Curse.

It’s been a week since I last wrote about life, what? I can’t believe how fast the days go by; people said “time flies” over and over again once Moses was born but I didn’t understand them until my newborn was all the sudden 1 month old. Then after that…forget about it! The weeks turn to months which turn to half years which turn to full years and all the sudden my baby is saying things like “Mommy I want to wear my Woody Big Boy underwear and Robot shirt” and I realize HE’S NOT A BABY ANYMORE! Wow, sorry for the sad mommy tangent that just happened…sometimes I really can’t believe life is happening until I open my eyes and realize life IS happening. 

It’s hard to blog when I’m holding in a secret. It’s not really a secret and normally I wouldn’t mind sharing except there is a very small audience among us that cannot hear this news today or yesterday or the day before so I’ll just have to keep tight lips until the day comes. But I’m excited about it and wishing it would hurry up and get here and when it does there will be lots of smiles; until then, I’ll hold it tight!

Note to self: Stop reading books if I know a movie is coming out and I want to see it. Case in point, The Help. I purposely held off a couple weeks to see the movie knowing reading the story come to life would be better than watching actors portray it. I’m sure if I’d never read the book then movie would have been wonderful but because I spoiled myself by creating the scenes in my head first the movie was a solid 7. I also did this with Time Travelers Wife, Dear John, Water for Elephants, and Twilight 2 & 3; sure enough I left the theater thinking the same thing every time “why did they leave that out?” “why did they change that part” “why why why?”. There is a book (and now movie out) called One Day and after buying the first chapter I purposely avoiding reading anymore knowing I want to see the movie. It’s an awful curse; the book will be better than the movie but if you read the book you are ruining the movie. Then of course there are those cases where your screwed either way like reading a book (mine was Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close) then finding out a year later they are doing a movie version with Tom Hanks and Sandra Bullock and you’re like “OHMYGOSH  it’s already ruined but I wish I could tear that little memory out of my head to properly enjoy this movie!”

If you can’t tell, I truly battle myself about books vs. movies. And no, I'm not pregnant thankyouverymuch. 

Who flung poo?

Friday night Davy was out of town so naturally Moses and I went on a date to my boy’s favorite place, Chick fil A. We sat together enjoying our fried chicken goodness and ice dream. I retreated to the latest issue of Redbook and Moses went to the playground to run off some sugar. He came back to our table often for a sip of water or bite of French fry but besides that he independently made friends and had fun.

 

It was time to go so I walked into the play area where a dad and his 2 children were playing. I’m pretty sure the dad just let a fart rip but I wasn’t going to be the one who gave a stank face. “Moses, it’s time to go” I yelled into the air; for a moment I couldn’t find him but then he appeared staring at me from the top of the tower. Ugh, I thought, please don’t make me turn all Discipline Mom in front of this awkward dad. “Moses, I’ve got to tell you something” was my first attempt to intrigue him down the slide. Ugh, this dad needs to stop farting. Finally a little boy realized Moses was the boy at the top of the playground refusing to get down and felt the need to tell me “he stinks”. Oh crap, literally. 

In this moment I realize Moses is refusing to come down not because he is enjoying his play time so much but because he has a load hanging out his lower end. I slump down and put my hands in my face. Moses, I WILL NOT be crawling up this playground I thought to myself. “Moses, come down and get the treat I have for you”. Ugh, I’m trying everything all while Awkward Dad is just staring at me.

When I least expect it I hear little giggles coming from the slide. Moments later Moses comes sliding down on his stomach (for obvious reasons) with a big smile on his face. There is no need to even check his pants because I know exactly what I’ll find. “Where’s my treat?” he happily asks me. O son, the treat is that Mommy doesn’t have squeeze her hips up three levels of playground to yank you down in front of the entire restaurant.

The minuets to follow involve child exposure in broad day light, pee pee running down the parking lot, a very unfortunate plastic baggie, and a naked boy buckled in his seat headed home.

Moses is 2 ½ and Potty Trained Rockstar at school and Poo Poo Pants MaGee in crowded public places. I’m the Mom with too much toddler poo under her fingernails to care if you’re dry heaving right now.

Shelves are full and so are our bellies!

I constantly get teased at work for staggering up the stairs with arms full of groceries each Monday because no one else has discovered the brilliance that is shopping on your lunch hour. That’s right, with list in hand and reusable shopping bags* in the cart I quickly maneuver the isles and can have an entire week’s worth of food in hand before my lunch hour in over. *I highly advise using reusable bags over paper or plastic because (besides obvious reasons) they hold a hold heck-of-a-lot more things and feel a lot better on your forearms when packed with produce.

Last week with all the sickness and holiday on Monday there was no meal planning which resulted in overspending, having random things in our fridge, and not my most successful week of eating healthy. Well I decided the chain stops HERE. 

This week’s menu is mostly filled with Gina’s Skinny Tasty recipes because ya’ll, they’re great!

Monday- Grilled steak, roasted broccoli, and homemade (baked) onion rings. Generally I like a potato and salad with my steak but honestly I can’t wait to try out “roasting” broccoli and too excited to not eat those onion rings TO-NIGHT!

Tuesday (the one I’m most looking forward to) - Healthy knock off Chipotle night featuring Baracoa beef, cilantro lime rice, and corn salsa. Gina loves Chipotle and swears they taste nearly identical so I’m up for the challenge.

Wednesday- Italian chicken with panzanella

Thursday- I’ll be off enjoying a girls night but the boy will use leftover bread from the panzanella and have BBQ bacon cheddar pulled chicken sandwiches (say that 10 times fast!) and sweet potatoes fries with garlic aioli sauce.

Friday- Downtown Get Down aka hotdogs, pepper/onion somethin’ or another, snow cones, kettle corn, and fried sweet goodness. However with the madness that is ESPN Gameday I have a feeling the lines will be 20 minutes deep and we’ll leave early and stop by Chickey on the way home….but a girl can dream, right? 

Dessert: Pineapple zucchini cupcakes with cream cheese frosting. I’ll make them tonight and we’ll munch on them the rest of the week or if I’m nice I’ll send some to my girlfriend’s house up the way.  

What are you having for dinner?

With all my raving about SkinnyTaste.com have you finally decided to try a recipe out?

Again, too lazy to link all the recipes but Gina has a great search option on her website so just type in the title and the recipe should come right up!

Just let run where I want to run.

And yesterday was a perfect example of why friends don’t let friends blog when they’re on drugs. I don’t know how this sickness crept up on my without even knowing it but I this flu- like bug hit my square in the face and took me out hard. I’m feeling better today but yesterday, oh yesterday, was a testament of drugs and forcing myself to work even though my insides were still loopy.

I’ve read so many people say this and I must echo their words saying Pinterest has changed my life. Yes, it waste a lot of my free time because half the stuff I look at I could have never seen in my life and been okay with that. But the other half has jump started my imagination like I didn’t think was possible. Life has become routine filled with excuses, to do lists and family; all that creative bugs I used to hold in my mason jar have escaped over the years. Pinterest has brought them back. It helped solidify décor ideas I doubted myself about and gave me boards upon boards of inspiration for future household ideas. It’s only given me style ideas, DIY ideas (hello saving money) and food cravings out of this world. Last night for whatever reason breakfast food kept showing up on Pinterest and right after work I loaded my shopping cart with eggs, bacon, crispy bread, and milk because I NEEDED to eat those pictures. It’s such a simple concept yet so brilliant; it takes hours upon hours of scouring the internet and puts in all on one page like a grocery store of ideas. My biggest fear is what if they get smart and start charging people to join? Charging per pin? How much would you pay to your beloved Pinterest? 

Blurp.

I’ve been sick for a couple days now and I apologize for the lack of excitement in my life this week. I thought about writing yesterday but seeing that I was too drugged up lazy I just read a fourth of The Help. If you’ve read it or seen the movie please don’t ruin it for me; I managed to make it all this time without knowing the conclusion and with 50 pages left I would like to find out in bed tonight and not through someone’s own words!

 

I wrote half a blog about Davy and I sharing things like cups, toothbrushes, and (accidentally) luffas but then I realized that was TMI. We like sharing a cup, we sometimes share a toothbrush, and I’ll scream if I ever find out we are using the same luffa again.

 

Next week I think I’ll start sharing some house before and after pictures because a. I’m excited about it b. I’m afraid something will get ruined before I even take a picture of it and c. my mind is always turning and I’m scared I’ll never have a complete finished product to show for.

 

Lastly, a picture of my little guy. He has really started to develop an imagination and desire to pretend. We were “playing” doggies; the doggie would bark and then he would be “thirsty” so he gave him a drink. It was adorable, he is adorable.  

Say it.

You want to know something strange we all do but it never really gets addressed? How many of us read 5+ “stranger’s” blogs a week and yet we never, ever comment? I have at least 30 blogs I read on a regular basic (sometimes every few days, sometimes almost daily) and on average I comment on 3 of them. I’ve taken the time to follow their lives and get excited when they have a new post; I quickly scan the post and smile at pictures of their lives and then just a fast move on to the next one without saying one thing about what I read. What’s the point in reading the daily documentation of someone’s life if you’re not engaging in it? Why don’t we take the time to say the words we are thinking in our head? Wouldn’t it make that other person happy to know someone out there has read the words they took the time to write and actually have something to say about it?

This week’s challenge: take the time to comment.

Even bigger challenge: take the time to tell someone how you honestly feel.

He's a keeper.

When I was in fourth grade my Mom got her first (and only) boyfriend after my parents split. I hated him. Oh did I hate him. He would come over and tell us to do the dishes and clean up, ugh! He would say things like “let’s do something nice for your mom and pick up the house” and he would even tell us to not talk a certain way towards our mom. Who does this man think he is and doesn’t he know Mom can do all this housework herself? Soon we became the Brady Bunch sans all the singing, sibling bonding, and family lessons. It was hard transitioning into a new family and it was hard having someone force us to do housework; I will never ever forget Saturday morning yard work and literally raking dirt and piling leaves in trash bags. Let’s skip ahead a few years when we all started getting along because who wants to dwell on the hormonal tweenage years, right?

It was a love/ hate relationship my teenage years meaning I loved him except for the times he made me do chores. One of my all time favorite memories with him is the day I got my first car. We had picked it up in South Florida and it was sitting in our driveway on a rainy Christmas morning*. It was stick shift and I had only driven automatic the last two years so I needed someone to teach me. He knew how excited I was so Christmas afternoon he drove me to the Walmart parking lot and gave me my first lesson. He was patient that first lesson and the dozen or so after that until I was ready to be on my own. 

He’s bald, 5 foot 7 on a good day and swears he looks like Bruce Willis (we all agree his twin is Dave Attell). He is Jewish and must have told me 5000 times to close the fridge door, turn off the lights, turn up the a/c, ect; they are so burned in my brain I’d like to consider myself ¼ Jewish. He tells awful jokes, long stories, and takes two days to play a 10 minuet prank.

A super cheesy country song comes to mind when I think about him:

And then all of a sudden
Oh, it seemed so strange to me
How we went from something's missing
To a family
Lookin' back all I can say
About all the things he did for me
Is I hope I'm at least half the dad parent
That he didn't have to be

He doesn't have to be the guy that teases until no end. He doesn’t have to play wrestle Moses every time they see each other. He doesn’t have to treat us to lunch. He didn’t have to pay for my wedding. He didn’t have to lead morning devotions with us before school every day. He didn’t have to be anything, but he is, and for that I love him so much.

Today is his special day and I hope he knows he will always have a special place in my heart. Happy Birthday Rob! You’re a wonderful dad!

* Technically he did buy the entire car the day we bought it but you better believe I had to pay off half the car. There is no way a true Jew would just give their 17 year old daughter a car without her working for it, right?