Special Olympics

(The pictures are backwards but I'm to lazy to switch them all around...)

My oldest niece Madison participated in her first Special Olympics this last Saturday. I wasn't able to go but I did get these pictures from my SIL's sister. I'm so unbelievably proud of her! She ran and did the long jump! She got medals and ribbons for both. Here are some pictures!

Here she is with her ribbons and medals:


Right after she jumped:


Getting ready to measure how far she jumped:


Maddie and her dad (my brother):


Getting her ribbon:



Running her heart out:







Again, I am so proud of her! She gave her all and she did her very best!

Shopping is NEEDED!

I have been working semi-hard to get to a physical 'state' where I'm comfortable. I'm almost there! I have hit a weight that I'm super proud of but outside appearance could use some work, in my eyes. But despite that, I'm needing NEW CLOTHES! Plus, I just want them. And that's reason enough to go shopping :)

Let's just talk about some things I WANT:

These adorable shoes....I might be ordering them today, actually.




Ok so I just lied....I totally just bought these both! Oops! :)

I also need some new capris! I've gone down a couple sizes so most of my pants from last summer (or the summer before I was preggers, which has now been 3 years now, right? I think...) are too big.


And I just bought some new capris and a cute new ring from Charlotte Russe!

I've been browsing in the middle of typing out this post....oops! But everything has been on sale AND for CR, I had a friends and family 25% coupon! Sometimes I really hate spending money on myself, but sometimes you just have to, especially if you have no clothes that fit!

It's my reward, right? :)

So much for my previous sentence of 'thing I want' and now it's things I HAVE! :) Well not technically have yet, but they're on their way!

It's Opening Night!

Well tonight is opening night! It got here a lot faster than I imagined but I'm SO ready! We had a small audience last night and it made it feel so real, probably cause it was. I felt the emotions of the show so much more than I had and it felt great! I'm completely exhausted and worn out emotionally today, but it was worth it! And I can't wait to do it again tonight!

My favorite girls are coming tonight: my diva's! I can't wait to see them all and it means the world to me that they would all give up a Friday night to come see me perform. Thank you girls and I will be sure to 'wink' your direction!

I'm not one who takes compliments well. I'm very self conscious and don't think highly of myself. Last night, I had people come up to me and tell me they enjoyed my performance and I even had people in tears. What?? That doesn't happen. I'm not one to make people cry, especially with a performance. But I won't lie when I say it made my heart smile! I even had our piano player balling during one of my songs! I honestly can say I have tears in my eyes right now just thinking about it. The show has SO much emotion in it and I'm just glad I can bring that out.

Thank you so much to everyone who came last night and who will be coming in the future.

Also, here's a link to our local newspaper and it tells a little about Jon Larson, the writer of Rent. If I had more time and I could type through tears, I'd tell you about his last days here on Earth.

I'm. So. READY!

This:


Plus This:

(I look NOTHING like this silhouette but you get the idea...lol!)

Equals This:

I'M SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO FREAKING READY!

We open our show on Friday but we have our first official audience tomorrow. This last Monday, we started our tech rehearsals...mics, make up, costumes, lights, etc. It has made this show feel much more real! I really have felt in touch with my character. Our costumes are great -- even if mine aren't matchy matchy like I usually am -- and I have been in LOVE with my make up! A sweet girl named Emily has been helping me and she is amazing! She is a makeup artist and has SO many fun things to play with! Every night my eye's will be a different color! So. Much. Fun!


This weekend, I will have someone in the audience every night. It makes me super nervous but my excitement over rides the nervousness! Tomorrow, my parents and good friends Kim and Kelli will be there; Friday, my divas, my in laws, and a friend from out of town (who I haven't seen in FOREVER! I cried when she told me she was going to make it!); Saturday, my sister and brother in law, and I know someone else is coming but I just can't think of who; and Sunday, my best friend, her fiance, and her mom!

This 'ride' has been so exhausting, physically and emotionally but it's been worth it!

'No Day But Today!'

Little stinker

I know I've talked about Brogan being a little dare devil and I guess this photo just proves it.



(Do you see his cute little booty?? Adorable.)

If you can't see it (taken by my phone), he's sitting on the back of the couch 'hiding'. He did this SEVERAL times and every time I did what every responsible mother would do. I tried to take a cute picture of him and I'd giggle with him and then I'd tell him to get down cause this was a 'no no'. :)

I'm a sucker for this little stinker!

Brogan's Big Adventure

On Sunday, Brogan got to experience something HUGE!






A real, live horse!





My father in law's sister in law owns a ranch and obviously has horses. My in laws have been wanting to take Brogan to ride a horse for the longest time and it just worked out perfect last Sunday! I was a little nervous only because horses are SO big! But he did great and loved every minute! I think his favorite part was hearing the horses 'neigh' and leading the horse 'on his own'. We made a huge deal out of it with lots of cheering and clapping -- but not to loud, didn't want to upset the LARGE horses!

I'm so proud of my fearless little boy! Although, he could not be so fearless when it comes to certain things, like walking off the front porch by himself without holding on to anything. Just sayin'. The joys of having a boy I guess!

Baby Shower MADNESS!

As you may have read, my sister and brother in law found out yesterday they are expecting a girl! Well, once my totally excitement and giddy-ness (totally not a word...I don't think), I went in to mad 'planning a baby shower' mode! The shower is 3 weeks from this coming Saturday!!!!!! My sweet cousin Lisa is co-hosting this shindig with me, thank the Good Lord! We have come up with a theme, ordered the cupcakes, gotten the invite designed (just needs to be finalized and printed...and then sent out), and I spent my lunch break today getting some fun things to make! I'm no Martha Stewart but I'm willing to try for my sister. Thank goodness HL was having some good sales on everything I wanted to get...and the one thing that wasn't on sale, I was able to use a 40% off coupon for!

Since I know my sister doesn't read my blog, I can tell you a little about what we're doing! Miss Sloan's (isn't that precious?!?!) nursery is going to be lady bugs, so naturally so is her shower! The bedding is absolutely adorable. My cousin is such a great shower thrower so she's come up with some cute ideas (WHOO!). I've come up with some also, for which I'm pretty proud :) Ok, actually I've blogged stalked AND taken ideas from other showers I've been to, but hey...there's nothing wrong with taking some credit, right? So, we're going to have 2 diaper cakes...I'm making the traditional 3-tiered diaper cake with cute ribbon, flowers, and baby accessories and my cousin is making a diaper cake that will actually resemble a lady bug! Too. Stinkin'. Cute. Since every nursery needs to have the baby's name on the wall, I got letters for Sloan's wall. And the make those letters CA-UTE, I also bought scrapbook paper to glue on to the letters (thank God for crafty friends!!!)!

Ok so that's all I'm gonna give you for now! I'll be sure to take tons of pictures as we go along!

It's a.....

GIRL!!!! My sister and brother in law just found out today they will be bringing a baby girl in to this world! Her name (as of now) will be Sloan Elizabeth! I'm sooooo stinkin' excited!!! I was shaking the whole time I was on the phone with her! I get to buy all sorts of pink and purple things! Oh my! And now I also get to start officially planning this baby shower! THere are so many ideas in my head, I can't even think straight!

Oh my....a girl. God is GREAT!

21 things...

Beautiful smile

Amazing dance skills

Motherly

Young at heart (AND age)

Caring beyond belief

Crazy great hair doing techniques

Hard worker

The best Multi-tasker

Loving

Funny...can I say that? ;)

Contagious laugh

Bargain QUEEN

Sparkling eyes

Very talented in the self portrait taking field -- FB as my witness

TALENTED in general! Holy smokes!

Lover of caffeine

The most loyal Crimson and Blue fan...EVER!

Knows more about iPhones than Apple

Has an adorable sense of fashion

Intelligent

And.......IS FINALLY 21 TODAY!

I'm talking about one of my best friends, Kim. Her birthday is today and she's finally turning 21! She's been waiting for this day for a long long time but over the last 2 months, we've totally been counting down. I could go on and on about Kimmi but I figured 21 things fit the day!

Kimmi, you're an amazing friend and I love you so much! Thank you for everything you've ever done for me, even if it was just getting me a blizzard from DQ over lunch :) I couldn't ask for a better co-worker! You make my days a whole lot easier! I can't wait for the celebrations to begin....35 minutes till lunch :) I'll hold your hair anytime you need me to....even after tonight!

Hope everyone has a great weekend! I know I'll be having a blast tonight!

No title...

**Beware: this is quite the random, out of order, babbling post**

I have been having a stickler of a time trying to get ALLLLLLL my pictures uploaded on here. I have so many I want to show on here! Oh well...you might just get an Easter post in May :)

Brogan is teething hard core (at least we're hoping that's what the issue is) and has been a CRAB! He throws random fits and cannot be comforted. It's either teeth or his terrible 2's are starting early.

Rehearsals are getting intense, at least for me. I had a BREAK. DOWN. the other night. Oh my! I was fighting back tears thru rehearsal -- thank God it wasn't a full cast rehearsal -- and brown down in the parking lot afterwards. I felt better after last nights first full run thru but it's still a difficult role. Oh well, it'll be over before we know it and then I'll miss it.

I have a funny story about something I HAD to do yesterday...that's a whole other post and hopefully with a picture.

Sorta speaking of the funny story, I ordered Brogan a ton of cute clothes from Carters.com -- I'm SOOO glad they finally have a website you can buy from! I got a pretty good deal too; free shipping and 20% off! That's my kind of shopping :)

My body is SO sore today! If you've seen my Facebook status today, you'll understand why. But if you haven't, I admit my admiration for the work strippers do! HAHAHAHA! Not that 'let me take off my clothes and degrade myself' aspect, but the fact that they have to have some serious talent and upper body strength to work that pole. Owe. And my body isn't just sore from the pole, this character role takes a lot out of me physically; a lot more than you'd think.

Ok, enough about the freaking show! I'm going to try to think positive from now on!

Hope ya'll have a super fantastic Wednesday! As long as the sun stays out, I know I will!


Totally just read thru this post and it IS random....geez Linds, get with it!

Thanks Monica!

Monica over at Pixel Perfect did a post about your's truly! She does posts every now and again featuring some of her readers. It's just a 'Getting to know You' post but it's so much fun! Hop on over and visit her blog! She's a doll and has so many good posts. And it helps that she posts pictures of her ADORABLE baby boy!

Thanks again Monica!

Stressssssed out.

I just haven't been in the blogging mood lately. I've been totally stressed and the fact that I'm trying to hide my stress is NOT helping. This last week I've had 3 days off work to spend with Brogan. It's been helping keep my mind off of things (things meaning, our show--Rent) and we've been having fun! We've gone for walks, played outside, and today we even dyed Easter eggs with my MIL. And tomorrow I think we'll do our own here at home. I wish I could spend my evenings with Brogan and Tommy AT HOME. Now that the weather is staying nice, it's lighter later, and we FINALLY have screens on our windows, it's so hard to leave at night when there is a whole lotta playing left to do. I know it's good for us to be doing this show with each other and I am having a good time. I ALWAYS stress the last few weeks of rehearsal but this time, it's totally different. I think I'm almost scared. This is a huge show and a huge role. I just want to do it justice and I don't want to disappoint. Plus, this is the first show I've done with this director and as he is amazingly talented, he does things quite a bit different than what I'm used to. I just want to snap my fingers and be in mid May.

And on top of getting ready for this show to open, I'm also planning a baby shower for my sister that will be the weekend after the show is over. AND she's not finding out what she's having till April 12th which kinda puts a 'hold' on planning. I have several ideas, but I can't really plan a whole lot without knowing the sex. UUUUUUUUUUUGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!

Ok, I'm gonna go take a nice, long shower and try to calm down. I've seemed to gotten myself a tad worked up.

If you have a spare moment, could you say a little prayer for me. I just need God to calm me down and give me some confidence/strength. It may not sound like a big 'this girl needs prayer' moment, but for me, it is. Step inside my body for a day with all this stress and you'll want to get the hell outta there ASAP!


And last but not least: I am thankful for my God! He sent His son to die for me today! AMEN!

I hope you all have a happy Easter!