A Surprise Date!

My husband sent me a text message on Thursday afternoon, telling me that I was busy ALL day on Saturday no questions asked. I was soo excited! He knows I love surprises and I had been mentioning that we needed a date.

So today we woke up and had our neighbors over for breakfast. They conveniently have a newborn baby that I got to snuggle with. Then we dropped Isabelle off to Steve's parent's house and our date began!

I kept asking all sorts of questions that he wouldn't answer except to remind me that I wasn't supposed to be asking questions.

First we go out for lunch. Well actually first we drove to the bowling alley which was insanely packed so we deiced to eat lunch first. Anyway he brought me to our favorite Chinese food place. They have excellent food, great service, and it is always really quiet and relaxing when we eat there. Oh and at lunch we talked about when we were going to try for baby #2 and it was earlier then I had expected which is ALWAYS a good thing!

Next, we find a different bowling alley and I bowl terrible and he bowls really stinkin great. We had lots of fun. There was a kids birthday party there and they shared some of their cake and ice cream with us! Yes! Free dessert!

Next, we stopped home and got warmer clothes on and then we went downtown to go ice skating. This was super duper fun! I haven't been ice skating in years! Steve is a pretty good ice skater so he is really fun to watch even though I secretly hope that he falls so I can laugh at him. Ice skating was great it was nice to get exercise while having fun. I ended up running into a little girl and falling on the ice we were both fine and Steve got to laugh at me.

The end of our date was perfect. We picked up Isabelle and we went to the movies. We saw Tangled. It was super cute. And this was Isabelle's FIRST movie. She loved it. Steve knew that I had been dying to take her to the movies but I was trying to wait until her 2nd birthday. It was really wonderful.

I had such a great time on my surprise date and I love my husband so much. I feel so loved and appreciated that he would take the time to think about me and what I want to do and plan a whole day for me. I am the luckiest girl in the world!

God is good

After lots of conversations and tears I am starting to come to terms with leaving my baby and beginning student teaching. Going from being a stay at home mom for two years to working full time 5 days a week will be a HUGE adjustment. But God is faithful and He is beginning to give me peace about it. I know that my daughter will be loved and well taken care of by everyone that will be watching her. And I even have FREE daycare during student teaching. I am so thankful for all of my friends and family who are chipping in to help me.

It is really cool to see God provide not only for financial needs but emotional needs too. He has provided so many people to encourage me and be real with me.

Another huge praise is that this Christmas we are not running all over the place like crazy. We simply have two Christmas parties to attend. One Christmas Eve and one Christmas afternoon. I am so excited to have a relaxed holiday where there will be plenty of time to celebrate Jesus' birthday!

I have a Toddler!

Over the past two years my sweet little Isabelle has shown moments of defiance, tantrums, independence but nothing compared to now. She is officially in her terrible twos. I have always been against that stage thinking things like: "it's not that bad you just need good parenting skills" or "isabelle won't be like that" or "ok she might have a few tantrums but it won't be that bad".

That is all crap! Parenting a toddler is SUPER hard even if you are a good parent, consistent, firm and loving. All day for the last 3 days  we have had constant meltdowns over silly things. Here are some examples:

Isabelle's friend James walks by her as she is playing. Apparently too close because she starts screaming "no Jay!!" and runs into the other room crying.

Isabelle asks me to read a book. I start reading but then start skipping lines and pages she starts screaming and runs to the corner.

Daddy leaves for class Isabelle throws herself on the ground and screams "daddy daddy" For the next 20 minutes anything I say or do is wrong and it is completely my fault that daddy had to go to class. Isabelle lays on the floor and screams while i finishing getting ready. We go to leave and she is still screaming but now she is made because she wants daddy to buckle her in daddy to drive. So since daddy isn't here to do those things she screams the entire car ride.

She asks for a book. I hand her a book. She says no so I put the book on the ground. she screams I give her back the book and she screams no and chucks it and cries for 2 minutes. Meanwhile I am still completely clueless as to why she is even crying.

She asks for a drink. I hand her her cup. She takes a sip and starts screaming apparently she wanted juice not milk.

All of the above instances are just a few from the last 24hours!!

She is a complete emotional grumpy mess. I am trying to stay consistent and encourage her to take a breath and use her words. We have been counting to ten to calm down and then I have her say what she wants in words.

Any tips or advice with how to cope with your toddler learning about frustration and becoming independent?

SNOW!!!

Although I really hate being cold, and I really hate driving in snow. I did take some time yesterday and play in the snow with Isabelle. She is sick and I probably shouldn't have taken her out in the cold but it was the first snow of the year I couldn't deprive her of that.

She loved the snow!

Vacation

Thanksgiving break has been wonderful. I had four days in a row that were absolutely wonderful. I kept telling my husband "today was a great day" or "today was a perfect day"

Wednesday- I had two of my wonderful sister in laws over and we had a baking extravaganza. We made adorable cupcakes that looked like apples. And an amazing triple chocolate mousse cake which is a new favorite of mine.Then I went to my in laws for my father in laws birthday and had dinner and visited.

Thursday- Was Thanksgiving and we woke up and joined some friends for coffee then went to church. Church had a testimonial service for Thanksgiving. It was wonderful to hear everyone thanking God for the blessings in their lives. Then we of course went to both my famlies and Steve's families Thanksgivings and ate LOTS of food.

Friday- My sister and my sister in law and I went shopping from 5am-1pm it was awesome. We got great deals and hardly had to wait in line. Friday night I watched a movie with my husband and ate cheese cake and drank fake champagne.

But now it is Monday and I need to get back to reality and finish my homework. I only have two weeks left of school. So it is time to buckle down and get out of vacation mode.

So thankful for a relaxing and wonderful mini vacation.

Ridiculous!

So on Tuesday I did crazy house cleaning including sweeping and mopping my kitchen floor. This chore hardly ever gets done.

Well today one of the kids dropped their sippy cup and the lid fell off. And sticky apple juice went everywhere on my floor and kitchen rug. I had to do everything in my power to not scream at the kids and not start crying. How pathetic is that. I was going to cry over apple juice on my nice clean floor.

Also I spent 2 hours baking amazing peanut butter brownies from scratch and the whole middle is not cooked well enough and the outsides are crispy :-( I give up for today I am getting out of the kitchen!

Answered Prayers

I just got my student teaching placement for the Spring semester. I had been praying and praying to get something as close to Grand Rapids as possible. I was praying that I would be placed in Lakeview because that was the closest site that was offered (an hour away without snow on the ground). But God He is good and He answered my prayer with something even better then what I was praying for. I got placed at Greenville High School. Which is only a 40 minute drive and I could probably make it in 35 minutes. By being placed here it will save me 40 minutes of driving every day! What a blessing!

Also I cleaned my house! Well not the whole thing but it looks fantastic. Yesterday I prayed for extra energy and motivation. I ended up picking up, vacuuming,  and rearranging the play room. I even sorted through the toys in the toy room and packed some away.  Then I swept and mopped and empty the dining room it looks amazing. Then I moved on to the kitchen where I swept and mopped and my mother in law did my dishes. The kitchen still has a lot of clutter but at least when my kid eats something off the floor I can know it is only a day or two old.

As if all of that was not enough to make yesterday fantastic we also had a great dinner. I made a pork roast with carrots and potatoes  it was yummy. And to top it all off I had a ton of homework  and thought I would be up all night but I got it finished by 10:30 so that I still had a little time to spend with my husband before bed.

Thank you God for answered prayers and fantastic days!