Six Things

File under random:

I've been a little online shopping click-happy lately, so to prove I don't only blog about Ayla, here are six things delivered this week about which I am very excited.

1) Ayla's birthday present from her PaPa (John's dad). He sent a check, I picked it out! It's a P'kolino Little Sofa-Sleeper. Right now she mostly uses it to climb as high as she can and look out the window, but I'm sure many hours of story-time and sleepovers are ahead.

2) An Ergo carrier! I have used the Baby Bjorn, a few different slings and wraps and ties, but I needed something that was better for her and my back and easy to get in and out of. It was a steal on BabySteals.com.

3) Inspired by Finn Baltic amber necklace. I don't know why this brand is the only one I've seen with these necklaces, but my sister swears by them and I think it's really cute! So far, Ayla likes wearing it, but I don't know if it's helping with the teething pain yet. Another great steal from BabySteals.

4) Much needed replacement lens cover for my camera. I lost the original in California this summer and have been recklessly tossing the Rebel into bags with no protection to take hundreds of pictures I don't edit or upload. Call me a, I don't know, a rebel?

5) Hand-made honey pot from Etsy. Look, it was just getting messy getting the honey out of the giant jar.

6) Sublime Imprint Anti-Fatigue comfort mats for my kitchen floor. I finally found the right color, size and comfort combo, and Amazon had them for half price. Winner!

Since it's now officially Tuesday here, I can tell you about something else I'm getting today. Want to guess?
Here's a hint: He once took me for a ride, then gave me a beautiful shiny thing. His name is John and he's my husband.
Got it?
I am a little more excited about this delivery than the other ones!

Have a great rest of your week, my dear readers!

7 things to do when you're feeling wobbly

1) Cry

2) Write down a few things you're thankful for

3) Pray for (or think about) someone else going through a hard time

4) Do something for someone else

5) Read the news to widen your view of the world

6) Read something old (the Bible, poetry) to deepen your view of time

7) Smile

Random helpfulness

I've been doing lots of laundry lately. In doing so, I have been looking at lots of tags and realized I had no idea what most of those little symbols mean.

You probably already know or don't care, but I'm going to tell you anyway. That's just the kind of person I am. (Emphasis on the kind!)

http://www.textileaffairs.com/lguide.htm

You are welcome!

New Post!

Exclamation point because this is exciting! I haven't blogged in forever!

Since we were last together, we've had a death in the family, a whirlwind trip, lots of packing and shopping and visiting with friends. Our baby girl keeps getting cuter and bigger and better at smiling, and of course we are just falling more in love with her. We are also on the cusp of our year apart.

So much to write about. So many pictures!

I'll just give you a little overview to give you context for what I'll be blogging about in the coming days.

On Feb 17, my husband's cousin's daughter was on a school trip when the SUV she was riding in was in an accident and she was killed. She was 15.

We had planned a trip to visit family in Texas and Oklahoma leaving the next night, but were able to get on an earlier flight out. We spent several days with this family and are better people, parents and husband and wife because of it. This girl, her life and death, changed so much for so many people, and will continue to do so for a long time to come.

One of the reasons we were already going on this trip was for the family to say goodbye to John and meet Ayla. I met John's family in the wake of his brother's death seven years ago, and now my daughter was meeting them in similarly tragic circumstances. We gave her the job of bringing joy to everyone she met, and since she started smiling just the week before, she accomplished her mission perfectly!

We said goodbye to another family member on this trip, too. Mocha went to live with her Aunt Kim this year. John decided she'd be better off with them since they have a dog, a big back yard and a 5-year-old, all things Mocha loves. She's settling in pretty well, as you can see!

And now we are preparing for yet another goodbye. This one, probably the hardest we've had to face in a while. John will most likely be leaving this week, so pretty much all our time and efforts are going towards getting him and us ready for that. It's really hard. Did I mention that? It does make every moment, every hug and kiss, every folded t-shirt and dirty coffee mug that much sweeter.

John has agreed to write a guest blog for me before he leaves. What do you think he should write about?

(Yep, the question at the end of the blog is back. Mwa ha ha ha!)

Ashamed of myself

Few things annoy me more than the country band Sugarland and drivers who don't turn their headlights on in the rain (or at dusk). One of those things, though, is commercials that use animated characters to advertise anything other than animated products.

Here's the deal: I am not a cartoon (that I know of). Why do you think a product you are showing is beneficial to a cartoon would be attractive to me?

Take, for example, the Red Bull silliness or the quilting ladies over at Quilted Northern. The one I dislike the absolute most is the bears they use to advertise Charmin. Not only am I not a cartoon, but I am definitely not a cartoon bear.  Besides, I hate the idea of bears using toilet paper. Are they just leaving it in little piles behind trees, or do they also have toilets and sewers to go along with it. It just gets too complicated.

Anyway, I have always avoided buying Charmin for this very reason. Until today. I went to Costco and had a coupon for it, so after comparing with the Kirkland brand (those were the only two they had at this one), I blindfolded and gagged my conscience and heaved the cartoon bear toting package into my cart.

I'm so ashamed. I can only hope that the softness and strength of my new toilet paper is enough to wipe some of it away.

Are there commercials that annoy you so much that you can't buy the product? I have many others, but I'm interested to see what you say.

10 Sentence Tuesday... It's Baaack!

1) I don't feel as satisfied after watching an hour of Glee as I used to.
2) Today was my last physical therapy appointment and I'm kindof going to miss it.
3) I was being treated for a sacroiliac (SI) joint (the joint between 1 and 2 below) injury.

4) We never figured out exactly what caused the injury, but the treatment was core strengthening exercises, which I now will continue to do on my own.
5) It's weird to be one of the "everyone is pregnant!"
6) I'm praying now more than ever for those I know who want to be pregnant.
7) If you're one of those, please let me know, so I can add you to my list.
8) My sister went to Mexico for a few days, and even though she lives in another state, I still missed her.
9) It's a good thing I don't live closer to a Container Store.
10) Besides cereal and Sonic, I've gotten the most comments on FB on a food-related status update about pho (Vietnamese noodle soup).

Perfume Ad

So I'm sitting here at 10pm, watching TV and wondering what to blog about tonight. I'm thinking, I'm not going to get inspiration by watching TV. But I was wrong. I've always laughed at perfume and cologne ads because they are so random. If you're watching a commercial and 15 seconds in, you still have no idea what it's for, it's probably for perfume.

I thought, I could write a perfume ad. And then I thought, you could too!

Here's mine:

It's an echo deep inside. A desire, a dream, a promise, a reality. And for once in your life, there's nothing you can do. Hold your breath. Here it goes again.

Introducing Hiccups, a new fragrance by Blueberry 

Ok, your turn!

(PS - I asked John what I should blog about tonight and he said Blueberry and Mocha. The only thing I can think to say about Mocha is that I wish whatever school taught her that pitiful-my-world-is-ending look would have also taught her how to unload the dishwasher! That would be so much more useful!)

(But for real, I'd love to see what perfume ads you come up with. Please play!)