Day 19: What Do You Collect?

This is a quick blog post since it's a busy Saturday (sorry!), so I'll get straight to the point.

I collect giraffes! Well, not the real thing (I wish) since I don't live in a zoo or in Africa, but I do collect all things giraffes. I love them, with their long necks, little faces, and black tongues. The boys in my house roll their eyes every time they see anything giraffe, because they know I'll have to have it. 

What do others collect? You know the drill, see here.

Sorry so fast! Until next time...! 

Day 18: The Meaning Behind My Blog Name

My boys.

The other 2 boys in my life.

I won't lie. I'm not the most creative person in the world. Heck, I'm probably not the most creative person in my house. I'll give that title to my 6 year old.

My blog name, Just a girl... (and the 3 boys she lives with), means just that. I'm the only girl in a household full of boys.

Even my 2 dogs are boys. We have tried having a girl dog 3 times (!) but it never worked out.

• The first time, someone brought a box of puppies into my work (I'm a veterinary technician) and I decided to take one home (they were dalmation/boxer mixes). We had her for 3 or 4 days then someone came into my work saying that someone had stolen their puppies from their house and asked if we've seen them. Being the honest person I am, I said that I had one and then I had to give her back. 
• Try #2 - We had a golden retriever/lab mix named Madison (another one from work). We had her for about 6-7 months, then (and I hate this excuse, but I had to use it) I got pregnant with #1, Kyle got sent to Iraq, and I moved from Texas to Maryland to stay with my parents while pregnant and having a deployed husband. Since I already had the 2 smaller dogs, I just couldn't take Madison with me (my parents already had 3 dogs of their own!), so I found her a loving home with a coworker of mine.
• And try #3 - A lady brought in the cutest little dachshund puppy to work (yep, another work dog) who had a broken leg. She couldn't afford to take care of the leg and the dog, so sadly she had to sign over her care. I love dachshunds and I couldn't bear to have this little dog euthanized over money, so I acquired her! She came home with me (after splinting her leg) and was with us for about 1 week. One night around Christmastime, she was in the (fenced in) backyard with my other 2 dogs. We went outside to bring them in, and she was gone! We lived on an army post, and our backyard was fenced with chain-link fencing so people could see what was in our yard. My guess hope is that someone saw this adorable little puppy and took her to give to their child for Christmas. I hope she has a happy home.

Wow, talk about going overboard! I could have answered with a simple sentence, but I thought I'd try to explain in depth, since I've tried not being the only girl.

Find cool new blogs and the meaning behind their names here!

Want to get into blog challenges? My sister is doing a "word of the day" challenge for June. Check it out!


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Day 17: My Proudest Moment(s)

Aren't I lovely? That's what 24 hours
of IV fluids does to you.

More IV fluid filled memories.

I'm a mom, so I think the natural answer to that question would be "the day my babies were born", so I'll say that. 


For now.


I'm planning on having some proud moments in my life in the next few years. What are those?

• I'll be pretty dang proud when we close on our new house! 
• I'm also going back to school (with very many thanks to the great USofA and the commonwealth of Virginia for an awesome college grant!) and when I complete that, I'll be proud of myself! It'll be a tough few years, but I'm pretty optimistic. 
• I'm running my very first 5k in September! I'm not a runner by any means of the word, so I'll feel accomplished and proud that day, too!

Check out some other proud bloggers here! I'd love to hear yours, too!

31 Day Blog Challenge: Day 16

I know I'm cutting in halfway, but since I started up my blog again, my sister challenged me to do this. I thought it might help me get into the habit of blogging so I figured, why not? So here goes!


Day 16: What's at the top of your bucket list? 


This may sound a little cliché, but I would love to go skydiving. It may take a little extra push to get me out of the plane, but I'm sure once I get on the ground safely, I'm sure I'd want to do it over and over again! (Kind of like my first upside-down roller coaster ride in Ocean City, MD. I was crying the entire time but once the ride was over, I wanted to do it again!)


I guess another thing would be to go on a cruise to the caribbean and do all the fun things that entails. Mainly, swim with dolphins on one of the shore excursions. 


What about you, what's on your bucket list? I'd love to hear!


See what others have to say here. 

Is my thumb getting green?

From this...

... to this!

I'll jumpstart my new & improved blog by posting a picture of my new & improved green thumb (well, the fruits of my green thumb's labor, actually). I have been known as the "plant killer" and cannot seem to keep anything that requires dirt in a pot alive. I had been pretty lucky with my aloe plant (because that requires very little skill to keep alive) so I decided to venture into herbs, mainly because I use them frequently to cook with and I'm tired of spending money to just use a tablespoon or so of them. My mother-in-law generously gave me some offspring of her mint plant (see it in the black pot in the pic on the right?) and I felt compelled to keep it alive. Since that worked out, I bought the boys a "salad" and "taco" kit of seeds. We started growing them inside, and to my surprise, they started growing! Dylan apparently inherited my "kill the plants" gene and murdered some seedlings, but we eventually got to the point where they were suffocating (is that a gardening term?) and I had to move them to a bigger home. We have tomatoes, cucumbers, lettuce, carrots, cilantro, mint, basil, and parsley! Sadly, I'm not sure the lettuce is going to make the cut, but stay tuned to find out!


What are your favorite things to grow?

New Start, New Ideas

Since I'm pretty good at starting things and not finishing them (i.e, this blog), I have decided to up my motivation and try again. So much has happened since August: Logan started (and is almost finished with) Kindergarten and can read like a champ, Dylan is walking and babbling, Kyle has started a new and wonderful job, and the biggest news.... we're buying our first home!

I have been following a few blogs regularly lately (my faves: my sister's blog, iheartorganizing) and they have inspired me to start my blog again. Except this time, it'll have a purpose. I'm hoping to share not only the happenings of my life, but my pursuit of my first dream home. It's not what many would call a dream home, but it's perfect for us. I'll be posting about my projects around the new home, the many recipes I have found on Pinterest and other sites, and other things.

I guess more background about this mini-dream home of mine: We'll be moving about 90 minutes away from where we're at now (real estate was much cheaper there!) and out of a townhouse and into a single family home! Now that I think about it, Logan & Dylan have never lived in a single family home - it's been a duplex, with my parents for about 5 months during Kyle's transition out of the Army and into civilian life, in an apartment, and in this townhouse, where Dylan was born. Anyway - it's a short sale (see here for more info) and we're still awaiting final approval from the seller's 2nd lien holder bank so it's unfortunately not yet 100% a done deal. We did recently get approval from one of their banks, so we're "cautiously optimistic" as our realtor says! According to our realtor once the first lender says yes it's only a matter of time for the second one to approve! They don't always approve the short sale, though - but 98% of the time they do - so we're still keeping our fingers crossed! They want us to close at the end of June, so I'm getting anxious, especially since we first put in our offer on the house 5 long months ago! Maybe I'm getting a little ahead of myself, but I'm excited and whether we get that particular house or not, I'll have the same ideas for another home. 

Until next time...

All Shook Up!

Wow, what a shaky Tuesday! 


I woke up and did all my normal things, went to check on the still sleeping kids, turned on the TV to watch a little of my "mom-shows" (that's what Logan calls anything that's not a cartoon), checked Facebook, and checked my email. 


I got an email from Kyle's mom that asked if I wanted to meet her at the zoo with the boys. I then checked the weather and saw that it was going to be a gorgeous day, so I thought, "why not?". Well, after we had it all planned (I would ride the Metro into DC and meet her at the main entrance of the zoo), I kind of had second thoughts. This would be my first venture into DC with two kids on the Metro by myself. I called Kyle and asked his opinion. Naturally he said it was a bad idea. This just gave me the fuel I needed to tell myself that I am a strong woman and I can do it all by myself!


So, we're off to the zoo! (First - let me apologize for lack of pictures :( I had forgotten to charge my phone the night before, and leaving the house with less than 20% of battery remaining is NOT a good idea. I decided to save my battery for phone calls). The drive to the Metro station and finding a parking spot were all uneventful. We get our passes and find a seat on the train - again uneventful. As we take off, I say a little prayer that it all goes smoothly. I'm not a very religious person, so I thought that it was a little strange to find myself in prayer, but I thought, "eh... it couldn't hurt.". 


We get to the zoo and waited for Donna to meet up. We finally meet up and take a walk down Asia Trail and go see the much-adored pandas! We're watching one play with his food and eat with crumbs all down his (her?) big belly, then we walk away for a minute to go look at the exhibit they have set up for learning. I glance over at the panda and saw it stop eating, look around, and run. I thought to myself, "how cute, the panda is running!", and then hear a loud noise like a truck is driving over the roof of the exhibit. I know that's not possible, because it's not a road, so I shook it off ( quite literally). Then a few minutes later, Donna gets a call from Kyle's dad who said they just had an earthquake! I then get a text from Kyle asking if I was okay, so I put two and two together in my head a realized that I just experienced it too! 


After a lot of "omg-ing" and "wow, I can't believe it!", we started walking around the zoo again. By that time, all of the buildings were closed, then after about an hour, the police shut the zoo down! This is when I learned that the Metro (the transportation I relied on to get home) was operating at 15mph on all tracks. Ick. I now knew that my commute home would be like Hell. 


Donna & I separated ways (I will note that she offered to drive me to my car, but I declined because I had already purchased my Metro fare - thanks anyway, Donna!), and the boys and I headed toward the Metro station. We waited 30 minutes for our train, and when it came I saw that it was packed and there was NO way I could fit a stroller into that mess, so I waited for the next one to see if it was better. As I was waiting, Dylan became fussy so I fed him a bottle. As I was burping him, he decided to projectile spit-up EVERYWHERE. So, now I'm in a sea of post-earthquake shaken business-people who think that baby spit-up is the grossest thing in the universe, with puke on me, Logan, Dylan, the stoller, my diaper bag/purse for the day, and the ground. I shamefully clean up and walk away to avoid nasty stares. There was NO way I'd be hanging out in a Metro train with these people for the next two hours. 


I find another spot to hang out in and wait for the train. It finally comes and we hop on. There were no available seats, so we just push ourselves in the little spot near the doors that was clear. We start moving (slowly, I might add) and then Dylan becomes fussy. 


Perfect.


I pick him up out of his stroller and thankfully, a kind gentleman offers me his seat. Too bad Logan won't fit in the seat with us, because he now gets upset that he has to stand. At every stop, more and more people jump on, and nobody gets off. So now we're SUPER packed and Logan is almost invisible to all these DC commuters. After about an hour and a half of this, we finally get to breathe as we're nearing the end of the orange line - our final stop. We get off the Metro and walk to our van. Ahhh.


How was your Tuesday?