family birthdays

last night, chris, addison and i went to my aunt and uncle's house to celebrate some of our family birthdays. we have a lot of family birthdays all grouped together. my dad's birthday is today, august 31st. his older brother (my uncle) is less than a year older than him, born on september 4th. and their youngest sister (my aunt) was born on september 9th. so there's just a cluster of birthdays. also, my cousin rachel's birthday is august 25th, and chris' birthday is september 9th.

it was a beautiful day. the weather was cooler than usual, and it was just perfect to sit outside for dinner. there weren't any nasty bugs (i'm not a bug person). and addison got to play in the grass for the first time! she liked it a lot.


she was starting to get fussy, which i had expected (between her afternoon nap and bedtime is her 'fussy' time. she doesn't get a nap in the evening, so she gets a little cranky). so i just plopped her in the grass and she had a big time.



her second cousin, georgia, came and played with her in the grass. georgia is so good with addison. and so is her brother, james, one of addison's other second cousins. i think it's because they want a little brother or sister. maybe addison will be enough for them....


on a side note, i started school today. it wasn't bad at all. i wasn't as nervous as i was starting class last spring. i don't know why. but it's good. i didn't really care that i didn't know anyone in my classes. that's how it was last spring, and i met some people. as it turned out, i knew someone in my first class, and recognized some people in my other class.

what i'm not looking forward to is having homework. but hopefully i'll be able to quickly get back into my routine of doing school work. i don't really want to get back into that routine, but i know i need to. and i have some small breaks from school, and then thanksgiving and christmas break will be here before i know it.

here are some pictures of tybee and chris cuddling this afternoon :)

sunday reading

i still haven't read a new book. and i probably won't be able to for a while. school starts tomorrow...boo. but i'll still try to do 'sunday reading' on books that i've read recently.

there isn't going to be anything today, though. had a lot going on today, and am pretty tired now. i'll post some new pics tomorrow though!

yummmm

my mom has made macaroni salad during the summer for i don't know how long. when i finally moved out, i wanted to know how to make it for myself. so, last summer i learned how to make it. it's actually really easy.

Macaroni Salad

1 box of pasta shells
2 hard boiled eggs

2 carrots (or a bag of shredded carrots)

5 spoon fulls of mayo

a few squeezes of mustard

3 spoon fulls of dill relish

cook the pasta.

once it is cooked, drain it and run cold water over it.

i usually put it in a big container and go ahead and put it in the fridge.

hard boil the eggs.

tip: i've heard that using older eggs (3-5 days old) makes it easier. put the eggs in a pot with enough water to cover the eggs. bring the water to a boil, then turn the burner off. move the pot off the hot burner, and cover for about 15 minutes. then put the eggs in a bowl of ice and water. let them sit for another 10 minutes, then peel.

finely chop the carrots and eggs and add to pasta.

i only used about 2 handfuls of carrots from the bag. you can use as much (or less) as you want!

tip: use the already shredded carrots to save some time. otherwise, peel carrots and chop all the peelings.

add mayo, mustard and relish to pasta.

again, you can add as much (or less) as you want. the amounts i put are how much i use.

mix well and serve cold.

hope you enjoy this summer pasta! it's great to take to work, or even on a picnic!

my saturday

UPDATE:
well, i got most of my stuff done. still doing the laundry. need to clean a little more tomorrow. but won't take long. and i still have to order the pics. i did make the macaroni salad, but am too tired to post how to make it. no worries, that's also on my list of things to do tomorrow :)

today is my 'get stuff done' day. i have a ton of things to do. and since school is starting on monday, i figured today would be a good day to just get it all out of the way. i decided to make a list, so that i would (maybe) get it all done. so, here it goes....

1. do laundry - i have 5 loads left to go
2. put up laundry - i could do laundry all day. it's the putting up that i hate
3. clean house - all the house. i mean, every room, everything. i'm going to make my house spotless. let's see how long that lasts
4. order pictures
5. go to target
6. make macaroni salad

i'm not doing them in any order. just what i can do at the moment. addison is a great helper...or should i say, observer. hopefully it all gets done!

oh, and if i actually get to making the macaroni salad, i'll share the recipe. it's yummy. kind of a summery, but i'm still hanging on to the last bit of summer that's left :)

what if?

last night, my mom told me about the little girl that was kidnapped 18 years ago, and was just found alive. that kind of got me thinking. wow, 18 years without your little girl. it just makes me worry sometimes that something like that could happen to addison.

when i went to bed, i couldn't fall asleep. so i laid in bed just thinking. i started to make myself worry about addison, myself and chris. i hate when i do that. i just bring thoughts in my head that haven't happened. and i most certainly don't want them to happen.


it seems like once i found out i was pregnant, i started to worry about a lot more things. i realized that i would have someone else to worry about, besides myself.

what if something happens to the baby?

what if something happens to me or chris?

i wasn't as worried about myself as much as i was worried about the baby. but i did still think about things that could happen to me. things that i couldn't really control. like being in a wreck. i really worried about the baby. i was scared i would have a miscarriage. i didn't know what i would do if that happened. once i made it to the 2nd trimester, i didn't worry. that trimester was pretty easy. i didn't really worry about the baby. i was more worried about getting everything ready for the arrival. having the nursery ready, all that fun stuff. but once i was in the 3rd trimester, i started to worry again. i had already made it so far, what if something happened to her now.

and then i had addison. all of that worry went away. but then those same 'what ifs' came back to my head. something could still happen to me, or to addison. i then starting feeling like i had even less control. when i was still pregnant, i could protect her more. she was in me. but now that she's here, i feel like i have less control.

then, i stuck my head in a book and freaked myself out. i read about SIDS (sudden infant death syndrome). that really freaked me out. i kept reading about it, and one night, i just started to cry. i didn't know what i could do to prevent it. it really scared me. i don't think about it as much as i used to, but it still comes to my mind sometimes. now that addison is older, she is at a lower risk, so that makes me feel better.

i think a lot of my worry is all in my head. i seem to make it a bigger deal than it should be. i read stories in the news about children being kidnapped, and it just scares me. i've always been a little paranoid. it's not an all the time paranoia, but it's just random. i'll think about one bad thing happening, and then it just turns into a lot. and i freak myself out. it's mainly with safety, like locking the doors in the house. that's the BIG one. and poor chris. sometimes i wake up in the middle of the night and want to check the doors. and i make him come with me. but that happens close to never. and i'm lucky that he doesn't mind.

i've been trying to live without as many worries. it works most of the time, but there are just those days that i seem to find things to worry about. having addison keeps me busy, so i have less time to just sit and worry (and usually make it a big deal in my head, when it really isn't a big deal at all). i know some of this worry will never go away. but i'm ok with that.

where did my summer go?

i feel like summer has just flown by. wasn't it just starting yesterday? i guess not. breaks from school have definitely spoiled me. especially since i get to spend all my time with addison.

this is my first summer off from college that i'm actually going back in the fall. let me explain....i was in college for a year, then took off the fall semester. i was pregnant and didn't want to go into labor in the middle of class. i did work the whole time, but no school is no school. so i had the summer plus the fall semester off.

when i had addison, i couldn't decide if i should go back to work, or just stay at home with addison. daycare is pretty expensive. i would be making just enough to pay for daycare, so chris and i decided that it would be better for me to just stay home with addison. chris makes enough to support all of us, so i'm very lucky! i get to spend every day with my little girl.

the only thing with not going back to work was i wouldn't have insurance. since chris and i aren't married, they won't cover me on his insurance. and insurance is EXPENSIVE. so, i decided to go back to school. i can be covered that way, and i needed to go back to school. so it all worked out! i figured going back to school after a semester off would be easier than going back after a few years off.

and it was pretty easy, getting back into the swing of going class. it was kind of nice, having a little time away from the house. and i'm an avid car singer, so on the way to school, i really jam out. i can't really blast the music with a baby in the back seat. i'm sure when addison gets older, she'll enjoy singing in the car with me :)

so even though i'm not exactly looking forward to going back to school, i'm looking forward to getting it over with. and having all my long breaks to spend with addison!

oh monday

why do i hate mondays so much? probably because it means it's the end of the weekend. even though i don't work (at least don't have a paying job....being a stay at home mom is a lot of work), it seems like mondays aren't much fun.

well, my day started early (for me at least). addison had an appointment with her helmet doctor. chris was off today, so i didn't have to take her by myself. the first time we went, it took a little while for us to be called back to a room. but today, it didn't take long at all. so i thought 'this is going to be a good day'. well, it wasn't that bad of a day, but still not great. we talked to the doc. he said her head looks like it's shaping well already. which is good. maybe addison will get out of the helmet sooner than we thought. after we talked to the doc, we headed to restorative health, which is where the helmets are actually made and adjusted. by this time, it was a little past addison's nap time, but she really didn't care. we weren't there very long, and then we headed home.

addison went down for her nap right after we got home. well, actually in the car if that counts. i had some things to do - go to the bank and go to school - that i wanted to get done while addison was napping. i was going to wait until her afternoon nap, but chris suggested i go then (right after we got home). so, i did.

when i got to the bank, chris hadn't signed the check so i couldn't deposit it...pretty wasted trip. then, when i went to school to pick get my parking pass and ID, the office was closed until 1. of course i was there at 12. one hour before they reopened. ughhhh. so those were completely wasted trips. it was just one of those days where it seemed like it was going to be good, then turns out not so much.




the day went on. i went to school and was able to get everything i was after. chris helped out and gave addison her bath. and i made one of my favorite meals for dinner. wanna guess what it is?? well i'll go ahead and tell you. it's mac and cheese. yumm. i think that's the first thing i learned how to make. that and brownies. yumm too. hmm...maybe i'll make some of those tonight too....probably not. i'm extremely sleepy. yawn.


oh, and another thing NOT to look forward to. school starts in a week. yes, just one more week of summer. yet another reason to dislike mondays!

sunday reading

i wasn't able to find a book to read this past week, so i'm just going to write about one that i have read recently. well, in this case, it's five books. but they're all in a series.




like i said before, i started reading books that were going to be made into movies. so once i saw that there was going to be a movie called Confessions of a Shopaholic, i KNEW that i had to read that book. obviously i'm a woman, so shopping just comes naturally to me. i'm not exactly a shopaholic, but i do like to go shopping every once in a while.

what i didn't know when i started reading is that there are actually five shopaholic books. first, of course, is Confessions of a Shopaholic. then comes Shopaholic Takes Manhattan, Shopaholic Ties the Knot, Shopaholic & Sister and Shopaholic & Baby.

of course i read them all. i mean, once you start one, you have to finish the series! all the books were really cute. kind of fairy tale, without the magical stuff. it has just the right amount of drama, heartbreak, friendship and shopping, naturally.

i had just finished reading the Twilight series when i started reading Shopaholic, so it was a really nice break from all the vampire books. it's just a feel good book. makes you happy, sometimes sad. kind of what you (and i) always wish would happen.

now on to the movie. hmmm, where to start. well, the movie sucked if you actually read the books. it would have probably been cute if i hadn't read the books, but i did read the books. so it wasn't very good to me. the movie crammed five 200 something page books into a 2 hour movie. they left a ton of important information out, and the movie just moved WAY too fast. i like both Isla Fisher and Hugh Dancy, but the movie just sucked. i know, i've said that A LOT. but the movie really did SUCK! so, go watch the movie first, then read the books. that way, the movie won't be totally ruined for you!


and as i said before, if you have any suggestions of a good book i could read, just let me know! it can be one book or a series! i'm up for any challenge :)

cool breeze

today has been a gorgeous day. it's been cool, and overcast. really nice for this time of the year. i went to get breakfast with my dad and addison at Star Bagel. we met my grandmother, aunt and uncle there. i just LOVE that place. and addison seems to like it too. even though she doesn't get to eat anything from there. but i'm sure she'll love eating their food once she can!

once we got home, she took a nap. and as soon as she woke up, i started taking pics. we took them in the crib, on the floor, outside with daddy and tybee, just about everywhere.

AND i've been playing with photoshop, so i've tweaked them a bit. pretty fun stuff!

enjoy!!

tybee

addison enjoying the weather

addison and daddy

addison and mommy

tybee

sticking that tongue out

trying to crawl

what's in that basket?

give me that camera!