How is my baby 7 months old already?

No doctor's appointment until November at her 9 month well visit so these are approximate from home:

Weight:  18lbs
Height:  27.5"
Using the Pampers growth chart, that puts her around 90th percentile for height! But only 75th for weight.  String bean.

EATING
 Still drinking 5.5-6oz bottles of breastmilk.  Since she stares us down and gives us the best sassy face if we ever thinking about eating in front of her and not sharing [which for the record, we don't share since she's too little for almost everything, we just feel terrible like we are dangling bacon in front of a puppy] we have added a second 2oz. baby food meal every day!  In addition to 2oz dinner at home, she's getting a brunch/lunch meal at daycare and on the weekends. She does very well with normal spoon-feeding or from our Boon Squirt Silicone Feeder. 

Foods we have tried & liked:  Sweet potatoes, Carrots, Squash, Peas, Green beans, Prunes, Pumpkin, Zucchini, Spinach, Bananas, Pears

"Real"food she's used as teethers:  Whole baby dill pickles, plain unsalted French fry, carrot sticks [guess which one of those Daddy offered....]

Foods we have tried & hated:  Apples, Peaches

No such luck with a sippy cup yet. 

 

 

TEETHING
Nothing has poked through yet! We'll see!

 

SLEEPING
Still great! Although some congestion over the past week has had her a little off the norm.  She's getting very attached to a couple of her little blankeys--especially the green one above because she loves the silk tags.  She also loves a silky one with a baby doll attached to it from her Grandma & Grandpa.  She rubs the silk on her nose as she sucks her thumb.  We don't let her sleep with one in her crib, but whenever she's napping she's usually in her bouncy seat or stroller and we let her have it.

ACTIVITY
She is getting so close to crawling! She's not doing as much of her inchworm technique anymore...she's figured out that she needs to be up on her arms, and she's started to get up on her knees...it's just getting the coordination down to make it all work together that she's still working on.  For now, she tries, tries, and then gives up and rolls.

Still obsessed with her jumperoo.  She also loves her One Two Squeeze blocks.  She is very inquisitive--her favorite parts of toys are the parts that "make things work" or the speaker where sound comes out, more so than the fun decorative parts of toys.  If anything has a silk tag on it, she is in love.  She especially likes burp cloths because she discovered that they have a large silk tag.

She loves to copy sounds, and now says/does the following:
"Da da da da da"
"Ma ma ma ma ma"
"Ssssssssssssss"
"Thhhhhhhh"
"Kkkkkk"
"Ba ba ba ba"
"Ta ta ta ta"

Lots of little blabber conversations with herself and with us.  She doesn't really associate any of that with specific things, she just likes making those sounds and will copy a lot of the time if we do them.  She sort of knows that DaDa is associated with Jake and MaMa is associated with me, but I'm not sure if she gets it that that's our names.  She definitely knows her own name and will give a big smile when we say it!

  
DIAPERING
Size 3...I feel like we'll be here for a while.

 CLOTHES
Mostly 6-9 months.



Grandparent's Day Handprint Crafts!

Being baptized, held by her Godmother :)

 SPECIAL FIRSTS 
--Saying "Mamamamamama"
--Being Baptized!

--Watched her first UGA football game

--First handprint crafts

 

 

Week[end] Wrap-Up

Well, I have had a really great week.  I apologize I haven't updated on here, but we have been busy and when I've had time I didn't feel very motivated to do so.  I'm still seeing my chiropractor and things are not back to 100% but I got good news from him this week and it seems like I'm re-aligning the way I should.

Wednesday night the hubby and I decided to have an impromptu movie night.  Thanks to Redbox, the line-up was...

   

They were both great movies!  It has been a few years since I saw the first Taken movie, but I remember that it was really good.  I would say that this one was even better than the first.   Pitch Perfect was hilarious.  I have been begging Jake to rent this movie since it was released on Redbox a few weeks ago and we finally picked it up.  While a couple parts of it are obviously cheesey, we were both cracking up the entire movie.  Entertaining story line and fantastic comedic timing.  

Then on Thursday night, it was the first night of our bowling league! Yep, you heard right.  We are officially in an 8 week bowling league, haha...Our friends Gretchen and Braxton found out about the league and invited us to join with them and another couple.  The first night we found out that it's three-person teams so we split up to girls vs. guys.  There are 5 or 6 teams in the league, and at the end of the 8 weeks we get our own custom bowling ball :)

 

Friday night April and I went to Enso [my fav sushi place in Charlotte] for dinner.  We split a groupon purchase for Enso a couple months back and finally got around to going there for dinner!  We started out with some yummy shrimp as an appetizer, both got some sushi rolls for dinner, and then split a chocolate kahlua toffee cake dessert.  So good!  

Saturday Jake's softball tournament got moved to today due to rain, so we both went down to Columbia to meet sweet baby Presley Jane, my best friend Eden's little girl.  She was born Friday morning and is so precious! She looks just like her momma.  Both of them are doing very well!

We also celebrated my mom's birthday [a little early] with a nice lunch and then little trip to Starbucks.  

Today was church, teaching the Preschool Sunday school class, and then doing some things around the house.  Shanti and Reina went to watch one of Jake's softball games with me, and we're doing our usual Sunday night dinner--Charanda's :)


Once Jake's games are over tonight we might catch some of the Oscars, and I'm hoping to catch up on more Grey's! About 6 and a half years ago I invited Jake to hang out with my roommate and me to watch Grey's Anatomy, and ever since then it's been one of our favorite "us things".  Because of some of my late studio classes in college we have gotten a bit behind so we've been slowly catching up on Netflix.


That's all for now...


XO, Stacey

I've learned I need to take more photos...

It has become so clear to me that I really suck at remembering to take photos.  I get so caught up in the fun time that we're having that I always forget to whip out the camera or my phone.  So, unfortunately you don't get to see any cute pics of the holidays, but we have had such a great time!  So, where to begin...

I guess the first of our festivities started with April & Jeremy's annual tacky Christmas sweater party.  It was so much fun again, just like last year!  Although this year ended up staying a little bit more sane than last year which was nice, and we took the party to the bar instead of staying at their house the whole time, which I know must have worked out a bazillion times better for them!  Entertaining at home is so much fun but there's always that one person who has to break something sometimes the cleanup can be excruciating.

Following that came my company's Christmas Dinner which was at Del Frisco's in Charlotte.  Jake and I had never been there before and the food was amazing!  I got the crab cakes and Jake got one of the steak specials.  They also have the BEST calamari I've ever tasted.  It's seriously like heaven in your mouth.  Instead of serving it with marinara sauce like most places I've been, albeit they were Italian restaurants, Del Frisco's serves theirs covered in an Asian glaze, similar to what comes on Orange Chicken or General Tso's.  YUM.  I also had my first ever Celebrity sighting.  After narrowly missing Vince Vaughn and Kevin James on the elevator in Chicago and not seeing a single celebrity in Las Vegas for a week, who knew that I'd see my first celeb sighting in good ol' Charlotte.  Who?  Ric Flair.  Don't recognize the name?  He's this guy...

From the great world of WWE.  I recognized him but never knew his name because my family was never big into wrestling.  He still pretty much looks the same.  He's no Vince Vaughn, but it was pretty cool to be standing less than a foot away from him at the bar in Del Frisco's.

After that comes our Christmas visit to see my Grandpop and some others from my Dad's side of the family down in Mount Pleasant.  We don't get down there a lot so it was nice to see them, and my Aunt Kerri was home visiting from India.  We watched the new Bourne movie, which I really enjoyed, then exchanged gifts and had a nice traditional holiday meal--ham, mashed potatoes, green beans, rolls, wine, etc.

On Christmas Eve, we just slept in and relaxed, then went to church and dinner with Jake's mom, sister, and brother.  His stepdad was sick with a stomach virus the whole week so he didn't get to participate in anything :(  We went to their church in Lake Wylie, and I always enjoy getting to see different churches, especially when they are all beautifully decorated at Christmas.  It was a neat candlelight service but visiting other churches always makes Jake and I really realize how much we love our church, Allison Creek Presbyterian.  It's technically in York I guess but it's only about 10 minutes down the road from us since we're out here on the edge of Rock Hill.  Churches are so personal and everyone has different tastes, but we really love the community within our church and especially the delivery of the sermons.  I don't like feeling like I'm getting yelled at by the preacher if they have a harsh, excited delivery.  And I don't like being bored to tears by someone who is monotone.  We feel like our Pastor has the perfect balance and neither one of us ever gets bored or zones out during the sermon so we always feel like we really get something out of what he shares.  

On Christmas day we had Jake's side of the family and my friend Karen over for a brunch of waffles, fruit, casseroles, eggs, bacon, cinnamon rolls, etc.  TONS of food.  We exchanged gifts and just got to hang out for a while having some good conversation.  Then, we got to relax for a little bit and clean up before my side of the family arrived for Christmas dinner.  We had glazed ham with pineapple, seasoned green beans, steamed corn, mashed potatoes, mac & cheese, and then desserts.  It was a good thing that we only ate two meals all day because holy cow was it a lot of food.  I did the ham and the mac & cheese both in crock pots, which was nice and easy for me so that I could sit and enjoy socializing instead of cooking in the kitchen all day.  It worked out extremely well for the ham, and the mac & cheese was good but I think I would use a different recipe next time.  I found one recipe that uses evaporated milk, which I thought I had but it turned out that I had sweetened condensed milk, both are from Eagle Brand and I didn't pay attention to the label.  So, last minute I had to switch to a  different recipe that only used 2% milk and I think it would have been nicer and creamier with the other recipe.  For dessert, I made a cherry crumb pie and some "brooksters" which are a combo of chocolate chip cookies & brownies.  The cherry crumb pie tasted really good, but good Lord did it make a mess in my oven.  I would highly suggest that if you attempt one of these pies, put a cookie sheet on the rack underneath your pie because that nice filling will just bubble out over the edge and create a huge puddle of burnt mess in your oven.  Thank God our oven is self-cleaning, but that makes such a smoky mess that I haven't done it yet.  I did cook dinner in the oven two nights ago and some of the cherry mess burnt off but that is a headache that I'll be dealing with for a couple more weeks I expect...However, the brooksters, or as I always mix up and call them, "Brewsters," are like the best combination in the world.  Here is the super easy recipe:

"Brewsters"

--Prepare chocolate chip cookie mix from scratch as directed on bag of chocolate chips.

--Prepare brownies as directed on box of brownie mix.

Put paper liners in cupcake trays and fill 1/3-1/2 of the way with brownie batter.  Top with one scoop in each of the cookie batter.  

Bake as directed following the Chocolate Chip cookie recipe.  You may need to add 5-10 minutes to the time since brownies take longer to cook.  You will know they are done when a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.  

Easy and seriously delish!  These were definitely a crowd pleaser.  

..And what have we been doing since Christmas?  Well, I enjoyed the after Christmas sales and picked up some adorable wrapping paper for next year (so prepared, I know!) and decided to re-decorate our bookshelves in the living room.  I got tons of new frames and decorations from Hobby Lobby, TJMaxx, and Ross.  I cleaned off the bookshelves and have figured out the new frame placement, but now I just need to get the correct size and orientation of photos printed.  So, pictures of that to come!  We also celebrated New Years/Jake's 25th Birthday!  He has not been feeling too hot following the celebration but we did it up right at the Longbranch last night!  He is also very excited about his birthday gift, a new propane grill for on our boat!  With all of the time we are going to be spending out there now that we have the boat, I figured we would get tired of pb&j's or turkey sandwiches REAL quick.  Now we can do burgers, hot dogs, chicken, steaks, kabobs, you name it!  Now, if only this weather would get back into the 70's..........

Have a great day back at work tomorrow!

<3 Stacey

Very Thankful

 

I apologize for being such a slacker with my blog lately.  I feel like this year is flying by before my very eyes and it seems like the time to get on here can never be found.  But alas, I thought I would get into the spirit of Thanksgiving week and join in on the Thankful posts. The daily thing on facebook is a bit much for me but I thought I would compile my list here.  I'll tackle a few a day throughout the week..

Sometimes we get so complacent throughout the year and around the holidays it really gives us time to sit down and think about all of the wonderful people and experiences that we have in our lives. Sitting here thinking about everything now honestly just puts a smile on my face because I do feel so blessed and happy...People always say that they don't want to get older but I am having the best time with this phase in my life.  I feel like for myself and my friends...we've all made it to that point where we are settled into our adulthood.  We're not the "fresh out of college" group anymore.  We've settled into our careers and our routines, we're getting established and promoted.  We've bought houses and cars; taken big vacations that we've actually paid for.  We've had real life struggles and slowly but surely made it through.  We've "paid our dues" and are now on the upside.  It makes me so proud to see the growth and success.  Will we have more hard times, undoubtedly!  But we've proven that we have what it takes.  Two weeks ago Winthrop had it's homecoming basketball game and a bunch of my college friends came into town for our annual girls weekend.  I love that we have that one weekend a year that we know we can count on to get all of our schedules aligned and get together.  It was our first year having our own alumni tailgate.  We learned about a few things that we will change for next year but it was definitely a great decision and we really enjoyed it.  Now, if only Winthrop's basketball team would get back to the greatness of our Freshman and Sophomore years at Winthrop!   It was so funny to see how much things have changed, but how happy we are with that.  Looking at the groups of friends and WU Alumni who are in their 30's, all meeting up with their little kids and tailgating...realizing that in what seems like a few short years that will be us.  It doesn't make me scared for the future, it makes me excited for it! 

So I guess with all of that in mind, here's my list...

1.  I am thankful for Jake.  I am thankful for who he is as a person and who he is as a partner.   I am thankful for the way that he balances me and the way that we work together.  I'm thankful for our differences and our similarities.  While we both thought that we were headed down different paths in life, I'm so thankful for God's greater plan helping us find our way to each other.  I'm sure that you are thinking "Duh" right now, but it's a feeling of thankfulness that I never knew existed until we got married.  While we were dating of course I was thankful and felt so lucky to have found someone who I thought was so perfect for me, but after getting married small things just started adding up and made me find this whole new level of appreciation.  Even though we had been together for almost five years by the time we got married, and even though we were already living together, there is something that changes.  I guess it's because "forever" actually becomes reality and for the first time that actually sinks in.    

2.  I'm thankful for my big family.  The one that I was born into and the one that I married into.  As a kid I remember doing a project in school where we were writing down the number of siblings, aunts, uncles, cousins, etc. in our families.  My Mom has a big Italian Catholic family and my Dad was adopted, and later in life he found his birth parents so that makes for a huge family.  I remember writing down that I have over 20 first cousins, and how some of the kids in my class only had one or two, or none at all.  While it can get crazy trying to coordinate schedules, especially around the holidays, I can't imgaine not having a house full of people celebrating together.  

3.  and 4.  Reece and Kona.  You just do not even understand how much I love my furbabies.  They are my first and second children, they are spoiled rotten, and I would not have it any other way.  While I know dogs are nothing like real children, they have definitely helped prepare us for our future little ones by giving us responsibility and letting us know that the world does not operate on our own personal schedules. 

5.  Friendships.  Old and new.  I've always been the "social butterfly" as my parents called it.  Maybe it comes from moving a few times growing up or maybe that's just me.  Yes, I was one of those crazy people who had a ton of bridesmaids in my wedding.  I've never been the type of person who had only one best friend.  Each one of my friends "gets me" in a different but completely perfect way and I'm so grateful that I have those people who know everything I want to say with just a look.

6.  Our church.  After buying our house we found Allison Creek Presbyterian Church and it could not be a more perfect fit for us.  I've never felt more welcome or at home in a church, and Jake and I laugh about it because honestly we are probably the youngest couple in the small congregation by about 10 years, with the exception of one or two others.  

7.  Art.  For my ability to do it and for the way that it allows me to express myself and connect with people.

8.  Our country and our military.  For freedom, pride, and patriotism.

9.  Education and teachers.  Especially for the teachers who have had a great impact on my life, encouraged me and inspired me. 

10.  My job.  For doing something that I enjoy with co-workers that are fun to be around.  I definitely learned through previous jobs that this is not always the case and it is such a blessing when you find it!

11.  The medical field.  For the advances that it has made and for the talented doctors working towards cures for cancers and diseases.  For the technology that they have developed that makes things like my Lasik surgery possible :)

....that's all for now, more to come!

Newest Project

Ohhh my list of many projects and crafty things to accomplish.  I constantly find new ideas.

Well, one of those ideas that I've had for a long time is to make a t-shirt quilt out of mine and Jake's ADPi & Kappa Sigma shirts.  1) It will keep me warm because Jake likes to keep our house at near-freezing temperatures--something is seriously not normal about his internal body temp.  2) It will bring back fun memories everytime we see it.  and mainly 3) At least one of our future children is bound to get into Greek life and it will make an amazing pass-down for them!  So, originally I had wanted to send it off to get done, but they are SOOOOO pricy.  And I mean ridiculously.  So, being possibly overly ambitious, I am going to take it on myself.  I need to get some good use out of my sewing machine anyway, right?  Here's the inspiration [side note: mine will look way cuter :) The colors on this are a bit much for me]:

 

I went with Shanti and Karen to Mary Jo's fabric store in Gastonia yesterday and got some good background and border fabric. Pictures to come! Although those pictures may take a while...

 I had a fun weekend!  Experienced the Long Branch for the first time and was pleasantly surprised.  Although, I do feel like I need to learn how to line dance if I'm going to go back haha.  The "regulars" as I shall call them were quite intense.  I had no idea there were so many different line dances!

Then, last night I made dinner and then we went over to April & Jeremy's for the LSU v. S.Carolina game.  It was a lot of fun and I do have to say, South Carolina's team is fierce this year.  Even though it was a loss for them, they are still pretty impressive.  [Sorry Jake--let me insert my "GO DAWGS!" here]

Today, church and Sunday school...Jake and I are teaching the Preschool class again this year and the kids are so much fun.  We have our curriculum book that we use, but I also found a really cute Pumpkin Prayer Book that I printed out and let each of them color.  It goes through each step of the pumpkin carving process, and with each step it relates it back to God and has a little prayer.  At the end it compares the candle that you place inside the pumpkin to the light of God in each of us.

Also, Eden gets to try on wedding dresses today!!! Can't wait to see her in them and get to see cute little Ryder :)  I can't believe how big he is getting...almost a year old!

 

Picture Updates

First, here is a picture of how the Strawberry Banana cake turned out for the women's supper last week.  It was so much fun, and all of the food was delicious!

Strawberry Cake, Cream Cheese frosting (my fav!) and strawberry & banana slices

HUGE thank you to my parents for coming up and helping make this remodel happen!  Friday night, Jake and I painted with the help of April & Jeremy who stopped by to hang out and help paint.  Jeremy also helped Jake move all of the furniture out and rip up the carpet earlier in the day.  Saturday my parents got up here in the morning, and after taking some time to figure out the plan of attack and making a couple trips to Home Depot, we got started and got a good bit done before dinner. 

((Side note:  We also picked up some lunch from Bat's BBQ on one of those trips to Home Depot.  The food was really good and pretty well priced!  I also didn't know that they are a Christian company.  They give all of their tips, and I think part of their profit, to a local religious organization.  I can't remember the name but I think it's a Catholic church or charity.  We got the Small Bat Pack which was a pound of pulled pork with 2 pint-sized sides, plus sauces, and we bought 4 rolls to make them sandwiches.  All for $22.00--not bad for 4 people!  If you don't like pork they also have chicken or sausage.))

Around dinner we took a break, my friend Iris met up with us and we all went over to the new Giordana Velodrome for the National Championships.  If you don't know what I'm talking about---at the new Rock Hill Riverwalk, there is a state-of-the-art Velodrome which is where Cyclists compete.  It was different but really cool!  I think it will be a great thing for Rock Hill to have.  It was free this weekend, I'm not sure if they will charge in the future or not.  After stopping by there for about 30-45 minutes we continued on to Baxter Village and had dinner at CloudNine, which is a tapas bar.  I bought a Groupon deal that they had recently.  Their food is AMAZING, and they have great drink specials.  I've eaten there three times now, and literally every single item on their menu is good.  Definitely try it if you have never been!  They also have outdoor seating, like most places in Baxter, and the weather was nice so we sat out there.  After about 30 minutes Beef O'Brady's had live music, which I think they do every Saturday. 

Then, back to work on the room on Sunday. The boys got things started while I was at church and then I helped finish the flooring and finishing touches once I got back.  It took until about 8pm Sunday night to have everything done.  Also, be on the lookout for an upcoming post to give you an idea of the budget for a remodel like this.  We all know that I'm into couponing and deals, and there were some great ones here!  I hate how shows like the remodeling ones on TLC and HGTV give people unrealistic ideas of budgets because they get things donated or discounted for TV.

Here are some pictures.  I didn't get to take any on my camera but these are some that Jake got Sunday night after it was all back in place...

This one shows the new color pretty well...a beautiful green chosen to match the stripe in the new draperies and floor rug.  I love that the name of it is "Sanctuary"...so calming :)  We still need to get artwork up on the walls.  The green walls you see here are actually the only 2 green walls in the room--we did these accent walls and left the rest of them tan.

The color of this one turned out really funky on Jake's phone, but it shows the new layout of our dressers.  Jake wanted to switch some things up so this was the compromise, but they actually fit together pretty well and I think I like it.  ((Yes, that is a water bowl on the floor.  Yes, I know they're spoiled.))

The new light above the peninsula in the kitchen.  I love it so much already!  It's so much brighter and better for when I'm prepping food or baking.

Color Schemes

I found a great website the other day for if you are looking for some color ideas and inspiration...


http://design-seeds.com/index.php/search

I love the images that they pair with the color palettes, too.  For our bedroom remodel, the color scheme is ending up as sort of a combination of these:




 mixture of the warmth of the first scheme, with the teal of this second scheme. The green won't be that bright, I promise!  The colors were adapted a bit because I found a great floor rug this weekend at the TJ Maxx in northeast Columbia.  An 8x10 Mohawk rug for only $59.99!  That is at least $200 less than everywhere else I've looked.  We haven't unrolled it yet so we're hoping there are no pulls in the pile, but it should be good to go!  The rug is what has some teal and a little bit of a golden color mixed in, which weren't a part of the original plan but I think I like it.


A combination of these two sort of embodies my vision in the living room/kitchen.  We already have most of these colors, but I want to paint the back wall of the house a lighter shade of gray/teal/blue-ish (I can't remember the exact name from Behr) similar to the first color on this "wish tone" palette.




It's maybe a bit of a stretch to understand or explain, but with the accent walls downstairs it gives me the feeling of being like an art gallery.  The colored walls give just enough of an accent to the rest of the items in the space to compliment without seeming too over-bearing.  The two things I am obsessed with in the living room and kitchen are the area rug in the living room (pic is from before we moved in so it's a little bare):


and our granite, which I realized I don't have a good picture of :\



...and these two things have a lot of the same color tones.  Because of that, painting the back wall of the house will join those two rooms and make it a nice transition. I'm sure that's just me and other people who come into our house just see accent walls, but it's comforting in a way to me. I think I also like it because with my artsy mind always coming up with new ideas, having just accent walls makes it easier to change or alter.


I am soooo looking forward to this weekend and getting some of these big & little projects completed.  I'll post pictures Sunday if I can get around to it. 


Tomorrow night is the women's Salad Supper for our church, and Shanti and I are going to head over there together once I get home from work.  It's a pot-luck, and we are supposed to bring either some type of salad or dessert.  I didn't want to run the risk of bringing a repeat dish, so I'm baking Strawberry-Banana Cake (strawberry cake, light cream cheese frosting, and fresh strawberries & banana slices on top) YUM :)

RESULTS!

Insanity is amazing, and I'm not even through the first two weeks of the two month program. But, more about that in a minute...


So, to re-cap this past weekend:  not much went according to plan.  We were supposed to have a fun movie night with April and Jeremy Friday night, but Jake has been slammed with work and needed my help.  So, like any loving wife would do, we had to take a rain check on the movie and I helped him finish up work and we had a joint project we were doing for our jobs so he and I worked on a floor plan layout. 

Saturday, Jake almost didn't go to play softball because he had a lot of work to do, but other guys called out last minute and his team needed him to play or else they would be disqualified from that entire league (I think it was ISA or something like that?) for the rest of the year.  I went to watch that game, but then I had to go get my oil changed.  My pretty little car already has 22,000 miles on it and it hasn't even been a year quite yet (July 31st).  Good Kia does not have the biggest or best selection of cars, but they have a fantastic service department!!  Then, Saturday night we did get to go to Karen's luau which was very, very fun.  Great food and great people.  We were exhausted when we left after playing in the pool all afternoon. 

Sunday, I had all intentions of waking up and going to church, but my poor little Kona was sick and I was starting to get really worried about him.  He had been having stomach issues for the past 3 days and since I didn't want to have to wait a whole week to take him to the vet we packed up in the car and I drove him to the emergency vet off of Westinghouse.  We had a different vet than we did the last time we were there (for Reece's seizures) and I did not like this one at all.  She was the type that was trying to up-charge every little thing, and I can't stand doctors like that.  They should be worried about the health of their patient, not making extra money wherever possible.  So, after about $206 and two hours, we left and headed home.  I gave him his first dosage and didn't end up leaving to go golfing or to lay out at the pool because I didn't want to be gone if he had a bad reaction to it.  Luckily, the medicine started working and he was already better by Tuesday. 


So, back to Insanity.  For those of you interested or considering trying it, here is my opinion:  it's wonderful for ME.  I am someone who is naturally very athletic, played a lot of sports in high school, and enjoy working out (once I'm in my routine, which is the biggest part of the struggle).  If you are like me, then you will love it.  It only took me 3 days to get into my routine of coming home from work, have a very small, healthy snack (mainly just to sustain me because of my hypoglycemia), change into my workout clothes, do the workout, shower, cook/eat dinner, and I'm relaxing by about 8:30-9pm.  With that said, this is definitely not for everyone.  With Insanity, you do not use any props or weights, only your body.  It is very much like intense sports conditioning.  Some of the exercises you do are ones from track, basketball, volleyball, and boxing.  The rest are intense training exercises.  You work out your entire body, but I would say the areas of focus are your core, quads, and toning your shoulders/biceps/triceps--in that order.   I would think that a lot of guys would want to do additional workouts to focus more on upper body muscle building, since it's mainly toning your arms.  It also seems to be targeting the young adult age group.  Everything focuses on tightening your core, but in the beginning it's not a ton of actual ab workouts.  There is a DVD that you add in to some of your days starting the end of week 2 that is solely ab workouts, so I will let you know how that goes this weekend!  Am I seeing results? Yes, already! After week 1 I was definitely feeling results and I could tell that it was already working because I tried on an old pair of shorts that had gotten too tight, and they fit!  But now, mostly through week 2, I am definitely seeing results.  I love it, total motivation to keep going :)


In other news, I signed up the for Charlotte Color Run!  We have a team, if anyone would like to join it!  Right now our team is myself, Kelsey, April, and Todd.  There is no limit to the amount of people on your team, and the only reason to be on a team that I can see is to get a $5 discount, but hey-it's fun with friends!  I wish it wasn't so late in the year (Nov 17th) because it will probably be very cold, but it will be a lot of fun.  I've never run in a 5k before, but lately I have been really intrigued by them and considering signing up for one.  This one I heard about through friends on facebook and it seems like a really fun one, especially to start off with.   What is the Color Run, you ask?  Just a way to spice up a 5k and make it a little more fun.  All of the runners are supposed to wear a solid white shirt, and at certain points along the path there are "color zones" where volunteers spray you with some sort of paint mixture.  Each point is a different color, so by the end of it you look like a tie-dyed rainbow of sorts.  As an artist, I think this is really cool.  Each city also picks a charity to raise money for, and Charlotte's is Habitat for Humanity this year.  Be sure to check back in November to see the awesome pictures from this event :) 


That's all for now, we are getting ready to go out to Tequila with Todd & Kelsey because apparently it is karaoke night?? Who knew they had such a thing.  We will not be singing, just enjoying the crazy people and some good food.


Lastly--say a prayer for the families, soldiers, and safety workers in Colorado right now.  I am so thankful that my brother left there right before the wildfire started, and that he is home safe as it is raging closer and closer to the Army base.  Also, prayers for the students at the Air Force Academy because it is dangerously close to them.  Google "Waldo Canyon Fire" if you want to see more info and pictures.

Easter Weekend!

I am so looking forward to this weekend! I think we are going to have so much fun. My bosses are awesome and decided to add Friday as a vacation day so tomorrow is my "Friday" :)

I am looking forward to relaxing, sleeping in on Friday morning, getting my hair cut, and all of the Easter/Brody's birthday celebrations! Our church does a sunrise Easter service at a house of one of our member's on the lake, and as beautiful as I know it will be I doubt we will make it. We had all intentions of going last year and couldn't force ourselves out of bed that early (7:30am service). This year I'm sure will be no different, but that is okay because we will be in the regular service with our friends and will get to see Miss Reina on her 1st Easter! After church on Sunday we are celebrating our "nephew" (really 2nd cousin) Brody's 1st birthday, which is really on the 13th. What a lucky little boy to have his first birthday on a Friday the 13th :) People laugh, but ever since Jake and I started dating I have always loved Friday the 13ths and thought of them as lucky since that is when he asked me to be his girlfriend <3 and as we all know that has turned out quite well!!

In other updates...we got our flowers planted in the front yard. We have a few large weeds that I would like to do something about but I do not have the energy to try to tackle right now, haha...Truth is, I am not really a plant person or yardwork person. However, I can do well with flowers. I just prefer to stay out of the dirt/bugs that live in it.

That's all for now, off to bed to have a productive day tomorrow.

Goodnight!

Thought for the Day...

I really need to get better with keeping up with this blog!

I saw this on facebook this morning, and thought it would be good to share:


Me: God, can I ask you a question?
God: Sure
Me: Promise u won’t get mad …... …
God: I promise…
Me: Why did u let so much stuff happen to me today?
God: What do u mean?
Me: Well, I woke up late
God: Yes
Me: My car took forever to start
God: Okay
Me: at lunch they made my sandwich wrong & I had to wait
God:Huummm
Me: On the way home, my phone went DEAD, just as I picked up a call
God: All right
Me: And on top of it all off, when I got home ~I just want to soak my feet in my new foot massager & relax. BUT it wouldn’t work!!! Nothing went right today! Why did you do that?
God: Let me see, the Death Angel was at your bed this morning & I had to send one of the other angels to battle him for your life. I let you sleep through that
Me (humbled): OH
GOD: I didn’t let your car start because there was a drunk driver on your route that would have hit you if you were on the road.
Me: (ashamed)
God: The first person who made your sandwich today was sick & I didn’t want you to catch what they have, I knew you couldn’t afford to miss work.
Me (embarrassed):Ok
God: Your phone went dead bcuz the person that was calling was going to give false witness about what you said on that call, I didn’t even let you talk to them so you would be covered.
Me (softly): I see God
God: Oh and that foot massager, it had a shortage that was going to throw out all of the power in your house tonight. I didn’t think you wanted to be in the dark.
Me: I’m sorry God
God: Don’t be sorry, just learn to trust me…..in all things , the good & the bad.
Me: I will trust you
God: And don’t doubt that my plan for your day is always better than your plan.
Me: I won’t God. And let me just tell you God, thank you for everything today.
God: You’re welcome child. It was just another day being your God and I love looking after my children…


Yes, it is a little dramatic, but so true how everything happens for a reason.


And to update on our lives lately...We had a wonderful Superbowl party again this year and it is always so much fun. I had all intentions of taking some pictures of everyone and all of our amazing food (bacon wrapped chicken bites in brown sugar & honey sauce, spicy mexican layer dip, veggies & french onion dip, Velveeta sausage dip, buffalo chicken dip, pepperoni pizza dip, spicy smoked ribs, and football cake pops). We are very blessed to have our home that can fit a good number of people. Speaking of our home--can you believe we have been there for over a year now?! We moved in on January 20th 2011. Time flies! We love our home so much, and it is really fun to see how it is slowly but surely transforming as we continue to decorate and remodel.

And lastly, Jake got our Xbox Live account fixed, so we were finally able to set up the Kinect system that I got him for his birthday. Let me tell you, it is very fun and a very good work out! I have even been going to the gym lately and my legs are still killing me because we were so excited to have it hooked up we played it for about 2 hours. So far we have only played the Adventures game, which I highly recommend. We also have two game vouchers for Fruit Ninja and another game so we will be trying out those soon, too.


That's all for now...have a nice day!

Kiss the Cook :)

So...A lot has been accomplished with our kitchen remodel...The cabinets have been ordered and should be coming in this week! They are going to be installed Halloween weekend (hopefully) and the granite should go in the week after that. I am still trying to figure out the design and materials for the backsplash.

Here is a peek:

Cabinetry Style, Crimson Shaker

New kitchen faucet, love this! The one we have now is terrible.

We are not going to use the soap dispenser or the base plate, it will just be the faucet straight on the countertop. At work we used the single-hole faucets all the time and it is such a nice, clean look on granite countertops. It is also a pull-out sprayer style which is going to be very nice!

Our Granite...Love this! The picture doesn't do it justice...

I am so excited because Jake and I did not think that we would be able to get everything done before Thanksgiving, but it is looking like we will :) We are hoping to host some family holiday gatherings so it will be nice to have the extra counter space with the peninsula we are adding.

I will post more updates as the project goes on.

For other updates...We had a really fun Oktoberfest get-together this weekend and it was so nice to get to see our friends from out of town. The food was great too! I had some help from my mom and our friend, April, and we ended up with a lot of really yummy stuff! I can't wait for Winthrop's homecoming weekend when everyone is coming back into town.

I have this week off as I am transitioning between my old and new job, and it is going to be FANTASTIC to get so much done and have a chance to relax for once.

We also had a meeting at church tonight to become official members of the church. We have been going there since shortly after we moved into our house at the end of January and are excited to be an official part of the church, even though we feel like we are already.

I will leave you with some pictures of the cuties...

Okay, Finally an Update!

Soo much to update on, where to begin.....

Sunday School:

I can't remember if I ever wrote about how Jake and I teach the 3-4yr old Sunday school class at our church, but we do. We started in August, and the kids are so sweet. They are so innocent and happy. We have really been enjoying it.

Mom & Dad's 30th Anniversary Trip:

We are sending my parents to CAPE COD! It is somewhere that we always remembered them wanting to visit but have never had the chance. I can't wait for them to be able to take the trip, for the big honeymoon trip that they were never able to take 30 years ago. I don't think they will ever quite know how much I admire them, and the way that they have been such a testament to their vows. They definitely deserve this :) They are staying at a very cute B&B in the mid-cape, the Captain Kelley House.

Kitchen Remodel:

I am hoping to go in the morning to finalize our cabinet choice for the kitchen. I am really hoping that these are the solution we have been looking for, because I would hate to have to go back to square 1. Once I have the cabinets chosen and a door sample, I need to visit the slab yard to choose our granite counters. I am excited that we are getting closer! We didn't think that we would be able to have it done before Thanksgiving, but the cabinets do not have a long lead time so it may be able to happen after all!

Work:

I GOT A NEW JOB!! I am so excited about all of the new possibilities and having a much more normal schedule. I am really looking forward to the change of pace, not working Saturdays, attending industry events and networking, and getting back into Commercial. I can't wait to start in a couple of weeks.

Fall Plans:

With my weekends opening up, I am packing my schedule full! I can't wait for haunted houses, Halloween, visiting friends, Winthrop Homecoming, going to a Georgia game, Thanksgiving, Black Friday shopping, the Lady Antebellum concert, etc!

That is all for now, goodnight!

House a Home

I am loving my new car! I ended up getting the Kia Soul "!" model, in the metallic black ("Shadow") color. It is really cool because the metallic in it is actually red. I got a heck of a deal! We definitely went at the right time. It has upgraded hounds-tooth interior and a sunroof, which is awesome. In the past I have not really been a 'driving with the windows down' kind of girl, I mean let's be honest that doesn't work well with long hair. However, the sunroof adds a new dynamic and I love it. It is so nice and relaxing to ride around town. It's also got bluetooth which is a feature I am surprised that I use so much. I hate the bluetooth ear pieces and have always thought it was weird, but the car version is really nice to be hands-free even though I probably look weird talking to myself.

So, as I have mentioned before, Jake and I have pretty much been very slack with decorating our house since we have moved in. We didn't have as much time as we would have liked to get things ready before we moved in. Lately I have really been wanting to do more with the house. I would love to paint the bathrooms, and put up framed mirrors instead of the builder mirror sheets. We also need to get up lots of artwork, and I am hoping to slowly but surely do that.

The other big project that Jake and I want to do is to remodel our kitchen. You would think that since it is what I do for a living, this would be easy. To an extent it is, however it really challenging to find good premade cabinets. I do not deal with premade cabinets at work, and ones that I have found at Lowe's and Home Depot really do not impress me. Here is something similar to the look we are going for:

We have a similar kitchen layout and coloring. We have the glass slider on the right wall, and door to the garage where this one is. Instead of an island, we have a peninsula that we are going to add coming off of the left wall. Our flooring is light laminate hardwood like this, and we want some sort of dark (not necessarily cherry) cabinets. The countertops are going to be light/medium tone quartz, and a light onyx backsplash (these were easy to choose from work!).

The new Martha Stewart line at Home Depot has some really nice character to it, and it is so new that they do not have any kitchen displays, only the sample boards. From reading reviews online, as much as these cabinets have in design details, they lack in structural integrity and quality. They are already more expensive than they should be just because they have the MS name, and they are built standard with 3/8" particle board instead of 3/4" plywood (which you have to pay even more to upgrade to). There are also horror stories of everything coming in wrong or damaged, and taking forever to replace. Lots of extra time to deal with other people's mistakes is something that I do not have, working 6 days a week. After lots of research, a new store called Cabinets To Go is opening up in 2 weeks in Charlotte and I think that is seeming like the most promising thing so far. Of course, that could change when I go there and see the quality of their products, but from the information on their website I am keeping my fingers crossed! Jake wants to get this remodel done sooner rather than later to get all of the wedding gifts that we have piled up in the dining room into the additional kitchen storage, and I am not complaining! We are just hoping to keep a good budget so that we can still do the back patio this fall. I love being an interior designer, and feel so blessed that we will get great discounts to allow us to get these projects completed.

Aside from that, we are looking forward to a fun night tomorrow going to Thirsty Thursday at the Charlotte Knights stadium. We are going with some friends from church, and I am using a voucher that I bought off of Living Social a few weeks ago :) I haven't been able to do a whole lot of couponing lately but at least I am still on the lookout for bargains! We bought the "Voucher for 2 field box tickets and one appetizer from the Budweiser Brewhouse from Charlotte Knights" for $15, a 59% savings. www.LivingSocial.com

Goodnight!

Busy, Busy, Busy!

We have been so busy lately, I have not had any time to get on here! As an update, our Easter plans were a success! For the most part anyway...we were a little bummed we did not get to go to the sunrise service at church on Easter. We had planned to, and set our alarms, but when we woke up it looked like it was going to rain, I couldn't find the doplar radar channel because Comporium changed all the numbers around on us, and the pups were up playing and being loud all night so we did not get good sleep. With the combination of all of that, we decided we probably needed that extra hour and a half of sleep. After the regular Easter service, our waffle brunch was a very good success and I think it would be fun to continue that tradition. Later in the day we had a really nice time at Sam & Teri's at the big kid Easter egg hunt (Jake and I got about $23 dollars combined--going into the Honeymoon fund! haha), dinner, and getting to meet little Brody Scott Munsey for the first time :o)

Aside from that, wedding plans are coming along nicely! I ordered our cake topper today which I am so excited about! I really like plain wedding cakes so ours is pretty simple, but I wanted a really fun topper for it. I saw the final design and it has exceeded my expectations...and with me being an artist and perfectionist that really says something! My Bridal shower invitations and our Rehearsal Dinner invitations have come in and turned out very cute. We are starting our premarital counseling this weekend, and hopefully going to get to see/hang out/rehearse with our wedding singers on Sunday. It will be so good to see them and I am also very excited to hear them together!

On another note--the new Charandas has opened up and Jake and I are probably a little too excited about that. We were there opening day for dinner. Yes, obsessed. The design of it is so cute, and has some more character than the other one. Loren was also up here visiting and got to go with us. I'm so happy that I have gotten to see some of my girls lately, I miss them all so much!

I have had no time for couponing lately but hopefully I will have some time soon.

Time for bed! April and Jeremy's wedding is tomorrow and I am so excited for them!

Goodnight!

HoneyBee

I am completely obsessed with Blake Shelton's new song "Honeybee". I've always liked him as a singer and this song is so cute. It's also very true, that your partner is your complement and will balance you. They have the qualities that you need or you may lack. That is probably the nearlywed in me talking, but seriously :)

Also, I forgot to update you that I did a trial run for my wedding hairstyle on Saturday and I think I have it about 99% figured out. I'm very excited! I didn't want anything too fancy or too casual and I think I have found the perfect balance.

So, I went to Walmart and Food Lion tonight and did not really have any great savings, but total I saved $17.84 and spent $47.56. I am going to Food Lion tomorrow for all of the great Easter deals, as well as BiLo which I have some good coupons for, so I'm hoping for better results then! I'll update you on how it goes.

I'm really looking forward to this weekend. We are going to the sunrise service for church on Sunday, which is being held on Lake Wylie which should be beautiful. Jake's family is also going to come with us to church, along with some friends so it will be great to have everyone together! After church we are having an Easter Brunch at our house with lots of waffles, fruit, casseroles, and a few desserts yum :)

Goodnight!

Weekend Update

I've been trying to figure out what type of wedding ring I want this weekend. It is hard, there are so many options! It's also very weird to look down at my hand when I am used to just seeing my engagement ring, and then seeing another ring with it. Everything I tried on yesterday seemed "too much" because it made my ring look so much bigger than I am used to. Jake and I are going to go pick out our rings next week, so hopefully I will figure it out between now and then!

I'm also looking forward to my brother visiting us this week, and Easter weekend! It's going to be a very busy but fun week.

Also, an update on the wedding--I did the individual section of our premarital counselling yesterday, and Jake has to do is individual section now. Once we have that completed, it will give our Pastor the key points to discuss with us about our relationship.

Okay and lastly before I get to bed, look how cute little one was today:

Bedtime!

Hello Everyone! I should actually be getting to sleep right now, but I have been busy working on wedding planning all night and I've been meaning to post an update on here! So, quickly--I've been getting all of my lists finalized...Bridal Shower, Rehearsal Dinner, and trying to get the last few addresses that we have not gotten thus far for the invitations. I also started on the guest book, and I have gotten a few more packages in the mail for the favors and my wedding jewelry.

We also met with the Pastor from our church tonight and had a really nice dinner. We went to Old Towne Bistro and the food was great, but we were not aware that it was Italian night--which included some LOUD live opera music. Yes, seriously! The guy was very talented, but it was just very unexpected. Over dinner we talked about wanting to become official members of the church once we are married, and also asked him to be the one to marry us. He agreed, and we are both very excited! It really means a lot to us to be married by someone who has a certain significance to us, and it is also another thing that makes us feel closer to the church. I'm also really looking forward to the premarital counselling, it is something that I've always thought to be very important. My parents have been married for almost 30 years, and they have had struggles just like anyone else, but they have always been a great example to me showing that relationships and successful marriages take love and effort. Premarital counselling will be a great way to get more insight and advice for when our struggles come up in the future and we can be strong together to work through them.

Well, now it is very far past my bedtime, so I'll have to come back to this later.

Goodnight :)

Change of Plans

Well, my plans for the weekend did not go quite as I had planned. We were not able to do any landscaping because we realized Saturday morning that our neighborhood Architectural Review committee requires landscaping to be approved first. We are not changing around any of the landscaping beds, just the plants, but we did not want to chance it in case it would still need to be approved. Plus, my dad had some minor surgery this past week so he would not have been able to help with any digging or carrying plants, so it seemed like the best option was to wait a few weeks. We did get the new plants and layouts figured out though, so it will be ready for a weekend in May when we can get it done.

We were very productive this weekend though! We got the ribbon tied on all of the wedding invitations and got the address labels and maps printed. Now, everything is ready and my mom is going to stuff the envelopes and mail everything out this week :) There are still a handful of addresses I need to get from Jake but other than that we are good to go. It's another thing to check off of the list, which feels great!

Jake and I went to church this morning and each week we feel more and more at home there. When we figured out where we were buying a home we looked around for Presbyterian churches nearby and found this one, and three weeks ago we started trying it. After the first weekend we knew that we both really liked it. It is a smaller church and you can tell that the members are a very close church family. There are various age groups, and we are one of the youngest couples there, but we felt so at home and welcomed. We also went to a Bible study for the "young adult" age group on Tuesday night. It was the first night that they started up a Bible study for our age group, but I think that it has a lot of potential and opportunity. We are going to meet every two weeks, so our next gathering is April 12th.

I finally got ink for my printer so I can start to really get into couponing. Hopefully now that I can print the online coupons we will start to have some more extreme savings! I was a little bit disappointed with the sales this week, since it wasn't really anything that we needed. I did go to Harris Teeter tonight for a couple of things, though:

(2) Tostitos Restaurant Style Salsa

Soft Tortilla Shells

Swedish Fish Easter Candy (donation for our church Easter egg hunt)

(2) Kleenex Ultra Tissue

Klondike Originals

Klondike Reeses

Total before Savings/Coupons: $27.83

Total Paid: $15.00