I Want to be a Cheerleader

Have you ever wanted to be a cheerleader?

I did in 6th grade.  

I prepared for tryouts, tried out, got so nervous that I forgot my cheer mid cheer 

and wasn't picked for the squad.  Oh well. 

Things worked out just fine for me.

Well, today I still aspire to be a cheerleader 

for my FAMILY.

I want to encourage them and be there to support them in their endeavors.

I want to be the constant reminder that it's okay to try new things,

that we can do hard things together

and that they are smart, capable, sweet people.

I over heard a couple of conversations several months ago 

that made me think how important it is to be a cheerleader for your family.  

Conversation #1

Two women talking at church:

That man needs a doctor!

Don't ask my husband to help, 

he's just a radiologist and wouldn't know the first thing to do for him.

 

Conversation #2

The pastor's wife was introducing me to herself and said:

You'll never find me addressing the congregation or speaking to large groups, but you can always find me sitting in the first pew silently cheering on my husband in everything he does.  He knows I'm there for him and always here to support him.

What a difference in these two lady's attitudes.

I hope I can always identify with the second conversation.

I want my husband and family to know that:

I'm proud of them

I'm there for them

I want to encourage them with positive words and actions

I appreciate them

I'll help them when things are hard

They can always count on me

and I'll always be their #1 fan.

Who are you cheering for???

The Best Parts

The best parts of my week were:

1.  Stopping in at Old Navy and finding everything I wanted on sale.  I had two coupons, a gift card and I left with $20 Old Navy cash for my next purchase - hooray!  I loved their plaids, florals and fall colors.  This floral dress and striped dress came home with me.  I'll definitely be back for more.  Especially since my fall fashion wish list still has several items on it. 

2. We've been prepping to head to Notre Dame on Saturday for game day all week long.  We practiced packing the car with everything we'd need since it was our first game day with a toddler and are hoping it'll go great.  We are packing in the fun and feel like it's totally doable thanks to my favorite ladies at Sweet Little Ones Blog who do this regularly with their kiddos.  Kevin's parents are going with us so I'm thinking that the toddler/adult ration of 1:4 is a good one :)  Go Irish!!

3. I'm trying to come up with a fun way to display my daughter's art work.  She's 2 and just started making me things on her own.  She'll ask for paper and crayons, will color, then bring me something and say she has a present for me.  I say I love it and she says Let's decorate.  So she wants to see her work hanging.  I have a large chicken wire frame that might work and I was thinking a fun wire with clips on it might be a good option.  How do you display your child's art work?

4. Have you seen these adult coloring books before??  They are really fun and popular right now!!  I have a sweet friends who's really sick and I thought a care package would cheer her up.  Olive and I gathered artsy things all week.

5. We met Kevin for lunch one day this week at our favorite Jimmy Johns.  It's super close to campus so it's the perfect lunch spot.  Olive was happy to see him and do her Captain Hook move with.

Any fun plans for your weekend?  

Hope you have a great one :)

 

Linking up with HodgesPodges, Oh Hey Friday!
 MeetattheBarre,  FridayBlogHop,   HighFiveforFriday, FiveonFriday,
FridayFavorites,  FridaysFabFavorites and Momfessionals

Frizz Cream Help

My frizz cream is no longer cutting it.

I've used it for over a year and it's just not that great.

It seems do best if I apply it a few times throughout the day,

but who has time for that?!?!?

I need your help.

I want something to put on my dry hair AFTER I've styled it to set everything.

Nothing heavy or greasy.

Just something to finish off my hair and keep it from frizzing. 

I have naturally curly hair.

I like the price point of under $5, but am willing to pay more for an anti-frizz product that works wonders on my hair.

Please send me ALL the anti-frizz recommendations you've got!!

You Made a Difference Thank You Notes

Remember when I said I loved Peyton Manning, 

well this story about him writing thank you notes sealed the deal for me.

He's one classy guy.

Click the link below to watch a clip about his thank you notes:

Peyton's Letters

 

I'm working on a list of my favorite teachers and important people in my life right now.  I'd love to mail them a letter and tell them how special they were to me.  I loved most of my teachers in elementary school, but a few special ones stand out - 

Mrs. Rutherford - 1st grade - She helped convince me that it was okay to stay at school for the full day and loved on me even when I cried every day after lunch asking to go home.   She had special snacks for me, was kind to everyone and she loved pandas.  She handmade panda Christmas ornaments for each of her students that year.  I still have mine.

Mrs. Bennett - 3rd grade - went above and beyond to plan special activities for us and always taught with a giant smile.  We did all kind of fun projects, creative things and I vividly remember bringing her hot cinnamon rolls frequently because she thought my mom's were the best.

Mrs. Mand - jr. high math - taught math with a smile.  She drew pictures on our notes, made sure we drew pictures to help us remember and seemed to love teaching.  She was funny and I always enjoyed being in her classroom.

Mrs. Rowe - US History high school - she was by far the quirkiest, funniest teacher I ever had.  She had a love for US history and seemed to know everything there was about it.  She traveled, had great stories and was really entertaining.  She made you carry a musical hall pass if you ever had to leave her class.  The one at Christmas time was a giant tree that played loud Christmas carols.  

I had a great time in school and really loved learning.  I have more teachers than this to contact so I will have to narrow down my very favorites.  I send Christmas cards to several of them today and still keep in touch after all of our moves.

I actually ran into my 4th grade teacher on one of my recent trips home and I got so excited.  I followed her around Marshalls making sure it was her and I was beaming when I went up to reintroduce myself to her after all these years.  I was so happy to tell her about my life, my own teaching career and introduce her to my daughter.  She was like a celebrity to me.

I also have people who made an impact on my teaching career - administrators, teachers and friends - that I'll be including in my list of people to write letters to.  I have yet to decide the format, but I'm going to make a list and post it by my desk.  I'll write one letter at a time and work my way through the list.  No timeline set, but high quality letters filled with details of why these people are special to me are the guaranteed end result.

Who would you like to write a thank you note to today??

Tuesday Talk: Making New Friends

Hi friends!!  I want to talk about making NEW friends today.  It something that I've found myself having to do a lot in recent years and it's HARD.  I've found that it can be isolating to be a stay at home mom so you've got to go above and beyond to make friends.  I've never lived in a neighborhood with lots of other SAHM's, but I certainly think that would be a blast.  My hope is that I can find some new mom friends nearby that will have kids that Olive can get to be friends with, too.  That way we are both making friends and interacting with people on our level.

I've had great success making friends through:

Daytime Bible Studies

Bible Study Fellowship (BSF)

MOPS groups

Neighbors

Church

Co-Workers 

Blogging/Blogger Meet Ups

Now that we are in a new city, I am checking out what my city has to offer during the day.  I don't like to commit to things in the evening when my husband is home so I'm really focusing on activities that my daughter and I can go to during the day.  We've tried play dates, visiting the park, our library and meeting our neighbors so far.

I'm hoping to pursue the following areas to make some friends:

getting a membership to the local CHILDREN'S MUSEUM

going to STORY TIMES at the library 

checking into GYMs that offer free childcare

joining a local MOM'S GROUPS

hanging out at the PARK 

finding a CHURCH
attending kid friendly activities in the COMMUNITY

Where have you made 
your best friends as an adult?

I have to remind myself that friends come in all shapes and sizes, all ages and all stages.  They don't have to be just like me or have a daughter or have a toddler to be a great new friends.  I'm keeping an open mind and my eyes peeled for potential friends everywhere I go :)  I think a friendly face and a big smile will go a long way!  Wish me luck :)
 

Time to link up your favorite post with the Tuesday Talk Ladies this week.

Hop around and find some great posts and great bloggers.
We had 111 bloggers link up with us last week!

FYI: Michelle @ Grammie Time is hosting a fun Fall giveaway this week :)

(Starting from the upper left:)

Beth - Our Pretty Little Girls ~ Michelle - Grammie Time

Keri - Living In This Season  ~ Christina - Waltzing In Beauty

Tara - Mrs. Coach Sims ~ Lauren - Simply Free

Jess and Katie - Sweet Little Ones ~ Whitney - Polka Dotty Place

Becky - BYBMG ~ Elizabeth - All Kinds Of Things

Sarah - Abiding In Grace ~ Amy - Go Forth and Mother

Emily - Morning Motivated Mom 

<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

I Couldn't Live Without...

I couldn't live without these four things in the kitchen:

// 1 //

Pretty Plates

My food seems to taste better on them!  My everyday dishes that we've been using for 11 years are white Pfaltzgraff dishes from Target.  I've been collecting fun salad/dessert sized plates that all go together to mix in with our white dishes.  We use these often for snacks and desserts.

  

// 2 //

Cookie Scoops

I use these for everything - cookies, muffins, cupcakes, pancakes, ice cream and have them in several different sizes.  They are so handy and make scooping easy.  My cookies bake better when they are all uniform in size. 

// 3 //

VERY Thin Spatula

This was a wedding gift and I use it every single day.  It doesn't crinkle up hot cookies, it gently slides under anything and perfectly removes it from the pan.  It's almost paper thin, but holds its shape.

// 4 //

My Recipe Box.

My mom surprised me at one of my wedding showers and gave me a box full of my favorite recipes she makes.  There are tons of main courses, side dishes, salads an', d desserts.  I use her handwritten recipes several times a week and would be lost without her recipes.  I've added some of my own favorites to the box, but the majority are moms recipes.

The appliance I couldn't live without...

My red KITCHENAID MIXER.

What are your must have kitchen items????

The Highlights

Happy Friday!!  We had a nice week, enjoyed the glimpses of Fall with cooler weather and are looking forward to the weekend.  

The best parts of our week were:

1. We had a fun game day party at our house last week.  I pulled out my football dishes and my husband surprised me with Notre Dame plates and cups.  It was a fun get together with delicious food.  Kevin grilled brats, I fixed all the sides and Monster cookies.  Did you fix any game day food?

 2. I got to see the Pioneer Woman's line at Wal-Mart this week.  It's very Anthropologie-like for about a third of the price.  Have you seen it yet??  I'd like one of everything!!  It was all so pretty.  Olive wanted to touch every single piece and moo at the cow creamer.

 3. I found this felt pumpkin banner at Wal-Mart for under $3.  It's 6 ft long and is really cute.  I'd seen something similar at TJ Maxx, but it was around $15.  I also pulled out Olive's favorite Halloween books + potty books and devoted a whole shelf to them.  I love holiday themed things and it's fun to have her Halloween books in a special spot.  She usually clears the whole shelf and brings them to me to read.

 4. I bought ground chicken this week for our nacho dip and it was SO GOOD.  I've been swapping out ground beef with ground turkey, but my husband didn't love the turkey.  I picked up the ground chicken and we all loved it.  The texture is better than turkey and it was really tasty.  Do you ever cook with ground chicken?  I need to find some more recipes to try!

 5. We had a fun time going to play dates with new friends at the park and then my sister came in town for a quick visit.  Olive had a blast at the park and was excited to chase her new friends around.  I met some new moms so it was fun for both of us.  My sister stopped in for lunch at Panda Express and a house tour.  Her daughter an appointment nearby so we were excited to be a pit stop on their trip.  We had a nice visit and Olive keeps asking for them to come back.

Any fun plans for your weekend?  

We have a party to go to tonight, football to watch and are just planning to enjoy the weekend. 

 

Linking up with HodgesPodges, Oh Hey Friday!
 MeetattheBarre,  FridayBlogHop,   HighFiveforFriday, FiveonFriday,
FridayFavorites,  FridaysFabFavorites and Momfessionals

Dear Mississippi

Dear Mississippi,

Thanks for a great year.  We loved living in your state.  We planned on calling Mississippi home for several years, but God had other plans for our family.  We met so many nice people and had such a great time exploring.  We miss all the Southern hospitality and we miss your friendly people.  Grocery shopping just isn't the same in Indiana.  People in the South talk to everyone in the store and you feel like you make all kinds of friends.  People are generous with their God bless yous and have a blessed day.  They smile, make eye contact and are usually up for a good chat.

We miss...
our house
our backyard
our favorite restaurants
Daylight Donuts
our church and all of their programs
fancy dresses every week at church
all the y'alls
magnolia trees
crepe myrtle lined streets
spanish moss
southern hospitality where everyone talks and visits with everyone
bible studies
our friends
the children's museum
Target
being just a few hours from the beach
SEC football excitement and enthusiasm
fancy tailgating
smocked dresses
big bows
monograms

We also miss Maybelle.  

(These pictures were taken during our last hours in Mississippi.  I'd been packing and sweating for DAYS and Maybelle stopped by looking classy as ever.  Olive is in her pjs and seemed like she knew we were really saying goodbye.)

I know I mentioned Maybelle regularly and we really do miss her.  Olive thinks she still lives next door and when we baked cookies last weekend she asked if they were "for Belle-Belle?"  We always baked and made food to deliver next door and enjoying going over to Maybelle's house for a visit.  She was excited to have us as neighbors and loved inviting us over.  We'd go over for a visit and she'd always have special snacks for Olive.  She'd buy different sugary cereals and have cups just for her.  Olive knew where she kept everything and they had a sweet little routine down.  Maybelle let Olive pretend to sleep on her guest bed, open cabinets and make herself right at home.

She was the perfect Southern belle with the most perfect Southern accent.  She was in her 70s and kept busier than most people I know with choir, work with the bed and breakfast association, traveling and visiting her family.  We enjoyed her company.  She had two sons and seemed to love hanging out with us girls.  We'd go out to lunch on Saturdays, go to the Christmas market and she'd bring us soup if she knew we were sick.  She was feisty and definitely kept our little cul-de-sac in ship shape condition.  She invited us to church and to any social function that was going on.  She dropped off newspaper clippings and flagged magazines to our door so we'd know about the family friendly activities going on in her state.  She was a fun neighbor and I hope we can do a good job of staying in touch.


We will always smile when we think of Mississippi and hope to get back for a visit in the near future.  We're thankful our house sold so quickly, but definitely miss the life we'd established there.  We are also so thankful that Mississippi had a Burn Center so close to Jackson.  I'm still sad that we ever had to use their services, but am so appreciative of how they helped Olive recover from her burn.


It seems to take close to a year for a place to feel like home.  We are settling in nicely to our life in Indiana, but we are still at the awkward stage of everything being so new.  We lived in Southern IN for the first 20 years of our life and now we are living in Central IN.  Same state, but definitely a new to us city.  We are loving the weather and I think we are really going to enjoy having a true fall/winter again.  We are working hard to make work/couple/mom/kid friends, establish routines and find a church.  It's all a bit exhausting and takes a ton of effort on our part.  Everything is good and all of our efforts will be well worth it, but it's still our third new city in three years and it takes time for everything to feel homey.


Wish us luck & go visit Mississippi if you ever  have the chance!!
We sure loved it :)

1st Birthday Bash

My friend Jacque recently through a darling 1st birthday party for her daughter and I'm excited to feature it on my blog today.  Scarlett turned one just a few weeks ago and her party was so sweet.  Enjoy the pink & gold decorations and all the special details.

Hooray for a great party!!