Great Day :)

Today was one of my favorite days in a long, long time!

I actually got out of bed to come to the computer to write this post, because I was thinking about my day while I was laying there, and thought to myself that I should write a quick blog to document it all while it’s fresh on my mind.

Christopher and I started our day out at 8 this morning, which is a normal time for him to wake up. We spent the morning as usual, sharing a bowl of oatmeal on the couch, him running around the living room between bites, drinking his sippy cup of milk. Normally I have the TV on during this time, and I catch up on DVR’d shows like The Talk, or whatever is on there that Stephen doesn’t watch with me, but this morning we just turned on the radio and listened to Christmas music, because I know we’re only going to be able to hear it for a few more days.

After we finished our breakfast, I got on the computer to read blogs/Facebook/whatever, and Christopher made himself busy with toys and climbing in and out of my lap.  Several times while I was on the computer with Christopher in my lap, he would face me, lean in, and give me a big, giant bear hug, patting my back or my face or my head, then he would lean back, look at me, smile, then lean forward again and kiss me on the lips.  This morning was the first time that he kissed me on the lips, not the other way around! I wanted to melt. He was being SO incredibly sweet and precious.  I treasured every single second of it. If I could, I would have made this morning last forever. He gave me so much lovin this morning. :)

Eventually we got ourselves ready and around 11 I dropped him off at my mom’s so that I could do some running around town looking for accessories for Britney and Tyler’s wedding next weekend. When I got back to mom’s, Christopher was – again – super sweet and gave me some sugar and hugs while we were there.  He continued to be that way at our house this evening!

He’s also started saying “I yuh yoo” – or something along those lines! (I Love You!) He is starting to communicate more and more and I just love it. Tonight I asked him, “What do we say at a football game? Touchdown!” and when I said “touchdown,” he stuck his arms straight up in the air like the officials at the games do when a team makes a touchdown.  He’s also started signing and saying “water.”

The weather was awesome today – like in the high 60s or something, and I did Week 5 Day 2 of the Couch to 5K program today. I ran 8 minutes straight without stopping, which is a miracle considering a month ago I could barely run 90 seconds without wanting to crawl into a ditch a die, so that was a great highlight in my day, as well. :)

My CORRECTED Christmas Cards came in the mail today, and Christopher sat in my lap (and gave me even more lovins) while I stamped and addressed them, and they’re in the mailbox ready to go out tomorrow. I’m so glad to have that taken care of!

After Christopher went to bed, Stephen and I watched a movie (Remember Me) while I wrapped one last Christmas gift and assembled all of Christopher’s gifts from Santa.  I’m excited for Friday and Saturday, but I also hate that feeling when the magic of Christmas is gone.

Anyway, this post was mainly just a journal entry for me! I just wanted to document my very low-key but GREAT day with my little family.

Elf Yourself

This is lots of fun… try it out HERE!!!

Christmas Card failure

After being SO excited and waiting for SO long for my  Christmas Cards to get here from Shutterfly, I opened them up – and they were messed up.  Y’all, I cried SO hard over it.  I guess it was my mistake, and I felt like a complete idiot for messing up such cute, perfect, (FREE) Christmas Cards.

The outside looked perfect, but when you opened it up, it read,

we wish you a merry christmas and a happy new year!

with love from the

NOTHING was capitalized – which wouldn’t have been a big deal, except for Christmas, because it should ALWAYS be capitalized. and then our last name was left off.

I have a feeling I know how it happened.  I made several different versions of the card, with different pictures, and then Stephen helped me choose the final version, I clicked ORDER and paid for shipping and went on my merry little way.  I’m guessing that when I made a new version of the card, I just worried about the pics, not the wording of the card.  Anyway, it was a big mess and I thought our cards were ruined, and I had no idea what I was going to do because my heart was SO set on this particular card.

So, my sweet hubby called Shutterfly customer support and talked to them, and if you aren’t completely satisfied with your order, they give you a credit on your account so that you can order new ones!  So I received a credit for 50 cards and reordered them right away, and they should be in tomorrow.  I hate getting out Christmas Cards so late, but I’m just happy that they are the super sweet adorable cards that I had my heart set on.

Speaking of Christmas Cards – I’ve only received FOUR this year.  ??? What’s up with that?  I’m sending out over thirty-five.  I said last year that I wouldn’t waste the time/money on Christmas Cards this year, and that I would only be sending out to those who sent to me… but oh, well.  My cards were free (less shipping. twice.) and I made envelope labels so that I didn’t have to spend an hour addressing them by hand. I just don’t understand all the Grinches and their lack of Christmas Spirit.

Post 3 of 30

Today I’m supposed to blog about…
my first love.

I don’t really think it would be appropriate to talk about my first love on my family blog!  Let’s just say that my first love is a guy I dated my senior year of high school and freshman year of college. We still talk occasionally, and he’s a really great guy.

We all know that these are the two guys I’m crazy about now!

Post 2 of 30

Today I’m supposed to write about:
the meaning behind my blog name.

My original blog name was Thirty Minutes of Wonderful.  It’s a line from Steel Magnolias.  (I’d rather have 30 minutes of wonderful than a lifetime of nothing special.)  That had been an old blog name, and when I created this blog after Stephen and I got married, I just kept it.

I don’t remember when, but at some point in time, I decided that I didn’t really think it really “fit” my blog very well, so I changed my blog name to “O! The Places We’ll Go!”

The reason I just used a capital “O” is because our last name is Olmstead.  “Oh, the Places You’ll Go,” is a book by Dr. Seuss.  I modified it just a little, and I think it’s great title for our blog, which pretty much just deals with our little family.

********

In other news, according to the UPS tracking website, my Christmas Cards are “out for delivery” today, which means hopefully I will be getting them today.  It’s too late to get them in the mail today, but hopefully if I get them tonight, I can get them all addressed and stamped and out tomorrow!

30 Posts

I was hoping to jump on the Christmas Card Carousel today, but my Christmas Cards aren’t in yet… so I’ll have to wait until tomorrow to post them.  I HOPE my cards are in tomorrow.  I ordered them on the SEVENTH (a week ago YESTERDAY!) and they aren’t in yet.  Did anybody else have slow shipping from Shutterfly?  If I’d known it was going to take a week and half to ship 50 cards I would have ordered them sooner.  I figured a few days.  Sheeesh.

Anyway. I totally stole this off Shauna’s blog.  It’s supposed to be 30 days worth of posts… but I doubt that I do one every day. I’ll try… but I’m just sayin.  Don’t get your hopes up.

Post 1-Introduce, recent picture, 15 interesting facts
Post 2-Meaning behind your blog name
Post 3-Your first love
Post 4-Your parents
Post 5-Your siblings
Post 6-A picture of something that makes you happy
Post 7-Favorite movies
Post 8-A place you've traveled to
Post 9-A picture of your friends
Post 10-Something you're afraid of
Post 11-Favorite television shows
Post 12-What you believe
Post 13-Goals
Post 14-A picture you love
Post 15-Bible verse
Post 16-Dream house
Post 17-Something you're looking forward to
Post 18-Something you regret
Post 19-Something you miss
Post 20-Nicknames
Post 21-Picture of yourself
Post 22-Favorite city
Post 23-Favorite vacation
Post 24-Something you've learned
Post 25-Put your iPod on shuffle, first 10 songs
Post 26-Picture of your family
Post 27-Pets
Post 28-Something that stresses you out
Post 29-3 Wishes
Post 30-a picture

SOOOOO… on to Post One.

Hiiiiii.  I’m Stephanie.  I’m Stephen’s wife and Christopher’s Mommy.  I’m a college student working towards a degree in Business & Technology Education, with a minor in Business Administration. After I get my Bachelor’s, I plan on getting my Master’s in Business Administration.  Aaaand, eventually, I want to be a stay-at-home-mom. (Did you think I was going to say get my doctorate? Ha.)

Here’s a recent picture of me… (and the cutest little boy in the whole world.)

And now, 15 random interesting facts about myself.

1. When I clean my house, I always start in the kitchen.
2. I sleep with a clip-on fan at the head of my bed, pretty much blowing in my face.
3. I love diet cherry Pepsi. (From a can, or from Cruizzers.)
4. I recently started the Couch to 5K program, and my goal is to run a half-marathon next fall.
5. I could read blogs all.day.long.
6. Almost every Friday night, Stephen and I play Spades with my parents.  We’re cool like that.
7. I aspire to be a great photographer.
8. My dream job is to be a stay-at-home or work-at-home mom. Once all my children are in school, I would like to teach at the college level.
9. I want more children, but I don’t know if I want to go through pregnancy again.
10. I would love to write a book some day.
11. I hate the show Desperate Housewives, but I can’t make myself stop watching it.  It’s a sickness, really.
12. I’m a Hog fan, married to a Longhorns fan.
13. I could eat pizza for every single meal.
14. I hold grudges for a very, very long time. It’s just hard for me to get over stuff.
15. I’m super-emotional.  I cry easily, and often.

The Christmas Train… and Santa

Last night we all loaded up and took Christopher to the Christmas Train while it was in town. (Click here to read more about it.)

I was SO glad that we took our camera, because the very first thing we saw once we got into the train was Santa!  We waited for the family in front of us to get their pictures with Santa, then Stephen walked over to him so that Christopher could sit down on his lap.

Christopher immediately grabbed hold around Stephen’s neck, whimpering, so Santa quickly (think that’s happened to him much?) stood up next to Stephen and said, “We’ll take a standing picture.”

Yeah, I wish it was that simple.

Apparently it doesn’t matter whether you’re sitting in his lap or standing next to him while Daddy is holding you, Santa is just a scary man to be around.

{Please notice how hard Stephen is laughing during these pictures!}
   

I’ll admit – I was laughing too, and taking as many pictures as possible!  Christopher didn’t have a problem with Santa last year, but he was less than 4 months old when we saw him, so that’s probably why.

I’ll be excited to see how he reacts next year!

He also threw a fit a few minutes later when we saw some “elves” dressed up.  (Picture below.) Really they were just a few sweet ladies from our community – so I’m thinking maybe he doesn’t like Santa hats?

The train was really neat, but I think Christopher will really enjoy it more as he gets older.  It’s another tradition I want to continue!

 

Christmas Parade & Fireworks

As I mentioned previously, every year our town has a great Christmas parade, followed by a fireworks show in our town park.  After the fireworks are over, the Christmas lights are turned on in the park – it’s a huge set up of all different kinds of trees & lights & ornaments and such.  Anyway, it was last Friday night and we took Christopher to the parade and park.  He loved it so much!  It was his first parade and his first time to see fireworks.  His favorite part about the parade was the High School Band.  Some of the band members had colored lights on their instruments, so they were fun to look at and listen to.  I was afraid that he wouldn’t like the fireworks, but he LOVED them!  We all had such a great time and it’s a tradition that I want to keep every year.

   

I believe this next picture is the first MOM, stop taking my picture! face that Christopher has given me.

Christopher had dinner while waiting on the fireworks to start.

Right after the fireworks started. 

This is him pointing at the fireworks.

Sensitive Subject

The other day I was reading status updates on Facebook, and I ran across one of my friends who is a stay-at-home-mom, who basically said in her status update that stay-at-home-moms have the hardest job of ALL because they don't get sick days/vacation days, and that it's not just a "piece of cake" to be a SAHM.

I didn't get in on the comments, but there were a lot of people who commented, backing her up, saying things like, "I hate it when moms who have a job tell us (stay at home moms) that they do "everything we do" plus work a 40 hour week," etc...  One girl actually said, (and I'm copying this VERBATIM) "They might could get some of the stuff done but it wouldn't be anything like how we would do it or we would probably have to go back and do it again!!"

Y'all.  Let's stop, take a step back, and think about this logically, ok?

I was a stay-at-home-mom with Christopher for the first 6 months of his life. 
Then, I had to go back to work - so I became a (part-time) working mom.
Then, I quit my job and went back to college.  I actually spend more time at school/driving to school/working on online classes, than I spent working part-time last spring/summer.

I can say that I've been a SAHM, a working mom, and a mom taking college classes.

I can also say that IT IS ALL HARD.

Being a SAHM can be exhausting, without ever leaving the house.  I remember there were days when I could not WAIT for Stephen to get off work.  I treasured trips to WalMart at 9:00 at night, where I could just walk around in the quiet and look at the plants in the garden center or the home decor and just be by myself for an hour.  I remember the days when I loaded up Christopher and went to Cruizzers to get a half-price drink, just to get OUT of the house.  I remember the long, cold winter days when it was really too nasty to even think about leaving the house, and how stir-crazy I would get.  And Christopher was just a BABY when I was a SAHM, so he didn't make huge messes (like he does now) and he wasn't walking and getting into everything... but I still remember -- it wasn't always easy.

When I went back to work, I was lucky enough to be able to go back part-time, and I was blessed enough to have my mom be Christopher's baby-sitter.  I was able to go to work knowing that Christopher was in the best hands possible.  But it was STILL so hard to leave him everyday.  I hated the nights that I had to close at work and couldn't get home to put him to bed.  I missed his first steps because I was at work.  I'm sure there are other things I missed, as well.  My housework suffered on the days that I worked, but since I was only part time, I was able to keep things pretty organized and clean.  It was HARD, but in a totally and completely different way than being a SAHM was.  It was hard leaving my baby every day, and there was less time to devote to my house... it was still hard.

And you guys -- the hardest thing I've struggled with has been since this semester started and I have been super-busy with school and homework.  Keep in mind I said, the hardest thing I've struggled with, because it would NOT be fair or right to say the hardest job I've had of ALL.  My house is SO SO SO SO MESSY right now.  I pretty much walk around my house in a zombie-like state because I have had so much end-of-the-semester junk going on and I've been staying up late finishing it after Christopher goes to bed... or like on Sunday I worked on my accounting end-of-semester project for about eight hours STRAIGHT and NOTHING got done to my house that day.  I have been completely avoiding certain areas of my house right now because things are SO dirty, SO messy, SO unorganized, and SO trashy, that if I actually started thinking about cleaning it up, I KNOW I would have a nervous breakdown, cry, scream, and possibly throw things at Stephen.  I feel guilty when I have to work on on-line classes or do homework, and take Christopher to my mom's house or my mother-in-law's house, because I feel like since I'm not GOING to school that I shouldn't have to take him to a baby-sitter.  I hate leaving him with somebody else when I'm still sitting at home, at the computer, working on projects or taking online tests.  It's HARD.

I can't even remember the last time I cooked a meal in our kitchen.  Stephen does probably 95% of our cooking right now, because (1) he's better at throwing stuff together than me and (2) while he's cooking, I'm doing homework or entertaining Christopher or doing my C25K program (which I haven't done in OVER A WEEK because I've been so busy and/or tired.) 

If I weren't completely and totally embarrassed to do it, I would take a picture of my house and show you what it looks like right now.  It's ridiculously messy.  I'm too embarrassed to show you, but I will tell you that my fall decorations (that I took down probably a month ago) are in my kitchen.  Some are in a Walmart sack, others are just sitting out, grouped together.  I have THREE loads of clean laundry, that are wrinkled up in laundry baskets (not folded) scattered across my house.  I need to wash colored clothes. I have NO clean towels.  I have a layer of dust on everything in my living room and bedroom.  I have Christmas tree ornament boxes sitting out on my kitchen table.  Like, from where I took them out of the box, hung them on the tree, then never put the boxes back up.  BOTH of my Christmas tree boxes are IN MY CLOSET.  My kitchen counters are covered in trash, dirty dishes, mail, and various food items that we've gotten out of the cabinets and not put back up.  Christopher's toys are all over the place.  The floors need to be vacuumed and mopped. I could go on and on, but I'll stop.

My point is, being a mom is hard.  Whether you are a stay-at-home mom, a working mom, a mom in school, or a SINGLE MOM, (which I can't even fathom at this point in my life) it's a hard job.  Working moms are envious of stay-at-home moms, stay-at-home moms are envious of working moms, and mothers in school are just trying to make it out of the semester without a visit to the loony bin.  It's all hard from one perspective or another.  We, AS MOMS, should support each other.  If you're a stay-at-home mom, don't tell moms who have jobs that they have it easier than you.  And moms who have jobs shouldn't say that staying at home is all fun and games.  We don't need to be breaking each other down.  Just because you're a stay-at-home mom and can have a sparkling clean kitchen, doesn't mean that I'm not an equally good mom or that I have it any easier or harder than you do.  It just means that, for the time being, there will be no sparkling going on in my kitchen.  There's nothing wrong with that.  It doesn't make you better than me... or the other 90% of moms who don't have sparkling clean floors and counters and tubs.

Again, my point is that whether you're a stay-at-home mom, or a working mom, or a whatever mom, it is a hard job.  We all need to support and respect each other.  We need to be appreciative that we have a job, or appreciative that we are able to stay home with our children, or be appreciative that we have children, etc, etc, etc

If you've made it this far, thanks for staying with me.  :)  As you can see from my last post, I finally designed and ordered our 2010 Olmstead Family Christmas Cards (starring Christopher) from Shutterfly, and I am SO excited about them!  The inside is even cuter (if that's possible) than the outside, and I'd love to do a Christmas Card exchange with anybody who reads this blog! Just shoot me an email at snolmstead{at}gmail{dot}com and leave me your address, and I'll respond back with ours!

Olmstead Christmas Card 2010

Dazzle And Shine Christmas 5x7 folded card

Get custom photo Christmas cards online at Shutterfly.com.

View the entire collection of cards.

I am not skilled to understand

I listen to K-LOVE on the mornings that I drive to Arkadelphia.  It’s awesome, wonderful, spiritual, uplifting, encouraging Praise & Worship music.  It’s the ONLY station that comes in clearly the ENTIRE drive from Mena to Arkadelphia, and since it’s 100% listener-supported, there are no commercials. They have great DJs and great giveaways and the best stories from listeners. I. Love. It.

It’s really done a lot for me over the past few months.  I’ve found dozens of songs that I have fallen in love with.  Dozens.  When I started the Couch to 5K program, I deleted my old “workout” playlist and loaded up a new one with about 98% Praise & Worship songs that I’ve heard just by listening to K-LOVE.

One of the songs that I’ve heard a few times is so SO so good.  I heard it this morning, and I’ve had it stuck in my head all day long.  It’s called, “My Savior, My God.”

I decided to look up the lyrics (something I do with almost any song I like – so that I don’t get caught singing the wrong words.) and listen to it again tonight, just cause it’s that good.  I searched for a video of it on YouTube and actually came across a video of Aaron Shust, the guy who sings it, discussing the history of the song.  I thought it was pretty interesting.

He was flipping through a Hymnal and ran across a song titled “I Am Not Skilled to Understand,” and read through the words.  He had never heard this hymn before, but he started having his church sing it and after awhile, he wrote a chorus for it, but kept all of the original words to the verses/pre-chorus.  The chorus (which is the most recognizable part of the song, and the part that I’ve had stuck in my head all day) takes the song to the next level.

Anyway, I thought it was a neat history about the song and just wanted to share what I had learned.

Here is the video of Aaron that I found, if you want to watch it.  The first part of the video is him talking about finding the song in the Hymnal…  then he shows you how to play the song on the guitar… which I cannot play but wish I could.  Then he plays the whole song.  Love love love.