new meaning

I'm a music person. I feel there are so many times in life when I'm feeling a certain way, but I cannot find the words to express myself. Then a song magically plays and that's exactly how I'm feeling. 

I've also found that there are songs that take on a new meaning throughout different stages of life. The song "Thoughts of You" by Barlow Girl is one of those multi-purpose-stage-of-life songs. The song is written as to be sung to God. At a time in my life, that was, and will always be, completely relevant. 

As I got older, went to college, met a boy who changed my life... The song took on a new meaning. This song was played at our wedding.

"...I love you. My heart is yours, only yours..."

After two years of being married we welcomed a little baby girl into the world and into our lives. And again... The song took on a new meaning. I play this song to Hadley every single night as she is falling asleep. 

"Thoughts of you and how you've changed me, fill my mind."

But the foundation and the truth of the song has always been the same:

"God I never could repay You. You gave everything." 

"Thoughts Of You"

Thoughts of You and how You changed me
Fill my mind
Without You where would I be

So even though I've tried to express my thanks
It never comes out how I hoped
I want to say so much more so with these simple words
I'll try

[Chorus:]
I love You
My heart is Yours, only Yours
I long to give You all of me
My everything, my everything

God I never could repay You
You gave everything
Without You where would I be

You still loved me even when I
Pushed You away
You stood there and waited
Till the day I'd return

...and you get tomatoes

"We have nothing in common. Honestly, I don't even know why we ever started talking as friends to begin with? I mean, I cannot think of one thing we could have to talk about!"---This is how the conversation started. But it's the truth, I tell you! Me and my husband really have nothing in common.

...not music.

...not movies.

...not books. 

Well maybe books. Neither one of us like to read ;)

He can "visualize" how a room will be built or look when furniture is arranged.

I cannot.

He likes activities that involve being outside, getting hot/sweaty, and getting dirty.

I do not. 

He likes to stay home to just "hang out."

I prefer to go, go, go.

His way of "re-cooping" is to be alone.

I like to be around people. 

We are polar opposites, people!

The only things we had in common, when we first met, was we were attending the same college and we are of the same religion / denomination affiliation. That's when I realized that religion is much more powerful than what I had originally thought it to be. Anyway, that religion is not where I was going with this although I could spend another hour talking about God's plan for our lives despite our differences...

All of that explanation to talk about gardening. Ha! 

Since we moved into our house and this part of town, people have been telling Lee that we have the "perfect soil" to plant a garden. We have that soft, sand-like, soil. Around here- that's a good thing. Our house backs up to Lee's aunt and uncle's house. His uncle has a pretty big garden. He does this every year. It's kind of his thing...

Well this year, Lee decided to try his hand at gardening. He and his grandpa got it started. A few weeks later, Lee decided it was time to plant the onions.

The back right corner, of the yard, is the garden.

After about a week he, then, decided he would go ahead and plant the cabbage. I was pretty excited he was planting this because I love cabbage. Lee, on the other hand, hate cabbage. He cannot stand the way it smells when it is cooked. He refers to it as "crappage." :-/

Then about four or five days later, he got antsy and decided to put out the lettuce. This was a Sunday afternoon. Hadley was down for her nap. I figured I would give gardening a "go."

Lettuce to be planted

Lee measuring how far the next lettuce plant needed to be placed.

Marking the "circle" for me to dig out.

Me digging out the spot for the lettuce plant :) Yes, I planted all four by myself!

Lee was pumped that I showed an interest in his hobby. Turns out his hobby was actually pretty fun. If you know me well, at all, you know that I've never done "hard, outside work" a day in my life. Gardening is slightly exhausting! HAHA! But it was fun.

What was most fun was spending time with him doing something he enjoys. We had time to talk about his schooling and work. We talked about new things Hadley has been doing or funny things she has been saying. We got to talk about and envision what we want our new deck to look like (coming this summer!!) with our new pool. Before I knew, we had been out there for three hours. But it was in that three hours that we realized we had nothing in common. That gardening was, now, our only common interest.

I found this little picture the other day and thought it was funny:

It's funny because as new parents, we don't have a lot of "down" time. We don't have a lot of time by ourselves to just talk without the background sounds of "bye-bye, baby, momma, dada, pat pat!" The three hours gardening was almost like therapy. More like "marriage counseling." Not counseling in the bad sense of "our marriage is on the rocks and we go to counseling so we don't divorce!" But counseling in the sense of just spending time together and talking about life. Having time together to just talk is just like counseling...and you get or we will get tomatoes! :)

Friday Favorites: Primp & Pamper

***These reviews are not paid or sponsored. Just some of my favs.***


I know, I know. I always say I have good intentions with weekly "Friday Favorites," yet they never seems to appear. I'm pathetic. LOL. Here we go...


1. TRESemme' hair spray: this by far seems to be my favorite hair spray. A problem I find in a lot of hair sprays is that they stay sticky even after they dry. This is just disgusting to me, for some reason. Every time I try a new spray and end up hating it, I find myself going back to this. Good job, TRESemme'. This one is a winner. 

2. Teasing brush: Thanks to my friend Krysten - I, now, have a short hair cut that requires teasing. I'm not a good "hair teaser." My hair isn't good at being teased. But this teasing brush (given to me by my friend, Kelsie!) is a great little tool. It works much better than a comb! 

3. Revlon Eyeshadow: All through college, I was a black/silver/gray eye-shadow-colored-wearer. HAHA! Before I had Hadley, me and my friend Katie ventured to the mall to the make up stores. I asked about something quick and easy for a "mom-to-be" that would work with my eye color and skin tone. They suggested purples. GREAT- thats my favorite color :) I went to Wal-Mart and found a set of purples/grays. (It comes in a pack just like the ones in the picture, but of course mine isn't in the picture!) I love it! It looks more natural than my silvers/blacks. 

4. Falsies Mascara: This stuff works magic people. MAGIC! I have NO eye lashes. Well, I mean, I have some... But not many. They are short, thin, and don't curl. Falsies makes me look like I have more lashes than I do. By no means do they look "false" as implied by their name, but it is a great product none the less! 

5. Make - up wipes: Who has time to wash their face then fight to get all their mascara off? Not this girl. Make up wipes is the way to go! :) Just try it! You'll never go back to soap and water. I promise!

blessed beyond measure.

I'm naturally a nosey person. You are too - DON'T EVEN LIE, YOU ARE!

I enjoy reading blogs. I love to see a tiny glimpse into people's lives, home, and daily routines.

I follow a lot of "mom" blogs. I love to read about their pregnancies. Hear about their birth stories. See pictures of their cute little kiddos.

...But then there are days of heartbreak and pain.

There are the blogs of the moms whose children endure so much pain and suffering. The babies born with problems, that as a mother, you cannot fix.

I read these blogs of these Mommy's crying out to God for help, relying of the doctors, and clinging to every laugh, smile, or kiss from their baby because it may be their last.

I read so many blogs about babies with heart defects...babies who have died of S.I.D.S....babies who have unexplained brain tumors....babies who have rare illnesses. All of these which have inevitably taken their little lives.

My heart cannot help, but ache for these families. When you plan (or do not plan) to become pregnant, you never ever consider that you baby may have a problem. It's not something you plan on or sign up for. And as hard as it is to imagine or even understand - God planned it. He chose each mother to carry that special baby. He knew the road would be hard, but that's why he chose that Mommy.

I cannot even begin to imagine what it must be like to know your child has a problem that you cannot fix. And not only can you not fix it, you are relying on others to help.

I'm so thankful that my Hadley was born so perfectly. I had a healthy pregnancy. I have a healthy baby girl. It's when I'm browsing through the "blog world" that I remember how blessed we are just to be normal.

My heart nearly bursts when I look at these faces and realized how lucky we are to have them! Happy and healthy! 

9 months: little love letters

 -Growth: You had your 9 month "well-child" check up today (3/14/2012)

*You are weighing 18 lbs. 1 oz. 

*You are 29 inches long.

*You are in the 40th percentile for your weight.

*You are in the 93rd percentile for your height. 

*You're a big, growing girl. I, particularly, love your thick squishy thighs. They are so chubby and cute! You're hate it when your 17! HA! 

-Eating:

*You are taking only 3 bottles a day. Your, first, morning bottle is 8 oz. Then you have one before your afternoon nap and one before bed, both 6 oz.

*You eat rice cereal and baby food before your last bottle as well.

*You're mostly interested in "big people" food. Your current favorites are: (steamed) sweet potato cubes, green beans, peas, corn, strawberries, blueberries, and tomatoes.

2/29/2012: a collage picture of you eating your steamed veggies for the first time

-Sleeping:

*You start winding down for bed around 8/8:30 pm every night. To give you a bath, change your clothes, feed you a bottle, and get you to sleep - all takes about one hour.

*During the day, I've tried to eliminate your morning nap. When you don't take a morning nap you take a really good afternoon nap! :) Although, it seems your naps only last for about an hour and a half or two hours these days... 

*This past weekend time changed. Spring forward, so we lost an hour. The time change has really messed with all three of us. Just a few nights ago you took a nap until 7:15 pm and you weren't even really ready for bed until 10:30 pm! YIKES! Although, you slept until 11 am the next morning!

-Play time:

*You are very much into playing with your toys now. Some of your favorites are: the music table, your new Elmo, your cellphone, and anything that makes a "rattle" noise. 

*I used to put you down and get a few toys out for you. Now that you're pulling up and trying to walk, you prefer to pull up to your toy basket and pull out the toys you want, by yourself.

*Sometimes you so adamantly want a specific toy that you reach so far that you dive into your basket head first. The first time this happened you were scared and cried. Now, you lift your leg and reach in hopes that you get into the basket to play. You really enjoy sitting in there and throwing the toys out. 

2/22/2012: This is your digging through your toy basket. 

-Developments / Events: Now that you're movin' and groovin' you've been able to explore and discover new things. Here are a few picture examples: 

2/23/2012: After a day of shopping, I decided to take you to the park for the first time. I thought I'd let you try out the swing. Your face says it all - you HATED the swing. You started shaking and crying. I think you were scared. When I sat on a swing and held you, you loved swinging. You weren't ready to try it solo, I suppose. 

2/14/2012: For Valentine's day Mommy and Daddy went out to dinner to celebrate Valentine's Day and Mommy's birthday (which is 3 days later). Nammy watched you that night. Just as soon as I left, Nammy sent me this picture with text that said "Look who figured out how to crawl up the step!" 

2/14/2012: This is a picture of your first bath without the infant seat. You  had been trying to sit up from your infant seat for a few days, so Daddy decided you were big enough to sit in your little bath. You LOVED (and still do) splashing in the water. 

-Funny / cute moments:

*We think you're working on talking / saying more words. When you play you move your mouth like you are saying something, but you don't actually use your voice. 

*You've been shaking your head "yes" a lot. You say it when people ask you questions or when you like something. 

*You had an ear infection, took antibiotics, and still kept pulling at your ear. We took you to the doctor to have it checked. Your doctor was out of the office, but you were seen by another doctor. You seemed to like him, but when he handed you back to us you turned and looked at him and said "bye!" He responded, "Oh, ok. If you're ready, then I'm ready." 

*You've really developed a little attitude this past month as well. You now: give dirty looks, roll your eyes (usually only at Momma), and when you don't get your way or someone tells you "no" you ball up your fists, squeeze them, and shake them out of anger. Patience, my little friend. 

*The other day, Nanny Wanda let us borrow a toy from her house. It's a little push toy that you can sit and play with the front or stand behind the back and push around. Daddy stood you up behind it the other day and you took off! You kept going back and forth from either side of the living room to the other. I think Daddy was pretty excited that he was the first one to see you do this :) 

It's been such a fun month. I'm sure I say that every month, but I love watching you grow and change. I can't wait to see you learn to walk and talk more. You're going to be so short and cute walking around :) 

I'll love you forever and ever. I promise! 

Love, 

Mommy

M.I.A.

These past (almost) two weeks I have been M.I.A. These past, (almost) two weeks have been miserable!

 Last Tuesday, Hadley was taking a nap in her swing. We had plans to meet Lee for lunch so we needed leave the house in about fifteen minutes. I bent down to pick her up and POP! Something in my back popped and I couldn't stand up straight. Luckily, the swing was there for me to hold on to or I probably would have just collapsed to the ground, in pain! I think this is what people refer to as "throwing their back out." I've never had this happen. In fact, I've never had back problems at all!!! I guess I bent down too far? Too quickly? I don't know why it happened this time as opposed to others since Hadley has been using her swing since she was born almost nine months ago? So strange and incredibly painful. 

Needless to say, I had no idea how to handle the situation. It took me fifteen minutes to even gain my composure and stand up straight. So now, we are late for lunch! I get Hadley out of her swing somehow , change her clothes, and get her into the car.

I decide to go to the chiropractor. I know, some people love chiropractors and others are completely against them. I have always had a great experience going to the chiropractor. Granted, I always went to have my jaw adjusted because I have T.M.J.  I, also, went to have the occasional rib put back in place. I never went for back trouble. I found a new chiropractor where I'm living now. Luckily, they fit me in that day!!!

Now, here we are: eleven days and three adjustments later and I still hurt! Well, let me rephrase that... I feel better some days then other days I start hurting again. Is this how it's going to be from now on??? Say it ain't so!