good morning.

so reason number 29348092348 why i love my children. in the mornings, first i go get aidan. and i sing.

then we go get sawyer. and aidan sings.

then we go get reese. and aidan and sawyer sing.

this is what we sing. loud and proud. wake up and sing. :)

day 9.

Day 9-A picture of your friends

or rather, picturessssss.

we'll just do those who we see most often. ;) and who my kids are besties with as well.

first, we have david. or, "day-did" :) ive known him since, oh, 2004. and we are 2 peas in a pod. he loves my girls, and they adore him back. now in dallas (after spending a few wretched years after waco in the sink-hole known as houston) life is inevitably better. lol





we also have ashley. or, "lashley" :) who ive known since.. wow, 1998? is that right? a long time LOL either way, she's been around for all my kids. and they know her so well that im pretty sure they think she's their bestie.







then there's nathan. or "nason". which is ashley boyfriend turned our friend then kid friend as well :) he's full of fun all the time ;) ive "known" him since HS, but not really until last spring.



we have other friends, obviously LOL i am still searching for that wine pic of amanda w. and sawyer. it'll show up soon haha then that'll be on here too.

we're so lucky, though. i cant imagine not having these people in my life. they get us. they understand that we cant go out all the time, but hey - just come over. they help with the kids if we need them too, they come over a bit early just to make sure they see ASR before bedtime.

we are are blessed.

day 8.

Day 8-A place you've traveled to

lets see.

honduras. roatan to be exact. it could be my favorite place ive been to so far. but it didnt start that way.



EJ and i were on a cruise in march 2008. we stop in honduras and everything takes damn cash. we know this, but still we forget and get off the boat without hitting the atm. its likely we lost all of our cash the night before at the casino on the boat. but i cant be sure.

so our on-island taxi driver takes us to the most beautiful beach there. we get out, he'll meet us in like 6 hrs, we need however much in cash. um. okay. the resort closest to this beach is fresh out of money. oh really?

so we take a water taxi to another part of the island with, likely, another atm. the water taxi driver tells us where the atm is, we thank him and say "wait here. we'll pay you for it" he does, and we head off. i tell EJ im going to shop in this little store for gifts. he says he'll BRB.

um. but he didnt BRB. i walked around that street for hours. okay. im lying. it was prob 30 mins. but since we dont have "world phones" we couldnt call e/o.

so i start up towards where the atm was supposed to be. nothing. i mean, an atm is there, but its obvs broken and EJ is no where to be seen. i walk around, smile at native hondurans, and cry on the street. pacing. i find an american that looks like he was likely on the boat and i just stand by him.

JUST STAND THERE. how awkward.

then i start to think... so, if i dont find EJ, do i get back on the boat? do i stay here in roatan? how do we get home? do i file a police report here? should i finish the cruise?

haha okay maybe not the last one.

FINALLY EJ strolls up with our water taxi guy. who had walked him 10 mins out of the way to another atm. i want to punch him in the throat. both of them.

we go back to the other part of the island and have the best time ever. i drink so many ritas that i puke in the ocean after snorkeling, we eat delish food, buy fun crap, and just have a ball. im not kidding when i say that we picked up realty paperwork on our way back to the boat. we'd move there in 2 seconds flat.

oh, and EJ still has about $110 honduran dollars (thats like 1 billion american. ok. like $19) in his wallet. he just showed me. im not kidding. we are ballers.

day 7.

Day 7-Favorite movies

newsies - um. a musical. christian bale. need i say more?
white christmas - snow. snoW. snOW. SNOW!!!!!
love actually - omg swoon.
van wilder - rawr ryan reynolds. and, well, its hilarious.
centerstage - oh. cmon. its fabulous.

there are dozens more. some im slightly embarrassed about (ahem.fromjustintokelly.ahem) and others, like kid movies, that i would gladly watch with ASR with no problem!

cars
madagascar (1 and 2)
enchanted
over the hedge (a personal fave)
wall-e. omg tears.

give me some time. i'll think of more ;)

day 6.

Day 6-A picture of something that makes you happy



ok. so its multiple pictures. but let me explain. nothing makes me swoon more than how my children are with each other. simply best friends. playing in the rain, making reese laugh, sitting on the couch cuddling in a blanket. i could not imagine life any other way. its the best.

day 5.

Day 5-Your favorite recipes


yeah. um. im gonna have to come back to this. with my mom has a guest writer. LOL give me a few.

eta: okay. here's some quick and easy things i had my mom tell me how to do.

Pot Roast in crock pot.

One chuck roast, size depends on how many you are feeding.

veggies: potatoes, carrots, celery, onions, mushrooms

Put pot roast at bottom of crock pot. Salt and pepper. Put veggies on top. Add one can mushroom soup and one envelope of lipton onion soup. Then one can water. Put on high for about 5 hours. Should be delicious and meat should be fork tender.


Chicken soulvaki

Package of chicken tenders. Marinate them in 1/2 lemon juice, teaspoon of oregano, teaspoon of minced garlic for about 4 hours.

Then put in skillet and cook, cutting the chicken into bite size pieces.

To assemble: One pita bread...(garlic powder and butter both sides) Put in pan to heat both sides. Put on plate. Add some chicken, tomatoes, red onion and I add a few clausson pickles. Top all with tzaitki sauce. (Get it at SPROUTS!). Delicious!


Fajita marinade

1/4 cup lemon juice
1/2 t garlic powder
1/2 t onion powder
1/2 t ground thyme
1/2 t ground cumin
1/4 cup corn oil


thanks mom!!! love them!

day 4.

Day 4-Your parents

this one is so easy.

my parents are the best. end of story.

my dad - calm, quiet, funny, the sensitive one of the pair. haha owns his own graphic design advertising company and has had an office in our home for as long as i can remember. loves fishing, building things, watching boring tv that no one else would like except for EJ, and red wine.



my mom - funny, outgoing, sassy, and my best friend. hobbies consist of trying new recipes, going with me to target, and hanging out at the cabin with my dad. sharing a bottle of wine with me might also be on the list.



they love LOVE my children. will watch them when we need/want them to and they have a hundred stories about what fun things they did after the night is over. they got A and S all ready to come see reese -- and the look on their faces in this pic when they came in for the first time just exudes the love they have.



its hard bc i could go on and on. but i will simply say that my 2 biggest supporters/helpers/friends will always be my parents. so here, i'll write a little note to them.

dear mom and dad,
i just wanted to say thank you for everything you do.

thanks for being there when we need you, helping out when we need a boost, and being there just to listen to me (or EJ - you know how he is) vent.

thanks for loving ASR the way you do. they love their nonny and papa so much and constantly want to go over and stay the night, meet for lunch, or just have an hr of playtime. cmon - you love playing tea party, right? :)

thanks for adoring EJ. for treating him like a son. for chatting with him about stuff i dont want to talk about anymore ;) and listening to him vent about work things that i dont understand as a stay at home mom. and for letting him know that he is a part of this family too.

thanks for paying for college. and the dropped classes... and parking tickets... and bear bucks. one day when i win the lottery, i will pay you back.

because of you, i live knowing that things will be okay no matter what. i love you :)

day 3.

Day 3-Your first love


i had to think about this one. thats why i didnt post yesterday.

OBVIOUSLY E.J. is my main squeeze. my one true love. the only person that ive been able to say "wow. i want to go to bed next to you every night. and see your mug in the morning as well". the guy who i wanted to have 3 (or more? lol) kids with. the one who makes me heart pitter patter (is that corny enough for you?).

but thats not a first love. a first love means mistakes. it means grand illusions of something that you *think* you know, but, well, you don't.

so that takes us to 2001. end of my senior year. we dated until fall 2003. he didnt even live in the same town as me. for 2 years, i traveled down to austin texas to hang out with him, meet his friends, live the life as a frat guy's girlfriend, and be... well, young. we had corny nicknames, we said that we loved each other, we learned a lot. well. i did. i cheated on him with the guy i'd consider my 2nd "love". and that was that. i hurt him. but in the end, it needed to happen. we needed to break up.

we didnt talk about the future. we didnt talk about anything really except the *now*. but thats how you know its not true love, right? when nothing is more important except whats going on in that very moment.

2+ years of fun and laughs. its true.
2+ years with someone who i could talk to for hours and considered my best friend.
2+ years of learning how to be in a relationship of some sort.
2+ years of thinking about someone else when they aren't around.

those are the type of relationships that teach you how to treat other people and how to express emotions. how to try not to hurt someone else (i failed) and how to, eventually, know what real love is and whats not.

i think everyone has someone like this. you dont regret anything that happened. you dont wish anything went differently.

because you are who you are. and with who youre with now. bc of first... second... third... however many, "loves". until finally - FINALLY - you say "oh pffftttt now THIS. *this* is love."

then you make babies and stuff.

day 2.

Day 2-Meaning behind your blog name

well. this one is easy.

im a parent.

of 3 kids.

sooo.... lol

as for my other blog "this year's love", that was our wedding song. and is also tattooed on my back in gaelic.

what a boring blog update day. ;)

day 1.

Day 1-Introduce, recent picture, 15 interesting facts

alright. here goes. my name is amanda. no one calls me mandy. i'd kill them if they did. the only person who could do that was my grandpa - while singing "mandy" from white christmas and playing it on the piano at the same time. <3 im 27 and have 3 kids and a hubby. my facebook statuses usually include one of these words: gym, target, naptime, wine, or twitch. here's me. aidan took this pic.

here's me again.

i obvs took this pic.



and now 15 things about me. this might hurt my brain. im just going to write as they come to me... so they may not, um, flow?

1. being a sahm was what i always wanted to do. always. i could have save a lot of money on baylor -- eh mom? ;)

2. im addicted to diet coke. sometimes, if i dont have any here to drink, the inside of my soul craves it. im not kidding.

3. i love school supplies. like chompy clips and highlighters. and fantastically cheap pens that write oh so smooth. and binders. and those little sticky tab things that you put onto pages of books. this made me love studying. like... whoa. not the actual "study" part, but the "re-writing my notes in 1 pen and then highlighting in different colors and then tabbing, clipping, hole punching, and organizing" part.

4. i hate being chased up the stairs. wow. if youre walking behind me, i'll side-eye you the whole way. dont even think about moving your feet a bit faster. you may be throat punched. at the gym sometimes we set up rows of benches and then do things in a line. which, theoretically, means we are being chased for one hour. ;) i almost start to hyperventilate.

5. i have to sleep in a cold room. with a fan on my face. blowing air on me the whole night. not "circulating". not on the ceiling. but floor fan directly blowing on my face. it gives EJ allergies i think.

6. i dont like to eat meat off the bones. (get your mind out of the gutter). like ribs. ::shudder::

7. i have moccasins. ok. theyre slippers, basically. that i wear all winter. LOL even to shoots. i have convinced myself that other people think they are totally shoes. sigh. ok sometimes i wear flip flops in the winter. you can judge me for that, too.

8. i weigh less now than i did when i left college. by at least 20lbs. so whenever anyone posts "omg look at me at 21!!" pics - i dont have that. i mean, it didnt hurt my chances with, um, the boys, so i guess i didnt realize that i needed to lose a few back then. lol

9. i really like mexican food. and pizza. and sushi. i could eat those 3 things every day.

10. i am actually really funny in real life. i dont know if i come across that way online, but in real life i say things that get people laughing. its true. im a regular effin comedian.

11. if i could go back to college again, id be a weather girl. mmmhmmm. and id study tsunamis. except that i am afraid of the deep ocean waters. so maybe that wouldnt work.

12. i like sad books and movies. especially books though. time traveler's wife, anything by kristin hannah, and pretty much any other book that makes you sit in your bed with a box of tissues LITERALLY heaving for the last 100 pages. i love it. so much. for some reason i can relate to the characters so much more if they make me cry. i get angry. i talk about them to EJ like they are real people and he looks at me like im batshit crazy. maybe i should keep those things to myself? lol

13. i had my tonsils out when i was like 11 or 12. i had strep throat like 100 times that school year. ive never had it since. they took my adnoids (sp?) too - and i dont think ive ever had an earache either.

14. i went to texas tech for 1 semester before transferring to baylor. although you cant really call it transferring. that would imply that they used your previous college grades. which baylor didnt. bc i applied for transfer sept 01. thats right. 1 month after i started TTU. so they had to use my HS grades/SAT just like they would have if i went immediately there. so i spent the rest of the semester at TTU just barely passing the course that WOULD transfer and drinking. a lot. and making new friends. and traveling to see my (then) boyf in austin.

15. EJ and i met bc we worked at the same bar. he was a bartender and i was a cocktail waitress. he had a gf (ish) but i told him to kiss me in the bar's elevator at 1am. he said we'll see. at 1am he grabbed the elevator keys and that was that. we both tied up loose ends, moved in with each other (well, he moved in with me bc he needed to, then found another place, then i moved in there. it was dumb lol), and the rest is history.


ETA: oops. i seem to need some corrections and explanations.

a) i was 9 when i had my tonsils out. lol thanks mom!

b) so. i forgot to explain. i went to TTU because, well, everyone else was. I only applied there and TCU and got into both. hindsight, i should have gone to TCU. i would have loved it. i know i would have. but "omg it was so close to home!!" (yeah - about as far as baylor). i had not even seen texas tech before i went there for orientation summer 01 and basically was in tears when i got off the plane and saw what lubbock was. flat. dry. and stinks like poop. now, let it be known that i ADORED my time at tech after i started. but i didnt like it at first. i went through rush and then dropped out, i missed my boyf (eyeroll), and my family was a plane flight (or 6 hr dr) away. things happen for a reason. so im very glad i ended up at baylor. :)

i'm doing this.

so pay attention ;)

i will start tonight. or tomorrow. well. soon. bc i really think that it will make me happy to look back on. :)


Day 1-Introduce, recent picture, 15 interesting facts

Day 2-Meaning behind your blog name

Day 3-Your first love

Day 4-Your parents

Day 5-Your favorite recipes

Day 6-A picture of something that makes you happy

Day 7-Favorite movies

Day 8-A place you've traveled to

Day 9-A picture of your friends

Day 10-Something you're afraid of

Day 11-Favorite tv shows

Day 12-What you believe

Day 13-Goals

Day 14-A picture you love

Day 15-Bible verse

Day 16-Dream house

Day 17-Something you're looking forward to

Day 18-Something you regret

Day 19-Something you miss

Day 20-Nicknames

Day 21-Picture of yourself

Day 22-What's in your makeup bag

Day 23-Favorite vacation

Day 24-Something you've learned

Day 25-Put your iPod on shuffle, first 10 songs

Day 26-Picture of your family

Day 27-Pets

Day 28-Something that stresses you out

Day 29-3 Wishes

Day 30-a picture

wine.

*** aidan talking on her monitor, so i go upstairs so see what she needs ***

aidan: what's that mommy?

me: oh. um. wine.

aidan: oh! that make you feel better?


LOLOL yes. yes it does, kiddo.

things i am thankful for.

ok im just going to write a list. i truly wanted to write paragraphs for each. and i still may. but for now - im going to write a list of my 20 things.

they get petty. keep that in mind. but, hey, they all relate to my sanity ;) some give me giggles, some give me smile, and all make me happy. and some of the end

1. EJ.
2. aidan.
3. sawyer.
4. reese

(hey, they are all different reasons lol)

5. my mom.
6. all other family.

(dont question it. lol my mom is my bestie)

7. the time i spent in college.
8. the friends i still have from before children.
9. the friends i have made *after* children.
10. the gym.
11. wine. and margaritas. and champagne.
12. target.
13. my camera.
14. my kids' school.
15. holiday decor of all kinds.
16. the christmas season.
17. diet coke.
18. my mac.
19. mexican food.
20. the internet.