Planes, Trains, and Automobiles

OK, I have no idea how to format pictures but oh well! Em and I have had a crazy few weeks and are finally settling back down into a routine. My girlfriends came from Texas a few weeks ago on their way to Hilton Head for Thanksgiving. Over a bottle of wine on their second night here in Atlanta it was decided they would hi-jack Emma and I and take us there as well for some R&R. It was just what we needed. I couldn't have asked for a better time and love them both dearly for showing us the best time ever and treating us like gold! We played, went to the beach, turned Em into a fairy princess and taught her how to eat out in a restaurant since that is all we did. :):) Emma and I headed back home the Wed. before Thanksgiving. The trip was going great until we hit a stop. There had been an accident and it took us 2 hours to get through it. Em was such a trooper..telling me she had to poop for the last hour of our road block but holding it like a big girl the whole time! We finally got home after 7 1/2 hours and met her daddy back at our house and he took her for the holiday while I unpacked and re-packed to fly out the next morning to spend Thanksgiving with my mom. Flying on Thanksgiving was a breeze and since I was flying on a buddy pass from my brother... I even got upgraded to first class which was Fab! Had a great visit with mom and Pop and finally ended up home on Monday after having to reschedule my Sunday flight due to all the bad weather here in Atlanta. It was a total on the go 2 weeks but I couldn't have asked for much more. The look in Em's eyes when I picked her up from school on that Monday said it all after us being apart for 5 days....

Not much new with us

I really haven't updated this thing because well quite frankly, our lives just aren't that exciting! I experienced a lay off from my new job over a month ago and since then have been trying to find something new and enjoying every minute that I can with Emma. She is still in school a few days a week to keep her used to her routine and to her friends and teachers but we have been having a really great time. Lucky for us it coincided with our friends maternity leave so we have had lots of play dates and have kept really busy. Thankfully I have tremendous family support from my family as well as Scott's so that coupled with the fabulous unemployment benefits that I receive are keeping us afloat. It is my goal to find something closer to where we live. Lets face it, in this housing market we are unlikely to sell anytime soon and after commuting downtown for the past 8 years it will be a welcome change. That being said, there aren't a tremendous amount of jobs out there with this economy so we'll just have to see what materializes. I'm glad Obama won the presidency! Sorry Jody! I hope that he can make some changes, it was an amazing election.

As far as Ms. Emma she is doing great, no real new milestones for her. She just continues to grow into this cool little girl. She has the most amazing memory of any little kid I've seen and loves to learn. With minimal help from me she can count to 30 and she is trying to learn the days of the week. She has most of her books memorized and we play on this reading website and she is starting so sing the phonetics song's that they use which is no surprise because she sings songs all of the time. She gets that from both mom and dad I think! I don't try and force any of this on her, she asks to do it and it is fun to watch her mind soak it all up. She has a great imagination and is very independent but at the same time she is this sweet little snuggle bug that loves to give out hugs and kisses that will melt your heart! Emma...you are also BOSSY but you crack me up because you still use manners and always say please when you are doing it. Her new favorite show is Superwhy which is what she is dancing to in the video. They have this "hip hip hooray" song at the end of the show and she likes to get down with it. It is a great cartoon by the way on PBS that also focuses on teaching reading.

People keep telling me that Emma looks more and more like me, she was a spitting image of her daddy when she was born. This turn of events of course makes me happy. :-) I am glad that I have her so much of the time, as in like 99% of the time, because she needs a good influence at such a crucial age.

I'm ready for Thanksgiving to be over, not a fan of that holiday and I'm ready to move on to Christmas. I cannot wait to see Em's reactions to it all this year. My best friend is coming from Texas tomorrow and we are going to try and get the house ready for the so that it will be magical for Emma. I can't wait.

I told you our lives were boring...peace out. :-)

My MEME

I was tagged by friend Melissa to do this MEME thing. The idea is to write six things about yourself and then "tag" 6 more people to do the same. I think almost every one I know with a blog may have already done one so I don't know who I'll tag...the buck may just stop here but oh well. I don't know how exciting this will be but here goes.

1. I never thought that I wanted children until my nephew was born. I was in the delivery room for the entire birth, and god bless my SIL because she did it all naturally. (Pass the drugs to this girl please and thank you.) Anyhow..it was just such an amazing moment for me at that stage in my life and I fell so in love with that little boy and I just knew that I wanted to be a mommy one day. I really hope to have another baby one day but if I don't I am so so so content with the fact that I was given the chance to be a mom and that someone needs me as much as I need them. Emma has forever changed my life as all you mom's reading this can relate to.

2. I am very scared of the dark. (yes mom...still!!) I sleep with the t.v. on every night and if I am in bad weather I immediately start searching for any means of fire to keep the room lit with candles or lanterns and flashlights or all of the above. Like the power could go off in my office for example and if I am in sudden pitch black dark I will have a panic attack until someone can find a light source.

3. I used to swim and dive competitively and one year I made it all the way to the state championship in diving. It was held in Millidgeville, Ga and I think I was around 11 years old...that was a long time ago so I really can't remember. I do remember feeling so good about myself for making it there. I was a very competitive person when it came to sports so I was so excited. I didn't do that great, I think I came in sixth place. I remember that before I went to do my first dive I went out to "test" the diving board and you cannot do this in a state competition so I came to find out. Ooops. But it is still a great memory that sticks with me to this day.

4. I am fiercely loyal to my family and friends. My family means the world to me and my friends are amazing. It makes me happy that I am still such good friends with people I have known from the 3d grade, from middle school etc. I'm thankful for the new friendships I have made as well. So if you consider me to be a friend..I've got news for you, your stuck with me.

5. I would love to write Children's books and I think I would be good at it.

6. I love word games, word puzzles, crosswords, the jumble...if I don't make it on to the Wheel of Fortune one day I will simply be crushed. Words just make sense to me. I often wonder how I ended up working in accounting because I have to be honest...I suck at math. So go figure right?

This will be short and sweet. Emma loves her "moon and star" pajama's and of course for some reason at the end out of nowhere she wants to do a somersault. Where did that come from? HA! She is the funniest little girl!

September Happenings

Yes, here is is October 5th and I haven't even finished catching up on September yet! Lets see..on September 12th Emma finally got her first haircut. We took her to Pigtails and Crewcuts and it is the cutest little children's salon. Emma did great. When it was all said and done you could hardly tell she even had a haircut but I still thought it was cute just as well. Emma was also chosen to be the Student of the week at her school. I just love her daycare and they are so great about making the kids feel special. I will be so sad if I ever have to move her from this center even though I have thought about doing it so that we can spend more time together, even if it is in the car. For right now I'm pretty content with just leaving her. Finding a daycare that you trust implicitly can be tough so I figure I shouldn't mess with something that is working so well.
On September 22nd our good friend Kiersten welcomed a new addition to her family, 10lb 3oz precious baby girl Allison! She is an adorable bundle of joy and I could not be happier for her and for her family. Emma and I went to visit and of course Emma loved the new baby as well as hanging with her pal Elliott. It is so fun to watch our kids grow up. Emma turned 2.5 on the 25th and I still can't believe she is on her way to 3 years old!
I cannot believe it is October already, where does the time go? We are starting to get ready for Halloween and Emma seems very excited about it. I still have no idea what she is going to be this year?? I probably need to get on this little task. Emma's Grandma and Grandpa Mac, my dad and step mom, will be coming into town that day and we are having some friends over so it should be a very fun Halloween. I am looking forward to it.
Oh, and Emma has taken a liking to Football............her daddy is so proud!! Seriously, we were at a birthday party yesterday for sweet little Kate and there was football on in the other room. Out of the blue Emma says "Come on Mama, lets go watch some football" It was too funny. We had a great time at the birthday party, hat's off to you Lolo for an excellent party, and I couldn't help thinking back to when Emma turned one..it seems so long ago.

Wow, well I have no excuse. Well yes I do. Our lives our crazy. But we are doing really well for the most part. Emma just got over having strep throat. It is so hard to see your baby so sick but luckily she bounced back really quickly. So much has been going on. I started a new job 3 weeks ago. I am working for a restaurant group in Midtown and I love it. They own Restaurant Eugene, the Holeman and Finch Public house and they just opened a bakery called the H&F Bread Company. I am doing accounting for them with an old co-worker of mine from when I used to work for a catering company doing the same thing. It has been a breath of fresh air. My old job was just about to ruin me so it was great to get out of there and realize that I still have a brain. It is still a commute but I love my new schedule. I work 8-5 M-Th and work a half day on Friday's which means no more Friday traffic. Whoo hoo! And more time to spend with Emma over the weekends. It was a fresh start that I definitley needed!

Emma is just crazy ol Emma. We finally got her first haircut last friday which was a lot of fun. You can't really even tell but they cleaned it up and it was fun to do and have our "first" haircut together. Unfortunately we missed 3 weeks of swim lessons between bad traffic, Labor day and then a lightening storm but we finally made it back this past Monday. She walked right down the steps of the pool and just started "swimming" I think she did it for about 10 seconds or so before she realized she was doing it on her own and then sunk. Hopefully we are on to something. We may do it one more month after this and then take a break for a while. With the Holiday's coming up etc. it will just be too much. I'm not sure how the Holiday's will work for us this year. I'm pretty much just ready for it to stay September forever. I have some rough months coming up ahead but I know that I'll get through them.

It seems like I always think of so many things to write and talk about with Emma etc. but when you wait too long to mention them it gets tough. I will let that be a reminder to myself to update this thing more. :)

AHOY!!!!!!!!!! Emma loves the Backyardigan's these days and that is from one of the episodes. And as you can see the kid is fearless. She just came back from a weekend with daddy and I swear kids can change in two days. Since she left she started making this scrunchy face I have never seen before and it seems like her hair got longer. Emma has been a sweetheart lately compared to what we were going through. I'd like to think the terrible twos were already over but I'm not that dumb. :) One can hope right?

Em loves the moon these days. We can still see it in the morning when we are going to school and she likes to try and find it in the sky the whole way there. My mom always sang this song to us..."I see the moon and the moon sees me and the moon sees somebody I want to see. God bless the moon and god bless me and god bless the somebody I want to see" so I started singing it to Emma and now every day she says "Sing the moon song Mama" It is pretty sweet.

We are back at round two of swim lessons with Ms. Amy and all is going well so far. We will probably do it for at least two more months and then take a break for the Holiday's and the Winter season. They keep doing them but I just can't imagine having a swim lesson during the middle of December?? No thanks. :):)

I wish I had something new and exciting to talk about but I just wanted to update something since it had been so long.