Daylight Savings, a train ride, and Thankfulness day 6!

Sitting here next to my hubby, watching Zack and Miri, and STILL POSTING!! I am going to make this quick, I love this movie, and I love the man sitting next to me who needs a cuddle buddy :)

First, today is the first day that daylight savings time ended. I was very excited for the extra hour of sleep, but unfortunately Aiden woke up from what I can only guess was a nightmare. Again. Poor little guy wakes up crying and wants to be held or wants to sleep in mama and dada's bed. Sadly, we've caved. At 4/5am we are weak willed and half asleep . First time this happened where he would not go back to sleep he stayed with us the rest of the night. Luckily, this is not a common occurrence where he won't go back to sleep after he wakes, but we've been trying to be good about NOT taking him into our bed. Last night, I was weak and brought him to our bed, but just to cuddle for a short period. I stuck with this. After about 20 minutes, I took him back to his bed, I talked to him and gave him kisses and told him how it is night time. I went to leave and he cried for me. He eventually gave up, asking for his door to be opened which helped him be okay [not sure why]. I am at a loss here, and definitely did not get the extra hour of sleep I was hoping for.. it took me an extra half hour to get back to sleep!!
 


Moving on.... :)

Today we had a most exciting day! I surprised Aiden with a trip to the Ohio Railway Museum that is not far from us. Andrea was kind enough to join us in the fun, since Chris had to work :( ((We tried to do this yesterday, but they were closed)) Aiden absolutely loved all the old trains we got to see, and the most exciting part was the train ride we got to experience. Aiden's first one, of course :)

We began the fun filled day with lunch at Steak and Shake. It was actually a little frustrating because I was running later than I was hoping for and the service took FOREVER, but it ended up working out for the better.

After lunch we had to make a quick stop at the bank to get some cash. We forgot they only accept cash, they are very small and on a very small budget. After the quick stop, it was off to the Ohio Railway Museum. We saw so many neat, old trains. Aiden was definitely excited!


The first train we saw began with where the common seating, or coach if you relate it to a plane ride.

A very old and tiny sink, and a heater were one of the first things you saw walking in

 So neat, this is where they would divide the mail. There was way more slots that I would have thought. I didn't even know you could retrieve mail while on a train

A little sad, but this is right after the mail area. A coffin. Aiden didn't notice it or understand

Down the way there was an area with some seating, a lot of sinks, and a restroom. 

Then we began to get into the nicer area, or "first class" I imagine

These old trains were so neat to see, and imagine life when they were still running!

Aiden enjoyed all the areas he was allow to run and climb!

This is the engine of the huge steam engine train they had that we were allow to go up and in!! It was so big and neat, I had to snap some photos.

These were some of the other trains we got to see...

Aiden on the front of the steam engine! He did not want to sit still for this, but we still managed to get a couple pictures

The red "bus" train from a couple pictures up was our next stop!

These  "bus" trains, as I call them, have 2 drivers seats! Yep, 2. The take you one way, and when they have arrived at the destination, and it's time to go back, the driver moves from one end of the train to the other while the train is stopped. We saw this on our train ride, it's pretty neat. The seats adjust, as well, so you never have to face backwards if you don't want to.

Another smaller steam engine of sorts. We got on it, but there were little to no rails so I was a nervous wreck having Aiden up there wanting to explore without holding my hand. It was pretty tall!

FINALLY! TIME FOR OUR TRAIN RIDE!

This is the signal used to show when it is safe to go and not for the drivers of the train

Someone is super excited for the train ride that is about to begin....

Nevermind the giant green monkey beside us. There was no explanation as to why it was there besides the fact that we were on the green train!


Needless to say, we had a great time with a great friend on a new little adventure. Aiden got a new t-shirt and a whistle to remember today by. We had our own guide to told us a lot of the history of the railway and the trains that lay on them. There was also a fantastic view at some points.

The had some really neat things inside, as well, which is where I bought Aiden  his new shirt and whistle!

Overall, it was a great day, and my little man was so tuckered out!!I feel I should also mention it was only $5/each for Andrea and I, and children are free until they are 4!

Hope you've enjoyed the little tour of our Sunday :) Now it's time for my thanks givings for the day


1. I am very thankful for the beautiful weather and the wonderful day I had with my little man, and my best friend Andrea.

2. I am thankful that my husband had time to get us into his work and get my oil changed today, so I don't have to worry about it later this week.

3. I am thankful for the wonderful double date dinner we had with our new friends Kelly and Jess. We have much in common, and I look forward to our friendship growing

4. I am thankful for the changes that are happening at work, even if I am nervous. It is nice to feel important.

5. I am thankful that my house has stayed clean for 3 days in a row, with only a little picking up here or there

6. I am thankful for the medicine I have available to me, especially tonight, when my arthritis is hurting quite bad

7. I am thankful for the conversations I've had with my cousin Sarah Liz recently, they've been wonderful and I am loving growing closer to her!

8. I am thankful for blankets. Today I have been cold a lot, and right now I am underneath and cozy warm blanket we received as a wedding gift from friends, and I'm enjoy how warm I am!

9. I am thankful that my loud neighbors are not making a peep tonight!! Hoping to not wake up in the middle of the night wondering what they could possibly be doing!

10. Finally, I am thankful for the photo session I booked tonight for November19th!!! SO SO excited to get our first batch of professional photos taken as a family!!

What are you thankful for? Did you do anything fun this weekend, or have any fun plans in the future??? I need more ideas for when winter is here!

Thankfulness Day 5

1. I am thankful for the family filled day I had with my boys <3 Did not get to do as much together as we were hoping for, but it was nice to have family time

2. I am thankful that my little man went right to sleep, no fussing or fighting

3. I am SO thankful for the extra hour of sleep we'll be getting because of daylight savings time ending tonight [hoping Aiden will allow this]

4. I am thankful for the uninterrupted alone time my husband and I got to have while watching 'V for Vendetta' since Aiden was asleep

5. I am thankful for my nice planner that helps keep my life organized

6. I am thankful for lists, without them I'd be lost completely!!

7. I am thankful for the relaxing back rub my sweet hubby gave me while watching a movie tonight

8. I am thankful for how helpful my Aiden is, he always has to be a part of helping when I am cleaning or organizing something. It's very sweet

9. I am thankful for the convictions God is working with me on in my life

10. I am thankful that I got a little more organized when I went through a few things in our storage area today :)

Friday fun and thankfulness

Today was such a great day!! It's 1am on Saturday the 5th, but I am referring to Friday :) I just got done having a great girls night! After getting off work a little late I went to dinner with Andrea, and then went to Giant Eagle to pick up some wine, beer, bowels, and junk food, and then we went to my house where the girlies met us. It was a fun night of girl talk, junk food, and some tasty wine[coolers]. I unfortunately did not snap any photos :( I was very caught up in all the fun we were having! In addition to having a great day, I was informed at work that I will be transferring back to the department I originally started in because I am a valuable asset there, and am much needed. It was a nerve racking but exciting thing to hear. I have a lot to life up to, but am excited for the opportunity. Anyway, for now, I am going to follow through with my 14 reasons I am thankful, and as long as I post tomorrow, I am all caught up :)


1. I am thankful to have had such a wonderful Friday night with girlfriends I can only pray I continue to grow closer to!

2. I am thankful for a clean house that my husband so graciously went over, on his day off, to make sure was spotless for my girls night I hosted
 
3. I am thankful for a healthy Aiden...not specific to today, but I was reminded today how blessed I am to have such a healthy son

4. I am thankful for Franklin University, and what a neat professors they have hired!

5. I am thankful for the 88% I received in my MGMT312 class as my final grade :)

6. I am thankful for comfy pants which I am so comfortably wearing right now, and can wait to sleep in

7. I am so thankful for a nice warm bed, I am so tired and cannot wait to climb into it

8. I am thankful for having a reliable vehicle, and a most smart husband who can fix practically anything the car throws at us

9. I am thankful for the chili recipe for chili my beautiful mother in law provided me with. We enjoyed it for dinner Thursday night, and I am pretty sure it will be lunch tomorrow!

10. I am thankful uninterrupted sleep

11. I am thankful to be seen as a valuable asset at my work, and have a company that expresses it

12. I am thankful for my cousin Sarah who is going to help me decorate and make my house beautiful, like I can't

13. I am thankful for this blog, and for having the motivation and time to post to it so I have memories. I am learning more about digital scrap booking thanks to a friend, and am hoping to only improve the creativity in me to make beautiful memories come to life...I have zero creativity so this is an adventure.

14. I am thankful that I was able to find a reasonably priced, and amazing photographer, in Columbus, to photograph my family this November :)



This is short, but I am hoping for a most exciting Saturday. Stay tuned.

November Thankfulness

As promised, I am keeping up with this now, as best I can. My ultimate goal is to post once a day....or at the very least every other. After all, this is for me, so the motivation is there, I just have to make sure there is time. I am slowly shifting things in my life to involve a little more "me" time, and an increase in productivity! I do fine with keeping the house clean, the laundry done, and the bed made..for the most part.... but I want more creativeness in my household, more pictures up, more memories made. I am including those creativity goals under my 'productivity' because they are important to me, and will only add to the our house feeling more like home. We've been here 3 months now, and still not a single picture is hung. We are, however, really getting into the holidays this year, I am still trying to come up with traditions we can incorporate, but for now I'm focusing on decorating for fall and am already thinking about Christmas time decorating.

Look what I've done so far..

It is a small table, and right now is one of the only things decorated for fall, but I got the cute table cloth, 4 place mats, and 4 little plates at Giant Eagle for around $10 total. I'm not sure the little plates look the best, but the bigger plates for $7/each, so I was just trying these out. They were only $1/each. I'm not creative, but am slowly coming up with better ways to decorate and get crafty for the holidays. I not shy to say I am taking a lot of ideas from friends and family who are much more crafty than I.


On another note, today I was reading a friend's blog who I continuously follow, and she has begun a month long blog trend I would like to follow. My friend is Bethany Vitt [so credit is given where it is due] and she has decided she is going to post 10 reasons why she thankful the whole month of November. Obviously, I am a little behind since it's November 3rd... so I was thinking I would post as many reasons tonight as I can, and come up with the difference tomorrow to catch up! :)

Here are just a few of the things I am thankful for in my life today

1. I am thankful for this handsome, smart, loving little man

  

2. I am thankful for that little man's daddy and the support he provides for his family

3. I am to be part time at a job that understands and values time with family, and that daycare is expensive. They are flexible and let me go down to part time [Monday, Tuesday, and Friday] without any hesitation or worry I would lose my job. I have so much more time with my baby boy, and I am loving every second of it! Even the temper tantrum moments

4. I am thankful for the change in attitude I've had recently thanks to my Franklin University Coach, my husband, my dad through many conversations of wisdom, and God for putting such wonderful people in my life. I am a overall very happy and positive person, but was consumed by a terrible negativity regarding life while finishing my degree, and more specifically life after I graduate. I wasn't completely aware of how negative I was, or how much it was consuming my life, but this realization of needing to say positive [and a more personal realization of needing to give more to God] these past 2 weeks has been emotionally life changing.

5. I am thankful for God and all His goodness he continuously shows me and my family throughout our lives and trials, and for growing up in a home that provided me with the faith to believe in Him.

6. I am thankful for my best friend Andrea and the time she takes out to spend with me and my Aiden, she truly is an incredible friend, and I am so blessed to have her in my life.

7. I am thankful for my parents and all the love and support they give me. Especially my dad, "Sampa" to Aiden, who ensures lunch with me every Friday :)

8.  I am thankful that my laptop is still in working condition after a scare when it continued to freeze after everything I did. My husband took it apart and blew some air through it, and it's running good as ever. Pheww! I'd be lost without my laptop!

9. I am thankful for the NOT subartic temperatures that I know are eventually inevitable. I'm loving Fall, just a light jacket and we're off to have some fun at the park.

10. I am thankful for for having had a most wonderful October which ended with an exciting night of trick or treat. Aiden got to trick or treat in my dad and Marcy's neighborhood and had a blast doing it. Was kind of shy with some people, but always said thank you :) He was the cutest Elmo I ever saw

11. I am SO thankful for how much my Aiden loves to read and learn. He is constantly wanting to read, or counting something, or asking questions. I can only pray his love of learning stays with him forever. He is such a smart boy

12. I am both thankful for, and sad about, how quickly and well my little boy is growing up. I am know I am making mistakes along the way, but he is so loving and fun and growing up to be such a little man. He is constantly asking to use the potty, and although he has yet to actually USE it, he is certainly becoming independent and growing up much too fast

13. I am thankful for all the fun things I am learning about through friends, especially blogging- which I never committed to before now, after watching a couple friends commit to it, and pinterest from the same friend. I am hoping to solve my 'not so crafty or creative' problem with a little motivation and some ideas from pinterest, though I haven't tried anything yet, I am hopful.

14. I am thankful that I was instilled with Faith, self respect, love, and organization as a child. While I'm not the best at the daily use of all these values, they have certainly proved themselves valuable in my life..and continue to.

15. I am thankful for my camera. The Nikon D40 my father so graciously gave a gift to me for Christmas 2 years ago. I have a beautiful camera to capture priceless memories that I otherwise may not have been able to capture so clearly.

16. I am thankful for the girls night that have been incorporated into my Fridays, every week. Some nights are just dinner, and the occasion does occur where it is cancelled, but I am thankful for the 'me' time I get, and for my husband for making sure it is available to me



That is what I came up with tonight.....as the month goes on I imagine they will be more specific to the day I've encountered. Today was pretty uneventful, and I have a lot to be thankful for, so this was a good start :) I will do my best to log on and post the remaining 14 reasons I am thankful to catch to the the 10-a-day quota! :) It is a good excuse to sit down and remind myself of all the reasons I have to be thankful to God, my father. Until next time :)

Fall fun and lots of changes!

I am so excited to announce that there have been some fantastic and fun changes to the Mack household. We are decorating for fall, and momma Mack has a whole new and more positive outlook on her life, thanks to a few special people in my life and the grace of God for putting them there when I needed it. After all, with a sweet face like this, who could be negative?

  Let me explain.... this week my husband, and a few others have helped me realize I have had a negativity about me when it comes to me being in school and what life will be like after graduation. A day, for me, that I was both dying for and dreading, at the same time. I had this outlook that the bliss I have of working part time, and the time I have been able to spend with my son, were going to be taken away by graduating. I had this thought that I would have to get a full time job to really take advantage of my degree, and that the timing of having our second child would be disastrous because we would like to have a baby right around the time I am graduating preferably, but I would have to immediately put that baby into daycare after an insufficient [in my eyes] amount of time. This was all heartbreaking to me. My true desire, and where my heart truly lies, is in being a stay at home mom. So far, this has not been possible for my family...but I have no idea why I was so negative about my future. It was pointed out to me that my degree has every potential to be an incredible blessing for my family, not just something I did for money and to please my family. This degree could provide the perfect job where I work part time, and even possibly from home, and have something for myself....but an incredible amount of time to be a mom. I don't know how I didn't see this before, but I am so thankful for those who stood by me when I was negative, and for those who helped me see the reality of what my life can be. I know with God, my family, and hard work something will work itself out. I'm very excited, for the first time in the longest time, for MY future...and, of course, my families :) But enough about that...for now... :)

It's an exciting time here in the Mack family. I am part time at work, which mean I get Aiden all to myself Wednesday and Thursday, NO work. I am slowly incorporating things into our lives that I've wanted to do, but always felt discouraged with the lack of time I had by working full time. It was a poor excuse, and if anything causes me to become full time again I've promised myself I will do everything I can to not let that take away from the type of mom and wife I want to be. Anyway, Aiden is 2-turned that old in JULY-and we are just loving all the excitement that comes with having a two year old. Now, money is not something that we have an abundance of so I've only recently gotten Aiden's 2 year pictures done. Look at my handsome man.... :)

He was definitely not afraid to show how ornery he is that day, and at first he was not cooperating at all, but the girl at Target-where I got them done-was incredible and did not give up until she got some amazing pictures :) We are planning some fun fall trips, like a trip to a pumpkin patch that we have yet to do [even though we have pumpkins!] and a last trip to the zoo-except for zoo lights-before it really gets cold. I'm not much for going to the zoo, or any solely outdoor activity, when it's freezing!

I am decorating for fall around the house, and am getting ideas for the holidays. I am so excited for the holidays! It will be my first time, ever, with paid vacation AND paid time off.....which I am going to take advantage of. I will post more, hopefully tomorrow, about the changes I am making around the house to embrace fall. I will post more pictures too!

A frustrating journey

If there is one thing my husband and I have learned the hard way...it's that buying a home comes with much stress and heartbreak. The house we fell in love with in Delaware is in contract, before we even got a chance to put in a bid. It was a hard reality because we had really fallen in love with this house...talked about all the things we wanted to do with the house, etc. We're trying to see it as God's way of protecting us, guiding us. We are just waiting to see his plan unravel for us. It's hard to be patient sometimes...

I wish I had more to write. Good things to say. Fun pictures to post. Life is pretty dull for us right now though. I barely feel like I get anytime with Aiden and find myself consumed with thoughts of money and our next step. Instead of enjoy life, I'm just passing through it...wishing things would change.