Weekend follies

Mainly this post is to document o's first Sunday in big church. She did awesome! I don't know why I picked today to start but on the way there this morning I just decided it was time. It was our annual jazz service so next week may be a let down for her but I'm glad to know she can start going with me.

But while I'm here I'll talk about our weekend. Saturday we had a breakfast date at crescent city. just us two. I'm fairly certain o's love language is quality time so i try really hard to give that to her as often as i can. Uninterrupted. No phone. No pictures. Then o, myself and the boy worked in the yard ALL DAY LONG. O split her time between the sandbox and the comforts of the AC. the boy and i worked like dogs. And only did the front yard. The back yard will come another weekend. Saturday night we met the wilkersons and nappers at cormiers for our first crawfish of the season. O had a fab night with emory and Hudson. A jumper, live crawfish to hold, ice cream afterwards. A 3 year olds dream!





O got a lesson on giving this weekend. I was tagging the last few things for kool kids and she was UPSET I was taking some toys. They were baby toys! Things she hasn't played with in years! Full on tears. So I sat her in my lap, talked about giving to those less fortunate, making our hearts feel good, etc. then she helped me load the car, go and drop off all these items and even carried them inside. I was proud of her. Not sure she totally understood but baby steps. :)

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Too funny not to post right away

I know I shouldn't laugh abt this. But I've been rolling laughing all morning! I'd love to know who gave her the idea to clog up the sink. I just really don't think she'd do that alone! But regardless. We will address it tonight by talking to her abt decisions and consequences. See post below. Too late to punish but she will know we're disappointed. Just hope I don't laugh the whole way through it!!

My child got sent to the office!! I hope it's the first and last time!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Parenting breakthrough

Wow. We've had a breakthrough at the hamby household. About two weeks ago o was refusing to clean up her mess and I had had enough. After several attempts to get her to do it I just picked everything up and put it in a box. Melt down ensued. So we had a LONG conversation about making good decisions. I explained good vs bad decisions and gave examples of each. I told her when she started making good decisions she could start earning back some of her books/toys i'd picked up. Later that night I asked her to do something and she started to buck me and I reminded her of the good things that happen when she makes good decisions and TADA she did whatever it was that I asked her to do. So all the next week we talked every morning and every afternoon about the good decisions she could make and the ones she did make. We've been doing this ever since. And yesterday I reaped the benefits from it BIG TIME. We went to meet the Cramer's newest addition baby Kate. Olivia and drew were having a grand time. When it was time to leave I could see the melt down coming. And it was going to be ugly. She was having too much fun to leave! So I just looked at her and asked her to make a good decision to leave happy and that if she did then she could "earn" dessert after dinner. And OMG we walked out of there without a tear! Now, I realize this will be considered a bribe. But I firmly believe in rewarding the behavior you want until that behavior is "learned". And we're still learning to make those good decisions. And she knows the consequences for bad decisions are the loss of her toys/privileges. And so far this is working! I've looked at charts. The problem there is that she spends so little time actually at home that I'd have to carry that chart everywhere we go and her daddy would have to get on board at his house and I don't see that happening. So. This is what I decided to focus on and so far so good! I'm quite proud of myself. And I'm extremely proud of o!

So... Speaking of baby Kate!! She is just precious!!





And since she came three weeks early emery and I decorated their house as a surprise for when they got home!


And o's official first boyfriend. Brett bell. Young love...


And.... Last night we went to jenny and john's for dinner. When time to leave o insisted she wanted to spend the night. Jenny and john were on board so she had her first sleepover at their house. They kept her one night last summer when I was out of town. But this time I was home and she was at their house. It was kind of weird! But o has talked about it all day so I know it's something she'll remember. They got up this morning, had breakfast and then jenny took her to school! I remember LOVING to stay at my aunt/uncle's growing up and I hope Olivia has just as much fun with her aunts/uncles!!


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Hearts, Cupid, candy

It's valentines day! I usually don't celebrate this holiday but with a kid involved I learned you have to. So we celebrated on Tuesday b/c she was at her dad's today and the boy is working tonight.

On Saturday o signed all of her valentines for school. She wouldn't let me help at all. I swear. I watched tv while she sat at the table and signed every one of them. She was so proud of them!


So on Tuesday we gave o her gifts and went to Raw for dinner. She got the complete Alphatales book set, balloons and candy. And cash from gg and pops. And a teddy bear from Matt's parents. I just knew she'd love the book, she loves to read and we talk about letters all the time. Well, Matt's balloons and candy definitely trumped the books!








Today she had her class party. I talked to her this morning and this evening and from all accounts she had a great valentines day.








The boy got me the book I'd been dropping hints about. To bad he can't keep a secret to save his life. I always know what he's getting me. We're going to work on that. But I'm so happy he got it! Can't wait to read it on the beach at the end of april! Now, his gift was so cheesy. I did that on purpose. To be funny. Bc valentines is really a cheesy holiday.


On the dr pepper - I think you are sodamazing!
On the Chapstick - thanks for sticking by my side!
On the spearmint gum - we were mint to be together!
On the nuts - I'm nuts about you!
On the hot tamales - you are one hot tamale!

Lol!! I loved cheesing it up! I think he got a kick out of it too. :)

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Favorites

The boy and my girl.


Bubble baths.


Drawings. I think these are her first people drawings. GG on top. Pops on bottom. Complete with ears. :)


I'm sorry to the people that may read this that also follow me on instagram/Facebook. I'm sure you get tired of my multiple pictures. But I don't! :) And this is still my baby book so I'll keep posting. Hang in there. It's bound to get more interesting sooner of later!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

We are alive!

Yesterday Olivia finally got out of the house after a week of being cooped up. I talked to 3 medical professionals that assured me she was ok to be in public despite the hacking cough and low grade fever that appears in the afternoon. So we got dressed saturday and headed to ronin for lunch, to the dollar tree to spend her money pops gave her while in the boro last week and then home to chill before the basketball game! I think it did her good to get out bc she woke up this morning sounding better than she has in 2 weeks! Still coughing but that's going to last a while from all accounts.



Practicing some chopstick use. She actually did pretty well!


She chose a Cinderella book. I wasn't surprised in the least.


She did really good at the game. She pretty much sat in pops lap the whole time. Dad got mad at a ref at one point and basically "tossed" o to the side so he could stand up to yell. It was pretty funny!


The guys are now 21-3, undefeated at home, undefeated in the WAC and looking really good. If you haven't been to a game you really need to go! They are fun to watch!


Friday night we had Sheree's baby shower at the warehouse which happens to be one of my favorite restaurants! We cannot wait to meet baby Kate in less than a month!








- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Flu and pneumonia

I really had no idea. Last week she had sinus drainage. It was all in her head. On Saturday we went to the pet parade. Saturday night she started running fever and it moved into her chest. Sunday she sounded awful and still had fever. The fabulous dr Grigsby got us in at 8:30 Monday morning. I was prepared for bronchitis. We got flu and a touch of pneumonia. I had no clue! He told us to keep her out of school for the week. Excuse me?!? I only get 5 sick days a year. It's only February. I had to make the decision to send her to Winnsboro. For anyone that thinks this is the easy decision, you are wrong. But when your mom is offering to rearrange her life for a week to help you, you do what's easiest for her. I want nothing more than to love on o when she's sick. But I can't afford to use all my sick days in february. She had fever today so we're keeping her home the rest of the week. No since in rushing her back to school when she's not totally over it. She is coming home tomorrow to see her daddy and then I'm taking Friday afternoon off to keep her. I can spare 1/2 a day. I can't spare 5! I know I'm fortunate to have parents that will do this. I know that not everyone has family close by. But that doesn't make it any easier to ship your kid off when she's sick. Trust me.


So o's been recuperating. She's still coughing pretty bad and her fever came back this afternoon. She's on tamiflu, an antibiotic, breathing meds, cough medicine and Tylenol/Motrin as needed for fever. That's a lot of meds!! I talk to her at least 3 times a day and I know she's having a blast. I LOVE the picture updates mom sends. And I tear up every time I talk to her and she tells me she loves me. I cannot wait to get my hands on her.














I swear I packed clothes for her to wear but I guess when you don't leave the house there's no need to get out of your pj's!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Pet parade

We had just the most awesome time Saturday at the pet parade in West Monroe.











At this point o was yelling at Matt to turn around bc she couldn't see! So demanding!!


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

missy from louisiana

ok.  this is a first for me.  i’m not usually a matchmaker but here goes nothing!  kelly at kelly’s korner has this link-up every friday and today is show us your singles!

missy is AMAZING!  she’s early 30s, fun, outgoing, independent.  when i asked her to tell me about herself this is the response i got:

missy is the blond

“Hmm…I’m independent, have a crazy but close family, I think I have a good sense of humor and try to always find humor in things, my job is academic compliance for athletics which I have a love/hate relationship with because I love helping the kids but they can also drive me crazy, love the water (except for when it’s leaking in my house) and outdoors but am definitely not an “outdoorsy” person, love attending and watching athletic events but am the least athletic person in the world, am a freakishly good speller and actually won a spelling bee back in junior high, can’t do math but am CPR/First Aid certified so while I can’t add I could save a person’s life if they needed me to which I think is more important than math anyway, yes, my nephews are my world, would love to see the world except that I hate to travel, also love the idea of the beach except that I hate sand, love to read but typically only read trashy romance novels, still not sure what I want to be when I grow up, have a slight obsession with kneeboots and heels, addicted to Diet Coke and couldn’t live without it or without chocolate or salt, my two favorite holidays are Christmas and my birthday….and now I’m out of ideas.”

and all of that is true.  i met missy in college.  she’s 2 years ahead of me but we kind of hit it off.  she was a trainer for the football team in college and LOVES football.  she loves the kentucky derby and white wine.  her nephews really are her heart; but she’s fabulous with all kids.  just ask o.  my daughter loves her some miss missy!  most importantly she introduced me to the boy.  and i cannot thank her enough for that.  so if her BFF is the boy then you know she’s got to be pretty great herself!  she has a masters from southern miss but missed little old ruston enough to move back.  she was the football teams “mama” for several years before taking her current job – NCAA compliance cord. 

so leave me a comment if you know of a GREAT, deserving man.  ruston is a college town where good, professional, mid-30 men are hard to find!  hope this works!!