Snow?

Yes.  Snow.  It is April 23rd.  We live in Alaska.  It snowed all day.  HOWEVER, it did not stick.  Weird.

Speaking of Alaska weird, look at this picture that Channel 2 news posted on their Facebook.....

 
Look at the picture that Erica posted on Facebook!  Apparently, all the "babies" love this Tiger show....

Weekend Recap

I haven't been super good (thus the reason for no new post in a couple of days).  I don't really know what is wrong.  I had a fever and I am just super ridiculously tired.

Mac was my wake-up on Sunday morning.

We started putting Mac's bed together in his room.  Blog post to follow eventually on that....

I was at home sick yesterday.  When Mac got home, it was Thomas the Train time.  I HATE Thomas the Train.  HATE.  I really don't know if I can say that enough.  HATE. 

The count starts over...

I am tumor free for one year today.  Last year's tumor caused me to have to start my count over.  If I hadn't grown another tumor, I would have been tumor free for four years!

Me last year:

Me four years ago (they lost me in the hospital and this was picture was either taken before or after I called the anesthesiologist nurse a not nice word):

This is a day where I always have to sit and think about what I have gone through in the past couple of years.  There are large stressors that happen in a person's life (those stressor's are not always bad) and most people have them spread out.  Not me.  I knock them all out in a 4 year span.  Here is the summary of the last four years:

First year teaching
Grew a tumor/emergency surgery
Got married
Moved to the other side of the country
Got a new job
Got pregnant
Got another new job
Had Mac
Grew another tumor/emergency surgery
Lost Fallopian tube and ovary
Told I could have no more babies
Got rid of our dogs
Bought a house
Testing told me I could have more babies
Got another new job

Those are huge events to happen in such a short time frame.  It makes me realize that I am lucky.  I am lucky to have my amazing husband and my amazing son.  I am lucky that I have the best family that a girl could ask for.  I have a job.  We own our house.  We love our house.  We live in one of the most beautiful areas in the world.  We are lucky.  I am glad that I can now be at a point in my life where I can see the positive.  I can appreciate the positive.

Ok, the sappy part of this is over.  Moving on!  I am really into making my house smell good.  That is a difficult thing to accomplish when I have a gassy husband and son.  Oh and let's throw a new puppy into this mix.  Keeping a house smelling clean is not so easy.  Amy told me about putting lemons, rosemary, and vanilla in a slow cooker.  I love how lemon smells but doing that really didn't make my entire house smell like that.  The lemon smell is amazing though.  If anyone has smell good suggestions (that does not involve candles) please go ahead and send them my way!

We bought kitchen window sill herbs today which means my succulents needed to relocate.  I moved them to the dining room server.  I just think they are oh so cute.  Our main living space gets awesome lighting though so that helps!

We planted rosemary, basil, and spearmint in these cute yellow potters to go on our window sill.  They smell amazing.  Oh my goodness I could seriously just stand at the kitchen sink and smell the mint.  Awesome.

Another thing we got accomplished today was picking out and buying Mac's big boy bed.  There is not much left to do on Mac's bed........the weird thing about the mattress is that it is rolled up into a duffel bag.  That kind of makes it sound like it is going to not be good but it is a normal sized and feeling mattress.  Crazy!

Appreciation

I thoroughly appreciate my family.  With all of the craziness that is going on in the world, at the end of the day I come home to the most fabulous husband, adorable son, and cute puppies.  Snuggling with them on the sofa makes me forget about the crazy days I have at work (and as I teach special ed kids I tend to have REALLY crazy days).

I know I usually say work was crazy but ...today started with one of my kids getting suspended for lighting stuff on fire.  It went downhill from there.  I have decided that my desk calendar ALWAYS needs to have something written on it because when it is blank, bad things happen.  Bad juju.  A cute thing did happen this morning though.  One of my seniors came in to work on his Alaska Studies class and he gave me an apple.  No joke.  It honestly still brings a smile to my face.

Needless to say, getting home gave me a chance to give a sigh of relief.  Joe had stayed home with Mac today because our nanny was out of town.  When I walked into our living room, they were both still in their pajamas.  I was super jealous!  My response?  Put my own pajamas on!  I love spending time with my family.  Mac and I had some snuggly/play time....

  
AND guess what?  There is a video!  I can't get enough of hanging with my little man.....lord help me when he is bigger than me and can no longer fit in my lap.  At the rate we are going, that is going to be in Kindergarten.

We taught Mac the peanut butter jelly song.  He did a little dance with me.  It is times like that that just make me super happy!

IT'S PEANUT BUTTER JELLY, PEANUT BUTTER JELLY, PEANUT BUTTER JELLY, PEANUT BUTTER JELLY, PEANUT BUTTER JELLY WITH A BASEBALL BAT!

Heyward's favorite place to nap is under our coffee table and I really don't know what he is going to do when he is too big to fit under there.  He is literally hanging upside down off of the coffee table as I am typing this.....ooops.....he just rolled off and never woke up.

I guess I probably need to go out into the garage and help Joe whitewash Mac's new bed.  I think this weekend we are going to go find the mattress!

I browke it.

That is Mac's favorite phrase.

Joe: Did you break it?
Mac: I browke it.

I did Zumba after work today and oh my goodness I am going to be feeling sore tomorrow.  Whatever though because I LOVE it!

And this was my view while I was crashed on the sofa....

Mac has been spending a lot of time running (while yelling "ready. go.") and spinning in circles.....

I don't know if I have posted this picture already but it made me smile....I think this was on Monday....

On the Mac furniture front, we flipped over his headboard and football so Joe could stain the other side.  Maybe this weekend we will find a mattress???????

Neverending

This week feels like it is dragging on FOREVER.  I cannot believe that it is only Wednesday.  Dear goodness please bring on the weekend.

Heyward got new toys in the mail today from Mary.  He loves them!  We are in the chewing phase of puppy.  Lord help me. After we play really hard though, Heyward crashes.....

I could seriously go to sleep right now.  But I can't.  Mac is still awake.....

Good gracious

This morning Mac wore a 4t shirt from Old Navy.  Granted my child is big, but there is no way that he is normal 4t sized.  No way.  He woke up in a awesome mood this morning so what did we do?  Family photo time!

My drive to work today reminded me why I love it here.  The sun was coming up over the mountains and it was just beautiful.

Mac had a great time at Erica's.....

When I got home from work I tore into the strawberry cake....speaking of which.  When I am done with this post I do believe I am going to get into it again.  Dang Caryn for leaving the entire cake here.  Mac and I had some awesome cuddle time while he watched videos on Youtube on Joe's phone.

We also watched the Braves game....

Mac was then ready for some more action....

For dinner, I had made beef stroganoff.  I was not thinking that Mac would eat it because there was pasta and mushrooms and sauce.  I was wrong.  Way wrong.  He ate more than I did.  So what do I do when my big man is being disgustingly boy?  I take out my phone for pictures......

Of course there is a video to go with this.....