Busy Little Bees

we have 18 days until our parentals come down to see our munch in her first recital.... we are on a cleaning and organizing roll, baby! :)

morph

How does cutting a few inches off make my baby morph from a little munchkin.........

......to a little girl? For some reason I think she looks so much older.

But she looks oh.so.cute. And, I love her even more than ever before :o)

monsters, prayers, and animals

we went to early church this morning so i could go to church with my family, but still work to get my hours in for my other job(s). we were the only family there that had a child, so she was the only one up front for the children's message. it was hilarious. she was really hesitant to walk to the front of the church, and to be in front of all those people. the pastor talked about being afraid, and how Jesus is there to make us feel safe. she asked our munch if she was scared of anything. she piped up, "yes, i is scared of monsters! they is really, really bad. i don't like them at all." the pastor then asked if there was anything we did before bed to make her feel safe. it took a little prodding from mommy, but she said, "we pray before i take my nap (that's what she calls it b/c a nap is shorter than going to bed for the night in her mind). we ask Jesus to keep me safe. annnnnd we.do.my.ANIMALS! it is so fun!" the congregation thought that was a little funny. then she didn't want to be quiet. haha. i love my kid!

*when she says "doing her animals", she means that we look at the cross stitch my MIL made for her when she was born. it has different animals sitting on a shelf (ducky, bunny, elephant, giraffe, and bear). we point to each animal while she names it, and it also has her name so she spells that, too. it's been a routine ever since she was little.

My Last 2 Weeks

OK so... in the event of my absence, I have to make a list about my last two weeks. There were some highs, and some lows, as you will see. Here's the list:

*my gram passed away on march 29. that was a very tough thing to handle for a few different reasons. i was really close to my gram, and she was an amazing, caring, kind-hearted woman. she only had an 8th grade education because she had to help her family make money in order to survive. we lived with my gram and pap a few times. i hadn't seen my gram for almost a year, which is something i did not like. i wanted my little girl to know her better, especially since she will not know my pap until she meets him in heaven one of these days. all in all, it was a tough thing to deal with.
*my mom, dad, brother, baby girl, brother, and i had a wonderful, personal memorial for gram. dad told us each something wonderful gram shared with him about us the last time he saw her. it was very touching. we also released yellow balloons and shouted "we love you, gram!". watching them drift away was really neat.
*i went shopping for my girl. on this shopping excursion, i have unfortunately found out that i cannot buy as cute of clothes or as cheap of clothes as i could get for her when she was smaller. i spent $95 on outfits for this spring and summer, and literally got hardly anything at all. i was majorly bummed out about this finding. is there a rewind button so i can just keep her small? she had the cutest clothes, and shopping for her was a total blast. total. blast. not so much anymore.
*on the trip up, my husband stopped for gas. while he was pumping the gas, the munchkin was watching him. she made this statement, "hey, mama, little girls don't touch gas like daddy does. no, little girls can't touch gas. it's yucky. but, you know what, mama? little girls can touch little boys!" i realize she didn't mean anything bad by it because she doesn't understand that kind of stuff yet {fortunately... and i wouldn't complain if she didn't understand that kind of stuff until she was... maybe like 45 or so}, but it just threw me off guard. she has a way of doing that kind of thing every once in a while. kind of like the day when she told me she and her friends like to "smell each ollers, and we get in big, big trouble". yeah, that kinda thing is sort of unsettling. it's nice to know my 3 year old smells her friends and touches boys. haha.
*i got a really big, major reality check that we need to get our stuff together. we have many, many aspects of our lives that needs a little sprucing up. we've known this for a while, but for some reason, it hit home even more last week. we're going full force, and it's nice having a husband that is on the same page as me.
*we visited my brother's new apartment. he got a job at an attorney's office, and moved out of my parent's place. it's a really nice apartment, and i'm proud of him. there for a while, he was a little worried because he kept going on interviews, but nothing would ever come out of them. i'm glad that he finally got a job, and that he's more settled.
*my girl got to see and touch a horse for the first time. if i've ever seen an animal lover, it is definitely in my child. she isn't afraid to touch anything, and freaks out every time she sees an animal. so far, the only thing she's been leary of is larger dogs. but, when you're little and you have a massive "beast" coming toward you, it's normal to be a little frightened. after she's been around them for awhile, she is fine. the joy and excitement radiating on her little face was priceless.
*i have gotten official, 100% confirmation that i have turned in to a health nut. i knew it would be hard to follow my diet really strictly while we were up there, so i decided to just kind of watch what i ate. i missed my tuna fish, oatmeal with blackberries, fruits and veggies, grilled chicken, etc. i also missed water. my parents have disgusting water at their house. it literally makes me sick. we are spoiled because we have an artesian spring that runs under our property, so we have the freshest, best tasting water. i drank hardly any water while we were there, and i missed it desperately. don't even get me started on not working out, and how badly i missed the YMCA. i've become a health freak for sure... and i am NOT complaining!
*i loved seeing all of the amish out prepping their fields to be planted. the manure didn't smell so wonderful. but i love, love, love spring, and watching the farmers plant their crops. the colors are a.ma.zing. i just love it. spring and fall are my absolute favorite.
*easter service was amazing. it's so amazing to think was Jesus did for us. i know i am so undeserving, but He still loved me enough to die on the cross for my sins. it gives me chills!
*our puppers got groomed finally. we have a black pomeranian. if you don't know about poms, they are very, very furry. he has a gorgeous, soft coat, but it is so extremely thick and gets really matted. another thing that has been happening, is that his "sister" likes to feed him. he sits under her little table in the living room waiting for food to drop. sometimes, he doesn't have to wait. she enjoys flinging a spoonful of yogurt at him to then watch him fiercly lick it up and out of his fur. to say that his fur was disgusting is an understatement. and, yes, we clean him when she throws food in his fur, but there are still remnants in the thick, mangled mess even when we clean him. and, yes, she gets in trouble for doing this, too.
*it was nice sleeping until 8 or so every morning. i can't wait for summer! :o)

i think my list is long enough!

still kickin

yes, i am still alive and kicking... i know it's been a long time since i've posted :/ i've had a lot of things going on lately, but i am back home now... so a new post to sum up the last couple weeks will come tomorrow (and yes, it will probably be in the form of a list)