Proud Sister Moment!!!

This truly is the best video ever.

Be on the look-out for my brother, starring as the nerdy boy scout. (In the live music scenes, he plays the red and white bass guitar and sings back-up.)

ENJOY!!!!

Motion City's Video for "This is for Real"

So Very Important

Last May, some of you may remember that I posted about my friends Chantel and Nikki - both lost their precious infant sons on the same day.

My friend Frankie has a great post on her blog about Chantel. Anything I write would pale in comparison so here is a link so you can read Frankie's beautiful words about Chantel, Craig, and Curtis Roger.

And then here is a link to sponsor the 2007 Hope and Hearts Run/Walk in honor or Curtis and in sponsorship of Missing Grace Foundation which fights for stillbirth research and awareness and provides support for those who have personally experienced losing a child.

A TEAM FOR CURTIS

Thanks!

It's a lot when you write it all down....

I'm sitting in the computer room off the living room and all I hear are carrots hitting the floor one by one...... Meal times are such a joy these days.

So, anyway, just watched the new Rock of Love and it's on the brain so I just want to say:

Bret, what the F are you doing!?!? Why the hell is Lacey still there? She's psycho and plucks my last nerve and I hate her. I'm starting to lose respect for you. Like I had any to begin with. But you are hot.

Ok. Sorry. It just went off so my emotions are fresh. And I need a life.

Today has been productive, I think. I have not even set foot outside. I think I'll make a list of everything I have done so far today just to make sure I'm not a lump.

• Wake up by Stella @ 7:30 am
• Get her up, change diaper, let her crawl around on our bed for a few minutes while wishing with all my might that I could go back to sleep.
• Realized that was a pipe dream and took her in the living room.
• Made a pot of coffee and made her breakfast (eggs & cheese - for the first time -and pancakes)
• Got her in her highchair and played waitress to Miss Thing.
• Cleaned up lots of egg and cheese from the floor. (eggs and cheese = unsuccessful)
  
• Made my cup of coffee and listened to Toby bitch about how our computer has a virus and is f'ed up.
• He left to go to Home Depot so while Stella was eating, I purchased McAfee Virus protection and installed it and scanned the computer. (This ran for 2 hours.)
• Cleaned up the highchair - trays, bib, and seat.
• Cleaned up Stella. Put her in her jail (Superyard) with all of her toys and Micky Mouse Clubhouse on the TV.
• Toby goes outside to cut the grass and to water the yard...talk to the neighbors...takes a new door we purchased over there to get measured so we can put it up in the house soon...
• While he's gone doing outside stuff, I:
  
• Unloaded and loaded the dishwasher (this involves putting the dishes AWAY - some people don't do that. cough cough)
• Put chicken and enchilada sauce in the crockpot in prep for 2 batches of Chicken Enchiladas I am making this evening (one for my aunt who had a baby, one for our good friend who was in a car accident and is recovering)
• Ate an Uncrustables while doing all this.
• Ran my clothes (that had been sitting in the dryer) through the 20 min dewrinkle cycle for the 3rd time.
• Scrubbed the tub and shower with Mr. Clean Eraser.
• Cleaned the rest of the bathroom with Lysol wipes.
• Swiffer vacuumed the downstairs, Swiffer Dusted the downstairs.
  
• Hung up and put away all of my clothes from the dryer. Realized my drawers are a friggin nightmare so I rearranged them while putting away clothes. (And ended up with a pile of raggedy t-shirts for the trash!)
  
• Took all of Stella's Fall/18 mos clothes out of her closet and put them all into a large tub in my coat closet for the future. She's set!! (AKA: Stop buying her more stuff, Stephanie.)
• Rocked Stella to sleep for her nap. She went right away. (I love rocking her - it's the best.)
• She slept for 2 hours.
• While she was asleep I:
  
• Took a shower and got dressed and put on a tad bit of make-up to look presentable.
• Walked around the house and measured windows and my 2 closets so I can go to Big Lots and look for valences, blinds, and some sort of "arrangement" to hang on my closets (we do not have doors)
• Made Big Lots and BJ's lists for whenever I get a chance to go.
• Balanced checkbook and got deposit ready for tomorrow.
  
• Fixed my lunch. (WW Sante Fe Rice and Beans)
• Ate and watched Rock of Love - Toby comes in at this point and of course makes fun of my TV choices. Who can blame him? I make fun of myself....
  
• Stella wakes up and I get her from the crib and into highchair for lunch.
• Fix her lunch of hashbrowns, a pancake from breakfast, and aforementioned carrots.
• Make pot of coffee and partake.
  
• Try to blog for a minute...it is now 2:04 pm.

And it's not even halfway over!!

So, I think I have been pretty darn productive. The next time I start to feel bad about myself and give myself guilt trips for not going to the gym, I am going to read this.

I ROCK.

Off to clean carrots!!

Birthday Recap

Here's baby Benjamin Wayne. His little pudgy, swollen, just-born face makes me want another one! (For about 1.5 seconds...and then I snapped out of it.)

Here is my Dad (Wayne) holding Ben. Nancy gave him the middle name Wayne for all of the nice Waynes in her life (My Dad, Cissy's husband, Ronnie's best friend....)

My birthday yesterday was such a great day. Thank you to EVERYONE for your calls, e-mails, posts, cards, presents, flower deliveries, and more... I was spoiled.

Dinner last night was great. We went to Super King Buffet which was AWESOME. (The name has always scared me and I would never eat somewhere called that...but I read a review in a magazine that was raving...and upon further investigation learned that it was a really nice, classy, authentic place - and it was!!) There were 2 HUGE buffets with any kind of chinese dish - all fresh and yummy-looking. I WISH I had my camera with me to take a picture of the "Octopus and Vegetable" dish that had about 50 mini-octopus (fully in-tact) just chilling in a dish with some veggies. Yikes. I stuck to my usual.

They also had a huge sushi bar with fresh sushi being rolled right there... as well as a Mongolian BBQ that we didn't even touch because the rest of the buffet was so overwhelming... GREAT place.

One of Stella's new MADE IN THE USA bibs - how ironic is that?? (I am going to return all her China-made ones that have lead. GEEZ.)

Family portrait:

And Stella enjoyed the jello. She enjoyed PLAYING with the jello. Mama did not enjoy this part - but she let go of all control and just practiced deep-breathing exercises.

After dinner, we watched the coy fish in the pond in the lobby of the restaurant. (I think there were atleast 100 fish in there...they were swimming all over each other. Stella loved them and cried when we had to leave.

It was a wonderful birthday. Thanks so much!!

And here is a totally unrelated picture but I love it. Matt and Kristen last week on their move-in day.

Thirty One

So, for MY birthday, I dressed Stella up like a kid that went to that FAME high school in the 80's.

I love this outfit! (The leggings aren't tight enough but they will be this fall. :)




And I got a new haircut I LOOOOOVE which took me about 2 seconds to style this morning. What a wonderful birthday present.

Ho Hummmmmm

There's really nothing to update on... same old same old. Watching Stella grow each day, watching her run faster and faster, chasing after her more and more, missing my old hobby of SITTING DOWN, hearing her come up with more and more "words" that make no sense to anyone but her... It's fun! :)

I have a new little cousin arriving tomorrow, on my birthday. :) Me and little Ben will only be 31 years apart. At his high school graduation, I will be 49 GOOD LORD.

I'm really pretty apathetic about my birthday this year. I don't care - it's just another day. Toby keeps asking what I want and I keep saying I DON'T KNOW. (Really, I want him to just go get something without me having to tell him. I don't care what it is...) I know he wants to get me something I want/need but truly, I can't think of a thing. I'm very lucky. If I want something (within reason) I get it.

So, I just went ahead and spent $70 on a KILLER haircut this morning and THAT can be my birthday present.

Thanks, Hubby!

Lazy Sunday (I wish!)

I'll jump on here while Stella is eating her second waffle for breakfast. That's how I roll now. I can do "this" while Stella does "that." It's all choreographed. Like a Janet Jackson video.

So, big news: I WENT TO THE GYM ON FRIDAY!!!

Small potatoes to some people...a walk on the moon for me. It felt good and I plan to go atleast 3 times next week - maybe more since my boss is on vacation and I can go at any time during the day.

I went at 4:30 on Friday and walked for 30 minutes. It was really nice. The gym was nearly empty at that time on a Friday. I then showered and got ready in the locker room and drove home to pick up Toby for our "date night" - the first one in 6 months.

We ate dinner at Bandito's - God that place is GOOOOD - and then hung around because some friends of mine from work were all coming around 7pm for a Going Away thing for a co-worker. He has been asked to move to Omaha, Nebraska for a sales job. Have fun, buddy!! :)

We stayed and I had a Margarita and it was YUM. I forgot how good they are... It was really great to be SOCIAL for awhile. That is a skill I have LOST and I need to rediscover.

We were back home with Stella by 9pm...and that was perfect.

Yesterday was HIGHLY productive here. Toby worked outside and our yard just looks awesome. I worked inside and finally filed our bills and documents that have been piling up for months, did a few loads of laundry, and totally reorganized my closets. I can see what I have now (which ain't much - but it's more incentive to lose weight and get back in my old, cute clothes.) I also did a HUGE grocery trip which is always a pain but now we are stocked for awhile.

Before Kroger's I stopped by Starbucks for an Iced Coffee...and is there nothing better than pouring the cream in an iced coffee and watching the cream float and swirl through the coffee all the way to the bottom?? I think not.

So, Miss Stella is growing like a weed. She's walking all over - more deliberately now. She is talking up a storm - her own language. She is REALLY telling a story. With all sorts of words with different sounds like "th..." and "cl..." and "dr..." It's just that the words make no sense to the human ear. I suspect one day she'll just start rattling off real words and I will be shocked.

Her most recognizable word is "Pool" - OF COURSE.

We put up a Superyard fence thingee in the house to try to contain her but still give her room to move around. This HAS to happen if I want to ever clean or cook anything.

There goes the Living Room:


Oh well. It's a Godsend.

What else? Oh! We went to visit Mimi Z in Northern Virginia last weekend.





Family portrait where none of us are looking:



We had a great time. While Da-Da and Stella napped at the house, Mimi Z took ME to Wegman's Grocery Store (which was like a DREAM!) and to Trader Joe's. I hear about Trader Joe's all the time from my Dottie's girls - and now I understand why. LOVED IT.

But only a girl who loves food would request a tour of the area's grocery stores for fun. ha!

We did go to Portrait Innovations up there for Stella's One Year portraits. She did great - much better than her 9 month ones when she would not crack a smile for nothing! Here are some of the outtakes:




This one makes me laugh for some reason. She looks like she's a lump sitting there...







And here are some recent ones around the house.... the girl is growing up!

Polka dots:



Big Flower Clip (That lasted about 30 seconds)



New Carter's slippers:



Good Morning!!




That's all for now. Waffles are gone. Wonder Pets are on. The day has begun.

So I Lied.

I really was so gung-ho yesterday when I wrote that post and I still am gung-ho...however I was SO gung-ho (I like saying that word) that I forgot that I have a lunch today with my old bosses who are in town and I have to leave today at 2:30 for a volunteer event called Bright Beginnings (which I LOOOOOVE....)

So, I can not go to the gym today. And honestly, I am a bit upset about it and was bummed when I remembered these conflicts.

Yesterday, I went to the locker room and opened my locker for the first time in nearly 2 years. I was SCERRED. I was envisioning a big black hole of mold and mildew. I mean, one day I was there and the next day I was sick as a dog pregnant and never went back... So my shower poof, all my soaps, shampoo, shower cap, lotions, curling iron, hair dryer, flip flops, etc, were still in there.

Surprisingly, it was all like the day I left it!!!! So it kind of got me excited to get back in there and to get to MOVING again.

My first day back will be slow. I'm like a 800 pound, 90 year old woman. I'll have to crawl first and it will take eons before I can get back to where I was....but that's ok. I just want to get moving again and get the oxygen flowing through these fat cells.

Thursday is event-free....so feel free to bug me about my gym experience then. Infact, PLEASE bug me.

Even if it kills me.

Yes, that is the title of MCS's new album.



But it's also my slogan for tomorrow, because EVEN IF IT KILL ME, I will:


1. update this blog

2. go to the gym for the first time in nearly 2 years


Not exactly in that order.

MCS's Biggest (smallest) Fan!

Thank you Erika!!!