Diary of a Laughing Girl

Have you checked out my friend Kristin's blog and Etsy store? She creates and sells beautiful jewelry and I think you should all check it out!

She's actually gearing up to start "Win-It-Wednesday" but needs more followers. So check out her store, start following her, and we'll all start winning some super cool jewelry!

Spread the word!

P.S. Don't forget to check out her Etsy store - The Laughing Girl

Pretty Flower Friday

Here are my Pretty Flower Friday flowers!! This is a container I planted that has wintered over fuschias for quite a few years and this year I decided to add in some hot pink impatiens. So far they are looking so pretty and I'm sure they will look so nice when the fuschias start to bloom.

Sorry the picture isn't all that great, I need a new darn camera and it was getting a bit dark outside. I promise a better picture next week!! :o)

What a week!

Sorry for not posting for a couple of days, it's been quite a week. Then to cap it all off my darn car battery died last night. We charged it all night long and it started one time at 5:15 a.m. but I wasn't actually planning on leaving for another 2-1/2 hours and leaving it running for that long wasn't going to work. We decided to turn it off and that was all she wrote. That sucker wouldn't start back up no matter how hard we tried.

My dad came over and tried to jump start it with the charger hooked up as well. Nuttin' honey! That battery was toast!

Luckily Jennie was in the neighborhood dropping her kids off at daycare so she swung by and picked up Lynsie to deliver her to daycare AND breakfast as well. Lynsie was wanting some num nums. Yay Jennie!!!

Anyway, my "Pretty Friday Flower" post will be postponed for now. Hopefully I can do it later tonight while watering the yard.

In the meantime, hope everyone is doing well and HAPPY FRIDAY!!!!!

Potty Training 101

Lynsie and I went to Salem yesterday to do a little shopping at PetSmart and Target. While at Target we found ourselves in the "Potty" aisle. I've been meaning to buy a potty for her as she is interested in the toilet in general and has been telling us for awhile that she has went potty (or in her words "POT!") in her diaper, etc. Anyway, I decided to take the plunge and buy one that we can have at the house for her to get used to. Once we got it home, she was so excited about it before it was even out of the box. I wanted her to stand next to the potty for a picture, but she INSISTED on sitting on top of the box. I got her to smile for the picture by promising to show her the baby on the camera if she sat there and smiled. SUCCESS! She was satisfied with that and flipped out over the baby on the camera, haha!

Next up was taking the potty out of the box and assembling for another picture. Again, she was so excited about this and in to everything. I got the potty put together which was really not hard once I looked at the directions. It has so many functions, the part she sits on actually detaches when she is better at using the potty and attaches to our toilet seat and the base can be used as a step-stool to get up to the potty. How versatile. ;o) Anyway, I finally got it together and she was again so excited to sit on it as you can see in the picture below.
I later found that she was using it at a storage area for toys that would fit. How convenient and again, how versatile! HA!

When her daddy got home from work, she had to show him how she can sit on the potty and this time she had to do it with pulling her shorts off. Thank goodness she chose to leave her diaper on otherwise we'd be in real trouble. I think I put her shorts back on her about 20 times yesterday afternoon. She was just so dang happy about that toilet. It eventually found it's new home in the bathroom and she can practice sitting on it when we get ready for her bath.

We don't plan on doing anything with it for right now, I'm going to let her lead the way and when she is ready to use the potty we'll go there. However, with her incredible interest in the toilet, I don't think it will be all that hard ... but we shall see as time will tell!

Here is a link to the potty we bought Safety 1st Potty 'N Step Stool.

Lynsie's Piggy Tails

I said I would share this on Friday, but am finally getting around to it now. I even have MORE pictures to share but they will have to wait as I hear Lynsie talking to her baby over the monitor. Nap time is over!


Here are Lynsie's first ever piggy tails! They were so cute but now she doesn't want me touching her hair anymore so I haven't gotten to do them again. Pooey!

Lynsie's Sprinkler Fun

Last weekend we pulled out Lynsie's sprinkler and she had a good old time running through it. It was quite entertaining! She loves to scream and run through the water. Here are some pictures for your enjoyment:

Running around with the hose nozzle saying, "sssssssssss" like she's watering and spraying this with it. Funny!

My little Bikini Baby... love this suit!

Here she showing me that water is coming out of her toy.

...and now letting me know it got her wet! The nerve!

Woohoo!! Running through the sprinkler just like her mama showed her. Hee hee!

Quick Saturday Check-In

Well today was a busy day! John, Lynsie, & I went and got the oil changed in my car which took for-FREAKING-ever!! Oil Can Henry's was so slow today. Of course John couldn't help himself to not comment on what they could do to make our service faster. Haha! Being an ex-employee, I don't blame him. :o)

We then ran back home and switched over to his truck on the search for a pre-fabbed picket fence gate for the backyard. No luck in Stayton though, we'll have to hit-up Home Depot tomorrow.

Once Lynsie went down for a nap, John and I washed both our vehicles. He mostly washed his though as I am finding he has a certain process to washing his beloved truck. I was in charge of the hose for that washing.

After the vehicles were all sparkly and shiny, I decided I should start working on pulling weeds in the backyard. I've gotta get ready for a new load of compost to be put down and I don't want to encourage the weeds to grow even bigger with the nice yummy compost. ;o) I spent most of the afternoon pulling weeds, I made it through half the yard. Yes, only half. This is a major drawback of living along the wetlands. SO MANY FRIGGIN' WEEDS! I plan on hopefully getting back out there tomorrow to finish up. That way we will be all ready for the compost hopefully next weekend.

Lynsie and I then made a trip to Safeway to get some dinner and ended up coming home with 6 corn on the cob because they were on sale for 6 for $1.98!! Sweet deal IMO! I plan on prepping them and taking them over to my mom & dad's house tomorrow for a BBQ. YUMMY!! I've been told we'll be having some of the Bush's Grillin' Beans too. Those are A-W-E-S-O-M-E!!!! NUM NUM (as Lynsie would say). :o)

Beyond that I'm wiped out and ready for bed at the mere time of 8:33 p.m. Once I publish this post I think that is where I'm heading.

What a beautiful weekend we are having, I love this weather! It is just perfect! :o)

Pretty Flower Friday

Alright, I'm designating Friday's...

PRETTY FLOWER FRIDAY'S

and if I'm good at this, I'll be updating with a picture of a pretty flower from my garden. I should have alot of them this year (I hope) as I planted a friggin' ton of flowers!!!!

To start off this wonderful, fun tradition I am going to share with you a photo of our giant flower pot here at work. We first established this giant flower pot in July of last year. My wonderful, friend Jennie's hubby planted the flowers which carried us through the summer. In the Fall, my mom came out and helped me pick some plants that would survive year round and add a little something to the pot during the Winter instead of a pot of brown dirt. That looked nice added to what had already been planted. However, with the nasty icy and snowy winter we had, nothing survived but the year round stuff we planted in the Fall.

Here is a "Before" photo of the pot:



After having the flower planting bug Mother's Day weekend at my own home, I decided to go the nursery and stock up our lovely giant flower pot at work with what I hoped would be beautiful flowers. So far, the giant flower pot is looking good and happy with what I've planted in it. The flowers I planted include a fuschia; some bacopa in pink, purple and white; impatiens that are a nice purplish-pink color; and a nice grass that should stay green year round (at least that's what the nursery told me!). So far, things seem to be really happy and I'm hoping we get some more beautiful blooms in the next few weeks. If they get really spectacular, I will for sure update.

As of right now, here is what we've got:




Keep your fingers crossed that all works out and we get lots of beautiful blooms this summer!!

Awkward Family Photos

Just ran across this site on a message board I visit. It's a website called "Awkward Family Photos". There are some FUNNY pictures on this site.

If you are in need of some laughs this wonderful Friday afternoon, check it out. To the left, courtesy of "Awkward Family Photos", you will see one of their H-I-L-A-R-I-O-U-S photos!

Hope your family picture didn't make it on the site! ;o)

My Other Babies (Part 1)

Miss Darby Cat, queen of the castle. If the other cats get out of line, she puts them back in their place. Definitely the Queen Bitch of our house... after me of course! ;o)

Time for Sharing

I was just reading the Jezebel blog and ran across a post they put up earlier today titled "Daddy's Girl" which talked about a little girl and her dad and their blog. The blog is titled Tiny Art Director and it is too cute. It's a guy whose daughter tells him what she wants drawn, either by first drawing it herself or just by her telling him what she wants to see. Way cute! Check it out!

It's Almost Friday!

Can you tell I live for Friday to get here? Nothing like the weekend (especially a long weekend) to spend time with the family!

So, Yoga-X isn't for everyone! John found that out last night. LOL! After getting about 10 minutes into a 90 minute Yoga workout, he was D-O-N-E! I told him it was fine, really he had done 3 full days of working out and his body needed a break. Yoga isn't for everyone, especially when that person has NEVER done yoga before and is fully uncoordinated. Haha! I told him he could substitute more cardio or even just concentrate on abs and stretching on his own when his rotation calls for the Yoga-X workout.

As for his leg ouchie, it seems that it is all better this morning. To his surprise, when he got out of bed this morning he didn't hurt anymore. Hooray! He's still going to take it a little easy tonight when he does Legs & Shoulders.

Today I'm checking in with Get Lean Intervals and Ab Burner (both are CLX workouts). This was my second time doing Get Lean Intervals and man, it's a butt kicker. I'm surprised I'm walking after finishing this one, there are so many outer thigh exercises. At one point I didn't think I could do another side leg lift without collapsing on the floor. Picture yourself feeling the burn in your outer thighs and multiply that by 100 and that is how it feels in this workout. It goes beyond burn and into almost pain! But I guess you could call it a "good" ouch!

I've done really well with my eating this week and I'm hoping to see a change on the scale tomorrow morning. I did try on those elusive black capri pants this morning and while they are still too snug to wear in public, I am a bit closer to fitting into them comfortably. This is a good sign. I could care less if the number on the scale moves, if I can just fit in those damn pants I will be happy. HA!

As you can see in the previous picture posts, Lynsie is now sporting a ponytail. She loves it. Borderline obsessive I think. She saw that I had one last night and I guess saw Tasha playing with Haley's hair at daycare yesterday and now is convinced she needs one. She's sporting one again today. She loves it and struts around like she is something extra super special with that pony in her hair! Just wait till she can have "Mindy-Ponies". My mom knows what those are. Hee hee!

Alright, better get back to work... Hope everyone is having a good day!

Mommy's Little Helper

Wonder what's in here?

Just a little...

CHEEEEEEESE!!!!

Cooking a gourmet meal with mommy!

Radiation? What radiation? Helping mommy cook!

Copy Cat

Lynsie wanted a pony because Taylor had one today. Ha Ha!

ETA: Turns out it was likely because Tasha was playing with Haley's hair... braids and all! I better start learning some fancy hair stuff again! LOL!

This Week

Can I just say that the weather has been amazing the last couple of weeks? I just love, love, love warm spring and summer weather. It just makes everyone happier, it seems!

Well this week has been a busy one! John decided to begin his exercise regimen by doing P90X, which is an intense weight lifting regimen produced by BeachBody.

I am SO proud of him.

He has made some really big life changes in the past 7 months. Some of you may not know, but in November John quit tobacco. If you've known him or I for many years, you know this is a naughty habit he has had prior to me even meeting him in 1995. Anyway, him quitting tobacco was a huge deal and he did it cold-turkey. No pills or patches. *High five*

So now he has embarked on his P90X endeavor and is doing awesome so far. He is on Day 4 today and has finished the FULL workout the past 3 days. Tonight is yoga, which will be TOTALLY a different experience for him. Haha! I know he can do it though. I'll keep you all updated on how he is doing, which is GREAT so far!

As for me, I'm in the midst of my second round of ChaLEAN Extreme (CLX for short). I started CLX in January with Jennifer, hoping to lose the last 15 lbs of baby weight I was still carrying around. During my first round (90 days) I lost about 10 lbs, so not quite all of it but I'll tell you I am stronger than I have ever been. It is amazing. I love it! I'm now in the middle of my second round and these last 5 lbs are hanging on for dear life but I'm determined to get them off or at least the inches off. I've got 1 pair of capris that still don't fit me and I'll be damned if I'm gonna buy a new pair as these look brand new. HAHA! So if you see my booty squeezed into some too tight pants you'll know it's because I'm too cheap to suck it up and buy a pair that fits. HA!

In other news, what you really came here to read about.... LYNSIE JEAN! I know it, don't try to pretend you really cared about John and I ... we know it's all about L to the J. (Photo courtesy of my mom)

She is growing like a weed and learning new words and fun things everyday. While John has been exercising, she and I go to the park and play or on Tuesday and Thursday we have swim lessons. She loves to scare the crap out of her mama and climb up onto the big toy at the park. Also, she likes the "baby" toy but you know, she's not a "baby" anymore and a big girl, so that small toy just isn't as exciting. Bah! She also loves to swing... must be the feeling of the wind in her mullet... LOL! Ok, it's thickening up and growing but really at this point it looks like a wispy mullet.

At swim lessons, she is a fish. The girl can't get enough of that water! She can blow bubbles, kick her legs, splash, she hangs on the wall like a monkey, and she even jumps off the wall to me. Her newest favorite thing to do is to go down the big water slide. She stays above water, while mommy always seems to go under. It's fun though, so we will keep at it!

I think this is it for now... have a good one everybody!

Welcome to my Blog....

... now if I can only keep it updated. HA!

I plan on sharing all kinds of stuff here. This "stuff" will likely include my journey in health and fitness, the adventures of my family, and just random stuff I think of.

Also, I'm hoping this will be a good place for family to visit and see new photos of us (probably mostly Lynsie Jean though haha!), as well as videos and just general updates.

Alright, I better get to thinking about what my first official blog entry will be. Hmmm... so many things I can think of... I better get to writing!