Best. Posts. Ever.

I am thrilled to link up some of my favorite posts from this past year for Mama Kat's!

I'm not going to do twelve though. Partly because I don't have twelve favorite posts, and partly because the ones I'm linking to, I really want people to read. With so many amazing bloggers linking up, I couldn't possibly expect you to read twelve posts from me.

So here they are, some of my favorites from 2011. Enjoy!

A Mother's Day Gift to Myself

If It's Love

I And Love And You

Where I'm From

I hope you find something to relate to so you want to come back and visit again!

Matchy Matchy

Every Christmas I buy matching pajamas for the whole family. Elijah has been such a great sport about this, wearing his jammies with pride, not just on Christmas, but throughout the year. This year, we did a Disney theme in the hopes that it would inspire us to finally take our family Disney World trip!

Linking up with #iPPP and Wordful Wednesday.

2011 in Review

My family is still recovering from Christmas Day and I'm still recovering from working last night but I couldn't NOT post a short and sweet list.

Here's our best of 2011.

1. We flew to Florida on our first full length family vacation.

2. I transferred from Med/Surg to ER.

3. We finally got the living, dining, guest, and Amelia's bedroom painted.

4. I read more books than I can even count, accomplishing my book reading goal for the year.

5. Convinced my husband to get rid of that awful handlebar mustache.

6. I took a long overdue girl's trip to Vegas! Ate at Bobby Flay's and Tom Colicchio's.

7. Bought a new mom-mobile all by myself.

8. I went parasailing for the first time.

9. Got another tattoo.

10. Received the official "MissMarinaStar.com" for Christmas!

Making Christmas

It's been almost a week since my last post and I apologize for my neglect. We've been so busy "Making Christmas" I just haven't been able to make time to write. I am hoping to be able to post little things during the next few weeks but am making no promises. I still haven't finished wrapping! However, since the holidays are mostly for the children, I figured I'd lean heavily on them for content, beginning with their pictures with Santa.

Asher sometimes has difficulty finding his "real" smile.

Amelia didn't scream, instead she was pretty much catatonic.

Due to the kids being sniffly, we didn't get our Santa pictures until last Sunday. I was sorry to miss the #SantaPix link-up with Letters for Lucas and Mommy of a Monster but I figured the last thing Santa needed during his busiest time was to catch something from my germ ridden babies. Here's hoping we'll get pictures done early enough for next year's linky!

I was able to link up with my favorite #iPPP though.

Santa's Going To Need Sudafed

All the little reindeer in my house are sick and so am I. This means that no one is getting adequately cared for and (more importantly) I've not been able to lay around the house feeling sorry for myself. Elijah has been a trooper though, he's the only one who isn't sick and he's pretty much keeping our shit together as much as he possibly can.

Of course this means he'll be sick over Christmas which will blow, but I'm grateful for his health right now. We'll deal with whiny sick husband when it comes to that.

For now, in honor of Taming Insanity's call for us to "Antler Up." I give you our version of sad, sickly reindeer.

Also linking up with iPPP because even when I'm sick, I'm an overachiever!

Marchin On

Today's Monday Listicles comes from Amanda at Lilahbility. She asked us to talk about our hometowns. Since I don't really have any ONE specific hometown, I thought I'd make a list of ten places I've lived throughout my life. Feel free to chime in if any of these places are familiar to you.

image source

1. City of Orange, California - Yep that's right, I was born in the heart of the O.C. I don't remember anything about this place though since I was only born there, but it's totally my claim to fame so that's where I'm starting my list.

2. Covina/San Dimas, California - While my parents were still married, at least until I was six or so, I lived in the town made famous by Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure!

This is pretty much how I remember Hesperia
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3. Hesperia, California - After my parent's divorce, my four brothers and I lived with our father in a three bedroom home. This is the first home I really remember. I was a latch-key kid so had quite a bit of freedom to get acquainted with the neighborhood. These were some pretty wild times.

4. Hemet, California - At the age of 13, my father's third marriage brought us to Hemet. I spent almost five years there, moving after my junior year in high school. I went to Hemet High School which counts James Lafferty of One Tree Hill and Coralie Simmons of the 2000 U.S. Olympic Water Polo Team as some of their graduates.

5. Orem/Provo, Utah - The summer before my senior year of high school my family moved to Utah. I graduated from Orem High School and went on to BYU. That's right, I was raised Mormon, go ahead and pick your chin up off the floor. Interesting note: I was at BYU at the same time as Heather Armstrong, a.k.a. Dooce, I'm sure she remembers me.

I used to run through this park along the water.
image source

6. Larchmont, New York - After my short stint as a Mormon college student, I spent a year as a live-in nanny with a lovely family just outside of New York City. It was one of the most amazing years of my life. NYC is everything people say it is...only better.

7. Monterey, California - At 22, I joined the USAF, and started language training at the Defense Language Institute. There I met my gorgeous husband and convinced him to marry me.

8. San Angelo, Texas - I spent six months finishing up my language training here. I didn't have a car and only took one trip to Dallas, but I was introduced to one of the best restaurants ever and The Peasant Village is still going strong today!

9. Pasadena, Maryland - After living in an apartment for a year or so, we bought our first home, a three story townhouse. My father grew up in Pasadena, California so it was neat to be living in another Pasadena back East. We brought our son, Asher, home from the hospital to this house and lived here until April of 2005.

10. Moore, Oklahoma - Once Elijah and I were discharged from the service we moved to Oklahoma. Elijah had been raised there and I really wanted to have Asher grow up with lots of family nearby. Amelia came home to this house, but we moved shortly after her birth to Texas, where we are now and will NEVER move again!

Looking back over this list, and there were some moves that I left out, I'm realizing why I hate to move. I like to be in one place, get comfortable, make friends, grow old, and then die. I'm not interested in bouncing around from place to place. We can travel if we need to see more of the world!

My Broken Heart Blog

I woke up to a sad realization yesterday. After over a year of wonderful service, my blog has broken and I am unable to fix it. Mostly because I am too crazy busy with my life to spend any extra time diddling around on google and taking night classes on code. Unfortunately, my knowledge of "all things blogger" has been exhausted and the fact that I have an entirely custom blog with no access to my design files is making it impossible for anyone to help me.

Boo, hoo, hoo.

I have decided to turn this into something positive though. I've decided to make the move to a new venue, hire a wonderful bloggy friend to revamp my design and hopefully learn something about being able to fix my blog when if it dies next time.

In the meantime, because it's too painful for me to even look at this once beautiful space of mine, I'm going to change the template to something prefab and lame. I suggest you all read me in your readers for a bit and only come by when necessary (i.e. to comment).

I am linking this up with the sweet and kind Bruna at Bees With Honey for Lets BEE Friends because I'm feeling sad for the loss of my first bloggy home and am in need of some friendly support.

 

(Update: Look at it! It's beautiful again! Many thanks to Kayleen @ Booyah's Momma Digital Art & Design for fixing my site. I will also have her do my update/migration and you should to, if you're looking to make a change!)

Set Adrift On Memory Bliss

Linking up with these wonderful ladies!

All I Want For Christmas Is...

I'm back again with Monday Listicles! It took me a while to get this up because I've been sleeping all day, but you still have time to make my Christmas wishes come true.

1. The perfect pair of brown leather boots.

2. A clean bathroom.

3. A ginormous TV over the mantle so I can watch A Christmas Story in front of the fireplace.

4. All of our home flooring completed.

5. To find that Amelia's completely potty trained and finished with diapers.

6. Dozens of frosted sugar cookies, picture perfect, not baked by me.

7. A weekend escape for Elijah and I with nothing planned but watching TV and eating takeout, just like we used to do before we had kids.

8. Snow. Just over Christmas Eve/Christmas Morning. (Note: It should be melted by the time I head for work that evening.)

9. To find that those pesky last ten pounds had finally disappeared for good.

10. The ability to keep the sweet Christmas memories alive year round.

Let's BEE Friends

I'm not here today.

I'm over at Bees With Honey with Bruna for her Let's BEE Friends link up.

Stop by for a list of ten things about me you may, or may not, already know!

Because You're Mine, I Walk The Line

Many of you know about my failed attempts to quit smoking this year. For those of you who don't...I've failed to quit smoking this year!

Sad, but true. Especially since I was completely smoke free up until this past August. Oh well, we all have our vices. Some are just way more enjoyable and devastating to quit even though it's so bad for you stinkier than others.

Given my struggles lately, my darling man made me a trade.

This...

For these.

See, I married a clean shaven boy of 19 and have been devastated by his insistence to wear facial hair. I just can't get on board with the handlebar mustache, nor any of the other freakish ways he's been trimming it. I hate it...lots. More than he hates my smoking, I imagine, so we made a trade.

And even though I'm grumpy and totally fiening for a cigarette, I think I got the better end of the deal.

Linking this up with those wild and crazy 

iPhone Photo Phun gals:

 

I'm Thankful for iPhones

Without them, we wouldn't have great pictures of the year our turkey was too big for the roaster and had to be secured with duct tape!

Hope you all have a safe and happy Thanksgiving!

Linking this up with those wild and crazy 

iPhone Photo Phun gals:

 

Two Baby or Not Two Baby

Today's Monday Listicle is super awesome! As someone who has vacillated extensively between "our family is complete" and "wait, are you sure you don't want another baby?" I have spent a lot of time going over both sides of the argument. That's why I chose to write BOTH lists! Yippee - today's listicle gives you two for the price of one!

10 reasons why I think we should have more children:

1. I'd love a house full of family for the holidays, or really any Sunday dinner. I imagine my children, their spouses and my grandbabies coming home, gathering around the table, sharing stories of their childhood antics and fighting over who was the favorite!

2. We already have a vehicle that can accommodate eight people so we wouldn't have to buy a new car, even if we were blessed with multiples.

3. We make beautiful babies. Seriously. We should get some sort of award for the adorableness of our children.

4. Our house has plenty of room for another nursery.

5. I always wanted another baby boy, and I never got to use the name I've already chosen for him.

6. Being pregnant would make it so much easier to quit smoking!

7. A 50% increase in Trick-or-Treat candy!

8. Turning the guest bedroom into a nursery would make it impossible for my MIL to ever move in.

9. Another child would give us better odds at having someone to support us when we're old and decrepit.

10. It's the easiest way to lose eight pounds in one day!


10 reasons why I think we should NOT have more children:

1. I don't think my my body nor my self-esteem could handle losing the 60+ pounds that always seem to accompany my pregnancies.

2. I'm really enjoying sleeping at least six hours every night and can't imagine going back to two hour sleeping intervals.

3. We're almost out of diaper land!

4. I'm quickly headed into the "high risk pregnancy" area.

5. Travel is one of our favorite hobbies, and five plane tickets is substantially more than four.

6. Having been the middle child, it makes me sad to think I'd be moving Amelia from baby girl to middle child.

7. We're currently dealing with a two-year old...'nuff said.

8. Elijah's motto is "never let your pets, or your kids, outnumber you."

9. Although having a third baby wouldn't tax our budget much more, the cost of alcohol we'd need to raise three kids would be enormous.

10. Therapy for our two children is already going to be more than we can afford. I don't know how we'd pay to undo the damage to the third one.

So there you have it! Two lists, both with valid reasons, or at least OUR reasons for having or not having any more children.

Life is Beautiful

Given my recent emotional setback, I thought it appropriate to focus on something beautiful for today's post. I'm using Mama Kat's prompt and listing the seven wonders of my life - as a nurse, and patient. Some were joyful, others were filled with tears, but each experience showed the beauty of a life and they have all helped me to remain focused, calm and accepting during difficult times.

1. As a new nurse, still precepting, I witnessed grown children saying goodbye as we cared for their dying mother. She was my first patient to die. I remember her children were there around the clock on rotating shifts, reading to her, reminiscing about their childhood, thanking her for her loving care throughout their lives. We were all present when she passed and I cried with them, realizing that, I had helped them through this difficult time. I gave tenderness and love to their family and was touched to be able to share in their grief.

2. After spending 16 hours helping me labor with Asher, the nurse on shift stayed late to care for me after the birth and help me as my son latched on for the first time. Looking back, with my experience of 12 hour night shifts, I truly appreciate her dedication to patient care at the expense of her own time and energy.

3. I've watched parents, sitting vigil at the bedside of their teenage child lingering between life and death from a suicide attempt. Desperately wanting to do something, and hoping that being there just might be enough to bring their baby back to them.

4. I've held the Ambu Bag during a lengthy code, before time of death was called, as a tearful wife leaned over to tell her husband "I love our life."

5. I've seen a patient who coded several times in ICU walk into my unit upon discharge and thank me for the care I gave, grateful to be able to spend another day with loved ones.

6. During an awful snow and ice storm, I watched exhausted nurses come on shift, having slept in the hospital, to take report on patients they knew would not be safe without adequate staffing.

7. I've performed post mortem care more times than I can count. Tenderly removing lines and cleaning patients so they can be ready to be taken to the funeral home. Some find this macabre, but for me, it's a continuation of nursing care, not only for the patient, but for the family. A way to show respect for someone's life as well as those that love them.

I realize that this list may seem like a downer for some, but that's not the intent. I've learned from my career that there is beauty in even the most upsetting parts of our lives. Sometimes it's shown to us by others, sometimes we are blessed to offer it to someone else.

Written in response to a prompt from Mama Kat's.
#1. List your life's Seven Wonders. 
Describe the most amazing 7 things you've seen with your own two eyes.

The Ugly Truth

Bruna from Bees With Honey has created a new meme called "BEE beautiful You" and it couldn't have come soon enough. I've been a bit absent here, not because I don't have anything to say, I just can't seem to find the energy (or desire) to say it.

I've been struggling with myself lately. These cyclical feelings of self-loathing are starting to become a recurring theme of my life. And of this blog.

That's not what I want. It's not truly who I am. It's just how I'm feeling right now.

I don't want to be a downer. I don't want people to stop visiting because it's depressing, or because I'm too needy. I want to make people smile and laugh. I want to smile and laugh.

I know that I have so many things to be grateful for: a healthy family, a home, wonderful friends, the opportunity to work in a field that I love. I have so many blessings in my life, which is why I'm baffled by this feeling of being constantly overwhelmed.

I realize that posts for this meme are supposed to be about celebrating either yourself, or another woman's inner and outer beauty.  I guess posting about the inability to find my own beauty is a bit off topic. However, I linked up because I'm hoping to find inspiration in my fellow bloggers. People who have been able to find their light. Women, whom I admire, who just might give me a little hope so that next month, when this meme comes back around, I'll have something beautiful to say.

Eight is Enough

My baby boy is eight years old. My firstborn. My Asher.

Oh. My. Heart.

He's riding a bike and tying his shoes.

He's taking the bus to school and having sleep overs.

He's losing his teeth and trading his baby face for boyish good looks.

He's still waking up before me, but he now makes his own breakfast.

He's a loving big brother who adores and protects his sister.

He's moving from me, towards his father. Big boy adventures with snuggling only at night.

He's growing into more than I ever dreamed he'd be.

Linking this up with those wild and crazy 
iPhone Photo Phun gals:

 

Back in High School

I'm participating for the first time ever in Northwest Mommy's Monday Listicles. This week's topic is about High School. Here goes!

1. My family moved the summer before my senior year.

2. I never had a steady boyfriend.

3. I was a choir nerd. I was in the original Glee type show choir for my high school.

4. I ran the 330m hurdles and lettered in track.

5. I was set up on my Homecoming date by one of my teachers.

6. I wore sweats to school, a lot. I was a total fashion disaster so #2 wasn't a shock.

7. I held the banner while marching in the Rose Parade with our band.

8. I am still close to one of my best friends from high school. Hi Mindy!

9. Lost my bathing suit top after diving in at a pool party.

10. I cut my hair often and at one point it was shorter on one side than the other. (#2!)

Boo!

We had a wonderful Halloween! We went to a family Halloween party on Sunday and then, Monday, took the kids trick-or-treating with friends. I've sorted the haul and it looks like I'll be adding another few pounds to my waistline this winter. But I'm willing to sacrifice my figure in order to keep our dental bills down. I'm such a team player!

Here we are in all our Halloween finery.

Elijah went as a used car salesman. I went as myself a witch

The most adorable (and versatile) witch shoes ever!

Our little ladybug.

Asher was the Scream monster, but Amelia just called him "Scary"

Linking this up with those wild and crazy 

iPhone Photo Phun gals:

 

Also linking up with Four Plus an Angel and Sellabitmum!