How I Forgot My Blog's Name

It has been so long I have forgotten my blog's name. Seriously. It took me two tries to locate my blog and 4 tries to remember the password. So I will once again try to commit to my blog...

To get back into blogging I will take the tagging challenge my friend Valerie tagged me in (check out her blog at http://iamdaughterdogdreams.blogspot.com/).

Here are the rules I was suppose to follow:

Here are the rules: 1. Post these rules. 2. You must post 11 random things about yourself. 3. Answer the questions set for you in their post. 4. Create 11 new questions for the people you tag to answer. 5. Go to their blog and tell them you've tagged them. 6. No stuff in the tagging section about you are tagged if you are reading this. You legitimately have to tag 11 people.

BUT since I don't have many "followers" or friends who blog, I challenge anyone who blogs and reads this to answer my questions and play along (some call this cheating, I call this not being technology savvy!).

So we'll start with my 11 random facts...

1. I knew I wanted to be a teacher from the time I was 3 and never wavered from that until I was 3 years into my major in college. I freaked out, became a sociology major, and graduated with a semi-useless degree. And what did I become? A preschool teacher. (Side note...my parents are still a little bitter about this.)

2. I have what I call a "parental fail" almost daily. These have become little jokes I make up in my head and laugh about instead of thinking about what a bad Mom I might be.

Example: Cooper came up to me the other day telling me there was a "freaking bug" in our house. My child has picked up on how I substitute bad words and now he does it too. Parental fail. I'd give you more examples, but then no one would let me watch their child.

3. I'm fairly certain my hair is jet black and curly at this point yet I still wear it very blond and straight.

4. If I had not totaled my 2000 Honda civic two door hatchback car (and it was purple) there is no doubt in my mind I would still own that car...and John would be driving it (that really makes me laugh). Best car ever...and fastest!

5. I drove that car well over 100MPH on many occasions. I have never driven my 2009 Buick Enclave over 75 MPH. Children change everything.

6. My mom is my best friend. I talk to her most days more than I talk to John.

7. I am terrified of 99.99% of big dogs and about 95% of small dogs.

8. The only non-alcoholic drink I will drink are diet coke, water, and sometimes coffee. I don't like anything else.

9. I despise sweet tea. Even the smell makes me sick.

10. I hate Thanksgiving food. All of it. I normally eat a small piece of turkey and a roll just because I feel obligated.

11. I consider deleting facebook every day.

Questions to answer:

1. Birthdays. Love them or hate them?

I have a love/hate relationship with them. I hate getting older but I love attention and presents:)

2. Get your purse/gym bag: What are the first five things you pull out?

Wallet, old Publix receipt, lip gloss, iPhone, Chloe teething toy, Matchbox car

3. What is one meal you can make better than anyone else?

My husband loves my Chicken Parmesan so we"ll go with that.

4. You get one wish. No restrictions other than it must be selfish (can't wish peace for the world). What is your wish?

That nothing bad would ever happen to my children. That I could shield them from any pain, sickness, bad choices, etc.

5. Cake or pie?

I love both...I love a Publix cake, but I also love cold pies like key lime pie and lemon meringue pie.

6. What is your secret talent?

I can triple roll my tongue. I can also touch my tongue to my nose.

7. Early bird or night owl?

I wish I could be a night owl, but the little people who live in my house have turned me into an early bird.

8. Biggest pet peeve?

My dirty garage, people not picking up their shoes, my son putting wet pull-ups under his bed, and Oreo barking non-stop at 2am. I obviously cannot pick one pet peeve.

9. What is your favorite weird food combination?

I don't think I have one...I am a fairly boring food person. I do like Cajun seasoning on my pizza. Is that weird?

10. Which would you choose? No social media for a year or no working out for a month. Why?

Well since I never have time to work out I probably could make it a month, but if I ever really start back running I could give up social media.

11. Would you rather have no babies or eight babies?

If it is 8 babies all at one time I would still probably pick the 8 babies. I couldn't imagine my life without my children, but that would be a hard 18 years!

Here are my questions if you decide to play along...

1. What TV show do you watch that you would not want anyone to know?

2.Put your iPod on shuffle...what are the first 5 songs it plays?

3. If you could be on vacation right now, where would you pick to go?

4. In 10 years from now where do you think you'll live?

5. Which would be more beneficial for you...gas prices dropping or the housing market picking back up?

6. What is your biggest pet peeve?

7. If you could eat all day for free, where all and what all would you eat?

8. Rainy day watching movies inside and napping or sunny day taking a 12 mile hike?

9. Any big goal for 2012?

10. White, milk, or dark chocolate?

11. What was the last thing you bought for yourself?

Time...a tribute to my hubby

"Because I had the time of my life, and I owe it all to you."

Cheesy song (I know) and (hopefully) I haven't HAD the time of my life, I am currently HAVING the time of my life. And it all began almost three years ago.

In a little over two weeks John and I will celebrate three years of marriage. Three BUSY years. What have we done in 3 years? Here's a synopsis...
-bought a house
-went through major surgery (me)
-bought a new car
-got pregnant
-AND (drum roll please...) will introduce a new baby into this world in 19 days of less (but who's counting)

And these three years have flown by. It's true that time flies when you're having fun, it flies when you're raising children, it flies when you're happily married, it flies up until you're less than three weeks away from having a baby and then time drags...

I sometimes wish time would slow down (as in I can't believe my first baby is about to be 4!), but in the meantime there is no one I'd rather be spending my time with than John (although he might not agree that he wants to spend all his time with me this last month of pregnancy HA!). So here is to a whole lot more years together (ummm I'm thinking forever) and a lot more fun. However if we slow down some, I won't complain:)!

I love you, John.

The evils of facebook?

My mind is full and needs to be emptied. Between thinking about changing this house to accommodate the new baby (anyone out there want to rotate three bedrooms for me?), thinking about all the yard work that needs to be done that I can't do because of allergies, and thinking about something that was just thrown on me today, I am tired of thinking. Therefor, it's time to blog. Today I will blog about facebook. Is is good or bad? Up until recently I would say good. What a great way to share your life with people who you would otherwise lose touch with. It's always exciting to get in contact with someone you haven't spoken to in 5 years, and never would have if it weren't for facebook. My thinking about facebook started a few weeks ago when I got in my car and the radio was left on 104.7 and I caught myself listening to Rick & Bubba (who normally I detest). They had a caller who told a story of their wife being contacted on facebook by an ex, agreeing to meet them for lunch, and then being propositioned. Rick & Bubba argued that without facebook, the ex probably would have never been able to contact the man's wife. If he had contacted her, it would have probably been by phone and the wife would have never answered. If they had talked, the guy probably would not have had enough courage to ask her out OR asked to really "get together" in the adult sense. The wife was smart enough at that point to show her husband the messages and he went and met the guy for lunch and I'm sure you can guess what happened next... The question is, is facebook really just Pandora's box. An outlet for "reconnecting" with family, old friends, and even exes? In 2011 does a marriage really need another outlet for the devil to sneak in? Or maybe I'm blowing facebook out of proportion and it really is just a big class reunion waiting to happen...until you remember you use to date people in your class. You wouldn't have a bunch of ex boyfriends (or girlfriends) in your cell phone, so why do they need to know what restaurant you checked into, where you went on family vacation, what color you just painted your den, and so on. I do feel a little hypocritical on this blog because I do have facebook (although in all fairness I'm contemplating deleting it). I enjoy facebook because I like connecting with old friends-especially my Mississippi State buddies. That said, I'm still not sure facebook fits my life anymore. I'm not sure I want everyone to know what my kids look like and when I last sneezed (maybe it's not that detailed but give Mark Zuckerberg time...). I'm not positive that facebook isn't something meant more for the single and ready to mingle and less for me. I am positive that what the guy did on Rick & Bubba to the guy who propostioned his wife is similar to what my response might be if it happened in my marriage:).

I admit it...I fell off the blogging wagon and neglected my blog. Now with John and I expecting baby Jeffcoat this August, and the kids getting older (and funnier!) I figured I'd better get back to blogging.

So far the spawn of John has left me gripping the toilet for the last 4 weeks. I am seeing a light at the end of the tunnel though and have been successfully keeping down food for the last 48 hours. This pregnancy is so different from when I was pregnant with Cooper, but then again my life is so different from when I was pregnant with Cooper.

Cooper is a all grown-up now (or so he thinks...). He makes me laugh all the time and he makes me crazy all the time. He's really into Thomas (still) and he can play with his trains for hours. I'm pretty sure he will be an engineer like John when he grows up...just one that works on trains and not for Trane.

Jaylyn is almost my height and gorgeous (I might be biased, but all my friends tell me all the time how pretty she is so I'm sure it's true). John and I both live in fear of the teen years that are sure to begin, but Jaylyn sure is fun right now. She is such a funny girl!

There is my catch-up blog effort. I realize it was boring, but I had to catch-up before I could blog all the juicy stuff:-).

Ice Cream

Your love is better than ice cream

Better then anything else that I've tried

And your love is better than ice cream

Everyone here knows how to fight

-Sarah McLachlan Ice Cream

The above lyrics are from one of my favorite Sarah McLachlan songs. I use to love this song...it was on all my favorite cassettes and later on all my burned cds. I loved it, my friends loved it, my sister and I loved it until a guy I dated in college heard it. He turned to me and asked me if I loved him more than I loved ice cream. And I didn't. And I told him that. And then I quit listening to that song...especially around guys I was dating.

In all fairness to this guy I LOVE ice cream. My love for ice cream started when I was younger and my mom would make homemade ice cream that would cause me extreme brain freeze because I would eat it too fast. My love for ice cream grew even more when I became a runner and realized I could eat anything I wanted without gaining weight (yes you can hate me now if you want).

But what really solidified my love for ice cream was when a Brusters appeared a mile from my parent's house the summer after my sophomore year in college. It was love at first sight for me. That was the summer my sister taught me how to enjoy long runs so we would accomplish a 6-8 mile run and reward ourselves with ice cream. Around this time we discovered Brusters rain policy which is if it is raining you get a second scoop free. From that point forward that summer if we saw even a storm cloud we were headed to Brusters. Life was good that summer...

I am also reminded when I think about ice cream of all the dinosaur kids sundaes at Brusters I took the boys I babysat for to get. Because no one really appreciates a meal centered around ice cream more then kids. Except for my kid...who hates ice cream. It makes no sense, but I still order Cooper ice cream everywhere we go so he can at least try it again. On a positive note it means double ice cream for me:-).

So I didn't love that boy in college more than ice cream...I never loved any guy I dated more than ice cream. Except John. The one guy I will actually share my ice cream with. I'm pretty sure I never shared my ice cream with even my dad...but in all fairness I don't remember my dad ever sharing his ice cream with me either. Now that I think about it I think my whole family is made of ice cream-aholics!

New Orleans Inspiration

Last weekend John and I went to New Orleans for a conference John had to attend. The first day we were there I ran on a treadmill assuming that Bourbon Street and New Orleans wasn't a safe place for me to run. That treadmill run was the longest of my life...a crappy treadmill set to make you view yourself in a mirror the whole run. The next morning as John and I set off for Cafe Du Monde (beignets...yum!) I saw a lady from our hotel leave to go running outside through New Orleans. I happened to run into her at the pool later and she convinced me that running through New Orleans in the morning was fine.

So I did it and it was awesome. I started my run by going down Bourbon Street where, although it was 7am, some guys were coming out of the bar and they sang me the Rocky theme song. I then somehow found Canal Street and ran down there and planned all the shopping I was going to do later (poor John). I ended up back on Bourbon and went towards the River Walk and that is when my run received the title of "coolest run ever". Running by the river was spectacular, but what was really cool was on the way back looking at all the street performers before the tourists arrived. The guy who was spray painted head to toe in gold was making plans to go to the bar later with the local artist. The two guys dressed as transformers were buying coffee. All these people in crazy costumes were acting so normal...like planning to act as a statue all day was as normal as me going to work to teach.

As I arrived back to my hotel I realized that the run I just went on was "Bucket List" material. How many people can say they ran Bourbon Street? I quickly came up with some more items I want to accomplish. I think my life is going to need 2 Bucket Lists. One for me to accomplish before I hit 50, and another one to accomplish between 50 and death. So here goes Bucket List One:

1. Run Bourbon Street (accomplished!)
2. Sky dive (I know this would terrify me...)
3. See a Hawaiian sunset with my husband (hint hint John)
4. Surf (I'm positive with how uncoordinated I am I would injure myself but still I want to try!)
5. Run a half marathon
6. Go to Disneyland...the right way. Where you go for a whole week and do it ALL.
7. Get my masters in Elementary Education.
8. Be on a reality television show (because nothing says classy like reality television)
9. Go on a spa weekend.
10. Start a charity...I have a great plan for one that gives money to kids whose parents die without having a life insurance plan.
11. Successfully grow a garden.

Have you made your Bucket List yet?

Mommy Dearest

My son and I have a special bond. We are each other's world. Every night it is me he wants to put him to bed and he makes me promise that I will be the one who gets him up. He asks me all day long to play with him and if I can't he follows me room to room. He helps me make breakfast, lunch, and dinner. He even helped me clean toilets the other day. I think the picture below (made in a photo booth at Chuck E. Cheese) really sums up our close bond.

Because really, if you can't bite your own Mother while she is innocently posing in front of the camera, who can you bite?

My two-year-old...the most frustrating person I've encountered so far and yet being his mom is my favorite job I've ever had.