First Letter Of Your Name Tag

Rules: Use the 1st letter of your name to answer each of the following…They must be REAL places, names, things…NOTHING made up! If you can’t think of anything, skip it. Try to use different answers if the person in front of you had the same 1st initial. You CAN’T use your name for the boy/girl name question.

Your name: Mary

1. Famous Athlete: Michael Jordan (all time fav...he rocks!)

2. 4 letter word: Maid....hehe

3. Street name: Main

4. Color: maroon

5. Gifts/presents: money (come on, who doesn't?)

6. Vehicles: Miata

7. Tropical Locations: Maui

8. College Majors: Marketing ( I guess)

9. Dairy Products: milk (personally, I'm not a fan!)

10. Things in a Souvenir Shop: magnets

11. Boy Name: Mitchell

12. Girl Name: Madeline

13. Movie Titles: Major League (Another all time fav)

14. Alcohol: Mai Tais (Never had one)

15. Occupations: mommy (underpaid and overworked.....hehehe)

16. Flowers: magnolia

17. Celebrities: Mandy Moore

18. Magazines: Mademoiselle

19. U.S. Cities: Minnesota

20. Pro Sports Teams: Mariners (Go M's!!)

21. Something Found in a kitchen: measuring cups

22 Reason for Being Late: Many...lol

23. Something You Throw Away: milk jugs

24. Things You Shout: "Move!" (Always jockeying for position.)

25. Cartoon Character: Minnie Mouse

I will tag:

JaLea, Cheryl, Gale, Cherrie, Teresa

Okay Ladies, so get going!

Nice Matters Award

How sweet is this?? Lori and Lindsey awarded me with this lovely little award and I just wanted to say a special THANK YOU to both of them..Thanks Ladies!! Apparently this award represents someone who tries to spread nice, inspirational posts throughout the blogging world. How NICE is that of them to be so kind as to think of me....I so would nominate you two gals if the award wasn't given already.

So my next course of action is to choose a few others who I also think demonstrates their blog to be award worthy..hehe. So here goes...



Jessica



Lifes Little Moments



Life of a List-Maker



Steff



Sunydazy Day

Goal Oriented Woman

Okay ladies get this award posted on your blogs, cuz you so deserve it!!

My Dad

This is a pic of my dad..isn't it sooo cool???

My dad is a major Civil War buff...BIG TIME!! My Grandma and him love this era. They could and probably have spent many hours talking and researching this very subject. They know which battles our ancestors fought and died in, they how they died and probably which one of your ancestors killed them..hehe No really they know a crazy amount of info on this subject and they totally enjoy all it to the MAX!! My Dad tries to share his knowledge on this matter with me and believe me I try to stay focused, but History is not my thing and I tend zone-out. (Sorry Dad) But I know he really enjoys it so that makes me happy for him.
Several years ago he joined a re-enactment group that goes from place to place and recreates certain battles and such. When they are in the middle of one of these re-enactments, they are in total character including attire, hence the outfit my Dad has on in the above pic. They eat, talk, act, and even sleep in the same accommodations as what the people back in that day did. It is really pretty neat. My mom has even got into it a little and bought a gown for when the have the Formal Balls.
I love that my parents have found something that they love to do and that brings them so much joy..
Love you Mom and Dad!!

Bye-Bye Pacifier!!

Can you believe I didn't have one good pic of Hailey with her pacifier..kinda makes me sad!!

My last posted ended with a little side note stating that I was starting the weaning of Hailey's pacifier. Well....It's done!! I am sooo excited and I really can't believe that it is gone. I think that it was as much my crutch as hers. There were so many times in church or in the car when she would start to get loud and I would immediately put her "passie" in her mouth.

So last Friday she woke up and wanted to go out side. I got her dressed and out she went to play. We live in a cul-de-sac and the boys are great about taking her to the little park that is literally only 50 yds away so she can play and swing. She came back in a little while later and had fallen on the driveway and needed consoling. This of course is when she starts asking for he passie. I told her she took it outside with her and that was the last one we had left. We went outside and I couldn't find it ANYWHERE!! She was doing her greatest impression of her fake cry and I was starting to loose my patience. I even offered the boys and some of their friends a dollar to find it..No luck. GRRRRR....

I then thought, whelp this is as good time as any. So I called Rusty and asked him if he was also up for the challenge and he was, and so it began....

For about 30 min. she cried alot and was begging and pleading for it. I kept telling her she lost it and it was Bye-Bye. She then told me to go to the store and buy another one. This little statement only confirmed the fact that she was WAY too old for her little habit and I laughed as I told her they were all out too. Okay just a little white lie here..I mean they COULD have been all out, right?? I do live in a small town..hehe

I then remembered what Rusty's mom told me once about how she broke him of his "Fa-Fa", aka pacifier..crazy how they are always called something different in every family. Anyway, she told him the coyotes took it. They we howling all night long, so they threw it out to them.

I was a little desperate form the constant whining and so I said "It's gone Hailey. The coyotes took it." Not really thinking that she would be even fazed by this.

She stopped crying, put her head down in my lap and sat very still for a few mins. She asked for it 1 more time at nap time and I again told her the coyotes took it and that was the last time she asked for it!!!

CRAZY!!!

Attention Animal Lovers..you might want to skip down to the next paragraph here...
As she was napping I got to thinking as why this new little story was so effective and I then remembered that about 3 weeks ago the whole family was riding home one night from doing some shopping. Rusty was driving and a coyote darted out in front of us. He wasn't able to swerve to get away from it because there was on-coming traffic. We unfortunately ran into it and going 65 miles per hour really didn't leave it much of a chance of survival. The boys being curious as to what was going on, we explained to them what happened. I looked back and Hailey had turned sideways in her car seat with her head bent down, and this is how she spent the rest of the 20 min. car ride home. I really didn't think too much about it at the time because it was late and I just thought she was tired, but now it is all starting to come back to me that it must have really upset her. Then I throw my little "coyotes have your passie" theory out there and she got freaked out!!... Great parenting skills there!! Sigh...

Anyway, the passie is gone and if the next time she sees a dog and doesn't go screaming from the room everything will be Okay..I guess!!

KATHRYN

So Mrs. Trina Leah has been so gracious enough to tag me so I thought I would be equally gracious as to play along and then Tag a few myself..hehe
This Me-Me is about our middle names and let me just start out by complaining because I have a LOOOOONG middle name, at least in my book, and so I have lots of thinking to do on this one!! I guess that is what happens when your first name is only 4 letters long..my parents were trying to balance out the the rhythmic sound as they just KNEW they were gonna have to yell it out in the future..LOL
Kathryn..Well I believe I got this name from my mom whose middle name is Kay and again they decided to balance it out by adding more syllables. Although I have been called Mary Kay ALOT from family and friends so really I don't know what I am talking about. On to the TAG...

Here are the rules:1. You have to post these rules before you give the facts.2. Players, you must list one fact that is somehow relevant to your life for each letter of their middle name. If you don’t have a middle name, use the middle name you would have liked to have had.3. At the end of your blog-post, you need to choose one person for each letter of your middle name to tag.

K... Well K is for Keeper..I am a chase keeper at home and I love my job!! Sure there are times that I grow weary of the mun day rituals, but I would not trade it for the world!!

A... Athletic. I love love love sports!! I spent most of my childhood and teenage years traveling the nation playing softball and basketball and enjoying it to the MAX!!

T... Thoughtful. I think I am at least..hehe I try to be aware of friends feelings and take their situation into consideration before I act or speak.

H... Honest. I appreciate honestly in people so I guess I would be quite the hypocrite if I was not equally honest myself.

R... Reasonable. I am the type of person that realizes that Life just happens sometimes so I am pretty forgiving and I understand that things are sometimes out of peoples control.

Y... Younger. This one is kinda wacky but all the people I hang out with and even my best friends are older than me. It is kinda crazy, but I don't even seem to notice it at all.

N... New York.. I was born in West Point, New York. My dad was in the military and that is where we where stationed. I love to throw that out every now and then to surprise people with the fact that I was born an East Coaster.

So there you have it friends... Here are the next victims ..I mean girls that can play this fun little name game..LOL

Michelle

Marisella

Chantel

Cheryl

Cyndi

Lindsey

Jessica

Milestone

Whelp, Hailey did it..she is now officially Potty-Trained!! Three cheers for Miss Hailey Ann!!

Actually she has been for about 3 or 4 weeks now, but I am just now finally getting around to blogging it. She did really well and I am pleased to brag that she only had about 2 accidents and none of the yucky kind..Yeah for me on that one!!..LOL

I have really been pretty fortunate, because all 3 of my kids have been easy in this area. Believe me this had nothing to do with me or my parenting skills. I have however, found a few little things that help this transition to go more smoothly, at least for my kiddos.

The major key I think in every child is they have to be ready and able to communicate. This of course means that there wasn't a MAGIC age that I expected my kids to been trained by, or even an age that made me start working with them. I just kinda followed their lead. One major sign that all my kids sent me was waking up in the mornings and from nap time with a dry diaper. That was always my cue that they were starting to be ready. Then, when they were able to tell me if they needed their diaper changed I was like Okay here we go....

I know their are various ways to actually train them and some work for some children and others work for other children, but this is what worked for me.
1. I would first set aside about 1 week and plan on not really going anywhere (except the obvious, store, church and such).
2. I then would buy their favorite candy and show them where I was keeping it and tell them that it was ALL theirs.
3. I would let them help me pick out some "big-girl" panties (big-boy undies for the boys..hehe) and explain to them that their favorite character liked to be clean and dry.
4. I would set a timer for 20 min and every time the buzzer went off I would ask the usual questions. If they didn't need to go I wouldn't force them, but I would make them show me WHERE ( they would point to the toilet) they were supposed to go. Then the timer was set and this cycle started all over again in 20 min.
The timer thing only had to last 2 days for all the kids, and then by that time they were coming and telling me, which meant we were good to go.

Hailey was fully potty trained in about a week (even nights) and I am soo happy that the buying diaper days are done...

Here are a couple of pics that I snapped of her while she was being introduced to the world of potting on the potty...

Here she is sitting on the potty..I think she was a little surprised that I was holding a camera...


And now she is figuring out that I am taking a pic and she is Protesting!!


Finally she turned her back and wasn't about to turn back around again!! LOL

So their you have it, One milestone down and now if I could just break her of the pacifier ( I started that today) we would be in "Big-Girl" business.

Gymboree

Well it was a long weekend of fun and so this morning I got on my computer to check out the blog world and I see that Trina has linked couple of giveaways to one of her posts. I, of course see GYMBOREE and immediately want to play..hehe


I love their clothes and it is so funny because I just bought a couple of outfits from their store this weekend. This is odd to me because living in a small town I don't get a chance to shop at this yummy store very often, but we were at a mall on Sat. so I splurged. Well not really splurged, but I did buy these little cuties for Hailey....

Love this little brown dress that she can wear now and in the Fall..


I couldn't resist this little set..I LOVE green and the little Noah's Ark theme is precious!


Denim skirts are soo awesome for Wednesday night church. This one was not only a good buy, but she can wear it now and through the winter with tights as well. Yippee!!

Anyway, I went to the site to enter and leave my comment. Well my computer would pick that moment that I was posting to act up, so I pushed refresh and it posted my comment TWICE!!

GREEEEEEEEEEEAT!!

So it makes me look like either I have a problem following the rules or I can't work my computer in a proper manner..SIGH
Oh well I will probably get disqualified or something, but here is the link just in case any of you guys would like to give it a whirl....

GYMBOREE

Best Buy (So I played this little GIVEWAY too, and I would feel way too guilty not including it on my blog as well..hehe)

Little hint...Try not to Refresh....

Good Luck Bloggy Friends!!

I Got Tagged

So I was tagged by Cyndi and so I thought I would be a good sport and play along.....

I am supposed to give 8 random facts about yours truly and then send this little game on to eight willing,hehe,participants. So here goes:



Rules: 1. We have to post these rules before we give you the facts. 2. Players start with eight random facts/habits about themselves. 3. People who are tagged write their own blog post about their eight things and include these rules. 4. At the end of your blog, you need to choose eight people to get tagged and list their names. Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged and that they should read your blog.



#1. I love to sleep in!! Yes I know that sounds weird coming from a mommy of small children, but you would be surprised what you can train a child to do...Okay let me clarify here...I taught them to sleep in, not to take care of themselves until sleepy mommy gets out of bed..LOL



#2. The thought of a Dr. Pepper can still get me out of bed in the mornings. This is my all time favorite drink and it makes me VERY happy. Although a vanilla chai is a close second.



#3. I love to watch college basketball on T.V. During the fall and winter if some team and I mean any team is playing on T.V. well then I am watching it or it is at least playing in the back ground while I cleaning house.



#4. If I'm reading a book I HAVE to skip ahead and read the ending before I'm done. This might seem weird, but I guess I like to know where the story is going..hehe



#5. I put on my make-up in the car while I'm driving. Dangerous I know, put at least I normally have my seat belt on, right?



#6. I have to make my bed every day. I am not a clean freak by any means, but this is one chore that I do daily. Sometimes it doesn't get made until the afternoon, but it still gets done.



#7. I don't like critters! This might not be such a random fact anymore, especially if you follow my blog at all. I just can't help it, most animals creep me out!!



#8. I still sleep with a blankie. I have all my life and needless to say it is pretty worn, but there aren't many nights that I can remember sleeping without it.



Wow, that was harder than I thought! Okay so here are the lucky ladies that I am passing this on to...

I Work From Son up To Son Down
Goal Oriented Woman
Mother of Six Wife of One
Mother of 6
These are the Days
An Inside Look...
La Bellina Mammania
So Much To Do..

Good Luck Ladies!!