MAY DAY! MAY DAY! (a day late!)

The title of this post has multiple meanings.

1. It is a clue for you to use towards figuring out what all our excitement was yesterday while I wait for my Dad to update his blog before I tell the story to you here.
2. Yesterday really was May Day, but I forgot all about it in the excitement of our afternoon adventure AND the family birthday celebration we had for me last night. If you follow me on either Facebook or Twitter, you already know that I have given up on my diet for this weekend as I celebrate my 33rd birthday with lots of cake, booze, and pampering! My birthday actually isn't until Monday (May 4th), but we decided to celebrate all weekend. Kyle, Denise, Brady & Karis came over last night to join us for burgers and margaritas. I can't begin to tell you how special it was to have my two favorite toddlers singing Happy Birthday to me last night when it came time for the Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream Pie. I think the smile on my face in the pictures below should be more than enough proof for you...
3. Keri at Forever Folding Laundry made a post last night about May Day (that I didn't read until this morning!) and it made me remember an old Myers Family Tradition that we used to always do on May Day morning when I was growing up. Every May 1, my Dad would wake my sister and I up and make us go outside barefoot in our pajamas to run three full lap circles around our house. I'm not 100% sure what the reason for this was (other than to make the neighbors think that we were all a little coo-coo-cachoo-crazy!) but I think it had something to do with welcoming the warmer weather and warding off summer colds. Whatever the reason, we did it! So, a new Knopp family tradition was started this morning a day late...Reagan wasn't all that excited about running around in the cold wet grass barefooted, so she didn't get in all three laps. But Ryan and I did, and my Mom and Dad were laughing their heads off as they caught the moment on camera for us!
   

That's it for the "May Day" post. There's still more birthday activity going on this weekend as Momsey & I are spending the day at the spa tomorrow, and there's another cake coming my way on Monday! And maybe, just maybe, I'll be back later today with the post that I know you are all waiting for! Stay tuned...

Nothing!

This post is going to be a post about nothing! Why? Because ever since my parents got here last week, I have been busy doing nothing! I'm loving having them here to chase Reagan around and keep her occupied while I totally take advantage of them and sit around relaxing. It truly has been great! For the most part anyway. My Dad is trying to kill me I think... more on that in a minute.

One of the first things that I did once Momsey & Pops arrived was to take off to go get my hair cut. Trust me when I tell you that it was way past time for this to happen. My hair was extremely long, and I was simply tired of it. Remember this post about my must have girlie item... I no longer need it quite as bad as I used to! Check out the before and after shots below...

Now that I've gotten used to my new "do" I can tell you that I will probably be going even shorter sometime soon! I LOVE IT!

What else have I been doing this week? Running! Or as my dad says, "moving faster than walking." It's funny how I look back on my high school days and remember one of my prime punishments for getting into trouble being that I was forced to get up and run 5 miles with my Dad every morning. I used to hate it... it truly was a punishment as he would literally have to drag me out of my bed to go. Now, I run by choice and I love it. I've been getting my Dad to go with me each day that I head out to run, and I have to admit that it is really very embarrassing that my 63 year old Dad can still kick my butt! He out-ran me by over 2 minutes on a 2.5 mile run the other day. Oh well, at least I am trying. It's frustrating though... in the past week, I have been eating less and exercising more, and I have STOPPED losing weight. I can't explain it. I've decided to eat whatever I want this weekend to get over the frustration! Maybe that will inspire my body to lose weight when I re-start my diet next week. This is my birthday weekend after all, so I figure I have a good excuse to get away with eating anything and everything!

I have something really exciting to tell you that happened today, but I promised my Dad that I would let him blog about it first on his website, so you will just have to wait another day or so for me to share. Just trust me when I tell you that it was super cool to witness! I will at least give you a teaser picture of Reagan and I just before we left to go see the big adventure. (Don't you just love my hair?!?!?!?!)

I Feel So Loved

Imagine my surprise and excitement when I received TWO new blog awards last week! I was dancing and singing throughout my house with sheer joy... everyone else in the house was covering their eyes and ears out of sheer embarrassment!

Ace from If You Think Round Is Funny sent me "The Splash Award" which means that she thinks my blog is alluring, amusing, bewitching, impressive, and inspiring! Thank you very much, Ace!The rule for this award... pass this along to 5 blogs which I also find, alluring, amusing, bewitching, impressive, and inspiring! Here we go...

1. Sara @ Domestically Challenged Sara is the gal that I so wish I was friends with IRL. (In Real Life) She would be the perfect running partner for me. I, however, would probably slow her down and drive her crazy with my need to stop and walk every-so-often!
   
2. Tanya @ Miller Racing Family Tanya and I are like two peas in a pod when it comes to talking NASCAR! It has been so nice to find a fellow blogger who understands my need for speed. Boogity Boogity Boogity!
3. Kelly @ Grand Pooba Kelly is a hilarious blogger! The vlog that she and her sister did about how to use proper blogging ettiquette nearly had me in tears I was laughing so hard.
   
4. Wendy @ A Southern Accent Wendy is a gal that is after my heart with her love for all things Southern including sweet tea and homemade pimento cheese sandwiches.
5. Brooke @ Dinkypops No More Brooke has the sweetest little girl, Temperance (aka Tem Tem) and her posts ALWAYS bring a smile to my face.
   

As if one award per week wasn't enough for me, I was lucky enough to also receive the "Attitude of Gratitude" award from Tanya with the Miller Racing Family for showing a grateful attitude within my posts. Thank you very much, Tanya!I'm passing this award along to five more gracious bloggers...

1. Ace @ If You Think Round Is Funny Ace is the mother of three who is soon to become a local celebrity from her recent zoo commercial.
2. Erica @ Scottsville Erica is the mother of four who has ENDLESS amounts of family fun. And Erica, you will be pleased to know that I finally took my tax info to my accountant today!
3. Kameron @ A Wrinkle In Time Kameron is not just a mom, she is also a mad scientist. Seriously. She is a genius lab scientist person who probably has more brain power in her pinkie toe than I have in my entire body!
4. Heidi @ Mommy Doesn't Live Here Anymore Heidi and I must share the same brain... we both use wine as our escape instead of running away from home when we've had a bad day!
5. Ashley @ Let Go, Laughing Ashley is getting married in EXACTLY two months, and I just wish that we lived close enough to each other so that I could be her Bride's Assistant... she's just the type of bride I love to work with!

So congrats to all of you fellow winning bloggers! I hope you feel as admired, loved, and honored to have received these awards as I do!

Happy Third Birthday Reagan

Being that I am extremely exhausted from the past two days of celebrating Reagan's third birthday, this is going to be a short post. I'll simply share a few photos from the festivities, and you can just take my word that I have one very spoiled little birthday girl!




And just so you know, yes I did make that Barbie cake! Considering that I am the type of cook who buys microwaveable mashed potatoes, I am quite proud of myself!

"I Think My Water Just Broke!"

It seems crazy to me that it has been THREE years to the day since I was lying in bed, talking to my mom on the phone, when I suddenly exclaimed, "I think my water just broke!"

Looking back, I guess you could say that I had "not the greatest" pregnancy. I was constantly nauseous unless I was eating. That might have something to do with why I gained over 60 pounds... I think at least 5 pounds of that was in my nose alone! I couldn't wear normal shoes past week 26 because my feet were so swollen. And finally, I was toxic with preeclampsia which caused me to have to go on bed rest at week 33. But in all honesty, I loved all of it. I truly loved being pregnant. Reagan was a VERY planned baby, and I remember the feeling of being over the moon with excitement when we found out that I was pregnant. Laugh if you must, but I did SIX pregnancy tests that week that ALL came back with a positive result just because I got such joy from seeing those two lines! I cried the first time we heard her heartbeat... it was magical. Ryan would tell me that I was positively glowing every time that we would have an ultrasound... I would just be so excited to catch a glimpse of her. And thinking about the day we found out that we were having a little girl still brings me to tears sometimes. It was Christmas morning, and we had our doctor put the "results" in a sealed envelope that we placed under our tree. The envelope was our final present to open that morning. As soon as we found out that we were having a little girl, I was instantly envisioning ballet shoes, pink dresses and pigtails!I felt like my entire pregnancy was a gift. I loved knowing that it was our time, just the two of us. Every kick, every hiccup, every flip... feelings that only Reagan and I could share. If it weren't for the fact that I was so ready to hold my sweet child in my arms, and for the fact that it really wouldn't have been very fair to her Daddy to do so, I could have stayed pregnant forever! But on April 22, 2006, when my water broke, I was ready. Ready to see her, hold her, nurse her, and love her. She, on the other hand, wasn't quite so ready just yet!We arrived at the hospital where we had planned all along to give birth only to find out that they wanted to send me to a different hospital because our hospital was too busy. I begged my doctor to keep me there, but she said that she had to follow procedure. I cried, my husband started begging on my behalf, I phoned my parents, I prayed. I just wanted to be in "my" hospital where I was comfortable... where I had PLANNED to be. (Remember, I'm a bit of a planner!) My OB came back into the room with the most wonderful news... since I had tested as Group B Strep positive, the other hospital would not accept me. I WAS GOING TO HAVE TO STAY RIGHT WHERE I WAS! Thank you Lord for small blessings in disguise. I had never been so thankful to have a "problem" like Group B Strep before in my life. I was admitted, taken to my birthing suite, and hooked up to several different machines along with a constant IV drip of penicillin for the now gloriously wonderful ailment of Group B Strep! Even though my water had broken, I was showing no signs of labor, so we just settled in for the evening knowing that the next day would be Reagan's birth day. We were so wrong!

The next morning around 9:00, I was induced with pitocin. By noon I was having some seriously strong contractions that were becoming steadily more painful. This lasted until 2 PM when the nurse stopped my pitocin drip to see if I could continue to labor on my own. An hour later, my contractions had stopped completely. I was thankful for the break, but disappointed that I couldn't do it on my own. By 3:30, I was back on the drip at increasingly larger doses. I was determined to not use any drugs... I wanted as natural of a birthing process as possible. I was stupid! I was crazy! I was naive! I was unprepared for the pain of induction! At 5:00 that evening, I was only 1 cm dilated. Despite the fact that I was having NON-STOP contractions (literally one would start before the previous one had even ended) I was still only 1 cm dilated at midnight that night. I accepted the laughing gas that the nurse was offering around 7 PM. By 9:00, I let her give me a shot of morphine. By midnight, I gave up the fight and let my husband and the nurses convince me to have an epidural! Only one hour after the epidural, when my body finally relaxed for the first time in over 15 hours, I was at 7 cm dilated! At 4:30 in the morning on April 24, 2006, I began to push. Nearly two hours later, at 6:12 AM, little Miss Reagan Marie Knopp was born weighing 7 lbs 8 oz and 19.25 inches long.I'll share a brief portion of an entry from my pregnancy journal on the day she was born....

When the nurse handed her to me, I was instantly and madly in love. It was amazing. She looked up at me, and my heart just melted. I will spend the rest of my life doing all that I can to make this little angel happy. I want her to know how much I love her, I want her to know that she can count on me and trust me for anything that she needs, I want her to know that I will protect her, I want her to know that she is capable of doing anything that she wants to accomplish, I want her to know that I will help her make all of her dreams come true because she truly is a dream come true to me.

Now, in just two days, my precious baby will be three years old. None of my feelings have changed since the day that she came into the world... BUT THEY HAVE GROWN MUCH STRONGER!

Pops & Momsey Are HERE!

Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing

FUMING MAD!

Before I even begin writing this, let me go ahead and apologize for any harsh language that I may use. Honestly, if it weren't for the fact that I know my dear sweet Grandmother reads this blog, this post would probably be filled with enough obscenities to make you think that a truck-driving sailor was the author.

I just got home from a horrible run. My normal route takes me by a middle school, and my run today happened to be at the same time that this school was letting out. Everywhere that I looked, kids were milling around... on the school grounds, in the parking lot, and on the sidewalks and roads for blocks and blocks down the street. It was the kids on the sidewalk that gave me some trouble. They all seemed to be walking in small groups, usually 3 or 4 wide, and they were pretty much blocking the sidewalk. As I would get close to them, I would announce, "Coming up behind you!" in the hope that at least one of them would scoot over just a little bit. It was the third group that I came up behind that shocked me to the core. I gave my warning that I was running up behind them, and one of the boys turned around, looked me square in the eyes and said, "F*ck you, b*tch." I nearly fell off the curb of the sidewalk into the street because I was stunned. I kept on running, shaking my head in disgust, when what I really wanted to do was to punch the kid in his teeth. I mean, I was expecting a reply like, "Oh, excuse me." I certainly wasn't expecting to hear what I heard! I was about three blocks further down the street when I saw another young boy that was bent over behind his bicycle. I assumed he was having bike trouble until I got closer to him. Nope, he wasn't having trouble. Today is garbage pick-up day for our neighborhood, and he was tying someone's trash can to the back of his bike. He then proceeded to pedal away, laughing, while he drug it about half a mile down the road. I swear if I knew who the kid was or where he lived that I would be knocking on his door right now to make sure that his mother knows what a little sh*t he is. Seriously, what is wrong with these kids? Is this what I can expect Reagan to start learning and picking up on when she is in school? Or am I just over-reacting?

Since I have only been back in the running scene for about a month, and since this is the first time that I have ever encountered this type of problem, can any of you seasoned runners please tell me what is the proper etiquette? Should I announce that I am coming up behind someone on a sidewalk, or should I just step down into the street to go around them?

I need to go cool off (literally!) so I can get ready to go pick up Momsey and Pops from the airport in just a few hours. Thank goodness I have that to look forward to and to cheer me up!

Clearly I've Lost My Mind UPDATED

***UPDATE*** My husband will live to see another day! He came downstairs after his shower and announced that his bathroom and shower had never been so clean! I thanked him for not making me kill him!

original post...

About a month ago, I told my husband that I was going to stop using the lady that helps to clean our house every other week. I would only have her come for an hour each time, and I would only get her to clean the 4 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms upstairs. When I told Ryan that I was going to let her go, his reply was, "No! Don't do that. We hardly have to pay her anything to do it and I like knowing that I have a clean and sanitized bathroom." I fired her anyway. Clearly I lost my mind. What woman would do such a stupid thing as that when her husband has told her that she doesn't have to. I would be that woman.

I was determined that not only could I do the same job that the cleaning lady did, but that I could do it EVEN BETTER than she did it. So today, in the process of cleaning and getting ready for the arrival of Pops and Momsey tomorrow, I decided to tackle Ryan's bathroom as well. Guess what? I actually enjoyed doing it. (The answer to the question that you just asked yourself is "Yes, Tiffany is completely crazy.") I even squeegied his mirror to guarantee a streak-free shine! I found great satisfaction in seeing that I was able to get rid of all the gunk and grime that the cleaning lady never seemed to be able to do. There always seemed to be a few spots that she would miss. So, I now know that I will not be asking her to come back.

I'm now off to wash all the windows and clean the window frames. Then I need to dust all the baseboards and ceiling fans. I think I may be just a little bit high from all of the bleach fumes!

And by the way, if your regularly scheduled programming on TV tonight is interrupted by a breaking news bulletin about a lady in Canada who killed her husband because he failed to notice or comment on his sparkling clean and sanitized bathroom, you will know that it was me. Please encourage whatever lawyer that I am assigned to go with a case of insanity because as I said before, clearly I have lost my mind!

What I Can't Live Without

You probably remember from just a few posts down that I participated in the Blog Spring Fling that was organized by Sara over at Domestically Challenged. I joined in on all of the chaos and posted about the one girlie product that I couldn't live without just to have a little fun and to meet some new bloggy friends. Little did I remember that there would be a winner to all of the blog swapping madness. Imagine my surprise and excitement this morning when I found out that... I WON! Now, I'm pretty sure that I won the prize due to a total random draw and not because my post was so super fantastic. Regardless, I figured I would share my own post on my own blog anyway! Here goes...

I would be lost without this particular girlie product: elastic, rubberband, hair bow, hair tie, scrunchie, ponytail holder, hair thing-a-ma-bob, pull back... whatever you may choose to call it, I can't live without it! I have long hair. Really long hair. Hair past my bra strap long hair that has been known to get caught in my underarms when I am blowing it dry. (By the way, I am getting a MUCH needed haircut next week!) What is a girl to do with all this hair you may ask? Pull it back in a ponytail and go. I very rarely wear my hair down anymore... it tends to get in the way when I'm chasing my three year old around. I mean, who has time to worry about styling their hair anyway? Anyone who knows me would tell you that I always have my hair up and out of my face. It could be in a nice stylish ponytail or haphazardly tied into a knot, but I am never without my above mentioned hair things. (Why do they have so many names anyway?!?) 99% of the time, I'll have one in my hair and one around my wrist. Because what could be more stylish than a cheap hair tie for a bracelet, people! Fashion experts from around the world try to contact me daily to see how it is I can come up with such original ideas! But seriously, I always have a spare in case the one in my hair should suddenly fall out or disappear. I'm a little bit OCD in that way. So yes, my "must have" may be simple, but trust me when I tell you I would be lost without it. (Like really lost... not being able to see out from behind all of this hair lost!)

So there you have it. That little gem of post won me some fabulous gifts! I'll soon be the proud owner of a blogging t-shirt that will probably be similar to any of these samples...
AND... I also won this adorable charm from Noisy Bird Studio on Etsy.
Maybe my husband will stop complaining so much about all the time that I spend on the computer when he realizes that I can actually WIN stuff by blogging!

Thank you again Sara for hosting the Spring Fling! And thanks for these AWESOME gifts!

Being Southern

Anyone who has recently been reading this blog knows that I am in the midst of trying to lose some weight. Today was a beautiful day here, so my sister-in-law and I decided to go for a long walk together. We threw the kids in their strollers, and off we went for 5.5 miles. I felt great afterwards, so I did a few hundred crunches not long after I got home. Later in the day, I stupidly decided that it would be a good idea for me to go for a two mile run. Once I got home, I proceeded to tell my husband that I was going "to monkey." He looked at me like I was speaking a foreign language.

"What?" he said.
Gasping for breath, I answered, "I'm going to monkey. You know, throw up. Vomit. Spew chunks."
His reply, "I have no idea what you are talking about."

I didn't bother to explain as I was too busy trying not to die. I thankfully did not get sick like I surely felt I was going to do. Tonight, I was talking to my brother-in-law on the phone, and I asked him if he knew what it meant. He too was clueless as to what I was talking about. I decided to do a poll of all my Facebook friends just to make sure that this was not some phrase I had made up in my sleep at some point in my life. Sure enough, I was justified. ALL of my southern friends from back home in South Carolina knew exactly what I was talking about.

This whole situation caused me to start thinking. There are many phrases and instances that are so different in the South. One debate that my husband and I often have is about toques/toboggans. A toque is the Canadian term for a knitted hat, originally of wool though now often of synthetic fibers, that is designed to provide warmth in winter. Well, in the South we call that a toboggan. That is just one example of many language barrier arguments in our house!

I had recently made a post about being Canadian... now let me tell you about BEING SOUTHERN!

Southerns are easily identified by a few key phrases that are always used. Two examples are y'all and bless your heart.

Y'all, pronounced as one syllable, is a contraction for "you all" and is one of the most common expressions that Southerns are recognized for.

Bless your heart is a response that you would give to another person's luck, be it good or bad. For instance, you may say "Well bless your heart" to someone who has just given birth, and you may also say it to someone who has just lost their dog.

Ryan cracks up at me when I tell him that dinner is ready and he needs to come "fix his plate." His response is the same every time... "I didn't know it was broken." Southerns also use fix to let you know that we are going to do something. For example, "I'm fixin' to go to the store. Do you need anything?"

Both my Mom and my Grandmother are both known to be "piddlin" around the house when I give them a call to see what they have been up to. Piddlin means that you are doing nothing of any importance, but more or less doing lots of nothing!

You are taught as a young child in the South to respect you elders by addressing them with either Ma'am or Sir. I'm trying my best to pass that trait onto Reagan by encouraging her to answer with either yes ma'am/yes sir or no ma'am/no sir. As long as she has a least a smidgen (Southern slang for a very small amount) of my accent and Southern manners, I will be one happy Mama!

I have to give thanks to Cecilia Budd Grimes, the author of What It Means To Be Southern, for a little help with writing this post!

Also, I've acquired a few new followers recently for this blog, so if this is your first time reading my craziness, let me take this moment to say, "Hi! Thanks for stopping by... it sure is nice to meet you. Feel free to stick around or come back anytime you would like... just make yourself at home! And bless your heart for stopping by in the first place!"

Spring Fling

Like I haven't confused all of you enough already by going and TOTALLY changing my blog, I'm going to confuse you even more by letting someone else post on my blog today!

Sara over at Domestically Challenged created this fabulous idea for a Spring Fling. Here's how it works... Everyone who chose to participate had to write a post about the one girlie product that we can not live without. We then emailed that post to Sara who RANDOMLY forwarded it on to someone else who is participating. And now for the fun part! Sara has created links on her blog to everyone who is taking part in the blog flinging today, and we get to go on a scavenger hunt of sorts to find our original post. It's such a great idea in that it enables all of us to discover new blogs and meet some new bloggy friends.

You'll have to go to Sara's blog and check out all of the other links to find my post about those little round hair things that have at least a dozen different names. I get the honor of sharing with you what Mandi from Life is Just a Bowl of Cherries can't live without.

It didn't take me long to figure out the one thing (okay there are many things) that I couldn't live without. My red heels are the answer to almost any getting ready question.

What would make my butt look better in these jeans?
What would go great with this dress?
This outfit feels boring, what would make it feel sexy?
Honey what shoes do you think I should wear?

Of course the answer to all of these is this:
These are my super sexy Nine West heels. I love them and have worn them so much that they are actually (gasp) comfortable! I would wear them all the time if I didn't think it would make me look like a cougar. Okay, maybe not all the time since I don't think I could live without my crocs either!

Thank you Mandi for sharing this. And yes girlfriend, these heels are HOT! If my husband hadn't banned me from wearing any type of heel whatsoever because they make me that much taller than him, I would be running out to get a pair of these myself!

Now, head on ever to Domestically Challenged to find my post and to see what everyone else just can't live without. Have fun!

PAGING DOCTOR MOMMY

So what do you think so far of the new blog?! I'm loving it! There are still a few kinks to work out, but it's going to be FABULOUS when it is completely done!

So what prompted this decision? Many things actually. With my new desire to have a blog that is more than just pictures of Reagan, I wanted to do a little jazzing up to the look of things. Plus, my parents have made the comment numerous times lately that the blog no longer seems to be "Reagan's blog" but more "Tiffany's blog". With that in mind, I made some changes. Plus, eventually, there will hopefully be more children than just Reagan in our family. No, not now! We're not even thinking about that right now. But eventually. So it wouldn't be fair to any future children if they didn't have a blog of their own as well. And let's face it, sometimes one blog is even more than enough for me to handle! Thus, I created Doctor Mommy.

First and foremost, let me make it clear that I AM NOT A DOCTOR! However, I may as well be one. My daughter calls me Doctor Mommy, my nephew will not allow anyone but me to remove slivers/splinters from his hands, and my husband calls me the family pharmacist. So when I decided to make some changes to our family blog, Paging Doctor Mommy seemed like the perfect fit! And we’ve certainly had our fair share of medical dramas around here. Reagan was hospitalized with RSV for 17 days, she suffered severe second and third degree burns to the bottom of her feet, and she received 8 stitches above her left eye all before she was even two years old. And let’s not forget that my husband had to have three back surgeries (only one of which was planned) in less than three months!

Besides playing Doctor, I am a wife, a mother, a daughter, and a sister. I am a Carolina Girl who is living in a Canadian world. I am a full time stay-at-home mom and a part time wedding planner/bridal assistant. I am addicted to Starbucks coffee, I count Weight Watchers points like a crazed lunatic, I love to read, I love to run, I love the beach, and I crave the sun. My days are filled with Reagan’s endless adventures, trying to keep the house from looking like a tornado came through, contemplating what to do for dinner, and spending evenings with my husband… all while offering an endless supply of band-aids and kisses!

Get Ready

Are you ready for the changes that are coming to this blog?  I can hardly wait for the big reveal!

The Stanley Cup

It's that time of year in the Knopp household... time for the NHL Stanley Cup Hockey Playoffs! While hockey may not be my first choice of sporting event to watch, it is a very integral part of my marriage. After all, my husband and I did meet at a hockey game! (Maybe I'll tell that story some other time...) During the regular season, we usually only watch our hometown Vancouver Canucks, which means that we are watching hockey at least three nights a week from September to April. Honestly, that is all I can take. Trying to watch that much hockey in between all of our other 30+ programs that we watch a week is sometimes a bit much. Can you tell that we possibly watch a little too much TV? But during the 2 months of playoff hockey, I agree to watch it all. I have to admit though, I am sometimes cheering the loudest of anyone during game seven of the final series just because I know that means that it is all finally over! Knowing that I have a tendency to feel that way, I decided to do something to make it a little more entertaining for me this year. I JOINED RYAN'S PLAYOFF HOCKEY POOL! You heard it hear first folks, the Detroit Red Wings are going to win the Stanley Cup this year... and by doing so I will hopefully win $200! My prediction is that the final series will be the Detroit Red Wings and the Washington Capitals. Here's my pool team of ten players, several of which are Red Wings. Wish me luck!

PAVEL DATSYUK ~ NICKLAS LIDSTROM ~ JOHAN FRANZEN ~ JIRI HUDLER ~ MARTIN HAVLAT ~ KRIS VERSTEEG ~ ANDREW LADD ~ MICHAEL NYLANDER
TOMAS FLEISCHMANN ~ ALEXANDRE BURROWS

Not Me! Monday

Let's take our not-so-proud moments and spin them around in a delightful therapy session, shall we? This kind of therapy is free, funny, and oh so refreshing. That's right: It's time for Not Me! Monday!

For nearly the past month, MckMama (the creator of Not Me! Monday) has been in the hospital with her 6 month old son Stellan who is fighting for his life due to very rare case of SVT and cardiomyopathy. During this month, I have NOT clicked on her blog thousands of times to see how that sweet baby is doing. I also have NOT come to tears reading the details about a family that I have never met.

I did NOT rearrange Reagan's bedroom three times in one day trying to decide which layout looked the best. I also did NOT end up putting the room back exactly the same way that it was when I started! Nope, NOT ME! Only a crazy lady would do something like that.

I am NOT driving my husband crazy with all of my dieting and exercising. He does NOT complain every single night about what I have made for dinner and ask when we will be allowed to eat real food again.

For this reason, I think my husband may be even more excited than I am about the fact that my parents are coming into town next week to help us celebrate Reagan's third birthday. I am NOT counting down the days until they are here (8 more sleeps in case you were wondering!) and I have NOT been counting down the days since they booked their tickets back in February!

I did NOT totally ignore my diet yesterday and eat chocolate candy by the handful for Easter! Oh well, looks like I'll be running a few extra miles this week to make up for it.

I did NOT nearly lose my mind last week while trying to get Reagan to sleep on her own in her big girl bed once again after her bout with croup. And now that she is back in her room, my husband and I do NOT do a little happy dance in our bed each night before falling asleep as we enjoy all of the extra space that our bed now seems to have. (Get your dirty minds out of the gutter people! Vertical dancing... not horizontal!)

And finally, I am NOT super excited about the fact that I am getting a little makeover. A BLOG MAKEOVER that is! Stay tuned... there's big changes coming to this site soon!

Happy Easter

Reagan woke up this morning at 7:30, CLIMBED DOWN OUT OF HER BIG GIRL BED, and came into our room to wake us up so we could go see if the Easter Bunny left her any goodies downstairs. HE DID! She was so excited, and is now even more hyper than normal due to all the chocolate that she had for breakfast. I feel sorry for the pre-school and nursery workers at church this morning...

Guess Who Slept In Her Big Girl Bed?!

Which One Would You Choose?

Reagan's sleeping arrangements have been an ongoing issue for us since the day she was born. She has wanted to sleep with me since that very first night. And I don't just mean in the same bed... she wants to sleep on me, under me, around me, and against me. We'll go through spells of time where she sleeps on her own, and then she will suddenly revert back to that child who has to be with Mommy all hours of the night. She had been doing REALLY well at sleeping in her big girl bed for the past few months. That is, until the nasty croup came along. When she was sick the other week, we were forced to go back to sleeping together because she was having such a difficult time breathing at night and I just didn't feel comfortable leaving her alone. And now, I'm paying the price. It's like the kid thinks that her bed is made of monsters, snakes, bees and anything else that might cause fear to a near-three year old. She just flat out refuses to sleep in her bed unless I sleep there with her. I tried that for a few nights, but my back and neck can only take so much of sharing a twin bed! So once I moved back to my and Ryan's bed, Reagan assumed that she was making that move as well. After about five nights of Ryan and I both being kicked in the head by a very unruly sleeper named Reagan, we decided to lay down the law. Last night when I put her to bed, I explained to her that if she got up during the night, that I was NOT going to come into her room to help her go back to sleep. I then further explained that if she got out of her bed and came into our room that she would have to sleep on the floor because she was NOT sleeping in our bed again. She went to sleep. That was at 7:30. I think it was around 10:00 when the screaming started. After about 5 minutes had gone by, we heard her bedroom door open and then the sound of little feet running down the hallway. Sure enough, there she was at my side of the bed crying and trying to climb in. NO WAY KIDDO! NOT THIS TIME! I showed her the little mattress from her old toddler bed that I had placed on the floor and told her she had to choose: her bed, or the floor. She sat on the little mattress and cried her little head off until she finally gave up and fell asleep. She was still laying there curled up in a ball when I woke up at 7:00 this morning. Hopefully, we will only have to do this for a few nights before she realizes that her bed really is a much nicer place to sleep! And if not, at least Ryan and I both got a full night's sleep without little Miss Priss wriggling around between us!

Oh, and just so you know... the Easter Bunny may not be making an appearance at our house this year. And if he does, it might be a few weeks late. "Mean Mommy" that I am, I have told Reagan that the Easter Bunny will not come to see her this year unless she can sleep in her big girl bed like the big girl that she is. Hopefully we will have this problem resolved before Sunday, but something tells me that it may be Halloween before we dye eggs around here!

Any advice or tried and true tips that you have to help solve this problem would be MUCH appreciated y'all!

Inspirational Blogger Award

I have been blogging since Reagan was born. The few people who have been following this blog since that time (meaning her grandparents!) know that at the beginning, this blog was really nothing but pictures. I think Reagan's Great-Gran even made the comment one time that Reagan must not have any new cute outfits to show off because it had been such a while since I had made a post. OUCH! Yes, the truth hurts. For the longest time, this blog really didn't have any substance to it. Not that it has a whole heck of a lot of substance to it now, but anyway...

I noticed a change in the way that I create my posts starting last summer. It was also during last summer that my parents created their blog to document their travels as full-time RVers. My parents have a true talent for telling a story... each of their posts is always done in full detail about their activities and events. During our summer vacation with my parents last year (the trip that I called the West Coast Motor Home Adventure) I was very impressed with the way my parents would "tell the story" of our trip on their blog posts. I was so impressed, that once I got home and updated my own blog, I noticed that I was giving way more details with my description of my pictures, and I was even copying verbatim some of the very same things that my parents had said on their blog about similar pictures. It was then that I discovered what blogging can truly be. It's not just a scrapbook of photos, but it is a life story. At least that it was I am now aspiring for my blog to be.

When I was given the Kreativ Blogger award earlier in the week, I knew that I wanted to honor some of the other blogs that I check on a daily basis. As I said in my previous post, those girls rock! But I also wanted to find a way to honor my parents blog. Yes, their blog is creative... there is no doubt about that. But for me, their blog is so much more. It was my inspiration to become a better story-teller. So, I have actually created my very own award.... the INSPIRATIONAL BLOGGER AWARD. This is an award that can only be given once, but I hope that it will be passed around now that it has been designed. My parents blog inspired me to be a better blogger, and they can pass it on to the blogger that has most inspired them. The rules for this award will be easy:

1. Post the award on your blog, and link to the person who gave you the award.
2. Tell why or how the person that you are giving the award to has inspired you.
3. E-mail or comment on that blog to let the person know you've given them the award.

So, without further ado, I present for the very first time, my INSPIRATIONAL BLOGGER AWARD to... Skip and Cindy at Chasing the Dream.

My First Blog Award!

Somebody call the local news station… I’ve received a blog award! Ever since I found out that Sara over at Domestically Challenged awarded me with the Kreativ Blogger award, I have been singing and dancing through the house. Ryan truly thinks that I have lost my mind about this, but I am just so excited! If you haven’t done it already, you really should check out Sara’s blog. She is the mother of two boys, a teacher, a runner, a hilarious writer, and a self-proclaimed NON-domestic goddess who is a rock star of the microwave. She’s the type of gal that I would be best friends with in real life! (She is even more super cool because of the fact that she created a post about her dream Spring Break Vacation which including a REAL LIFE visit to go shopping with ME!)

Here are the rules for this award:

1. Post the award on your blog, and link to the person who gave you the award.
2. List seven things you love.
3. List seven blogs you love.
4. E-mail or comment on those blogs to let the people know you've given them the award.

Okay… for the 7 things I love…

1. I love my family!
2. I love anything chocolate, Starbucks Caramel Macchiatos, red wine, cold beer on a hot day, and Mexican food!
3. I love running, and I have recently started doing it again as I’m trying to lose at least 20 pounds by summer! I’ve cut out all of my number items from number two on this list completely, and I’m starting to go a little crazy from it!
4. I have become addicted to blogging. I love it! I feel like a have a whole new sorority chapter of friends in my computer!
5. I love to use exclamation points, and I tend to use them way too much!
6. I love my job as a wedding organizer/planner/bridal assistant. (My real job is being a stay-at-home mom to Reagan... the wedding stuff is just for fun!) See my website for more details!
7. I’m going to stop at that because my post of Random 25 Things is the longest one ever written… check it out if you dare to learn even more details about me!

And now, for the 7 blogs that I am passing this award along to…

1. Leslie Ruth at Diary of a Southern Drama Queen
Leslie Ruth reminds me of how much a miss the South! She is a huge Tar Heels fan, just like me, and she loves Chic-Fil-A. (again, just like me!) Whenever I’m feeling a little homesick, I head on over to her site to relax with her Southern charms.
2. Keri at Forever Folding Laundry
Keri and I are like to peas in a pod when it comes to doing laundry. One word can sum it up… PROCRASTINATE! She’s also a little neurotic about keeping a clean bathroom, and would almost resort to having her son do a nature pee in the backyard to prevent a mess in a freshly cleaned bathroom! She’s my kind of girl!
3. LeAnne at House of Howard
LeAnne and I are not just computer-bloggy sorority sisters, we’re Alpha Gamma Delta sisters in real life too from our college days at Troy University in Alabama. (Although when we were there it was called Troy State… sorry LeAnne, I’m telling our age here!) She is the wife and mother of an Air Force family, and she posts the cutest stories about her precious two kids.
4. Megan at My Heart, My Home
Megan is actually my cousin! She is the soon-to-be-mom of baby boy Caleb, and she has a natural talent for blogging. She describes her blog as an everyday casual sort of place, and her posts can include topics ranging from politics to bible studies, and from baking to traveling. And she is an even bigger chocolate lover than I am!
5. Andrea at Smithler
Andrea is the wife to my cousin Jeff, and she is the mother of two beautiful girls. Over the past few years, Jeff & Andrea have lived in South Carolina, Kentucky, Turkey, and now Arizona. She started her blog when they were living in Turkey so that friends and family could keep up with their lives while they were overseas. She now documents the daily events of motherhood with a lot of love and laughter!
6. Tiffani at Still Seeking Sanity
Tiffani (who has such a FABULOUS name!) lives just below me in the State of Washington. She is a mom of four under age five who has been known to duct taper her children’s diapers and has days filled with exciting games like “Where’s that smell coming from?” and “How did he get up THERE?”
7. Francesca and the girls at Three Bay B Chicks
These girls have put together a fantastic blog! All friends since childhood now living in the San Francisco area, their blog covers any and every topic that at mom needs to know. They are all so casual and witty with their posts, that you too feel as if you have known them all of your life!

So go ahead, when you’ve got the time, check out these seven sassy sisters! You won’t regret it.

Me, I’m going to be busy for the next few days perfecting my acceptance speech. I mean, I wouldn’t want to be unprepared when Katie Couric calls to interview me about my new fabulous blog award!

Being Canadian

I hate to admit it, but I think I am becoming more Canadian than I realized. Back in South Carolina, 58 degrees Farenheit (14 C) would not warrant putting on a bathing suit and playing outside. And even if the warmer temperatures did promote you to play outside at all, Carolinians would most certainly would not be playing hockey! Most of them wouldn't anyway. But what do you know... it was a blazing 58 degrees here this morning, and after getting out of the hot tub from a nice relaxing dip, we all decided to stay outside and soak up the sun for awhile. Reagan is proving herself to be quite the natural when it comes to hockey, which makes her Daddy so very very proud. He's even more excited about the fact that she is a left-handed shot, just like him!

We're heading back out to enjoy the nice hot day... I never thought I would consider anything under 70 to be hot!

Pre-School Registration

Yesterday was a big day for us. The pre-school that Reagan will start attending in the Fall (Wind and Tide) had it's Open House for all the new families so that we could complete our registration into the program. Reagan was very excited to go meet her two teachers, Teacher Bev and Teacher Anne. Ryan and I were excited (and nervous) to just meet everyone and to learn more about the school that will be responsible for our baby two mornings a week from September to June. Reagan had a great time playing with all of the other kids that will be her classmates, and she was a natural with the classroom environment. I'm sure that I will be a bit more nostalgic come September, but for now, I am so excited for her to start this new adventure!
Here's her first official school picture...Is it just me, or do you think this kid is beautiful too!?!?

A Long Time Coming

Reagan and her Daddy got to experience something today that they have been waiting to do since November 19th, 2008. It has been 134 days since the last time Ryan was able to hold Reagan due to his three back surgeries. He hasn't been able to lift anything over 5 pounds. (That includes a gallon size container of milk that is full... I am relieved to be done with my morning duties of pouring the milk for his cereal!) Ryan saw his neurosurgeon this afternoon and was given permission to lift (cautiously) up to 40 pounds. I told Reagan the news while he was on his way home, and as soon as she saw his truck pull into the drive she was ready to run out the door. She literally jumped into his arms and gave him the biggest squeeze I had ever seen! It was a very special moment, and I'm not sure who was the happiest between the two to finally be able to truly bear hug once again!

Paging Doctor Mommy

Reagan has croup. And it is not fun.

Her nose started running Thursday last week, and by Friday morning she was running a low-grade fever and had gobs of green goo coming out of her nose. I took her to our family doctor, but he had a colleague covering his practice for the day. That doctor told me that it was just a viral cold and that I should only treat her fever... no cold medicine whatsoever. By Saturday, she was sporting a nasty chesty barking cough and her fever kept climbing. This was pretty much the case all weekend. So, first thing Monday morning, we were back at the doctor's office. Our doctor agreed with me (I had already self-diagnosed her at home) that she had the croup. (For some reason I want to say the croup. Is it the croup, or just croup?!) He gave us a prescription for a very strong steriod elixir called Dexamethasone that is twenty times stronger than Cortisone and seven times stronger than Prednisone. He determined that since she is more susceptible to respiratory infections due to her having RSV as a baby that he needed to really shock her system with this steriod to open up her airways. He wanted her to take 75 mL's of it all at once. 75 ml's = 2.5 ounces = 1/3 cup = a whole heck of a lot for a little girl who hates to take medicine! The pharmacist suggested we add some Kool-Aid to it to disguise the nasty taste. We tried that and it didn't work. So then we added a little lemonade to it... still no luck. Before long, we had almost 10 ounces of medicine/juice that she was supposed to drink and she was flat refusing to even sip it. I phoned our doctor (this was at about 8:00pm on Monday night) and told him how much of a fiasco this medicine was creating, and he said for us to just toss it and try again the next day... he phoned a new prescription for the exact same large amount of nasty medicine and I picked it up first thing Tuesday morning from the pharmacist. The day before, I took ALL of Reagan's toys away and told her she couldn't have them back until she took her medicine. I added a new incentive to the mix on Tuesday... she could get all of her toys back AND she could get a new Barbie if she would take the medicine. She decided to give it a try. I didn't mix it with anything because after the debacle of mixing stuff the day before, I decided to just make her drink it straight so that we had less to get down. It took about half an hour of the tiniest sips I have ever seen in my life, but she finally managed to get about 90% of it down. The other 10% was all over me, her and the floor from when she spit it out after the first taste!

So now, my house is covered in toys once again, and Reagan is the proud owner of the new Barbie with the Barbie dog wash. Her Daddy decided to spoil her even more than I was planning! She's hanging in there with this croup mess. So far, she's not really a whole lot better, but I'm not sure if the steroid was supposed to work overnight. She's also doing the albuterol breathing treatments with our nebulizer machine. She had to do them quite often after she had RSV, so we purchased one to have on hand whenever we have respiratory troubles. She has finally quit fighting us when it comes time to do a mask, and she even asked to do one by herself this morning! She's napping now, so I'm heading off to do some housework and then hopefully catch a quick nap myself.

My Enthusiastic Picasso

Seriously, I have no idea where she got this from, but she created her very own masterpiece! (And a very big mess... thank goodness those are water colors!)

Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing

I DID IT!

I did it! I did it! I did it! You may recall from a previous post, that I am fully aware that I need to get back into shape and that I need to lose about 20 pounds. After much lazy procrastinating, that mission has begun!
You see, I have a bit of an addictive personality... it is all or nothing with me. And for the past year in regards to physical fitness, I have been in the nothing phase! But a few weeks ago, I started getting the itch to do something. It began with me making the comment to Ryan while I was laying on the couch eating a can of cashews that I thought it might be a good idea for us to invest in a treadmill. He looked at me like I was crazy and shook his head. However, a few days later, he made the decision to stop by a fitness equipment store. We looked at several different models and both nearly had a heart attack at the price tags that were attached. We thanked the nice salesman for all of his time and information, and then promptly left the store! That evening, I began to search on our local Craigslist for used treadmills for sale, but nothing really fit the criteria of what I would want for a "home" treadmill. And honestly, I was feeling really guilty about considering the purchase to begin with. A treadmill is a piece of equipment that would be for me... my husband has never been a runner. I was finding a hard time justifying to myself spending any amount of money when I have a perfectly good FREE gym membership to the fitness center that is not even 8 blocks away from my house. The Country Club that I get over 90% of my bridal business from is just around the corner from us, and they very generously gave me an all-inclusive membership to their fitness facility. I've had the certificate from them for almost 4 months, but I had yet to step into their gym until yesterday. I had a meeting with a bride at the country club yesterday, so I took a change of clothes with me and told myself that I had to at least check it out. It's small compared to a few of the big name gyms that I have been a member of over my lifetime, but it has everything that I would possibly use... including a tanning bed! And there was practically no one there. No waiting to get on the treadmill, no line up for the elliptical trainer, and no pressure from Barbie doll look-a-likes working out in what could pass as a bikini or meat-head guys scoping out the ladies while pumping iron. Matter of fact, the only three other people in the place were all men that could join up with my dad in his next shuffleboard competition! (No offense to my dad... that 63 year old man could run circles around me right now considering the fabulous shape that he is in and that he runs 3-5 miles everyday!) So, I made the decision to hop on a treadmill and give it a go. Three miles later, I decided that I needed to stop because I was either go to throw up, pass out, or die. Honestly, I thought all three might happen! I know that Sara (my running idol!) thinks that I was crazy to have done three miles on my first day, but I just couldn't stop. It's that all or nothing attitude of mine! And, it's not like I was running super fast or anything... I never got faster than a 10 minute mile, and the majority of my run was done at about an 11 minute mile pace. But I DID IT! I figured that I would barely be able to walk today, but I actually feel pretty good. I'm sore, but it's that good kind of sore that just tells you that you've done something. So, now I can't wait to get back up to gym this afternoon when Ryan gets home from work. Yep, after just one day back in the gym, I'm already addicted!

She's Still My Baby!

As we arrived at Reagan's gymnastics class this morning, she turned to me and asked me if I would please stay to watch her class. That question was music to my ears. Let me explain...

As I mentioned in a previous post, last week was Spring Break here. Now, being that Reagan is not in school, you would think that would have no effect on us. (Other than the traumatizing experience at Chuck E Cheese!) The Little Gym apparently keeps the same schedule as the school system, because they did not have any of the regular weekly classes last week due to Spring Break. Instead, they had themed camps that the kids could sign up to go to for 3 hours each day. I had never dropped Reagan off and left her for any activity before, but another mom in the class was letting her little girl go to the camp, and she convinced me to let Reagan do it with her. So, on Friday last week, I drove Reagan to her camp. On the way there, I was worried how she would handle my leaving. I explained to her how gymnastics was going to be a little different that day in that she would be staying much longer, that she would do some arts and crafts, and that she would have snack time along with her regular gymnastics stuff. I also explained to her that I was NOT going to stay and watch. She sat quietly in her car seat for a few moments, and then asked me, "Well, how am I going to get home?" I laughed and told her not to worry, that I would be back to pick her up once the camp had ended. We arrived at the gym, and she was immediately telling me goodbye. I told her that I would walk inside with her and help her get ready for class... she seemed a bit reluctant to agree, but said OK. Once inside, I helped her put her socks and shoes and snack-pack into her locker, and she then quickly gave me a hug and told me goodbye once again. I was a bit surprised, so I bent down and told her that I would stay until she went into the gym. She looked at me, looked around the room, and then looked back at me again. With an expression on her face that I didn't think I would see for MANY more years, she said, "All the other Mommy's have left. You need to go now!" So, out the door I went. I sat in the parking lot for quite some time trying to figure out how my little girl had grown up in an instant. I wasn't sure whether I wanted to laugh or cry... I ultimately ended up doing a little bit of both! When I went to pick her up later that afternoon, it was obvious that she had not missed me in the slightest. She did run to me and give me a big hug, but she couldn't stop talking about all of the things that she had done. It was comforting to know that she can be so independent, but it made me a bit sad and reminiscent all the same. So, I was pleased beyond belief when she asked me to stay today for her regular gym class. Maybe she will be my baby for just a little bit longer!

Your Prayers Are Needed

I was planning to post another edition of Not Me! Monday this morning. I went over to MckMama's blog to get the button and the link to create my post... I was in shock and disbelief as I clicked on the website and read her latest posts.

You can go to her site to read the details for yourself, but her 5 month old son Stellan needs our prayers as he is fighting for his life once again. Please join me in praying for this family!