Halloween Costumes

This year for Halloween, we got our first snow of the season. It was gone by the time we went trick-or-treating with Kiannah, but it was certainly a surprise!

Kiannah decided to be a witch this year! She did an awesome job of bargain shopping, too. We got a used dress and her hat new for under $5 all together. We layered black shirts and tights underneath to keep her warm, and she wore these adorable lacy combat boots that Justin's sister got her for her birthday last year. 

 Maddi, we knew, wasnt going to be out of her seat much, so she wore a cupcake onesie and the cupcake hat my mom bought for Kiannah when she was born. She was my little cupcake!

 Daddy used an old ripped shirt and some old jeans along with some of mommy's makeup around his eyes and mouth to go for the zombie look.

 And finally, mommy wore her onesie to be the little kid running around with her cupcake!!

Pumpkins!

So tonight we decided to carve our pumpkins, and even though I asked, Justin didn't take pictures of the project being done because Maddi kept being ornery.

Kiannah chose Maddox's pumpkin to have heart eyes, a circle nose, and a smile. 

Kia chose her pumpkin to have triangle eyes and a triangle nose and a smile with teeth. 

Justin made his sad and puking its guts out. 

I made a tree-like shape with a moon. 

The Cuteness Goes On.

I just had to share how cute my family's baby pictures are.

Justin's mom

Justin's mom again.

 

Justin♥

Kiannah Elsamarie♥

Maddox Emmersyn♥

Family Fall Festival

Today we had our annual Fall Festival. It was the third year in a row that we have done this festival on the fire department. We have been trying to raise money for a new grass rig. Especially being in the middle of cornfields and prarie, we need a reliable grass rig and ours, it isn't much to brag about. So we started this fall festival with a silent auction to help raise funds.

The bounce house. 

Feeling buckets featuring things like brains (oatmeal), scabs (potato chips), and warts (raisins). 

Our mascots. 

Pumpkin coloring station. 

Some of the pumpkins the kids colored. 

Trailer full ready to go. 

Some people checking out our silent auction. 

You can see a few items that were auctioned off here. 

We had MANY donations. 

A view of the pop ring toss and the giant Jenga. 

All in all, we raised almost $1000 from the event, a great contribution to the grass rig fund. We had a blast watching the kids play and taking part in the bidding, too!!

Trendsetter

Kiannah decided to get her hair cut. She saw my hair cut and after a few months of begging me, I finally gave in and let her chop her hair. She has only ever had one trim in her whole life so it was hard for me to agree. 

Before

Before

Commence Mommy Tears

After- She was THRILLED

Her curls are almost gone :o

Kiannah did hers yesterday, then today, my mom got hers done. I must have started something. Mom got a cut, and some high and low lights. 

Before

Before 

My foil head 

After! 

I Did A Thing.

Yesterday, I decided to make a change. You know they say, when a woman goes through big changes in life, she changes her hair. Here is my latest trend.

Before- Front View

Before- Back View

During - CHOP CHOP CHOP!

After.

I went with a long bob cut, sorry I don't have any pictures of the back. Then, I had my sister dye it a dark burgundy. It looks black inside, and reddish/purple out in the light.

It's Not About The Money, Money, Money

Yesterday, as I was walking around Hobby Lobby, I started looking at wedding decorations and such. I figured it couldn't hurt to start looking around and getting an idea of some things I wanted to then go and get when they were on sale.

I saw this beautiful sign that was a count down to the wedding day.

They wanted over $20 for it. That's fine and good, but I'm not made of money. I went over to their craft section. I found a back board, a wooden heart, a wooden 'P' for Peters, some plum and slate blue paint (the colors Justin picked for the wedding, along with fall colors,) and knew I had chalkboard paint at home. 

Since I am a bargain/clearance/coupon shopper, I got all of the supplies to make mine for $7.

I honestly forgot to take pictures of the step by step, but I can go through them.

1. I painted the back board plum.
2. I painted the 'P' blue.
3. I painted the heart with chalkboard.
4. I got a piece of scrapbook paper and cut out the shape of the middle. I didn't want to write directly on the board, so that after we are married, I can use the sign for something else if I wish. 
5. I wrote the phrase "Until We Say 'I do'" in silver sharpie.
6. I used wood glue to connect the heart and the 'P'.

 Here is my finished project:

Snail Mail.

Do you remember being little and getting a letter in the mail, whether it was a Christmas card, a magazine, or even junk mail, and you were SO excited?

I still love getting hand written mail and letters from people, in fact I have had a number of pen pals across the United States and eventually, they all just stop responding. It can get costly, stamps, envelopes, paper. Most people don't want to spend the money on letters when they can pull out their smartphone and send a text or email for free. It's all about the penny pinching.

I've been trying to start on wedding details, but seeing as how we are two years out, there isn't a lot I can do at the moment. Therefore, I've been trying to at least start a rough guest list and create an address book. How am I getting addresses? Texting. Facebook. Email. Phone calls. Crazy how even when I'm trying to get a way to get a hold of someone via USPS, I rely on technology.

Just a random thought of the day.

Where's The Loyalty Rewards?

I have been on Verizon since before it was even Verizon. My mom has been on the same phone plan with the same phone number since 1993. But you never hear about anything for loyalty, only "Sign up today and get a free ____!" "We will pay your termination fee!"

Sure, I get "rewards points" for paying my bill on time that coincide with the amount I'm spending, but lets be honest: They are USELESS.

I just logged into my account. 208,860 rewards points. You know what my options are?

1. Use 200 points to enter into a sweepstakes.
2. Use rewards points to buy things in auctions (if you win).
3. Local deals. Get $10 of every $30 spent at Rue21 for 1000 points. Get a large pizza for the price of a medium pizza for 2000 points at Godfather's Pizza. Awesome, but you still have to spend more money. 
4. There is merchandise, like jewelry. For example, you could get Swarovski Swan Lake earrings that retail $119 for $80 if you spend 3,900 points. 
5. Gift Cards, same as merchandise. 
6. Hotels. Once again, I don't have extra money. 

So why can't they make it to where you can use your points for something useful, like money off your next bill, or a otterboxes or lifeproof cases to help keep your phone in working order? Their rewards system is as good as pointless. 

Bullying

I've been thinking a lot about my short little post from yesterday. It got me thinking, I am going to bring something up that I find to be quite troubling.

Kiannah has never been to a daycare. She has never been to a babysitter. When she needed to be watched while I was at work or school, my grandma, my uncle, my mom, my sisters watched her. Never a babysitter. But with that, there is the fact she wasn't around kids much. Her little cousin, yes. We did try to take her to parks often, so she could socialize.

She always did amazing playing with others. Even if they were mean, or hurtful, she would still play and be nice. We went to the park one time, and went to the bathroom. When we came out, there were two buses at the park. Two different schools had brought their special needs kids to the park to play. Kiannah played with all of them. When we left, she said "Mom, I loved those kids, they were older than me and still played with me and had so much fun." She's always had the biggest heart.

But now, in school it's all different. She's started acting out. She has an assigned seat on the bus for spitting on someone for being mean to her.

The most heartbreaking thing though, happened right before bedtime.

We were getting ready for bed and I asked her if she was excited to see her friends tomorrow at school. She said "Mom I don't have any friends." I asked her what she meant, there are around 100 kids in her grade, surely she has a friend or two at the least. She proceeded to tell me that at recess they have this bench that is called the "buddy bench." If you are alone, and want a buddy you go sit on said bench and if someone sees you there, they are supposed to go get you from the bench and find something you can do together so no one has to play alone. She told me she will go to that bench at the beginning of recess, and at the end of the recess, she is still there alone. Alone. My beautiful, amazing, little girl. Alone.

How do you fathom that as a parent? When it's you, yourself, you can brush it off. Say oh well, and try again tomorrow. But this is my daughter. The person I'm raising. The woman I am supposed to empower. Alone.

She told me that people at school make fun of her and say she has an ugly face. My beautiful little girl.

Parent Teacher Conferences

I have never been the parent at the parent teacher conferences. I have always been the one to sit and listen or in elementary school, went down to the book fair to play while my mom went. But now, I'm the parent. Next Thursday, I am supposed to go to the parent teacher conference for Kiannah. Her very first one. And, in all honesty, it's terrifying.

Do I just sit and listen while her teacher tells me how shes doing? Do I have to be prepared with questions? Is she going to drill me as to how I am as a parent?

It's terrifying.

It's A Family Thing.

Does your family get family photos taken? 

My family never got photos taken of all of us, unless it was for something important like a baptism. (I think my baptism was the last one we had.) But, I do have a few generational photos with my family. One on my mom's side, and one on my dad's side.

My first family photo looks a lot more professional, we got them taken at the mall. A photo studio was doing $20 for one 8"x10" photo and you got a full session so if you liked any of the other pictures, you could buy a full package. We bought the whole package. :)

The first generation in this photo is my grandma, Helga. She was 63 when this photo was taken, and still looks the exact same. 

My mother, generation two, is Corinna. She was 44 when this picture was taken. 

I am generation three, and was 17 in this photo. 

My eldest daughter, Kiannah is generation four, and was almost one year old. 

My second generation photo is of my dad's side of the family. Though I am not sure of ages, the order is as follows:

Generation 1: Marjorie, my great-grandma. She has since passed away. 

Generation 2: Gilbert Dale, my grandfather. 

Generation 3: Steven Dale, my father.

Generation 4: Britni Kay, myself.

Generation 5: Kiannah, my daughter. 

I need to make it a thing to get more photos, for more memories like this. 

Today, The Announcement.

Two years from today, Justin and I will say 'I do'. 

We chose a date two years in the future so that we have adequate time to pay off the engagement ring, both bands, and save up for the wedding itself. 

Buy or Adopt?

All of the animals we have ever owned have been rescued, except one. We bought Abbie, my mom's german shorthair/chocolate lab mix from a couple that had a farm on the outskirts of Grand Island. She is the only non-rescue we've had.

When I was younger we had a dog named Ciba. When she was a puppy, a friend of my mom's found her living off ciba seed corn, hence the name.One day, they asked if my parents could keep her until they found a place to move to where they could have her. They never came back.

Sassy was a beautiful gray cat that we had for most of my childhood. My mom and sister found her in a bag in the cornfield, pregnant and abandoned.

Our neighbors had a black and white cat they called Speedy. When they moved out, we noticed the cat would go beg on their doorstep for food, so we started putting cat food outside and calling it over. We named him Sylvester.

A friend of a friend had a german shorthair/chocolate lab mix. When her and her boyfriend broke up, she aid he could take it or it would be put down. She didn't want it. No one was going to have it if neither of them did. We got in touch with the ex-boyfriend. Now, we have Jenna.

When I moved in with Justin, I hated being in his apartment when he was at work. I didn't feel welcome. It was his home, not mine. I went to the Humane Society and brought home Catatonic.

Lastly, a friend of ours was working security detail at an event center in Grand Island last winter. A cat ran in the building when he opened the door to get out of the cold. He ended up catching her and giving her to us. Esmerelda (Izzy).

I never understood why so many people pay hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars on an animal when there are so many with families who do not want them, and hundreds of them in shelters waiting for someone to 'save' them.

Because Why Not Make A Bucket List, Right?

I really dropped the ball on my 30 day blog challenge.

Here goes nothing, Bucket List Time!

1. See both of my girls graduate, get married, and start families. 

2. Go to Germany - Family home, concentration camps.

3. Visit all 50 states. 

4. Learn another language.

5. Buy a house.

6. Ride in a helicopter.

7. Be able to communicate in sign language.

8. Run a mile in under eight minutes again.

9. See a musical on Broadway. 

10. Become more confident.

11. Prepare a will. 

12. Create a family tree. 

13. Volunteer for Wild Life Rescue. 

14. Visit 6 continents.

15. Snorkel the Great Barrier Reef.

16. Have a full food garden. 

17. Plant a tree.

18. Adopt a dog.

19. Own a horse.

20. Get married. 

The Simplest of Things

Have you ever woken up in a bad mood, and just didn't have any good reason why? Have you noticed that the slightest thing you do can set the mood for everyone around you? 

Friday, I woke up in a bad mood. I didn't want to go to town. I didn't want to get dressed for the day. Hell, I didn't even want to get out of bed. I don't have a good reason for it, but I did. My friend Taylar called me and came over first thing in the morning. Being around her makes my mood better. So we talked. We vented. We ranted. We just hung out. I was worried when she left I would return to my angry Britni self, so I decided to bake. I wanted to do something nice for Justin to make sure he would be in a happier mood. Even if I was a moody butthead, he didn't need it taken out on him. So, I baked. Big muffins, little muffins, and cookies. Bunches of them. 

I sent some home with Taylar for her boyfriend, and she went home. I wanted her to be able to have a good mood with her, too. 

Justin came home from work and was so excited to see that I had made a gesture, even as small as making baked goods and doing the dishes. It put him in a good mood, which made me happy. A few hours later, he ran to Grand Island to see a friend, and came home with these gorgeous roses:

It just goes to show you, sometimes you just have to make happiness happen around you, but if you do, it will be returned. ♥

Wild Little Critter

**Warning: Graphic photo to follow. 

Living in the small town, surrounded by cornfields and not too far from the river, means you sometimes get some wild little visitors.

When I was younger, my mom was a stay-at-home mommy. She put her blood, sweat, and tears in to taking care of my sisters and I, but she also volunteered for a program called the Wild Life Rescue Team. She would frequently get squirrels, raccoons, and opossums. Mostly babies whose parents had been trapped, killed, or run over and then the babies were discovered later. We would bottle feed them, rehabilitate them, and then they would be released into a no hunting area. That is where my love of all animals began.

The last few weeks, we have had an opossum visitor. He was in our lean-to when I fed our cats a few times and they didn't mind each other. In fact, the cats would love up on him. This being said, we let him stay. We fed him when he came around, and I ended up calling him Chaz.

He loved the old couch cushions we gave him. 

As you may be able to see, his front leg was injured when he came by one day. It looked as though he had gotten his foot caught and chewed his own paw off to get free. I felt horrible for him, and ended up keeping him in our cat enclosure outside to call Wild Life Rescue. I called them last Friday morning (We had put him in the enclosure Thursday night with food and water) and explained I had an injured animal. While waiting to hear, I would frequently go out and give him love. He would roll on his back and I would rub his belly, and scratch the back of his neck.

He looked so sad when I was taking him in, he had grown close to me and would come up to me to let me pet him. 

Around five that evening, we got a call someone could take him into the sanctuary to have a vet examine his leg and then complete rehab, and he would be released when that was all accomplished. I couldn't help but hurt for him when I loaded him up, taking him away from his 'home'. But, as you can see below, he needed help. 

The poor baby. 

I wish I could say that I knew how he was since then, but unfortunately I don't. I can only hope he got the help he needed and is on the fast track to recovery. 

Keep Your Unwanted Advice Away!

When I found out I was pregnant with Kiannah, my life began a never-ending episode of "THIS-is-what-you-should-do." "Are you having a boy? Are you going to circumcise him? Of course you are, everyone knows that's what you do!" "You're not going to let that baby nurse whenever she feels like it are you? You know that's bad for them, to not be on a schedule!" "Are you really going to take time off of high school to be a mom? You're 16 why don't you just give it up for adoption!?"

Instead of being a beautiful, memorable thing, it became a I-don't-want-to-leave-my-house thing. Why would I want to be around all of these people who 'support' me when all they want to do is shove their beliefs down my throat. Whether or not to breastfeed. When to start using a bottle, too. When to start baby food. Which brand of EVERYTHING to use. How and when to take her pacifier away. How and when to potty train.

Do people realize that if you really wanted the advice you would ask? Especially if you've done it before. You would think that Maddox being my second child, let alone my second girl, that people would understand I have this under control. But the 'suggestions' keep on coming, like a dam broke loose and no one can control themselves. "Just wait until she can crawl! You'll really be in for it!" "Wait until she's teething, you're never going to get any rest!" I understand every child is different, but I've been through this. Stop trying to scare me into thinking that all of these things aren't beautiful milestones helping to shape the little lives that I brought into the world.

But OMG if you have kids and aren't married -- WATCH TF OUT. You have a whole other thing coming your way when and if you do tie the knot.

Sorry for my abbreviated language but seriously. Over the last week, if I have learned ANYTHING, it is that your wedding is not for you. Not supposedly anyways. My best friend is engaged and we were trying to start planning a few things yesterday when she came over. Her fiance's family wants them to have a destination wedding somewhere on a beach so that they can use it as an excuse for a vacation.

I've had people suggest a destination wedding to rule out some planning. I've had people try to change my color scheme and my decoration ideas (OF WHICH WE HAVEN'T EVEN ANNOUNCED OR HARDLY TOLD ANYONE ABOUT). But more than anything else, people are complaining about our date -- which we haven't announced yet either. Most people only know that we are planning on Fall of 2019.

TWO YEARS!?! We will be engaged for two years! Yes! We have a few things that need done before we get married. We want to have the engagement ring and both wedding bands paid off entirely before getting married. We want to be able to pay for most of our wedding on our own because neither of us want to push it off on our wedding party or our family. We want to have adequate time to plan and decide a wedding that shows both of us in it, not just me, not just him. WE are getting married, and let me tell you I already have gotten in the habit of letting people know that their advice is unnecessary.

It's not always easy to tell your close friends and family or even strangers when you don't want to know exactly how they did everything, or their opinion for that matter. So, tell me, how do you handle getting advice you didn't want? What topics did people continually give you unwanted advice about?

Mommy Jealousy.

I bet you read that title and thought I was going to be talking about my my five-year-old, Kiannah, being jealous of her two-month-old sister, Maddox. I can tell you already, you are very, very wrong.

What I indeed meant by 'mommy jealousy' is when mommy gets jealous when her kids are with someone else.

My mom has a friend that she has known since high school, named Russ. Russ doesn't have a wife or kids of his own and has always been very close to my family, closer than my real aunts and uncles even. When I was younger he was my best friend. He would stay over at my parent's house and have camp outs in the living room with me, play games, and take me to the park. When I got older and mom and I would argue because I was a preteen and knew everything, he would take me on drives and we would just drive and listen to music, or he would teach me about photography. We were best friends. Now, Kiannah is his best friend.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not jealous that she likes spending time with him. I love that he has someone to spend time with and that she has a friend besides her parents, but I miss her. I miss her when she's at school, and then she comes home and wants to go to great-grandma's house, or memaw's house, or go stay at memaw's house with Uncle Russ. She wants to go do things, which is wonderful, but she never wants to call. She doesn't want to come back home. I miss her.

I guess you can't say I'm really that jealous, it's more of just.. I miss my baby. She may not be the baby anymore, but she will always be my baby, and I will always miss her.

Do you ever get 'jealous' when your kids stay the night somewhere?

Wedding.. Party?

Who knew it would be so hard to pick a wedding party? You have sisters, new sister-in-laws, best friends, old high school friends. You don't want anyone who wants to be involved to be left out, you don't want to forget to put someone in your wedding that you want in there but don't know if they will agree to it. You just don't know. How do you narrow it down? And what if the bride-to-be has about 15 people and the groom only has three? What then? This whole thing is just confusing.

I planned my sister's wedding with her, as her Maid of Honor. I'm planning my best friend's wedding right now, as her Maid of Honor. But holy moly, I had no idea how different it would be to do it as the bride. I don't even want help to do it because I want to do it all. I want to do it so that I can honestly know and say when things are done, be sure everything is done, and have it how I want it (CRAP.. isn't that the definition of Bridezilla!)

It's funny how into this I've gotten myself considering I'm pretty sure just last week I was telling my sister how I never wanted to get married. Maybe I've been lying to myself, just in case he never asked, but I've never been happier knowing I get to spend the rest of my life with this man. Sure, we always planned on being together, but this just.. changes things. I love him with all of my heart. ♥

Oops! Embarrassing!!

I've been so caught up in the engagement I've been slacking, and I believe it's safe to say I've failed, the Thirty Day Blog Challenge. Anyhow, I shall resume where I left off.

Thirty Day Blog Challenge: Post Nine.
One of Your Most Embarrassing Moments.

Where do I even begin? I'm not one to be embarrassed by much, in fact, in high school I made a sort of target out of myself. I thought that if I wasn't affected by the whispers and name-calling, I could use it to my advantage. I dyed my hair crazy colors, dressed like an imbecile. I made myself a target for people who needed to pick on someone else, in hopes maybe they would leave someone else alone.

It took me awhile to get that confidence, though. When I was younger, I remember playing on the monkey bars at recess. I climbed up onto the equipment, and without calculating that it was wet outside, jumped out and tried to catch myself on the monkey bars. I caught, but with the dew on the bars, my hand slipped and I belly-flopped to the ground and directly into a mud puddle. It was right at the end of recess, and I walked in like nothing ever happened. A teacher found me sopping wet and I ended up being taken to the locker rooms where I could shower in peace and they found me an outfit.

I was the mud covered, monkey bar failure for a few weeks.

Exciting News!

WE'RE ENGAGED!!!

October 9, 2017 the love of my life proposed to me. I can not even begin to explain how happy I am!

Fangirling out over my gorgeous ring!

Strawberry gold, with white and chocolate diamonds.

Sealed with a kiss. 

 More details to come!