some days...

There are some days that the world seems a little too cruel.

Days when too many good people seem to be suffering. When too many things are going wrong. When things are just a bit too tough.

I think sometimes the blog world tends to amplify that because we are all so open with sharing our lives and that includes the good and the bad. Today there just seems to be too much bad and my heart hurts for so many.

I thank God that I have my precious family. My amazing husband and my beautiful daughter. Someone asked me once if I had known everything I would go through to get Baby Girl if I would still do it knowing she was the outcome.

I didn't even have to think about it. I absolutely would. A thousand times over.

God never promised anything would be easy but He is faithful.

Sometimes it is hard to see that when things are not going so well. It's in those times we have to pray for His mercy and His peace.

I ask that right now you pray for this family as they are dealing with a possibility so unimaginably difficult. I can't even fathom the pain they are dealing with right now.

I know God is a merciful God and a just one. It's just some days.... man, some days are hard. My heart is aching for this family and so many others tonight.

this Daddy's girl.

I'm totally addicted to 16 & Pregnant.

But as a mother to a girl, it also flat out terrifies me. Because those girls on that show are someone's daughter.

However I have noticed that nine times out of ten, the girl on the show has no father figure in her life. No Dad. Now I'm not doing any research or papers on this, but I'm pretty sure that a large percentage of teen mothers are not close to their father; if they even know him at all.

It's common knowledge that the father/daughter relationship is HUGE in shaping how a girl sees herself. We've all heard of girls with "daddy issues" and such and when describing those, they are never good to hear. How a father loves his daughter will inevitably determine how she feels she deserves to be love.

Simple.

Every single day I thank God that I have the perfect father here on this Earth for my daughter.


That man, plain and simple, loves his daughter. He adores her.

They say that from the instant he lays eyes on her, a father adores his daughter. Whoever she grows up to be, she is always to him that little girl in pigtails. She makes him feel like Christmas. In exchange, he makes a secret promise not to see the awkwardness of her teenage years, the mistakes she makes or the secrets she keeps.

-Unknown


When we found out we were having a girl, Mr. P and I had lots of talks about the role his relationship would play for her. As a Daddy's girl myself, I know what it is to have that special relationship with my Dad. It's awesome. And I've seen too many close friends who don't have that relationship and how it affects them.


Now I know a girl can become an amazing woman without her Dad around, it is possible, but I also know that I will never have to worry about that. Because BG has a Dad who is there. Who comes home from working a 10 + hour day and can still find the time to paint with her on the back porch. Or put on a crown and play princesses.

A Dad who still fixes her dinner and bathes her almost every night he is home. Who teaches her to swaddle her baby dolls and teaches her fun songs to sing with him.


Mr. P was an amazing husband years before BG came along, but I would have to say he's an even more amazing Dad. He was born for this job and he rocks at it. I am so blessed to have these two in my life. So, so blessed.

Certain is it that there is no kind of affection so purely angelic as of a father to a daughter. In love to our wives there is desire; to our sons, ambition; but to our daughters there is something which there are no words to express.
-Joseph Addison

tidbits.

I had great intentions of cleaning the house today and of scheduling all these blog posts for the week so that I'd be not only on top of things, but actually ahead of things for once. However, the only thing that happened on my lovely day off is that I caught up on the Bachelorette and 16 & Pregnant. Oh, and had a fabulous lunch with this girl.

So still a great day, but not too productive. Boo.


My friend Shannon turned me on to the 30 Day Ab Challenge a while ago and I'm hooked. Today she's hosting a link up with some other bloggers that are also giving this torture device workout a shot. So I'm linking up. And I'm going to show my results. Gulp. I've done this a few days now and can honestly say I have already seen results. And not in just my abs (can I say that yet?!), but in my legs and arms too. Yep. My entire body is sore. I started a few days ago but have slacked and only done a few days so I'm starting over again today and will do every single day for the next 30. Here goes.

Mr. P and I are headed to a ZZ Top concert tomorrow night. It's his birthday gift and I'm pretty sure he's stoked. I on the other hand have spent far too many moments wondering what exactly one wears to a ZZ Top concert? Hmmmm....

And in other news, my little girl had her last day of school today. Insert sad face.


She had her last day in "Miss Bitme's" (her words) class today and is headed off to the two year old class tomorrow morning to begin the summer session. I may be a bit sad that she's out of the infant/toddler room. Seriously, this is going way too fast.

We're back to the beach this weekend. We seriously need a private jet for all this traveling.

Myrtle Beach Recap {part 3}

Let's see if I can wrap this up shall we? Especially since we've now been to Charleston and Myrtle Beach again since this trip. I'll be doing travel recaps for months.

Hopefully not.

After our first beach day, we headed inside for a few hours.

BG passed out cold while Uncle Marine and Kiki opened a few baby gifts and then Kiki and I opened some Mother's Day gifts. Then it was time for us all to get ready to head out for a bit.

Aunt Kiki and Uncle Marine had a surprise planned for BG since neither one of them was able to make it to her birthday party in April. We had no clue what we were in store for, but we all packed up and headed to Broadway at the Beach where Kiki and U.M. quickly ushered Baby Girl into...

Build-a-bear!

Yes, her first one.

I thought it might be a disaster when she burst into tears as all the store clerks rushed at us, but she eventually chilled out.

They let her pick an animal and she quickly decided on a Hello Kitty doll (no idea). BG and Aunt Kiki picked out a sound for the kitty and then we headed over to do some stuffing.


BG picked out the heart for the kitty and then with the help of the sales clerk, held it, kissed it, and then placed it inside "Kitty".


BG wanted nothing to do with the machine that does the stuffing but was stoked when she got her now complete Kitty back.

Then it was off to clothes. Minus a epic small tantrum over a pair of shoes that BG thought sheneeded to wear, it was a pretty quick process.


With a new outfit and even a purse to match, "Kitty" was complete.


BG was a bit bratty during most of this (what? totally the truth) and I felt bad because I didn't want the two of them to think she didn't enjoy it. She did, she's just two. And being as how they have a little one of their own now, they'll understand what that means soon enough. These little people are just so dang hard to figure out.


We did catch her feeding "Kitty" at dinner and making sure she was snuggled up to her in the highchair, so I'm pretty sure they know how much she likes her.


After walking around a bit more and having dinner at Margaritaville (tourist trap!!) we hit up the little pavilion carnival for BG to take her first carnival ride.


We bought tickets to go on the carousel thinking it would be a good, safe, easy first ride for le toddler. However, said toddler quickly lost her everloving mind the second we stepped in line. Trying to place her on that carousel horse was akin to pulling a jellyfish off one's leg; not freaking easy.

So we found us a bench and we made nice. It still counts as a carousel ride.


It was over. She survived. I ended up giving away the rest of our ride tickets to another little kid as BG wasn't going anywhere near any ride. Oh well.


It was such a good night. The perfect way to wrap up our mini beach vacation.

Leaving the next morning sucked. I am so ready to go back.

project 366: week 22

This weekend was epic y'all. Epic. It involved four cities in four days, a wedding, a new baby, and a delicious low country boil on the ocean.

It also involved toddler tantrums, having to leave said wedding early, little sleep, and lots of driving.

Yea. So we're recovering.

While we do that, here's last week in pictures. Enjoy.

Sunday, May 27th:

My girl and I on a sunny Sunday afternoon.

Monday, May 28th:

She is awesome.

Tuesday, May 29th:

We received the sweetest gift in the mail and BG had to try it on immediately. She loved the "princesses" on it.

Wednesday, May 30th:

We headed down to Charleston after work for a wedding weekend. BG was up and hard core the entire way until I looked back and saw this, a whole 10 minutes from the destination. Nice.

Thursday, May 31st:

Trying to get this child to stand still and take a picture is like Chinese water torture. All I wanted was a cute shot of her in her rehearsal dinner dress.

Friday, June 1st:

While Mr. P was busy doing groomsman things, BG and I went shopping with one of the other groomsman's wife and daughter. We had such a good time with them.

Saturday, June 2nd:

In an unexpected twist to our weekend, we ended up in Myrtle Beach waiting on my first little niece to enter the world. She did, and she's perfect!!