Anniversary Trip

Stephen recently changed to a different position at Walmart.  He’s worked at WM for SEVEN long years, and all of them have been within the electronics department.  He recently made a move to ICS – Inventory Control System, working mainly in the back.  We both agreed that it was time for him to make a move, for several different reasons.  The best was because this ICS position means he works 7-4 shifts every day!  It will be SO SO SO nice to have him home by 4:15 every afternoon!  I am really excited about it and so is he.

However, it’s 10:49 and he’s in bed. And I’m not. This is SO backwards for me!  We are both night owls, but usually it’s me who’s always in bed first or begging him to go to bed.  Tonight I am staying up a little later than him because I had an online quiz that I didn’t do during the day today (I didn’t do much of ANYTHING today.  It’s been a weird week for me, thanks to a certain AUNT of mine…. if you catch my drift. Sorry, Dad. Read on.)

Anyway, my quiz is finished and I just wanted to post a short blog about mine and Stephen’s anniversary trip last week!

Last Tuesday, the 21st of September, was mine and Stephen’s 2-year anniversary!  He had to work 1-10 that day (See?  That’s the kind of stuff we’re not going to miss about Electronics!) so we didn’t spend a lot of time together.  We had been planning an anniversary trip for several months!  At first we had thought we would go to Hot Springs, but eventually decided to go to Branson.  Also originally we thought we would spend 2 nights away, but we ended up just doing 1 night away, so it was a quick trip, but I was glad we just spent a day away from the C-monster.

Thursday morning we got up and got ourselves and Christopher packed and ready.  We dropped Christopher off at my parents house and left Mena around 10:45.  We had planned on getting around earlier, but it just didn’t happen.  It worked out okay, though, because we hit Fort Smith at lunchtime, and we stopped at our all-time favorite pizza place, Geno’s. 

We made it to Branson by about 3:30 or 4:00 and went straight to Tanger’s Outlet Mall and spent several hours shopping there.  We mainly bought stuff for Christopher!  They had a lot of great sales going on both summer and fall clothes.  We loaded up on some great 24 month summer outfits and several cute fall outfits as well.

After we left Tanger’s, we stopped at Krispy Kreme and got a free hot, fresh donut.  Yum.  We also picked out a few for breakfast the next morning.  :)  Next, we headed towards our hotel.  On the way there we noticed that the Titanic museum would sell its last “tour ticket” at 8:00, and it was almost 7:30 at this point.  We had already decided that the Titanic was the one attraction we both wanted to do, so we decided to pull on in and do that.  It’s something that I’ve wanted to do for a long time.  It was really neat and interesting.  It’s the largest Titanic museum in the world and they have lots of neat artifacts, etc.  Unfortunately, there was no photography allowed so I wasn’t able to take pictures of anything.  One neat thing about it was that they had a tub of 28-degree water (the temperate of the ocean on the night that the Titanic sank) that you could stick your hand/arm in and time how long you could keep it in.  I think I kept my hand in for about 5 seconds.  It was COLD. And my hand was cold for a long time after I pulled it out!  Another thing I thought was neat was that they had examples of the degree of the boat at different time while it was sinking.  In something like 20 or 30 minutes the boat went from a slight incline to nearly straight up and down.  It was interesting to see how hard it would be to hold on to the deck/railing without falling.

After we were done with the Titanic museum, we ate at Shorty Small’s.  This was once one of my favorite places to eat, but it’s just not as good to me anymore.  I still love their mozzarella sticks, but that’s about it.  The last 2 times I have been there I just wasn’t impressed with their food.  We went on to our hotel - Best Western Music Capital Inn – highly recommend it!  Stephen snored something awful though. :) I kept waking up and thinking hurry up morning! I was so thankful when I finally opened my eyes and saw sunlight coming through the window.  Haha!

We were up, showered, dressed, and packed by NINE O’CLOCK! That is crazy for us.  Especially since part of getting away was to sleep in.  Just didn’t happen for us in a strange bed with strange pillows!  We grabbed some juice from the Continental breakfast and enjoyed our Krispy Kremes.  :) 

We spent the morning at The Landing and had a DELICIOUS lunch at Cantina Laredo. Their beef quesadillas are so.ridiculously.delicious.

We headed home after lunch.  I was MORE than ready to see my little man!  We did make one stop in Fayetteville at the mall because I wanted to find myself a new Razorback shirt for the big Arkansas/Alabama game on Saturday.  I went to Houndstooth and found Christopher a cute onesie, but it was CRAZY busy in there – probably people buying red shirts for the “Red Out” on Saturday so I didn’t buy myself anything.  I also tried the U of A Bookstore in the mall – but it was just as crowded there too.  So we headed on home. 

We had SUCH a great time – even though I took zero pictures. :(  Fail! I did, however, take a picture of all of the clothes we bought for C after we got home.  haha!

The bottom two rows of clothes (4 pairs of shorts, 2 sleeveless shirts, and 6 polos) are all 24-month summer clothes that we got for $0.99 a piece at The Children’s Place. SCORE! Everything else is long-sleeved stuff for fall/winter, jeans/khaki/brown pants, or footed pajamas.  I looove footed jammies for winter.  I sleep much better knowing that Christopher’s whole arms, legs, and feet are covered from the chilly air, especially since he won’t keep a blanket over him.

The only thing not pictured above is the WooPigSooie onesie I bought at Houndstooth…

He makes an ADORABLE Razorback fan, if I do say so myself!!!!!!!!!!

This “short” anniversary blog has turned into a short story. Ha! Must sleep now.  No school tomorrow, but still – Christopher has been getting up between 7 and 8 so I need to hit the hay!

Catch Up!

My house is a mess.  I’m not completely caught up on laundry.  The dog needs a bath.  I need to be watching my Accounting homework video.  I need to unload the clean dishes from the dishwasher, then reload it with the dirty ones.

But instead I am just going to sit my hiney at the desk and catch up on some blogging.  :)  We’ve had a lot happen here in the Olmstead household over the last week, and I want to make sure and document it all so that I don’t forget anything!

First things first…
Christopher’s First Haircut! 
Christopher got his first haircut last Friday.  I had been putting it off for a long time because I loved his sweet, long, curly baby hair.  I didn’t think I would be emotional about it, but you never know with me!  I took several pictures of his sweet long hair the day before we cut it and the morning that we got him up before we left for the hair dresser!

He did SO good in the chair!  He acted like such a BIG boy and looked like it too.  I was super proud of him.

I had already decided I wanted to be able to do his hair in a faux-hawk.  I told the hairdresser how I wanted it done and showed her a picture of how I wanted it to look.  She did a great job, but I didn’t even think about the fact that we would be cutting off SO MUCH for his first haircut.  It has turned out super cute, and I like it both spiked and brushed straight. 

 
  

He did SUCH a good job and was SO good right up until the very end.  He was getting antsy from sitting there for so long and was moving around a lot, and she cut his ear with the trimmers while she was evening everything out.  And then he’d had it!  He started crying and reaching for me and screaming when she tried to finish up around the back of his neck, so we just decided it was fine and not to worry about it.  I don’t blame the hairdresser at all because he was really squirming around a lot.

I should also mention that I did really good while he was getting his hair cut and I didn’t cry one little bit.  :)  That is, until we were driving down the road on the way home afterwards and I looked up in the mirror and saw him sitting in his carseat like such a BIG BOY. And I remembered looking back there so many times before with his long sweet curly hair and how he’d just looked like my LITTLE boy and then I started crying!  Haha!  Stephen asked me if I needed to pull over and let him drive but I pulled it together.  :)  Silly emotional momma.

Playing in yogurt

One day last week I was doing something, (getting dinner ready, I think) and Christopher was being cranky and wanting me to hold him.  Since I couldn’t right at that minute, I decided to put him in his highchair with a snack.  He can feed himself with a spoon, although it can get rather messy because he doesn’t always make it to his mouth.  I decided that I didn’t mind a little mess and went ahead and gave him a spoon and some yogurt.  I went to work with dinner or whatever it was I was doing, and the next time I looked up, this is what I saw…

Yes, because obviously it is more fun to paint with yogurt than to actually eat it.

No, wait… here he’s eating it.  I think.

I took a few more pics then went back to work.

By the time I finished in the kitchen, yogurt was everywhere.

     

It did make for some really cute pictures, though.  :)

  

Diapers and Wine

I know most of you who know me won’t believe your eyes when you see the next few photos!

I don’t remember why, for but for some reason I left Christopher in just his diaper the other day.  I didn’t put any clothes on him after I changed him.  I think we were getting close to bathtime, and I didn’t feel like putting clothes on him just to take them off a few minutes later.

Christopher likes the refrigerator.  If he’s in the kitchen and we open the fridge, he wants to get to the open door and play.  My MOTHER started this bad habit!  She lets him play with the stuff in the bottom row of her fridge door, so he wants to do the same at our house.

I hated to take a picture of him in just his diaper (especially standing in front of a chilly fridge door!) but it was too funny to resist.  Obviously, Stephen and I need to keep something different in the bottom row of our fridge door.  Oh, and P.S. – my fridge totally does not show all those fingerprints and marks in normal light.  I almost didn’t post the pics on here because it’s embarrassing, but oh well!

 

I still have quite a bit more to update on, but I think that’s it for tonight!  I’ve spent quite a bit of time picking out photos and cropping them and writing and I do need to focus on my house for a few minutes, load up my car for school tomorrow and relax with my hubby before we go to bed.  Tomorrow is my only day of school this week so HOPEFULLY I should have plenty of time to finish updating this week.  :) 

the results.

Last week I wrote about how I was super ridiculously stressed over my first Accounting test.  I’m not sure why I was having such anxiety issues over it, but I was, and it didn’t help any when a girl I know told me that she was an Accounting major until she took this class with this teacher and then changed her major.  She also told me she made a C in the class and that it was really hard!  She told me that on Wednesday, and it was the following Friday and Saturday that I had the dreams about the test. Ack!  I felt like everything was just starting to click when suddenly I had a big test over it all, and I didn’t feel prepared or ready for it.  I went over all 3 chapters again and I watched/listened to lectures from class.  I was actually so nervous at the beginning of the test, I could barely write my name on it.  I just kept praying for calmness and a clear head and to remember everything I had studied.  I think if I hadn’t been sitting on the front row with 20-something students behind me, I would have cried.  Seriously.

Anyway, our teacher finally posted the grades yesterday, and this is what I made!

THAT IS A 92% PEOPLE!!! And the average was 72%!!!!!!!!  AND I AM NOT AN ACCOUNTING MAJOR!!!! AUUGHH!!!

Stephen and I left for Branson yesterday morning and I couldn’t check the grades from my phone, so I had my SIL Britney checking them for me from her computer, and when she told me what I had made I was standing in the middle of an aisle at a kitchen store in an outlet mall and I was SO happy I just couldn’t keep quiet!  People were looking at me and smiling and probably thinking, Crazy!  :)  Every time I started thinking about it yesterday I would say, “Stephen!  I made a NINETY-TWO on my accounting test!  A NINETY-TWO!”  I was so stressed out about it and I studied so hard, and after I took it I really felt like I had made a solid B-minus.  I didn’t have high hopes for an A of any kind, so I am really, really excited about it. (Just in case I hadn’t made that clear already.  Haha!)

More to come tomorrow.  :)

this will do for now.

Today didn’t go as I had originally planned… My mother-on-law threw out her back last weekend, so she wasn’t able to keep Christopher today. :(  That’s okay though – C-monster and I had a great day together.  I got my rear in gear this morning while Stephen was still here and cleaned up Christopher’s room,which was a disaster area!  I laugh at myself while I am cleaning up a room, because Christopher is right behind me pulling out everything I’ve just put away.  :) 

I also went through his closet and got rid of all of his summer sleeveless clothes and clothes that are getting too small.  I did okay with that – but then I moved on to his sock drawer, and that is where I lost it!  I haven’t cleaned out his sock drawer since he was born, mainly because I am the only person who dressed him for the past year and I know what fits and what is too small.  But, since Stephen is having to get him ready on the days that i have school, I needed to sort through everything and put away the newborn socks.  And that is where I lost it.  Just seeing all those sweet teeny tiny newborn socks made me cry!  I remember looking at all of them while I was pregnant, thinking they were so cute and would keep my little boy’s feet all cozy warm during fall and winter.  :)  And they did!  I always had socks on him when he was a newborn.  I’m sure everybody knows by now that I am just an emotional person – but still.  Socks? 

Christopher was really cranky after he woke up from his nap, but we had to go to WalMart to get some basics.  It was not the best store experience ever, but we made it out alive.  :)  He seemed to be in a better mood after he had dinner and we spent the evening playing in the living room.  Christopher has discovered belly buttons, so we spent lots of time looking at his and tickling it, then he realized MOMMY has a belly button too… so he thought it was fun to tickle mine as well.  He’s at this adorable stage right now and I am just loving every minute of it.  (Even the fits. They’re too cute to really get upset with him.  He actually stomps his feet when he isn’t getting his way. Oh my. Ha!)

I had planned on writing about Christopher's first haircut today, but that’s going to have to wait.  I don’t even know where my camera is (I’m thinking the back seat of my car?) and since Deanna didn’t keep Christopher today, I still need to do some homework tonight AND of course, I have to watch the Biggest Loser season premiere. :) Priorities!  Haha!

OH!  And today is mine and Stephen’s 2-year Anniversary – but that will have to wait for another post, as well.

accounting dreams

My first accounting test is Monday, and I am freaking out about it.  So much so that I’ve had bad dreams about the test for the past two nights in a row.  Friday night, I dreamed that it was test day, and I had completely forgotten to study TWO of the THREE chapters that were going to be on the test.  I also dreamed that when I was given the test, there was a fill-in-the-blank part without a word bank, and I had only studied for the definitions part of the test with a word bank.  I spent so much time trying to come up with the right words for the fill-in-the-blank part of the test, that I ran out of time and didn’t even start on the questions part of the test.

Then last night, I dreamed that I had left my book and binder in a locker (at college?  weird.)  and when I went back to get them, I couldn’t find the locker, so I just came on home without them.  I figured I could just leave early Monday morning, find my locker, and study before the test… but when Monday rolled around, I couldn’t find pants to wear (???) and it took me all morning to find them, so I was only going to have 20 or 30 minutes to study for the test once I finally got myself dressed and headed to Arkadelphia.  Also, my dad jumped (literally) in my car with me as I was leaving and wanted me to take him somewhere down the road in the opposite direction of Arkadelphia, and I cried because I needed to leave for school and he was making me go in the wrong direction.

You could safely say I’m slightly nervous about the test.

Once tomorrow is over, and blessed, blessed Tuesday comes around, I will have a straight, clear head again and be able to blog about all that is happening in my world.

CONFESSION:

I have baby fever!

Ha!  I really do have baby fever, but want I really want is for one of my friends to have a baby, so that I can just get my fix by holding a sweet newborn for a few minutes and smell that new-baby smell.  (I say that like it’s a car or something.  Haha!)

As I am typing this, Christopher just went and shut himself in his bedroom.  I figured he would be a little older before he started shutting me out of his room! 

It just seems like a LOT of ladies I know are pregnant!  I get a little extremely nostalgic thinking about sweet baby Christopher and I do want another baby, but I know that now is NOT THE TIME for Stephen and me.  We absolutely love Christopher and wouldn’t do a thing differently, but we want to be able to afford the next kiddo.  ;)  Ideally, we both need to be finished with school, (or at least me finished and him almost finished) he needs to have a more reliable vehicle, and we need to have a bigger house. (Right now we live in a 1400 square foot 2-bedroom.  It was perfect for us when we married, but we have QUICKLY outgrown it!)

Tuesday Afternoons

I mentioned last week that my mother-in-law keeps Christopher on Tuesday afternoons.  It’s a great thing for everybody – she gets to spend several hours with Christopher, and Christopher loves playing at his nana’s house.  It’s great for me because I can do whatever I want to do – homework, housework, errands, blogging, couch-to-5-K-ing… ;)  I love my little family SO much and I especially love our “days together” (Friday and Saturday) but Tuesdays are my day!

Christopher has always taken a nap in the morning and a nap in the afternoon.  He’s always gone down for his naps easily and without fussing, and he’s almost always slept for 2 hours each nap.  But the last few weeks he has been taking shorter morning naps and then fighting his afternoon nap, sometimes sleeping for an hour or less, sometimes not sleeping at ALL. 

This past Sunday he woke up at 7:30, and since we went to Sunday School, regular church, and lunch afterwards, we didn’t get back home until 12:30, and he was exhausted.  I laid him down and he slept until 3:30.  It was WONDERFUL!  So, Stephen and I decided to transition him to one early afternoon nap, and that is what we did yesterday and today and so far it’s working out so great!  He goes down for his nap with no problems and sleeps for at least 2 hours.  Today he has been asleep for about 2 hours and 20 minutes, and I was able to get my homework done.  Once he wakes up from his nap, I’ll take him over to Nana’s house and run some errands.  :)  I have a feeling that every Tuesday will be a “half-price drink” from Cruizzers kinda day!

I actually hear the little man waking up right now!  He’s talking in his crib.  So sweet!

Before I go – I just want to tell everybody to go check out Ham I Am.  Britney finally got a blog and I think I’m more excited about it than she is.  Haha!

New.

Yesterday I did 2 new things.

First, I went to Sunday School.  I haven’t been to Sunday School since I was in high school, but my church just started a new class for married couples ages 20-30.  The class is going to focus on the newly married couple, raising children, finances, etc…  I think it will be a very beneficial class for me and I really, really wish that Stephen didn’t work on Sundays and could go to it with me.  Anybody know how awkward it is to go to a couples class by yourself?  I know most of the other couples in the class, and everybody in there understands that Stephen works on Sundays, but still… I wish he was there with me.

The 2nd new thing I did yesterday was start the Couch to 5K (C25K) program! I heard about this probably a year ago, and I’ve wanted to do it ever since.  I have always wanted to be able to “go for a jog.”  I don’t know what it is about jogging, but I’ve always thought that it would be so therapeutic.  The C25K program gets you up off the couch and running a 5K (3.1 miles) in 9 weeks.  It works you up to it gradually.  I downloaded the C25K app on my iPhone when I got it back in JUNE, but yesterday was the first time I’ve used it.  Ha!

The reason I started the C25K yesterday is because I am signing up to participate in a Race for the Cure 5K in Texarkana on October 16th.  I will be walking for Team Teale, in honor of family friend Amie Teale, was passed away this summer.  You can read more about the Texarkana Walk for the cure and Team Teale here. I also pledged to raise $125.00.  If you’d like to help me out and donate a few dollars towards finding a cure for breast cancer, click here.

I am not participating in the competitive 5K, but I would still like to jog part of it.  It is 4 1/2 weeks away.  I should be able to jog about 1 mile non-stop at that point, so that is what I am going to shoot for!  I know that some people would laugh at my goal of jogging 1 mile, but that is a big goal for me, and I will only make bigger goals after I have achieved this one.  Eventually I want to run a half marathon!  Maybe next fall?  We’ll see.

I think the 2 new things I did yesterday are going to be really great for me in the long-run.

And because I haven’t posted pictures of the little man in awhile, here are a few for the aunts, uncles, and grandparents! I caught him standing on his Bouncing Turtle!  He squatted down before I could get a picture of him standing on it… but you get the drift!

Hummingbirds

For some reason the hummingbirds have been extra hungry recently!  For awhile this summer I only saw one or two hummingbirds occasionally, but about a week ago I noticed I had several of them fluttering around the feeder outside our front window.  This summer I would change out their food maybe once a month… but in the last two weeks, they have gone through two bottles of food!  Yesterday when I got home from school, (about 4:00) I refilled it, and here it is less than 24 hours later – 3/4 gone!  There have been 7 or 8 hummingbirds feeding on it all day long!  In fact, before I even got it hung back up yesterday I had TWO swarming around my head and face ready to dig in!  I don’t know what the deal is – why they are so hungry, or why I have so many, but I love watching them!

shopping. pictures. runny noses.

I blinked, and the one-week “vacation” from school was over!  I had a great week with my boys, even if it did go by WAY too fast!

Yesterday my mom and I went to Texarkana and did some shopping.  It is SO much easier to get out of town and do stuff now that Christopher is older.  I don’t have to worry about taking a ton of bottles and formula, or baby food, etc, etc.  He seems to like his portable DVD player, which has made car rides MUCH nicer on him and Mommy both!  He can eat off most menus and he does fine in a stroller!  The hardest part about trips is that he doesn’t really sleep well in his carseat – he just prefers his bed.  So even when he is really sleepy, he may only sleep for 20 minutes or so before he jerks awake and can be a bit fussy.  But as long as he has a DVD playing or someone sitting next to him, he does fine.

We ran all over T-town and I bought several fun things. I sooo want to move there. :(

This rug was the main reason I wanted to go out of town.  I had a $5 off coupon for it.  It’s from Kirklands Home.  I loooove Kirklands.  I told Stephen that someday, when we have money and can buy a bigger, nicer house, I want to decorate my whole house with stuff from Kirklands.
I didn’t buy this yesterday, but it’s from Kirkland’s, too.  I just snapped a picture of it because it’s right next to my front door.  I heart fall.


I also love the soaps from Bath & Body Works.  I know this is crazy, but it’s the only place that I buy soap!  We’ve been refilling our old ones with water and shaking them up, trying to get as much use as possible out of them, because I’ve needed more for several weeks and this was the first time I’ve been able to get to the mall and buy some!  They had all their Halloween stuff out, and I picked up this fun scent for our bathroom.

Zombie Squad, Candy Corn, and Vampire Blood are some of their other Halloween Scents.  The Fresh Lime Basil just looked yummy to me.  These are little containers of anti-bacterial hand gel.  I’ve been wanting some and they had a sale on it, 5 for $5.  I bought two Vampire Bloods – one for my SIL Britney.

I bought this pretty at Lowe’s.  My MIL has one, too.  It’s a butterfly, and it has a little LED light inside of it, so at dusk it kicks on and is illuminated with all different colors – blue, green, purple, pink, red.  I love it!
  

I also bought two of these little potting bowls on sale for $2 at Lowe’s. 

I forgot to take a picture of the thing I bought that I like best – a new fall garden flag.  I’ll have to take a picture of it later and post it.

Christopher spends every Tuesday afternoon with my MIL so that I can work on homework, housework, grocery shopping, etc.  It’s so nice to know that I can have a few hours of alone time at the house every week.  Today I got caught up on homework and got myself a 1/2 price drink.  My house – not so much!  haha.  Stephen cleaned up for me a bit last night before Christopher and I got home from Texarkana.  I took a Benadryl tonight after I put Christopher to bed, so after I’m done with this post I’m going to park my hiney on the couch and watch DVR’d episodes of Who’s the Boss and try to wind down for bed.  I don’t know why, but I’ve been having a hard time sleeping on the nights before I go to class.

Christopher is a little congested with a runny nose, so he spent today just bummin’ around in his PJs.  He is an unbelievably good child – he was sick yesterday too, while Momma was dragging him all T-town.  Even though I know he feels yucky, he is still sweet and smiling and in a great mood. Here are a few pics I caught of him after I picked him up from his Nana’s house.

 {Please excuse the runny nose.}