It's been a while...

It’s been a little quiet over here on this blog lately…so I thought it was time to post SOMETHING (this is your warning, this might be a little boring…)

It’s been a pretty good new year thus far, I think.

I have started meal planning and have a pretty good system. I plan meals two weeks at a time, make a grocery list and have everything ready each night to cook. I have been using a new recipe from Pinterest for nearly every meal. It’s been fun to make things that aren’t the usual. I have planned through mid February at this point, with no repeats…we shall see how long that lasts. So far everything has been pretty good, there haven’t been any real let downs, so that’s good. It is just one more thing to work into a routine. Once something is a part of my routine- I am good to go, once I get off that, I am not so good. I am a stick to the plan kind of girl, some might say that is a bad thing, I just think it mean I am prepared!

I have also started training to run a 5K in April with a few of my favorite people, some of which are actual runners, so we shall see how that goes. I have always hated the thought of running, but the motivation of doing this as a group is just the push I need; plus they say running really tones you up, and that’s what I am hoping for!

Hadley had been a lot fun lately too! She is just a ball of personality and you just never know what she is going to say. She is really into expressing emotions, (ie I am sad, I am mad), she is also into what I call plot summary. When she is watching a show or a movie, she likes to explain to me what is happening, I guess this bodes well for her level of comprehension! She is just such a happy girl, for the most part. She loves going to school and loves her teachers and friends. She can count to 20 pretty well these days, and is getting A LOT better at color recognition. She is a little dare devil, I tell you. In the words of her teacher Ms. Patty, she is a little too brave for her own good…I would have to agree. She isn’t afraid of anything, and if she does fall or stumble she rarely cries, BUT on the off chance she does, it is always overly dramatic and often includes fake crying…she is a drama queen in every sense of the word.



And since it is Friday and it’s been a while, here is a fun little survey of sorts I found on another blog I read…



age -29

bed size – King, although with Hadley in the bed with me, it feels like a twin

chore you hate – cleaning the bath tub

dogs –LOVE DOGS; can’t wait to move to a house with a yard so I can adopt a chocolate lab and name her Dixie

essential start to your day – Check email/facebook then shower

favorite color – Pink..shocker, huh?

gold or silver – Silver; the ONLY gold I wear is my Aggie ring

height - 5 feet 4 inches

instruments you play - piano

job title – Lead Counselor

kids – Hadley Grace, hence the blog…

live – I say I live in a predictable way; I’m all about routines!

married – divorced; hopeful to reclaim married status one day

nicknames – not really a fan, I get Megs once in again, only certain people are allowed to call me that. I despise Meg, don’t even try it!

overnight hospital stays – C-section and back again with high blood pressure

pet peeve – people who use text language in a text, how hard is it to type okay or even ok, I mean really?? Use punctuation and know which version of your/you’re you are using, please and thank you!

righty or lefty - righty

siblings – NONE…happy to be an only child

time you wake up – my first alarm is 5:30, I usually snooze to 5:50ish

university attended – Texas A&M…WHOOP!!!!

vegetables you dislike – corn and squash

what makes you run late –getting wrapped up doing something else, Hadley, taking my time…

x-rays you’ve had – lots, ranging from my head to my feet

yummy food – all of it…I love food- peiod!

zoo animal favorite – elephants or zebras

Happy 2013

I am super excited about 2013. Thirteen has always been my favorite year, so I feel confident that is going to be a great year! I turn 30 this year too...so there is that.

I have lots of plans for the upcoming year and am going to do everything I can to make it a great year. I will have paid off a large chunk of debt a few months into this year and I am really proud about that, I did it all by myself (even though I didn't earn the debt all myself, but that is a different story!)

I have a few resolutions/goals that I am hoping to keep this year:

• I want to be more positive, I don't want to dwell on the bad things or waste time with anger. I am going to go out of my way to try to nice to EVERYONE
• I want to consistently work out. I was doing pretty good from July-November, I took December off, and am ready to get serious about it
• I want to move into a house
• I want to buy a kitchen aid stand mixer for said house
• I want to try to more patient especially with Hadley
• I want to make an effort to go out with friends more
• I am going to try to go on dates...I don't necessarily have any prospects now, but I am working on and think it is time for me to put myself out there (wish me luck)
• I am going to try to read a book a month
• I am going to be intentional about a daily devotional and finding a bible study
• I want to try to cook more new things, and perhaps things that are healthy...

I had a fun new year's eve spending it with some of the girls that I have had the best times with in 2012. I am so lucky to have a great group of girlfriends, who knew 5 years ago when we were all at the same school, that we would have such strong relationships, even when three of us are no longer there!







Before I headed out I had to get some pictures with my favorite girl!

Of course on New Year's Day we had cabbage, black eyed peas, and cornbread. I decided to make the Pioneer Woman's spicy Dr. Pepper pulled pork to go with it, and oh it was so good (as is to be expected- I love everything of hers that I have made).

Here's to 2013- let's hope it's a fabulous year!

Hadley Grace is 2 years old

It wouldn't be right to celebrate this milestone without a bullet list, so here you go!

This is probably my favorite picture of her 

EVER- this is just so Hadley!

• I feel like we have been in the terrible twos for a few months. She is super strong willed and so am I, so I feel like she has lots of meltdowns, the good news is they seem to be fewer and fewer...
• Hadley is talking up a storm, she says lots of sentences and I think for the most part she is pretty easily understood by people other than me; she definitely knows how to ask for things and also to say please and thank you
• WE are still working on potty training...she can do it, in fact she often uses the potty several times a day, but she isn't consistent. She will go when I ask her, but a lot times will go in her diaper and then come tell me, so we aren't there yet- but we are working on it!
• She has always loved balloons, but after her birthday celebration, she learned she can pop them, so now when she sees  balloon that is what she wants to do- pop it!
• While she still loves Dora, Ki-lan is her favorite right now, she likes to repeat the words in Chinese, she isn't always exactly right, but she tries.
• She loves going to school, she loves her friends and her teachers. It makes me happy that she loves it there so well, and that they love her
• She got to see Santa several times this month. She really likes the idea of Santa, but isn't so keen about sitting on his lap. Finally, on the fourth attempt she sat on his lap (and I got a classic baby screaming on Santa's lap picture)
• She still likes all kinds of food, she isn't picky at all, but sometimes she doesn't seem to eat much, I am not too worried about it, she clearly isn't dwindling away, just wonder why some days she seems not so interested in eating
• She had a cyst this month and that wasn't so fun- so she had her first experience with epsom salts and finally she got some relief.
• I let her have candy at the Christmas parade, and now she is in love- she asks for it ALL THE TIME- and no she doesn't get it all the time! I am trying to use this love as a reward for potty training!
• She is pretty good at counting to twenty and her ABC's she is showing growth in both areas daily. She is really smart, I am impressed everyday (I will admit though, she does have a hard time with colors- she knows lot of color names, but isn't always great about correctly identifying a color)

Hadley is no longer a baby, by any stretch of the imagination. She is a full blown toddler. She is full of life and is for the most part happy all the time. She is a great communicator and I love that. She loves to give hugs and kisses and I love the times she lets me just cuddle up with her. I can see so much personality in my little sassy girl, and I have to say I love it. She is going to be a fun girl, I can tell! I am so excited to see what the next year holds for my little girl- I am making a promise to myself to get her a dog by the time she turns three (I want her to have a pet/friend that can grow up with her, and honestly I WANT a dog!!). She is such a huge blessing in my life and the past two year have been amazing. She was exactly what I needed, exactly when I needed it!

Hadley's birthday celebration

Since Hadley's birthday fell on a weekend that wasn't mine, I decided just to make Friday her birthday here with me. She loves balloons and rainbow colors, so I knew early on whatever we did would be centered around those things. Earlier in the year I was involved in a bible study that was for moms, one of our meetings we discussed traditions and things to do to make holidays special. I tucked in my memory the idea of doing something that would involve waking up surrounded by balloons. I put my own spin on that that and made the hallway a birthday tunnel...it was filled with streamers and balloons and looked like this...

At the end of the tunnel was her big present (a slide) and her wrapped gifts were waiting for her. As soon as she woke up I literally put her in the hall to see all of it- she didn't know what to think!

She got a few books, some clothes, a Dora doll (to go with the boots one she got for Christmas), a baby stroller (from Mary Jean), and some art supplies...she is one lucky girl, she said she liked getting presents, and I bet so within  four days she got a LOT of new stuff. I was happy I could give her a nice birthday and Christmas, we don't buy toys very often, so she is all stocked up now!

I also made rainbow cupcakes, they were rainbow on the inside and even frosted in different colors with rainbow sprinkles. I had a different idea for the sprinkles from a cake I saw on pinterest, but it didn't translate so well to a cupcake so I had to change plans. We sang happy birthday and Hadley blew out her candles...she really liked the cupcakes (and so did I)!

We spent the rest of the day playing with all her new toys. It was just a day all about Hadley- she was the birthday princess (well, when isn't she a princess?!?!). It was good quality time, I think next year we will try to do a party and invite friends and such, but since I wasn't getting to spend her birthday with her I wanted to have a day just us. I still can't believe I have a two year old...

Christmas Review

It's been a good while since I have posted on this blog, but I have been keeping pretty busy between Christmas. Hadley's birthday, and New Year's...

We had a pretty good Christmas, for the most part. Hadley spent the weekend before Christmas with her father, but I got to have her Sunday night to take her to church for the Christmas Eve candlelight service. Last year we were in Humble and visited a church there, it was nice, but I wished I had been at our church, and this year we were. They make the whole building look so pretty. It was a great service with a theme of hope...I liked it a lot. Here are a few photos before church at the house and a few from the church. This was the one day we all got dressed up, so it was nice to catch that on film!

Hadley headed back to her dad's on Christmas Eve, so I spent the day preparing food for Christmas dinner ( I was hoping to put everything together, so I would just have to put stuff in the oven rather than being in the kitchen all day Christmas) and I also went and served in the Parent Pager for the the 4pm Christmas Eve service at church. It was CRAZY to see how many people were at church, I mean it was packed in almost every place people could see- it is great to think that that many people wanted to celebrate the season in a church though!

Hadley got home late that night, so she took a bath and headed to bed so we could get ready for Santa. Her big gifts were a kitchen and a baby bed set. She seemed really excited to see both

 She saw those first and kinda seemed uninterested in her stocking or other presents, but with a little persistence, I got her to focus on those too. She got a lot of Dora stuff, including a sing along microphone, some house shoes, a puzzle, some Veggie Tales movies, a baby doll from my friend Mary Jean, and lots of other goodies. So basically this Christmas I made my child a housewife- she has babies to care for and a kitchen to cook in- but she has a ball doing both!!

I made Christmas dinner entirely from recipes on Pintrest. It was pretty good- we had apple stuffed pork loin, green bean bundles, spinach bake, rice pudding (I had never had it and it was pretty good!), baked fruit (that is an old family recipe), and apple pie bites. I also made Pomosas, which was pomegranate juice and champagne...it was all really good! While we were eating it started snowing, so we bundled up and took Hadley outside so she could actually be in snow. The last time it snowed here she was a new born and I was not about to take her out then. She liked running around in it, so much so that she had a full on fit when I took her inside...

Shortly after playing the snow, everyone fell asleep and took a nice nap. It was  nice to have a low key Christmas here, it wasn't fussy...we could lounge around in the afternoon...it was perfect!