We are Moving...

Yes, you heard it correctly.

The Jordans are moving...

to INDIANA!!

The job is official so I can finally share the news.

Kevin is going to be 
a PROFESSOR

at INDIANA STATE UNIVERSITY

in Terre Haute, Indiana!!

Olive is wearing her ISU colors proudly :)

Kevin will be teaching, researching and doing clinical work 

in the Psychology department starting August 2015.  

It is basically his dream job
that he's been working towards for over ten years.

He interviewed a few weeks ago and loved everything about ISU.

It turned out that they loved him too.

The job looked perfect on paper and in real life

 and they thought he was the perfect candidate for the job.
The faculty already seems GREAT
and they've already planned a welcome to ISU party in our honor.

We originally thought this job would start in 2016,

but they wanted him to start right away.

Negotiations ensued, offers were made 

and he just could not turn this opportunity down.

We are still in a bit of s-h-o-c-k at how fast this process has gone, 

but are excited for this new chapter in our lives.

 

We moved from
IN to UT in 2004
UT to AR in 2013,
AR to MS in 2014
and now MS to IN in 2015.


A little throwback to
Olive announcing our move to MS last year

We have LOVED our time in Mississippi and really planned to be here for several years.  We've made friends, been a part of a sweet church and just adored living in the South.  It's been a wild ride, but we can definitely see that this is God's plan for our lives.  I don't think either of us ever thought we'd have the opportunity to live in Indiana again.

We will be two hours from tons of family and friends and back in our home state after 11 years of adventures.  Our new city is just 45 minutes away from Indianapolis and there are lots of family friendly things for us to enjoy.  Notre Dame is 3.5 hours away so we are already making plans for some game day visits.
 

We've worked hard on our home for the last year to update it and make it perfect for us.  We found a realtor and our darling house is now on the market.  Talk about a whirlwind week!  I wish we could move the house with us, but that's just crazy talk :)  We'd appreciate your prayers for a QUICK sale and a smooth move later on this summer. 

Our new reality is still sinking in :)

Breastfeeding Diaries

I'm blogging over at The Girl in the Red Shoes today

sharing my breastfeeding story.

Julie hosts the breastfeeding diaries series 

and I'm excited for this opportunity.

Overall, my breast feeding experience did not go exactly how I’d envisioned it, but I am perfectly content knowing that my daughter got every drop of milk I produced.  I want to encourage moms to remember that every baby is different, every situations is different and not to judge when people do things differently than you.  I’m an advocate for feeding babies in any way shape or form that is necessary J I will always be proud of my efforts and know that my daughter has grown into a perfectly happy, healthy, thriving toddler because of them.

I figured it was high time I documented our journey :)

Head on over to read the whole story.

Toddler Matching Games

I'm joining some of my other bloggy friend today for a
SUMMER BLOG HOP

Summer is approaching and today some friends and I are sharing some of our favorite summer tips, activities, and bucket lists. Hop around and find some new ideas for your summer of fun.

Noah's Ark Themed Day from Through Clouded Glass 

School's Out for Summer from While I'm Waiting  

Water Play from BYBMG  

2015 Summer Bucket List & Snake Bubble Activity from Curly Crafty Mom 

Indoor and Outdoor Summer Activities from All Kinds of Things 

Summer Water Table Activities from She Builds Her Home 

Our Plans to Thrive from Our Pretty Little Girls 

Sidewalk Chalk Paint from Sweet Little Ones 

Easy Prep Summer Activities from Abiding In Grace 

Toddler Matching Games from Polka Dotty Place 

Summer Bucket List from Living In This Season

My bloggy friend Keri wrote an ebook for helping your family to THRIVE this summer!
Head over to her blog and read all about it

Now for a little more on my Toddler Matching Games:

It's starting to get HOT in Mississippi and I wanted to come up with some new toddler games for Olive that would be fun to play INSIDE.  I used things from around the house and didn't spend a penny.  I came up with four different matching games that would be really easy for you to replicate.  Olive is almost two so here are four matching games that are perfect for her.

// 1 //

MATCHING LIDS

I started saving all plastic lids months ago.  We use them as counters and now we match them.  We tend to eat the same things over and over again so it wasn't hard to end up with matching lids - pb lids, hair spray lids, fruit puree pouch lids, milk lids and spice jar lids were perfect.  I tried to pick out a variety of sizes, shapes and colors.

We have played this multiple times.

We practice colors, shapes and talk about sizes.

I'll pick up one lid and ask Olive to find the matching one.

She plays along and sometimes will even grab both lids in the pair.

She's getting better at matching and the lids are fun to stack in towers.

 // 2 //

MATCHING TAGS

I put pairs of stickers on pre-cut tags.

Olive likes pointing out the stars and pointing to each sticker,

but she's still working on finding pairs with this one.

I think they might be too similar in shape/style so I'd recommend using a variety of shapes/sizes for your sticker matching game.

Her best version of this games was to stick the tags in her shirt.  Silly girl.

// 3 //

MATCHING CUPCAKES

I gathered two of every cupcake liner I had and ended up with quite a fun collection.  I handed Olive a stack of them and she pulled them all apart.  She started naming them - hearts, strawberries, snowmen, etc.  So I spread them out separating the pairs and asking her to find the matching one.  She did well with this matching game.

// 4 //

MATCHING DESK SUPPLIES

Olive is obsessed with all desk supplies.  She could sit at my desk and go through the pens for hours.  So I collected a mixed assortment of desk supplies for her to match.  We worked on vocabulary words - pens, string, circle, blue, orange, marker, glue stick, etc. while we were trying to find pairs.  She did great with this one if I picked up a supply and named it, then she would imitate and find the pair.  She did want to stop and color with all these fun pens so we colored at the end.

I store each game in a ziploc bag and Olive has played with them almost every single day.  She has fun with them and I'm already thinking about other matching/memory games I can make for her as she gets older.  I think she'd have a lot of fun:

-matching her shoes

-matching pictures of people she loves

-matching popsicles

-matching shapes

-matching animals

Do you have any other matching game suggestions for us?

Tuesday Talk: My Momfessional Moments

It takes no time at all for me to end up with a list of

awkward/embarrassing/gross/silly mom stories.

Having an almost two year old shadow definitely keeps life interesting.

Here are my most recent Momfessional Moments

1. Olive has learned the words SCARY & SCARED recently.  I think she got it from a book with these cute little monsters in it.  We tease and say they are scary and make silly faces when we get to their page.  This is all cute until we are out in public and she decides it's the perfect time to use her new words.  We were checking out at our beloved TJ Maxx and she starts pointing.  There's a big man in line behind us and she starts saying "I scared."  "Scary!" "Hold me, mama." Followed up with 5 more minutes of "I scared."  Nothing in the world would distract her and so she just she was scared a million different ways.  She kept hiding her face and asking me to hold her.  I was a tiny bit mortified, the cashier was cracking up and I just tried to smile through it.

2. We were both sitting on the floor playing together.  She has recently started herky jerky throwing things.  Her arms flail up and who knows where she's aiming.  Things go flying frequently.  She tossed an entire snack cup of her goldfish, said Uh-Oh and  then hopped up and proceeded to stomp the pile into the rug.  It all happened in a matter of seconds.  I picked her up and said a stern NO.  I explained why this wasn't acceptable and she replied, "I wuv you mama."  All was forgiven.

3. We were practicing counting and doing some fun flash cards.  We were counting and got up to 8, 9, 10, 11 and then I paused.  She chimed in and said TWELVE.  I was in shock because usually she says one, two, free, four, pive, six and nine.  I guess she was listening to me.

4. If we have pizza for dinner she throws her hands up and says HOORAY.  I fixed a frozen Freschetta pizza for dinner the other night and you would have thought I'd been slaving in the kitchen all day long.  She seems to prefer pizza over any other dinner option.  Point taken.

5. We were in my room getting dressed last week.  She headed off to our bathroom and got too quiet.  I went in to find her sitting in the bath tub with my razor (with the cover on it) and a bar of soap.  She was tasting the soap and making gross faces.  I guess Irish Springs doesn't taste delicious.  I seriously took my eyes off her for a second.

6. I was rocking Olive to sleep the other night.  She'd had a drink of milk, we had chatted and said our bedtime prayers.  She was getting sleeping so I told her it was time to go to bed.  She leaned it, grabbed my faced and proceeded to say ugga mugga and rub noses with me.  It was precious and may have made me tear up.  She is obsessed with Daniel Tiger and he says ugga mugga for his I love yous to his parents.  They rub noses and it's adorable.  Her daddy has since been trying to get her to ugga mugga him :)

Please tell me your funny kid stories to make me feel better.

Linking up with Momfessionals today
and my favorite Tuesday Talk ladies

(Clockwise, from upper left:)

Becky - BYBMG  ~  Beth - Our Pretty Little Girls
Whitney (me!) - Polka-Dotty Place  ~  Elizabeth - All Kinds Of Things
Keri - Living In This Season  ~  Lauren - Simply Free
Teressa - Teressa Jane  ~  Mandy - Almond Place
Jess and Katie - Sweet Little Ones  ~  Emily - Morning Motivated Mom
Sarah - Abiding In Grace - Sarah Frazer  ~  Tara - Mrs. Coach Sims

<div align="center">
<a href="http://polka-dottyplace.blogspot.com/" title="Polka-Dotty Place"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkwfCFr9AXEgv3ETndnI3C_JCdTWaSGQwXVTve-oOCmkLLslJ1CQVNenqCb8uwChwspoznlUrtsuQvC-xZN5-IJRxUz_72ZAxTQVgafE1le_cD3Jw6kmaIVmHuxpFlREuoqf9bfiXIA6A/s1600/TuesdayTalk.jpg" alt="Polka-Dotty Place" style="border:none;" /></a></div>

An InLinkz Link-up

Burn Center Graduate

I hate that The Burn Center has been a part of Olive's story this year, 

but am thrilled to say that she's graduated from their care.

We had a visit last week to check on her healing progress.

She's been through the ringer with her burn, surgery, bandages and so many follow up appointments.  We are fortunate to have a burn center in Jackson and it's only 30 minutes away from our house.  Many people we meet in the waiting room have driven several hours to be there.  The waiting room is always a very sad, somber place to be filled with people of all ages.  Everyone seems to be in pain and in various states of recovery.  It's pretty quiet and pretty sad.  Olive definitely lightens the mood there giving out smiles, playing peek-a-boo and visiting with other patients.  She'll show people her hand and sometimes we talk about our burn story with other patients.

Olive was seen by the doctor and her comments 6 months out were:

She's really lucky.

She's got her full range of motion back,

she didn't require any skin grafts 

and she's healed so well.
Her scars are flat.

Her skin will continue to grow with her

and the scar will fade over time.

We came home with a prescription cream to help her scar fade.  

We will use it for months,
but do not have to go back to the burn center.

Olive was so funny in the room - she'd say Come in! when doctors and nurses would knock, she loved doing all of the regular things - temperature, pulse, etc., she sang her favorite songs, shouted hooray and gave the stink eye.

Thank you for your prayers :)

39 Years...

Happy 39th Anniversary to my PARENTS today!!

My parents this past March at a wedding in NY / my current favorite picture of them

4 houses

3 kids

3 kids-in-law

8 grandkids

a hodge podge of pets with Maxx being their favorite

campaigns

job changes

a lake house

travels from NY to CA

hobbies & projects

road trips (with my dad always driving of course)

friends & family

church

It's been a pretty sweet 39 years - can't wait for many more :)

Let's do something fun for your big 4-0 next year!!

The Highlights

It's been a great week at my house

and here are the highlights:

1. I asked for new shoes for Mother's Day and I got THREE new pairs -- workout shoes, floral tennis shoes and striped slip ons!!  It doesn't hurt to have some cute new socks, too.  

I can't wait to wear them this summer :)

2. I made cinnamon roll monkey bread again and it was amazing.

You should give my recipe a try :)

 3. My Lantana plants are doing amazing!!

They might be my new favorite flowers.

I've got light purple ones and then these pretty pink & yellow ones.

4. Olive got her first pair of Freshly Picked Moccasins

and the ARUBA color is adorable!!

Have you entered yet??
  Today is the LAST DAY to enter my Freshly Picked moccasin giveaway 

5. My mom sent me a TJ gift card for Mother's Day which happens to be one of my favorites.  I stopped in this week and they'd just cleareanced out all of their floral/greenery.  I hit the jackpot!!  Especially since my cats eat all lives flowers/plants.  This is our perfect compromise.

Hope you have a great weekend :)

Thanks for stopping by my blog. 

Linking up with HodgesPodges, FridayFavorites, Oh Hey Friday!
 MeetattheBarre, ThoughtsforThursday, FridayBlogHop
OnYourHeart, SaturdaySpotlight, LittleFriday,
  HighFiveforFriday, FiveonFriday,

FridayFavorites, ThoughtsonThursday, FridaysFabFavorites

Thrifty Thursday: DIY Iced Mochas

My favorite way to save money these days is to

DIY an Iced Mocha for myself.

It's a great, affordable afternoon treat.

I love fancy frappuccinos, 

but I do not love the price tag of $5+ a pop.

I picked up this Mocha Iced Coffee at Kroger last week and it's delicious.

It's less than $4 a carton and it is soooooo gooooood.

You can have drinks for a week for less than one fancy drink at Starbucks.

It's the perfect chocolately  pick me up

and especially delicious with a cute straw in a mason jar.

So save yourself some serious cash this summer

and pick up some iced mocha to keep in your fridge.

Do you have any iced coffee secrets to share with me??