one mind, one heart, a thousand directions

Dear Ainsley [Week 26/6 months]

2012-02-29T18:24:00.000-05:00

Happy Half Birthday little one! We celebrated this 1/2 Birthday with a dinner out and a couple shots in your thigh! I'm pretty sure Papa and I got the better end of the deal, but we promise from here on out, your 1/2 Birthdays will be more pleasant!

1/2 Birthday Celebration Cake!
Papa and I enjoyed it
and you enjoyed it as well...
just a bit delayed! ;)

Your vitals checked in at 26.5 inches and 18 pounds 9 ounces! Now we thought for sure you were over 20 lbs because a couple weeks ago I held you to weigh you and it was at 20. Oh well. You'll be twenty pounds soon enough, and until then Papa and I will continue to use you as our 18 pound ~~dumb~~smartbell while working out!

Speaking of working out, even though the jiggle of a nightime car ride isn't enough to put you into a slumber, Papa and I have been jogging with you in your jogging stroller and it seems to have just the right amount of jiggle to put you right to sleep! Papa commented on our last right we know exactly what to do come spring/summer time if you decide you want to make it a late night. We'll see. :)

Bundled up lil' sleeping duck!

Over the past couple weeks, we've discovered your new favorite "toy". You see formerly your favorite toy--or rather my favorite toy for you--was a lil' bumble bee that when you bend the one wing it vibrates! We've had lots of "buzz, buzzz, buzzzzzz" times with this bee, but I think you've had a change of heart. Now your fancy favorite seems to be... a piece of paper! You've crinkled lots of church bulletins and even "eaten" an AEP bill [too bad that's not an excuse not to pay it!]

Momma's Beauty :)

Let's see, last but not least, you had your first accident this week. Papa & I rose from bed, you continued to snooze away. Well then you woke with your usual smiles, sneezes and gas. You seemed content, but then within a few minutes you let out a cry. Not just any cry, but a painful cry, Papa rushed in to find you on the floor! Yikes! You rolled/scooted/inched your way right off the bed, taking a pillow with you and bonked your noggen on the way down. Thankfully, Papa watched you like a hawk the rest of the day and you must have a tough head because it didn't seem to affect you too much! Whew!

Much love little one!
-Momma

P.S. You successfully drank from a cup
this week! My, oh my, slow down!!

Dear Ainsley [Week 24-25]

2012-02-22T18:27:00.000-05:00

Baby Cakes--

Well my goal was to write you weekly for the first 6 months of your life and then monthly thereafter. Well I completely missed last [last] week. Drats! So thinking back to Week 24--which is my favorite number which makes the absense even ~~lamer~~ sadder--the biggest thing was Papa and my amazement with your movement! That backwards wiggle is getting better and better and Papa is convinced within 2 weeks you'll be crawling forward!

Also that week of your life included the Super Bowl. We headed out to Grandma & Grandpa Massie's, enjoyed a lot of food, and some watched the game! I had you as an excuse to not pay one bit of attention to the game--who won anyways! ;)--and realmly, you'll soon learn, the Super Bowl is translated commercials! Those weren't even that great this year. Ah, well.

Last but not least, this week's development/change we've noticed is that instead of sucking on your entire hand or your forefinger and thumb, you've begun to suck just your thumb. I'm not sure why the change, but for some reason it's incredibly cute--perhaps because it's YOU! ;)

Thumb Sucker

Now on to Week 25. This was one looong week! I had Parent-Teacher Conferences which means 2-12 hours days, but the wonderful part is that I was off Friday to compenstate for the late nights and we were cancelled Tuesday--your first Valentine's Day so it bad more some great Momma & Ains time! [Remember lil' one, your papa is your first Valentine, and any future Valentine's should be of his caliber!]

Someone found a bite of V-Day cookie!

In addition to the time we got to spend together, you also spent some time with your Aunt Joie and cousins Sondra and Stuart. I'm sure you were just taking in all their energy, but I know they sure enjoyed time with you! As you grow older, I hope you have a special bond with your cousins. I hope Sondra is one you can look to as an older friend and Micah, Silas, and Stu are your adventurous protectors!

Clum Cousins

Thursday evening, you had your first slumber party guest--none other than Sondra Ray! She just. loves. you! We had a great time together and I look forward to many "Girl Cousin Sleepovers" in the future!!

Such a great cousin/helper!

Ay, ay, ay! This week has making me think to the future and cling to the present! Love you little one!

Momma

Photo Challenge: Day 16

2012-02-16T18:39:00.001-05:00

Something new...
A new adventure...
A new experience...
Girl Cousin Slumber Party :-)

Photo Challenge Day 14

2012-02-14T22:35:00.001-05:00

Heart... this one just happens to be shaved onto Mister's chest. True love? Crazy love! :-)

Photo Challenge Day 13

2012-02-14T10:22:00.006-05:00

Blue... hearts on Ains' pjs :-)

Photo Challenge Day 12

2012-02-14T10:22:00.005-05:00

Inside My Closet

Photo Challenge: Day 11

2012-02-14T10:19:00.002-05:00

Makes Me Happy
Mister & Ains, and the two of them together!

Photo Challenge: Day 10

2012-02-10T17:52:00.001-05:00

Self Portrait

Photo Challenge: Day 9

2012-02-09T16:57:00.002-05:00

Front Door

Yes, we still have our Christmas wreath up,
and yes, I know it's February!

Photo Challenge: Day 7 & 8

2012-02-08T16:35:00.000-05:00

February Photo Challenge

Day 7: Button

A button.
And a missing one from today's pants.

Day 8: Sun

Photo Challenge: Day 6

2012-02-06T18:29:00.002-05:00

Pasta & Salad with lots of yummy toppings! :)

Photo Challenge: Dinner

Goal #68 Photo Challenge In Progress

2012-02-05T21:27:00.000-05:00

The other day on Pinterest my lovely friend had pinned a February Photo Challenge. Immediately I thought of Goal #68 and mentally signed myself up! :)

I was trying to decide how I'd go about documenting my daily pics and debated back and forth--post them each day or wait until the end of the month or post the weekly recap of the previous week. At first I went with the third option but secondly decided to go with the first option. [How's that for sequencing confusion?! :)]

Here's the daily challenge:

Source

And here are my pics so far:

Day 1: My View
Wednesdays are snuggle evenings
while Papa's at work.

Day 2: Words
Words written straight to my heart!
On day 5 we still haven't seen a single one.

Day 3: Hands
Mister's hand on my knee.
Security.

Day 4: ~~Stranger~~ Strange Ranger
I didn't leave the house this day
so I need Chris to pose for me. :)

Day 5: 10am
Walking in to Sunday School ~~late~~ right on time.

From here on out, I'll be posting the necessary pics daily. Enjoy! :)

Dear Ainsley [Week 23]

2012-02-04T23:42:00.000-05:00

Hey Sweet Thang!

You're smiles continue to melt my heart and I absolutely love waking up to you each morning! We've heard all kinds of "advice" telling us how awful of decision we are making by co-sleeping--everything from warnings of smoothering you in the middle of the night because that's what they say on CSI to fears about you never gaining independence. Most of the nay-sayers do have semi-legit warnings so to speak, but Baby Girl, I wouldn't trade our last 5+ months of sleeping arrangements for the world! [And I've done plenty of reading/researching to heed off those warnings with lots of benefits!]

Sure there will come a time when you are officially out of our bed and into your own [likely when Massie #2 arrives :)] but for now, I am going to continue to do what I've been striving to do since Saturday, August 27 at 3:17 a.m.--soak in every moment! Your snuggling throughout the night, your smiles in the morning, and not to mention the ease of feedings when you wake in the night all make making a double bed big enough for three well worth it! [Your Grandma & Grandpa informed me that a king is big enough for 6!]

When everything in the world is right.

So smiley.

Well baby girl, this one is going to be a short one for two reasons. #1. You didn't have any big milestones this week and #2 I'm tired and ready to join you in our bed!!

Blossoming Beauty!

Love you like a fat kid loves cake!

-Momma

P.S. I did have a student ask this week, "Ms. Massie, what's your baby's name again?"
"Ainsley."
"Man, I'm never gonna remember that!"
"Just call her Princess then. That's what I do!" :)

P.P.S. I have another student who refers to you as "Baby Isaiah" and asks about you regularly. You were actually do on his birthday! :)

Goal #74: Don't Judge!

2012-02-04T09:51:00.000-05:00

Remember my goals and how some of you rolled your eyes at a few?! Well Monday I accomplished one of those goals.

Goal #74 Pee. My. Pants.

Before you judge--if you haven't already--hear me out!

After spin, I had to go buuut we live a short mile and an half from where I work out and I didn't want to ~~make~~ ask my momma-cita to watch Ains while I took care of business. I mean I'm 25 years old. I can hold it for a few more minutes. Ain't no thang!

I load Ains into the car and climb into the drivers seat. Ugh! Sitting while having to go always makes it worse! As I pulled out of the parking lot, I dial Mister to ask aka warn him that the moment I got home I'd be rushing to the bathroom so if he could come out and get Ainsley, that'd be greatly appreciated! Yeah, well, no answer.

1 mile from home. I doubting my ability to hold it and have officially began a serious potty dance. I began talking to Ains to try to distract myself. This was not looking good.

And then I remembered Goal #74.

I thought about just letting it go right then and there, but really didn't want to it to soak into the leather seats--or cause some sort of crazy electrical short with the heated seats. What to do?! What to do!? As I made the turn onto our street. Three blocks. I can do it. As I continued to bounce which by this time was more like accelerating and then kicking both legs while the car coasted a bit [there was a car in front of me or else I likely would've been going 50mph!

I decided I was going to do it. I just needed to get to my driveway, open the car door and get out! But first I needed to rake off my shoes, and so I did, and I was already to relax and stop doing the crazy potty dance! I pulled in. Threw the car in park. Spilled out of the front seat.

And peed my pants! And laughed about it.

Chris came to the door [in his towel, hence the reason he didn't answer his phone], looked at me puzzled, and then we shared some more laughter!

As a side note, my pee spot was still there the next day
and I may or may not have laughed out loud like a goon when I saw it again! :)

So there you have it. The play-by-play of Goal #74, but perhaps more than the importance of that story is the "why" behind that story! Why would any twenty-something make it a goal to pee their pants?

Because it's freeing!

Seriously. Try it. All your life--well except for the first 2-3 years--we are told how "accidents" aka peeing your pants is embarassing and something you ought not to do. I promise you that if you fulfill this goal on your own, it is one of the most odd tension in that moment that you decided to start peeing. On the toilet it takes no effort to start. In your driveway, it definitely takes a bit of surrendering. I'd say it's worth it. Perhaps healthy ever so often! Ha! And as long as you take off those shoes, a quick jump in the shower and tossing your bottom garments in the wash and you're good to go with your night!

Don't be embarassed. Pee your pants. All the cool kids are doing it! ;)

Mexican Marshmallows

2012-02-01T17:47:00.000-05:00

I've been in the kitchen a bit the past couple of days and as a result have a couple of recipes for y'all! Don't worry I have two separate recipes one for salsa and one for marshmallows! Unless you are completely ~~disgusting~~ daring and want to eat them together! ;)

Alright. First for the salsa. A week ago Monday, Megan brought some homemade salsa to TFC for our snack. It was de.li.cious! Immediately I asked for the recipe, and Chris agreed this was necessary. It is uber simple, uber delicious, and uber customizable--trifecta!

Here's the original recipe with my adaptations:
"Fresh" salsa
Combine the following ingredients in a large bowl:
     1 can whole kernel corn
     1 can black beans, rinsed and drained
     1 can black-eyed peas, rinsed and drained
     1 pepper [red, green, whateve], diced
     1 red onion, diced [I only used 1/2 an large onion.]
     1 tomato, diced [I used 2 cans of diced tomatoes, drained.]
     1 c. cilatro [I used maybe 1/4 c. because cilatro ~~makes me gag~~ leaves a funny taste in the back of my mouth.]

Mix the following ingredients in a separate bowl and then add to large bowl:
     1 Tablespoon sugar
     1 pkg. Good Seasons Italian dressing, prepared OR 3 Teaspoons Italian Seasoning, 3 Tablespoons Vinegar, and 3 Tablespoons Olive Oil
     2 teaspoons chili powder

Feel free to adjust ingredients to your preferences.

Colorful = Ah.mazing.

Enjoy! It's best if you put it in the fridge for a bit to let the flavors marinate but totally not necessary if you can't hold yourself back! It makes a pretty large portion unless your name is Chris or Rachel, then it only makes a 2-person portion! ;)

************************************************************************************************************

Marshmallows
Switching gears, awhile ago I came across a recipe for marshmallows. I'm not sure if it was on Pinterest or from blog hopping, but nevertheless, it perked my interest. Marshmallows are one of those things that if I really thought about it of course I knew there had to be a homemade method, but I guess I really never thought about it. [Very similar to when I put together that pumpkin pies were made from the same thing as jack o'lanterns. Don't judge. That revolution was in late high school...at least.]

We had all the ingredients on hand except geletin and I kept forgetting to get that at the grocery, so finally this weekend I remembered and took my hand at making marshmallows. The recipe I found uses beer so they have a bit of a malty-taste, but even non-beer drinkers aka me won't be turned off by that ingredient as it's not a strong flavor! I wasn't sure what I was going to do with the mallows, so I followed the suggestion of the recipe I followed and ended up dipping them in chocolate and putting some crushed pretzles atop. Again, don't judge, just try! :)

So without further ado, here's the recipe for Chocolate Covered Beer Marshmallows.

Beer Marshmallows
makes one 9 x 13 pan of marshmallows

2 tablespoons + 2 1/2 teaspoons unflavored gelatin or 3 1/2 packets of Knox
1 cup cold, flat* beer, divided in two
2 cups granulated sugar
1/2 cup light corn syrup
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 large egg whites [Make sure you have these before you start or your husband will have to run to the store and be your Mallow Hero! Not that that is from experience. :S]
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
2 cups dark chocolate morsels
2 cups milk chocolate morsels
pretzels, crushed

*Note: To flatten the beer, you can take the cap off the bottle and leave open overnight. Or if you don't want to plan ahead you can do what I did and pour beer into a bowl and use a whisk to remove some carbonation.*

Generously spray a 9 x 13 baking pan with non-stick cooking spray and sprinkle on powdered sugar to cover and coat. Set aside. In the bowl of your electric mixer with a whisk attachment, pour 1/2 cup cold beer and 3 1/2 packs of gelatin. Gently mixed with a spoon once, then let sit while you make the sugar mixture.

In a large-ish pot [I know that's real specific, but the original recipe called for a medium pot and that wasn't big enough for me and I had to switch over mid-recipe] combine sugar, remaining beer, syrup and salt. Heat over low heat and whisk until sugar is dissolved, about 3-5 minutes. Turn heat up to medium and let sugar come to a boil. Note: It will bubble up even though you used flat beer so keep your eyes on it or it'll overflow! Let it boil for 8-12 minutes, until it reaches 240 degrees (use a candy thermometer). The mixture may appear to be a lightish brown color depending on the beer you use, but your mallows will still be white.

Once mixture is at 240 degrees F, turn off heat and gently pour it in the mixing bowl with the gelatin with the mixer on low speed. Once all of the sugar has been added, turn the mixer to high and beat for for 6-8 minutes. It will grow in size and be white and fluffy.

About 3-4 minutes in, add the egg whites to a separate bowl and beat until stiff peaks form. It's easiest if you have a hand mixer to use for this or else you'll have to take off the mallow-covered whisk, clean it or put on another one and then switch out your mixing bowl. It'd be sticky, messy to say the least. Once stiff peaks are formed, add egg whites and vanilla extract to the sugar/gelatin mixture and beat until just combined.

It's always important to taste test.
Don't worry the blue spatula didn't make another appearance
with the mallows once it touched out lips!
My momma taught me right!

Pour marshmallow mix into the 9 x 13 pan. Possibly an impossibly sticky task. :) Get as much as you can from the bowl and then spray a spatula with non-stick spray and smooth, if necessary. Dust powdered sugar on top and let sit to firm up for 3-5 hours.

Once firm, you may be able to turn the pan upside down on a cutting board to release marshmallow rectangle. I wasn't quite able to do such so I cut the mallows in the pan and then removed them in "strips" to remove much more easily. Cut them into pieces of whatever size you like.

Melt chocolate chips in microwave [or however you prefer] and in a separate bowl put crushed pretzels. Using a fork, toothpick or corncob poker holders :), coat marshmallows in chocolate then sprinkle with or roll in pretzel crumbs. Let sit at room temperature until chocolate hardens.

Enjoy! Marshmallows can be stored in an airtight container for 1-2 weeks.

[Recipe Taken from How Sweet It Is here.]

Have you tried any new recipes worth sharing lately?!

P.S. Now that I retyped this recipe, I realized that I used too much beer. 1 cup does not equal 12 ounces. Duh, math teacher! They still turned out well but now thinking about it it makes sense why they weren't as firm as I thought they should be! Guess I'll just have to make 'em again!

Dear Ains [Week 22]

2012-01-31T21:32:00.000-05:00

Dear Ains,

This week I have but one thing to tell you about that I have observed and become so, so obvious over the past week: You LOVE your papa!

Papa's Girl!

Seriously. It makes my heart melt to see you two together. You have such a wonderful Papa who loves you, and me, so much! He cares well for you and loves to love you! On several occasions this past week I’ve been in a different room in the house and hear your papa explaining life to you or suddenly I’ll hear cackle and know Papa has gotten you! Other times at nighttime, we’ll be lying in bed and you’ll be nursing just fine, focused on that milk like a lion honed in on its prey, then all of a sudden you’re smiling and lost focused. It never fails, the moments of distraction is caused by just one thing—your papa’s smile! It’s in these times that I just want to hit life’s pause button and savor the moment forever. You smile at others, but there’s just something different when you’re looking at Papa. J

On one other note [I know. I know. I said there’d only be one thing this week!] we put you in the nursery at church. You [usually] aren’t fussy during church but as you are growing you’ve just become louder so we decided it was about time to let you stay in the nursery. After filling your belly and your contact card, we were assigned call #3 and I headed to the main service. I knew you’d do fine in the nursery, but Papa and I, we weren’t as content. Baby Girl, you have no idea how much I was wanting “3” to pop up on that display! But it didn’t. And you were snoozing away when I went to pick you up after the service. And you’ll likely go back next week. And I’ll likely long for “3” for a few more weeks!

5 Month Photoshoot

Just love you lil’ girl!

-Momma

Drumroll Please!

2012-01-25T17:36:00.000-05:00

Oftentimes when I blog, I catch myself checking my stats and wondering who's reading my thoughts through what I punch out on the keyboard. I look at my followers and see "9" and wonder where all the other pageviews come from. It's kind of interesting how Blogger categorizes the stats what information you can learn.

Well a little over a month ago, I noticed people visiting my blog through a friend's blog. Clicking back, I saw that I had received an award. Honestly I was surprised as I didn't even realize there were awards out in Bloggerland.

Then just this week, I received a second nomination/award so I decided that I just needed to hunker down, fulfill the requirements and pass on this award!

The requirements, so to speak, for this award are:

Bring to light the person who nominates you by thanking them.
Post on your site the wonderful Liebster Award stamp.
Find 5 of your blogging friends to nominate who have less than 200 followers but deserve to be recognized with praise!
List them below these instructions so others will find their blogs and read them. [Don’t forget to let them know they have been nominated!]

So without furtherado, this award was passed on from my friend Amber on her blog "A New Chapter to Write".

One of the first pics in our friendship

Amber and I have been good friends for about 6 years--whoa! I had no idea it had been that long! Oddly enough we had lots of mutual friends and were commonly drawn together in times that we both felt akward and out of place! In a time of figuring things out for ourselves, we developed a friendship that has since lead to being in each other's weddings and sharing some of our most vunerable parts of our hearts with one another! If you want to be challenged to love Jesus and your spouse, Amber's blog certainly does that!

Additionally this week, I received recognition from my friend Leslie on her blog.

Leslie & Me with our handsome hubbies

Leslie and I met by circumstance, namely that we fell in love and married best friends and I am so glad we did! Of course because we both married great men, and we received each other as great friends. Double score. Leslie has been a great friend over the past 4 or so years! When I am not sure where to turn, Les is always a text away and can lighten my heart! I'm excited to continue to "do life" with Leslie and her husband over the next several ~~years~~ decades regardless of our locale! While reading Leslie's blog "Show the Wonder" you are sure to have an insight to Les' heart and her passions which will undoubtingly push you to have a better heart and live life more passionately!

Now to pass on the blogger-love, here are 5 blogs that I frequent that you should as well!

My sister-in-love: Joie on http://notyouraveragesmalltowngal.blogspot.com/

My college roommate: Deb on http://debinmemphis.blogspot.com/

My friend: Beth on http://hodgepodgeheartstories.tumblr.com/

My Twink: Leanna on http://leannamt.blogspot.com/

A complete stranger who encourages my heart!:

Molly on http://ellieandaudrey.blogspot.com/

Hope you continue to stop by my blog as well as all the lovely, lovely ladies' blogs linked in this post! :)

1st Gift of Christmas

2012-01-24T19:57:00.000-05:00

Because one of my goals was to make a gift for everyone I gave a gift to one year for Christmas, I thought it only appropriate to blog about the specific gifts I made for Christmas this year!

The first gift that I made, and the first gift to mention on here, was a onesie for my nephew Stuart! It was super easy and pretty quick--the perfect gift to kick off this goal!

I got the idea from Pinterest. [You're going to wish you had a dollar every time I say that!] My sister-in-love has a board title "Stuart Richard" and captioned a onesie with sewn on suspenders with, "He needs this... Gpa Clum always wore suspenders...and since he was the long awaited Clum great grandson..its only fitting"

You see my dad is one of 5 boys in his family, 3 of which are boys. The three Clum men of that generation went on have From there, those three boys had 5 Clum sons. There are 16 grandkids. Well after my grandparents had 16 great-grandchildren they still didn't have any Clum boys to carry on the name from Grandpa Clum. And then came Mr. Stuart Richard Clum to carry on the name! He was a long await Great-grandson, garunteeing the name would be passed on at least one more generation. Grandpa, and Grandma, are certainly deserving of their name being carried on! So sine Joie made this comment on Pinterest, I knew I had to make it!

The process to make this was quicker/easier than I expected. I found some ribbon that I saved "just in case" in my sewing box that [I thought] was the perfect combination of cuteness and boyness--light blue with white polka dots. After cutting the ribbon the desired length of the suspenders, I simply stitched down both sides of the ribbon attaching it to the white onesie. Remember that you don't want the suspenders to go to the bottom of the onesie, but rather as if they would go to where the lil' one's pants would be. The top part of the ribbon was tucked under the folds on the onesie and the bottom part didn't need to look perfect either as it was then covered with a button. After the ~~ribbons~~ suspenders were attached, I sowed matching light blue buttons on by hand. [Note: I have seen some that aren't sewn all the way down each side of the ribbon, but I was pretty sure Stu's curiosity would ruin it in less than one wearing if it weren't sewn all the way!]

The suspenders aren't crooked on the right, just the angle it was laying! ;)

That's it! Gift was good to go.

By the way, I promise other Gift Making explanations will be more detailed, but [thankfully] this one was pretty easy-peasy! :)

Dear Ainsley [Week 21]

2012-01-24T16:58:00.002-05:00

Sweetest Baby Girl:

This week was another week of small changes that, I belive are foreshadowing some big'ins!

You've continued to have some food this week--a bit of rice cereal, sweet potatoes, and sweet potatoes/applesauce mixed--and you've seemingly enjoyed them all! We've also slipped you a bit of a green bean and a green pepper that can back out after some gumming, but I'm sure it won't be long for some more!

Despite new food adcentures,
one day you decided highchair = nap chair!
Papa's looking forward to when you
fall alseep while eating! :)

Although for ~~forever~~ quite a long time you have been wailing in the car at night, but the last week and an half *fingers crossed* you've been much more pleasant! When we first noticed the issue, Papa and I tried out all sorts of tactics to calm you and eventually we discovered that a certain toy seems to help a bit. You have one lil' bee toy that vibrates when one of its wings is bent. Well when we would vibrate it on you, you would calm. The problem was contorting my arm while driving to bend the wing so it'd vibrate to concole you. So when Grandpa Clum asked if we had any solutions for quieting you in the car, I explained I think I knew exactly what would work--a cattle prod! Kidding of course, Princess! Anyways, I was telling Grandpa Massie about this conversation and immediately he suggested a frog back massagers of their that has an on/off vibration switch. Perfect! Yet you have yet to give a chance to test it out since you are doing so well now! That's perfectly okay, lil' one. We don't need to test this out, you can just go on being good in the car!

Hopefully this never becomes a reality!

Other little changes lately that show you're growing is at night usually I would cuddle you to sleep and then you'd lay on my arm as you slept the night away. The snuggling to bed isn't working so well for you any more so as you've become fussy aka ready for bed, I simply put you on your belly and let you grunt yourself to sleep quite quickly.

Belly-down-put-yourself-to-sleep-nap!

It's exciting that you are growing and learning and changing, but baby girl, it's okay if you slow down just a bit!

Love you always as you grow and change daily!

Momma

P.S. Sorry for dropping the alarm clock on your head the other morning. It was early. I was half awake. You're a champ! ;)

This was NOT after dropping the clock!

Friday

2012-01-20T08:01:00.002-05:00

This made my Friday worth it.
Thanks Tonya!

Whose kid is this?!

2012-01-18T17:12:00.000-05:00

One of the most common questions we receive about Ainsley [likely only second to "Is she a good baby?!"] is "Who does she look like?!"

For a while we weren't really sure, other than I thought she had Chris' eyes. We didn't see much of either of us. Of course others had their opinions and on any given day we'd hear, "Oh my! She's a mini-Rachel!" and then the next minutes, "Oh! That's Chris there!" Honestly it's a bit fun and humorous!

This past weekend I took a pic of Ains on my phone and immediate recalled a pic that we got from Chris' mom that would show just how similar their looks are!

What do you think!? I definitely see some similarities.

Chris and Ainsley
Both 4.5 months old.

Mister and I ended up looking through the small stack of baby pics we have of Chris and then I got out my book looking to see if there was any similarities between Ainsley and me. I mean I carried her for nine+ months, I had to give her something!

It took sev.er.al. pages of my baby pictures, but finally, I found one with some resemblence.

Wait for it...

...

...

Brace yourselves...

...

...

...

...

Rachel [~3 yrs.] & Ains [4.5 mo.]

Was it worth the wait? I'll take what I can get! ; )

Happy Methuselah Day!

2012-01-17T17:33:00.000-05:00

Last Tuesday when I arrived home from school as I entered our house, I sighed a breath of relaxation as the house was tidy and had a fresh aroma. (Some of the things on my makes me happy list!) Anyways there was two oddities: Mister and Ains were in our bedroom--and I hadn't heard a "hey babe!"--and our journal was right inside the door.

After putting my bags in their designated spots, I scooped up the journal, wondering if the two afternoon oddities were connected. I read the most recent words from Chris. A sweet note that ended with, "So we dressed up to show you how much we appreciate you. P.S. Happy 'Methuselah' Day!"

Wondering what the heck Methuselah Day was, I made my way back to the bedroom to see these two cuties!

My coordinating cuties!

I asked Mister about the meaning of the day and he in turned asked how old was Methuselah when he died?

My response of "really" wasn't accurate enough and I soon learned that just as Methuselah was alive for 969 years, Chris and I had been married for 696 days! So to celebrate--after doing a run around to get a new phone--we headed to OG to celebrate with a shared appetizer, a shared entree, and of course a shared dessert with a drink!

I may have failed at Bible Trivia, but I certainly didn't fail at marrying a man who creative loves me even when I'm unloveable!

Dear Growing Girl [20 Weeks]

2012-01-16T15:53:00.000-05:00

Dear Ains,

Just like Momma mentioned, we did end up giving you some "food" this week! [Fear not, the term food is used quite loosely! There's lots of delicious things to come!] You did very well with the rice cereal even though I completely disregarded the directions! One part cereal to three parts milk?! Ha! That consistency was thinner than your spit up! You're a champ and can handle more than that, so it was more like three parts cereal to one part milk! Still the same ratio. Close enough, right?! Just don't tell my students we can mix up those ratios! :) So you had a few days of cereal and since we had a couple sweet potatoes and got a new blender for Christmas, we decided to make some Sweet Potato puree for you too. You seemed to really like it as well! Way to go girlie! I'm excited to introduce all kinds of concoctions for you in the future!

This weekend we also went out to Grandma & Grandpa Massie's because you aunt to be was visiting for the day. Now baby girl, you have officially met all of Papa and my immediate family! [Sadly, I forgot to get my camera out for this meeting so we'll have to wait until next time!] With Grandma Massie's surgery, you haven't been out there as much, so when you are, you really brighten up the day! We traced your lil' hand on Grandma's cast with your cousins prints and you played a bit of peek-a-boo--one of your new favorites guaranteed to generate giggles!

One last note, Friday morning, Momma was fortunate to have a snow/ice/windy frigid day off from school. So as the three of us slowly woke--one of my favorites!-- you were laying in the crook of my shoulder on my arm. You then turned your head towards me and blew raspberries in my armpit. A bit gross? Perhaps. A lot funny? Definitely! You made better gas noises in my armpit than I can! [Papa will have to be the one to teach you to make gas noises in your armpit!]

Love you ~~princess~~ eating machine!

Sweet Potatoes

2012-01-15T20:32:00.001-05:00

Our lil' Sweetie enjoyed Sweet Potatoes for the first time tonight! :-)

CDs For Sale

2012-01-13T13:29:00.000-05:00

So in hopes to actually finish the task of cleaning the room that we "started" to pick up 3 months ago, we're hoping to get rid of a variety of things!

First we rearranged the ~~junk~~ valuable items we can't seem to part with, so that we could take a pic of our corner desk, take it apart and start to organize! After posting the desk to Craigslist and as long as this contact doesn't fall through, it was sold within an hour!

So the next big thing[s] to get rid of? Mister's music collection! So below you will find a big ol' list of Chris' cds.

Anyone interested in increasing their Christian music library?! We'd like $2/CD or let's play "Let's Make a Deal!"

Here's the CDs we have. All are in their non-broken case and play! :)

Title	Band
Sacred Revolution	Passion
God of this City	Passion
Everything Glorious	Passion
Our Love is Loud	Passion
Intermission: Greatest Hits	dcTalk
Welcome to the Freak Show	dcTalk
SuperNatural	dcTalk
Solo	dcTalk
Jesus Freak	dcTalk
Empty	Tait
Almost There	MercyMe
Spoken For	MercyMe
Moments for the Heart	Ray Boltz
Favorite Songs of All	Phillips, Craig, and Dean
Let My Words Be Few	Phillips, Craig, and Dean
Let The Worshippers Arise	Phillips, Craig, and Dean
Restoration	Phillips, Craig, and Dean
Best Ones	4Him
Sonic Praise	Sonic Flood
Sonic Flood	Sonic Flood
Offenders	Third Day
Casting Crowns	Casting Crowns
Devotion	Newsboys
Facedown	Matt Redman
Hello Love	Chris Tomlin
A Collision	David Crowder Band
Favorite Songs of All	Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir
Shout! Hymns
Celtic Hymns	Maranatha!
WOW 1998
WOW 1999
WOW 2000
WOW 2006
WOW Worship	Yellow and Blue
WOW Orange
Send Me An Angle	Heather Miller
Another Journal Entry	BarlowGirl
The Other Side of Something	Sara Groves
Lay It Down	Jennifer Knapp
Greatest Hits	Geoff Moore and the Distance
A Different Man	Clay Crosse
Second Hand Clothing	Eli
I Want to be Like You	FFH
Share the Well	Cardmon's Call
Oxygen	Avalon
The Absolute Best	Carman
Kirk Franklin	1NC
Thankful	MaryMary
The Rebirth of Kirk Franklin	Kirk Franklin
Talk About it	Nicole C. Mullen
New Music Sampler	Simply Groovy
Great Music	Simply
Hear the Music Feel the Heart	Pulse
With Open Hands	Artists in Worship
Let Your Glory Fall, The Year of Worship	Revival Generation
Go Out With Joy	Various
Listen Louder	Various Artists
Together in Unity, Faith and Hope	Let's Roll
WWJD
People Get Ready
Exodus
The Birthday Album	Ten
Songs Deom An American Movie Vol.One	Everclear
Minutes to Midnight	Linkin Park
Glow	Keith Conner
Invade my Soul	By The Tree
One and Only	Big Daddy Weave
Reach	Warren Barfield
New Season	Israel and New Breed
I Am Free	Ross Parsley
Once Upon a Shattered Life	Seventh Day Slumber
Stay	Jeremy Camp
The Beautiful Letdown	Switchfoot
Mezza Morphis	Delirious
Cutting Edge	Delirious
Obvious

Gotcha Back

2012-01-12T21:27:00.003-05:00

Ains may have gotten me with spit up, but I got her back when she laid her head on my shoulder, I got her back!

Oh the joys of parenthood!

Goal #44 Identify 101 Things that Make Me Happy! :D

2012-01-11T16:41:00.001-05:00

So last week was a Murphy’s Law kind of week, well at least for a girl who doesn’t really have anything to complain about in her life! I thought about how I want to blog about a phone that took a crap, trying to activate a phone that didn’t work, being "right on time" 3 out of 4 days, having to find different babysitters each day, lots of red lights, cancelled spin class after waking Ains from a nap to go to it and enough ants that could have carried our house away meaningless complaints! But on Friday morning as I grumbled to work, I decided instead of having a “woe is me” kind of attitude, perhaps I should be a bit more optimistic and in the process, accomplish another goal. Instead of dwelling on what wasn’t going how I had hoped, I decide I ~~should~~ needed to make a list of 101 things that make me happy/smile/I enjoy. So without further ado, in no particular order—at all— Goal #44.

1. School delays

2. Ains’ morning smiles

3. Overhearing Chris explain things to Ainsley

4. Family

5. Accomplishing a goal

6. Blog post comments

7. Students’ light bulb moments

8. Finding our journal

9. Clean bill of health

10. Creative projects

11. “You made that!?” comments

12. Girls Group

13. Stuart

14. Sondra

15. Silas

16. Micah

17. Sweet Tea from McDonalds or the taco stand across from the sheep barn at the fair

18. Kewpee Ice

19. Co-ed Softball

20. School Spirit

21. Timely Advice

22. Love Book Deposits

23. Wednesday Night Church

24. Green lights

25. Clean house

26. Job that I love

27. Chris’ jobs

28. Marriage

29. Date nights

30. Parents

31. In-laws

32. Friends’ willingness to watch Ainsley [Note one of my meaningless complaints]

33. Generosity

34. Excitement of expectant parents

35. Grandma Clum’s wit

36. Make others’ lives easier

37. Ains’ laugh

38. Ainsley :)

39. Clean dishes—no dirty dishes in the sink!

40. Laying under the stars

41. Snow days

42. Saving money

43. Creating an effective budget [Gotta love number crunching.]

44. Snow—without ice or slush

45. Allen County Fair

46. Peanut Butter/Chocolate combination

47. Inside jokes

48. Couponing

49. Learning

50. Respect

51. Stopping at a stop light and the car next to me singing along to the same song

52. Others’ eyes lightening up with talking about their passions

53. Correct Jeopardy Answers

54. “Small World” moments

55. Shoulder/Back rubs

56. Dairy Haus’ Frozen Bananas with Krunch-Kote

57. Frozen Grapes on a hot day

58. Forgiveness

59. Teaching Others

60. Reading friends/families blogs like here, here, here, or here.

61. ~~Teaching~~ Learning from others [Chris caught my duplicate! I guess teaching just makes me real happy! ;)]

62. Solving a problem

63. Children’s innocence in mispronouncing something

64. Timely songs

65. Winning

66. Hosting

67. Reflecting about how things were growing up

68. Pushing a peanut butter cup from Moose Tracks to the bottom of my waffle cone so that I have a perfect final bite that tastes like a Nutty Bar

69. A good workout

70. Waking up rested

71. Handwritten notes/letters

72. Coming up with creative ways to show love

73. Receiving creative love

74. Tyler Perry Movies

75. Witty answers from students

76. Blog followers

77. Watching the Biggest Loser

78. Pumpkin Cheesecake

79. Meaningful Gifts

80. Bed-sharing with Ains and Mister

81. Snooze button

82. Supporting bigger causes

83. High School Football games

84. Shorts and sweatshirt weathers

85. Summer nights with fire

86. Surprise dates

87. Family Traditions

88. Compliments

89. Tuesday Night Questions

90. Being snowed in with a cozy fire

91. Hawaiian Ices

92. A captivating book

93. Having my idea/box expanded

94. Being able to comfort Ainsley

95. Weddings

96. Mister aka Cakes aka Papa Bear aka Ba-scottie aka Chris!

97. A candle lit when I wake in the morning

98. Mister’s kiss

99. Head massager

Source

100. Being asked for advice.

101. My little family J

What makes you smile/happy/enjoyable?!

Dear Ainsley [Week 19]

2012-01-08T17:52:00.000-05:00

Dear Ainsley,

I've already blinked way too much! You've grown so much right before our eyes even though we are trying to embrace every stage of your life!

Other than some adjustment getting back to a regular routine with me being back to school, there wasn't any other rough patches! You're night times have regressed a bit, but I'm crossing my fingers that it is just a result of adjusting back to our routine. I hope! Really even with the waking, it's bareable, it's your now screaming instead of whimpering at night that is unwelcomed. Ah, well though, you've been such a good baby, this still doesn't come close to others' horror stories!

In other exciting-only-to-a-mother news, you ate some banana for the first time this week! [Technically your grandma gave you some when she was watching you, but I guess you just squished in around in your mouth and then spit it out.] Your papa gave you some on Tuesday and then Sunday morning we gave you a bit more. We've been talking about when to start you on cereal--the internet advice experts say 4-6 months is typical--but we've also read that you can start with other "real" foods so we shall see. I'm guessing though, baby girl, within a couple weeks, you'll have more than milk and nanners! Papa and I will definitely be showing you the ropes to yummy food!

And to end this note on a quick funny story from today: We went to Sunday School and church this morning. [Confession: only the second time of going to Sunday School since you've been born because of the whole not wanting to use a bottle.] Anyways between Sunday School and church I slipped into the nursery to nurse you before going to the main service. Within a couple of songs after your belly was full your eyes got heavy and you were out for the count. You woke towards the end of Pastor Charlie's sermon. During the "charge" at the end of the service when everyone was standing, Papa was holding you and all of a sudden you had projectile spit up--thankfully it was the milk like spit up, not the chunky spit up! Since we were all supposed to be praying with our eyes shut, I quickly grabed a blanket and wiped it up off the pew/seat in front of use, and the coat of the guy in front of us. Then I had the giggles about how he'll never know! Way to leave your mark baby girl!

Love you lots lil' one! You are my second favorite person in the whole world, only second to Papa of course!! ;-)

Momma

Dear Ainsley [Week 18--4 Months]

2012-01-01T17:11:00.000-05:00

Hey Sweet Thing! This week was a rough week! There were definitely balloons like Christmases, New Years and meeting family members for the first time, but there were some bricks like your first cold and your 4 month shots!

Christmas Day you were a bit snotty and then on Monday you had become a full fledge snot faucet! It was gross, especially since I hate boogers/snot, but it was doable. You didn't seem too uncomfortable with the congestion but rather more annoyed than anything else. Well then Tuesday came around, you gave your cold to me, and we had your 4 month wellness check-up. You weighed in at 15 pounds, 8 ounces and measure 25 inches long and everything looked good! I asked about your squishy outie and she said not to worry about it unless it got a lot bigger or you seemed to have belly aches because of it. Eventually your muscles will strengthen and your belly button likely will no longer be herneated. We'll keep an eye on it, but not be worried. After your well-being checks, the nurse came back in with needles in hand to give you your shots. Two pokes in one leg and one in the other was enough to cause you to shrill and your papa and my hearts to break! Papa confirmed that was the same response you had for your 2-month shots and I was thankful again that I missed that! We quickly cuddled you until you were consoled and then dressed you before leaving the office.

After a couple stopes we headed home. You weren't particularly cranky at first, but you definitely weren't your usual happy self! After a couple hours you would just cry for no known reason so for the first time we gave you some medicine. Even in your sickness and discomfort, you were so cute and cuddly! We've just been doing lots of nose wiping and "booger surgery" aka Momma using a q-tip to clean out your nose!

Thankfully even though you are still a bit snotty, you seem to be getting over it and back to your usual self!

On the upside of this week, you met your Uncle Paul and Aunt[to-be] Kambria for the first time this week! Since they are currently stationed in California they haven't been home since your birth, but were very, very excited to meet you!

Grandpa Massie, Uncle Paul and Aunt-to-be Kambria

You are very loved little girl!

Love,
Momma

Goal Update

2012-01-01T15:46:00.000-05:00

28. Complete honeymoon photo album.
It's done! While in the Dominican Republic we found a photo album very similar to the album we purchased when we went to Myrtle Beach [when we got engaged!] but I just never got pictures printed from our trip. So when we were getting Ains' newborn pics printed, I added an additional 25 or so from the Dominican and called it a day!

30. Try a new hair cut/style that I never tried before.
On November 6th, I got a perm. Grant it, I have had a perm before, but since I was in 2nd grade and it was more of a poodle perm [I wish I could find that picture!], I consider one that actually had some style to it counts as a new hairstyle. What made me decide to get a perm?! A couple of my friends have them and I like 'em, and to be honest, because of goal #29 I can't cut my hair and I was craving the attention your hair gets at the salon so I thought "What the heck?!" I like it, but I don't think I'll get it done again. Yes, it's so much easier to shower, scrunch and go, but I don't particularly like to shower every morning and the pull-it-back-in-a-pony-tail option is gone with the perm. I think I prefer the pull back and go over the shower and go option so I don't think I'll be getting it redone with I lose the curls. We'll see. ;)

69. Make a wish at 11:11 on November 11, 2011
I made a wish [which I'm not going to share what it was or it won't come true right?! Okay, I'll give ya a hint! I wished for one of my goals to come true!] at 11:11am on 11/11/11. Now since this was a week day and I'm a teacher I was at school at this time, so as any good teacher would do, I stopped my 4th period class and instructed all my students to seize the opportunity to make a wish! Between class periods I was teasing with a couple students from last year about making a wish and they were bummed that they missed the opportunity and I reminded them they did have a second chance. What!? Really?! Uh, yeah 11:11pm! Hopefully they remembered as I'd hate for them to have missed out on such a great wishing time!

83. For Christmas one year hand-make a gift for each person receiving a gift from me.
I did this this year! It was a lot of fun and a lot of thought. My plan is to blog about the 12 gifts of Christmas and touch on 12 of the gifts that I we made this year for different family members and friends. The only downfall of fulfilling this goal was that Christmas snuck up on me so on December 23rd, 24th, and 25th the earliest we got to bed was 2:30am due to finishing up gifts!

84. Write our ~~Compassion~~ Gospel for Asia sponsor child once a month for a year.
Well this goal has changed, not because I fulfilled it but rather because we no longer have a Compassion child. Mid-December we received a letter saying "something happen and Gerber is no longer a part of Compassion but we'll send you a new child in 5-7 business days." We called as ask not to be sent a new child as we are no longer going to support through Compassion International instead I signed up today to sponsor a child from India through Gospel for Asia--which is $8 less per month and 100% goes to the Bridge of Hope program versus paying for administrative and overhead costs--so I like that! We were able to choose our sponsor child so I picked Muthulakshmi a little 8 year old girl who has the birthday of August 27th. We'll probably have to come up with a nickname for her but she was the only girl that shared a birthday with Ainsley so despite not being able to pronounce her name, she's a keeper in our books! Perhaps we'll sponsor a child that shares a birthday with all of our [future] children! Once we get all the information packet and information, I'll try to get to work on this goal!

86. Complete paperwork for Century Farm Recognition.
My Grandma Cow lives on a farm--hence the name--and her farm has been in her family for over 100 years. Several years ago she receive recognition for Century Farm through the Historical Society but she wanted it through the Ohio Department of Agriculture as well, so between my dad and I, I said we'd take care of it for her. I told myself I'd do it this summer when I was off... and then I said I'd do it during my 6 weeks of maternity leave... and then I said I'd have it done by the time my grandma left for Florida for the winter! She left the first week of November and the application was in the mail the first week of November! Thanks largely to my Great-grandma's typed family history, in part to familysearch.org, and after several trips to the County Recorder's office, I was able to trace the farm's ownership back 113 years and learn more about my roots.
*Quick story: Some whole backside. Oh well. Even if she didn't apologize. It keeps life interesting!

91. Give money to someone who asks for it, even if I don’t “trust” their motive.
Done. To a couple students. It wasn't much and was probably spent on hot Cheetos, but he asked and I just gave it to him after just a moment of doubt and hesitation!

Christmas Celebrations

2011-12-29T00:05:00.000-05:00

Not all of our Christmas celebrations are through, but as behind as I am in blogging, I ~~need~~ desperately want to get some posts posted! This one of the best Christmases that I can remember. Of course last year was wonderful because it was last year on Christmas morning after keeping it a secret for 8 long days, I revealed to Chris that he was going to be a papa come August! And then out of his excitement we told our immediate families the same day! This was a fun, exciting, memorable Christmas, but of course we can't have that Christmas ever Christmas!!
This year was my worst Christmas in terms of preparation. On the nights of the 23rd, 24th, and 25th, Chris and I were up until at least 2:30am finishing up Christmas presents for the following days. One of my goals was to create at least one gift for everyone that I gave a gift to and with having school through the Wednesday before Christmas, I didn't make enough time to complete all my projects ahead of time.

So here we go, a run down of some of our Christmas celebrations this year!

[Immediate] Clum Family Christmas
We headed to my parents Christmas Eve Morning to exchange gifts with my sibilings, parents, and niece and nephew! After cinnamon rolls and orange juice, just like we've had every Christmas morning growing up, we opened gracious gifts and some homemade goodies! Afterwards we shared lunch before partially parting ways.

Christmas Eve Evening: Christmas Eve my cousin Beth's little boy was baptized. Because of enjoyable fellowship with my sibilings, my parents, Chris, Ains, and I walked into the back of the church at 4:05, just in time to see Brayden baptized. Afterwards we headed to Aunt Sara's house for delicious munchies!

Great-Grandma Clum, Ains & I
Cousins Brayden, Samantha & Ainsley
Christmas Family Pic
Ainsley Jo

Christmas Morning: Christmas Morning Chris and I woke before church in order to exchange presents. Sleeping in until nearly 9am--which is almost shameful to admit for Christmas morning!!--we headed out to the living room to exchange gifts. Ainsley was wrapped up in a super soft Christmas blanket that we had received as a gift the day before from my sis-in-love and in her bouncer as we opened our gifts. Next year, I'm sure she'll be all about the ~~gifts~~ paper/boxes!

Momma * Hot Mess + Ains * Wide-eyed + Papa * Excitedly Cute = Christmas Morn

1/2 Massie Christmas: After opening our gifts between the ~~two~~ three of us, we headed to church and then to Chris' parents for Christmas with his parents and his sister's family. Both of his brothers were out of state on Sunday so Christmas with them are on different days. The boys were excited as they tore through their piles of gifts and enjoyed playing with many of them yet that afternoon!

Oh, and Micah likes to take pics so we had a mini photo shoot with my camera!

We're quite the photographer/model combo! :)

Big Clum Christmas: On the day after Christmas we headed to Greenville for the big Clum Christmas aka all my dad's side. My dad and aunt were in charge this year so I volunteered to have some games prepared for the group. I got all my ideas from this blog and they were all minute-to-win-it style games.

Make yourself into Rudolph.
With a pom-pom on a string and vaseline on your nose,
you've got a minute to get the pom-pom to stick!

Using only one hand make a ~~pyramid~~
Christmas tree out of Red Solo Cups!

Funny story: My cousin's little boy [light green shirt] got up to the bench to make his pyramid. On your mark. Get set. Go! Without hesitation with only one hand he punched the stack of cups sending them across the gym floor and smiled indicating he was finished! I guess I should have explained the game a little better! :)

This one wasn't minute-to-win-it style. Instead one person with oversized gloves on tries to open the present
while everyone else is taking turns rolling doubles. Once someone rolls doubles, then that person gets
to take their turn at opening the gift. The catch is that there are about 5 boxes wrapped within the other boxes. My older brother was the only "adult" to participate, but I'm pretty sure that's because he knew there was a $25 gift certificate at stake.
He won! :)

Not everyone was able to attend, but we did have a good number so of course we need to take some family pics!

Top: Grandma Clum & all 5 of her children
Bottom: Grandma & 11 out of 16 grandchildren

17 of the 21 Great-Grandchilren

The Whole Clum Clan [in attendance--we were missing a few!]
Top: Smiles!
Bottom: Natural!

Lastly, Chris' favorite pic from the whole day!

Grandmomma-cita is excited
about a new book for Ains!

As you can hopefully tell from all these pics, we have had a very wonderful Christmas! We were able to spend a lot of quality time with family and especially as I have grown a bit ~~older~~ more mature, I recognize that is what it is truly about!

And we still have two more Christmases! :)

Dear Ainsley [Week 17]

2011-12-28T21:53:00.001-05:00

Christmastime

Dear Ainsley,

On Wednesday I had an early release from school and your papa switched his working schedule around so the rest of the week, the three of us got some quality time in together! It was very much needed, and enjoyable! Because of a funky school schedule and doctor appointments, your uncle Zac watched you on Wednesday. This was his first solo babysitting--and diaper changing--experience and everything went great! With him you enjoyed your first Jerry Springer experience as well! I'm just thankful you don't know how to repeat anything yet!

Uncle Zac sent me this pic saying
he must be doing something right.
I'd have to agree.

Merry Christmas baby girl!! You have absolutely no idea what is going on around you, but your first Christmas is underway! A few weeks ago, your papa asked, "Do I have to get Ainsley something for Christmas?!" It's not that he didn't want to get you anything [especially this year because he's on it with gifts] but he wasn't sure if I expected him to get you something. We decided that it completely wasn't necessary this year. You didn't know any different, so instead of showering you with gifts that would just take up space and you wouldn't appreciate it we got your a Christmas dress, a "first Christmas onesie" and an ornament.

Christmas Eve was spent at Grandpa and Grandmomma-cita's house for Christmas was my immediate family and then in the afternoon we headed to Greenville for your cousin Brayden's baptism. You were passed around at Aunt Sara's afterwards.

Papa & Ains at
Grandpa & Grandmomma-cita's
on Christmas Eve

Attempted pic with
cousins Samantha & Brayden

Christmas Dress

Christmas morning your papa and I shared our gifts as you sat in your bouncer chair and then were were off to church.

Christmas Morning in the Bouncer

Christmas with your Grandma & Grandpa Massie and the Krehers followed before heading back home for some rest! It was a big weekend and you still have the big Clum Christmas and the big Thayer Christmas!!

Christmas Day with Grandpa Massie

Even with you not knowing what was going on with all these Christmas celebrations and being Jesus, Christmas was so much fun with you Princess. We may not have witnessed joy on your face due to the holidays, but we certainly witnessed joy on others' faces when you were in their presence! That's what it's about anyways, right?!

Last but not least, we've learned yet another thing about you. On Monday evenings while Papa and I are at TFC, your Grandpa & Grandmomma-cita watch you and then this Friday when we went to the Villager with some friends we left you at there house for a couple hours. On more than one occasion [including this Monday and Friday] we arrived at their house to pick you up, expecting a good report, but instead you had just fallen asleep after being ~~ridiculously whiny~~ unusually fussy for most of the time. I hated that you weren't "good" for them because you weren't like that for us. Or so I thought! As I thought on it more, I realized that you are like that at our house in the late evenings but the difference? After about 2 minutes of that extreme fussiness, I scoop you out of Papa's arms and cradle you to sleep against my chest. I know I'm your momma and you like me for that reason, but this is the first time that I've clearly experienced how deep that preference is! Of course I don't want you to be fussy for anyone, it does make me secretively happy that there is a level of comfort only I can provide for you!

Love
Momma

Dear Ainsley [Week 16]

2011-12-28T17:30:00.001-05:00

December 17th, 2011

Dear ~~Jesus~~ Ainsley,

This weekend was LBTs Christmas Cantata and we were asked to be Mary, Joseph, and Jesus. Three years ago, Papa and I were Mary & Joseph [largely because your papa can grow a beard by grunting!], but this year was much better as instead of carrying a cold, plastic doll, I got to embace you through out the program. As far as the acting, we were directed to "be in our own little world, captivated by you and talking amongst ourselves". Easy enough! Momma's usually in her own little world. You naturally captivate us. And I can alway chat with your papa. You did AWEsome with your role as well. The first service you slept through 3 out of 4 songs and then once awake you silently, and adorably stretched! The second service you were awake for 2 songs but didn't make a peep--and we didn't need that bottle I stashed in the bales of straw just in case!

Photo Courtesy of Gary Brown

I'm not going to lie. I was nervous. Nervous you would, well be a baby and cry or fuss. I was also nervous because on Saturday within ten minutes of needing to be on stage you learned a new trick. As you shoved your hand in your mouth--nothing new-- you figured out that if you blew you could make quiet the raspberry on your wrist!! Yikes! It was quiet humorous, but I don't think baby Jesus did that in the manger, and thankfully you didn't either.

Joseph, Mary, & Jesus

In addition to your great acting debut and teaching yourself to make raspberries on your wrist you made another huge development this week! I was out in the garage working on Christmas presents when your papa came out and calmly said you just rolled over. What?! I didn't want to believe him in part because we're constantly joking that you walked or talked when the other one isn't around. He clarified that it was just on the couch so we immediately came back in to see if you'd do it again... and you did! Five more times! And then you proceeded to roll over once on the floor!

Way to go lil' lady!

Love,
Momma

Dear Ainsley [Week 15]

2011-12-14T17:52:00.000-05:00

[Still] Sweet Baby Girl-

You're my favorite lil' one! Of course I am biased, but you are so sweet and lovely to me. Although I teach others all day long--or as one of my students asked this week, "You just hang out with us all day long, right?!"--anyways, even though I'm commonly viewed as the "teacher", I love being a student of you! Your smiles, your cries, your personality, your potential quirks! It's all so captivating and intriguing.

One thing I learned, that I'm sure you'll later be embarassed by is your belly button squishes! Some times you have an innie. Some times you have an outtie. So the other day when I was changing you, you had an outtie so I decided to make it an innie... This is what makes me laugh more than anything else--other than your laugh--lately! I can feel is squish around in there! Having a squichable belly button may not be what you want when you're older, but for now, I love it! :)

What I don't love, but am trying to appreciate because I know one day I will actually miss it, is your night time carseat habits. I can't figure out what it is, but you don't usually enjoy these rides. I always thought that babies enjoyed car rides, but I guess you are just not "any baby". It's alright, we'll manage, but if you'd like to stop wailing while in that car, I certainly won't mind!

Another change I've noticed is your sleeping habits. You still sleep well, but this week you were a wiggle worm while you were sleeping! I definitely enjoying snuggling with you all night long, but this week, I was up more than you as I was constantly kicked and hit. You even picked my nose in the night at one point! Hopefully it was just a restless week for you as you had a bit of a cold because I'm not ready to kick you out yet!

After your first basketball game.
At which you saw your first, and hopefully last,
broken & dislocated elbow!

Until next time baby girl! You are having your play premier this weekend being Baby Jesus in our church program, so hopefully you can live up to the role! Your papa wanted you to wear a onesie that read, "Jesus loves me!... err... I love me?" The choir director requested you not be in pink. I think we'll stick with all white! :)

Much love!
Momma

2+ Week Update

2011-12-09T22:58:00.002-05:00

Behold my attempt to do a two+ week recap! I've fallen behind making my mental blog posts into actual posts, so here are some snipets so I can feel "caught up"!

Dear Ainsley [Week 13]
Nothing too out of the ordinary in baby life. You've developed an incredible talent for wailing for no apparent reason while you are in your carseat. We've tried adjusting it but that doesn't seem to be the issue. On Monday you screamed yourself to sleep as we head to our TFC Thanksgiving get-together. Then afterwards I needed to swing by Meijer's. You were asleep so I left you in the car with Papa to run in real quick. I got a text reading, "Someone's world is ending." You were no longer asleep. When I got to the car if looked like a teenage makeout session had occuried the way you had the windows all steamed up! Sadly this wasn't a one time thing as you have wailed through many more car rides since. :S I'm hoping you lose this talent soon!

Other than that, you celebrated your 3 month birthday this week! As well as your first real family-get-together kind of holiday! I made a little turkey outfit for you and you did well not to spit up on it so you could wear it to all the family functions! You're a champ princess!

EDIT: Oh. My. Goodness! I just remembered a HUGE milestone for you this week! We had the privelge of hearing your laugh for the very first time. As we were preparing for bed and I was changing your diap, I tickled your belly a bit and there it was! It was so cute. It was so contagious! Since then, we've heard it many times and it causes us to laugh as well!

Thanksgiving Celebrations
This year I "celebrated" Thanksgiving 7 times, I believe.
1. Spartan Inn Thanksgiving--The food management class makes a Thanksgiving meal every year. So the Friday before Thanksgiving I enjoyed some fixin' courtesy of my students. Although there was plenty of turkey, I didn't partake in any of it! One of my students said, "Ms. Massie, don't eat the turkey!" "Why?! Did you make it?" "Nah, but don't eat it! I'll tell you why later. Eat ham." I passed on the meat all together, and never found out why I shouldn't eat the turkey. I probably don't want to know!
2. Friendsgiving Dinner--On the Sunday before Thanksgiving, we went over to our friends Ben & Sara's for a delicious meal and lots of friendly fellowship. Sara [& Ben] did a great job preparing the turkey and other friends brought some delicious sides as well! I ate to my heart's content without any reservation!
3. TFC Thanksgiving--The Spencerville Senior High Chapter headed to the St. Mary's chapter for a Thanksgiving meal and sharing. The leaders of the St. Mary's chapter did all the leg work for the food, and it too was good. I think it was great for our teens to get to experience another chapter as well.
4. Girls' Night Thanksgiving--Held at our house on Tueday, we had our Girls Night Thanksgiving celebration. I made the ~~turkey~~ chicken as if it were a turkey and if I didn't spill the beans, none of the ladies would've known. If I ever volunteer to make the meat again, I'll probably go with just a turkey breast. Raw meat is disgusting and anytime I work with it, I question why I am not a vegetarian. Bleh!
5-6.Thanksgiving Day: Run for the Turkeys 5k--For the second year in a row, we started Thanksgiving morning with a 5k run. This was my 1st 5k since having Ainsley and my first 5k to "run" in my barefoot shoes, and I was almost 2 minutes faster this year than last year. [Last year's Run for the Turkeys 5k would've been my last non-pregnant 5k.] My time isn't, close to being something to brag about, but I was happy with it, and I made it to the halfway mark before walking at all so that was good for me! :)

Leanna & Chris before the run!

After the run, we headed home, showered, and then headed out to Chris' parents for Thanksgiving with them. After a full meal topped with apple pie a la mode, we headed to Spencerville to meet up with Zac before heading down to Greenville. Greenville was full of family, laughter, little girls playing dress up, men watching football, and of course, green jello and pears! Pretty usual. Pretty lovely!
7. Thayer Family Thanksgiving--Then on Sunday, after sleeping in, we headed out to Chris' aunts for the Thanksgiving on that side. we had round one with ham and then round two with turkey! Me? I had lots of broc & cheese casserole!

My favorite lil' turkey!

Black Friday
Mom and I were planning on heading out, just the two of us, at a not so ridiculous time mainly for the excitement of it all! Black Friday shopping is fun for me, as long as there is nothing my heart is set on. About 5:30am Mom and my brother were pulling in to head on out! Zac had a night full of ~~winnings~~ the casino and woke up after just a couple of hours rest, so he decided to tag aloing. There wasn't much we had to get, but in the end I'm glad Zac came along to help carry some packages! After a quick stop at Elder-Beerman, grabbing the "wrong item" [darn that misleading signage], getting the right item, loading up, we headed to Menards. Now I don't know if you are a Menard's shopper, but Momma-cita and I have ventured there on many Black Friday outings just to leave empty handed. It was a bit before 6 when we arrived and everyone and their brother was there as well. I suggested kicking Zac out of the car to get in line, but somehow I ended up being the one searching for the end of the line as Momma & Zac drove around looking for a parking spot.
Naturally I headed to the storefront for the line, but the line was actually all the way to the back of the parking lot and headed to Easttown Road. But there was a second line. Near the handicapped parking spots, there was a second line forming semi-organized so I thought that this must be the secondardy line because the other line was so dang long that once that line went through they'd send us through. Not so much. I quickly learned from a lady "with 2 herneatedc discs who was just going to plow in and cut in front of those beepity-beeps" that I was in line with the crazies. Ah, no thank you!

I saw some people I knew in line and went over to chat before walking to the very end of the endless line. They had been there since 3:30am in line. Ah, no thank you! Good luck getting your stuff, but nothing there was that important to me. So I began the journey to the end of the line. Shortly later the opened the door and the line began to move. So being so incredible ~~intelligent~~ lazy at 6am, I decided I'd just wait until the end of the line got to me! I didn't have to wait too long because soon enough Mom & Zac were already in line after parking in Meijer parking lot and passing me. I joined in and filled them in on "the crazies' line". By the time we got to the front door, Zac ditched us to talk to a friend who works there and Momma & I had a game plan. I was going to ask the first worker I saw where the two items we wanted were--a Circut for me and a gift for my brother.

The Circut is in the Christmas stuff and the _________ [maybe he reads this and I don't want to spoil Christmas!] is in the main aisle, you can't miss 'em! Thanks! We split ways, I go for the Circut and Mom goes for the other. I of course start weaving and waving through the aisle thinking there was no way Mom was getting the _______ because everyone seemed to have 2-3 in their carts, when I stumble upon a huge pile of _________ [not in the main aisle, of course]! I snatched one up, saw Mom in the main aisle still trying to find one and yelled out, "Hey Ma! I got one!"

After leaving it with her, I searched in the Christmas section to no avail. Now I have debated for 2 years about getting a Circut and Thanksgiving night decided I didn't really need one, so I wasn't going to buy one. When Mom said she happened to want to go to Menards, and that just happened to be where the Circut's were the cheapest this year, I told myself if they happened to have one, I'd get it. If not, no biggie! Well there weren't any in the Christmas section, but I also didn't see anyone carrying one. So I asked again. "Paint section." Ugh! Off to that area--which I didn't know where it was. Getting lost in the paint section, Momma called and told me where it really was. One worker's assistance later, I had a Circut in my hand! Now just to have time to use it! I need to get figuring it out before too long because it's helping with Goal #83.

Dear Ainsley [Week 14]
Hey Sweet Princess!

Being your Mama is still wonderful! I enjoy those cuddle-times and being able to provide for your every need.

14 Weeks, and ready for some snow!

You have still been wailing at night in the car, and I'm not sure what that's all about, so that's a bit frustrating. Last Friday after sleeping all through spin, I fed you and then we were on our way to Olive Garden to meet up with Grandpa and Grandmomma-cita as Papa worked. We load up and by the first stop light [just 2 blocks out] you began wailing. I pulled over at Rite-Aid, reinserted the paci, and headed on our way. That lasted about, oh 500 feet. I ~~ever so safely~~ proceeded to drive to OG, with my arm twisting back holding your hand, singing "Hush Little Baby". It helped barely. Once to OG, you were out of the car and into my arms, within 20 minutes you were sawing logs. You slept all the way through supper. I loaded you back up, and let the wailing begin. All the way home from OG. I've got to get more creative on a solution for this.

In other news, you have a new trick. You can put your fist/fingers so far into your mouth that you make yourself gag/puke. I'm so proud. :S Maybe I'll try to teach you a trick that you'd actually want to show off. [Okay, not really, teaching you a trick makes you sound like a puppy!]

Well babe girl, stay sweet and keep keeping Papa and I on our toes!

Love!
Your Momma

Goals!
I have lots of updating to do. Yikes! I guess that's a good thing since that means I'm crossing things off the ol' list.

As for everyone, especially during the coming months, life is busy, but life is good!

I'll keep working on these updates! :) Until then, be mesmorized by this close up, I know I am!

Concert Central

2011-11-23T08:13:00.021-05:00

This past Thursday and Friday evenings Chris and I expanded our horizons and attended two concerts: Trans Siberian Orchestra and Mannheim Steamroller.

First the back story, several weeks ago Chris saw commericals for Mannheim Steamroller and suggested that he'd like to see them. Then the commerical came on again and he mentioned wanting to again. Then the commerical came on again and he mentioned wanting to again. So we talked about it and decided it could be an early Christmas gift. Then we were at a benefit for a friend of a friend and they had a raffle. Well we saw that there were tickets for the Trans Siberian Orchestra so we dropped half our tickets in that bucket. Our ticket was pulled and we chose our prize--four tickets to see Trans Siberian Orchestra at the Nutter Center in Dayton the day before Mannheim Steamroller.

At this point I decided that I should tell Chris about already buying the Mannheim Steamroller tickets the previous week to find out if he wanted to do both or if I should try to sell them. He decided both was the better option, so that's what we did.

On Thursday Chris got off work a bit early, we swung through Spencerville to drop Ainsley off at my parents for the evening and then were on our way to Dayton to meet up with our friends Rob & Kate--we actually won a set of FOUR tickets! We were making good time and everything seemed to be right on track for walking into Nutter about 7pm for our 7:30 concert. That was until about a mile before our exit on 675. The right lane was very slow moving and eventually stop and go. I asked Chris if he thought I should join in that line or what the back up was from. We decided that it couldn't be because of the concert because there was still a mile or so on 675 and then a couple miles away after getting off the interstate. Well we assumed wrong, it was because of the concert, but we decided just to go to the next exit where there were additional signs for Nutter. We get off the interstate and warn Rob & Kate that it looks like things are backed up but we should be there shortly--they had already been there for a bit, but of course we had the tickets! Eventually we find our way to the backed up traffic and join in for the stop and go misery. It. was. so. slow.

Feeling bad that we were causing Rob & Kate to miss the beginning of the concert, not having any idea how long we were going to weave through campus before being about to park, very annoyed/frustrated at the entire situation, I was so incredibly close to tell Chris just to get out of the car and start walking! It'd be quicker than waiting in the car to park and then they wouldn't miss as much. I'd find my way eventually! I didn't ended up asking him to do that and fi.na.lly. we got to ~~the~~ a parking lot. We're we in Lot 7 or even Lot 27?! Of course not, we were in the parking lot shared by the Child Development Center and the Scultpure Building. With only a couple parking places left in the lot, we parked and began high-tailing it to the concert. Our friends had told us that they were delaying the concert a bit because of the crazy traffic--they ended up pushing it back 15 minutes--so we were booking it in hopes of missing as little as possible!

Thoughts as we hoofed it nearly a mile--it was seriously that far, I Google mapped it!:
-Why didn't I dress like that dorky old man with his matching sweatsuit and tennis shoes?! My lil' heels that I had on for over 12 hours weren't too merciful!
-Thanks Chris for asking what coat I wanted to wear for the evening. I wouldn't been a frozen, frustrated mama had I only worn the jacket I had planned on!
-Thank goodness I'm at least semi-healthy because had I had to stop for breathers on my walk--as I saw more than one person needing--I likely would've been more annoyed. It also made me a bit sad that not everyone can simply walk without getting winded.
-Why can't I be more like the lil' boy in front of us who jumping and swinging from his mom and sister's arms as he enjoyed the journey to the Nutter Center versus grumbling under his breath like I was!

Neverheless we finally got there, found Rob and Kate and headed to our seats. If you've never been to this facility before, the way that it is set up is that you walk in at the top and then once inside the arena, you have to walk down the stairs however low your seats are. We suprisingly had great seats, which meant we walked all the way down the stairs! No complaints for this lady! Our seats were the very first row of the permanent seating! Score!

If I were to close my eyes during the concert, based on what I was hearing, I would've expected to see something different that I did. And visa versa and then to add to it all there was practically a light show going on the whole time. A few times in the concert, the band members left the main stage for a smaller stage that just so happened to be directly in front of our seats!

Here are some pics for the evening:

Light Show

Elevating Stage right in front of us.

This pic looks like we went to a Show Girl show. :S

Rockin' it out on the lil' stage!

Overall the Trans Siberian Orchestra was very enjoyable--it was a rock concert, Christmas extravaganza, light/laser show all in one! We definitely wouldn't mind going back--just not at Nutter Center! ;)

After the concert all four of us headed back to our house for the night and my great parents were willing to being Ainsley to us at about midnight when we returned--they are awesome! Ains got to meet Rob & Kate for the first time, and not too much later we were all snuggled into bed! I definitely felt like an old lady though as I can't even remember the last time I was still up after midnight! When 9 o'clock strikes in the Massie household, we all start thinking "bedtime"!

7am came early the next morning--yes, I got up at 7 and was out the door for school by 7:20! Thank you Friday morning treats in the Teacher workroom and Thanksgiving lunch by the Spartan Inn so I didn't have to eat breakfast or pack a lunch!

School went well. I picked Ainsley up from Chris' parents. Changed for spin. Worked out. Headed home. Made homemade pizza & sweet potatoe fries. Enjoyed them with my parents. Then Mom & Dad stayed at our house to watch Ainsley as Mister and I headed to the Mannheim Steamroller concert. I was thankful this concert was only 5 minutes away! We arrived and found our seats and waited for it to begin. As we waited the people in the seats next to us arrived and a woman in her forties that smelled like she just came from a Legion somewhere topped with musky perfume ask me if I was ready to rock out with her. I said "Sure! I have no idea what to expect tonight!"

Well I listened to the music, she rocked out, and I got most of my entertainment that evening from watching her from the corner of my eye! The concert was enjoyable, a bit quirky and hard not to think that Mannheim Steamroller was a bit of wannabe TSO! [Largely in part oof their dated videos & effects!]

It was nice to have just a ten-minute drive home including waiting for the silly train versus the nearing 2-hour drive the previous night! Even nicer was to come home to all of our dishes being washed! You may have heard the saying, "All means all and that's all all means." Well in our case, all our dishes means a whole heck of a lot of dirty dishes! Thanks Dad and Momma-cita! You're the best! Even if you hadn't done the dishes!

So all in all, we had two different, but enjoyable experiences! We decided if the opportunity was there again, see them both if we won tickets to Mannheim Steamroller and we'd pay to see Trans Siberian Orchestra ~~just not at the Nutter Center~~!

Dear Ainsley [12 weeks]

2011-11-21T17:53:00.000-05:00

Ains:

12 weeks old! Can you believe it? I wonder if you can believe at all at this point?! At 12 weeks, I feel like it's at the point that we start to refer to you in terms on months not weeks! My, how the time has flown! I'm trying to hold on to each moment!

Monday you accomplished quite the amazing accomplishment! You said your first word!! You and I were upstairs at TFC because you were so chatting while the meeting was supposed to have a more serious mood. As we set up on the couch, you spat your pacifier out so as I offered backed to you, I asked, "Do you want your paci?" Right on cue, you yapped, "Yeaaa!" Stan from the kitchen immediately jolted his head towards us and confusingly asked, "Did she just responded to you?!" I confessed that you did, but it was purely coincidental! It was so neat though! Your Papa and I love to have "conversations" with you. As you coo and "talk" we'll have a conversation and then laugh uncontrollably as your expressions match up with what we are saying!

This week was a funky week as far as our schedules. On Thursday and Friday evenings, your papa and I went to concerts. This meant more quality time that you got to share with Grandpa and Grandmomma Clum, but this also meant more time we spent a part. After a bit of a fussy evening on Friday, we decided that you just missed us, so we snuggled the night away! Thanks to our funky schedule, my body's schedule was a bit funky as well! Something you won't fully understand until you are a mother yourself, just like I didn't understand what the discharge nurse meant when she said I'd feel like cement when my milk came in. Let's just say, I felt like cement. After feeding you, I went out to the living room to pump out that cement! Shortly thereafter you were stirring and so was Papa. He came out and said he needed to give you a bath because you were all wet. He blamed it on a full diaper, but in reality it was my fault! :S This is the downfall of our bodies being so incredibly smart and adapting to your demand. When schedules switch, the body can't immediately adjust. Oh, well. Clothes can be washed! While you were being washed, your papa was talking to you as usual, then the cutest was after he was done bathing you, I heard him say, "You did it! Give me a high 5!" You two are too cute!

12 Week Slobber Box

Well baby girl, happy ~~12 weeks~~ almost 3 months! Looking forward to a short 1.5 work week and lots of family time!

Love,
Momma

Dear Ainsley [Week 11]

2011-11-16T16:40:00.000-05:00

Dear Ainsley,

This past week was one long week lil' girl! I had Parent-Teacher conferences so my usual 7-hour day quickly turned into a 12-hour day. That's a lotta missing you--and your papa! Thankfully you're still too young to really miss me, or that would've broke my heart! Those long days just make me thankful that Thanksgiving aka 3.5 days off of school is right around the corner and Christmas break isn't too far either! Waaahhoooo!

In addition to two long days of PT conferences this week, we also went to 2 banquets and had our first overnight guests since you were born. Your papa's best friend Josh and his lovely wife Leslie came to visit this weekend. You see they are going to be going overseas to do humanitarian work for three years and so they were visiting in order to raise support. We loved showing you off to our great friends and loved watching them interact with you. The next couple of years while they are overseas you won't get to see them much, or at all, but your papa and I can't help but look forward to when they have a lil' one for you to be great friends with as well!!

Two other things to note about this week are your smiles and your sleeping. Most nights you wake up just one time to eat and then are out the rest of the night. Sometimes of course you sleep the whole night through! We never thought you'd sleep so well from the beginning and are already dreading your future little brother or sister's potential sleeping habits! I'm also thinking you may be a sleep walker like your momma--I'll have to tell you those stories when you get older--because boy do you wiggle at night. Squirming and worming but perfectly content.

When you wake you are such a smile box. I love the weekends when I get to be with you as you wake because you just smile and smile and smile. Papa and I love just laying in bed watching your smiles. It's so contagious!

You're growing so big so quickly. I'm doing my best to treasure each moment!

Love you more than you'll know!
Momma

Dear Ainsley [Week 10]

2011-11-06T13:00:00.000-05:00

Princess--

You are a whooping 10 weeks old. Your personality is budding and I'm so excited to see what it's going to become. What parts of it will you get from me? What will you get from your papa? I know one thing you haven't got from me is your morning cheer! I'm not sure if it's because you're well-rested or because your stomach is nice and settled but in the morning you tend to be all smiles! It's one of the things I look forward to on the weekends! [Usually during the week your still snug as a bug in a rug next to Papa as I slip out of bed and kiss you good-bye!]

10 weeks

This week you accomplished a new feat as well. For two nights in a row, you slept a full 7 hours between waking/feeding! Each morning after your siesta I woke surprise and a bit confused thinking perhaps I slept through your crying. I didn't though. You just slept like a champ! :) Even just last night when I thought for sure you'd be up most the night because you slept sooo much the day before. Was I right? Nope! We went to bed a bit after 10 [your parents are real party animals now!] and it's 9am now [really 10am with daylights savings] and I ~~annoyed~~ woke you to try to feed you no avail! I hope you're just becoming a great sleeper!

Perhaps the reason you are sleeping well is because you have a touch of something. The only affect it has had on you is a snotty nose. Now other's snot is absolutely dis-guisting to me, but worse than other's snot is a nose full of snot! So I've been picking away! Sick. I know. But as a friend and I discussed yesterday, much of what we think as gross pre-parenthood is complete normal in parenthood. Thanks for making picking your nose and examining your poo normal! It's just the beginning, I'm sure!

Being crazy is completely normal now!
:)

Love,
Momma

A Tasty Tastefully Simple Party

2011-11-04T18:35:00.000-04:00

Last night in lieu of our regular Girl’s Night, I hosted a Tastefully Simple party at our house—which was perfect for girls night, because us gals like to eat! J

A couple weeks ago I received my party pack in the mail, complete with ingredients to make some yummy—tasty Tastefully Simple products to try out at the party.

I had low numbers for the party, so we all got to ~~eat our full~~ sample through the catalog.

We tried the Malted Cocoa drink.

Lots of Dips/Spreads: Artichoke & Spinach Warm, Fiesta Party, Olive & Herb Cheese Ball, Spinach & Herb, Onion Onion, Key Lime Cheese Ball with Twisty Grahams, Sweet Pepper Jalapeno Jam, and Tripleberry Fruit Spread.

A few sauces: Vidalia Onion Dressing, Pomegranate Chipotle Sauce, Bayou Bourbon Glaze, and Merlot Sauce.

And a couple odds and ends things like: Blue Aztec Chips, Creamy Wild Rice Soup, Caramel Cinnamon Sprinkles, Nana’s Apple Cake, and of course Bountiful Beer Bread.

Overall I think the Artichoke & Spinach as well as the Key Lime were favs last night! Well and of course the Beer Bread! J

The best part was after orders were placed and we all had our fill, the leftovers were put into my fridge! Any guesses as to what’s on the menu tonight? ;-)

If any of you—whoever you are—would like to try out any of these Tastefully Simply products, I would love it if you ordered through “my party”! Everything we tried last night was pretty de-licious and the best part of their products is that you only need to add 1-2 ingredients and they are good to go! [On the flip side, they are versatile so if you want to use them more elaborately, they work great that way too.]

So if you’d like to order something, go to www.tastefullysimple.com/web/korchard. Just make sure that Kristi Orchard is marked as your consultant and Rachel Massie is your host. The products can be shipped directly to you. If you are planning on ordering LESS than $57.92, let me know and I have a way to cut down on your shipping costs. [Why that odd amount?! Because I’m a math teach and love to crunch numbers! J My Crunching = Your Savings!] My party closes on Friday [Nov. 11th], so all purchases need to be made by then.

If online isn’t your thing, let me know and I’ll get you a catalog and/or a paper order form. Just let me know through email/Facebook/phone/comment!

Even if you don’t want to order a thing, if you are ever invited to a Tastefully Simple party, GO! It’s like a free, delicious meal you didn’t have to prepare! ;-)

Happy Halloweenie!

2011-11-01T07:19:00.000-04:00

*This was written and not posted on Sunday evening. I just needed to add pics but Ains woke up and needed some cuddling so blogging just had to wait. She takes priority! :)*

This morning when heading to church it wasn't a decision whether or not we'd be walking because instead of heading to LBT, we were off to Southside [my Wednesday night church] to comemerate a special occasion. This weekend marked what would've been my Grandma & Grandpa Cow's 50th wedding anniversary. Yet instead of attending a celebration of sorts to honor this milestone, my family got together to show support of my grandma and in remembrance of my grandpa. Grandma purchased altar flowers to honor the occasion and the sanctuary was adorn with 4 beautiful banners that the church purchased with monies donated in my grandpa's honor.

After church we headed to my parents' for some of my Momma's Mac & Cheese and trick-or-treating. Sondra rode home with us "to help watch Ainsley" so the drive went quickly as we discussed the color of eyes, spelled everything from car to jack-o-lantern, debated what to do with our hands while we prayed, and tried to explain the definition of "included" to a 4-year old. [That's difficult! I'll have to come up with a better explanation for when Ains poses that question because I ended up saying, "Ask your mom! She'll know." :)]

We enjoyed our ~~body weight in~~ mac & cheese and waited for 3 o'clock to roll around for Trick-or-Treating to begin. The list of characters in the Clum household consisted of Batgirl, The Bachelor, and a Lil' Chickadee!

I'd say they were a pretty good looking crew!

Stuart was satisfied with his loot after a couple houses and Sondra made it down the street and back before we just stayed at my parents as they passed out candy. Oh, and Ainsley? She was a sleeping Chick after about 2 houses. Which was just fine since I was not one of those mom's who was taking my 2-month old trick-or-treating so I could eat all her candy! :)

After about 350 kiddos, my parents ran out of candy and we all headed in!

Ainsley's first Halloween/Trick-or-Treat? Success.

In other news, I've accomplished a couple more goals as of late.

Goal #32: Hit the snooze button no more than 1 time for a week straight.
Getting up in the morning just isn't my thing. It doesn't matter if it's 6am or 11am, if it ain't Christmas morning, getting out of bed is not on my top priority list! All comfy and snuggly, why would anyone want to leave that place?! When Mister and I were first married one of the things he just "didn't get" was that I'd set my alarm at a time knowing I was just going to hit the snooze. It made perfect sense to me. Not so much to him! So that was the inspiration for this goal, and not this past week [I hit the snooze plenty then!], but the week before, I accomplished it!

Goal #76 Smile while petting a cat. [Although I know this won’t be a “fun” one!]
I hate cats. Period. Ask anyone who knows me decently well and they'll know this tidbit. The root of this hatred is actually largely fear. Not only are cats so dang mysterious and they'll going from purring and "cute" [so to speak, not in my mind] to hissing and attacking. I just never know what they'll thinking! Anyways, when I was a wee lil' one, I had repetitive ~~dreams~~ nightmares about cats attacking me in Wapak's high school cafeteria. So as long as I can remember, I've ~~dispised~~ avoided them at all costs. [I also had repetitive dreams about a big green dinosaur chasing me through Big Bear, but that didn't have the same effect!] A couple weeks ago, at TFC's Fall Bash though, I did indeed pet a cat, which was big enough in and of itself, but I was also ~~fake~~ smiling while I did it. I asked Chris to record it with a pic, BUT I can't find it!

Dear Ains [9 weeks!]

2011-10-29T21:49:00.000-04:00

Well, little one. You are now 9 weeks old. That's 2 whole months and two whole days! You've grown quickly and days have passed before our eyes, but to think that you are 2 months is a bit nutty and unfathomable to me! If only our moments together could slow a bit and the world bustle around.

This week you hit your 2 month birthday which meant you had another doctor's appointment. It was scheduled for Tuesday morning so your Papa took you while I was off teaching. You weighed in at a whomping 13 lbs. 4 oz.! And measured 22 and 3/4 of an inch long! You're growing!! Surprise! Surprise! :) There's no need for the scale to tell me that as I can definitely tell in the middle of the night because I now have to sit up to move you about. Momma's arms aren't that strong to be able to lift you while I lay. At this appointment you also had to get some shots. Three to be exact. Your Papa said that while he was captivated by your beauty and watching your face suddenly it turned sour and you began to ~~cry~~ wail! He didn't realize the nurse was already giving your shots until she was on the second one! Two in one thigh, one in the other and then you nuzzled close for comfort! Your tears dried and your shrill calmed after just a couple minutes, but through the process you broke your Papa's heart! [I guess that's a benefit of being a working mom!] We were also able to conclude that you've never truly been in pain before because we've never heard that cry before!

The rest of Tuesday, you were just a mopier version of you. You didn't really cry, but rather as we cuddled you, you would moan softly. It was so sad and so cute at the same time! For the evening you were our achy, lil' girl! Thankfully with morning came your regular demeanor!

In other news this week, you experienced your first trick-or-treat. We didn't take you trick-or-treating as it would've been obvious that the candy was for us, but we did put on your Halloween outfit--not costume-- and head to John and Amber's as they passed out candy. Tomorrow we'll be dressing you up in your costume and heading to Grandpa and Grandmomma-cita's with your cousins to pass out candy to trick-or-treaters. Next year though, we'll take you door to door to a couple houses to get you some Tootsie Rolls to gnaw on! :)

Lastly, I think I tell you this every week, but I love seeing your personality more and more. Your smiles in the morning, especially, and your various facial expressions throughout the day. You are so beautiful to me little one and it's my desire to do all that I can to nurture you into a beautiful young lady, inside and out!

Love you, lil' pumpkin!

Dear Ainsley [Week 7]

2011-10-18T19:57:00.000-04:00

Dear Ains,

What a week it has been! On Wednesday, I went back to work for the first time. It was difficult, as I expected it would be, but it actually wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. I teared up kissing you goodbye, missed you like crazy, and thought of you continually, but thankfully you were home with Papa so you were only a text away. You were in good hands and I was quite thankful! You ended up sleeping most of the day away and this, baby girl, I was not thankful for. When bedtime came you went to sleep but when you had your usual wake up instead of going right back to sleep like you’ve done all prior nights, you decided it was time to stay up and hang out for a good hour. I tried to tell myself that it was because you missed me and wanted to spend extra time with your momma, but in reality this was just to get my mind off the lack of sleep I was going to get that night. The next two days you spent with your Grandma Massie and had great days—and consequently nights—then too!

Wednesday night I decided to try out your cloth diapers! I was afraid they were a little big, but with the gifted disposable diaper stash running low, I figured I better start using cloth while I still had time to “take a break” with disposables! They seemed to fit fine but I was a little apprehensive as I took you to church in them. Typically on Wednesday nights as soon as I arrive you are handed off to someone—Grandmomma-cita, Grandma Cow, or even a sweet couple that sits behind us—this time I warned, “So I’m trying out the new diapering system tonight for the first time, I’m not responsible for blow outs!” :) Grandma Cow took you anyways! And there wasn’t a single blowout, so that was definitely a good thing [especially since I forgot to take a sack to put your dirty diaper in after I would’ve changed you. Hey it was my first night cloth diapering, give me a break!] We put you in your cloth diapers in the evenings during the week—we decided it’d be best to give your Grandma a couple days to adjust to having you before having to use the cloth diaps—and had you in them all day long this weekend! Let me say, so far, so good! You have the cutest tush in town! :)

Your cutie-batootie!
The giraffe diap is one of my favs!
And the cow print!
:)

In other news in Ainsley-world this week, you received your first hickey! Now in most cases I would not be smiling about this, and remember that when you are a teenager—hickies = trashy—it was pretty funny on you for two reasons: 1.) You’re 7 weeks old. 2.) You gave it to yourself! You see, so far, you haven’t really sucked your thumb. Even when you are hungry, you haven’t sucked your thumb but instead choose to suck your index finger or your wrist. Well this time at Grandma’s you must have decided your wrist would taste better because when I got you home I realized you had a big ol’ hickey on your wrist!! Such a silly girl!

You had your first major spit up!
Thankfully it was on Papa! ;)

This weekend we had a great time just being our lil’ family. Your papa even commented, “You know so many people act as if you lose your ‘life’ they have a baby, I feel like we gained life!” I couldn’t agree more! We are so lucky to have you in our life and to have new life because of you!

7 weeks old

Much love!

Goal Update!

2011-10-10T16:27:00.000-04:00

Over the past couple weeks I've finished up and started a couple goals. So here's an update.

Accomplished Goals:
8. Try 4 new foods [or foods that I “don’t think I like”].
     Food #1: Canteloupe I'm not a big melon person--watermelon is the only type I like! Way back in July when we had some delicious chicken salad sandwiches, we also had some canteloupe. Now I've had canteloupe before, but I've been picking it out of fruit salad for years and passing it to my mom or Chris to eat for me. so I tried it that day. The verdict? I don't not like canteloupe, but I don't enjoy it. It's just sorta of bland. If I had to eat it, I would but I'll still be that girl who picks around it in the fruit salad!
    Food #2: Mahi Mahi "I don't like seafood." Well that's also what I would say if you asked me. I mean I like tuna from a can on certain occasions in tuna casserole, but that's about it. The fishy taste/smell is too much for me! Well at Ruby Tuesdays a couple months ago, Chris ordered an entree with a couple different meats on it. One of which was Mahi Mahi. It was alright...for the first bite and an half... until I thought about the fact that I was eating fish. :S
    Food #3: Salmon Same background as food #2, but this time we were over at some friends on Saturday evening and Micah grilled salmon and chicken. I choose chicken, which was delish, but ate a piece--note: not just a bite!-- of salmon. It was pretty good. It wasn't fishy but I did think it was a bit dry, although if it weren't dry it'd be full of fishy juices, so I'll take a bit of dryness!
    Food #4: Hummus Chris likes it and I even bought ingredients to make some in the very near future, but for Sunday's lunch we had some store bought Roasted Red Pepper Hommus [not a mispelling, that's what the label says!]. I ate a bit with some crackers. It wasn't bad, but the texture combined with a lack of strong flavor wasn't my cup of tea! I think it would be better on a pita with other fixins' to make a sandwich!
    Overall for all four foods, my conclusion is that I don't not like them, I just don't particularly like them! Not my foods of choice, but edible nonetheless! :)

42. Give Mister a goodnight kiss every night [that we’re in the same location] for 101 days.
Each night that Mister and I have been in the same location for the past 101 days, we have shared a kiss before drifting into sleep. It wasn't always accompanied with "G'night!" although oftentimes it was. The motivation behind this goal was the popular signs/phrase "Always Kiss Me Goodnight" that I've seen around Hobby Lobby and the internet! Such a tough goal to accomplish!

53. Memorize the books of the New Testament, in order.
     I've had a good general feel for the order of the New Testament and it would only take a minute to find the book I was looking for, but to ramble them off, not so much. I mean the Gospels? Check! Acts, Romans, 1 & 2 Corinthians? Check! Then "Go Eat Peaches & Cream". Galatians, Ephesians, Phillipians, Colossians. Check! But then came trouble! Timothy? Thessalonians? Who knows! Then one of the leaders mentioned that the next three sets of books where the T books in order from longest to shortest in terms of the length of the names. 1 & 2 Thessalonians, 1 & 2 Timothy, and Titus. Then I remember: PHJ [Kind of like Ph. D.] Philemon, Hebrews, & James. Then remember your PJs--Peters and Johns and then I was good for the last two: Jude & Revelation. You see, ask me to remember something by straight memory and I've up a creek without a paddle, but if I can come up with sentence or silly phrase, I was golden! How else do you think I made it through 3 years of Spanish and ended up with the Boca Grande award in the end! :)

In-Progress Goals:
5. Drink no pop for 6 months.
     I'm 9 days in for this goal. I was going to start on October 1st but then went to a Birthday party and pop was all that was sitting out. Oh well, a day later than planned. I've gone a year or so before without drinking pop, but the biggest thing for me to "getting going" with this goal is simply remembering to not drink pop!

28. Complete honeymoon photo album.
     I havethe album [for 2.5 years] and the pics [for 2.5 weeks]. Now they just need to colide and be done!

34. Invite friends—outside of Girls Group—into our home 6 times over the course of 3 months.
     We've done this twice, but since the three month mark will expire the end of October, I think we'll be starting over again! Unless you count people swinging by to meet Ains, but I think that's cheating a bit and I've already bent one goal thanks to her so I'll plan on starting over with this one!

45. Read 43 books from BBC Top 100 books.
     2 Books: Jane Eyre & The Twits! I need to get booking! [ha! I wasn't planning on a pun, but there's one nonetheless! :)]

52. Pray every night with Chris before bed for 30 days.
     After tonight, it'll be 9 days as we've been praying together each night since October 2nd. We're hoping to develop a bedtime routine with Ainsley that consists of feeding--well for the lil' one--then bath time, prayer/snuggle time, and sleep! I'm not keeping my fingers crossed on the routine, but we'll continue with the prayer!

54. Memorize the books of the Old Testament in order.
     I've got 27 of the 39 books of the Old Testament down thanks to Chris and similar nuemonics as I used for remembering the order of the New Testament. Not too much longer and creative ways and I'll have all 39 books down!

86. Complete paperwork for Century Farm Recognition.
     This one is for my Grandma Cow--any guesses why I grew up calling her Grandma Cow?! :) I have the print of for it, and will just need to do a little "interviewing" to know how to answer all the questions they ask! I just need to get busy!

There you have it! An update on all those goals! Until next time, friends!

P.S. Part of the reason for this post, in addition to one of my goals being to blog about each of my goals, another reason for this post is because my mom recently asked me if I was working on any of my goals. After an "Uhh... yeah... let me think" she quickly replied, "I'll take that as a no!" So I needed to check and see what I was actually working on!

Dear Ainsley [Week 6]

2011-10-10T08:59:00.000-04:00

Lil' Miss Ains--

Well baby girl, today was the end of the final full week that I will get to spend with you. I can't even begin to express the emotions going around in my mind and heart as I prepare to venture back to teaching on Wednesday. I'll get 3 days with you over Thanksgiving break which is 45 days away and then the already much anticipated Christmas break 74 days away--but who's counting! This past week you've seemed to be a bit more clingy that other times. Although a small part of me was mildly frustrated because I wasn't able to get ~~much~~ anything done, I appreciated all the snuggle time that we shared! I love you and all our time, baby girl. It's going to be greatly missed and the weekends are going to be treasured and anticipated even more!!

Smiles: This week you have been on the verge of smiling. You've smiled several times but it's not really "intentional" yet even though we like to pretend it is. Regardless my heart smiles every time your little lips curl up! I look forward to when you smile because of what's going on around you and not "just because" ~~of gas~~! :)

Gas: Speaking of smiling, early this week you had me laughing so hard! While laying on the couch next to me--fully clothed--when you blasted a loud putt-putt [you'll learn that's what they are called when you are around Grandmomma-cita!] Anyways, in addition to your Papa and I still laughing at your untimely gas, this time was even more comical for me. You see your Papa was sitting on the floor in front of the couch and when you blasted, he literally covered his head and ducked! You would've thought that there was a real explosion going off the way he took cover! [P.S. You have man-gas now, and not just juicy, explosive gas. I blame your dad all the time for your gas, you take after him!]

Voice: You are not only loud coming out that end, you can be quite loud with your mouth! More and more you make noise. Many times I think you are making the noise for the sake of hearing yourself "talk". Just to listen you sound like you are in distress, but your face is quite content! I tried videoing it this week, but it sounded more like torture so I deleted it. I got a kick out of it, but I doubt many others would!

Sleeping: From the day we brought you home, I've been pleased with your sleeping habits. I mean you aren't sleeping 10 hours straight a night, but it's been a doable 3 hours from the beginning and now has lengthened to 5-6 hour chunks. I can handle this! Thanks for being such a great baby! I'll appreciate it even more in the coming days when I have to teach for 8 hours based on however much sleep you allow me to get! :)

Well baby girl, I need to sign off! Your papa is doing his best to console you, but you need your momma right now! I think you're hitting another growth spurt as much as you need me lately!

6 weeks old

Love you muchly!
-Your Momma

Clean that room!

2011-10-05T21:29:00.000-04:00

We have a room in our house that is absolutely disastrous! Don't believe me? Well that's because if you were to come to our house that room's door would be shut! :) We refer to it as the office but in reality it has been a catch all. Yes, there's a desk with office supplies and printers on it, so I guess it's an office, but it's also a library, a craft room, a game room, and about any other room you can think of.

Anyways, today Mister and I began working on the ~~pigpen~~ room. We're no where near complete--don't you hate how it has to get messier before it's better :S--but if you happen to have a room like this in your home--not that you would--I highly suggest begin going through it!

Why?

You never know what you'll find.

Exhibit A: A 3-Prong Frog Spear

Seriously?!
At least this one's Chris'!

Exhibit B: Teeth Molds from when I busted a tooth on a kernal of popcorn

Why they gave these to me is beyond me!

Exhibit C: My Hair... that I cut to donate... over 2 years ago.

It'll be in the mail this week!

Like I said, you just never know. :)

Dear Ainsley [5 weeks]

2011-10-02T23:16:00.000-04:00

Dear Ainsley,

This week you hit your one month birthday! Hurray! It's funny how life can change in one month, and I was telling your papa last night that I almost can't imagine what life was like without you! It's crazy how that works. This coming week is my last full week at home with you until Christmas break... I'll be making a countdown asap I assume! I'm very grateful that when I do go back to school, you'll be spending your days with your Papa Bear and with your Grandma Massie [both of whom are very excited to having Ainsley days!]. I think the hardest part is going to be missing you. Seems obvious, eh? Well it's not just missing you, it's the idea of missing out on you. Missing out on your "firsts". Missing out on what you are doing day in and day out that right now, and for the last 5 weeks, my only job was to be a student of you, so I missed very little! It's that fear that others are going to know you better than I know you. I'm not looking forward to those feelings, but many moms before me have successfully dealt with it, so I'm sure I will to!

One thing you've been doing much more this week is blowing spit bubbles--and the occasional milk bubbles! I'm not sure if you know what you are doing or if it's something that is just "naturally" happen uncontrollable to you, but it excites me! Seems silly, I'm sure. But every time you do it, you remind me of an article I read that challenged me. Overall, the article, and the website as a whole, talks about the importance of avoiding "growing up" as we age. [Note: This means staying childlike not childish!] So I'm going to encourage your bubble blowing and one day, when you discover how to blow bubbles in your cup of milk using a straw, we'll likely make a bit of a mess blowing milk bubbles. P.S. Chocolate milk bubbles are so much greater than regular milk! ;)

Another fun thing that you are doing more and more is when you morph into taradactle mode. [This is an example of somthing that I think is kind of odd, but I just reassure myself it's normal. I really hope you are breathing fine and such!] We've told others about this, but you commonly only share this special talent with us, so I figured the world should getting to hear your made skills as well.

Sometimes I taradactle you back thinking it may be a special form of communication that we can share. Okay, I don't really think that, but I do do it!

Lastly this week on a more serious note, today you were dedicated and because I'm a day late in writing this, it counts for your 5 week letter! This morning along with another sweet baby girl and two lil' handsome boys, you were dedicated to God infront of the congregation of Lima Baptist Temple. When the opportunity arose, I knew I wanted to participate and if I were completely honest, it was more out of selfish reasons than for you. I don't think that having you dedicated makes you any better than another baby nor do I believe that God sees you and loves you any differently. The reason I wanted you to be dedicated because I knew they would ask your dad and me to make a promise. To promise to be a Christ-like example, to pray for you, to tell you about God, and to let you know that God loves you. Now am I those things/have I done them in the last 5 weeks? Yes, but likely not as much as I should and could. I wanted to make that commitment in front of the congregation to God and to you.

In addition to the specialness of having you dedicated this morning, there were a couple other "special" moments/things that happened today. When we told Grandmomma-cita that you were going to be dedicated, she dug up the outfit that I wore when I was baptized as a wee one. She of course said that you didn't need to wear it, but was offering it for you. It was purchased by Grandma Great--that'd be your Great-great Grandma Monfort--and I'm pretty sure she did a little embellishing for it by putting some ribbons along the bottom and sleeves. We had several options of what you could wear for your dedication, especially since we went to the Carter's outlet mall yesterday, but this morning when we were dressing you, I knew that if my outfit fit, that's what I wanted you to wear. Did it really matter? Of course not, but it reminds me of my friend's concept of a thousand little strings: by itself it might not be/mean too much, but with a thousand of those little things/strings, we've got a pretty strong bond. That's something I want for us more than anything else!

On your Dedication Day
in Mama's baptism outfit

After the church service, Grandmomma & Grandpa Clum, Grandma & Grandpa Massie, Great Grandma Cow, Uncle Jake, Aunt Joie, Sondra & Stuart, Aunt Sara, Uncle Scott & Aunt Jane, and Aunt Jess, Micah & Silas, came over to our house for a luncheon. I [and your papa] put a lot of thought and time into the lunch in your honor and even last night as we were doing all the finishing touches, I was having a conversation in my mind.

"She's not even going to know what's going on... but I will. And I will know I tried to make it special!"

I don't know what your birthdays, Christmases and other celebrations will look like, but I want you to know one thing: I will do what I can to make it special for you. Oftentimes how special something is isn't based on the gift or what can be observed, but rather the thought and the heart behind it. I hope you remember that as you going through life and have your own special moments and make others' moments special.

A year ago yesterday, your Great-Grandpa Clum passed away. Now he and Grandma have a tradition of giving the great-grandchildren a piggy bank. Well today, when Aunt Sara brought it for you she also told me that when Grandma would go out and get the bank, he would always empty out his pocket and whatever change was in there, he'd put in the piggy bank to start it off. Even though you didn't get the privelege of meeting your Great-Grandpa, Aunt Sara started your bank off with some money that was in Grandpa's drawer. Does it really matter that those coins belonged to him or does it make them more valuable? Not really, but there's a special bond or string that you now have.

Five months ago yesterday, your Great-Grandpa ~~Cow~~ Sidey passed away. He collected coins like silver dollars and such. Today, Grandma gave you a card to celebrate your dedication, and lo and behold a silver dollar was afixed inside. Now does it really matter that there was a silver dollar that belonged to him in there or does it make it worth anything more? Not really, but there's a special bond or string that you now have.

Ainsley-girl, you are so very loved. It was quite obvious by those who came to celebrate your Dedication today. Will you remember them being there or how it played out? Of course not, but know that each person here today wanted you to feel special today because they ~~think~~ know that you are special.

5 weeks [and 1 day]
You are getting so big!

Much love, Baby girl!
Your Lucky Mama

Goal #16

2011-10-01T01:54:00.000-04:00

#16: Lose all my baby weight prior to getting pregnant a second time.

Note: Just because this goal is accomplished that does NOT mean Goal #25 is accomplished. That my friends is completely impossible until after Oct. 11. ;)

So I did it. Not that I am not glad, but in reality I didn't do much to accomplish this goal, it just sort of happened! Thank you breastfeeding. Sorry others who are still working on this goal. I'm not exactly sure how much I gained with Ainsley. The weight gain started pretty slow but then about month 7 or 8 it shot up much more than I was expecting! On my due date [4.5 days before Ains was born], my jaw dropped as my total weight gain at that point was 36.7 lbs. and nearly kissing 200 lbs! I didn't feel that big. I didn't think to weigh myself before going in to the hospital, even though I would've had plenty of time as Chris enjoyed his breakfast and I sat and tapped my foot. The majority of my weight came off within the first week and for about the last 2 weeks, I've just been waiting in these last 5 lbs. [Aren't we always waiting on those last 5 that take forever?!] Technically I was down to my true pre-pregnancy weight within 2 weeks of Ainsley's birth, but for this goal I decided I had to be to my pre-I-found-out-I-was-pregnant weight to count. That's what I get for losing ten pounds in December when I didn't know I was preggo!

Since there isn't much else to say about the goal, I figured this is as good as time as ever to talk about my post-pregnancy body. [Don't worry, it'll remain completely PG.]

Pregnancy does some amazing things to a lady's body, and of course it's miraculously fascinating how our sweet baby girl was once simply a fertilized cell in me. She was the size of a seasame seed when I found out about her! And the size of a lentil when we spilled the beans to our immediate family--I don't know that I've ever blogged about how I went about doing that. Perhaps I will. :)

Anyways, through out my pregancy I was shocked as I didn't have any stretch marks--believe me, I have them, but not on my stomach from the baby. Then along came August 13th, 2 weeks before my due date. This was the day I was really ~~thinking~~ hoping our lil' one would come and as I was rushhing around to head to a shower, I noticed my first pregnancy stretch mark. Only about an inch, but there it was. Bummed that I was getting a stretch mark on that day, and not a baby, I was just hoping I'd just have one. A couple more sprouted up over the next 2 weeks, but still not as many as I expected. Oddly [to me at least] I'm pretty sure I left the hospital with more stretch marks than when I was admitted. Perhaps that's what 3 hours of pushing will do to you.

Another oddity was that I had read about linea nigra thanks to countless weekly pregnancy email updates, but I never noticed that dark line on my stomach. This too showed up after Ainsley's arrival. Weird.

Probably the most fascinating post-pregnancy body related thing has been breastfeeding. Now that it isn't highly uncomfortable, I repeatedly amazed how Ainsley and my body's are intune with supply and demand and how my body is producing everything her lil' body needs to not only survive, but to thrive! There's a lot that I don't know/understand about how it all works [like does it taste different depending on what I eat? Seriously that thought crosses my mind every day], but luckily our bodies seem to know what they are doing and it's mind-boggling!

So all in all, I have been amazed at the female body throughout and now after pregnancy, like most other things with my pregnancy it hasn't been as I expected, but it's all working out anyways. I'm glad to be back to my pre-pregnancy weight and now just need to work on the pre-pregnancy ~~body~~ stomach!

Fall into Wreath Obsession

2011-09-28T17:30:00.000-04:00

With extra yet unpredictable time on my hands, I spend way too much time browsing the internet. These leads to swooning over crafty blogs. [I know. I know. There's dishes to be done, laundry to fold and a house to pick up, but that can't be done 1-handed while holding a ~~demanding~~ beautiful babe like surfing the internet can!] Note: all but one of my posts in the past 32 days, including this one, has been typed one handed! :)

The One-Handed Cause
I don't mind too much! :)

Back on track: Something I stumbled upon is Pinterest. I really have no idea how it works or how to use it but I knew a couple friends have talked about it, so I headed over there and searched their names. Stalker-ish, eh? Anyways, I came across adorable Fall wreaths and then ~~hundreds~~ a lot of blogs/crafty sites with tutorials of gorgeous wreaths. Hence the trip to the craft stores upon Mister's arrival home from work!

I remembered that we had a couple yards of burlap from my grandparents' garage sale--gotta love those "I'll find something to do with this some day" pick-ups--so as Ains snuggled with Chris on the couch I sprawled out with my supplies on the floor.

Fall Decoring Supplies
Fabric Remnants, Ribbon, Leaves, Wreath

At first I thought I was going to make a Fall wreath like the one on this site and then some flowers like the ones on this site. [I like the overall consistency and look of the burlap flowers on the burlap wreath, but didn’t find any other color burlap in the remnant section at the fabric stores.] So that's what I set out to do. Well as with so many of my projects, I found something different I liked better, on accident! I read about how to best cut burlap straight and I followed that tutorial. I realized though that as I went to pull the burlap strand out to create my guide, I liked the effect that it had on the burlap and made a ruffled look. Nevertheless I pulled it all the way out and cut the strip. Then I got to thinking that it'd be prettier if I had the ruffle since my wreath was pretty small. So that's what I set out to do, and here's the jist of how I did it.

Supplies:
Wreath [Mine was a skinny little thing from the Dollar Store]
Burlap
Scrap Fabric for Flowers
Hot Glue Gun [I don't know how I've gone this long without owning one!]

Using the method for cutting a straight strip of burlap, I cut a strip of burlap 2.5" and then wrapped it around my wreath. [I read that if you purchase a straw wreath, to leave the plastic on it so it makes it easier to wrap. This is especially important if you wrap the wreath with yarn!] I needed two strips to wrap all the way around my 13" wreath, securing it with dots of hot glue.

Burlap wrapped Dollar Store Wreath

Then I cut two 5" strips of the burlap. These are the ones that I made the ruffle with. At the 2.5" mark I pulled the string of burlap, careful not to break the string so that I would be able to tie it and "hold" the ruffle. I then secured the ruffle onto the burlap covered wreath using my glue gun.

The next step was to make some flowers. Using a couple Fall-colored fabrics, I set out to make a couple different styles. The first one I made was what's called a button flower by some sites. Basically you cut 8 circles of the same size. [I used the top of an oversized coffee mug as a template.] Then with each circle, you fold it in half and then in half again. [You now have a quarter-circle. Use glue as needed to hold the fabric together.] I used a little scrap of felt to glue 4 of the quarters onto. Then with the remaining 4 quarters, stagger the top layer. The flower can be topped with a button for its center, hence the name. [You can check out The Ribbon Retreat for a full, better tutorial.]

Basic explanation of button & poufy flowers

I made this type of flower in 2 different sizes, but instead of using a button for the center, I ended up putting the one flower on the other and then "finishing" the top flower using the Poufy Flower method. I couldn't get the 9th circle to look as nicely as The Ribbon Retreat ladies could, so I gave it a little help by gluing it where necessary to give it the look I desired.

Poufy Flower Layered on Button Flower

Finally I made two other flowers [brown & yellow] using the rosette method describe by this site. Basically you made a knot at the end of a piece of 2-3" folded fabric and then wrap the fabric around the knot creating the rosette. One thing that I didn't notice when following the tutorials was the suggest to glue as you wrap as needed. I didn't do this, and so I just had to hold tight as I wrapped. next time I'll definitely use the glue every so often method!

Rosette Flowers

The last thing to do is to position the flowers how ever I liked!

Finished Product
inside our house!

I hung the wreath on the inside of our front door. I figured it'd get more appreciation because we have an ugly screen door with flowered gating aka completely blocking the wreath.

After this project, I'm pretty such that I'll be making a wreath for every season! :)

Last but not least, yesterday was Ainsley Jo's 1 month birthday, so we had to take a couple pics! I'm hoping to take a pic every month in a white onesie on the chair to document her growth. Hopefully I stick to it! :)

She wasn't the [most] cooperative!

Cookie Dough Cupcakes

2011-09-27T14:06:00.000-04:00

Caution: This post is actually not about Ainsley! I know it's hard to believe since all posts in the past 4 weeks have solely been about her. This one is about another one of my favorite things: food! :)

So I have a friend who is a baking goddess. She makes delicious food, period, but her desserts are absolutely lovely! This past Saturday, Chris, Ains and I as well as another couple went over to her house for ~~socializing~~ the Buckeye's game. We made homemade pizza from garlicy, cheesy bread to "regular" pizza with all kinds of toppings and then also a dessert pizza--apple streusel! It was all very good. Later she offered some cupcakes that she had made for another occasion. Yes, please! I chose to indulge in a cookie dough cupcake, complete with a chunk of cookie dough in the middle! Yum! Yum! Sara definitely has a knack for cupcakes!

So that was my inspiration for making some cupcakes of my own. And what kind of cupcakes would I make, you ask? Of course that would be chocolate chip cookie dough cupcakes! These weren't "from scratch" but close enough to be much more than the funfetti bakery that I usual stick to! ;) [Isn't there a cooking show about taking boxed items and doctoring them up a bit for a nice/delicious touch?! That's what this is!]

So for the cupcakes, I used a regular box of white cake mix and instead of following the directions on the back, I doctored it up a it based on this website's suggestions. [Note: I was originally drawn to this site because of their free fonts and other blog design suggestions, so check them out!] Without going to the site, you can make a doctored up version of any cake mix by adding the following to the cake mix:

1 sm. box of instant pudding, just the powder DON'T prepare it [I used vanilla.]
1 c. sour cream
1 c. vegetable oil
4 eggs, beaten
1/2 c. milk
1 tsp. vanilla

They also suggestion 2 c. of mini chocolate chips, but that was for chocolate cake so I skipped that suggestion.

Doctoring up ingredients!

You think mix everything together to make a thick batter [stir in the chocolate chips at the very end] and then bake. You can use the timing on the cake mix box as a suggestion. It was accurate for cupcakes. :)

So I scooped the batter into cupcake liners about half full [at first I put in more but it overflowed a bit after the cookie dough and baking. I then put a chunk of frozen chocolate chip cookie dough in each cupcake. It's important to use frozen cookie dough so that the dough doesn't bake along with the batter.

Chris helping putting in the frozen
cookie dough chunks.

I then put a teensy bit of batter on the cookie dough so it would be completely concealed. [I didn't do this at first either, but as a result I think the heat of the oven got to the cookie dough and baked it a bit which caused it to "cave in" a bit. This resulted in filling the cave with frosting to it didn't look funny. I guess that's not a bad thing. :) ]

Pre-baked goodness.

Speaking of frosting, for chocolate chip cookie dough cupcakes, I had to make some cookie dough frosting. I used this site's recipe for cookie dough buttercream. It was pretty easy to make and according to Chris, it was what almost made the cupcake. Note that the butter needs to be at room temperature. So you'll need to set this out before you make the cupcakes so you don't have to wait as long. Or you can take a break to breastfeed your demanding 4-week old. It takes about the same time! If you choose the latter make sure you have a great husband to take out the baked cupcakes when that untimely timer goes off. :)

Cookie Dough Butter Cream

3 sticks unsalted butter, at room temperature
3/4 c. light brown sugar, packed
3.5 c confectioners'/powdered sugar
1 c. all-purpose flour
3/4 tsp. salt
3 tbsp. milk
2.5 tsp. vanilla extract

To make it, beat the butter and brown sugar until creamy. It takes a couple minutes. Mix in the powdered sugar until smooth. Then beat in the flour and salt. Finally mix in the milk and vanilla until it's all smooth and blended. Top your cooled cupcakes!

Final product, in awful lighting!

After the frosting was made and the cupcakes were cooled, I topped the cupcakes and then I put a few chocolate chips for the aesthetic appeal. After they were all iced and topped, Chris and I each enjoyed one with lots of milk! Chris said they were really good, and I thought they were good as well! Not as good as Sara's but that will take a lot more practicing. ;)

My handsome taste-tester.

Even though I wasn't responsible for snacks last night at TFC--I mistakenly thought I was Sunday night which was a reason that I made them--I still took them along for the leaders and our hostess home family. If I didn't, Goal #16 would never be accomplished. No one seemed to mind my little mistake and I even received a text from a leader about ten minutes after leaving that read, "Those cupcakes are AWESOME!! ;)" And my parents didn't seem to have a problem enjoying them as well. Not bad "payment" for watching Ainsley while we were at TFC, I'm sure!

So try them out! And check out Sara's blog for some ~~to drool over~~ delicious recipes!

Dear Ainsley [Week 4]

2011-09-26T14:05:00.000-04:00

Oh Ainsley!

You are now 4 weeks old and you've changed oh so much! Papa Bear and I have already spent time looking at your newborn pics and reminiscing how different life was 3.5 weeks ago! This week I want to highlight some milestones, so to speak, that you've accomplished.

You've discovered your voice.

Exercising your voice while wearing a
shirt that reads "my daddy makes me smile"!
:)

Prior to this week, you cried maybe a handful of times when you were hungry. but this week. you put your lungs to the test on several occasions. Your dad and I are still trying to figure out what your cries always mean, but that's going to take much more studying! :-) Most of the time, it's gas. (This is both reassuring--nothing is really wrong-- and frustrating--not much we can do to help!)

You have projectile spit-up.

Last Saturday (on your 3 week birthday) we were leaving wedding number 4. You were all strapped in to Grandmomma-cita's Lexus and we decided that would be a good time to show your new talent. I was afraid you'd choke on it so quickly got you out of your carseat--in hindsight this was a silly fear as it was afterall projectile vomit. It wasn't staying in your mouth to cause choking. Oh well, I got to hold you a bit and wear a bit of it myself! Oh, and good thing ~~has leather seats~~ Grandmomma loves you because it wiped clean and you can't even tell! Since then you've showed this skill a couple times since Saturday-- namely when Papa gave you a bottle while you were laying down. Bad life decision. All 5 ounces that went "down" came right back up! Forgive us too that we just put a bath towel over the damage instead of changing all the sheets that late at night!

We had a great week feeding.

Without many details, because I know others don't care to read about them, feeding you has been much more pleasureable! This is more of a relief that you will ever know... until you become a mom of course!

You're growing like a weed!

Great Grandma Cow, Ainsley, Sondra,
Grandmomma-cita & Stuart on
Grandmomma's 29th Birthday!

On Tuesday we celebrate Grandmomma's birthday with your aunt, uncles, cousins, and grandparents, and while you didn't enjoy the finger-lickin' chicken or specialty cheesecakes we did break out the baby scale and you weighed 10 lbs. 8 oz. already! That's just under a pound in only 4 days! This makes the mild discomfort of feeding you all worth it!

You like your momma!

4 weeks 1 day
Forgot to take a pic on Saturday between
the birthday party and OSU get together!

Now this may seem silly to mention because of course you like me! I mean who else feeds you around the clock, changes so many of your diaps--okay your dad probably changes more than I do--and is pretty much at your beckon call?! Well no one else of course, but there is something nice knowing that I am able to comfort you pretty much the best. Now at midnight when I'm ready for bed and you're fussing with Papa, I wish I didn't have that "skill", but nevertheless, I enjoy it. Especially last week it was difficult because I was feeling like I always had to do the dirty work aka feed you [uncomfortably], change you and comfort you and then once you were content someone was always "stealing" you so I didn't feel like I was getting to enjoy you as much as everyone else. Now though I don't have those feeling so much and simply enjoy those cuddling, comforting times.

Well baby girl, after four weeks life is pretty good, so I guess we'll keep you! ; )

Love you!
Your Momma

Dear Ainsley [Week 3]

2011-09-17T23:18:00.000-04:00

Dear Ainsley,
I continue to love you more and more each day. You are so beautiful and perfect in every way and I know it's just beginning to bud, but already your little personality is developing.

Thursday we went to school [after I changed clothes because you squirted yellow poo all over me, again] so I could ~~check in with my sub~~ show you off and my coworkers were captivated by your beauty. I'm ready to go back to school because teaching is a passion of mine and I want to ensure my students are getting the best possible education, but I can't imagine leaving you yet. Even for just an hour I'm afraid I'd have some separation anxiety! I'm sure you'd be a champ, as you are a champ at everything! Too bad you can't be my personal assistant and come with me when I have to go back in less than a month! :S

After being at school, we had your '2 week' appointment. This week, especially in the middle of the night when I'd need to pick you up to feed you and I was too lazy to sit up to do so, I could really tell that you had grown. The Doctor confirmed this thought and said you are growing in every way! You weighed in at 9 lbs. 12 oz.--a full 1 lb. 7 oz. increase since your appointment when you were but 5 days old-- and you have increased in length/height by 3/4 of an inch! Part of this was such a relief, not because I was afraid that you weren't growing since I could feel that, but because I was encouraged and reminded that I was the one who has been providing all that nutrition for you to grow like a lil' weed! Outside of a few drops of glucose water in the hospital, you haven't had a bit of nutrition [does gluclose water count as nutrition anyways?!] that hasn't came from me. I needed this bit of encouragement. It's a honor to be the one who feeds you and provides for you in that way, but it hasn't been easy nor enjoyable all the time. "It's not supposed to hurt" but yowzers, you're a little beracuda at times and your start up is a bit painful at times. Thankfully this is continuing to get better and just when I want to throw in the towel, you are a champ and eat ~~well~~ painfree. I appreciate that, it's like you somehow know when I need things the most and you pull through for me.

Speaking of things I appreciate and your "sixth sense", even this morning your papa bear and I were praising you because of how great of a babe you are! Despite your momma not feeling so hot and only being able to feed you for a bit of time, you were content and peaceful until the next 3 hours had passed and it was time to eat again. This gave momma plenty of time to ~~hang out on the pot~~ try to make myself feel better! Your papa made the comment this morning that you make being a parent easy, and baby girl, it's still holding true. Do you sleep through the night, patiently wait to be fed after speaking that you're getting hungry, and then change your own diap? [That would make being a parent of a newborn super easy!] Not so much. You still wake every 4th hour ate night, sometimes your meal time is proceeded with some impatient wailing, and you poop on me instead of in your diaper, but all things considered you are one easy 3-week old precious baby girl!

Snuggled up in comfy clothes after another wedding!

Your papa and I love you to the moon and back and we are so thankful that we are your parents!

Momma & Ainsley Jo
3 weeks old

All my love baby girl.

Momma

P.S. Thanks to your feeding schedule, your papa and I were up at your official 3-week birthday and wished you a happy day at 3:17 a.m. this morning! :)

Goal #41 "Tuesday" Night Questions

2011-09-15T18:40:00.001-04:00

41. Answer Tuesday Night Questions consistently for 12 weeks.

One of the things that we talked about when we celebrated our 2nd Anniversary was ways to stay connected and in love for a very long time. [Good goal, eh?] Well I mentioned in my anniversary post about a blog that had some wonderful ideas. This is where Tuesday Night Questions came into play. [Tuesdays is simply what worked for us initially. It's just a coincidence that the original source used Tuesday's too.] Since Ainsley's birth, Chris hasn't worked Wednesday morn

I liked the questions that the couple asked each other and felt like they pretty much covered everything--or at least were conversation starters to cover other topics that needed to be covered. So for the last 12 weeks, Chris and I have been intentional about setting aside time to ask each other the following 4 questions:

1. How did you feel loved this past week?
2. What does your upcoming week look like?
3. How would you feel most loved & encouraged in the days ahead? [Need motivation for anything?]
4. How would you feel best pursued in sex/intimacy this week?

They aren't super profound, but they help to make sure that we're on the same page and each other's needs/wants are being met. It's also a time to show appreciation for your needs/wants being met [particularly through question #1].

One thing that came up in a recent conversation was that Mister felt like his creative love was getting a bit dusty and needed to use it a bit more. Well that he did!

Yesterday morning after all three of us slowly woke, we headed out for a walk to the park. Mister had made a scroll [scrolls have become pretty significant in our relationship] and he wanted to go there to give it to me. It was an absolutely beautiful Fall day so I was all about the walk. [There's a park about 3ish blocks from our house.] We loaded Ains in the stroller and headed out the door.

Taking in the Fall beauty and chatting away, we were about 3/4 of the way there when Chris suddenly stopped. "Uh, I lost it." The scroll that he had put in his back pocket was no longer there. We looked where we were and then headed back towards our house to find it. There wasn't great significance in being at the park when I read it, so once we found it [5 houses from our house] we just headed back home and he gave it to me there.

As you can see, the scroll was dropped pretty close to our house. Not so close to the park. :)

Mister with his/my scroll.

Sitting on the front porch, I read the words written directly from his heart to mine:

And Then There Were Three...

When we began our journeY all I was thinking abOut was the two of Us, together, forever. Ah what bliss I pictured us togetheR! I may have imaginEd the journey with kids somewhere in the mix, but it wAs mostly just the two of us walking hand-in-hand through life.

Of course, as our journey proGressed I began to entertain the amazing thought of Raising a family with you, and the joy of that prospect drEw us onto that part of the journey.

No longer is it just you And me walking through life hand-in-hand, seeing whaT kind of adventures we can get ourselves into. Now it's you and me and Ainsley, wakling hand-in-hand-on-stroller. And I love it!

I wouldn't trade it for just the two of us. Getting to see your warM tenderness with our daughter is whAt I consider pure bliss now. Seeing how you care for her as you nurse her is really aMazing! Watching you selflessly chAnge diapers, pump extra milk, take time away from teaching, give up sleep to keep her fed and clean: what a great start Ainsley is getting Because of you.

I fall more in lovE with you as I see you do these things. I am so fortunAte to be on this journey with you.

Thank you my beautiful bride and perfect mama bear!

Love,

Papa Bear

9-13-11

Notice the bolded capital letters, just like in his "asking out" scroll, they had their own message.

We continued in meaningful, intentional conversation before heading in to pack up to go to his parents' house. We were going to be learning some basics of canning by making grape jelly! And I think Grandma & Grandpa Massie wanted to see lil' Ainsley! :)

And Then There Were Three...

This is just an example of the good that has come out of our Tuesday Night Questions. I appreciate and feel cherished when Chris expresses himself in this way and he also feels like he's tapping into various aspects of his personality by showing love in this way. [I hope that part about him makes sense. He really does enjoy it. It's not all about me! :)]

So if you aren't taking time to connect with your spouse, I highly suggest that you start now, even if you've been married for decades! I hope to keep this habit a habit for many years to help me stay best connected to my best friend.

P.S. I've hit 5,007 blog views in the history of this blog! Thanks for checking it out and reading it! I hope you [whoever you are] enjoy the glimpse into our ordinary life that we try to live out extraordinarily. I always find it fascinating, and an honor, when I see people out and about and they tell me that they read my blog. I appreciate you taking time out of your busy lives to read about ours. :)

Goal #1 Accomplished!

2011-09-15T10:13:00.001-04:00

Goal #1: No fast food for a month—including drinks *cough* McDonald’s Sweet Tea.

Accomplished.

I would never say that I have been a fast food junkie, but I did eat more than is healthy--which would be any, right?! I would go on spurts where I'd eat it more often than other times [such as a span of about 2 weeks when I would regularly swing by McDonalds for a breakfast sandwich and the largest cup of OJ I could get them to serve me!] Every once in a while I have a craving for a fake hamburger--that's what I like to call hamburgers from fast food joints because, really how much hamburger do you think makes them up--but usually what draws me to a fast food drive-thru is a thirst quenching drink!

So for the month of July, I made it my goal to have no fast food for the entire month. But on July 20th after a discouraging doctor's appointment, my sweet husband brought home a large Sweet Tea from McDonalds. On several occasions, I really wanted a Sweet Tea from Mickey D's, but I withheld but not this day! I enjoyed every last drop! And then we had a huge garage sale down in Greenville at my grandparent's house the last weeknd of July. Lunchtime came around and we decided Subway was on the menu. After enjoying my 6" Club on Italian Herb & Cheese bread, "Dang it! I just ate fast food!" went through my head.

Along came August and I actually stuck to this goal! All 31 days of it! Thankfully I didn't put "no fast food or fair food" or I'd be working on this goal in September! :) It was harder than I thought to keep this goal, simply due to when I was out and about and really thirsty I had to resist the temptation of a Sweet Tea or other $1 mega-large drink! And there were a couple times that I just wanted a fake burger between meals that would've held me over to real meal time but just like they taught us in DARE, "Just say no!"

Innocence of a Child

2011-09-14T18:11:00.001-04:00

The past couple weeks especially I have observed something I find very interesting:

The innocence/carefreeness* of a child--and the lack thereof.

Two Saturdays ago we were at my friend's mom's wedding and the bride's son was a dancing machine. This 10-ish year-old was so happy in general, but he was also definitely cuttin' a rug with those dance moves! He didn't care who was--or wasn't--dancing with him, he had a move for every beat and was having a blast! [And we were all having a blast watching him!] After a couple songs, he had enlisted 2 of his friends to dance the night away as well, but it was clear that he was the leader as the other two were 'taking' dance moves from him! We called it a night relatively early [it's amazing how babe's do that to you!] but even as we were leaving, Jordan was still tearing it up!

Fast forward to this past Saturday. We were at my cousin's wedding reception [yes, this marked wedding #3 for Ainsley already, we have just one more this coming Saturday]. Here there was another "Jordan" tearing up the dance floor. A little girl, probably about ten [I'm not real sure as she was from the bride's side], who was a serious dancer! It didn't matter what the song or the genre, she had moves for it! For most songs, she even knew the words and were belting those out as well! Now the week before with Jordan and the other boys, they were dacning their hearts out, but their dance moves were pretty much the same from song to song--disco, shaking booties, etc.--not this girl. Her moves actually coordinated with the music being played! This girl was also a blast to watch! After several songs there were two other little girls [sisters] that joined the Dancing Queen. One one probably 8 or 9 and the other about 4.

Here's where it got kind of interesting. The Dancing Queen [that's what I'm going to name her ~~to protect her identity~~ since I don't know her name] tried to get the older sister to dance all crazily like she was, but the older sister, who was willing to dance, didn't seem like she wanted to dance like that. She even seemed to try to "tame down" the dancing queen by holding her arms down when she wanted to swing them up in the air [like she jus' don't care!] Later I noticed the older sister trying to hold the yonger sister's hands and "control" her dance moves as well. Lil' sis was dancing like the Dancing Queen or like you would expect a carefree 4-year-old to dance! The big sister was unsuccessful here as well and every once in awhile, I noticed she was dancing a little crazily too! :)

Okay, now it's Sunday. Mister, Ains and I were ~~walking~~ strolling to church and a few houses down there were two little kids playing outside with what had once been a big cardboard box--it was now a big unfolded piece of cardboard, perfect for each to wrap around themselves and "drive" the other one around. Of course the person in the backseat had to be facing backwards for this to work! ;) As we approached them on the sidewalk, they were having a great time and just about to switch drivers. It was almost as if the older sister--this time about 5 and the little brother was about 4--suddenly was too old to be doing what she was doing, especially in front of strangers. She looked at us and kind of rolled her eyes and said, "My brother wants me to do this!" About that time the little boy took off crazily running and about left big sis in the dust. We told the little girl that it was okay, because it looked like a lot of fun! Both were laughing like little ones should be when playing outside together on a gorgeous day!

Chris and I smiled at each other as we continued on to church.

And now for the point of these stories--I know, you were beginning to wonder if I had one!--as we continued to walk, I turned to Mister and said, "Let's be sure to help Ainsley to be a little girl and not think she has to grow up so fast!"

Did you notice that similar string in all three stories? There's a sense of carefreeness about little kids. They don't care what they are "supposed" to do or what is socially accepted, they do what makes them happy and what they think they should be doing in that moment. That's something special. That's something that is grown out of way too soon. The big sisters in the last two stories were already catch up in doing what their innocent hearts desired compared to what "others think".

I know I too easily get caught up in this. I don't sing like no one is listening--I ~~don't think I can carry a tune in a bucket~~ have no musical confidence. I recall my junior high English teacher telling us that she only sings for God and her babies because they don't judge. It takes quite a bit of courage to sing to Ains! I don't dance like no one is watching--I'm guilty of desiring that my 4-year old niece would be at the weddings so I could dance with her because no one judges when an adult dances goofy with a little kid, only when they dance goofy by themselves, right?!

It is my goal as a mother to Ainsley and any future children, that I don't get caught up in being too "grown-up" and as a result not let my kids be kids. There's even a couple websites that I came across this past summer that is all about avoiding Adultitis and Escaping Adulthood. Check 'em out!

So what do you do to remain childlike? What could you be doing to remain childlike?! Leave a comment, make a suggestion, and let's challenge each other to be more innocent and carefree!

*I recognize that carefreeness isn't a word, but English isn't my thing. Making up words is. :)

Dear Ainsley [2 Weeks]

2011-09-11T21:43:00.005-04:00

Dear Sweet Baby Girl,
You are 2 weeks old today [I wrote this yesterday but did publish it : ) ] and while that time has gone by quickly, I can't imagine life without you. It seems as if you've always been a part of our family and the day you were born seems so long ago.

You've had quite the second week of life. You've been to 2 more church services--making this Sunday's service #5 in your lil' life. You've also been to Greenville to visit/meet your Great Grandma Clum. You've attended wedding #2 and 3 this week. You have also attended your first high school football games which the Bearcats toppled the Mustangs--I hope you enjoyed the game because we'll be attending many more as you get older I am sure!

This week you've also blown your Papa Bear and I away--almost literally--with the power of your little body. A nurse at the hopsital warned us that breastfed babies will have what sounds like ginormous bowel movements and then very little be in the diap [which makes sense because poo is waste and there is very little wasted from breastmilk.] You baby girl know how to rip 'em. You'll wake us from our sleep or catch our attention from the other room and I have to be honest your dad and I are like ten year old boys and still laugh hysterically. I'm not laughing when your diap is off and you decide to let loose though. :S

Sseriously though I love being your momma. You bring such joy to everyone you encounter and an indescribable joy to me. In the 2 short weeks of your life, I feel like you've grown and changed so much and taught me so much. Being your momma is easy to do because you're such a great baby. People ask all the time how were adjusting, and really, you make that adjustment way easier than I imagined it would be. I've already warned your papa on several occasions that your younger sibiling will likely be a terror because you're so wonderful and pleasant. Let's hope not but you've set the standard pretty high! Your papa is worried about having baby number 2 because he doesn't want favorites and can't imagine you not being his favorite. [You're quite lucky to have a dad so in love with you!]

Ains & Momma after cousin Josh's wedding
2 weeks old

I love you sweet baby girl! And you are already growing up way too fast! Slow down, I'm trying not to blink!

Much love,
Your Momma