Road Trip Randoms

Last night Clay and I had a night out. We went to Jonesboro to the Eric Church an Brantley Gilbert concert with my brother-in-law and his fiancée, Brytne. It was sooooo much fun!

Jonesboro is cooler than I thought it would be. There is a lot to do there, and they have a really nice mall. Next time, we want to take the girls so they can do some of the cool activities they had. They'd love the indoor playground and train that goes through the mall.

The weird part was being 3 hours away from the girls. We worried and missed them so much. It's so different to be across town on a date than across the state!

Btw, I'm trying to learn to tweet or twitter -whichever you call it. Help a girl out if you get how it works!

I guess I will get off my phone and socialize with the hubs while he drives. We are almost home --- YAY!!!

Peace and Quiet?

Typically, those two words do not belong in the Mitchell household. And I love the hustle and bustle of our full days with two spirited little girls, but tonight when I randomly woke up at 3 am starving, I discovered several things that I felt the need to share.

1. My house is very peaceful at this time. I was able to check Facebook, pinterest, and update games without nagging or interruption. I was able to eat my cereal without sharing!
2. A new game! Draw it! Play this with me. It is fun.
3. I can hear Mila talk in her sleep. She just enthusiastically said "I love that!".
4. I can update my blog! And apparently I'm full of thoughts at 3 am!!
5. I have time for uninterrupted Bible Study and prayer!!!

On a different topic -

Every night clay leaves the back porch light on. For some inexplicable reason this drives me NUTS. He knows this, yet he continues to do it. I notice this as I am up and the light is glaring through my window. ARGHHHHH

And on another "another note"
Miss Mila is getting funnier and sassier by the day! Tonight, clay had to swat her, and she got mad and yelled "I'm going to tell my Gram! I'm going to call her RIGHT now! I'm going to tell her you are being mean to me! And SHE will spank YOU!!" and it's all in one big sassy spill to which I have to turn my head and hide my amusement.

I love the ages my children are at right now. Both are showing new aspects to their personalities and individuality. Maddox is becoming super independent. Everything is "No! Me do it mommy!! Me do it!" and she's pretty good at Doing a lot of things. Makes for a proud mama. She's also talking a lot and I absolutely love hearing her sweet little voice, especially saying new words - like hippopotamus . Presh.

Maddox's birthday party was mostly a hit. I have lots of pictures to post on my next update, which I hope will be soon!

Fast February

As my dear friend, Katie, pointed out via (an unanswered) text a few days ago, it's been a month since I blogged. Eek. Where does the time go?

Along those lines...in 3 days my precious baby bird, Maddox Grace, will be TWO!! She is an amazing little girl! She's funny, sweet, and spirited. She has a mind of her own, and is already determined to have things her way. I'm definitely parenting a strong-willed child! But I wouldn't have it any other way...except for maybe when it's the middle of the night, and she wakes up demanding Diego or milk or some other insane request when I'm sleeping!

Over the past month, we have dealt with more and more drama from the "remodel" post-flooding in December. We finally got our new countertops --- which look AMAZING! But, in the midst of the installation, the cabinet guys broke my oven. So our Friday night was spent going to get another oven. Sucks that it happened but I'm pretty excited to have a smooth top stove now :)

Monday, some of the new flooring and our backsplash will be here! Talk about one ready girl. This has been the longest, most drawn out process. And after Clay spent the whole day pulling up old tile, and it seeming like everything that could go wrong would, he proclaimed that we will NEVER ever build a house, and all these complications are why!

As I type, my hubs has put the TV on The Bodyguard. I've never seen it, and it's catching my attention. It's been playing pretty much nonstop, as I'm sure you are all aware, since Whitney's untimely death.

The poem I read at the talley-bunting wedding!

Yes, I'll Marry You

Yes, I'll marry you, my dear,
And here's the reason why;
So I can push you out of bed
When the baby starts to cry,
And if we hear a knocking
And it's creepy and it's late,
I hand you the torch you see,
And you investigate.

Yes, I'll marry you, my dear,
You may not understand it,
But when the tumble-drier goes
It's you that has to mend it,
You have to face the neighbor
Should our boxer attack him,
And if a psycho scares me
It's you that has to whack him.

Yes, I'll marry you,
You're handsome and you're lean,
My house is like a pigsty
You can help to keep it clean.
That sweet little dinner
Which you served by candlelight,
As I sit relaxing,
You can cook it every night!

It's you who has to work the drill
and put up curtain track,
And when I get too grumpy, it's you who gets the flak,
I do see great advantages,
But none of them for you,
And so before you see the light,
I do, I do, I do!

After a croupy night...

My night was spent trying to comfort a baby who could not be comforted or calmed. There was lots of screaming, from her, and nothing worked. It was a loooooong night. She finally tired herself out around 5 this morning. This morning I took Miss Maddox to see the doctor; turns out, she has croup. So now she is sleeping. Mommy & sissy took a 3 hour nap when we got home :) Now I'm rested and Bitsy is still snoozing.

So obviously, I had to call in today. This was hard for me today because it was a day we were supposed to help one of our team members. I am a part of an amazing team of women, who would do anything to help me and vice-versa. So it really sucked that I couldn't be there to help today. My work is very important to me, and where I work is a dfiferent kind of school. Not only is how you teach the children different because of their age and special needs, but the way the company runs is different. Besides just the team of Teachers, I also belong to my classroom team, where I have an amazing group of assistant teachers. Work life is prettty good. It stays busy and stressful, but I love it. Back to my teacher team: it's just nice working with women who I can trust and who contribute their ideas and time to help each other.

On a different note, something I find fun and interesting is astrology signs. I'm a scorpio. And it is so me.  Last weekend I read about my sign, Clay's sign, and the girls' signs. It's just neat because so many parts are right on point. I don't necessarily believe anything of it; I just think it's fun. And I'm not interested in horoscopes, just the profiles of the signs.
            Some things about Scorpio/me:

• Scorpio Strength Keywords:

  - Loyal
  - Passionate
  - Resourceful
  - Observant
  - Dynamic
  

  Scorpio Weakness Keywords:

  - Jealous
  - Obsessive
  - Suspicious
  - Manipulative
  - Unyielding
• They can even be downright moody for no apparent reason. Scorpios are known for their possessiveness and jealousy but on the other hand, they are extremely loyal. Scorpios have an excellent memory and combined with an inability to let things go, they can hold a grudge against someone who did them harm forever, in fact a Scorpio rarely if never forgives and forgets.
• Their truthful and shocking sense of humor if different than that of any other zodiac sign and the Scorpio makes an amazing, powerful interesting friend that can be trusted.
• Scorpio is the most misunderstood of all astrology signs. They are all about intensity and contradictions. They like to be aware of a situation and always know what's going on, figuring this out with their probing mind, on the other hand, they are interested in the occult, the paranormal, conspiracy theories and other types of similar unknown mysteries. They are very capable of hiding their true feelings and motivations, they often have ulterior motives or a hidden agenda.
• Scorpios are all about control, they need to be in control at all times. To be out of control is very threatening, even dangerous to the Scorpio's psyche, when they control, they feel safe.

Some parts are ugly...but everyone has flaws. lol

My house is a mess. I need to get to cleaning. blah.

My friend is getting married Saturday! woooo-hoooo! I'm supposed to read something at the ceremony. What you ask? Not sure yet.....eek! but that's okay, it will be great.

Maddox is waking up, so Mama is off to work!

"How can you not get romantic about baseball?"

Moneyball. Clay and I just finished watching it. I really enjoyed it. There is something about sports movies, especially those based on true events. Of course, it didn't hurt that Brad Pitt was in it! and I really dig Jonah Hill. It was odd seeing him in a serious role, but he still managed to make me laugh.
I liked that it seemed real...that it seemed like the raw, unseen, "dirty" side of baseball, or sports in general. Because it is really is all about the money. I know, I know...the players love the game; they have heart; yada, yada, yada. But when it comes down to it, it's a lot about the money. It was definitely an interesting take on sports movies. Don't get me wrong, I definitely enjoy the typical feel-good, come together and win it all type of movie, too.

Pinterest. This week I completed Day 1 & 2 of the world's easiest workout ever. And began making the ornament from our live tree of 2011. .

On Motherhood. My children amaze me every day. Every single day they bring something new and special into my world. I am beyond blessed to get to be their mother, and I thank God continuously for allowing me this privelege. I am a good mother. I adore my children, and they adore me. And it's because of all these things, that when I get frustrated or lose my patience, it really upsets me. I saw a pin that said "When you begin to lose patience with someone, remember how patient God has been with you." How true this is, and how hard it is to live by. I have two precious, energetic, curious, and bright little girls. I should not let it get to me when they run around in circles at the back of the church before it's time for them to go to their class. But it does, and the reason it does is because it makes me feel like a failure that I can't make these little ones sit down quietly and be still for 20 minutes. Even though my degrees in education tell me that is an unreasonable amount of time for a toddler and preschooler to sit and attend to something above their level. This has been bothering me all day. But tomorrow is another day, and I will try again!

Just my thoughts this Sunday afternoon

So, you may be wondering, how is Nikki doing on her goals for 2012?

.... as you may have expected, not the best.

1. Start a blog.
    I suppose this one is going okay. I've written some, and I think about it a lot. I just want my posts to be interesting, and I'm pretty sure they're not nearly interesting enough.

2. Make something I've pinned on Pinterest once a week.
    What did I make this past week you ask? Lesson plans that contained several ideas found on pinterest and myself laugh! Next week will hopefully bring something more related to home organization :)

3. Do one major task each week to get my house organized.
    This one is actually probably going the best. Yes, there are still several areas that are disasters, but I can see that we are slowly but surely making progress. YAY!!!

4. Read more.
   I haven't read anything for pleasure, other than pinterest stuff. The few times I could've read I chose either Pinterest or TV and stuff with the hubs. I have read many children's books of course, but that was a given and not really part of my resolution. ;)

5. Wake up on time, and get to work ON TIME EVERY DAY.
    <Sad face.> This is the goal I have tried the hardest to master. This is the goal that is the hardest for me. Tuesday was freaking awesome. I didn't sleep very much at all Monday night, as I blogged about, but I was up and at 'em and got to work at 7:30! Miraculous to everyone, especially Mila & Maddox's teachers. lol. The rest of the week was much more of a struggle, but I was close to being right on time. I just want to be a little early without RUSHING.

6. Do some form of exercise every day.
    I would pretty much consider this a fail for the last week. However, I did bust my ass twice cleaning the house to make it presentable to guests. I mean hardcore to where I was sweaty. That burned some calories and got my heartrate up, right??

7. Drink 8 glasses of water each day.
    Diet Coke and Coffee just always seem like such a tastier selection... I may have reached 8 glasses twice over the past week, but even though I didn't on other days; I did drink more water than I usually do, which is good considering it is progress toward this improvement!

One "resolution" I failed to include in my initial post was my goal to grow stronger as a Christian, including: increasing my faith and my relationship with God, studying the Bible more, and attending our Church as often as possible. We got a little off track amidst the holiday hustle and bustle of things, and sometimes, the comfy bed can be so much more convincing that the thought of getting up and getting ready, even though you know all the while you continue your sleepy bliss, that your day would feel so much better if you would've got up and worshipped with your church family! Same thing on Wednesday night. Wednesday is often my longest day at work, so I usually leave right at 5:30 (because that is when the kiddos MUST be picked up), and church starts at 6:30. That leads to a rush and one tired girl. We went last week, and of course it was worth it. I hope I can keep myself motivated and not slip off track. This is not to say that you cannot be a faithful Christian without going to church; this is a just a personal goal for me because I love the church family that we belong to and I'm constantly challenged, motivated, refreshed, and learning something new there.

*****
On a different note, the reason I have this time to do a lengthy entry is that I'm here at my mom's doing laundry. She's got the munchkins occupied, and I've got a little free time on the internet. That is one nice aspect of not being able to do laundry at home :) Plus, mom and I hung out and watched movies today, which is always nice and often too rare.