And along came Lyla...: November 2011

Wordless Wednesdays

Family Photo HELL.
God Bless her soul. No CLUE how she got the photos she did. The ever amazing Kate Greenawalt.

Thank you.

This one is my FAVORITE!!!!! Wonder what it would look like in color?

Happy Wednesday.

Weekend recap

Friday - I will always and forever refer to this day as Molar Hell. A day I wish I could forget, but swear. I never ever will.

Saturday - Awesome! Cooked, baked...dealt with satan as my child. Then a group of friends came over with their kids and we all hung out...shooting the crap and making ourselves feel normal. Then we ditched the husband and kids and b-lined to a hot tub....for FOUR hours of relaxing, more bitching and more relaxing.

Sunday - AWESOME! Took Lyla to church - it appeared to help remove some of the demons from her, I would like to erase the part of my Sunday were I went bat crap crazy on my husband and cried....that was not awesome. Not even close to awesome. Then I headed out, again, sans baby and husband and went to lunch and to see Breaking Dawn. that made up for all the unawesomeness that my day held earlier.

Monday morning - Lyla appeared to have all demons out of her body. But we shall see what tonight holds. We shall see.

That time of year again - Family Photos

and this year? It just snuck right up on me.

With Lyla basically walking (not her first choice of travel though) and a husband with a crazy schedule not to mention Brutus the whack job, Dwayne the never dying gold fish and the new addition of our mouse family - things have gotten a tad crazy!

No excuses though.

Here are the outfits planned for this Saturday @ 9 a.m. - fingers crossed Lyla doesn't have a case of the terrible Toddlers. J doesn't have a case of the grumpy a$$ husbandness (been going around) and I am in a good mood (rare....very very rare).

A creature was stirring

Prologue:

Two nights ago as my husband and I lay in bed watching our fire on our TV (there is an app for that) we heard a loud rustling in the pantry. J stood bravely in his underwear with a broom ready to defend our home, our honor and our security, I assumed my position up on the fireplace so that the intruder couldn't ~~eat me~~ get me and I could pounce for back up if need be.

The door swung open.
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And there it lay....a bag of chips. My chips. A little hole nibbled through the bag and crumbs around it.

We most definitely had an intruder. A mouse.

We decided to get mouse traps. My job? Go to Lowes and get a couple mouse traps.

I left Lowes armed with 10 mouse traps and a master plan.

I bated the traps with delicious, creamy JIFF peanut butter. I put the traps all around the pantry. 4 on the floor. 3 on the shelves, 1 behind the garbage can and 2 in the garage (point of entry?) Not set.

My plan was to earn their trust. They would think "woah...this chic is cool, she is just giving us food. awesome. this place rocks"

Then I would set the traps later in the evening and BAM! SNAP! BOOM! off with their little heads.

It worked.

Now lets all bow our heads for a moment of silence for Luke. Who will never eat my chips or crap in my pantry ever again.

Thank you.

**Update: And now for Luke Jr. his pesky and annoying son** (11/16/2011 p.m.)

Deep Dark Confession....

of a full time working mother with a day off......

I'm writing this on Thursday afternoon while plotting out my adventures on my day off on Friday. I'm still taking Lyla to daycare. Don't judge me, until I tell you why.....Do you want to know why?

a. because I can.
b. because she loves it there.
c. because I can.
d. because do you have any flipping idea how long it has been since I have been husband and kid free? at home. alone.

16 months.

It has been 16 months that my house has gone with out a good old fashion scrub. 16 months since I have been able to go to the grocery store sans baby and/or husband.

I am going to CLEAN. I can hardly wait to feel the scrub brush in my hand, the smell of BLEACH all over them. Some splashes of said bleach, forever staining some beat up nasty shirt.

I'm going to the grocery store. With NO time schedule of when to be done. I'm going to park wherever I want to in the parking lot, not next to the cart slot to make it easier with a baby. I'm going to roam all the aisles and pick out my fruit wisely, squeezing each and every one to make sure it's good. Then? I'm going to put each and every item away in a slow, calm and orderly fashion.

I'm going to The Gap. I'm going to Sams. I'm going to run whatever errands I want to! With no worries about lugging Lyla into the car, strapping her in, unstrapping her, getting her out ... (for you Delia) deciding if the cart is clean enough...or if I need to use the cart cover, or use one of those sanitizer wipes to wipe it clean.

I'm going to crack open a diet coke and scrub and clean and clean and clean some more. And when I turn around, not a single thing will be laying on the floor. No toys ripped back out after neatly putting them away. No milk splashed on my nice clean floor. No finger prints and nose smudges on my nice clean windows.

There will be order. Organization. Cleanliness.

Then my house will look just ridiculously and unacceptably clean, so....I'll go pick Lyla up early. And all of it will be destroyed again, within minutes. And I will love every.single second of all of it. And find my comfort and peace in the dirt, mess and chaos of having a beautiful bouncing baby girl {oops, I mean toddler}

Happy Friday!

Bye Bye Mama

The element of surprise.

Everyday is like a surprise to my husband. No matter how many times I tell him, no matter how many different ways I tell him. No matter if I leave notes, text, voicemail...everyday. Still a surprise to him.

Example: {this morning}

Me: "Hey...do you want to go shopping next week for Lyla's Christmas gifts?"

J: "sure"

Me: "what day works best for you, Monday or Tuesday."

J: "either is fine" {typical}

.....about 25 minutes later.....

Me: "Are you sure either day works better for you? For shopping."

J: "sure"

Me: "Well I have to let my mom know"

J: "yes amanda. Either day is fine with me"

.....about 10 minutes later.....

Me: "I thought it would be nice if we could grab some dinner after shopping next week"

J: "shopping for what?"

Me: "Christmas gifts"

J: "for who?"

Me: "Lyla"

.....about 10 minutes after that.....

Me: "How do you know which day next week your overtime shift will be"

J: "I won't know until tonight"

Me: ::dumb look on my face - silently wondering why I even bother::

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Waves and blows kisses to husband reading this right now. I love you!

And mom. As soon as I know my husbands overtime schedule I will confirm our shopping date.

Thank you to all veterans who have done so much for our country and also giving me the day off tomorrow to be an ultra productive mother.

Have a great weekend!

Wordless Wednesdays - Day Off with Mama

Punkin' Chunkin' 2011

It was awesome.

Next year we will go better prepared, a little earlier and without a doubt in my mind. Lyla will be joining us.

The launching

Lyla and her great aunt. Tweetin' for birds.

Me and my hubby. Not only is he handy, he's pretty easy on the eyes too - no? :)

My handy husband

My handy husband combined with Pinterest - look out house. We are coming to get yo a$$!

Our new washer and dryer is turning into a new part of our basement giving us more storage, more use and more room to set up food for parties (probably the most important). Especially for my birthday party in December. What? nobody knew I was turning 30 next month. really? are you sure? Well. I am.

He is handy, but he is no photographer, so better pictures to come upon completion.

Just felt like bragging about my man!

Wordless Wednesdays

First "hair cut" - 1/1/11

Christmas

My goal? be done and wrapped by the first week of December! It gets busy as our family continues to get bigger and Lyla more active. So this year my goal is simple, to be done asap.

~~This is what we are getting Lyla~~ Dear Santa:
Tickle me Elmo better known in our house as la la la la
Fisher-Price The Original Tickle Me Elmo