All Ally- All Day

I've been having so much fun with Ally these past two weeks. We are communicating better, I actually understand most of what comes out of her mouth- expect when she goes all chipmuck on me and then heaven only knows what that kid is saying.

She's discovered the joy of ponytails and piggy tails. We've been bow people for so long, that it's nice to branch out. She even asks for me to fix her hair. I put her on my dresser so she can look in the mirror while I fix it. They never stay in her hair all day, but when I'm done, she tells her reflection " You, good" which I think is translated into You look good, which is what I tell her every morning after I get her ready for the day.

we love to write, draw and color. All papers are for daddy.

I love this face! I snuck up on her playing in her car seat.

We've entered the awkward smile phase. I said say "Cheese" and this is the face I get.

Tax Free Weekend Drama

Why? Why did I go shopping today? Oh... it's tax free weekend. And for some reason, I think that saving a measly 8.25% sales tax is an amazing opportunity that I can't possibly miss. Let me tell you... it was worth missing. For me anyway. Maybe not for the families that have more than one kid or that have kids actually old enough for school. But for me and little Ally Jones, it was not worth it. To top it all off- it's still like 100 degrees outside. Again... not worth it.

Why you ask?

Allow me to tell the tale....

Genius that I am, I decide that Kohls had a great sale for the tax free weekend. First mistake.... it's Kohls, they always have sales, and knowing that store, they will probably have an even better sale next week, when you can't save the tax, but whatever. So I load Ally up thinking we will have a nice mother daughter shopping trip, stop for lunch and head home for a nap. Second mistake.... my daughter isn't even 2- why do I try to bond with her over shopping??? What is wrong with me???

So we get to kohls and the parking lot wasn't that crowded, so I thought we would be okay. But there are no shopping carts to put my curious monkey in. There are always carts at my kohls, but not today. So we attempt the hand holding. Apparently what cars were in the parking lot, all came full because there were tons of people and their kids at the store. Not so many that I turn around and leave, but enough. Well Ally is excited because she sees kids. Now, I'm not a bad parent. I pay attention to my child. But that little rascal managed to walk away with other kids 3 times while I was trying to pick out some clothes for her. She was never gone for long, I always caught up with her, but she did try to runaway 3 times. So much for bonding with her mother....

Long story short, I got 2 pairs of pants, 3 shirts and a dress for 30.00 bucks. I saved 62. I got an extra 15% off everything in my cart and I only lost my kid 3 times. Still wasn't worth it.

Road Trip Adventure

Christie's family moved from Dallas to Hewitt Texas for a new teaching job, so we set off to visit them. Ally and I made our first day trip/ mini road trip to visit our very best friends Christie and her daughter Lucy. The drive should only take an hour and a half. Plus it is straight freeway and a pretty relaxing drive.

As long as you don't have to stop for gas... or in my case diesel.

I get in the car to leave Wednesday morning and the car states I have 115 miles before my next fill up. I think to myself "Self, let's just get on the road and then we can stop after we have left the city. Easy on, easy off the freeway. Life is good"

So, I don't make a liar out of myself, I head on my way. Now we make it all the way to Hillsboro, before I decide to pull over.. or rather Alyson does because she decides that I'm taking too long to get her to Lucy and starts to scream. So we stop at a gas station in hillsboro, except there is only one diesel pump and the screen for the credit card machine is broken and I can't enter information to pay. So, no biggie I think. There is another gas station across the street. I drive over there. And there is one diesel pump.... and 15 (no lie) trucks waiting in line.

Well, the kid is still crying and I still have 50 miles until fill up according to the car, so I decide that we will not wait in line, we will just drive ahead some.

So we drive ahead. A few exits down we try again. Only one diesel pump and it's broken. We head back for the freeway. A few exits down, only one diesel pump and they are out of diesel. No signs on the pump of course, I have to try it first then go inside and look dumb. So back to the freeway. We try a few more exits down. They only have diesel pumps for 18 wheelers and try as I might, the nossel of the pump won't fit into a car gas tank. By now, the car is lovingly telling me we have 10 miles before we run out of gas. I offer up a prayer that I won't be stranded with Ally on the side of the road- who is still crying in the backseat because each time I stop, she thinks we are getting out. So the next stop is the winner and with 8 miles until empty, I pull into an Exxon.

It has a normal pump, it has a screen that I can read, it takes my debit card. There is diesel. Score! I stand there pumping. The handle is broken, so I have to hold it instead of using the nifty pump itself feature. That's fine, I talk to Ally through the window. THEN- I feel something crawl across my foot. I look down. The ground is covered in black beetles. And the gas side of the pump is trickling gas down to the ground. And the bugs are crawling in the gas and on my foot( I was wearing sandals) . And if I move I will crush them and then I will have dead bugs on my shoes. So I stand there, pumping the diesel I have to have or be stranded, while bugs are crawling on me and ....I'm... dying!! I finish pumping, run for the driver's side of the car, manage to knock off all the bugs and then grab the wipes to clean my feet and shoes, because they smell like gas and have bug germs.

I recovered. It took a few minutes. But I recovered. I drove the rest of the way. Ally seemed to sense that I had just be attacked by bugs and stopped crying. And we had a great time with Christie and Lucy, when we finally got there 2 hours after we had left, because of all the gas stopping!!

Lesson learned: Make sure you have a full tank before you head off for the day or you will be attacked by beetles.

Consider yourself warned.

Work

There was an article written in the Washington Post title "What do Stay at Home Moms do all day". I have to admit, I thought about that a lot when I was younger and pre-parent stage of my life. I figured, hey I work full time, go to school full time, support my husband and church calling and manage to knock out all the household stuff too. How hard would it be if I just replaced work with raising a kid? After I read the article, which was amusing as it was in response to the title question... I thought about how I would answer it if I was asked. So here is what it feels like I do all day:

7:00 Ally wakes up. Constant demand of my attention

7:01- 11:59- Constant demand of my attention, mixed in with fighting, and saving her life at least twice.

12:00- 2:00- Nap. Which means workout for me, shower and scramble to clean up a little of the mess she made from that morning's activities and oh yeah... lunch if I can get all that in before I hear....

2:01- Mommy! Constant demand of my attention

4:30-7:30- Daddy comes home. Constant demand of my attention- split between both of the lovely darlings.

7:31- Bedtime- Finally get to clean up the rest of the mess made that day and on to any chores I didn't get done with my happy helper during the day.

Also, there is the whole language development, life skills, religious teachings and whatnot that all accompany the job of being a mother. Most of the time- it's great, but some days I feel she is out to get me! And yes, sometimes I think about those days when I worked and there were adults to talk with and everyone told me how awesome I was every day.... but then I didn't get Ally hugs at work so it all balances out.

But back to days when she is out to get me.... I got a call from the Realtor last Saturday. Someone wanted to see the house in 2 hours, and was I cool with that..... I said yes and hung up. Turned around.... and saw this in the kitchen:

and that was just the kitchen.... I still had the living room, my room, her room and the office that she had managed to "decorate" as well. Not to mention the scrubbing of bathrooms, countertops and all the other deep cleaning you would do for a house showing. I sent someone off to bed and went to work. It was spotless two hours later. Guess I can get stuff done when I need to.... well.... I didn't get to shower but the house was clean, the girl was feed and the showing... went on.

Really?

So will there ever be a time in my life that I am not bothered when I enter into the confines of the bathroom?? Think about it...

As a young child I was constantly checked on by adults to make sure I okay. Growing up with seven people and one bathroom meant a lot of people banging on the door asking you to hurry. Then enter into marriage and you get the" husband talks to you through the bathroom door" even though you talked about never allowing that from day one of your marriage, but whatever. And now I've got a child who believes that when I close the door to the bathroom I forget her very existence, and therefore needs to remind me by banging on the door and screaming "now, mom" which is her version of "hurry up in there".

I'm thinking that will eventually evolve into her growing up and doing the whole "oh mom's in the bathroom, she's trapped, now I can ask for things" stage. Then when the kids are all grown and gone there will still be the husband to hurry you along and then I will get to the "so old that people check on you to make sure you haven't died in there" stage.

Do you think there might be some golden point in my life where I won't be bothered?? Maybe I should time my bathroom breaks to correspond with sleeping children and husbands. We have to get creative here, people!

You might think this is a weird thing to blog about- but you know you are sitting there thinking... hmmm when is the last time I got any bathroom peace....

It's that time of year again folks!

Life is good.

My surprise present for Jonathan

Reminder of the happiest moment of his life

Treats and eats

My happy helper. One of the best things that has come out of these last six years.

From the beginning, we have been following along with the traditional gifts for wedding anniversaries.... paper, cotton, leather, flowers, and wood, so far. So the traditional gift for the 6th wedding anniversary is candy. Lucky for us, we like candy! Jonathan's present to me was arranging for us to go to the temple last Saturday and then lunch as Chili's afterward. Thanks to my parents and grandmother for watching Ally while we went and for providing the anniversary money to pay for our outing. We appreciate it!! So since he did Saturday, I planned for the actual anniversary day- today! I got root beer and ice cream for root bear floats and then picked out our favorite candy. Now that Ally is off to bed- we are off to celebrate. Celebrate good times- come on!!

So if anyone wants to celebrate us- go pick up your favorite candy bar and make an excuse to be happy!