Busy, busy week

What a crazy busy week! Nick's sister Kate and her kids came in on Monday, and her husband joined them on Friday. We let them get settled in Monday night, but Tuesday we went to visit. Her little boy Maddox turned one earlier this month, and he's into everything! He and Daisy really liked each other, although we really had to watch him to make sure he wasn't too rough with her. Morgan and Kate's daughter Kit spent the night with Nick and Kate's other sister Kelly and her husband Grant.

Wednesday Kate had plans to take Kelly, Grant, Morgan, Kit, and Maddox to a local theme park, and she invited me and Daisy to go too. She paid for everyone's tickets as well as pretty much everything else that day, and at the end of the day she even purchased season passes for me and Morgan so that we can go for the rest of the year! It was an incredibly generous gesture, and I'm really excited about it. Nick and I visited this theme park on our honeymoon, and we bought season passes every year for a number of years. The last few years it's not been in the budget, so this was a special gift for us. Daisy is still young enough to get in free, so all we need to do is get Nick a pass now. Even better, Kelly has a connection to get us a one day pass for free, and that can be put toward Nick's season pass and cut the price by more than half. Morgan spent that night with my in-laws, which is where Kate and her kids were staying.

Thursday Nick was off, so we got to spend the day together. We went and got my hair cut and colored, then went to have lunch with Kelly and Grant. Kate had taken Morgan, Kit, and Maddox to the family lake cabin with Nick's grandparents, and Morgan got a pretty bad sunburn. She and I are both very fair skinned, and I'm pretty religious about making sure she has on sunscreen at the lake. Unfortunately they weren't as careful about making sure she was covered, and it really upset me to see her in so much pain. We all went to Kelly and Grant's house to hang out for a while, and when Kate left to go back to her parents' house with Kit and Maddox, she took Morgan with her to spend the night again. But about 11:00 we got a call to come pick her up. She just felt so bad from the sunburn and was really missing us, so she slept at home that night.

Friday was Kate's birthday. We all had dinner together after Nick got home from work, then Kate had to run to the airport to pick up her husband Will. We all decided to go to a drive-in movie afterwards. It was a double feature, and we saw Toy Story 3 and The A-Team. Morgan stayed the night with my in-laws again.

Saturday was our 12th anniversary, and honestly we didn't do a whole lot for it. Money was an issue, but we also had Nick's cousin's wedding that evening, so we just kind of relaxed and got in a long nap together. The wedding was beautiful although very hot and humid since it was held outside. But it was at a Civil War home that's listed on the historical registry, which was really neat, and I'd love to go back and do a photo shoot there. It was also Nick's aunt and uncle's (the parents of the bride) wedding anniversary, as well as Nick's great grandparents' anniversary, something we didn't know when we got married ourselves. Morgan was spending the night with our in-laws one last time, so Nick and I went and had dinner together. Daisy really didn't want to go to sleep when we got home, but eventually I got her down and Nick and I were able to spend some time loving each other.

You'd think that with all this time with Morgan away from home we'd have gotten to our weekly spanking, but honestly we were both so worn out by the end of every day that it was all we could do to make it to bed! Hopefully we'll be able to get to it this week.

Kate and Will took Maddox back to Texas with them today, although Kit ended up staying here with her dad's parents. Her dad is supposed to have her during the summer. Unfortunately he's not much of a father, and he didn't bother to make arrangements for that until today. In fact, he actually lives a couple of hours away and won't be coming to get her for another couple of days. Kate had already bought a plane ticket back home for Kit because she hadn't heard anything from her ex, so it was pretty emotional for her to have to say goodbye to her daughter for the rest of the summer on such short notice.

Anyway, that's been my crazy week - how's yours been?

Miscellanea

Hi, everyone. I hope all the dads out there had a great Father's Day. We went out to eat at one of Nick's favorite restaurants for it today, which is a rare treat for us these days. Then we went to visit his grandparents and his dad and stepmom, then my parents. Daisy learned to wave yesterday and she was stealing hearts all around. :)

I got my weekly spanking last night. Nick pulled out a couple of implements he had really barely tried before. They were both from Cane-iac. The first he'd never really used because I've always been afraid of whippy implements. The second had seen little use because it was one of Cane-iac's old thinner paddles, and we have several of their thicker paddles he started using and kept going back to.

The whippy implement is a black delrin 5 strand cane and is still available from Cane-iac. The second is a stinger oak paddle. This one is a 1/4 inch thick and is no longer sold, but they do have a 1/2 inch thick version. Anyway, this spanking was not exactly a full blown punishment, but it was definitely more than maintenance. Some of our friends came over last night while Nick was at his buddy's house, and they were still there when he got back. I had been running errands and didn't have much time between the time I got home and the time our friends showed up, but I spent what time I had straightening up. Unfortunately the house started at such a point that I really didn't have time to get it to what he considers acceptable for company. It wasn't terribly messy, but I needed to sweep and load the dishwasher, and the kitchen table was kind of cluttered. One thing that he has asked of me since I started staying home was to make sure that the common areas stay pretty close to finished. He also had a few things to say about some of the things left in my car, an ongoing pet peeve of his.

Once I had the girls in bed he had me follow him upstairs and lay on the bed on my stomach. He lectured me a bit about the things he was upset about, then gave me the spanking. He let me keep my jeans on, but both implements were definitely still felt. He started out with the paddle, then moved to the cane, giving me 50 licks with each. I managed to stay still for the whole thing, something I was rather proud of. Then he told me to take off my pants and panties. I found that rather alarming, but I obeyed, and it turned out that his intentions were more pleasant than another spanking. That was a huge relief, because I don't think I would have done as well staying put with my pants down, especially with the delrin cane. That thing is small but mean! Anyway, the rest of the evening was wonderful, and I so needed him to call me on the things I was slacking on.

 

In other news, Nick's sister Kate, niece Kit, and  nephew Maddox will be flying in from Texas tomorrow, and her husband Will will join them Friday. They're coming in for Nick's first cousin's wedding this Saturday, and it will be wonderful to see them! Anyway, I'm off to bed. 'Night all!

Busy week!

Gosh it's been busy around here! Nick spent just about every night last week at my parents' house working on their car for them, and the kids and I went with him most of the time. We got some good swimming and visiting time in, and we discovered that Daisy LOVES the pool!

We also spent a little time over at his buddy D's house where Nick helped work on more cars and I visited with D's wife. She's also trying to break into photography, and she has the same camera I do, so we always have fun picking each other's brains for ideas. One neat thing that happened was that D was at work in his boss's office and noticed that his boss's screen saver was a slide show of his grandkids' pictures. When D looked a little closer he noticed my business name across the bottom of them! Yay! My business cards came in, and I've been spreading them around like crazy, so hopefully I'll be able to pick up a few more clients soon.

We finally got our garage door fixed, which is a relief. And the guy came today to do the weather stripping on our doors, which was the last thing that had to be done for the inspection on our new HVAC unit financing.

Morgan found a baby bird today, and she's trying to nurse it along. It actually fell out of its nest twice, and the mama bird won't have anything to do with it, so I gave Morgan permission to do her best with it. It likely won't make it, which will be a hurdle I know, but I just couldn't tell her no. It was such an ugly little thing when she found it, but we went to Wal-Mart and bought some live bait, and it seems to have fluffed up and gained some strength, so who knows?



God has really provided for us this week with lots of side work for Nick. Not only did my parents give him some money for working on their car, but my brother and sister-in-law and Nick's sister and brother-in-law also had him do some. And today he was able to do some for a guy I went to school with!

Saturday we got to go out to eat with Nick's family and go up to the cabin. There are several June birthdays in the family, and they always have a birthday party for them up there. We had actually planned to skip the restaurant part and just go to the party at the cabin due to money, but Nick's grandparents decided to pay for our meal as a gift for our anniversary, so we got to go after all. This was Daisy's first visit to the cabin, and she was the star of the show. :) Sadly we won't get to spend our usual June vacation week there again this year. For years we've stayed up there for a few days around our anniversary because that's where we spent our honeymoon, but last year we were visiting his sister in Texas that week. This year we can't because Nick's cousin is getting married on our anniversary, so we have to be in town for the wedding, and a few days prior she'll be using the cabin for her bachelorette party. Unfortunately the next time that Nick can use his vacation time and the cabin will be available is in August, but maybe we can take a long weekend up there some time before then.

Speaking of our anniversary, it's in only 11 days - we'll be married for 12 years! It's been such a wonderful journey so far, and I can't wait to spend the next 12 years and beyond with my amazing husband!

Oh yeah, I got a spanking tonight! :) I have to admit, I was a little worried that since my brother found the blog Nick would feel too weird about it. And after we were too busy to get to it on Thursday, I got a little more worried! But tonight he made time for it, and it was just exactly what I needed! We got out the Inflatable Position Master I just reviewed, and Nick had me bend over it. He'd already had me get him the snake paddle and bamboo baton I also just reviewed, and he spanked HARD! He gave me 5 or 10 good whacks with each, then announced that the product review was over and we were going to get down to business. He started to take down my pants, but I managed to convince him to let me keep them up, and boy was I glad! The bamboo baton had some serious thud to it, which honestly kind of surprised me. After 20 or so with it he picked back up the snake paddle, and it felt like he was spanking me with everything he had. If he had been using something wood I would have had some serious bruises, but as it was leather it just left me very, very red. It's hard to describe, but it's like each swat just radiated out over my whole bottom, and it was only being over the position master that kept me in place. I'm not sure how many I got, but it was probably close to 100. The thing is, even though it really did hurt quite a bit, I think I could have kept going for quite a bit longer. The main reason I was glad we stopped when we did was because it was pretty loud as paddles go, and I was afraid we would wake the kids. Some time when at least Morgan is spending the night with my parents I'd like to try it again and see how long I can go.

When he was done it was my turn to take care of him, and I did that by spending some serious face time with a certain part of him that always appreciates the attention. :) Thank you so much, sweetheart, for loving me so perfectly!

Well this is weird...

Okay, so tonight I got a text from my brother Robert. It was asking if I knew that setting up a facebook account for my blog would send suggestions for that account to my facebook friends. Well, yes, I knew that, but I assumed he meant my photography blog. A few texts later it becomes clear that he means this blog. Awkward! Here's the thing - I do have a facebook account for this blog (or at least I did until tonight, when I promptly deleted it!), but I can't figure out where the cross reference was. There were no mutual friends (I definitely didn't friend it with my vanilla account), and there was even a whole different email address that I only used for that facebook account. And honestly I hadn't even checked that facebook account in ages. Either way, he found his way here.

And so...deep breath...I texted him back asking him to please not share it with anyone else and thanking him for his discretion. And my awesome brother, the one who got married just over 8 months ago himself, told me that he believes that if God had an opinion on it then He would have given it and that just so long as the focus was on Him and the satisfaction came from each other, what we do is our business. And that he would keep it to himself. :) Soooo...thank you!

I guess my biggest fear about having the blog found by someone in real life was that they wouldn't understand that this is something we do because I want it and would think that it's something Nick does to me instead of for me. What a tremendous relief that when it finally happened it was with someone who didn't jump to that conclusion. Love you, little brother!

Back into the routine...

At least I think we are. I got my Thursday spanking this week, which was nice once it was over. :) Nick made me pick out an implement, which I hate having to do, and I came to the conclusion that we need to have us a big old bonfire. We have way too much wood! I finally settled on the Lady Elizabeth bath brush, an implement I remembered somewhat fondly, mistakenly it seems. It really, really HURT! It may have been because I didn't get a whole lot of warning before the spanking happened (okay, he might have mentioned it earlier in the evening, but I was sure he'd forget!). Or it way have just been because he used it really thoroughly! He gave me 70 swats I think, and I was still nicely pink today.

I wasn't specifically in trouble for anything, although Nick managed to think of a few things today that he plans to address in the near future. He's told me he would make me a list of some things I need to work on, which I do appreciate. I have to admit, it will be nice if this is us settling back into the routine.

Hooray for air condioning!

I'm excited to report that we are the proud owners of a brand new HVAC unit! The company we chose came on Friday and installed all of the equipment, and we got to close all the windows and take all the borrowed fans back to their homes. The house feels great, and the new unit is super quiet. And by all accounts it should lower our utility bill by enough to more than cover the payments for the financing on it. Plus it will up the resale value on our home.

Now that the house is a reasonable temperature we've been able to start putting Daisy in her own bed. We wanted to do it a couple of months ago, but then the air went out. I wasn't comfortable leaving her alone in her room with her window open all night, and I was also afraid that with the fans going I wouldn't hear her if she cried. This is the third night she's been in there, and so far it's going pretty well. She woke up around 5 AM the first night, and around 7 AM yesterday. Hopefully she'll sleep even later in the morning.

It's been incredibly nice to have our bed all to ourselves. It's embarrassing to admit, but Morgan slept most nights in our bed until she was 7. This was NEVER our plan. She started out sleeping with us when she was born just because of the logistics of our living situation. Unfortunately it was just about impossible to get her into her own bed once she got to be a toddler, and it was even harder when she got older. The family bed is something I grew up with (me and then both my brothers slept with our parents until we were each around 4 or so), but we never intended for her to share our bed as long as she did. We were just determined not to make the same mistake with Daisy. Anyway, it's nice to not have to move a sleeping kid to another room when the mood for love hits. :)

We're still trying to get our garage door fixed. As I mentioned, Nick is doing some work for my dad on his antique truck. My parents went ahead and paid him for enough of the work for us to buy a new garage door spring. He called the door company and told them what we needed and they said they had it in stock. Unfortunately when we went down there on Thursday we found out that the didn't have it in stock after all and it will be another week or so before they get one in. Oh well.

I had a photo shoot on Thursday that went pretty well. It was one of the original introductory rate ones that had been scheduled a few months ago, so I didn't make much money. But the customer seemed pretty happy, and it's more stuff for my portfolio. My brother and his wife did something pretty cool for me. They paid for me to get some business cards. They won't be here for a couple of weeks, but I'm pretty excited about them. I think they'll really help with getting the word out.

Anyway, I hope you guys have an awesome holiday weekend!

Happy Memorial Day!

For those who serve - thank you can never be enough.

Ouch!

I knew there was a reason I'm not a fan of canes! Last night was when my punishment spanking for the socks actually happened. We had planned to do it Wednesday night, but my mom unexpectedly offered to have Morgan spend the night with her last night, so we decided to take advantage of the semi-alone time to do it instead.

Once I got Daisy down to sleep Nick came up to bed and asked me if I was ready. Of course I was not and of course it didn't much matter. He pulled out the Naughty Stick and the Tiger Cane from CANE-IAC and had me turn over. He got in a few test whacks with the cane to start with, and I about hit the ceiling! Holy welts it hurt! And this was over jeans. I managed to convince him to switch over to the Naughty Stick, thinking surely it would be easier to take.

Let me just say that the Naughty Stick is no roadside novelty piece! It hurt! It was also very loud, a fact that somehow convinced Nick that it must not be very effective, so he picked the cane back up. When I flipped over and refused to get back into position, he told me I could either take the cane over my jeans or take down my pants for more with the Naughty Stick. I'm not sure that I've ever volunteered to take a punishment to the bare bottom before, but I did this time without any hesitation. He looked surprised, but put down the cane and pulled down my jeans and panties.

If I had known how much the Naughty Stick was going to hurt on my bare bottom I just might have stuck with the cane! The Naughty Stick is highly varnished, and that seems to be the secret to an incredibly painful sting. I have no idea how many he gave me, but I thrashed around and flipped over enough that he finally picked the cane back up and told me that I was getting 5 hard ones with it to finish, but that if I moved again it would be 100 with the cane.

The five with the cane were awful, and I'm still welted this morning. I think though, that I may actually have more marking from the Naughty Stick. Either way, they were both highly effective pieces, very sturdy, and they took me where I needed to go. I think that next time he pulls one of them out though, I'm going to ask to be restrained. I have a feeling I ended up getting a lot more than I would have just because I fought it so much.

Still, it was exactly what I needed, and I'm feeling much more settled this morning. Thank you, Sweetheart, for taking care of me so well!

Perfect Timing?

So tonight is supposed to be the night I get spanked. At least that's the plan as Nick told it to me last night. And he's off work tomorrow, so it doesn't much matter if he has to stay up late to do it.

Normally this would mean that he would pull out his favorite CANE-IAC Jr paddle, or maybe the Patty Paddle. But today we got a package in the mail. From CANE-IAC. Let me back up a bit. First of all, if you've never heard of CANE-IAC, let me be the first to introduce you to a fabulous implement company! They have WONDERFUL products, very high quality at very reasonable prices, not to mention a 100% satisfaction guarantee. I purchased a set of paddles from them a couple of years ago. When we managed to break one of them, they not only sent me a replacement, but they changed the design and got rid of the style that cracked. The new paddle was extremely well made, and CANE-IAC's products have seen more use in our house than any other implement we have.

A couple of weeks ago I was looking around at the products on their site and came across their page of Naughty Sticks. Back at the beginning of the year when CANE-IAC first came out with Naughty Sticks they held a contest asking for sayings to use on them. If they chose your saying, they would send you a Naughty Stick featuring that saying. Now I didn't submit any winning sayings back then (although I did have a few entries that were a bit too long for the space), but inspiration struck anew when I was browsing recently. I sent an email to Cane Master and Mistress suggesting that they make one with their URL on it. I figured it might be good advertising for them for people who took them to parties and exposed the product to multiple people. Now I didn't expect a Naughty Stick for myself out of it since the contest was long over - I just wanted to share an idea with a company that has been very good to me in the past. They emailed me back saying that they liked the idea and wanted to send me a thank you gift anyway.

And so, in a feat of incredible timing lol, they managed to get the package here on the exact day I'm due for a punishment. I opened it up and found inside a Naughty Stick that says "Teach Me A Lesson" (a phrase that particularly pushes my buttons) and a 28 inch Tiger Rattan Cane.

These are both beautiful pieces, and I think they'll be a lovely addition to our arsenal. I'm sure they'll come into play tonight, and I'll post and let you know all about them. Oh, and if you want a CANE-IAC.com Naughty Stick of your own, they're only $11.95! Thank you, CANE-IAC!

Oops

Hey, guys. Not too much to write about, but I felt like posting. So, I've got a spanking coming. Like a real, live, I'm-actually-in-trouble spanking. How could this be? Ah well, it seems my old nemesis Laundry has struck again. Specifically the sock population. It seems that the little buggers weren't where they were supposed to be, namely the clean sock drawer. Instead they were hanging out in the dirty clothes bin and various other locations of ill repute. That in itself is not really what got me in trouble, although I admittedly should have been a bit more on top of the situation. What got me in trouble was Nick telling me last week that he needed some clean ones, then me forgetting to do anything about that till Saturday afternoon.

When he came home from work that day I mentioned that I had washed some socks for him and he told me that I'd better be very glad I had done so. Better late than never, although apparently still too late to avoid a spanking. Then that night was when I took my spill in the back yard, and I wasn't in much shape to have a paddle pounding away at my bottom. So it's been postponed until at least tomorrow night, depending on how it feels then. As of right now it's a bit better, but I still have some pretty noticeable pain when I stand up from a chair, sit down, or bend over.

Despite my injury we did manage to try out a VERY neat toy that Adult Sex Toys sent me. I'll review it in a different post, but I can tell you that it will very likely come into play when that spanking does happen.

So any Lost fans? I have to tell you, Nick and I are both pretty bummed that the series is over, but man what an ending! We've both seen every episode of the whole six year run, and I'm so glad we got to experience it! If you're a fan, I suggest you check out Jorge Garcia's blog. He'll actually probably be changing to a new URL now that the show is over, but I'm sure he'll leave directions on his current blog. He's a very funny, very cool guy, and I always enjoy his posts.

Anyway, off to work on my review!

Popping in...

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Mother's Day and more

I hope everyone had a great Mother's Day! Morgan made me a magnet for Mother's Day at school, and my SIL got me a very sweet card. Daisy of course is still too small to get me a gift :) but she's enough of a gift in herself. Money has been incredibly tight, so Nick decided to take me out for dinner and a movie with his birthday gift cards for his gift to me. We went to church that morning, then to see Nick's grandmother. Then my mom called and wanted us to come have lunch with her at her and Dad's house. Of course we had planned to go see her next anyway, but what a surprise that she was fixing lunch for the rest of us on Mother's Day! As much as my mom may irritate me sometimes, she really is the best mom anyone could ever hope for.

Lunch was great, and we got her a colander as a gift. Okay, I know that sounds really lame, but it honestly was the perfect gift for her. I usually get her something decorative for the house or a department store gift card, but she's reached the point in her life where she doesn't want any more stuff brought into the house, and she usually ends up using the gift cards on Morgan and Daisy.

Anyway, my in-laws got me this same colander for Christmas, and I absolutely love it! I use it every single day, and since it collapses, it easily fits into the dishwasher for cleaning and the cabinet for storing. My mom saw mine and said how much she liked it, so I decided to go with something she would actually use and that would give her a little more space and convenience. Anyway, she loved it.

After we saw my mom we went to see Nick's stepmom. Nick's sisters wanted to get her a spa day, so we went in with them on that. A few days ago we had asked Nick's stepmom if she would babysit for us sometime soon so we could do dinner and a movie. She called a few days later and asked if it she could do it on Mother's Day night, so (after making sure that she really did want to do it that night) that worked out perfectly for us.

The gift cards were for Outback Steakhouse and Regal Cinema. Of course on Mother's Day Outback was incredibly crowded, so we drove to a couple before we found one with a reasonable wait time. Then as we were walking in, Nick said, "Do you have the gift cards?"

"No, why would I have them? I thought you had them!" Urrggghhh! So we decided instead to go have sushi. A few months ago Restaurant.com had $25 gift cards for $2 each, so I spent $8 and got a $100 worth to a local sushi place. We had a couple of those left, so we used one for dinner.

Fortunately, I also had a couple of free movie passes in my purse. Back around Christmas we went to see Sherlock Holmes with my brother. The heat was messed up in the theater and it was about 8o°, so as we were leaving, they handed us each a free movie pass for our inconvenience.

So we went to see Date Night, which was very funny. What's nice is that we still have the Outback and movie gift cards that we can use some other time.

Yesterday Daisy scared me half to death. I was nursing her in our bed after Nick went to work. Unfortunately I drifted off and she decided to explore. I had some pretty heavy pillows surrounding us as a barrier just in case she decided to roll, but she managed to climb over one and do a swan dive off the side of the bed. She's fine, just a little scab on her nose where she got some carpet burn, but it dazed her a bit at first and had me absolutely panicked. I know it happens once or twice to most babies at some point, but I felt terrible! I kept a close eye on her all day yesterday, checking her pupils and coordination and movement and ability to track things with her eyes and everything is fine, but what a scare!

I applied for a job with Wal-Mart the other night. I didn't want to, but we're really, really struggling. I only listed that I was able to work in the evenings so that I can still watch the girls while Nick's at work. Hopefully if I get it I can just do it for a few months and get us caught up and then quit again.

Well, I guess that's about it for now - hope everyone is having a great week!

Happy Birthday, Grace!

Okay, okay, so I'm not actually off to do laundry. At least not yet. First of all I want to wish my good friend Grace a very Happy Birthday! And I thought of it before, but I didn't want it to get lost in my long, rambling post, so she gets a post all of her own with lots and lots of sweets and treats! Love you, Grace!

Why yes, Virginia, spankings do exist!

I was starting to wonder though. :) It had been a while since we were able to get to our weekly spanking, and I was beginning to think that "weekly" had turned into "something we no longer do". But Nick made time before bed on Monday night. The stars aligned, both girls were asleep at a reasonable time, and I'm still a bit sore three days later. There wasn't much talking about it, just 80 or so harder than usual swats with his favorite Cane-IAC Jr paddle, then me curled up beside him sniffling and crying.

Quick, simple, and very ouchy, but I definitely needed exactly that. Money stresses are climbing, and the summer weather showing up early here isn't helping matters much since we're currently without air conditioning. There's a program where we may be able to finance a unit through our utility company, which is going to be the only way we can afford a new one, so we're looking into that.

It just seems like the expenses are piling up. Even so, things could be worse. Yesterday there was a guy parked in from of our house all day so that he could repossess the neighbor's car when they came home. Eventually he left, and I never did see them come home, so maybe somebody tipped them off. I gotta tell you, that somebody would have been me if I'd had their number. Not that people shouldn't pay their bills (hey, I used to work for the bank - I know the effect if they don't). But I also know that if you're already struggling (and trust me, these people are not blowing their money on fancy things - they live very simply), then the last thing you need is to lose your car so you can't go to work.

Good news is that the hotel finally agreed to credit us for the overdraft fees they caused - yay! When I finally was able to get in touch with the guy in charge, he was super nice and cooperative. And he had actually asked someone about the situation after he got my first call, but they told him it was taken care of. Once I let him know that only the initial hotel charge had been refunded, he willingly took care of the rest. It still hasn't been posted back to our account, but it will help things once it has.

The baby is seven months old now and she is doing so much! She says "ma-ma" pretty much non-stop now, and can also say "da-da", along with lots and lots of adorable baby gibberish. She's still working on the mechanics of actually crawling, but she can scoot around a room in no time flat, and she's able to pull herself up to a standing position also. And if you hold both of her hands, she'll put her little feet one in front of the other and walk to you! I personally think she's a genius, but I may be a little biased. :)

Tomorrow the baby and I are going on a school field trip with Morgan to a theme park, so that's going to be an adventure. Her teacher asked me if I would care to supervise one other student. I said, "Sure, can we have Sarah?" Sarah is Morgan's best friend. Unfortunately she was already going with another student and that student's mom. "The only one I have left is Britney," she said. Here's the deal - Britney is another of Morgan's best friends, but she's also notoriously difficult. It's not that she's exactly mean-spirited, but she's got kind of a crappy home life, which makes her very insecure. Because of this (at least this is the way I see it), she has a tendency to say and/or do hateful things sometimes, not just to Morgan, but to pretty much anybody. She can actually be very sweet and loving, and it doesn't take to much to see how desperate she is to be liked. Unfortunately, like many other 9 year-olds, she's under the impression that picking at others will make her look tough and cool and therefore someone people want to be friends with.

I'm hoping that since it will be just her and Morgan it won't be a big issue. The problems mainly occur when it's her, Morgan, and Sarah together, because she's really jealous of the friendship Sarah and Morgan have and will try to set them against each other. I do wish that her teacher had told me she was the one she needed a chaperone for before she asked me to do it, but maybe we can make it a special day for her and she won't feel so insecure and likely to misbehave.

Let's see, what else? We got to see Nick's sister and her husband and kids on Sunday. They flew in to leave the kids with the grandparents on Friday night, then left to go to the Kentucky Derby the next day. Not gonna lie - I was a little bit jealous. Especially when they came back on Sunday and my sister-in-law had won three grand (which paid for the dress, shoes, and hat she wore to the races)! What we couldn't do with $3000 right now... But anyway, that's not the hand God dealt me, so no point in dwelling on it. Besides, while she got to go to the races, I got to hang out with Nick, Morgan, and the baby, and that's better than Churchill Downs any day!

Speaking of the baby - she needs a name. Not in real life, of course - she has a very pretty name. But on here...I'm thinking that if I keep calling her "the baby" I'm going to eventually have to call her "the toddler", then "the pre-schooler" and so on. So, I think I'll call her...Ethel. No, no, I'm totally kidding. :) I'll call her Daisy. We've been doing lots of yard work lately, and it seems like a good choice. Anyway, I'm off to do some more laundry - have a great day!

Urrrgggg So frustrated!

So last week when Nick was at school, the hotel required a credit/debit card at check-in. Okay, no problem, the room's already been paid for by Nick's company, so he gave him his debit card to hold for incidentals. I was looking at the bank account a few days later and noticed an outstanding authorization for $440. So I called Nick and he said he'd check on it. On the day of check-out they hand him a bill and say that they've charged the amount to the card he gave them. "No, no, no - that's not right, " he tells them. So they do some checking, see that it should have gone on the company's card and charge it instead.

Fast forward to this week - a charge for $440 comes out of our bank account and causes $140 in overdraft fees. So I call the hotel, and they're happy to credit back the $440 - in a few days - but not the $140. And of course that $140 (not to mention the $440!) was earmarked to cover things we already spent - like for gas and milk and eggs. Now those things are coming in and will cause even more overdraft fees.

Meanwhile we don't have enough money to pay the girls' health insurance premiums (or several other bills, but that one is the most urgent), and Nick is seriously leaning toward wanting me to go back to work. But if I go back to work, I'm not going to be able to get the shift I had before, which means there's no one to pick Morgan up from school. And my mom is not healthy enough to babysit any more, so that means we'd have to find full time day care for the baby now and both of them come summer, which would pretty much suck up all the money I'd be bringing in anyway.

And I know that God has a plan, and I'm trying really hard to have faith, but...it's hard.

100 Things about not just me

So I was reading over at Grace's blog. She recently had her 6 year blogaversary - go tell her congratulations! - and she reposted a "100 things about me" list she did back in 2004. That made me think about the 100 things about me list I did, so I decided to go look it up. Except, it turns out, I never posted one. I think I must have done one in an email somewhere, because it sure wasn't on here. At least not with 100 things. But anyway, I don't know that there are quite 100 interesting things about me, so I thought I would do 100 things about me and the people around me.

1. I am daily floored by how insanely cute my baby is.
2. Jasmine Star is my hero.
3. Today is Nick's and Morgan's birthday.
4. Nick is 31.
5. Morgan is 9. (Nine!!! How the heck did that happen?)
6. Nick was out of town for 4 days this week for work and I replaced most of the furniture in our bedroom while he was gone (with hand-me-downs from my parents).
7. Nick was really pleased with the new set-up.
8. Nick brought me home a Godiva Chocolate Cheesecake from The Cheesecake Factory and it might be the best thing I've ever tasted.
9. I'm really enjoying my photography.
10. The baby got her first tooth April 13th and is about to push through her second.
11. I really, really love my Lelo Lily (really!).
12. After 6 seasons I'm still addicted to Lost and will mourn when it ends next month.
13. Our heating and air unit went kaput a few weeks ago and it's starting to get really hot here.
14. I haven't been spanked yet this week because Nick and I were both so exhausted from his time away.
15. I really need that spanking.
16. I really need to go to bed.
17. My in-laws are hosting a birthday cookout for Nick and Morgan.
18. I'm on Facebook way too much.
19. For Valentine's Day Nick bought me pink socks from Snap-On and I wash them constantly so I can wear them as often as possible.
20. A friend's five year old daughter asked Nick to pin stripe her softball helmet and was thrilled with the result.
21. I've been teaching my mother-in-law how to use a computer.
22. I've gotten her addicted to Facebook.
23. My parents bought Nick a weeping cherry tree for his birthday, and his parents bought him a red bud tree.
24. After almost 12 years of marriage without a decent lawn mower, we finally got one. It's a 2 year old rider that retails for $1200 at Lowes. The owner sold it to us for $250. He couldn't get the blade to engage and apparently has more money than sense so he went out and bought a brand new one. Nick cleaned a huge clump of dried grass off the lawn mower deck and mowed our yard within 15 minutes of bringing it home.
25. I got my roots colored Thursday.
26. I really need to get Nick to paint my toenails.
27. He always does a much better job at it than I do.
28. Morgan wants a beanbag chair for her birthday.
29. I bought her a pink one for $15 at Wal-Mart yesterday.
30. When I cleaned out my drawer to move out my old night stand, I put all my worn out silver bullets in a shoe box before I put them in the trash bag.
31. I did this because my dad was coming to take everything to the dump for me in his truck.
32. I think I might need carpal tunnel surgery.
33. This might be due to Farmville.
34. I really miss having an iPod.
35. The baby has outgrown all her 6 month clothes.
36. I buy her Luvs diapers because they're cheaper than Pampers.
37. Every year when the weather turns warm all the ants in the Southern US visit our house no matter what we do.
38. They've started arriving already.
39. I can't wait till my parents open their pool.
40. I especially can't wait till Nick's grandparents open their cabin.
41. Nick's cousin is getting married on our 12th anniversary.
42. We didn't realize it when we chose our wedding date, but it's also her parents' anniversary.
43. I don't like to drink anything without a straw.
44. I'm addicted to frozen cokes.
45. The gas station where I get my frozen coke fix closed for 6 weeks while they built a new building.
46. The wait almost killed me.
47. When they opened back up they had gone from 3 flavors to 12 flavors.
48. The wait was totally worth it.
49. We own a ridiculous number of blankets and pillows.
50. Nick and I are currently without health insurance, although we have some for the girls.
51. Nick once stepped on a water moccasin in our back yard.
52. He screamed like a little girl.
53. He's not ashamed to admit it.
54. When a snake got into our kitchen last summer he killed it with a steak knife and a pair of tongs while I ran screaming out of the house like a little girl.
55. A steak knife is not the most efficient snake killing weapon, but it was better than the bread knife someone handed him first.
56. I might have more pairs of jeans than pairs of panties.
57. Morgan has a major crush on the little boy next door.
58. I think he's pretty cute for a 9 year old.
59. I think he has a crush on her too.
60. Nick is not a fan of this.
61. Aforementioned boy next door fell off our swing set last fall and broke his arm.
62. A few days later Nick caught him climbing our tree, cast and all and made him get down before he broke something else.
63. One of our neighbors called to ask if it was okay if our beagle comes and spends the night with her sometimes.
64. I said sure, I guess so.
65. Then I called Nick to tell him what a weird conversation I'd had with the neighbor.
66. The next day we found out that the people who used to live in the house on the other side of us sometimes come and pick up the dog that lives there for an overnight visit.
67. Maybe this is more common than we thought.
68. The baby's favorite toy is a teething ring shaped like a foot. She will hold it up to her own foot for comparison before chewing on it.
69. There are tons of kids in our neighborhood right now and Morgan has so much fun playing after school.
70. This makes me happy because there weren't many kids in the neighborhood I grew up in.
71. Morgan has been on a campaign to convince us that she needs a cell phone at the ripe old age of 8, now 9.
72. It isn't working.
73. I graduated with 15 other people - it was a very small school.
74. Of the 13 girls in my class, 2 of us had babies within the last 7 months and two more are currently pregnant.
75. I'd love to have one more baby.
76. If we don't ever have a boy, Nick is the last of his line.
77. If we have a boy his first name will be Nick's first name (which is not Nick), and his middle name will be my mother's maiden name.
78. He will go by his middle name.
79. We didn't name the baby after anyone.
80. Nick has to work today on his birthday.
81. I tried sushi for the first time a couple of months ago and I love it.
82. I had my first repeat customer for my photography business last Friday.
83. I really, really need to get a website designed for my business.
84. My brother's ex-girlfriend contacted me about shooting her wedding this winter.
85. I haven't mentioned it to his wife because she hates her.
86. I really miss my husband and am very ready for him to have a day off.
87. I can't wait till the drive-in movie theater opens for the season in our area.
88. I need to do some laundry.
89. I also need to do some dishes.
90. I think pairing socks is the very worst part of laundry.
91. Sometimes Nick takes Morgan to school on his motorcycle.
92. She feels super cool when he does.
93. Morgan is begging me for a Facebook account, but I haven't let her have one yet.
94. I'm pretty sleepy and I'm glad this list is almost over.
95. I recently helped start an annual golf tournament to benefit Morgan's school.
96. We raised about $3000, which wasn't bad for our first year.
97. Nick's favorite cake is Boston Cream Pie.
98. His grandmother is making him one for the cookout.
99. My breasts feel really full, but the baby is asleep.
100. I'm going to join her.

'Night all!

Oh my!

Well, I've now had a chance to try the Lelo Lily, and holy smoke! This is a truly awesome toy, definitely my favorite so far! First of all, it comes in a very nice box complete with a nice white satin storage pouch. There is the Lily itself, the user manual, the storage pouch, and of course the charger too. As soon as I opened the box I plugged the charger up and attached the Lily. The user manual is very easy to understand and comes in several languages. A couple of hours later the Lily was ready to go. Unfortunately I wasn't able to try it out right away, but you can bet I jumped right on it once I got the kids to sleep.

First of all, the Lily offers 5 different stimulation modes, a continuous vibration with intensity that can be increased and decreased as well as 4 different pulsation modes. With two simple buttons the model is easily operated and one of my favorite features is the ability to lock it so that it doesn't come on during transport. When Nick and I went to Hawaii, my in-laws drove us to the airport. Fortunately it was Nick who pulled my suitcase out of the back of the car and noticed that it was buzzing. :)

As for how it actually felt - WOW! It fit so nicely against my clit, and it was easy to adjust the settings while it was in place. Plus it was very quiet, always a plus in my book. Also, this is a phthalate free toy, which is very nice. But the really important part, it felt great! I would absolutely recommend this vibrator. Granted, it can be a bit pricey, but it does come with a one year warranty and a 10 year quality guarantee. I've found that the biggest problem with bullets (for me at least) is that the cord tends to pull loose and cause the wires to short out or break. With no cord to worry about, that's not an issue here.

Anyway, a huge thank you once again to adultsextoys.com for donating this product and letting me do the review! You can find the Lily as well as other great Sex Toys here.

Hooray! Hooray!

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All by myself...

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Happy Easter!

I serve an amazing God, a risen Saviour, and if you would like to know more about Him, please just ask. He loves me, and He loves you too!

Spring is in bloom!

And I'm out with my camera instead of posting on here like a good blogger. Sorry for the quiet stretches guys, just too much going on around here to post much. Rest assured though that Nick has not lost his touch, as evidenced by last Sunday's (?) spanking with the Patty Paddle - OUCH! Anyway, I've got to tear myself away from my photo editing and head to bed. Have a great weekend!

Checking in...

Gosh, I meant to post on Saturday, then I look up and two whole days have passed! I've had my head stuck in the computer playing with photos, learning all I can, and generally just having a blast while trying to still keep a handle on my chores. I did indeed get spanked Friday night, and rather soundly at that. Nick made a point of saying that he understood that I'd had all kinds of things to distract me, but that if I couldn't keep them under control, my distractions would have to be taken away. With that in mind I'm doing my level best to keep the house in shape so that when a photography job does come calling I can feel free to answer! Friday I did do the shoot for the seniors at Morgan's school and it went very well. The students were all very happy with how they turned out, and the teacher in charge of the yearbook (who incidentally is my old math teacher) agreed to put a small ad for my business into the advertising section of the yearbook at no charge in return for my work.

Unfortunately our weather here has gone from being in the 70's on Friday to actually snowing a bit today, so I'm hoping it warms back up fast! I'd love to get in a few shoots this week, and we could definitely use the money. Anyway, I'm off to bed. Night all!

I did it - AGAIN!

I missed my blogaversary again. It was March 13th. And this was a big one - FIVE YEARS! The truth is, I've been so caught up with playing with my new camera that I've not been able to focus on much of anything else. (Um, that's probably going to be sternly addressed tomorrow night). I've been having so much fun with it, and I had my first paying shoot last Saturday! Okay, it wasn't for a whole lot of money because it was family, but it's already led to another booking and quite a bit of local publicity. I did pictures for my cousin's son's winter formal (which was supposed to be in January, but lucky for me got postponed due to snow). My cousin, her son, his girlfriend, and her mom were all very pleased with the pictures (more pleased than me, but I'm kind of a heavy critic of my own work), and they've been spreading the word about my services. I did have to have a short talk with my cousin to make sure she wasn't offering the family price along with it, which was uncomfortable for me because I hate talking money. That, however, is something I'm going to have to get over!

Anyway, tomorrow I'm going to shoot some yearbook photos for Morgan's school (this is a favor, not paid). Nick and I spent today with the baby wondering around the riverfront and taking shots, and this evening we went over to his sister and brother-in-law's house where the guys talked motorcycles and SIL and I talked photography. All in all a lovely day!

Anyway, I'm off to bed, but first, a few shots from today:

Oh for Pete's sake!

Hey guys. If you saw the last post, something about some shopping site that accepts Paypal, my apologies! It looks like my email got hacked and the same spam email went out to a lot of folks, including my blogger publish-by-email address. I've deleted it now and changed all my security info, but if you happen to get such an email from me or anybody, please delete it! Thanks!

Thursday Extravaganza!

I got spanked today. And, as the title indicates, it was another "Thursday Extravaganza!". Unlike the last spanking, however, this one had some serious bite. And it was...perfect. It hurt - A LOT. He used the Cane-IAC Jr with holes and he spanked hard the whole time, but it was so very much what I needed. He lectured as well, making a point about a particular area that needs improvement, then hammering it home with 10 or 15 hard swats. I can't even tell you how very effective that makes it for me, and how very loved it makes me feel to know that he really wants me to learn from it. So tonight I'm sitting on a very sore bottom, very well taken care of. ♥