Ice Ice baby.......

It's April. That means Spring is pretty much here right? That's what we thought.
Last weekend it was in the 70's. It was so beautiful outside. Birds were chirping, the sun was shining, the flowers were starting to bloom, and then BOOM! We get hit with a cold front that came in from the west and the temperature outside dropped 20 degrees and there was freezing rain and wind. Only in Kansas.

 Everything was covered in ice. If it was outside, it was frozen. The next morning when I took my munchkin to school, the sun would hit the trees and the grass just right and it looked like they were made of glass. Plus it made for some pretty awesome pictures!  Hopefully this is the last spell of winter that we will see around here.Enjoy!

Teddy......

 

 

A while back I thought about writing this post, but never got around to doing it. Then a friend of mine even suggested that I should write about it. So here it is. This post is dedicated to a certain object that is near and dear to my child's heart, and his name is Teddy.

 If you haven't already guessed it, it's about Maddison's teddy bear.  I received the bear as a baby gift from someone, sorry I don't remember who, and I set it in the corner of Maddison's crib. It was the softest bear ever. It was like velvet. It was so cute. With it's soft pink coat and a small round bear shaped rattle that was attached to it's hands. I say was, because after a while the bear shaped rattle became detached from Teddy after a few spins in the washing machine. I went back through Maddie's baby pictures to see if I could find what Teddy originally looked like. I found a glimpse of him. You can see in the picture below.

 Yes, the bear is pink and according to Maddie Teddy is a boy. If you try to tell her different she will tell you, "Teddy is a boy".

                                 

 When Maddison became old enough to start grabbing onto things, she found Teddy in the corner of her crib and she has never let go of him since. To this day Teddy goes everywhere she goes. And I mean EVERYWHERE. I have discovered over the years that Teddy needs the occasional "bath" in the washer. He will start to look light brown instead of pink. eeewwwwww I know it sounds gross, because it's true. There isn't anything that Maddie does where Teddy isn't somewhere in the room with her. Rather it's watching T.V or reading a book. Teddy will be there. Every night before climbing into bed, the words "Where's Teddy?" will come out of Maddison's mouth. There was even a couple of times where Teddy got left behind at Grandma's house. We didn't say a word, thinking that maybe Maddie wouldn't notice. But we were wrong. She did notice and would burst into tears. We would try to comfort her with one of her other stuffed animals, but she wouldn't have it unless it was Teddy.

  

 

 Teddy usually isn't very far from where Maddison is. He was always right with in arms reach. If you tried to take him away then you had to deal with a cranky toddler. We have a saying that if Maddison lets you touch, or hold her Teddy, then that means that she likes you. The rule still somewhat applies. You have been warned. Don't try to take this girls bear.

 

 

Poor Teddy has seen better days. He has pretty much been through the ringer. He used to be so soft and plush. Now he sits hunched over and all the stuffing in his legs has moved to the bottom of his feet. His white ribbon around his neck is frayed on the ends and is very frail. He has stains of paint on him and on his arm there is residue from a band aid that was stuck on him by none other then his owner.

 

Every morning on our way to school, Teddy is in the back seat. I remember when Maddison had her first day of pre-school. She wanted to take Teddy so bad. I let her take him, but only on one condition. He had to stay in her back pack. I was afraid that Teddy would get lost and she would have been crushed if that were to happen. I don't know when Maddison will out grow her Teddy. I kind of hope she never does. I think that her friendship with this bear is just like one between Andy and  Woody from the movie Toy Story. Their friendship will never die. I hope that she will save this bear always. I'm doing my best to keep him held together. He might have a few patches here and there, but in Maddison's eyes, he will always be in her heart.

Spring fever.....

Who's got Spring fever? I DO!!!
We had another blast of snow that hit the last week in February, and it left a little more of the white stuff behind. Not to mention a couple more snow days....aka no school for my sweet child. She was pleasantly happy. I on the other hand was ready to get back to our normal schedule and leave the house. I love the snow, but I was starting to develop cabin fever.
Here is what the second blast of the storm left behind.

 

Now the snow has melted and things are back to normal. Now I've got Spring on the brain. Ready for the nice warmer temperatures to start rolling in, the birds chirping, the grass is trying to sprout its beautiful green color, and the best part, it stays light outside until 9:30!!!!!!! YIPPIE!

I'm back in 2013.......

Geezzz......guess I somehow despaired off the face of the earth. Not really. Just busy.
That's my excuse and I'm stickin to it.

I have to admit I think about blogging, and then something else takes over my mind and I get side tracked and next thing I know the day is over.
But not today. I'm going to have to set aside special time to start bloggin again. I love it and I miss it. Lately, almost all of my pictures would go onto facebook. Well, not anymore.
To tell you the truth, I'm done with facebook. It's not what it used to be when I first signed on to it. It's my own personal opinion, but I am really kind of sick of it. (I hope no-one takes offense to it, but if you do, well that's your problem)
Some how I managed to let it control my day. I would wake up in the morning and have to see what everyone else was posting. Then one day I had to ask myself, why? Why do I need to know so bad? I became obsessed. Then I woke up and realised how stupid some of it really is. Because some of it is really stupid. Plus I was getting sick of the negative complaints from people. Myself being one of them. I'm not saying that I didn't post some of my own rants, because I did. I'm just tired of all the negative. Time for more positive. Plus I wanted so bad to correct people's grammar and spelling. Because some of it is sad, really very sad. I could go on for hours about that one, but then I would be calling the kettle black and be back right where I started, with the negative. I'm not saying that I'm perfect in anyway shape or form, because I'm not. I make mistakes and that's how I am. I'm not perfect and I'm not trying to be. So my blog will become my new facebook. I won't have to obsess with it every minute of the day.......well maybe not every minute. I can just obsess with all the pictures.

I am happy to say that I am ready to start taking pictures again. Plus it's more fun when you have a new awesome camera to use. Yes, I'm rubbing it in. I LOVE MY NEW CAMERA!
Even my own child is sick of me saying it. And she even uttered the words, "stop taking my picture mama!". Uhhhh like that will ever happen.
So far this year has been great, despite the drought from over the summer. We needed moisture. Bad. Rain would have been a true blessing. Then we got our wish. We got snow. And lots of it. I love the snow and winter, but this was the type of snow storm that left you locked in your house waiting for it to stop so you could get outside. Don't get me wrong, I live for a good snowman, but I couldn't even get my car out of our driveway.

Here are a few pictures. Enjoy. There might be more, because we are expected to get more snow tomorrow........ 
Blizzard of Oz 2013

Love and Happiness

WOW! I am really behind with this blog. I see the last time I was on here was before Christmas.
Well better late then never.
I am getting around to getting things done and this one is on my list.
Lately I've been a busy bee. Between work and trying to keep up with house work and trying to spend extra time with my child and husband, my to-do list keeps getting longer and longer.
Next week, Tuesday is Valentines Day. And it is a special day in my family. It is also my Grandpa Joe's birthday. Happy Birthday Grandpa! We love you.
February is the month for birthday's at our house. There are about 7 people in our family that celebrate their birthday's this month, including Stu and my Mom. (they both share the same birthday)

Plus on top of the birthday's comes Valentines for Maddison to take for school. I found a super cute idea on a web site this year and they turned out super cute!

What do you get when you take wooden clothes pins, foam hearts, black pipe cleaners, wiggly eyes and some red paint? Well I got a huge mess and this:

 The final piece. I clipped these little guys to a sandwich bag with some treats inside.
Hope the kiddos like 'em

This afternoon I got the pleasure of attending a Wedding Anniversary party. George and Dorothy have been married for 40 years. The clothes they are wearing are the same clothes they got married in. Pretty good the be able to wear your wedding dress 40 years later.
Congratulations to the happy couple. Here's to many more happy years together.

I hope that on my 40th Anniversary I can squeeze my bottom into my dress. I might need an xtra large girdle to help keep things in, but hey it would be worth it!
Hope everyone has a Happy Valentines Day with their special sweetheart.



More holiday cheer.....

What do you get when you take a silly girl.....

                     add some of this.......

                                                     
 
                  and some of this.......

 

                                              

                           You get this!

 
     

                              And you get a happy kid!

 Then you take your happy kid to look at Christmas lights!

 

                                

   Happy Holidays!!                                  

Holiday Cheer...

Welcome to December!
It's the most wonderful time of the year, and my favorite as well.......Christmas time.
With the Christmas tree up and the stocking hung above the fireplace, I can't believe that it's almost Christmas time. Soon this year will be gone and the start of a new one.
I hope that everyone takes the time to enjoy this holiday season and take some extra time to be thankful for all the things that you have been blessed with this past year.
I will probably wait until the last minute to finish my shopping and wrapping gifts, but I wouldn't have it any other way.
I hope that everyone has a safe and wonderful holiday season this year. I've got alot of things on my list for what's left of this year and I hope that I can manage to get them all done, and I will make some time to share them with you as well.
So I will start off with this.......
Maddie wouldn't sit on Santa's lap, so this was better than nothing!

Picture Day.....

I have a picture that I want to share, but first there is a story that goes along with it, so happy reading!

Just to let everyone know, this story has been in the making for over two months now. That's how long I've been waiting on this photo. But I guess it was worth the wait. Did you already scroll down to see what the picture is before reading my story? Well if you did I don't blame you.
I thought I'd had it all planned out, but here's what I get for planning. At my job, I was handed this piece of paper with a women's name on it and phone number. I was to call her and schedule a time to have my picture taken for work. The picture is going to be used on our website and also be displayed in the front lobby. No problem. Well, if we wanted to we could have a pet in the picture as well.
I was up for that.
We have two dogs, Ruger and Captian. Both brothers and both males. They don't always get along with each other, so I knew that trying to wrangle both of them for this photo op was NOT going to happen. So I choose to just take Ruger instead.
I had my appointment time scheduled with the photographer and had it planned out that I would take Ruger to work with me the morning of our photo shoot and give him a bath and make him smell pretty. He's an outdoor dog 24/7. He's needed a spa day.
So the morning came, and I dropped Maddie of at school, headed home to pick up my furry friend. So far everything was going smooth as butter. That's what I thought.
I get over to the dog kennels to go get Ruger. He comes running up to me, and instantly I was saying....."oh you stinkin' dog." He was partly covered with the wonderful aroma of a SKUNK!
That's where my perfect planned picture day went out the window.
So I loaded up my stinky pooch and headed to work, and gave him not one skunk bath, but two. He could have used one more, but I was running out of time.
Then later I found out that the pictures where going to be taken at the photographer's house. My dog is NOT house trained by any means. This is a dog who has gone for a swim in our lagoon. Then I started to sweat a little. We arrive at our destination, and I made sure that Ruger hike his leg on some bushes before I stepped into this lady's nice home.
We get inside and I forewarned her that my dog was not an indoor dog. She didn't seem too worried about it. Hey I warned the lady.
She takes towards the back of the room, and says "Everything is set up down stairs." I thought, oh this ain't gonna happen. My country dog doesn't even know what stairs are lady. All I could think was I'm NOT holding this 50lb dog down some stairs.
So she asks, "will he go down the stairs?" I was like "He's not used to stairs, but we can try."
My dog looked at me and took one step back and put on the brakes. He wasn't going for that.
So she says "Oh no problem, I have an elevator, will he go on that ok?"
I about said "holy crap, I love this house."  So we hopped in the little elevator and took it to the basement.
I bribed Ruger with treats and begged him, please oh please don't you pee in here.
In the end Ruger was so good for me. I was so happy it turned out great. I know Ruger won't be around forever, but I will have a perfect picture to remember him by.

                                     

Happy Fall

Oh man, am I behind or what?
I knew it had been a while since my last post, but I didn't think it had been that long.
Here's what's been going on in our world.

Since the fall season began, a.k.a allergy season at our house, we've been lucky so far. I only lost my voice once due to allergies and Maddie had one bought with bronchitis. Stu's been the lucky one and hasn't managed to get sick. We had  to get a new washing machine. Our old washer kicked the bucket, so we broke down and got a new set. And I LOVE them! I actually look forward to doing the laundry. I never thought I'd ever say that. Went to the State Fair, we took a trip to the pumpkin patch, which was crazy busy that day, but NO RAIN! Then Stu & I took a trip to the dunes in Oklahoma, and we celebrated Halloween! Wheeeew.  That gets me caught up until the holiday's!

Here are a few pictures from our wonderful adventures!

Good picture huh? I cut the top of Stu's head off!

Stu and Maddie jumping around at the Pumpkin Patch!



She loved her little pumpkin she found.



  



Happy Halloween from our little Cheerleader!



Hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving!