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Monday, November 29, 2010

I'll be back soon!

I'm sorry I have been slacking on my blog lately! I've had a lot of school work, and family obligations. I promise in a few days I will come back with some exciting posts!

Friday, November 26, 2010

See, I can be creative!

I've been searching the web a lot lately, and have run across a lot of creative mom blogs. It's really stirred this desire in me to become more creative myself. 

You should all know by now that I adore baby head bands. I've made some of my own, but they were only simple bows, or silk flowers hot glued to an alligator clip. 

I decided to try something a little bit different tonight by making a fabric flower. I found this picture while googling fabric flowers:

{Photo source: erinbasset.com}

I learned how to make them, and want to help you learn how too! 


Items you will need:
  • A piece of fabric, any color of your choice. (I used an old pillow case)
  • Scissors 
  • Needle and thread
  • Beads (optional)
  • Fabric Glue (Fabri-Tac is a good option)
  • An elastic headband (homemade, or store bought)
First you'll need to cut, or rip for a more artistic edge, a strip of fabric about 1'' wide, and about 22'' long. You can make the strip longer for bigger flowers. 


Next, tie a knot at one end of the fabric.


Dab a small dot of fabric glue to the knot, you don't need much. 


Now, wrap the fabric around the knot in circles putting fabric glue every 1/2 or 1/4 turn, until you make a complete circle. Leave a small amount of fabric unwrapped at the end, and glue it to the back of the flower circle to secure the wrap. It should look like this when you are done:


The next step is optional: Use any beads or buttons of your choice to place in the middle by sewing them to the flower with a needle and thread. You don't have to be a sewing genius to do this, I simply pulled the thread through the middle of each bead (I used 3 of the beads you see in the photo) and pulled it back through the other side, and tied a knot in the back when I finished. 


For my headband, I used stretchy yarn and made a braid using two strips of yarn for each braid to make it a little thicker. The great thing about making your own headband is that you can customize it to the exact size you need. Then you can simply glue the flower to your headband, using a hot glue gun. 


I realize that I don't have a picture for every step, but give me a break people, it's my first tutorial! I hope you enjoyed this as much as I did. In the next few days, I'm going to play around with a few designs to make a bigger one, and I will post that one as well (with all the necessary pictures this time).

Enjoy your new headband!




New Toy!!

I was going to blog today, but I got my birthday/Christmas present today that is occupying all my time..




9318954 Larger Front
Need I say more?

Hopefully sometime this week I will post some learning shots!


.

Monday, November 22, 2010

Food or Exercise, hmm...

Mommy only got two hours of sleep last night. Before you say I spoke too soon with my last post, it wasn't Kynlee's fault. I have a big problem of not being able to calm my head long enough to fall asleep, and last night that problem got the best of me. 

I won't go into too much detail about that story, because it's really lame. No really, I just laid there for five hours...lame. 

Anyways, I was planning on taking a big nap when the hubs got out of class today, but it was so beautiful outside, I had to go for a walk. In the days leading up to winter, I try to take advantage of every last warm day. 

As soon as lover got back to the apartment we set out for the Greenway. It was so nice to get out and walk, which is something I should really be doing more of. 


Well, the beautiful walk only lasted for approximately 10 minutes, before my little tummy started rumbling. I was starving!

The apartment has been a little empty when it comes to food. Corey has been working more salary jobs, than tip jobs lately, so we haven't had that great of an income the past week or two. Which means no food for mommy. 

Sometimes I'm okay with not eating breakfast or lunch, and scrounging up food for dinner, but today I was starving! 

So my very much needed exercise took a backseat to food, like it always does for some reason. 

Oh well, I'm sure Little Ceasers appreciated my need to eat....I should've just taken a nap. 


Sunday, November 21, 2010

So thats what sleep is...

I don't know what happened to Baby K, but she has decided to let mommy get tons of sleep this week. I'm talking real sleep, REM cycle sleep, I had dreams! 

The past few weeks have consisted of waking up every two hours, which produced one cranky momma. Last Monday, I was prepared to have yet another sleepless night when I laid Kynlee down at 12:30am, but when she woke up to eat, I saw sunlight coming in the window. It was 8:30! I couldn't believe it. She even slept another couple of hours after I nursed her. 

That's how its been all week, 7 or more hours of sleep before waking up to eat. 

Last night Baby K fell asleep while I was rocking her on my lap, so I figured I might as well try to lay her down. I realize I should have went to bed with her so I could get some sleep, but I was really looking forward to reading a new book. 



She stayed asleep, while me and Lover got the longest amount of quiet time we have had since we became parents. We both just sat in the living room reading a book, it was magical.  Ah, the simple things in life. 

Like I said, I don't know what happened to my daughter, but I'm loving it. It would be nice if this was permanent, but I know not to get used to anything anymore. 

Even though I might not get a lot of sleep sometimes, it's all worth it when I have moments like this. 


(I realize it's sideways, but I can't get it to rotate.)



Saturday, November 20, 2010

2am Change and Decorations!

Most of you know by now how much I hate my apartment...Loathe might be the better word. Because we've been trying to find someone to take over the lease, and move to a better place, it has made it difficult for this place to feel like "home" to me. 

We spent a lot of time and money into making Baby K's room special, but she hasn't slept in it once. In fact, we rarely go in there except to get clothes. 
For as long as we live here, she will never sleep in there, especially since it is getting colder outside.
See, we have baseboard heating (which scares the poop out of me anyways), so that means there is no way of controlling the temperature of the entire apartment at once. We can't monitor how warm or cold it gets in her room, so we really don't want her sleeping in there. 

She has been sleeping in her pack-n-play in our room, so she hasn't used her crib once. Since she can roll over now, the bassinet that is connected to the pack-n-play is getting a little small, so we moved the crib into our room so she can finally use it!


After we did that we realized we could find places for everything else in her room that we never use. So at 2am last night, or this morning rather, we rearranged the apartment. 

Before


After:



Now we can use the changing table, and the rocker, which have just been sitting in her room. Even though I still hate the apartment, at least things are a lot more useful. But now we have an empty pointless room, that we still have to pay for =/


Finally, even though the place doesn't feel like home, we still wanted to decorate for Christmas:






Now all we need is a stocking for Kynlee...and a better, safer apartment =)

And just a random picture..



Bed Head

I'm pretty sure my daughter has the craziest head of hair. It's actually pretty tame today.





Friday, November 19, 2010

You like me, you really like me!

I just found out today that my blog has been viewed over 2,000 times! This may not seem like a lot to you, but that is overwhelming for me. When I first started this blog, it was really just for me, and maybe a few friends that would be interested in what I have to say...which isn't a lot. I never imagined that I would actually keep up with it, or that people would even pay attention to it.

Blogging has become something that I really enjoy. I like sharing my life, and thoughts with everyone, more than I thought I would. At first I felt vulnerable about putting so much information out there for everyone to see. But it's actually been a pretty comforting thing to do. Especially when I get feedback offering advice or support.

I've never been big into reading blogs. Before I started this adventure, I really didn't understand all of the benefits of having one. Lately I have been researching and reading bigger, more popular blogs, in an attempt to try to teach myself more about this whole business. I have been inspired through this experience to make my blog even better. I want to reach out to more people, and take this thing more seriously.

I'm sure you have noticed how often I have been changing the backgrounds, and playing around with the design. I know it has been so annoying, but it has all been in an attempt to make it better. I think I have finally settled down on something I like, so I promise you won't have to be dealing with an ever-changing blog anymore. If anything, I hope it only gets better.

So I wanted to thank everyone for supporting what started off as a small idea. And wish me luck as I try to venture out into the world of blogging. If this does happen to turn into something special, which I hope it does, then I will remember the friends who were there in the beginning. If I don't happen to make anything of myself in the blogging world....well, thanks for reading anyways!

Thursday, November 18, 2010

Hair Bow Crazy!

I think it's official; Mommy has gone accessories crazy! It started off as a few simple lace headbands, but I can't help it. Kynlee looks too stinkin cute in bows, and flowers. Call me crazy, I don't care! But I guarantee, she will wear every single one!
My face lit up yesterday as I opened a package from the mail main, containing more items to add to my pile of cuteness. Yes, this is my actual collection of headbands. Before you go jumping down my throat, and saying I should be spending money on diapers instead of hair accessories, you should know that this entire compilation only cost a little over $30, and some of them I made. I found this awesome website that sales everything for wholesale. For example one big flower was .40 cents, and the crochet headbands were $1/each. The crochet hat was $2.99! Other websites sale one headband with a flower for $15.00. So don't call me crazy, call those moms buying one headband for $15.00 crazy.

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Hello friends! Again I apologize for the long pause in my updates. I won't even give you a reason, because it's the same every time. I need to start keeping notes during the day with everything I want to talk about, because every time I start a new post, I always forget what I was going to say. Oh well, hopefully I will remember everything.

Lately Kynlee seems like she is more upset than she is happy. I thought we were over colic, but sometimes I wonder if that isn't the case. I just feel like she is pissed all the time. It doesn't help that she hates being on her tummy, but now that she has learned to roll over on it, that's all she does, and it makes her upset every time.

She can be so happy when we play. She will smile and laugh, and then thirty seconds later it's like you took her favorite toy away! I feel like she hates me, and the only reason she keeps me around is for my teetas.

It gets worse at night. Even though she is a late sleeper, I still try to keep a bedtime routine. I started giving her baths at 10pm, then fed her and laid her down. I was so happy when it worked the first week, she always went to sleep right after she ate. Then one night, she decided that she was no longer going to bed, but instead she was going to take a nap, and not go to bed until much later.

I quickly put an end to that late night nap, but now it seems like we have to soothe her for hours until she finally goes to sleep sometime around 12 or 1am. It's getting so tough. Sometimes I'm desperate and just put her in the swing, even though I don't want her to rely on it. She fights going to sleep so bad, and it makes mommy so tired. I don't know how much more I can handle.

She has also decided not to sleep as well as she used to. I thought I had a miracle child, because we would lay her down around 10 and she would put herself to sleep, then sleep for 5-7 hours, eat, then sleep for another 4 hours. Now she wakes up every 2-4 hours and it's getting old!

I get so angry when people tell me my child is spoiled. I'm not going to let her sit there cry. No, I don't pick her up with every little noise she makes, but I'm not going to let her get choked form crying either. Kynlee happens to be soothed by movement. If she was spoiled then I wouldn't be able to put her down all day. Even if my child was spoiled, it obviously hurts me and makes me angry when I am told that, so it's really not the right thing to say.

Wow! Sorry for the little rant you just experienced. I'm just exhausted from school, and having to deal with Kynlee's newfound sleep habits, or lack there of. On a lighter note, school seems to be going pretty well. I'm almost certain I have straight A's. I would have the best semester of college the one time I have the biggest distraction. If I make the Chancellor's list this semester I should get the super mommy award!

Hopefully I will be giving everyone another update tomorrow! Until then, enjoy your precious sleep, while I stay awake with the night owl that is my daughter.

Thursday, November 11, 2010

Even though we had to take Kynlee to get her shots this morning, today turned out to be a pretty good day. Kynlee did great with her shots, I got to register for class, and we got a nice surprise!

Kynlee slept so good last night. She fell asleep at midnight, then woke up at 7:30 to eat! That was a nice little surprise. When she woke up, I set an alarm to wake up an hour later to get her ready for her doctor appointment at 9:40. I open my eyes sometime later, in a panic, to see that it's 9:32. So I threw the covers off of Corey, and started to freak out. He told me I should call the office and try to get a later appointment, but I was determined to make it on time. 

I threw on jeans with the shirt I slept in, and changed Kynlee in a record 45 seconds, all while Corey had the audacity to waste time brushing his teeth! I am proud to say we walked in the door at 9:41 am. Oh yeaaah!

The doctor said Kynlee is looking very healthy. She now weighs 13lbs 5oz, and she is 24.5in long! She was below average at her first couple of check-ups, but now she is very average!

The good news didn't last long, because we had to give her shots. I was prepared to cry along with her, but she did so good. She only cried for a few seconds, and not as loud as the decibel she reached last time. Then she was her normal happy self as soon as I picked her up. Mommy was so proud. 

After we got home, I gave her some Tylenol just in case she felt any pain, nursed her, then laid her down for a nap, which lasted 4 hours. She was one tired baby!

While she was sleeping, I was trying to get prepared for class registration. I've been working with my advisor on which minor I should choose. Originally, my minor was going to be exercise science, but I still needed 4 classes to complete that requirement, which is pretty much an entire semester. But after looking over my check sheet, I discovered that I was only two classes away from having a sociology minor. 

I also decided that I wanted to take a lot of hours next semester so I could get done even sooner. So I requested to take 19 hours instead of the maximum of 18. This means after next semester, I only have 3 classes left to take, one over the summer, and two next fall semester. With my major, I am required to complete 320 hours of an internship, only after I have finished all of my classes. But I have talked to my advisor, and she thinks I can get an wavier to do my internship while I take my last two classes. So I am proud to say I will officially be done next December!

I honestly thought I was going to be in school forever. I have dropped so many classes, and I have retaken 2. Not to mention I had a freaking baby! I can't believe I will be done sooner than I thought. 

I was so relieved when I found all of this out. Now I just have to figure out how to manage 19 hours next semester. These are the classes I am taking:

 1. Chem 2 
 2. Chem 2 lab
 3. Appalachian Music
 4. History of Rock Music (so excited for this one!)
 5. Sociology of the Family
 6. World Literature
       and either....
   Social Deviance
   Sociology of Appalachian Communities
   or
   Health Promotion Interventions. 

I know it seems like a random group of classes...well, okay, it is. But the music classes are for my humanities, and all the others are for my major and minor. Hopefully we'll have childcare next semester. If we don't....well I really don't want to think negative thoughts like that, because honestly, we'll be screwed!

I wanted to share one more thing with everyone. If you haven't already seen it, you need to go to my Facebook page and watched the video titled "Documentary." A friend of mine asked if he and his partner could film Corey and I with Kynlee for a project. I was a little cautious at first, only because of how busy I already was, but I am so happy we decided to do it. It turned out so good, they did such a great job. This will be something special we can show Kynlee when she gets older. I only wish it was longer, because I didn't want to stop watching it! I would have posted it on here, but I couldn't figure it out. 

Well, I am going to go love on my baby girl. I hope everyone has a good evening. And remember all of our Veterans who have served, are serving, or have given their lives for this country. They are the reason I can have such a wonderful family like I do. Happy Veterans Day! 

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Me and Kynlee went and visited my good friend Brook, and her boyfriend Mark today, and we had a great time. Well Kynlee really just vegged out in front of the TV, but I had a good time!

It's so refreshing to spend time with friends, because I don't get to do it often. I also really miss having a dog around the house, so we got to go play with their "son" Colby. I don't think Kynlee and Colby knew what to do with each other, but I think Kynlee liked him.
The last time Brook got to see Kynlee, she was just a sleeping blob, who wouldn't wake up for anything, so we would talk as Kynlee stayed asleep on Brook's lap (as seen in the picture to the left). I believe she was around 1 1/2 months old, so it's amazing to see how much she has grown in such a short time. I can't imagine what she'll be like a few months from now.
 I'm really excited for her to start sitting up on her own. I can tell she wants to, because she gets frustrated when she can't see  whats going on, so I think she just wants to be involved. It won't be long. When she is sitting in the middle of a boppy, she can hold herself up for a few seconds, then topples over. It's kind of funny to watch =)

We have to take her to the doctor tomorrow for her four month check-up, which means more shots, poor baby! She was so pitiful after the last time she got shots, but one good thing did come of it; Mommy got to catch up on sleep that day! So as much as I don't want her to be discomforted tomorrow, I'm looking forward to the good night's sleep I'm going to get! So wish us luck, and pray for a pain-free visit for Kynlee, I'll let you know how it goes!

Baby Blues..

Sorry for the interruption of the longest blog update ever last night, but I didn't want to put it off until the morning, because I was afraid of losing it for a third time. I can almost guarantee that if I had lost it, I would never write it again.
I'm trying to recall everything that has happened lately, but I am coming up short. There are some things that have been weighing heavily on me though.

1. It's class registration time again. To those people who say Christmas shopping is the most stressful part of their year, obviously hasn't been through college registration. If you go by the 4-year plan, I am supposed to graduate in May. The average is actually 5 years now, because of added requirements and expectations. I got really far behind because of my so-called freshman year.  I don't believe high school properly prepares you for college, because I was thrown for a loop. Classes were hard, and unlike high school, you actually have to study. Gasp!

I realize that I should have been prepared for this, but I didn't have any brothers or sisters that could warn me, and like I said high school is a joke compared to the university level of learning. I also got screwed over during my freshman advising. Those of you that go to App, I'm sure you know what a joke most of the advising department is. She made me believe that I should take classes that interest me to get the 122 hrs of credit to graduate. When I became a sophomore (which took 3 semesters because of poor grades and dropped courses, all due to not being prepared) and started seeing the advisor in my major, I was surprised to find out that was not the case. I assumed I had filled my humanities through the classes that "interest" me, but apparently, there are these things called designators. You have to have so many writing, multi-cultural, numerical data, computer, and cross-disciplinary classes, and I had no clue. I have been stressed since then because I was already behind, and now I had to make up my designators.

 So here I am, in my senior year, with only two classes left to take to complete my major, but having to stick around to fill my designators. Alas, there is good news, smothered somewhere in all of this bad. I had my advising appointment the other day, and thanks to hard work, and an awesome advisor, it looks like I will be graduating next December! Not to toot my own horn or anything, but to have such a rough start to college, a child thrown into the equation, graduating only a semester behind is a great accomplishment. Finally, after 9 semesters, I will be so happy to be out of school.


2. While school is definitely stressful, it's proving to not be as stressful as being a mom sometimes. The other day, I was hit with a tiny case of the baby blues. Kynlee woke up at her normal time, but it was way before I was ready, especially with the little amount of sleep that I did get that night.

So I was already in a bad mood, but for some reason I was feeling very lonely that day, and Corey hadn't even left for work yet. It didn't help that he was expecting his longest day of work in months. I was in desperate need of him to stay home and comfort me, but duty called, as it always does.

I can't say there was any specific reason why I was feeling so down, but it was pretty bad. I was missing my sleep, my friends, and my freedom. I was begging to just lay around all day, and hang out with anyone that night.

I'm hoping everyone knows how in love I am with my daughter and my life, but I can't help that bad thoughts creep into my head sometimes. I was confiding in a friend through Facebook who made me feel a little better about the situation. She reminded me that being a mom can be very stressful, especially if you stay at home with them most of the time. No matter what you do, bad thoughts and feelings will creep up, but that doesn't make me a bad mom, and I shouldn't feel guilty about it.

I think I am just in some desperate need of me time. I love spending time with Kynlee, and I don't really want to be away from her, but the longest I have done anything without her was for a few hours to go see a movie. I'm really hoping me and Corey can go on a date night this Saturday, since he finally has a day off.

Until then, I just have to keep reminding myself that these feelings are normal, and that nothing would ever become of them, because she means more than that.

Tuesday, November 9, 2010

Life Lately...

I know this has been a long time coming, but I am sitting down for the third time to write this update. For the first attempt, I had an awesome update, but decided to edit, and proof-read after my class. Instead of minimizing, I accidentally exited the browser, and there went all of my hard work. So I decided to sit down again and try to re-create, from memory, everything that I said, only to have my computer crash half-way through. Annoying as it is to sit down and write the same post for the third time, I will update this thing for everyone!

First, let me apologize for the boring emptiness that is my page. If you haven't noticed, I've been changing the background a lot lately. I'm a very picky, visual person, and I like to have things the exact way I want it. So I keep playing around with different backgrounds, and I will probably do this until I find something I like. Sorry if it's bothersome. 

Second, I want to apologize for not keeping up with this lately, but I will throw out the mommy card again, because that is always my best excuse. Life has been busy, and when I did have free time, I decided to relax or take a nap. Sorry for being so selfish =)

I'm going to try and share everything that has happened lately, so this could turn out to be a really long post, if so then sit down, buckle up, and enjoy. If it's not, then I am over-estimating how exciting my life really is. So in no specific order, here it goes:

1.  Last week, my dear friend Rupert passed away. Before you go sending me cards, and flowers, you should know Rupert was my car. 

Rupert was the best gay car I could ever ask for. Yes, he was gay, but I'm not going to judge him for that, and I'm going to ask that you don't either. I literally cried when we drove away from him for the last time. I'm really going to miss him, but all good things must come to an end. But with the end of something old, comes the beginning of something new. After Rupert's death, I entered into the world of car shopping. For most people, like my 
husband, this isn't a very pleasurable experience. But I've been very fortunate to find the perfect car for a good deal, on the first day of shopping, every time. I really wanted to find a big SUV, with third row 
seating (for all the future baby Mosers), but that wasn't really possible with my budget right now. 
I also didn't want a manual transmission. I have been driving a stick-shift for the past four years, and it was beginning to drive me bonkers! It even made me start 
using words like bonkers. We ended up getting a really good deal on a 2008 Jeep Patriot. 
I think I'll name him Gunther. So far, Gunther has been good to me. He's not as big as Rupert, and no one recognizes me when I drive around town, but I do loooovee driving an automatic again. So getting a new car was fun!

2. This past weekend we took our first family vacation to Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge, for Halloween. Corey's mom took us, My sister and brother-in-law, and their children, for Corey's 23rd birthday. We were worried about how Kynlee would adjust to a different scenery, and being stuck in the car seat a lot, but she was amazing the whole weekend. When we're at home, she doesn't nap a lot during the day, and it's a battle to get her to sleep at night. Don't even think about trying to lay her down before 10pm, it's such a pain. She did so good staying in the car seat a lot, and she loved being put in the Sleepy Wrap to walk around downtown Gatlinburg. We would usually get back to the hotel room around 9, and let her socialize with everyone for a little bit before heading to our room. She would lay on the bed with us for a few minutes to play, but she passed out within minutes, every time. She didn't even wake up to be moved to her pack-n-play, and only woke up once at night to eat. Who knew we would be getting so much sleep on vacation, it was amazing. The weekend was fun, and she looked so stinkin cute in her Halloween outfits. 









Well friends, I know I promised a big update, but Miss Kynlee decided she is ready to go to bed, so I'm going to take this opportunity to sleep myself. I promise I will finish this tomorrow, but I want to post this before I lose it for a third time. Good night everyone!

Friday, November 5, 2010

Sad day...

I am so sad. I finally sat down to update the blog, and I wrote an awesome update for everyone....but then I accidentally exited the browser. I am so upset. I promise as soon as Kynlee takes another nap, I will try again. =(

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