Zoom Zoom!

Soooo today is the last day of the challenge. I didn't make the 30 days worth of posts but I have put way more effort into it than I've had for in a long time. There's always next time!

I bet you're been wondering what car we finally decided on. If you're friends with me on Facebook... you know :)

Last Thursday we found ourselves back at the Mazda dealership buying a Mazda3 i Touring. It is a NICE car. LOVE IT. Whenever Connor gets in he says, "Mommy's new car is NICE." I love him!!!

My mom is in town visiting this week and I'll most likely leave this blog MIA until the visit is wrapped up. See you soon!

There Was a Weekend?

Wow did time fly. The month keeps ticking by and I don't think I'm going to make it a full 30 posts. We've been doing so much meal planning for dinners and lunches that by the time we're done cooking and Connor is in bed its time for other random house chores and I'm done! Who wants to blog after all that!

This weekend just completely flew by. Saturday morning we had gymnastics and Connor was in a foul mood. He insisted on taking his Tonka fire truck with him. No he couldn't leave it at the house or in the car.... he had to take it inside with him. Soooo he for sure did not want to leave it against the wall when it was time for class to start. BUT mommy was mean and made him leave it there. Sooooo the crying continued through stretching and then he refused to do any exercises on the mat or the hanging bars..... HE finally got into the running and jumping exercise. He loves running. Then he continued on the balance beam. So in the end, we got half a class in.

From there I literally came home tossed Connor to Kevin, changed my clothes and ran right back out the door. I was invited to an open house for a re-opening of a center called Serenity. I got to meditate for 30min with like minded people. IT WAS NICE! I get my meditations in here and there but its nice when its not in your bed and with a group of people building the energy up.

I came home and promptly shoved lunch in my face and got ready to go test drive some cars with Kevin. We test drove the Toyota Corolla and the Subaru Impreza. We like both but the Impreza was really the only other car that could compare or match up to the Mazda3 that we drove earlier and liked.

After we got home from car shopping I was done. D-O-N-E DONE. Kevin and I had a mini movie night and watched the Alice in Wonderland movie with Johnny Depp. We're in the process of watching all of Kevin's movies in alphabetical order. I'll blog about that later.

Sunday..... We woke up and meandered around the house for the morning. It was raining and dreary out. We vegged on the couch most of the morning.

THEN we ventured over the Beach Bar for lunch for my Step Mother's birthday. The Beach Bar is a local bar that I grew up going to as a kid. They have really great bar food and since MD is smoke free I don't have to think twice about taking Connor (see how I have to explain my actions as a mother for taking my kid to the bar???).

Connor enjoyed time with Pop, Nan, Aunt Vicki, and the Colon's. Especially Madison as she chased him around.

We got home from lunch with just enough time to get Connor into bed for a nap and then I ran out to do our weekly grocery shopping. After that..... I was done for the day. Whew. We ran ourselves ragged!

Car Shopping.... Sigh...

I guess the title says it all.... We're car shopping. I'm not completely ecstatic about it. We knew my car was going to start costing money to keep running and planned to replace it.... NEXT year. Two weeks ago we had my car in the shop to replace an O2 sensor. Once fixed, they did an oil change and rotated my tires. While my tires were off they discovered a few other items that should be repaired SOON. Not optional... not down the road.... needs to be repaired SOON. Like lots of money SOON. We decided to start looking early.

Since I knew we weren't planning on car shopping for another year at the least, I was in shock trying to figure out what to look at. Do I want a crossover... wagon.... same sized car as I have now.... a little bigger.... a Hummer (JUST KIDDING)..... What was our price range? Where can we get the best loan rate??? And..............OH MY GOD WE'RE GONNA HAVE ANOTHER CAR PAYMENT!!! The first week of this realization was quite stressful. I called my mom almost every day that week after work to talk out whatever realization or idea I had that day.

We decided to test drive a Mazda3 last Friday because they were surprisingly in our price range. It was a NICE car. So far its top on my list of what I want. I got the name of the sales guy from my friend who had used him to buy her Mazda6 a year or so ago. He was so laid back, nice, informative and not pushy at all. He totally listened to us when we said we were at the beginning of our search and that we weren't planning on buying for another month because we wanted to research all options. Even though its been a week, he's only emailed and called twice to see if he could help us in anyway. So far.... he's awesome in my book.


Monday.... oh Monday.... Monday we wanted to go LOOK at the Chevy Cruze. I wasn't sold on me even liking it enough to test drive it. We decided we would go LOOK at it and then test drive it if I liked it enough. I had a name of a sales guy to ask for if we wanted to move beyond looking at it. My dad had given us a name of his sales guy that he's used for the last 8 vehicles him and my step mother have bought over the years.

We got to the car lot and parked. The showroom was dark. We wandered around the side and found a bunch of employees hanging around outside smoking and talking. Apparently the showroom was under construction. We said we wanted to LOOK at a Chevy Cruze. They pointed us in the direction of where the cars were. As we walked away.... a guy jumped on us. Well not literally... but his energy just said... YOU'RE MINE. You could tell he was new, nervous and fresh. Thankfully he gave us privacy to look at the cars. BUT as soon as I said, "I'd test drive this" he came running up to get my license. He was gone for 20min getting the key and tags. We would have left but he had my license!!!

We test drove it....it was nice. Not as nice as the Mazda3 but if it came down to budget later I could drive it. During the drive we told him the same thing we told the guy from Mazda. We're not buying now... in a month.... we're doing research. When we got back he offered us a brochure. I felt like we were in a Hansel and Gretel story. FOLLOW ME..... THIS WAY.... To the trailer.... I'll get you a brochure..... We followed him into the trap.

Once inside he introduced us to his Sales Manager, then sat us down at a desk and offered water. In my head I had all sorts of RED FLAGS going off. He left to get a brochure and the Sales Manager sat down. He asked us how long our time frame was, WHY and all sort of "none of your business" questions. His energy was pushy and I did not like him one bit. He then offered to get us price on the car we drove. Kevin said, "We are not buying tonight". The Sales Manager offered again saying, "It may help speed up your decision". Kevin said, "We are not buying tonight". AND THEN he offered a third time being even more pushy. Thankfully the guy had come back with the brochure. We took it and walked out. We WON'T be going back and the Cruze has been crossed off the list.

When we walked out of there we felt violated. It felt like we were on a first date and they were trying to go all the way after we had said NO several times. They didn't care about what we wanted, he wasn't trying to help us make a decision.... they were only out to satisfy themselves.

So that's where we are right now.... going to test drive two other vehicles this weekend and then come up with a plan... My mood over the whole thing is growing from shocked to excited. Stay tuned....

For The Love of Lollipops

Yes... I let my son occasionally have a lollipop. He asks in the cutest little voice and says "olliepop".

Yes... I do have this crazy fear of chocking on the lollipop... so when he has one he has to sit on the floor until he's done with it.

Yes... Last night he had one.

Yes... He was sitting on my lap. Enjoying a Cream Soda flavored Dum Dum, my favorite flavor. It smelled good. I told him, "Connor, that lollipop smells good".

Yes... He looked up at me and then looked at the lollipop.

Yes... He offered to share his lollipop.

Yes... I let him. It was good.

Yes... Up until now the thought of sharing a lollipop was super gross, and thinking about it now I gross myself out. But in that moment... nothing was better than sitting on the couch with my son on my lap sharing the best flavored lollipop EVER.

Whatever Happened to that Challenge?!

Well.... end of last year I challenged myself to read 30 autobiographies/biographies/memoirs before I turned 30 (a year time frame). I even created a separate blog for it. Well... I'm happy to say I'm still reading! I'm still crossing books off my list.

Today I finished Book 7 (Bossypants by Tina Fey). I've been enjoying most of the books but I've just stopped blogging about them. It felt way too book reportish. The pressure of reading it and then HAVING to write about it just made the whole experience suck. I should have stuck with... This is what I'm doing.... and I'll update you as I feel like it. Instead... I have a severely dieing blog!

I don't plan on jumping on the blog and bringing it back to life.... but I do plan on blogging about it from time to time here. So.... where am I in this journey.... how has it gone?

I stopped blogging part of the way through The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt by Edmund Morris. I actually have a draft from 2/3/12 waiting to be reviewed and published. I really think that was the book that broke my blogs back. I wasn't enjoying reading it. It bored me. I was learning BUT I sure as hell didn't want to write about it after reading it. I had 200 pages left and found myself HATING the thought of reading sooooooo I decided to stop. I'll tack on an extra book on the end if I feel guilty.


From there I read A Stolen Life, By Jaycee Dugard. I read it in a day and a half. I COULD NOT PUT IT DOWN. It was intense and sad and overwhelming in some parts. BUT her growth and strength was so so so inspiring. She is a miracle and sets an amazing example for moving forward and not clinging to the past or letting the past identify who you are.

NEXT I read Happy Accidents by Jane Lynch. AWESOME woman and AWESOME book. I probably would have read it in two days but there is something called being a mom, work, cleaning..... you know... all the other important stuff that gets in the way of reading awesome books. What was so awesome about it? Well I just loved the way it was written. I had no real knowledge of her besides I love the characters that she acts. She is a very down to earth person. I felt like she was letting me become her BFF by reading her words. What was inspiring? I guess... Reading about being true to yourself and going for what you want even when you don't know who you are or what you want.

I JUST wrapped up Bossypants by Tina Fey today. It took me 3 weeks or so to finish. I could have wrapped it up sooner but the last few week evenings have been exhausting or busy. I enjoyed it but not as much as the books following The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt. I enjoyed her thoughts and beliefs on being a working mother and the importance of women being strong in the work world. BUT....... that's about it. She's funny on screen and I love her work but the book left me a little disappointed.

So now I'm moving on to Thinking in Pictures My Life with Autism, By Temple Grandin just in time for the end of Autism Awareness month. Wish me luck!

The Theory

The Big Bang Theory premiered in 2007. I didn't pay attention when it came out.... never watched it and at that point in my life didn't watch a lot of TV. I watched reruns of different shows... but sit down and watch a show when it actually aired?? NO.

So fast forward to Jan 2nd 2010... Connor was born.... Its LATE LATE at night in the hospital. I'm up. Connor is asleep. Kevin is asleep. My friend was the tiny TV on top of the closet. I had the volume down low so it wouldn't disturb Kevin or Connor and hopefully not distract me enough so I would fall asleep (YEAH RIGHT!). There wasn't much options in regards to channels and the remote that is attached to the bed had fallen on the floor. My ab muscles weren't up for twisting around trying to reach it because of my c-section and Kevin was OUT LIKE A LIGHT. I called him a few times trying to get his attention and he didn't budge. Sooooo I was stuck watching whatever came on and could barely hear. The Big Bang Theory came on......... I tried to watch it. I was exhausted. Couldn't hear. Wasn't in the mood for geeky behavior. It got on my nerves. I really felt like was being tortured!

From that night onward if I ever heard anyone talk about The Big Bang Theory I would voice my disgust for the show. I would say... "Oh that show is soooo stupid".... "I just couldn't get into it".... "Who wants to watch a show about geeks"......

Well.......... two weeks ago when I couldn't sleep due to stress.... The Big Bang Theory was on TBS. I watched it. I chuckled. I giggled. I watched another episode. I chuckled again. I laughed out loud. I watched another episode....... AND NOW I check TBS at night when Connor has gone to bed to see if its on. I'm hooked. I love it!! I've been totally missing out!!! I blame it on postpartum hormones!!! Consider my inner geek in love!

Instagram Eyes

Last week I blogged about how much I loved Instagram. I have found myself taking pictures and wondering how this picture could be taken to look better though Instagram. This obsession will probably fade just like my obsession with Pinterest, Words with Friends and Draw Something. I still use those apps but not as often and I'm not as glued to them as I was at first. So bare with me as I venture through this next phase of app obsession.

For whatever reason I loved this pic that I took at the Easter Egg Hunt

Mmmm..... Kevin made a Carribiean Pork Tenderloin Salad.
It was GOOD!!!!!

Happy Birthday Gavin!! We went to Gavin's 1st Birthday Party
He had fun eating cake and turning into a Smurf!

My baby girl Joy. She's cute, she's pretty... but she drives us crazy!

My future Rock Star. <3

Why Do I Blog?!

I'm fast falling behind on the blog challenge!! I went from 1 post behind to several. I've been either super busy, exhausted or without an idea to blog about!

I figured I would pull it together and came up with "Why do I blog?!?!" I mean really.... Its just my random thoughts floating around out there.... my overly cute son doing overly cute things. I'm by no means a super mom who whips up crafts left and right everyday. I'm just your average working momma that tries to keep the house together, the toddler loved and the husband happy - you might get lucky and a wholesome meal gets tossed on the table and the find the TV screen dusted.

I blog to get my ideas down and solidified with the universe, I blog because my family that I don't get to see often knows what is going on with us, I blog because I used to enjoy writing when I was younger, I blog because it's easy, I blog because some of you out there who've never met me enjoy what I write, I blog because I have a super cute kid and I want to share him with the world..... but my main reason for blogging is my sanity. Getting the thoughts out of my head helps with the day to day mundane.

Easter Post!

I guess I should be getting around to posting about our Easter weekend before the next weekend sneaks up on us!

We had a fairly easy going weekend. There was some running around, some visiting and some lounging around the house as well.

I posted about the Easter Egg Hunt at the community college. It really was a blast and Connor had a great time. After the hunt it was naptime for Connor, I went grocery shopping and Kevin got ready for his "guys" night out with my dad and friends. Their night out was out to the see an Orioles game.

Meanwhile.... back at the house.... Connor and I snuggled, played and then once he was asleep for the night I put on my bunny ears and put together his basket.

Easter morning Connor remembered that the "bunnies" were coming and leaving him eggs. We rushed out to the living room and he found his basket. In the basket was The Brave Little Toaster movie on dvd. We popped it in and enjoyed an Easter morning movie.

After naptime we headed over to my dad's house for some Easter dinner and another Easter Egg Hunt. We over ate, ran Connor out of energy and enjoyed family time.

Enjoy our photos :)

Dying eggs before the hunt at the college



Pretty!

Family Photo Op!



Waiting for the hunt to start!

Lots of Eggs!

Lots and Lots of Eggs



Happy Easter!

Throwing the ball on the roof and watching it roll back



Egg Hunt at Pops!



RUNNING! He loves to run!

More Food Discoveries?!

Could it be possible? MORE food discoveries?! YES! Another food discovery and one food rediscovery.

With all the new meal planning that Kevin and I have been doing in the last week we've been eating some really tasty meals and learning new things. Like.... I never knew what Arrowroot was before last week, where to find Lemongrass (duh!!!), and other random seasonings I never thought to add to my spice rack.

One major new thing we tried this week was Quinoa.I've been told about quinoa many many many times from many people and just never bit the bullet and bought it. We were both skeptical of it at first. I mean... after it's cooked it kinda looks like fish eggs. BUT we went through with it and mixed a little bit of the sauce we were having in with it and WOW oh WOW was it good. I mean it doesn't really have a flavor but at the same time it's great! What impressed me is I only made one cup of the dried quinoa and it cooked up to a lot of food. I just had some of it for lunch today. Quinoa and left over Asparagus from last night. Which brings me to another point in my post....

My rediscovery....Asparagus! It took me well into adulthood to try asparagus and actually like it. So when Asparagus popped up on the meal plan menu I got a little excited. I cooked them up last week with a little bit of olive oil, sea salt and pepper and.......... yummy yummy! There were no leftovers! And again... using a similar meal plan this week asparagus was on the menu again. This time we had leftovers and I mixed them in my lunch today with the quinoa as mentioned before.Add a sliced tomato with sea salt to the mix and YUMMY.

So now I'm out looking through Pinterest at all the pinteresting quinoa ideas. This could replace our boring brown rice!

Here's to a Good Week!

Here's to sleep filled nights this week.

Here's to zero internal stress!

Here's to the start of new car shopping!

Here's to the old car staying together!

Here's to lot's of cooking WITH my husband!

Here's to lot's of snuggles with my toddler.

Here's to sweet dreams and lovely days.

Here's to the pollen count slowly dropping.

Here's to the runny noses drying up.

Here's to a weekend filled of birthday party's.

Here's to a week living in the present!

Here's to good bye Mercury in Retrograde!

Here's to a great week that will leave us talking.

Instagram!!

Attention Attention! The awesome app that was iPhone exclusive is now on Andriod! Instagram! Annnnnnd it's pretty awesome!

I would always see the neat photos that that my friends on FB would post via Instagram. At first I would start searching the Market (now Google Play) for Instagram and could find anything. I downloaded a few other editing apps but I felt, "eh.... whatever" about it.

I found out that Instagram was avaliable to Android last Friday. I'm not sure if was late to the party or not but downloaded the app on Saturday morning. Its easy to use, makes great pictures and I'm in love with it!! Check out some of my favorites from this weekend.......

I recommend checking out the app if you have an iPhone or Android! I might have to start having Instagram Mondays!

The Hunt

Finding eggs like its his job!

We went to an Easter Egg Hunt today at the Community College. It was surprisingly more fun than stressful! They had painting and sticker crafts, games, an Easter Bunny (that we stayed far away from) and the Egg Hunt. They also gave him a basket with a coloring book, bunny ears (he refused to wear), a pencil and bubbles!

I really think they did it right.... they split the hunts up into age groups and the youngest group got to go first (us!). I was concerned about how long it would take for us to go because the Hunt started at 1pm and Connor's nap time is 1:30-2pm.

We got there early to register and then we did a painting craft. A short 5min later and Connor was over the crafty business. We entertained him as best as we could and then headed for the big Hunt!

Connor's age group (I think 0-3) wasn't that big and they had a rule that only one parent could be with one child on the grass at a time. They also had to remind everyone that this was for the children.....

When they said "GO" I pointed an egg out to Connor and showed him he had to put it in the basket. After that.... he was on a mission. FIND EGGS. PUT IN BASKET. FIND MORE EGGS. This kid had spidey senses for eggs. He just intuitively knew where they were and what to do about it. His bucket was more than half full before we stopped.

On the way home he insisted that he hold his bucket of eggs. One by one he opened them up and one by one it held candy he couldn't eat. Laffy Taffy, Jaw Breakers, Sweet Tarts, Now and Laters and Gum! How do you explain to a 2yr old that he can't eat what's inside of his prizes?! I tried giving him a Sweet Tart and he just held it in his mouth with a gross face and then gave it back to me (thanks....). I'm guess that killed any ambition of him wanting the rest. I told him when the Easter Bunny comes to our house he'll bring eggs with stuff he can actually eat inside. More pics to come when I do the whole Easter weekend wrap up!

Sneaky Anxiety

This has been such a crazy week. On Monday Kevin and I started a new plan for eating better that involves lots of cooking and meal preparation. We were also very busy trying to keep up with everything around the house. With little time to keep up on the daily declutter around the house my stress level started to rise. I'm excited for our new meal planning and foods that we are going to try and I'm excited for our new schedule of getting stuff done around the house... I just needed time to adjust and my body gave up.

Monday night came and sleep never found me. I was so worked up over everything that we accomplished in one evening that I couldn't calm down. I found myself laying on the couch and watching Life Alert commercials and Roseanne on TVLand. Sigh.....

Tuesday came and as soon as I laid down I felt terrible. Heartburn, upset stomach... just total yuckiness. Usually I just hop out of bed, take some Tums and then I'm back to sleep in an hour but Tums just wasn't touching it.

Wednesday I called out of work sick because I still felt terrible and hadn't slept in two days and honestly thought I might have the dreaded stomach bug. Midday I was feeling back to my normal self. BUT........ Wednesday evening... as soon as I laid in bed..... the upset stomach came back.

I had been making excuses like, "Oh I'm just eating crappy" or "I took my medicine on an empty stomach" but really... I was internally stressed and didn't want to look at it. It hasn't been just this week making me stressed just lots of little things I had been ignoring piling up and now my system was crashing down.Of course I didn't realize this until I texted my mom asking for her and my step dad to send me Reiki in the middle of the night (thankfully they are 3 hours behind me so it wasn't in the middle of the night to them!). The Reiki helped me relax and I was able to focus on what was truly bothering me. I was able to let it go instantly fell asleep.

Yesterday I had some left over affects from the stress but for the most part I felt like I was finally turning a new page to the whole situation. Before bed last night, I soaked in the tub, listened to a Joyce Meyers podcast and felt renewed. I slept like a rock! WONDERFUL!!!!

It amazes me how much stress can affect your body. This wasn't even huge life altering stress... just day to day stress I wasn't processing!!! Learn from my lesson (that I've learned over and over again these days...) release the stress! Let it out and let it go!

New Food Discoveries!

In the last several weeks I have discovered two new awesome yummy foods. I'm late to the party in discovering them but I guess it's better late than never!!

First.... Greek yogurt. OMG! I've tried Yopliat and Choban... both very yummy! I had coupons for them and they went on sale. I thought, "Why not?!" I'm so glad I tried them. I used to eat Dannon's Light and Fit yogurts daily years ago. Thenn..... all of a sudden I would eat the yogurt and then get a sever upset stomach. After looking at the label, I noticed Dannon had switched to using Splenda. My body cannot handle Splenda. From time to time I would test the waters and eat one since Kevin eats a Light and Fit everyday with his lunch but NOPE! I still get that same nasty feeling. I might get myself back into a yogurt eating kick with Greek Yogurt!

Second.... Nutella!!! Holy cow I've been missing out on Nutella for a loooooooooong time. It was on sale the other day while grocery shopping and I decided again..."Why not?!". I made Connor and myself a peanut and butter Nutella sandwich for lunch and oooooooooooo man was it good. The next trip to the grocery store I picked up other things that I could dip into Nutella like strawberries and animal crackers. I've been stalking Pinterest for Nutella recipes. OBSESSED is the word for me. And really.... the obsession is all mine... Connor was totally whatever about it. Sigh.... he doesn't know what he's missing out on.

Is there anything out there that you've tried recently that has been around a loooooong time? Please tell me I'm not the only one!

Eating Babies

Why must us adults go so ga-ga over babies that we say things like, "He's so adorable that I could just eat him up!" or "I want to nibble on those arms!" or "I could make a sandwich from all the rolls on those thighs." Even Fat Bastard from the movie Austin Powers talked about eating babies. :)

I'm guilty of this myself and even used to tell people that I could just eat Connor's cheeks off. They were sooooooooo cute that I just want to nibble on them. When you stop to think about it.... its kinda weird!

There's been a round of new babies being born all around me and I hear myself saying these things and then giggle over the silliness of it all. I mean yes... My BFF's new baby is so cute that I could make a sandwich out of him and eat him up but..... I'll just stick to kisses all over that face!

So what's the point of all of this?? What crazy things do you find yourself saying? Share and give us all a giggle

Higher Education

Welp! This weekend wrapped up all my non credit classes I registered for at the beginning of this year. In February, I registered for 4 noncredit classes. Two of them online and two at the college (but only 4 sessions a piece).

I don't know what I was thinking... The way the timing worked for the classes I would be in the midst of the online classes while staggering the in college classes. THANKFULLY the in college classes were canceled due to lack of enrollment and saved my rear-end. Part of me feels nerdy for registering for two classes in one semester that NO ONE wanted to take BUT its all Professional Development to me!

I completed Intermediate CSS and XHTML as well as my Google Analytics class this weekend. I was pretty much behind in both classes the whole time due to Connor and myself getting sick right when all the classes started. A wave of relief washed over me as I clicked the final submission button turning in the last final exam. Whew........... now back to a less hectic to-do list and a less fizzed out brain. For now. I'm already planning classes for Summer semester!

Being Mommy



Afternoon snuggles make mommy happy!

So I swore I wouldn't have a mom blog when I started this thing.... but hot damn I have a super cute kid.

Saturday morning we had Connor's second Gymnastics class and he did MUCH better than last week. He took his turn and waited for his "friends" to take their turn. At the end he started crying for his sticker before the class was over. Hopefully next class we can go tear free! He LOVED the mat and balance beam but wasn't a real fan of the bars. I think it feels a little awkward to him.

This weekend Connor came up to me and asked for a kiss and then walked away and said, "I wuv you mommy." Oh how my heart totally melted.

Tonight in the middle of his bath he stood up and asked for a hug..... AND even though he was soaking wet mommy gave him the requested hug and a bonus kiss :)

His sentences are exploding left and right. This evening he was telling the Little People Bus, "I fix you bus, I fix you," in a very serious tone. Kevin and I just looked at each other and giggled over the silliness of it all.

April 1st is Fool's day. No tricks here in our house. BORING.... I know... but that's just how we roll :) April 1st does mark the beginning of another Ultimate Blog Challenge and I intend on getting a full 30 blog posts in before the end of the month! Wish me luck!