The Good Life

Monday was one of those days that Moms are not proud to talk about, and often times don't. It was one of those days when I felt like I could run away and not come back for a long, long time. As much as I love my child and would do anything to care for and protect him, Monday, I could've run away. Everything that has been building up over the past few weeks finally escalated. Colton has been battling sickness for around a month. With that sickness, as all Moms know, comes grouchy, bratty, miserable, little turd buckets that you can't make happy no matter how hard you try! There have been days when he acted totally fine with the exception of a runny nose and other days he has been so lethargic. Over the past few days, I have known something just wasn't right. On Saturday, Colton was getting worse instead of better. I was so frustrated. Colton was frustrated/sick/cranky and just miserable. Matt, bless his heart, has been wonderful while dealing with two crazy people in...

There is no love like a Mom's love. All you Moms out there know what I mean. It's just a feeling that you can't explain and a bond that is just so instant and strong. It's truly amazing. I feel like the retail/advertising/product world uses (or tries to use) that love against us. Especially at Christmas! Think about it. When you find out you're pregnant for the first time, you're scared. You're excited, overwhelmed, nervous and naive. You start making a baby registry and probably look up all the ratings/feedback/comments on the products. If you don't use this car seat brand, you're baby is going to die in a car crash. If you don't breastfeed, you could cause development issues. If you don't use this brand of diapers, your baby is going to get diaper rash. If you don't have a monitor with a video, how are you going to know they're breathing? You have to have this and have to have that...or you're a horrible Mom or Dad. It doesn...

I know it's that time of year, but I am beginning to feel like Colton is never going to be back to "normal". We have been battling runny nose/cough/mild fever for 3 weeks now. I thought he was better and then I took him to the parade (good job Mom, right?) and the runny nose was right back the next day! Ugh...tis the season. Last weekend, Matt and I had to make a very tough parenting decision. We decided for me to keep Colton at home while Matt made the trip to Ohio to celebrate Christmas with his family. I was heartbroken because I know how far away we all live and how rare it is for us to all be together. My mother in law and sister in law were flying in from Texas, it was going to be the first time that all of the cousins were together at the same time, I was excited about watching all the kids open their gifts and looking forward to visiting with everybody. It's not fun making that kind of decision. All sorts of worries and thoughts ran through my mind. I was so...

On Saturday after Thanksgiving, we took Colton to "meet Santa". I heard about Bass Pro Shops  offering a free picture with Santa, and since it doesn't take much to talk Matt into going to Bass Pro (and it takes an arm and a leg to get him to the mall), we decided this was the perfect place for Colton to meet the man in red. It was a nice drive over to Sevierville and honestly, the store wasn't as crowded as I was thinking it would be. We found Santa's Wonderland and got our "time card". We were able to line up at noon. So, while we waited Colton rode the carousel and we got to browse around the store. I knew that it was going to be hit or miss on how Colton was going to react to Santa. Since our time slot was noon, we had missed a nap and lunch. He ate part of his lunch while waiting in line but it doesn't really count for an actual "meal". He was still not feeling great (runny nose/cough), it was hot in the store, we waited for almost ...

My sister checks my blog almost daily and informed me that she is going to stop checking if I don't update! So...here's some news. Matt, Colton and I traveled to Indiana the weekend of November 16th. We had such a great time celebrating with his family for Thanksgiving/Christmas. It was so nice to visit with Aunts/Uncles/Cousins that we don't get to see very often. Matt's Mom was even able to fly in from Texas to join the crowd. Of course we always feel like we are limited on time and can't see everybody we would like to - but it was nice, nonetheless. I feel like I've been in survival/catch-up mode since our trip. Colton caught some nasty bug/virus while visiting Indiana and the poor little guy had a rough trip back to Tennessee. We experienced our first vomiting episode. What better way to experience that than in the truck, while going down the interstate, in the pouring rain/fog...right?!? Once we made it back home, we had a very rough night and next day....

With all the hustle and bustle of these new projects, I was feeling really proud of myself. It has been so important to me for us to have a home that we are comfortable in. I wanted Colton to have a cute room, I wanted pretty floors, I wanted to help Matt organize his garage. I was busy, busy, busy making our house comfortable that I completely forgot that what makes Colton comfortable. He doesn't care if he has a cute room or pretty floors, he just wants Mommy and Daddy. On Monday,  the day from somewhere other than heaven,  I was so frustrated. I had so much to do and Colton just kept crying and wanting me to pick him up. I literally felt like I was going to lose it. I was tired, I had so much to do. I was thinking "why can't you just play and be happy". Horrible Mom moment, but let's be honest, no Mom is perfect. So after battling with him, totally losing my patience, locking myself out of the house and crying (ladies,  you can understand that special time of...

Moving into our new house has been so exciting but with all the unpacking, updating, projects and getting settled, I have to admit that I am exhausted. This past weekend, Matt and I took on our biggest project yet - we replaced the carpet in our living and dining rooms with hardwood. The hardwood that we used is not the pre-finished kind, it's straight from the mill (literally). I knew this was going to be a big challenge for us for several reasons but the biggest being that we have a 10 month old "helping". On Friday, I took on the challenge of ripping out carpet while Matt was at work . My Mom came over for about an hour to watch Colton which gave me time to get enough of the tack strip up to be able to manage the rest of that job with my little assistant. It took me most of the day but I was able to get the living room completely prepped for flooring to start. On Saturday morning, we were at Lowe's by 8am getting everything we needed for our big project! Of...