Something I Rarely Leave the House Without

This is Day 7:

When I leave the house I am usually toting the typical large lady bag, and it is usually sufficiently stuffed. Within you will find my cell phone, keys, and lip gloss among a slew of other things. I believe that's pretty much the norm in our society. However, that's not all I take with me when I exit my abode ... I rarely leave my house without my little one, "ELA".

For a little over two years now I've been fortunate enough to be a stay-at-home mom, and loved every second of it. Yes, I have the moments where I'm surprised not to find myself flinging her out a window, but even those are precious. As anyone with children will tell you, it goes way too fast. I'd gladly have an entire year of tantrums if it meant she'd stay small a little longer. 

Since I've yet to be offered such a deal, she continues to grow, and I continue to miss my baby while adoring the little girl she's becoming. It's because of all these fleeting moments that she accompanies me more often than not. Even though I love listening to the music in my car without worrying about the volume and little ears, I love hearing her "sing along" with the songs so much more. Therefore, when I gather up my things and prepare to go out into the world it's not something I rarely leave without, but a very special someone.

Something(s) That Terrify Me

This is Day 6:

Instead of focusing on one fear, and letting this post become depressing, I'm going to make a little list. Some of these things terrify me to the core, others are worrisome, and some just give me the heebee jeebees.

• losing a loved one
• the ocean
• spiders 
• not being the mother my daughter deserves
• always living a plane ride away from family
• my pcos
• earthquakes
• taking people for granted
• becoming stagnant
• falling through ice
• other creepy bugs
• looking out into the dark

A Photo of My Best Friend

This is Day 5:

When I put this prompt on the list I had intended on using it as an excuse to gush about my husband. I mean, who isn't married to their best friend? I know I am (love you, honey). However, this portion of the list just happened to fall on March 23rd, so I'm going a different direction. While the hubs is still my number one, I'm going to quickly brag about another amazing gent in my life - my brother.

When I was about four I asked for a baby brother and actually got one. For years I considered him "my baby". When he started to walk he became my crash test dummy, my biggest annoyance, and my favorite playmate. As we've grown he's been my bodyguard, the keeper of my secrets, and my greatest friend. Since we've entered into adulthood he's walked me down the aisle, lugged a million moving boxes, and accepted the role of godfather to his little niece. He's always held a very special, very large, portion of my heart and no one who knows him would ever question it. He's just that awesome. 

My brother, Colt.

I chose to showcase him today because it was exactly 27 years ago that we met for the first time. Happy Birthday, Bub! 


If you'd like to know more, please visit the blog of this extraordinary wife (whom I stole this photo from).

A Place I've Traveled To

This is Day 4:

Lake Tahoe

Growing up our family vacations were always road trips. My parents took the long way and took their time. As a result, we were able to see Mt. Rushmore, the Grand Canyon, the Corn Palace, Canada, and every dinky roadside attraction between Idaho and Ohio. It was fabulous.

As an adult I have yet to have the finances to go as far as I'd like. I've never made it across the country, let alone overseas. Now, with a family, it's going to take even more money and planning, but have complete faith we'll make it at some point. 

Even though I haven't gone a great distance, I haven't exactly stayed home. Once upon a time I took a cruise to Mexico, I've worked in Yellowstone, and every year we journey to Austin to visit family. Also, my husband and I love road trip/mini-vacations, so we vacate this valley as often as our wallets allow. 

The fact that we're fans of cheap travel came in handy after financing our own wedding. We didn't have much to work with, but we had a car, so we spent an entire week in a little house on top of a mountain near Lake Tahoe. It was amazing, beautiful, and probably the best trip we've been on (yet anyway). Remembering that time, coupled with the photo above, is starting to make me feel like this year we may need to return. Hmmm ...

A Picture of Something That Make Me Happy

This is Day 3:


This was kind of hard since over the next 27 days there will be a lot of my personality revealed, and I didn't want to sound like a broken record. For this post I chose ...

SNOW!

I spent the first 13 years of my existence in Idaho where I totally took the wondrous white stuff for granted. Now that I'm an Oregon resident even the slightest dusting makes me giddy.

The Circus Comes to Town

The circus rolled through our little valley over the weekend, and the Anderson family did not attend. In fact, we avoided it. Why? I'm glad you asked ... because it had elephants.


A few years ago I noticed that the animals performing looked miserable. They clearly didn't tie a handkerchief holding their most prized possessions to the end of a stick and set out on a journey to experience life under the big top. It was obvious that they were hating every minute of it, so I vowed to never again give my money to any of these traveling freak shows that employed anything other than my own species. 

When I saw all the free admission tickets laying on counters around town, broadcasting the upcoming arrival of entertainment, I was excited. Truth be told, there isn't a whole lot going on here and I was eager to have something out of the ordinary to take the tot to. Unfortunately, a tiny bit of research about the Shrine Circus, and the plans were derailed.

The Shrine Circus is a great organization. In fact, they raise money for your community, and don't actually own any animals (except for dogs, but dogs do tricks voluntarily). They do, however, lease the services of other companies. The company that owned the elephants on display this weekend was the Tarzan Zerbini. The following is just a small excerpt from the numerous pages of information I found about this company:

Tarzan Zerbini Circus has failed to meet minimal federal standards for the care of animals used in exhibition as established in the Animal Welfare Act (AWA). The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has cited Tarzan Zerbini for failure to provide a veterinary care program and medical records, failure to provide minimum space, and failure to properly maintain transport vehicles. Animals used by Tarzan Zerbini have caused serious injury to children.  

If how the animals themselves are treated doesn't bother you, I feel I should mention that this specific company's elephants have had a reoccurring tuberculosis problem (most likely a result of their inability to move sufficiently enough within their cramped quarters). 

I find this kind of information simultaneously horrible and heartbreaking, thus my need to vent. I am by no means condemning those who did attend, and certainly not circuses in general. I just wish there were more animal-friendly entertainment choices. I mean, who isn't entertained by the motorcyclists in the giant steel ball? Or the half naked girls hanging off a long flowy piece of fabric? I know I am. 


*If you are interested in more information, and extremely brave because the above was just the tip of the iceberg, you can find it here. You can also simply check to see if the entertainment coming to your town is on the naughty list here.

iPad Cover

Whoa! Two posts in one day! I have just set a personal record. ;)

Last night I finished making the hubs an iPad cover. Well, technically it's cover 2.0 because the first one I made for Valentine's Day wasn't holding up so well. Thankfully he loves me because I'm teaching myself to sew and, as is the case with most my crafting, it rarely turns out how I had envisioned.

The front.

The inside.

At the end of the day, I'm just happy it's functional. :)

*If your interested in attempting a cover of your own, I purchased the pattern from Sew Spoiled on Etsy. 

Last Five FB Statuses.

This is Day 2:  

• I've followed the crowd and lost my contacts - please text me your number if you'd like to remain friends.  

• Yay! We have internet again! :)

• ELA* is so enamored with her new Pez dispenser she doesn't even realize it's supposed to be filled with candy.

• Pondering/planning tattoos ...

• Just downloaded Words with Friends. If anyone wants to play my username is cheyanders. :)

* I don't plan on posting a lot of personal info about my offspring on here, so I changed her name in status three to her initials. 

P.S. I swear I'm not really as boring as these suggest.

Introduce Yourself With 15 Facts.

I'm going to use a little mash-up of various "30 days of blogging" lists in order to get the 'ole blog ball rolling. This is Day 1:

• My name is Cheyloe Anderson.
• This is my third, and final, attempt at blogging.
• I am the mother of a hilarious little girl (she's two).
• I am the wife of an equally entertaining husband.
• I live in and love the state of Oregon, but I'm not fond of the Rogue Valley.
• Once upon a time I was a dancer, and I'd love to be again.
• Embroidering by hand is my new favorite hobby.
• I long for serious crafting skills.
• I find grocery shopping kind of exciting now that I've started clipping coupons.
• I am trying to be healthier.
• I recycle and try to "be green" and buy organic.
• Listening to music always put me in a better mood. 
• I hate to cook, but I love to bake.
• I don't borrow books, I prefer to buy them.
• Like every blogger, I would love to be paid to write.