Monday, August 31, 2009

Words you can't take back

Eric and I when we eloped. Yes, I thought I was super cool with my sunglasses on. I was a naive 22 year old. Leave me alone. (But look at how young Eric looks!)


Our vow before God, family and friends. Forever.


I'm sitting here watching MTV's True Life. I'm on my second one tonight and both have the same theme. Marriage. If you know me, you know that I'm a very over analytical person and that I look at things from all sides of the spectrum. These shows are making my brain hurt.

The first one was called "I'm Eloping." Well, if you know Eric and I, then you know that we got married after three and a half months of dating. Yes, three and a half months. Not three and a half years, MONTHS. We got engaged two and a half months. And we've been married for over four years now. Many thought we were crazy, our parents thought I had gotten pregnant, and our friends thought we were rushing into things way too fast. We didn't. Eric had just enlisted in the Army for active duty and he moved to Louisiana a month after we started dating. Before he left we threw the idea of marriage around, but we didn't really talk about until he had moved down there and we were missing each other like crazy. He even tried to break up with me once. If you know me, then you know that I didn't allow it. It was influenced by two of his buddies that had very disfunctional relationships and thought that women were the spawn of the devil. They convinced Eric that I was back in Minnesota running around and sleeping with every guy I met. HA. I was proposed to in a Days Inn in Leesville, Louisiana. Romantic. The sad thing was, I was scared of telling my dad that we had gotten engaged. Do you know what his response was? "I'm happy for you, but you know that the key to a lasting relationship is a long engagement." Crap. I was flying down to Louisiana in four weeks to elope. Crap. Crap. Crap. I felt like such a horrible daughter. It took me a week to work up the nerve to tell him. And he took it surprisingly well. He was sad that he wasn't there for the actual day, but he got to walk me down the aisle a year later when Eric and I had our Blessed Ceremony. It wasn't the wedding of my dreams, but I got to marry an amazing guy who gave me the most precious gift I could have asked for, our daughter. Sure we have our ups and downs, but I have to say that I think we have a very stable relationship. We squabble, but we never do it in front of Brooke and we always try our hardest to work it out. Brooke doesn't need to hear mommy and daddy fighting, it's not good for her psyche and I don't think that she needs to be surrounded my negative energy.

So that brings me to the second True Life, "I'm Getting Divorced." I feel like the "D" word gets flung around way too much. Couples fling it around in the heat of the moment, but to me, those words are very serious. I told Eric when we got married that if he every told me he wanted a divorce, there was no taking it back. To me, we made vows. We made vows before God. We made vows to our family. We made vows to each other. Those vows are very serious promises. And the word "divorce" is a very serious word. To me at least. I know some of you may be thinking that I may seem a little ridiculous, but I have seen so many couple fling that word around like it has no meaning. One minute they're happy, the next one of them says they want a divorce, then they make up, then the other gets mad and says that THEY want a divorce. Nuh-uh. The word is being used way to casually for my taste.

Even though Eric and I got married so quick, we just knew. We each knew that the other was the right one. We knew that the other was going to be there for the rest of our lives. We knew that we would fight, but we knew that we would love. We knew that we'd raise a family and support each other no matter what each other did. We knew that our love was forever and there was not going back.

So what's the point in this post? It's this. Marriage is a promise to one another. People need to start being more aware of the words they throw at one another. They need to stop taking the "D" word so casually. Especially if you have children. What do you think your children are going through? Do you not think that they are being affected by all this? One of their parents is constantly in and out of their lives. They feel the negative energy radiating from both of their parents. It affects them more than you realize. So please, when you're feeling overwhelmed, take a deep breath and count to ten. Think about what you're going to say before you say something that may change the course of your life forever.

Saturday, August 29, 2009

My child saved me $50 today

We need a chest deep freezer. The side x side fridge/freezer has practically no freezer so I need to get a deep freeze because I buy my meat in bulk. Anyways, I found one at Sears but I didn't feel like driving out Sears to get it, plus it was $75 to get it delivered. So I called Best Buy and they said they would match the price and delivery was only $30. So out Brooke and I went! I found the person who was working in appliances and it turned out that the model Sears had and the one Best Buy had were not the same brand. So the girl calls her manager. And the manager said to price match it anyways. His words, "Don't make her drive out to Sears." Score. But it gets better. While I'm talking to the sales girl, Brooke is turning on the charm with the manager and he was impressed that Brooke knew how to "pound it" (fist bump). So then I though, "Well if he thinks THAT is cute..." and I held up my fingers and asked Brooke what they were. "Phalanges." The manager was so impressed he told the sales associate to take off another $25 (making it a $50 savings) because Brooke was so cute.

See, they earn their keep. :)

Friday, August 28, 2009

Morning Adorableness...

When I went to retrieve Brooke from her bed this morning:

Brooke: "Hi Mommy!"
Me: "Hi baby!"
B: "I sweep good. I wost my piddow and wuvey."
M: (Picking them off the floor) "Here you go baby."
B: "Thanks mommy."
(Brooke then starts staring me down while counting and naming parts of my body)
B: "Two gwasses, two eyes, one mouth, one nose, two cheek, neck, head, arm..."
(I hold up my fingers and waggle them)
M: "What are these?"
B: "PHALANGES!!!!"

(Oh, and I totally taught her the fist bump :) Ha!)

Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Two days down...

A whole semester to go. I am reprimanding myself now that the semester has begun. Why oh why did I enroll in such boring mundane classes? History, Logic, Math, and Writing in the Natural Sciences. I am going to be one busy girl this semester. I will be writing, reading, writing, writing, reading and writing some more. Oh, with a few algebraic expressions thrown in there. I may have to sign up for some super Saturdays or Friday respite hours in order to study adequately. Hopefully I can sign up for more interesting classes next semester. On a positive note, my Intro to Logic teacher is entertaining. He is retired Army and wears his Army Strong pin very proudly. He has an odd obsession with youtube.com but keeps my attention which is a good thing. My history teacher is a little over enthusiastic about history, so I hope I catch his bug. He said he's not going to be lecturing from the book much, so this means not only do I need to know what's in the book, but I need to know his lectures as well. Gulp. My Monday math class was pretty interesting. I somehow chose a seat near a very gassy and smelly classmate. Every few minutes I would get a wiff of something completely rotten and foul. I think I'm going to try and get to class a few minutes earlier so I can find a seat on the opposite side of the room. I don't know if I can take a chance for another class period. The upside about Monday and Wednesday classes is that I have an hour and forty-five minutes between my two classes to get homework done. The downside is that my first class is at 8 A.M. which means I need to be up by 6:30 and out the door by 7:45. Do you know how hard that is with a two year old? I usually just grab Brooke out of bed, throw her in some clothes and toss her in the car still half asleep. Poor kid has gotten used to sleeping into 9:30. She gave me a look the other morning that read, "Really Mom? Really?" Poor Brooke.

I hope I have enough time to get enough stuff done for the upcoming craft shows. I know I talk about these shows a lot, but I did very well at the one last year so I'm really forward to seeing what will happen this year.

Alright, I should go. And study. Boo.

Friday, August 21, 2009

Sunny Morning

Brooke and I had a wonderful morning. We woke up around 8:30 or so and had a delicious breakfast of over medium eggs and sausage. Then Brooke got to watch one of her shows while I got ready for the day. After that we went to the park but were there for a very short time since she decided to poop her pants. Oh Brooke. So we walked home, I changed her then she rode around the neighborhood on her super spiffy bike. She's getting a lot better at steering her bike where she wants it to go. Sometimes she has issues and has to redirect her bike the hard way, but for the most part she's getting down steering in the direction she wants to go.

A while back I was contacted by a fellow Etsian who stumbled upon my blog. She told me that she makes baby, toddler, and childrens boutique clothing. She commented on my daughter and thought she would be a cute model for one of her outfits. I thought this was a wonderful idea. Before our move, I got her cute little outfit in the mail. Since we finally got our internet hooked up, I was able to take pictures of Brooke in the outfit and it turned out super adorable. Renee owns CandyStickLane on Etsy and carries a whole bunch of adorable outfits for little girls and boys. The outfit that Renee sent me was the Layer Cake Skirt and Matching Tee. Be sure to check out her super adorable shop!

Here is Brooke modeling the outfit with a hair bow I made to match.






It is super sunny out today, so the sun was in her eyes, hence the super squinty asian eyes. :) But even squinty, she's super adorable! Thanks again Renee!

Thursday, August 20, 2009

Yikes!

Sorry for not updating lately. The past 4 weeks have been busy and then the past two weeks I have been without internet.

Basically, my husband came home from R & R, then the last three days he was home we got a call from housing here on Fort Rich telling us they had a brand new house for us if we wanted to move on post. Did we hesitate? Nope. We moved our whole entire house, sans a moving van, in THREE DAYS. Not kidding you. My good friend Jenn was nice enough to lend us her Suburban and that's what we used to move the majority of our house. Eric and I packed one night, then the next day we started moving boxes. When we ran out of boxes that were prepacked, Eric took up packing the rest of the house while I was at the new house unpacking boxes as they came in. It was an experience I never want to experience again. But, I am all moved in and there are only a couple boxes left that need to be unpacked.

The funny thing about this house is that we got GREEN carpet. Yes, green. Not a pretty sagey green, like a forest green. And what color is our couch? Red. Yup, it's Christmas in here 24/7. HA.

I have to get ready for a craft show. I have two in the upcoming months, and they're 2 weeks apart. So I have to build enough inventory to carry me through two shows. So that means I have to craft along with starting my fall semester and taking care of my 2 year old daughter. I wish I could multiply. Like in the movie Multiplicity? Or I wish I was like Cinderella, all my forest friends that come out of the woodwork to get work done! Ha.

Alright, it's late, and all I wanted to do was to let everyone know that I am still alive!!! I will be sure to update more later. :)

Thanks to my new followers! I promise you will be highly entertained by this blog. :)

Monday, August 3, 2009

We're moving!!! Very last minute, but we got a brand new house on post!!!