Truly Great Friends

"Truly great friends are hard to find, difficult to leave, and impossible to forget."

This quote kept popping into my head last night as my friends and I were standing in the movie theater parking lot. Each of us thinking of more topics to talk about, more things we needed to fill each other in on, more future plans to make with each other. None of us wanting to leave. We don't get enough time together, that's the truth.

Joy lives in Chicago... that's at least 5 hours away from us. Bethany is in nursing school full time. Gina works all the time, as do I. On top of all of our busy schedules, we all have beautiful children. As much as we love and adore them, they make things a little bit more difficult sometimes. Of course, without them, we never would have met.

We all went at Applebees last night for dinner. I never knew Applebees could be that much fun. Just sitting around talking, laughing, people pointing at us because we were "that table." We all needed that. Afterwards we went to see Bridesmaids. If you have not seen it, you definitely need to. I laughed so hard, it was great. Then, as I said before, we stood in the movie theater parking lot talking...

Like a bunch of teenage girls. Joy & Bethany even had their husbands pick them up, which made it seem that way even more. But we're not teenage girls, we are adults with responsibilites and children. So, no, we can't see each other every week, and sometimes not even every month. But that time away makes our time together even more exciting and fun...Truly great friends.

Joy, Me, Bethany, Gina

How Annoying!

What's annoying to you? I have a list a mile long of things that annoy me. Drive me crazy, in fact. For example... Traffic. Unanswered text messages. Neglectful parents.  Parker's scream.

Can you believe that? I was actually going to list my son's newfound high pitched scream as annoying. After listening to it all day yesterday, (he does it just for fun) I thought it was annoying. That is until I read this.  EBing a Mommy wrote that post about her son turning 2. Her son that has a rare skin disorder. Her son that is 2 years old and has a tracheostomy. He can't speak.

This right here is what spoke to me the most...  "I wish you had your eyesight.  I wish you could speak.  I wish you could wear normal clothes without bandages.  I wish you would lay next to me and cuddle without me worrying about giving you a blister.  I wish you could wear shoes.  I wish you could go outside, ride your bike, go to the park and slide down the slide.  I wish I could throw you in the car and go get a snowball together.  I know all of these things don't matter to you, because you don't know any better..."

Really? How horrible do I feel right now, thinking something as silly as my little boy's scream is annoying. My healthy little boy. My little boy that I can take outside, to the park, to slide... who I can cuddle with anytime I want whenever he will let me. How fortunate am I?

It's a question nobody even wants to ask, for fear of the answer. Why am I the "lucky" one? Why did I get a perfectly healthy child, while Courtney has to struggle with watching her son suffer daily. The answers, I don't think we will ever know, not in this life anyways. All you can do is thank God your child is healthy, and pray for those who aren't.

I can guarantee you the first time Parker screams tomorrow I'm going to smile. I'm going to run to him and pick him up and give him the biggest hug and tell him how lucky blessed we are. It's funny how things can be put into perspective...

 For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. -Jeremiah 29:11

Wide Eyed

The photo challenge this week at Paper Heart Camera is "wide." I decided to enter this one of Parker, I love everything about it and I think the wide crop here is adorable, especially with how Wide Eyed he is!

Good Times

I had my mom take some pictures of me and Parker on Mother's Day. After a long day of work, it's just what I needed! He was so good and we just had fun with it! I think they turned out really cute, they're probably my favorite pictures we have of the two of us...



Adventurous Mommy

A 7 hour drive by yourself with a 17 month old may not sound like a good idea... but I like to travel. I'm adventurous. My sister lives 7 hours away... so we did it. Was I a little nervous? Of course. But guess what... everything went fine great. We left at 7:30 in the morning, Parker watched a movie then slept for an hour. When he woke up, we stopped for lunch and I let him run around! Got back in the car, he went back to sleep and when he woke up we were almost there. When we got to my sisters, he acted like he owned the place. He was so happy to be there, it was great. Of course, they have 2 flights of stairs and a fireplace so keeping him away from those things was a challenge. When Andrew got off work we went to eat at Olive Garden and he was really good. When we went back to their house I gave him a bath and we all settled in to watch Tangled! Such a cute movie, by the way.

I put him to bed in the pack-n-play (which he hasn't slept in since he was 8 months old) and he went right to bed! The next day we went to a local park and walked around and played. It was really hot but we had fun!

We then went to Subway, and home so Parker could take a nap from the zoo. The zoo was soo nice, I loved it.

Then we ordered pizza and got to just hang out together. I love my sister and brother in law so much, they made our trip absolutely amazing! I can't wait to go back! =)





Motherhood

The contest this week at I Heart Faces is "Motherhood." I love this picture of Jami & the twins, and I really think it shows what motherhood is all about. She wasn't posing or anything, just enjoying her girls at the park. =)

Mommy's Day

I'm so overwhelmed with gratitude when it comes to Mother's Day. I have a wonderful Mom who has always been there for me. We have always gotten along, even when I was a teenager, we have always been friends. I'm sure it's hard to be a mom and a friend, but she pulled it off. If I can be half the mom that she is I'll be doing great..

I also have a wonderful son that I get to be a mommy to. Being a mommy might be a job, but it sure is the funnest job I've ever done. I've been able to watch him grow from a little 6 pound baby to my big 27 pound toddler. I've got to watch him learn how to do so many things, from holding his head up to climbing up a flight of stairs. Being a Mommy is truly the greatest thing ever.

Today I am working until 3:30, but when I get off I am going home to celebrate with my mommy and my baby! We are going to a friend's house for a cookout, I'm sure more great times are to be had. I just hope I never forget how grateful I am to be a mommy, as well as to still have my mommy in my life.

For all of you mom's out there who have lost your children, or mother... my heart breaks for you. I know so many of you who have and it's not fair. =( I only wish you will have some comfort knowing your loved ones are looking down on you and celebrating the person you have become, and waiting for the day when you will meet again.



Sticky Face

The Challenge this week at The Paper Mama is food. I have always loved this picture of Parker eating his first banana! He thought it was delicious, and I adore this look on his sticky face, and the way his pudgy little hands are gripping it so tight so that no one can take it away!

Monkey See, Monkey Do

Our zoo trip this past week couldn't have gone better! Parker was such a good boy, he loved every minute of it. His favorite part? The goats! Oh my, I think he would've stayed there all day. It was adorable. He made friends with the goat on the bench, and I think they must have been communicating somehow because they stayed with their heads together for quite sometime. haha It was adorable.



He loved walking around the zoo, but I couldn't let him do that for long because he doesn't like to listen very well and wanted to run away from me...

Here is a picture of Parker, Logan, and Aubrey holding hands.. they did this on their own! How cute is that, they loved it.

He rode in the Ergobaby for awhile when he was tired of the stroller. I didn't mind, I got some extra exercise and it truly is comfortable for both of us.

We even got a group picture at the end! Something we rarely do because we get so caught up in everything else. The rest of our group had already seperated from us, otherwise they woud have been in the picture too!

All in all, we had a great day and I can't wait to go back!

17 Months Old

Parker turned 17 months old on Tuesday and I haven't had time to post since then! So here we go...

17 Months Old... I know I always say this, but I can't believe you are that old. Your personality becomes more and more prominent everyday. You are such a sweetheart, when you want to be, but you can just as easily be rotten. You have learned the wonderful trick of throwing fits, and there is not much I can do to stop you. Luckily you get over it pretty quick, but I'm hoping this issue gets better, not worse.

When I take you to school now, you immediately run off to your friends... no more crying when mommy leaves. Sometimes you even give me a big kiss before I leave, usually when I need it the most. When I come to pick you up you run straight to me, while laughing so hard, like I am the greatest thing in the world. And to you, possibly I am.


You recently learned how to eat with a fork. It is unbelievably cute, and you insist on having a fork at every meal now. We went out to eat the other day and I forgot to bring you a fork, so you had to eat with a big one and you actually did pretty well.

You are getting way too big, trying to talk more and more each day! It's hard to believe in a few short months you'll be talking my leg off. Your favorite movie right now is Finding Nemo, although you really like The Veggie Tales' The Wizard of Haas movie almost as well. You love to swing, and to slide, and you love your Pawpaw. He is probably your favorite person (other than mommy & daddy, of course.) 

You are my little angel, and even though you don't like to sit still for very long, you are still my cuddlebug. I love every minute of being your mommy. Love you to the moon and back baby boy.





Do You Remember...

Do you remember... Prom? Of course you do! Those carefree days of youth, where did they go? My little cousin Britney is now old enough to go to prom, which makes me feel super old. I did, however, love taking pictures of her, she looked sooo beautiful in her dress...

In other news, Parker learned how to eat with a fork yesterday. Like he actually stuck his fork into the mac & cheese and then made it to his mouth without any help, several times! I'm so proud of him. Of course, the only reason I don't have a picture of that is because I worked a 12 hour shift yesterday so I missed it =( I'm not TOO upset because it's not like I missed his first steps, but I've been there for every other milestone of his so I don't like to miss ANYTHING.

Which is why I have so many pictures, I don't like to forget things and pictures bring me back to the exact moment they were taken. I love it, it's magical. Some people can't do that, I can show my mom a picture and she will say "I don't remember THAT, where was it??" I, on the other hand, can see a picture of myself as a child and have flashbacks to that exact moment. The gift of a photographer, maybe? Not sure, but either way I am thankful for it.

Afterall, who wouldn't want to remember this...

Or this...

Or this...

Oh, and this...

Okay, just one more...

All such wonderful memories, captured by a simple click of a camera...