How I almost died…and how my girls saved me
So I didn’t really almost die. But omg…I moved up to level 2 of the shred last night. Holy hell. I’d explain how I felt but really, I think my tweets from last night would do a better job.
Keep in mind that this was directly after I finished and I had to rant for a moment.
(Autotext got me there. It’s supposed to be “hell”)
And this is true. I feel like if I can keep up and actually do the workout as it’s intended without taking breaks I’d be thin and lean and TONED. Here’s to hoping I can get there in a couple days. I had to build endurance in level 1 and finally about 2 or 3 days ago I was able to pretty much do it without stopping. Now that I’m on level 2…well there is stopping. I’m hoping that in the next 5 days or so I’ll build up MORE endurance and be able to not stop. Jillian Michaels. She is effin tough. Good lord.
So after my workout, I sat on the couch in an almost comatose state as my girls ran around me and played.
Hannah was on the floor and Livie would run forward…then run backward and try not to look as she made it to Hannah’s arms. Then Hannah would hug her and Livie would crack up and then she’d burst free and run forward to do it all over again.
I was glad I had my camera nearby because I had to hobble to get it. But these are some of my favorite pictures of the girls. Livie was so happy to be playing with her big sister. And Hannah was just thrilled that she could play with her without hearing her whine or cry. They were both so happyand having fun. The whole scene was exactly what I had envisioned when we planned for another baby. Someone to look up to Hannah. Someone for Hannah to play with.
They healed me last night. Not physically but emotionally. Which is exactly what I needed.
Self proclaimed groupie…and my babies :)
I’ve been singing Kelle Hampton’s praises for the past few weeks. I was given the link to her blog back in early February and I’ve spent about an hour a day since then reading her archives and looking forward to her new posts. She inspires me. Yesterday I sent her an email telling her how amazing she is and how much she inspires me. And I tweeted this:
I’m a major fan. I had to tell her. I didn’t think she’d read my email right away or even reply at all because I figure she’s gotten tons and tons of emails since her blog went from about the amount of readers my blog has to thousands and thousands nationwide daily. She’s a busy woman. So when she replied about 20 minutes later, I almost fainted. Screw Hollywood. Screw the celebs. SHE is a celeb to me. She’s real and honest and so sweet. AND SHE REPLIED TO ME!
That made my day. Her email was so sweet. She complimented this blog because SHE LOOKED AT THIS BLOG! MY BLOG! And she said my pictures were beautiful. Didn’t think it was possible but I love her more now. So I wrote her back and told her I’m a self proclaimed groupie and thanks for writing back so fast. Y’all need to go read her blog. I promise you won’t regret it. It’s nourishment for your soul…for reals yo!
So staying true to form I had to take a few pictures of my youngest baby girl. She has found her reflection. And she loves it.
She’s also walking everywhere now. And yesterday, she even braved a run. It was more like a super fast drunk kinda looking walk but it was cute nonetheless.
The other night I got the DVD in of Livie’s first year that I made her. So we popped it in and we smiled and ooh’d and ahh’d over her as a tiny baby as she walked around the living room. If you watched the video I posted in her birthday post you know the song I picked for it was super sappy and slow. Total tear jerker. I cried a lot making that video. Hannah sat there watching it and then said “Anytime I watch something like this and it has sad music it makes me want to cry.” I laughed and told her “Man, you’re just like me sometimes.”
Still amazed
I’m still amazed at the way social media has transformed my life…MANY people’s lives. I love how when someone is in trouble or needs help, everyone pulls together to help them. It’s a testament that there is good in people…that while things may seem to be falling apart in the world there are still good people out there who truly care. Who truly WANT to help. I’ve seen it with Maddie. I’ve seen it with Anissa. I’ve seen it with Sara. And now, I’m seeing it with Layla.
Enter my favorite Etsy dressmaker, Rachel at Momi Boutique. She heard about Layla and her fight. Apparently Layla’s mom was already a customer of hers. After Layla got sick, Rachel decided to name one of the dresses she made for Layla after Layla and donate all the proceeds of that dress for Layla’s medical bills. You can find that dress here. Her listing says it’s sold out but she may be able to work something out for you if you’re wanting to help. Rachel made these dresses for my girls.
(Just got these! Totally plan on taking pictures of the girls in these this weekend!)
She’s awesome does custom orders and sizing. Even if you can’t get the dress for Layla, shop around if you have little girls. I’m pimping her out after her generosity regarding Layla.
If you want to help but don’t want to buy a dress, you can always donate on Layla’s website.
And please, keep praying for Layla. She needs it.
In like a Lion
I talk about Twitter every now and then on here because truly, it’s been a huge part of my life the past 7 months. I’ve made amazing friends…people that I feel like I’ve known forever. Through the course of meeting all these new friends, I met Renee. She was friends with my other friends and she seemed so sweet. I started reading her blog, But Why Mommy, and I immediately became intrigued with her life. See, she and her husband adopted their daughter, Bunny, from China. She’s so cute and reading stories about her took up hours of my day the day I found her blog. As I kept reading I saw that they were trying to adopt again. This time from Ethiopia. A son….they named him Lion. They’ve gotten pictures of him. They already love him. And soon, they’ll be getting him. So a bunch of us Twitter people decided hey, why not throw a little internet baby shower for Lion. So Renee, although I didn’t bake this, you really can’t have a shower without cake.
(I stole this image from www.ameliascakesandfavors.com but it was perfect!)
Here’s some advice about having 2 children instead of 1. I went down that path this year and I have learned a few things.
1. Make sure you still take time for just Bunny. She will love Lion with all her heart…but she might get jealous of him. Make sure she knows that you love her as much as always…that she’s still special to you.
2. I will admit that with the baby coming into our lives, it seemed to make even LESS time for us. Make sure you set aside time for just you and your man.
3. Take TONS of pictures of the kids together. I have lots of my girls together and yet it still seems like it’s never enough. Nothing will make your heart swell more than to see your babies together smiling in a picture.
4. You can pretty much guarantee that having any private time in your house is out the window. I can’t remember the last time I took a shower without a kid in the bathroom with me. Peeing alone? Read the 1st part of this number.
5. Laundry will be a lost cause. I wash clothes. I fold them. 3 days later I have another pile to wash. I now have piles of clean clothes and piles of dirty clothes and I’m just glad I know the difference between the two. Putting them away has become optional.
6. Dishes. See #5.
7. Love. SO SO much more love than you ever thought possible. People might think that having 2 kids stretches out the love. I think it increases it and there’s an abundance of it. I never thought I could love more than I love Hannah. Now I love even more…enough for both of my kids.
I’m so excited for Lion to get here and to see pictures of him…to get to “meet” him. This day is for you Renee!
ps: Issa…thanks for the awesome idea 
Twitter advice
(If you don’t use Twitter this is going to sound like a foreign language to you. I apologize in advance.)
I lock my tweets on Twitter. That means that unless you request to follow me, you can’t see what I’m saying. Most days I like this because I don’t care for people at work or my family reading what I say all the time. I realize that my blog is public but I honestly censor this blog a lot. I have to. My Facebook has a lot of family and friends on there but I censor that too. My twitter is uncensored. Because of that, I don’t have any work people or any family or really any IRL friends that follow me. I like it that way. A few things though that I DON’T like about it:
1. Friday I found out that since I protect my tweets, if I send a tweet to someone who doesn’t follow me, they won’t see it. This is new. I’ve been locked for a long time and I KNOW I’ve gotten replies from people who don’t follow me. That pisses me off. I get that Twitter probably figures “hey you locked your tweets for a reason. So if someone doesn’t follow you, they’re not gonna see what you say even if you direct it to them.” Well guess what Twitter? That sucks and I don’t like it.
2. Since I’m locked I have to approve people who request to follow. Usually I’ll see (if their stream is public) who they talk to and if they share friends with me, I’ll approve them and follow them back. Sometimes though I get requests and I don’t see any mutual friends and so I’ll hit deny. Except that this weekend it dawned on me that maybe some of those requests were blog readers…and I just didn’t know it because Twitter has yet to add in a feature like Facebook has where if you request someone you can also send a message. That’d be helpful.
I love Twitter. I love it so much. It’s my favorite social networking thing to do. BUT OMG it has some issues and I so dearly wish they’d get on the ball with this stuff.
I won’t even get into how I think their following/followers lists should be easier to navigate than just scroll scroll scroll until you find who you need. DUMB.
SO, if you read my blog and request to follow me please send me an email and let me know that you’ve requested to follow me so I don’t just think you’re some random person. And if you’ve already done that and I denied you, I’m sorry. Send me an email to let me know, k?
Lastly, if you work for Twitter, email me. I’ve got a bone to pick with you.
What my weekend consisted of:
1. Friday night I spent 2 hours straight on Twitter while watching The Hope for Haiti telethon. I have to say that the telethon was moving and awesome. The performances rocked. The tweets I read rocked. It was a nice, feel good evening. Thank God for Twitter on my phone because I could play with the baby, watch the show and tweet all at once FTW!
2. The reason I was glued to Twitter is because Heather and Mike Spohr welcomed their 2nd baby, Annie, into the world. A lot of the blogging and Twitter world has waited for months now to welcome Annie with the Spohrs, me included. So Friday night when I checked into Twitter and saw that Heather was having the baby I refused to put my phone down until she did. Check out their blog- she’s beautiful.
3. Yesterday we had a family birthday party as we usually do from now til like May a few weekends a month. We have tons of birthdays. So I got Livie dressed up in a cute little party skirt and Hannah was excited to go.
4. BUT what was probably one of the biggest highlights of my weekend was the fact that Livie finally has enough hair to wear a bow. And by bow I mean a teeny tiny one BUT a bow nonetheless.
And THAT was a cause for celebration. At least to me
Not writing it off
I’m not going to write off the fact that weird things happened in my house Sunday night. Since then though, nothing else has occurred and I LIKE IT THAT WAY. It better stay that way. I read and hear about other friends who encounter these things and they talk to the ghosts and crap like that. Sorry. Not happening here. I’m pretty sure if I got confirmation that there was a ghost in my house I’d be looking to move out soon after. There will be no “taking back my house”. BUT just in case, I’ve been told to burn sage and light white candles. I think I will do both those things along with saying a prayer this weekend. It can’t hurt and I really hope that if there IS something there, it goes away.
Also, I’ve decided to not impulse blog/tweet as much. By that I mean, when I get upset by an email or something I’ve overheard at work or anywhere….to think for 5 minutes before putting it online. Even if I just type it out but don’t hit post or publish…just SOMETHING as a buffer because I find myself doing this often and then regretting it later. I adore all y’alls emails…even if you do question things I’m doing. It’s good to have input from other people sometimes. My way isn’t the only way, right?
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