Graduation

On Saturday, we drove to Columbia for the commencement ceremony. It was so much fun, the sun shined, my boys had on their matching polo's, and I officially graduated college (except for one final paper). I won't receive my actual diploma till they start mailing them in June, however it was an incredible experience. It felt great to have a ceremony to culminate the effort and hard work I put in to finally reach this point. I am so grateful that I was able to share this experience with my family. We took pictures outside of the school, and I will add the digital ones to this post and when I get the others developed I will add those in another post. The question I keep getting is what am I going to do now?! Well I am going to take some time off from school and just enjoy being a wife and mother, to the most amazing and supportive men I know.

Where Does the Time Go?!

It has been almost a full two months since my last post. Oops! I have been so caught up in home life, work, and school that I have been unable to find the time. Well I am counting down the weeks till graduation, and I cannot believe that there is only three left. Hopefully then I will be able to find a little more time in my days. I received my Associates degree a few weeks ago in the mail, was an exciting feeling actually being able to see something I accomplished. The funny thing is it is dated from the summer of 2009. Lol! I just never got around to pay to "graduate" for that one. Now in the next few months I should be receiving my Bachelor's degree in the mail. I did opt to take part in the commencement ceremony at Columbia. I figured I had worked this long and hard I might as well get the full experience. I want to go back in a few years for my Masters or Doctorate. I can't decide yet, but right now I just want to concentrate on spending time with my growing boy, and my love, and my pup!

We went for Ty's 15 month check up last week and we got him all caught up on his immunizations, and did the state mandated lead screening. He did great and he is growing like a weed. He is getting close to walking, which surprises everybody that he isn't yet. But the nurse practitioner assured me that he is right on track. He is still on the thin side even though he is a bottomless pit, and would eat constantly if we would let him. We had an early Easter celebration with my family, and Ty didn't want anything to eat and my 7 year old nephew stated "I don't believe it!" Lol. He now has 9 teeth and more coming in. He has even already got his first upper molars on both sides. Well I guess that is all for now and I will try to keep up with my posts.

Momma

Tonight at dinner I heard the sweetest words a mother could ever hear her child say "momma". Ty has said this for every one but me, until tonight. He finally uttered it in front of me. I was so excited! It was amazing to finally hear two syllable's that I have been waiting months upon months to hear.

Day Thirty

A Picture of Someone You Miss

My Great Uncle Vince, he taught me so much. I looked up to him so much, more than anyone (other than my Grandpa). He helped to make me the person that I am today and I hope that I make him proud! I think about him every single day, I have something of his in EVERY room of my house.

Day Twenty- Nine

A Picture That Can Always Make You Smile

I love the excitement on his face in this picture he is just so over joyed with seeing the fish.

Day Twenty- Eight

A Picture of Something You are Afraid Of

My biggest fear in life is death. I fear not only my own death but loosing the people I love. It could have something to do with the nightmares I have had since childhood.

Day Twenty- Seven

A Picture of You and A Family Member

This is my sister Sara and I on her 21st birthday over the summer of 2010. It is hard to find pictures with me in them because I am so often behind the camera.

Day Twenty- Six

A Picture of Something That Means A Lot To You

At first it was difficult to think of a material object that meant a lot to me that I hadn't mentioned before (photo's). But then as I though about it a little more I came across two different things: the set of china I received after my great uncles passing that had been passed through my family, and a rose that I have had since my great grandmothers funeral in 2002. I am a very sentimental person if you haven't realized that yet from reading my previous blogs, and my family is my world. I feel blessed to be able to have pieces of my families history, and representations of them still with me. I was close with my uncle however my great grandmother lived six hours away and I only saw her once or twice a year. Yet, I have always kept the rose on my dresser were I can see it daily.

Day Twenty- Five

A Picture of Your Favorite Day

Other than any day spent hanging out and relaxing with my loves, I would have to say that my favorite day would consist of scrapbooking and reading or any of my other favorite things, and a good bottle of wine.

Day Twenty- Four

A Picture of Something You Wish You Could Change

I wish I could change how lonely I feel when Griffen is gone. They are thinking this is going to be his last week out of town. Thank you lord for answering my prayers! I don't know how I have held everything together as well as I have these last few weeks.

Easy Chocolate Truffles

I love these truffles and made them for work Friday, and thought I would share the recipe.

 

• 1 package of Oreos
• 1 package of cream cheese
• 1 package of Semi sweet Bakers chocolate

1. Crush 9 oreos in a food processor of by hand and set aside. Crush the remaining cookies and then slowly incorporate the cream cheese until it achieves a doughy consistency.
2. Take the ball of dough out of the food processor and start rolling it into about 45 balls (about the size of a shooter in marbles).
3. Melt the chocolate as directed to on the package being extra cautious not to burn it!
4. Then dip each ball into the chocolate and sprinkle the remaining crushed cookies on top. You could also use sprinkles to add a colorful touch as I did for Valentines Day.
5. Chill for 30 minutes in the refrigerator and enjoy.

Day Twenty- Three

A Picture of Your Favorite Book

Nook

My nook is by far my favorite book. I love it it makes me able to carry my whole library of books with me in one easy lightweight object. I can have all my favorites with me from girly books, to books on the masons and Illuminati, to murder mysteries, to classics like Gone with the Wind (a personal FAVORITE).

Their free Friday blog is awesome, it has exposed me to a few new authors that I love, at NO cost. For those of you who haven't heard about it they put up a title each Friday for no cost on their blog. Kind of self explanatory, but still great.

Day Twenty- Two

A Picture of Something You Wish You Were Better At

I wish I was better at knitting and crocheting. I have the very basic stitches down but beyond that is out of my range of expertise. I would love to actually be able to make something nice. Maybe once I finish school and have more time to devote to it, I will be able to expand my crafting knowledge.

Day Twenty-One

A Picture of Something You Wish You Could Forget

If we forget all the difficult times and lessons we have learned and been through, we will be more apt to make the same mistakes again. I don't know about you, but I am perfectly happy with my life the way it is and could do with out making any unnecessary mistakes.

Day Twenty

A Picture of Somewhere You Would Love to Travel

Italy 

Croatia 

Sweden 

France, among many many more!!!

These four countries are where I have been able to trace my family history and would love to be able to travel there and experience the culture first hand and research my family farther. However there are so many other places I would also love to travel that I cannot name them.

Day Nineteen

A Picture of You When You Were Younger

This is my baby picture taken by the hospital staff.

Day Eighteen

A Picture of Your Biggest Insecurity

My biggest insecurity is difficult to photograph. By far it would have to be sounding stupid when I talk. One of my big things is thinking before you speak, and it really bugs me when I still mess up what I am trying to say after I have already thought about it. Or if I don't think and I just roll with it and it comes out all wrong. It may sounds silly, but it is one of my biggest personal pet peeves. It is just worse when someone calls me out on screwing up!

Day Seventeen

A Picture of Something That Has Made A Huge Impact on Your Life Recently

For all of you that know me, you know that Griffen has been working in Oklahoma since October and has only been home on some weekends, and a few weeks around Christmas. This has turned our lives upside down. Ty, Tucker, and I have been managing at home, but it is difficult between taking care of them, work, and school work. It is hard not having Griffy around to rely on for that extra help and support.

For those of you who don't know when we switched Ty to whole cows milk at a year old he did not tolerate it. The doctor believes he may have an allergy to it. We had to go back on formula for a few weeks till we got his little system back to normal, and now we are trying out soy milk to see how that works. If that doesn't work I have heard goats milk usually works well for children with this type of allergy. Most of the people I have talked to who have children or family members who went through this same thing say that they do eventually grow out of the allergy and that it is more common than people know.

Day Sixteen

A Person That Inspires You

The person that inspires me the most would be myself. I inspire and motivate myself to try new things all the time. I use my own inspirations in my scrapbooking, crafts, and photography.

Day Fifteen

A Picture of Something You Want To Do Before You Die

I want to finish my family tree as far back as I can go, which has gotten difficult for me. My father has traced part of our family back to Croatia but once there the trail goes dead. I have some traced back to France, and Sweden, I want to get the rest traced back to Europe and find out as much information about them as possible once I get that far. Unfortunately I am not sure how to go about it since my family doesn't have the documents for me to go off of. After learning about where my family came from I would love to travel to each of those places.

Day Fourteen

A Picture of the Person You Could Never Imagine Your Life Without

Ty Alexander

Having Ty has changed my life in so many ways. I don't even know what I did with out him. It is amazing to think that I actually had a life before him, because he is my life now.

Day Thirteen

A Picture of Your Favorite Band or Artist

Reba and Taylor Swift

I absolutely LOVE Reba. While looking for a photo for today's blog post I found this one of her with my other favorite artist, Taylor and just had to use it. How awesome to have my to favorite country music stars in one photo! : )

Birthday Celebration

Ty celebrated his first birthday a few weeks ago and then last Sunday my fathers family had their quarterly birthday celebration. Yes we get together quarterly. So we actually celebrated Ty and his cousins first birthday together since we did January through March birthdays. Well his first cake did not go over well since he was still sick and not up to it, however he loved this one. It could be thanks to my aunt making it homemade instead of my buying it at Wal-Mart. Lol (She is quite a great cook) I got some cute pictures of him so be prepared this is going to be a very picture heavy post.

Day Twelve

A Picture of Something You Love

My Family means the world to me, I feel so blessed to have been given such a wonderful husband and son, and puppy too! I wouldn't trade this life for anything.

Day Eleven

A Picture of Something You Hate

Bills

I absolutely hate bills, they are always complicating my life. I wish that I could just finally pay them off, but I guess that is impossible since I can not live with out electricity, gas, or internet. Lol Maybe someday i will get the mortgage monster of my back!

Day Ten

A Picture of the People You Do the Most Jacked Up Things With

By far I think the most jacked up things I have ever done have been done in the company of Griffen, Elizabeth, and Richard. Lol We have gotten the truck stuck numerous times in places I don't even know how we accomplished getting there, but we never once got into trouble! When the four of us get together we are goof balls!

Day Nine

A Picture of the Person Who Has Gotten You Through the Most

Griffen has been there for me through so much, he is always there when I need him. Even when he is out of the state he still finds a way to help me when I need his support. I can always count on him to have a shoulder for me to cry on, or some one to laugh with.

Day Eight

A Picture That Makes You Laugh

I had a difficult time choosing just one so I chose three. lol  I don't know what Heather and I were so surprised by, or what Ty was having attitude about, but I love them, and us girls were just goofy that night! I probably could have come up with many more to put on here with them but I think three is plenty.