RELOCATED

I relocated. If anyone is still around come check it out :)

http://leadingalovedlife.blogspot.com

A Birthday Cake Kind of Day

Today was some kind of day. I went non stop all day long and did not complete my to do list, despite working on it steadily. I've been exhausted all week (remember that sleep training I mentioned a couple of posts back? yeah, still training...making progress...I think....) and today...well...it was a birthday cake kind of day.

There's something you should know about me, I LOVE cake. Delicious, store bakery, birthday cake. It must be yellow or white, marble will do, but NEVER chocolate. It must be traditional buttercream frosting, not that RIDICULOUS whipped mess, but thick, sugary, yummy buttercream. Cupcakes are awesome as well...but unimportant to this post.

Tonight as Eugene was coming home he called and asked if I needed anything. I jokingly said, "A birthday cake!" Sometimes the only thing that will make you feel better is cake. Eugene is aware of my love for cake and it is not unusual for me to joke about it. 10 minutes later my husband walks through the door with a birthday cake.

A beautiful, delicious birthday cake just the way I like it. He took the time to find the one with the most frosting...because he knows me, oh so well.

So my birthday cake kind of day...ended not so bad after all, because I have a husband who knows when my joke about birthday cake needs to be taken seriously...he's the best.

Our Love Story

Today makes three years since Eugene and I's wedding day.

As I mentioned in my very first post, I've been in love with Eugene my entire life. Our story is an interesting one and I thought today was an appropriate time to share.

For our wedding I created a webpage, for info and RSVP's. There was a spot to share our story. So Eugene and I both sat down and wrote our own versions...

My Version

Eugene was my first crush. I was 7 years old, he was my best friends big brother, and he was my hero. I eventually moved on to the "ew, boys are gross" stage...but like all stages it passed and at 13 I was crushing again. At this point I was a very practical 13 year old and told myself I might as well get over my school girl crush, because it was never going to happen. He left for college, and was out of my life for 9 years. Well, for the most part. We saw each other on occasion; when I attended his graduation from State with his sister, when he moved back home and I saw him briefly when we bumped into each other at the grocery store, a family function here and there that I attended with his sister, his sister's wedding where he was my escort down the aisle. These occasions were few and far between, brief encounters, but always long enough to show me some things never change. I still had a crush on him and to him I was still nothing but his little sisters friend. I got the same pat on the head and patronizing flirting i had always gotten. He didn't even notice that I wasn't the same freckled face 7 year old with stars in my eyes, or the awkward 13 year old with a crush. Ok....I may have still had stars in my eyes and definitely still had the crush, but I was now a 21 year old woman and he didn't even notice the difference. Some part of me had always loved him, but once again I was resigning myself to the fact that it would never happen. Then things begin to change, I began to question if his flirting was patronizing or something more serious....eventually he told me. Then the most wonderful thing occurred....the impossible happened....he fell in love with me.

Eugene’s Version

        I have known Case almost her entire life. Growing up she was my little sisters, little friend. They would have play dates and sleep overs and I would do the natural big brother thing, always crash the party. But it was difficult for me to ever see her as anything more than a little girl. I knew she had a crush growing up, but so did a lot of Sissy's little friends. I was the big brother, which automatically made me appear cooler than I really was. This relationship continued. As she got a little older I would flirt, only because I knew she was crushing and I thought it was cute. When I left for college, she was still just a cute little girl. I was in Raleigh for a solid six years, very seldom visiting home, and not really visiting anyone but immediate family when return visits did occur. Case was pretty much "out of site, out of mind". Until I came home for Sissy's wedding, and guess who I was to escort? You got it, little Case. Only this time she wasn't so little. In my absence cute little Case had grown up into a beautiful woman. Really, for the first time, I had seen Case in an entirely different light. At the wedding I flirted, but this time it wasn't  cute and funny as so many times before, it was for real.

       In no way do I deserve someone as wonderful as Casey Erin. I have no idea why she chose to spend the rest of her life with me, but Im glad she did. From cute little girl, to beautiful young women, to, soon to be, Mrs. Casey {...}. That's our love story 

My wedding day was the happiest day of my life. I've fallen in love with my husband every single day since and I'm positive I'll continue to fall in love with him every day from here on out.

Mommy Hacks

Happy Sunday!

Baby is napping and I wanted to share a couple of mommy hacks I've come up with.

Now I may not have invented these. I'm sure somewhere there's a mommy of five kids who discovered these tricks with her first kid and has been doing them for years...but in the story of me...I came up with them all on my own!

First of all...as a first time mommy, before baby came I had a whole list of must haves. Obvious things: crib, carseat, baby monitor. Like to haves: diaper pail, swing, cute diaper bag. And (as I later found out) not really necessaries; white noise make (phone app is way better!), cute wipe case (the big box of individual wipe packs is less expensive then the big box of two large packages from which you can refill) and 537 bottles of Johnson & Johnson lotion and body wash (you'll end up with an eczema baby who cannot use any of these products and have to give them to your sister-in-law).

I vaguely remember somewhere in this list of things, at some point, thinking I needed to get one of those cute little doo-doo bag holders that clip onto your diaper bag. You know, that holds the little scented trash bags to put dirty diapers in when out and about. I'm pretty sure as soon as this thought occurred to me, I forgot it, because once baby got here I had no doo-doo bags.

The need for this item did not occur to me again until our first doctor visit with Ro-Ro. We're getting ready for his weigh in and have to remove his wet diaper...except it wasn't just wet. No problem here, I've been changing baby diapers since I was ten. I whip it off, get him cleaned up, and the nurse sweetly says, "Let me get you a bag for that." Me (with my sleep deprivation, sore, stitched up lady parts, huge leaky breasts, and post-partum emotions) is thinking, "Um...the only thing he's pooping is breast milk...it does not stink...why the need for a bag?" and then the whole doctors office...sanitary needs clicks with my poor new mommy brain. I smile sweetly (well I thought it was sweetly, it probably came out as more of a lopsided grimace) and thanked her as I bagged my 4 day old baby's diaper and mentally berated myself for being such an ill prepared, failure of a mommy (post-partum emotions, remember?)

This was nothing compared to the mental beatdown I delivered to myself 3 days later at  a lactation consultation in the same office, when I forgot diapers completely and had to ask the wonderfully nice nurse practitioner if there were any available. After these experiences I vowed I'd be better prepared, then holed up at home for 4 weeks.

So after my 4 week recuperation I found diaper sacks at Wal-Mart. A little, inconvenient zip lock bag of 50 diaper sacks. I decided this would suffice until I could find one of those cute little diaper bag attachments. After going through my 50 sacks I did find the attachment. I did not realize that refills for this

are $6 for two. Two of these

That are maybe 30 diaper sacks, each. So finally...after all that back story...doggie doo-doo bag refills work JUST THE SAME. And are way cheaper.

This pack of 6 refills, from TJ Maxx, cost $3.99 and were super easy to install:

And...voila

They fit, they're scented...and work just the same!

Second mommy hack: Ro-Ro is constantly dropping his teethers when we're out and about. All that's needed to remedy this is a bead necklace.

(on the left is one of Ro-Ro's favorite teethers) Simply loop the beads onto the teether:

Then loop the other end of the beads on your wrist:

Now while you're holding baby, during church, walking around the store, etc. when they drop the toy it doesn't hit the floor.

A couple of precautions. DO NOT leave the baby unattended with the beads, um yeah, choking hazard. I only use this method when Ro-Ro is being held and supervised. DO NOT loop the beads on your baby, ONLY on you.

The beads also come in handy if you forgot a pacifier clip (once again, attached to you, NOT your baby) because 4 months into this whole mommy thing and I'm still not always prepared ;)

Brain juice: low

I just realized it's been a bit since my last post. Unfortunately, I have nothing to give.

Eugene and I were away from home Monday night, I got home late Tuesday afternoon and was away most of this morning...I'm a little tired.

Monday night was a Gala for Eugene's work and I can't wait to post about it, but that will have to wait for more brain power.

I did want to quickly share this blog post I ran across the other day. It addresses time management (something I constantly struggle with) in an amazing way and I found it very inspiring and wanted to share.

Have a good night!

For your viewing pleasure....

Just so ya'll can appreciate the severity of the spider incident, I present to you a picture of Hugo

See, I couldn't give a picture earlier because he wasn't available for a photo opp until this evening.

Hugo only comes out at night. It adds to his general creepiness.

As I came inside tonight from taking the picture Eugene asked what I was doing:

Me: "Taking a picture of the spider."
Eugene: "WHY?! Why would you do that?!"
Me: "For my blog. What'd you think? I was going to frame it for you?"
Eugene: "Well, I don't know. People do mean things to me with spiders."
Me: "When have I ever done something mean to you with a spider?"
Eugene: "Maybe you just haven't got mad enough yet."

Oh the tangled web we weave...

Thought I'd take a moment while the baby's napping for a quick post.

From the title you probably are thinking this post is going to include a tale of lies or confusion, or some such life lesson, but its not. The title refers to a very literal web...and a very real spider.

You should know that Eugene has serious arachnophobia. I mean his fear of spiders is very real. They terrify him. Me on the other hand, not so much. They don't really bother me. I don't love them, but I have no qualms with getting near enough to kill one.

A little over a week ago, a very large spider set up resident in the entrance posts to our front porch

In the right hand corner

If you look really hard at the the above picture, you can see the web. 

(I need to work on my photography skills. My husband got me an AWESOME Cannon for my birthday last year and I have yet to discover all it's secrets.)

Jump ahead a week or so, from the building of this web, and Eugene is leaving to go pick up some dinner. He walks out on the porch and I'm standing in the doorway. 

As he steps out on the porch he comes to the horrific realization that the spider is moving. 

Eugene has this "pose" he goes into whenever there is a spider spotting. Its sort of like the fetal position, while standing. His fingers seem to fuse together, while curling in towards his palms. At the same time his arms curl towards his chest and he doubles over. It's really something to see, I have yet to catch it on camera.

So as he sees Hugo (the spider, that's his name. I mean he's obviously a Hugo) moving, Eugene goes into his "spidey" pose. He starts exclaiming, "AH....I can't do it! I've walked by it for over a week and its fine when he's not moving, but I can't do it when he's moving! What am I going to do?!" All the time curling and uncurling from his spidey pose. (In all fairness, Hugo is a BIG creepy spider. They don't bother me, but watching Hugo move gives even me the heebie geebies)

I stand there, with our kid on my hip, talking him down....or up I guess, to get passed the spider. The conversation went something like this, with me talking in very reassuring, calming tones:

"Its fine, its way up in the corner. The web doesn't stretch all the way across..."

"He'll jump on me!!!"

"I'll stand right here and watch..."

"What! Watch while he jumps on me?! Yeah, that'll work!"

"No...I'll just tell you if he gets close. It's fine..."

"I can't! He's moving, I can't look at him!"

"Ok....turn your back and go down the steps. Just watch the steps as you go down and don't look behind you. You can do it! Go on three! Ready, you can do it....1...2...3!"

Eugene runs, SHRIEKS as he goes through the post, sprints down the three front steps, and goes halfway up the hill that is our front yard before he stops.

He then turns around, shakes it off and goes to the car.

Yes, what a tangled web we weave. Or rather that Hugo weaves, apparently just to terrify Eugene.