Mmmm....

for salads!! I've been on a salad kick lately, and I made this beauty in just a few minutes! I love the colors and the taste :) Yum.

A Special Surprise From A Special Cat

This is what woke me up at 4am with a horrible crash.

Benson surprised us all by being a pretty good mouser! We've seen him studying parts of the house (making him just look crazy) like the wall and under the refrigerator.
I'm pretty sure he was proud of himself.

PS. My little guy is sick (again). And again the culprit is dual ear infections. So while the hubby has an excuse to sleep and not take care of him (work=taking care of other sick people), I get the duty of doing it. However, the good part is I get to fully enjoy when my real Aiden comes back with his loving, cuddly, sweet self. The next step is to find out what is causing it...my thought is the evil dairy. We'll see.

Isn't He Handsome!

Mikey starts his new job today!!! Woo Hoo!! He now works at the hospital in the ER department! I am so very proud of him! We've been praying about a job for so long and then this one showed up so we started praying hard for this one and He gave it to us!! Now Mikey can go to school (to be an RN) AND work! Yay!!

I think he's pretty hot in his scrubs :)

Something That Touched My Heart..

And I hope it touches yours. Watch the video found at this address...

http://www.lifechurch.tv/watch/toxic/4

This is the current series at church called Toxic. It's all about toxic words, and how they can give life or death. This really spoke to me because I have toxic words all around me and I am guilty of giving them out as well. Instead, I need to give life-giving words. Which started yesterday! The hubby and I are trying this out and I invite you to do the same! Please enjoy and share comments :)

A Rant

Why is it that I can bust my butt everyday of the week and nothing changes on the weekend. I get up every single day whenever Aiden wants to, mainly because my husband can't hear him. For example this morning...well last night hubby went to sleep before I did, so I (as usual) had to shut down the house, feed the animals, and put away food, I finally crawl in bed and he's already passed out. Then in the middle of the night Aiden comes in (as usual) and I end up with an 1/8 of the queen size bed (no joke). Then I have to deal with being kicked, prodded, smashed, overheated, and laid on the rest of what's left of the night. And THEN whenever Aiden decides it's time to get up you sure as hell better get up or listen to him cry, which makes me very grumpy to hear tears in the morning. And this morning? Yeah it was 5:50 when he turns over (after about 30 minutes of tossing and turning already) and says "get up." No. More kicking and crying. Damn it. So I bare it for as long as possible thinking maybe he'll finally just relax and go back to sleep, or just maybe husband will wake up and do it. NO. I finally loose my cool and get up and put in a movie for him to watch, still hoping he'll relax for a little bit longer while Mommy cools her jets on the amazing invention called the computer.

I'm just sick and tired of making sure crap gets done. Feeding the animals, letting the dog outside (shouldn't be a hard chore but apparently it is), cleaning up messes, throwing trash away, rinsing dishes completely, getting Aiden in a bath regularly, keeping his bedtime at 9. I love my family but they sure do piss me off every once in awhile. And I sure as hell can't ever complain that I'm ever tired because I'm expected to just push through it unless I just completely pass out in the livingroom or while putting Aiden to sleep; then I just get woken up because I need to do something. I don't dare do that because I get met with an actual bear. What the hell.

I feel unappreciated and unspecial right now, sorry for my rant, I'll probably pay for it later anyway. Again, I love my family, but they piss me off sometimes.

Pictures Instead of Yapping My Mouth :)

Aiden doing some serious relaxing :) (sorry about the bad lighting)

Aiden helping out folding and putting away his clothes!!

Today we had some fun at a park and I had to leave with this super cute shot of my boy!

BUSY, BUSY, BUSY!

Well...this weekend was very eventful!

Saturday: Aiden and I went with a friend to garage sales, where I found 2 custom made larger frames for $12! And a few beanie babies for Aiden to play with :) and after we went to a used clothes store where I found some new clothes! Next, we came home for lunch and as we walked in the door my sister called to see if we wanted to go shopping with her (which I immediately said yes to!). So after being home for 30 minutes and eating some mac and cheese (gluten free of course) we went to two more stores. Then, Aiden and I came home for another 3o minutes before we had to go to a birthday party for one of his little friends :) (His first non-family party to attend) at his play gym. He got to run around the entire gym and do whatever he wanted! (Instead of being stuck in a guided routine). ALL THIS WITHOUT A NAP AND NO BREAKDOWNS!!!

How amazing is my guy?

Sunday: We decided Aiden (and I) needed a little down time so after church we came home and I was checking my new favorite site-craigslist! and found out that an orange chair that was thought to be sold already was available again! So I sent my wonderful husband to pick it up for only $25 which is probably the best $25 we've spent on furniture yet. Then I was escorted to life group by Aiden (because Mikey was still out of town with the new chair) where he charmed the pants off everyone there. :) And what else could he do but make everyone fall in love with him?

And what's coming up this week you ask??? Well tonight I have a get-to-know-a-midwife meeting, tomorrow-a meeting at church about serving, wednesday-a haircut!!, thursday-my step-mom is getting her first cancer treatment so we'll be going to sit with my dad during it and after doing some more shopping! and friday-so far nothing. :) Whew!

You Know Your Doing Good When...

You hear

"Hey, I bery pwoud o you."

Well Aiden, I'm very proud of you too. :)
And I hope I tell you it enough.

Hang on for the Ride

Because starting today I have a lot to talk about.
So hopefully I'll be able to blog almost everyday.

Today's reading on my Bible plan: Genesis: 6-22 and 7
This has to be one of my favorite parts of the Bible.
(Because of my love of animals, shocking I know)

This is about when God spoke to Noah and told him about the flood coming.
It gives specifics of the dimensions of the ark, animals, and what to do. It says exactly why God has commanded this to happen: the wickedness of the world is so great He regrets even making us! This is very sad that He was so upset about what we were doing that He wanted to destroy everything. I also think it's amazing that people once actually lived as long as Noah did: 600 years!! He had his 600th birthday on the ark! How cool is that?
It also amazes me that all the animals in the world were on this one boat together and God quieted them so that no one tried to eat anyone else and they all got along. Imagine trying that on your own, it wouldn't be possible.

Side Note:
This also makes me think that maybe, just maybe, this is how/why all of the dinosaurs got wiped out. I have to say that I don't really believe in Darwin's evolution theory. Think about it: God might not have wanted the dinosaurs to continue...so the flood wiped them out. And what caused the fossilization process to go back millions upon millions of years? The pressure from all the water! The Bible does say that the water rose 20 feet above the tops of mountains (Genesis 7:20), so imagine that much water and how much it would weigh, it could quite possibly make everything under it fossilize much quicker.
Disclaimer: I do not know the process to determine how old fossils are, and there are things that can't be explained in my theory. This is my opinion and I'm entitled to it. :)

Recent Photos

Some photos from my mom's health food store!

Fresh produce anyone??

Above: Here is the quilt I'm currently working on.
Below: Aiden got out the broom and decided he wanted to see if he could knock Daddy's hats off.

He was successful. Don't you love the shocked look on his face!?

Weak trees + Strong winds = ONE BIG MESS!
This is what happened in our yard over the weekend! A minor storm came through and knocked over a tree! We realized it once we realized our dog was not leaving the backdoor to do her business. We're still waiting on the landlord to come do something about it.

New Happenings

Over the weekend we went floating the river!! My sister, Mikey, and I went and it was very fun. I'll have to admit I was incredibly nervous about going because I burn SO easily, but I DIDN'T!!

However, my sister did, badly.

We made the 6 mile trip down the river in a little over 4 hours and stopped and helped one guy with a dislocated shoulder. Ew, that's all I can say. There are some crazy people on the river, mainly because there were HEAVY drinkers there.

We survived the trip minus 1 towel, 2 lost sunglasses, almost 1 flip flop (recovered), and on the drive home my (favorite) pair of sunglasses were found to be broken :(.
Pictures to follow.

I started a new reading plan for the Bible today. It's the 100 Essentials plan on Youversion.com
I'm hoping that I can refocus my drive to know Jesus more with a little guidance, seeing as how I can't seem to do it on my own.

Today's Readings: Genesis 1 and 2
I've already read those many times before but this time, after praying that my heart is open to receive God's message, I had a renewed vigor to understand what God did at the beginning of the world.

I also did some cleaning out of my earthly possessions yesterday. At church they talked about the "toxic" influences you can find in the world (mainly through media outlets). It got me thinking about all the bad movies we have in our home (Kill Bill, Good Luck Chuck, and Waiting to name a few), we never watch them but there they are sending out bad messages to us and our son. So, out they go. I'm only keeping ones that have good messages to them, or ones we really like (hey, I can't give away ALL of our entertainment, I'd go into withdrawal). It's all about one step at a time. We'll get there.

A Reflection of Yesterday

Yesterday...hmm...

Ran errands early and I mean early left at 8am!

Aiden helped fold clothes, this consists of him rolling everything :)

I made some more cards for Aiden to play with, I'll post about those later.

Aiden was obsessed with fish! Demanded to be read "Nemo" books and went to sleep cuddling a fish. (Later we watched Nemo) (I also wished I could take him to the aquarium but alas that money issue gets in the way again)
I was actually bored! (during his nap)

Restarted Aiden's baby clothes quilt, I'll post pictures of my progress.

We made a fort!! Aiden woke up and I started making one and he kept asking what I was doing and once he realized what it was he couldn't stop smiling!(Here he is watching Finding Nemo with his fish and eating his favorite food-watermelon!)

Aiden helped me clean up the yard.

I worked with Zoe in our backyard, seeing as it's too hot to work with trainers for an hour.

Aiden found a hat and scarf I made and liked playing with them.
IT RAINED!!! And Aiden got surprised by one thunder clap, which was very funny.

Everybody went to bed at a normal time!!! (first time for this in a week or longer!)

All in all, yesterday was a pretty good day. I feel like Aiden got my complete attention for a large portion of the day, we had some silly fun and some learning time, and we got to take the day as slow as we wanted. It was an amazing feeling.

5 Generations!

So I got this idea (again) from a fellow blogger. We'd been planning this trip to see my great-grandma for awhile, and the whole time I didn't realize how special it was to have 5 generations in one family! I am very proud of my family and how strong my great-grandma is!
5 generations of girls!
Having some lunch all together after. :)

This is one of my favorite things in my great-grandma's house! This is our entire family! Well from my grandma's side :) The bottom one is great-great grandchildren (8 of them)! Total=74