She had a BLAST at the fair. She was well behaved, she listened, she had sooooo much fun, and it was a joy to spend the day with her and watch her experience all the delight of the fair.

I took lots of videos, which you can find on my youtube channel. (now that my video camera software is working properly I will be adding plenty more video ~ since it’s so easy. If you want to see new videos just subscribe to my channel and you’ll be notified when I add videos) I thought I would post some of the pics here since so everyone can see them.

While we were in the petting zoo the giraffe was peacefully sleeping. I’ve never seen a giraffe sleep with its neck wrapped around like this, it was so sweet.

Hanna LOVES horses. I’m not sure where it came from, but she truly loves horses. She has been talking about riding a horse at the fair for MONTHS. She was so excited to ride the pony. His name was Easy ~ now her rocking horse is named Easy too.

She and her Grandma have been talking about riding a camel for quite a while. I wasn’t sure she would really do it, but she did. She loved it. She was so much more outgoing and brave than she has ever been this year. She tried things I never expected her to follow through with this year.

The roller coaster was another thing I didn’t think she would actually do. She rode around about 3 or 4 times and seemed to be enjoying it. (There’s a video of the ride at Youtube), just after I turned off the video to grab the camera she got scared and started hanging on for dear life.  She came off the ride saying “I didn’t like that”, even now when I play the video she reiterates that fact.

Now ice cream on a stick I knew she’d have no problem with

There she is Future Farmer of a America. She drove the big orange tractor and got the t shirt to prove it. She really enjoyed that, even though she needed a little help steering so she didn’t run into the fence.

That’s about it. It was a long LONG day, but we had so much fun.

It all starts with a call from the coroner. It’s possible Kate’s brother in law has been found dead in the bay. That day she goes into labor. Once the baby is born and she gets home the mystery unfolds. Kate dreads going back to corporate America, having to leave her precious newborn.  As she begins to unravel the mystery she starts thinking maybe she could be a PI and be able to be home more with her baby.

The thing I particularly love about this book was how spot on the feelings she has are. The first time mom feelings about herself and her newborn daughter are portrayed exactly right. It took me back to the first few weeks I was a mother, and I could totally relate to Kate, her feelings, and her dilemmas.

This book is an easy read, it pulls you in and keeps you interested from beginning to end. The author even caught me by surprise at the end ~ which I always love.

It’s a good thing I got this book on a rainy Saturday, because it was tough to put down, and I ended up devouring it all in one day!!

If you like a good mystery I highly recommend “Bundle of Trouble A Maternal Instincts Mystery” ~ if you are a new mom, or can remember being a new mom, I double recommend it!

To work on this I have decided that when I start getting frustrated by something she is doing I will stop and ask myself

Does this REALLY matter?

and if it doesn’t really matter in the longterm scheme of things, to just let it go.

Today I had the perfect opportunity to practice this new tactic. My internet was down so I took it as a sign and we went outside to swim in the pool. I was actually reading a book while she played ~ my feet hanging over the edge in the water.

Hanna kept pouring water on my feet but was getting it too high so it was actually running down my entire leg getting my pants all wet. I started getting annoyed when she continued to do it after I asked her to just water my feet.

At almost the same exact moment as I asked myself “Does it really matter” she looked at me and said

“It doesn’t really matter mom, it’s just water. Sorry”.

HOLY SH*IT. She is only 3. How’d she get so frickin’ connected? I guess because she is 3.  I told her she was right it was only water, and it really didn’t matter, and we proceeded to get really wet. In fact, it turned out to be pretty fun, we laughed and played, and then when we were done a couple hours later I just changed my pants.

hmm.

Oh yeah, and she learned how to put her face in the water and blow bubbles today. Pretty cool.

Anyway ~ today I got my work done by 12:30p (the big stuff anyway) so Hanna and I grabbed lunch and then we went to the POOL!

She LOVES to swim. We usually go to the lake since we have a lake sticker and it doesn’t cost us anything to swim, but today there was just something about crystal clear water, with waterfalls and all kinds of fun water things that called to me.

She was having a blast ~ I got a couple pictures (no I didn’t forget the camera this time ~ my mom is still not letting me live it down that I forgot the camera for the Combine ride ~ yikes)

Just a couple minutes after this photo was taken ~ she jumped out of the pool and promptly fell down skinning both her knees.

After I scooped her up we sat under the big umbrella in the water to see how bad the wounds were I asked her if she wanted to go home ~ and she said YES.

I said, ok, but let’s sit down and get your knees to stop bleeding first and then see how we feel.

We sat over next to the lifeguard (who never moved a muscle) and he said “oh I saw you fall down over there ~ are you ok?” (and then asked me if there was blood over there on the pool deck). She started to warm up and milk the knee wounds for all they were worth.

Finally she decided she wasn’t quite ready to go home. We played in the little toddler pool, and went into the big pool as well. It was a lot of fun ~ a great way to spend a couple hours.

Saturday we created these great t shirts for Father’s Day. We made one for her dad, and one for one of her grandpas.   She had a blast and we used the rest of the paint to make some wrapping paper for the gifts.  The instructions said you have to iron in the paint so it won’t come off in the wash ~ however, I was totally unable to get the red paint off the outfit she was wearing. (what was I thinking doing this whole project with clothes on her??) I did iron the paint in and they turned out great.

Here’s Hanna and her dad on Father’s Day after we got home from dinner.

Well that’s about it. Hanna’s in bed, and I have an accountability call in about 30 minutes. So I guess I’ll go enjoy the silence for a few minutes.

There was some interesting interplay between Yanni and all the singers and musicians, and after the intermission, the show took a definitely sexual overtone, but the music was amazing.

Each of the four singers had such different qualities.

Chloe ~ the brunette  ~  a poweful seductive voice, very sexy.

Ender ~ lyrics in spanish ~ was very enthusiastic. I’d say his voice was the one I connected with the least, but it was still beautiful.

Leslie ~ the blonde ~ her voice was mystical and lyrical. Her lyrics poetic. I particularly liked her.

Nathan ~ lyrics in Italian (I believe) a stunning voice that literally took my breath away each time he sang. Powerful, strong, but lyrical and gentle. AMAZING.

If you have a chance to see Yanni live I’d definitly grab it while you can. If he’s not coming to a town near you, grab the Yanni Voices CD, it’s an amazing compilation of talent.

Speaking of talent, we haven’t even talked about the musicians yet. OVER the top. Amazing. From the violin, cello, guitar, to a harp solo like nothing from this world. Even a rockin guitar solo. The trumpet player was so amazing there really are no words. When all of it came together it was a 3 (yes, 3) hour show that rivals anyone I’ve ever seen live.

If you’ve never heard of Yanni or Yanni Voices, Yanni is an instrumental composer. He’s never used lyrics or the voice as an instrument in his work before. For this project, he found 4 up and coming vocalists and had them create lyrics for his compositions. What was created was 4 completely different types of music, each one incredible in its own way.

If you haven’t heard Yanni, here’s a little taste.

This is Leslie ~ The Keeper

Here’s Nathan with Enchantment (turn this one up as loud as your speakers can handle. It’s much better that way.

Enjoy!

For the last couple years ~ since Hanna figured out how much fun the playground is, we’ve been driving at least 20 miles each way to get to the playground.

As a work at home mom this can be tough ~ it really comes down to a 2 hour chunk of the day if we decide to go to the playground.

This new playground find means I can easily take her to the playground more often and just “cuz”.  She has a rough time in the afternoons sometimes, now we can just jump in the car for a quick change of scenery.  Maybe a quick picnic lunch and swim before I get to the afternoon’s tasks? Sounds great.

Today, since it was the first day we found the place, I got all my work done early and we grabbed the neighbor and her kids and headed out to the lake. We ended up spending the whole afternoon. AAH the kids had so much fun. Playing in the water, digging in the sand, sliding down the slide.

I forgot to take my camera but I won’t forget next time.

The only problem ~ we got home late in the afternoon and while she was eating a sandwich Hanna fell asleep in the kitchen chair. Hmmm… maybe a new secret “get her to sleep” method??!

As you may know I am working on having more fun and feeling good for the Boundless Living Challenge this go around. The first few days were rough.  I had to get a handle on “what is fun” ~ and especially what it means for me. With the support of some great friends, I’ve made some breakthroughs in that area! yay.

So I already posted on my BLC blog this great John Mayer song that made me feel great today. But I just love him and his music and then this song came on right after I posted to that blog. I love this song. It makes me want to dance~ actually it doesn’t make me WANT to dance, it makes me DANCE!!! Jump up, grab Hanna spin around, be silly.

Today’s been a great day, and just wanted to share a little of the fun.

Here’s the words just in case you don’t know them.

“Welcome to the real world”, she said to me
Condescendingly
Take a seat
Take your life
Plot it out in black and white
Well I never lived the dreams of the prom kings
And the drama queens
I’d like to think the best of me
Is still hiding
Up my sleeve

They love to tell you
Stay inside the lines
But something’s better
On the other side

I wanna run through the halls of my high school
I wanna scream at the
Top of my lungs
I just found out there’s no such thing as the real world
just a lie you’ve got to rise above

So the good boys and girls take the so called right track
Faded white hats
Grabbing credits
and
Maybe transfers
They read all the books but they can’t find the answers
And all of our parents
They’re getting older
I wonder if they’ve wished for anything better
While in their memories
Tiny tragedies

They love to tell you
Stay inside the lines
But something’s better
On the other side

I wanna run through the halls of my high school
I wanna scream at the
Top of my lungs
I just found out there’s no such thing as the real world
Just a lie you got to rise above

I am invincible (x3)
As long as I’m alive

I wanna run through the halls of my high school
I wanna scream at the
Top of my lungs
I just found out there’s no such thing as the real world
Just to lie you’ve got to rise above

I just can’t wait til my 10 year reunion
I’m gonna bust down the double doors
And when I stand on these tables before you
You will know what all this time was for.

The first one I did a challenge around my business. The results were amazing.

The second challenge I started around losing some weight and getting fit ~ that did not go so well.

Here it is the 3rd challenge and I am working on having more fun and being a lighter, more light hearted person.

You can read my challenge intention and my blog posts so far at my page at the challenge.

As part of that challenge I am trying to spend a little more time doing fun things and letting more fun things into my life.  To that end today I was looking through some funny videos.

I found this video ~ it’s not funny, but it is AMAZING. Take a look.

IF you are experiencing challenges in your life, or just have something you want to change or move past stop by the Boundless Living Challenge. It will rock your world.