Day Thirty - A picture

The blogging challenge is already over. It is so hard to believe that today is the last day of November. Sigh.

There is no better way to end this challenge than to post this picture of Hannah. She is exactly 4.5 months old and is sitting unassisted. She is growing so fast.

Excuse the crappy cell phone picture, that is all I had at the time.

Days 27-29.

I've been a bad blogger. I will explain our terrible weekend (and the reason I did not blog) in my day 28 portion of this post.

Day 27 - Pets

Right now, we are pet-less. Up until about a month ago, we had a dog. Her name is Buffy and she is 9 years old. She was our baby for the first 3 years we were married, and the year after Cameron was born and NOT mobile. As soon as Cameron began to crawl, he started tormenting her. He had no idea that when he pulled her tail or her ears, it hurt her, so he didn't know any better. Buffy started to become more and more hostile and grumpy towards Cameron, so we found her a new home. We miss her a lot, and opening our Christmas tote full of decorations was hard this year. Right on top was Buffy's stocking, and in our ornament storage bin were Buffy's ornaments. Here is Buffy in better days.

  

Day 28 - Stress
Oh man did we have some stress this weekend. I don't know about all of you, but when I heard 4-day weekend with my husband, I was excited. We would be able to relax, do some Christmas shopping, eat some good food at 2 different Thanksgiving dinners, it sounded great. Until the day our furnace decided to stop working. And of course, the day it stopped working was one of the coldest days we've had so far this winter. Great, right? We load up the kids, head over to Josh's mom's on Thanksgiving day for dinner, and come home to a freezing cold house. At this point, Josh has been in contact with a family friend who knows what he's doing when it comes to electrical/heating/etc, so they are trying to figure out what to do. He says we need to buy a part at a supply store. Okay, no problem, but they aren't open on Thanksgiving. So we set up the pack&play and a bassinet in our bedroom and have a sleepover with the kids. It was okay for the first night. 

Friday morning rolls around, and I head to Toys R Us at 6:30 am to see what they have left over from the night before. I forgot how much I love Black Friday shopping. After I got what I wanted, I head to the supply store recommended by the professional and ask for the part we need. He doesn't have it. He sends me to another store that can't sell it to me since I am a homeowner. He sends me to another place who has the part and I go home to let Josh install it. He gets it in, and it doesn't work. The professional comes over and touches the furnace and it turns on. What the heck. They go about installing our new water softener (YAY!) and replacing the pipes that will give our water a little more pressure (YAY!). The furnace stays on this whole time. I leave with the kids around 1:30 to go to my grandma's house for Thanksgiving dinner there, and Josh stays home to help the professional. I get a call on my way home from my grandma's that the furnace had gone out again. Are you freaking kidding me? So we come home to a cold house, once again. Long story short, the professional did some looking around and found that we needed a different new part and ordered it. He had us buy a wall heater at Lowe's that has a gas connector that has worked for the past couple of nights and gotten our house back up to 68 degrees! When he replaces the part in the furnace, it won't have to run nearly as often with this wall heater, and we are looking at saving a whole lot of money on our heating bill. That man is a God send.


So that, my friends, is why I have not blogged in a few days. Lots and lots of stress revolving around one stupid furnace.


Day 29 - 3 Wishes
My first and foremost wish is that my kids are/will be happy. They deserve the absolute best in life, and I will do everything in my power to make sure they get it.

I hope Josh and I will stay happy together forever. How cliche right? But really, he is the best thing that has ever happened to me, and I hope I can continue to keep him happy in his life with me. 

And number 3 is going to be material. I wish we could get a new house. With all new everything and that nothing would ever break and everything would be peachy every single day.  

Day Twenty Five - iPod shuffle.

First of all, Happy Thanksgiving! I don't know about you, but I am really looking forward to a yummy dinner (and we get to celebrate 2 days in a row!).

Now onto the post. I am supposed to put my iPod on shuffle and let you know the first 10 songs that show up. So here goes! (I hope this isn't embarrassing...)

1. Animal by Neon Trees
2. Break Your Heart by Taio Cruz (& Ludacris)
3. We R Who We R by Ke$ha
4. Mama's Song by Carrie Underwood
5. Boom Boom Pow by the Black Eyed Peas
6. Hey There Delilah by The Plain White Ts
7. Love The Way You Lie by Eminem (& Rihanna)
8. Tom Sawyer by Rush
9. Don't You Wanna Stay by Jason Aldean & Kelly Clarkson
10. Nothin' On You - by B.o.B. & Bruno Mars

There you have it. It appears that I have an interesting taste in music.

Day Twenty Four - Something I have learned

I could go several directions with this blog post, but I am going the easy way out.

I have learned how to use Photoshop Lightroom, and use it somewhat well. If you have known me for awhile, you will notice that my old pictures (from 2009 and beyond) are awful. The lighting in this house combined with a point and shoot camera = bad pictures. Since we upgraded to our DSLR camera, I think my pictures have gotten a million times better. Let's see if I can find an example of a picture I edited (for the better) in PS Lightroom.

The top photo is straight out of the camera, with no editing whatsoever. The bottom was edited with PS Lightroom, and I think it looks worlds better. Please forgive my backdrop - the fleece blanket needs to be washed and stored someplace NOT folded. *mental note*

Day Twenty Three - My Favorite Vacation.

My favorite vacation was hands down our honeymoon in Orlando. It was nothing special, just a week in a warm town - much better than the snowy mess we left behind. We stayed at a time share that Josh's mom set up for us, went to Disney World 2 days out of the trip, and spent the rest of our days acting like complete tourists. It was the first real vacation I had been on as an adult (no parents!) and it was even more special because it was our honeymoon.

I would love to go into more detail about the things we did while we were there, but we are getting settled back in after being forced out of our house last night. The pilot light on our furnace was acting up and the heat wouldn't kick on. Josh ordered a part and now we are back in business.

Day Twenty Two - My Makeup Bag.

Well well well, this day finally came. Inside my makeup bag are the following items:

 

I love this foundation. Of course, I have it in the 3rd lightest shade. =)

Another product in one of the lightest shades, my concealer. It does an okay job..

Awesome powder.

A super cheap bronzer that I love. It makes my face WORLDS tanner with one little layer.

 The most expensive item in my makeup bag is my MAC blush. LOVE it!

This is the eyeshadow palette I use every time I put eyeshadow on. I have another one just like this with a black shadow that I use as well. I love a smoky eye!

The best eyeliner. I love that I don't have to sharpen it, and it is very affordable. I wear this in Very Black.

 I use this mascara in the shade for blue eyes.

 

Josh is not a fan of sticky lip stuff, so I keep it simple with my chapstick. I used to have a nice lipgloss, until Cameron decided he wanted to wear it too.

Day Twenty One - A Picture.

I am quite fond of being the person to take the pictures, not be in them, so there aren't really many pictures of me. Let's see what I can dig up...

This is a shot from the family photo shoot we did a couple months ago. Not too shabby!

Day Twenty - Nicknames.

I don't really have any nicknames. In high school, a lot of people called me 'A-Lo,' kind of like J-Lo because of my first initial and last name. My name is Alyssa, and there really isn't much to go on when trying to find a nickname. One of my teachers in 9th grade called me Allie, but that never really stuck. These days, the only names I hear are Alyssa and Mama. I think Mama is my favorite nickname yet. =)

Josh is usually called Joshie. Simple. Of course, he is daddy to Cameron, a name he loves hearing on a daily basis.

Cameron is called Buddy for the most part. I am trying to cut back on that since I am pretty sure he thinks his name is actually Buddy. He also answers to Cam, Dude and Cam shaft (that is what his uncle Jason calls him). He just recently started calling himself Cam, which sounds like damn, and it is so cute.

Hannah has been called Hannah Boo since the day she was born. Most of the time, we call her Boo Boo. Cameron calls her Nana.

Day Ninteen - Something I miss..

This is easy. I miss the days back in high school when I was skinny. Although, at the time, I thought I was fat. I am pretty sure that all throughout high school, I was a steady 155 pounds. I could eat whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted, I drank Coke like it was water, and ate candy pretty regularly (hence my broken molar from that stupid caramel apple sucker). I got my exercise by going to gym class every day, and that was about it. It wasn't until my senior year in high school that my friends and I all joined the YMCA to work out because we wanted to. God, what I would give to use my current gym membership just because I wanted to.

This is me in the summer of 2005. I think I will use this picture as my motivation to stop being lazy with my diet and get myself to the gym 3 times a week again. I am halfway back to this weight and I refuse to give up!

Day Eighteen - Regrets

I hate to say that I have regrets. I wouldn't be the person that I am today if I didn't make mistakes in my life. There are a couple of things I wish I could redo, and we'll go with that.

When I moved to California after high school, I was going for one reason - a boy. I was stupid, thought I was in love with the greatest guy, blah blah. I made quite a few mistakes while I was there, and to this day, they haunt me. First of all, what kind of 18 year old girl just uproots her entire life and moves across the country for a guy? Especially a guy that she only knew for a few months. Throw in the fact that once I got to California, we still lived quite a ways apart. I didn't have a driver's license, let alone a car, so he always had to come to me. I still maintain to this day that the no driver's license was the straw that broke the camel's back.

Anyways, as if I hadn't done enough damage, it was pretty inevitable that going to college in CA was not an option for me. I had the money that I had earned by doing well on the MEAP testing in high school, but I only got $1,000 since I was going to school out of state (compared to the $2,500 kids that stayed in Michigan got). Well, I don't know if you know, but the cost of 1 class at a community college (if you were an out of state resident) was about a third of my scholarship money. I was taking 2 classes and bought books for both of them and spent all my money. After the one and only semester I attended was over, it was clear that I would not be going back, simply because I couldn't afford it. The part-time job I was working at a restaurant in the mall was not going to cover it.

Needless to say, I haven't been back to school since. That is the biggest mistake I have made in my life. I could have a degree right now, but instead, I don't. Getting back to school now is going to be a little bit challenging, seeing that I have to arrange my classes around a schedule that would work best for everyone. I don't want to have to rely on Josh's mom for childcare, but I don't really have any other options. At this point, it is more about figuring out what I want to do with my life, then going from there. I don't want to go to school for nothing, you know?

Wow, that got long. Like I said, I don't really regret any of those things, just wish I could do it all over again. Oh well, I guess it's true - life is what happens when you are busy making plans.

Day Seventeen - What I'm looking forward to.

Christmas Morning.

Last year with Cameron was pretty fun. Considering that on Christmas day 2008, he was 2 months old, last year at 1 year 2 months was a lot of fun. He showed a little interest in opening presents, but I think this year will be exciting. He opened one present at his birthday party, so I'm sure we can get him to open one on Christmas too.

I love Christmas. It involves a lot of traveling, but it also involves family. I love going to Josh's mom's for Christmas eve and eating pizza for dinner. Christmas morning is spent at my Grandma and Grandpa's house where we have a delicious brunch, and after we go home and spend the afternoon relaxing, we go to a local Chinese restaurant for dinner. That day is awesome.

Of course, it would be a lot better if my mom were here to celebrate with. We are in talks to be spending next Christmas together, so I am especially looking forward to that. =)

Day Sixteen - My Dream Home

I have been waiting very (im)patiently for this day to come. I have been thinking a lot lately what I would want my forever home to look like. I hope you have a lot of time to read this post as I'm sure it will be long.

Let's start out with location. We have decided that we would like to build a new house somewhere in Mattawan, Michigan. It is where Josh grew up, went to school and where his mom lives. It is a tiny little city with a smaller population than the city we live in now. Now that we got the location out of the way, how about the road we would live off of?

I love the colors of fall, so a road that looked like this, with few houses on it would be perfect. This picture is actually a photo from Bucks County, Pennsylvania, but Michigan looks like this in the fall too. =) We would have a decent sized driveway. Long enough to be away from the road, but not long enough that I would need to drive to get the mail everyday.

The style of the house would be a craftsman.

Craftsman Ranch

I can't believe I actually found a picture that shows exactly what I want. I love the look of a craftsman style home. I am a fan of the garage not being visible from the road, although it wouldn't be necessary. I would rather have a ranch style rather than a 2-story. It would be worlds easier to clean, first of all, and if my kids are up to no good when they are teenagers, I would be able to keep an eye (& ears) on them. The porch in my dreams is a tiny bit bigger, but something like in the picture would probably suffice.

Now let's talk about a floor plan. (Hey, this is a dream, right?)

Floor Plan

This looks awesome. We probably wouldn't necessarily need a 3-car garage or the coffee corner, whatever that is, but everything else looks awesome. Especially the huge walk in closet and garden tub. I like how big the bedrooms are and where everything is laid out. I love my kids, but I don't want their rooms right next to mine. I especially love the main level laundry room. Right now, the washer and dryer are in the (unfinished, cold, nasty) basement. One day.

The best thing about this dream house is going to be the bathroom. I have never had the luxury of a garden tub, and while we were on our honeymoon, we had one, and I had to refrain from using it. I knew it would be awful to enjoy time in it and have to use the tiny tub we have at home afterward. Does this bathroom look dreamy or what?

Master Bathroom

Josh and I have already decided that we will each have our own sink/vanity area in our next house. Getting ready in the tiny bathroom we have now is a challenge when we both have somewhere to be. I can't imagine being able to lay all my stuff out on a good amount of counter space and not have to fight over elbow room in front of the mirror. That reminds me. Speaking of getting ready, my dream house will have somewhere for me to sit and do my makeup. I will have a huge lighted mirror, with drawers for my makeup (instead of the tiny overflowing bag I have now), so nothing will get lost or broken.

Everything else in the house would be much less thought over. Of course, we would have huge flat screen TVs, mounted on the walls in an effort to save floor space. We would have a nice sized office with 2 separate computers so we didn't have to take turns. I would have a room to store all my craft stuff. We would have a fireplace with a gorgeous mantle for hanging stockings at Christmas time. Our kitchen would have a dishwasher (we don't have one now) and a separate area for dining (our tiny kitchen is home to our teeny dining table and chairs).

Last but not least, the backyard. We would have a playset for the kids to play on, a pool and a hot tub. We would also have a nice patio set for eating dinner outside on nice summer evenings. There would be a gazebo for lounging and reading books under.

Ugh, I should have never gone into so much detail.

Day Fifteen

1 Corinthians 13:4-8

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

In other news, the 30 day challenge is now halfway completed! This month is flying by. Today, Hannah turns 4 months old and we are a week and a half away from Thanksgiving. 2010 has been an amazing year so far.

Day Fourteen

A picture I love...

My absolute favorite wedding picture. Thanks Kenn Livingston!

Day Thirteen - Goals

I've been waiting for this post.

Let's talk goals. I have a few. For my short term goal, I want to have all my Christmas shopping done by the end of the first week of December. It should be an easy goal to meet too. Hannah and Cameron are each getting a big(ish) present from us and a couple of small things for their stockings. So far, they have their big(ish) presents and Cameron has 1 thing for his stocking. We already know what we are doing for our parents, and probably something small for the grandparents too. We are probably going to be grinchy this year and opt out of the secret santas.

For a medium goal, I want to lose 28 more pounds. Since the beginning of August, so 3 months ago, I have lost 27 pounds. Holy crap, right? I had a bad couple of weeks where I decided that I was just in the mood to diet, and went back up about half a pound, and then I got sick. After an awful night fighting with a stomach bug, I lost 3 pounds. The day after, I could not bring myself to eat, and I lost another half a pound. So that definitely helped my cause, but I have a LONG way to go. My goal is to be to my goal weight by the beginning of March, so about 3 1/2 months to lose 28 more pounds. I think it can be done. I miss my body from 4 years ago. Of course, I realize it will probably look a little different than back then, but I have 2 pairs of jeans calling my name.

A more long term goal is to focus on school and get some sort of degree. I will be honest, I do not have one. At all. After I graduated high school, college was the last thing on my mind. I had just spent 13 years in school and I was ready to have fun. I realize now that I made a huge mistake. I did take a couple of classes when I lived in California, but nowhere near enough to get a degree. My main focus will have to be to figure out what I want to do. I ultimately want to have a part-time job once Cameron and Hannah go to school, probably something in an office, so I will probably focus on something in that area. Big ambitions here. My main focus in my life has changed since I have kids, and I want to be able to put them first. Whatever they need, whenever they need me. But I like my alone time too, and why not get paid to get a little time away from the kids, right?

Day Twelve - Beliefs

First and foremost, I would like to start this post off by saying that I do believe in God. I may not go to church or read the bible daily, but that does not mean that I do not believe. I went to a church camp when I was in middle school and learned a lot about God and everything that happened because of Him. Church was just not something important in our family while I was growing up. My friend Amy and I went pretty religiously when we were seniors in high school, and I went for a little while when I lived in California, but I am not and have never been a member of a church.

Onto other beliefs.

I believe that any type of sweet can cure heartbreak. Ask Amy. We used to eat pretzels dipped in frosting to forget bad things. I have eaten my share of ice cream and chocolate to try and ease my mind. Unfortunately for me, food was what I turned to a few years ago and really packed on the pounds. So these days, if I am ever feeling sad, I eat ONE tiny piece of something sweet and my mood perks up almost immediately. =)

As for future beliefs, we are going to be a house that believes in Santa. There is something so awesome about waking up on Christmas morning and finding out if you were naughty or nice, and if Santa came to visit you or not. We will leave milk and cookies for him and carrots for his reindeer, and when we wake up on Christmas morning, I am sure we will almost always find that Santa came to visit our house the night before. I am excited to watch my kids' reactions towards the holidays as they get older and start to understand what everything is all about.

Day Eleven - Television.

I love TV, so this one might be kind of hard. Over the years, I have changed my taste in the shows that I watch (gone are the days of The Hills and The Real World). I watched Desperate Housewives religiously when it first came out, but over the seasons, I have lost interest.

I LOVE this show. It is gross and gruesome, but there is just something awesome about homicide detectives that can solve (REAL) cases in 48 hours - with only a few leads to go on. This show has inspired my dream job of being a homicide detective, although I could never do it (blood is not my thing).

Do you know how hard it was to find a picture with the latest cast? I had to choose this one since all the others still had pictures of George O'Malley and Dr. Burke in them. Wow. Anyways, this show has been on for 7 years now, and I still love it. There have definitely been some episodes that I shook my head at, but all in all, this is my favorite drama-ish show.

Who doesn't love Michael Scott? Or Dwight Schrute? This show makes me laugh every time it is on. There are lines from seasons past that Josh and I quote fairly often. We watched the entire series (that was available at the time) on Netflix a year ago and fell in love all over again. This show is just hilarious.

I miss this show. Thank God for reruns. I can remember watching it when I was little and not quite understanding what everything meant. I was sad to see this one end, but all good things must come to an end.

Ahh, Sex and the City. I didn't find my love for this show until I was 18 and living in California. My friend turned me on to it and I was hooked. I had to borrow all the seasons she had until I finally got caught up. We watched the end together on DVD, and I was so sad. Of course, there have been 2 movies that have come out since the end, but nothing beats the good old half an hour episodes of Sex and the City.

Day Ten - Fears

Something I am afraid of...

Did you figure it out?

I am scared of heights. Anything taller than 5 stories, and my knees get shaky. Around the same time my knees start to shake, my head starts to spin and I feel an overwhelming need to sit down. Ugh, I hate heights.

Along the same lines as the heights, I hate flying. I am fine while the plane taxis on the runway, but as soon as it starts to accelerate, I am a wreck. Then comes the liftoff. My hands are pretty much molded to the armrests at this point. Ahh, and they finally reach the height they want to and cut the engines, and my heart jumps again as the plane seems to drop 10,000 feet. All is smooth sailing from that point on, unless there is turbulence and my hands are molded on the armrests or dug into the arms of the person sitting next to me. My favorite part of flying is the landing. I cry a few tears every single time the plane I am on lands, because I know it is finally over. Nothing like the way the plane jumps as it hits the runway to know that everything is going to be okay. =)

Day Nine - My Friends

Well this one will be short and sweet. I lost touch with a lot of my friends when I completely uprooted my life and moved to California. I didn't have a cell phone, and money was tight so I couldn't call or visit home as much as I wanted to. I have changed a lot since high school, and unfortunately, a lot of the friendships I had ended with the change.

I still talk to a couple of girls (although pretty infrequently) that I hung out with in high school. Since the post today is supposed to be pictures of me and my friends, I shall post them. Ah, memories. =)

Jamie and Me. The top 2 are 8th grade, the bottom is from 11th.

Jamie and me.

Jamie, Kim, Courtney and me at Grad Bash.

Poker with Kim at Grad Bash.

Jamie has been my friend for as long as I can remember. I think we were best friends starting some time in 8th grade. We went through a lot together through high school, and as teenage girls do, we had our fights. Kim says I invited her to my birthday party when we were in elementary school. She says that we had Lisa Frank party favors. I didn't meet Courtney until high school. These girls put up with a lot of crap from me, especially considering one of them always had to come pick me up (no driver's license!). We may have grown apart, but I still love these girls like nothing ever happened.

Now onto the girl I still talk to the most. She was another one that had to put up with my crap on a regular basis, but not quite as much. She was introduced to me by my boyfriend in 9th grade. I always say that even though that relationship turned out to be a dud, it was okay since I got one of my best friends out of it. Meet Amy.

We mainly got to hang out on the weekends since she went to a school that was 20 minutes away from mine. We spent a lot of time on the phone talking (in typical girl fashion) about nothing at all. She lived out in the middle of nowhere when we were both too young to drive, and neither of our parents were thrilled to drive us back and forth, so we definitely did not get to hang out much. She got her driver's license right on time in sophomore year, and the rest is history. (We won't get into all of that...)

At this point in my life, I would consider her to be my closest friend, but that is a longshot. She is another one that I pushed away while I have been struggling with my insecurities. She just recently moved to Texas and came back soon after, so I am looking forward to rekindling our friendship. We're practically meant to be BFFs! =)