Born From My Heart

Reagan has loved the television since she was just a teeny tiny thing.  I am quite sure she watches way too much of it already but it is the only thing we have found that will get her to actually sit still and rest for more than 3.2 seconds at a time.  Her very first favorite TV show was Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and we use to use it for 20 minutes of entertainment while we were taking care of various tasks.  We'd put her in her bouncy chair or her swing and turn it on.  Pretty soon we noticed her doing a version of the Hot Dog Dance - when they'd start singing the song and doing the dance, her little legs would kick one by one.  Adorable! Soon after that, she discovered Yo Gabba Gabba.  It was love at first sight for her.  The singing and dancing and funny characters had her hooked.  One of her first words was actually Gabba.  There were even times she would wake in the morning, look at us and start saying GabbaGabbaGabbaGabba.  Her firs...

One of our dogs, Brady, taking a snooze on Reagan's folded out Mickey couch.

It is no secret to those close to me that I have issues with the paci.  My issue you ask?  I really don't want to ever have to take Reagan's paci away.  As I've mentioned before, I actually remember the trauma of giving mine up - to Santa Claus no less (and I almost opted out of presents that year just so I could keep it!).  I remember arguing with my sister when she took the paci away from my oldest nephew and I stated - no baby should ever have to give up their paci.  I've joked with my friends that Reagan could keep her paci until college if she wanted and part of me actually meant it. But, her teeth are now showing evidence of being on the paci too long.  I *thought* that it wouldn't become a teeth issue if she only had it at nap and night time.  Apparently I am wrong about that.  So, here I am breaking my own heart over a paci.  LOL  I say my own heart because I am well aware of my issues and fully realize that I am probably more ...

Big thanks as usual to Mama M  at My Little Life  for hosting 5QF!  Head over there, grab the questions, the button, add yourself to the Linky and join the fun! 1. If you could speak with a different accent, what would it be (i.e Australian, Scottish)? This is one is so easy for me to answer - it would definately be South African.  The first time I heard it in person, at college from a dear friend of a dear friend, I was mesmerized.  I think it is the most beautiful sounding accent in the world. 2. Can you fall asleep anywhere? (i.e floor, couch, deck) That is a big YES!  And I can sleep through just about anything too.  I love to sleep - always have.  3. Do you use public restrooms? If so, do you sit on the toilet? I do use public restrooms and I usually sit on the toilet - without cleaning it - and without a paper cover.  However, if the toilet looks gross, has pee on the seat or otherwise looks suspicious, I'm doing th...

So today I was Tagged by LeeAnn at The Life of Rylie…and Bryce too for some fun random questions. The rules are that once tagged, you answer the questions provided and then you tag 5 others and ask them questions of your own. Here are the questions LeeAnn asked... 1. What is your most embarrassing moment? I’ve had quite a few in my life but one that pops into my head immediately is from a looooong time ago when I was in either middle school or a freshman in high school – I can’t exactly remember the when. A new family had moved in a street over from where I lived and I had developed a crush on one of the boys. Some of my girlfriends and I made up some reason to go knock on the door. We all had dressed for the occasion complete with mini-skirts and cute shoes. Well I was a tom-boy so walking in those cute shoes was not something I was used to. As we turned to walk down the wide steps from the front porch, I slipped and slid alllll the way down and ended up with my mini-skirt up to...

Reagan playing with Oscar

Through your nose apparently.  Yup, corn is meant to be shoved up your nostril and inhaled.  At least that is what Reagan thinks.  And it is just the perfect size and buttered just right to make insertion a breeze.  Ay!  I spent about 30 minutes trying to make sure all the corn was out of her nose.  She was not too pleased with that.  I've mentioned to our family before that I see an ER trip in my future to have something or somethings removed from her nose.  Ever since she realized there were holes there she has been obsessed with shoving things in there for safe keeping.  Thankfully, so far, we've been able to remove her, uh, treasures.  The good news of today is that she has been fever free for over 24 hours!  Hooray!  That means we don't have to go back to the doctor for a urine sample via catheter.  Of course by the time we got to the doctor yesterday her fever had broken.  She was checked all over and after se...

I came across a very sweet blog done by Lindsay and Jon  and was moved by their plan to adopt a little girl from Ethiopia.  This child already lives in their hearts and even has a name - Emersyn.  They are moving through the process of international adoption and like most hopeful parents-to-be, they are struggling with the costs to complete the process.  To help, they've held and are planning several fundraisers.  The neatest idea I have ever seen is the puzzle piece fundraiser.  They have chosen the First Kiss puzzle - The First Kiss photo where a Mama giraffe is giving her baby a big kiss on the head. They have a PayPal link on their blog where you can sponsor a puzzle piece for $5 and your name (or family name, or child(ren)'s name(s), etc.) will be lovingly written on the back.  When the puzzle is complete, they are going to frame it in a double glass frame to hang in Emersyn's room where she will always be able to see the names of the many peopl...

Well since yesterday I've done some more tweaking on my blog.  I am now 99% happy with the results.  As I posted in my update yesterday, I found a template that I really like on http://lenatoewsdesigns.blogspot.com/ .  She also has some really great Premades that are only $5 and all monies raised from the Premades go towards her adoption.  There is some really beautiful stuff there.  The 1% that I am not happy with on my blog is 1- I can't figure out how (or even if I can) to change the way my Blog Title appears in the heart frame.  I'd love for it to be each word on a new line that is stair-stepped.  Kind of like this: Born      From             My                Heart And 2 - I wish the column widths were adjustable.  I'd like for the column of the posts to be a bit wider.  But really, o...

Today I got to messing around with the Blogger provided templates to try to make my blog look more like I wish it looked.  I consider myself moderately technically inclined however when it comes to web design stuff, I am clueless.  So, the new design is closer to what I picture in my head but yet not exactly what I want it to look like.  For one, it is a little darker and monochromatic than I'd hoped for but I had reached the end of my abilities.   I also really want to have a button of my own but can't seem to understand the instructions on the web for how to do it.  I had dabbled with a prototype of one a couple months ago but even that wasn't exactly what I pictured. So, if there are any web design savvy people out there who know how to create a vision in Blogger and are sitting around bored with nothing else to do, want to help me out?  I'll be forever grateful! UPDATE - I found a Freebie template I liked on  http://lenatoe...

Happy Friday everyone!  I can't wait to play this weekend.  Not sure yet what exactly we will be doing although I hope to get over to LeeAnn's  for some play time on Saturday afternoon.  Then I have to schedule some time to get into my busting at the seams junk room to prepare for a yard sale.  NOT looking forward to that room but it will be so much better afterwards.  On Wednesday night, I took Reagan to Chick-Fil-A for dinner and to let her play in the play area.  She's still too small to climb up the tower - the platforms are spaced too high - and there were no other kids in there at the time so I let her climb inside the slide.  (my phone takes the worst quality pictures!) She would climb around the first bend, turn around and slide back down.  After a few times of this, I sat on one of the benches and started playing on my phone.  Next thing I know, I hear giggling and little feet running over my head.  That bugger managed ...

Hmmmm...What is on TV?

I took the day off from work so Reagan and I could go to Magic Kingdom at Disney World with my dad (Pop-Pop), my aunt, my cousin, her husband and their son Ryan who were all visiting from out of town.   We were SO EXCITED to see them all again and we had so much fun at the park.   Reagan especially loved spending time with her cousin who was very accommodating to her and quickly was added to her collection of trained monkeys and snuggie partners. This was Ryan's FIRST.TIME.EVER at Magic Kingdom and I, being the loving Aunt Dawn that I am, made sure to get him his 1st Time Visitor pin to wear for the day - even if that is kind of embarrassing for a 12 year old.  Teeheehee.  A momentous occasion such as this requires fanfare for sure.  Then it was on to the ferry to get to the park.  I spent the first 15 minutes trying to insist that he get Mouse Ears to wear.  I even showed him that we could get his name embroidered on the back too.  He ...

I was talking to a friend of mine about the “dangers” of indoor playgrounds for kids and to be honest, I never really thought of anything bad before this friend starting speaking of things like e Coli and Strep (C and/or G). But, it actually made me laugh out loud as I considered how I handle Reagan and “dirt/germs”. I don’t take potential illnesses lightly however Reagan has proven to have a really good immune system – having only had one honest to goodness full blown cold in her 21 months. She’s had the occasional fever here and there along with short term malaise from a vaccine reaction or two and fleeting intestinal issues but nothing that required a trip to the doctor. She’s actually only had two sick visits – one when my husband and I both had the flu last year and it wasn’t certain how to handle well family members (she never got it) and the other when she was near the end of her cold and we were about to fly. So I consider her a rather hardy little thing that I let roam the w...

Yesterday I had the best *stress-free* saturday that I have had in a long time!  It started early with heading out to Bryce's  first birthday party.  The party was held at a really great local park that has plenty to keep children occupied and happy.  First on Reagan's agenda was the really fun playground - and the big kid section at that! From there it was on to the Splash park.  She didn't play in the water as much as she ran around the outside of it but the entire splash park is fenced in so I was able to just chill and watch without having to chase her all over the place. After a little bit of yummy food, it was time to check out her first ever Bounce House!  She was intimidated by it for about 3 whole seconds and then she had the concept down easily.  She loved it! It wasn't long before she figured out how to navigate to the top of the attached slide and Little Miss No Fear went down without hesitation.  It is easily the highest slide she'...

Wooo-hoooo!  It's FRIDAY!  I am very excited about that.  And I am so excited for Bryce's big 1st B-day bash tomorrow!  Since I've been slacking on the blogging (the last month was crazy busy for me), I am going to try really hard to get back to it.  I decided to head over to Mama M's  for Five Question Friday.  Here we go... 1. Do you feel guilty spending money on yourself? That really depends on what I am buying but most of the time the answer is yes, I feel guilty.  2. How well do you know your neighbors? This question made me laugh out loud because there are a few things I know about a couple of my neighbors that probably most people wouldn't know about theirs so I would say I know my neighbors very well.  LOL 3. What age are you looking forward to being? I am no longer looking forward to being any age until and unless they figure out how to truly go backwards.  ;-) 4. Do you get excited when the mail com...

So August 27th was another CD1.  Which was interesting because August 26th was CD 61 - exactly the same as the last cycle.  I haven't been as diligent about taking the Soy as I'd hoped to be because it does seem to be helping with the regulating.  Oh well, I'll just sit back and see what the next 2 months brings.  I am sure the days being the same was just a freak coincidence but that is how PCOS seems to be for me.  Weird and annoying. 

Angel is a 13 year old blind American Eskimo Dog girl that was dumped at the Orlando shelter and marked "stray". Thanks to the efforts of many, many people, she was saved! I had the pleasure of springing her from the shelter and cried part of the way home at the way she had been let down by her former "owners". Still, she showed an incredibly sweet and adventurous spirit despite her predicament. A very long transport to Iowa was quickly put together and she is now safe at American Eskimo Dog Rescue & Sanctuary of Iowa. Her adventures included many cars, two overnights, an RV ride and two small plane rides thanks to Pilots and Paws! And, as it turns out to be her style, she collected everyone's hearts along the way. We love you Angel and are so thankful to have been a part of your amazing rescue.