Day 12, Sunday: What do you miss? (a person, a thing, a place, a time of your life...)
I miss this sweet little guy...
Diesel was our other baby. We loved and adored him. He was the sweetest, most happy little pup ever!! For months and months Diesel would make a bee-line for Nate's parent's house in the mornings when I would let him out to potty. Nate's parents have 2 dogs and Mason always wanted to be them. They have a fence around their property and Diesel never strayed. Well, sometime before Thanksgiving in 2011 he found another pack of dogs and took off with them. We never found him. My heart breaks even writing about this. And from time to time I drive around looking for him...just waiting for someone to be outside with him. In my heart I am positive that some sweet little family took him in.
Mason started in his new "Big Boy" class on Monday. I'm not going to go into a lot of detail because I want this to be a post all in itself!! But, I will say it's going well.
Also on Monday I got my hair done!! There's just something about getting your hair done that makes you feel so refreshed!!
Work this week has been incredibly busy and crazy! Longggg week and I am so happy that it's Friday!!
Tomorrow I go to class & qualification for my CHL {concealed handgun license}. Nate got his last year. I'm taking the class with my Mother-in-law and some of our close family friends. I'm kind of looking forward to it. But, I am not looking forward to being away from my boys almost all day Saturday. And, this will be the first Blast ball game I miss.
Note to self - write post on Blast Ball
I haven't watched Grey's Anatomy in a good year or two. I started catching back up and I am so excited. I have been missing a great show.
Mason has been telling me at least once a day since Tuesday that Averie his girlfriend. Heaven help me!!
I've been doing the carb free diet for almost 2 weeks now. It's going well. My clothes are definitely getting bigger.
I've really been enjoying the Blog Every Day in May challenge. The topics have been great and given me an opportunity to talk about things I probably wouldn't have posted about otherwise.
Day 10, Friday:Most embarrassing moment (s). Spill. Oh man, I know I have several over my 32 years of living. I will share the ones I still laugh about. About 10 years ago Nathan and I were in a Jeep club. We had a 1985 Jeep CJ7. We joined a Jeep Club and were going on our first weekend trip with them to Clayton, OK. We stayed at this old Bed and Breakfast. Our room just happened to be upstairs...up an old wooden staircase. We were getting ready to go on a run and I remembered that I had forgotten something upstairs in our room. So I ran up and got whatever that was. I was trying to hurry and get back before we were left behind. I was running down the stairs, slipped and slid on my butt down half the stair case. There were so many people in the lobby area and turned to see what the loud noise was. I just hopped right up and scooted out the door as quickly as I could! I didn't tell Nate about it for a while! I was just so ready to get out of there!!!
Did I just put that in your vagina or your bladder? That's what my first nurse asked me when she was putting in my catheter when I was in the hospital to deliver Mason. Thank God it was just Nathan and I in the room. But I was mortified. Um, hello you are the nurse. You should know where you are putting things. I'm in the hospital, in labor, with high enough blood pressure as it is. How in the world am I supposed to know where you put that thing??? Thank heavens she was only my nurse for a couple of hours until the shift change!
Day 9, Thursday: A moment in your day (this can be just a photo or both a photo and words)
Mason this morning in our driveway about to leave for school. I can't believe how big he looks here! I was never a morning person until this little guy came along. Now he makes me excited to wake up early and spend the morning with him!!
Day 7, Tuesday:The thing(s) you're most afraid of There are many things I am afraid of. But I am going to do this bullet style because some of these terrify me to even put into words.
The
thought of dying. Not because I don't have faith. I do. I believe in God
and I believe in Heaven. That's not what scares me. But
the thought of being away from my boys is more than I can bare. There is
no one on Earth that could love them more than I do. Ever.
Tornados
Fires. I lost a cousin in a house fire 12 years ago.
Day 6, Monday:If you couldn't answer with your job, how would you answer the question, 'what do you do'? Hmm, first thought that comes to my head is what do I not do? Ha! Here's a typical day in my life.
Wake up, get myself ready. Make lunches. Take all of our bags out to the car and start it. Wake up Mason. Take him to potty. Sometimes he goes in the bathroom and sometimes he wants to pee off the porch {we live in the country}. Then I get him ready for school.
Load him up in the car and drive him 15 minutes down the road to his school.
Put all his stuff in his cubby and say my goodbyes. Sometimes it goes really well and he tells me to "leave Mama" and sometimes he cries for me. It's a tug-o-war with the heart, either way.
Drive another 35-40 minutes {depending on traffic} to my office in Dallas.
Work 8-4 - answer phones and emails, place orders, invoice clients, etc.
Head back to Mason's school to pick him up {highlight of my day}.
Drive home.
Unload car and our bags. Start dinner {sometimes}, a load of laundry and pick up things that need to be put away. Then Mason and I will usually play outside until Daddy gets home. He plays in his sandbox, or rides his Jeep or his bike. Or we go visit Jake. I take a lot of pictures and blow up everyone's Instagram feed!! :)
6:00pm Daddy gets home. Mason runs to greet him every time. Then we either finish dinner, or decide on dinner. Eat. Hangout. Bathe. And go to bed.
Start over again.
All the above is just a routine.
What do I really do?
I love. I nurture. I support. I praise. I encourage. I fill up with pride every single day. I love with every fiber of my being. And I thank God over and over again for all of the blessings in my life. I thank him for choosing me to be Mason's Mama and Nathan's wife. I couldn't ask for more.
With Mother's Day just around the corner, me & 4 other mommy bloggers have teamed up to give one lucky mom (or an awesome friend of a mom/future mom, great baby shower gift!) a Mother's Day giveaway of our favorite items for mom & child! Wahoo!
Before I get to the goods, let me introduce the other mom's: Whitney @ Miss Mama Me
1// Hot Tot's Spotless Tot. An organic child's wash, natural ingredients & safe for infants. 2// A sweet inspirational print from Cavalcade. 3// Temporal Thermometer by Exergen. 4// Ketchup is a Vegetable. A great read for mom! 5// Wubbanub Giraffe Pacifier. 6// Guess How Much I Love You. A fave read for your little one. 7// Isabel & Maija bath salts. Remember to relax... 8// Boogie Wipes! 9// Origami Owl MOM charm & locket.
Some of these items have been life-savers, some have been just the perfect thing we've needed at the end of a looong day {every mom has those}, and some are simply because they make our life easier & happier.
------------------------------------------------------------------------ Enter to WIN! Enter as much as you want using the Raffelcopter below! If you're new to this, it's super easy to sign up. The number of entries per task is shown. Do as many as you'd like! There will be ONE lucky winner who snags the entire loot! So the more you enter, the higher chance you have of winning! The giveaway will run through May 11th and the winner will be announced on Mother's Day! Good Luck!!
Day 5, Sunday: Publicly profess your love and devotion for one of your blogger friends. What makes them great? Why do you love them? If you don't have blogger friends, talk about a real-life friend or even a family member
This one is hard. I have so many great bloggy friends that I could post/talk about. Say Ashlea for instance, or Lauren, or Stephany, or Ashley, or Monica {who is also doing the challenge}, or Brittin just to name a few.
But today I will blog about Amanda @ Princess of the Panhandle because she is a bloggy bff turned real life bff. We've gotten to meet in person several times and I love her more and more each time!! If you're not following Amanda, you should be! She actually has two blogs; her personal and her family. When you visit Amanda's blog you get the real thing. In person she's just like she is on her blog; hilarious, sweet and smart. Amanda is a full-time charge nurse in her little town. She has the most adorable Princess Preemie!! And her husband is a real Cowboy! Amanda and I have so much in common, it's crazy. I guess that's why the first time I met her I felt like I had known her for years and years. Amanda and I also host a weekly linkup called Texas Tuesday. I'll stop here so that you can go ahead and scoot on over to her blog...
I can't wait to meet more of my bloggy friends in person someday!!!!
Day 4, Saturday: Favorite quote (from a person, from a book, etc) and why you love it
I am a worry wart to the extreme. Always have been. Even about the silliest of things. I have to remind myself this on the daily. God is control, just hand it over to him. Stop worrying about things that are beyond my control and just have Faith. Pray, pray and then pray!
Today marks day 5 of me going carb-free! I've done this diet once before and lost 60 some odd pounds. I'm praying that it works just as good this go-round. I've done pretty good and haven't had many temptations. Today my boys came to have lunch with me and I accidentally ordered a cheeseburger and tator-tots! Crazy, eh? You'll see why in the next bullet point...
Mason woke up with a cough on Wednesday morning. It didn't seem like much more than his normal allergies in the morning. He went to school like normal and came home about the same. Still a little cough. That night he didn't really rest because the cough got worse when he laid down. It was a longggg night. That next morning (Thursday) he didn't really want to wake up. And he was just laying on me and whining. I could tell something wasn't right. So, I made the decision to bring him to work with me so that I could observe him. I could just tell that he wasn't feeling well, so I made him a dr apt. We went to the Dr. at 1:40 and she examined him. Hand-Foot-Mouth disease...again! This makes the 3rd time for Mason to get it. She said he did have allergies and drainage which was causing the cough. But, he had a blister forming on his left side of his throat which was causing the pain and for him to not eat. And of course it's a viral infection that just has to run it's course. Boo! Oh, and he weighs 32.6 lbs.
After his apt we went home and I worked from home for a few hours. Mason acted fine, drank well but still no eating. He played and was in a pretty good mood. He was still a little clingy and wanted me to hold him a lot. He fell asleep laying on me watching cartoons around 5:15 pm and slept until 7 this morning. And woke up a little fireball! He needed that sleep.
Tomorrow we have Blast Ball pictures. I can already see the chaos in my head. Wrangling seven or eight 2,3 and 4 year olds for a picture. hahahaha! Then they have a game afterwards. Not sure if Mason will play or not since he's not feeling that well.
I never knew how incredibly disgusting public bathrooms were until Mason started having to use them. DISGUSTING! I'd rather let him pee outside on a tree.
I'm getting my CHL on May 11th and I am a little excited. Okay, a lot excited. I'm ready to learn everything.
Sunday we are going to a Ranger game with our best friends and I am so freakin' excited!!!
Tight places with a lot of people. Especially elevators. Or an escalator after an event has let out.
Asking people for things. T-ball just started and I've already had a hard time asking people to bring snacks/drinks each week. I usually just plan on doing it. Unless someone volunteers and then I make sure they are okay with it a million times. And then I worry that they will forget. And that's on all different kinds of things - not just snacks and juices!
Going places without Mason. I feel like the millions of strangers we encounter know that we have a kid and are judging us for "ditching" him to do something alone. {side note - we don't go many places without him. Maybe that's why it's uncomfortable when we do}
Day 2, Thursday:Educate us on something you know alot about or are good at. Take any approach you'd like (serious and educational or funny and sarcastic) >>>>><<<<< I have been thinking about what to write for this topic for 2 days. And just now, at 3:52 pm it came to me! I thought for sure I had nothing to contribute for this day's post, but good golly I do. So what is it? What am I good at? Planning Trips. We go on at least 1 week long vacation every year with Nathan's family, sometimes two. Over the years the family has kind of come to depend on me once we get to our destinations. Whether it be addresses for attractions, maps, dates/times, or coupons they know that I will have them. And I kind of like it. I like being organized when we go places and knowing what all there is to do in the area. This is usually what I do to prepare:
Once we know the final destination I will google things like "Things to do in {blank}" or "Attractions and entertainment in {blank}" or "Events in {blank}"
I read the descriptions of the places and decide if it would appeal to anyone in the family.
Then I will normally print out the main page of the website for that attraction/event/etc. More often than not it will have the address, phone numbers and hours.
After I find all the places that are options I group them by location...things that are near each other. And I prioritize them by hours they are open or where we need to be around lunch time.
Next I print out maps and directions to/from each place as well as to/from where we are lodging just in case we cannot get a good GPS signal.
Another thing I usually do is search the attractions to see if there are any coupons or discounts on tickets or entry and I print those.
I usually make a folder or a binder with all of the above organized. And let me tell ya, it's saved us a lot of stress and frustration over the years!! How do you prepare for family vacations/trips?
Day
1, Wednesday:
The story of your life in 250 words or less
I'm Crystal Nicole, a born and raised Texan. I made my debut into the world on January 18, 1981 (old, I know). I am the oldest of three kids. Most of my childhood thru my high school years was spent in Cheerleading and Gymnastics. My darling husband, Nathan, and I met and started dating when we were just kids in high school. This November will mark our 17th year together. We married on August 25th of 2006 at Hanging Gardens. Almost the minute after we said "I do" we started looking to get a house out in the "country". In April 2007 we moved into our little piece of paradise. We bought a house on a little over 2 acres and our property backs up to my in-laws property. We share a back gate. I absolutely LOVE being that close to them. And my parents are only a hop, skip and a jump away. Awesome! After over 2 years of trying we found out we were pregnant on September 25th, 2009. Our precious little Mason Lane was born on May 25th, 2010. Nothing compares to that day. Nothing. Becoming a Mother is something I've always wanted to do and seeing Nathan become a Daddy, oh, that just quadrupled my heart in size. We are an outdoorsy type of family who loves traveling, camping, and of course baseball! I have a passion for photography, but haven't quite mastered Photoshop yet. I love all things vintage and turquoise. I dream of living on a large working farm some day. I adore my little family and being a wife and a mother. I'm learning to master toddlerhood....one day at a time. We are blessed beyond measure all praise be to Jesus!
What
is Texas Tuesday? A chance for you to show off the awesomeness that is
TEXAS!! You can blog about anything; restaurants, vacation spots,
venues, concerts, your hometown, shops, fashion, sports, etc. The linkup
is not limited to Texans, we just ask that the post is about Texas.
We don't make following any of the hosts a requirement, but we do ask
that you include our button and at least post about a Texas related
topic. Any links that are not related to the link up will be deleted.
(button code is in grab box below the image above)
We've invited Texas bloggers to co host with us weekly. So far we have
gotten a great response and have co hosts scheduled through the end of
March. If you're interested in being a co host for our link up please
email Amanda at princessofthepanhandle(at)gmail(dot)com and she will get you
on the calendar. This weeks co-host is Aleshea from Glits N Grits. Today she posted about Texas in 101 seconds and it's a must see! Make sure you stop by and visit her blog.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
If you're gonna play in Texas, you gotta have a fiddle in the band
That lead guitar is hot but not for "Lousiana Man"
So rosin up that bow for "Faded Love" and let's all dance
If you're gonna play in Texas, you gotta have a fiddle in the band
Fiddle in the Band is my all time most favorite song about "Texas"!! There's just something about Texas and a Fiddle that go hand in hand!
And, I'd say we are raisin' our boy right because he also loves himself a good fiddle!!! He's all the time playing his "air" fiddle in the backseat of the car. Well, his Nana and Papa caught wind of it and next thing we know...
