Obsessed with cleaning...

Well if you didn't know...I have a MAJOR cleaning obsession! I feel like some days all I can think about is cleaning... and with 2 big dogs and a child, it makes it hard. I never thought my cleaning would take away from Cadence or the dogs for that matter, but lately I have bee feeling that it does. I always make my dogs stay outside or in their room, which isn't fair. And sometime all Cadence wants is to be held and all I can think about is washing the floor or vacuuming.

So after a good talk with a great friend on Sunday, I have come to believe that it's ok to have crumbs on the floor or dirty laundry in the basket. Life isn't about everything being perfect, it's about being happy. I'm so thankful that I have finally come to this realization! Don't get me wrong, I will still most likely vacuum every day, not only to clean my house but to put my daughter to sleep... she seems to fall asleep when the vacuum is on. But for now on, it won't be my first priority! I WILL allow my dogs to come into the house, they need love too and Cadence loves to have them around.

So if you come to my house and find crumbs or dog hair on the floor, just know that I love my life and all the dirt it comes with! And here is a picture proving that my daughter just loves to have her puppies around...

Gold Canyon Candles

My new journey...

I have been offered to get into an amazing business, a home based business! The product is called Canyon Candles and they are great! I'm really really excited for this new chapter in my life and I hope I do great.

Life.... my wonderful life

As I sit here feeding Monkey her breakfast, I can't help but feel this overwhelming joy and happiness. I'm so incredibly in love with my sweet little girl, so in love that I feel I can't explain it. I love her from her little painted toe nails all the way to her sticking up hair. She is the most amazing little girl and I am one proud Momma.

Then I think about my husband... my amazing husband! I feel so lucky to go to bed next to soul mate every night. When I think about him, I still get butterfly's in my stomach. I love that man!!! No matter how many forks there are in the road, we seem to always follow the same path. This is a journey we take together and will always come out on top. As long as I have him at my side, we can do anything.

I had so much to write about, so many thoughts to express. But now it seems as though they have all gone away and all I can do is smile! Smile at my daughter as she babbles away, and smile as I think about my hunky husband working his butt off at work for our family. I'm one lucky lady.

How do single parents do it?

I truly don't know how single parents do it! My husband has been gone away for work for the past week and a half, it's been hard. Not only do I miss him like crazy, for me. I miss his warmth when I climb into bed at night, his hugs and kisses, his sense of humor, doing his laundry, making dinner for him, I miss watching him and monkey interact, let's be serious here... I miss EVERYTHING about him!

Back to my original post... single parents and how do they do it?

For the past 9 days, I have been that "single" parent... in a sense. And it's so hard! All the diaper changing, feeding, entertaining, bathing, snuggling ( well I do love to snuggle my little angel), the one that has to deal with the crying, temper-tantrums, hissy fits. Then there's the runny nose she has, the pain from teething that causes my little girl to be a fussy maniac. IT"S HARD!

I know 100% that my husband is working his butt off while he's away for work and it's so hard from him to be away from us. I'm totally 100% thankful that he is willing to do everything he does for us. And in no way am I whining or complaining, however it sure seems that way. I guess I just don't understand how people can be single parents... that might be strange.

I have the most amazing husband and after being the "single" parent for a few days... I'm so much more thankful for him. They say time apart makes the heart grow founder... and it's so true! I cannot wait to look into his eyes and tell him how much I love him. How much I love the husband, friend, lover, father, and just all around amazing man he is. I truly am the luckiest woman in the world to have him!

So to all those single parents out there... kudos to you for all your hard work! As for me... it's not my cup of tea (and I'm sure for most it isn't theirs either, but life happens! Right!?) but I will soon have my man home and life will be back to normal... a fantastic life, MY fantastic life.

The 2 Loves of my life

Well today my husband had to go away for work! It sucks! He's going to be gone for around 10 days and I miss him already!

When I got up this morning and checked my facebook, he had left me a nice little message and i cried and cried!!! Here it is....

alright babe i'll make this quick....Take it easy these next few days i'll be thinking about you 2 lots i will call as soon as i get there. I love you a tonne look after my little girl...I love you love james

What an amazing man I have! He also left Cadence the best little note! Just reading that and thinking about him, I can't believe how lucky I am! I couldn't have asked for a better husband, father for our sweet angel or friend. I am so incredibly in love with that man!!

WOW... it's been a while since I posted! Well I guess that's because my days seem to be so busy! Between Cadence, dog walking, house cleaning, food making, nap attempting, more house cleaning, more dog walking, husband loving, Cadence snuggling... I guess I just didn't have blog writing time. LOL

Some may think my life is crazy, or that I'm clearly obsessed with having a clean house... but I truly love every second of it. It's crazy, but a good kind of crazy. And the only reason I clean so much is because my house is so small and gets messy WAY too fast. But oh well... shit happens!

So in the last week or so Cadence has gone back to the not wanting to sleep in her own bed phase. She LOVES to sleep in our bed and in my arms... I of course love to snuggle her! However a night without a sweating child in my arms would be kinda nice. But I'm sure one day I will be wishing that she would snuggle with her Momma, so for now I will cherish every bit of snuggle time I get.

But, to try and fix her fear of sleeping in her own bed, I put our beds together. Thinking that maybe she would sleep in her bed, if it was right beside ours and I could hold hands with her. The first night, hand holding was not good enough for her... but last night she stayed in her own bed until 430am! WAHOOO!!! Let's hope tonight it's until 630am ;)

I have also decided to put the play pen up in our room, thus for her to nap in. I figure that since she sleeps in a big girl bed, at nap time I would like to contain her. So we will see how napping in the play pen works for us. It worked yesterday, she only cried for a couple minutes and then went to sleep. But today she has been whining for about 20 minutes and doesn't seem to be stopping. What a persistent child I have.

Well I will leave her for a few more minutes and if she's not sleeping then I will rescue her from the evil play pen ;)

Lately I have really been thinking about what I want to do with my life :) Of course my intentions are to be a stay at home mom and try to be the best wife and mother I can be. But I'm talking about things I could do from home to make some extra money.

I've thought about learning how to crochet and making those cute little crocheted hats for kids and maybe even some blankets. Of course I'm sure there are lots of things that I could crochet and sell, but the question is... Would anyone buy the stuff?

But the one thing I REALLY REALLY want to do, is take a photography course. I LOVE to take pictures and maybe that's my calling!? Now if only I knew how to truly use my camera! LOL However I think that is what I will do... take pictures of anything and everything, learn all he ins and outs of my camera. And maybe once I'm good, I can make some money for myself!

So people... help me out! Let me photograph you and get some experience!

Olympics

Well I have been glued to the TV for the past few days, I can't seem to get enough of the Olympics. I even found myself watching curling today, I hate watching curling! But I just find myself to be Olympic crazy at the moment... it's so exciting to watch our athletes fight for the chance to get on the podium. And boy am I ever proud to be Canadian!

So far Canada has 1 gold, 2 silver, and 1 bronze medal! How exciting! Our tam is working very hard! Lets hope for some more gold medals :)

Feeling Great!!!

So I haven't been "dieting" or anything thing like that... just eating better, taking my vitamins everyday and walking A LOT, and I'm noticing such a difference! I feel like I have so much more energy and it's great!

I haven't been watching my weight, pounds wise... to me it's not about how much I weigh, I'm more concerned about getting toned! Of course this has been a long process and I'm far from being truly happy with my body... but I'm really happy with what I've accomplished so far.

Just so thankful!

As I sit on my couch and think about my daughter and my husband, I can't seem to stop the tears from coming! I am so incredibly thankful for the two of them and the health of our family. It amazes me that some day's I can be so negative and angry, when really I should be thankful, positive and happy everyday. However as with most people, I also have bad grump days.

First off lets talk about my husband... James is the most amazing father, husband, friend, lover and man. I honestly couldn't ask for a more perfect man by my side! Of course we have had our ups and downs, just like any other couple, but the last almost 10 years have been amazing! We have grown so much and learned so much about life, each other and love. Our love has been an amazing journey thus far ad I look forward to the years to come.

Then we have my angel, our sweet little girl! She is the most amazing little girl in the world, so full of energy and love. Of course there are those days that she's whining and driving my nuts with the crying, but then I look into those amazing blue eyes and my heart melts! I love everything about her... from her little tuff of hair on the top of her head, all the way down to her chubby little toes.

I could go on forever with all the things that I truly love and admire about the two special people in my life... but I'm sure you get the just of it! James and Cadence, I love you more then words can ever express!!!

Organic Momma

So since my lat post on healthy eating, I have talked to a few people about eating organic and have truly decided that I will be an Organic Momma! I'm sick and tired of being sick and tired! Our food has way too much crap in it that is causing more harm then good! Thus being the reason for my decision.

There is an Organic store here in Maple Ridge that I plan to go check out this week and also an organic butcher that we will try. I'm really really excited about this! I feel like I'm finally do something important for my family... I mean I guess I do important stuff everyday, but this is a big thing and I'm super excited about it.

The plan is to buy most all things organic... to be honest I've never really gone into the organic section of the grocery store, so I'm not 100% what you can get. This will be a learning experience! And I guess I will need to learn some new recipes so that I can cook all this nice fresh food!

The journey to becoming and Organic Momma begins!

Healthy Eater

So this year I didn't make a "New Years Resolution", instead I just decided I would eat healthier, walk my dogs more and do some extra exercising when I had the chance. I guess it still sounds like a resolution, but I don't like to call it that!

For me a new years resolution is something I will work really hard at for the first month and then I just get lazy and quit. It's something that I guess in the ends means nothing to me, but not this year! This year things will change, I will eat healthier foods and be a healthier person, not only for me, but for my family.

In the beginning I was just planning on walking my dogs at least twice a day and watching what I eat. However I have since decided that it's not just about watching my calorie intake it's about watching where the food actually comes from.

I was watching Oprah the other day, the show was about a movie called Food Inc. The movie talks about all the antibiotics and other crap that is put into our food these days. And it's really really disgusting! It's definitely a movie that I will be watching very soon.

Anyways... back to my story! Since seeing the episode on Oprah, I now plan to start buying organic food as much as possible. I know it's more expensive to begin with, but in the long run we will be saving money on health care and be much much healthier. I truly think this decision is the right plan for my family, or anyone else that may decide to do the same. We need to start thinking about our health and not just the convenience that comes with fast food or cheap food.

So, good luck to everyone on they're New Years resolutions and I hope my plan goes as I want it too... so far so good!

Life as I know it...

Life as I know it...it's crazy fun!

I find myself wearing many different hats! First there's the Mommy Hat, this being the hat that consists of night time feedings, attempts to calm crying fits, baths, baby food, baby poop, baby clothes... all the fun that comes with having a sweet little daughter. But this hat also includes the changes that came with pregnancy... stretch marks, hot and cold flashes, weight gain and weight lose, sleepless nights, mixed emotions and of course all the fun that being a Mommy brings.

My next hat is the Wife Hat! This hat consists of laughter, love, happiness and anger. There's cooking, cleaning, laundry, of course sex, arguments, making up, singing, dancing, adventure, creativity, happiness and the list goes on! But most of all the Wife Hat consists of the most amazing friendship I could ever have! I married my best friend and I couldn't be happier!

Then of course there is the Friend Hat! Being a friend to my husband, my family and of course my friends. This includes laughter, anger, fun, fights, excitement, movies, games, dancing, singing, adventures, new people, jealousy, learning, honor, happiness... and more and more and more! I have the greatest friends in the world and I'm so lucky!

I have so many other hats.... and I'm sure there will be another post that explains them, but for now these are the 3 most important to me.

So that's life as I know it!