Survey Style

I'm not in a wordy mood but I do feel like I have things to say, so here it goes in an unorthodox way.

Name of the Week: Eloise Violet Rawlins (we could call her E.V. for short!)

Missing members of the household: Joe, he is in San Fran on a business trip.

Estimated Time of Return: Sunday sometime, but subject to change.

Plans for the weekend: None really.

Cravings at the moment: can't get enough water... man, living in the desert is the PITS!

Reportable funny sounds: hopefully just the rain on the window... :)

Funny Scarlett Story: She made 4 marks on her leg in sort of a Sonar/ target pattern in 4 different colors. When I saw them, I said, "Honey, it is not good to draw on yourself with markers..." she got the most dumbfounded and disdainful look on her face as if I could not possibly be right about this, and continued to say, "but Mom, I'm a robot with the color pink!" I said, "well okay, tonight you can be a robot with the color pink, but please don't draw on yourself with markers anymore. " She trudged away, a little annoyed.

New Scarlett favorite shows: Oswald (a giant blue octopus who sings about his every emotion), and the Mr Men Show, based on those darling books that have been around since we were kids... very well demonstrate the attributes of each emotion. Mr Happy, Mr Persnickety, Little Miss Oops, Mr Rude (pictured on right), Mr Tickle, etcetera.

Confirmation on unusual sound: Yep, it is now pouring rain... it sounds like someone left a very strong spigot of water on, over my roof... almost would make me think I don't live in the desert!

Can't wait for Saturday to share these Steals!!!

So I have been DYING to go to a thrift store. Joe could only ask "why" as he does not understand the utter joy I find from a good steal, but perhaps against his will he came with Scarlett and I to Saint Vincent DePaul's Thrift Store (located like a block from my house), and though they didn't have any awesome Jewelry (which I have scored on in the past) they DID have some great clothes for Scarlett. Our Scarlett girl has recently grown out of pretty much ALL of her bottoms.... Shorts, Pants, Skirts, etcetera and was in dire need of some new digs. So I got 3 skirts, 2 pairs of shorts, 1 dress and 2 shirts for $4!!

I was also so excited that I just had to take pictures of them all... please ignore the unkempt pregnant lady lurking behind the clothing, k thanks!

Soccer ball

My uterus is now the size of a soccer ball. 

The baby about the size of a half gallon of milk and roughly the length of those fun little recorders you played in music class back in grade school. 

These visualizations help me feel better about my current appearance. 

Joe has been having fun with his new camera... and took these pictures... the color is amazing, and the pictures are so clear. He says he will take some more maternity pics of me later on, too. Oh, and for you Shumway relatives, that is Grandma Louise's Aloe Vera plant still growing strong by our front door behind Scarlett. :)

Today was my Dad's birthday, he is now 59! Scarlett and I had a great time over at their house this afternoon, she loves to play with all her cousins. My mom and I were talking about how time can really fly by, I still am not sure how I came to be 25, seems like only yesterday I was turning 21 and getting married. Joe and I will celebrate our 5 year anniversary in December, and my parents are celebrating 35 years that same month. I am grateful for love; it truly can survive all else. 

Post-its

Without a lot to say, here's what I do have to say... in post-its. Make your own here

Hoarders- Saturday Steals

This morning I was thinking about Saturday Steals, as I again read Camille's blog entry of the week and found myself considering steals in my life. for example Scarlett's Rainbow Brite Pony. (it looks exactly like this one, I can't believe my mad-Googling skills found me this image!) This thing was obviously the real deal from back in 1984. Someone loved and cherished this thing. Could have very well been their FAVORITE childhood toy... a few of her hooves are a bit worn out due to all the trotting along Starlight as done over the years. In fact, they probably held onto it for a good 23 years before finally deciding it was okay to part with it: give it to charity (D.I. in this case) , pay it forward. This person, was willing to part with this gem in order to not allow their home to turn into something like this:

(image from here)

There are toys I remember from my childhood, that I wish I still had to share with my daughter... but, let's face it, it is neither healthy nor worthwhile to allow yourself to be buried in sentimental or useless collecting. And let's face it, who is going to be able to find ANYTHING in a scary pile of a room like that one?

Sorry, the above was sort of a mental tangent, but I feel much better after letting it out of my head! :)

Steals that took place this week:

Joe's sister Nikki is going to give me the single Graco stroller that she used for her daughter who is Scarlett's age, so now I will have a single stroller to click Zoey's [yeah still not set in stone on the name yet, but anyway] car seat into on those solo-adventures or when Scooby doesn't need to sit in the stroller. We also took our girls with us to a quick run to Wal-mart this week. These two girls are already best friends in the making... look at this adorable picture of them eating icecream side by side in the cart. Melts my heart :)

My friend Marsha says she will probably call me Monday so I can go pick up the infant car seat and bases she has (did i tell you guys that it is pink and brown just like I said I wanted to begin with?!)

And, it gets better! Scarlett's wonderful Grammy and Papa Rawlins got her THE pink and brown car seat I had been posting about wanting. Scarlett was in love with it before it even came out of the plastic! It hasn't made it into our car yet, I want go give our CRV a nice thorough cleaning before putting in the new seats. I feel so incredibly blessed, that I am practically bursting at the seams!

My dear sweet friend Brooklin watched Scarlett for us last night for free so we could see the movie Inception. We really liked it and I would recommend it! Just wanted to publicly thank Her for being such a great friend, I love her so much.

Saturday again already?!

Here are some updates on Saturday Steals, since it is again Saturday. Here is the link again to Camille's blog where this gem-of-an-idea stems from.

This week, my sweet Amiee Friend drove out here to my house (at least a 20 min drive) and brought me loads of loot. By loot I mean LOTS of clothing, and bibs, and socks, and clothing, and some lady she knows even gave me her AWESOME pack and play with the bassinet and changing table on top, and looks like it is in perfect condition. This has made me try and clear out my bedroom to try and make room for this nice bed to go in our room, and get things settled for our new little bundle to join the household! (that is what it looks like minus the mobile.

I also got another awesome email today from a friend named Marsha. She and I went to school together since Elementary school, and she says her baby girl has already grown out of lots of her clothes and her infant CARSEAT and she has one or two bases for it that I can have too! I am beyond psyched!!! I am so immensely grateful for all of these wonderful blessings raining down on us.

Last night Joe's sister Nikki watched Scarlett free of charge for us so we could go see a movie together. When we got there Scarlett was excited to play with her cousin Rachel, and was not upset when we left. We went over to Mesa Grand and found awesome parking right away, and discovered that AMC has even night time tickets for only 5.25 a piece on week nights! What a steal! We saw the Twilight movie, and I liked it, and most of all I just loved being with my Husband. I love him so so so so much. I also loved coming back and finding Scarlett so happy and content at Nikki's house. Nikki even posted pictures of the girls playing on her facebook for me to see when I got home.

Steals left and right I tell ya, left and right... but it's even better when they are gifts, because then it's not stealing at all!

What is a Friend?

It is strange how the older I get the more unclear I am on what exactly it means to be a friend.

dictionary.com defines as follows:

friend

   [frend] 

–noun

1.

a person attached to another by feelings of affection or personal regard.

2.

a person who gives assistance; patron; supporter: friends ofthe Boston Symphony.

3.

a person who is on good terms with another; a person whois not hostile: Who goes there? Friend or foe?

4.

a member of the same nation, party, etc.

As people my age face untimely deaths, it is always brought back front and center in my mind. I went to school with this guy. He was always very kind and friendly to people around him. I have never heard him utter an unkind word. He was epileptic, so after having a few classes with him over time, he knew that I knew what to do if he began having a seizure when I was in his company. Give him space and try and keep anything hard out of his way. I remember feeling some sort of duty with this, even though we never actually "hung out" outside of school. I never went to his house or knew his family. But I would say we were attached by personal regard. We were definitely always on good terms. Apparently we never connected on Facebook, though I looked him up as soon as I heard the news today. Was nice to see his face. (image from here)

I had recently heard that he was finishing up some sort of nursing program. This made me happy to think that even though he had all of his own personal trials in life that he would want to choose a profession where he could help others. I imagined him caring for patients, providing them the same warm assurance, that he was in their corner. Again, I think to myself, "why didn't I ever tell him what a great guy I thought he was? Why are we so slow to share the things we find so strong and good about the people around us? They are gone so quickly. I hope they can read blogs in heaven because I have read so many good and heartfelt messages to people who have since passed on. It only seems fair that they should be able to read them. Goodbye Derek. God be with you till we meet again.

Saturday Steals

So I have this wonderful friend Camille... okay so we are mostly just internet friends, but I like to pretend she would want to be my friend in real life.. and she runs this cool thing weekly called Saturday Steals.. And, I as of late have felt sad that I don't shop anymore, so I never have anything to contribute, so I decided to add something for fun.

So, the only thing better than all these deals people keep finding wonderful bargain prices at Goodwill, Yard Sales and the discount children's store Once Upon a Child, are when people feel sorry for you and pick up cute things FOR YOU at Yard Sales. My Parents are AWESOME at doing this.

When we moved back to AZ for example, I mentioned to my sweet Parents that Joe has always desired a reclining chair... to him this was the marker of true Manly success in life, that you have a living room with a nice TV and a reclining chair. (image on right from here) His Dad has a chair that is all his, and fits this bill, so I suppose you can say this was an inherited mindset. I however up to this point had been of the mind that "when we have money we will get you a chair, dear". A week later my dad came home from a Yard Sale and called me up and said I got you TWO matching blue chairs at a yard sale, for $20 for the pair. The guy had wanted twenty a piece, but my dad said he wouldn't give him any more than $20 for the pair, and sadly the guy admitted. See, I know if I were there I would have paid more or just sadly gone home without my desired purchase. So now, Joe has a recliner for the living room and a non reclining chair for his office to sit and read in. And it gets better. (image from here)

Joe also was in dire need of an office chair. He for weeks suffered through sitting on an uncomfortable wooden chair to do his work and his back was in real suffering over it. He told me, I want a chair just like Paul (his business partner) has. He described it to me, and it sounded expensive... so I told him I would keep my eye peeled for a new chair for him. I went to a thrift store and bought a chair for $10 which he did not like, and thought smelled bad, so he was really excited when out of the clear blue sky Paul offered to GIVE him THE chair he had dreamt of... and it is blue and matches the other chairs we have perfectly. Fate? I have to think: yes.  (image from here)

Of course if you read my blog you know that the latest buzz has been all about how there is a child growing in my stomach who will come out naked and have nothing to clothe it. Apparently this imagery is disturbing to some of my readers. My sweet and wonderful friend Amiee told me the other day that she has 2 bags of clothes for my baby! She was so sweet that she even posted on her facebook that a friend of hers didn't have any clothes for her new baby so if they wanted to get rid of little girl clothes she would come pick it up from their house to bring to me, how wonderful is that?! I am so excited!

And of course my Wonderful Parents are at it again. Last week my mom bought a bag full of newborn clothes, washcloth, a couple baby towels, and a small 3 drawer dresser for me to house Zoey's (name of the week) clothes in, and this morning I got another call that she has found MORE clothes for her! Can't wait to go over there and see them. Another great friend of mine Amber who lives in CO is going to ship me all the clothes and stuff from her baby girl who is now about Scarlett's age. She says its all in great condition and I am SO EXCITED about that. (image from here)

So the moral of this post is, Wonderful Family, and True Friendships are not only priceless but insanely good Saturday Steals!

**ADDENDUM** I just went to sweet Amiee's blog and she posted about Saturday steals, and I nearly cried reading of her true charity and love she gives to me as a friend... read the post, you will probably cry too!! LOVE YOU AMIEE!