Dandelion wishes and Lamby kisses

I have been reading a lot of other people's blogs lately and realized that mine can get really whiny at times and I think I give the wrong impression of my life. I am a happy person, I am a fun person, I just happen to write the most when I'm feeling down and want to share how I'm feeling without whining and crying to my husband and friends.

My hope is that I can shed some light on how some of my infertility journey feels, but I also started this blog in hopes of sharing photos, recipes, funny or quirky tidbits, etc of my life. So, what I am dedicating myself to for Lent is to write a post at least every other day for the rest of Lent (and hopefully beyond) sharing a bit more (I was raised Catholic afterall)...

Yesterday, the afternoon was cloudy, but warm enough that the kids (Victoria, Bailey, and Lambchop) and I played outside for a couple of hours. I brought my camera along and played with it which was really nice because I haven't played with it in so long...tooooo long. I took over 400 photos yesterday, messing with the aperture and shutter speeds, the manual settings, flash on/off, and other stuff. It was a lot of fun and I got some decent pictures out of it. Now, if I only knew Photoshop a bit better to know how I could edit these pics to make them a bit better, that would be awesome...here's a few originals (*unedited)...


Here they are after I played around with them...like I said...I wish I knew more, but this was just me playing...the first two are subtle changes, just increasing the color basically...the last photo I played with a little more...I like it!


So, today we are going to a park with our mom's group (which I love, by the way) and we are going to blow bubbles! We are taking Lambchop for his first meeting and I'm sure he'll be a hit. He is very cuddly and thinks I'm his maaa-maaa. He feels the need to be by me all the time...if I'm on the couch, he's on the couch, if I'm in the kitchen, he's in the kitchen...you get the idea...Don't get me wrong though, he is a farm animal...he poops and pees when he feels the need, no matter where he's at...and he has diarrhea, so that's GROSS...I have never washed so much laundry in this short of a time period...I am constantly changing his bedding out because I don't want my house to stink and I don't want him covered in his own yuckiness. He has gotten a few baths and gets his rear end showered at least once a day...but...he loves on me and nuzzles with me and chases Victoria and headbutts Bailey and kisses us...he is pretty cute.

So, off for my day...I hope you pick a dandelion...enjoy it's yellow color, play with it, make a wish on it, and toss it in the air (just not in my yard...I don't want anymore! LOL)

The Hampton's had a little lamb...his fleece as black as coal...

Well, we got a lamb. He was born March 2nd and he is black...a black sheep. He is cute and cuddly and playful. This will be a learning experience for all of us, but I think it will be pretty darn cool. His name is Lambchop. He is bottle fed (8oz about every 4 hours right now) and eventually will eat hay, grass, and grains. He definitely lets me know when he is hungry. Here is a video to show...He will grow fairly quickly and when he gets too big, he will no longer live with us, but in the meantime, we are enjoying him. He is exploring everything inside and out, he stays at our feet all day long, and I think he's teething. He is trying to chew on our fingers and some of our furniture, so we have to watch him constantly. I don't think lambs can be house-trained so as soon as it's warm enough, he will mainly live outside. That being said, we are a bit jumpy that every time he gets up to walk around, he is going to pee, so we take him outside and spend lots of time outside with him right now. This is good, it keeps us from being couch potatoes and helps us to find things to do outside together.

We were really worried about how Bailey would react, but it was actually kind of anti-climatic. She was really excited to meet him at first and since then, she couldn't even care that he is there. Every once in a while (like you'll see in the video) she tries to play with him.

Victoria is loving "her" lamb and she bottle feeds him most of the time. It's been a great source of bribery to get her to eat all of her dinner (she can't feed him until she has eaten...if she doesn't eat, we feed him instead). It has been a fight to get her to not pick him up constantly though.

On the rest of life's front...college is going fine. I am taking an economics class. My husband is busy with schools and training. Victoria is registered for preschool, starting in July. We are getting settled into the house but still have a few things to go through (mostly boxes of photos).