the keeper of the books

After finding out how absolutely wonderful Daviess County Public Library is, I have been putting my library card to good use.  I love to read, and am not picky about what I read.  But no not harlequin romances! 

 Wait, or science fiction. 

 Ok, so I'm a little picky.

Anywho, I have recently been making my way through all the "Ya-Ya Sisterhood" and "Shopaholic" books. They are all easy, quick reads and make me laugh!

And this week I have been reading Ya-Ya's in Bloom.  

I know that the last time I saw it, 

it was sitting on our desk.

For the life of me, I could not find it anywhere! 

 I thought it had literally disappeared!

 I mean, I had looked everywhere (or so I thought!)  

I looked in the bedroom, bathroom, closet, even the kitchen. 

 I know I had it 2 days ago!

Our apartment is only about 950 square feet, it couldn't have gone far. 

 As I dug around frantically, I heard myself mumbling phrases that my mother used to say "....couldn't have just grown legs and walked away...."

And then I pouted for awhile.  

And tried to calculate in my head how much I would owe to the library.

Finally, in a moment of sheer desperation, I asked Lauren "have you seen mommy's book, Lauren?!"

Lauren: "yeth!"  (yes)

Me: "Oh, good! Where is it, Lauren?"

Lauren: "Hold my hand, mommy....." (this is her new thing, she likes us to hold her hand so she can take us and show us something)

And, sure enough- there it was. 

 In her toybox.  

In her room.  

In her closet, in her room.

 ( I really should have taken a picture, sorry!)

WHY was it in her toybox, in her closet, in her room? Hmmm...

Me: "Lauren, why is mommy's book in your closet?"

Lauren: (proudly)  "ah-cause I keened up, mommy!" 

              (because I cleaned up, mommy!)

:)

Well, at least she has learned to clean up- finally!  

Although today when I told her it was time to clean up toys, she said,

 "daddy comin' home?"  

Ha!  

I guess we only clean up twice a day (otherwise it's a lost cause...)

 once before nap and once before Jason gets home!

Tall oaks from little acorns grow

Lauren and I were walking tonight after supper and we started talking about things that are "tall." 


We talked about the tall buildings, the tall trees, daddy is tall, and she even said mommy is tall. 
(not compared to daddy, though, ha!)

 Then I asked Lauren if she was tall.  She thought about it for a moment and replied:

 (very seriously), 

"No, mommy, I not tall, 
I vewwy yiddle!"

(very) (little)

:)

Now, if only I could find a way to keep her "vewwy yiddle...."

She is just growing up way too fast! 

Are You Ready For Some Football??

Finally, the first Saturday of college football has arrived!  We have been counting down this day for months (well, Jason has been counting down, anyway!)

I like to watch football, but not as much as Jason...he LOVES it!!

Are you ready for some (college) football??

We are!!

Roll Tide, Roll!!!

(we started off the day today at the Evansville Zoo and the weather was in the 70's!)

It was awesome!!

Yes, I did have a birthday this year...

My 29th birthday was August 12 and I just realized that I never posted any pictures or recorded this memory for posterity!

I actually cooked dinner for us on my birthday, because we had gone out to eat the night before after Lauren's 2 year (+2 months Ha!) checkup.  It was not a very nice present to have to take Lauren in for shots, but I guess it all worked out, because our new doctor's office had not received previous immunization records, so the shots were postponed. 

Oh, and just for my personal records.....Lauren was 38 inches tall (99 percentile! good grief!)  and weighed in at 32 pounds. :)  The doctor said she was doing great and then listened to her talk for a few minutes.  I was nervous.  Sometimes it's hard for Jason to understand her, but Dr. Johnston said that she understood about 75% of Lauren's speech, and at this age, a stranger should be able to understand 50% of what they say, so she was doing fine. 

We also discussed her diet and um, plumbing issues.  The doctor gave us the go-ahead on some OTC medicine to make it easier for Lauren to potty (well, diaper, not potty) (despite all the cheese she eats!) And that was kind of a relief.  And we were happy that we don't have to come back until she's 3 (providing no sickness this winter, that is!!)

Anyway.... so, I cooked stuffed bell peppers for supper and Jason brought home this yummy cake. 

Love that it says "Happy Birthday Sarah "Mommy"  :)

 He and Lauren had gone to Kroger the weekend before and ordered it, and to say Lauren was excited was an understatement!  She could hardly eat her supper because she kept asking "I eat cake, too?!"  Yes, sweet girl, you can eat cake, too! :)  (guess she thought it was just for me?!)

Lauren singing Happy Birthday, which went "Happy mommy, happy mommy!"  :)  Soooo sweet!

(yes, I realize she is only in her diaper, have you seen what frosting does to clothes??)

And wouldn't you know, after all the excitement over the cake, she only ate about 2 bites!

Jason did a great job with gifts, he picked me out an apron (it says "Queen of Everything" hahahaha!)

And also....the Pioneer Woman's cookbook!

Of course, if I were to cook anything from this cookbook, we would all gain 75,296 pounds. (just kidding!) :)

And notice that "People" magazine on the table?  Jason tucked it in the bag with the apron and cookbook.  He said, "I know that you like to read those sometimes but don't buy them for yourself anymore; so I got it for you."

  Is that adorable or what?  And it just happened to be the issue with the Duggars on the cover, which I had yet to read in the Walmart check-out line. :) He knows the way to my heart.  Haha!

It was such a great birthday, and for the last one of my 20's, I think it was perfect!

my little songbird

Walmart craziness

Lauren and I took a quick trip to Walmart this afternoon to grab a couple of groceries.  I may or may not have bribed her to get in the cart with a snack! :)

While I was driving around the parking lot, looking for spots, I was totally faked out by one of those electric shopping cart things that someone had left in a parking space!!  So I had to act quick and whip into the parking space next to it!  As I'm getting Lauren unbuckled from her seatbelt, this woman pulls her equally-huge-as-mine SUV into that parking space with the wheelchair cart (what are those things called anyway??)  She ends up parking sort of diagonally and all caddy-wompus and I could tell this would not go well when I tried to back out.

So I grabbed Lauren's hand and walked over to her passenger window.  She rolls it down and looks at me all rude.  I said, "hi ma'am, that is my car next to yours and I just wanted to let you know that there is no way that I will be able to open my door when we leave without hitting your car." And I smile politely.

 Hint, Hint.

I wanted to say, "so, move your car, dummy.  Why did you try to park there anyway??" 

But I didn't. 

Because I am nice like that. :)

And 'cause my mama taught me better. 

(and she occasionally reads my blog)

The woman looks at me even ruder (is that a word?) and says, "ok."

Then she proceeds to start texting on her phone. 

At this point, I have no clue whether or not she plans to move her large SUV from that parking space rightnext to me or not. 

As I'm walking in the store, I think "lady, it won't be my fault if I hit your door." 

I know.

Real Christian.

Anyways, Lauren and I get our shop on and make it to the check out lane in record time.  Of course there is a long line. 

That is mostly because there are 359 checkout lanes in Walmart, but there are only 6 lanes open everytime I'm there.  Do you have this problem as well?

While we are waiting, a lady gets in line behind us.  I am busy persuing the gossip magazines, trying to read about Brangelina and that girl from the Bachelorette (I didn't watch it, so I'm totally lost) and also skimming the articles on how to look 10 years younger and lose 173 pounds in one week. :)

All of a sudden, I hear someone singing "Abra, Abra Cadabbra... I wanna reach out and grab ya"  And then humming along to the rest of the song.

Seriously?!

I sort of peek at the woman behind me out of the side of my eye to see if she is loony. 

It is possible. 

So I quickly plunk my groceries and coupons down and hightail it out of there. 

I mean, I have Lauren to protect here, people!

I forget how much craziness you can run into at Walmart.

catching up and TONS of pics

Yay! My camera software is re-installed, so now I can upload a bunch of the pictures I've taken in the past few weeks.  Since I use this blog to record things for our family, this post is going to be a "catch up" one....which means lots of pictures and probably a good bit of randomness! :)

First of all, in the past month or so, Lauren has not been wanting to get in her crib at night or for naps.  We had thought about converting it to a toddler bed, but I liked the fact that she couldn't get out of the crib on her own, and she sleeps until 8:30 or so every morning.

However, I realized that I was being selfish when Lauren wanted to nap on her Dora couch.  Jason pulled it into her room and we made it into a bed and sure enough...she slept there for her whole nap.  This happened for about a week before I realized it was time for a big girl bed.

We would love for her to have a twin bed, but we agreed to wait to make any big furniture purchases until we know whether we are staying in KY or moving.  So for now, I asked Jason to just convert her crib.  I went to Walmart and bought a little guard rail to keep her from falling out (thanks, Kelli!) and just used the quilt and pillow that I had bought to match her crib bedding.  

On Sunday night, we unveiled the big girl bed, after talking it up all day.  Lauren was super excited, to say the least!  She was so thrilled to be able to climb up into it by herself! 

In fact, she was so excited about her bed and getting all her dolls and flashlights in the bed, that she forgot about asking for a "papi" (paci).  We prayed with her and gave her kisses and left the room for her to go to sleep. 

I couldn't believe it!  She forgot about the paci?! 

For 5 minutes, maybe!  Then on the baby monitor I hear, Mommy?  My papi, please! 

So I came in her room to talk to her about pacis.   I said, "Lauren, now that you are 2 and have a big girl bed, you don't need a paci anymore.  They are really for babies and you are a big girl."  Lauren says "baby pacis?" 

"Yes, Lauren, pacis are for babies and you are a big girl."

 

(Then I have a stroke of genius. I know how much Lauren LOVES babies and she always likes to give them a paci when they are crying)

So I tell her, "we gave your pacis to all the little babies that were crying and now they are happy."  Lauren says "babies happy?"  And she stops crying to think about this. 

I tell her goodnight again and close the door. 

She sniffles and whines a little bit.  Within 15 minutes, she is asleep!

The same thing happens the next day at naptime.  She asks for her "papi" and I remind her that we gave all her pacis to the little babies that needed them.

And with that little lie, those pacis were forgotten. 

I feel sort of guilty for telling Lauren that fib, but maybe she will forgive me when she is old enough to understand!

As a prize for being such a big girl, I pulled out this bag of plastic balls that I had found recently on clearance at Target.  I put them in her inflatable pool in the living room.

Lauren was soooooo excited!  Literally, she played in that pool for about an hour.  I gave her a big plastic bowl and soup ladle and she would scoop the balls into the bowl and then present me with "soup."  It was hilarious!

The only down side to the pacis being gone and the big girl bed........ Lauren now wakes up at 6:00am and comes into my room to wake ME up!! She stands next to my bed and says "Hi, Mommy!!"  (Did I mention I am NOT a morning person?!)

One day last week, Jason came home from work with a 10 pound box of blueberries that one of their customers had brought him.  Thankfully, he had shared with some of the other guys at work, so we only ended up with about 6 pounds! 

Lauren ate blueberries for days! :)  She loves them!

She also loves chocolate pudding, and I have to remove her shirt while she eats it to keep her clothes from being ruined!

Anyway, with all those blueberries left over, I decided to try my hand at making some blueberry jelly for the first time. 

It actually turned out pretty well.  But canning is a lot of work!  Goodness!!

These are just random pictures of Lauren on the couch in her new shirt and matching sandals I bought on major clearance at Crazy 8.  I had never shopped there before, but they had HUGE red "clearance" signs in the store windows when I walked past, so Lauren and I went in to check it out.

Lauren was ECSTATIC because they had a tv and a little bench and "Word World" was on!  So she sat happily and watched WW while I shopped. 

Jason had to go out of town for a work trip and so Lauren and I tagged along.  His trip happen to be to his old plant back in TN, so we got a hotel in Athens (it had an indoor pool!) and Lauren and I went swimming while Jason worked on Friday.

On Saturday, we went over to the Amish Farmer's Market in Delano.  (we used to go once every few weeks when we lived there)  We bought TONS of cucumbers and some canteloupe and a yellow watermelon.  Best watermelon ever!

We made pickles from all the cucumbers when we got home and they are Yum-O!

These are the sunflower fields in the Amish community in Delano.

It is so beautiful there!  I love taking Lauren and letting her see all the fruits and vegetables (she was busy telling me what color they all were) and she also loves to see the horse and buggies (she calls the horses "yee haws")

I could totally be Amish if it was not for

the whole "no electricity=no air conditioning thing....)

We also made a couple of trips over to Russellville to visit my mom and Royce.

Lauren LOVES their piano!!

Here she is singing "Row Row Row Your Boat"

Future Mozart?  Maybe so!

She sleeps so well after these trips, I think they wear her out! :)

She's a little angel...while she's asleep! :)

She also LOVES to climb into boxes and laundry baskets. 

Special Delivery!

One day, Lauren put her Dora couch on our regular couch and then climbed up there to watch tv!

I love her little pony tail!!

Cheeks full of grapes!!!

She's so silly!

And this is Katelyn, (or "Baby Kate" as Lauren calls her) the little girl I babysit.  She and Lauren and are good friends, and it cracks me up that Katelyn is such a diva.  When she saw this little purse of Lauren's, she knew just what to do with it!  She walked around with it on her arm all day! :)

Well, summer is over for us, and it's back to babysitting everyday and getting into a routine again!!

Maybe Lauren's hair will get into a routine, 'cause right now, it's kind of a mullet!!

And these last pictures are so sweet to me....

I put Lauren down for a nap yesterday and when I went to check on her,

she had her little boy and girl baby doll tucked in next to her side.

 (they were no where to be seen when I covered her up for her nap)

She's such a good little mama! :)

And, yes, she sleeps with those flashlights! :)