We be illin.....ois....

Not sure if that came across right or not....we are in IL this week after Christmas. It's been fun, but always busy visiting friends and family (Steve is from here) everyday. We went to an indoor waterpark one day which is the Chicago suburbs. It was interesting to be inside on a "lazy river" but yet its snowing outside. Savannah really got a chance to play in the snow and make a snowman (pics to come later). It was cute. OK- well, it's toucgh typing on this laptop, so there will be more to add later. Happy New Year!

Holiday Happenings!

It's been a busy and fun week (well, except for the PMS induced rant I posted previousley)! So, I thought I would re-cap the week beginning with Monday!

Monday 12/17 - We played with our friends at Funzone! Even mama got to play and bounce around. Afterwards we had lunch at the mall and made a few stops.

Tuesday 12/18 - Had lunch at Wild Wings with my college roomie.

Wednesday 12/19 - We had dinner at our friends' house and Santa stopped by to make sure the girls were being good! I guess the third time is the charm b/c not only did Savannah sit with him, she talked his ear off!

Thursday 12/20 - Went caroling with people from church. We visited older folks in the community and had delicious refreshments afterwards!

Friday 12/21 - That morning attended(but did not participate) a cookie swap. DANG that's a lot of cookies! But it was fun and yummy! That evening we went to a Christmas party at our friends' house where we did a gift exchange. Would you look at what Steve happened to get...

(*photo removed)

Saturday 12/22 - This morning we visited friends who were in town for a little bit. The girls played and had fun. That night, we went to see the lights at the zoo with my parents and ate dinner afterwards.

Whew! And it's not even Christmas yet!

Mama needs love, too!

Why is it that Daddys get all the love and praise and Mamas get dumped on?
- I'm the one who always give her a bath. Daddy will not. He says it hurts his back.
-I play with her often, sitting on the floor and doing little girl stuff. Daddy turns on the DVD.
-Mama puts her to bed at night and always reads a story and sings songs. Daddy hasn't even been home half the time to particiapte in nighttime ritual.
-Mama gets hit and told" No! Stop!" Another favorite phrase is, "I want my Daaaaddy!"
-She cries in the middle of the night and Mama is usually the one to get up to check on her. I try to hold her but she won't let me. She wiggles down and runs into our room to lay with Daddy.
-Mama works, picks up the house and still has time for the family. Daddy complains that he doesn't have time to go to the gym.
-I try to snuggle with her and she says, "Stop holding me!" And I say, "But I love you." She says, "but I don't want to love you." Meanwhile, she loves to lay in bed with Daddy and snuggle with him.

Yeah, yeah, "Daddy's little girl" and "Mama's boy." whatever.

Christmas Gift

OHMAHGAH! Too funny!
Perfect Christmas gift

Wordless Wednesday

OK- one wordless and one not so wordless...

I just had to brag on my centerpiece. I was in charge of decorations for dinner and the cantata at church this week. Martha Stewart I am not, but I was so proud of the centerpiece that I came up with. Both wreaths are artificial, but the juniper and pinecones are real. The middle, which you can't see real well, is a large glass urn with a glass cake stand sitting on top. It was on a round table flanked by 2 banquet tables which had the desserts on them. Yay me!

10 on Tuesday

I couldn't come up with just one subject to list so bear with me if I ramble...
3 of my favorite Christmas songs:
3. Choir version of Little Drummer Boy. Done well the ending gives you chills!
2. Away in a Manger. After being a mom it's hard to imagine what it must have been like to give birth in a barn and know you had absolutely nothing else to provide.
1. The Drifter's White Christmas. That's just a fun, cool song!

2 of my least favorite Christmas songs:
2. anything by The Carpenters. I just don't like her voice! Sue me...
1. Duet of Baby It's Cold Outside by Rod Stuart and Dolly Parton. Who the +%3#@ thought that was a good idea? I mean, really!?

3Aggrivating things that happened today:
3. Was basically told by the dog groomer to give Dexter doggie valume (sp?) next time or don't bring him back b/c he bites!
2. Couln't find a parking spot to have lunch with old roomie b/c I was late b/c of #3.
1. My secret pal at work apparently didn't get me a Christmas gift. Not trying to sound greedy, but come on!

3 Good things that happened today:
3. Wal-mart photo actually corrected their mistake with my on-line photo order in a prompt, and efficient manner!
2. While watching Days of our Lives (DVRed, of course) there was only 1 repetetive, cheesy flashback!
1. Enjoyed previousley mentioned lunch with college roomie. I mean, who else can appreciate entire days in bed watching Baywatch and stealing items from Lodge Alley Inn!?!?

That's my girl!

We had the children's Christmas play at church yesterday. Basically, a small group of young kids reinact the Christmas story along with singing and naration. Savannah was a sheep, wooly ears stapled to a headband and all, with her cousin Grace and another little girl.
And cue the shepards and the sheep! All the other kids are standing calmly on their marks. Even the other 2 sheep are peering sweetly into the manger. But not Savannah. She is holding onto the side of the manger jumping up and down, saying "I dancin! I dancin!" She walks over to some angels for a moment, checks out the wise men and even sat for a brief moment, but the majority of the time she was jumping up and down. Steve even says she was "raisin' da roof!" one time! If you know me, you know I like to get my groove on occasionally. All I can say is, she gets it honestly.
Of course afterwards everyone was saying how precious the dancing sheep was. I'm one proud mama!
P.S. The Mint Thins were a big hit!

Say "Cheese!"

I took Savannah's picture the other day for our Christmas card. I got her all dressed up, combed her hair (which is amazing in itself b/c she has such a rat nest!), and posed her in front of the tree in a chair. I did get a nice picture and it turned out fine. But I really love this picture...

I think what she's really doing is a Jack Nicholson impersonation!
By the way, hubby did make it in on Friday despite the blizzard, even if he was about 3 hours late!

Mele Kalikimaka

...which is "Merry christmas," in Hawaii, seems more appropriate right now than anything close to "White Christmas." Here in SC, we've been having 80 degree days for most of this week. Even tonight at 7:00, it still about 70! I do apprecicate the last bit of humidity, even if my hair doesn't.
As you may know, Steve has been traveling A LOT with his job lately, and right now he is in Boston this week where they have been having 30 degree days, and according to this evenings' news, a huge blast of snow tonight. I hope he doesn't get stuck there, seeing as how he is supposed to be flying home tomorrow, but it's nice to be on the pleasant end of things for once. This is my first week of Christmas break and while I've been doing stuff, overall, it's been very leasurely. Top that off with mild weather and it's a good week! Steve, on the other hand is in winter "wonderland" and he keeps telling me he's working, working to get enough done so that he can actually enjoy Christmas w/o having to do work!!
Totally changing the subject, I made a yummy treat this afternoon. Let me preface this by saying you will never see me make anything that requires more than 10 ingreients, a spice I can't pronounce or freshly grated parmesan. It came out of the holiday Kraft Foods recipe magazine. It's free and if you haven't signed up, I highly reccomend it!
The recipe is Mint Thins and it tastes just like the Girl Scout Thin Mints! A little messy to make, but so good!! I'm a big fan of mint chocolate, so I had to try it. Now if I can just save them for the family party on Saturday...

Wordless Wednesday

10 on Tuesday -"We be jammin!"

As you can see from the previous post, we went to Jamaica over Thanksgivng with friends Amy & Ron. We had a great time and it was nice

to be child/responsibility free for a little while!

We stayed at a Sandal's resort, which I highly reccomend! Food, drinks, entertainment and activities included...OK, well we had to make a lot of our own entertainment, but still a good time!

Just a few highlights:

10. The Cafe du Paris which served coffee, pastries and other yummies almost all day long!

9. Karyoke in the Martini Bar (Goodbye Earl, Summer Nights, Jose Quervo, Great Balls of Fire).

8. Steve splitting his pants while dancing with "Janet Jackson."

7. snorkeling and seeing some really cool fish and starfish.

6. couples massage, according to Amy & Ron.

5. Hammocks on the beach- Ahh! relaxing!

4. Touring the REAL Jamaica (see pic in previous post) on the way back to the airport with our driver Nelson.

3. Sing-a-longs around the piano bar with Rodney and our "friends" (You Lost that Lovin Feeling, Friends in Low Places, Elvira, My Girl). "Baby!"

2. Hot tub party! 'Nuf said!

1.Meeting new friends and having a blast with old ones!

Wordless Wednesday

10 on Tuesday

I'm still gaining inspiration for my blog so here's a simple entry - 10 jobs I've had in my life (in somewhat chronological order):
1. worked retail at the Peanut Shop of Charleston (now defunct)
2. worked a summer at the DMV! I learned patience that summer...
3. intern at the Mayor's Office for Children, Youth and Families in Charleston. It wasn't a paying internship, but I got college credit
4. cocktail waitress/bar tender at Wing's in Mount Pleasant
5. receptionist for commercial real estate office in VA Beach
6. worked retail at Inspirations in VA Beach
7. worked in the Afterschool Progam at YMCA in VA Beach
8. reporter for daily newspaper The NewsTribune in IL
9. case manager for Big Brothers Big Sisters
10. Site Manager for Afterschool Program

Two-year-olds and Christmas Trees

Well, I got the Christmas decorations up yesterday. Little, by little, I'm taking "bites" out of my to-do list. The tree was up and decorated when Savannah got up from her nap yesterday. She smiled when she walked around the corner and saw it. It told her, "now don't touch the tree. Just look at it. If you touch it, it might break." So of course her 2-year-old self touches the end of several branches and as she does she says, "I touch it! I touch it!" I'm not naieve, so I did at least put the least breakable ornaments at the bottom. After a minute she knocked one off. I looked at her very seriousley and said, "you broke it." She looked at me for a minute and then she said, "I put it in the trash." and put the ornament in trash as I said, "No, wait! I can fix it!"

Halloween pic

Thought I would try posting a pic...this is us at the zoo enjoying Halloween festivities.

Do you have the time?

"Excuse me, do you have the time?"
Because I sure don't! I was all excited to start my blog and so forth, but now I'm wondering if I really have time. I can remember days (pre-baby, of course) where the most I accomplished all day was getting dressed. Now, I dress 2 of us, feed 2 of us, clean up after 3 of us, work about 32 hours a week, go to church and maintain a decent social life. And did I mention that dear hubby has been out of town for work the majority of the past few months? Whew! My guilty pleasure this evening was catching up on Days of our Lives that I have been DVRing for the past week and a half. No, really, I have a very blessed life, but I just wish I had a whole day- wait- maybe half a day to myself sometimes. Can I get a "Amen?!?"
And now my holiday "to-do" list is growing so it's a good thing I work a school schedule and am off for most of December. I don't even have my Halloween decorations down yet!

10 on Tuesday

I liked some of the catchy daily posts on other blogs and until I get my "groove on" I think it is a good way to decide what to blog (I can use that as a verb, right?)
10 Things I did today:
1. wiped daughter's snotty nose
2. worked an 8 hour day
3. Had pumpkin spice coffee and a Krispy Creme donut
4. Ate lunch with a girlfriend at a local luncheon spot
5. Ate dinner at my parents' house
6. Spoke to hubby ont he phone who is currently in GERMANY for work
7. wiped duaghter' snotty nose
8. monitored a fire drill for my school program
9. checked out other blogs - ya'll got some good stuff here!
10. read Curious George and Kevin Hankes book to daughter before bed

Just a Girl...

I must start off by saying that I hope this is a fun venture for me. I am very new to this whole blog thing but really fell in love with a few blogs I had seen and well, here I am!
I figure a good first posting would be to explain my blog title, "Just a Girl." I really put some thought into it, but I kept coming back to this one. I am a wife, mother, daughter, sister, granddaughter, niece, daughter-in-law, cousin, friend, employee, boss, Southerner, scrapbooker, college graduate, Clemson fan and Southpaw, among other things, but aside from all that, I am just a girl. And I am the mother of a little girl.
To quote Gwen Stefani and the song, "Just a Girl:"
"I'm just a girl, take a good look at me, just your typical prototype, Oh- I've had it up to here, Oh- am I making myself clear?"
I may rant and rave sometimes about things in my life, but I do know that I am very blessed to have all that I have.
So...let's see how this blog thing goes...