New Sink

Its 6:30 a.m. and I’m a ball of emotions today, and not just because I woke up at 4:30 this morning. I’m headed to Dallas for a two day derivatives training. Tonight will be the first night I spend away from Raegan. A part of me is stoked! (is that still an acceptable word to use?) I feel like a free woman, I’m going to have a king sized bed in a nice hotel all to myself and no dishes to wash, baths to give, or laundry to hang up, ahhh sounds like bliss! On the other hand I’m super concerned about Philip and Raegan and how they will fare without me. I did everything I could think of to help them out while I’m gone including: paying daycare for the week, baking chocolate chip cookies, washing and setting out Raegan’s cups on the kitchen counter, putting snacks for Raegan in little ziplock baggies, and nursing Raegan before I left this morning. Thankfully it is just a short trip and I will see them tomorrow night, which by the way is mine and Philp’s 3 yr anniversary! Three years sounds like such a short time, like Philip and I should still be newlyweds just figuring each other out. Our relationship is so much deeper and stronger than that though. I know him better than I know anyone else, I think we’ve got each other figured out, and things are good : ) Maybe because we met in August of 2003 so it is almost like a 7 year anniversary than a 3 year one. Anyways, I love him that’s all that really matters!

PS- Here are a couple new words Raegan has been using recently: car, go, & hot

PSS- I'm not sure if I ever shared pics of our new sink (it was an early anniversary gift)

OLD SINK

NEW SINK

17 month update

August 23rd, 2010 - Happy Birthday DAD!
Tomorrow Raegan will be 17 months old
new words:hot
ball
balloon
apple
mine
yuck
shhh
new signs:potty
shhh

Saturday morning I made this fruit dip that I found in Health magazine.
Ingredients: • 2 cups skim milk • 1/2 cup light sour cream • 1 (3.4-oz.) package vanilla instant pudding and pie filling mix • 1 cup Jif Reduced Fat Peanut Butter • 1/3 cup sugar • Apple and banana slices (or any fruit of your choice)

Directions: • Combine milk, sour cream, and pudding mix in medium bowl. Whisk until smooth. • Stir Jif peanut butter until evenly mixed throughout. • Combine peanut butter and sugar into pudding mixture; mix until well blended. • Serve with sliced apples or banana chunks. Store in refrigerator. If dip becomes too thick, stir in additional milk. I'd suggest halfing the recipe unless you have A LOT of people to feed. We used apples, strawberries, and cheerios to dip in the fruit dip. Raegan ended up in just her diaper, sitting on the table, eating straight out of the mixing bowl. Raegan loved it; I was worried about the peanut butter, but no signs of an allergic reaction. So maybe she has grown out of her peanut sensitivity, I sure hope so!

New Addition

This is where our tv should be...

The panel of it is being fixed and it has been sent far away for a couple of weeks. We must be pretty bored without it, because we decided to get a puppy! Meet Lincoln Brewster the 5 month old bassador (1/2 basset hound, 1/2 lab). He is one year younger than Raegan. We think he is cute!

This was his mugshot from the pound. A family found him and kept him for a month, but when no one claimed him, they took him to the pound and then Philip went and saved him = )

Playing with a ball at PetsMart.

Playing in our backyard. He seems to be a very good, mild-mannered dog.

Indulgence

This morning I used up the last bit of my Mother's Day gift card to heaven... I mean the Aveda Ihloff Salon and Spa, which if heaven is anything like, then I'm ready.

When I get there Katie (my facial guru) pours me a glass of ice water, which has a refreshing taste of cucumber from the fresh slices floating in it, ahhh. She takes me back, and we make small talk as I soak my tired feet in a warm water tub with lots of bubbles. She asks how my day is going as she uses a brown sugar scrub on my feet and lower legs. Then she gently lifts my feet out of the water and pats them dry with a soft towel and places them into spa slippers.

It gets better...

We enter the next room, which is darker with walls painted a calming grayish almost purple color and a dim light above with a cover that looks like pressed leaves inside of glass. All I hear is the sound of ocean waves. She leaves so that I can get undressed, put the white spa robe, and get under the light weight covers. When she returns she places a cylinder pillow under my knees to give my back better support. While she was gone she selected 3 scented oils that she thought would be good for my facial. I close my eyes as she places one finger on my forehead and waves the scent in front of my nose. I take a deep breathe in and smell a sweet but strong citrus scent, then she places her finger back on my forehead, I take another deep breathe in and smell number 2 a sweet soft maybe lavender scent, one more time for number 3 which I thought had a more manly smell maybe sandalwood. She never tells me the mix of what scents are in each oil. I tell her its between 1 and 2 and after repeating the process for those two oils, I select number 1; I like it.

She begins by gently moving my hair out of the way and wrapping it in a towel. She then waves the scent over my face again and then presses her hands down on each edge of my cheeks/ears, this calms me instantly. She then wraps my face with a warm towel leaving an open space for my nose and mouth so I can breath. She gently removes the towel wiping off any dirt or makeup that may be on my face and uses soft cotton pads and eye makeup remover to wipe across my eyes. She places eye pads over my eye lids as she turns on a bright lamp to get a better look at my skin. She examines my face and tells me things I like to hear like the problems I think are huge are not that bad. Then she tells me the plan, turns off the bright lamp, and uses a paint brush to paint a cool exfoliation cream on my face and neck. I love that feeling, I used to love getting my face painted not for how it looked but for how it felt when someone was painting on my face. Anyways, while the cool exfoliant is drying with the steam machine over my face, she massages my feet and lower legs. then uses a warm towel to clear it away. Now that my pores are open, its time for extraction, out come the eye pads and bright light again. This part isn't a lot of fun, but doesn't last long, and beauty is pain, right?!? She uses a foaming cleanser to wash my face after the extraction part and then paints my face and neck with a hydration mask. While the mask is soaking in, she massages my hands and arms, and tells me that I carry tension in my body and she can tell because my limbs don't want to relax and I don't even realize it. Next she massages the hydration mask into my skin and uses pressure points and then wraps a warm towel around my face, leaving breathing room for my mouth and nose. She dabs on some eye cream under my eyes and then a toning/firming spray on my face, pats my face with lotion and then sunscreen. Katie then asked if I would like a scented oil scalp massage, since she knew I'd be running errands later that day and thought I might care if my hair was oily; umm, no I don't care, and yes I'd like that scented oil scalp massage. Before ending my facial, she stretches my neck using a hot towel under my head and gently pulling with each hand, then pushing the hot towel on my shoulders downward. Next my she stretches my arms above my head while I'm still laying down and then helps me sit up and pulls my arms past my toes while I lean forward.

Wow, I can't tell you how much I never want to leave that place! If you ever have a chance you definitely should go there!

Next I indulge myself a little more by going and getting lunch at Chick-fil-A. I get a Chick-fil-A sandwich (which I drench in Polynesian sauce), a cookie parfait, and a large water. As I'm chowing down I remembered one of the nicest compliments a lady once gave me and that was, " you don't look like you eat Chick-fil-A a lot." = )
After spoiling myself for half the day I go to pick up Raegan from daycare, where she's having so much fun playing she doesn't want to leave!

This week's confessions:

8-17-10: Today I saw a man at work with his fly unzipped and didn't have the guts to let him know.

8-18-10: Today I ate an Oreo for breakfast.

Miss Smarty Pants

Tonight I asked Raegan if she wanted to go "night night" and she said "no night night" - wow, am I in for it! lol!

Then she tested her boundaries again when she climbed up on the fireplace, which she knows she is not suppose to do. I started to count to 3, just like my mother used to do :/ I held up my finger and said "one" then Raegan held up two fingers and said "two." Philip and I looked at each other wanting to be proud of our lil 16 month old for knowing that 2 comes after 1, but she still got in trouble for climbing on the fireplace.

Raegan also has learned how to throw things in the trash on her own. She'll walk to the kitchen, lift the lid of the trash can and places the trash in; she always closes the pantry door when she's done.

Not only is she a lil smarty pants, she also modeled for the first time today for The Lime Zebra. She wore 4 different outfits from the store: black and pink polka dot 'R' shirt with dark skinny jeans, white tank top with Thunder designed jeans, a leopard heart dress, and a pink cheetah shirt with a hot pink tutu. We will get a cd of pictures soon, but here are a couple Philip took on his phone.

We love you miss priss!

Workaholism

This is my favorite excerpt (thus far) in Rework by Jason Fried & David Heinemeier Hansson

"Our culture celebrates the idea of the workaholic. We hear about people burning the midnight oil. They pull all nighters and sleep at the office. It's considered a badge of honor to kill yourself over a project. No amount of work is too much work.

Not only is this workaholism unnecessary, it's stupid. Working more doesn't mean you care more or get more done. It just means you work more.

Workaholics wind up creating more problems than they solve. First off, working like that just isn't sustainable over time. When the burnout crash comes-- and it will -- it'll hit that much harder.

Workaholics miss the point, too. They try to fix problems by throwing sheer hours at them. They try to make up for intellectual laziness with brute force. This results in inelegant solutions.

They even create crises. They don't look for ways to be more efficient because they actually like working overtime. They enjoy feeling like heroes. They create problems (often unwittingly) just so they can get off on working more.

Workaholics make the people who don't stay late feel inadequate for "merely" working reasonable hours. That leads to guilt and poor morale all around. Plus, it leads to an ass-in-seat mentality-- people stay late out of obligation, even if they aren't really being productive.

If all you do is work, you're unlikely to have sound judments. Your values and decision making wind up skewed. You stop being able to decide what's worth extra effort and what's not. And you wind up just plain tired. No one makes sharp decisions when tired.

In the end, workaholics don't actually accomplish more than nonworkaholics. They may claim to be perfectionists, but that just means they're wasting time fixating on inconsequential details instead of moving on to the next task.

Workaholics aren't heroes. They don't save the day, they just use it up. The real hero is already home because she figured out a faster way to get things done."

--Besides the fact that I believe this passage fits the public accounting environment perfectly, I also really like the fact that in the last line of this passage these two male authors wrote, "because she figured out a faster way to get things done."

CRAZY WEATHER!

Today was the hottest day of the year for our city with a temp of 104 degrees and it was HOT. Being outside felt like walking through a furnace (not that I have ever walked through a furnace, but the wind felt the same as when I open the oven that has been cooking food at 400 degrees. I'm really not exaggerating; I'm a summer person I grew up in the west Texas heat.

We've had seriously crazy weather so far this year including:
A Christmas blizzard (which thankfully we mainly avoided by getting out of town just before it started and Philip was able to drive back home right after they reopened the interstate. I borrowed these pics)

January Icestorms
Ordinary run of the mill tornadoes (this pic is one of the many in May, which thankfully we were in Dallas at the time. The tornado went right through our town, but jumped over our subdivision)
Hail storms of biblical proportions (this hail storm produced hail as big as softballs and that came down hard enough to break windows, go through roofs, and leave deep rivets in the yard)

This summer's hot weather has torched the little bit of landscaping we have. I trimmed and watered our thirsty rose bushes this morning. Our new tree went into shock and lost almost all its leaves, but is now improving a lil with some TLC. Even the weeds are dying; I took this pic with my iphone, the top of the weed is black like it has been burnt by the sun!

Raegan Elizabeth

Raegan you are our lil worry wort (if that is even a word?).

Every morning you wake up and inspect the house for things that have changed since you went to bed. The other morning you noticed a box I had set out in the hallway and said "What's this?" As if you needed to know about everything that is in our house.

At the library the other day during story time, the story reader was blowing bubbles. While the other kids jumped around and laughed with excitement you said "uh oh" each time one hit the ground.

The other night we had spaghetti for dinner, you were doing great eating the noodles, until you came across a piece of hamburger meat and said "uh-oh, what's this?" You aren't a big meat fan, unless its chicken (wonder why?) : )

When you see a cabinet door open or a drawer open you say "uh oh" and try to close it.

This morning you went around the house and found tiny pieces of trash (like an eraser size piece of foil) on the floor and then brought them to me, pointed to the trash can (which is on top of the toilet, so you can't reach them) and said "trash". I pulled the trash can down each time and you threw your little pieces of trash in it and then gave me a proud smile and clapped for yourself. You amaze me!

The other day I drove 42 miles (roundtrip) out of my way and Philip spent nearly an hour cleaning up this slide I found on craigslist just for this... enjoy!

And just a couple of recent pics...

At the splash park with daddy

Just doing some shopping

Looking at ducks with daddy at the Cowboy's Heritage Museum. We love the way your hair curls up in the back ; )

Playing with mommy in the dressing room at Express

Much needed rest after playing so hard

5 things

A few posts back I mentioned 5 things I was going to try and do everyday; they were:
-pray
-stretch
-learn something new
-floss
and
-help someone else

Pray
I find myself needing pray and praying for others constantly throughout the day. I like that I can talk to God anytime, it gives me hope and is comforting. I always start my prayers by telling God how thankful I am for all that he has given me.

Stretch
I need to work on this and exercising more... I used to be a lot better at stretching every morning and night.

Learn something new
This one is easy, mainly because I made it so generic. I learn new things at work all the time. Philip teaches me things about his business nearly everyday and I'm learning how to be a better mommy to Raegan all the time too. I'm also reading "Rework" right now, which has given me a lot of new ideas!

Floss
Getting much better :) I used to have to thread the floss through my teeth, which took a long time, but now I don't have to do that anymore flossing isn't such a pain.

Help someone else
Now that Raegan knows the sign for 'help,' I realize how many times a day I help her. There's only so much you can do when your 2 ft tall ;) Today I had two opportunities to help strangers that I think made a bigger impact on me than it did them. Raegan and I went to our favorite baby consignment store this morning and a lady with two children behind us was asking them what they wanted for lunch, I could tell they didn't have a lot of money, so I pulled out some Chick-fil-A coupons and handed them to her. She was so surprised and happy, she thanked me profusely and then gave her little boy a hug and said "do you want some chicken?" I like handing out these coupons to strangers, a couple of weeks ago I gave one to the lady in the ticket booth on my way out of a garage downtown. I think its little things like this that can make someone's day. For lunch today Raegan and I went to the mall to see Philip. The mall was packed so we sat out in the commons area instead of the Chick-fil-A dining room. So it was just Raegan and me at a table with 5 chairs. I saw a Subway employee escorting a blind woman who was looking for a place to sit and eat her lunch. I told him she could sit with us and she agreed. This may of been the first time I've ever spoken to a blind person; she was very kind. She told me she takes the bus, which drops her off at the Old Navy entrance of the mall, about 3 times a week. She also told me that she had only hit one person with her cane in the busy mall that day so she was doing good ;) We talked for awhile and turns out we even have friends in common. When we were done eating I let her hold on to Raegan's stroller and we walked down to the Old Navy entrance so she could wait for the bus. I can't imagine the challenges she faces everyday.

Raegan at 16 months

Favorite things to do:
Make mommy and daddy play ring around the rosie with you
Squeal when you see a dog
Spin around in circles
Go outside

Draw on your magnadoodle

Play in water

Words we can understand you say: outside, toes, diaper, mom, dad, dada, daddy, momma, mine, yes, no, milk, nurse, dog, kitty cat, shoes, hi, bow, door, go
Signs you use: milk, please, hat, eat, more, help, water and nightnight
You understand when we say: kick your legs (when you are playing in the tub), go find it (when we are looking for something), and get in your chair (when its time to eat).

Biggest accomplishments: you went potty in the toilet by yourself, you know how to brush your own teeth, you’ve learned to say please when you really want something, you finally have enough hair for pigtails, you always want to turn off the lights with daddy when its time to go to bed, and you always give us kisses before we lay you down at night.
We love you baby girl!

Packed Weekend

Friday, we held our 'block party' in our backyard. I spent the day shopping and planning the party. It turned out well. The kiddos played in the water, while we cooked, ate, and played some washers. Here are a couple of pictures one of the our friends' daughter, Raygan (4), took during the party.

Saturday morning I worked on cleaning up from the night before. Then Raegan and I went to a new consignment store, where we bought puzzles, that we played with a lot this weekend. Philip came home for dinner Saturday night, and to take us to Lowe's to buy a new kitchen sink, but then had to go back to finish end of the month procedures for work. His parents came in town Saturday night after Raegan had already gone to bed. Philip's parents watched Raegan for us on Sunday while we went with Philip's employees to Frontier City (Frontier City:Oklahoma::Six Flags: Texas) for all you non-OK readers ;) About 20 people were in our group and the park was small enough for us to all see each other often. My favorite ride was probably the wooden rollercoaster even though it was pretty rough. I also enjoyed my first corndog in years, gosh it was delicious! On the way home Philip and I stopped and got snocones, I got Pink Bubblegum one and Philip got half rasberry half marshmellow.

Pics from the iphone at Frontier City
After a long day at the amusement park, Philip's parents had dinner waiting for us at home! Lasagna with homemade banana pudding for dessert, yum!!! Then we started on two projects

- removing the old sink and installing the new stainless steel 9 inch deep one
- taking apart the bedroom furniture in the kids room and loading it into Philip's dad's truck to take back to Texas.

Neither task proved easy. As for the sink a part from the garbage disposal wouldn't come off, so we may have to buy a new disposal too. On the bed one of the bolts that holds the footboard to the baseboard wouldn't come unscrewed. We tried everything; ended up splitting the wood and the having to saw off the head of the bolt just to get the two pieces apart. Not so good... the house was a total wreck while all this was going on, but you would've never guessed it by 10 AM this morning when the home appraiser came (since we are refinancing the house). Anyways this weekend really wore me out, so I think I'm going to try and sneak in a nap while the little one is taking hers!

Pics of the new sink to come soon ; )