52 weeks of blogging. Week one: who I am

I really enjoyed the blog everyday in May challenge that I participated in that when I saw that From Mrs to Mama was doing a weekly blogging  challenge.  There is a topic every Monday and I need to put a picture and respond to the topic. Week one is who I am

  I know what roles I am. Mother, Wife, daughter, sister and so on but lots of people have the same or similar roles and they aren't me. So who am I? I think I am best described as a work in progress. So what am I working on? Here's my list. 1. Myself. I need to loose weight, work on my style, learn to do my hair and makeup a little better. I'm never going to be very high maintenance  but for special moments I want to learn how best to fix myself up a bit.  2. As A wife. through therapy I'm learning to be a little more patient, how to communicate but there is still more work to be done. I want a marriage that lasts and to be only married once so this is always going to be a work in progress area.  3. Organization and home. I want to be a super organized type A person but it's a struggle and doesn't come easily. I'm improving though. I have learned to make much more of an effort in keeping up with the house and being clean and organized than I ever have in the past. I'm continuing to make progress and find what works for me.  4. As a mom. I feel like I am a good mom but I'm trying to learn as she grows up how to meet new demands and challenges. When we have more kids I will have to learn how to be a mother to a different child. 

Sunday Social

Happy Sunday and Happy Father's Day! I hope you all are enjoying the weekend. 
1. What is your biggest driving pet peeve? Well I don't drive anymore since the stroke. I'm able to allowed to but I'm nervous about possibly having a seizure while driving so  my anxiety makes me too nervous to drive.  As a passenger my biggest pet peeve is when people don't stop in time and have to stop too quickly.  2. Biggest blogging pet peeve? having writer's block. I hate wanting to write and being totally stuck on what to write 3. Biggest general pet peeve? Judging. Like everyone I have my judgy thoughts about people but unlike a lot of people I can keep them to myself and don't feel the need to say them all out loud.  4. What is your most irrational fear? needles, even seeing them on TV makes me uncomfortable and I can't handle it.  5. 3 celebrities you want to have dinner with? Amy Pohler, Ian Somerhalder and Jennifer Lawerence. It would be awesome. 

growing up too fast and 5 moments to come

It's the last day of Kindergarten for my girl and I don't like it. It's all happening too fast. How did this year go by without me noticing. She will be in first grade in August and seven in October. It breaks my heart. I mean her growing up is good. She is more mature and can take care of herself in a lot of situations so that is a plus. Also she has conversations with me and she is interesting to talk to and I enjoy that but before I know it she will be grown.. To make myself feel better I've come up with a list of moments I look forward to as she grows up.  1). her first dance.  Helping her pick out a dress. taking her to get her hair done and helping her to get ready. Being there to  see her excited to go and embarrassing her by making her pose for pictures. Getting to hear all about it.  2) her first date. I'm not going to lie this moment also terrifies me and I am hoping it doesn't happen for a long, long time. Her dad and I started dating when I was a sophomore in high school so I'm sure she's going to push to date early by throwing that in my face. On the other hand though it's such a big moment to experience in her life and fear aside I look forward to watching her date and experience love and find the right guy. I'm not looking forward to her first heartbreak from dating though. I imagine it will break my heart almost as bad as it breaks hers.  Having not dated very much I won't have a lot of advice to give her but I will be there for her.  3) her going to college I only hope it's not to far away. I'm just so excited to see what it is that she decides to do with her life. I know I'm her mom so I'm biased but she is already so smart ans amazing that I'm curious what she will be interested in doing as a career and what she will be drawn to. There is so much to discover in this great big world and I enjoy seeing things through her perspective now and am excited to see what her passions and interests will continue to be. 4) her getting engaged/married Another one of those I look forward to and also hope for it to be so far away moments. I just think it will be amazing to see what kind of person she chooses to spend her life with. I wonder what they will be like and I hope she only gets married once. Her dad and I got married young and I feel like I was too young to really know what I wanted for my wedding so I look forward to going through the wedding planning process with her if she wants me too.  5). her becoming a mom I think one of the awesome things about having a girl is getting to see her go through the process of her becoming a mom. All the ups and downs and being there for any help or advice she needs. I've loved being a mom and imagine being a grandma will also be awesome.  Ok I don't know if doing this list exactly helped me feel better or just reminded me of how fast these things are going to start happening. They are moments that I'm going to enjoy as her mother though so I guess I just have to accept them as they come. She's going to grow up and nothing I do can stop it. 

Never Ever Ever

never, ever, ever... 
Would I give up reality TV Would I say no to an eclair, they are my favorite Would I be ashamed of my tears, I'm emotional and I own it Would I say no to a trip Would I volunteer to do someone's hair, I'm really bad with hair
Would I get  sick of Grumpy Cat 

Summer plans and projects

I don't consider summer to start till my daughter is out of school. She gets out on Thursday so I've been planning what we are going to do.  The kiddo doesn't know it but she is going out of town the next week with my grandma to visit my sister and kids on the East coast. She will be gone for nine days. We haven't told her because she will get so excited to fly out to see her cousins she will ask me non stop if it's time to leave and I don't want to be driven insane. So we are going to tell her a couple days before she goes. We are also planning to go to Sea World the weekend after school gets out. We have passes and want to use them before the summer heats up too much.  While our daughter is gone we plan to clean and redecorate her room. There needs to be a lot of toy purging and organizing going on. I've been collecting ideas from Pinterest for playrooms and kids bedrooms.  This board has my ideas so far and some summer project ideas to do with Isabella http://pinterest.com/karissaa/summer-craftsprojects/ 
My plan is to try to do everything as inexpensively as possible. I know she needs a new bookcase so I'm going to look at garage sales and refurbish one. She has to much stuff so getting rid of some and organizing will make a big change.  She will also be gone with her grandma for two weeks in July so we will have more time and I have other areas of the house I'd like to work on. I also plan to really do a lot of changes with my blog. With design, content, etc.   When Bella gets back I imagine there will be a lot of beach and pool, I'm pretty sure she is part fish as much as she likes to be in water. If the weather isn't super hot then we will go to Sea World more. There are a lot of movies coming out this summer and it's a good way to stay cool. We go to the first showing at nearby theaters and the tickets are pretty cheap  so we will probably do that often. 
Bella has two trips but the husband and I are home for the summer which is fine. Next summer we are going to take a trip for our tenth wedding anniversary. This summer I want to do a lot close to home and in our home. Luckily we live in San Diego so there are plenty of fun things to do close by. 

Sunday Social- about my blog

1. How did you come up with your blog name?   With so much change and upheaval in my life over the past years I was hoping the blog would be a fresh start and after following so many blogs where expensive projects were done that I can't afford I wanted it to be clear that wasn't what my blog was about.  2. What is your favorite thing about blogging? Contently learning and there being a never ending amount of information about blogging to learn.  3. What is one thing you have discovered because of blogging and now can't live without? the high I get from getting comments about my writing. I never thought people would care about what I write and comments brighten my day.  5. If one celeb read your blog who would you want it to be? Honestly any celebrity would be awesome. There are so many celebs I love. I'm kind of a celebrity junkie. I'd say Bethanny Frankel or Jessica Alba because they both run their own businesses and I'd like to connect with them and learn from them.

6. What is something you want people to know about your blog? That I'm in the process of researching some changes to the blog. I have ideas and I want to do things right so I'm researching and learning what I need to learn to do things right. 

Oh how Pinteresting!

With my love of Pinterest I'm surprised I haven't linked up before. What I'm loving on Pinterest lately. 

motivational quotes

funny cats

pretty things

organizational tips and ideas

e-cards I love them

yummy food