We love you Peggy Sue!

This has been a rough last week and a half. My grandma unexpectedly became sick and after 3 days in the hospital, passed away this last Monday. She was 70 years old. It all happened so fast, I don't think it's really sunk in yet. I had told some of my friends, I'm okay, we weren't really close, but the more I've thought about it, we weren't NOT close, either. I always felt comfortable going to my Alabama grandparents house. I never felt awkward or self conscious visiting them. I didn't get to see them very often, due to living out of town and crazy schedules, but I know that my grandparents loved me and I loved them. My grandpa passed away almost 5 years ago, and with graduating and starting my job as a nurse, I didn't visit my grandma as much as I would have liked. The highlight of my years growing up, was going to Alabama for Thanksgiving and Christmas, and seeing my grandparents and uncles, aunts, and cousins. The last few years when I've had to stay home and work holidays, it just hasn't been the same.
     Whenever I eat chicken and dumplings, I always think of grandma, she made some of the best I've ever had. Whenever I drink a coca-cola, I think of grandma, she always had a fridge full in the garage. Of course, I was raised on no caffeine, but after my mom fell off the wagon after 20 years of no coca-cola(this was only after her doc told her the caffeine in coke would help her migraines), and after almost 5 years of being married to Brad, I now am in LOVE with coca-colas(usually only on my work days though, I've got to have something to get me through those 12 hours shifts). But whenever I hold a cold can in my hand, I always think of Grandma and Grandpa
     I have so many memories of grandma. I remember when I was little, we would go visit and she would meet us at Show Biz pizza( it was WAY better than Chuck-E-Cheese's). Grandpa would always give us kids a rubber fishing worm when we would leave their house. We didn't have cable at home, so we would get to watch Nickelodeon at my grandparents house. We also didn't really have video games at home, so when we went to Alabama we would get to play Nintendo with my cousin Jason. When we went to grandma and grandpa's house, my parents would always drive us over the tickle hill. Sooo much fun, that when I was 19, some of my friends and I went to a YSA conference in Dothan, and I took them over the tickle hill. It was awesome!
     I remember how excited I was when grandma started using facebook, so that she could see pictures of Raelee as she grew. I felt like facebook was helping us become closer, even though she wasn't the best at leaving comments. But hey, she was 70 using the computer, that's awesome, cause my dad doesn't even know to to do facebook lol.
     Now nobody is perfect and no family is perfect, but I think that's what makes life and relationships interesting, I know that grandma loved me, and I loved her. I know I will see her again one day. I'm glad she's now reunited with grandpa. The funeral  and viewing are tomorrow, so we're going to spend to weekend in Dothan. Prayers would be appreciated during this time, especially for my mom and uncle's and aunt's. They had to make some tough decisions last weekend leading up to my grandmother dying, and I know this is going to be hard for them. Thank you!
http://www.sunsetmemorialpark.com/viewobit.php?id=479

survey

TEN things you wish you could say to TEN different people right now:

1. I soooo wish I could meet you for TCBY tonight.
2. Thank you for coming home and fixing the washing machine today
3. Sorry I couldn't bring you an ICEE today
4. Please, please, please let me work less!
5. Thank you for taking a long nap today
6. I miss you at work. I have no one to talk about American Idol with.
7. Happy Anniversary!
8. Make your arrival on my day off please!
9. Thanks for using your day off to watch Raelee on Thursdays
10. So glad you told me about the super cute shirts at Old Navy


NINE things about yourself:
1. Need to exercise
2. You can make it through this weekend
3. I think I taught Raelee how to say "book" today
4. I'm really hoping to go part time at work soon.
5. I just finished a good book.
6. I'm in the middle of making a really cute spring wreath
7. I'm going to a carnival tonight
8. I'm loving the flowers and green outside, but hating the allergies.
9. I'm sooo excited to go to the beach this summer.


EIGHT ways to win your heart:
1. Let me sleep late AND take a nap
2. Fold and put away the laundry
3. Invite me out.
4. Toddle over and give me a hug
5. Hearing "momma,maamaa, mommy" over and over.
6. Bring me a coke
7. send me a txt to let me know you're thinking of me.
8. Take me to work and pick me up after.


SEVEN things that cross your mind a lot:
1. How to work less?
2. Just make yourself do it
3. I wish I lived closer to my friends, or they lived closer to me.
4. How do we go through so much laundry/dishes?
5. Whats for dinner?
6. Can't wait for Brad to be finished with school
7. Need to get up with Lindsey Lou for some pics


SIX things you do before you go to bed:
1. Eat dinner.
2. Put Raelee to bed
3. Watch some TV
4. Get lunch ready for the next day
5.Lock up the house.
6. Check the locked door/oven/alarm clock several times.


FIVE weaknesses.
1. Low energy
2. staying in my jammies on my days off.
3. Negative thinking.
4. Not being as organized as I could.
5. Not enjoying everyday for what it is.


FOUR things you’re wearing right now.
1. Yellow thermal shirt with red sweater
2. My favorite boyfriend jeans from AE
3. Socks
4. sneaks


THREE songs that fit your life perfectly.
ummm...need to think on this some more. I'm horrible with remembering song titles and artist.
1.
2.
3.


TWO things you want to do before you die:
1. Make more memories
2. Grow old with Brad


ONE confession:
I need to stop comparing my life to others and be happy with where I am right now. I am so glad to be married to my best friend and know that we can make it through the stress.

I am soooo super happy that its warming up. I did not enjoy this winter very much. I love to see our yard when everything starts blooming. Its so fun to watch Raelee see and learn new things with nature. The tree in the top pic is HUGE and covered in gorgeous flowers. I wanted to take a pic of Rae standing under it, some of the limbs almost touch the ground, but when we walked up to it we were swarmed with bees. Thank goodness we didn't get stung, cause I am allergic. So we slowly backed away and took pics from a distance.

what a monday!

What a crazy busy day today was. It was my day off work, but I had to be at work at 715am for a mandatory staff meeting. From there I had just enough time to come home, dress and feed Raelee and take her to a doctors appt to get her ears checked. No ear infection yay!!! Then we headed back home, so that I could feed Raelee lunch and lay her down for her nap. Thanks Matthew for babysitting her, because I then headed back to work for a 3 hour computer training class. Luckily that got done a little early, so I was able to go grocery shopping before going back home. Then it was time to make babyfood for the week and do some chores. How the house can get so messy so quick I don't understand. After Brad got home from work, we all had time for a quick nap and then went to play volleyball, where we lost. Again. But at least it was fun. And I was glad that Brad didn't have class tonight so that he could play with us. It was such a relief to get home, put Raelee to bed, and veg out watching the Bachelor(I hope he picks Emily). Tomorrows my be depressed day, before I start back into working. No weekend for me! But the next weekend I think I get 5 days off in a row, whoohooo!!!

Raelee learned to take time and smell the roses! Happy Wednesday!!!

shopping

whew! What.a.week! Brads been working on a insane project for school all last weekend and this week. Thankfully its finished now, just waiting on the grade. The point of this is, thats he's been crazy stressed out and not able to do anything except school and work, which led to me being stressed too lol. Last Saturday he needed the house distraction free, so I loaded up Raelee and headed out for a day of shopping. The goal was to get a new dress for me for church (which I never found), but Raelee ended up with 2 dressed instead hehe. Her clothes are just sooo much cuter! We went to almost every store in the mall I think. Every dress I found that I liked, either was not in my size or was waayyyy too  expensive. I did however find out that Childrens Place is AWESOME! I don't think I've ever been in there before, I really don't go to the mall much. Anyways, they were having an awesome sale, so Raebabe got a bunch of new clothes. My favorite for her is her new skinny jeans. So.stinking.cute! I also bought her some little sneakers. When she tried everything one, she looked sooo grown! I had to let her run around in her diaper after, so that she looked like a baby again.

Valentines

Brad and I are not elaborate Valentiners. We usually do cards and dinner at home. With Brad normally cooking. Well Brad had class last night, so dinner was on me. Every Monday night we watch the Bachelor, so I though it would be fun to have a dinner date/cocktail party(grape juice)/rose ceremony while we watched the Bachelor(BTW I'm loving the DVR). This was all a surprise to Brad. So I spent the day getting all my supplies ready, thanks Lindley for the help. I assembled the dinner early, to make things easier. Thank goodness I did! I'm pretty sure that everything that could have gone wrong did. It started with loosing Raelee's shoe at Walmart. Then the cooking disasters started. First I heated up a pan with a tad of oil to cook the chicken. Well, I forgot that the chicken was frozen, and I had already taken it out of the bag. So I'm trying to defrost the chicken under the hot water, now that I'm typing this I'm wondering why I didn't just use the microwave. Anyway, the pan started smoking, filled the house up with smoke and set off the smoke detectors! Lindley and I had to open all the windows. So the chicken was still frozen, so I decided to put it in a pot of boiling water to defrost it. I started the water boiling, I dropped in the chicken and walked into the dining room where Lindley was making valentines. Of course, the pot boils over, like WAAAYYY over. The whole underside of the stove was full of water. I was scared to use the stove until I could clean up the water, but I had to wait for the stove to cool down first. Of course, there might have been a few burned fingers in this process. So finally the chicken's defrosted, I chopped it up and put it in the pan to cook, when Lindley pointed out that I hadn't clean the smokey, burned oil out of the pan first. Oops! At this point, I didn't care what dinner tasted like, I just wanted it done! I was making chicken divan btw. In the fridge it went to be cooked later. Moving onto dessert. I was making chocolate pudding, easy peasy, so I thought. In fact, this whole dinner was supposed to be easy and stress free! Go to wisk the pudding, and no wisk to be found. So I tried using a fork, 10 mins later, the pudding was still liquid, so I finally got out the mixer, which worked, it just made a mess. So everything's ready, just needs to be put in the oven and assemble around 9pm when Brad would be on his way home. I did the night routine with Raelee, put her to sleep around 7:30pm, then showered and dressed. I was just starting on my hair and makeup, when Brad called to say he got out of class early and was on his way home. Yikes! So I was rushing around, putting everything in the oven, and setting up the coffee table and lighting candles, and sprinkling rose petals outside, AND doing my hair and makeup during Brad's 30 min. drive home. I didn't make it. I called and had him wait at Walmart until everything was ready. In the end, everything looked and tasted great, and it was fun watching the bachelor all dressed up in our fancy living room. Phew! I'm glad next year Brad will be back in charge.

 the living room and porch

 dinner

Raelee with her valentine balloon from grandma and grandpa