Seven Quick Takes - 1/28/11

1. My current favorite cheesy pop song is Bruno Mars' "Grenade." The video is so cheesy and overwrought! I LOVE IT.

2. Jack and I went on a playdate to a place called Mini Town this morning. It was a really neat place with a mini school, HEB (grocery store), living room, disco, salon, and a movie theater. They also had a train, a bouncy house, a giant sand box, and a small playground outside. And what did my kid want to do the entire time? Watch Wonder Pets in the movie theater. What are the chances that they would be playing WONDER PETS today? They are EVERYWHERE I GO. Back off, Ming Ming!

3. The movie theater had little kid-sized movie theater seats. I wanted to take one home with me. For some reason, everything is so much cuter when it's tiny. Why is that?

4. I've had 3 cups of coffee today. I'm drinking the 3rd one right now at 3:30. (I had a hankering for iced coffee.) I will regret this SO MUCH when I try to go to bed tonight.

5. I have succumbed to the ways of FlyLady. While I think her site is still horribly ugly and organized, she DOES have some good tips for getting your house organized and clean. I even bought a microfiber dusting glove at Target this week. (For ONE SINGLE DOLLAR whereas FlyLady wants TEN WHOLE ENTIRE DOLLARS for one on her site.) Plus, anything that promotes keeping a journal with lists has got my love.

6. I haven't scrapbooked a blessed thing this week, but I DID read 3 books. So yay! But they were all silly vampire books. So yay? My friend asked me today if I had read the parenting book I bought on Wednesday and I was all, "Uh priorities!? Vampires come FIRST."

7. We set up Jack's tent for him this week. And he wants NOTHING to do with it. I've tried to get him to go in with me twice. Alex even tried to scrunch himself in there to encourage Jack. We put Cubby in there. And...Jack got close enough to grab Cubby and then SHOT OUT of it like the tent was going to EAT him or something. Baby steps, I guess?

Award!

I fully intended to post this on Monday. But somehow it's Wednesday now? Not sure how that happened. The passage of time, I guess?

Anyway, Ashley nominated me for this Stylish Blogger Award. Hooray! Thank you, Ashley!

Here are the rules for the acceptance of the award:

1. Thank and link back to the person who awarded you the award.
2. Share 7 things about yourself.
3. Award 15 other bloggers.
4. Contact these bloggers and tell them about the award.

I'm not gonna lie to you. I don't know 15 people (personally) who blog. (I'm also one of those people who broke chain letters in elementary school.) But! Here are 7 things you may not know about me...

1. When I was in the 5th grade, I thought it was cool to say "Oh mylanta!" because DJ Tanner used to say that on Full House. I also once tried to answer the phone at my grandmother's house with, "Talk to me" because Uncle Jesse did. The person on the other end of the phone had NO idea what to say and I hung up because I was so embarrassed. So! Lesson learned there...no catch phrases from Full House!

2. I like werewolves better than vampires. You probably didn't know this because I just discovered this myself last night. I'm currently reading the 3rd Sookie Stackhouse novel and it is light on the vampire action and I am enjoying it SO MUCH MORE than the first two novels. I also preferred Jacob to Edward in Twilight, so I suppose I like my sexy beasts warm and hairy and not cold and undead. Come to think of it, I'm also a big Remus Lupin fan as well.

3. I sang Journey's "Don't Stop Believing" to Jack ALL THE TIME when he was a tiny baby. Even though it only occasionally calmed him down, I kept going back to it because it calmed ME down.

4. My first cup of coffee was at Cafe du Monde in the Esplanade Mall in Kenner, LA. I drank it with a straw because that's how my dad has to drink all of his drinks too.

5. I got my first pedicure when I was 29 years old. And it was only because it was my first Mother's Day gift from Reid. Which I waited to use until September of that year because we were going on our delayed Honeymoon cruise. It's because I don't like feet AT ALL. And I really don't like people touching my feet. But man, that pedicure was amazing and I have been hooked ever since.

6. I didn't know the awesomeness of cheese until I moved out on my own. My mom doesn't like cheese so we never had it in the house. It was never on sandwiches or burgers or anything else, for that matter. But now I know. Cheese is gooooood. And I appreciate it more since I didn't discover it until I was an adult.

7. I would really like some muffins right now.

I nominate Mrs. G, Christy, Jenny, Lana, and Mel. We cruised together and now we must blog together.

Wipe Out

I mentioned on Friday that I've ordered over 300 prints of Jack in the past month. I also bought 100 sheets of 4 x 6 photo paper yesterday at Staples. (Which I scored for $8.49 and they came with a $8.50 rebate. What what!?) It's all in an effort to complete Jack's baby book, put pictures in the two brag books I got for my baby shower back in February 2009, and maybe, just maybe scrapbook his first year of life. (In other news, I also decided to order my wedding album! From September 2007! Making my photographer dig through 300+ discs to find OUR wedding pictures!)

Since I'm not very smart, I ordered a random smattering of pictures from all throughout Jack's first year of life and then promptly mixed them all together. So now I have to go back and put them in order. Which is a lot harder than you might think. I fired up this here blog to see if it could help me with the order and lo and behold, I SUCKED at blogging when Jack was first born. In fact, I didn't post a single solitary thing in May 2009. And there are all of 4 posts in April. (He was born on April 3rd.) I never finished posting his birth story. I never explained the story of my incision bursting. I posted two pictures of him before he turned 2 months old. It's bad.

I felt guilty when I was away from Jack doing school stuff and then felt even MORE guilty when I was with him and couldn't comfort him. I would let anybody else hold him because I felt so disconnected and resentful of him. And I was embarrassed and scared and tired and confused. I needed help and had no idea what to do to get that help. I knew I SHOULDN'T be feeling those things but I didn't know how to NOT feel them. Ya know? No matter how hard I tried to convince myself otherwise, I always went back to those same dark places. It was like I was in a hole and couldn't get myself out of it. (Not a very good analogy, I know, but it's the closest I can come to describing it.)

Honestly, I've blocked a lot of it out because...well...who wants to remember that? But looking through these pictures and seeing my bloated, tired self reminded me of it all. And then the silence on my blog is very telling. I generally don't post when things aren't going well and there's a REALLY BIG HOLE at that time in the blog.

I wish I could go back in time and change it. If I could, I would go back and ENJOY the tiny child. I would take better care of him. I'd take better care of ME. God knows I would be a better wife. Why Alex didn't just let me pack up and leave, I do not know. It's weird because those few months were a giant ball of suck and I am so, so, so glad they're over. But at the same time, I wish I could go back in time so I could fix it.

I'm not really sure where I'm going with this. I don't have a nice, neat way of wrapping it all up. Because more often than not, depression doesn't have a happy, neat ending. I'm certainly not depressed now. And I do pretty well dealing with anxiety. But Jack is also 21 months old. And I'm just now ready to go back and document his first year of life. And I guess, more than anything, I wish I could go back and tell my lumpy, mascara stained self that it's gonna be alright.

Also, that iPhone was a REALLY good investment.

Seven Quick Takes

1. In my never ending quest to find awesome beverage containers, I asked for a Tervis Tumbler for Christmas. And I am happy to report that it is AWESOME. I highly recommend them. They keep your drink cold, don't sweat, and are super cute!

2. I am trying my hand at scrapbooking. My mom got me an album w/ stickers and paper last year for Christmas (as in 2009 Christmas) and I am just now trying to do something with it. So far...not good. I have no artistic vision. Or talent.

3. I've ordered over 300 pictures of Jack in the last month. Going overboard is my middle name.

4. Did I mention that I got a Keurig for Christmas? I can't remember. I don't think I did. So! Hey! I got a Keurig for Christmas! And I LOVE it! It's so nice to have my coffee ready in such a short amount of time. My one and only complaint is that my favorite travel mug doesn't fit under it.

5. I haven't read a single book yet this year. I am in a TV watching/crafting phase currently. But I need to step up my game in order to beat my record book count from last year. I've got 3 on my Kindle waiting to be read and Amazon gift cards just waiting to be spent. And yet I have no motivation.

6. Oh my gosh, I can't come up with 7 things. I can't even come up with 6 things. I barely came up with 5 things. My life is boring. Particularly the life parts that I choose to post about.

7. I do not miss snow days. AT ALL.

Craft Time!

I'm not sure what came over me a few weeks ago, but I decided I wanted to be crafty. Mrs. G shared a post on Google Reader about Do It Yourself Valentine's Wreath. And I promptly fell in love with this yarn wreath. I decided I wanted to make one for Valentine's Day. With my mom's help, I got all the supplies at Michael's.


I wound up only using the craft glue on the flowers and then bought a hot glue gun to actually attach the flowers to the wreath.

It took me a while to get the hang of wrapping the yarn around the wreath, but it wasn't too difficult. Except for the fact that I kept hitting myself into the face with the yarn. Here it is about half way through.



I used coffee cans and a salad plate as my template for the circles.



Here's one of the pink circles.



I cut out all of the circles and then made the weird crinkly edges to them.





I totally only made one of the flowers. My mom made the rest of them because I am a wuss.



Finished!!!



Here is it hanging on our door this morning.



Close up of the flowers.



Overall this was a SUPER easy craft and pretty darn cute, if I do say so myself.

Sadness

Oh man, I hope everyone's holidays were a million zillion times better than mine.

My beloved grandmother passed away on the 28th and I'm just so darn sad.

I feel like I should be posting pictures of Christmas morning and talking about our holiday festivities. But it was pretty somber this year and I just don't have it in me to upload pictures. But I promise Jack had a lovely Christmas and received many wonderful gifts.

My grandmother's funeral was on New Year's Eve, so we didn't really celebrate that night.

Jack and I had spent the last two weeks at my parents' house and we finally came home on Sunday. Somehow it is already Tuesday and I've only left the house once. I know I need to sack up and get back in the real world but I've given myself a pass on not being in fighting form yet. I alway struggle a little after the holidays, not to mention I always need at least a day of doing nothing before I can recover from a big road trip. So combining that with the loss of a loved one means I'm allowed to move a little slowly now, right? And I'm actually being somewhat productive today (Laundry! Picking up! Unpacking!), so it's not all doom and gloom around here.

But I'm still really, really sad.