Day 2 - 30 Day Blog Challenge - What's in a name?

Day 2: Meaning behind your blog name

So, my blog name is our crazy beautiful life and the meaning behind it is quite self explanatory. Life with a 2 year old, two dogs and a cat = crazy and beautiful all rolled into one. There's never a dull moment around here. Throw in a couple of adults who like taking on DIY renos and having a two year old, two dogs and a cat, and well, some might say that's just plain crazy, but we like it. It works for us. At the end of the day, we take pride in our home. So, that's my blog name in a nutshell....


Thanks for playing along... What's the meaning behind your blog name? I often wonder this as I stumble across new blogs?

Amy

"The Rescue" - Nicholas Sparks Book Review Journal #1

"The Rescue" - Nicolas Sparks

This book is about a single mother, Denise, who is in a car accident where her son, who has a severe learning disability, disappears. He is rescued by a "risks it all" volunteer firefighter, Taylor. A relationship between Taylor, Kyle (the son) and Denise emerges from all of this trauma. This book delves into the complexity of a relationship between a mother and son, a hero and a boy, and a woman and man, and each character takes on a life of it's own. "The Rescue", is all about pushing life to the limits, and Taylor can physically do this at the drop of a hat, but when someone needs emotional rescuing, Taylor might be on the receiving end this time. I really LOVED this book. It hit home with the things my hubby goes through being on the volunteer fire department myself, and in addition to that it was a great story. I would highly recommend this book.

"Youth offers the promise of happiness, but life offers the realities of grief" (pg 15)

I loved this quote because it is so true, as a kid, I really didn't have that many cares, but I had more then a typical kid because I spent a lot of time dealing with a physical "disability" (I never ever call it that - but in reality that is what it has come to be). When I was born there were complications and I required emergency intravenous, and when the Dr's attempted to put the IV in they severed the tendon of my left wrist. At first my one finger was just bent up a little at the end, but it progressed as I grew. So after rounds of testing they determined that I required surgery, and upon doing surgery discovered I had a connective tissue disorder (aka I make scar tissue very rapidly and abundantly). After my surgeries I spent a lot of time focused on if I just do this physio then my hand will get better and I will be "happy", all the while not being terribly unhappy, just dealing with being different from other kids (which when you are a kid is hard). Eventually (14 years into physio every day an hr from my house plus hrs of exercises at home and very little improvement in range of motion), I decided I was done with trying to do this and be happy, I'd rather just be this and happy. So I quit, I instead joined the baseball, basketball, volleyball team and pushed myself, did things I wasn't allowed to do while I was doing physio. And I loved it. So for me this quote speaks to me, as a young child I was promised this elusive happiness, but was given the realities of life, and I needed to grieve those losses in order to really be happy, to be content in my own skin.

"Kyle. Sweet Kyle. Simply thinking about thinking about him made her smile. No, she decided, it wouldn't better (without Kyle). If there was one bright spot in her life, he was it. Funny how he could drive her crazy and still make her love him for it." pg 67

I loved this quote simply because as a mother, I often feel the same way. Hannah is two, she's testing the limits like no tomorrow, but later, when I am venting to my mom and sister about her latest shenanigans, and offering them my two year old, I notice that I am smiling when I am telling them this story about a little girl who has done something I would NEVER tolerate anyone doing, but I am smiling. Even the times she tests me like no tomorrow elicit a smile. Who could have ever imagined loving someone that much. She really can drive me crazy, and make me love her more for it.

Stay tuned for the rest of this book review!!

Amy

Day 1 - 30 Day Blog Challenge

Day 1: Introduce, recent picture of yourself, 15 interesting facts

I am a stay at home mom to a very sweet 2 year old, and have been married to my husband for 7 years this September. We have 2 dogs and a cat, and a somewhat new house that we are taking our time making over. We live in a small town in Ontario, Canada. I am new to blogging, and would like to use it to keep track of our life. What's happened, what's planned to happen, and it's a great way to meet new people. I spend the majority of my time at home (due to my medical condition), so it's great to feel like I'm interacting with people (other then a 2 year old) without having to worry about what you'll think if I pass out in the middle of our conversation. I try to blog every day (minus the weekends), and topics I like to talk about are my daughter, our home reno's, and book reviews. I love doing blog hops, because they are a great way to find new blogs, and I love reading people's comments!! In my spare time besides blogging, I like to read and make jewelry!! I think that about covers an introduction...

Here's a picture that was taken in January by a local photographer - Ashley Schultz (who did an amazing job)

Now onto the 15 interesting facts:

1. I recently moved exactly one block from my old house to our new home
2. I love to shop, but an incredibly thrifty
3. I hate my house in a mess, but I seem to enjoy renovating  - which everyone knows reno=mess
4. My daughter probably has as many pairs of shoes as I do, and like me, wears the same ones over and over
5. I LOVE LOVE LOVE Coca Cola, and I have been trying to cut back to only one a day as of late, and I hate it...
6. I probably spend as much time organizing and sorting beads as I do making jewelry, I need a better system
7. I am completely computer illiterate when it comes to designing this blog, so I basically say to my sister (Ash) I like this, fix it, and she does, because she knows if I try to do it myself it's going to be an even bigger mess. Love you Ash...
8. We recently bought a King Size bed, and I still get 3/4 of it...
9. I hate using a tea towel or dishcloth for more then one day, we are lucky around here if it makes it through the day...
10. I take way too many pictures, and then never remember to put them in frames, so we have a bunch of frames with "new relatives" in them as my hubby puts it, although I am getting better at this one
11. I treat my little dog Lucky like she is a child, and I try not to, but she's to stinkin cute and cuddly...
12. I love to travel...to Florida... I hate trying new foreign foods, so Florida suits me just fine
13. Sometimes I wish I lived in the states, they have such better shopping...
14. I hate that my PVR is always FULL, why do I tape soo much and then never get around to watching it...
15. I have a bead room that I never use except to dump my beads, I need to change this ...

So, there's 15 facts I don't know how interesting they are....

Stay tuned for the next installation of the 30 Day Blog Challenge...

Amy

30 Day Blog Challenge!!

So, this month I am going to do a 30 day blog challenge. I normally don't blog on weekends, so don't get too used to it lol. However, this post is just to introduce the topics of the 30 day blog challenge, and I'll be starting tomorrow with the topics...

Here's a list of what you can expect to see for the next 30 days (in addition to my regular posts...)

Day 0: The 30 Day Challenge Explanation and Description
Day 1: Introduce, recent picture of yourself, 15 interesting facts
Day 2: Meaning behind your blog name
Day 3: Your first love
Day 4: Your parents
Day 5: A song to match your mood
Day 6: A picture of something that makes you happy
Day 7: Favorite movies
Day 8: A place you've traveled to
Day 9: A favorite picture of your best friend
Day 10: Something you're afraid of
Day 11: Favorite tv shows
Day 12: Something you don't leave the house without
Day 13: Goals
Day 14: A picture of you last year - how have you changed?
Day 15: Bible verse
Day 16: Dream house
Day 17: Something you're looking forward to
Day 18: Favorite Place to Eat
Day 19: Something you miss
Day 20: Nicknames
Day 21: Favorite Picture of yourself ALL TIME Why?
Day 22: What's in your purse?
Day 23: Favorite Movie
Day 24: Something you've learned
Day 25: Put your iPod on shuffle, first 10 songs
Day 26: Your Dream Wedding
Day 27: Original Photo of the city you live in
Day 28: Something that stresses you out
Day 29: 3 Wishes
Day 30: a picture of yourself this day and 5 good things that happened since you started the challenge

So, if you are up for the challenge feel free to join in on the fun starting tomorrow!!

Amy

Manic Monday!!

As I always do on Monday mornings I am linking up with Ashley at Life As I Know It for Manic Monday, a great way to recap what we did this weekend!!

Friday night Eric was working late, so I enjoyed a quiet night in, reading and worked on making some jewelry.

Saturday morning, we headed up to London for a quick appointment, and then stopped in the hospital to see my Grandma, whose is been in the hospital for over a week now. She was sleeping so we didn't get much of a visit, but I feel better after seeing her. Hopefully they spring her out of there soon, she's getting restless, but on the other hand, she's getting much needed medical attention, so it's kind of a double edged sword. Then we went to Costco, we were running low on chicken and milk and that's my go to place for those things. So, as usual $295.00 later our truck was full of goodies. We got our chicken and various other groceries, I got a new spring jacket (the zipper went out of my old new one last year at the end of the season so I had to return it), we got Hannah one of these bad boys:

It was a great prive $47.99, and Hannah LOVES it. Eric set it up on our deck once we got home and Hannah played with it as soon as she got up from her nap. Eric and I got to work outside on Saturday (it was a beautiful day here in Ontario - which it had pretty much rained for a week straight so we had been looking forward to Saturday's forecast). So, Eric and I were working in the side garden outside while Hannah was napping inside (we had the baby monitor with us), and I just said to Eric "Someone's awake", as I could hear her on the monitor, and we looked up and this is what we saw....

The little bum had climbed on her chair, pulled back the curtains, lifted the blinds and was screaming "Mommy, OUTSIDE", it was soo funny, and I had just been taking pics with the camera of our dog kennel, to post an add on Kijiji to sell it, so I did what any mom would do and snapped photos (and then dashed in the house to get her down...). We BBQ'd a nice dinner steak dinner on Saturday night, and then it was early to bed for Hannah, as she was a bear. I decided to have a nice relaxing bath, and watched the movie Eat Pray Love (more on that later once I have finished posting my reviews of the book).

Sunday morning we decided to go shopping to finish the list for our insurance claim (that was started back November - when our basement flooded see this post). We got most of the stuff crossed off our list, and so hopefully I can submit that later this week. I also managed to get myself a shower curtain for the main floor bathroom (I was asking for opinions in this post, again more on that as more details emerge - like paint color selection etc). Then we headed to Mike and Ash's for a delicious rib dinner, that may have included Hannah torturing their cats. But the cats took it like champs. It was a lot of fun. Then home to bath Hannah, and some laundry folding and R&R for mom and dad. (On a side note I was enjoying my favorite Sunday night show "Brother's and Sisters", and it was pre-empted for the news of Osama's death and it never came back on). So I went to bed and read for a bit.

How was your weekend? Stay tuned later this afternoon for my very first 30 Day Challenge blog post!!

Amy