loved this!  She would see it swimming around in his hand and say "There it are!"  Haha.  Okay, so her grammar is still needing a bit of work ;).  But she's definitely communicating a lot more!  And the grammar will come in time. 

Just one of our selfies...  We hadn't done one in a while. 

And this little gem is from yesterday.  When we were supposed to be leaving for a play date.  See, little miss here has woken up before 6 for the last two mornings.  And so she crashes.  Bless her little heart.  This mama isn't a fan of such early mornings either.  But the last two days were busy days, so I had to just keep plugging through while she grabbed a catnap ;).  Tomorrow, though, if she does it again...  Well, it's not going to be a busy day, so maybe I'll have to get some extra sleep too! 

We did a THRIVE Jar Meal party Tuesday night here at the apartment.  It seems no matter how much I try to prepare, it's still chaotic!  But they are pretty popular, so we keep doing them.  Then today I did a THRIVE Party at lunch time for someone.  So yeah... Busy busy.  I'm looking forward to having a little respite tomorrow!  And then I have a my baby shower on Saturday.  I'll work hard at getting pictures posted from that in a more timely manner ;).  Especially considering we're getting to that point where I could have a new baby any day!

Re-Locating

...Now don't go gettin' all excited that we are movin' to Alabama.  It'd be cool.  But it's not happening... yet ;).  (Actually we don't know where we'll end up...  Could be Alaska for all I know!)

But we are relocating.  Temporarily.  And I'm so not looking forward to it. 

Jeremy says I should think of it like a vacation.  Except it isn't. 

So what gives?  Well, miracle of miracles, they are finally working on our stairs!  And while this is a most blessed event (trust me, the ghetto-fabulous look was getting real old), it comes with its own fair share of inconvenience.  The largest of which is the whole "we have to remove access to all the units, so you can either stay in a hotel paid for by us or you can take cash and make your own arrangements" thing.

We're taking the cash. 

Because who wants to live out of a hotel with a mini fridge and microwave for 10 days with a toddler!?!  Perish the thought!  (Am I playing up the dramatic?)

Fortunately for us, we have some amazing friends.  Our friends Mark and Amalea have invited us to stay in their basement which has a bedroom and a full bathroom and a large space for a toddler to play.  Not that we aren't allowed upstairs ;)...  We are.  But that will be our little "home away from home."  And it means Jeremy's commute doesn't have to turn into a 45-minute each way nightmare (which would have been the case if we'd have stayed with his parents).  Especially since he's on swing shift and isn't getting home much before midnight. 

So yeah...  We have amazing friends.  We are blessed.

In other news... I think I have lost my mind.  Due to the fact that I wanted to find out some information for myself without spending a lot of money to do so...  I am in the middle of planning a vendor event for December.  What possessed me to head something like this up?  I have no idea.  Well, I do.  But now I think I was just crazy.  So, here's to hoping it will be THRIVEing for all involved!  Thank goodness for my sister-in-law Gwen who is helping me.  Just the fact that she's involved gives me great peace -- because she's way more go-with-the-flow than I am ;).

Oh yeah...  And Jeremy may or may not have hurt his ankle at work the other night...  Should make for loads of fun when we're temporarily moving this Friday...  Let the good times roll!

Oh, so do you need some pictures :)?  Cool....  Because Lynnaea and I -- we like to take selfies.  A lot.  Have I mentioned she is the awesomest ever?  Even when she wakes up at 11 p.m. and won't go back to sleep until after midnight -- after you put her in bed with you and the hubby...  Yeah, that happened.  It's okay.  She's worth it.

If you're Lynnaea, the object in her hand is alternately an object that makes the DVD stop playing (which she thinks is hilarious) or a phone.  Which I think is hilarious.  It's a win/win.

Mostly her facial expression in this one cracks me up.  She's like, "Okay Mom...  I'm done with this."