Overwhelmed

With life, with kids, with stuff in general. I feel like I can't lift myself out of the pit. Ugh - I hate that. I am a crabby crabby person. Most of the time I hide it so well - and I think I still am. Most of you that know me know that I don't act overwhelmed or sad in front of you. I put on a decent front I think. I'm just spent. Kyle is spent too - he said during dinner - "I think I am burnt out". He has been working his BUTT off on his job - putting in long stressful hours trying to keep everyone happy. We need a vacation, but obviously that cannot happen anytime soon. In fact - between now and Oct. - life is only going to get busier somehow. Not sure how that is possible. I feel pulled in every direction right now - how many more can I get pulled in? I just want to give up and say "I quit". Anyway - that is the overwhelming feeling I have. This is really my only place to confide I guess - sorry for those that actually read - LOL. So if you know me and you would have never guessed it - well - now you know. How many of you cover up these same feelings? I think we probably all do. I think my pregnancy hormones this time are so out of wack - I have kind of felt this the whole time. I told my girlfriend Julie (also a nurse at my Dr) that I probably should get on some medication - and yet I never have. I do admit though it would be so nice to just feel "normal". OK - enough.

I'll give about 10 random facts about me just to end the post on a good note!

1. I am an 80's child - born in 1980 and literally LOVE the 80's. 80's music is GREAT.

2. I am the youngest of 5 kids - what was my mom thinking - LOL!

3. I have only broke one bone in my body - oddly enough it was my collar bone - how wierd is that? I don't remember it a bit - I think I was only like 3 yrs old or something - and fell off a retaining wall. I did chip a bone in my finger once.

4. I went to the rainforest in Peru - the summer between 7th and 8th grade I think. Got sick and lost like 10 lbs. from eathing nothing. Had a HORRIBLE room mate and had to get switched.

5. I went to a private christian school my whole life.

6. Beauty school was the exception - I did that my senior year half days and then the year after - 1500 hrs of school to get my license.

7. I met Kyle - my husband at a party thru a girl from beauty school. The night I met him he proposed to me. It was all out of a conversation of me saying I would cook and clean for him - so he jokingly asked me. I was dating a highschool boyfriend at the time - which obviously didn't last much longer after that! Kyle swept me off my feet that night - but I had thought at the time that that was where it would end. I feel like I need to do a whole blog post just on our relationship - LOL!

8. I got married at 20 years old - have not regretted it ONCE to this day!

9. We honeymooned in Hawaii - FOR FREE!!!!

10. I LOVE Mc Donalds - like I could eat there everyday probably - HORRIBLE I know!

So - tomorrow is work and then I told Kyle we are staying home ALL weekend until the girls rooms are done!!! Hopefully I can show pics by Sat. night! I think I am going to like the colors we picked out!

Adios!

Enabler Alert!!!

So I have some more news that is SOOOOO exciting to me. If you are a reader of my blog and are NOT into digital scrapping - this will mean NOTHING to you. (although I do have a few LO's to show off!) The-Lilypad has their own BLOG!!! You can only imagine how cool this blog will be. So the first blog challenge is posted today and it ROCKS. The challenge is to scrap a LO with the colors of the Lilypad store (black, pink, and green). How easy is that. And to make it even easier the FABULOUS designers have made a BUNCH of paper and element packs at a super low rate ($1-$2)!!! These products are amazing and the colors are super fun! I have been amazed by the LO's created by the creative teams and we are going to flood the galleries to show you all the fabulous goodies! So play along and lets see what other GREAT LO's you girls can do! I think the blog will be a ton of fun so check it out!

And now - here are my LO's!

I had a lot of fun playing with these goodies. This last LO is done with a new little kit by a new designer coming to The-Lilypad Sept. 1 - very exciting.

Work today and Dr. appt. tomorrow - and a pretty slow laid back week! I am going to move the girls into Braelyn's room this week and then start painting! House is coming off the market this week due to some stuff that happened in the neighborhood this weekend - making it even harder to sell the house right now.

Hope you all have a great week and I can't wait to see you ALL participating in the new fun challange at The-Lilypad - come on now - great prizes available!

Some pictures of the weekend...

Thought I would post a few pics from the weekend. Zoo/pool day with Kyle's whole family.

Besides it being a HOT day - we had a good time at the zoo. A Tiger, a bear, little 3 month old pygmy goats, billy goats, monkeys, mountain lion, snow leopard (which was beautiful!), sting rays, sharks, and many more animals. I believe we got home at about 1:30 for the kids to nap good and then we met up with the family again at my sister-in-law's soon to be neighborhood pool and pavilion. It was great fun swimming with everyone and had a good dinner too.

After the pool is was time to come home, do baths, get kiddos in bed by 8:30 and then Kyle and I sat outside by a fire for a while - just talking and hanging out - it is so nice to do that with him. He LOVES sitting by a fire and we usually have good talks while out there!

I will be back to post tomorrow with some LO's and fun stuff - stay tuned!!!

Photo Action

Check out this photo - a before and an after! This is now my FAVORITE photo that I have ever taken - and mainly b/c of what the action did to it. Although I must admit - my heart fills with joy when I see my little three year old playing and praying!

Before: After:

This action is by Lauren Barden at The-Lilypad, and it is the sepia action in THIS pack!

Here is the LO I did with it!

That's all for tonight folks. I have a big long day tomorrow of breakfast, zoo, home for kiddos naps, and then the beach for dinner and swimming(?) with Kyle's whole family. It is going to be 90 degrees too - so hopefully I will figure out how to stay cool! Selah and Braelyn are going to love the zoo though! Hope you all have a great weekend!

I will have a few more great LO's to share come Monday morning!!!

Whoopin my butt

So starting today this pregnancy thing is whoopin' my butt. I LOVE being pregnant - always have. I LOVE communicating with this little babe in my tummy with all her swirling. Starting last night and today though - it's a whole new ball game. Last night was my FIRST night of not good sleep. Now I am not complaining in the least b/c I KNOW how fortunate I am to have this be my first night of sleeplessness. However, it does not end there. This morning I just did not feel good. I thought it would pass. I was having quite a few contractions and pressure down below, which really isn't all that abnormal for me lately. With this being my third pregnancy I have been contracting more and earlier. You see, the problem lies in the fact that the lower back pain is now coming with those contractions and this morning the contractions were quite frequent and uncomfortable. I debated calling the Dr. and of course I haven't yet b/c I know they are nothing and that it is pointless to call, but I did debate it. Hopefully by taking it easy here for a bit this afternoon they will just go away all together. I do feel like all of the sudden I am HUGE. Like my belly is like "ba-boom" - right there! :) So here's to hoping the baby girl settles down in there a bit and that my body slows down a bit.

Speaking of my baby girl, she still doesn't really have a name. I am open for suggestions yet people. We do have a list of top three so far, but nothing set in stone yet. When we do know we can't really even tell Braelyn b/c she will spill it! That girl can't keep a secret to save her life - although I am pretty sure she doesn't even know what a secret is - LOL! Hey - just thought of this - I don't think I shared baby #3's profile ultrasound did I? Forgive me if I am wrong, but I will post it - maybe you will have a name pop in your head just from looking at her - LOL!

Isn't she cute?! She seems to have a bit of a different nose and mouth area compared to Braelyn and Selah's ultrasound at this stage, so we will see if she looks different. I am guessing another hairy baby just b/c of the heartburn again. They say it is generally true that heartburn and hairy babies go hand in hand. So far so true for me. How wierd though if this baby comes out with light hair vs. dark. Braelyn and Selah were black haired babies!

Anyway - enough baby talk. I have a bunch to do before the party tonight and so far Selah has talked thru her whole nap. NOT a good thing. I am still hoping she falls asleep - I have gone in there once already to change her diaper thinking that might be it. We still have to run out and get Corbin's gift too before 5:00 - then it is off for his cool Blue Angels birthday party! I hear there is some really cool stuff in the works for the party - which is no suprise b/c my sister Tammy just ABSOLUTELY ROCKS at birthday parties. And it can't be any better that they have a great pool to entertain by! I am sure I will get pics tonight. Kyle won't be joining us there until probably 6:30 so my pictures might be of the later part of party - LOL!

Ta ta for now folks!

First Kid Dentist Experience

So today was Braelyn's big dentist appointment. First one! She did AWESOME to say the least. I think she did better than what I do at mine - LOL! Selah too did well for being a tag-alonger! I must RAVE about this dentist office. It is a pediatric dentist office, so right there I knew it was geared towards kids. The waiting room was fabulous with a train on a track by ceiling going around the whole office, and some good toys. The wait was SUPER short. By time I filled out the appropriate paper work they called Braelyn back! The office is set up as a pretty much open office. They had a few "rooms" sectioned off more (I think for kids that might be more apt to cry and for procedures), and so Braelyn could watch other kids getting examined and checked! They had a great fish tank in this area too and more toys. I could sit right by Braelyn and Selah and I watched. Selah was just intrigued. The hygenist did all her stuff with Braelyn and Braelyn was great - she listened and answered questions and just sat as good as gold. We waited a few minutes for the dentist - which is whatever dentist is available. The dentist just kind of rotate around the open area. The dentist we got was great - a middle aged man who was very friendly and informative. I am sure it helps that we didn't have to have x-rays or anything like that - it was just a routine first visit, but it went WAY better than expected. I would HIGHLY recommend the office - if you are in the area and want the name of it just let me know. My sister Tammy recommended it to me. I also had such great plans in my head to get pictures of the whole event and "shocker" I forgot my camera. ARGH. They would have been such cute photos. Next time for sure. She will go again in 6 months.

After the dentist we headed to the library to bring back books and to turn in the girls last paperwork for the summer reading program. They each finished it! Braelyn read 70 books and Selah 50! For their last prize they each got to pick a new book. Braelyn picked a "build a bear" book and Selah picked a little book with a CD. We picked up cookies from the bakery and the kids started to lose it. So did mom. Selah still NEEDS a morning nap and due to the dentist and running we skipped it. BAD thing. She was a wreck. It is HUMID today - 89% I hear. So a preggo woman hauling around 2 kiddos in humidity was probably not a great idea to begin with. Anyway - we made it home, kids played, I did bills/balancing, and then we did lunch by 11:45 and Selah got chucked in bed by 12:15. She is chatting away right now, so I will go in and get her soon. I layed in bed with Braelyn for about a half hour - that was nice too!

Last night I tried to mow our yard b/c Kyle was working over time (16 hrs. in one day). I got the two rows all around the outside with the push mower (b/c I don't really trust myself on the rider), and as I came around the front of the house my neighbor guy was standing there crossing his arms and giving me a scowling look. I stopped and he said I should not be doing that and that he would jump on our rider and finish it up for me. I told him i didn't mind - all the while in my head thinking - wow - that would be nice. So he would not take no for an answer and he burned out the rest of the yard for me. I did give him a couple zuchini and a cantaloupe fresh from our garden. That was very kind of him. Kyle was very happy b/c of his busyness at work and fearing the thought of not having it done - LOL! Fear no more my sweet hardworking hubby!

And with that I am off to get Selah. Braelyn just woke up too! Have a good one!

Tubing

Sunday afternoon already. WOW. Back to work tomorrow - that is depressing - LOL!

We had a very fun weekend. Fri. night after dinner we came home and packed up the girls' things and brought them to my mom for bed. I got them there and put them to bed and back home I came to finish packing up our camping stuff. Sat. morning by 7:30am we were out the door to go to our friends where we all met for our tubing trip! About 8 of us were on our way up north a ways and had breakfast and then got to camp to set up. There were 4 tents and the motorhome that a few of us rode up in! We had 16 people tubing!!! Total blast! It was HOT getting set up and waiting for our tubing ride up the river, so getting in that river at 1:00 felt GREAT. The girls all tie up together and the guys all kind of stuck together - every once in a while we would all stop and refresh and stand up for a while. The sun was pretty much non-existant, and it cold by 5:00, but that happens every year. The 4 hr trip always seems to last 5 for us. We had a super dinner when we got back of burgers, party potatos, pasta salad, salad, chips, fruit and more! Good 'ole fire and hanging out at night and it made a perfect trip! This morning was just packing up and on the road by 9:00, a stop for a nice sit down breakfast, and then unloading. Still made it to my mom's for Sunday lunch and to get the kiddos - so good to see them, but they were ready for naps so we didn't stay too long today and now they are napping and I am cathching up on my long lost computer!!! Two weekends without is about doing me in! I need to scrap for some therapy!

This week is CRAZY. Tomorrow is work, nightime is cleaning out the camper more to return it to my mom. Tue. night is an adult dinner for my MIL's birthday. Wednesday night is my little nephew's 5th birthday party. Thur. work (and Wed. 1/2 day), and nothing at night (at this point - LOL), and then this weekend is some sort of family thing with Kyle's family. I won't even say what yet, b/c it has changed a billion times - LOL! So lots of crazy busy stuff for us - I find it wierd that I am saying this, but I am EXHAUSTED. I LOVE all the fun stuff we are doing, but I am getting BURNT OUT! I would kill for a weekend of just being home together and doing nothing. No work, no packing of things, no plans, just home. I am just a bit of a homebody I guess. I don't think my life will get any less busy either anytime soon. Braelyn starts school Sept. 11 and less than a month after that I will be having this little babe. Super excited for that.

Remember my plans of painting the girls rooms and getting the nursery re-set up and all that good stuff? Well of course it was put on hold b/c we had a couple that came thru our home (which is for sale for those just joining me here!) and they LOVED it and had their home sold and all that good stuff. Now I did and do not get my hopes up and yet I would HATE to paint it if they want to buy it. So we are giving them 2 more weeks. Kyle goes away the end of Aug. and I hope to do a bunch either right before he leaves or while he is gone. We can't keep putting this off - I feel like this baby will be here before we know it and I have a LONG list of things I want to do. Mark my words by Sept. 15 our house is coming OFF the market until next spring if it is not sold! Do not let me slip on that one - seriously - LOL!

So, tell me what you did this weekend?! Did you do any fun summer activity? Check in folks - especially you lurkers! Hope you all have a great week!

Edited to add - guess what - still no pics this weekend - LOL! I did take it and just NEVER took it out - we were too busy making memories (and boy do we have a lot of good jokes about the weekend!)