Sisterly Lovin'; hopefully. :)

Wow. It's been a while since I've posted. Eekk! Sorry.

So whats been up... hmm.. about 7 months pregnant with a SECOND GIRL! Wahooo!! Really anxious for her arrival. I think I go back and forth on that

though. I'm nervous how LMP will respond to all the attention the new baby will get and perhaps act out... I mean, she's already bad as she is in her terrible "2's" stage but I'm scared how it might play out when the attention is diverted away from her. On the other hand it could be great. She could do really well with the baby and I hope thats the case.

Anyways... Thanksgiving was literally like last weekend and this year was the first one I've spent away from my parents and siblings... it was different but not terrible different. The DH and I live about 2300 miles from both our parents and so instead of spending time with them as we normally would we spent time with the DH's

brother and family. It was ABSOLUTELY awesome! Great food, great company, great entertainment = killer Thanksgiving and LOTS to be thankful for. The thing that way the most fun was watching my daughter play with her cousin. She really looked up to her cousin and they played and played and played and played all weekend like literally barely stopping to eat or sleep lol... it was nice to see her get so excited

about having another girl to play with... hopefully that will translate into the relationship she someday has with her own sister.

Fingers Crossed.

How about some WAY OLD halloween pictures?

Got bloggers block... throw up some OLD pictures. :)

Our little Cinderella :D

Um excuse me? Why does my daughter wake up with perfect hair and I look like death warmed over :(((

A Pictures Worth... At Least 600 bucks.

Upon deciding where to live, and which washer and dryer to pick and making arrangements for our move was made a decision about which furniture to adorn our living room.

Choice made: Beautiful lush BEIGE couches.

Now, to any parent... this would seem like a ridiculous thing to do. Why would you get beige couches with a 2 year old.

Why? Why you ask? Because we didn't anticipate having accidents.

We bought a highchair with straps and we always eat at the table. She only gets candies for using the potty and even then she MUST eat them on the potty. But we didn't envision what befell us on Sunday afternoon.

I pulled some cookbooks in the living room on Sunday to start working on a menu of sorts for the next two weeks. I brought a pen and paper so I could write everything down. We had JUST finished lunch and I had this epiphany that my DH should make chocolate chip cookies because (well hey, I'm pregnant and seriously wanted some :) Hey cordially obliged and begin whipping up the batter-- he's such a natural in the kitchen-- suppose he gets it from his mother :)

Anyways I thought I should go and help him and once I finished pouring out the ingredients I was back to doing the menus.... except... that didn't happen.

I came into my living room first having seen my beautiful baby with the pen in her hand and my heart immediately sank. I thought for a brief second that perhaps I might have just caught her grabbing it and there wouldn't be much damage done-- wrong!!

My beautiful beige couches were now stained with streaks of blue ink... my husband then got busy on whipping up some wonderful oxy solution (another fabulous thing his mother gifted him with--cleaning ideas).

We spent the bulk of our evening scrubbing out, vacuuming up, and re combing the microfiber....

Lesson Learned... Little Miss needs an Artistic Outlet... a possible gift idea for her upcoming birthday... perhaps we'll start with colored pencils and easel paper.

Geez.

No Choice but Forgiveness.

Up until today, I was completely

over it.

I mean, at least to the point where I wasn't thinking about it. I could put it out of my mind and be okay. I walked through life like things were fine and I came out without a pinch, but I guess really I'm just a good

f a k e r.

Everyone I knew told me that karma will come around and for about the first month or so I waited for that sweet revenge to fall upon her. I checked and rechecked to make sure her status on facebook were filled with sadness and hopelessness; I wanted her to feel as bad as she made me feel. I wanted her to suffer the way she made me suffer; how she made my daughter suffer. I was hurt.

It didn't take too long for me to get out of that rut though, its really an awful way to live. I heard somewhere once that although the wrong-doer is at fault, they live their life merry and carry on as though nothing has ever happened and you waste a lot of precious time holding on so tight to grudges and bad feelings. The best thing to do is forgive them and

m

o

v

e

o

n

albeit thats not always an easy thing to do. For me though,

Im not deeply emotional or sentimental but I am a sucker for an appology. If someone says their sorry and they mean it I'm sold. (especially if there is some sort of explanation). But thats the thing, there was NO apology. Nothing. No words. She had messaged me a few times but would never apologize. Ever. I finally was able to get over it enough to move on with my life. I got married, moved to California with my husband and got started on our life together. Its been really fun. It has. But today I feel the hurt feeling crept back. I don't know why today, and I couldn't tell you why I decided to blog about it but I guess I just feel jaded.

She was my best friend. All I ever wanted was an apology. I never got one, I don't know if I ever will get one.

She may never know; She may not care. But I forgive her, its taken a lot of thinking for me to come to that point but i do. I hope she knows this.

Fourth of July has always been one of my very favorite holidays. There is just something about the summer sun soaking into your skin, the smells of meat and veggies cooking on the grill, and the feelings of togetherness you feel spending time with those you love-- enjoying the many freedoms that so many take for granted.

I am thankful, this Fourth of July Weekend, to my husband and the commitment he has made to the United States Navy. I feel this holiday means more to me now than it ever has (and that's saying a lot).

This weekend was also wonderful for me because I was able to spend it with my husband for the FIRST TIME. There is nothing better than kissing your husband under the stars and the boom of fireworks blaring in the night sky like they are someones celebration of just YOUR love. It was truely magical. Then again, it could be just my adoration for the holiday speaking :).

Father's Day is a'comin

Greetings.

As we prepare for Fathers' Day (hope you guys have everything set in motion for that) I figured I would post something about just how much LMP loves her DD

(Dear Daddy). :)

We went to

the park the other day and I got some priceless shots of the little girl with her padre. She loves him so much. Its so nice to be here with him and allow her relationship with him to flourish and be great.

She always lights up when he gets home. Its adorable.

Here's to organization:

Since I'm a stay-at-home mommy right now, I've got to admit things can get pretty routine and boring. So I have taken to craigslist to spice things up in my life.

HA. You may be thinking, this girl is pretty nuts, but I happen to rather enjoy it.

I first, check the jobs part to see if there is anything new and exciting and apply for all those I feel would be worth my time, second I look at the freebies because sometimes you can find some really good stuff in there. And third I look in furniture for anything I think we "need".

Yesterday I found the coolest cube storage organizer for ONLY $25.OO so naturally I called my DH right up and had him pick it up on his way home. It is now in LMP's (Little Miss Princess) closet homing pajamas, diapers and wipes, shoes, shorts, swimwear, socks, and the "let's be hopeful she starts wearing them sooner rather than later" big girl underwear

We're going to the beach...we're going to the beach....

The other day, I took Adeliene on an adventure. We went to the beach!!

If you haven't yet heard the story, well thats probably a good thing because I tell you I wouldn't win the best mom award this year. lol.

Story goes-- Addy's first trip to the beach was about a month ago and we were down by the water standing a few feet from where the water breaks onto the shore. Just as the water from the shore recedes, I run as fast as I can to the edge of the water. Addy follows. And when the tide begins to break I dart away as fast as I could. Addy got drenched. It was absolutely-frickin hilarious. She was of course upset but I wanted her to experience the thrill of ocean water breaking at your feet. And that water was just too cold for her to go into willingly.

Anyways. We took a trip to the beach a few days ago and managed to both get pretty burnt in the process... my poor baby :(. But while we were there I got Adeliene to be at least ok with the water. We were there for 3 hours just making sand castles, playing with the water and covering our legs with the sand. It was so much fun!! I felt like a little kid again lol :)

I want to Amen.

A miraculous thing happened today. Stop the presses! Hold the phone...

The Roberts Family made it to church on time today.

And not just on time I might add; early. It was the first time since we've been out here that its happened; the first time we were able to sit in a pew without inconveniencing the persons we were cramming in next to. As we had quite a bit of time left until the meeting started, it was my darling husbands grand idea to let princess run out a little bit of energy to keep her quiet for the meeting, or at least calm. It worked rather brilliantly I thought; I was quite pleased with her behavior. They opened the meeting without a peep from the dear sweet child we know as our own. She was calm and sat right between mommy and daddy just staring up at the speaker as he spoke. When it was time to sing she opened the hymn and "read" along chanting softly anything she thought she could mimic. It was very adorable. Pretty soon it was time for the opening prayer to be offered and baby girl folded her arms and bowed her head like she does every time we pray.

And then the prayer began.

Before I tell you exactly what happened, let me remind you that my beautiful baby is now a year and a half year old with short patience and her own agenda. The attention span of a 20 month old doesn't always last incredibly long. They get bored and want to move on.

Unfortunately, within a few second of the prayer getting started, this little lady decided she was done praying. She looked up to daddy and said, just as sweet as can be, I swear

"I want to Amen."

Over and over, and over again. Until finally... In the name of Jesus Christ... Amen.

AMENNN!!

Little miss sounded off like she needed to shout it from the hilltops. It seems as though it were a big, huge sigh of relief. And seemed, in my mind at least, to last for an eternity.

I a b s o l u t e l y c o u l d n ' t b e l i e v e i t .

I was absolutely red in the face. My DH, of course, was laughing uncontrollably to himself so was about all of the now, turned-around-in-their-seats members' in the congregation. I must point out that today happened to be fast-and-testimony meeting and so there were lot of testimonies and thus, amens, given and none of which were as loudly broadcasted by our obnoxious daughter. Thank goodness.

If this fast Sunday has taught me anything, its to stick to the basics when praying with young children. Also, chocolate chip pancakes might be a bit too much sugar right before early morning church.

Well I think this has drug on a bit long so until next time....

A M E N.

Plans for the Future.

The other day I started thinking about what I'm going to do when I grow up...

hehe. just kidding.

No I really got started thinking about what I'm going to do with my life though. I don't really have any passions. At all. Its sad I guess but I really enjoy doing just about anything. I just don't stay committed to any one thing.

After careful consideration, I think I know now.... photography. Its something fun, creative, and could possibly be a nice way to earn some extra-cash for my family. But more than that I LOVE to take pictures, and I'm a bit of a perfectionist. I know I could get that "great shot" because I would work all day until I captured it.

I'm looking into some night classes now, I hope I can stick it out. It seems super fun.

:)

...the SanFransico treat...

Straight off, NO, sadly this post has nothing to do with rice at all BUT I took some fun pictures of the GG bridge so I just think that's WAY better.

Memorial Day weekend meant two things to the Roberts family; 1) the DH had a four day weekend (HECK YES) 2) We were road-tripping up to Stockton to visit family (again HECK YES).

It was a wonderfully delightful time :)

It was the very first time that the princess got to meet her Auntie Tang and Uncle David and her beautiful cousins Leanna and Tara. We had SO much fun. As you can tell from the above picture or perhaps not the GG bridge is faintly seen to the left of the magnificent sunset over the bay waters. This picture was obviously not taken in Stockton (but i'll bet you might have guessed that already) it was another road trip we took with the "other" Roberts once we got to Stockton. They showed us San Fran and took us to see Alcatraz and the GG bridge which was SO AH-ma-Zinnnng!

If you've never been to SanFransico, try it. You just may love it :)

A Murderous Trip Home.

Well... after a little over a week I figured I would post something new, here it goes.

Let me first start off with the drama that kicked off this past week. No, no arguments-- just my usual space-cadet moments. Let me explain: I was skyping my DH (SO COOL i know) and was talking to him about my visit and how things were going. I missed him a whole bunch; and we got into a conversation about being prepared to leave. Uh duh, no I was not prepared... thats just not my style, but I had all the next day to get packed for my departure Wednesday. Or so I thought. My fantastic husband non-challantly noted that my plane left tomor

row not wednesday. Of course, I KNEW this to be false and told him so and we spent the next several minutes "yeah huh" and "nu-uh'ing" until my husband pulled out that itinerary I had printed for myself and left in the car mistakenly.

Whoops.

Paul- 1

Ashley- 0

Man I hate to be wrong, but what was even worse was telling my parentals that I was sadly mistake and would be cutting the visit one day short. My bad. As I'm sure you probably could understand that night was a sad one. My parents were devastated no doubt but dealt with blow in a fairly understanding mode; I was grateful for that but felt horrible.

Anyways, the next day came and went and pretty soon I was boarding my first plane back to Monterey. The first plane wasn't so bad. The plane attendants usually seat single parents with a lap child by an empty chair to give them a break and for that I am always thankful but my 2 hour flight turned into a 3 hour nightmare because I ran out of snacks the

princess would eat and we were flying into a thunderstorm which had the Minneapolis airport only utilizing one runway which meant lots of planes circling round' and round' until it was "their" turn to land. It was awful. I also had a layover for 50 minutes which I thought I would be able to give Adeliene time to stretch her legs, but considering that t

he plane I was on was the same plane I would be taking off with again I knew that wouldn't be a possibility.

Oh wait, whats that? We are changing planes? Are you kidding me right now? And its on the other side of the airport! WHAT! GREAT I'm gonna miss my flight because we have been circling the freaking ground for 50 minutes.

Well I jet off the airplane once we land and run to the other gate with Adeliene hanging under my arm as I struggle to carry a diaper bag, and carry-on suitcase. I made it just in time. Ha. In time to notice the whole gate was packed with people waiting on a flight was wasn't leaving for an hour.

We'll thats a relief.

I ended up getting home just a little over an hour later than planned but had to spend the 4 hour flight home seated between two LARGE men. So much for the extra-seat (but I guess it will DEFINITELY help me more appreciate it when I am available to receive one). When we landed I had to put the carseat in the car and drive us 2 hours home. Normally wouldn't be so bad exc

ept the dash lights were out and it was 1 in the am. So pitch black and I couldn't see. :(. The DH had school that morning so me driving was a bit of a necessity unfortunately. Once we finally got home my little girl and I slept so hard and so long, one might have thought that we were dead.

It felt so good to be home and in our own beds though. Home sweet home never rang truer than after a murderous trip home like we had both experienced.

Suuuprise.

Ladies and Gentlemen.

I'm back in Indiana. Of all places to be excited about. But my family is here so that's the bulk of the excitement. pause That is where my parents and siblings are. MY family is a bit scattered at the moment (the DH couldn't tug along on the trip SAD DAY) resume So my parentals have been pretty upset since my daughter and I left. And I can understand that-- I mean I have pretty much spent only 2 weeks at a time away from them my entire life. This stretch was a month, and a half I guess lol. But they have missed us a lot and I know it was pretty hard on them to have their grandbaby, my princess, ripped away sooo... after consulting with my DH, I was able to arrange a suuuprise for them.

I hopped on the plane at 11:15PM on Wednesday and took the Red Eye to Indy to be picked up by my BFF Ashley. (She was so sweet because I seriously planned the trip wayy last minute and asked her the night before for the ride lol). Anyways, when she dropped me off I was able to sneak in the house and luckily my brother and dad had just left and my momma was sleeping so I ran into her room with Adeliene and princess started talking and woke my momma up and when she finally realized who we were (in the dark mind you) she shot up and was absolutely beside herself. It was a pretty cool thing. I loved making my family so happy. We have had such a lovely time here. It's been pretty cool getting to have the best of both worlds. Out in California with my husband, but able to come home and visit when I feel I need to.

I love my family. They make my heart super happy. :)

Phil Vassar - Just Another Day In Paradise

Plan B: Looks like, Domino's Pizza in the Candlelight

Oh wow. It's been awhile.

Well the past 3 days have just been absolutely horrid. And I use the word horrid loosely of course. No one has died or been severely hurt or injured and the sun is still shining BUT I have a very bothersome toothache turned headache/migraine. Its tampered severely with my weekend, albeit considering I'm having a very difficult time sleeping my husband, Addy and myself have been able to get up near the crack of dawn and get a jump on our day.

Today we had a very nice breakfast and went shopping at the local... of all things... GOODWILL!!! I love it. Bought a really nice desk for the computer. Finally. And a wall Votive Wall Grill (its like a decorative candle holder that goes on your wall) Way cool. and of course some Elmo movies for my little girl.

After that, we went to some local shelters for dogs to find a furry friend to melt our hearts and join the family; possible wear our a couple pairs of old shoes, ruin socks, pee on the carpet, whine at night from his/her cage, and give us a reason to always have to come home every couple of hours on the weekend. Just kidding. Well, kind of. lol No but in all seriousness we looked. But it was all little dogs and we want a big'in.

By the time we finished checking out the small dogs it was like 1 and we thought we should head back and get Addy some lunch and give her a nap plus Paul had a watch tonight (its like standing guard for 6 hours straight) from 4pm-10pm so he had to catch a few hours so he would be alert.

I took a nap too. It was nice to sleep. My mouth was aching all day and it was nice to kinda get rest. When I awoke, Paul had already left for watch and it was just Addy and myself. I woke up in pain and tried my hardest to not think about it while the ibuprofen had time to kick in, but I am a poor sufferer. :( Anyways I finally got downstairs to my phone where my DH had called and texted me several times. It was sweet. He talked to me for a little while and then...



.... a ring at the door bell. It was the domino's pizza man. I was never so happy to see him. My DH had ordered me pizza from base to be delivered at home so I wouldn't feel so overwhelmed with making dinner and to give me the opportunity to kind of relax. It was the sweetest thing in the whole world and I was SO thankful.

I have such a blessed life and I am so thankful for a caring and supportive husband. :)

Messed Up.

Well today has been a little chaotic.

My oven caught fire.

Oops.

Good thing it did so AFTER my husband got home. You see, we have a gas stove. And my first response would have been water. Thankfully he knew baking soda would work. Massive problem averted, but the lingering effects of the yucky grease which caught fire caked on the bottom of my stove was the lesser problem to tackle. It took about an hour, 2 sos pads, a utility knife, a green and yellow scrubber, a whole mess of lysol wipes and some good ol' fashioned elbow grease (the non-flamable kind) to clean it out but it was done.

Ended up settling for pizza tonight. Not exactly healthy or ideal but at least it was food and we were thankful for it. I was especially thankful for my husbands quick thinking and eagle scout brain. You know, a non-homemade meal was a little disappointing, but I'm pretty sure having a home to eat in was worth it lol... And I'm sure our neighbors would thank us for not burning down their half of the house lol.

Anyways. To top off this incredibly intense day. I messed up my blog. So its taken literally hours to semi-fix. :( Bleh. Hopefully as I learn about blogspot I will figure out... someday... how to correct my foul mistakes.

Until then. Forgive my unshapely, unattractive blog. It's under construction and a work in progress.

The Snowball Nah-Nie Meltdown

Before I explain the details of this traumatic experience... let me first clarify.

Nah-Nie: a banana

Yum Yum: a sweet treat

Adeliene and I had just gotten back from playing at the park when I decided I better quickly pull together some lunch, after all it was pushing noon. YIKES.

Anyhow... I precede to the kitchen and pull out our favorite last minute lunch-- Top Ramen Noodles Chicken Flavor with Cheesy Cheetos, some sort of fruit and usually a yum yum. As I begin to boil the water for the noodles Miss Adeliene strolls into the kitchen looking for me because she has decided she is ready for something to eat right then. Being that she is small and doesn't understand what wait one minute means... I ask her which fruit she would like, orange or banana. She points to the banana and begins her chant.

...Nah-Nie Nah-Nie Nah-Nie Nah-Nie Nah-Nie Nah-Nie Nah-Nie Nah-Nie Nah-Nie ....

Okay. Gotcha. Banana. Peel the sides down and chuck them in the trash. My next move starts the fallout. As I begin to break the banana in half to appropriately portion out a size for my daughter to eat the blood-curtling scream comes soaring out. She didn't want the "half-a-nah-nie." She wouldn't take it. I think at one point I could almost here my duplex neighbors fine china bursting into a THOUSAND pieces.

Whoops. My bad.

I try to calmly explain to her that I'm saving the other half for her lunch and that we will have it in just a moment but to no avail. She'd already lost her mind. Thankfully I have the ability to put on and take off my "mommy" ears quite easily. One to two minutes pass and the lingering sniffles and slight moans coming out of Little Miss are getting fewer and far between. I finish up with the Ramon, season, stir and place it in the freezer to cool.

There she goes again. DRAMA DRAMA DRAMA. She's started this new thing where she gets angry and starts to hit anything around her: floor, table, mommy, ect...ect... well this time it was mommy, as I was trying to desperately buckle her into the booster so she could get ready to pray and eat. By this time, I'm not so calm anymore. When I take her hands away from her she uses her next sly move of headbutting. UH. Right to the lip.

I am heated. Without saying a word, quickly trying to remove myself from the situation, I sit her down and buckle her up. I drive her seat straight into the dining room and park it in the middle of an empty corner. She sits. Screaming. I finished preparing what I need to while trying to regain my composure so I can go and explain why what she did was negative communication that WOULDN'T be tolerated. After a minute I return to my daughter and explain to her plain enough for a toddler that the behavior she was displaying was a no-no and was very naughty. She began to cry again and even more so when I told her she was in Time Out to Think for 1-1/2 minutes, But she calmed eventually and we were able to get through the re-explination of why she was there and how to avoid being there again, the I'm sorries, the I love you's, the hugs and the kisses.

I was really nervous how praying would be after all that. Adeliene is getting more and more used to folding arms and bowing her head for prayer before meals but usually with some reluctancy-- this time however she was quite good. THANK GOODNESS.

We ate, we drank and soon lunch was over. Adeliene started to rub her eyes signaling to me she was ready to be laid down for a nap. Smart girl. I cleaned her hands, face and pants which were by then completely covered in Ramon. I swooped her up and held her close to my chest where she laid her head on my shoulder and began to suck her thumb. I laid my baby girl down and swiped the hair from her eyes, blew her a kiss and told her Night-Night.

When I got back downstairs and started to clean up our mess I noticed her plate with noodles strung about, half eaten cheetos, picked at double chocolate chip cookie and the nah-nie in pristine condition, not eaten, not touched, not moved.

I had to laugh. Was this her lesson or mine? :)

So it's not ALWAYS warm here. But we've had a couple of good days.

Adeliene is really starting to enjoy the fresh air and playgrounds. She can't get enough of them. Its also become one of her very favorite phrases.

Ina go to park

I hear it everyday. Yesterday, I took her. YET AGAIN. As you can see from the runny nose she has-- it wasn't fantastically amazing weather but she enjoyed it none-the-less.

The craziest thing about people around this neighborhood is nobody plays with their children at the park. Perhaps I'm just a kid at heart but as the other mothers in the neighborhood enjoy their folding chair and tie-fleece blankets, I'm scooting, yes scooting, down the slide and climbing the steps and scaling the "mini-rock wall" they have prepared for the kiddos. I love it. I pushed about 3 kids (including my own) on the swing as their mothers just watched from a distance.

Weird. But o.k.

I love it here. I love the sun. Not too fond of the temperatures but I love having my family together. They are my world and I'm so incredibly happy. So much to be thankful for. Really. :)