Let's Review

So, since my last visit in

September

Work, work, work

Brody turned 3

Work, work, work some more

Gabe started High School Soccer, on the Varsity Team

October

Work, work, work

Soccer at least 4 nights a week

Work, work, work some more

Celebrated yet another anniversary with my Hubby <3

November

Work, work, work

Start planning for Christmas, finish up soccer, take on more hours at the store

Work,, work, work some more

Thanksgiving at my house, less than a week to plan, shop, clean, and cook - fun times!

December

Work, work, work some more

Plan, shop, hide, wrap, clean, bake, package, cook, label, decorate and all the other good things that come about at Christmas

Work, work, work some more

*Try* to make it through Christmas day without passing out from exhaustion

January

Work a little less ;)

Spend most of the month trying to recover from the holidays

Spend the month trying to keep all the bills paid after the holiday spending

February

Work, work, work more than the last month

Freeze my butt off in the arctic weather

Work, work, work some more

Valentines Day, and 2 hours out with my Hubby for dinner

March

Work, work, work some more

Gabe started managing the High School girls soccer team and being a line ref for recreation soccer teams (yay! his first paid job)

Work, work, work some more

Lindsey joined Girl Scouts just in time to complete their cookie sales, and Brody started a soccer tots class - you know, just because I didn't have anything else going on. :)

So now you are all caught up on what's been going on with my life. I've been wanting to get back to this, but this is the first time in over a month that I've had more than 1 day off a week. I'm exhausted, but at the same time I love my job. I've been promoted to full time, so I guess thay like me too (haha). I'm also going to try to get back to my WIWW posts. When I work I have to wear a uniform - black pants, socks, shoes and either a black polo with the university logo or a long sleeve button down with black tie. I'm getting really tired of all black. It's time for Mom to do something for Mom! Now if I could just find someplace to escape to for a weekend where I could just sleep and relax, life would be almost perfect, well, at least for me.

See you soon!

I've been a little busy

Hi again! I know, not the best way to start a blog, but I promise I have good reasons ;) Life has been pretty crazy here lately, but mostly for good reasons. The day of my last post I was offered a new part time job. While I love my retail job I just wasn't able to get enough hours to help us get by. I had decided about a month ago to see if I could find something that I could work along with my current job. I really lucked up when I found out about this one. I am working in the catering department of my local university. The pay is great and I'm getting enough hours that we will be able to breathe at the end of each month after paying all the bills. I am still working the retail job, so that has made things a little crazy. The first week and weekend I worked was freshman move-in. It was also floor set at the other job. From Friday morning until Sunday afernoon I worked a total of 31 hours and got about 5 hours of sleep. Fun times let me tell you! Luckily that craziness is over and things are starting to settle down a bit and I'm getting used to the new routine. That means I should be able to give more time to my little blog.

Now let's back up just a bit and let me tell you about all the fun stuff going on at home during all the work madness.

Lindsey's birthday was August 20. My princess turned 5, and was treated as royalty all day. She had requested a chocolate cake just like Gabe's except she wanted it to have pink frosting, sprinkles and Tinkerbell. The night before her birthday I baked her cake. I, of course, didn't start baking until about 10:30 at night (most projects around here are like that!) and by the time the cake came out of the oven it was almost midnight. As I was taking it out I noticed it hadn't risen very well. Then I noticed it seemed kind of heavy and the texture wasn't very cakey. When I got them onto the cooling rack I realized something had gone really, really wrong.

Um, cakes aren't supposed to look like that, right?

That, my friends, is what happens when you forget to put the 1/2 tsp. of baking soda into your cake mix. Who would have ever thought that 1/2 tsp. of baking soda could make such a difference. Before this I sure wouldn't have! By the time I had figured out what went wrong it was after midnight, I knew if I started another cake that I would be up half the night baking and cooling and icing and decorating and just the thought of doing all that in the middle of the night almost made me cry. Thank goodness that Harris Teeter is open 24 hours and has a pretty good bakery. I ran there, praying the whole way, hoping they had a chocolate cake with chocolate icing that would be plain enough for me to decorate. I was extremely lucky and found exactly what I needed.

An hour later I had this beauty, with all the requirements:

Chocolate with chocolate icing - check

Pink icing - check

Sprinkles - check

Tinkerbell - check

Not bad for a middle of the night scramble, right?

The best part was that she loved it and never knew I hadn't done it all myself. You won't tell her will you?



Five days after that was the first day of school. It was a big year around here. Lindsey started Kindergarten and Gabe started High School. I can't believe that I have a child in high school! How did that happen? Didn't he just start school like 2 years ago?

So far it's going really well for both of them. Gabe made the Varsity (!) Soccer team (more time now being used for practices and games 2-3 times a week) and likes his classes. He is having to get used to having more homework, but so far I haven't had to nag too much. Lindsey is loving school. She was very dissappointed this past weekend that it was a long weekend and a short school week. She wakes up every morning ready to eat breakfast and go to school. I am so happy that she is like that. I just pray it stays that way.


She was so excited that this was the best picture I could get of both of them. I couldn't keep her still!

Don't you just love the pink shoes? She ended up with two pairs of pink school shoes. I guess it's a good thing she loves all things pink.

So I'm going to try to post more now that things are starting to settle down a bit and I'm getting into a routine.

Hope you have a great week!

What I (Wish) I Wore Wednesday

So the last few weeks have been very uninspiring for me clothes-wise. It's so hot and humid out that I have been just picking the coolest, loosest clothing I can find in my closet. Nothing has been good enough to even bother taking pictures of. Then, on top of that, has been back to school shopping. This year I have one starting kindergarden and one starting high school (yikes!) so I have had double the supply and clothes shopping as I have been used to in previous years. Of course, while out to buy for the kids, I have found so many cute things I want for myself. This week I decided to do this a little differently. I have put together pieces I have seen that I like to show you what I wish I was wearing. Most outfits are more suited to cooler weather than I will see any time soon (wishful thinking?) but it will give you an idea of what direction I hope to be moving toward dresswise.

As usual, I am linking to Lindsay at The Pleated Poppy and her WIW Party.

This outfit is all Old Navy. I have this shirt already in the green pattern and love it. It can't hurt to have it in another color if I really like it, right?

The shirts in this outfit are AE, the pants Old Navy.

The cute tank is Old Navy (love the roses at the neck) and the sweater and jeans are AE.

Another Old Navy outfit. Love all the ruffle details.

So there you have it. I didn't include shoes because I haven't been shoe shopping yet, and don't know what might be waiting for me out there (hehe!). Hopefully sometime in the near future I can show you some real pics of me wearing these.

Go check out The Pleated Poppy and what all the other ladies in blogland are wearing.

Have a great day!

So Yummy. . . I May Be Addicted

I've been trying to cut down on all the sugary sweet snacks we tend to keep in the house. If the kids realize what we have, they drive me crazy until I give in and give them something. But then, when Mom decides she really, really needs chocolate, that doesn't leave me with many choices. Well, yesterday was that day. I HAD to have some chocolate. It was almost 9:00 on a Sunday night, which meant that my run-out-and-pick-up-something-gooey-and-chocolatey choices were really limited. And, I really didn't feel like baking something because by the time I got it mixed up and baked I would be too tired to even want it anymore. So I did what any good Mom would do - I dug around the pantry behind all the boring stuff until I hit upon the jackpot

Rold Gold Honey Wheat Twists and Nutella. I realize it may not look like much, but together, WOW! And so easy, all I did was take a twist and dip it in the Nutella. It was heavenly, truly the best thing I had ever had (at least at the time, hehe). I have now eaten my way through most of the bag of twists and about half the jar of Nutella and I'm sure gained back part of those 8 pounds I recently lost. But it's all worth it. Mom's happy now! And lucky for me, the kids don't realize that it's sweet and good, looks like it's a treat all for me.

Have a great day

Update and Inspiration

I'm still here! I've just been overwhelmed this past week with kids, work, high school soccer, back to school shopping and just basic everyday Mom tasks. I have also been busy with some projects that have me kind of excited. I'll post more about that later when I can get some pictures taken.

I'm sure if you have been on the internet for any amount of time you have seen these images. The Keep Calm and Carry On image has been around since WWII, and has become quite popular in the past few years. I have always been inspired by that image, but I have also loved some of the variations that other people have created. Here are just a few that give me inspiration, in many forms.

This one is pretty self explanitory, coffee, my favorite ;)

This one has been my driving force this past week. I love the lightbulb!

This one just makes me laugh! Haven't we all had those days?

Just because I am a huge Led Zeppelin fan.

I think I need to just post this at the coffee maker so I can see it first thing every morning. Again, it's all about the coffee!

I hope these will make you smile, and possibly give a little inspiration too! I'll be back to full swing soon, so until then, have a great day!

I think I've created a monster

I love my iPod Touch, it's like my lifeline most of the time. I keep my calendar on it, check my email, keep up with facebook and work on my solitaire score. But here lately it seems my youngest child, my baby who still gives me hugs and cuddles, has developed a love for it that is all his own. He is obsessed with it! He can actually work it better than Lindsey can. Luckily he hasn't figured out my password to download apps yet (but believe me, he's tried). I have now started using it as a bargaining tool. If he does something that I want him to then he can play with it for 5 minutes. The five minutes doesn't always work, but at least it gets him to clean up toys or take a bath.

Just look at that face. I told you he loves that little gadget.

And as soon as he gets ahold of it, he gets to work.
I guess the little fingers do just fine with the touch screen.

His favorite app is the flixter app. You can go on it and watch movie trailers. He's a movie fan, just like his Mom.

I'm not sure if this is the best thing for him to be playing with so much, but as long as it keeps the fights over toys to a minimum, it works for me.

Have a great day!

I Want To Go Shopping

Have you noticed all the fall/back to school clothing that is hitting stores right now? I'm loving so much of it. I love fall and spring weather, cool mornings and mild afternoons. I enjoy wearing layers and being comfortable. I'm not a shorts person at all, and I have just this summer started wearing sleeveless shirts out of the house. The heat has just gotten to me worse this year than in the past (except for those summers I was pregnant, but they don't count) and I've gotten over as many clothing issues as I can. I still refuse to leave the house in shorts that are more than 2 inches above my knee. OK, that may be a little drastic, but you get my meaning.

I've been looking at all the new cardigans and layering pieces and I have already started my "want list". I thought I would share a few things I'm thinking about.

I love this cardigan and shirt. Both are made from a really soft knit, the kind that will keep it's shape but just get softer with each washing. The shirt is also available in other stripe color combos and in solids.

Again, the knit Boyfriend Cardigan, but this time in a great soft red. I'm not a huge fan of bright colors, but this red just screams fall to me. And the tank, I know it's hard to tell, but it has small flowers on it that are the same color red and the cardigan brings out the color really well.

This is another knit combo. I really like that with the cardigan you can wear it dressy or casual and I like that the tank has a banded bottom. The banded bottom helps camoflage the bit of "baby belly" I still have left over. (yes, my youngest is almost 3, but that is a whole other post!) Oh, and both of these pieces just went on clearance for $19.95, I may just have to push them to the top of my list ;)

Don't you just love the ruffles on this cute sweater? Lindsey was looking at these with me and she now wants one too (hehe, that's my girl!). It's available in other colors, so you could buy one for every day of the week! And the tank is another knit that has off white dots that match the sweater perfectly. Cute, cute, cute!

All of the pieces are available at American Eagle, or at http://www.ae.com/ except for the ruffle sweater, that is from Target, and is also available online.

Hopefully you'll see me in one or more of these outfits in a WIW post really soon!

Have a great weekend!