Unsure

A few weeks ago, we decided that Cooper would start going to a mother's day out program a couple days a week. My dad wants a little break during the day and I don't blame him one bit. I have no problem sending Coop to 'school' but (obviously) I want to find a place that we are comfortable with.

We live about 20 minutes away from my parents' house, and we work about 30 minutes away. And, since MDO's are usually 9-2ish, we need to find a place out where my parents live, since my dad will be taking him and picking him up.

Today, we went to look at a pretty highly recommended program at a church I'm familiar with. But, I don't know, I didn't get a GREAT feeling about it for some reason. Cooper was really happy while we were there, and he was laughing with one of the women who works in the office. But the teacher we met with from his would-be classroom..I didn't love her. I want to love his teachers.

And, they have a strange thing about picking up the kids. It starts at 9:30am, and they don't open the doors until 9:25, okay, very specific, a little weird, but fine (And i'm always early so maybe it's just me thinking that's weird). THEN, it ends at 2, and if you are late, you have to pay them a fine right then and there. If you arrive between 2:05 and 2:15, you have to pay $5, and if you arrive between 2:15 and 2:30, you have to pay $10. I think that's weird, right? It makes me feel like they don't really care enough about the children to stay a few minutes or something.

Also, I filled out an enrollment form about 2 weeks ago because there were limited spots available and I wanted to have the option, and I never heard anything back from them. Well, come to find out today, they had just enrolled him and never said anything to us! The lady was like "oh, yeah, we were out all last week for Thanksgiving break". That's not a good reason to me not to let someone know you've enrolled their child.

BUT, I'm also super picky about things like that. If someone doesn't runt heir office like I think they "should" (i.e., how I would do it) then I get annoyed, which I know is ridiculous. So, maybe I'm being overly critical? I don't know. All I know is that the more I've thought about it today, the more unsure I am :(

I'm frustrated with myself for not being more proactive about this because I've known for almost a month and sort of just assumed I'd be okay with this place because it was recommended by several people, so I didn't even look at other options. We were planning on him starting in January, so I need to figure this out soon!

Catching up!

Heeeyy!! I feel like I've been living under a rock for the past week. I haven't gotten on blogger ONE TIME!! I've been mostly enjoying my time off with my sweet boy :)

We had a pretty low key Thanksgiving. Nothing too exciting. Lee's parents came up and we ate at my parents' house. We don't have a lot of family so it's just me, my brother, and my parents around the holidays. And lee of course. And his parents, when they come up. They usually alternate with his sister, so they'll be going to spend Christmas with her and her family. I've never met her, did you know that? Weird I know. Long story short, she lived in Alaska until a month before Cooper was born, so that's pretty much why.

Anywho, we just hung around at my parents' house eating way too much and taking about a million pictures of Cooper. I wanted to get a cute one of him but he has been so cranky lately that he wasn't interested in smiling for the camera. We managed to get these two:

And then he took a nap and cuddled with me on the couch :) He never lays with me anymore so I was loving it!

Later in the weekend, I took a couple of him while we were playing around in his room. I made him wear this stocking cap! Haha, he will probably hate me for it, but he's so cute!

:)

Lee and I took off today, and we ran several errands that we'd been putting off because of the crowds. Then Cooper helped us put the lights on the house. It was a little windy so we put a hat on him. Please also notice that he is wearing gloves (heehee, so little and cute!) but we didn't feel the need to put SHOES on the kid? Because that makes sense :)

Those cheeks. Love them.
Okay enough about me, I'm off to catch up on all your blogs! I can't believe I'm so far behind :(

Weekend Recap!

I didn’t do too much this weekend.  The one thing I really had myself psyched up to do was to paint a bedroom, but, uh, that didn’t actually happen.  Surprise!  Maybe over Thanksgiving weekend?  We’ll see.

Friday I took the day off work to go to a meeting about a potential new job opportunity that has been in the works for a little while.  I was interested, but not sure I wanted to go for it, so I went to this meeting to see what they had to say about it.  And, I LOVED it!  So, now begins a fairly involved process and a lot of work on my end, but I’m really excited about the potential this has to offer!  No details for now, but I’ll let y’all in if/when the time comes.  It’s far from a done deal at this point. J

Friday night Lee came home from a long week away for work and we were very happy to have him back!  Aside from the obvious reasons of it being good to have your husband back, I was really excited to get a good night’s sleep.  I slept horribly the nights that he was away.  You know, because I’m scared.  Of ghosts.  I know, it’s stupid.  Whatever.  Cooper was so excited he was home, that he slept in until SIX FORTY FIVE Saturday morning!!  That’s over 2 hours later than normal!  It was awesome.

Saturday morning, Jackie and I went to a giant craft fair, Affair of the Heart.  I love things like that so I was so happy that she also wanted to go.  We wanted to get there early to beat the crowd, and it’s a good thing we did.  We arrived 30 minutes after it started and it was so nice to leisurely walk around and get to see everything we wanted with no pushing or shoving.  And then about 45 minutes after we arrived, we realized what a MAD HOUSE the place had become.  We were determined to see everything so we pushed our way through (sometimes, quite literally, pushed!).  I left with one thing; a Christmas gift for my mom.  And it’s a good thing that I don’t have, or know anyone that has, a little girl.  OMGeee.  The girl clothes they had were A-freaking-dorable!  The Christmas outfits alone were incredible.  Of course, a MINIMAL amount of boy items were available.  And the ones that were, well, uh, I could have made them.  Except for this cute turkey shirt that Cooper NEEDED, but was only available in 18 months, and clearly, that would not work.  The lady working that booth did not appreciate me asking if she had any other sizes.  Probably because, while in her booth, she heard me say the following:

“These socks are really cute, I’d buy them if they weren’t $6”, and, while holding up a Christmas t-shirt and realizing that it was a college football team that my husband would not approve of “OH, this says OSU, we CAN’T get that”, and “ohh look at this cute guitar bib!  Wow, not for $10.50 thought!”. 

Haha, sorry but I thought things were a little pricey at her booth!  She didn’t like me.  That’s okay. J

So after about 3 hours there, we left and I took a nap.  Then Lee went over to a friend’s house for the evening to watch the OU game and I stayed home and did laundry and caught up on DVR shows.  And got annoyed when I realized that Lee took all the beer with him.

On Sunday, Jenny ran her first marathon!!!!  Yayyy!!!  So we all went out to support her.  We made fun signs too, but I don’t have a picture.  I bet that Jackie will when she posts about it.  So we went out to cheer for her at the 6 mile mark, the 19ish mile mark, and at the finish!  It was really so much fun to see not only her (obviously), but also all of the other runners.  I got a little teary eyed several times, mostly at the 19ish mile mark when we saw her and then again at the finish when we were waiting for her to run over the hill.  It really was a great experience, from a spectator standpoint, so I can’t even imagine the emotions of the runners.  So proud of you Jenny!

After the race, I picked up Cooper and we went to Target and the grocery store.  He likes shopping J And, while at the grocery store, someone, YET AGAIN, made the comment “he sure doesn’t miss a meal”, and I’d had enough.  You people who have kids, do people say this to you all.the.time?  They do to us and I get so annoyed.  I mean, no, he does NOT miss a meal, but it’s not like he’s some giant baby.  And if he was, that would be fine, but he’s not.  People just don’t know what else to say, so they say THAT and it really annoys me.  So I said “actually he is pretty average size”.  Take that, grocery store employee.

That’s about all we did this weekend.  I’m hoping to be super productive around the house next weekend, since I will have a 5-day one!  I’m only working today and tomorrow, and I’m off next Monday J

What a week

I started to write a post about how strange and annoying this week has been, but it didn't make any sense at all. So instead, I'll say this:

It's been a WEEK.

And I'm not sure why, exactly. It just has. Maybe I'm dramatic? No, surely not me.

Lee has been out of town and I've been having to work later than normal so I haven't been getting Cooper at the normal time, which means I basically get to spend zero time with him in the evenings because he goes to bed at 6. And even that's been pushed back a couple of days because we just haven't gotten home in time.

I've been going to bed super late. Think 11, when I normally hit the hay at 9. And I don't sleep well when I'm home alone because I get scared. And then the dogs wake up at 4 to go to the bathroom, and then Cooper wakes up at 4:30. WTH? Is he trying to make me go crazy?

I've had a million things to do at work, and each one of them just reminds me of how much I don't like what I do (sorry to beat a dead horse on this one). To be perfectly honest, I do NOT know what I'm doing at work. It's over my head. And I don't even TRY to learn it, because I simply do.not.care. This is 100% unlike me and it is so frustrating. It's not like me to not try and excel at things and it just makes me feel...blah. And defeated and I don't like feeling like that. It's draining. I know I preached on and on last week about how I've let this go and am trusting that I will find something else when the time is right, but sometimes it's more difficult to do that.

Some college friends and I planned a girls weekend for January, and now I'm not sure if I can even go because of something work-related that I didn't even think of. Some of the girls have already bought their plane tickets so the date is a done deal and I'm bummed about it. I'm going to see if it's a problem if I'm gone for a Friday but I don't know if it will be alright.

Ummmm, oops. I think I went ahead and actually DID the post about why my week has been crappy. Ha.

Oh well. I feel better now.

Thanks for listening :)

And don't worry about me (because I know you were worried). This is going to be a fun weekend, and then it'll be a short Thanksgiving week at work!

My pity party is officially over :)

The weekend I didn't intend to have

Most Fridays, I finish up my work week with a pretty good sized list of to-dos, and this weekend was no different. But, with everything that I DID have on my list, something else seemed to happen.

I had every intention of painting over the weekend. I intended to paint the extra room so that we can move Coop's room. Instead, I ended up painting our bookcases and touching up not only the living room around that, but also some places in the kitchen that needed some attention.

I planned on picking up around the house, but I did NOT plan to give our entire living room and kitchen a huge scrub down, including cleaning the blinds. which is exactly what happened.

I knew that we would spend Friday evening with my in-laws, since they were in town to help out with watching Cooper wile my parents went on a weekend trip. I did not know that Lee was going to invite them to come over Saturday to watch the OU game, which they did. They also ended up staying all evening too.

I wanted to try working with Cooper on going down for naps better, which I did. I just laid him down in his crib and let him whine until he fell asleep, going in as few times as possible :) By his 3rd nap the first day, he didn't fuss much at all. I did not think that I would go ahead and start trying to let him cry it out at night, but naptime went so well, I tried it Saturday night. It wasn't too bad, he whined for 20 minutes, cried for 10, and then fell asleep. Sunday, was not good, and Lee was here(he had been out getting dinner Saturday night so he didn't hear the crying), so he put a stop to my unplanned plan that night.

Also, I was supposed to go by Sams and pick up a cake for my mom's birthday dinner on Sunday. I was just running in since Lee and Cooper were in the car. I wasn't supposed to get anything other than a cake, bu I left with a cake AND an outfit for Cooper :)

So, there were lots of unintended happenings around here over the weekend. Which wasn't necessarily a bad thing. I have a clean house and a cute new outfit for my kid :)

Phone Photo Friday

One of the awesome things about having my dad watch Cooper is all of the pictures he sends me throughout the day. Some days he's better about sending them, and some days I have to ask. And I do ask :) And I think he gets annoyed sometimes, haha.

This is a series of pictures that I received on Wednesday and Thursday from him, and what he said with each one underneath the picture.

{Sleeping on his side}

{All gone}

{I had a very long nap and poppa tried to get me to say 'hi daddy' for a pic}


{Yes he's fine. Playing in his saucer now}


{OUT. He had pulled the burp cloth over his face.}

{I just ate a big bowl of rice and carrots.}

Picture messaging is the best invention ever!

Happy weekend!

Patience

I don’t talk about faith or religion much on here.  No reason really, it is a part of my life and who I am, I just haven’t spoken (written?) about it.  But  I did want to share this.

 

I’ve heard a lot of people say that they hear God talk to them.  And I’m always jealous.  Like, why doesn’t He talk to ME?  I ask Him questions all the time.  I need some answers/guidance/direction too!

 

A couple of weeks ago, I was driving to work and thinking.  Thinking about how I can’t wait for this or that to happen.  Specifically, I was thinking about how I can’t WAIT to move into a new house and how happy I’ll be and yada yada.  This is not a new thought, I think about this daily (or I did before this happened).  But this particular morning, as I was driving and picking out paint colors in my head, I heard a very distinct voice say “Patience”.  And I was stunned.  Did I just hear what I thought I heard?  God?  Talking to ME?!

 

And I just knew that’s what I heard.  I still remember it clear as day.  And since that day, that word, “patience”, has resonated with me a LOT.

 

I don’t exercise enough patience in , well, anything I do.  When dealing with people, situations, the current season of my life, I am never patient about any of it.  This is not a surprise to any of those who know me, and I know this about myself.  I DO try and work on it.  But it’s hard for me!  Why doesn’t someone understand things I think are simple?  When will I find a new job?  When will we get to move?  I’m the worst about appreciating where I’m at in life.  I’m always thinking to the next step instead of being content where I am.

 

I know that there is a plan for my life, and I try to trust that.  Being the Type A person that I am, it IS difficult to not know what’s going to happen in 5 days, let alone 5 years.  I get better about it every day, and I have already learned to trust that I will find a new job when the time is right.  I just need to have patience in wondering when that time will be.  And that goes for every area of my life.

 

So, I’ve been working on my patience.  And I’ve been working on trust, because I think the two go hand in hand.  And you know what?  It feels really good to let go and have that weight lifted, and know that really, it’s not in my control.  And, surprisingly, I’m just fine with that!  Maybe I have even learned to prefer it that way J

5 Months!

Dear Cooper,

Today you are 5 months old! This month you have become so active! You have also become aware of so many things in the past month. I can't tell you how much fun it is to watch you become aware of all the things you can do.

You started rolling over and every time we lay you down, you flip right over onto your belly. This would be okay with us, but you have never really cared for being on your belly and that hasn't changed too much :) We have to flip you back over pretty soon!

You LOVE to stand! Your little legs are so strong and you love for us to let you stand on our laps. We do this all the time!

You are also trying to pull your body up into a sitting position. Whenever you are reclined, you often arch your back and lunge your head forward, as if you're trying to sit up! I still think that's a little way off, but you're sure working on it!

You discovered your feet a few days ago and you are in love! You're always grabbing them now, and when we get you up from your crib, your pajama feet or your socks are always wet, because you've had your feet in your mouth!

You also discovered your arms and you have been flapping them up and down like crazy! There is a lot of force behind those flaps and your dad and I crack up at you!

You have really started to fight sleep in the past month or so. You flail around and kick and groan. At night, you cry like something is wrong. After lots and lots of googling and calling the dr's office, we have finally settled with the fact that you just don't want to go to sleep! At night, there might be a little reflux issue, but you're on medicine for that now that seems to be helping out. Usually the only way you will calm down at night is for us to put you in your car seat. That calms you down immediately and you fall right to sleep. I transfer you to your crib a few hours later. I love transferring you because I get to hold you heavy little sleeping body for a few minutes :)

You are starting to get a little curious and a little more brave about checking things out. As you can see by your photo shoot pictures, you were really into your dog this time! You've never paid attention to him before, but this time we couldn't keep you away from him :)

You have really been paying attention to Isabelle and Zoe this month. When they walk by you, you smile your big open mouth smile! They have been warming up to you a little and give you the occasional kiss. Last night, you pulled her ear hair petted Isabelle for the first time!

You now recognize your bottle and open your mouth when you see it! So cute :) You also try to hold it by yourself, which makes it difficult to feed you because you grab onto it tight and move it all around. I've let you try it out on your own a few times though.

You started eating rice cereal, which you didn't care for much at first, but we found out that you like it really thick and since we started making it thicker, you have loved it! You have also tried peas and carrots. You liked the peas right away, but the first bite of carrots you had, you made a funny face at first! You ended up loving them though. Right now, you only eat it once a day, in the late afternoon, but we are considering starting a morning meal also, since you seem to really like it. If only I could get your dad to let you try a fruit! He is worried it will cause you to have a sweet tooth like me!

It is so easy to get you to laugh and smile! You love to be bounced, play airplane, be tickled, and to be sung to. You also love when I say "Boo!", you always burst out in a giggle! You have really started talking more and more, and I love to have conversations with you. You also squeal so loud all the time! You do this most often when you are on your changing pad, it is so funny! Sometimes you try to let out such a loud squeal that you can't even get it out! Haha :)

We went to the dr a week ago, and you weighed 16.5 lbs. You have outgrown most of your 3-6 month footy pajamas. The legs are just too short! It's funny, because the top of those pj's are a little big. I got you a few 9 month jammies and those seem to fit your legs so much better. Other than that, you are still fitting perfectly into 3-6 month clothes.

It seems like this month has been big for you in terms of you becoming aware of so many things and really starting to develop your sweet little personality. Your dad and I feel so lucky that we were chosen to be your parents! You bring so much joy to us every day!

We love you so much, Buddy!

Phone Photo Friday

This is not the best picture ever, because, well, I was DRIVING while taking it. And I use the word 'driving' loosely, because we were travelling slower than a snail's pace.

I'm not sure if you can tell how far traffic is backed up from the picture, but it was over 3 miles that we were stuck like this. The arrow is pointing to where the traffic was still stopped all the way up there, and then for about a mile after that. And there were NO reports of it on any radio stations.

I was en route to pick up Cooper after a long day at work so you can imagine how annoyed I was. I was also highly annoyed at that GMC Jimmy in front of me whose breaks squeaked so.freaking.loud every time she pressed the brakes. Which was a.lot.
When I eventually got to the end of this mess, I saw that a car had rolled over. There was an ambulance, fire truck, and cop car. Yes, very sad and I hope everyone was okay. But you know what? NONE of that was actually ON the highway. The car was on an embankment and the emergency vehicles were on the shoulder. WHY was traffic backed up so badly? Looky Loos? Or do you say Rubber Neckers? I suppose that's what it was, because I couldn't make sense of anything else.

Anyway, happy Friday! Here's to hoping that none of YOU get stuck in this on your way home on a fabulous Friday!!

So, I was thinking...

Those 4 little words? Lee hates hearing them! Haha. With good reason, sometimes, I suppose.

You see, I say those words a couple times a month, most often followed by some grand idea I have that is either time consuming or costs more money than he'd prefer :)

So, I was thinking, we should put in french doors on that wall.

So, I was thinking, we should make some built in cabinets on the back living room wall.

So, I was thinking, I should stop taking my birth control. (haha, surprise 8 weeks later!)

Last week, I said "So, I was thinking, I wish we would have made the office Cooper's room and made the guest room the office."

And it's TRUE! We should have. And I have good reasons.

Cooper's room houses the 1/2 bath. I never realized how important that 1/2 bath was to the longevity of our marriage.

Cooper's room shares a wall with both the living room and the kitchen. This is a problem because we make dinner after he goes to bed. And we hang out in the living room all evening. And while we don't HAVE to be super quiet, we don't want to wake him up with loud movies or tv either.

Cooper's room is right by the front door. So if anyone comes to the door. Like the pizza man the other night, I'm always worried he'll wake up. Not to mention what if someone broke into our house through the front door. He would be the first one they would get to :(

See?!

When we decides which room would be his, well it wasn't really much of a question or discussion, we both just assumed the guest room would go and it would become his room. I didn't even think about it.

We should totally move his room. All I would have to do is paint it, but ugh! I am so sick of painting that house, I'm not sure if/when I'll ever get up the energy to do it.

 

Winner Winner Chicken Dinner!

The winner of the CSN gift card giveaway is Ashley from Kiwis and Cocktails!

I'll email ya Ashley!

Thanks to everyone who entered!

Halloween Weekend

Thanks for all the sweet comments on Cooper's costume Friday! I had such a difficult time deciding on a costume, but I was so pleased with this one!

How was everyone's Halloween? I have to say that holidays are much more fun for us this year, since we have Cooper. I'm sure that they will only get better as he gets older and actually gets excited. Although, I'm sure that he was excited to be a scarecrow this year ;)


We have an event here called "boohaha" that is put on each year. A portion of town is blocked off (or supposed to be blocked off :) ) and there is trick or treating for the kids, as well as cosutme contests for children AND pets, and they have a parade. I'd never been before, so I was to get together with some friends and our boys (we ALL have boys) and watch the parade. I wanted to go a little earlier and walk around a little to see what this thing was all about. There was a costume contest that I kinda wanted to enter Cooper in to, but it was being held much earlier than anything else so we didn't do it. Probably for the best because I'm a sore loser :)


After a little Twitter chat, Jessica, Sarah and I decided that we would meet up and take the kids trick or treating before the parade started. Weeeellllll that was a joke because the trick or treating like was RIdiculous. So, we opted to sit at a restaurant patio and eat pizza :) Whatever, it worked for us! After we ate and chatted for a bit, it was time to take our little scarecrow and head over and meet everyone else for the parade. I wish we would've gotten a picture with the bees and poodle!

Here we all are with our boys!We waited....and waited.....and waited for the parade. Eventually Cooper got hungry, so we ducked behind the crowd to feed him. And at that point the 'parade' started. We couldn't see much, but we saw 2 limos and several minutes later, a pink fire truck. And then, nothing. By that time, Cooper had finished eating and we'd decided to leave. As did most other people there. Some guy beside us was yelling "I don't know why everyone's leaving! There's a TON of stuff still coming up!" Really dude? Because we'd been there for 30 minutes and had seen nothing. The parade was really disappointing. Next year, we won't even bother. It was worth it to get a picture with the boys together though :)

Sunday we took the scarecrow over to my parents house for a photo shoot.He was such a good sport about wearing this costume, hat and all. The hat was really snug under his chin and he didn't even fuss! He's such an easy-going baby.

We don't really have any trick or treaters in our neighborhood, so we just hung around Sunday night. Maybe next year we'll try actually trick or treating? We'll see!