Meg's Mommy~Photo Blog

All Filled Up

2011-08-22T08:22:00.000-05:00

If you've followed my blog recently then you know I went down to Florida {which was beautiful!} this past weekend to meet my Birthdad! I was adopted at birth and had never met him.

I have sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo much to share, obviously, but I do not have time to write about it this morning. But I did want to check in and say that it was the best weekend ever. I met him, my great-aunt & uncle, a second cousin... and a bunch of my dad's friends. There is so much about their lives that I found out this weekend. I had no idea that my absence throughout the years had affected my ENTIRE extended family. I was always "The Missing Grandchild" and was always thought of throughout the years.... it's a pretty intense feeling to know you affected so many lives. They thought of me as much as I did them.

I had a mainly happy childhood though I always felt like something was missing... that I was part of something else. I am part of something greater! This whole big, very close family always left a spot for me in their hearts; I was always part of the family even though no one knew where I was.

This weekend filled up an empty little piece of me that I thought would never be filled. I am all filled up with love and family....

and it's the best feeling ever.

EVER.

Will write more again soon! And share pictures!! I look just like him. :)

A Fireworks Show

2011-08-19T01:20:00.000-05:00

I feel like a Fireworks Show of emotion. I'm so excited about the trip and so nervous, too. Emotions are pulling me in every direction, it's hard to focus on just one. We're meeting at his house {my birthdad} and I'm glad because I think it will be nice and private. And more special that way. I hope we click and that things aren't TOO awkward. I know it's probably going to be super weird at first.... but.... I'm okay with that. Sometimes the best things begin awkwardly.

These are MY people. Like, for real, MY people. I realize the magnitude of this weekend is probably a hard concept to grasp for those of you who aren't adopted or have experienced a similar situation. Quadmama pointed this fact out to me on my most recent post; and it makes sense. I am unable to explain how it feels, really... or what it's like. But I CAN tell you that it feels exhilarating to finally be putting a piece in the big puzzle of my life. I've been waiting for this one for a long time.

And so have they. :)

I have dreamed about this day for SO LONG. For as long as I've thought about my birth-family, I suppose... and I can't believe it's actually here. It's 1:14am so technically today is actually THE day. THE day. I can't wait to meet the person who is responsible for half of what made me ME, and one of the two people who created my life.

WOW!!!!

And I just wanted to write all that down before I turned off the computer for the weekend and unplugged. :) Everything changes after this weekend. Good or bad, I do not know. This is certainly life-changing though, no matter how it goes. Please keep me in your thoughts this weekend!

Just Saying

2011-08-18T09:04:00.000-05:00

I'm meeting my Birthdad and his side of the family this weekend.

I have had zero time alone in this house to prepare myself.

I haven't even done my laundry yet!

I relaxed yesterday afternoon/early evening by going to the Goodwill Outlet and searching for treasure... and then I went to Starbucks and then I went and got a brow/lip wax. I'd hate to meet my Birthdad with unruly eyebrows and a mustache (please say that moo-stash). My aesthetician is really wonderful and so insightful; I enjoy going to see her and she always has nice things to share. She is great to talk to/bounce thoughts off and I'm glad I got to see her {not just get waxed!} before I meet my Birthdad.

Gigi couldn't watch the girls on Wednesday this week so my 'day off' didn't happen. Of course, the week I really truly NEED a day "off".... {I quote "off" because I still have Snowdrop so technically I'm not really having a day off.}

So I'm just saying that this is a really emotional thing and I'm doing it all by myself. My support system {other than Hubby, who I think still really doesn't "get it"; He keeps talking about how he hasn't been to FL since he was 11. That not what this trip is about. Sorry but I have to be incredibly selfish on this one!!} are the two friends who know about it happening. They both live more than 300 miles from here. I think it's incredibly unfair that no one else recognizes the importance of this event and how life-changing it will be. I feel like I shouldn't have to explain that to people?? I feel like I shouldn't have to ask for someone to take the girls for a day so I can have peace to myself to prepare and reflect.

Like, I wish my husband had taken control of the situation and arranged for a sitter this week.

That would have been cool.

Le Sigh.

I'm off to break up an argument about something ridiculous between my oldest girls... and then I have to change this rank diaper on Snowdrop that I keep smelling as she parades beneath my feet, clawing at my thighs, screaming "Moooooommy Mooooooooommy Up".

Le Freakin' Sigh.

IT'S OFFICIAL: I'm Gonna Meet My BirthDad!!!

2011-08-09T12:27:00.000-05:00

I was going to mention this in my most recent post BUT I really thought it was important enough to deserve its own mini-post.

Last night, we booked our airfare to Tampa so I can meet my birthdad and most of his side of the family!!

It's official!!! :)

I'm full of all sorts of emotions. It's gonna be a good thing.

So have any of you done this before? What did you bring? What did you do? I'd love to hear about it!

5 mg

2011-08-09T12:23:00.000-05:00

Pretty sure I am feeling every bit of the extra 5mg (of Paxil) that I took last night.

My eyes are wide open (but feel heavy). I feel like a zombie, lol. A zombie full of energy. Does that make sense? At least my mind is quiet again and I can putter through the day and get things done.

Definitely not feeling anxious about meeting my birthdad this morning. I haven't filled the Rx for the Xanax yet. If the extra 5mg of Paxil really can rid of me the anxiety then I won't need to take the Xanax for that. And that would be a good thing ~ because I really don't like taking medicine.

But I will need the Xanax for the flights to and from Florida. I hate flying. It's freaky.

But let's not talk about that now. I don't want to ruin my non-nervous morning! :)

Psych 101

2011-08-08T20:59:00.000-05:00

Today I saw a psychiatrist. She is amazing and I'm SO GLAD, SOVERYGLAD, that I called and got an appointment. As luck would have it, I called her on Friday and someone had just cancelled a Monday appointment. When I first started going to PT at the beginning of the year, I kept saying that God had sent Christie (my PT-ist) to me. I was sure of it. She was supposed to help me in some way; I thought it was with my tailbone. And she definitely helped with my tailbone (I have my last - fingers crossed - PT appointment this week for that.) but we also talked a lot about all sorts of stuff while we did the PT exercises. It was therapeutic. Soooo as our PT sessions were coming to an end, she suggested that I entertain the idea of talking to a professional. I knew deep down that it was time. So, I actually got the info for this psychiatrist from her! I'm not surprised that it worked out when I called to schedule and that there was a cancellation. It usually takes months to get into see a psychiatrist. God works in mysterious, and sometimes not that mysterious, ways! I know this is all connected to help me.... so I'm going with the flow.

Anyways, the appointment went really well. It was a good first appointment, and we talked about nothing I thought we would! Yes, of course I cried. I laughed a bit, too. She's a redhead - well, formerly a redhead like me. We must be kindred spirits to some degree; and she reminds me of Sarah Jessica Parker but not in a squeaky mousey way (No offense, SJP!! Loved you in Girls Just Want to Have Fun!! Classic!!) And she was able to point out so many things about me already. This is her job and she's been doing it for a long time so of course she's really great at it ~ attended Columbia, John Hopkins, Yale... has had a lot of training in all sorts of areas, is also a psycho-analyst, a doctor in other areas too, etc... I just feel like she's really going to be able to help me get to the bottom of myself and fix things. I'm looking forward to next week's appointment. She upped my Paroxetine (Paxil) by 5mg and gave me a month of Alprazolam (Xanax). I hope I won't need the Xanax for a long time; I think the whole "meeting my birthdad" thing has me really anxious lately. ............ Obviously that would make someone anxious and emotionally charged; I didn't really put two and two together, lol. Lunatic. :) I thought my body had conquered the medicine and wasn't going to let the medicine help me anymore. Yes, I probably had some little vision in my head of Viking-hatted Masked Marauders invading my little Happy Rainbow Medicine Cells inside and pillaging them.

I need to be easier on myself. There are reasonable explanations for almost everything.

Anyways, I'm glad to have it for the days when I need it and for our flight to Flo-Rida.

I am too old to say Flo-Rida.

My only qualm about this therapy is that it's expensive. $165/50 minutes. I do not see any dinners out in our near future! :) I really do NEED this though. It's been a long time coming and frankly, I'd like to feel like a regular person by the time I'm 30. You know? I can't be an emotional nutcase forever right?

She suggested I ask my parents for the money to pay for the appointments. I said I'd think about it; and I really will. But I'm 99.99999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999% positive I do not even want them knowing that I'm IN therapy. We'll be fine. We'll make ends meet.

God will provide. He always does.

Blogging Again :)

2011-08-05T17:00:00.000-05:00

Me: Feeling Good These Days

Ahhhhh I haven't blogged since June. I started taking medication for my PPD/PPAnxiety about that same time. Of course, I think it's all related. Since being on medicine, I've been super active around the house keeping up with chores and with the girls. I've been Twittering {Superfab912} a bunch and have been enjoying it. I've also come to the conclusion that I think I actually NEED to be on medicine full-time. I'm not sure if this is totally a PPD thing or not. It all might have just manifested into the worst-blue-period ever after having these babies. You know? Without sharing too much, I feel like such a better person now that I'm taking medicine. I was super against it but I can think more clearly now. And that's so good. The morning after I took it for the first time, when I woke up, it was so silent. In my head. Like when a record is turned off real fast and the sound goes "zzzzzzchuupe" and then it's silent... or when you're the only person in a small coffee shoppe and a gaggle of people come in and are chatty and giggly and busy, and when they leave the store ~ THAT silence. That's how it felt in my head.

I wasn't hearing voices or anything but do you know what I mean? That Inner Monologue just shut-up.

So on Monday I have my first appointment with a psychiatrist. She was recommended to me by my physical therapist (who I just had a playdate with this morning - her daughter is a month younger than my oldest girls - we had a blast, and I think I made a friend for myself!! YAY!!!) I really don't want to talk to anyone about all my shit but I think it's time. And I don't think my OB can handle the adjusting of this, not in offense to her ~ it's just not her area of expertise. It's time to pass the torch from OB to Pysch. I think I need some adjustments on my medication AND I think I might need a PRN. I think going to a psychiatrist is the best way to figure out the right plan of action. Sometimes the medicine works really well but I have days at a time where it just seems like it's not enough. Does that make sense? As always, I will let y'all know how it goes. I don't ever actually say "y'all" it just seemed appropriate to use at this time. :)

MIRACULOUSLY, I haven't lost a follower during this little blogging sabbatical of mine. {Can I call this a sabbatical?} I'd like to thank the Thirty-Nine of you Followers for sticking around! Maybe you have been on the edge of your seat anxiously waiting for my return. Maybe you've been busy yourself and haven't even noticed. :) That's okay, too. I am starting to feel more like writing again so I hope to be blogging more. School is starting soon so I'm definitely going to have more time on my hands to blog. I really have a hard time blogging when the kiddies are about. :)

As far as the house goes, I finished, & started and finished, several projects (& started a few more) around the house that I've been wanting to get done for quite some time. Like these things:

hallway curtains

bookcase

the Hancock shelf

frames for Snowdrop's frame-wall

baking, baking, baking

curtains in our bathroom

sewing, sewing, sewing

cleaned out and organized so many things

threw out so many things that I didn't need/want

AND four years of projects that never got started or finished.

If I had time right now I would take and post pictures of these things to show you. But I don't today. Sorry.

I've pretty much caught up on Project Baby Clothes {which I talked about in one of the Vloggin' Vednesdays that I'd love to get back into doing}. I've got one basket of clothes that turned up after I put away all the other stuff and did more laundry. BUT, I've got almost everything that doesn't fit put away! The upstairs closets are dangerously stuffed with bins and other things haha ~ it's always a little scary to open the doors! I never know if something is going to come flying out at me. :)

I {mainly} finished that project in June but this past week we moved all three girls into one room. The third floor is no longer Snowdrop's room ~ it's the playroom! I'm thrilled!! I even moved my sewing machine up there. We're moving my desk up there this weekend so I'll have a little space of my own within the playroom to work on MY stuff. :) OK. SO. The big move. I did it all by myself. See. I've been on Hubby for like two months to do this and it {ahem, he} keeps pushing it back. He went golfing on Sunday and I was mad about something that happened the previous night so I said "F it. I'm doing it myself!" All it really involved was moving the full size mattress from the third floor, taking down one toddler bed, and converting the other back into a crib. Mattress moving isn't really that hard when you're just going down the stairs. The girls totally helped me maneuver it around a couple corners ~ they were awesome helpers! So we got the room set up and I'm just so happy with it. I think we need a little tweaking here and there, and I need to fix some of their alphabet but for the most part I'm just thrilled to have them in one room. It opened up the third floor to become a straight up playroom, which in turn meant that we moved every. single. toy. upstairs. WHOOHOO!!! We left a bunch of books on this floor but other than those {and of course, the tv} our main floor is now 'kid free'. YAY! :)

We went to Portland in the middle of June for a friend's wedding and had a blast. I LOVE PORTLAND!!! It was seriously a great trip. Honestly, there isn't time to talk about how much I loved it. The street-pirates (the street kids/people) that were so very interesting to watch and talk to. The freedom I felt there to be ME. We were there for the PRIDE parade, too, which absolutely contributed to the feelings of acceptance, friendliness, and youth of the city. I love the downtown area so much, I could definitely see us living there. I could open my vintage/handmade shop in a little place in the city instead of on Etsy (it's coming soon!!!)... Hubby is not sold on the idea for "right now" because of the family business (of course) but maybe we can retire there someday. Early. Early retirement in Portland. Haha. In my dreams.

Actually, in my dreams ~ I'll retire to Europe. Vacationing in America occasionally when I get homesick for a Windy City or SoCal beaches. Anyways..........

A good friend of mine came to visit over the Fourth of July holiday and we had a blast. We've been friends since high school, worked at THE bakery together, I was involved with her older brother for a few years and generally always figured I'd wind up as part of the family. THAT didn't happen (obviously) but we've all remained super close friends over the years. It was sooooooooo good to see her. I am lucky to have such great friends even though they don't live nearby. It's hard not having "real friends" down here. Do you know what I mean? Not that I don't enjoy the company of my friends here, I just feel so often like people "have" to be my friend just because I married their friend.... anyways. MY friend and I had a spectacular time. We cooked and baked, and refinished/painted/recovered two chairs I found at the Goodwill Outlet for the girls room, and we sewed a bunch of little things for the girls (like pillowcases!). We stayed up late and laughed for hours. And we brainstormed about some projects we're going to work on together. It was SUCH a great weekend when she was here.

My soulmate (and very best friend in the entire world), O and I had a Girls Weekend late in July and it was just ridiculous. So much fun!! It was just like the old days. But better. So neeeeeeeeded to be just us girls. O's boyfriend (who I love and who will marry her someday; I've already granted my permission. He was very sweet in asking for it, seeing as I am his future wife's soulmate. Really, isn't that cute to ask me? What a doll.) was going out of town for the weekend so we had full-range of the apartment to ourselves. It was a great weekend; we also got together with some other girlfriends of ours ~ grilling tofu and drinking champagne on rooftop decks overlooking the skyline. It's so great that we're all still close. We've known each other since high school. Like Freshman Year. It's nice to have people from back in the day still around. They've been around through it all. A girlfriend of ours works at Tiffanys so we went that Saturday and tried on ridiculous rings. And by ridiculous, I mean HUGE. And redonkulously expensive. I tried on a $165,000 ring. ZOMG. It really WAS beautiful. Though, I think I'd rather we pay off the house than spend that kind of money on a ring (we don't have that kind of money anyways, haha!). That said, however, I would absolutely accept and proudly wear a ring of that caliber and size. HA! :) OMG. It was so pretty. And it looked nice on my finger. ;) O also bought all us girls a stacking ring to commemorate the weekend. She had a LOT of credit from a (an old-boyfriend's) gift she had returned. WHAT an awesome friend I have. AWESOME!!! My ring is pretty and had to be ordered so I'll get it the next time I go up there for a visit. Which will be soon. I think the more I see my soulmate, the happier I am. And vice-versa. We are seriously like part of each other. It's amazing to me, our friendship has come so far and been through so much (long story, not for today) and here we are: as strong as ever, finishing thoughts again, can't stand being 300 miles away from each other... in fixing our friendship (and growing the fuck up), I have been able to find so much of myself that I thought I had lost years ago when I became a mom and moved out. O had those pieces the whole time. And you know what's funny? I had her pieces that left with me when I left ~ we were both fools and I'm just so glad we can share our pieces again. I missed her SOFREAKINMUCH and while it doesn't necessarily make me happy to think of her sharing all that pain with me, I'm "glad" (?) that I wasn't the only one who felt so lonely without the other. We are truly soulmates. How cool is that!

I am meeting my birth-dad and his side of my family the weekend of August 19th.

This is a HUGE DEAL, of course. I'm SO full of all sorts of feelings and emotions. I am super excited and super nervous. I think it's going to go great! I have a feeling that I am very much like this side of my family. Part of the reason I am seeing this psychiatrist now is so she can help me prepare for this. Hubby, God Bless him, just doesn't get it. I don't expect him to, he's not adopted so he'll never really 'get it'. But he tries and is being supportive of this event even though I KNOW I'm being very wishy-washy emotional high-strung about it. I'm all over the chart of emotions these days when it comes to meeting him, understandably. I hope I get the chance to cook with my grandma/aunts, that would just be so cool. I have a full-blood biological brother who lives in the same city as my dad (Tampa/Ocala, FL) (and a full-blood bio sister, but she lives with my mom in Pennsylvania) and I'm hoping he'll come and meet me, too. When I asked my JohnDad (that's what I call him; his name is John but that didn't seem personal enough; I already have a Dad so... JohnDad it is) about it, it didn't really sound to me like my bio-brother was going to come. That's okay. I don't want to push anybody into doing this, you know? It's a big deal. I know that my biological mom doesn't want to meet me. Or at least that's how she felt several years ago... or maybe it's that she wants to but can't because it's too hard. I totally get it. {as much as I can get it.} Part of me feels like she should be the very first person to meet me, considering she's my mom, but I really can't wait forever for her to come around and want to meet me. I wanna meet my grandma before she kicks the bucket ~ sorry to be so insensitive about that thought.

*sigh*.

Okay. I totally whipped all of this out in the last hour or so while I let the girls play upstairs. They are supposed to be napping but I REALLY wanted to post on my blog so I'm letting them run around like banshees up there. {Disclaimer, they are totally safe in their room.} It's been forever since I posted and I'd probably write more but it's time for "naptime" to be over. I tried a few times before to post this summer but the girls got in the way and I didn't finish my thoughts, things ended up needing to get done, there were poopy diapers, etc. I'm glad I could get this posted today.

Hope everyone is doing well! I hope to catch up on lots of things this weekend. Like some more blogging. And reading about your lives. I have thought of so many of you during my time off and truly hope everything is fabulous in your neck of BlogLand.

Oh HI & Some Other Stuff

2011-06-03T01:53:00.000-05:00

Yes. I have been totally MIA around here. Sorry.

I've been CLEANING. Seriously, cleaning. Organizing. Finishing projects. Cleaning. Cleaning. Cleaning. I am on a roll.... I have been almost totally off the computer. It's so weird. The medicine I am on... is totally making me do all this. It's gotta be because I have gotten more done in the last two weeks than I have gotten done in the last year or two ~ for real!!!

It's actually been really nice.

I'm not putting up Project365 this week. Mainly because we are leaving town tomorrow morning and I really don't have time to do it this week. Sorry. I REALLY hope I can have it all back up and running next Friday. Sorry again.

So we're going to visit my parents this weekend for a short trip. My little brother is graduating from eighth grade (!!!!!!!!) and so we must go. I get to see my bestest friend in the entire world on Saturday night so I am sooooooooooooooooooo super excited to see her. This girl is my other half, my true other half. I can't wait!!

In other REALLY AWESOME and EXCITING NEWS ~ TODAAAAAAY was our fourth wedding anniversary! Well, June 2nd was. Technically it is 1:34am and June 3rd, whatever. So we have been married four years and have three kids. And I think that's wild. Not at all what I expected of my life. We have not had an easy marriage, there have been MANY rough times most especially recently when it was hard to be in the same room and not argue. We both agreed to suck it up, both stop acting like jerks and really TRY. And so we have. And so things are going well. As they should do when we try to share and get along. It's not easy being married and anyone who tells you so is lying. Sometimes, being married sucks. Like getting used to living with a BOY {ew}, a CLEAN boy {weird}. I expected it to be easier because it had been so hard living apart... but it's really been an adjustment. Anyways, it's great to get through the rough patches and know that the other person was right there the whole time. Just waiting it out with you. I am so very lucky to have someone like my husband to be married to ~ he really is great sometimes! {Cause c'mon, you KNOW he's going to do something soon enough that will make my head spin! Haha!}

Four years!! WILD. :)

Okay. I have to stop procrastinating and switch over the laundry. And then I should probably head to bed so I get SOME sleep tonight.

Thanks for understanding about the recent failings of Project365 and the rest of my blogging. Hope you all are well. :)

Blogging: FAIL.

2011-05-27T22:29:00.000-05:00

So I haven't been blogging all week. I don't know... I just haven't felt it. And I suppose as a result of that, I completely forgot about Project365!! It was supposed to post today. I'm the worst. blogger. ever!!! Tomorrow it will hopefully be nice out and Hubby will have the girls in the yard doing yardwork so I will have time to post and set up the linky. My bad. Blogging, Fail.

A big apology to those who linked up last week and didn't get comments from me!! Thank you for linking up!! :)

We survived the recent Midwest storms just fine but those folks in Joplin, Missouri really got hit hard. There are TONS of ways you can help. Give blood, send $5 to the Red Cross... you get the idea. A blog I follow, Motherhood Unadorned, mentioned an auction going on at her friend's shop, LillyBelle's Closet. You can check it out by clicking here. Even a prayer, good thoughts, best wishes sent to Joplin would help out.

The destruction is really horrible.

OK. We have been super busy this week.

The girls are out of school now so I'm trying to keep them as busy as possible. We spend a lot of time in our yard while the baby is napping. I putter around the patio trimming the flowers and plants, sometimes watering them ~ but it's rained a lot this week so not too much! :) The girls and I went on errands; somewhat superfluous, but it was nice to get out of the house. Snowdrop picked up something peanut while we were out; I think it was from the cart she was sitting in. I have one of those covers but she sometimes gets under it, etc. She's such a monkey; she has also discovered how to wriggle out of the strap. Monkey. Anyways, so she didn't have a crazy reaction but she was definitely a little puffy and rashy. It was scary. We gave her Wal-dryl (Benedryl) and she started looking better. It's really scary to think how easy it would be for her to come in contact with stuff. I had the Epi-Pen with us but still.

I conquered my baby clothes catastrophe today and I'm proud to say that (...other than about 3-4 loads of baby laundry waiting to be done ~ a few items of which might need to be packed away...) I successfully organized, separated, and packed away 135 gallons (that's 5 plastic containers) worth of too-big/too-small clothes. As in, it's packed away in bins, IN a closet. UNSEEN if the doors are closed. Whoohoo!!! It feels REALLY awesome to have finally gotten all of that put away. The hallway floors can be seen and when Snowdrop went up to her room tonight, she stuck her arms out and said "Wheh?"

I am so excited to be cleaning up.

This must be the medicine, right?

Which by the way... I think is going okay. Good-okay. Sometimes I feel like I could use a little more... kick to it? I'm still getting panicky sometimes. Still waiting it out to see how my body is adjusting... I guess sometimes I just feel like I need a little more "calm" than it's giving me. We'll see what happens.

Thanks for sticking around while I go through this.

I bought a pair of striped curtains from Goodwill this week. It appears that whoever previously owned them, decided to wash them instead of getting them dry-cleaned. The dark blue dye ran onto the light blue and tan stripes... there are a good amount of spots that need cleaning. Does anyone have any ideas? I read something about vinegar, but that was confusing. I'm not sure about bleach, what if I ruin them completely. They cost $16 total, which isn't a fortune but I don't want to ruin them further. I really like them but if I can't save them (relatively inexpensively, time and monetarily) then I don't think they are worth the $16.

Any stain/dye removal tips??

I also found two pairs (!!!) of white curtains with silver grommets. I've been looking for this style for quite some time now. I'm thrilled as each pair only cost $6. I can use these as curtains or under curtains as liner-curtains... there are so many uses. I'm so glad. AND since I found these, that means we'll be painting this main room GREY. I really love the combination of white panel curtains with grey walls. It's so crisp. And I think it will look great in our main room. Soooooooooo. The paint store sells "ooops" paint and I'm going to start checking for 5 gallon buckets of grey paint so we can get this room painted and done!!

One more bit of news, Hubby convinced me to attend a wedding with him in June... across the country in Portland!!! It will be good for us to go away together. While I AM looking forward to going back to Portland for a visit & seeing old friends & getting away for a few days.... I'm totally NOT looking forward to flying ~ I really HATE flying. It makes me really anxious, nervous, worried, etc. I'm a fraidy cat. Never used to be. But then 9/11 happened and I grew a little worried about flying. And then I became a mom and pretty much decided it was TOTALLY irresponsible of me to go flitting about miles above the Earth. What if something happened and my babies were left here without me? I digress. I've been tossing & turning for the last two nights/mornings since we bought our tickets... I think I'm nervous. I also think I'm an idiot because everything will be fine and we will have a wonderful time.

*sigh*

Ok. Time for bed.

Project356... Tomorrow!

Project365 ~ 133 to 139

2011-05-20T23:42:00.000-05:00

It was a really long day. Thanks for sticking around!! Here is my Project365 for this week ~ better late than never!! Link up your Project365 at the bottom of this post!!

Project365 ~ Days 133 to 139

{From my SOOC Self Challenge! Check out the pictures here!}

Missed Day 134. Boo.

{My Personal Starbucks Counter ~ previously shared (unedited) in this week's Sunday Scavenger Hunt}

{Our Vacation Fund. Well, to go towards our vacation fund!!}

{Why Hellllllllllooooo Pre-Twins-Pregnancy Jeans... you lookin' mighty fine, myyy-teeeee fine.}

{During late night cleaning, we found a secret stash of Easter candy under a couch.}

{Snowdrop. My Little Crazy Pants. She thinks this is the funniest thing ever!! And it is!!}

Please grab my button from the sidebar and link up!! Thanks so much!!

Hope you have a fabulous weekend! :)

Crazy Week

2011-05-20T10:33:00.000-05:00

Project365 will be up later this afternoon!

Sorry for any inconvenience.

Yesterday, on my mother-in-law's 57th birthday ~ and her 30-something wedding anniversary ~ we found out that some of her skin samples sent in for testing this week, tested positive for skin cancer. The "Basal" kind, so apparently the less scary kind... My MIL is not worried about it but of course I am. I am trying not to worry but anything with the word "cancer" is super scary to me. She is like the cornerstone of our family here in the Little City. There is no way I'd ever live up to all she does ~ so I hope we are able to nip this in the bud and get rid of it!! I want her here for a very long time. She has always treated me so well and truly accepted me as her daughter, not just an "in-law". I hope she's okay and not hiding anything. {She's not the type of person to do that so I don't really worry about that.}

Hubby's grandpa was just diagnosed with congestive heart failure this week. He is on some new meds that are helping to make him feel better. And will go for more testing this week. This is not "the end" for him but certainly an indicator that things are on the slow-down... AND Hubby's dad hurt his leg {ankle & knee} and pretty much can't walk, so Hubby has been picking up some of his stops this week. I think he's having surgery soon for this. Not positive on that.

Seriously ~ We are falling apart over here!!

SO in addition to this, my brother is going through a lot with PTSD {US Army/Afghanistan} and his marriage is suffering and things are.... let's just say pretty fu-barred in his life at the moment. I don't really want to get into the details but being in Afghanistan really messed him up. It's so hard to be there for him when he's across the country. I wish I could just drive over to his place and take him out, you know?

And MY grandpa {dad's dad} is finally getting out of the nursing home, after spending time there to recuperate from a nasty bought with pneumonia. The doctors say that it is out of one lung but that the other lung still shows something. Something. My grandparents have elected NOT to have further testing done and my grandpa should be going home soon. They have also found a nice plot at a cemetery down in FL. We {between my mom & I} do not know if they are hiding information {unlike my MIL, they would totally hide something serious from everyone and put on a good face anyways ~ not a bad thing, they are just VERY private about "private matters"}. So.... that's all going down, too.

So I've been dealing with a lot the last few days and thus have not really had time to work on blog stuff.

Good news though, my medicine seems to be working and other than a few odd side effects {vomiting of course, waking up at night, and tiny panic attacks here & there, forgetfulness} I am actually enjoying what it's doing to me. I want to post about that separately. But I wanted to share it now just to update anyone who might be following THAT part of my life...

Thanks for understanding!!!

All best wishes, prayers, good thoughts are welcome & needed!! :) Thank you!!!

Project365 will be up later.

Posters

2011-05-19T11:09:00.000-05:00

Just a quick little Thursday morning post.

Whenever we go to a show or music festival we usually pick up a poster as our "souvenir". I bought a ton of matching frames from Target and when we used those up, I bought a bunch from Ikea. We had about six of our posters already hanging but so many more are still rolled up or waiting to be hung.

Last night, we FINALLY got around to hanging the ones that were going in our main room. {I someday hope to have a long hallway where we can display these.} The "Before" picture is actually after we had lasered/measured for the new ones. Hubby is SUPER anal about measuring correctly. I'm the type of person who likes to eyeball and whack a nail in the wall and hang it up.

But we do it his way when he's home. :)

BEFORE

We've always had three posters behind the couch. Recently we added three more as a top row (not showing here). The poster in the top right of this picture is new to the room.

I forgot to snap a picture before we started. Oops!

We DID have two posters on the wall near the table (which isn't showing here).

AFTER

(The table is usually positioned under the four posters.)

I am SO GLAD we finally got around to finishing this project! It was basically just adding four frames to the wall BUT we did have to put together the hanging parts on the frames which took some time.

Magnolia noticed before she even got all the way downstairs: "Thank you Daddy for hanging pictures. I like very much." Too cute! :)

So. Nowwwwww I just need to get paint so we can change the walls. I really don't like the shade of blue (everyone else does!) so I'm thinking something more along the lines of tan or grey. I just can't decide.

Speech

2011-05-18T16:24:00.000-05:00

This is going to be a real short post today. The City School District called me this afternoon at 1:10pm and was like "So.... you coming to the meeting today?" I had totally forgotten!! It was on the calendar, but previously the date had been Thursday. I think somewhere in my head I kept thinking it was on Thursday. It was not a big deal as Snowdrop had just finished her lunch; we quickly cleaned up and off we went. I was there by 1:24! Phew!! I wasn't really too late and they said they didn't mind. {I was supposed to be there at 1 to begin the review of the things they observed the day we went for testing.}

To make a long story short, both girls qualified for speech services. They'll start next school year. YAY!

Lipstick

2011-05-17T22:23:00.000-05:00

A couple weeks ago I kept Magnolia home with me on Wednesday and sent Snowdrop in her place to Gigi's. It was part me wanting time alone with her and partly me knowing she needed time alone without her sisters. She had been acting up that week and I was out of ideas. I think it seemed to work; we had a fun day! We bought a ton of flowers for the garden and she ran several other "big" errands with me. After we had worked outside for a bit, I sent her upstairs to get a new pair of pants.

She came back to me without pants but SO PROUD of her "Made-Up". She had applied it to her upper lip and not actually her lip! I shared a picture of this before during Project365 but there were some others from that mini-photoshoot that I've been meaning to post; they still make me laugh.

Without further ado...

I love you, Mags!!

Homemade Chicken Broth from Crockpot Chicken

2011-05-16T11:30:00.009-05:00

A bit ago I posted my recipe for Crockpot Chicken. I'm so excited that it was well-received! I'm super excited to share with you the way I make broth. As with the Crockpot Chicken, I got the recipe from Amber at Paint Chips and Frying Pans. So I am sharing with you today, the steps on how to make it.

Okay. So first you need to cook your Crockpot Chicken.

Then you need to eat your dinner. Go ahead, I'll wait. Don't forget your veggies!

Wasn't that delicious? Now that dinner is over, take the whole chicken and get all the meat off of it. The meat goes in a container in the fridge and will last us for a few days! I always wait until after dinner to do this so I can do it with my hands (the chicken will be very HOT if you do it sooner). Please wash your hands first. Using your hands will help you feel if there are any bones. Sometimes I am able to find the tiniest bone ever with my fingers that would have gone completely unnoticed. This is important for a couple reasons: A.) No one wants to choke or eat a bone. B.) You want as much of the non-meat parts of the chicken as you can get. When you are done taking all the meat off, it should look something like this. A gross pile of bones and skin and stuff.

Put it all back into the crockpot and add water until it covers the bones and stuff. Turn the crockpot back on. (You will want to have turned it off during dinner so it can cool a bit and to give your crockpot a break. I make my broths overnight so I don't like it running all day long and then through the night. I think it needs a mini break in-between.) At this point, I add more onions, celery, carrots, leftover veggies from dinner maybe, a couple Bay Leaves, some garlic cloves, NO SALT, DO NOT ADD SALT, you can always use garlic powder, onion powder, etc ~ I just usually have those things fresh & handy. You really don't need much, the bones & stuff will add so much flavor to the broth. As far as the salt thing goes, don't add salt now because when you use the broth you will absolutely be adding salt so you do not want to over-sodium-ize yourself, k?
Talk about being bloated the next day...

So you turn the crockpot back on at the LOW setting and set the timer for 10 hours. Depending on if it is later or earlier in the evening, I might set mine for 12 hours so the timer doesn't go off at 6:55am and wake the kids up. I'm sure you understand what I mean. But definitely give it at least 10 hours to cook together..

Now you go to bed. You've earned a good night's sleep. And waking up in the morning to the smell of freshly cooked broth is seriously amazing. I loooooooooooove the smell of my house after I make broth. LOVE. LOVE. LOOOOOOOOOVE.

Yum. Look at this stuff. How great does this look? And it tastes so good, too. I love to pour myself a tiny little glass of chicken broth and drink it. I know, I am a total freak but I don't care.
Chicken broth is so soothing.

Once you are up and at 'em, turn off that crockpot and remove the lid. Let the broth cool.

Last time I made this, I unplugged our crockpot and left the house. For three hours. The crockpot was STILL too warm to hold barehanded when we got home. I'm telling you, let it cool down. Not to the point of being cold ~ It needs to be warm but not hot.

Once it has cooled down to a warm degree, take a sieve and drain the liquid into a large pot.

Now you are ready to make soup. OR you are ready to freeze the broth for later.

If you are freezing it for later, I recommend measuring it in 2 cup increments into freezer bags. Be sure to label your bag with the item and date. AND WAIT UNTIL IT HAS COOLED OR YOU WILL BURN YOURSELF. When I made this broth and took pictures, I was planning on making chicken soup later so I did not freeze them. These pictures are of broths I have already made. I mentioned before in the Crockpot Chicken post about making them into "Files". I freeze them in my freezer in such a way that they will freeze "flat" and thus making them easy to "File" later on in my freezer. See?

And that's it. Yummy, rich, soothing, deep (can broth be described as deep? does that even make sense?) homemade broth. WAY better than bouillon cubes, WAY better than canned/boxed broths, and WAY easy to make if you're willing to put in the prep work. And if you're making a whole chicken anyways, why not use the bones and stuff to make broth. Otherwise they just go to waste being thrown out. Since discovering how to do this, I have only ONCE not made broth after making a chicken. I just feel so badly wasting it when I know it can be put to good use. (Boy, I think I could really learn a lot of useful things if I could spend a day with a real pioneer woman.) Sometimes I use broth to cook frozen veggies or pasta. It adds a lovely extra flavor. I was skeptical when I first read Amber's post and she said that I would never buy broth at a store again. But, she was spot on!!! I will never buy broth at a store (if I can help it!) again.

Shoes

2011-05-16T08:03:00.002-05:00

Gram, my mom, sent the girls these shoes as a belated Easter gift. They have hardly taken them off their feet since we opened the boxes ~ even Snowdrop! I think these are just SO CUTE. And the straps are velcro so the girls can put them on by themselves. LOVE. LOVE. LOOOOOOOVE!!! I really do love shoes. And I'm glad my daughters are following suit. {More chances at having my dream shoe closet when there are more people it would benefit!}

Sometimes, my mom really comes through with the whole grandma thing and I really LOVE IT when that happens. Especially when it involves shoes!!

Scavenger Hunt Sunday ~ May 15, 2011

2011-05-15T13:55:00.000-05:00

Scavenger Hunt Sunday Items: Give Me Flowers, Visual Contrast, Friendship, Before and After, Dark

Okay.

So I found time to do the Scavenger Hunt Sunday. Hubby came home earlier than expected from a bachelor party weekend so I was able to snap some shots!
YES!

{Give Me Flowers ~ from my SOOC Self Challenge! Check out more pictures here!}

{Visual Contrast ~ a vintage set of stacking snack containers that I rescued from my MIL's Goodwill box.}

{Friendship.}

{Before & After ~ My Personal Starbucks Counter.}

{Dark ~ Sunglasses keep my eyes in the dark.}

Head on over to Ashley's blog to check out all the other awesome entries for Scavenger Hunt Sunday! I totally encourage you to participate in this meme ~ it is one of my favorites! It's always a great challenge to find my interpretations of the items.

As mentioned, Hubby is home from his fun weekend so I am relieving myself of all motherly duties for the remainder of the afternoon. I'm going upstairs to veg out in front of the TV, maybe doze in bed, maybe finally hem those hallway curtains, perhaps I'll shower... maybe I'll shower and then go walk around the mall. Who knows!

I'm taking time out for me is what I'm doing! :)

Hope everyone has had a great weekend!

Blew My Cover

2011-05-15T06:43:00.007-05:00

OOPSIE!!!

So. This blog is registered to my maiden name email address. {I don't think I can change the registered email?}

I have all mail from that address forwarded to my UnexpectedWorld email address so I can keep blog correspondence in the right place. I don't use my maiden name email address anymore; I have one with my married name that I use for regular corresponding. Yes, I do like to make things complicated for myself. :)

No one in my family {well, my sister knows about it but I don't think she reads it! If she does, Hi Bug!}, none of my friends {okay actually ONE does ~ HIIII Lucy's Mama, who will also remain anonymous!!}, nobody we see ever on a regular basis, no one knows about this blog. Or has the name of it. Or whatever.

So I received an email on Friday morning from one of Hubby's friends about some baby clothing website.

In my tired state of mind that day, I then responded to said email.

I responded to said email from my UnexpectedWorld email address.

OMG.

WTF.

AYFR?!

{AYFR?! Are You For Real?! I just made that up. I don't know if that's a real... thing.}

I am an idiot.

Her email shot me back an "Out of the Office Till Monday" automatic reply... I contemplated calling her company's IT department to explain my situation and see if they could remove the superfluous email without infringing on any privacy rights. Meh. Then I thought that was a little overboard. {LOL.}

Maybe she won't even notice the email address? Maybe she won't even care.

This was probably bound to happen someday in one shape or form.

So, You. You know who you are.

If you pay enough attention to the email and notice the difference & decided to Google it and have just found me out:

please, pretty pretty please, don't tell anyone.

You can totally read my blog if it interests you, just please keep what you read here private.

See, this is like the ONE place I can go to.

And if everyone knows about it, then the fun will be gone.

The therapeutic-ness will disappear.

{My bestest friend in the entire whole universe doesn't even have the link to this blog. Not that she couldn't read every word on here... it's just having the ability to express myself freely. She's a smart girl, she might have found it out anyways... and because she knows me so well, she hasn't told me that she has. She's really the best. The absolute best. Hey Lady. Are you reading this? I love you to pieces!!}

So yeah. Please don't tell people.

Savvy?

Fabulous!! And Thank you. ;)

Fabulous Friday ~ May 13

2011-05-14T23:21:00.000-05:00

Fabulous Friday ~ May 13, 2011

This is from our rose garden! It is a SOOC shot and I love it!

{You can check out other pictures from my SOOC Solo Challenge in this post.}

Thank you for stopping by to check out my Fabulous Friday picture!

For those who might be new here, I host a Project365 linky on Fridays. You can check out this week's project, here! I'd love to see more projects linking up! :)

On a Very Serious Note.

2011-05-14T22:12:00.000-05:00

{I wrote most of this post on last Friday 5/6/11. I was interrupted before I could finish it... and well, you know how life goes.}
~
Seriously, this is totally on a very serious note.

And I'm just going to dive right in.

I have been SO depressed. SO stressed out. SO anxious about... everything!!

Anything and everything can set it off. I feel like a ticking time-bomb. I can eat just fine (haha, I'm even doing a good job at losing weight through clean eating!), I am exhausted but I can't sleep, I have zero desire to do housework or anything else, I yell at my kids all the freakin' time. I'm a ballistic bitch. Ok. I said it. I'm a big bitch. That is not always my fault. Hubby (God bless him, it's not totally his fault) has been SO unsupportive of my issues. It's not totally his fault; sometimes I'm just a bitch. On the other hand, it just doesn't help me out when I'm having a horrible time coping and he tells me to "Just Leave. Get out of here. Go back home if you're really so unhappy here. I'll raise the kids and you can have your life back."
(Really, he does! What a jerk!! Way to make me feel like you are totally not on my team, dude!)

I have been able the last few years to pick myself up, dust myself off, and live on. Sometimes I wonder if I have some sort of second personality that "takes over" when I can't. Or is that just "Being a Mom"? I do not know. I have reached a point now where I am just tired. I can't do it anymore.

I cannot function like a normal person should function.

So I just had my annual exam {YAY FOR PAP SMEARS! ~ that was only sort of sarcastic because truly YAY FOR PAP SMEARS they can save your life!} and I totally caved when my doctor asked me how things were going. I just seriously could not hold it together for another minute. My doctor, an OB/GYN who for the record is just about 40 and STILL trying to have a child, was really just so amazing.

I felt like SUCH a JERK complaining to her about all this.

{Sidenote: my mom, who was unable to have children, makes me VERY AWARE (in a negative way, duh!) how "fortunate" I am to be able to have kids. As if that means I should be happy my tailbone still hurts and I can't sit down/stand up without feeling it. As if I should be happy that sex fucking SUCKS because it's so painful, I should be delighted when my nipples bleed while nursing my newborn and I should praise God every time I pee my pants because peeing in my pants means that I got to push a baby out of my hoohoo... She has made me feel that I should never have a complaint about my life because I'm so fortunate to have been able to have my own kids. *le sigh*}

But my doctor is amazing.
And supportive. And sat with me for SO LONG to talk things out. And so she hugged me and told me that we are all blessed in different ways and that I'm not a jerk for how I am feeling about mine. She insisted that I am not complaining and that she is there to help me. She even said that I am one of her easier patients! She's really just so great. She didn't take it personally, like my mom alllllllllllways does. {And if I did offend her in any way, she never showed ONE inkling of it. Not one.}

And that meant so very much to me.

So now I'm supposed to be picking up some medicine later today that is supposed to help me function.

In addition to my mind being out of sorts... my tailbone/pelvis is still out of whack as well. This probably has made some contribution to my unhappiness since the baby was born. Long story very short, the muscles/bones in my pelvis got really out of whack when the baby was born. I began going to PT in February of this year. We worked just on my tailbone (which cracked and mishealed due to the muscle straining it) to see if that would help "everything" else down there, too. I felt great after a couple months of PT. So when Hubby and I resumed our...relations... and my tailbone got pushed out of place again it was SUPER depressing that I had to start PT again. I just feel so defeated. This time, we are treating me for the tailbone issues AND for pain in my hoohoo. See, the muscles in my pelvis are like SOTIGHT that they are knotty. Like how you get knots in your shoulders? I have knots in my hoohoo. And they are extremely painful. Especially when...you know. So the worst part of this is that we have to do these muscle releases. Sort of like massaging. Do you get where I am going with this? Yeah. My physical therapist has to massage my hoohoo (from the inside) to get the knots out.
Can anyone say Awkward? Embarrassing? Find me a rock to hide under? Or perhaps a heavy narcotic so I can forget about this easier? Please?

Why am I being this honest with you, Stranger?

Part of me does not know. Part of me hopes that someone out there is having similar issues to mine and goes to get help. Because I SWEAR that my physical therapist is a miracle worker sent to me from God. She has done SO MUCH to help me feel better down there. It is NOT normal to hurt down there after giving birth. Scratch that, it is not normal to be hurting sixteen months after giving birth. Yes, my tiny little body has been through A LOT (having twins plus another within two years) but it should not be "left in ruins". She said that so many women come to her and say that they just didn't realize it's not supposed to hurt, even a little. This week in fact, of the 60 hours she worked, 35 of them were with women who were having pelvic pain, as a result of childbirthing/pregnancy/etc. That amazed me! And made me feel so much less alone.

And the whole sharing thing is not just about the physical stuff, it's the mental stuff too.
If you're stressed out, depressed, "feeling blue", losing your marbles, a bitch for literally no reason at all, whatever is going on ~ you are not alone.
I feel that way, too.
All of the freakin' time.

Bloggers, like Chelsey The Paper Mama and Jennifer from Dishes in the Dryer and Delane from Life of a Mombie have reminded me that I am not alone in my struggle to enjoy mommyhood to its fullest. I wanted to say THANK YOU to Chelsey & Delane & Jennifer, and to all the others who I did not mention because so many of you have made a difference to me and have made me feel like I'm not a total nut-bag for feeling like this. You have also inspired me to speak up for myself and get myself 'fixed'. It is not fun feeling the way I do while I watch so many other mothers gleefully dance through motherhood. For me, the best news right now is that I have spoken up for myself and I am getting the help that I need... or at least starting on that road.

5/14/11 Update:
I am starting medication tomorrow night. I didn't want to start it Mothers Day Weekend and Hubby is out of town until tomorrow afternoon so I didn't want to be tinkering with medication while he wasn't home. Some of the side effects listed really scared me: psychotic episodes? WTF. AND the side effects are all like: extreme anxiety, depression, all the things I'm trying to get rid of? I'm confused by that. And of course, anxious (great) about what side effects I will have. Whatever. I can't remember what the medication is called and there's no way I'm running upstairs to find out. :) I will let you know how that goes. I HATE taking medicine mainly because I am always the one who gets the nausea/vomiting side effect. I feel like a nutjob. Fingers crossed, this will help me and not make me sick. Le sigh.

Okay. It felt really good to get all that out. Thanks for reading. I hope I didn't scare anyone away from reading my blog or step on toes or be a TOTAL Debbie Downer. Really. The blogging community has truly meant so much to me. Thank you!

Photo Dump: Our Rose Garden

2011-05-14T00:12:00.000-05:00

I believe this is what one calls a photo dump.

I intentionally played around with the settings on our camera before snapping almost every one of these shots. It was my feeble attempts at manual photography /slash/ pretending I was shooting with film and had only one chance to catch each picture. I'm a total weirdo. And soooooo this was fun for me to do.

{Of course, I couldn't help but watermark them. I do love that feather so.}

We have a rose garden in our backyard. This is what I see out my kitchen window. :)

Next to the rose garden you will see one of our vegetable gardens.

We only have a few tomato plants in so far.

My Peonies. I just love peonies. Except for the ant part. Ours are at the far end of the rose garden. I put up that fence thing just today to hold them up. {I took the picture above before I did that.} They were so droopy, you know, as peonies become when they bloom. We also have pink ones but they haven't bloomed at all yet. I hope to take pictures tomorrow of them. Um, so do you think I should try and thread some of the smaller buds through the fency thing?

Anyone else growing peonies?

There were probably about five small rose bushes back there in that part of the yard when we moved in but we have added more than ten since then!! They are surprisingly easy to take care of and always bloom so well. Hubby does fertilize them two or three times a summer... and they really are just beautiful. I'm not a fan of roses in bouquets (I refused to have roses at my wedding. Our florist is probably still reeling about that! Whatever. My wedding, biatch.) but I really do love them out in the "wild". Yes, the wild of my backyard rose garden. Hahaha! They are really lovely and blooming so fantastically right now I just had to snap a picture.

Here are the rest of my SOOC shots from our rose garden today.

a little out of focus, i think

This little guy scared the crap outta me when he went scurrying through the plants! No bigger than my shoe!!

And seriously, just way too cute!! Those ears!!

So his mother eats foliage in our yard & is now so comfortable with me that she will actually approach me/come closer to me to forage if I am still enough. I think that it's totally cool.

I never have my camera when it happens. Of course.

One bush

One "arm" of the bush in the picture below. I want to wrap it around a horse's neck.

We definitely need to work on getting some sort of trellis or something for these roses to climb on.

Any suggestions for a homemade something-or-other to do the trick?

These are the ones in the front right of the full garden picture at the top of this post.

These are new to our garden this year! ........... I think.

Just brilliant!!

I love this one, too!

Ta-Da!!

We also have white and yellow ones back there that were not blooming today. AND a stunning yellow/pink (it's called a Peace Rose) bush in the front of our house. And Hubby just planted another dark pink one out front next to that one. I'm sure you'll see more rose pictures as the summer continues.

Thank you for reading my blog ~ I hope you liked these pictures!

Try your own SOOC Challenge sometime! If you do, please comment here with a link to your pictures! :)

Project365 ~ 126 to 132

2011-05-13T22:19:00.000-05:00

Project365 is SUPER LATE being posted today. We can thank Blogger's recent issue {no biggie, but I was totally starting to go through withdrawal from blogging...} & the fact that Hubby is at a three-day bachelor party {Yes. I am an awesome wife!} which means that I am riding solo this weekend. Not that this isn't something I can handle. I totally can. In fact, I'm relishing this alone time. Usually, Hubby is pestering me about right now. Or watching TV in the other room.

This silence I'm experiencing right now (sans the sound of the keyboard being tapped) is true bliss.

*sigh*

Did you hear that? Yep. Me neither. Silence.

I'm hoping I'll get my usual burst of energy around midnight so I can stay up super freakin' late and clean my room. Hubby is usually sleeping by 11pm so I never have the right "time" to do it. I'm a night owl and a late-night cleaner. You betcha!

Okay. So.... as we say in show business (what?) ~> On with the Show!

I missed three days this past week. Boo. Last Friday and Yesterday (Thursday). Last night I was super busy helping Hubby run around and pack. I don't know what was going on last Friday. Oh well.

Project365 ~ Days 126 to 132

{My new apricot -you can't tell here- hyacinth. I love it! This is another edit using Ashley's Fairy Garden Effect ~ BUT this time, I filtered the effect with Difference Clouds (Photoshop). I really like the way it turned out!}

{Mommy Duck taking her babies for a boat ride. Mothers Day 2011}

{Midnight Snack.}

{My Really Awesome New Mirror}

{My First Sister and My Third Baby ~ Two of My Favorite People. EVER and EVER.}

{Oh. This was at our last sister lunch ~ Bug is going back home for the summer! We will miss her greatly.}

Please be sure to link up below!!! Thanks for stopping by my blog! Sorry I haven't been posting much lately. I have a post about that. I probably just need to click "Publish Post" and be done with it.

I can't wait to check out what you've been up to all week. Can you believe we're already 131 days into this project?!

(Well, for those of us who started on Day 1 of this year! Those of you who didn't, will get here soon!)

I'm so happy people are still linking up AND that I'm still able to host it! Whoot whoot!! :)

Have a fabulous weekend!! Thanks again for stopping by & (hopefully) linking up!! :)

YAY!

2011-05-13T12:09:00.002-05:00

YAY! Blogger is back.

One Super Fabulous Mirror, thankyouverymuch

2011-05-12T10:17:00.000-05:00

{I wear about a 6-7 shoe, to give you perspective on the size of this mirror. It's a good size!}

I posted several updates on Twitter on Tuesday about a new mirror I bought from Goodwill. I'm SUPER excited about it!! Because I think it's SUPER SUPER FABULOUS!! It's definitely vintage and it happens to match the wood in our bedroom set. We got our set from my grandpa after he passed in January 2008. The wood has almost a blue-grey glaze to it, and what I call "pickling". I'll point that out in one of the pictures of the mirror. Anyways, our current bedding is blue-grey and this mirror has some detailing in color that matches ~ but that I think could look greenish with the right accents in the room.

I'm thrilled about this because someday I will change our bedding to green stuff. So the mirror will still match.

Yes, this is a total "fluffy" post.

Nothing serious here to share ~ ooh, actually. Actually, the worker bees at Goodwill tried to tell me that I had to pay for my mirror immediately and that they couldn't keep it behind the counter while I kept shopping. I got them to call a manager and agree to hold my item until I was done shopping. I paid for it first, and went on my way to the kitchen stuff shelves and kept shopping. It was my impression that they would be putting a sold sign on the mirror and keeping it behind the counter.

Low and behold, ten maybe fifteen minutes pass and all of a sudden people are YELLING TO ME from the front of the store. It was SO ridiculous. Something about me needing to come get my mirror because people were trying to buy it, or something. I was so confused. Why not just put a SOLD sign on it? {Every other time I've been there, there are always SOLD signs on some of the big/heavy items.} So I get in a huff and yell back at them "WAIT A MINUTE. LET ME GATHER MY THINGS TOGETHER AND COME OVER THERE SO WE'RE NOT YELLING AT EACH OTHER ACROSS THE STORE." Yes. I might have gone a little over the top with my decibel level ~ we redheads are skilled in that way, you know! They were telling me something about people keep trying to buy it and take it from the counter. So I get up to the front and complain to the gals that I am being rushed out of here, this "new policy" or whatever it is sucks, etc. If someone is trying to buy it, all they have to do is say "It's sold already, sorry"; they are the cashier, all they have to do is NOT RING IT UP. I mean, shit. If you can't handle the cutthroat business {this is the part where I jab my pretend pirate sword in the air} of cashiering at Goodwill, then I just don't know what you should be doing with your life. The workers agreed with me that the new policy sucks but that they couldn't tell their manager that. I told them that I'd be happy to tell their manager that.

I should have KNOWN something was up when no one went to get the manager. I had my baby and I was pissed off so I just wanted to buy my green depression glass bowl and this fancy frame I found after I purchased the mirror, and get out of there.

But on the way home, I started thinking how ABSURD the whole situation was. The employees were YELLING at me from across the store? It was just bizarre. And then the whole new policy thing? I'm a frequent shopper there and this policy is not working for me. So I called the store and spoke to the manager. Who told me that SHE was the manager who approved leaving the mirror at the desk AND that they don't have a new policy. The policy is the same, which is that all big tickets items must be paid for (upon exit of store) and picked up within 24 hours. She apologized and said she'd talk to them. They had just had a meeting that morning about a similar situation. I think everyone was confused and defensive themselves and it was so stupid. And it made me REALLY HAPPY that I don't work in customer service anymore.

But you know what? I got a freakin' awesome mirror and I love it. And it only cost me $30. There was permanent marker on the mirror (the way they price their stuff) and I got it off with a Magic Eraser.

Goodwill ROCKS.

{See that part that could be blue or green? Or maybe even grey? I love the detailing on this mirror. There is even a little red/maroon in there.}

{Ok. So see the grain and those blackish dots all over the wood? I call that "pickling". I do not know why I call it that, but it's seriously the first word that comes to mind when I see it. If any of you know anything about furniture, I would LOVE to know what this is called.}

{I absolutely would have hung it like it says not to hang it. Absolutely!}

I paid $30 for this mirror. And I am just THRILLED!!

Do you shop at Goodwill, second-hand shoppes, thrift stores, etc? What is your favorite "Find"? Do you have a method to shopping at these kinds of stores? Thoughts?

Still Here

2011-05-11T23:12:00.000-05:00

Hey! I'm still here!

I have not felt like blogging at all. I mean, I've still been reading blogs. And Twittering. I just haven't feel like writing. Project365 is still on for this week and will be up on Friday!

I'm in a funk. Whatever, it happens to all of us.

Hope you all had pleasant Mothers Days! :)

Thanks for sticking around! :)

Project365 ~ 119 to 125

2011-05-06T00:15:00.000-05:00

Thank you to everyone who linked up last week! Thirteen of you linked up and I couldn't be happier about that!! Thanks so much! I really enjoy looking at everyone's photos and I appreciate the links. :)

I don't know about you but MY week went by SUPERFAST. I could hardly believe it was time to post a Project365 linky already! We didn't do anything extraordinary this week. I kept Magnolia home with me on Wednesday instead of sending her to Gigi's house. {She had been a naughty girl and I thought some time out with Mommy would solve the trick... and I think it helped!} I sent Snowdrop in her place. It was glorious to have time together without the other girls. We ran a couple errands, there were no accidents (she's in big girl un.di.es. now), and we spent two hours at Walmart picking out some flowers for our planters and hanging baskets (this is my contribution to yard work in the summers, haha! oh, and I got sunburnt while looking for said flowers...lol....only me!). Then she helped me by watering some of the things that I planted.
It was a fun day!

I have plenty of things to blog about but todaaaaaaaay, it's Friday. So that means it's time for Project365.
I really am having SO MUCH FUN participating and I am SO GLAD that I did this!!

Project365 ~ Days 119 to 125

{The day I bought 12 pounds of organic strawberries. The girls were very excited!!}

{Surprise 30th Birthday party for our friend ~ filling out the card in the car.}

{Strawberry Cake. Bread. Bundt. Whatever it was, it sure was tasty!!}

{Snowdrop thought this was just the funniest!! Peekaboo!!!}

{Juniper ~ Portrait of a Duck (see the duck in her hand)}

{My Magnolia Girl. She found some "made-up" (make-up, aka lipstick) and put it on all by herself. She was THRILLED!!! I just about died trying not to laugh. She's so pretty, my girl.}

{Hula Hoops. The latest fashion around here!}

Please do link up below! Spread the word! Maybe more people will link up! And please be sure to visit a few of the other people linking up ~ I know it's so encouraging to me every time I know someone has stopped by to check out my blog! :)

Have a FABULOUS FRIDAY ~ speaking of, there's a fun little linky called Fabulous Friday that you should check out and maybe link up to if you're feeling like it! I'll probably be linking up later on today.

Thanks again for stopping by! :)

Free 8x10 Collage

2011-05-05T09:30:00.000-05:00

Walgreens is offering a FREE 8x10 Collage today!!!

I love these collages and have gotten a few of them myself to frame. I think they are an easy way to display pictures from a birthday, pumpkin/apple farm pictures, seasonal pictures, etc. You can even order it and have it sent to a Walgreens in another city for Grandma to pick up! :)

Get yours here.

Disclaimer: Walgreens has no idea I am posting this. I am just passing on the good deal. :)

Just an Excuse to Share Pictures! Shoot & Edit Challenge, too!!

2011-05-03T18:42:00.000-05:00

YAY!!!!!!!!

My day is getting brighter by the minute and I couldn't be more thrilled!!! The girls napped this afternoon, all three of them!! In fact, the Big Girls are still sleeping! After lounging in the yard for a bit, and getting Snowdrop from upstairs, I checked my Twitter only to discover that I've won a giveaway from the very wonderful Paper Mama for this totally awesome portrait!!! The custom gallery wrapped portrait is from Fleur Anning , you should check them out. I'm SUPER EXCITED!! And now I need to find that picture I want to use... heeehee! {claps hands together and jumps with glee} I won a giveaway a few weeks ago from the lovely Joan at Expecting the Unknown, too! Maybe my lucky streak has finally come?!?! :) YAY!!
{And THANK YOU to both Chelsey & Joan for such awesome giveaways ~ you both rock!! And totally made my days!!}

So. Here are pictures of when we had the Easter Egg Hunt at Gigi & Papa's house!
{That was on Holy Saturday.}

I didn't really edit most of these because I basically just wanted an excuse to share them! Enjoy! :)

Magnolia & Juniper {Yellow/Gray & Coral colored dresses}

My Little Snowdrop!

Junie & Mags

Junie

The back of Magnolia's dress ~ isn't that bow pretty?

Going over their new stash!

Her favorite thing to do at Gigi's house is play with the froggy tea table.

I am entering this picture for the weekly Shoot & Edit series with Jill & Ashley! :)

See those huge bags in the background? Filled with "Easter Gifts" from Gigi!! What's that my dear? Organic Capers!!!! She could not have been more thrilled!! :)

Easter Baskets ~ it appears someone has a preference for purple?

Junie's collection

Miss Magnolia's collection ~ she did the same thing at the school egg hunt!

Thanks for stopping by my blog!

Have a great night!! :)

Marriage

2011-05-03T10:55:00.000-05:00

Marriage.

{sighs}

Being Married is sometimes so freakin' hard.

I seriously do not even know what else to say.

This was my deep thought for the day. Thankyouverymuch. :)

Inspire Happiness Daily Linky

2011-05-02T18:24:00.000-05:00

I will be linking up every Saturday for the Inspire Happiness Daily Project 365 Linky! I'm a little late this week but I linked up anyways! Hope to see more people there next week! :)
Thanks to everyone who linked up this week for my Project365 ~ I think we had a record 12 people linking up!! Whoohoo!! I am still checking out everyone's pictures so if you haven't gotten a comment from me yet, that's why.
Hope everyone is having a great day! We got our tax refund today. I can't say I have much to complain about. ;)

WOW!!!

2011-05-02T00:11:00.000-05:00

"A Common Girl married her Prince. The Bad Guy is dead. It's been a real Disney weekend here on Earth."
{I saw this quote on Twitter.}

Osama Bin Laden is dead.
I was sleeping on the couch and I was woken up to my husband shaking me and saying "Osama Bin Laden is dead!!!" It was the strangest way I've woken up in years. Our friend, Dan, texted him while he - Hubby - was watching 30 Rock {I think on DVR...}. We watched NBC's broadcast. It was 10:30pm, approximately. It was very surreal at first, I had been in a deep sleep. I was so quickly moved by the footage from 9/11 that was playing while they waited for the President to come and speak. I think that day affected many of us personally and that day is so etched into my mind... it's hard not to feel emotional seeing the footage again. I do feel a great sense of relief. I expect many things to happen in the coming days as a result of his death, good & bad. And I know this is not the end of "it". I'm very interested to watch some more coverage and like many of us, I am wishing it was not the middle of the night and we could go celebrate with friends and neighbors in the streets. I do feel like waving my American flag and blasting Jimi Hendrix's Star-Spangled Banner (um, see below). You can read about this very historic event in any newspaper tomorrow, or anywhere online now. It'll be on TV all day tomorrow, I am sure. Nearly 10 years after 9/11, our troops have finally been able to get him. With enough persistence, our country has shown that anything is possible.

I do not want to forget how I feel at this moment!! I'm so glad I blog!!

I'm so proud of all the hard work that our servicemen & women give our country and the world every day. I'm grateful for the sacrifices their families have to make.
My grandfathers, my father, my brothers, my uncles, and countless friends have all served our country in all branches of the US Military. I'm so proud of them, and especially proud of my brother Matt who spent two long tours (with the Army) in Afghanistan during the last five years.

I hope that today is the beginning of a great and wonderful change for our world.

Jess @IRockSoWhat said something on Twitter that I think rocks:
how crazy is it going to be for those that wake up tomorrow morning that have no idea!?

What a wild surprise to wake up and find this all out. I'm so glad Hubby woke me up! I am off to watch more coverage. I was going to go to bed but really, I'm totally pumped and want to see what's going on around our country right now.

God Bless America!!

Strawberries

2011-04-29T21:30:00.002-05:00

Twelve Pounds of Strawberries.

Normally, a pound of organic strawberries costs about $5.99. (We don't normally buy organic strawberries for that reason!) The organic strawberries I bought today cost $1.99 a pound!! My husband tells me that these are "In Season" and that's why they're so cheap. Whatever the reason, I don't care ~ all I know is that I got TWELVE POUNDS of organic strawberries for the ripe (ha) old price of $23.88. I didn't calculate the tax into it. Hubby laughed at me for buying so many ~ but the reality is, I saved us A LOT of cash. The girls & I polished off a pound already between lunch & dinner. I've already frozen three pounds and I'll use up two pounds when I make strawberry cake (or pie, I can't decide!). That leaves us with six pounds. I will be freezing more of them so we can enjoy feeding our girls organic strawberries this summer!

I never make strawberry desserts because strawberries are so expensive (even regular strawberries are pricey) so I'm really excited to have a surplus. Otherwise I "feel bad" using them for baking or eating them myself ...like I'm wasting food that my kids should/could be eating... is that weird?

See how excited they are? They were chanting "Strawberries! Strawberries! Strawberries!" as they danced around the kitchen. I love my Little Funnies.

Project365 ~ 112 to 118

2011-04-29T18:23:00.000-05:00

Sorry this is up SO late today!!
Please link up at the bottom of this post!
I only missed ONE day this week. And that was yesterday.
No more chit-chat, let's get to the pictures!!! :)

Project365 ~ Days 112 to 118

{Target, $1.50. I could not pass these up. YUM!}

{Easter at Gigi & Papa's House!}

{Peanut-Free Easter Morning ~ Raisins!!}

{Flowers from the market ~ Mags picked these out.}

{After a grocery AND Sam's Club run... we are stocked!}

{Homemade Chicken Broth ~ I'm hoping to post the "recipe" this weekend!}

Missed Day 118. Thank you, BiggestHeadacheEVER.

Thanks so much for stopping by my blog to check out my pictures and link up!! I hope everyone has a great weekend!!

Project365 is On Its Way

2011-04-29T14:45:00.000-05:00

At the risk of sharing TMI (I really don't care today though & I'm pretty sure all of my readers are female), I got my period yesterday and it. has. sucked. Big Time. I had such a bad headache last night that I was having trouble focusing on anything (not eyeball-focusing, mind-focusing) and then it got SO bad that I threw up.
Violently. Like twelve times in a row.

Needless to say, I went to bed early and never got the chance to get Project365 up. Sorry. My bad. I am feeling better today but still haven't had the chance to edit/date-mark my pictures, etc. Will do this at naptime.

Thank you so much for understanding.

Periods suck.

Forgot a Title

2011-04-28T00:51:00.001-05:00

We still don't have the results from the tests... or my grandparents aren't sharing. We don't really know.

Old people are weird.

Speaking of the Aged & Wise...

I confirmed with my biological grandma today that we will, in fact and for real, be meeting this year.

SCARY!!

EXCITING!!

My biological dad's side of the family lives in Florida.

And my parents' condo happens to be about a 3 hour drive from where they live.

My mom is trying to get us kids to bring our families there in August.

So... probably by September of this year, I will have met my birthfamily.

WICKED.

{Unfortunately, I may also meet them earlier as my grandfather will be buried in Florida should he pass sooner than later. Geez, that's such a morbid thought but it's the truth. And I might as well make something positive out of the trip, right?}

Okay and I asked her to be part of my Family Interview Project and she said Yes! I'm super excited!! Basically, the project involves me interviewing the older members of our families (I'm doing both adoptive & biological since I feel that I am part of both histories) on the family history, as well as their own life experience. It is not a simple project and I still have not begun the interview portion. I'm still in the organizing & typing up the questions part. It's getting there, this was not an overnight project nor did I plan for it to be. I want it to be good and right and something that our families will enjoy. My Nana was ready to start right then and there ~ lol ~ but I told her that we could wait until a better time. See, she had just sat down with my bio aunt in a restaurant for dinner. They had just ordered waters. She's so sweet, wanting to tell me all about the family instead of eating her dinner. I love these people so much. They love me so much. And they make it so very apparent. I feel so blessed to have them in my lives. And I can't wait to meet them. :)

But the idea of it all happening still makes me nervous as all get-out.

{Okay, what in the world does that mean "as all get-out" ?}

This morning, we took the girls down to our city's public school special education... "people". I'm not sure what to call them, evaluators maybe? We had to meet them at this magnet school in the city (which I was ridiculous, amazeball-ingly, impressed with) to get them tested for speech, and academics but mainly just for speech. We were there for two hours but it would have been much longer if we all hadn't gone ~ all being the five of us, yep even Snowdrop went. This way, Hubby could go with one girl into testing while I went with the other, two birds one stone. Snowdrop was an absolute doll the whole time and only got fussy for the last 1/2 hour (which was an hour after her naptime). She played with the toys in the room and generally stayed out of the "testers/teachers" ways. Both girls did REALLY great on the academic stuff, which was really awesome to see and I was so proud. All my hard work at teaching them stuff and reading to them is really paying off. Junie was even completing some of the DAYC 4 tests! Awesome!! Mags was a little... not shy, what's the word... she was acting silly and not doing things that I know she knows how to do ~ like sing the Alphabet, or Itsy Bitsy Spider...

I really can't explain how helpful just going IN for the testing was. Just to observe the things that these gals were observing and the little tips I picked up from them. Plus, these ladies were REALLY nice and the assessments were so detailed and they really seriously took the time to get to know the girls and read their background information. The gal who evaluated their speech said that she could barely understand them and was "sure" they'd get services. I'm not counting my eggs but I'm glad that she recognized the same things that I have been recognizing in the girls. Basically, it's a speech thing not a language thing ~ which is a good thing. That means that they can comprehend language and the different parts of it, but they physically can't get their mouths to do the right thing. I am one of the only ones who understands them and even I have a hard time sometimes. Junie has a bigger issue with the speech than Mags but I hope they are both recommended for services because I know they both can benefit from the services. Plus, if one is getting them and the other isn't ~ I think the other might hold back the first one from getting better. I don't know. Maybe?

They were also really impressed that the girls picked up ALL the toys before we left. They said that the kids don't normally do that. Leave it to my weird kids. They did not get that gene from me. Anyways, the school people just could not have been nicer. It was really pleasant. Mags thanked me on the way home for taking her there and said that she would like to go back there some day. These girls are just so sweet. I love them.

New Header as of today. I am really enjoying the creating of my headers. It's so relaxing.

And it feels so lovely to be creative. Photoshop rules.

{Even if this chair really bothers my tailbone.}

Sometimes I even like to make buttons in Photoshop.

Do YOU need a button? Or maybe just an update from your old one?

Hope you are having a really great week! Mine is not super stellar but I'm hanging in there. I have even remembered to take pictures every day!! (I think!!! Haha!) It has rained here every day for what seems like five days. I think that's not an exaggeration. There has been so. much. rain. Flooding down south but we've been lucky not to have any here. The tornadoes even avoided us this time. {Whoooooooo!}

I have to go switch my laundry over and get to bed. I am finally doing my own laundry for the first time in more than two weeks. I have enough underwear and clothes that I don't neeeeed to do it every week ~ but man, did that pile get big. I am on my third load and about to put in a fourth.

It was fun to separate them into delicates, shirts & tank tops, pants/shorts, sweatshirts/sweaters.
I might have a mild form of OCD.

Might.

Blah

2011-04-26T10:33:00.000-05:00

My grandpa is sick. He was checked into the hospital this weekend with pneumonia but.... they are checking into other things... They are basically running a ton of tests on him because the pneumonia only showed in one lung which is usually an indicator of lung cancer.... I will let you know what happens with all that. Please keep him and my grandma in your prayers. I know she must be scared out of her mind... She married him at age 18 (he was a scandalous 13 years older) after exchanging letters with him for almost a year. My grandma is from Trinidad, my grandpa from Philly. They met when she visited her aunt, who lived across the street from my grandpa's family. They have been happily married ever since with six of seven children still living & over forty grandchildren & eight great-grandchildren.

{WOW!}

So please: prayers if you got 'em, best wishes if you don't pray, just please send a good thought into the air for my grandpa but especially for my grandma who will really need our support if this is "it". Thank you.

Easter was fun/okay/stressful (...one of my kids urinated out the side of her pull-up onto a kneeler at Mass...) and I have pictures to share (not of the urinated-on kneeler) .... but this stuff going on with my grandpa really has my mind otherwise occupied so... yeah. That's all for now.

I'm hoping I feel inspired to blog later on. I miss you guys. Thanks for understanding.

Project365 ~ Day 105

2011-04-23T23:21:00.000-05:00

So I totally found a picture from April 15th, aka Day 105 that I thought I missed, when I was unloading pictures from my camera! I am super excited!! This is a picture of a bowl thingy that I got from Goodwill. I really don't know much about it. There are no markings on it from what I can tell. The top part sits on like a brass (?) foot. But I really thought it was weird and cool, and it was probably not more than $5. I liked all the colors & the peacocks. And I loooooved the scalloped edges. So I bought it! :)

Okay. I just HAD to share this one. :)

My life can go on now that I know I only missed two days last week. ;)

Fabulous Friday ~ April 22, 2011

2011-04-22T23:44:00.000-05:00

I took this on Sunday for the Scavenger Hunt Sunday.

I really love the natural flare from the bright morning sun.

Link up your Fabulous Friday pictures at McDougall Photography & check out all the other entrants! :)

Project365 ~ 105 to 111

2011-04-21T23:22:00.000-05:00

Boy was I a total slacker this week! I seriously do not know what is up with me. I've been SO TIRED since last week. {I'm not pregnant so don't get any ideas.} The tired has just gotten to me. So in the process, I missed taking THREE pictures this week! Pathetic. I will strive never to let this happen again. I haaaaaaaaate disappointing myself, it's the worst. I know I know, it's only picture-taking. No biggie, I know I'll live. It's still annoying to me. So I've just felt a little "off" the last couple weeks which is why I haven't really posted much, never got around to finishing up my vlog from last week, didn't get to really shoot my vlog for this week, and why I am wearing my husband's sweatpants for the third day in a row (I haven't done my laundry for two weeks. I have plenty of underwear to last me. And clothes, apparently!!).

I spent all of last night sick as ever ~ so sick, in fact, that I weighed in at a delightful 110 pounds this morning. Three pounds in one night!! {This is where I insert my sarcastic double thumbs up, as if this is a pleasant way to lose weight. Notsomuch.} This morning, as I wavered between consciousness and a very clammy dreamland, I felt like Death had come to find me. However, I am a Mom. Therefore, I had to pick myself up anyways {ten minutes to leave-time} and shower so I could make it to the girls' school for the Easter Egg Hunt. I was the only parent there to help out all 3 classrooms in the Early Learning Center (ELC for short, from now on). {Sidenote: I really enjoy being a Room Mom. It is a nearly perfect level of involvement for me with the school & the kids. I really do love it!! It's like being a grandparent ~ I get to come for all the fun, but I get to give them back to their teachers at the end of the party! :) And of course, as a parent with two in the classroom I do feel more of a responsibility/interest in what goes on in the classroom.}

It was not difficult work, I "hid" eggs all over the school's backyard. And helped, somewhat, to supervise all the kids. Easy peasy, I even felt a little better after it was all over. The brisk air and sunshine totally helped. That said, I still feel "weak". I think last night's sick episode was in part to my tiredness lately, the food I ate for dinner, the amount of food I consumed yesterday as a whole (haha!), and the fact that I downed a small glass of orange juice before I went to sleep. Orange juice does that to me nearly every time. I should know better. I basically should have avoided the oily food at dinner, in combination with the candy & snacks I muched on, and other treats consumed. Whatever. I didn't really live & learn because there will be another time that I will stuff myself sick with candy. This was not the first time I have gotten sick from eating too much candy. I LOVE CANDY. Aaaaaaaaand, scene.

Hey so this is a Project365 post so I will now become focused on the task at hand. Like I mentioned, this week was well... weak, as far as number of pictures. Haha! Here they are anyways!!

Project365 ~ Days 105 to 111

Missed Day 105.

{preparation for crockpot chicken}

Missed Day 107

{This is Starbuck van Inverness. Our painted turtle. We found him on my parents' driveway!}

Missed Day 109.

{happy happy}

{Junie, totally pleased with her Egg Hunt treasures!}

Please don't forget to grab my button and link your Project365 posts right at the bottom of this post! Thanks so much for reading, looking, and stopping by! Sorry I've been absent this week... I'll try not to let such a long break go between posts.
Have a great Friday!!

Facebook & Breastfeeding

2011-04-21T11:04:00.000-05:00

I'll be back later with another post unrelated to this. BUT. I just wanted to state, officially and on record, that it makes me angry to hear that Facebook takes down pictures of breastfeeding. (I do understand the censoring it if a nipple is visible.) My sisters are 19, and no offense to their friends, but I can go on any one of their pages and find several images that are far more provocative than breastfeeding.

I have a friend from high school who actually works with Mark Zuckerberg at Facebook (like this guy is actually on Zuck's team!!). I'm going to take it upon myself to try and get this changed. I have a foot in the door, right? (Well, my friend has HIS foot in the door AND a new baby that his wife is breastfeeding.)

I believe Facebook needs to reevaluate what IS and what ISN'T appropriate. Pictures of underage drinkers, with their cleavage hanging out, boobs painted over, etc... how can that be okay to post, but not a picture of my baby eating her food? I've seen many more "offensive" pictures in my time than the ones I've seen of myself breastfeeding our baby.

I mean, really? Really? Really. Really? Really. (I loooooooooooooooove Seth Meyers. And Amy Poehler.)

This article is what set me off on this today. No big deal. I'm not really even "set off" by it but it is something that I have thought about before and how stupid it is.

Anyone have any thoughts on this subject?

The Most Random

2011-04-18T22:54:00.000-05:00

We had Chinese food tonight. I feel stuffed. I really like crab rangoon. I also really like shrimp toast but only from this one place in La Jolla... the Mandarin House. YUM. They also have the best cashew chicken in the entire world. It's the truth.

It was a long day. I don't have a Shoot & Edit for this week. I didn't do any laundry. I did run some errands.

We now own a mop. I even splurged on some Seventh Generation Natural Dishwasher Gel to test it out. It's phosphate and chloride (?) free. Whatever it's not supposed to have isn't in there, and that's good. I've been really unhappy with our current dish detergent for a while.... it always leaves a residue, and I hate having to buy rinsing agents in addition to detergent. You know? So we'll see. Our old stuff leaves a white film/dust on our dishes. It drives me CRAZY. I hope this new stuff does the job without leaving that gross stuff all over. Actually, after I wrote that last sentence I checked the dishwasher which is now done. The dishes are pretty spotless. I'll give it another couple loads before I make my final decision.

I found some good peanut-free candies to stuff inside eggs for Easter. Yay!! I'll have to have a special Halloween for Snowdrop each year. I picked up Easter grass for 25 cents a bag. I thought this was a good deal. I'm excited for Easter. I love making & hiding baskets for the girls!!!

I broke my No Baby Clothes resolution today in order to purchase an Easter dress for Magnolia. See, Junie had one that I had gotten last year for $8 from Gap (wait until you see it, it's so cute!). And Snowdrop had received one from being born (also from Gap, sized for this year though!) that she could wear at Easter. So... they both had new dresses and poor Mags kept saying how she didn't have a new dress to wear. She sounded so pathetic that I thought I'd head on down to the local children's resale shoppe and have a look. I ended up buying 4 dresses (I can return what didn't work) from there and one from TJ Maxx. As it turns out, the one from TJ Maxx ($12.99 as opposed to the $4.50 - $8.50 range from the resale shoppe) went better with the other dresses and really was more what I was looking for... so. $12.99 broke my resolution. I don't actually feel badly about it though for several reasons. Mainly that I love Mags and she's been doing so great at potty training and I'm just so proud of her. I really wanted her to have something special. So see, totally a good reason to break my resolution. But now, I'm back on the No Baby Clothes from now on. I'll be returning the other dresses to the store this week. :)

Sorry I've been sort of slow-going with the posts this week. I know I STILL have not posted about my tailbone injury. Gosh, it's just that I feel like it's a story full of complaints. Basically, my tailbone/pelvis is still in recovery from giving birth to Snowdrop. It's a touchy (ha) situation. It's frankly kind of embarrassing!! So I'm going back to PT. I love my physical therapist so I'm glad we'll get to hang a bit more BUT I'm tired of this tailbone. I just want to feel like I did before Snowdrop came out. I joked a few months after she was born that I should have opted for the repeat c-section instead of the VBAC. At that time, I figured I would be healing shortly.... A year later, I'm definitely thinking I should have gone for a c-section!!! :) Oh well, can't turn back time and I'm not getting into this now so..... Moving on...

The Naptime Momtog has a big day tomorrow with her son, Carsyn, who is having an MRI to investigate his development a little further. Please keep her in your prayers tonight and tomorrow. Please also keep a friend of mine in your prayers. She just went in for her 20 week ultrasound only to discover that her beautiful baby Girl, Annabelle Lucille, has anencephaly. Anencephaly is the absence of a large part of the brain and the skull. It is a terminal issue and Annabelle won't live beyond birth or a few days. I am absolutely heartbroken for my friend and her family. It's quite unimaginable what they must be going through right now... I just wish there was some way I could make everything okay, you know? So if you could say some prayers too for them, please. Thanks!!

I don't mean to leave on such a sad note but I really don't have anything else to say. I'm pooped and I'm going to bed. :)

Scavenger Hunt Sunday ~ April 17, 2011

2011-04-17T18:29:00.001-05:00

Scavenger Hunt Sunday items: Time, Poetry, Outside, Zoom! and Isolation

Time

{my kitchen clock}

Poetry

{This IS an edit from Day 94 but the quote is new as of today. I immediately thought of this picture when I saw one of the items was "poetry". I didn't have to look far for the quote either; LMA is one of my favorite writers.}

Outside

{sunflare au naturale}

Zoom!

{my car wheel.}

Isolation

{alone in my backyard on a scavenger hunt}

Check out all the other great blogs that linked up for today's Scavenger Hunt Sunday at Ashley's blog! Thanks for stopping by to check out what I found on my hunt. :)

Crockpot Chicken

2011-04-16T13:31:00.002-05:00

I got the original recipe for Crockpot Chicken from Amber at Paint Chips & Frying Pans (she's pretty much a genius!) It's such an easily adaptable recipe, that I have found many ways to prepare it in the last few months. {I also make homemade chicken broth right afterwards using her broth instructions. EDITED TO ADD: My Broth Instructions. I leave the crockpot on overnight - and it's so delightful to wake up to the smell of fresh broth in the morning... I am so weird, I know!} ANYWAYS, so like I was saying, this recipe is easily adaptable. So if you don't like the ingredients I used for my "recipe" then switch out things you would like. Easy Peasy, let's get started. I am including a few pictures to show you how I do this.

I usually get a 3-5 lb chicken, depending on the current price and if I have a coupon (I'll get a really big one if I have a coupon.) We only eat organic meat (or all-natural-as-close-to-organic-without-being-organic-meat). The chicken I used today {JustBare Chicken, which is available at regular grocery stores.} is 3.91 pounds at $2.29/pound. {Organic drumsticks from Trader Joe's cost around $1.99/lb so I think this is a good price around here.} The total was $8.95, and I had a $1 coupon. This chicken will feed our family (5 of us) for at least 3 days (not every meal, I'm saying at least one meal a day for the next 3 days if not more than that). At regular cost, not counting the coupon, at 3 days of use the chicken cost .59 cents per serving. I think that is a DEAL! And I haven't even rolled in the savings of making my own broth from said chicken. Even more deals to be had there! {I might be trying to make a point that eating organic/all-natural can be affordable when you really break it down! It's so healthy, too!}

Crockpot Chicken

1 Whole Chicken, rinsed well and patted dry

1 - 1/2 good sized Onions {cut up all veggies how you like them}

Some Celery

Some Mushrooms

Some Carrots

Some Garlic

1 good sized Apple

Season Salt and/or Spices {Lawry Salt is a favorite around here! I'm just using season salt today.}

Apple Juice {about 1/2 cup}

All of that goes in a crockpot for 5 1/2 - 6 hours on High. Of course, if you use a really tiny chicken, it won't need 6 hours. Adjust accordingly, okay?

Variations on the above ingredients may include:

Spices other than Season Salt ~ parsley, garlic, basil, oregano, sage, rosemary, thyme, curry variations, southwestern spices, Asian spices, etc

Liquids other than Apple Juice ~ Champagne/White Wine/Water/Balsamic Vinaigrette/Italian Dressing/Caesar Dressing/Lemon Juice/Orange Juice/Teriyaki/Soy Sauce ~ basically, a flavored liquid (or unflavored, like water)

I adjust the liquid to match the seasonings ~ Lawry Salt pretty much goes with anything. I would totally pair oranges with Asian spices. Or lemons with a garlicky-pepper-Greek sauce. YUM.

Veggies/Fruits ~ I've done this with just potatoes and carrots. I've done this with just potatoes. I've done it without the apple. I've used lemons, and oranges. Anything works as long as you like it. You don't even have to use veggies but I promise it will taste better if you do.

{Part of me imagines stuffing a bird with peanut butter and Asian spices & veggies and dousing it in some sort of soy-ginger-yummy-sauce. Our daughter has a peanut allergy so I can't do this, unfortunately. But YOU could. So do this and then please enjoy it for me, ok?} :)

Note to Parents: I have also found that involving my kids in the slightest way of preparing dinner (letting them dump the veggies in the pot, or put the lid on, or wash the veggies, whatever) helps get me to get them to eat it once it's ready. Just sharing.

This is a really easy peasy recipe but there is some work involved before you can just throw everything in the crockpot. I mean, technically, you could just throw it all in there. But let's do this my way, okay? ;)

Cut up your onions, garlic, carrots, celery, mushrooms, whatever you're using. Cut them however you like. I don't care if they're chopped, diced, in big slices, whatever. Reserve about a handful of the onion & apple so you can stuff those inside the chicken when we get to that part! If you forget or don't feel comfortable sticking your hand inside a chicken, then no biggie. It won't ruin the meal.

Throw the veggies into the crockpot with enough olive oil (or butter, if your daughter isn't also allergic to milk...) to just coat them. Add some of the spices (the rest are going on the chicken). Let that cook down for a bit while you rinse your chicken very well and pat it dry. {The Pioneer Woman was once very insistent on her blog about rinsing meat well before you cook it. I haven't looked back since and am a rigid meat rinser now. Not that I wasn't before... but just so much more diligent about it now.}

Now, rub the meat (haha) with the spices and let it sit there for a minute. Then take the extra handful of onion/apples/whatever you saved to stuff the bird with, and stuff that bird. It doesn't have to be stuffed full but I think a little bit of something inside the bird helps to flavor it. I usually try to close it up with toothpicks since I don't have those fancy meat hook-closer things.

{sorry, forgot to rotate this}

Stir the veggies one more time and gently place the chicken right on top of them.

Put the lid on the crockpot and set the timer.

I normally cook a bird for 6 hours on High. It's probably ready around 5 1/2 hours and sometimes we eat it then. Do what makes you comfortable, I err on the side of overcooking just in case. :)

Also, some people feel okay leaving the crockpot on when you leave the house.

I'm a 'fraidy cat so I don't do that but you can if you own big girl pants.

About an hour after you put the bird in (or really, you can do this WHEN you put the bird in, I just normally do it a bit later), take a bit of juice/dressing/liquid you have chosen to use (I usually just eyeball it ~ it's about 1/2 cup) and drizzle it over the bird. You don't want to drown the bird in liquid. I wouldn't put much more than 1/2 cup in there because the chicken will make it's own liquid, too. I usually flip the chicken over around the halfway mark & then flip it back again about half hour before I'm gonna serve it. Periodically, spoon some of the juice from the crockpot over the chicken. I *think* this is called Basting?

The chicken always comes out nice & juicy, and the veggies are nice and yummy too. {Mine is still cooking so I have no "after" pictures yet.} And like I mentioned, this lasts us for DAYS. We use it for sandwiches, snacks, with potatoes, it can go into soup, tacos, etc.

It's so versatile as far as recipes go and I couldn't be happier!

This is one of my favorite things to make and my family LOVES it. I can't beat that!

{After dinner, I take all the meat off the bones & then I stick the bones and all the other "stuff" back into the crockpot with some more veggies and spices (especially a bay leaf or two!). I cover that with water and crockpot it for another 10-12 hours on low to make my own broth. When that's done & cooled, I drain the liquid and package 2 cups/ziplock. And then I freeze them flat so I can store them like files in my freezer. I will take pictures when I make the broth and post a true how-to on that soon.}

Serve This Main Dish With:

Veggies ~ either the ones in there, or extras. Go-To's for Us: green beans or asparagus or corn.
Potatoes ~ mashed, fried, wedged, diced, twice-baked, once-baked, half-baked, whatever

Side Salad, Fruit Salad, Pasta Salad

Rolls, Cornbread, Croissants, Pita, Taco Shells, whatever

Stuffing & Fixings

Gravy. Or not. It's so juicy!!

I think it's important to always serve dinner with a vegetable. And I think it's nice to have some bread, too.

Thanks for reading! I hope this recipe is as easy for you as it has been for me. Add it to your repertoire!

You won't be sorry! :)

EDITED TO ADD MY BROTH INSTRUCTIONS.

Shoot & Edit ~ Faith, Edited!

2011-04-15T10:49:00.001-05:00

Faith, SOOC:

Faith, Edited:

I cropped it to start. The lights on the ceiling were REALLY bugging me. I was drawn to them and not to my brother. {There wasn't much time to set up the pictures. There were over 200 Confirmands that morning so it wasn't really a sit & chat sort of event.} I adjusted the sharpness (motion blur), and brightened/contrasted the picture a bit. Then adjusted the color curves by darkening the highlights. But I really didn't like how it looked.

So I converted it to B&W and called it a day.

Now that I'm looking at it, I totally should have cloned out the part of the light that is still there. Oh well. :)

PHEW. I'm even late getting this up. Seriously, this week was nuts!

Project365 ~ 98 to 104

2011-04-15T10:13:00.000-05:00

Hey Everyone!! Sorry I was not able to check out everyone's pictures last weekend (from last week's P365). We were out of town at my parents and then this week has seriously been BUSY. But I am still putting up a linky and this weekend I'll have more time to check out your pictures & hopefully even have time to check out last week's! :) Now on with the show! I only missed one day this week. It was Monday, the day after we got back.
I'm somewhat not surprised. :)

Project365 ~ Days 98 to 104

{Junie won these lacing cards in the school monthly raffle! Perfect game for road trips!}

{Learning the ropes from Papa (my dad)}

{Creepy Twin-Leg-Pose ~ the people behind us at Mass were astounded!}

{No picture for Day 101. Boo.}

{When did she become such a big girl?!}

{Some of My Helpers}

{My Lovies}

Thanks for stopping by and checking out our pictures from this week! The linky will be up until Monday at 11:59pm. So you have all weekend to get your pictures in! :)

Question: Are you planning on making an album specifically of your P365 pictures? With my pictures, I plan on printing each one with the "Day" on it and putting it in an album. I think I might do one of JUST these pictures. Not positive yet, but I'd love to know what other people do with their project pictures.
I have time to decide.

Thanks again for stopping by and don't forget to go check out what everyone else has linked! :) Have a fabulous Friday! :)

Inspired: Selfie Clone

2011-04-13T16:59:00.000-05:00

Inspired by Chelsey, and then Ashley (again), and then Joan.

Giveaway at Expecting the Unknown

2011-04-13T14:04:00.000-05:00

Hey Everyone!!

So one of my Blogging Buds, Joan from Expecting the Unknown, is hosting a really awesome giveaway for a Sadie Ryan Tile!! Head on over to her blog to enter for your chance to win! And you should go over there anyways because Joan has a fun blog that I love to read and you will probably like it, too.

I am totally posting my Vliggity Vlog Vloggin' Vednesday Music Vlog later today. I prooooooomise. I've just been running errands. And cleaning. And trying to consolidate in my mind all that I could/want to say about music. My vlog would be hours long if I did that, so I won't.

Yeah. So... go check out Joan's blog!! I'll be back later with my vlog.

How to Feed Soup to a Baby/Young Toddler

2011-04-12T11:41:00.000-05:00

Do you ever wonder how you can get your baby/young toddler to eat soup? Without you having to spoon feed it to them and interrupt your own eating?

This is how I do it.

Be sure to cut up any large chunks of meat, veggies, or noodles. And be sure to cut the bread to an appropriate size for your child. And don't make the soup too hot or it will burn your child.

Shoot & Edit ~ Faith, SOOC

2011-04-11T11:07:00.000-05:00

Faith ~ SOOC
What a fitting theme this week as we just went North this past weekend for my brother's Confirmation! I am disappointed with the blur in this picture but I hope that with some editing I can save it! :)

My Google Chrome couldn't display the linky so... I couldn't link up. I will link my edit on Thursday. :)

Maybe it will work for you and then you can check out all the SOOC shots at Jill's blog. :)

Home!

2011-04-10T22:50:00.000-05:00

So we just got back from a weekend visit to my parents house. I scheduled some posts. I bet you didn't even know! Well, maybe you did if you were on my Twitter. I was twittering from Hubby's phone a bit... I had never done that before... but I really enjoyed it and now I want to be able to do it from MY phone. SO not something I "need". But it is something I "want". Ha! :)

It was my little brother's 15th birthday and he was also getting confirmed. A really BIG weekend for him, in fact!! I can't believe he is that old already!! I was 14 when he was born so... I really remember him as a baby. We actually had a pretty pleasant weekend & I'll share some pictures this week from our trip! We drove, of course, and the ride went really well! We splurged on a car dvd player with two screens. It was really time, anyways. The one we normally use for car trips is just a portable dvd player and so we had to rig it up in the car. This way is better, and now Junie has a screen in front of her instead of having to look to the side to "sort of" see it. The girls were really happy with the surprise! We said it was because "they" were doing so well with going on the potty. It was really just Magnolia who is doing so well, but we're trying to inspire Junie to do better at it. I think it worked a little bit as she went on the potty a decent amount this weekend. We'll see... fingers crossed. Tomorrow she is going to wear Tinkerbell und.er.wear. She told us so.

I am exhausted and have lots of comments to look at and people to get back to {How exciting! Comments are one of my favorite parts about blogging ~ I LOVE knowing that people are reading and what they're thinking! So thanks for commenting!}.. and a pizza to eat in the next 25 minutes ~ I hope it gets here sooner because we are SO. FREAKIN'. HUNGRY. We didn't really have much in the car to snack on and of course, we had nothing at home since we had been gone! So tomorrow, I'll take the girls to the grocery store... which will not be exciting. I don't know, maybe it will? Maybe we'll be like the millionth customer and get free groceries for life. If that happens, I pledge to buy someone groceries once a month. I'll "giveaway" a week of groceries on my blog, okay? Okay.

I'll try and get some pictures posted in the next couple days... and I'll definitely be posting tomorrow about some stuff. I'm super excited for this week's Vloggin' Vednesday and participate in this week's Shoot & Edit. Thanks for stopping by my blog! I hope you had a great weekend. :)

Cute Pictures of My Baby & Allergy Notes

2011-04-09T15:02:00.002-05:00

Super Fabulous, Jr.

This girl really loves her Mr. Froggy.

Hope you are having a wonderful Saturday! :)

The allergist appointment went really well on Thursday. The doctor was really nice and spent so much time answering our questions. We don't have to worry about the black walnut tree in our yard so long as Snowdrop is not eating the nuts... YAY! I was worried we'd have to move or something. I always go right to the worst! :) It was reassuring to go and I'm feeling a bit better about the whole thing. She said that, of course, if something happened where she started having a serious reaction to the shells... we should act appropriately and then call the office. It's really scary thinking about how fast the whole reaction happened and that it could potentially happen again.

I feel so much more comfortable now, as far as taking her places, like museums, the zoo, etc. We just have to bring the EpiPen and some Benedryl, just in case. I don't have to be worried about nuts and the pool at my in-laws ~ apparently there's enough water that it shouldn't matter if someone eats nuts and then goes into the pool. It still makes me nervous as hell though...

The doctor gave us a handout of "How to Read a Label" with some informative stuff on types of food with nuts or milk in it. It even said "nondairy products" in the section of things that could have milk in it. I was confused by that part. She also gave us a really helpful page that had symptoms of a reaction and then "EpiPen" or "Antihistamine". She check-marked the right medicine to use in the case of each reaction. This is really helpful for me to have it all written out like that.

What I'd like to do at this point {you know, in all my free time}, is gather a list of peanut-free brands of cereals, crackers, ice creams, whatever other foods... I guess I'd organize it so people with new peanut allergies could have an easier transition? I'd sorta like a list like that myself to make things a slight bit easier to find at the stores, and I'm not sure one exists... Anyone??

Okay. Off to enjoy this Saturday!! Have a great rest of your weekend! I'm taking a break from Scavenger Hunt Sunday this week. Boo, I know! But I need a day of rest. :)

PS. My baby brother is FIFTEEN today. FIFTEEN. I can hardly believe it!!

Five.

2011-04-08T03:15:00.000-05:00

Officially, as of yesterday Thursday April 7th 2011 ~ Hubby & I have been together for FIVE years.

FIVE.

I forgot to share that earlier and I wanted to do that before I went to bed. {Yeah, 3:15am and I'm still up!}

Happy First Kiss Anniversary, Honey Honey!

I love you!

Project365 ~ 91 to 97

2011-04-08T02:24:00.000-05:00

Project365 ~ Days 91 to 97

{dress up}

{my sister & my baby}

{shoes ~ anyone see a heart in there somewhere?}

{I really love the way I edited this. I used one of the fairy garden effects from Ashley Sisk on The Paper Heart Camera. It didn't turn out super bokeh-ey, unfortunately, BUT I like the what it did to my picture. And I think it turned out better than my Shoot & Edit from this week, when I also used the effect.}

{that's snowdrop just hanging out in the cabinet.}

{our key holder ~ from my parents' trip to italy}

{fiddleheads ~ just cause :)}

Thank you so much for stopping on by ~ Please grab my button from the sidebar and link up your Project365 pictures. Have a fabulous Friday! :)

Shoot & Edit ~ Up, Edited

2011-04-07T09:40:00.000-05:00

Good to Wow ~ UP

SOOC

Really not a terrible SOOC!

Inverted SOOC + Paint Bucket (Color #599f8e)

Greeting Card. I dig it.

Equalize + Backlight Adjust + Lighten Shadows 91% + Brightness 60% + Movie Prime Lens Flare @ 182%

I like this edit, I had to play around with the Lens Flare until I found a "size" that I liked. I was going for a "sun" effect. I think I got it? I'm not sure. But I think I got the placement correct, as far as where the flare should be coming from. Maybe I should have moved the flare more right, almost off the picture?

Same adjustments as above, but without the Lens Flare

This makes me feel like I'm on the prairie. No, I can't really explain that further. Haha! I think this was my most normal edit. Is this considered a "clean" edit? I'm not sure. I like it though as it still captures the effervescence of the tree that day. I'm not sure a tree can be effervescent. But that's the word that popped in my mind so I'm sticking to it!

Equalize + Backlight Adjust + Lighten Shadows 91% + Brightness 60% + Add Layer -> Garden Lights 2 (from Ashley) + Eraser 32% around the branches + Eyedropper tool to get blending color + Paintbrush, on Overlay with Opacity at 37% to blend it together (I was sort of guessing here?). I'm not sure what I was doing. BUT this is how it turned out:

I did not follow Ashley's directions mainly because I work in PSE 5.0. So I winged it. I think I need to work on the blending and the opacity of the garden effect. But overall, it's sort of dreamy and I'm fine with this edit.

I am REALLY having a lot of fun with editing. I might enjoy it more than I like taking the pictures! :)

And apparently I needed to purchase more storage in order to upload more pictures for this post??? So for $5 I purchased (well, Hubby purchased ha) 20 GB more of storage. I'm pretty sure that'll last me for a while. I've had the account this blog is linked to since... 2005? 2006? Probably 2006. I'm actually a little surprised I didn't run out of space earlier! :)

Okay ~ So thanks for stopping by my blog!! Check out all the other awesome edits over at Ashley's blog!

Have a fabulous Thursday! We are headed to the allergist this afternoon for Snowdrop's peanut & milk allergies.... we have so many questions that need answering! :)

Because I Enjoy Laughing At Myself

2011-04-06T14:05:00.001-05:00

My solo attempts to get a good picture of myself in

My Size Four Jeans.

Vloggin' Vednesday ~ Significant Others

2011-04-06T01:16:00.000-05:00

The theme this week for Vloggin' Vednesday is to show everyone their significant other. For me, that's my husband. I decided the easiest way to do this would be to interview him. It was totally awkward ~ he really did not want to do this! So I'm super thankful that he agreed to do it. {Thanks Honey, Honey!} Okay. Even though it was all a little weird, I'm glad I have this video for our kids to see when they're older.
And of course, I'm glad I can share it with you, too. ;)

Vlogging always makes me want to do more recording, if not vlogging, of memories and that sort of thing. Here is our vlog!

Hope you enjoyed it!! It was a little silly doing this with him but I really hope he'll do it again some time... Now go check out some of the other Vlogs that are linked up at Don's blog, Adeline's Daddy. Thanks so much for stopping by my blog! :)

Have a great day!

Four.

2011-04-05T16:04:00.001-05:00

*funny story* I went outside to take these pictures out in front of our house using the timer on our camera. Never done that before! I set the camera on top of my car. And of course, my neighbor pulled up while I'm like mid-air jumping off our step. After laughing with/at me, she took over as photographer for a couple shots {and managed to snap the mid-air one I was wanting! Thanks Rachel! -who doesn't even know I blog).
If you are lucky, I'll post the outtakes tomorrow so you can also laugh at/with me.
I really do make myself laugh sometimes.

~
Today I am wearing:

SIZE! FOUR! JEANS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

{my face is so wonky in this picture. but i'm loving and posting it anyways!}

{yes, i censored my belly button. i don't know... i'm sensitive about its post-pregnant look.}

{edited to read the correct form of 'its'.}

In fact, I'm so excited that I keep waltzing around my house exclaiming "Siiiize Foooouuuuur Jeeeeaaaannnns!" in a voice that's somewhere between Oprah & an Opera Singer.

My body has not seen these pants since before I was pregnant with the twins. So... January 2007? {Probably even longer because I used to not even like these pants, much less wear them.} It took a LOT longer than I thought it would {and one more baby later} but it feels even BETTER than I imagined!!! So excited! So proud!
So ready to kick the rest of this baby weight off my body.

At least until we are blessed with another {God Willing}!
{Hopefully not for a while, ok...please?}

I'm going to start doing more Clean Eating, like Jess from Irocksowhat. She looks really amazing ~ and I am totally inspired to slim down so I can fit into my most favorite pair of jeans EVER.

Plus, I think we already sort of "clean eat". I know I try my best to stay away from stuff in boxes or that's been super processed. I've been pretty good the last week or so with not drinking sodas... but I have had a few sips from Hubby's drinks a few times. They were on ice and looked so delicious and I was thirsty.
I literally could not stop myself. I will try harder...

.... because right now I'm wearing pants that haven't seen my butt for four years....

FOUR.

{This is Snowdrop's FAVORITE song ever.}

And my butt looks f*ing hot in these pants. I will also now be avoiding my husband like the plague until I am offically at/near my pre-first-pregnancy weight. Only about thirteen pounds to go!!

Four.
Size Four Pants on my legs.
And one big four-kin' smile on my face!
~
That all said, I feel compelled to say that it's important for us all to know that we are beautiful no matter what our size, shape, color, whatever. I wasn't trying to make anyone feel badly about themselves or their weight by my statements. Size Four is NOT an average size. {I am 5'1" so size four is probably average for someone my height/age.} It takes TIME to lose baby weight; sometimes a very long time. It always makes me feel badly about myself when I read about another mom losing all her baby weight before she left the hospital, or being able to fit into her pants right away, etc. So I'm just sharing this in hopes that someone out there might be looking for a ray of light.

Well, this is that ray of light. {Hopefully.}
Save those favorite jeans because someday you WILL fit into them again!!!

Shoot & Edit ~ Up, SOOC

2011-04-04T21:32:00.001-05:00

Good to Wow ~ Shoot & Edit Challenge

Come back on Thursday to see how I edit this one!

I'm not sure it's so bad to begin with! :)

Head on over to Jill's blog to enter your SOOC shot! On Thursday, go to Ashley's blog to enter your edited picture ~ and to check out all the other awesome edits!

Thanks for stopping by! :)

Daffodils

2011-04-04T11:34:00.000-05:00

My husband has always had the habit of picking flowers {or on one recent occasion, a parking sign} for me if he's been drinking. It usually happens on his walk back home {so proud of my guy for not drinking & driving}. Walking down the sidewalk after a romantic dinner, he has been known to pluck flowers from planters or garden beds only to turn around and present it to me. It IS really sweet but it's also a little embarrassing sometimes ~ because I feel badly for the people/businesses he plucked them from. Especially when the people are standing right there. Haha! He did this before we were married, too.

He's a total romantic when it comes to flowers!

I woke up on Sunday morning and found these in my kitchen. Arranged in a vase.

His mother was a florist, so this stems {ha!} from that a bit I'm sure.

As it turns out, he didn't pluck them from gardens on his walk home.

He climbed over a highway fence-guard-thingy to pick the ones that bloom in plenty along the hills that the highways go along around here....

{This is the part where I shake my head & Thank God for sending an angel watch over him on his walk home.}

{Silly Boy, I love you.}

THE Music Video

2011-04-04T09:05:00.001-05:00

This is the music video I worked on a few weeks ago with those children. Haha. They were like 21. But they looked like babies to me. :) Everyone was super nice and I think we all had a great time!
Don't blink or you might miss me! ;)

Gateway Getaway - Swag Stab from scott hutcheson on Vimeo.

I hope you enjoyed it!!

Have a fabulous Monday!! :)

Scavenger Hunt Sunday ~ April 3, 2011

2011-04-03T13:21:00.000-05:00

Scavenger Hunt Sunday Items: High Key, Bedroom, Something Tiny, Off in the Distance, and Stripes

{High Key ~ So I initially took a picture of a key that the previous owners of our house left on top of a door frame that we still haven't moved. Then I saw Ashley's picture and... figured it meant something different. So I switched it up and ended up editing a picture of Snowdrop that I took this morning. I cropped it down quite a bit so I could get in close to her beautiful eyelashes. They are so long!! Between this week's banana necklace, high heels, and camera case hat ~ I beginning to think she is destined for the fashion industry.}

{Bedroom ~ the door to Snowdrop's bedroom. I did the painting, no it's not even, but I love it anyways! It's a really old knob and doesn't work well, which is why we have a latch.}

{Off In the Distance ~ and under the green arrow is the house Hubby almost bought. You can see the white windows. Well, it's the one that accepted his offer the same day I found out I was pregnant back in 2007. It's about five blocks from us and while things didn't work out (due to the inspection) we know it was for the best. The house was not meant to be. But it is fun to drive past it every now & then. Especially when they had all the trouble with their roof and sewer. I mean, sure we felt bad for them. But inside, we were high-fiving ourselves for not being them. Although now that I'm remembering the kitchen... ;)}

{Something Tiny ~ the littlest feather. You know I love feathers.}

{See. I told you it was Tiny.}

I would not have noticed the tiny feather, had I not stooped down to get this next shot (see below), which is not party of Scavenger Hunt Sunday but I'm sharing it here anyways because I really like it..

{Keeping Our House Peanut Free ~ by leaving our shoes outside after the baseball game.}

{Just noticed the heart on Hubby's shoe. Can you see it?}

{Stripes ~ in Snowdrop's room, in the dormer window hallways. I love these stripes!! The red parts were supposed to be thinner in width, unfortunately we didn't know red paint leaked so much and had to widen them to reduce the runovers.}

Thanks a bunch for stopping by today!! It's a glorious day outside so I am going to step away from the computer for a bit and enjoy it!! I'll be sure to check out your Scavenger Hunts later today!! Find links to everyone else's hunts over at Ashley's blog!!
Have a great & relaxing Sunday!!

Random Ramblings ~ Garage Sale & Baseball, amongst other things

2011-04-02T21:59:00.000-05:00

At 5:05am today, my phone alarm woke off. At first, I thought to myself "Haha. I don't have a real job. That alarm isn't for me. It's gonna be so nice to shut these heavy eyes and fall back asleep..." And then I remembered that I was participating in a garage sale today and I needed to get my butt out of bed and over to my cousin's house. {Well, my husband's cousin, but whatever, it's sorta the same thing at this point.}

Hahahaha! I laughed at myself. And got out of bed. I almost felt... like I was wasted. I hadn't gone to bed until after midnight and the night before I hadn't gotten much sleep either. I think you probably know what I'm talking about. That I'm-so-tired-I-just-feel-not-right kind of feeling. :)

I brought my camera with me to the garage sale but didn't take one picture. If I had, I would have known the battery was out and I could have charged it before we took the girls to the baseball game this afternoon. "Oh Coconuts!", as Magnolia would say. {She picked that up from Jake & The NeverLand Pirates.} It was the second game of the season, and the girls' first game this season. I was bummed because they looked really cute and were even posing for me as I turned on the camera... Boo. Oh well, we are season ticket holders and will go to another game. {I'll mention about that after the garage sale part.}

So, Starbucks in hand I arrived at the sale before 6am and set my stuff up. My cousin, T-Bone {she calls me Pot Roast, it's a long story}, has three boys so she had tons of clothes to sell as well. To our shock and amazement, hardly ANY of the baby clothes were sold. In fact, of the 20 people that had shown up by 10am ~ only one of them had even taken more than a glance at the baby clothes. ONE. It was not a terribly successful garage sale as far as baby clothes went, but T-Bone was able to sell a bunch of their DVDs and other stuff. A friend of my cousin did show up with her baby & mother and they {well, the girl's mom} bought $21 of my stuff. Oh wait, and a guy did buy a pair of kid gym shoes for $4... So I made $25 total. :) I took the rest of the clothes home and we are going to try again in a few weeks. {With more advertising as far as baby clothes are concerned.} This will also give me more time to get stuff together.

After the garage sale flopped, I picked up my sister and off we went back home. She was going to babysit Snowdrop so we could take the Big Girls to the baseball game. It was a giveaway day and we always like to bring the kids. Snowdrop can't come because of her peanut allergy. And I was a nervous wreck about the whole thing because I'm afraid we're gonna bring some peanut pieces in on our shoes and it's gonna kill my baby. {Yes, I may be paranoid but it's f*ing scary to think about how easily she could be in contact with it.} I saw my husband stepping on piles of peanut shells without even noticing so... I think I was worrying with good cause. :)

We are taking Snowdrop to an allergist on Thursday this week because we have SO many questions. They have a peanut-free section at the stadium... but is it still safe to go? There's an over 100 year old Black Walnut tree in our backyard. It's literally one of the biggest & oldest trees in our neighborhood. We're total hippies when it comes to these matters ~ We wouldn't feel okay cutting it down. That seems so extreme. Along the same lines, it'd be extreme for us to move to a different house to avoid this tree. What about food on the same shelves at the grocery store as peanut products... we have so many other questions about her peanut & milk allergies... It's all so confusing, scary, frustrating... I feel so, confined. I'll report back what we learn from the doctor on Thursday. :)

We took the girls for ice cream after the game. Well, we left in the fourth inning because they were getting fussy and squirmy. We didn't expect them to last long, especially since we went to the stadium early to get the kids giveaway gift. Since the girls couldn't decide what to share, I let them get their own cones for the first time and they got really messy. REALLY messy. Ice cream was everywhere. Maybe I let them get messy on purpose but I'm glad they had to ride home in their diapers with their baseball game/ice cream clothes safely crammed into a plastic bag. Hubby promptly carried them upstairs and showered them...

....while I took all the covers off of all the car seats {which is seriously a bitch and a half}{anyone with three Radians across one bench seat knows what I'm talking about}. Junie "leaked" through her diaper. Between you & me {and the entire world}, I think she pulled her diaper aside to see what her pee looked like. {Groan. She's been having a lot of suspicious 'accidents' lately.} So now I had to wash her car seat cover. Which of course, leads me to clean all of them. And when I pulled the foam insert out from under the covers... they were STIFF. So... yeah, it was time anyways to wash them. It's still annoying as f* to take those covers off! :)

Potty Training... Magnolia. I am so proud of her!! She has NOT worn a diaper since... last Monday? Neither my husband nor I can remember the last time we changed a dirty diaper of hers. She has gone #s 1 and 2 on the potty, all by herself, no accidents (until yesterday when she peed on the floor in the bathroom. it was the first accident yet!)- not even at school! We didn't let her wear big girl un.die.s to the game today, just in case, but her Pull-up was dry as the desert when we came home. SUCCESS!! She is doing SOOOOO GREAT with going on the potty. Other than the game today (and bedtimes) she has only been wearing big girl un.die.s. It has seriously made a difference in my day not having to change her diapers. For real. It's been awesome. Junie is not really following suit. I know she will eventually. It's still frustrating.

I am going to the ankle doctor on Tuesday morning to have my ankle checked out. It's starting to look weird. Like misshapen. I'm sure I'm totally overreacting or seeing something that isn't really there. It just still hurts like a you-know-what and I need to make sure I haven't really messed things up. It appears to still be pretty swollen and I feel like it's turned at a weird angle. LOL. OMG. I realize how bizarre that all sounds. I'm going to the doctor and I will get to the bottom of this. :)

And because I feel badly writing THIS HUGE POST without a picture... I just ran outside to take a picture (uploading straight from my camera to blogger) to show you what my middle seat looks like, after having taken the car seat covers off.

Destroyed.

Okay. I guess it doesn't look that destroyed. I don't know. My camera must be magic or something because in real life it totally looks destroyed. None of those seats are strapped in.

*le sigh*

That'll be "fun" to put together tomorrow.

Hope you are having a wonderful Saturday. Hubby is out at a bachelor party so that means I am free to Blog and watch The Bachelor's After the Final Rose. Yes, I STILL have not gotten to watch it. I don't even know who the next Bachelorette is yet! I had been thinking it would be the dentist from this most recent season. But she's still messed up over whats-his-face.... Brad.

I totally did not mention in my Guilty Pleasures Vlog that I love The Bachelor/ette.

I am too embarrassed to say anything else.

Meg's World! Meg's World! Party time! Excellent!

2011-04-01T22:08:00.000-05:00

It's Party Time!! Excellent!!!

5 Minutes for Mom is hosting their annual Blog Party again! Everyone is linking up so head on over to their site and check out everything that's going on! There are even prizes to be won this week!

If this is your first time here... let me introduce myself!
Hi!! My name is Meg! :)

I am a 28 year old stay-at-home-mother of three girls: fraternal twins aged 3 1/2 and our "baby" who is now 15 months old. This is definitely not the life I imagined for myself nor do I find it easy to be a SAHM. There are plenty of times when I don't think I'm cut out for this job. While this life was not in my "plan", I am learning to just trust in God that this is my plan and I have to roll with it. That's not easy for me all the time. Graceful is not always a word with which I'd describe myself! :)

I am married to this Dude.

I luff him. He complements me. We're a good balance.

We met in college. You can read a very brief recap here.

He is a GREAT Dad!

{Posing with the Ultimate Domino Track that he built for the girls.}

AND I am very lucky to have a spouse who I can say has easily changed as many diapers as I have. He even likes to do laundry!

This is the most recent picture I have of our daughters.

They're cool. They make me laugh all the time. Sometimes they make me cry. Sometimes they make me want to pull my hair out. But I literally can't imagine my life without them.

I must have been really bored without kids.

I'm trying to blog more this year ~ and I'm doing a good job at that! My blog is about all sorts of things ~ motherhood, my kids, good customer service (and bad ones too), photography, I think I've even shared a recipe! I'm open to lots of topics. On Fridays, I host a Project365 Linky. You should totally come back and link up your project! I love photography and seeing what other people's "projects" look like.

I am totally interested in doing reviews for products & giveaways, too, but I've never been approached by a company to do one. Am I supposed to seek out this sort of thing? I do not know. I do reviews on my own when I receive good (or bad) customer service. I'm BIG (B.I.G.) on customer service. I'm hoping to branch out with some ad space and some other fun stuff by the end of this year (but probably before the end of the summer).

Please leave a comment on my blog if you have time so I know you stopped by from the Blog Party! Thanks for reading and I hope to see you around BlogLand soon!! :)

Have a great weekend!!

Project365 ~ 84 to 90

2011-04-01T16:39:00.000-05:00

Sorry this is up SO late today ~ a very long day yesterday resulted in me not being able to edit stuff until today. Yikes that is so hard to do with the three little ones running about. :)

I had a lot of fun editing this week and I am really proud of my pictures. Link up your pictures at the bottom of this post!

Sometimes it's hard for me to come up with things to take pictures of, so here are a few ideas if you've been having trouble too:

~ your daily silverware and place setting

~ the inside of your fridge

~ the laundry room

~ the pantry shelves

~ coffee maker

~ stack of your kids' books

~ a favorite toy

~ shoes that people are currently wearing

~ your front door

~ your mailbox, full or not

~ the view from a window your kid likes to look out from

Allrighty ~ Let's get started with this week's pictures!!

Project365 ~ Days 84 to 90

{The Starbucks in my kitchen.}

{my magnolia girl, catching some snow}

{my baking lover}

{Wait. When did my baby get so much hair?!}

{Banana Necklace. Totally did it by herself!}

{Sister Cuddling Time ~ I will never tire of these pictures.}

{Camera Case Hat. This girl has unique fashion sense. See Day 88 above.}

{Speaking of fashion ~ this same girl also walked in my old high heels the other day.}

{I am not kidding you ~ I was speechless. I'll post the video!!}

So there you have it! My week in pictures, another notch on the Project365 belt. Please link up your projects below and don't forget to grab my button from the sidebar!!

Thanks again for stopping by ~ it's so encouraging to me when people link up and leave comments. I try and do the same back at you! Be sure to visit other people who have linked up, too! :)

Don't forget about the Ultimate Blog Party 2011 that's happening this week. For more information, go here.

I will be posting my Party Post later today.

"Check ya later!!" {<--name that movie.}

Giveaway at Grosgrain!!

2011-04-01T09:19:00.000-05:00

Grosgrain is hosting another awesome giveaway!!!

This time, it's for a Shabby Apple swimsuit. They are so classic, retro, just so cool!!!! My favorite is the Isola. It's turquoise and has these lovely ruffles that go down over the chest. {Ok. That sounds really ugly but it's gorgeous in the picture AND the ruffles would totally boost my lack of boobage.}

Head on over to Grosgrain for your own chance to win an awesome swimsuit. Or don't, and give me a better chance. ;) Hahaha.

Only kidding. {<---name that book}

If you don't already follow Grosgrain, Kathleen shares SO MANY awesome crafty ideas, tutorials, and tons of pretty stuff that she finds online all the time. Check out her blog sometime! :)

Blogger's New View?

2011-04-01T01:35:00.000-05:00

I am excited to play around with the new views this weekend. Have any of you done this yet?

I just checked it for a minute and I guess I get the idea... but it keeps putting my "signature" up there. {It's saved as a picture because I couldn't figure out the link thingy.}

So basically, the new Blogger View just says "Meg" all over the place. Hahaha! I wonder if I can set it to reject all instances of a certain picture? I think the only view I really like is Sidebar. I'll have to check out other people's blogs this weekend and see how they look in the different views... I just started trying to use Google Reader to read the blogs I follow. I don't know if I'm interested in yet another way to read blogs.

Okay. It is so late now. I have to go to bed.

PS. In other awesome news, I am up to 29 Followers!!!

{I followed myself one day just to see if I could follow myself. And I could, I just didn't unfollow after that. I was my 27th follower. So it's not really 30, like it says that it is.}

I just think that is so super exciting!

Just a month ago, I had 17 Followers!

(Katie was the 17th! She is so cool, that girl. I really love Her Great-Grandma's PhotoBlog. Her own photography blog, Birds Eye View, is fantastic, too! Hope you don't mind the shout-out, Katie!!).

29 Followers!!! Cool!

Thanks to Everyone for following me!

I hope I'm still entertaining you! Ha! :)

Shoot & Edit ~ Green, Edited!

2011-04-01T00:38:00.000-05:00

Hi there! Thanks for stopping in to check my edit for this week. I am having so much fun exploring all the different things I can do to pictures. The creative side of my brain thanks me. Profusely. I mean, I didn't do anything astounding this week ~ it's just fun to do. :)

Look and see!!

Here is the SOOC picture:

{boooooooooooooooring}

The first things I did

Some lighting adjustments, like:

{Brightness, +29}

{Contrast, +35}

{Shadows, 50%}

{Darken Highlights, 1%}

{Midtone Contrast, 13%}

Then I cropped it.

And adjusted the colors. I forget what I did, whatever the color curves suggested that I liked. :)

I add layers between almost every step by the way.

Added another layer and made it B&W. I adjusted the B&W to my liking.

Then I got out the handy-dandy eraser, and erased all the part where the main pepper was.

I wanted the color to POP!! What do you think?

Then I Ctrl +Z'd until I got back to after the step where I adjusted the color curves. Here's where I had some real fun!!! If you go to the toolbar and check out the Filters --> Adjustments --> Posterize. This is my picture, Posterized. With a quote.

This is cute, yes?

Scratch back to after color curving.... I cropped the picture again. This time, getting as close to the pepper as possible. Then I went to the Filters tab --> Distort --> Polar Coordinates. Here's where it gets tricky, not really. I selected Polar to Rectangular. You could also choose Rectangular to Polar. {Some of you might remember when Ashley did a tutorial on the whole polar thing... I don't have the link but if you're a follower of her blog, you probably know what I'm talking about. I think hers was Rec. to Polar.} When you select Polar Coordinates, the program will prompt you to select either one.

This is what that edit looked like.

I'm not "in love" but I don't hate it either. It's just weird. It makes me think of 'Monsters, Inc.' Or some sort of bad 60's horror flick. Anyone?

Okay, one more edit. You still there?? :)

Back to right after cropping the picture for a second time.

Then, Filter -> Stylize --> Glowing Edges

Tubular! I was NOT expecting that outcome!

Obviously this is my favorite edit of them all.

I could see this in my beach house. You know, if I had one.

Check out all the other awesome edits this week from Shoot & Edit. Link up your SOOC shot on Monday at Jill's blog, and your edited one on Thursdays at Ashley's blog! Hope to see you there.

Thanks again for stopping by my blog. :)