Neglectful.

I've neglected this poor space lately.  Busy, busy, busy here with my two jobs.  Life is still happening though and so are the memories - back to it soon!

Read More

Livin' for the weekend.

Our weekend was busy and because it was so busy it was gone before I had time to look up.  Mr. Craft was filming at home yesterday so the lil ladies and I headed out for a girl's day.  We ended up with some pretty nice finds at the thrift store (pictures later) and the Monster got to spend her hard-earned birthday money around town.  She was so excited to buy things herself and spent most of the time walking around the stores adding up prices out loud and counting out her money, "to have it ready" she said..  So proud of her when she paid for her stuff (I helped a little) and said, "thank you" to the cashier when she gave her back change.  So grown up!

We had lots of fun and I love spending one-on-one time with them like this.  We ended with super fast back-to-work/school prep and bath time.  The Monster is doing the shower thing on her own now.  Geez, she needs to stop growing!  Good thing Bear is still down for a bubble bath.

Read More

Stepping out.

I had intended to write about what goes on in this whirling dervish of a mind I have, but in the midst of all the typing and backspacing I've decided to change my mind.  For me it's hard to write about feelings and emotions (especially when you're a super feely and super emotional type) and feel confident that I'm expressing myself in the right way and that someone will get exactly what I'm trying to say.  I'm not talking about love and all the other basic and wonderful emotions - those are easy!  What I find hard to write about and express are the non-typical, invasive worries like social anxiety and depression.  Those are hard.  

At the end of the day I guess the most important thing is that I'm a lot better than I used to be and I still have a long way to go.  I want to fix these things.  I'm working to fix these things.  It's very easy to get overwhelmed and I do quite often, but I want to be better.  It's time to try even harder to reformat this brain of mine and rework the gears toward consistent positivity.

In non-heavy news, while Mr. Craft was busy with work last week I snatched up my camera and stepped out.  I forgot how wonderful it is being in the middle of nature (my backyard still counts!) and just being.  Granted, there was a pup who wanted to come along, couldn't reach where I sat, and protested by whining profusely the majority of the time I was outside.  It was still nice.

I almost got a face full of this guy and about eight of his friends.

Read More

Zooin' it up!

On Friday we decided to take our little monster (and bear too, of course) on a surprise trip to the zoo.  After we picked the girls up from their mom on Saturday we had a birthday dinner with their nanny and papaw where they gave her some surprise gifts.  I think the gifts were somewhat overshadowed by the awesome birthday song that the servers sang to her - she talked about it all weekend.  They let me bring out the big slice of cake to give to her so that made it a little extra special for me.  She was all red cheeks and smiles as she leaned against her daddy.  "I love this day," I remember her saying.  And little sister later declaring in the restroom, "I love your birthday, Cloey."

After dinner we left for Knoxville and the girls kept asking over the next couple of hours how much longer it would be until we got home.  They had no idea - they just knew that they had been in the car seemingly longer than usual.  Cloey finally figured it out when we pulled up in front of our hotel.  This was her second surprise - child had dreamed of staying in a hotel.

The zoo, the third surprise, was a hit all around.  

The bear in front of the bear cave.  Of course!

 

Pure determination.

Pit stop.

Who forgot her makeup at home?  This lady.  It would have probably melted off anyway.

Emma kept talking about seeing the "ungrellas" and once we finally did she told me that she was scared.  I think it was the fact that they were so big and human-looking.  Oh, and this was MY first trip to the zoo along with the girls!

We ended up adding a day and turning our little excursion into a mini-vacation.  We kept it simple and just swam, ate, and lounged around the hotel.  Much needed time away.  Birthday girl even made sure she got sang to one more time at dinner by constantly reminding our waitress that she was turning seven.  

Bear made sure to keep the Bible close by in the hotel.  "It has the plans in it," she said.
She also said the same thing about the phone book.

How was your 3-day weekend?

Read More