Look At This Madness

To the person who stole my phone: That little girl on the screensaver is my daughter, she’s two and a half. I work from home, a majority from my phone so I can raise her myself and not send her to daycare. I wake up early and work before she wakes up, I work during her naps and after she goes to sleep at night. I don’t have a college education. I don’t have a fancy car and I have the cheapest line of cell phone service from Walmart.  When you took my phone I lost photos of my daughter and important notes. I lost client information, phone numbers and photo content. What you gave me? Optimism. It could have been worse. You could have stolen my laptop, which has missing keys from my daughter picking them off. You could have stolen my car, which would prevent me from driving to the post office and UPS nearly every day for one of my clients.  Believe me, I know life can be hard and frankly I am sorry that yours has gotten to the point where you have to steal someone's pho...

Being a mom has made me... more confident stronger want to live a healthy lifestyle feel inspired laugh cry realize how far I have come realize how far I have to go struggle at times forget what sleep was a baby person more caring willing to sacrifice feel more complete than I knew was possible forget about me at times love baby giggles more than anything more understanding more considerate want to exercise want to live my best life happy a better person.

Crawlers and new walkers are notorious for putting anything and everything in their mouths. Here is a list of personal experiences to give fair warning and awareness to anyone with a little one. 1. Tiny Screws. I am listing this one first because we wound up in the ER. My mom had just moved into a new house and was painting a desk. She had taken the doors off to make for an easier paint job but for whatever reason left the tiny screws on the floor. Let's just say there were a total of 8 tiny screws and when I discovered what Ella was playing with, there were only seven screws. So we wound up in ER, thankfully, there was no screws in her tummy but it was not a fun experience to say the least.  2. Paper in any form. At 13 months old, her latest paper muse is the label you see on all water bottles. She also enjoys paper towels and receipts. SO be warned, if you need to save a receipt, keep it away from the baby!  3. The end of my iPhone charger. I know how bad this ...

As all mothers know, being a mom is quite the adventure. It's amazing what babies make us do. I spend time making squeaks, caws, and laughs I've never made before and talking to my daughter like I've never talked to anyone. Why? I love to see her smile. Ella's smile and sweet laughter are my favorite things on the planet. Since becoming a mom 6 and a half months ago, I have shaved my legs less than a handful of times. I'd like to think I'm rolling like the Europeans. I don't need to express my femininity through shaven legs, I just need to 'mom' and that means 4 minute showers because I don't want to leave her unattended for to long at this age. The start of the "grab and want to suck on everything" age. It's really starting to get interesting.  Not to mention nursing is a trip. My boobs go back and forth between different sizes and weight all day long. If it weren't for disposable milk absorbers, I'd have two wet ...

I had been getting a severe pain in my lower abdomen for a few days, to the point I felt I was going to pass out. It was terrible. At the time I was living in Washington with Matt and I didn't have access to a regular doctor's appointment because the closest Kaiser was in Oregon. The only option was to go to an emergency room but I didn't think something like this would be serious enough, so I put it off a few more days. Stress got the best of me in those few days. What if it were a cyst or worse, cancer?! I guess you could say I am a worry wart. So one night after I got off of work at Michael's we finally decided it was time for me to get checked out. We get to the Emergency room and they ask me a list of questions. "Is there a chance you are pregnant?" I didn't think so. One in a million chance. "Have you been bleeding?" I just got off of an 11 day period.  Next thing I know they roll me on over to get an ultra sound and as the tech get...

Being a mom is not knowing if that's food or baby poop stained on my jeans Being a mom is not caring about the spit up that forever lives on my clothes Being a mom is having people harshly stare when I hold my baby as though I'm to young to be a mom Being a mom is having people talk about how cute my baby is when grandma (otherwise known as MeMe) holds her Being a mom is people telling me I shouldn't drink coffee if I'm nursing  Being a mom is going to Starbucks every morning from waking up every 2 hours to nurse  Being a mom is sometimes forgetting to stop to think about you  Being a mom is caring for a little person like you never have before  Being a mom is having someone say it's to bad I'm so young  Being a mom is hearing how adorable my baby is, which I couldn't agree more Being a mom is sometimes caring what other people think Being a mom is not caring what people think  Being a mom is having an aching back and hands  Being a mom is getting a ...