Wow!!

I was SOOO excited this morning when I saw that I had recieved two awards from my good friend, and blog mentor, MandyP!! Yay! What a great way to start a snowy saturday!
The frist award is:




So cute right! I definitly needed some sunshine today too!!


The second one is:
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I am so honored!

To recieve this award I have to pick 12 people to pass the honor on to so here goes:


1. MandyP ~ http://mandypmommyof4.blogspot.com/~ She is the reason that I am still blogging! I just love her and am so lucky to know her in person! Thanks!

2. Maria ~ http://momofthreeseekssanity.blogspot.com/~ She is new to blogging like myself! She was also my second follower! The sunshine award is specially dedicated to you!

3. Kalee ~http://organizeme2010.blogspot.com/~ She took the time to come and comment on my site so I wanted to show her some love! Great blogs!

4. CDB~http://fingersandpaws.blogspot.com/~ She happened to post above me on the SITS Sharefest Saturday and I loved her posts!


5. Leah ~ http://omommawrites.com/~ I stumbled across her site today and just wanted to send some positive vibes her way.

6. Jennifer ~ http://justjennifer.me/~ I feel her pain....Jessica is a popular name to!


7. Sweet Pea Chef ~ http://http//sweetpeasandpumpkins.blogspot.com/~ Great recipes that everyone should check out!


8. Alaska woman ~http://alaskawomom.blogspot.com/ So funny!


9. Alex ~http://whoa-mumma.blogspot.com/~ Oh my gosh! The cutest site ever! Shes probably already recieved a million awards but I couldnt pass up mentioning this blog!


and finally...Im only choosing 10...sorry mandy...dont take my award away :(

10. IzzyMom~ http://http//izzymom.com/



There you have it! Now go check 'em out!

How many hats?

I recently read a story about a wife whose husband left her so she took him to court for back pay on all of the jobs that she felt she should be compensated for. She was a stay at home mom and had sacrificed a career to stay home with her kids. Therefore, had a hard time getting back into the workforce and thought that her husband should pay her for the things she didnt make money doing over the years. As a stay at home mom myself, im always hearing that if moms actually got paid for what they do everyday, it would be OVER 100,000 year and that can add up!This begs the question, how many hats do you wear as a mom?

First there is maid. This is the one I struggle with the most. I hate it that my husband thinks the living room floor(of all places) is the perfect spot for his dirty, smelly socks that my dog then runs around the house with in his mouth! Gross!
Then there is the toothpaste issue. Im always cleaning, scratch that, scrubbing pink toothpaste out of the sink after the morning rush of everyone brushing their teeth at the same time. My daughters just dont quite reach the drain to spit yet and so it runs all along the side of the sink bowl!Oh and then the issue with dishes. I always get the evening dishes done and somehow when I get up in the morning, more dishes have miraciously appeared.

Next is cook. I always feel like a short order cook with everyone yelling orders about what they will and wont eat at each meal. And it is NEVER the same thing! Not only that but it is all throughout the day, not just mealtimes. I swear I have dreams about my kids saying "Mommy, I want a snack" every 2 seconds.

Then the job of scheduling. I have to schedule doctors, dentists and eye appointments around work for my husband, work at the church for myself and school for my daughter. Not to mention, soccer and dance practice thrown in the mix.

Lets add the job title of taxi cab driver to the above mentioned tasks.

One of the more important job titles, teacher. Doing homework and preparing my youngest for preschool are things that I need to be better at making a priority. Then there is teaching all the time with how you live your life. You need to teach them to be good people, sisters,daughters, americans,Christians!

I could probably name a few more like dry cleaner, ref, interior decorator, etc. but I have to add the best hat(s) to wear:

Mother and Wife!

I consider my payment of the formentioned jobs my kids smiles, or the way thier hair looks so cute in the morning or the way they snuggle you. There is no payment in the world equal to holding your little baby in your arms and the chance to experience that new baby smell. Or the way you can kiss a little scratch and make the boo boo go away. Even these things would not be as possible if it wasnt for my husband giving me the wife hat to wear. While I do ask for much more "payment" from him, it is always accepted with kisses, footrubs, and date nights. When I do struggle with the daily life of being a mom, hes always there to make sure I know I am loved and what more could a woman really ask for?

My 4th post!

This is my fourth post, obviously! I say this with such emphasis because i'm still being a big baby about writing these posts. I keep thinking of things I want to talk about, things I want to comment about and/or things I want to bitch about. The thing is, im still writing this blog with such edit or rather THINK about writing in this blog with such edit that I feel like its becoming an obsession of what everyone will think about me rather than an obsession of writing the blogs themselves.

The friend who inspired me to finally get going on writing this blog, I say finally because I have started 3 blogs before this and never had the courage to continue, has been such a help! Ive been reading other womens blogs and just learning about the "blogespere" all from suggestions of hers! Not to mention she is my one and only follower! I know for sure that I would not be doing this if it wasnt for her inspiring me!

Since I have had kids, I feel like my mind just literally left me. My conversations now consist of daily routines and logistics when they used to consist of what was actually going on in the world and maybe about a book or something that was outside of the world of child-rearing. I am having a hard time finding the confidence in my writing and my thoughts again after these last 5 years!

Im being told that this all goes away and I really hope it does. Until then, I will try to muster up the courage to continue writing and hopefully someday, somewhere, someone will read this! If you do, please continue to write your stories because you never know who you could be inspiring and helping get through this crazy life God has blessed us with!

teen pregnancy

I love myself some reality tv! Yes, I will admit that it is my number one guily pleasure. BUT! I have decided to boycot american idol and last night television had only that or the olympics to watch so I decided to watch a lifetime movie called "the pregnancy pact."

If you haven't heard of this movie, it is loosely based on that news story a few years back about a group of teenage girls who all decided to get pregnant together. They all live in a small MA fishing town and none was older than 16 years old!

Being a mother of two daughters, this movie was extrememly disturbing to me. These girls were smoking and drinking to the point of passing out! I am so scared to being raising children in times like these. But I digress, this movie made me think about what it was like to A, be a teenager, and B, what it was like to be in high school agian. Maybe its just me but I dont remember everyone walking around the school making out all the time and having their hands down each others pants.

Not only is this movie disturbing but add to it the fact that one of MTV's most watched shows is "im 16 and pregnant." What is this world coming to? Its makes me think, am I really that old to be so upalled by this? I remember hearing that when my parents were younger, this is what their parents were saying about the Beatles when they first came on the scene. At least that was just music and couldn't really actually harm or totally uproot someones life.

Im sure noone will really care what I thought about this movie but it really made me think and I just wanted to vent about it!

was that the last one?

This past weekend was the wedding of my best friend and as we all got dresses in our 200 dollar dresses that we will never wear again, and got our 50 dollar hair styles that fell out in an hour, it forced me to remember what it was like when I got married 6 years ago. At this point, I have started and deleted 2 posts dedicated to this topic because I cannot help but sound so negitative about all that being a bridesmaid entails! This is only my second post and if someone ever DOES read this, I dont want to come across as a heartless friend and negitive person.

I should start by saying that this woman who got married has been my best friend for well over 20 years so I feel like I am entitled to say all of this without the thought of if I am really a good friend or not.

It started out with the engagement. She told all of us, friends and family, that she was engaged through a text! Granted it was a picture of her beautiful ring that she wanted us all to see, but still it was a text!! I cant imagine that being done when I got engaged so long ago. Next was the wedding shower. I should add here that I never even thought to have a wedding shower so I was unfamilar. I guess I always thought that you were supposed to get gifts for the actual wedding so I was confused as to what a shower was really for anyways? After that, the bachelorette party! Yay! My favorite part! Ok so not so much. You see, we live in different cities so her friends planned what turned into a 3 days ski trip. That sounds like a blast but we are a young family with young kids and really dont have the extra money to spend on things like that. If it was only those things, it really would have been ok but the friends also stipulated what we had to wear, even including shoes that I had to buy. And since when are you supposed to get MORE gifts for the bachelorette party??Sooooooo by the time the wonderful day came, I was broke and tired from trying to make a few extra bucks wherever I could.

The day has been had and it was truly beautiful and I was honored to be a part of thier new life together. I just wonder...was that the last one? Because I am getting toooo ooolllllddd ,or broke, for all this!

Why am I here?

So I have recently been inspired by a friend to start this blog. I really doubt that anyone will read this but I do enjoy reading hers and maybe someone out there will read what I have to say. Who knows, maybe this will even be cathardic!

I should start by telling you a little bit about myself. I am a 28 year old stay-at-home mom. I have two daughters. Kaylee, 5, and Ella, 2. My husband is an engineer and a grad student. We are rasing our little family here in the great state of PA, and the city of Pittsburgh (well 20 minutes outside of Pittsburgh.) As I sit here thinking of what to say next, all I find myself thinking about is coffee and my dog who is currently chasing the cat in circles around the house.

We are originly from Ohio, GO BUCKS, and are obviously OSU fans. My husband graduated from THE Ohio State university while I graduated from a small lutheran college called Capital University. Most people here in Pa have never heard of it but if your from Ohio, you probably have. Currently I work at my church and walk dogs just to keep my sanity, and to not feel guilty when I want to go by myself a new outfit (who am I kidding, I never buy a new outfit)

I have a degree in public relations, which comes in handy for a mom( just kidding I have never used my degree.) My past life, and by that I mean before kids, I was very career oriented and have worked in the entertainment industry but all of my prior knowledge has since left me and I have traded it all in for potty training and memory loss.

I hope to find more of you out there like me!
Thanks for reading!!