Head on over to Living on Trees, grab the link from Joy, and let the world know how you're a Weekend Warrior!
This weekend is a sad one. It's my last weekend before school starts, so I'm hoping to get all out of it that I can.
This morning will be a finger-painting session for my little girl. I can't say baby anymore. She turned into a little girl this week. She's finding her own sense of style, exclaiming that "Daddy's still sleeping," and yelling at the cat. We're going to throw on an old t-shirt, head out into the driveway with our finger paints and paper and do a little artwork. I'm hoping to get some great pictures of her first "studio" time.
Tonight is dinner at the in-laws. More than anything, I'm pretty excited to not have to cook tonight! And, of course, Katie will have a blast over at YaYa's.
Tomorrow, I need to work. BUT this means a Katie-Daddy day! Then it's perhaps off to church.
Finally, Sunday is all ours. We have no obligations, nothing we absolutely need to do. We can do whatever we want. Maybe we'll head to the zoo or find a nice, big park.
I've always said that I want my children to be comfortable wearing whatever clothes they want. I want them to find their own sense of style, whether it be wearing head-to-toe leather (as long as I don't have to buy it firsthand, leather is expensive!) or funky colors and mismatched leggings or a knit hat in the middle of summer.
I think I may have gotten my wish. For the last two days, my darling 19-month-old has insisted on wearing "a haht mama!"
She wore it all day yesterday and, after waking up at 6:25am (oy, baby, mommy's tired!), she ran out to the living room, found her "haht" and immediately threw it on. She's been wearing it inside out, flopped into her face, backwards, with the frilly brim flipped upward. You name it, she's worn it that way.
It is 100% adorable. It makes me excited to what she's going to choose to wear when she's 5. :)
With the last week of summer break upon me, I'm becoming increasingly aware of how much my baby girl has grown this summer. She is now 19 months and I swear she's going on 19 years.
She terrorizes the cat, laughs when you smack her hand, screeches when she doesn't get her way, yells for her blankie, and cries when we leave YaYa's house. In all those ways, and more, she's clearly hitting her terrible twos.
But along with those, wonderful traits have developed. Actual phrases are now being used. Possessions are being noted.
Yesterday, Starbuck (the new kitty) started batting around some food that Katie dropped on the floor. Miss Mae looked right at her, shook her finger and said "BuckBuck! NO!" It was SO cute, I couldn't help but smile.
But my absolute favorite is her addition of "my" to everything. My kitty. My dinner. My milk. And, of course, my favorite: my mommy. She's not doing it in a bratty kind of way - it's more of a sweetness, a sprinkling of Katie Mae sugar over everything. She's letting everyone know that these things belong to her and are loved by her.
How absolutely amazing is this face?!
Eating her newly acquired taste - cold grilled cheese. Would you look at those curls?!
I realize that these sweet possessives won't remain sweet forever. In just a few weeks or months, it will turn into a bratty "MINE!", but until that time, I'm just going to sit back and enjoy every moment of being her mommy.
This morning started out lovely. And it has progressively gotten worse.
I really don't like to complain in my blog - I prefer it to be a happy place, full of nice thoughts and whimsy.
Unfortunately, today is not a "whimsy" kind of day. And at the top of my list to complain about? School. Not school in general, mind you. I love school. I love going to school, learning, helping other students to grasp the subject matter. I love pushing myself to my limits.
Apparently, so does my school. For those of you who don't know, I go to community college. "School of dreams" as my husband likes to call it. Normally, I have no problems with this school.
However, all that is changing with this semester. First, they tried to force me to take a class that I took in 8th grade. That's right, folks, 8th freaking grade. Luckily, I tested out of it and proved them all wrong. Things were looking up! This semester was going to be difficult, but worth it. A heavy workload this semester means a much, MUCH lighter workload next semester, which is also my last at this school.
I noticed a few days ago that my financial aid award letter still had not come. So I checked my student portal. "Your financial aid package cannot be completed. Please contact your financial aid advisor for further instructions." Awesome.
Let me break this down for you:
I submitted my FAFSA in February. Immediately after completing my taxes.
I submitted the household verification worksheet that is required by my school in March.
I submitted in my (requested) proof of Illinois residence in May.
I re-submitted the household verification worksheet along with the (requested) "Untaxed Income Worksheet" in July.
There should be no reason why my financial aid package cannot be completed. Oh, but wait - THERE'S MORE! I called my financial aid advisor today. She informed me that I needed to bring in my W-2 from 2010, along with Mike's. That's all well and good, but why? I didn't need that last year! "You've been selected for verification. We need additional proof of you income from last year." Well, thanks for letting me know! I am currently registered for 5 classes that comes to $1900, PLUS I have books that are totalling at least $400, if I get them USED! Oh, and all this is due in less than two weeks.
Props to you, Triton, for looking out for your students. It looks like I may be paying out of pocket for my tuition and praying for reimbursement.
I'm really hoping to get this in before Katie wakes up, which could be any minute now. I apologize ahead of time if this isn't too coherent.
I promised I would do this blog post yesterday, but with work, church, and super active, bubbly toddler, it just wasn't going to happen. And we have an equally busy day today, so if I don't do this now, it won't happen.
And now I'm rambling. Oy.
All right - it's been one week. One whole week. No binky. Here's how it went down.
The graduation from full binky to no binky was actually quite smooth. We poked holes the first day. We snipped the bitty tip the second. Cut some more the third. Made a long slit down the middle the fourth. By Saturday, it was gone.
Last Saturday, I worked so Mike was home with Katie. He said she did great, only asked for it once, and that last all of 3 seconds before she moved on. She took her nap with no problem. Mommy came home and it was a completely different story (I don't know why she would think I would give it to her - Mommy's the strict one in the family!).
She threw a very scary tantrum. Blood curdling screams, hitting anyone and anything she came in contact with. So I did what I thought was best. I put her in a two minute timeout in her crib (we have since graduated to timeouts against the wall because I don't want her to associate her bed with punishment - I just needed to contain her somewhere). We walked out of the room and out of sight. She screamed for the entire two minutes. They were SO full of emotion: anger, despair, melancholy, longing. I didn't know a toddler could feel so much emotion in such a short span of time!
When the two minutes were up, I went in to "rescue" her, she clung to me, whimpering out "Mommy. Binty. Mommy. Binty. Mama? Binty?"
And that was really the only meltdown we had! Well, binky-related anyway. She still has meltdowns when we leave YaYa's house (or when YaYa leaves our house - BTW, should I take offense at the fact that my daughter does not meltdown when I leave, or when Daddy leaves, or anyone else, for that matter? Just when YaYa leaves).
And other than a very small number of times crying out for her binky, we've done really well without it!
I really must recommend trying this method out if you're looking for a way to ween your child off his/her pacifier. What's the worst that could happen?
So smiley ... and so in need of a haircut!
We've taken to reading in the car to avoid meltdowns
"Mommy, can you stop singing? I'm trying to read."
It's Friday! Unfortunately, it's not my last day of work this week, but whatevs. It's still Friday, and that' something to smile about! I'm going to be doing my very first Weekend Warriors here, so why don't you go visit Joy @ Living on Trees, link up, and join us!
Today, I get to do a lot of working. I've worked 3 days so far for a total of 30 hours already. Today I get to work some more and then tomorrow, you guessed it, more work. The only thing keeping me going is knowing that my paycheck will be ballin'!
Tonight is grocery shopping. Normally, this would be a pain. But recently, we discovered the joy that is Trader Joe's, so grocery shopping is actually a very exciting thing nowadays!
Mike is off tomorrow, so he gets to have a nice Daddy-Daughter day while Mommy works. Afterwards, we're heading to church. I am so excited to go to church with this renewed fire for the Lord. I can't wait to worship!
Sunday morning we're taking Katie to do her 18 month photos. I know, I know, she's almost 19 months. But we had an appointment earlier in the month. Daddy had to work. We had to reschedule. We couldn't do it last Sunday because it was my niece's 5th birthday party. So we're doing it this Sunday. I'm so excited. We won a $75 gift certificate from Joy (at the above-mentioned blog) about 8 months ago and we're finally getting to use it!
We're also hoping for a little day-date on Sunday. Maybe head to a movie. There's a couple we want to see. We'll see - we are kinda broke.
I am SO unbelievably excited. I have been itching all day long to get to my computer so I can blog! (yes, yes, I have the blogger app, but my goodness - I canNOT write out an entire blog on my phone!)
This morning ... I was broken.
Okay ... let me clear this up a little bit. I am a Christian. I was saved back in December of 2006. I was truly on fire for the Lord for about a year. Then I began slacking. I stopped reading my Bible every day. I stopped praying every day. Heck, I stopped praying when I needed to pray. In fact, if anyone brought up praying, I would actually experience a mini anxiety attack. Needless to say, I was NOT a good Christian.
This morning, Mike called me to inform me that our finances were quite bleak. Things are not looking good for us and won't for awhile, barring some sort of miracle. (Mind you, they're not TERRIBLE, people are experiencing much worse, but they're definitely not good.)
I was SO depressed on my way to drop Katie off and on the way to work. I barely talked to my mother-in-law when I brought Katie over.
(This may seem like a sidebar, but I promise, it's not.) I have a 6-CD changer in my car. #1 is The Band Perry. #2 is some crappy random mix CD I made Mike when we were dating. #3 is The Wedding. #4 is a message by my pastor on marriage. #5 is Hillsong Live. #6 is a Wow CD.
CD #5 came up. Hillsong. Worship music. Live. Normally, it's just background music. And the first few songs were just that. Background noise to the utter defeat I was feeling. Then "Hosanna" came on. Another song that is normally just a part of the backdrop. Before I knew it, though, my hand was raised (unheard of for me) and tears were streaming down my face.
I was broken.
I sang out to the Lord. I cried out to the Lord. I begged him to break me, to mold me, to "break my heart for what breaks Yours." I let the tears fall, knowing what I must have looked like to everyone driving around me. I didn't care. It was time between just me and my Lord. He was speaking to me and I was listening.
I got to work about 20 minutes early. I knew I was going to be early and thought I'd just take the extra time on my paycheck. But as soon as that song came on, I knew it was going to happen differently. I used that extra time to read my Bible (well, my Bible app) and to pray.
I prayed about so many things. I prayed for God to heal my heart (which has been aching for Him for so long ... I just didn't realize it). I prayed for God to give me the courage to follow through with my committment to a Bible study this year (studying through the book of Acts from September through May. By myself. With no one I know. I know some great, God-centered friendships are going to grow from this). I prayed for God to heal all of the things that are beginning to crumble in our lives. I prayed for God to give me the strength and conviction to be a better witness for Him.
I prayed for God to give us direction on this big decision in our lives. I prayed that, whatever His will, either Mike's heart or my heart would change. I don't want either of us to feel defeated or betrayed or bullied.
And you know what? It is amazing how the Lord works. I already feel a HUGE weight lifted from my shoulders. I didn't have an anger the moment I walked in the door, anticipating what annoyances I'm going to experience. I didn't yell at Katie when she got upset about leaving YaYa's house. I made dinner without huffing. I did the dishes before dinner without getting annoyed. And Mike did the dishes after. Without me asking. Without him even mentioning it to me.
I can feel the changes already. And I'm so excited for what the Lord has in store for us.
For your viewing, listening, and spiritual pleasure:
