Three years ago today my sweet Emma Grace was born.

In case you are new to A Mom’s Life.. Emma is my cousin’s little girl that I am a Godparent too.. Well maybe more than that.. I dont know how to describe it. She is my little person. I felt our connection before she was even born. I took care of her mom when she was pregnant and then was the labor coach when she was born. I cut the umbilical cord and held her in those first precious moments when she was brand new.  I loved her from the start and knew we’d be friends….

This is her and I the day she came home from the hospital. She was such a tiny little toot. I was deep in a depression over our infertility and youd think a new baby around would have deepened it.. but it didnt.  She wasnt mine.. and I was still not pregnant. (and still am not)  BUT Holding that tiny little gift was like a salve on the wound. I cant even explain why. She still is.

Happy Birthday Sweet Girl.

I got caught in a blog warp. A cycle of procrastination, and then guilt and finally appathy. I hate that too.. because I love my blog and really really enjoy reading past entries. SO I am rebooting my blog.

restart.

The main reason I got stuck was the fact that so much had happened since I last blogged that I was dreading the monster huge post Id have to make in order to catch everyone up on life and whatever… so Im not doing it. You get bullets.

*job* Ugh. long stupid story. I am currently unemployed. When last we “spoke”  I was enjoying a new job.. but did not feel very stable. Good reason for it. Days after that post was made, I was laid off.. well told that “I cant afford your salary” nice right?  Sure.. quit your sucky but totally stable job to come work for me.. but wait, I cant afford you after all. My boss closed the place for a few days.. let the staff all go and then re-opened running the whole place by herself.. I havent been back in. whatever Steven and I decided that I would spend the summer with the Things. Chill out. Read books, go to summer camp, lay out by the pool. Cut the grass.. cook out, do volunteer work. play. YAY. I didnt know if I would like it.. But so far? I am liking being home again.  In the fall I plan to get registered to be a substitute teacher. That could be fun right?

*kids**. The Things are good.  Both are playing ball still. T1’s season finally got underway. She is loving it. She blossoms on the field. I love seeing her become more and more sure of herself and really enjoy being athletic. SO fun. T2  is still slogging through her season. They arent winning that often, but still are having a good time. If anything she is getting a lot of fluids drinking all that gaterade! lol They finally finished all of thier testing at school (it gets out on June 4!) and its party down time now. I cant believe they are both graduating up this year! My babies arent babies any more. T1 will go to HIGH SCHOOL this fall. It makes me sad, yet excited at the same time. T2 will move from the primary school that we love love love to the elementary school that looks like a prison. I hated it when T1 was there and I dread my baby going there. But there isnt any choice in the matter. The private schools in the area arent an option and there arent any other public ones. boo. I guess we just gotta work through it.

**weight watchers** We started back. Steven and Jasmin of course are doing awesome.. for the most part. I am sticking to it pretty well. I cheat sometimes. Then feel guilty for cheating.. then stick to it religiously for a few days and then cheat again. Church meals are KILLING us this time. It seems like there have been a huge amount of potluck church dinners lately. and how do you deal with a buffet of homecooking? YIKES. We may have to resort to either just not attending, or eating before we go and bringing a big bowl of fruit and ONLY eating that. Its a struggle for sure…but I feel like maybe this time at home might be my chance to concentrate on weight loss so we can get pregnant. 

**Steven’s Health** Steve-o is doing pretty well. He has “episodes” where his tummy hurts and he has to work to eat right. WW is really helping that. . We go back to the dr 6-18.. so I am anxious to see what he will say about the “episodes”.

sooo thats us.. and now Im picking up and plan to blog every day again. I miss it. .. and you. Let me know if you are out there. De-lurk and let me know you are reading. Id love to hear from you!

See? I told you Id get back around to finishing this trip report!

This day started out pretty dissapointing.. well kind of. We had planned to hit anything we missedin DC and see the Archives and the Library of Congress.. but when we got to the Metro stop it was pretty clear that idea wasnt so hot.. It was the official day of the DC cherry Blossom festival and parade.. and the metro stop furthest from the city was PACKED beyond anything we could cope with.. I could only imagine just how crowded the city was that day! NO WAY! So we had planned to head back to baltimore and rest.. perhaps see a movie or whatever.. (allowing our poor sick host to rest!) As we were heading back to BMore though.. I decided to call Lisa and see what they were up to for the day. I was really happy that they didnt have any set plans and were up for heading out to breakfast together. The last time I was in Baltimore  (with our sweet friend Shanny) Lisa took us to her favorite breakfast place “cookies cafe” and I loved it.. I was excited to take Steven and the babies there too! Steve tried scrapple. And loved it.. we meant to pick some up.. but forgot. NEXT TIME FOR SURE!

The girls posed with the silly statue/doll they have there.. It was so fun! I just realized that because the weather was cool we wore our sweatshirts/jackets the whole time.. it kinda looks like we wore the same clothes the whole trip! oops!

After breakfast Lisa and Pete took us on a driving tour of the city. T2 had studied all about Fort McHenry and was excited to see it. We drove up there and walked around some. The weather was so pretty.. but the wind was WHIPPING. I was certainly glad I had a jacket on. This Carolina girl’s blood has gotten very thin!

I still think Lisa took her life into her hands being out in the wind with that awful cold.. but  after we saw Ft. McHenry and I picked up a little souvinear for the kids , we went to a park on federal hill to see the view of the city and and the inner harbor. It was so pretty up there.

Id think that by now the girls would have been tired of posing for pictures.. but nope! They posed for “ms lisa” for this cutie.

We spent a good bit of time up on Federal Hill. The girls ran around and had a good time. Although T2 kept getting WAY to close to the edge of where the hill broke off to a drop off down to the harbor!

We dont have the “smooch” photo down to a science like Lisa and Pete do.. but I like this one

After spending about an hour at the park Lisa and Pete showed us more of Baltimore. We saw where both Lisa and Pete work and the girls were exposed to some of what a big city looks like. T1 was mezmerized by the graffiti everywhere. She mentioned it constantly. Im not sure why it was so interesting to her.. maybe that the city didnt cover it up right away. Here in Dillon whenever anyone tags something, or paints anything its repainted right away. Of course being food network Junkies we had to have our photos taken in front of Charm City Cakes.. where the show “Ace of Cakes” is filmed. We saw some bakery staff members bringing cakes out to the van.. we tried not to be tooooo obvious in our gawking. But ya gotta be tourists sometimes!

After our amazing tour of the city we headed back to Lisa’s to rest. We al lazed around and relaxed. We played some serious Wii (Disney Think Fast! was a HUGE hit with the girls.) games and napped some.  We had a late lunch and just relaxed together. It was so much fun to just hang out and not have to run here or there.. Lisa and I got so much time to just get to know eachother and chat. I feel pretty special to have gotten that time with her!

After a lovely afternoon T2 mentioned that she wanted some cold stone ice cream after seeing a shop on our tour.. I didnt realize it was so far away! But Lisa indulged her and the three of us ran out for ice cream for desert after dinner. The place was like 20 minutes away! I couldnt believe it! We also stopped at a Krispy Creme to indulge my hunny for breakfast the next morning. DEFINATLY not a low fat trip! We totally backslid on WW!

When we returned from the ice cream store Pete had manned the grill and we had AMAZING marinated steak and baked potatoes for super. I tell you, we were so SPOILED by the amazing dinners Lisa planned. It was crazy. I keep saying it.. but I really hope they can come down so I can spoil them right back! After dinner we all sat around and chatted after the girls went to bed early. AFter the boys went to bed,  Lisa and I stayed up WAY WAY to late talking and looking at wedding photos.

Soo.. the day didnt turn out like I planned it.. but honestly it was my favorite day of the trip. Sometimes an “unplan” is the best plan!

I cant believe its been so long since I posted.. wow. Its amazing what facebook has done to the blogesphere isnt it? I just dont get to this as often as I once did.. although I am not about to give it up.. I like looking back over my old posts every few months.. kinda shows me where Ive been. ya know?

blah blah blah right? on with the show.. or the tell.. or whatever.

Of course we have been super busy.. so busy in fact I have very few pictures to share of everything that we have been doing! We were somwhere the other day and I told Steven to make sure and get some good shots for the ole blog and GASP! We didnt have a camera among us. rats! So… I am given to filling you in using the bullet system

* I recently started a new job! I know I blogged a little about this. I am really liking my new place. Its hard physical work.. (much more so than being a customer service manager at Shoney’s) There’s a lot of running around the kitchen, chop this, mix that.. make 125 beef and cheese rolls.. make 3 dozen apple hand pies.. now sell them at a street fair. I love that no day is the same as another. Its always something different and pretty fun. The owners are very nice.. they have very high expectations though.. and I am hoping that I will be able to live up to them.  In this economy people have come to expect a big bang for thier payroll buck, and  I wonder if I will be able to hang with what they want me to accomplish. I am trying my very best though, and I cant expect more than that from myself you know? Just when I think I am doing pretty well, getting a handle on the routine or what is expected of me? It changes. Ive been told by other emloyees to expect that though.  One thing I have loved is seeing my ideas and recipes on the “specials board” and seeing people pay for and enjoy MY food.

* We are still at the ball field most nights. Caitlin’s team is officially 2-2. There are some pretty tough teams this year. Last fall Kiwanis ran a fall ball session and those teams played an extra season last year.. so they have a whole 9 weeks (which is light years in little girl softball)  more experience together since most of the kiwanis teams stayed together when they drafted for Rec ball. This has been pretty frustrating for Thing Two since she HATES to lose and is so competitive… especially since she cant play fall ball because it interferes with the soccer season.  I keep telling her not to worry about it and I try to make softball her “fun sport” since she is so serious about soccer… but I have a little perfectionist on my hands.. I wonder where she gets it from?

* Last week we took the girls and went Strawberry picking! It was so fun. (this is the outing where we had no camera BOO!) There are farms nearby that offer “pick your own berries” and after school one day we took the girls and picked two flats of delicious ripe strawberries. This particular farm is where Thing Two went with her preschool every spring. They had a good time wandering up and down the rows.. eating berries and picking some to share. I sure wish we’d have had the camera.

* My parents are home from thier vacation. They seem to have had a really good time.  Hearing all of thier stories made me homesick for my westcoast family. I havent seen them in 9  years.  My mom and I took T2 when she was 2 mos old to a family reunion in Cody Wyoming.. that was even before I met Steven!

Thats about it.. around here.. we are busy bees for sure. I am hoping to finish the trip report from our time in Baltimore.. the last three days of the trip were my favorite days and I cant wait to tell you all about them!