Wordy Wednesday

arosepast tense of a·rise (Verb)

Verb:

Emerge; become apparent: "new difficulties had arisen". Come into being; originate: "the practice arose in the nineteenth century".

It was reported to me that Pastor Husband used this word at Young Adult Camp last weekend when he spoke to the group. The informant and I both did not believe it was an actual word. Pastor Husband proved last night that it's real! Apparently, I don't read enough of the KJV of the bible so I was unaware that it uses the word 173 times! To compare, the NIV only uses "arose" 11 times.

You learn something new every day!

On the Menu

Is it bad that I've only had a few, day-old donut holes to eat today?

It's one of those days where the only food in the kitchen is food you have to prepare and cook.

Don't worry, dinner will be nutritious for all!

Field Trip

Baby Girl and I had quite the adventure today! We live in not-a-mansion, nut it's in the best area for public transportation. Baby Girl and I use it a lot, but we don't go far. Our bus rides are around ten minutes at the most. Today we went to the very end of our line and after an hour and thirty minutes we were at the beach! You have to love southern California weather...end of October and it was a perfect beach day.

Our day was filled with beautiful weather, a free lunch, a giant turtle, speed walking on the pier, a soccer game, watching boats, and eavesdropping on all the extremely unique people on the us.

It was a very fun trip!

Cute Baby Girl

So, I'm kind of running out of pictures of things on Baby Girl's head or things that I put her in, meaning, Friday might just end up being Cute Baby Picture day. Either way, I will do my best to make sure you get a new, and cute! Baby Girl picture to end your week. Is there any thing better?

Reading & Bedtime

Reading while in bed is probably my favorite thing to do in life! I love to do this during any time of the day, but I especially love reading at night. It's really fun when you have a great book and you read one more chapter, try to sleep, and then turn the light back on to keep reading. It's been awhile since that has happen, but I always hold out hope.

Now, since the nursing days are done, we have a new routine - Baby Girl and I...and Pastor Husband too! She usually has her last cup of milk about a half-hour before bedtime. Then we play or watch some Backyardigans. After that, when the time for bed has arrived, we sit together on our glider - either Baby Girl and I or Pastor Husband and Baby Girl - and read a couple of books. When I read to her, Baby Girl plays with her hair and turns the pages when it's time. It took awhile to teach her this part, but she now has the hang of it. I basically hold on to the pages and let it go when it's time to turn. She never misses a turn.

It's just a sweet, nice, quiet time that we get and Baby Girl seems to enjoy it too. It'll be a neat moment when she is able to read to me.

Here are some pictures from our day today at the park. Hope everyone else had a special Monday too!

Friday (though it's actually late Sunday night) = Things I Put On My Baby's Head

Thank you Granma for my winter hat!

Vote!

No, not for the presidential election...at least not yet! This vote is for something else, something that will benefit soon-to-be-mommies in need - The Morning Center. If they get enough votes they will receive a huge contribution that will literally get the wheels rolling for their cause.

The Morning Center wants to provide mobile, prenatal care FREE to urban dwelling moms. I think this is awesome because I now know it's true - when you don't have a car, your life does become the few miles that surround you and if one of those places does not consist of prenatal care then it's out of the question. Also, without insurance, your choices of medical care narrow themselves down to almost nothing. The Morning Center wants to change that and like their motto says, they are "pro-woman, pro-hope, and pro-life".

What can we do to help? We can vote and spread the word. Click the link below to vote and remember you can vote once a day!

Vote for The Morning Center

If you would like more information on The Morning Center, visit their website at http://www.morningcenter.org/.

Top Baby Blogs

I've been inducted into the Top Baby Blogs!

If you click on the handy link over to your right (that one...right there!) then Mommy on the Rocks gets a vote.


Happy Clicking!

Kitchen Action

I didn't think there was going to be much going on in my kitchen today other than breakfast - made by Pastor Husband, not by me. He wakes up way too early for me to get up and make food. So, usually, he gets up and makes enough oatmeal for himself and Baby Girl. Lunch wasn't at home either because there was a chicken bowl fundraiser after church. We were raising money for the young adults' retreat.

**Pastor Husband just confessed! He used one of Baby Girl's frozen fruit cubes for his own oatmeal! Haha, I told him he was going to have to tell Baby Girl about it.**

After that, once we were home, we ALL took a three hour nap! Baby Girl would have kept on sleeping if I hadn't gone in there to wake her up. It was around 5pm when we all rolled ourselves from slumber and remembered that the world was still spinning. We decided to go grocery shopping and eat as cheaply as possibly at IHOP. A great thing about this place - kids eat free every day! Baby Girl might have had some pancakes and eggs. It was cute too because we just cut it nice and small and she ate it all by herself. Picking up one piece at a time. I almost cried.

We decided to go shopping tonight rather than tomorrow because I wanted to do that thing where you make ready-to-throw-into-an-oven meal for a friend of ours. She needs some help and I remember the days of working full-time and the last thing you want to do is make dinner after a long and no-good-very-bad-day. I can't imagine doing that while pregnant and raising two young boys. I took on the challenge of making four meals, none of which take any type of cream-of-anything soups. For about an hour my kitchen had chopping, boiling, and measuring. Here are the results: Cilantro Lime Chicken with Corn and Black Beans, Pineapple Chicken, "World's Best Chicken", and Garlic Lime Chicken. Thank you to "Pretty Providence" for your easy recipes!

Baby Girl's e-ticket ride.

The beginning of the action!

My Autumn centerpiece until we eat them!!

After the action.

Friday = Things I Put My Baby In

The Actual Link!

My Personal Donor Page 

THANK YOU!

Wordy Wednesday

Definition for fundraising:

Web definitions:

(fundraise) fund-raise: raise money for a cause or project; "We are fundraising for AIDS research". wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn

Baby Girl is a CHOC baby and it definitely helps to put Pastor Husband's heart and my heart at ease. We take her there for her check-ups and it was through CHOC that she had her MRI. This is walk is for CHOC and all the many many babies and kids that go in and out of their doors whether it's for routine maintenance (haha!) or something more serious.

My mom and I, along with Baby Girl, will be walking for CHOC and their children this Sunday...if we can raise $50 by Saturday. Here is the link to my personal donation page. Any contribution is appreciated and I thank you so very much!

Jennifer's Donation Page

What's In Your Sock Drawer?

I found $20 in Baby Girl's sock drawer. I think we may have a lunch date today!

I've been lazy and I'm sorry! I missed all of last week. I kept telling myself to do it, to just write, and I never did. I've been incredibly tired because I haven't been sleeping very well. Then I'm tired the next day and take a much longer nap than needed, which then equals to me not being tired when it's time for bed. So, I stay up, watching something, read something, or just toss and turn throughout the night. It's awful. Last night, I did manage to go to bed at 10pm and, I believe, fell right to sleep. I feel like a human being this morning.

I think I forgot to mention that I'm an aunt of twin, identical baby girls! We finally got to meet them yesterday. Too precious and so tiny. They're probably about the weight, maybe a tiny bit more, as Baby Girl was when she was first born. Around 6 lbs. 10 oz. I just don't remember her feeling so small. After holding one of them - I really never knew who I was holding - I picked up Baby Girl and she felt like a five year old in my hands. Perspective is a silly thing.

It was weird how automatic it was helping to take care of them during the day. I didn't hand the baby - we'll call her Baby Twin - off when she started crying. If a diaper change was needed I did it without thinking twice. Before Baby Girl came into my life the longest I had ever held a baby was probably under five minutes. I guess, just as a mom, you just do. You just do what needs to be done because that little baby deserves nothing but all the care and love in the world.

Baby Twin and Baby Twin :)

Pinterest Projects

I try to only pin projects and recipes that will actually happen in reality, but sometimes things are so cute or look so yummy I have to pin them because you never know...I may pull it off one day. The last two Pinterest pins I've accomplished were for cleaning. I know, it sounds boring, but I can't believe how well they actually worked! I was completely sold and will now us these cleaning tips all the time.

The first one is for the shower head. I cleaned it every time, but I decided to do this deep-cleaning idea: Shower Head Cleaner. I liked it for a couple of reasons. One, you can just follow the directions and then leave it. There's no elbow grease that needs to be put into it. Put the baggie with the cleaner in it and let it go. The second reason I like it is because it's not full of chemicals. There are the two simple ingredients that I assume are in every household. Try it, it works wonders.

My second cleaning miracle was on the fruit I gathered up today from Sprouts. I somewhat clean produce when I buy it, but since I peel most everything to make it into Baby Girl food, I don't worry about it too much. Stuff that I eat really just gets a glance over. I decided to try it tonight since there was time while I was putting away other groceries. DIY Fruit and Veggie Wash is pretty dang awesome. I put in apples, pears, and strawberries. Everything, after ten minutes, did look great, but it wasn't until I pulled the fruit out and drained the sink that I was impressed. The stuff left in the sink was dirt, almost like a dust.

I can't believe that was on the fruit! I am now a believer in thoroughly cleaning all produce.

Try it out for yourself because I think you will love the results!