The day I one up’ed Daddy.

In our house it is an unspoken rule that we take turns putting Moses to bed. We have no problem splitting the responsibility and Moses shows no preference therefore it has never caused an issue; until last night.
For the past few months I have transitioned from reading four stories and laying him straight down to only reading 2 or 3 and then singing a couple songs. I thought the songs would be a nice way to calm him down and I was getting tired of reading the same books over and over and over again. The night I wanted to sing songs my mind went blank and the only two songs I could remember were “Jesus loves me” and “Jesus loves the little children”. I’ve sang them repeatedly since childhood and they began floating out effortlessly night after night. I didn’t think Moses cared which songs I was singing or if I was even singing until one night I rocked him quietly and he requested “song”. As the weeks go by he has become more verbal with what song he wants me to sing; “Jesus loves me Mommy” he would request after the last book was read. It makes me melt and I happily sing the same two songs every night.
Sunday night Moses woke up in the middle of the night crying out for me; I was tired and asked Davy to check on him. As Davy walked into the room I heard Moses say “No Daddy, Mommy”. He tried to hold him and his cry got louder. Was he actually refusing his Daddy? Finally I went into the room and he reached out for me to hold him. He buried his head into my chest and said “Jesus loves me”. :::heart swoon:::. Right then and there, with my 5-in-the-morning-glory voice, I sang to him. It made me feel incredible. Davy has always been his buddy, his pal, his sidekick but in this moment it solidified I was his Mommy. His gentle, caring, sweet mommy. He thinks of me in the way I have always wanted him to think of me as; his Mother.
Last night I was at the grocery store when I received a phone call from Davy, “Well, I’m officially insufficient” he blurted out. He proceeded to tell me after reading stories to Moses he started requesting Daddy to sing songs. Not just any songs, but Jesus loves me. Davy struggled through his vague memory of the lyrics but Moses was not satisfied. He lay in his bed and cried for his Mommy; finally drifting off after Davy promised when Mommy got home she would come into your room and sing you “Jesus loves me”.

Fried turkey and flip flops; a Florida Thanksgiving.

Thanks everyone for entering the Owl ornament giveaway by aprilfoss. I put the numbers in Random.org and #5 was selected. Congrats The Hills for your new addition to the Christmas tree; email me and I’ll direct you how to get your prize.

I think giveaways are a fun simple because it takes 1 minuet to enter and you could win something for free! I am in the works for two more giveaways this month and next time don’t be so shy! You can enter each giveaway once but if you have a mom or sister make sure you get them involved too and who knows, it may end up under the tree with your name on it
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The Thanksgiving holiday went lovely for our crew. I baked lots of desserts, we spent a lot of time with family, and really enjoyed our time spend together. Oh yeah, we ate too. In all honestly Davy and I are not huge Thankgiving food lovers so after one and half days of eating we were set for the year.
Thursdays night I slept in my old bedroom at my parents to make waking up at 3am a little easier. The two key words this Black Friday were easy and organized. We got everything we wanted, the lines were short, and we were home by 11am. I am not sure if the stores were more organized or we were more prepared but the rush of Black Friday just wanted there. The only small thrill I got was weaving through the crowds double fisting Blueray players trying to rush back to our cart. Lame, I know. Next year we thought it might be fun to not look at any ads before hand so we could wake up at 3am, make a mad dash to the stores, and go crazy. Just kidding, kind of.

Getting ready to play "sticky ball"

True Florda boy; flip flops on Thanksgiving

He slept through lunch and decided to make the most of his afternoon by eating a turkey leg while playing with toys. Mom of the year right here!



I cannot believe this big boy is my baby!

It's good to be in love.

We woke up anxious and excited; all the planning and anticipation of this day had finally arrived

I got ready laughing with girlfriends but nervous on the inside

 He just woke up, rolled over and looked good

Here's a close up of the groom, my groom

We put on our fancy clothes

 And shared the day with peole that mean the most to us

And a lot of good friends

Who are lots of fun

And family that makes us smile, big

We said our I do's

And I married my best friend

And we've lived happier ever after

Happy Anniversay to my best friend, my childhood sweetheart, the love of my life. You are the best husband and father in the world and so many days I look at you and think I don't deserve you. You chose me and I you. I love you and can't wait until you're 74 and I'm 72 :)

hoot hoot {giveaway}

Alright enough with all the Twitter teasers, it’s time for a giveaway! Like I mentioned yesterday I was browsing Etsy and finding things I loved so I decided to reach out to the designers and see if they were interested in sharing their goodies. Etsy store aprilfoss contacted me back that day willing to do a giveaway. I find it so interesting to know the back story of the designer and I don’t think I could say it any better than her bio:

I am a busy wife and mother of five children. Our recent home renovations have sparked my love for making and creating. Seeing as how I have 3 daughters, I have a tendency to gravitate towards girlie things. Because their bedrooms can only hold so many of my handmade items, I have decided to broaden my horizons by opening my own Etsy shop and sharing them with you.

I love her reason for starting an Etsy shop and well, I love her shop! Her shop mostly specializes in handmade owls. She mixes beautiful, playful fabrics to create stuffed owl pillows, ornaments, bookends, and much more.

One of the most interesting things I found on the store was “owl garland”; a series of baby owls tied together by string to make just what it says, garland!

Giveaway: aprilfoss has offered to give one of Busyland’s readers an adorable owl Christmas tree ornament! They are so trendy and depending on which fabric you select they go with just about every color theme. My personal favorite is the Red polka dot owl made with Amy Butler fabric.

To enter head on over to aprilfoss’s Etsy store, pick out your favorite product, then come back and tell me what you picked! I’ll leave the giveaway open one week and then announce the winner Monday, November 29th. Make sure you follow the blog or come back ofter because the winner needs to email me (enilorac802@gmail.com) within 2 days of selecting the winning comment. The winner gets to select whichever ornament they choose ($12 value). Even if you’re not into owls, enter anyways; this make a perfect gift for a sister or friend!

chocolate chips, party tricks & a giveaway!

You know what makes brownies extra yummy? After pouring the batter into the pan take a handful of semi sweet chocolate chips and sprinkle them on top. Then slowly rub you spatula around to coat the chips in batter but not stirring them down into the mix. Once the brownies are cooked you can barely tell they are there but once you cut a piece you see small morsels of gooey chocolate.


Never let your teenager work in a restaurant; it doesn’t turn out well. The restaurant business is a secret gateway into things you should not do. When you first start working there you get to know the lay of the land; study the menu, taste the menu, meet your co workers. But then as the weeks and months progress you become comfortable in your work abilities and begin socializing more. Since you’re putting in 20+ hours a week you’re constantly around the same people and eventually they invite you to things. At first you feel the pressure to fit in with the older crowd that’s work there for years so you attend their parties. You play the drinking games, laugh at their stupid jokes and put on an unruffled façade. As the time progresses those parties become “yalls” parties and it feels natural to be with this group outside of work. Like I said before, a club of all different types of people who’ve formed relationships based off of work. It would be a great networking tool except 90% of the time people working in a restaurant are up to no good. It’s easy to get stoned before work, take a few orders, and then party after it closes down. Everything starts going down hill, and like I mentioned already, never a good idea.

I was browsing Etsy the other day and started falling in love left and right with all the handmade items. Just typing in two words under handmade brings up 1,000’s of beautiful products. I began reaching out to some of my favorites and that’s how I came up with this giveaway! A cute little something to bring out during the holiday’s and makes you smile. Hopefully everything will be ready by this weekend, if not, look for it Monday.

Today after my 8 hour work day and 4 hour school night I plan on making 100 mini pumpkin muffins with PDub’s cream cheese frosting. Wish me luck!

Oh, it is love.

One step closer to Christmas cards.

These are not in the running for the card however I thought I would share a sneak peak! Now if I could only decide between the other 50 pictures :) 

{when chemicals react}

For a moment there I thought connecting my Twitter and Facebook was a good idea. I’m always slacking with FB status updates so this way I could just write my one liner on Tweet Deck and the whole world gets to see it. That night, after posting an entire day, I was browsing FB and realized how much I hated the two linked together.
Twitter is meant for tons of one liners throughout the day whereas my FB is more for sporadic thoughts. I don’t interact on FB nearly as much as Twitter so my wall looked like one big Twitter vomit.

Another thing I didn’t like was linking my blog to Facebook and here’s why. I have nothing to hide; I don’t talk trash about other women, I don’t talk details about my bedroom life, and I’m not doing anything illegal I would get caught for. However I do have thoughts that I share on here that, well, maybe I don’t want everyone on Facebook reading. It’s something about having my own space to write whatever I want and it never turn around to bite me that makes me happy. If you read this blog it’s because you want to; you chose to follow or subscribe or type in the URL and read my random rants.

That night after seeing all my updates and seeing the blog links I immediately unlinked the two. I had overwhelming feelings of censorship and that’s something I don’t want to feel here. So with that being said, if you found this blog from Facebook and like the random rants, welcome to Busyland, I’m so happy you’re following along! If you’re already judging my poor editing skills and hope to find dirt on my life to make you feel better about yourself then I pray you wake up tomorrow and can’t remember where to find me :)

bippity boppity boo!

This season I have embraced the holidays more than ever! I don’t know if the appreciation comes with age; knowing the amount of work that goes into the cooking and shopping. Or if it’s the personal ownership I take in a beautifully decorated home and the holiday feel the air fresher gives off when you walk into the house from the mud room. In case you’re wanting the same holiday scent its Febreeze noticeable dual scent “something pumpkin” and “something cranberry”; life changing. This year I experienced my first Pumpkin Spice Latte from Starbucks and fell in love. The combination of pumpkin and espresso swirled in a togo cup warms my soul; it would be shameful to admit how many I’ve already drank this season. For days when my schedule and wallet don’t agree with Starbucks I’ve bought Pumpkin creamer to enjoy at my desk.


I finally broke down and asked my cousin for her family’s “famous” pumpkin muffin recipe. They literally take five minuets to make and 10 minuets to bake in mini muffin tins; topped with a dollop of cream cheese icing and your mouth is in a Winter Wonderland. I brought them into work a couple weeks ago and my coworkers came to the agreement that it takes eating four mini muffins to equal one regular muffin therefore eating four in one sitting in completely appropriate.

Something I’ve done this year for the first time was attempt a pumpkin pie. I say attempt because…well….rushing to throw it together after work and messing up two ingredients causes it to turn out a little wonky. Note to self: sweet condensed milk is NOT the same as evaporated milk. If you want to put your in arch enemy in a sugar coma follow my lead.
Whether it’s eating, drinking, or smelling the holidays, I’m lovin’ it!

Should I stay or should I go now?

I have an important decision to make in the next couple weeks. I am walking the line of other people’s expectations and my immediate desires. Most of the time I’m running as fast as I can away from the line with both hands in the air yelling “I’m freeee”. However the more practical, intellectual side of me likes the teeter on the line knowing these expectations are important. You see December 9th I will officially be done at community college. After taking the detour of getting married and having a baby it’s been a long winding journey to finish up the last few hours. Originally, as far back as my college thoughts took me, I’ve wanted to continue on to Florida State to pursue a degree in Psychology; I have taken all the pre-requisites and made sure I was hitting every mile stone needed.
Back in October I met with a counselor at FSU for a routine check on all my courses and GPS only to be blindsided with the knowledge Psychology majors cannot finish their degree at night/ online only. They expected me to show up at school for 3 hour labs in the middle of the day and couldn’t guarantee x amount of hours to fit my working schedule. I was crushed. I maybe expected to be missing a class or my grades slip too low but never thought a school of 40,000 students could not accommodate working women. After that meeting I mentally threw college in the trash. After looking into a few distance learning degrees from other colleges the question started to arise, “do I even want this”. Every other night I’m wishing I’d be home with my boys or spending hours cooking, not studying. I already work a full time job; do I really want to commit myself to signing up for hours of reading and writing and studying for the next few years? What about our family plan? Was giving up time with my baby worth it? In my heart I screamed NO but my head is clouded with practical thoughts.
I started to mention to family and supervisors the possibility of not returning to school in the winter and most people’s general consensus was that was a bad idea. “You’ll never go back”, “It will be easy”, “It’s only a couple more years”. For some reason they don’t comprehend the amount of effort that goes into college courses on top of everything else. They do bring up valid points but are those points enough to convince me I’m making a horrible mistake?
If someone asked me 3 years ago what my goals were I would have told them Dr. Caroline of course. To do back to back to back degrees and have my own practice with pretty chez-lounges for my clients to lean back in and tell me their problems. However life happened and now all I think about is babies and family and my house! The next couple weeks will be spent conducting more research into the flexibility of potential majors, tuition and the financial means to pay for everything, and figuring out what’s going to work for us.

Mantel, Fridge, or Basket worthy?

One of my big goals for the Christmas season was not passing up the chance to send out Christmas cards! The last two years of either been really pregnant or too lazy to take the time to get a family picture taken or research for the perfect card. Well this year we started early, in October actually! I have a good friend met us out in a green pasture for a care free photo shoot of the three of us in hopes a few would be worthy of a Christmas card. Shortly after the photo shoot I started my search for a card to put them in! I have used Shutterfly in the past for prints and a calendar for father’s day so I knew they had quality products. There are literally hundreds of Christmas cards to choose from that fit everyone’s budget. They have all different colors, shapes and designs; even the option to put multiple pictures on one card. For the budget friendly folks they have over 150 flat photo cards starting at only .32 cents each! If you’re into writing a special note or yearly newsletter they offer a folded “greeting card” style starting at $1.19. Some of my favorites are found in the flat stationery card section. They are printed on premium cardstock that feels like an actual greeting card but still has a section for pictures and wording. Starting at a little over $1 each and with over 350 options I could look at these for days! Some of my favorite are:
The Mod Ornaments Holiday Card. I love how the picture is the primary focus (not to mention how adorable this little girl is) but still sends a Happy Holiday message.

If you’re not married but you and a friend want to send out a card I love the Retro Love Holiday Card. Its hip, fun, and has pink in it! Perfect for college roommates!

Another really great cards is Cool Blue Holly Christmas card. It has spots for three photos; I’m thinking a large one for our family picture and then two cute ones of the baby. I also love the small monogram feature and how the colors are a spin off of the tradition red and green.

Once I finally pick the perfect card for our family I plan on sending them out to all our friends and family. I have always loved getting Christmas cards and putting them on display and I cannot wait for people to do the same with ours! If you like Shutterfly and are looking into sending out cards this year check out the special offer they have for bloggers. Bloggers get 50 free holiday cards from Shutterfly sign up: http://bit.ly/sfly2010 !

My mind speaks in lists.

What I’ve been up to:


Visiting my sister and her family in their new home town, Augusta Ga.
Spending 12+ hrs in the car laughing, singing, and chatting with my mom and little sister.
Drooling over everything in Hobby Lobby.
Getting Moses his first big boy back pack.
Wearing a scarf all weekend.
Consuming too much Starbucks and doughnuts and burgers and fast food and bottled water and snacks.


What I haven’t been up too:
Cleaning my house.
Doing laundry.
Taking showers.


There is no work Thursday (thank you Vets), the grand opening of my town’s newest Publix is opening (rumor has it Paula Dean is going to be there) and I couldn’t be happier the weather is changing.

If you give a mouse a lollypop.

Up until Sunday afternoon we were uncertain what to do about Halloween. I was laid out on the couch nauseous the entire day and finally around 5pm the boys decided to head over to my MIL’s house for the festivities. Moses wore a mouse costume my mom made for me when I was three and looked adorable! I planned on painting on a nose and whiskers but since Dad was in charge that didn’t happen. They met up with my brother in law and his son and trick or treated around MIL’s neighborhood. I was a little nervous how Moses would react to all the scary yards but Davy said he did great. He had no problem walking up to the front door and accepting candy from strangers. (That last sentence sounds terribly wrong…but I guess this day is the one exception to the rule). He would say “treat” and “thank you” for each piece of candy. In reality he didn’t really know what was going on or what getting candy really means.
When he got home that night he dumped out his entire treat bucket and was most excited about a small tub of play dough. Little did he know those pieces of wrapped up candy held sugary goodness. As he played with his play dough we went through the stash to check for opened candy then staked our claim on which pieces we would eat. In that moment I felt like that parent from every movie and story I’ve heard when they secretly eat their child’s candy. Moses took a liking to the 6 lollypops he collected; he would gather them all up in his tiny fist and hold them proudly in the air as if he were the Statue of Liberty. After school the next day we let him indulge in a small lollypop and to our surprised he quickly handed it over for a banana. Cleary the child doesn’t know what’s good for him yet.

Cousin Alex aka Mario and our little mouse!

This picture is a fluke but it makes me laugh...."Get your hands off my candy!"

Sleepy eyes but alive.

Yesterday I started writing what was supposed to be a quick rant about how awful my weekend was and to say we were alive. I was going to finish it last night but got distracted; last night we wrestled with Moses until 3am to go to bed and now I’m barely functioning. I wanted to talk about how sick he was and then how sick I was and then how Davy was out of town and I was alone and then how I missed everything Halloween related and then blah blah blah. Just thinking about how long my post was yesterday about complaining makes me sick. Sometimes life gets me down. There I said it; sometimes things don’t go the way I planned for multiple days in a row. But guess what, it’s Wednesday and I’m alive. I survived the horror of household sickness this weekend and the disaster that was last night and I’m alive. My family is all (fairly) healthy, my husband still loves me (despite our middle of the night arguments about who last got up with Moses and who has to get up the earliest for work), and life is still good.

The biggest thing that came out of last night was replacing the forth wall of Moses crib. At first he did great; staying in his bed through the night and even waiting for us to get him in the morning. Thursday was the first time he actually walked out of his room and since then it’s gone down hill. No matter if we spanked or cuddled or laid with him he still wanted to leave his room to come find us. After battling for hours last night we realized maybe it’s not time. We will try again soon I’m sure but for everyone’s sanity in the house he is back to his baby bed and seems content.