Tag!

I really love these kinds of posts... whenever someone I know does one I always hope that I get tagged. {I know, vain much?} And my loverly friend Mara tagged me! woot woot!

game rules:
1. post these rules.
2. post a photo of yourself and 11 random things.
3. answer the questions set for you in the original post.
4. create 11 new questions and tag people to answer them.
5. go to their blog/twitter and tell them you've tagged them.

Yep, this is probably my favorite picture of me...ever.

my 11 random things:
1. I'm obsessed with the sock bun lately. Except I'm still not very good at it yet.
2. My other current obsession as of late is emergency preparedness.
3. After 2 years of having a gross rash I was finally able to get some medicine to get rid of it. It's been awesome to be less itchy.
4. I hate doing the laundry
5. I have the greatest friends ever. Be jealous.
6. I bought pink pants this weekend. 2 pairs actually. I'm debating which ones I like most so I can return them.
7. Sometimes I think I'm ready for baby #2
8. Sometimes I think having one child is plenty :)
9. I cannot wait for summer to get here.
10. I loooove really long bubble baths.
11. Right now I am reading The Time Traveler's Wife.


My 11 questions for me from Mara:
1. what do you love most about your life? mi familia. I love that I have the opportunity to be a mom and to watch my little girl grow up. It's lots of work but so worth it!
2. pulp or no pulp? pulp. I love fresh o.j.
3. where/what was your most favorite trip you've been on? my honeymoon. Even though we didn't go anywhere super cool {st. george and vegas} It was the most relaxing week of my life. Just spending time with my cute husband.
4. if you had to pick one place to live for the rest of your life, where would it be? why? I'm going to go with St. George. I love it down there. It's close to family but far away enough and it's warmer down there. I hate winters.
5. list your top 3 favorite male/female celebs. Meryl Streep, Katherine Heigl and Emma Stone
6. what is something unique to you that not many others may know about? uhh... my pinky's are crooked.
7. what would your dream family be made up of? how many boys/girls? why? 3-4 kids. I still don't which I'd rather have right now. At least one boy. If it was 4 kids I'd go with 2 boys and 2 girls.
8. favorite movie? The Devil Wears Prada it always makes me feel good.
9. favorite kind of ice cream? toppings? Lunaberry Pistachio with Strawberries
10. what is one of the nicest things some has ever done for you? Is it sad that I don't know? Probably anyone who was there for me when my mom was really sick and in the hospital for weeks. It was hard.
11. why do you blog? because I want to :)

11 questions for you
1. Favorite food?
2. What's your biggest fear?
3. Who makes you laugh the most?
4. Heels or flats?
5. What did you want to be when you were little?
6. Who was your first kiss?
7. top 3 male/female celebs?
8. What is your favorite tv show?
9. Who do you look up to?
10. Favorite cookie?
11. why do you blog?

Tagged
Bekah Aldrich
Steph Amberboy
Heather Barclay

Kids say the darndest things part two

Oh the things kids say to me sometimes.... I can't help but crack up. They have absolutely nooo filter. None. Zilch.

"Mrs. Jackson, do you walk a lot? You look really healthy. I think you must walk a lot."

exactly one week later I got this comment from a 1st grader...

Boy: "Are you having a baby?"
Me: "Um...no"
Boy: "Oh. You look like it."

"Mrs. Jackson! I got an Xbox Kinect for Christmas! I got it from Santa. And I know it was from Santa because my mom hates video games!"

"Did you fart? It smells like fart in here." I promise I didn't far... just saying.

"This is like possibly the funnest game I've played in like, um... since Thursday!"

"I don't want to play that. ever. again. I hate this!"

This next comment came from a 6 year old with the most serious look and tone in her voice...
"Mrs. Jackson, you and I need to talk!" And then she proceeded to tattle.

2nd graders who break out in to song and dance singing "I'm sexy and I know it!"

If it weren't for moments like these through out my day I might go crazy.

I can tell you the exact day Izzie changed from a baby to a toddler. It was 4 days ago on her 13 month birthday. I mean it, I knew it just by the way she was acting. She was so whiny and getting in to ev-er-y-thing. And I thought this is it... here comes my toddler. And it's true. It hasn't been the same since. My little 13 month old stink bug still isn't walking. It still freaks her out. But she can crawl like nobody's business. I'm not too worried about her not walking yet. She'll do it when she's ready.

She can say, hi, bye, dada, mama, uh uh and she makes a barking type sound when she sees a dog. It's not really a bark... she just makes a really distinct sound when she sees a dog.

She loves animals. She pats her legs to try and get them to come to her. It's so cute.

Just yesterday she learned where her toes are. I can say "Izzie where are your toes?" and she can point to them.

She'll give you hugs and pat your back and say, "awww"

And some time within these past four days she's learned how to crawl up on to the couch. Nothing is safe anymore.

She's been doing this for awhile but if you say "yay!" She'll clap her hands.

If she's doing anything she's not supposed to do... like say playing with the toilet brush... she'll say "uh uh" and shake her whole body side to side. She can't shake her head no yet. She she just shakes her whole body. It's pretty funny.

If she likes whatever she is eating she'll really loudly say "umm umm yumm" and then lick her plate.

And the not so fun things... if she gets mad at you for taking something away, or if you aren't paying attention to her like she wants she'll bang her head on the floor. I'm not sure how to get her to stop doing this. I've been trying to ignore it. Oh and I think we might have a biter on our hands. Sometimes she bites too. Oy vey.

I guess you have to take the good with the bad though. Oh well. I love watching her grow up!

Valentine's Day

Troy and I like to keep things low key on Valentines Day.

For the majority of the day we had to spend love day apart because of conflicting work/school schedules.
So we decided to show a little love solidarity by getting special Valentine's shirts to wear.
What do Troy and I love right now?

Zombies.

And nothing says Valentine's Day like zombie t-shirts, right?

Underneath all of the brains & brains on his shirt it says, "zombie meal time."
My shirt says, "If I were a zombie I'd eat you first" inside a big pink brain.

We're so romantic.

Troy was able to sneak away from work for a little bit to take me and Izzie on a mini date to our second latest obession.
Fro-yo from Orange Leaf.
Have you been? It's divine.
It's down the street from our house.

I hope everyone spent V-day doing things they love with those they love!

let her eat cake

So we're going to pretend like I haven't lost my camera again and I've gotten around to posting about Izzie's birthday already...mmmk?

Remember how Izzie's birthday cake smashing was an epic fail? Picture my shy baby girl in front of 20+ of our closest family and friends with a cake in front of her... frozen stiff in fear. That girl wouldn't even touch her cake due to stage fright. I even force fed her a little frosting hoping that might encourage her a bit. Nope. She spit it out.

Uncle Nicholas turned 17 this weekend and we had a little party for him. Thank goodness for camera phones. I think Izzie' likes birthdays... just not hers.

Yes she did eat straight out of the ice cream carton

Loving Nicholas' cake

Because every one knows that cake tastes better with a little toe jam

messy girl!

Sink bath @ grandma's = cake success

one year pics!

Izzie had her pictures taken by the amazing Paige Davis for her first birthday. Check out Paige's website if you haven't already. She is stellar and you should hire her. You will also see Izzie's picture as a link to visit the website. My daughter is just that adorable.

We got some great ones. But if you've ever met my darling child you know that if she doesn't know you she gets shy and just stares at you. She made Paige and I work for the cute smiley shots.

Here are a few of my favorite pictures. Please don't copy them {as in ctrl + c kind of copy}. I shrunk the images and everything. She's all mine and I'd like her to stay that way :)

It got a little rough for her towards the end. She was a great sport though.

Love you bizzie!

ugh.

This is long... and I won't be offended if you don't read it. It's more for me anyway.

I've had this awful icky sick to my stomach feeling for the past 24 hours.
No I'm not sick.

I need to get this off my chest but I don't really want to write about it because I'm nervous that people will think, "Wow Leslie, you're kinda dumb."

Maybe I am... but please don't say it.

In an effort to keep my new years resolution of being more honest on my blog... here goes.

Yesterday Izzie was sick with a fever and not well enough to go to daycare. I called and cancelled daycare. I tried to get a sub for school but it was too late so they just had to cancel PE. No biggie really. I told my daycare lady that I would keep her posted on whether Izzie got better over the course of the day.

By 6:00pm Izzie still had a fever around 100. So I decided to cancel daycare tomorrow as well. So I called and then I asked as well meaning as ever,

"Since I cancelled on you so last minute this week am I supposed
to pay you?"

to which my daycare lady snapped at me with her thick Italian attitude,

"Well since you've never paid when the baby has been gone in the past... I don't expect you to start paying now!"

I was seriously taken aback. At first I had no idea what she was talking about and then suddenly I realized what she was referring too. Since I "teach" PE I get all school holidays off...unpaid.

Fall break.
Thanksgiving break.
Christmas break.
etc...

She has never said one word to me before this. Not one. I don't remember her ever telling me this or ever signing anything other than a consent form for Ipecac if it were ever needed. I remember her telling me during our interview that she closes for standard holidays. In turn, I told that was fine because I work at school and get all school holidays off so I wouldn't need her then. She never said anything like, "you need to pay me even if you aren't using my services."

In retrospect, when I think about it, I can understand and see the logic in paying her even when I don't need her. It just bugs me that if she expected me to pay her, that she never said anything to me. Instead she just held on to this resentment. I've never had a child in daycare before. How the heck am I supposed to know? I was pissed. And hurt. She's been acting indifferent to me since Izzie came back from Christmas break.
Now I know why.

I went to bed all worked up about it and I'm still thinking about it now {obviously}. And my damn conscious is telling me I should pay her for all of my "breaks". But the {embarrassing} truth... I can't afford it. I can't afford any sort of back payments. I can't afford to pay her when I'm not working and not bringing in money. Daycare already takes half of my paycheck. And we really need that other half to you know...like... live.

So that's that. I'm annoyed at how she went about the situation. I probably could have gotten the money if I had known about it. If she had told me before she got all lame. But now that money is gone and has been used for other things.
Now I feel like she's always going to hate me and that I'm the "bad client". And this combined with a few other things that have happened make me want to find a new daycare provider.
I wish we had family close by that was able to watch Izzie. Finding daycare sucks.

So there you have it. Honest to blog this is how I'm feeling right now.