When Life Gives You Lemons

Suck in that tart taste, shake your head, and push forward! None of that lemon-aid making stuff, that really just prolongs the tartness.

So, I've decided to take a BIG step. I'm going to make writing my job. Not here, but I hope to have more content to share over here as a result of simply writing more often, and being in the habit of constantly writing! I'm am a Macaroni Kid Publisher and believe that I can make MK a vital part of my community.

What is Macaroni Kid you ask? Macaroni Kid is a free, weekly email newsletter highlighting upcoming events and activities specifically for kids in our community. I have been publishing Macaroni Kid Snellville for just over six months, and I have built up a decent subscriber base, but I haven't given it the attention it needs to really thrive and grow. Well, that all stops now. I am going to be giving MK 100% of the skills I have and making it my full time job.

I'm sure that I am going to run into obstacles while growing MK Snellville, but I WILL NOT be stopped! So big bad green logo company run by aol, I will defeat you! You will not be sticking around my world as lemon-aid, I'm gonna suck you in, shake my head... and move on!

It's Monday!!!! Lets Hop!

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Helloooooooo Hoppers!! I'm glad you stopped by. Please take a few moments to check out my blog. I'm still under construction but writing as I build. I'm building my twitter up as well, follow me there and I'll follow you back!

Happy Monday!

There's A Middle Schooler Stuck On My Body!

I have about 95 pounds to lose. Just putting it out there so I have it where people can see it. I'll be joining up with the biggest loser club thing in a few but this is my statement to the world. I had planned on kicking of 2011 with weight loss goals, and then found out I was pregnant. Now that that is no longer an issue, I'm heading back to plan one. A better me in 2011. If you look over on the right you will see a place to "like" a Facebook page that I created along my a girlfriend for posting goals, concerns, questions, and for general support. Come join us!!

What kicked my butt in gear? Last night while going through old clothes, I came across a shirt that I refuse to let go of. You know the one. The one you looked uber hot in a decade ago and love too much to let walk out of your life. Well, I looked at the size on that shirt and realized that I was able to wear it when I first met my husband. I called him in the room and said "I didn't realize how tiny I was when we first started dating." He shrugged and agreed that I had been pretty little. I then looked up and said "I'm sorry." He just laughed and told me to get over it. But in truth, I am sorry. I haven't taken care of myself over the past 7 years and that's not good for either one of us. 

So starting in the morning... I'm making a change and I need to put it out there to someone else who would see it and make me feel like I was being held accountable.

Here is a photograph of me in the shirt that screamed "Callie! Get off your butt!" last night. I will wear this shirt by Christmas if not sooner!

First Birthday's and Laundry

There are certain things in life that throw me into a panic. Not having things planned out and having things that have needed to be done for a while still not done, are two of them. So as I sit here on a Sunday morning, planning Ella's first birthday and staring at a one giant pile of towels that need to be put away and the giant pile of dirty clothes I collected from around the house last night, I am trying to repeat "woosah" to myself.

Ella's birthday is in two weeks. I did send out a FB Save the Date invite months ago, so at least that is done. I had planned on mailing the paper invites last week, but that crazy snow/ice storm threw off that plan. I will mail them on Tuesday so people should have the details and the super cute invite by the end of the week. I am going out this afternoon to get the supplies for her decorations and her birthday shirt and hat. I have selected the cake to bake and have a friend who is going to help me get all the food and baking done the week before. Now it's just time to get down to the nitty gritty of crafting!

--back from getting the craft supplies!--

I have a pretty substantial stock of craft supplies at home,  but I needed card stock in the bright colors of Sesame Street for the banners I and other decorations for the party. I have had success! I found the perfect colored card stock and I'm excited to get started. Stay tuned for photos of my craftiness to come.

Sometimes Things Just Suck

Growing up a child of the 90's, "that sucks" was a part of my regular vocabulary. However my mother constantly would chide me about how crude and unlady like it sounded. Now, at the age of 25, I do agree with her. However the simple fact is, sometimes things just suck. Today was a day of utter suckiness...

We finally were able to get through the ice to the doctor. They got us in and for an u/s and there was nothing on the scan. My uterus was/is empty. I lost the baby and didn't even realize I had passed it sometime between Saturday night and today.

With all of our losses (five now) I have tried to hold on to the fact that my body is doing what it is made to do. I have been blessed that in every loss my body has taken care of it's self and I haven't had to have a d&c. This loss hurts no less than all the others, but holding Ella Grace and having her as a reminder that my body is not a total failure is definitely making this one sting a little less.

Sean and I have a lot of praying and talking to do.  The doctor said everything was cleaned out and we can talk to them when we are ready about trying again. She did take a look at all the test I have had in the past and everything looks normal. She suggested that when we are ready, Sean and I both get some genetic testing done. She said that maybe we each have minor 'tweaks" that together, are causing this. If we decide  to do that it would possibly involve moving forward with a genetic counselor. All of this is much more than I can think about today.

I know that it will take a while for me to mentally be ok again. But I feel like I'm mourning the loss of our four other babies all over again. When I sit and separate myself I can look at Ella Grace and be so happy with her and even think that I might be ok with never trying again.  Then I think of my five lost babies. The five little ones I will never hold and I start to sob again.

So yeah, losing babies sucks. Not knowing why sucks. Today, simply put, sucks.

I know we will move forward and we will be ok. With God and love all things are possible.

5 Senses of Fun! An Indoor Activity For Every Sense!

TOUCH

What's that Touching My Face?

What You'll Need: 

• Feathers
• Cloth
• Cotton balls
• Anything that is small and textured
• Blindfold 

How to play: 

Have two players face each other, one blindfolded and the other with all of their collected items.

The player who is sighted gently brushes the objects, one by one, across the blindfolded player's cheek. The player with the items must handle them carefully as to not let the other player tell what each item is.

The blindfolded player guesses what the object is and when they guess correctly, the two players switch places.

Remember, the softer the preasure, the harder to tell what is touching your face. 

SIGHT

I Spy With My Little Eye

It's an oldie but a goodie so to speak. You remember, that game you used to play as a child. Have the children sit in a room. Deciding who is first to go is the most challenging part of the game. I tend to pick a number and then have the kids guess, the one who guesses the closest goes first. The spyer then looks around and find their chosen object and says "I spy with my little eye something ___________." They can insert a color or a size or a shape whatever they want to use to discribe what they have spied. The guessers then take turns asking if it's what they think it is. This game can last a while and can be made more interesting by allowing the spyer to take a walk around the inside of the house to pick their item and then allowing the guessers to go look for it. The bigger the space the more objects to guess!

TASTE & SMELL

Taste v. Smell

What you need:

• small cups
• cotton swabs
• different foods with similar textures (try items like ketchup, mustard, barbecue sauce, sweet and sour sauce, and maple syrup.)
• pen and paper for charting

How to play:

• One person will be the taster and the other the tester, but you can switch at the end so both of you will get a chance to taste. 
• Draw a chart for recording your results. Write the name of each food you are testing in separate rows along the left side. Draw two columns for each taster. Label each column with the taster's name and "unplugged" or "plugged."
• Make some predictions about which foods will be easier and harder to identify. Will it be easier or harder to taste the foods with your nose plugged or unplugged?
• Blindfold the taster or just have her close her eyes.
• The tester then puts a little bit of one food on the taster's tongue with a cotton swab.
• The taster tries to identify which food she's tasting as well as whether it is salty, bitter, sweet or sour.
• The tester records the taster's answers on the chart for each food she tastes.
• When the taster has tried all the foods blindfolded, have her taste them each again but with her nose plugged as well. (Make sure you have her taste the foods in a different order.)
• Once the taster has tried each food with her nose plugged, switch who tastes and who tests and go through it all again.
• When you've both had a chance to taste, compare your results.

Which way was more challenging, with just eyes closed or with nose plugged too? Were certain foods especially hard or easy to taste? Try it again with crunchy foods or liquids!

Here's how this works:

A lot of what we think is taste is actually smell. That's why, when your nose is plugged, you can't taste some of the foods. It's because you can't smell what you are tasting.

HEARING

Telephone

How to Play:

Step 1

Sit in a circle or a row with players a foot or more apart.

Step 2

Choose one person to start. He comes up with a phrase or sentence — silly or serious, it doesn't matter.

Step 3

He leans over and whispers the phrase in the ear of the person next to him. That person whispers what she heard into the ear of the next player, and that continues around the circle.

Step 4

When the last person has whispered the phrase in the ear of the first person, he repeats it out loud. After the laughter dies down, he can tell everyone the original sentence or phrase.

Most fun with:

4 or more players

Kids ages 3 and up (a range of ages is best)

Any place the group can sit in a row or a big circle

First Blog Hop :)

My first blog hop on the new blog. I used to write over at The Deegan Daily but needed a fresh start.

I'm getting back to blogging and looking for new blogs to follow!! Thanks for stopping by.

The Perpetual Organizer

All of our clothes are organized by color and article. The dvd's are in alphabetical order. The pantry is neatly stocked with a running inventory posted on the door. My DayRunner is filled out for the month with multi-colored pens to mark special events, bills, outings, phone calls and to do's. Everything has a place, in my dreams.

The reality? There is at least two weeks worth of clothes that need to be folded and put away. There are books and dvd's in every room and when we want to find a certain one it's inevitably lost. If there is a way to organize a pantry that actually remains organized , I have yet to discover it and the inventory list is printed and ready to fill out sitting on the printer. It's been there for about three months. Hopefully I'll actually get around to buying or making a 2011 planner of some sort before the month is out.

I really to long for organization. The craziness of our home overwhelms me to the point of anxiety at times. I want to change this in 2011. And no, I don't mean I'll just ignore it and stop letting it bother me. I want to figure out how to make my family and our home run more efficiently. I want to maximize my time so that I can not only do all the "stuff" I want to do, but so that the things that need to be done, like laundry and dishes and cleaning the bathroom floor, happen as painlessly and systematically as possible. I downloaded a Goals and Priorities diary from http://www.getorganizedwizard.com and I'm going to get started on that tomorrow. They have a TON of great stuff on their website, and I really plan to put it to use.

I thought about posting a photo of my mess of a bed room, but decided to hold off on that. When I'm off bedrest and can physically tackle things and get stuff done, I will take before and after photos to share. Until then, imagine someone let a couple of pigs in the door, closed it behind them and walked away, yeah, that's my bedroom. It's a disaster. One I hope to remedy soon.

In 2011 I will not only be a perpetual organizer, but I will be perpetually organized.

Snow & Bed Rest

If you haven't heard, Atlanta is covered in snow. I live just north of Atlanta and literally have not seen this much snow in my entire life. It's also day 3 of bed rest for me. Sean and I were surprised and thrilled to discover we were pregnant about 4 weeks ago. I was scheduled to have my first appointment this week and was eager to find out how far along we were. Saturday I went to the bathroom and there was blood. We went to the ER and they did and u/s and exam. I saw our baby and it's little heart beating. My cervix was closed and I was told that the bleeding was the result of a subchorionic hemorrhage. A subchorionic hemorrhage is a fairly common event in early pregnancy where a small blood clot forms at the edge of the placenta and the amniotic sac. Anytime there is bleeding in pregnancy, the risk of miscarriage increases so we are anxious to talk to the doctor and get more information. I am on modified bed rest until I can get in and my butt is starting to hurt!

A New Beginning

What to write for my very first entry? I've blogged before. I write a weekly e-newsletter. Where do I begin when I start fresh? I wanted to start 2011 with a blog I can build on. So I sat and thought , "Who am I?" I'm Callie Mommy. I'm a woman who wants to live my life to the fullest. I want to be me and I want to be Mommy. I want to be wife and friend and confidant. I want it all, and I don't think that's too much to ask for. 


There was nothing "wrong" with my old blog. But lets face it, sometimes it's just easier to move on. A fresh start to blogging is an easy and painless transition. I had no real attachment to my blog. I might decide to grab a few of my old posts that I'm particularly fond of, but I feel like I need a new notebook. You know, like in highschool. When the notebook is just too tattered and neglected and your notes don't make sense and you want a fresh clean slate to start really doing what you know you are capable of? Yup, this is that new notebook. I plan to coddle it and use multi colored pens to write my notes and little sticky tags to mark the most important information. I will write neatly and transcribe all the information that my brain simply can not store on it's own.


So, here I am, Callie Mommy. Ready to take on the blogosphere! I'm a twenty-five year old wife and mother. Married for three and a half years and mothering for almost a year. I love reading, movies, photography, and music. I tend to take on my than I should and then don't understand why I'm so tired. I love to craft and bake and have discovered I enjoy cooking even without a recipe. I still strive to make my parents proud and will be happy if I can show my children a fraction of the love they have shown me. I'm a semi "crunchy" mommy who bed shares and baby wears and strives to parent with compassion and love. I can't wait to share more of me with you.