Salary of a Stay-At-Home Mom

Here you can enter the KLG and Hoda's Mother of the Year Contest. The lucky winner will win a trip to NYC, and $112,962 which is what Salary.com is estimating a Stay-At-Home Mom would make if she was to be paid. Wow wouldn't that be great if us Stay-At-Home Mom's made that? I believe more mom's would stay home then. Staying home with your children isn't for everybody. I admit it is not easy, but I wouldn't want it any other way. I've also been a working mom and put one of my sons in daycare as early as 5 1/2 weeks old. That was no easy task; however I was blessed to have a very good In Home daycare provider that I could trust with my precious baby.  


Good luck to those of you who are entering! 

May 31, 2012

I am so excited for this day~

My boys will be flying in from Arizona! It will be 2 years since the last time I saw them. 2 years 2 long!! I can't wait to embrace them, kiss them, smother them with their mama's love. We have so much planned, but I would be fine just sitting on my couch with each one of them on both sides of me cuddling. Nolan sure is excited to see them. He has the sleeping arrangements planned out. Madalynn just knows their names; this will be a big event for her. Seeing mommy share her love with 2 other kids. She will do just fine.

We will be getting our pictures taken while they are here. I cannot pass up the opportunity to have pictures taken of all my little loves that I gave birth to!

We are going to go camping, take them swimming, go to the Mall of America, all kinds of places. I'm just going to enjoy every single SECOND that they are here. July 12, 2012 will be sad day for me; they will be returning home.

Let the countdown begin!

New Photo Challenge!

I saw on someones blog (wish I remembered whose), but I thought it was a really neat idea! It's called "About Me in Pictures." All you do is take random pictures of things that describe who you are in pictures. Of course you may want to describe what is in the picture, but it is just supposed to be a fun task, something different. Take as many pictures as you want in 30 days. So here a few of mine.

This is one of my favorite places in my home...my bedroom!

I have a special wall in my kitchen designated just for artwork

Some of my favorite products that I will never change!

I love makeup!

I love to cook!

My favorite sign in my kitchen! I bought this at a yard sale for $2.00

Weekend Fun

I had a blast this weekend with my husband! It started Friday evening when we went to his Baseball team's Bowling Tournament. We bowled with tons of our friends and made some new ones too! I bowled a 79!! Yeah I am not a bowler, but I go for the fun. It can be a little intimidating bowling with people that regularly bowl on a league and their score is a 300. They were all so helpful and understanding though. Saturday afternoon hubby and I went to Eau Claire and ate at Applebee's for supper, shopping at a few stores and ended the night with a blizzard at Dairy Queen and fell asleep on the couch by 10pm. It was wonderful to be able to do those things without bringing the kids. We have not been able to enjoy going out to eat together and shopping in quite some time...too long! It was great to feel like we were "single" without kids again, but on our way home we both kept mentioning how much we missed our babies. Sunday the 4 of us cleaned our house, I made some of my Superbowl party food and had a few people over to watch the game. We all agreed that not only was the Superbowl boring, but so were the commercials. Our favorite Superbowl commercial was the M&M "Sexy and I Know It." It reminds me so much of my husband dancing to this song during one of our nights out. I have to say the half time show with Madonna was quite depressing. We were not impressed at all. I don't understand why they don't host someone that is more current?! Regardless the night was fun.

I sure was sad to see Monday morning. I did not want the weekend to end. I miss having my husband home with us.

Spunky, Awnry, Drama Queen, TWO

Madalynn my love, you are one SPUNKY two year old! You are down right awnry when you do not get your way....But....I still think you are absolutely ADORABLE!!

This blog post is being created because of one of your tantrums you just had about 10 minutes ago. Over what? Because daddy said he wanted to continue watching Astro Boy while you went and watched Tangled in brothers room. Hmmmm.....seriously? First you came over to me and pushed my laptop screen down, then you proceeded to bite me on my arm a few times (thank god I had a hoodie on, because it protected me from your vicious bite), and then you started biting the couch, and finally you grabbed my dinner plate and tried to throw it onto the floor. Yep you did all of that because daddy said he was going to watch Astro Boy! You are a DRAMA QUEEN! You are definitely two years old.

By the way....when are you going to give up that darn ni-night (aka pacifier)?

My Husband

He's not perfect, I'm not either, and the two of us will never be perfect. But he has made me laugh at least once, causes me to think twice, and he admits to being human and making mistakes. i will hold onto him and hive him the most that I can. He doesn't quote poetry, he doesn't think about me every moment, but he has given me a part of him that he knows I could break. I promise not to hurt him, try to change him and i will never expect more of him than he can give. I smile when he makes me happy, I yell when he makes me mad, and miss him when he's not here. Love hard when love is to be had, because perfect guys do not exist, but he's perfect for me! I love my husband with all that I am and all that I have!

and I thought I had it bad....

Making the decision to have a child is momentous. It is to decide forever to have your heart go walking around outside your body." ~ Elizabeth Stone

Here I am feeling sorry for myself. Disliking the decisions that I have made in the past. Then I stumble upon this post and realize...suck it up! It could be a lot worse. 

I cannot imagine the pain a mother feels when she has to bury a child. That is a pain that I never, ever want to have to experience. I have read in many blogs of this happening, I have personally seen this happen to my husband's aunt. She lost 2 of her 4 children, 6 years apart. How does a mom go on? 

Yes, I am depressed because 2 of my 4 children do not live with me. They live out of state with their dad and step-mom. My heart aches for them daily. They are the first things on my mind when I wake up and the last things on my mind when I fall asleep each night. I hate that I cannot kiss them goodnight every night. I hate that I cannot wake up and smell their morning breath, I hate that they aren't in my home with me. But, I now realize after God leading me to this blog tonight, that I am one of the lucky ones. I am a mom who still has all of her children! 

I was feeling sorry for myself tonight. I was hating life, feeling angry and I ended up getting out of bed to come blog. I knew that blogging about my feelings would help. Then, I came across the blog that I mentioned above and said to myself, "well if that wasn't a sign from God, I don't know what is." God obviously had me get out of bed and read this for a reason. He wanted to remind me of my blessings, and to pray for those who need it the most right now!