" Ham Trailer "

Ok, so I must give some background first. When I started showing, Chris called my prego belly 'the bump' He would rub it and say how much he loved his bump etc. Well.. as I got bigger, and bigger, he one day decided that it was no longer the bump. It was a ham.

I did not like this lol I said it makes me feel like Christmas dinner.. But he kept calling it his ham and it grew on me too. It was a big ham he said. I woke up to this on the white board one day...

Ha i left it up for a few months.

Well, shortly after we had

 Samarah, we were in the hospital room and he was holding her and said, 'hey, it's a little ham!' and you know what? It stuck.

It was a joke, but we seriously call her ham.

So, Chris kep asking me and asking me for a 'ham trailer' or, a bike trailer for our 'ham' I said no, we could ask for money for it for her first birthday or something. then... I found my brothers bike trailer, stuffed in a corner in his garage, dusty and dirty, but fully functional. Chris was ecstatic.

We got home and Chris instantly started cleaning it and took her for a ride within the hour.. then he made me ride it around the yard..

Samarah quite enjoyed the ride!

It's actually pretty fun and it gets us to exercise! Just wanted to share!

Selfish Moment

So.. I love to help people.  If I can, i'll drop whatever i'm doing to help someone out, whether its moving, yardwork, whatever. I used to go to my parents every monday and just help with anything they needed. They have a HUGE yard and they are getting old. So any bit I can help, I do. I would cook them dinner and just help. Chris was always telling me that he couldn't believe that I kept giving up all my days off to go work and help other people.

Well, needless to say.. now that I have Samarah. I can't help like I used to. Anyone, not just my parents. I still try to go up and help but I just can't help or one of them has to watch Samarah so I can help and it is just not like it used to be. I wish I could still help but I just can't as much with Samarah!

I usually put everyone else first. Especially now that I am a mom I for sure take the back burner. I hardly ever need 'ME' time, or girl time. I am pretty content to just be at home with me or hubby. For some reason, I am feeling very selfish. And I feel so bad about it, like i'm not supposed to feel this way. I just was all of a sudden so sick of having to work and come home and try to cook what I know Chris would like and not just what I want (because we like different things) I wanted to cook what I wanted and not worry about anyone else. I was sick of having a never ending to do list and hardly being able to make a dent in one thing because Samarah takes up my time ( i feel rotten saying that! I love Samarah but a baby takes up time!) I was fed up of having laundry stacked up and not having time to put it away and never having a clean house because I get one part cleaned and then by the time I have time to clean another section that other one is dirty or cluttered again.

I normally don't care. But things just build up and get to you after awhile. And this is my build up apparently. I have to work and I enjoy working, i'm a better mom because I work. but working full time and being a mom is hard. Especially because me and Chris work opposite schedules. i don't get to come home from work and have Chris watch the baby so i can cook and clean. I come home and he is at work.

Today I wake up and i'm in this weird funk. Nothing happened to make me be in a funk, i just feel so off. I just want so bad to have time to clean up my house and have it stay clean not just get cluttered within a few days. I want to exercise and not feel bad about taking time away from freaking CHORES to do it.

So I decided to take some of my tax money and do something for me. I wanted a tattoo, I got a piercing in stead. I got a pedicure, i went to lunch. It helped till this morning when I woke up and was so bitter about the clutter in my house and not having time to do anything about it.

I'm feel like i'm responsible for so much and I just want a day where I don't have to feel responsible for anything else. but I can't do that cuz I have a husband and a baby who need me.

So much I want to vent about. gonna stop now. I love Samarah more than anything in life. But I am just having a moment right now. I miss a clean house and its really getting to me.

Before and After.. Some Yard Pics

So I decided to post a little before and after of some stuff we have done in the yard..

Before....

After

Before

After

Before.. Dead tree.. Sand box, bricks lining the yard

After.. No tree, firepit instead of sandbox, no bricks

These people spent so much money on freaking landscaping bricks.

There are more, but i am proud of my yard! so I wanted to share :)  a few of the neighbors have come and thanked me for cleaning up the yard and keeping it nice.

Something positive amongst the negative

So.. My work is not a super positive environment. I do animal control, I work for the police department. So much of what I do and deal with is negative and when i first started it was very hard to deal with! because i'm such a happy person and didn't do well with conflict/confrontation and that is so much of what the job is!

I pick up sick, injured, abandoned or just dogs that escaped from their owner. I take them into the shelter where some owners never come and dogs are euthanized (I have mass respect for everyone who works at the shelter who has to deal with that EVERYDAY and much more and worse) I take in all sorts of animals..so many cats. I pick up dead animals on the road or that have died at home. I get to go deal with owners who get angry, defensive, who yell at me and belittle me. I have to write tickets to good and bad dog owners. I have to euthanize animals. I start out fine, as time goes on, i start getting down about work.

But then, something will happen that stands out and reminds me that there are some positive things and things to enjoy about what I do and brings me back up to happy level where i can start over again and look with refreshed eyes at the job around me.

Someone found a baby bunny in their garage.. not a domestic little fluffy easter bunny.. but it looked like a wild hare (the house was on the mountain). This thing was like 2 inches long and its eyes were not open yet. I don't know how much i can say about what i do at work but i pretty much knew the fate of this little one.. it was too young to survive without its mom, no one would want to nurse it back to health. I was smitten by this little creature i wanted to help it! it hopped and everything. Well, as it turns out i was not the only one smitten by it. I took it to the shelter and we agreed to try to see if a mother cat that just had kittens would allow the bunny to nurse. The first one we tried just batted it around like a mouse.. the second one had a few kittens with her and ACCEPTED THE BUNNY! she let the bunny come up and nurse on it and when i came back a few hours later the bunny was all curled up inbetween the kittens asleep!

I don't know why it made such an impression on me, but I am so happy! It was so amazing to see this mother cat accept an animal that wasn't her own nor even her same species!!! i wish i could have seen more but a rescue took the mother cat and her kittens.. AND the bunny today! amazing! i wanted a pic of that little bunny in with all the kittens.. thats ok. Its little things like this that lift my spirits and keep me going! thank you momma kitty for making my day!

Baby Idol!

I entered Samarah in 97.1 ZHT's baby idol! just for the heck of it. The  prize is an awesome backyard playset! If you feel like it, go vote! :) THANKS!
Here is the link.. and her entry number is #434

http://www.971zht.com/pages/babyidol12/

Cabin

So.. My parents just celebrated their 44th wedding anniversary... and I thought 4 years was awesome. haha. They rented a cabin down in Mt Pleasant and a bunch of the family went down to hang out! Me and my sisters and their kids. Chris didn't go.. but on friday all of a sudden there comes Chris walkin in the door! he drove down and surprised me! I was shocked but it was a welcome surprise!

I was so excited to take Samarah swimming at the pool down there and go hiking and all sorts of fun stuff. But instead, this is what I got to look at out the window. it snowed like crazy. GAY

It was such an awesome cabin! 3 cute cozy bedrooms and a loft! And a freaking soft soft bed. the view from in the loft looking out over the valley was beautiful

Huge awesome table

the camera was foggy but this is the lil room we slept in

Representing OHIO haha

Yay what a good pic!

It was a blast, i love spending time with my family. Go parents for 44 years! almost double what i have been alive.. wow. :)

Marriage.. 4 Year Anniversary

So on April 4, 2012 it was our 4 year wedding anniversary!! holy crap! We both worked and didn't do anything that day.. but went out on saturday to Dinner at Texas Roadhouse.. Yum!

Marriage is like being a mom, so hard, but so awesome. Its a constant effort. But you know what amazes me? Is how two people can make it work! Like for real! To overcome their difference and coexsist as one, it really is amazing. Chris and I are so different. We were raised with completely different beliefs and backgrounds, raised in different states, we are 10 years apart, enjoy different things, totally different personalities.. yet, we are good together! We work! I love being married I love Chris. Happy 4 years!

Some of the things that have happened in our 4 years...

marriage...4-4-08

Buying a House

Visiting Sears Tower

Finding out we're pregnant

Having our baby

And now learning to be parents! (yes, i'm sure you can tell. This was right after she was born, can you say exhaustion??)

So much has happened, so much has been overcome, so much has been learned... Life is such a wonderful, crazy ride. I can't wait to continue on and have many more anniversaries and see what comes next!!!