slacker day

I got to take Arden by the church and let her play on the playground for a little bit. Mom needed something added to a soup that was cooking at her house so after that we ran to the playground. I just couldn't resist letting her have some time in the sun. And I just had some afternoon coffe and I am just feeling great! Hooray for me!


her daddy taught her to do this herself. I am amazed because she is usually scared of stuff like this

Matt is turning 31

this weekend. I don't have anything big planned but am still excited about his b-day. He is weird about b-days and doesn't like people to make a big deal so maybe it will be fun to just eat cake-just the 3 of us. I will have to figure out what to get or make. It won't be able to compare with going to disney last year for his 30th. That was a blast and it won't be topped this year. I do have a present in mind that I think he will like. All the magazine covers on the newstands have cupcakes in there so i may do a cupcake sampler. that might be fun. Anyway, he is getting some grey on his beard and that is pretty cute.

I had a good time in Atlanta this weekend but also glad to be home to my girl--even though she did poop in my little pony underwear today and got a spanking. It is pititul because she asked if i was mad at her and when i said yes then she cried harder. She said her typical "are you my friend anymore?" to which i said "of course." ha.

I am about ready to be out of this cold rainy weather. I want spring. I don't really want summer though. Arden has been begging to go to the beach and asking when we can go. I just tell me May--everytime she asks. I may plan a small family trip to watercolor again. loved that place. not sure though. Here are some pics. She had to wear her ariel pajamas over her clothes yesterday to work because "bo"(chas) gave them to her for Christmas.

my other love

Besides being obsessed with my daughter and the goings on in her little life I am also obsessed with houses. Particularly, old houses. LOVE THEM. want to squeeze them and look in all of them. Yes, i am just obsessed. So here are some of the things I love.


love the spring green in both of the cottagey cute rooms


cutest guest room. always love this headboard


cottage kitchen

favorite living room ever.
on of my fav. exteriors

love this cottage garage---oh i want it.


another cute bathroom
need a backyard pergola like this...

Okay so I won't bore you anymore with my obsession but I am obsessed. Love my cottage living--which is not being printed anymore. Also just driving around my neighborhood and looking at old bungalows. could google till 2am every night for old house junk.

Sesame st. and more potty stories

So, you caught me on a good day because Arden just "did brown" in the potty this morning at work and is enjoying the fruit of her labor--a sucker.
We did our first real poops in potty on Sunday. We were out of town in Cookeville eating with Matt's extended family. Of all places to want to potty--restaurant bathroom out of town. Makes no sense to me. Anyway, the funny part is that we were waiting in the lobby to be seated and I took Arden to the bathroom. She suprised herself by doing poop. I cheered and made a big deal so when we returned to the lobby full of people she yelled" I did poop in potty Dad-I made brown". oh my, everyone laughed. It has been an adventure so far but not as bad as I thought.

Friday night we went to Sesame Street Live with Andi and Addison. I think Arden liked being with them more than the show. When we got home she was not talking about the show but about "our friends". She liked Elmo and all but liked Baby Addi better.
It was a fun girls night.

I spent all day Sat. practically, besides going to gym, trying to get my sewing machine to embroider. I finally good it after some help from my Mimi. I had to call her and ask a bunch of questions. I really love it and have spent too much money at hobby lobby lately. It is really relaxing....when the bobbin isn't tangling up.

I also read the shack this weekend. I would recommend it to anyone but especially people that have lost someone that they love. Can't really get into all the emotions of it on the blog but let me just say that it is a challenging read with much potential to grow your faith. I was suprised at how much it helped me to see the nature of God and it was awesome and hard at the same time.

I went with my friend Sara to see Twilight on Sat. night. It was really good. I have read all the books so I could give my opinions if you would like to hear them. Overall, I feel about it like Harry Potter. Good movie-not as good as books-but still good

Forgot to say I love you..Dianne

Do you know that you saved my life last week? You did! I was on the verge of meltdown and then you said "please let me watch kids for you." I would not have made it. You guys would have come down stairs to find me in the corner crying and all the kiddos swinging from the chandeliers and sticking fingers in light sockets. HA.
Seriously, it was the most thoughtful thing of my week last week. Thank you for being such a good friend. I know I can tell you anything. I know it has always felt like we were family but it is so nice now with the kiddos.
Thank you.

Plus-it is fun to tell stories of spanking the kiddos and 2 very independent little girls. Your mom tells my mom stories and vice versa and they just make me laugh.

Here is my newest : This morning Arden smelled like a foot so I decided I would have to give her a bath, even if it made me late to work. She is all cute and ready to go. Get in car and gas is below empty--making me even later. About 2 miles from work she says "look at me mom, I'm spilling" I look and she is pouring milk into her lap. Her clean clothes are soaked and she is covered in stinky milk--and it is in the car seat. I go from 80 to 0 in a couple seconds and pull over on side of interstate. Grab cup. Yell a little about she knows better. spank the hands and promise a "harder one" when we get to the shop. She did have a quiver lip and say she was sorry. I thought about did I want to spank when I got to shop and decided that I did because I had bought 1 pair of extra clothes in case of a poop accident and now I was having to use them at 10am because of spilled milk. So I did spank the butt when we got out of the car. She cried and said she was sorry and she loved me. Breaks your heart. I told her I love her too. So that is just what has happened so far this morning and I am not even to lunch yet.

"well....actually" & random pics

bows that i have been making

enjoying our days off work over Christmas break

on our picnic -play drums in coolidge

playing dress up

dancing with Jerry

going potty

So I haven't posted in awhile

I must say this (actually) alot and don't realize it. Arden has started to say this lately and the little boy that I babysitted in college used to say it enough to drive me over the edge. HA. It is funny to hear that coming out of a tiny kid. We are doing great with the potty but still having problems with poop. So, I am trying something new. I got a potty chart and have a "poop" bag ( I stole this from Ellie Bryden). If she does poop then she can get a prize out the bag. I think I have finally struck gold because she cried her eyes out when she had an accident and did not get to get a prize out the bag. She doesn't cry that long after spanking. She has been getting more spanks lately. She is just old enough now. She does some things that are blatant disobeying. I am suprised at how much it doesn't really bother me. I thought it would make me want to cry to have to do it. I know that sounds mean but I just see it as action/ consequence. She knows that is what will happen when she chooses this our that--it isn't a big surprise and then she chooses it anyway. Today she had drawn with red crayon our her portable dvd this morning and I had to scrub it off. I told her that she should not do it again or she would get a spanking. Well, about 2 hours later she did it again. So you can guess what happened.

Things may be getting under control at work. Lots of long hours and a trip from Aunt Lois and now I may be back on track and will just stay on top of it. I am going to have to put my job things above helping everyone else at the shop so that I don't get behind. I am thinking about getting a folding slide for the office. Arden cried to bring her Santa present (playset) to work this week. She is pitiful. Poor thing having to be cooped up in the office all day. Or I saw this little trampelene with a bar you can hold on to. She loved that.

We are going to Sesame Street Live on Friday with Andrea and Addison. I promise I will post pics but I know they are going to be crazy. I can't wait.

I have also started sewing, making bows, and started a new Beth Moore Study. It has been great. Now if I can just make it to the gym I will feel really good about myself. I need to knock off my 4lbs from Christmas.

a little perspective

You know I wonder if we all struggle with losing focus in our lives. I sure do. I can get discontented pretty easy when I don't feel like going to work, it is raining out and I have to get a 2 year old to the car, or realzing I have gained 5lbs over Christmas and now my goal has to be to lose 10 instead of 5. But perpective comes at the stranges times. Last night I was watching the bachelor and thinking about how i would feel if I was on that show. I wondered at how these beautiful girls could be nervous and feel insecure just like me. I mean these girls are models. The prettiest girls I have ever seen on the show. I just started thinking how sad it all is. All the things we think are important. How I would feel if I was standing on national tv and how you get past all the shallowness of it all. You know, often I forget about my identity in Christ and how that should not just be a small part of who I am ---like a part to the whole. It should be the whole! I was just thinking how much less those girls would be grasping at straws if they really felt good about who they were and how attractive that can make you to everyone around. Not that you are attractive yourself but how attractive Christ can be to people that are looking for hope. Or how attractive Jesus can be to everyone for that matter. Not to be preachy. Just thinking alot last night. I guess I never make new years resolutions. I just think they are silly but maybe i am just intimidated that I wouldn't reach one of my goals and that would really disappoint me. But this is something that I should keep in the forfront of my mind. I need to keep my eyes on Jesus when I feel like i am getting discouraged. I need to count my MANY blessings and think about how wonderful it is that God is right there with me....not sitting up on some thrown in heaven far away.
It is crazy how much the things in this world that we strive for can cloud our mind to the real things of our life. We can even get caught up in being a mother, wife, provider, or employee. I forget my one important identity because I focus on doing all the others perfectly (or as perfect as I can). Hope I am not the only one who feels this way. Maybe I am but I can sure work on it.

first belly ache---but not really

Arden has been doing great with her potty training lately. It has been so awesome to stay at home so that we can it started out. She peed in potty at walmart yesterday and has done some poops in potty. She always says she needs to go bathroom even in public and I take her. I will admit it is always at the worst time--like in checkout at shoe store etc. I am very proud of her. Well yesterday i was trying to complete my to do list before I went back to work and I was sealing the cabinets in the kitchen. It smelled horrible so we were going to go out and eat. We went to Formosa first and the line was terrible. Arden had fallen asleep in the car so we went to longhorn next. She was sitting in my lap sleeping while we waited for a table. Well she woke up and started crying saying her belly hurt. Everyone was looking at me so I just took her to bathroom to talk in private. I ask her what hurts and she was holding her crotch. I asked her if she needed to potty and she almost melted down. She kept saying it was her belly so I just took her back out and told Matt we needed to leave. She was crying and kicking Matt's seat in the car. She was writhing around. Matt was so worried he wanted to take her to the hospital. He is kinda hospital happy. I told him this was probably just her first stomach ache. She has never had a virus where her stomach hurt or just a reg. stomach ache. I thought she just might be freaking out because she had never felt that before. Well, we were both worried. Then we hear this water running sound. I was saying "what is that?" Matt was convinced that it was poop but it was just pee. We pulled into the McDonalds and I said did you have an accident. She said "yeah ma, and I feel much better". I guess she had just been holding it all that time and it was hurting. I didn't think that was what it was because she had been telling me all the time when she had to go. So we went into McDonalds to change her clothes while Matt cleaned the car seat. She was completely fine and wanted to play on playground. We said okay for just a min. About 10 minutes later she is just sitting up in the tubes and can't get down. She has no sense of direction so who knows how long she would have been in there. I finally just decided to go get her because it was a tube slide and she would be too scared to slide down anyhow. McDonalds did not make their playground for 6ft tall 150lb women. Ha. I got up there but i am sure all the other adults were looking at me like "what?" I pulled my crying kid out and we headed out the door. I thought this is what most parents nightmares are like. Kids peeing in the car, ruining your dinner plans, making a scene when you want to leave somewhere.

All in all we ended up at Amigos,eating baskets full of chips, and having fun. We headed home after that for a lazy night of watching wonder pets and sewing. I think Matt was watching more football. It all turned out fine but I am glad we don't have every day with so much drama.