Toby is in HR, which technically means he works for corporate, so he's really not a part of our family...

Also, he's divorced, so he's really not a part of his family.    - Michael Scott


I have an exciting announcement to make that should make all of you very happy…..I’M PREGNANT
Just kidding, but this is just an exciting…..
…..Busyland is going to host our very first guest blogger! I don’t want to give away too much yet because she is still in the works of her post but I’ve already deemed her the Small Town Dessert (and Food) Diva of the South. She would probably cringe at the thought of being called a Diva but it has a nice ring so it’s sticking! Check back for her post in the next coming weeks and have a pen and paper ready.

Riddle me this, why do people do annoying things at work, particularly in an office environment? When I first saw the show The Office I didn’t really understand the concept and thought it was a little corny…..that’s until I started working in an office. It’s SCARY how true multiple scenes are from the show and even more scary how I can identify a Pam, Dwight, Jim, and even Michael in my office! Here is my rant about the office: why do people feel the need to talk loud? I HATE listening to every word someone’s says two cubes down. VOLUME DOWN. Why do people mail in documents with 10,000 STAPLES in the papers. Don’t you understand we scan all papers into our system and have to tediously pull out each of your staples; that INCLUDES the industrial, can-go-through-200-pages staples. Lastly, and most annoying, why do women come into the bathroom and go into the stall DIRECTLY next to yours when there are 4 other vacant stalls. Are you that serious about using “your” stall; now we can to sit 3 feet away from each other and I have to listen to you wipe! CAN I GET AN AMEN? O the joys of a 8am-5pm!
Our new favorite after Moses goes to bed activity (well second favorite….wink, wink, nudge, nudge) is Wii. I never really wanted a game system but we got it for Christmas and love it. Davy and his friends play often but I’ll get on there and take a few whacks at Tennis until I get angry I’m loosing, blurt out too many curse words, and throw my remote on the couch in defeat. We only have the game that came with Wii but looking into getting another. They are expensive so I want something that’s going to be fun for both of us and not get bored with after a few nights. Any suggestions? I was looking into Wii resort or Mario; any feedback on those games?

I'm young at heart, right?

I used to never understand why people listened to talk shows on the radio. When I was in my car I always wanted to hear music, not random people I don’t know talking about random things that don’t concern me. That thought changed when I started listening to Kidd Kraddick in the morning. Not sure how long ago I started listening, but eventually I became hooked and listen every morning at work. (Is anyone else with me on this?). In lieu of Big Al Mac, here’s my weekend wrap up:

(weekend Diva Moses)

Friday’s highlight was making home made pizza. We are pretty good about eating at home but when you’re in the mood for greasy fat pizza this is a great alternative. We just bought the pre-made wheat dough from Publix and piled on all our favorite toppings. The best part is putting as many veggies, meat, and seasoning op top and its STILL not as bad delivery pizza.


We also had our eyes opened to FOOD, INC. I assumed it would be slamming all fast food and showing us how fat and terrible we were, but I was wrong. It looked into the food industry in general and broke down what our food is really made of. Some parts were shocking, some discussing (like a “meat chain saw” grinding down the middle of a big cow carcass), and a lot of it was enlightening. If anything else Davy and I have become more aware of what we put into our bodies as well as Moses’. If money grew from trees in the backyard we would love to shop fresh, organic everything, but that’s not possible. However it is possible to read labels and choose products we know are filled with the nutritious “whole” things and not just salt, corn, and water. (For those who have seen the movie, Josh and Davy kept blurting out how much they hate Monsanto the rest of the weekend).

Saturday we spent lots of time with Mos and hanging around the house. After breakfast I turned around to see this:

Mo has managed the climb into the rolling shelves and was just waiting for me to turn around and catch him. The picture was followed by a rolling shelf ride around the house and lots of laughs.

Later in the night we packed up Mo’s overnight bag and sent him to Grandmas so the adults could celebrate my birthday. My best girlfriends and our new roommates friends RJ & Josh went to the FABULOUS restaurant 101 and overindulged, stuffed my face, licked my plate had a great dinner. It is by far my new let’s get dressed up and go somewhere nice restaurant.

(Sorry I didn't post the group shot, our camera is crazy and everyone turned out looking pink with crazy eyes)
Sunday was more family time and a new car seat for Mo! Of course it’s safe and comfortable but the best part is the HOUNDS TOOTH. Anyone who truly knows me knows I have an obsession with hounds tooth. Now if I could only fine a way to monogram it…

(Mos hated the idea of playing “we’re in the car” on the coffee table, but hey, isn’t that hounds tooth cute!)


While cooking dinner he decided again he was going to surprise us by pulling out the pots and pans then climbing into the bottom of the oven!

(I dragged the wrong (blurry) picture onto my jump drive; promise to switch it later)

I heard him playing with the pans but figured they were acting as babysitters while I chopped sweet potatoes.
After a few minuets of laughing and pictures Davy makes the comment “that can also be used as a bread warmed”….it took about 5 seconds and then I squealed out “Mos is in the bread warmer!!!!”. I raced over there to find the drawer completely cool. Mo gave the look duh Mom, don’t you think I would be crying if I was sitting on a hot plate and all was good again.


Now it’s Monday and I’m surviving by new creamer into my office made iced coffee.

I love cowl neck sweaters. It’s like saying “I’m sexy, but I’m still a turtle neck”

Do you ever day dream of winning the lottery? I do almost every time I see a lottery billboard. The other night I was stuck in the nightmare of college-town- traffic and saw the lottery was 51 million. Then I proceeded to think of how I would quit my job, and how much insurance would coast if I didn’t have a job. Then I thought about what we would do for my parents, my in laws, and all the siblings. Ways to divide the money and if it was fair to give more money to some than others. Get everyone a car for Christmas? Matching? How could you be mad about 5 matching cars in the driveway if someone handed it to you no questions asked. What kind of house would my parents want? D and I probably wouldn’t get a 3 million dollar home…maybe only 1 million so it still felt cozy. The best thought was getting a designer to come into my house and help me visualize my dream décor, and then go out purchasing to make it happen.

"Oh, let's get rich and buy our parents homes in the South of France

let's get rich and give everybody nice sweaters

and teach them how to dance

Let's get rich and build our house on a mountain

making everybody look like ants

from way up there, you and I, you and I "

Something that never tastes good: putting a piece of chocolate into your coffee thinking it will taste like mocha. Sitting at my desk looking at a very pretty Valentine’s day inspired coffee mug filed with break room coffee I start to think, what could make this better? The brilliant idea of dropping a Hershey’s kiss or Dove dark chocolate into the coffee then stirring until melted would make this smoother, sweeter, perfect. WRONG. There’s been more than one occasion when this idea has come to mind and I’ve acted swiftly and happily on it. Then about 3 minuets later and halfway down the cup I’m regretting that decision. Chocolate candy does not equal Starbucks chocolate syrup. Candy does not substitute as creamer or whipped cream, or anything else fun that goes into coffee. So this morning I’ll sit at my desk wearing jeans drinking this run of the mill cup of coffee, HAPPY because it’s Friday.

Mommy food

Two things I’ve been crazy about lately: chicken salad croissant sandwiches and smoothies. The chicken salad craze started a couple weeks ago when I made it for Mo’s birthday (the Elephant Tusks).

WARNING: I’m not a big chicken salad fan simply because mayo is gross and I’m not sure what type of “chicken” you find in the store brought container, but this stuff is good! A chef friend of mine gave me this simple 5 ingredient recipe and I can’t stop eating it! Its quick, cheap, easy, and a crowd pleaser. You could make as little as a dinner portion for two to a big party portion. Here’s what I love: (this is for a medium size batch….enough to eat for dinner and take to work as leftovers)
Ingredients

1 can mandarin oranges

At least half cup chopped cashews

½ cup mayo

½ bunch of green onions

Either 1 rotisserie chicken (lazy way) or 3 to 4 boiled chicken breast

Salt and pepper to taste

What to do:
1. Finely chop your green onions until the white part (if you love onion you might want to chop into the white part).

2. Pick/pull your chicken breast. If you have a food processor it makes it A LOT easier to pulse the chicken a few times to give it a flaky but chunky texture. Too flacky will turn your salad into a dip!

3. Add your green onions, chicken, mayo, and cashews together and stir well
4. DRAIN your mandarin oranges well then add to the salad. Use your spoon to break apart the oranges as you mix. The more you mix the more broken down the oranges will become and the juicier the salad gets.
5. Salt and pepper to taste
6. Chill and serve!
We love ours on the mini Publix croissants but I’m sure it would taste great on anything!


Next, smoothies!


Duh, everyone knows how to make a smoothie but WOW this taste great! For me, it’s a perfect “dessert” without eating half the carton of ice cream. My secret ingredient, baby food! First thought, sick…..second thought, well maybe that would work. It does! The Gerber stage 2 baby pureed mango has the perfect texture to smooth out your smoothie and taste JUST LIKE my favorite Tropical Smoothie smoothie.
Ingredients
½ banana
1 “tub” mango baby food (I believe it’s a 3oz tub. They are sold in packs on 2)
¼ cup plain vanilla yogurt
¼- ½ cup orange juice
Ice


Just throw them all in the blender and viola, smoothie! You can always add more depending on your taste. I’ve added a few peach segments Mo didn’t want to eat and it tasted great too. If you don’t think its sweet enough add a dollop of frozen Cool Whip light (our “ice cream”) to the top.

All you need is love....and a little sunshine

(I wrote this yesterday, about the previous yesterday. Sometimes life gets in the way of posting the way I intend)
Yesterday I REALLY enjoyed my day off. Moses decided to sleep in til 8:45 (his decision widely based on middle of the night wake up hunger cries and playing in bed at 3am) and it felt great to wake up to a bring sunny room. We were greeted by a wake up call play date invitation by my sister and were off to the park by 10am. The weather was chilly under the shade but perfect in the sun. I’m so thankful it decided to warm up so we could enjoy the outdoors. This was only my second time taking Moses to the park (all the stay at home mom’s mouths just gawked open and hit the floor) and he loved the dirt swings but mostly wanted to awkwardly follow around older kids and stand next to them. At one point he walked up to a mom brushing off her kids feet and reached out to hold the kid's foot. At least he’s not shy, right? The park was followed by lunch with family (have I mentioned how much Mo loves meat? He couldn’t stop eating my burger). Maybe he was just trying to help me out by eating those fatty calories before I could. He was asleep before we pulled into the driveway and I was able to relax on the couch while he took a wonderful nap. Later in the night Mo was my little angel baby at Publix while I picked up ingredients for an impromptu dinner party. We cooked, cleaned, ate, Wii’d the night away. I could not have asked for a better day off.

If you give a baby a bottle

He'll turn into a boy.


We are parents to a toddler, or so they say. He is officially no longer a baby although we haven’t really thought of him as baby for months now. At his one year check up he weighed 22.6 lbs and 30 inches long, both 50% percentile for his age. He’s been walking for about 3 months now and within this past month has become unstoppable. Even though he has no teeth yet (I got my first at 14 months so we’re not too worried) he manages to eat whatever he wants. Sometimes those wants are green beans and cheese, sometimes strictly bananas and puffs. Ideally we would love for him to eat a well balanced meal, but we also understand he’s only one and sometimes that doesn’t happen. Because of the lack of teeth he is still pretty picky about his textures but nothing to write home about. Physically he is incredible strong; so much so he has hurt me a time or two getting too excited swinging his arms. He does things like smack your chest/arms/ face until you tell him “be sweet” and then he’ll slowly pat your cheeks like you’re a little puppy. We’ve given him one small hair cut but he’s due for another. He still enjoys a passy and has yet to cling to a special blanket. I’m hoping that will change this year with a little probing from Davy and I because we were avid blankey lovers. Nothing would bring us more joy then to see him carrying one around. He is none stop from the time he wakes until we lay him down, and even sometimes then he’ll run around his crib and refuse to fall asleep.



I thought January 5th I would wake up a big sappy mess exclaiming “I can’t believe my baby’s 1 years old”….. but I didn’t. I didn’t cry at all that day, and surprisingly even held it together for his party. Reason being? In my eyes it’s more of an milestone than a “loss” of my baby. I’m thrilled we have made it an entire year being parents, we’ve survived with only a few minor boo boo’s and sick days. No trips to the ER, not throwing vases out of anger; we’ve actually made it! I won’t lie some nights when Moses’ sprawls out over my body while I give him a bottle I wish he was pint size again or let me rock him like a little baby; but we moved on from those times. He is growing up and we living each day in the moment (slow down and savor, remember?).

(Mo was super distracted by the Paparazzi surrounding him)

Just when I feel like I have nothing to do and can start working on the house, I put more on my plate. Could it simply be as excuse to avoid decorating my house? Maybe. But this time it’s school. With only a few classes left I knew it was important to finish. This semester I’m braving campus for a night class. There is a lot of reading and the papers and test will be a challenge, but I’m excited about the finish line. Education is important to me and I want to do this for me. My house being decorated is also important, so maybe I’ll get around to it after I…..do everything else possible!

369 days old

Get ready for pictures of Moses’ first birthday party! We had such a great time the pictures don’t even do it justice, but they will have to in blog world. God must have hit me over the head with a calm rock because once the party started I NEVER felt stressed. If you know me at all, you know me being in charge of anything causes a massive power trip, overwhelming, bee-otch attitude very stressful situation on the inside, but not Saturday! Everything ran smooth, kids were crazy, babies were happy, cupcakes were eaten, and we still had smiles plastered across our faces. Tonight I’m hoping to continue this blog with all the pictures and maybe even update again in a few days with the more pictures a friend of ours took.

**NEW UPDATE: I HATE BLOGGER PICTURE LOADER!!! Just uploaded about 20 pictures from the party then hit OK, well it only added 1 of the 20 pictures. GRRRRRR I'm going to find away around this I promise!

** Ok so I decided to just make a Flickr and post the pictures on their. The picture size is so big I was only allowed to post 25 before it told me I used my max space for the month! Here is the link. Click on the set to see the pictures in order of the day.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/cdmw3/

To whom it may concern,

Dear bloggy friends,



This week was a monumental week in our 3 peas in a pod family; our sweet little baby boy turned ONE on Tuesday. Unfortunately I’ve also been sick all week AND for some bizarre reason work has been super busy. Busy to the point of so-busy-I-couldn’t-even-blog busy. With that being said, I want to formally apologize for my absence and promise to sing my baby’s praises (including birthday party pictures) next week.


Much love,