11 months (and then some)

I'm a little late posting Jonathan's 11 month picture; although, haven't I been late on almost all of them?

I know I say it every month, but I honestly can't believe how fast he's growing up. His first birthday is two weeks from today! TWO WEEKS??? Ready or not, here it comes.

It seems that every day he's saying or doing something new. Right now I'd say his vocabulary is at about 3-4 words. "Uh-oh", "No", "Quack Quack" (which means duck), and occasionally he'll say "all done" (which sounds kind of like "gone"). He's been pulling up & cruising around the furniture for quite some time now, but he seems in no hurry to let go & take a few steps. I'll take his hands & get him to "walk" but he'll only go about 2 steps & want to get down & crawl. It's much faster that way, you know. I'm fine with him taking his time learning to walk, he'll really be too grown up then. ;o(

Tomorrow is going to be another all day scrapping session, and boy am I looking forward to it. I haven't gotten out of the house much this month for some reason, so I could really use the break. Thankfully Chris is great about letting me get out for a bit in the evenings if I feel the need. Wednesday night I went up to Barnes & Noble and browsed for awhile. I got a frappuccino at Starbucks and just walked around aimlessly. It was wonderful. Sometimes it's good to just take some time alone to chill out.

Well, I'd better go see what needs to be done while Jonathan's napping.... until next time.

To be honest, I'm not surprised....

How did you do?

Welcome Fall

Finally, Fall has arrived, if in name only. Today is the first day of Autumn (well yesterday if you consider that it's after midnight), yet outside Summer was holding on for dear life. I think it got up to 86 degrees today, not quite fall weather in my opinion. I know the cooler weather is just around the corner though. We've had a couple of downright cool mornings & evenings which have been wonderful; I'm so ready for it to stay that way.

Fall is definitely my favorite season; for several reasons. The main one, of course, being the cooler weather. By this time of year I'm so ready for a break from the heat. Football season is another reason, I love sitting down to a good game of college football. GO DAWGS! One of these days I'd love to go to a game in person, but tickets are EXTREMELY hard to come by, so who knows if that will ever happen. Last, but certainly not least, of my reasons to love Fall is season premieres of my favorite TV shows. I'm most looking forward to Grey's Anatomy; this is by far my most favorite show *ever*. I also really enjoy The Biggest Loser, Prison Break, and Survivor. I watch entirely too much television; it seems that there's something on every night.

We're going to be taking Jonathan to a pumpkin patch this year and I'm so excited. I can't wait to get some great pictures. One of my girlfriends takes her daughters there and told me they have a 'measuring stick' you can take their picture by. How cute is that! I think it would make a really cute tradition to take him every year.

I think that's all I'm going to post for now. It's nearly 12:30 and I need to get in bed. I'll try and post more tomorrow. Until then....

Not much going on...

around here. So I'll just post this that I found on Nicole's blog:

1. YOUR ROCK STAR NAME: (first pet & current car), Pebbles Liberty
2.YOUR GANGSTA NAME: (fave ice cream flavor, favorite cookie), Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Chocolate Chip (kind of redundant)
3. YOUR “FLY Guy/Girl” NAME: (first initial of first name, first three letters of your last name), M-Man
4. YOUR DETECTIVE NAME: (favorite color, favorite animal), Red Dog
5. YOUR SOAP OPERA NAME: (middle name, city where you were born), Dawn Oceanside
6. YOUR STAR WARS NAME: (the first 3 letters of your last name, first 2 letters of your first), Man-Mi
7. SUPERHERO NAME: (”The” + 2nd favorite color, favorite drink), The Green Dr. Pepper (wierd)
8. NASCAR NAME: (the first names of your grandfathers), John Edward
9. STRIPPER NAME: ( the name of your favorite perfume/cologne/scent, favorite candy), Allure Twizzlers (What?)
10.WITNESS PROTECTION NAME: (mother’s & father’s middle names ), Gail Wayne
11. TV WEATHER ANCHOR NAME: (Your 5th grade teacher’s last name, a major city that starts with the same letter), (I can't remember my 5th grade teacher's name, so I'm going with 2nd grade) Hill Houston
12. SPY NAME: (your favorite season/holiday, flower). Christmas Rose
13. CARTOON NAME: (favorite fruit, article of clothing you’re wearing right now + “ie” or “y”) Apple Shortsie
14. HIPPY NAME: (What you ate for breakfast, your favorite tree), Life Oak
15. YOUR ROCKSTAR TOUR NAME: (”The” + Your fave hobby/craft, fave weather element + “Tour”), The Scrapbooking Breeze Tour

So... what are YOUR "Undercover Names?".... post them in my comments!

For your viewing pleasure

It's been a while since I posted some new pictures of Jonathan. (Other than the goofy ones of course)


Here's one I took while he was getting a bath last night. Chris was pouring water on his head. I love how you can see each drop of water.



Just a cute one from when I went to get him up from a nap. Or maybe it was in the morning. Honestly, I don't remember. But it's cute, so who cares.

On my mind

I've had so much on my mind lately, yet haven't been able to get it all down to share with y'all. I guess I'll just try to summarize a little to get it out there...

* Insomnia -this is one of the most prevalent things on my mind right now. For the past I don't even remember how long, I've been really struggling with sleep. I have a hard time falling asleep; once my head hits the pillow my mind goes into overdrive thinking about anything and everything. Things I want to do, things I need to do, completely random stuff that means nothing; it takes about an hour to fall asleep almost every night. Not good. Then, while I am sleeping it still feels like my mind is going so I'm not really resting. If I have wake up in the night for whatever reason, (Jonathan, restroom, etc.) it takes forever to fall back to sleep. It's really starting to affect my mental welfare I think. I can't seem to get motivated to the things I need to get done. I'm a little uneasy about taking something to help me sleep, as I'm afraid I won't wake up to hear Jonathan if he needs me. Rebecca mentioned that I could try a Melatonin supplement. I went yesterday & bought some, but apparently I bought a really low dose, 300 mcg which only equals .3 mg, and it didn't do anything for me last night. I'm going to give the doctor a call & see if it's okay to take more than one at a time. Do you have any other suggestions?

* Weight Loss - Another thing I've really been struggling with is my weight. I know what I need to do to take care of it, but I just can't seem to find the motivation to do it. There are so many reasons I want to lose the weight. As of right now I'm right at 100 pounds overweight. Gosh, that's a horrible thing to put out there. The main reason is that I want to be healthy; I want to be around to watch Jonathan (and any future children) grow up. I want to be able to play with them & not feel winded after only moments. I also want to grow old with Chris; I want to enjoy our children's lives together & experience grandchilren together. When our children grow up and move out of the house I want to be around to enjoy that time alone together. Of course, another reason is the way I look. Some days I don't mind the weight so much, but those days are far outweighed by the ones that I do. I want to look good for Chris, he deserves a wife that he can be proud to be seen with. Also, when Jonathan is older & in school, I don't want him to be embarrassed by his "fat mommy". I don't want other kids to make fun of him, and I don't want other parents looking at him and thinking, "poor kid, look at his Mom." So, I'm going to work on making one small change at a time. I think my first step will be to cut out soda, I know that will make a huge difference, and drinking water is one of the best things you can do. Another thing I really want to do when the weather gets cooler (which will hopefully be soon) is start walking in the neighborhood. We have a great neighborhood for it, and I might actually get to meet some of the neighbors. Bonus!

* Jonathan's 1st Birthday party - as much as I'd like to be in denial about it, Jonathan is growing up. ;o) I can't believe this year has gone by so quickly, it's been the most amazing year of my life. I've done a little planning so far for his party, mostly just the basics. I still have to mail the invites (next week) and make arrangements for food, etc. I think we're going to have a pizza party. There's a great place nearby that sells large pepperoni and cheese pizzas for $5 a piece! You can't beat that. And they taste great too! I've already bought some of the supplies. I happened to go into Party City and found this great set of stuff for next to nothing. It was in the clearance section for $.25 each! Can you believe that? I got the invitations, plates, goodie bags, blowers, thank you notes, a banner, a candle and a few other things for $7.50!!! The deal of the century. I still have to order the cake, get sodas, cups, silverware, etc., but after having saved all that money it doesn't feel like too big of a deal. Now, about the presents.... Anyone have any good suggestions for birthday gifts for a one year old boy? I'm at a loss.

* Halloween - I've been trying to figure out what Jonathan is going to be for Halloween this year. It will be his first year trick-or-treating so I want it to be something cute. After some browsing I found this adorable "golfer" costume, but I just can't justify the $35 for one night. So, I'm still on the lookout. I may keep any eye on Ebay & see what I can find there.

Wow, that turned out to be a novel. But it felt good to get it all out there; sometimes seeing it in writing helps me think things out a little better. I'd love any thoughts or suggestions you have about any of these things. (In other words... leave me a comment!!!)

too funny

Haley bought a Mac recently and apparently it has a camera in it and a program that can distort the images. Jonathan was staying at my parent's house Saturday night and she sent me these pictures! I haven't laughed that hard in a long time...




I'm going to try and do another post tonight, but I'm not sure if I'll be able to get to it. We'll see.