Sunday morning

A sneak peak into our Sunday morning.

Cary brought me a doughnut from the bakery this morning, which he picked up while on his walk with E.



Now he's reading an alphabet book with his baby girl.

Just noticed my blog is all doom and gloom with my bad mood from earlier this week.

Thankfully I woke the next morning in a much better mood!

We've just being doing a great family weekend around here.

Nothing major to report other than I jacked my back during a long run on Saturday.

Bummer, but I think I was due a back problem. It's been a while. Thankfully it's not too major and more of an annoyance now.

Making burgers for dinner and I can't wait to eat them up!

Today's goal is to survive the day.

Don't ask me why. Cause I don't know.

My mood is awful and I have no desire to see or talk to anyone.

I just want to hang out with my daughter by myself.

That's all I've got.

Road Trip

A few weeks back Cary's co-worker approached him about selling his BMW. Since Cary's always looking for opportunities to provide for the family and get a good deal, he jumped at the chance to sell his car.

It took us a few weeks to decide what we were going to do; buy a car for me, buy a car for him or buy a car at a really good deal and sell it again in a year to make some money. The most practical choice was to get a van for me.

Cary watched Craigslist like a hawk for anything that popped up and surprisingly he came across a 2005 Honda Odyssey with 70,000 miles at an A-MAZING price. But, and there is always a but, it was in North Carolina and with his work schedule it would be over a week before we could go down to see it. We decided to check back in with the seller periodically and pray over it.

Well, after Cary's work lightened up a bit he took the day off on Monday and we took a family road trip!!

I will say we both did not want to get our hopes up. Sometimes too good of a deal is just a big mess waiting to happen.



On our way down we stopped at Parkers BBQ. This is a place where Cary would visit with his family every year as they drove to the beach for summer vacation.

I swear we stop for BBQ on every road trip.



We tried to get Ellery to eat (and this is the best picture I could get) but she just was not interested. The second after this was taken the food was in her bib. I think it has something to do with the PB & J she ate in the car.





As part of our inspection of the van we found a Honda dealership a few miles away and had it looked at.

I thank GOD for an incredibly patient baby girl and this play room. We stopped a few times to let her run around while we were traveling in the car but the hour we spent in this play room I think helped us to keep our sanity for the rest of the day.



Here it is! The minivan. I really feel like this car is a blessing. The Lord had His hand on the whole thing, the timing, the price, our trip and even Ellery's attitude/behavior. I am so very thankful to Him for taking care of us.



One last thing, Never say "NEVER." That's all I'm gonna say.

"In prayer we are occupied with our needs, in thanksgiving we are occupied with our blessings, but in worship we are totally occupied with God Himself."

A. P. Gibbs

Snack

Mmm...ritz crackers, peanut butter & nutella.

Single Mom

Cary was out of town this weekend for a work retreat.

I am EXHAUSTED.

All day I have been looking forward to his return and thinking about how difficult it is to be a single mom.

Ellery and I didn't have much of a schedule this weekend and my folks even watched her while I went running yesterday.

So I don't know why I'm so worn out.

But there is something to be said for the support and extra hands that come along with a spouse.

Thank goodness my Sweetie is home!

Pretty Pink Potty

Last weekend, during our "staycation" I bought Ellery a potty.

My only intention was to help her get comfortable sitting on a potty.

But personally I think this little potty is the cutest thing EVER!




As soon as I introduced the potty, Ellery has been in love. It is SO much fun for her to sit on it.

Cary and I will randomly ask her if she wants to go "pee pee on the potty" and if she says "yes" or says "potty" we take her over, and let her practice. We've had success with some pee pee a few times this past week.

But TO-DAY. Oh My Gosh.

I had Ellery on the changing table to get her ready for nap time. As soon as I took the diaper off she started saying "POTTY! POTTY!"

I took her to the potty and who would have guessed she would actually go pee AND POO!!

She witness the worst "happy pee pee" dance I could make up in the moment.

Just so I don't get too excited I'm taking this as a crazy random thing and not going to even try to push the potty more.

If I'm being honest with myself I don't think I want her out of diapers yet. That means she wont be a "baby" anymore and I'm NOT ready for that. Nope, not at all.

But in the mean time I'll celebrate with her the greatness of a poo & pee in the potty.

News Around Here

We might not be preparing for the first day of school yet, but this week has been insane!

If I'm being brutally honest here, I told Cary on Sunday that I was looking forward to his return to work. Mostly because I was ready to get back into MY groove.

But come Monday afternoon I didn't want him to leave. Don't worry, I told him how much I was going to miss him.

Tuesday morning I started a new bible study. We are reading "Satisfy My Thirsty Soul" by Linda Dillow.



I was maybe 3 pages into the first chapter when I realized that this bible study was God ordained for me this season. It's no joke, memorizing verses, reading chapters multiple times, lots of deep thought questions to answer but I'm just going to buckle down and do it. Thankfully I have enthusiasm and excitement to help this study be fun.

Memorable

One of my favorite pictures from the beach.

Church Picnic

This mornings church service was a nice change of pace from the norm. Instead of 3 services, there was 1 and afterward there was a BBQ picnic in the parking lot!

You know how we feel about BBQ.



An 18 month old doesn't need a moon bounce or larger than life slide or face painting.

Nope, all she needs is a balloon and music to make her day.

Salvaging My Heart

My heart has been in shambles the last couple of days. I know it's silly to feel this way, I mean I am SO blessed to be able to even have had a vacation at all. But I realized that I needed to go do something to get my mind off of it all.

So I went shopping on Friday. Retail really is a fantastic form of therapy! Ellery got the best part of my depression because she now has Fall & Winter clothes!

Today, Little Miss and I met Mar Mar out for lunch and had some fun times at the mall play yard.




There is a kiddie train that runs around the mall and it happened to pass by us before we were served lunch. Ellery had a piece of bread in her mouth and the moment she saw that train and heard the whistle she took the bread out of her mouth, handed it to me and said "ALL DONE!" over and over while trying to crawl out of the high chair and get to the train. It was clear she didn't want any food she just WANTED to ride that train. The rest of our meal, Mom and I had to distract her every time the train came by so she would eat.

For various reasons we did not ride the train.




Tonight we headed over to the Fogarty's house so we could eat up some of the yummy food we had purchased for the beach!





We missed you Cassada's, Young's, Granger's & McClures!! It was YUMMY!




Of course after dinner the guys (and Ellery) had to play a little game of baseball.



Let's not forget the brownie sundays for dessert.



I'm definitely feeling better now.

Thursday

STUPID HURRICANE EARL!

Stupid, stupid, stupid hurricane.

I got back to the house from a run this morning (around 9) and found out we were being put under a mandatory evacuation.

IT WAS SUPPOSED TO BE GIRLS NIGHT! I was supposed to be shopping right now, laughing with friends and sipping on a fancy drink with not a care in the world.

This was about 20 minutes into our traffic jam car ride home (the nap lasted all of 10 minutes).



After a stop for some food I put in the Princess & A Frog movie, which she actually watched!



We are home.

We are safe.

I am NOT happy.

Wednesday

Woke up this morning to news that some areas about 1 hour south of us are under a mandatory evacuation.

We think we're going to stay. It's not going to be THAT bad. Besides, it would make a fun story and experience.

Off to the beach!



For some reason Ellery would not be happy and quiet unless she was sitting on my lap! Truthfully I was eating it up; I mean how often does a toddler sit still for a long period of time on your lap?



Ellery has really taken to Rebekah. It was so cute to watch them play with shells. Rebekah is super sweet and I'm very thankful for her.

Tonight is Breakfast for dinner. Again, too busy eating to take any pictures but two words are making my mouth water right now, Monkey Bread.