1. I realize that it has been more than 2 months since I have blogged.
2.You realize that this one will be a doozy of a post and you better take a potty break from reading blogs if you want to finish. It maybe boring, It may be funny, I'm not sure yet; all I know is it will be random.
3. This is my 100th blog post! Can you believe it all started here? My how things have changed in the last two years. I remember thinking that blogging and facebook were for computer dweebs and I still kinda feel that way about twitter. But both have changed my life... I am still skeptical about opening a twitter account though...
4. When I began blogging I wasn't sure if I was crazy or not. I mean really. Putting your heart and soul out there for the whole world to see. But as I written and read the words others have read, I kind of feel like we are recording a little bit of who we are and leaving our mark in the world saying- "Hey! I was here!"
5. I don't know if you make it to the very bottom of my blog or not but I have a dear cousin who has this quote on her blog and this is essentially why I blog:
"YOU WILL HAVE SIGNIFICANT EXPERIENCES. I HOPE THAT YOU WILL WRITE THEM DOWN AND KEEP A RECORD OF THEM, THAT YOU WILL READ THEM FROM TIME TO TIME AND REFRESH YOUR MEMORY OF THESE MEANINGFUL AND SIGNIFICANT THINGS. SOME OF THEM MAY BE FUNNY. SOME MAY BE OF SIGNIFICANCE ONLY TO YOU. SOME OF THEM MAY BE SACRED AND QUIETLY BEAUTIFUL. SOME MAY BUILD ONE UPON ANOTHER UNTIL THEY REPRESENT A LIFETIME OF SPECIAL EXPERIENCE."~PRESIDENT GORDON B. HINCKLEY
6. 2 months since I have blogged- Can you believe it? What in the world has taken me away for so long???
7. Well, This little one is part of it:
8. She has turned her extremely busy parents into even busier parents who can't get anything done because they are so distracted by her cuteness.
9. Addi will be 4 months old on Tuesday.
10. I am realizing that my concept of time is so skewed. I remember waiting for Addilynn and months seemed to pass so slowly and now she makes everything happen so fast! Time is a crazy thing.
11. My husband is the cutest daddy ever.
12. Another thing that has been taking my time up over the past few months is work. Going back to teaching is so bitter sweet. I LOVE my students. But I have realized that teaching them is secondary to my roll as a mom. The papers get graded eventually. I come to work a little more frazzled than usual. But it is all sooo worth it to go home to that little angel of mine.
13. I love random things my students say. Last week for instance I over heard this completely serious conversation between 3 of them:
Big C: Dude, you rock.
Super B: Everybody rocks.
Thoughtful M: Yeah, except for Satan.
Six year olds never cease to make me snort while trying to keep from rolling on the floor laughing and loosing it in front of my class.
14. I got another BYU-Idaho Student in my classroom a couple weeks ago. She is super cool and I think she will be a great teacher one day. As I watch this neophyte teacher, it brings back memories of where I have come from. Oh what 4 years will do to you...
15. Crazy things are going on with Idaho budget cuts in Education. I know I didn't go into education for the $$$ but two word for next years budget cuts: They suck.
16. Grad school keeps moving forward. I have now officially finished all my actual classes I need for my master's degree. I just need to bust out a giant paper, get some literacy hours in, take a six hour written exam, and defend what I have learned over the last couple years in front of a panel of very brainy people.
17. So for this Master's Project thing-- I think I am going with
"Preventing reading difficulties by developing emergent literacy: A researched based guide for teachers and parents." I went round and round with this for months. I have learned so much over the past two years, but the more I learn makes me keenly aware of what I don't know. However, I do enjoy this particular topic and if I have to write 60 pages on something at least this will be relevant and interesting to write about.
18. Picking a topic for my Master's project means that I completed #46 for my 101 in 1001! Yay for me!
19. My 101 in 1001 is going pretty slowly. I have completed a few since I looked at it last but I really need to get cracking. I only have about 2 years left!
20. Thinking about my Master's project and my 101 and everything else I want to get done makes me so happy that there are only 3 weeks left until school gets out. I know kids get super excited for this, but the truth is, teachers out number kids on the excited scale 10 to one.
22. I can't wait to go to the Black Reunion this year to see all of our amazing family, especially my Bffsil. Since they moved to Iowa for grad school I have missed Sarise terribly. AND I just found out this week that their baby that will be born in September is going to be a GIRL!!! I am so Excited that we are both going to have little girls who are the same age!
23. Speaking of babies... My sister in laws Stephenie & Michelle are expecting too! It is going to be a good year for the Black family with 4 new grand babies! Addilynn is technically # 47, with Sarise's & Steph's going for numbers #48 & #49 in September and Michelle's will be # 50 in October! SO EXCITED!!! (Oh, and btw-- rumor has it that Steph and Michelle are having boys!)
24. Babies are the greatest thing ever.
25. Being a mom to Addilynn is the greatest thing ever. Even when she is pretending to start teething and is super fussy. I love her to pieces.
26. Today is Mother's day and today was the first day I was able to take the flower after sacrament meeting without cursing my barrenness and having an emotional break down in the bathroom. thank heaven. hate that.
27. I thought I would have been so happy to have a babe in my lap today that I wouldn't have cried at all today in church, but no luck. I still cried. There were some really great talks on being a mom, and becoming a mom, and loving your mom-- it all made me teary and grateful that I am {finally} a mom.
28. I love my mom.
29. I have been thinking about "righteous traditions" this week because that is what the YW lesson was on today. My Beehive Advisor Brita was teaching it and did a fabo job. I guess thinking back I am so lucky I have such great parents and so much of how they raised me is influencing how we are raising Addilynn. I love that Daren and I are 20-somethings that actually get up at 7:30 on a Sunday to get ready for church and actually go. I'm not crazy about the waking up part, but I am so glad we go and I think that has to do a lot with our parents teaching us that church is important.
30. Brita is awesome. So one of my many "hats" is being the 2nd counselor in the Young Women's Organization @ church-- it is the group for teen girls ages 12-18. Brita is my partner in crime- or uncrime I guess. She is the best Beehive advisor I could ever ask for. She is also an angel and watching Addi 3 days a week while I am at work. She has a little girl that is 20 months and is expecting a baby at the beginning of June.
31. Jeanie is also an Angel. She watches Addi the other two days of the work week & while Daren is in class. She and I work together, but she has the oh-so-wonderful part time kindergarten position that I would LOVE, and she takes care of Addi girl on her days off. She is amazing. And she texts me cute pictures of her when I am at work and I adore them.
32. Having these ladies to watch my little sweetie does my heart a world of good. It kills me to leave my baby everyday. I just feel like I wanted her so bad that to let someone else take care of my baby was a big blow to my new found motherhood. Truth be told-- there is no other way for our family to survive with out my pay check right now though. Working is a part of my life that isn't going to go away for a while. One of Daren's Cousins told me "The Lord isn't going to send you a baby who your very best efforts wouldn't be good enough for." This has helped me so much, and Addi's baby sitters are blessings from Heaven. And Addi is such an easy baby and I know Heavenly Father had something to do with that.
33. Addi and I hang out. When I come home not much else gets done.
34. Addi and I read. She seriously LOVES Books. Some favorite titles include:
We're going on a bear hunt
Hop on pop
The very hungry caterpillar
The little mouse, the red ripe strawberry, and the big hungry bear
I'm the biggest thing in the ocean
and a new favorite as of last night:
Fluffy Chick and Friends
{Because it is soft and makes crinkly noises when she squeezes it}
35. Addi and I sing. I don't know that I sing well, and I HATE singing in front of people. But Addi seems to like it. We sing:
I am a child of God
As I have loved you
A Child's Prayer
Give said the little stream
Popcorn popping on the apricot tree
Sinnermerinkydinkydink
You are my sunshine
The grand old duke of York
Mr. Moon, Mr. Moon
and others as they randomly come back to my memory from my child hood.
36. Addi is growing more and more every day. She is still wearing 0-3 month clothes but is sneaking into 3-6 month clothes here and there. I hate putting away clothes that are too small, but it is so fun to get new clothes out!
37. Addilynn has some serious abs. She can almost sit up from laying on her back but has no balance and falls back down again. She isn't even 4 months yet.
38. Addi laughs like crazy when her Daddy is making silly noises. Probably because he is such a goof ball.
39. Daren actually went to Porters and bought craft supplies to make me something for Mother's day. I was flabbergasted and completely touched. He definitely scored some bonus points with me with this surprise. I will have to post some pictures of this later!
40. For Mother's day I also got to go get my hair cut and go pick out a new outfit for mother's day. Addi always looks adorable in her little sunday clothes and it was nice to feel cute like her today!
41. This list is getting long but I am not even half done yet.
42. I got to go visit my parents in Minnesota back in March. It was good to go back and see old friends from High School, my old ward, and my Family. My Dad got to meet his grandbaby for the first time and I think he is sold on the idea of being a grandpa.
43. We went down to Utah the week after Easter and had a easter egg hunt with Daren's Family. We stayed with his Brother Brett and his family. I guess we were pretty lucky because we were supposedly the "first" to find out Michelle was expecting because McKayla spilt the beans. We are SO happy for them! Plus they just built the prettiest house-- way cute and fun to stay with them!
44. When we got back from Utah we got to meet Tibbs 4 new little kittens. They are super cute but I am having major issues with blogger right now trying to post pictures... driving me crazy.
45. We got to go visit Daren's cousins Davin & Kristin last week. They live not too far from us and we really need to see them more often! They are way fun and we had a way good time. Kristin took some ADORABLE pictures of Addilynn. Check them out on my Facebook page.
48. On Monday I finished my last big paper for grad school next to my masters project. I hate research papers. so glad that one is over.
49. On Tuesday I made a cute photo album with Kristin's Addi Pictures for Brittani for Birth Mother's Day.
50. Birth Mother's day is always the Saturday before Mother's Day. Need a clue on what it is?Click here.
51. Since yesterday was Birth Mother's Day, Addi and I sent happy messages to her Mae Mae & looked at her adoption box and our family picture.
52. Yesterday, as an early Mother's day present I got to go get a hair cut and colored! I went with some highlights and a little shorter.
53. Daren also took me shopping for a new skirt for mother's day. love it. love him.
54. On Friday, my brother sent me a Mother's Day card with a gift card to Barnes & Noble for Addi and I to go pick out a book. We got Fluffy Chick and friends.
55. Addi loves chewing on her new book.
56. Addi actually loves chewing on everything right now. Her teeth don't look red and swollen yet, but she has some serious "Addi-tude" right now and is drooling on EVERYTHING! Is teething just around the corner?
57. Daren and I have picked up a new show on Netflix called prison break. We like it so far...
58. I am SO sad Ugly Betty ended. I know that show had issues, but I grew attached.
59. Another show I am currently following is flash forward.
60. We still don't have TV. Sometimes I want a digital converter box, but honestly, not having tv is okay with us. We do just fine with netflix and abc.com.
61. We went and saw When in Rome last night. My unsavy movie critic self would give it a B. It was cute/funny but cheesy. I do like a little cheese though now and then.
62. I think I bit off more than I can chew with this 100 thing...
63. My mom has been super into politics lately and I think that is pretty cool.
64. The government freaks me out.
65. I know a lot of people who don't like politics because they feel powerless and like they can't change anything, but that is the opposite of what it should be.
66. Politicians should serve their country; not the other way around.
67. Daren cooked tonight and it was amazing.
68. He grilled a steak that was to die for.
69. He made a chicken pasta that was super yummo.
70. He made me some asparagus. I LOVE ASPARAGUS!
71. I feel blessed to be a happy healthy mom
72. To be a mom is a gift.
73. This video totally describes number 72:
74. love nie nie
75. love blogs. they impact me. they make me think.
76. I love the friends that I have made through blogging.
77. I love my blog roll and all of these pictures on the right side of my blog.
78. Tomorrow is not to far off.
79. I probably should go to bed soon.
80. When it is late Addilynn gets really silly. I love this little cheeky monkey.
81. I can't wait until her adoption is final.
82. We are still waiting for news from our lawyers about birth dad stuff.
83. Once things get figured out and we finalize we can finally go to the temple.
84. We can't wait to take Addilynn to the temple and be a forever family.
85. It would be really nice to do this before Trev goes on his mission.
86. I am so glad Trev is getting ready to go! He is going to be a great missionary.
87. Daren's brother Seth is still on his mission in Taiwan. He comes home in August and we can't wait to see him!
88. Daren is finally seeing a light at the end of the BYU-I tunnel. If all goes well we should be done of December 2011. After 3 different majors and living in 3 different states, its about time.
89. Only 11 more to go...
90. Ahh... really stretching here. Dinner tasted really good. Daren is an excellent chef.
91. I have to wake up at 5:30 tomorrow morning.
92. I'm heading over to Janae's tomorrow afternoon to work on our literacy fair!
93. Our literacy fair is going to be part of our master's project hours. Basically we are going to be doing a bunch of summer activities/ make-n-takes for parents who want to enrich their kids over the summer.
94. If I didn't have people in my cohort like Heather, Janae, Odi, & Alane I would have never survived my masters program. Oh how I love these ladies.
95. Addi is passed out on our bed lying on her tummy and is ridiculously cute right now.
96. I want to know what you love about blogging? Who is your all time favorite blog? What is the best post you have ever read?
97. My sister in law makes me roll on the floor when I read these.
98. And these.
99. Life is good. I am happy and blessed and the last 4 months have been the hardest most blissful of my life.
100. The end of randomness. Thank you! Good night!
3 comments:
Okay, so I'm not supposed to be leaving comments anymore, but I think sometimes it's okay to make an exception. First of all, LOVE the beautiful pictures of Addi! Also, congrats on post #100 - but even more, congrats on being (relatively) close to done with your masters! And HOORAY for summer and reunions! And babies! And husbands who are amazing! And the linky love.
Can't wait to see you guys and spend a little more time with you at the reunion. Love you all!!
I just want you to know that I made it through the 100... :)
I'm so excited for your first Mother's Day without a breakdown in the church bathroom. Maybe someday I'll be a member of that club. :)
Love your 100, love you too...
also, who comes up with these word verification words... words like "relbeliz"... odd.
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