Yeah.. I did REALLY GOOD at my "weekly" posts... today I'm sitting here on the couch as Ally plays with the puppies. David is doing me a HUGE favor and putting the dishes away. Sometimes he just does it... surprises me and it makes me love him more. Today he's not asking for any recognition.... he's just quietly putting the dishes away and refilling the dishwasher. It's something I slacked on this week. It was a rough week with Ally. She's testing me - it's so hard to teach her that it's ok for me to do something and it's not ok for her to do it. Since we spend so much time together, she sees us as equals sometimes and it's really hard to break that connection and remind her that while I can be her friend, I am first and foremost her mother. It kills me to have to be ugly to her but I have to stay on top of it. She's just as stubborn as I am, so she battles me and sometimes it HARD, but I'm even more stubborn and by the grace of God, I outwit and outlast her. Little beast. I love her more than life itself... she is such a good little girl, so smart and so well behaved. Like anyone, she has her days and they just seem to be more often than not lately.
We have babies!! There's a momma robin that built a nest right outside of Ally's old room window. (She's in her big girl room now.. I'll talk more about that later) She's laid 4 GORGEOUS eggs that should hatch while we're on vacation.... it's killing me, but God knows best! I can't wait to come home and see those beautiful babies!! This little nest has reminded me of how magnificent God really is... reminded me of life and the simple beauty that follows. These eggs are the most magnificent color blue you have ever seen and I can't find anything online to explain what makes them blue!!!
Well - on another note, we have 4 more days until we leave on our first vacation since moving to Ohio. Ally and I are in my cousin Jill's wedding. she's be one of 2 flower girls and I am honored beyond measure to be one of her brides maids. We're wearing little black dresses and "strappy" shoes! Needless to say I have been in the gym 3-5 times a week since October!!! I've lost about 30 inches total... not much weight, but I was doing nothing buy weight training for my first 12-13 weeks. Seems I needed desperately to build up that muscle mass!! I also started "indoor tanning" this month. It's a first for me... next to unheard of in Houston... at least fore me! Just spend a couple hours at the beach and you're good to go!! The problem is... there's no beach here! I actually love it! I started out going a couple of times a week until I got used to it then I started going Monday - Thursday... this is my last week and I think I'm going to really miss that time to myself. It's always nice to do something just for you... and only you. I may continue to go on occasion to keep it up, but I'll have to wait and see.
More about our vacation!!
We'll leave Dayton around 8:45 and head to Chicago - layover for an hour or so and head out to LAX -- we'll get into CA around 1:30 -2:00. Our plan is to head over to our hotel (Paradise Pier Hotel @ Downtown Disney... it's a hotel from our Disney time share) we have the rehearsal at 5-ish I believe at the university club and then rehearsal dinner at the German house! It looks like a really neat place so I'm excited! I LOVE Weinerschnitzel!! I think everyone is going bowling later, but I'm not sure that we'll do too much of that. Ally will need to get her sleep.. if she takes a good nap when we get into the hotel, we may bowl a little, but we'll have to see. I'm so excited about seeing my family I can hardly stand it!! I got to see mom when she came up in early October, but really it's been 8 months since I've seen them all! It doesn't seem like a long time, but when you're used to seeing them whenever you want, it makes it hard. Jill and Mike came down for a night in December so that was REALLY nice to see her again and meet Mike! I think he's great and not just because he reminds me so much of David.. he seems to love Jill so much and it's the kind of love that you see whenever they're together.. whatever situation. I can't wait to see Holly again and meet her husband as well! I hated not being able to go to her wedding last November, but it was too soon after we moved here. We had ALOT of unexpected expenses after moving in and it just wore us down. Still is, but that's a story for another day. We got these things called "city passes" that were CHEAP and give us entry into the Disney parks for 3 days, the San Diego Zoo, Sea World, Universal Studios and some animal safari thing around the zoo as well. We're hoping we get to do most of it, but we'll only be there "vacationing" for 5 days. I think we'll be going to Disneyland with Linda and Nic on Monday and that really excites me!! I think we'll have a great time! And it'll be good for Nic and Ally to be together for a while having some fun! Ally is almost 42 inches now so she'll be able to ride A LOT MORE rides than last time we went to Disney. Most rides at Disneyland are 40" so she'll only be left out of maybe a handful of rides. She LOVES roller coasters! THANK GOD!
Well, the washer and dryer are calling my name. I'll try to be more diligent from now on in regards to this blog... no promises!
