Land of the Living

These past couple of weeks have been rough for our household. Virginia gave us a Valentine's day gift of throwing up everywhere. Then that passed and the poor little girl had to deal with constipation. This went on for about a week and a half. Constipation in a little child is the worse thing ever.

Her stomach was hurting and she couldn't do anything about it. We had to use a couple of remedies and luckily they finally worked. But it was a long couple of days until she felt better. That is the worse feeling when your baby is sick and you can't do much to help them but hold them tight in your arms. I am glad to say my happy go lucky baby girl is back to her jumping and dancing ways.

Now I am the one that has come down with something. It is the strangest thing too, I felt fine all day yesterday and then went to my bowling league night. Once there I realized I was not feeling good. Surprising myself I bowled a 166 in my first game even with myself feeling sick and dizzy. But once the second game started I knew I had to go home. My 12 pound ball was feeling a lot heavier and I was having trouble standing.

I rushed home and went straight to the bathroom. I won't say anymore then I became one with the bed and toilet all night long. Thankfully in the morning I felt better and was just feeling weak and a little grumpy since I didn't get much sleep during the night. Reiggin had to go to work so Virginia was put in charge and has been a great nurse so far. I just hope I don't pass any germs to her.

Things I have learned since becoming a Mom is that Mom's don't get sick. There is no such thing as a sick day for Moms. Diapers still have to be changed and little mouths still have to be fed. Also the best medicine is still the sound of my mother's voice on the phone telling me that she wishes she was there to take care of me. And the biggest thing is that even though babies are small they still pass along germs.

But I am blessed with caring friends and a wonderful husband that takes care of me when I am sick. Can't ask for anything more. Crossing my fingers that we all will be healthy by the weekend so we may be able to make some trips to see the grandparents. Both me and Virginia are pass due for some grandma loving.

God Gave Us So Much!

God Gave Us So Much by Lisa Tawn Bergren is a delightful collection of three of her stories, God Gave Us the World, God Gave Us Love, and God Gave Us Heaven. As you read this book you are following along with an adorable polar bear family. The stories are told though the inquisitive eye of a child polar bear and his parents.

The first story God Gave Us the World, goes into the story of how God created the world and created everyone different. This is a great way to teach your children about different cultures and races in the world. Also to embrace the differences in the world and to be loving towards everyone. This story also introduces the idea that God created each one of us and made us all special in his vision. It is a loving story and answers many questions that young children will have about people being different or looking different then themselves.

The second story is God Gave Us Love. This section goes into how God made us with love and wants us to spread that love to everyone. I believe this section is very important to kids today. Since there is so much tension and hate in this world today with the war going on over seas. I believe it is important to remind kids to shower people with love even when they may not be very happy with that person. The story also shares the different forms of love as example of the love a Mom and Dad has for each other or the love we have for our friends. The whole story teaches children the important lesson that we want to love others as God loves us.

The third story God Gave Us Heaven introduces Heaven and death to young kids.  Now I am hesitate on the idea of introducing this topic to very young kids. Just because of the can of worms or questions that this will open up. Also I don't believe at least for my 2 year old daughter that young kids can fully understand or need to learn the lesson of death. But I do believe if your child is faced with the lose of a family member or a loved one. That this story does a wonderful job of teaching them about heaven and how there is no more pain in Heaven. It goes further to teach how beautiful heaven is and how God created Heaven so we could live forever by his side.

Other then how I love the level that the stories are written so that young kids can understand complex morals and beliefs. I believe that all three stories could be used as tools to start God conversations with your kids. The best part for kids and adults are the beautiful illustrations down by Laura J. Bryant. I was afraid the three stories all together would be to long for my 2 year old daughter's attention span. But the pictures kept her snug as a bug right beside me the whole time. She still enjoys grabbing the book and just sitting down by herself to thumb though the pages to view the pictures.

I would highly recommend this book to any person that wants to share God's love and stories with a child. I am so blessed to have received this book for free from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group for this review. I know that my child and myself will will cherish this book for many years to come.


Please take a few seconds and visit Blogging for Books to rate my review on God Gave Us So Much!

Don't Venture Away From Nick Jr.

I never thought I would be going though this battle at 2 years old. Lately my daughter has not been happy with Nick Jr. I don't know when or how this happened. She use to love everything about Nick Jr. and wanted nothing but to sit down and watch a cartoon on Nick Jr.

Well being that Virginia is our only child and I am learning as we go. I made the mistake of venturing off  of Nick Jr. to Nick. Little did I know that Nick Jr. keeps you safe and sound in a land of no toy commercials. Nick on the other hand has a toy commercial almost every commercial break. This is just evil if you ask me. I didn't think Virginia was at the age yet that when she sees a commercial that she must have whatever is being advertised.

I should have known this phase was coming since lately at the grocery stores she has started the I want while we are standing in line to check out. I just figured it was the fact that she is a candy addict. We are seeking help with this and taking good parent cations as we speak. All candy has been removed from the house.

But in all seriousness today as we are watching Disney Jr., which by the way I love. A commercial for  Squinkies comes on. This is about the silliest toy I have seen in awhile. It is basically a tiny rubber pencil topper. Virginia goes nuts and starts pointing to the tv and pointing to her hand. I entertain and ask do you like those. She shakes her head with a big yes. She keeps on pointing to her hand. Which I tell her we don't have any squinkies. She is not very happy about this.

Next I am on facebook and Hip2Save a blog that I follow has posted that Squinkies since they won toy of the year are doing giveaways today on their facebook page. Well she sees the picture and starts to go nuts again. I fuel the fire and don't ask why I did this but I youtubed to see exactly what these Squinkies are. I come across a video of a guy debating Squinkies with another toy.



Big mistake by this point Virginia is so upset when the video goes off she is in tears. Can we say drama. I inform her that Daddy has the car so we can't go buy the toy and we don't have the money to go get the toy at the moment anyway. At this point I don't know why I am still debating with a 2 year old. I should have just said No is No. What amazes me next is that when I say we don't have money for a new toy she points to her piggy bank and I say you want to spend your money. She says yes. How does a 2 year old understand that mommy and daddy don't have money but that she has been saving change for months now. I guess she wants to cash in her savings for Squinkies.

I spent the next 30 minutes calming her down so she would take her nap. She tried her best to open my laptop up so she could watch the video again. I have won for now and she is napping. But man my baby is growing up and I just want to shake my fist at toy commercials, they are just pure evil.

Happy Days Come Again

Since I don't like leaving sad posts up on my blog for long, I knew I had to blog about my Pull-Ups Potty Dance House Party that I am hosting on March 12th at 12:00pm. One of my good friends told me about House Party. A website that you can go and apply to be picked to host different house parties. You are not paid, but you do receive extra goodies for being a host.

When I saw that they were going to have a Pull-Ups Potty Dance Party I jumped to sign up for it. This was my second time applying to host a party. The first entry I made I was not picked. So I wasn't getting my hopes up yet for this party. To my surprise I found out a few weeks ago that I had been picked as one of the hosts. I was more then thrilled since Virginia is entering the potty training age range. And I am completely clueless as to how to do this whole potty training thing. So what better way to learn then to throw a huge party with moms and kids. We will all be able to share our knowledge and fears.

House party sets you up with a little party page where you list all the details of your party. Your guests can RSVP on the page as well. Comments can be left and the host ME can post pictures before and after the party. The best part of the set up is the host receives a party box before the party. The box is filled with goodies to hand out to the guests and a few extras for the host.

I was surprised when I heard the doorbell ring today and a package was being delivered. Both me and Virginia smiled when we saw all the goodies in the box. The box included:

* 15 Pull-Ups Potty Dance instructional mats
* 14 Coupon books including a Pull-Ups  $2.00 off product coupon and savings on other household   items
* 14 Big Kid Central DVDs with potty training tips, activities and the Pull-Ups Potty Dance song and dance video
*14 Reward stickers for potty training progress
*15 Enjoy the Ride Rewards Points to collect and save
*15 Pull-Ups coloring sheets

Now I need to go and update my party page and send out a few more invites to my party. If anyone is interested in coming to my party email me or shoot me a email on my facebook page. It is going to be loads of fun and if anything we will have great food and amazing conversation.

Do The Potty Dance! - For more amazing video clips, click here

Dear Valentine's Day

Dear Valentine's Day,

I am writing to you to request a do over. I did not get the Valentine's Day that a woman dreams of. To kick off the day I wake up with a sore thoat and stuffy nose, perfect morning. Then I am rushing to pick up a little before Erin the speech therapist arrives at 9:00am. Luckily she is running a few minutes late.

For some reason speech just seemed to drag on and on today. I believe Virginia wasn't feeling it either. She didn't want to talk and was getting really frustrated with Erin when Erin wouldn't hand over the toys until she said more. Speech finally concluded and both Virginia and I were feeling a little slugish. So we curled up on the couch for a marthon event of Curious George the DVD. I didn't think much of it that Virginia was sleepy and not her usual happy self. I allowed her to stay up late the night before watching the grammy's with me.

The day was pretty uneventful. I had planned to make valentine's Day cookies, but decided to push that back until Reiggin got home. I started to worry a little about Virginia when I was laying on the couch and instead of laying with me she wanted to lay on the floor beside me. I rubbed her back and kissed her and asked her to lay with me on the couch just like any good mother would do. It was a no go she was happy as can be on the floor.

Reiggin got home and all the lights were out and found both of us lazy laying on the couch and on the floor. He was wondering what the crap we were doing and what was wrong. I told him I wasn't feeling good and Virginia had been sleepy most of the day. He picks up Virginia and gives her a big hug and a few Valentine's Day treats.

Then Virginia comes running down the hall towards me with a card from her to me. I love these moments of being a mom. After I open my card from her she hands me daddy's card for me. Then Reiggin tells me I need to go into the living room so he can finish the rest of my surprise.

Right at this point is when things go terribly wrong. I pick up Virginia and then start to set her down when I notice she is choking a bit or something went down the wrong tube. All of a sudden she is throwing up every where. I catch some in my hands and my leg as we run to the bathroom. Virginia is freaking out at this point and is wanting out of the bathroom so she ends up painting the carpet if you know what I mean.

I quickly grab her and we both take a quick bath/shower. Once clean I take her to her bedroom and get a diaper on her. All she wants to do is lay on the changing table. It was kind of strange and funny but she was happiest falling a sleep on the plastic mat on top of her changing table. So I let her fall asleep and I rocked in the rocker beside her. She slept for about an hour and a half and I convinced her to lay in her comfy bed instead of the changing table.

Once in bed her mood started to get better and her stomach was still hurting just a little bit. But she did manage to come out for awhile to visit with Daddy. Soon after that we got her into bed. By this point I was not feeling so well and not at all sexy by no means. So my night laying together on the couch watching a movie with my husband was cancelled. As I quickly ate some left over pizza and went to sleep.

I am thankful that I have the best husband and he was super kind and took care of both me and Virginia the best he could. So as I stated in the beginning. I am writing to you Valentine's Day to request a do over. I don't think that is to much to ask for.

Sincerely,
Kathy

P.S.
There was a silver lining to the day. I got a post card from my friend Sarah that is in Cambodia at the moment. Virginia got two Valentine's Day cards in the mail from her Aunt Lisa and Aunt Lili. So the day was not a total waste.

Do Tell: Adventures in Potty Training.

Have you been though the adventures of potty training? Do you have any good tips to share? Or prayers that I have any clue what I am doing? Virginia is almost 29 months old now and she has been showing signs of interest in potty training.

So last night while I was picking up a few things at Walmart. I asked her if she wanted to pick out her own big girl underwear. To my delight she was super excited. I wanted to pick up these Nick Jr. underwear that has Dora, Blues Clues, Wonder Pets, Sponge Bob, and Kai- lan, but man they were 9 dollars for a pack of 6. Luckily she wanted the princess underwear that was much cheaper.

Maybe I should ask Virginia since it looks like she is taking care of twins.

My game plan at least in my head was to have her start off with a diaper on but the underwear over top of the diaper. Then move to the underwear against the skin but a pull up on over them. Then eventually to just underwear. I also brought her a ton of Barnyard animal stickers, her favorite, for every time she pees or poops in the potty. But she insisted on wearing just her underwear.  So now I am asking her every second it seems that if she needs to sit on the potty. Pee- Pee is going to be a major player in my vocabulary I believe from now on.

I feel so lost in this part of raising my child. Not that I was really prepared for any other part of raising her. I thought my mom would be the one to go to for knowledge, but turns out that our babysitter or nanny was the one that potty trained us. Because my mom had no real success in the potty training area.

I have had a few suggestions from friends that have already been though potty training and I plan to use their advice. But I am hoping my great blog readers will be able to give me even more advice. Or maybe just tell me some funny stories so I know I am not alone in the future adventures that await me.

Coffee, Play Date, A.C. Moore Oh My!

Virginia and I have been on the move since Thursday night. Thursday I decided to bring Virginia with me to the Central Piedmont Mommies get together at Oak Tree Coffee Company. This was my first time going to this coffee spot in Kannapolis. I googled for directions and then tried to punch in the address into our TomTom. TomTom and me just don't get along. I will add TomTom to my list of love and hate relationships. More then half the time it doesn't recognize the address I put in. I think it may be time to update the maps.

The address is 221 West A Street. So I punch this in and the TomTom gives me a big I can't help you sign. So I knew from google maps that I had to turn onto main street so I punched that in and TomTom was agreeable with that street. But I get halfway there and decide to try one more time to find West A Street. I punch in A street it was a no go. I punch in West A Street one more time and realize that I need to punch just W instead of spelling out West. Sometimes I feel like me and TomTom speak two different languages.

Now the next best thing is I am following TomTom and he is sending me in one big circle in this little shopping center. So I am laughing at this point because my track record of finding places on my own is terrible. So I do the smart thing and call my friend Samantha to help me out. She is already at the coffee spot and tells me I need to go one street over. I go over a street and am still not sure which door it is. She is laughing by this point since I am telling her I am going in a circle. Then she spots me and I spot her. I had to laugh at her at this point because she failed to mention that the coffee spot is right under a gigantic lit up tree when she was trying to get me to the coffee spot.

Virginia and I make our way in and this place is super cute. It is just a hole in the wall kind of place, but the atmosphere was perfect. Very laid break and kid friendly. Now you will laugh but I am not a coffee person but I was excited when I saw they served gelato. So I got Virginia seated with Samantha and I got us a cup of Blood orange gelato. It was like a big push up pop flavor. It was yummy, but next time I am trying the mint chocolate flavor.

We sat in the second room with a large group that was meeting to knit. I thought this was the coolest thing. It was a nice mixture of young and old people. I want to be cool enough one day to be in my own knitting club. First need to remember how to knit.

My daughter shocked me that night when a complete stranger to her, a woman, was waving and doing the usual thing saying how cute she is. Virginia is holding onto my leg for dear life but all of a certain she goes running straight for this woman arms up and lets her scoop her right up into her arms. I was like who are you and where did my afraid of strangers child go. Virginia loved this woman and followed her everywhere all night long. Unless she was trying to chase down the coffee house's cat. They had one or two cats that roamed free though out the rooms. Virginia was trying her hardest to pet the cat, but the cat was trying its hardest to hide. They came to an agreement in the end that the cat would sit still in a chair for a few seconds while Virginia stared into its eyes and got to pet her maybe once or twice.

The owner of the coffee spot sat down and talked to us for awhile. He was a very nice guy and made us feel right at home. I definitely am putting this coffee spot on my list of places to go back too.

You want me to go down there? I don't know about this.

Friday brought a play date at Concord Mills. We were meeting some of the central piedmont moms at the soft play area in the mall. It was the first time that I was meeting most of the moms. I was the host of the play date so I got there early and Virginia and I were the first people into the play area. It is a small area with just a few soft things to climb on and slide on. The area is a food theme for the most part. There is a large Broccoli Slide, an Apple and Pineapple to crawl though, a pepper to climb on, and strangely either a spider or octopus to climb up on. The spider or octopus is up for debate. I thought it was a spider but I mom beside me called it a octopus so not sure who wins.

Once I figured out who was who we all had fun talking and letting the kids play. I really need to get me a central piedmont shirt so people know who to look for at events. There was a merry go round right outside the play area. Which I think is just pure evil to place it there. Virginia along with some other kids kept on running over to it. So us moms had to chase them and drag them back into the play area. Since for some odd reason there is no gate on this play area. Concord Mills if you are reading I do believe this would be a good addition to your play area please.

She was very happy when she got to ride about
3 times on the merry go round. Thank you Moms that paid for
your kids to ride and let my daughter stay on to ride as well.

After playing we all headed to FireHouse Subs in the mall for lunch. Oh I have not had subs there since I was going to Meck in college. It was super yummy and Virginia got a fire woman's hat to wear. All in all she was super happy. We enjoyed lunch and then headed to A.C. Moore to pick up a few things to make a Valentine's Day craft for a few of her friends. I heart A.C. Moore. I could spend all day and all of my money in that store. But we had to rush back home since Samantha and her little boy were coming over for another play date with us.

Wishing I had taken a picture of the whole thing so you
could help me decide if it is a spider or octopus. 

We made it back just in time to meet her in the parking lot. We headed up stairs and all of a sudden Virginia was not a happy camper. Her stomach was killing her, I do believe it was gas. I know Virginia will love me when she gets older for telling you al| she has gas. Samantha was sweet and stayed still to play and keep me company. Her little boy didn't mind one bit he was having a blast exploring all the toys. He is just way to cute.

After the play date we went with Reiggin to have dinner with the Lassiters and Donnie's mom Linda at Mi Pueblo. It was some great mexican cuisine and we go to this restaurant a lot. The owner gives us free cheese dip which rocks since he is trying his best to keep us from going to another unnamed mexican restaurant in town. And then for some reason last night we got two free t-shirts. This made my night I love me some t-shirts.

We headed home for some much needed shut eye. Saturday we may be going to the young mommies Valentine's Day Party for the kids and the central piedmont mommies. So let the fun continue.

Lady in Waiting

Love is a choice you make every day. This is one of the quotes from Lady in Waiting that just stuck in my head. I received Lady in Waiting for free from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group for this review. The story starts off with Jane, a antiques store owner in Manhattan. Jane is currently going though a separation period with her husband Brad.  Susan Meissner is a wizard with words and really pulls you into the story. I felt like I was one of Jane's friends while I was reading the story. Right there to feel her pain and see how lost she was as she ventured down the path of the unknown.

As soon as you feel comfortable with Jane's story, you quickly are pulled into a side story of Jane Grey and her dressmaker Lucy. Their stories start back in England, 1548. We are introduced to the life of noble women back in that time and the life of the simple people. It was lovely to read how Jane and Lucy defied the norm and formed a loving relationship with each other. Susan Meissner ties all three stories together seamlessly. I did enjoy the story and it kept my interest though out the book.

The women are all going though a state in their lives where they are learning who they truly are.  Learning that they control their destiny and happiness. I felt a strong connection to this part of the book when both women realize their power and control over their own lives.

I would recommend this book to any woman or person that loves a good romantic mystery novel. I would state that I wasn't in love with the ending, but that it didn't ruin the whole book for me.

Please take a second and rate my review on Blogging for Books. Thank You!

Recycled T-Shirt

MTV Shows

Have you woke up one morning and everything was going perfect until your child decides they are not having a good day? Well that is how my morning started off. Everything was going perfect then Virginia just started to cry and cry and cry. I held her and turned her favorite cartoon on but nothing was making her happy. Finally she laid down for a nap and slept for about 30 minutes. During that time I decided that I would try to make her something special. Something she would love.

A couple of weeks ago I came across this awesome video of the Pepsi Refresh Challenge grant winner. It is a young girl that takes t-shirts and sweaters and recycles them into reusable shopping or grocery bags. I loved this idea and thought I would take one of Virginia's old t-shirts and make her a bag. I picked her Alaska shirt that her Aunt Lisa got her. Virginia has out grown the shirt and I didn't want to consign the shirt or give it away because it is one of my favorite shirts and one of Virginia's favorite shirts. 

First I managed to get the ironing board out of the coat closet. The ironing board has not seen the light of day in awhile. I ironed the shirt and then cut out the sleeves and cut a curve along the bottom of the shirt and along the collar of the shirt.

Once I remembered how to put thread on my bobbin and bring it though the sewing machine I was good. This took some trial and error and some curse words and still not sure if I got it right. I may need to call on some of my sewing friends to come over and help me out. I am still very much a beginner sewer. 

I turned the shirt inside out and sewed along the bottom of the shirt. Then I turned the shirt back to the right side. Now I will admit that I did make a few errors along the way. First time I sewed along the bottom of the shirt and along the sleeves and collar. Once I turned it out I realized I had sewed the bag shut. So I had to fix that. I didn't sew the sleeves shut so Virginia could use that area as a handle. 

I do want to go back and sew the edges more clean and not just leave them rough like they are now. But for the most part Virginia loves her recycled t-shirt bag and is currently testing how much stuff she can put in her bag. 

I think next I will try to use one of my old t-shirts so Virginia and I will have matching shopping bags. Needless to say I have my happy baby back and the t-shirt bag is being kid tested as we speak. 

Happy Birthday Dear Friend

Today my Best Friend in the whole world Lisa Harland is turning 29. The years have flown by, we met each other about 16 years ago back in junior high. We met though a friend of ours Heather in the summer of 8th grade. I can remember that I didn't much care for Lisa when I met her, maybe because I thought Heather would like her better then me. You know silly girl stuff.

But we quickly became great friends. I still laugh at one of our first conversations on the phone one night when I told her my mom was calling me for dinner to have spaghetti and she thought I said my mom spanks me with spaghetti. We have had many laughs over the years and many firsts together over the years. It is hard to believe we have been friends for over half our lives.

We made it though junior high and even made it though high school. Involving moving from one high school to a brand new high school. She graduated and went to UT and I went to UNCC. We managed to stay close friends though college and after. Been there for each other though the good times and bad times. Thankfully lately it has been mostly good times.

Now she is living in California with her husband Scott and I am in North Carolina with my husband and daughter. We may live across the country but we still talk every day and stay close as ever. I am blessed to have such a wonderful friend and hope to grow old and grey with her. Who knows maybe we all will eventually find our way back to the same town together.

Happy Birthday Lisa! Hope you are having a wonderful day and that Scott is treating you to a Birthday dinner or something special. Wishing I was out there in California to celebrate with you.  I am in much need of a chick flick movie night or just some Lisa time. Hugs and Virginia says Happy Birthday as well.

Weekend Rewind

Last night I was exploring some of my new followers blogs and came across Keeping Up With The Rheinlander's and saw her Monday post called Weekend Rewind. I thought this was a super cute title and believe I will try to add this to my blogging routine.  That is if my weekends stay exciting or I will just have to make up some exciting events.

I know the weekend doesn't start till Friday, but I am going to start with Thursday. That is since I got to go out for a girl's night out of Bunco.  Central Piedmont Mommies has two monthly groups that meet up for Bunco each month. I try my best to make it to the Thursday group each month. Usually we only have about 12 to 16 moms come since we meet at people's homes. But this month Barbara at Plaster Creations was sweet enough to open her doors for our Bunco Group. We had about 25 to 28 people show up. The best part was that a lot were new faces.

We enjoyed some yummy food and great conversation. One of the new faces even walked away with the grand cash prize. I came super close to walking away with the 50/50 cash prize, but fall short. Still had tons of fun and can't wait till next month. I wish I had a group picture, but was to chicken to ask everyone to get together for a photo. I need to just get over this fear and embrace the title of crazy camera lady.

Friday was Family day for the Hilderbrands. I stayed home most of the day and afternoon and got the apartment all clean. Still a few hot spots that need to be organized and cleaned, but hopefully I will get those taken care of this week. Trying to create a weekly cleaning routine, but truthfully I can't stand the idea of having my days planned around cleaning.

Later that night we went to R&R for some BBQ. R&R is a small local restaurant just down the road from our apartment. We were going to go to Sticky Fingers, but decided last minute to take a detour to R&R. We got chicken wings as an appetizer and those were amazing. I decided to get a half rack of ribs as my dinner and Reiggin got BBQ  as his. I picked a roll as one of my sides and had to resist giggling when the waitress brought out a hamburger roll on a coffee filter as my roll. The food was good, but don't know if I would make it a regular in our rotation.

After dinner we did some shopping. Went to Concord Mills and Ross's for Less. I was hoping to find some church clothes, but had no luck. Reiggin was able to find some great deals on work pants and shirts. After all our shopping we made a quick pit stop at Chick Fi La for some ice cream. This was Virginia's reward for being so good while we shopped.

Saturday instead of cleaning some more I decided to go with Reiggin up to Statesville and stay with his Mom while he went up to see his friend Steven. It is always nice to get up to see his parents. Virginia loves her MiMi and PawPaw oh and her cousins Sadie and ZooZoo ( the furry kind of cousins).  We spent the whole day up there and enjoyed a delicious dinner. The best part of eating with his family is his mom always makes home made biscuits.

Sunday turned out to be loads of fun. Virginia and I met some moms from Central Piedmont Mommies at Ci Ci's in Kannapolis for lunch. That place was hoppin when we arrived. Virginia had a bite or two of pizza and then we hopped onto the highway to make our way to Grandma's house. Luckily we made it down in time to see Aunt Susan and Cousin Samantha. Sadly they couldn't stay long, since it was Samantha's nap time. You want to see the most pitiful thing on earth, just watch Virginia and Samantha saying good bye to each other. Hopefully next weekend they will be able to play all day together. Grandma is hoping for a double sleepover, what a brave grandma they have.

We stayed for most of the day and night playing with Grandma and Grandpa. While Virginia was getting some play time in with Grandma and Grandpa I went outside and cleaned out my car. I believe I vacuumed up about a years worth of cheerios. I believe I won't wait so long to clean my car next time. Or next time will be Reiggin's turn to clean. We watched some of the Super Bowl and then made our way home.

The weekend was more then lovely and it was great being able to see both sides of our family. What did everyone else get into this weekend. If you weekend wasn't exciting please do tell what your make believe weekend was. Next weekend I may be hopping on my jet plane to fly to California to pick up Lisa so we can jet set around Europe taste testing pizza and cheese.

Do Tell, Love and Hate Relationship

This weeks Do Tell topic is Love and Hate Relationships. Do you have something in your life that is a Love and Hate Relationship? For me it is all those fast food restaurant play grounds. We went to Chick Fil A last night for some ice cream. Every time we go Virginia's eyes grow about twice their size when she sees the in door play ground.

I love how happy she gets and how she hops down and starts to make a bee line for the play area. Love hearing her giggle and jump. I even love watching her try new things and climb higher then before.

But then I also realize she is heading into the lions den. Yes as we get closer you hear the roar of the little girls screaming at the top of their lungs. You see the boys running circles and pushing like they are in a demolition race. Then I look down at my little baby that I am about to willingly let go into this madness. She is only two and barely two feet tall if that. So she is still little for these play areas. But she loves going in them and trying her best to climb to the top.

Last night at Chick Fil A there were a ton of kids in the play area. The screaming girls don't brother me that much. You just have to remember to plug your ears. It is the crazy excited boys that get to me. Virginia thinks it is the best thing on earth to see all the boys running back and forth. She gets so excited that she starts to try to run with them. Which is great until some little boy decides to shove her against the wall.

Then I have to suppress my mother protection mode and not pen this little boy to the wall and shake him silly. Instead I just give him a mean look and say we don't push people that is not nice. The best part is when the crowd of kids leave and it is just me and Virginia. I convince myself the play area can hold my weight and that I can still bend my body in all different ways just because it would make my daughter happy as can be if she can reach the top of this tower playground.

She gets so happy when she gets to the top and can see Dad at the bottom. She waves and screams Daddy. All is great until the rush of kids return and then we have to some how wiggle our way down to the bottom past the stampede of kids climbing up.

We get back to the safety of our table and our ice cream cones. We enjoy our ice cream and then pack up to make our way out the door and home. It is just then that I see a light at the end of the tunnel. We are heading out the door as a father and his son are walking in. I have Virginia in my hands and Reiggin is behind me. This little boy that is maybe 10 or 12 stops and holds the door for all three of us to walk out. I say thank you and he shakes his head and says no problem Ma'am. It is at this moment that I want to rush back in and shake his father's hand and say thank you for raising such a good mannered boy.  I can only hope that we are teaching Virginia the same good manners and that one day she will be the well mannered child that is holding the door for a mom and her child.

So what in your life is a Love and Hate Relationship? And how do you handle having to deal with it? For me I am getting better and I don't try to be the over protective mommy. I know it is good for my daughter to test her strengths and try new things. I just cross my fingers and pray she comes back to me in one piece.