Little Lamb of the Month

Carter is sweet. There are so many endearing things about her that I've lost count. I feel compelled to mention that there are also quite a few not so endearing things to counter act the sweetness, but I'm not dwelling on those today. Today, I'm dwelling on her sweetness. Do you know that this precious little girl spent an entire afternoon this week assisting me? As I picked up and cleaned one afternoon she "wanted to help"...I gave her a task and she quickly completed it, only to return and ask, "What can I do for you now Mommy?" Over and over and over again, until I had actually run out of little things for her to do. Sometimes I'm simply overwhelmed by her eagerness and desire to please (that desire can be pretty under-whelming too, especially when she decides she doesn't want to do something, but like I said, I'm not focusing on that today).

This year has been Carter's first year of Sunday School. She is in the Little Lambs class, and starting today she is the "Little Lamb" of the month. She has an entire bulletin board with photos of her from birth on up doing some of her favorite things. She was more than a little excited to get to, "tell all of her friends about her family." She was also pretty excited because she realized this morning that one of her favorite cartoon characters Annie (off of Disney's Little Einsteins) actually "looks like her." She figured it out on her own, pointing out to me that they both have blue eyes, and later insisting that I put her hair in pigtails just like Annie. I went as far as to start calling her Annie, but she quickly let me know that was a bit much, she wasn't actually Annie, they just looked like each other. So, without further ado, here is our little lamb Annie...

I mean Carter...

Proudly showing off her bulletin board...

I'm am so thankful to have this smile to brighten up my world. A picture of her from a year ago can literally make me cry because I cannot believe how much she has grown, but I wouldn't trade the age she is at for anything. She says and does the funniest things, she keeps me on my toes, she can make a funny face better than anyone I have ever seen, she has learned to pray (even though each one is the same, Dear God-Thank you for this day, and thank you for a sweet daddy...amen), she loves popcorn, baby dolls, coloring, baths, stickers and chocolate milk, with reckless abandon. I've never felt comfortable fudging the truth about the moment Carter was born...I didn't have that alleluia experience, you know the one where people say the heavens opened and the angels sang and they were never the same again. For me it was a little more gradual, but I know this, she has stolen my heart and I fear I will never get it back.

Life Happens

I've been feeling it for a while now. Stressed sort of doesn't do it justice. When I sit down and think about what a contradiction my situation is I can actually find the amusement. A little more than three years ago the birth of Carter symbolized the birth of something else in my life. It all started with her birth announcements to be exact. Forever in search a "good deal" I decided I could probably whip something pretty cute up myself. I did. And not only were they cute I had a lot of fun doing them. From there it has sort of just been a natural progression...I realized at some point other people would actually pay me money to do these kinds of things for them. As a stay-at-home mom, who some days barely got out of her sweats, there was something pretty fun about that. It was also pretty fun to get paid for being creative. But, lately it's not so fun anymore. No one thing is to blame except maybe myself. I just know that over the past few years as life has happened the stress I sometimes put on myself has not made me a better wife or a better mom. This whole thing sort of started because of our beautiful little girl and it pains me that at times it has been the reason I wasn't "available" to her. This is all amplified greatly by the fact that Nate's been gone a lot lately. I mean at least when he's here I can put things off until he's home to pick up the slack, but right now that just isn't possible. We had a real heart to heart this afternoon and the outcome is this. Two giant steps back. Right now I have to let this go. I'm not sure for how long but I know that the weight it took off my shoulders feels really good. I have a dream for this whole thing...but I think that dream will just have to wait. I'm pulling the plug on my website (it was pretty "homemade" to begin with), and my hope is that someday in the not so distant future .com will be back and better than ever. I'm going to let my creativity be just that for a while. I'm sure I'll enjoy doing a few things here and there for friends and family...but by in large I'll be saying No. That's not always easy for me, but as the saying goes practice makes perfect. I know this news isn't anything earth shattering...it's just sort of big in my little world. For those of you have been supportive with your words and your money I am more than thankful and love you for it. For those of you that were going to let me do your Christmas Cards for you this year I'm sorry, but I also know there are a billion and one other cute options out there and you will find something fabulous! I'm sure most of you are aware of that and were just being sweet to "hire" me, that means a lot. So, someday when the time is right maybe I'll have that sweet little shop on the corner of some fun little town that we wind up in....my website will be rockin'...my babies will be in school...my creativity will once again make me a little money...but, as far as I'm concerned all that can wait. I'm doing my best to be my best today, and tomorrow, and the next day...hopefully this step will just be something that helps me achieve that goal. I just need to take some time to enjoy the little things in my life, I know this is a season that I will never get back...

There's a new Girl in town

I wasn't feeling great this afternoon so Nate, being the sweet guy that he is, came home from work and took Carter grocery shopping. It was kinda' necessary because we were pretty much out of EVERYTHING...and if I'm being honest I didn't leave him much choice because I was practically dying on the couch and couldn't move (it has since passed, but felt life threatening at the time). Anyway, they just returned, it sounds like Carter was a perfect angel and she is in the BEST mood...how come that never happens to me?! Maybe this is partly due to the fact that he bought her some new bubbles, and nothin' says lovin' like some new hot pink bubbles with a flower wand! She couldn't wait to show me and was going on and on about heading out to the porch to do bubbles by daddy's girl. She repeated it several times and I was puzzled. Who was the girl daddy had been keeping from me and why did she live on the porch, then it hit me, not girl...grill. Got it.



p.s. These are the kinds of things my husband comes home with from the grocery store. I mean overall he did a great job of keeping it normal, these however are not included in the staple items I usually buy...

I'm thankful for two things:

1. Pop Tarts are not in the least bit tempting to me. I mean we would literally have to be out of all things that contained sugar in our kitchen before I would be tempted to grab a pop tart.

2. The corn is "PictSweet" which I'm assuming is the manufacturers clever way of assuring us it was picked at the point of perfection, which also means it should be real tasty.

I'll hold out hope, or maybe I'll just secretly move it to the back of the freezer and we'll find it when we clean out the fridge on our next big move.

All jokes aside, I picked a pretty sweet one myself, my guy is as good as they come.

Wide Hiny

We needed a little outing last night and headed to the Oak Harbor pool. When it's freezing outside there is no better place to get warm. So, we knew Carter would have fun, that much we had anticipated, what we had not anticipated was that we would also be privy to the cheapest entertainment in the O.H. (cheap because it was absolutely free to be exact)! I was actually fairly oblivious until at some point Nate looked at me from the pool (because I tend to shy away from putting on my swimsuit when the temperature drops below 70) and mouthed, "What is going on here?!" At which point I was suddenly very aware of the aerobics "teacher" who was very enthusiastically leading a class one pool over. At the risk of winning "tackiest blog of the year" I just had to share this video that I "secretly" shot...

Sam, Katie, and Kimberly (if your reading this) she has to be the long lost sister of our Body Pump teacher from Jacksonville!!! I literally had tears running down my face and when she shouted for everyone to have a "Wide Hiny" it became very hard to hide my amusement! What exactly is a "Wide Hiny" anyway?! Carter decided to get her tiny hiny in on the action and do a little water aerobics of her own...

And, in case you are still reading this (and haven't dis-owned me for my tackiness) there's more...

Ok, I'm done now. Here is Nate and his mini me...

And, is it just me, or does this track suit make Carter look like she's 12!?

We might just have to make Monday night "Pool Night" at the house!

Freeze

I remember loving freeze tag as a kid. Such a simple concept. Freeze the person and then, if you were like us, crawl through their legs and they were "unfrozen"...come to think of it, that may have actually been chinese freeze tag, but that's beside the point. Anyway, thinking about freeze tag got me thinking how now that I'm all grown up I wish I could freeze something else...time. Time is once again my enemy. Time ticks by, the days are flying, and Nate just got his NALO message yesterday, which, for those of you who don't know, means he has an exact date and time to hit the road again. Two weeks and counting. Is it me or did he just get back? I realize we are in the throes of the sacrifice he signed up for...is it possible to be overwhelmingly proud and and at the same time incredibly tired of saying goodbye? This one will be tough. Not only will Nate be missing Turkey, he'll also be missing Santa. These things just don't seem quite as fun when your family of three is celebrating as two. I'm determined to put on my happy face and make things merry and bright for Carter...that's what good moms are supposed to do and I can't let her down. I am also determined to have perspective...our situation is only one in a sea of military separations, those of you who face the same or worse are in my prayers...whether I know you or not there is a kindred connection in my heart. So, I'm am thankful, now more than ever that we were able to escape this impending reality for a short while and in an effort to lift my own slightly damp spirit here are the last of our photos from vacation. These appropriately are the "family" ones. The three of us enjoying things together...my favorite pastime...

I Heart Austin

Austin is cool. It just got cooler because my sister now lives there, but that just pushed it over the top, it was already one of my favorite places. It now has a new sweet spot in my heart because it just happens to be where my hunky hub swept me off to during our trip to Texas. Over the last couple of years we've missed a lot of days of seeing each other (as in laying eyes on the other person) and unfortunately we're not done yet. This is not ideal when you are really crazy about another person. So, Nate was adamant about he and I taking a little trip just the two of us and that was more than ok with me! Carter was taken care of (aka having some heavy duty spoiling) by Roxi and Pops and I knew she was in the best of hands. We were off and free to spend 4 nights and 5 days with very little on our minds but each other. That my friends is the best gift any man can give his wife...my husband is pretty good at figuring these things out! There was no skimping on the good things. He had arranged our stay at the Hyatt on Town Lake. Gorgeous, and modern which is just another thing I love about this guy, he actually knows what I like (he realizes I would prefer something with mod decor over something traditional any day of the week, he is very familiar with the term aesthetically pleasing, how did I get so lucky!?)

our hotel...

mod lobby...

our room...and the exact spot where I sat and happily ate double stuffed oreos in bed...life was good...

Room #737...

And believe or not, or just believe it cause' it's true, I forgot my camera! How does that always happen!? It was sort of liberating though because I didn't feel the need to try and "capture" every little thing, I just enjoyed it. It's not like we were doing anything crazy that would really merit a lot of photos anyway, there was no skydiving or anything like that. There was really just a whole lot of sleeping, and snugglin' and S.E....well, you get the point! We also ate WAY too much, because self-admittedly we go nuts when our options aren't limited to Wendy's and Craplebee, I mean Applebee's. We saw movies, held hands everywhere we went, and took our time. We went for runs around Town Lake, well, if I'm being honest I went for one run and then slept in while Nate, who is diligent and Holy, went every other morning. We enjoyed laying out at the pool (cause' it was HOT in Texas) and getting "the look" from people with small children...you know "the look" that says, "Hmmm you just don't know what it's like to manage life with kids." Which left me wanting to explain that I knew good and well and we were just on a romantic get-a-way and there wasn't a second that went by that I wasn't thinking about my own baby girl...but then I would smile, cause' they probably didn't want to hear it. We also spent one glorious afternoon at the spa having a couples massage. After which I professed my undying love to Nate and praised him to the high heavens for being the kind of guy that will do things like that with me! Just one of the million and one things to love about him.

Milk & Honey...

And the other happy part about Austin was having built in friends now that Kim and John live there! It was so fun to have them to double date with...and use for their digital camera! So, I do have a few pictures to prove we had a Fabulous time! On one of our evenings with Kim and John we had dinner and then waited with a ton of other people for dusk on the Congress bridge. That's when the bats that live under the bridge all fly out...creepy but interesting so we decided to check it out!

waiting for the bats...

my best compadre...

kim and john...they're cute...

And, as a complete side note, I'm so glad she married John. He's perfect for her in every way, and he and Nate can do things like this together, because they are 2 peas in a pod...

So, after the bat phenomena, which was a little hard to see because they are smaller and a lot less black than you would think, we were off to play putt-putt...but not before we found a cool setting on the camera that let us take lots of pictures like this...

love birds...

Putt putt was a sentimental stop because the place we played is where Nate and I had one of our very first dates. It's also where my brother just happened to show up acting completely clueless as to the fact that we were going to be there and proceeded to spy on us...gotta' love a little bro.! On this particular night people were feeling awfully competitive...

This is one serious putt putter...

serious I tell you...

and dedicated...

and her husband wanted to beat her very badly...

We met several very nice animals a long the way...

Kim assured us this bunny was friendly, but I think he kinda' scared poor Nathan...

Kim and I could really identify with this guy...

And, Nate just couldn't resist giving me a few pointers...

We topped off the evening with some delish Amy's Ice Cream...

There is no telling how much fun we would have with these people if we ever get a chance to live in the same place! Thank you isn't enough for all you did to help make this special (and possible)! Y'all are awesome, Austin is lucky to have you....

And now for Nate. Thanks for this trip. Four little words are hardly enough to convey all that it meant to my heart. Thank you for giving me this love story and this life to be a part of...I'm happy. I'm proud, to be your wife and to stand by your side. Thank you for giving me this time to feel focused on and indulged...I am better for it. Thank you for allowing me to spend so much time with the best friend I never get to see, I loved getting to hang out with my sister. Thank you for not batting an eyelash at all the new additions to mine and C's wardrobes...Austin has fabulous shopping, Oak Harbor does not...thank you for recognizing the difference! Thank you for wonderful conversation about where we are in life, and where we are going. It's beautiful to be living in this very moment with you. You are more than I could have ever asked for as a husband to me and a dad to Carter. You, you, you....I love you.

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