Happy Birthday Mom!

Today is Sandy, my mother-in-laws, birthday. I just wanted to write and tell you how blessed I feel I am to have such a great mom-in-law. You are always so sweet and encouraging to both me and Ryan. I couln't ask for a better "in-law" family. You guys have accepted me and my family for who we are, and we love you for that. We hope you have a great birthday and a great weekend. We wish more than anything we could be there with you to celebrate. We hate being so far away. Know that you are in our thoughts today and we wish you well. We love you!

Friday

Well, we (me and Adirana) just got back from the doctors office. Adriana had to get her 15 month shots. I hate when she has to get shots. They make me hold her down like a dog while she is screaming at the top of her lungs and just looks at me as if to say "why are you letting them hurt me mom?", it tears my heart out. Other than the screaming at the shots, she does really well. My little rant: While the doctor was asking me questions about what she can and can't do, to determine her development, she asked me if Adriana was drinking out of a sippy cup. Of course she is, she's 15 months old! I'm not going to let her walk around with an open mouthed cup and spill it all over my floors. I was reminded, yet again, that I was doing the wrong thing with my child. I'm sorry, but my child isn't going to be 13 years old walking around with a sippy cup, let her be little. Nothing burns me more than to feel like people are looking at me thinking I'm doing something wrong. Now, if you see my child playing with a hair dryer in the bathtub, go ahead, shoot me an evil look, but to be "looked down on" because my toddler drinks out of a sippy cup, GIVE ME A BREAK! Supposedly I have to prove to my doctor on my next visit that she can drink out of a open mouth cup. What am I going to do, bring a glass in my diaper bag full of juice? Sorry for my rant, but this isn't the first time they have made me feel like a bad mom. I don't like her doctor. On kind of an ironic note: The doctor made me show her the sippy cup she drinks out of, just so she can tell me its the wrong thing to be using. A few minutes later Adriana goes over to her diaper back pulls out her sippy cup and starts drinking it right in front of the doctor as if to she her how well she does with that cup. It was kind of funny and kind of awkward. I don't think the doctor was amuzed.
Alright, on to a more pleasant note. We are going to Jeff City this weekend to see my parents. I'm looking forward to letting Grandma and Grandpa look after her for a little bit. I'm also looking forward to seeing some friends while I'm there. I hope everyone has a safe and great long weekend!

From Sanford and Son to the Jeffersons

Ok, get the theme song to the Jeffersons in your head, and sing with me..."Moving on up, to the east side, to that deluxe apartment in the sky, mov moving on up, to the east side, we finally got a piece of the pie."

This is our theme song tonight. I have told you about our little $20 faded, charcoal grill that we had on our deck, while the neighbors on either side of us, has $300 stainless gas grills. We look like Sanford and Son. Well tonight we took the plunge and bought patio furniture and a big Charcoal grill. We no longer look like a college dorm room on our deck. Here are some pictures of our new outdoor living area. We have a small deck, so the grill is on the ground, I have plans to make all that look better too. (It was dark by the time I got everything the way I wanted, so sorry the pictures aren't the best.) Now we just need company. Want to come over for dinner?

BEFORE

AFTER

Random Thoughts

Well, I was going to sit down and write something, although I don't know about what, but I think my child is awake from her nap now. I'll write until I'm summoned. Not much is going on with us. I got this new phone (part of my mothers day gift) and its really hard for me to figure out. Its a Palm Centro and its suppose to be a blackberry and a phone all in one. It has some really neat features, like XM radio and can play videos and stuff like that. However, I have had the worst time trying to figure this thing out! I have logged more hours on the phone talking to Dell, Microsoft, ATT and Palm, and my problem still isn't resolved! I was on the phone for and hour and 20 minutes yesterday talking to a foreign guy trying to get my computer to work with my phone and I'm still at square one. I love my phone and am sure that it will work great when I can get it straightened out, but until then, I'll be going crazy!
We might go into town (Springfield) and meet up with Ryan for lunch and do some shopping. I never go into town anymore with gas getting as high as it is. I guess I shouldn't complain, because its still cheaper here than it is most places. Its frustrating that something like gas prices limits everything you do. I am tired of Ozark and need to get away. I think employees at wal-mart think I'm homeless and go there to stay dry and warm. I'm over wal-mart and lowes.
Me and Ryan were talking about what to do with the check from the government, when it comes, and I think we might put in hard wood floors. We really haven't checked into it a whole lot, but the carpet we have is so cheap and crappy. We talked about carpet, but with a little one, we would just be holding our breath all the time, hoping there won't be a spill. Our dining area is in the carpeted area too, and Adriana makes such a mess eating, that new carpet would be ruined in no time. We have to see how much it would cost and installation and all that fun stuff, but I hope we can do it. The good news is the area we would put it in, isn't real big, so maybe costs won't be through the roof.
Well, I haven't heard my child for a while now, I guess she fell back asleep. Its 12:30pm and I put her down 3 hours ago. I think her teeth are bothering her or she's getting sick. Her nose is running like crazy both yesterday and today. I hope she's not getting something again.
Well, I guess that's all I got for now. I better do some chores to make it look like I worked my fingers to the bone, while she took a 3 hour nap. Bye for now.

Green Thumb

We have this little flower bed in front of our house. The builder of the house just put a couple of plants in it to make it seem more "cozy" for selling the house. Since the first time we looked at the house, I knew i wanted to add more to the flower bed. I had a vision in my head, and I would say for the most part it turned out the way I wanted. Here are pictures of it before.


Very Blah


Here it is after.

A lot more color and personality. I'm really happy how it turned out and thanks to my mom and Ryan for helping me plant.

Monkey in my car

I took Adriana to Wal-Mart today (it seems like I'm there everyday!) and Adriana freaks out every time she sees the banana stand. She can spot that thing a mile away! I got her 2 bananas to hold, so she wouldn't have a hissy fit in the store, now mind you we have about 6 bananas already at home, but this child loves bananas! Anyway, I let her hold them in the car on the way home, the whole mile to our house. And by the time we pulled in the garage she had eaten through the peeling. There is a story of me when I was about her age and I got in the bananas out of the grocery bag in the back seat and had squeezed it open to eat it. A lot of people say that Adriana looks a lot like me when I was a baby and now, apparently, she acts like me too.

Sending Out Birthday Wishes

I want to wish my dad and our niece, Riley, a very Happy Birthday! Today Riley turns one year old and my dad, well, he's a little older than that, he's a senior, we'll just leave it at that. Even though we won't see either one today to wish them well on their birthday, know that we are thinking of you and wish we could be there to celebrate.

Riley, we hope you have a great time at your party this weekend. We hope you get lots of toys and have fun playing with Jack. Wish we could be there to help you blow out your candle.

Dad, hope you have a fun and relaxing day. Thank you for always being there for us and for being a great dad. We wish we could be there to help extinguish the flames on your cake. :)

Happy Birthday!

Say AHHHH!

Well, I went to the dentist today (the first time in 2 years!) and they found 2 cavities. Last time I went they found 4 cavities and I had to have a root canal (I do brush my teeth, I promise!). After paying that hefty bill last time, I had to wait to build money up to go again, its so expensive, if you don't have dental insurance. I have to go next Friday and get the cavities filled. Nothing $500 won't take care of! I can't think of anything else I would rather spend my money on.
Last night, we took a trip to Lowes and looked at some flowers for the front yard. I can't wait to start planting things and adding some color to the front. Its suppose to freeze tonight, so I'm glad I didn't buy anything yet. Ryan got me a 4' table for mothers day. I've been wanting one so I have a place to scrapbook, so we got one from Lowes. Afterwards we ran to Wal-Mart and got some ice cream and bananas and made homemade banana splits. It was a yummy treat!
Well, we had some pretty bad storms blow through here around 5am this morning. It was lighting real bright and thundering at the same time, the storm was right on top of us. I got out of bed to check the weather on the TV and as soon as my feet hit the floor the electricity went out. It came back on a couple of minutes later, so I turned on the TV and found out we were under a Severe T-storm Warning. It passed by pretty quickly and a few minutes later another storm came through. The electricity went out again, and stayed out for an hour or so. Come to find out, our town of Ozark had about 15 electricity polls snap in half and just a few miles up the road they are without power all day and hopefully get it back before night fall. I don't know what I would have done if I was without electricity all day with Adriana. They said on the news there is a chance that a tornado blew through the area, but they don't know for sure right now.
Well that's all the excitement in our house for the past 24 hours or so. Don't be jealous of the Naylors. Not everyone can handle a life full of Lowes, ice cream, dentists and tornados. Ahh, this is the life!