The day I one up’ed Daddy.

In our house it is an unspoken rule that we take turns putting Moses to bed. We have no problem splitting the responsibility and Moses shows no preference therefore it has never caused an issue; until last night.
For the past few months I have transitioned from reading four stories and laying him straight down to only reading 2 or 3 and then singing a couple songs. I thought the songs would be a nice way to calm him down and I was getting tired of reading the same books over and over and over again. The night I wanted to sing songs my mind went blank and the only two songs I could remember were “Jesus loves me” and “Jesus loves the little children”. I’ve sang them repeatedly since childhood and they began floating out effortlessly night after night. I didn’t think Moses cared which songs I was singing or if I was even singing until one night I rocked him quietly and he requested “song”. As the weeks go by he has become more verbal with what song he wants me to sing; “Jesus loves me Mommy” he would request after the last book was read. It makes me melt and I happily sing the same two songs every night.
Sunday night Moses woke up in the middle of the night crying out for me; I was tired and asked Davy to check on him. As Davy walked into the room I heard Moses say “No Daddy, Mommy”. He tried to hold him and his cry got louder. Was he actually refusing his Daddy? Finally I went into the room and he reached out for me to hold him. He buried his head into my chest and said “Jesus loves me”. :::heart swoon:::. Right then and there, with my 5-in-the-morning-glory voice, I sang to him. It made me feel incredible. Davy has always been his buddy, his pal, his sidekick but in this moment it solidified I was his Mommy. His gentle, caring, sweet mommy. He thinks of me in the way I have always wanted him to think of me as; his Mother.
Last night I was at the grocery store when I received a phone call from Davy, “Well, I’m officially insufficient” he blurted out. He proceeded to tell me after reading stories to Moses he started requesting Daddy to sing songs. Not just any songs, but Jesus loves me. Davy struggled through his vague memory of the lyrics but Moses was not satisfied. He lay in his bed and cried for his Mommy; finally drifting off after Davy promised when Mommy got home she would come into your room and sing you “Jesus loves me”.

Fried turkey and flip flops; a Florida Thanksgiving.

Thanks everyone for entering the Owl ornament giveaway by aprilfoss. I put the numbers in Random.org and #5 was selected. Congrats The Hills for your new addition to the Christmas tree; email me and I’ll direct you how to get your prize.

I think giveaways are a fun simple because it takes 1 minuet to enter and you could win something for free! I am in the works for two more giveaways this month and next time don’t be so shy! You can enter each giveaway once but if you have a mom or sister make sure you get them involved too and who knows, it may end up under the tree with your name on it
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The Thanksgiving holiday went lovely for our crew. I baked lots of desserts, we spent a lot of time with family, and really enjoyed our time spend together. Oh yeah, we ate too. In all honestly Davy and I are not huge Thankgiving food lovers so after one and half days of eating we were set for the year.
Thursdays night I slept in my old bedroom at my parents to make waking up at 3am a little easier. The two key words this Black Friday were easy and organized. We got everything we wanted, the lines were short, and we were home by 11am. I am not sure if the stores were more organized or we were more prepared but the rush of Black Friday just wanted there. The only small thrill I got was weaving through the crowds double fisting Blueray players trying to rush back to our cart. Lame, I know. Next year we thought it might be fun to not look at any ads before hand so we could wake up at 3am, make a mad dash to the stores, and go crazy. Just kidding, kind of.

Getting ready to play "sticky ball"

True Florda boy; flip flops on Thanksgiving

He slept through lunch and decided to make the most of his afternoon by eating a turkey leg while playing with toys. Mom of the year right here!



I cannot believe this big boy is my baby!

It's good to be in love.

We woke up anxious and excited; all the planning and anticipation of this day had finally arrived

I got ready laughing with girlfriends but nervous on the inside

 He just woke up, rolled over and looked good

Here's a close up of the groom, my groom

We put on our fancy clothes

 And shared the day with peole that mean the most to us

And a lot of good friends

Who are lots of fun

And family that makes us smile, big

We said our I do's

And I married my best friend

And we've lived happier ever after

Happy Anniversay to my best friend, my childhood sweetheart, the love of my life. You are the best husband and father in the world and so many days I look at you and think I don't deserve you. You chose me and I you. I love you and can't wait until you're 74 and I'm 72 :)

hoot hoot {giveaway}

Alright enough with all the Twitter teasers, it’s time for a giveaway! Like I mentioned yesterday I was browsing Etsy and finding things I loved so I decided to reach out to the designers and see if they were interested in sharing their goodies. Etsy store aprilfoss contacted me back that day willing to do a giveaway. I find it so interesting to know the back story of the designer and I don’t think I could say it any better than her bio:

I am a busy wife and mother of five children. Our recent home renovations have sparked my love for making and creating. Seeing as how I have 3 daughters, I have a tendency to gravitate towards girlie things. Because their bedrooms can only hold so many of my handmade items, I have decided to broaden my horizons by opening my own Etsy shop and sharing them with you.

I love her reason for starting an Etsy shop and well, I love her shop! Her shop mostly specializes in handmade owls. She mixes beautiful, playful fabrics to create stuffed owl pillows, ornaments, bookends, and much more.

One of the most interesting things I found on the store was “owl garland”; a series of baby owls tied together by string to make just what it says, garland!

Giveaway: aprilfoss has offered to give one of Busyland’s readers an adorable owl Christmas tree ornament! They are so trendy and depending on which fabric you select they go with just about every color theme. My personal favorite is the Red polka dot owl made with Amy Butler fabric.

To enter head on over to aprilfoss’s Etsy store, pick out your favorite product, then come back and tell me what you picked! I’ll leave the giveaway open one week and then announce the winner Monday, November 29th. Make sure you follow the blog or come back ofter because the winner needs to email me (enilorac802@gmail.com) within 2 days of selecting the winning comment. The winner gets to select whichever ornament they choose ($12 value). Even if you’re not into owls, enter anyways; this make a perfect gift for a sister or friend!

chocolate chips, party tricks & a giveaway!

You know what makes brownies extra yummy? After pouring the batter into the pan take a handful of semi sweet chocolate chips and sprinkle them on top. Then slowly rub you spatula around to coat the chips in batter but not stirring them down into the mix. Once the brownies are cooked you can barely tell they are there but once you cut a piece you see small morsels of gooey chocolate.


Never let your teenager work in a restaurant; it doesn’t turn out well. The restaurant business is a secret gateway into things you should not do. When you first start working there you get to know the lay of the land; study the menu, taste the menu, meet your co workers. But then as the weeks and months progress you become comfortable in your work abilities and begin socializing more. Since you’re putting in 20+ hours a week you’re constantly around the same people and eventually they invite you to things. At first you feel the pressure to fit in with the older crowd that’s work there for years so you attend their parties. You play the drinking games, laugh at their stupid jokes and put on an unruffled façade. As the time progresses those parties become “yalls” parties and it feels natural to be with this group outside of work. Like I said before, a club of all different types of people who’ve formed relationships based off of work. It would be a great networking tool except 90% of the time people working in a restaurant are up to no good. It’s easy to get stoned before work, take a few orders, and then party after it closes down. Everything starts going down hill, and like I mentioned already, never a good idea.

I was browsing Etsy the other day and started falling in love left and right with all the handmade items. Just typing in two words under handmade brings up 1,000’s of beautiful products. I began reaching out to some of my favorites and that’s how I came up with this giveaway! A cute little something to bring out during the holiday’s and makes you smile. Hopefully everything will be ready by this weekend, if not, look for it Monday.

Today after my 8 hour work day and 4 hour school night I plan on making 100 mini pumpkin muffins with PDub’s cream cheese frosting. Wish me luck!

Oh, it is love.

One step closer to Christmas cards.

These are not in the running for the card however I thought I would share a sneak peak! Now if I could only decide between the other 50 pictures :) 

{when chemicals react}

For a moment there I thought connecting my Twitter and Facebook was a good idea. I’m always slacking with FB status updates so this way I could just write my one liner on Tweet Deck and the whole world gets to see it. That night, after posting an entire day, I was browsing FB and realized how much I hated the two linked together.
Twitter is meant for tons of one liners throughout the day whereas my FB is more for sporadic thoughts. I don’t interact on FB nearly as much as Twitter so my wall looked like one big Twitter vomit.

Another thing I didn’t like was linking my blog to Facebook and here’s why. I have nothing to hide; I don’t talk trash about other women, I don’t talk details about my bedroom life, and I’m not doing anything illegal I would get caught for. However I do have thoughts that I share on here that, well, maybe I don’t want everyone on Facebook reading. It’s something about having my own space to write whatever I want and it never turn around to bite me that makes me happy. If you read this blog it’s because you want to; you chose to follow or subscribe or type in the URL and read my random rants.

That night after seeing all my updates and seeing the blog links I immediately unlinked the two. I had overwhelming feelings of censorship and that’s something I don’t want to feel here. So with that being said, if you found this blog from Facebook and like the random rants, welcome to Busyland, I’m so happy you’re following along! If you’re already judging my poor editing skills and hope to find dirt on my life to make you feel better about yourself then I pray you wake up tomorrow and can’t remember where to find me :)