Ever stop and think how listening to your favorite music makes you feel? I would choose listening to music all day long over watching TV any day (but watching music videos is the best of both worlds)! In fact, I usually do have music playing most of the day. A good song can instantly put me in a better mood, and after listening to a baby crying or a toddler whining, a good song is just what I need sometimes.
I mostly listen to country music, but anything with a good beat will catch my ear...or dancing feet. Rylee likes to dance to a good beat too...and what a cute little dancer she is...she "gets down"! It's crazy how music makes us move. I will find myself in a store, tapping my feet or slapping my leg when a good song comes on. And don't you love going to weddings where nearly everyone is dancing?!?!?!
One of my favorite things to do is just hop in the car alone and take a drive, listening to music. I will change the station repeatedly until I find a song that suits my mood. Some people choose to make phone calls while they are in the car, but I will sometimes ignore calls because I am too into my music. I do a lot of thinking while I'm driving (sometimes that's scary), and a lot of times my thoughts are brought on by a song.
Isn't it amazing how a song can bring on memories?!?! I don't always know the story of the songs that I listen to, but if a lyric in the song reminds me of something then I stop and actually pay attention to the whole story of the song and 10 minutes later I'm deep in thought reliving a memory. That's probably my favorite thing about music...that it can really get into our heads. And sometimes that's literally what happens ...why do songs get stuck in our head?!?! Songs also remind us of a movie that the song is on. Even Rylee said the other day when "Life is a Highway" came on the radio, "This song on my Cars movie."
I have LOTS of favorite songs, but here are my favs this week that I turn the volume up on...
Florida Georgia Line's "Cruise" Remix
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bmZ9xRO7M9M
And how cute are these guys?!?!
Randy Houser's "Runnin Out of Moonlight"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=py5VdvxO9cE
Jake Owen's "Anywhere With You"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NfHZ_dUvdLU
I love anything by Jake!
Brett Eldridge's "Don't Ya"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D6ablYH-rpw
Notice these are all guys singing? I rarely like songs by females for some reason....I guess I prefer listening to a male voice. Usually the male country singers are pretty easy on the eyes too...am I right, or am I right?
Wednesday, July 31, 2013
Tuesday, July 30, 2013
Little Girls and Big Memories
While talking with a friend today who is going to be a first time father soon, he made this comment about having a girl: "I don't know what fun things there are to do with girls besides tea parties and Barbies, and that's not fun to me." I know that a lot of guys probably feel this way. My comment to him was this: "The first year doesn't really matter. All they do is eat, sleep and cry. By the end of the first year you will be so in love with her that you may find yourself playing Barbies." I also told him that if he takes an active part in her life she will enjoy doing lots of activities with her daddy.
My 2 year old daughter LOVES to do pretty much anything with Daddy. He takes her outside whenever he can and she is more than happy to tag along and do whatever he is doing. She carries pieces of wood for him, rides on the Gator, goes to auctions, goes to the farm and hardware stores, helps him clean the garage, etc. If Daddy's doin it, she wants to do it too. She also likes Daddy to be a horse and give her rides around the house...poor Daddy...he's kind of an abused horse sometimes.
My brother has a great relationship with his 2 year old daughter as well. He has even taken her on a little daddy-daughter camping trip. When I told him I was writing this post he said, "I was just thinking how there is nothing better than cuddling with my daughter and falling asleep with her."
So, I believe that if a father includes his daughter in his everyday life, she will enjoy their time together no matter what it is that they are doing. And a father will find some enjoyment in playing Barbies too if it makes his little girl happy. There is definitely a special bond between daddies and their daughters and they will both cherish the memories made.
Speaking of making memories....
I always think about how crazy it is that my daughter is 2 years old, has lived her whole life so far, but won't remember a single thing about it when she's older. As a parent, I make sure she is exposed to many different things and gets to do lots of exciting activities. There is nothing like watching a toddler having the time of her life and talking about it every day for the next month. I make sure to take pictures (and have started a journal) so she can see all the fun things she got to do....but Man, I wish she would remember these things later on. I just hate that the past 2 years will not be remembered for her. But I will still have all of the memories and I guess maybe that's just as important. I know that the experiences she has now will help shape the person she is going to be.
Here she is at the hot air balloon festival with her cousin, having so much fun and still talking about it today....this will only be a picture of "some crazy thing her mom took her to" some day, but for now I am enjoying the excitement she expresses when she relives the event.
My 2 year old daughter LOVES to do pretty much anything with Daddy. He takes her outside whenever he can and she is more than happy to tag along and do whatever he is doing. She carries pieces of wood for him, rides on the Gator, goes to auctions, goes to the farm and hardware stores, helps him clean the garage, etc. If Daddy's doin it, she wants to do it too. She also likes Daddy to be a horse and give her rides around the house...poor Daddy...he's kind of an abused horse sometimes.
My brother has a great relationship with his 2 year old daughter as well. He has even taken her on a little daddy-daughter camping trip. When I told him I was writing this post he said, "I was just thinking how there is nothing better than cuddling with my daughter and falling asleep with her."
So, I believe that if a father includes his daughter in his everyday life, she will enjoy their time together no matter what it is that they are doing. And a father will find some enjoyment in playing Barbies too if it makes his little girl happy. There is definitely a special bond between daddies and their daughters and they will both cherish the memories made.
Speaking of making memories....
I always think about how crazy it is that my daughter is 2 years old, has lived her whole life so far, but won't remember a single thing about it when she's older. As a parent, I make sure she is exposed to many different things and gets to do lots of exciting activities. There is nothing like watching a toddler having the time of her life and talking about it every day for the next month. I make sure to take pictures (and have started a journal) so she can see all the fun things she got to do....but Man, I wish she would remember these things later on. I just hate that the past 2 years will not be remembered for her. But I will still have all of the memories and I guess maybe that's just as important. I know that the experiences she has now will help shape the person she is going to be.
Here she is at the hot air balloon festival with her cousin, having so much fun and still talking about it today....this will only be a picture of "some crazy thing her mom took her to" some day, but for now I am enjoying the excitement she expresses when she relives the event.
Saturday, July 27, 2013
Friends; a key to success.
Not too long ago, I stumbled upon a book that I had completely forgotten I owned. The book is titled "The Nature of Success." Inside this book was the below picture from my senior year of high school.
These girls were my closest friends and this night is one of my favorite memories from high school (for you BHS alumni, this was our Senior Party night). After I finished reminiscing about that night and some other favorite memories from that year, I realized the irony of this picture being found in a book titled "The Nature of Success." For some reason I placed this picture inside that book long ago. Perhaps it was a reminder to my future self, but what kind of reminder??
Having great friends, I decided, is what makes us successful. Instead of listing reasons that I came up with for why friends make us successful, I am going to reflect on some thoughts I've had recently about friendship.
In the past month I have had the pleasure of catching up with 4 classmates from high school and enjoyed the conversations I had with each of them. I realized that no matter how long it has been since you've seen or talked to someone, friends will always be friends. There is nothing quite like catching up with an old friend!
Some of my friends are so amazing (they all are really) that they do such selfless things for others. This always makes me stop and evaluate how good of a friend I am. I know I have lots of work to do in the friendship department. It's hard when you have a family to remember that friends are family too and deserve a little of your time as well. This is an area of my life that I know I can improve.
We all wear lots of "hats" in our lifetime and sometimes they are hard to juggle, but being a friend is probably the easiest thing we can all do. We are all capable of being there for one another and lending an ear, a piece of advice, or just for fun and laughter....who couldn't use more of that?!?!?
One more quick topic....
Since I mentioned Senior Party night, if any BHS alumni want to have a "remake" complete with DJ and collages of high school pictures, COUNT ME IN! :)
Having great friends, I decided, is what makes us successful. Instead of listing reasons that I came up with for why friends make us successful, I am going to reflect on some thoughts I've had recently about friendship.
In the past month I have had the pleasure of catching up with 4 classmates from high school and enjoyed the conversations I had with each of them. I realized that no matter how long it has been since you've seen or talked to someone, friends will always be friends. There is nothing quite like catching up with an old friend!
Some of my friends are so amazing (they all are really) that they do such selfless things for others. This always makes me stop and evaluate how good of a friend I am. I know I have lots of work to do in the friendship department. It's hard when you have a family to remember that friends are family too and deserve a little of your time as well. This is an area of my life that I know I can improve.
We all wear lots of "hats" in our lifetime and sometimes they are hard to juggle, but being a friend is probably the easiest thing we can all do. We are all capable of being there for one another and lending an ear, a piece of advice, or just for fun and laughter....who couldn't use more of that?!?!?
One more quick topic....
Since I mentioned Senior Party night, if any BHS alumni want to have a "remake" complete with DJ and collages of high school pictures, COUNT ME IN! :)
Friday, July 26, 2013
My thoughts on life in the country, being a Mommy, and everything in between.
Okay, so I might not be that great at two-stepping, which is a partner dance (I much prefer line dancing where I am the only one responsible for getting the steps down correctly), but I thought two-steppin Momma had a much better ring to it than line-dancin Momma. James and I did try partner dancing for a few months, and while he is a great dancer for a guy, we just didn't dance well together. The problem was that he is a perfectionist, wanting to get all of the steps down correctly, and I, well, I just wanted to have fun! This is the story of our lives! Some days I don't know how we get along so well with our polar opposite views on life. James' motto is one of "anything worth doing is worth doing right", while mine is more of a "eh, who cares...I just want to get it done so I can say I did it!". I suppose we balance each other out and that's what makes us work.
Anyway, I have been meaning to start this blog ever since moving to the country and becoming a new Mom two years ago. Both of those events happened within 2 months of each other so I didn't have a whole lot of time to adjust to either one on it's own. But 2 years in, and a month into being a Mommy of 2, it's time to start writing about my experiences, with lots of other random thoughts thrown in!
On Life in the Country
After visiting my bestie several times at her lovely home in the country, I knew I wanted to live somewhere as peaceful as she does. This, coupled with the negatives we experienced living in town (neighbors calling the police on us for having a boat for sale in our yard, not being able to have a bonfire, etc) literally drove James and I out to the country! By that I mean that we would spend our Sunday mornings driving around the Iowa countryside looking for the perfect place to build a home. We found it! Err, James did. I couldn't see the vision for the building site like he did, as it was just a forest of trees to me! But, I trusted him and am glad I did. We have a very beautiful view, it is very peaceful, we see lots of critters every day, and the closest neighbor is about half a mile away!!
Having neighbors far away has it's pros and cons. Most of the time I love it, but when I'm in a town and see kiddos hanging out in each others' yards, I feel a little sad that my kids won't experience that. But, my kids will have lots of other experiences that town kids will not. Like playing in the river and handling snakes???? Okay -- I admit I'm not exactly looking forward to some of the experiences my kids will have, but I will get over it....I think?? Snakes?? Nope...will never get over it if one of my kids brings me a snake!!!! I might even move back to town if that happens!
When we lived in West Des Moines, I had a grocery store at the end of my block, and hundreds of other stores and services within a couple of miles. Now, I have to drive 15 minutes to get to civilization. That part I don't mind terribly. It probably saves me money being so far away from retailers (though I do love free shipping online!!!!). I definitely have to plan ahead for groceries and try to run as many errands as possible in one trip to save gas money.
Gas Money. It may be what's giving me cabin fever. I feel like I can't go anywhere most days because it will cost me just to leave the house since I have to drive so far to get anywhere. I'm slowly getting over this as I am realizing that my sanity and getting the kids out of the house to experience life are much more important than saving money on gas. But if anyone wants to drive out to our house for a play date so we don't have to spend money on gas, please feel free :)
On Being a Mommy
This section will be short today, as I'm sure most of my future posts will revolve around this topic.
When Rylee was born, I was a little surprised to have a girl. I always pictured myself to be a mother of boys. I love my little girl so much and can't imagine not having her in my life! She is a very sweet girl who shows more compassion than some adults!! She is so smart and funny! I don't think a day goes by that she doesn't make me laugh. I forget she is only 2 sometimes and am so amazed by her thoughts! As my mom pointed out, I am so glad to have had a little girl first because she is very motherly towards her new little brother. And such a big helper too!! I knew she would be a great big sister, but she has exceeded my expectations!!
Wyatt, my sweet little boy. I don't know if it is because he will probably be my last baby, or if it is something about a mother-son bond, but I can never stop looking at him and thinking how cute he is, wondering what his interests will be, wondering what kind of girls he will date --- ugh--or NOT date because I won't let him! I totally understand why men say they have to buy a shot-gun when they have little girls. I don't care if Rylee dates, but I sure don't want Wyatt to ;) I hope I will always be his #1 girl.
I will admit that I feel a little old now being a mother of two. We have completed our family (we think) and something about that just says "old" to me. Honestly I think I'm just feeling "boring" because for the past 10 months I've either been pregnant or now have an infant and feel held back from doing some things. This shall pass and I will be the "cool, fun" mommy I always wanted to be. I think Rylee already thinks I'm cool :)
I definitely spend a little too much time thinking about the future and not enough time in the present. I'm always thinking about trips I want to take the kids on when they are older, or what traditions I want to start with them when they get a little older. I know some day I may regret that I didn't soak in each day while they were little as the days start going faster. I admittedly, am just not a super fan of baby stage. I prefer when they can walk and talk, so just as I did with Rylee I am sure I will be trying to speed up the milestones with Wyatt too. I do love to cuddle my babies though!!
On "Everything in Between"
Well, you will have to keep reading my blog as I plan to share many of the "in between" random thoughts with you as they come......Enjoy!
Anyway, I have been meaning to start this blog ever since moving to the country and becoming a new Mom two years ago. Both of those events happened within 2 months of each other so I didn't have a whole lot of time to adjust to either one on it's own. But 2 years in, and a month into being a Mommy of 2, it's time to start writing about my experiences, with lots of other random thoughts thrown in!
On Life in the Country
After visiting my bestie several times at her lovely home in the country, I knew I wanted to live somewhere as peaceful as she does. This, coupled with the negatives we experienced living in town (neighbors calling the police on us for having a boat for sale in our yard, not being able to have a bonfire, etc) literally drove James and I out to the country! By that I mean that we would spend our Sunday mornings driving around the Iowa countryside looking for the perfect place to build a home. We found it! Err, James did. I couldn't see the vision for the building site like he did, as it was just a forest of trees to me! But, I trusted him and am glad I did. We have a very beautiful view, it is very peaceful, we see lots of critters every day, and the closest neighbor is about half a mile away!!
Having neighbors far away has it's pros and cons. Most of the time I love it, but when I'm in a town and see kiddos hanging out in each others' yards, I feel a little sad that my kids won't experience that. But, my kids will have lots of other experiences that town kids will not. Like playing in the river and handling snakes???? Okay -- I admit I'm not exactly looking forward to some of the experiences my kids will have, but I will get over it....I think?? Snakes?? Nope...will never get over it if one of my kids brings me a snake!!!! I might even move back to town if that happens!
When we lived in West Des Moines, I had a grocery store at the end of my block, and hundreds of other stores and services within a couple of miles. Now, I have to drive 15 minutes to get to civilization. That part I don't mind terribly. It probably saves me money being so far away from retailers (though I do love free shipping online!!!!). I definitely have to plan ahead for groceries and try to run as many errands as possible in one trip to save gas money.
Gas Money. It may be what's giving me cabin fever. I feel like I can't go anywhere most days because it will cost me just to leave the house since I have to drive so far to get anywhere. I'm slowly getting over this as I am realizing that my sanity and getting the kids out of the house to experience life are much more important than saving money on gas. But if anyone wants to drive out to our house for a play date so we don't have to spend money on gas, please feel free :)
On Being a Mommy
This section will be short today, as I'm sure most of my future posts will revolve around this topic.
When Rylee was born, I was a little surprised to have a girl. I always pictured myself to be a mother of boys. I love my little girl so much and can't imagine not having her in my life! She is a very sweet girl who shows more compassion than some adults!! She is so smart and funny! I don't think a day goes by that she doesn't make me laugh. I forget she is only 2 sometimes and am so amazed by her thoughts! As my mom pointed out, I am so glad to have had a little girl first because she is very motherly towards her new little brother. And such a big helper too!! I knew she would be a great big sister, but she has exceeded my expectations!!
Wyatt, my sweet little boy. I don't know if it is because he will probably be my last baby, or if it is something about a mother-son bond, but I can never stop looking at him and thinking how cute he is, wondering what his interests will be, wondering what kind of girls he will date --- ugh--or NOT date because I won't let him! I totally understand why men say they have to buy a shot-gun when they have little girls. I don't care if Rylee dates, but I sure don't want Wyatt to ;) I hope I will always be his #1 girl.
I will admit that I feel a little old now being a mother of two. We have completed our family (we think) and something about that just says "old" to me. Honestly I think I'm just feeling "boring" because for the past 10 months I've either been pregnant or now have an infant and feel held back from doing some things. This shall pass and I will be the "cool, fun" mommy I always wanted to be. I think Rylee already thinks I'm cool :)
I definitely spend a little too much time thinking about the future and not enough time in the present. I'm always thinking about trips I want to take the kids on when they are older, or what traditions I want to start with them when they get a little older. I know some day I may regret that I didn't soak in each day while they were little as the days start going faster. I admittedly, am just not a super fan of baby stage. I prefer when they can walk and talk, so just as I did with Rylee I am sure I will be trying to speed up the milestones with Wyatt too. I do love to cuddle my babies though!!
On "Everything in Between"
Well, you will have to keep reading my blog as I plan to share many of the "in between" random thoughts with you as they come......Enjoy!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)