Ready for Summer...thanks to Old Navy and Crowdtap!

I was SO EXCITED to find out I was accepted into Old Navy and Crowdtap's latest Sample and Share! I've received a lot of goods throughout the past few years through these Sample and Shares, but the swimsuit one is always my favorite because it means summer is here! And in NM, it's actually been here for about a month, we're already melting in the heat!

 

My friends Tai, Kim, and Elysee were so excited that I invited them to join me. We are all moms on a budget and being able to get a new swimsuit, instead of pulling out last year's worn out suit, was great news for all of us. Add a free beach towel, bad, and flip flops and were were all over the moon! What a great way to start summer

 

Here is Tai and Kim showing off their eagerness to get started shopping!

 

 

This is the swimsuit Elysee picked...same one as me! We forgot to take pictures of her in the store, so she's showing it off outside the store :)

 

 

I was the only brave one willing to take pictures of me in the swimsuit. The keyhole cutout in the cleaveage area was a little more than I'm used to showing off, so I'm planning on buying some material in a blue color and sewing a little fabric across the front. Modesty is more my style, but I love the print! 

 

 

This is the other one I was considering. I was loving the blue! However, it didn't hold up my chest very much, and I could see a wardrobe malfunction in my future.

 

Kim checking out. I got the same bag but in orange. So did Elysee!

 

This is the swimsuit Tai picked out. I loved it but I have a little more weight to lose to pull this particular one off!

 

Tai is wearing her swimsuit at the pool, except she's wearing her coverup over it! She tells me she's had a lot of compliments on the swimsuit, making me think I should get it and use it as motivation to lose these last 10 lbs!

 

Thank you Crowdtap and Old Navy for another great shopping trip!

My lucky/unlucky day

I will always remember this date : August 23, 2012. Always.

 

Why? I got in TWO car accidents that day! Two!!! One on a freeway, another involving a semi, and all I got was whiplash. I can't decide if I'm lucky or unlucky...

 

The first one was on my way to work. There was stop and go traffic on the on-ramp to the freeway, but unfortunately the guy behind me didn't see the rest of us stop. I had just started accelerating when I got hit, I didn't even see it coming because my rear view mirror is always facing the back so I can see my kids (who luckily were not in the car). The impact pushed me forward, and I accelerated right into the car in front of me. Officers decided none of it was my fault and my car was driveable. Jeremiah met me at the crash site and drove behind me to work so we could take some pictures of the car. I was a wreck (no pun intended). By this time my adrenaline was gone and my head hurt bad. I was still shaking. I got to work late and expected to be there only long enough to get a few things done before going home and resting....

 

...and of course that didn't happen. Three of my foster children who had been sent back home with their parents needed to be removed from their home because their parents were being arrested, so my coworker offered to drive a work van to help me transport the children. After we had the kids in the car, we drove them to McDonalds to get them some lunch. As we waiting at the light to get back on the main road, a semi in front of us started to reverse. My coworker couldn't reverse because we a had a large truck behind us too. She was honking and swearing and I got out of the car to make this guy stop. His back end had pulled up onto the hood of our car. Luckily there was no impact but we were freaking out at what could have happened if the truck had backed up much further. We waited for TWO HOURS for the police to arrive to take our statements.

 

Needless to say I didn't get home from work until well after 5pm that night. But yes, I took the next day off. Apparently it's required of us as employees to see a doctor after a car accident, no matter how small, and I was able to get medicine for my whiplash headache.

 

I spent the next few months at doctor's and chiropractor's appointments (LOVED my chiropractor) but now, 9 months later, I'm much better. Except if I get into an almost accident, or think there is a small chance that I just might get into an accident. In that case I freak out, start crying, adreline is pumping and I immediately get a whiplash-like headache again.

 

And yes, the Quest is good as new now, too. After $10,000 in repairs, that is!

 

Biopark Zoo

I'm coming up on a year behind my blog! I feel terrible, although not many (no one?) reads it anymore, it's a great way to publish memories. Who knows, maybe one day I'll actually get around to making a scrapbook of sorts out of my blog posts :)

 

In working with Children, Youth, and Families Dept here in Albuquerque, I run into a lot of people - clients (aka biological parents), children, and foster parents. My foster parents are amazing. They are kind to me and treat me like a friend. One foster parent in particular works for the local zoo, and gave me free passes to the zoo's night of music. We got to go into the zoo after 6pm and check out the animals before the jazz music started at 7pm. The boys had been to the zoo for field trips, but Jeremiah, Aubrey, and I had never been inside before.

 

The first thing we saw were flamingos. They were so fun, and yes, they do stand on one leg!

 

 

 

I love that Aubrey will look straight at the camera when I bring it out. She could care less about the animals when there's a chance to pose!

 

This is a vulture! I tried to get a photo of it flying, the wing span was amazing, but my camera would try to focus on the fencing and not the bird, so this is the best I could do.

 

Story of my life, no one wants to actually SIT in the stroller (except me) but everyone wants to take turns pushing it (except me!).

I'll admit I don't think I've ever seen kangaroos in a zoo before. They were a lot of fun to watch, there were babies and adults. We watched them for awhile because it was so fun to watch them hop around. 

 





 

We ended up finding a table at a cafe just outside the field where the music was playing. And it was loud even where we were. We forgot blankets and the grass was wet so I was happy to have a table. There were birds of different kinds walking around the cafe eating little scraps of food. The kids chased them a bit, but the birds were so tame they didn't seem to mind too much.

 

We didn't stay for much of the music, it was really loud and it was getting late. The kids had a blast looking at the animals and we can't wait to go back since we only saw about a quarter of the actual zoo!