Things I Love Thursday - Burt's Bees Baby Bee

I LOVE The Burt's Bees Baby Bee products. With all the icky stuff being added to all of the baby products that can cause reproductive problems (this might be way some women can't have kids... scary!) I am at east knowing that Ella is not being effected by this. And that she smells super yummy!

If you haven't tried their line yet, I highly recommend it. A bottle of the Shampoo/Body Wash lasts me a couple of month. I've only bought 3 in Ella's 18 months.

Over at Diaper Diaries there are other things that people love, so if you're interested head over there and read up on the entries. Plus, she's giving away something kinda cool today!!

Get out of a slump!

Works for me Wednesday! It no longer is with Rocks in My Dryer, but is now being hosted by one of my favorites.... Kristen over at We are THAT family. She has a great blog and I highly suggest checking it out.

Sometimes I have days that I can't think of one thing that works for me. Yesterday I had this overly productive day where I cleaned off the top of my fridge, which had been accumulating things well over a year, put together a cabinet thing to keep our DVDs and games in so that my toddler will stop throwing them everywhere and did laundry. It was a great day! Then I woke up today and don't feel motivated to do a darn thing.

It is however a day that I need to share with everyone something that does work for me. So, I'll share with you how I get out of a slump like this. First thing I do is shine my sink, because Flylady truly is on to something here, then I start a load of laundry, then I make my bed and then I go and wipe down all of my bathroom counters, then things start happening after that. I in a way start getting motivated and it works. Yes, I do have to FORCE myself to do these things, but if I don't then the day is wasted with me and some cheesy movie and lots of sugar... not a good thing.

What do you do to get out of a slump like I'm in today?

Cardiology Appointment....

Our vacation was nice! I didn't take a lot of pictures, but I did get a few. I did a couple maternity shots of my sister and there's some of me with the girls in my family. I'll post them up this weekend.

The trip was fast. Wednesday we left home for Reno and the next day I was in a seminar for the majority of it. Friday we were on our way to Sacramento so that I could give my sister a baby shower on Saturday then we headed home Sunday. We stopped at Gino's parents on the way home, but it was really a rush rush rush vacation.

It's good to be home.

Today was Ella's pediatrics and cardiology appointments. The cardiology appointment was not a good one. They did the EKG and found that her WPW is STILL there, which I was totally expecting, but what I wasn't expecting was for her cardiologist to tell me that he wants her to go off of her medication.

I don't see the point in this. I don't see why in the world they would want to take her off of something that has done wonders with her. Something that has kept her out of the hospitals and healthy as any other child out there.

I am not too sure on what to do. He told me that if she has any episodes she can go right back on it, but what's the point of taking her off then?

I'm Okay!!

I have a couple of voice mail's and emails checking on me.... I didn't realize it had been so long LOL. Time flies when you're having fun!

I'm okay. I've been on vacation and started it in Reno and arrived in Sacramento today to do my sister's baby shower tomorrow.

Sunday we'll be on our way home and will be stopping by Gino's parents to visit them. Then, I'll be back to blogging. I had to share this precious picture though, Gino snapped it this morning....

I Love My Marriage

Marriage to me is one of the most powerful things on this earth. It is a bond that you form and choose to stick with someone forever. In my case for all eternity. It's a bond that you can't break, it's a bond that you don't want to break even when it's the one thing in this world you'd love to break.

I met my husband 8 1/2 years ago and I've been happily married for almost 3 years. Married for almost 5. We've been through some disastrous situations, ones that end marriages, but we overcame them together. Divorce has never been an option, even when it should have been. Instead, we learned to love each other again, maybe for the first time. We learned what it means for better or worse. I learned to appreciate my wedding ring and it's symbol of a never ending circle. This marriage will never end.

This man that I'm married to is my best friend. Nobody can make me more mad, but nobody can make me more happy. We're this powerful team that can conquer anything together, because we've almost been through it all in our eyes. We are proof that the most horrible marriage can survive and I feel like for us sticking it out through the thick and thin that God has blessed us with a great marriage.

I don't think I tell him enough how thankful I am for him. I don't think I tell him enough how there's no way in this world that I could do this life without him, that there's no way in this world that I'd want to do it without him. But I'm telling him here, now. Someday he'll read this blog and when he comes upon this entry I want his heart to smile.

You are an amazing husband, Gino. I'm proud of the choices and changes that you have made to better yourself and our family. You make my heart smile every day. I'm thankful to have you as a husband, friend, and father of my children.

When Kristen announced the SWAK carnival I was so excited. I love to brag about my marriage and my husband. So, if you want to brag about your husband or read other's entries go to her blog and start reading away.

What do I do?

I'm happy where I'm at. I'm happy where I'm at in every aspect of my life. Especially where I live at. I never thought I could be happy away from my home, but strangely this has become my home.

We're in a very scary economy, and people are losing their jobs left and right. It's scary. It's petrifying. I'm thankful, because I don't feel like we're going to be effected by this.

My job is different, I work at home. I do books for my grandmother's mobile home and manage the park. It's different, because I'm not physically at the park. I have my maintenance man that makes sure that things are running smoothly there, and it works. However, I'm being offered an opportunity that part of me thinks I'm stupid for turning down.

This opportunity would consist of Gino quitting his job. We would have Cobra insurance for a year, but after that I don't know what we'd do. Maybe pay an extreme price for insurance, because I do have a cardiac baby, and insurance is necessary. We would move to a very small town and live in a manufactured house. A 4 bedroom, beautiful manufactured house, but it is what it is. Gino would not have to work. He would be free to go to school full time and get his degree. I would get my dealer's license and sell mobile homes to fill up the park. It would be a 2 year plan. When all was said and done we would be able to buy some land here in Oregon, and be given a manufactured house to put it on.

I don't want to do it. I don't want to leave my happy place. I don't want to go and join a ward that I don't think I'd be happy in. I don't want to leave the security that my husband does have at his work. I don't want to uproot my children and put them in a school that I think would suck. I don't want to not have a program like the YMCA for my children to go to. I don't want to not be able to go to Target or the mall or Olive Garden or Applebee's whenever I want. I don't want to become depressed. I don't want to live in a miserable town like Ely. I don't want to. I don't want to. I don't want to.

But should I? Is it the best thing for our lives? Is 2 years all that much? The thought of it makes my stomach hurt and me want to cry. I'm happy. I love where I'm at in my life. I don't want to ruin it.

I feel insecure and sick to my stomach. I don't want to do this, but I know my Grandma needs me to. Who else is going to be able to sell mobile homes and fill that park up? There has to be another way.

First Love Note

Have I mentioned before that my kids are going to really hate me when they're older? When they finally stumble upon my blog and read the endless embarrassing little things about their lives? That's okay with me. I'm making memories for them here!

I had to blog about this one. Jayden's first love note. Boys are so clueless, Jayden didn't realize what the girl was trying to say. When Gino pointed out the word "love" Jayden wanted to throw it away and got mad at us. So cute.
Jayden's a Taylor Swift fan. He's been walking around sing Love Story. The only part he knows is in his version..... I'll be the prince and you'll be the princess, it's a fairy tale love story. It melts my heart. I love this little boy and am so thankful that God entrusted me with this precious little soul.

The Secret Life of Bees

I just closed this book after reading the final page and was compelled to run to my blog to talk about it. What a powerful story. This book was so satisfying and is up there as one of my favorites. If you haven't read it, I HIGHLY suggest it.

Forgiveness. It was mentioned in the book that people would rather die than forgive. Forgiving is a VERY difficult thing to do, but it is also something that we are supposed to do. Matthew 6:14-15 it states For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your Heavenly Father will will also forgive you: But if ye forgive men not their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. I don't know about you, but I definitely know that there are many things that I've done wrong, and I most definitely hope that one day I will be forgiven for those things. It is hard to forgive, but it's necessary. We're all human, we're not perfect, we make mistakes. Your entire past could be a mistake and full of wrong doing, but you can definitely say your prayers, repent, and try to change your ways. Try to make the best of the rest of your time on earth. It's never too late, and it's not right to make other's suffer that are in need of YOUR forgiveness. While it's easy to just turn your head, and and not forgive those who have done wrong to you, would you want your Heavenly Father to do that to you?

Mothers. This is definitely a book based on mothers. Lily struggles with so much in this book with her mom. Her mom died when she was young and Lily is constantly searching for love. When your mom leaves you or when you die, you are constantly going to be searching for that void inside. Many emotions probably arise from this, and in Lily's case there's a complete love/hate relationship with her dead mom. I know that the way that Lily has been effected by her mom's death can be the same for children who's mom left them behind..... moved on with their life. Selfishness. Those kids will always have a love and hate relationship with the memory of their mother. Yearning for her love and hating her for what she did to them.

Dealing with our problems. Dealing with our emotions. We all have ways in our life that we deal with our problems. Some people write about them, some people try to ignore them, sometimes we turn to our Heavenly Father. In this book there was a wailing wall, where you write it out on a paper and stuff it into the wall of rocks. Whatever is on your mind, you just write it out and stuff it in there and be done with it. I wish that problems could be that easy, but it did make me think of lists. Weird, I know. I thought how when something's bugging me I should just keep a journal with me, and write it there. It's not there to completely forget, but it's a list of things that I need to take care of, either within myself, or something that literally needs to be done. It's not good to keep things boggled up, and if you can write it down and get it off your mind it could help. So, instead of a wailing wall, I think I might incorporate a wailing book into my life. I have issues with dealing with the things that are on my mind, I let things bog me down.

These are the feelings that I felt while reading this. These are the things I would've talked about at our book club had I gone this month. My next book that I will be reading is Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen. I'm anxious to start it and have read great reviews about it.

Tiona's 10th Birthday

My littlest sister, Tiona turned 10 on Friday. Friday night we went out to dinner with her and had a pretty fun time, but yesterday we went to her birthday party and had A BLAST! I honestly can't believe how much fun I had. It was at the skating ring and when I showed up I had no intentions on skating. I finally caved, put the skates on and took Jayden out. He actually was doing really well for it being his first time.

It really had me thinking while out there skating with my little man that it saddens me that we don't do a lot of things with just the two of us. I think it's important for him and me that we do something with just the two of us at least once every two weeks. He needs that. I need that.

Ella was great, which was shocking. My sister Britney took care of her while I spent my quality time with Jayden. She was cute and everyone oooooed and ahhhhed over her, and she loved the attention she got.

Picture time...... oh... my sister's date on the pics hasn't been set - so don't mind the date :) It's pretty wrong.

My cute little man sporting his new haircut

Ella looks intoxicated, maybe too much ice cream???

Jayden was really enjoying the bubbles.... you'd think the kid never seen them before

Ella holding her brother's new recorder - she was all smiles

She caught me... a picture of me I didn't know was taken.

This is Ella with my dad ~ this morning while snagging these pics off my sister's myspace Ella saw this pic and said, "Papa." I was kinda shocked that she remembered since we're not around him too much, but I thought it was kinda neat - so I thought I'd document it. So, Ella with her Papa.