cinderelly, cinderelly

night and day im cinderelly.
(ok, so my prince charming helps out too. so i guess we are cinderelly)

my house was clean a measley 12 hours ago. already it is a disaster. you cant walk through the living room right now without tripping over ollie the octupus, the annoying monkey circus ball, or a singing ark. also, my kitchen sink is almost completely full of dishes again. how? how does this happen when its just 3 of us, and 1 of us usually only uses a bowl, a spoon and a bottle or 3. im not too worried about dishes though. why am i not too worried? because i do not do the dishes. you may be now wondering what kind of housewife i am. i am the kind that does not do the dishes. ill unload a clean dishwasher, but thats about it. i would rather do 7 loads of laundry than do the DIRTY dishes. so thats what i did. 7 loads of laundry...

and this isn't even including amelias 3 or 4 piles!



but seriously..i would rather do this than one load of dirty dishes!

off to look for a new computer this afternoon! YAY!

and feel free to come clean my house if you get the hankerin'.

cinnamon sugar puff cupcakes

about two weeks ago i attempted to make cupcakes from scratch for the first time. i have 3 cupcake cookbooks so i had plenty of cupcakes to choose from! i usually only like to try recipes that have pictures so i can make sure im doing it just the way they have. but the cupcake that caught my eye did not have a picture, just a ridiculously yummy name. cinnamon sugar puffs. MMM. i also liked that it was a no-icing cupcake, because i didnt want to be too overwhelmed with making icing from scratch too. it went really well!! the batter didn't taste very great before they went in the oven, but they magically got sweeter while baking. my great grandmother had just given me her stand-up mixer since she didnt use it much anymore. here are some pictures of my baking-from-scratch adventure and the finished product.

amelia was a big help in the kitchen. she pulled all the tupperware out of the cabinet and insisted i hold her for most of the baking session.

thanks mamaw for passing on your stand up mixer to me! it will be put to good use around here! <3

happy weekend!

i hope everyone has a lovely weekend. i know i will! we're going to hit up some of the first yard sales of the year tomorrow. cross your fingers for no junk! well unless its junk that works for me and my house! ill also be enjoying my weekend at home, because ill be in griffin tues-mon next week. ill be glad to see friends and family, but not glad to be away from my own bed/shower/couch. i have no access to a computer at my MIL's. booo!!! dont you worry, ill find some way to blog, pin, and facebook and email.
highlights of this week:
amelia sprouted another tooth (this makes 5)
amelia stands for a few seconds on her own
amelia pulls up on everything
i got the confirmation of my new warby parkers that ill be receiving on tuesday or wednesday
im getting a new phone - lg vortex android (it better be worth the big bucks)
found out adams final appointment for getting out of the army is feb 4th - this one deserves a happy dance!

im making these yummy garlic potatoes tonight! and they take much longer than i expected so i better go get started.


happy weekend!

trapped

i am a 55 year old woman trapped in a 22 year old body. i came to this conclusion last night at the dbt's show. how did i come to this conclusion? let me count the ways.

- when i found out the show didnt start until 9 (which meant the truckers wouldnt start until 11) i was already thinking about how i would rather be in bed at 11.
- when we got in the sold out, teeny tiny venue, i immediately began looking for a place to sit
- when i saw there was no place to sit, i winced.
- i put TP down on the toilet seat to use the bathroom and flushed the toilet with my foot
- i had 3 adult beverages and felt like i needed to go to bed. right then.
- i people watched and wondered what moms let some of these girls leave their house dressed like they were??!?
- i yawned 20+times in 10 minutes
- i was very irritated by the over-served boy standing beside me that turned around every minute to wave to his friends and do a fist pump. (i think this was the shari in me more than the 55 year old woman in me) i almost asked him not so nicely to just go stand with his friends, but he left for probably another beverage and never found his way back! phew!
- while the crew members were setting up for the dbts i thought about amelia, hand embroidering my mermaids, blogging, sleeping, pinning, sleeping, how my house was such a mess, sleeping...
- while bouncing around and bobbing my head to the good tunes, i wondered how many calories i was burning during the 3 hour music session.
- i checked the time 500 times


im so old. thanks, amelia! or should i thank my mom, shari? shes not a boring person at all, but after about 9 pm shes no longer the life of the party. oh well! i like to think of my old woman self being like this awesome older woman! <3


i truly did have a good time last night! the music was really good and it was fun time with adam. i just really dont understand why these shenanigans couldnt have started at a more reasonable hour? like 7 pm, so that i couldve put my little head down on my pillow before the new day started.

also, a very random thought i had last night...wouldnt it be interesting to be a congressman for a week, and get all those letters you always hear people talking about writing? this is where my mind takes me at 2 am.

valentines day

i feel like this valentines day will probably be spent at home, but im ok with that! valentines day is not the easiest time to lock-down a sitter, because everyone else is also trying to show some love. annnnddd since seaside yard sales are that same weekend......well, im going to spend as much money as im allowed.  im hoping my trunk is going to look like this trunk found on an awesome yard sale blog

x5.
cant.stand.the.wait.

anyways, back to vday. a packed out trunk means that our funds for a big, romantic, bonefish-y dinner will be considerably lower. i was thinking if we will be at home, maybe i could make adam dinner. since i definitely dont do enough of the cooking in the kitchen, it would be a loving little gesture for me to take over for the night. im thinking about some of these delicious treats..

baked shells and broccoli via pinterest

pasta with turkey sausage via pinterest

adam loves tomatoes and these look awesome via pinterest

i kid. kind of? people do cakes for valentines day, right? found this guy via pinterest as well.

but if i take over the cooking theres really no way of knowing how its gonna turn out?! should i turn the recipes over to adam for this special dinner or should i give it a go? we are going to see one of adams fave bands, Drive By Truckers, tonight for his valentine prez. any other small, cheap, lovey gift ideas you guys have to share? i gotta have a little something to hand over the day of.

home decor kick

i so badly want to upload photos of my weekend treasures i found at the local flea market, but both my computer and adams computer have given up on life. also, i want to show everyone my freshly painted bedroom!! :( i had to steal my brothers computer for the night, so i could catch up on blogs and pin some things on pinterest.

so until i can show you my new digs for my house, ill share some things i found on pinterest that will soon find their way in my home as well.


my friend elizabeth is going to make this canvas i found on  pinterest to go above my headboard


hehehe


i want a picture frame wall sooo badly!!



and i want these three prints for my picture frame wall!!

i wish i could wake up tomorrow and all these things be exactly as i want them, but i guess half the fun is getting them there yourself! hopefully ill be able to post bedroom pictures soon if one of our computers decides to cooperate for me.

gotta go get back to pinning!

oh, it is love.

last night adam and i went on our first date in months!!! its not so easy when you throw a baby into the mix to get away for even a couple of hours. it had been so long i wasnt really sure what we could do to make it more fun than your boring ol' dinner date. the writer of Today's Letters has such a fun, romantic marriage that i went to her for some ideas. she was so sweet and so helpful, and told me about a date night she and her husband had done recently and really enjoyed it. its kind of a spin on a progressive dinner, but instead of going home-to-home we did restaurants. our evening went like this:

AJ's seafood (app & drinks) - tuna dip and $3 lemon drop martinis (YUM)
Louisiana Lagniappe (dinner) - we had no clue how expensive this place was going to be, and holy cow it was expensive. for our little budget anyways! BUT since we are now "locals" and it is winter, we got a really good deal! they had dinner for 2 + BOTTLE of wine = $39.99. soo awesome!! the dinner i picked out was grouper menuire (sp?) and was originally listed for $32. adams meal was originally 23 on the menu. so without drinks we would've spent $55. so its like we saved a bunch AND got free wine.
Fresh Market (dessert) - Adam got a mini creme brulee and a mini cheesecake and i got a cupcake and a brownie. dessert is always my fave!

then we came home and put on a movie and after about 2 minutes of adam rubbing my head, i was OUT! oooops, sorry adam! date night = sleep night for me! thanks to amelias pops for keeping her overnight for us! it was a really nice break.
i meant to take my camera along for some pictures along the journey of our date night, but in my excitement (and because i was running late) i forgot the camera. grrr!!

we had a really good time. cant wait to do it again soon. :)

four eyes

i need some new frames and would like some opinions. only nice ones, puh-lease. ;-) ill post the two glasses that im trying to decide between and maybe you guys could help steer me in the right direction. if you dont like either pair, then no comment needed. they are a little different, but i like them. michel, my sister, has a pair of warby parker frames. she suggested i get them. so she wont care that im copying her? thats what little sisters do, right? why else would i be blogging? or buying hand embroidery items from the craft store? but her frames are neither of the two i have picked out!! :)

patience

"if you are patient in one moment of anger, you will escape a hundred days of sorrow." - chinese proverb


you spend your childrens life trying to teach them everything you possibly can. right now amelia has almost mastered crawling, "bye bye", going to sleep on her own and feeding herself solid foods. each day we work on more and more that she will eventually learn to do. but its funny how an 8 month old can teach you something way more important than crawling or waving goodbye. patience. ive never been one with a lot of patience, but when amelia came along she really helped me with this. you cant get angry with someone you can hardly communicate with, so you learn to do what you can to get through that frustrating moment.

on days like yesterday i really wish i could read minds, so i wouldnt have to ask amelia a million questions that she cant answer. "where are you hurting?" "how can i make it better?" "why are you not happy in my lap, eating, sitting in your exersaucer OR playing on the floor??" "dont you want your dad to hold you?" :) its sad to see your baby upset, and especially not knowing exactly what you can do to help. so in certain situations i wouldve previously been frustrated in, i find myself singing a silly song, dancing around or scrambling to get amelia something to stick in her mouth ASAP!

i love her so much my heart hurts!!

amelias par-tay

amelia will be 8 months on saturday. which means her birthday isnt for 4 more months, but who says ya cant start planning early???

i found this etsy shop filled with cute ideas from one of my new favorite blogs, enjoying the small things!

this is the cutest little gift box for guests to take home


while browsing etsy for more birthday things, i stumbled upon this etsy shop with lots of sweet party decor

i went on a search for cupcakes to fill up the cute cupcake wrappers with and found these:

the blue and pink cupcakes can be found here. i think i would pick some different colors, but i really like the designs they used!!

and then of course ill need a giant cupcake for amelia to stick her little hands in!

there is so much more that i have in mind, so i guess i better start saving up for it now!!!

i cant wait for may!!

may 15, 2010 - amelia's arrival

i was talking to my mom the other day about my blog and she asked me to write about amelia's birth story. i told her i really didnt want to, because i hardly remembered it.  ....and the few memories i do have of the long, painful, no fun proccess arent exactly things you care to remember. i can come up with a little something, but i would like for people to know it was really hard for me and i wont sound as cheery as you think i should.


first of all, WOW! look at my belly!!!! sheesh. anyways, at about 8 am on may 14, 2010, i woke up to what i thought was me wetting the bed! after taking a second to wake up, i realized what was going on and my water had burst! i ran into the living room to tell everyone (momma, daddy, bo, michel, larsen), and in about 15 minutes we were in the car headed to the hospital. the dreadful, dreadful hospital that i spent the next 2 weeks of my life in. we arrived and got me situated in a room. the dreadful, dreadful room that i spent the next 28 hours laboring in.



it was so awesome to have my family and friends with me every step of the way. seriously..every step. you know how most hospitals allow 2 people in the room when the actual "birthin'" is going on? nope not my hospital. try 9 folks. youre probably thinking im nuts for allowing that, but i tell ya 25 hours, several bags of the pit drip and 2 epidurals later, i did not know or care what was going on in the room around me. if i had been able to collect my thoughts, i would have demanded a c-section after uhh 8-10 hrs? DEMANDED.

we were really excited that amelia and uncle bo were going to share the same birthday. ends up, thats not how it was gonna go down. we carried on into the next day, which i was completely unaware of at the time. i never imagined it wouldve taken that long to have a baby!! after 25 hours of laboring, some sweet sweet angel doctor said i could start pushing! after about 2.5 hours of pushing and the doctor yelling "we can see her head", they decided something needed to be done to bring amelia into this world. the dr gave us the options of forceps, the suction thingy (which was totally not an option for me) or a c-section. if i could've felt my legs i would've probably kicked her for FINALLY suggesting a c-section. we really didnt want to use any tools to grab amelia out of there, but we decided on the forceps. and then at 12:25 pm, amelia grace peeples entered our world and made it so much sweeter. she was 8 lbs 7 oz and 19 inches long.

i was so happy and relieved that she was finally with us! but i didnt feel like i felt like i should have been feeling (if that makes sense). they immediately took amelia away, because of fluids in her lungs and a broken collar bone. it was tough not having your baby handed over to you like you've always seen it happen in movies and tlc shows. i think after that is when i started going downhill. i was nauseous, miserable, sad and numb. i didnt feel like a mom. i actually didnt feel like a mom for TOO long. they finally brought amelia in to see me and adam a few hours later. i was scared to hold her, because of how bad i was feeling and because of her broken collar bone. we really didnt get off to a good bonding start and i really hated that.

over the next couple of days, on top of me not feeling good (you'll find out why later), i had to see amelia go through so much in her first few days of life.

her poor head boo-boo's from the forceps

her itty-bitty hands and feet getting stuck with needles several times a day

all the wires and monitors she was hooked up to..
and worst of all, having to keep her under a lamp with little "sunglasses" (that she absolutely hated) covering her eyes for 24 hrs. im glad there are no pictures to remind me of this sad, pitiful time. we stayed in the hospital for 5 days to make sure her color was good, she got her shots and did not develop pneumonia.

over the course of the next 5 days, many people working with the hospital stopped by. several women that i felt were PUSHING breastfeeding on me. amelia and i were not doing well with the whole breastfeeding thing, mostly because of the time we spent apart in the first few days due to complications. also, amelias broken collarbone scared me to death and i didnt want to force her to do anything that might discomfort her. one super nice lady came by to ask me how i was feeling and asked me how amelia was doing. she started to ask me about how being a mommy was and my feelings on everything that had happened. i started telling her how i felt about not feeling like i should be feeling (sorry again if this doesnt make sense to you). she explained to me how normal it was, especially considering all we were dealing with right after the birth. she promised that as soon as amelia and i both were feeling better my feelings would change.

the last 2-3 days in the hospital, i began experiencing super high fevers and severe shaking. the first time it happened adam had gone home, and it was only me and the baby in the room. luckily i had just put her back in her bassinet, and had laid down so i could reach the nurse button. the nurses and doctors told me that my body was just going through withdrawals from all of the meds i was on during my labor. they dismissed it and sent me on my way as soon as amelia was approved to go home. by the way, dont get me started on this hospital and the staff there....

the next afternoon we were scheduled to come back for amelias 1 week check-up. that next morning i had another fever/shakes episode at home. when we went back for amelias appointment, adam said he would stay with amelia and i walked up stairs to the ob-gyn to get checked out.again i was sent home with no answers. later that day, adam and i rushed back to the hospital when my fever spiked WAY high. finally they ran some tests (very painful tests) and figured out that i had two infections, ecoli and endometritis (thanks to being in labor for more than 24 hrs after my water breaking). i was admitted back into the hospital for the next couple of days. back in the dreadful, dreadful hospital away from my sweet amelia. the moment they told me i would have to stay in the hospital (and away from amelia) is when i think i first started feeling like a mom. i was so miserably sad. i cried and cried, and the nurses kept asking me where my pain was and all i could say was that i was so sad. there was no medicine to help me feel better at that point. only being at home with my little munchkin could've made me feel better. luckily auntie m had come back to visit and could keep amelia for 2 days until my mom could get there.

anyways, not gonna go on about the next couple of days filled with stupid medicines, stupid IV's, stupid hospital food, and stupid hospital beds. i actually only wrote about me going back into the hospital to tell you about when i started to feel happy again, and started to feel a bond between amelia, and started to feel like adam and i were parents to the cutest and sweetest child ever born. when my mom or michel would bring her up to the hospital to visit me, i would soak up every second. as soon as they left the hospital, before they could have even left the parking lot, my heart would sink and i would count down the hours until she was coming back to see me again. these were the feelings i had been searching for since the moment she was born. i finally felt like i was a part of  MY family of 3 i had been imagining for so long.




p.s. - i couldnt have done any of it without my awesome husband. i hardly remember much about my labor, but i  do know adam was by my side the whole time. he cheered me on and encouraged me when i felt like giving up during the 3 hr pushing period. he stayed with me in the hospital every night, in what looked like the most uncomfortable chair/bed ever. he also ordered me pizza and brought me carrabas (one of our faves) in the last 4 days we spent at the hospital. he made sure i was taken care of and as comfortable as possible during those 12 total days in the hospital. i couldnt have asked for better support or love during this difficult/exciting/scary time.


i know that i most likely lost several peoples interest after the 2nd paragraph, so thanks to those who cared enough to finish the story. and it actually felt pretty good to write it all down and remember the good and the bad. thanks momma for encouraging me to blog this.



a few more pics from amelias big arrival!

her first visitors once we were settled into the mommy/baby unit

her head full of hair that is out of control these days

pure

sweetness

the first bottle i gave her

one smitten daddy

thanks again for letting me share with you all!