New Addition To My Blog: Favorite Moments

Taking a cue from Jules over at Pancakes & French Fries, I am going to start posting hopefully as often as they occur or at least once a week, my favorite moments of the day/week. So far I have a "Favorite Moments" from the weekend and the beginning of the week.
First and foremost, we got a new couch! YEAH! It's about time. Ikea had a 3 day sale going on and we picked up this spiffy little brown leather couch for $300. We definitely could have put that money to what some would term "better use" but honestly if you could see our old couch, you'd realize why we wanted and needed a new one. Not to mention, with new baby coming, our old couch was not too comfortable nor suitable for feeding and sitting with said baby, so there. Next, Stella is loving school, but told us lastnight that a boy in her class kissed her while they were in line going into gym class. I was quite surprised, and thought it was sort of cute. Apparently he kissed her on the arm, but you could tell she was embarassed. Lastnight she also made an attempt to ride a 2 wheel bike. Matt took the training wheels off quite a while ago, but she just decided to get brave in the last couple of days. Go Stella! And, finally, in the mail we got a little letter from Matt's school stating that because he was almost done with his degree, that he should meet with a counselor to do his senior audit. YEAH! Thank the lord. Once he's done, hopefully he'll find an amazing job and really take over most of the monetary responsibilities. I mean, I'm all for women's lib, but after over 3 years of working quite literally every day all hours of the day, I'm looking forward to a break in the next year or so. I love you Matt, you're my hero!:)

Slightly Bigger Belly.

Since I'm just over 24 weeks, I thought I should post a belly picture. It's funny how much bigger you think you are than when you actually see a picture. I feel like a house, while now I don't see that.

I Already Embarass Her.

Sitting at the kitchen table as it pours rain, discussing going to school tomorrow. You know, feeling out the situation trying to headoff a morning of weepiness. She says to me "why do you have to stay with me at school mom?" I said, "well, tomorrow I don't. I'll be dropping you off at your room, giving you a kiss goodbye and then picking you up when school is over." She says then, "mom, can we kiss outside? I don't want the big kids seeing me kiss my Mommy!" I was stunned, and said "ok then can we at least do our secret handshake?" To this she agreed. Kids....

Is It Halloween Already?

Well, if you've hit ANY store in the last week, yes, yes it is Halloween. Last night we hit Walmart and I discovered the coolest thing. I know they've probably been around every Halloween for the last millenia, but I've NEVER bought them myself. Here they are, 1 dozen black long stem faux roses. I want to have them sitting in this wine bottle, but I want to decorate the bottle for Halloween with some very cool Halloween papers I've got. Other than just doing decoupage, anyone have any suggestions as to what would look cool? Ribbons, whatever? I'm sort of at a creative loss. Thanks for all input.

A Day To Remember.

At the moment I'm watching the 9 11 documentary "102 Minutes That Changed America" on the History Channel and it's all flooding back to me. I feel like I'm on the verge of some tears. Like everyone else, I remember where I was exactly when I heard the news I NEVER thought I'd hear, such horrible things happening in our own country. It was at this moment that I no longer lived with a secure and protected feeling. Maybe this is something that would have happened anyway being that I was in college, but this seemed so different from just that F* the government thing most college kids go through. I don't know about you, but I still don't really feel safe now, 7 years later. Is it just me?

My Little Rock?

The first thing you have to know is, Stella thrives on other peoples attention, always has, and never gives me a hard time about going anywhere, in fact she usually looks forward to visiting new places for as much as I can tell of her personality, she is a perfect combination of extrovert with a little introvert thrown in for security purposes. So, this morning, when this incident took place, it broke my heart to see that my little rock, had started to crumble.

I was awoken in the usual way this morning by a little voice yelling "Mama, I POOOOPED!" Which obviously means come and wipe me. So, I begrudgingly get out of bed to do the duty. After I'm finished, she is suddenly overwhelmed with tears and telling me how she doesn't want to go to school because she'll miss her grammie. In that instance I was taken back to my early school years, when I spent more time faining sick in kindergarten than attending. Her situation was quite similar to mine, my mom was home with my little brother, and my baby brother was only a few months old and to top that off, my father was unemployed at the time. So, needless to say, I HAD to go to school while everyone else was able to enjoy the comforts of home. I vaguely remember those times, but can imagine that I almost felt abandoned in a way. Like, get outta here kid, ya bother me. In reality, it wasn't like that at all, and I'm sure with all that going on, it sort of ruined the whole my baby is off to school thing, but somehow I made it through the public school system and she'll do the same. At least today, I will be there with her,some sort of parent child thing. But, the part that's hard is, I KNOW how she is feeling. That sick feeling in her tummy, being on the verge of tears and all you want is for things to be like they are and have been every day for the last 4 plus years of your life. Maybe it will make it easier, maybe harder, but at least someday I can tell her that I totally understood how she was feeling at that exact moment when she woke me up this morning and she began to blubber on the toilet.

The Final Reveal.

I've been keeping the baby to be's name sort of "hidden" so to speak, just because we weren't exactly certain, but since I've gone and painted it on his wall, here goes. Here a picture of the wall mural and his crib. We just really wanted a strong sounding name that we felt could really stand alone. We also wanted a name we'd never heard before, well as a first name anyway. Since reading up on it, I've learned that it can either be used for a boy or a girl, which I did not consider, but to me, it best suits a boy. No, neither one of us are jewish, not that it matters, but since choosing this name, you wouldn't believe the guff we've gotten. We like what we like and it's the one name of tons that we both agreed on, and since it's now on the wall, there is no way in hell I'm changing it. We are still deciding on a middle name, but my vote is Jefferson, so that if at some point he just hates his name, he can go by CJ. I'm not completely heartless, but what kid just loves there name at every point in their life. I think even just having my name was difficult, simply because there were never many girls with that name I'd heard before entering junior high.
And, not to be outdone, the little miss insisted on having her name on her wall, but it HAD to be different and of course GIRLY! So, here is hers. It isn't quite completed, but we're close.

Her Latest Phrase.

I think it's come from me, but I can't be certain. She will state "My God!" lately when she is either enraged about something or sort of surprised. On the way to the mall tonight we were again talking about the baby and how small he'll be when he's born and then how he'll get big like her and how he won't have teeth but he'll get those and how he will have some hair, but likely he'll lose most of it and then regrow it. Without missing a beat she says, "my god, is it MAGIC?" She is wise beyond her years I think. Here's a cute pic of her in her (I had to buy them, they were too cute and we were already returning a pair of too small tennis shoes) new pink cow girl boots. She loves them already! A girl after my own heart, she loves her some new shoes.

My Creative Girl.

I'd been in a bad mood for a good portion of the day today due to still dwelling on what things my MIL said, but by the time Matt went to school I had chilled out and sat at the kitchen table with Stella as she painted. She is very precise about what she does and really concentrates until which time she decides it's all over. In the span of about 20 minutes she completed 4 wonderful paintings. One of which she proclaimed was her brother. And, to top it off, I died when she told me that she used every color in her palette because she doesn't know what color he'll be when he comes out. Made me laugh out loud. Here are her masterpieces. We even had time to play a round of Candy Land.

Good News. Good News.

I just got great news! Stella has been accepted into a program at the Elementary school for 4 maybe 5 days a week. I don't know yet if it will be mornings or afternoons. I'm actually pulling for PM. Oh, I am so excited, I think she will be too. The best part of this program, it's absolutely FREE! Thank the lord above, he really does hear your prayers, and helps you attract to you exactly what you need. It will really be good for Stella and will make it easier for me to get more hours at work. Hallelujah!

A Small Sneaky Peek.

Since I've been working so hard on the babies room, I thought I'd do a little sharing. It doesn't look perfect yet, but I've only done one coat of paint, so it will take at least one more for each color, maybe more than that. Plus, his name will go in the center portion, and we're doing it in the same style font as the movie "Juno." We LOVE that font, and found it somewhat fitting. Besides that, my wonderfully talented neighbor is going to paint his dresser in much the same manner. So, for now, here's a little sneaky peek. Our colors for the room are a limey yellowy green, aqua and chocolate brown with white as well. Soon, once all is complete, I will show each and every wall. Thanks for looking.

We Are Influx This Weekend.

Well, we have been busy little beavers all weekend, starting to get the babies room going. Matt will be starting school on Wednesday so, as we have decided to move our room to the babies room temporarily for like the first 6 months or so, we have painted and soon will be moving furniture. I will show pictures of what it looks like all newly painted, even down to freshly stripped and soon to be painted vent registers. I'm even doing sort of a wall mural with the babies name on it behind the crib, I'll take pics of that too obviously. A special thanks goes to Steve and all the Dyke family for a job well done. It was a long day for all of us, but the guys forged ahead and finished the job, we couldn't have gotten it done in such a timely manner without you. :) Now, as I sit here, all I here is the VERY loud sound of a saw cutting into my kitchen cabinets. A really sweet neighbor from across the street works for Sears and installs appliances and has offered us a dishwasher, the husband of the woman who loaned me the book "The Secret." They are such lovely people and would give you the shirt off their back if you asked for it. But, in approximately an hour, we will have our first ever dishwasher in the 31-33 years between the both of us. Honestly, someone's going to have to show me how to use it, but I'm thrilled. We honestly don't know what we're going to do with the extra 2 hours a week or so that our almighty dish buildup would take us to wash. YEAH for modern conveniences. When all this work is said and done, I will post pictures. So excited!!