Guest Blogging

Hey y'all! I'm riding through the Smokey Mountains, but I wanted to pop in and let you know I'm guest blogging today on Karen at Home!

Check it out!

And something to make you smile on a Monday---



Have a fantastic week!

Running, Music and Running Music

Okay, what I'm about to tell you might cause some panic and alarm, but please just hear me out.

I've started to run...like as in work out run...and


*whispers* I like it.


I KNOW! I am just as surprised as you guys are. I used to say "I only run if I'm being chased." But lately, I just have this need. It's definitely not a need for speed, because I'm anything but quick. Just a need to get out, breathe the fresh air, and think. I'm sure it's a combination of being a stay-at-home mom of two under two, which means that most days we do stay-at-home. I also recently started taking some medication (which is a different post for a different day, but coming soon I promise) that has me feeling better than I've ever felt before emotionally...and here's a little tip for y'all. When you feel better emotionally, you feel better physically. Funny how that works, huh?

Anyway, second only to the good feeling I get from stretching my legs and breathing in the fresh air and alone time, is the enjoyment I get from a good playlist to run to. Personally I like a good combination of kick ass songs and songs that make me smile and sing along when I'm working out. I like some rap anthems mixed with some guitar riffs with a little soul on the side.

So, with a little help of this post and this girl, and a lot of scouring my iTunes library, I came up with a pretty awesome workout playlist. So, this is the part where you get to enjoy the fruits of my labor. You're welcome.

In case you don't care to read through, I'll highlight a few of my favorites.

3OH!3- Every song they have out is awesome, but if you want to download just one, I would go with Starstrukk featuring Katy Perry.

A Perfect Circle- The best band of all time...in case you don't know, it's the same lead singer and musical genius that fronts Tool, but I prefer A Perfect Circle's music. (I still love Tool though) Anyway, Pet is one of my favorite songs of theirs, as well as The Noose.

Needtobreathe- I've recently started to love this band, and I think Girl Named Tennessee is one of the top ten best non-rap workout songs of all time.

LeCrae- Rap music minus the dirty words. Just as catchy.

Gogol Bordello- Definitely not everyone's style of music, but if Immigraniada isn't the coolest song name ever, then I don't know what is.

So, what's your favorite workout song? Am I missing any that would revolutionize my workout?

***disclaimer: Some of these songs have dirty words or connotations. If you're interested, you can normally choose between the explicit and clean versions on iTunes.***

Bobby Pins

This morning as I was digging through the drawers in my bathroom, my make-up bag, and checking every surface area in my house looking for just one more bobby pin to complete my hair twist, I couldn't help but chuckle to myself about how different I am from my mom. See, my mom uses bobby pins in her hair frequently too, but when she's done she removes them in the bathroom, and places them back on the little cardboard sleeve they came on immediately. There isn't be a stray bobby pin to be found in my parents' house.

I started thinking about my house. Much like the bobby pins, everything in my mom's house has a place. Whether it's a specific drawer where the egg slicer goes, or a certain day of the week that all of the surfaces get dusted, everything has a place and an order. My house, well, it's pretty much the opposite. If the clothes get washed and put away before we wear them again, I consider that a surprise. A certain day of the week that I dust the surfaces? HA! I couldn't tell you the last time I dusted the surfaces. And, every single day, every single sink load, NATHAN washes the dishes.

Growing up, I thought I would never be good enough for my mom. I thought that because I wasn't just like her, I was the "wrong" way. My best friend and her mom were so much alike that I always thought it was bad that my mom and I weren't exactly the same.

As the years went on I vacillated between thinking I wasn't good enough and my mom was right, to thinking that my mom was the crazy one because she was so Type A. Now, looking back, I realize that different doesn't always mean bad. Neither one of us are right, or wrong. For my mom and I, now that I'm older, our differences are the reason we love each other. I appreciate her cleanliness and order now that I'm a mom and see that sometimes a little effort toward being organized makes life a lot easier. Likewise, my silliness is a good source of laughter among our family. Also, my kids get a lot more of my attention because I'm not always worried about keeping the house perfect.

I guess the point I'm trying to make is that maybe we should all be a little more accepting of those that are different from us in all aspects. And maybe, if we are open to it, we can let people in a little bit, we can grow to be better people through our differences.

Ketchup

I have to apologize there are no cute pictures in this post because I'm an idiot. I bought a Canon T2i shortly after Manning was born, and thank goodness, I purchased the protection plan from Best Buy too. That worked out great because I dropped my purse and the screen shattered, and apparently the screen costs more to replace than the entire camera because Best Buy gave me a whole new camera. Well, I decided to pay an extra $100 to upgrade to the T3i at that point because it had a video feature, and you can't really buy a good video camera for $100 so there it is. Anyway, I stupidly assumed that the battery charger from my original camera would work for the new one, so I was careless and have no idea where I put the new charger, and the old one doesn't work, and my camera is dead and now it has been for almost a month and I have lost almost a third of Deacon's life being documented because of my own stupidity.

If you just stuck with me through that entire story, I apologize. I think I need a Xanax.

Anyway, today I'll play catch-up.

After several weeks of staying with my parents, we are back to staying at our own house, and we are trying to prepare it to put on the market soon. Like, next week, or maybe the week after that. I'm praying for a quick sell. When we bought this house there weren't a lot of decent houses in our price range (cheap), and it really is a great starter home, so I'm hoping the market is there. We'll see.

Nathan has been working for the Air Guard doing his AT, which I think stands for Annual Training, but all I really know is when you see a National Guard commercial and they say "One weekend a month, two weeks a year..." this is the two weeks a year part. I don't know what their original plans were for these two weeks, but because of an impending flood, Nathan has spent everyday for eight straight hours bagging up sand and building a barrier around their Air Guard base. He has come home tired and sunburned, and I feel really sorry for him.

As soon as Nathan finishes his AT days I am leaving to chaperone a church mission camp trip to Charleston, SC. We are going to M-Fuge. I am SO excited for this opportunity. I haven't been on a mission trip since high school, and I absolutely love the set-up of M-Fuge. It's the perfect (in my opinion) combination of camp and missions. I am so looking forward to a week away to focus on God and doing mission work. I'll miss the boys terribly, all three of them, but I know they'll have a blast here together.

When I get back from South Carolina we have three days together before we head to Georgia. Nathan's OCS (Officer Candidate School) is in Georgia, so we are all driving down, he will leave us at my sister's house in Savannah, and then he'll head to his school. The boys and I are staying with Kourtnie for about three weeks. We are SO excited! I haven't had the chance to visit her since she moved down there over a year ago, so it's time for a visit.

I guess I'll wrap this up. Oh, I was going to ask if any of you military spouse bloggers have any suggestions for me for good resources knowing what the process is for this Officer thing, or just good blog networks I need to connect with? I follow a few Army wives, but I know I could use any additional support.

Have a great day!

The Motherless

Innocent Until Proven Guilty...

The last few weeks I have been glued to the Casey Anthony trial on TV. I took a few legal classes in college (Business Law 1, Business Law 2, Employment Law etc), I've tossed around the idea of going to law school for years, and I'm really good at arguing, so I think I'm totally qualified to offer you all my opinion about the trial. ;)

I noticed today that among the girls I chat with on twitter, I seemed to be the only one that doesn't think Casey can be and should be convicted of murdering her 3 year old daughter, Caylee. There are several reasons why I feel this way, and I'm going to attempt to explain. I also want you to know that I'm all for a healthy debate, so please feel free to leave any respectful comments, whether agreeing or disagreeing, in the comments, and we can discuss...ya know, if you're like me and have opinions about this thing.

First of all, one thing that has been discussed over and over in the trial is Casey's lying. This especially came to light today as tapes were played of Casey telling detectives multiple lies, and then shortly afterward admitting to some of those lies. Casey has created a web of lies that includes not just places, but people and events. She lied about her employment for two years. She lied about the identity of her nanny. She lied and lied and lied. It's even suspected that she lied about the identity of Caylee's father. Typically, when a person is a liar, they are bound to get caught because they stumble over their own lies. They forget who they've told what to. Unfortunately, I've had some personal experience with a pathological liar of this kind. This is not the case with Casey. She has consistently repeated the same "facts" about her lies over and over- to her family, to lawyers, to detectives etc, in such a convincing way that no one questioned her for years. YEARS. Personally, I think she is probably mentally ill. I think that she has some kind of a mental issue that's so severe that she might even believe her own lies that she's been telling for years.

There are also some shady details surrounding the evidence in this case. I don't know if you all heard when Jose Baez was presenting the information about the man that found the remains of Caylee's body. These remains are basically the only hard evidence in the case, and it's obvious that they've been compromised. The man who found the remains reported to a co-worker almost a month before he called them in that he'd found a skull in that vicinity. He also made a phone call to his son a month before he reported his findings saying that he had "won the lottery" and that he had just found "the body of Caylee Anthony". Then, a month later, he "stumbled upon" the evidence and phoned it in. A month is a whole, whole lot of time for someone to tamper with evidence in any way they chose.

The final, AND MOST IMPORTANT, point I'd like to make is the fact that here in 'merica, the LAW is that all suspects are innocent until proven guilty, NOT guilty until proven innocent as I believe the state is treating Casey Anthony in this case. Yes, Casey lied to authorities, yes, she might have been a piss poor mom and have neglected her daughter, but there is simply NO evidence that proves she murdered her daughter. Like one of my friends on twitter said, "...she is terribly screwed up. I think she may be a psychopath. But I think we will never know what happened to that child." Another thing to think about is that we are talking about a state that is seeking the death penalty. I don't honestly think any person who is watching the trial, whether from the courtroom or on TV, can say that they would feel confident enough that Caylee Anthony was murdered BY HER MOTHER'S HANDS, to put her to death for it. There is absolutely NO evidence that shows that Casey Anthony KILLED Caylee Anthony. There is evidence that suggests perhaps she was involved. There is evidence that shows crazy things happened surrounding Caylee's death. There is evidence that perhaps Casey knew Caylee was dead and didn't report it to the proper authorities. There is no evidence that shows Casey killed Caylee. There is no "smoking gun". There just isn't. Like Mae said, we will probably never, ever know what happened to sweet Caylee Anthony.

So, Casey Anthony- Lying? Proven. Negligent? Proven. Murderer? Simply. Not. Proven. And, based on that, I pray that the jury doesn't take another life away from this family.

Brain Dump

I haven't had the brain power to sit down and formulate any real blog posts the last few days, but I have a lot on my mind, so here's my brain dump.

Last summer I looked forward to taking Manning to do lots of fun activities this summer like swimming, museums, zoos, library trips, parks etc, but I realize now that I was being naive about how busy I'd be with a baby and a toddler. Don't get me wrong, Deacon is a great baby, but between his feeding schedule, nap times, and just needing an extra arm, these things are harder than I imagined. I think I'm going to set a goal of doing two fun activities with Manning during the week each week Nathan is gone.

We have been staying in our hometown a lot recently because of Nathan helping his friend here with his business, but this is his last week there. We will go home Friday and he will have two weeks straight, including three weekends, of working full-time for the Air Guard. Then, I'll be gone for a week on a mission trip, and the following week Nathan leaves for his OCS in Georgia.

I'm not sure if I've blogged about it or not, but when Nathan goes to OCS he will only be about 3 hours from where my sister lives, so the boys and I will be riding down with him, staying with her for about three weeks, and then flying back. It should be a good change of scenery and allow us a lot of quality time together.

Right now I'm trying not to think about how long the weeks will be after we get back from Georgia until Nathan finishes OCS. We are so ready to get on with the next step in our lives and we are ready to have some normalcy as a family of four.

Within the next few weeks we are planning to clean our house and PURGE in order to list it for sell ASAP. I'm trusting God's perfect timing with the sale of our home, but it's very stressful. In the city where we live there isn't a lot of good housing to choose from in our price range, so I'm praying that this will enable us to sell our home quickly and for the amount we need to get from it. I still can't believe we have lived in the house almost five years.

Deacon had been sleeping great through the night, and then yesterday we caught him rolling in his swaddle, which means no more swaddling for Deacon. Since we are at my parents I didn't want him crying it out and waking up the whole house, so he slept in his swing most of last night. I'm hoping that when we get home we quickly get him back to sleeping through the night. He is really such a good baby, but I'm so worried about his sleep regressing and having to do it all on my own.

I really wish I had more friends in our city. We have some friends from college, but not really any other SAHM friends that I could hang out with during the day for play dates etc. Hopefully whenever we move I'm able to be more pro-active about meeting people and making friends for myself and the boys.

I'm also trying to figure out what the next step should be for my education/career, and it's such a hard decision to make. I have so many ideas floating around in my head, but right now I'm just trying to focus on our current season and enjoy this opportunity to be home with my sweet boys. :)

I really wish our city had a splash pad. I see other moms blog and tweet about them, and I know Manning would absolutely love it, and I'd be able to easily manage Deacon as well, but they don't. Taking both boys to the pool feels too scary and daunting right now. Maybe if we had a neighborhood pool, but not at the huge city aquatic park.

I could go on and on, but I'll spare you. Happy Wednesday!