Mind Nausea

I'm awake. Can't sleep. This is a frequent behavior of mine recently. It's 4:30 am and my mind is racing.

Racing with oh-s0-many thoughts. Some good. Some bad.

The good thoughts are mostly about the baby we'll welcome into this world in a few short weeks, all the money I saved with my coupons yesterday (I spent around $50 and saved over $100! Plus, with my thrifty deals I got several items for FREE!!), and about the cute little munchkin named Tralee. She brings us so much joy!

The bad ones are all the usual mumbo-jumbo. Finances (always finances), career choices, whether I should go back to school after the baby is born so that I can do medical transcription from home, whether or not we should keep this property or move on, whether or not I should apologize for chewing out our neighbor for not fixing the water pump and having our water turn off sporadically several days in a row (I didn't know I had it in me, but boy he got an earful! However, he later told Jim I hurt his feelings and now I feel bad), all the cleaning/laundry I've been putting off and REALLY need to get to, and more thoughts are circling around and around in my head.

It's dizzying, and because of my mind-nausea I can't sleep.

I guess I should try that saying: When you can't sleep, stop counting sheep and talk to The Shepard. Hopefully He can help. Well, we all know He can help.

So here I go, I'm off to talk to The Shepard and hopefully get a few hours of rest before The Munchkin wakes up and demands my attention.

Birthday Lunch

We had a little birthday lunch yesterday afternoon with Jim's cousin's family. Their daughter's, Jovie's, birthday is on the same day as Jim's, so we planned a little lunch to celebrate both birthdays. We were watching Jim's Uncle's kids, so we had the lunch at their house. The lunch was fun, but it was REALLY fun watching Tralee and Jovie play together.

We watched them jump on the tramp, throw sand in each other's faces, and see-saw together.

This was the first time Tralee actually see-sawed with someone in her size category. Both girls loved it. . . even though some of the pictures don't really portray it.

Like this one. . .

Not really a face that screams "I love this!"

Or this one. . .

If you didn't know any better you would think she was miserable

But then I managed to snap a few of the girls smiling. Not at the same time of course, that would be too perfect.

Look closely and you'll see that Jovie is sporting a fantastic grin!

And here is Tralee, equally as enthused to be see-sawing with a pal.

Next time I'll try and get a pic of BOTH girls smiling at the same time. It's not an easy task getting a 2 and 3 year old to smile sequentially, but we'll try.

Jim's Birthday

Jim's birthday was pretty low-key, but he had fun. I mean, how can you not have fun if presents and cake are involved?

Jim's mom bought him an ice cream cake from Dairy Queen (a family tradition), and since we were babysitting Jim's Uncle's kids whilst Jim celebrated his 30 years of life, they also baked him a birthday cake. It was very sweet of them to do.

Jim opened his gifts and got some birthday money, an Irish t-shirt from Tralee and me (also a tradition we started in our family), and the entire Astro Boy series from Jim's sister Sue and her family. He felt pretty happy about it all.

When it came time to blow out the candles the kids put fifteen in one cake, and fifteen in the other. It took a lot of air to blow out all thirty candles, but Jim managed to do it. Actually, he blew out all but one in one breath and then announced, "Only one left, that means I have one girlfriend."

That's right, and I'm proud to say, I'm her!

Shhhh. . . Somebody's 30 Today.

I'll give you 50 points if you can tell me who this is. I'll give you a hint: This same person is 30 today, but it's a secret. He doesn't want anybody to know, because apparently, when you turn 30, it officially means you're old. (No offense to people in their 30's, this isn't coming from me.)



So. . . I guess that means

Happy 29th+1 Birthday Jim!

WE LOVE YOU!!!

Country Walk

Jim took off this fine Saturday to go snowboarding with some cousins. Well, first he was going to help a cousin move, and then he was going up to Bogus Basin to snowboard his little feet off.

So, what's a mommy to do on a beautiful Saturday afternoon with her daughter? After some lounging around on both of our parts, Tralee and I finally got ready, grabbed the camera, and headed outside to do a little damage of our own.

Since we've moved here, we've pretty much kept to the two acres we live on. Tralee thinks it's fine, and usually has a blast running around, playing in the dirt, throwing rocks, and feeding our neighbor's horses. But, today we decided to broaden our horizons. I busted out the stroller (it's been gathering some serious dust this winter) and we hit the road for a country walk.



I've mentioned before that we live right in the midst of some peach and apple orchards, so on our walk we stopped and ran around an orchard. Tralee loved it, and I got some cute pictures of her. I'm not sure if we're allowed in the orchard, but I figured if someone had a problem with it, they would come let us know. Fortunately, no one came and we had the orchard all to ourselves to run around in, pick up sticks, and point to the birdies. Tralee and I had fun, and I can only imagine how beautiful it will be when the trees start to blossom!

The picture above is one of my favorites I took of Tralee today.

This one's pretty good too.

Just playing around with my little camera. Oh, how I long for a nice SLR. But, at least my little point-and-shoot gets the job done.

I only put the above picture in because it shows my belly, and I haven't been taking too many "belly shots" this pregnancy. No one was with us, so I set the camera's timer and put it on top of the stroller. As you can see, it didn't work out too great since my head is chopped off. BUT. . . my belly is as clear as day!

The best picture I managed to get of Tralee and me. She didn't want to sit still. . . not for a second!

I'm sure this is an outing that will be repeated several times.

Thrifty

Here are a few websites I've been visiting lately for some steals and deals. I saw the first one on another mom's blog this morning. I'm glad she posted about it, because now I can pass along the info.

The woman who blogs athriftymom.com lives in my neck-of-the-woods, and was recently featured on the local news. Just click on the button to view her blog for some money saving tips.



My Aunt let me know about this next blog. Just click on the link and it should take you there.

http://www.couponcravings.com/

And a few more Jim's cousin sent me:



http://www.cravingagooddeal.blogspot.com/


I really like knowing I got a good deal on something, however I don't have the time/energy/attention span to sift through coupons and browse the internet for deals. Luckily the two women who run these blogs have it down, and they're nice enough to pass along the info!

Hope it helps you save a few bucks!

Imagination

Tralee has a pretty good imagination for her age.

One imagination game she likes to play is "Bear, Kitty, and Doggy." That's what Jim and I named it. She watched Milo and Otis one day, and there's a scene in it where a bear is trying to get at a kitty. Shortly after Otis, the doggy, shows up and saves the day. The day after Tralee saw this for the first time, she started saying, "Bear: Rar! Rar! Kitty: Meow! Meow! Doggy: Woof! Woof!" Since then Jim and I have joined in the fun, one of us is the bear, one of us the kitty, and one of us the doggy. We act out our respective parts much to the delight of Tralee.

I've also come to the conclusion that Tralee believes her stuffed animals are real. Why do I think this? I'll give you an example. Tralee won't eat her own food until her stuffies have had a bite first. Last night I got some pretzels out for Tralee and she refused to take a bite until her kitty and her bear each had a nibble. This morning she pulled out a kitchen chair, sat her kitty on it, and then walked around to the other end of the table where she pulled a chair out for herself and sat down. I asked if she was hungry to which I recieved an "uh-huh" so I fed her a banana. Tralee wasn't satisfied until I placed part of the banana in front of kitty also. There are more examples, such has when Tralee babbles to her stuffies, does "this little piggy" to their paws, and counts to three upon which her stuffies "jump" into her arms.

It's so stinken' fun to watch Tralee play and use that little imagination of hers!