Thankful For...

A warranty on my camera to get it cleaned and the flash fixed, even though it is killing me not having my camera to take pictures whenever I get the whim.

The tee pee Dravyn's grandparents have that she just loves playing in, as long as someone else is in there with her.

Water babies classes, she did better today than yesterday, and it is getting us both out of the house.

The Internet, it makes finding recipes so easy, so we can try new things and get out of this cooking rut I am stuck in.

I am thankful for babies that sleep through the night in their own cribs even if it happens rarely, it is a beautiful thing.

A picture I snuck during one of her naps, she is so big now, but is still my baby girl.

What are you thankful for today?

Friends

I have never been a person who has a lot of friends, or even a lot of acquaintances that I hang out with.  I have always been more comfortable with 2 or 3 close friends, friends that you know have your back, I remember all my closest friends through my life.

I think the first was Anna, she was a girl that went to the same daycare as I did, we used to dig holes under the structure at the playground, and when I say we dug holes I don't mean little dents I mean we were up to our shoulders digging up the little pebbles and dirt and we would talk about the day we would break through and be in China, we imagined there were two little girls digging in China and they would meet us in the middle.  But she was a couple years older than me, and so when she went to real school I was left behind.

The second was Amanda, she was the first friend I ever had a sleep over with, I thought it was so cool I got to spend the night at a friends house.  We stayed up really late and danced around the room to TLC, and we took swim lessons together.

Then came KC.  She lived just down the street, and we swam in her pool, tried out for choir together and talked on the bus all the time, I was always running down to her house to hang out after school, and played card games with her and her family.

The forth was Sara, and she became probably the best friend I had ever had.  We went to the movies together, she came to my family camp out once, we hung out so much that eventually her mother told me to stop knocking or ringing the doorbell, just come in, so I did.  We would stay up super late and watch scary movies, convince her little brother he was adopted, and just hung out like friends do.

My birthday party, I think it was my 12th or 13th, but I can't remember which.  Anyway I'm on the far right of the photo, and sara is behind Katie-Roo taking a picture.

Then I moved, I changed schools and had to start over, and all of those friends were too far away.

The first day at my new school I met Esther,  she was my closest friend for a long time in high school, but then I started dating a guy that wasn't such a catch, something I already knew, and she told me that, eventually when I caught him kissing another girl in the parking lot after school I broke up with him and a couple weeks later Ester was dating him, so that friendship went out the window, though by the end of high school she was very pregnant and engaged to him, even though again I saw him kissing some other chick, so I think in the end I dodged a bullet there.

Then it was Kathleen and we were friends my senior year and into my first couple years of college.  I got engaged and asked her to be my maid of honor.  Then she got engaged to the guy she had been dating for a couple months, set her wedding date, and wanted me to be in her wedding across the country a week before mine, plus she would only be back a day before my wedding, so I picked a different maid of honor and we split ways.

After that was Jennifer, but then they moved, and then after that Victoria was my closest friend, she is still my friend but we haven't really seen each other in over a year.

When my Kevin and I moved here we had a couple we always hung out with when we visited, they were our friends and they have a child close in age to Dravyn and I really thought hey this will work out great, but that ended up being a fair weather friend situation, and I have given up again.

I am done being in friendships like that.  I have always been there for my friends in any way I can be, I try hard and don't think that I deserve to be treated like an after thought.  At the same time though, it's that common sense of if all the situations have only one thing in common and that one thing is you, you just may be the problem..

I have the best friend I could ever have now, he is my husband, and I know it is cheesy to say he is my best friend it's the truth.  He makes me laugh, and we have the best time just hanging out together.  I am really lucky to have found such a great friend and be able to spend the rest of my life with him.

Anyway, Dravyn has water babies swim lessons starting next week, and I am hoping maybe I will meet other parents of children close in age to her, and even if nothing comes of that, I am hoping that it will at least get Dravyn some more socialization.  I don't think she will be swimming laps any time soon, but who knows, I may have a one year old swimming prodigy on my hands.  I just love that I could find some activity for her to do outside the house.  She loves being outside and I love being her mommy.

The 1st Birthday Bash!

Two days before Dravyn's party we moved it to our church instead of the city lake, because well, they were calling for 104 then, and by the day before they were calling for 106 and that is just way too hot.
We invited 48 people including ourselves and ended up with 17 including us actually showing up, but it was great.

The cakes came from the local bakery, and the decorations from party city.  Dravyn did so great, she "read" all of her cards, smiled, clapped, and played with her necklace and bracelet her grandma and grandpa got for her. 

The birthday girl waiting for her cake.

Dravyn's B-E-A-utiful smash cake!

She wouldn't really eat any of it until she got her fork, and even then, not much got to her mouth.  We ended up washing her off in the kitchen sink, there was no way we were going to get her clean any other way.  It was a wonderful party and I am so thankful to everyone who came.

Dravyn and I after I got her re-dressed.

 I am still so amazed that I have had her for a whole year, it seems like she has always been here, but at the same time, it doesn't seem possible that she has grown so much in such a short period of time.

Yesterday she turned 1 and Kevin took off from work so we could spend the day together as a family.  We went to the park in the morning, and then took pictures, and went to her doctors appointment.  She has grown so much in the last year and her doctor said she is hitting her 15 month milestones already.  I am so proud of her and how well she is doing.



Happy first year to my wonderful baby girl.

Catch Up

I have never been the fastest, smartest, or most well written.  It would be a full time job to follow my train of thoght, it all runs together in this modge podge of half finished thoughs.  And for the last couple of weeks I have sat down to write a post and ended up deleting it over and over, which has led to this blog going in the direction of the piles of laundry waiting to be folded and the mess of toys in the living room floor.  It helps me to sit and write things out, and I have always enjoyed writing, but I lack skill in making what comes out as coordinated and special as it seems it is in my mind as an idea.

I need to play catch up though so here is what I have for now.

We got a dog the 24th.  It was a whole weekend process, but that's a long story, so anyway she is a 6 year old retriever mix we got from Wayside Waifs.  She was called Hilda when she was there but we renamed her Scarlett.  Though she and Rusty had some tiffs in the begining they are getting along really well for the most part now, and she is housebroken which is a nice treat, now if only we could get her to listen and stop chasing the cats we would have it made.

This Saturday night we went to the local fireworks display and Dravyn did so well.  She didn't jump at all with the loud noises and even watched for a little while before loosing intrest.  I don't really blaim her though it was past her bedtime and she just wanted to get down and run around in the field some more but it was too dark for us to see her well enough. She ended up falling asleep in my arms as we were waiting for traffic to clear so we could leave.  It was such a great night for me, I love fireworks and I love baby snuggles from my little one which I don't get many of anymore as she is constantly on the move and not very snuggly when awake and we are having her put herself to sleep these days because she sleeps so much better if she does.

In a week Dravyn will be a year old and the party planning for her party Sat. is going nowhere really.  I think I have everything we need except the things we have to get right before like ice for drinks and to pick up the cakes (we ordered them weeks ago).  But I am getting nervous as I have never thrown a party before, the bridge is out, so that means people have to go the long way around and we have people comming in from out of town that don't know the way, so we have to get directions to everyone, it's running at least 10 degrees hotter than usual for this time of year so I am afraid it is going to be miserable outside, but when I called to try to get in somewhere airconditioned it was taken, and I don't have any activities planned.  I keep telling myself she is going to be the only kid there, and hopefully it will be fine with just the smash cake for her, opening gifts and cake and ice cream for everyone else but my mind keeps popping up mental images of people literally melting while simultaniously saying how bored they are, however I seriously dobt anyone will melt like a crayon no matter how hot it is outside.


Dravyn opening an early birthday gift from her great grandma, I think we should give her some gift opening practice.

Anyway, I think that is all the catching up I have to do, and want to wish everyone a happy 4th of July!