My Niece Kaia's 2nd Birthday

First and foremost for whomever might keep up to date on my blog, I apologize for the lapse of time that has passed since my last posting.  My daughter was very sick after my last post we actually went to the emergency room for the first time and following that I got really sick as well and was going to the doctor fairly frequently for a couple of months.  However, things have settled down, everyone is healthy and we are rolling on into 2012!!! :)

I wanted blog some great pictures from my niece's 2nd birthday party.  My sister as I've mentioned before tends to go a little over the top on pretty much everything.  In the end it always turns out spectacularly and everyone really enjoys themselves.  Her youngest daughters 2nd birthday party did not let down in the slights.

My sister tends to look for unique locations in the valley to have these fun birthday parties and never wants to use the same location twice.  This year she found a little charms - Tolmachoff Farms on 75th Ave and Glendale in Glendale, AZ.  They have a large picnicking area in the rear of the farm that she turned into a fun ho-down for the lil' ones.

 Here is a great picture of the dessert and sweets table.  Her cowgirl 3 tiered chocolate cake was the centerpiece.  She had purple(vanilla) as well as chocolate fondant covered cupcakes to the sides.  Cotton candy and purple carmel corn on the edges.  The apothecary jars are filled with varieties of purple candies including grape licorice, purple iridescent gum balls, grape taffy, island punch jelly bellies, purple chocolates and faintly large purple swirly lollipops!  In front of the jars are the dessert pastries.  In the small mason jars at layered strawberry shortcakes and in front; pecan squares, fresh marshmallows, special made farm house sugar cookies, miniature apple pies and lemon tarts.

As mentioned above.  Here are the fondant covered cupcakes.  They were so cute with all the different animal faces for the kids to enjoy!  And the picnic tables were covered in burlap table clothes with purple satin runners.  Each child had their own little basket full of kiddie foods and their own bottles of milk!

This is my eldest niece Alarah.  She had her face painted by the face painter and animal balloon maker.  It was such a great touch to the party.  All the kids had their faces painted and had little animals and fun toys made from balloons.  One of the cutest ones I saw was butterfly wings for the little girls to wear, what a great idea!

The cowgirl of the hour!  My youngest niece Kaia.  She turned 2 and she sure was ready to celebrate.  She had so much fun running around, riding the farm's pony, their go-carts, enjoying the petting zoo and running around in their corn bin. I was able to pull her away for about 5 minutes to grab some quick birthday girl shots.  She is absolutely adorable!

The hostess with the mostess and the birthday girl making their want to the train ride - I love this shot.  

This was a great shot of the train ride for all the kids.  They had a blast while the 4 wheeler pulled and swirled around the farm land.  The overcast weather turned out to be quite a blessing because the sun wasn't too overpowering, but provided just enough warmth from the cool breeze blowing around.  

We had a great time and can't believe another year has passed.  The next big event is my own daughters 1st birthday in March.  We are contemplating having it at the Phoenix Zoo. <-- coming {somewhat} soon.

What I'm Loving Wednesday

I thought I would take the opportunity to link up to another blog and spread the word. 

What I'm loving this Wednesday is the ability to come together via the web and pray, think and donate to an amazing family from my hometown in Illinois.

I hardly know them other than occasionally passing them in the halls in high school many years ago, but when I think about their hardship I begin to sob uncontrollably. 

I'm hoping that everyone who sees this will take the opportunity to pray for this family and/or donate, if they can, to help out during this tough, tough time. 

The Story (from what I can gather via her posts on facebook):

This story is about a woman I went to high school with, someone I wasn't directly friends with, but via facebook became acquaintances.  I read her blog, her carepage and all her posts on facebook and followed her "life" constantly thinking about her, her husband and her sweet little babes. 

Her daughter, who I want to say is about 4 years old now, was diagnosed with brain cancer when she was only 2 months old.  They went through a tough battle of surgeries and radiation and are currently still fighting/battling and surviving today.  She later had another daughter who I assume is about 2 or 3 years old now.  While being a mother to these 2 darling little girls she made the decision to go back to school and become a nurse.  While attending nursing school she announced their surprising pregnancy with their 3rd child. (This is the time that I started following her more closely because she was pregnant and the same time as I was).  Such a driven and determined mommy, she finished nursing school while having 2 little ones at home and one on the way.  She is just an inspiration to all mommy's out there.  Her son was born almost 8 months ago.

A couple of months after the birth of their son they found out the terrible news that her father has cancer as well, from what I can gather, liver cancer.  She works so hard to help her dad out and even holds a charity event for him to raise money to help his fight.  She is obviously a devoted and loving daughter in addition to being an amazing mom. 

The story does not end there.  Just a few short weeks ago they were blindsided by the news that their (at the time) 7 1/2 month old son also has brain cancer.  Heart drops. She is devastated.  I can only imagine the heartache, the sleepless nights, the pure anger and frustration with the situation.  My heart goes out to her and her babies.  One battling cancer and surviving, the other just starting his fight and she has to be strong for all of them when I'm sure all she wants to do is break down. She is truly an amazing individual. 

Prove to everyone that social networking isn't a waste.  It can be used for good things, to spread the word when help is needed. 

If you would like to donate you can do so here: https://www.wepay.com/donate/162561

If you are unable to donate, which is understandable, please pray for her.  Her name is Tara, her sons name is Maddox.  God can do miracles all you have to do is ask and pray. 

What I'm loving Wednesday:  God, the love and support of strangers, beautiful, strong, fighting babies. 

I have no clue what I'm doing...

So last night I posted that I was going to really put a concerted effort into looking my best every Sunday.  I really tried to get my sh*t together today in preparation for tomorrow's events.  I spent nearly 2 1/2 hours at the mall today.  Nordstrom had a huge shoe sale going on, did not buy any shoes...what?  ugh...don't even get my started my feet are like a full size larger and wider than they use to be.  Depressing! 

I proceeded to H&M because I assumed I could select a large number of pieces without breaking the bank.  You know what I walked out with?? 
A pair of skinny jeans --uhh I'm not skinny so I don't know what the hell I was thinking.
A long sleeve navy striped shirt -- very blegh and super casual no surprise there
2 long tank tops --which I will most likely add to my cycle of nursing wear

All in all a very unsuccessful adventure at the mall.  Tomorrow is most likely going to be a huge let down to whomever is ready this. 

On top of that I look like complete ass today and I was at one of the largest and most upscale malls in the country.  Of course I entered the Louis Vuitton store(to check out my sister's birthday present wish list idea), I'm sure they thought I was lost.  And earlier that day my sister said "You have to do something about your hair, I'm going to get you a Brazilian blow out" and I noticed later that my hair is nappy and has dreadlocks in the back.  I'm a total mess. 

To add to the typhoon clusterf*ckiness I am pretty sure I have not gotten REM sleep in nearly 8 months.  This cannot be healthy.  I might be going crazy...hence why this post makes like 2% sense. 

However, I will rise to the occasion tomorrow and attempt to put the best possible outfit I can find on to impress(or not) the readers of this here blog.

Until then I bid you adieu

Oh by the way I apologize for my profanity, my husband swears like its everyday language and over the course of the past 4 years it has rubbed off on me.  :)

 

In Need of Style

I am a blog surfer, I can admit to it.  There are a million blogs out there and about 1/2 of them are amazing and I love them instantaneously.  On top of that 99% of those 1/2 million blogs that are amazing end up being ridiculously well dressed people. 

You imagine most bloggers or what I consider "computer geeks" (because c'mon we all sit behind a computer screen writing blurbs in hopes of having other people read them) being, well, frumpy.  They never really have to face anyone if they don't want to, if their are professional bloggers they are able to just sit in their birthday suit if they feel like it and type away.  Personally I don't like my birthday suit, I prefer anything baggy.  :)

So you can imagine my surprise when I come across all these amazing bloggers who are so witty and funny and are able to grab my attention in a matter of seconds and on top of that they can seriously dress!  It's like hello?? Am I the only blogger out there that is a frumpy ol' mess!!?!  I mean I work in a clinic so I go to work in scrubs.  When I'm home with my daughter I'm normally wearing a nursing top of some sort and yoga pants/sweat pants or boxer shorts. I mean it doesn't get any worse does it?! Well, actually it does because when I go out to the grocery or pretty much anywhere (yes even the mall) I don't change!!  This is horrible. 

Is this a cry for help?! (shifty eyes)

I'm in need of some style.   I think I'm going to really try to at least once a week do my hair and make up, dress a little cleaner and better and post it on the blog.  I don't know what I'll call it.  Maybe, Seeking Style Sundays or something.  It'll give me a little motivation.  Then whoever might be reading this can critique my look and give me tips on how to look better!! :) I mean I'm a working mom, but that doesn't mean I should look like complete crap right??  I mean if you all can do it, so can I! :)

Here's looking forward to this Sunday, where I'm really going to put my best foot forward.  Shit, now I'm going to be thinking about what I'm wearing on Sunday for the next 36 hours.  o_O

Fill In The Blank Friday

Fridays are not my favorite day.  I'm at work for 12+ hours and away from my daughter.  So sad :(  

However, being on blogger just makes the time go by that much faster!  So I'm counting down the hours until the weekend...roughly T-3 1/2 hours yay!  So again blog hopping, I love these linkable posts because it kind of allows me a moment to just ride off the thoughts of another blogger.  Then later when I come up with something witty and interesting I can really delve into it with my all...so for now...let's fill in these blanks!

Linking up to: The Little Things We Do

1. You should always take time to give everyone you love a bear hug.

2. Smiley little babies make(s) the world a happier place to be.

3. I can hardly wait for Maddie to crawl.

4. Tuesday is my favorite day of the week.  (Because it's the only day of the week my husband and I both have off work at the same time)

5. Something totally dumb and ridiculous that I love is The Fresh Beat Band on Nick Jr.  (Maddie and I will be attending a concert of theirs in the somewhat near future! :)

6. If I could, I would be a stay at home mom.

7. I rather like spending 75% of my time in bed. 

WTF HardTail

WTF HardTail???  Is it so hard to sell your stuff on an online website instead of through other stores?? Are you too cool for school?? My patience with you is wearing thin and would appreciate some compensation for the fact that I search for you regularly and only am able to find a handful of items on nordstrom.com, which does not compare to your flagship collection in Santa Monica!  Do I really have to fly into LAX deal with traffic and cruise on out to Santa Monica to get a sweet pair of yoga pants??? 

I am going to list a few of my fave items(from your website) here...you can e-mail me for my mailing addressing and I will accept any or all of the following as compensation for my irritation today... :D

These yoga capris in the natural tye-dye are soo effing amazing. want want want quadruple want (where can I find these?!)

I'm not really into the hobo look, but I really like this throw over.  I would wear this every single freaking day.  seriously.

Do these pants look super comfy or what? Again.  I would wear these 100% of the time with the above pull over!

Am I stuck in the 80s?!? I looove  the off the shower sweatshirt look.  Seriously flash dance much? want!

Those cut off yogas on the legs on top and the long sleeve comfy tees!!

Yes please!!

Side Note to Hard Tail:
Does yoga seriously make your body look like that?? I gotta get to a yoga studio like stat.  I am envious of all these ladies that are like super duper flexible and have zero fat on their bodies.  I want to assume they haven't had children yet o_O

Also...You would seriously make like $1000 from me in the first 10 minutes of your online store being open.  Is that incentive enough???

What I'm Loving Wednesday (Part II - right now!)

Sorry I should have added this to my original post on what I'm loving Wednesday, but I didin't discover that I was loving these until about 5 minutes ago! 

My sister was in Paris last week and when she arrived back she had a bag o' goodies for me.  Should I list the goodies?? I think I shall:

1.  One large duty free box of Kinder Bueno candy bars Mmm if you have not tried them please do they are quite delicious :)

2.  2 very large duty free milk chocolate Milka bars double Yum these are what made me fat whilst traveling through Europe a few years back...

3.  1 tin of Cafe Angelina's famous hot chocolate mix omg so good haven't had this in something like 7 years <- the last time I was in Paris

4.  very cute baby doll for my daughter Madison - how sweet

5.  One box of 16 macaroons from the Pierre Herme - f*ck yeah

So what I'm super crazy loving right now is some Pierre Herme macaroons.  And I would love to say that I'm saying his name correctly with the french accent and a oui oui, but no I'm totally going hillbilly hick on you and with crumbs of macaroon on my lips I'm totally saying it "Pee-Air  Air-May" deal with it!

I took some pics to share my love:

Bingo, bango!

Ooo La La

**Crinkle Crinkle Rip**

**Nom Nom Nom**
(the sound of me inhaling these suckas)

So good, you know you're jealous

What I'm Loving Wednesday...

****I'm procrastinating I know.  At work surfing blogger (shhhh!!!)****Hopping from blog to blog I find the cutest southern blog; I say southern cause it's full of y'alls, which I love!  Anyway she has a "What I love Wednesdays" and I wanted to link up with some fabulous news and I guess this is the perfect way to share too ;)

What I love today:

That I will be a Bridesmaids in one of my best friend's weddings in August! Hooray!!!  And this is how she asked me...

And I had to do a quick pose with my little Maddie-boo and do a quick text back with the caption

"Hell Yeah!!!"

Sorry I look like shite, it was 7:00pm post work!  But I was excited!!!



crucial.com

I am an avid picture taker.  I've always been borderline wanting to go "pro", but never really had the guts or the self confidence.  I pretty much think I suck, but I enjoy taking pictures so much...

Anyway I take like a million pictures a minute and my little ol' iMac can't handle the uploads.  Well not that it can't handle the uploads, but I have minimal RAM since my computer is like 4 1/2 years old.  It literally takes like 30 minutes to save 150 high resolution photos to my computer. Ugh.   I have a 2007 20 in. iMac with 1GB RAM and 250GB memory.  Not that much nowadays, back in the day it was like the shiznit!  So after my computer disaster a couple weeks ago I went to the Apple genius bar made sure my computer was functioning properly and the guy Josh I spoke with suggested I upgrade my computer with more RAM!  What a genius, right? I didn't even realize that was something you could do?!

The way he explained it to me is this...ROM is solid memory and RAM is current memory (I think).  But his analogy was pure genius!  ROM is like the parking lot and RAM is like the freeway to get to the parking lot.  So I have 250GB of memory in my parking lot and only 1 GB of memory to have all that information travel to my parking lot, sheesh how does my computer even function?? I have 1 lane for traffic and like a million cars trying to use that one lane.

My solution?? Well I can't really say it was my solution considering Josh is the one who gave me the website and what I should get, but still the solution... to buy more RAM!  So voila crucial.com

I went to the their website downloaded a little scanner thing that scans my computer to see what memory would be best for my system.  Click Click Boom there it is.  I have the option of upgrading to 2 GB, 3GB or 4GB.  I'm like hell yeah 4GB let's so this thing!  So I ordered my 4GB of RAM or whatever for $49.99.  I'm so pummmped to get it in the mail and install it and get my little iMac moooovin'!!

I also purchased LightRoom 3 and I'm hoping my computer can handle all the new stuff and I'm going to start taking like a million more pictures on top of the millions I already take!! Woot Woot

I'll update once I have all the new stuff installed, I know you all are on the edge of your seats in anticipation! o_O

Backpeddling...

So I wrote a blog a week or so ago regarding the "Muffin Top" how utterly disgusted I am with such a thing and how I would never be caught dead sporting one of those...

and then.....

...it happened.

I couldn't stop it!  It just happened.  I'm so embarrassed.  I have no words...

I'm disgusted with myself...

(lowers head in self defeat)

Kirsten: 0

Muffin Top: 1

At least I have a baggie shirt on!



Photo Challenge: Remember

So I was recently turned onto this blog a couple weeks ago by a fellow photo fanatic blogger and I really really enjoy it, a lot!  The blogger has a lot of interactive posts which is super fun.  Each week she posts a photo challenge with a theme (normally needing to be associated with your children), but this week there is an exception.  This weeks theme is "Remember". 

I went scanning through my collection of pictures from over the years.  I originally wanted to do a picture from our Honeymoon in Bora Bora, oh how I love to remember that romantic time with my husband where we basked in each others love post wedding and slept til noon everyday (the sleeping part being key since I'm a sleep deprived mama).  Then I went to pictures from my trips to Europe and China.  I thought,  I really want to remember all the amazing things I saw when I was travelling around the world.  Then I realized this is a great opportunity for me to really focus on myself, since the rules are waived for the week and the focus does not need to be a child or really anyone else for that matter.  So I went inside and came across this little nugget...

This is a snapshot I took on our trip to Hawaii a couple of years ago; pre-wedding, pre-baby, pre-stress.  I'm not saying that my life is too stressful, I love the stress of being a working mom and a devoted and loving wife, but when I want to decompress and remember a quiet moment, this is the moment to which I travel back.

  My toes in the moist, warm, sandy beaches of Hawaii being splashed ever so lightly by the cool ocean waves.  No noise, no sound, nothing other than the salty breeze whispering in my ears and kissing my freshly tanned cheeks. 

Mmm....I remember.

Thanks for helping me remember Paper Mama! :)

Maddie's Birth Announcements

Since we are on the subject of paper works, I thought I would scan one of Maddie's birthday announcements. 

The concept was created in mine and my sister's head and put to work by Celebrations in Paper a papetiere here in Scottsdale.  They do some great work including announcements for my sister, invitations to birthday parties, announcements for some close family friends.  My sister did my baby shower invite through Stephanie their graphic designer there, and it turned out brilliantly.  I will have to take a picture of it and post in the future, impossible to scan as its a package(omg), yes a package invitation.  Anyway, that's for another post. 

Here's what the announcement looked like:

This was the outside sleeve.  The picture was taken by our photographer Christine Johnson of Scottsdale.  She did our engagement, wedding, pregnancy and new born photos!  She's super talented and does all her work in film (can you believe?).  I just love this shot she got of me and BJ it really is a great profile of the big ol' belly and it's super sweet with him leaning in for the smooch!  I'm a goon, but I love it!

And this was the announcement insert.  I just love our sweet little girl she's so stinkin' cute.  I believe she was just over a week when this picture was taken.  We went to Christine's home and she was able to capture some super intimate moments between me and the hubs and little Maddie.

I was so pleased with how the announcements turned out.  They were not inexpensive mind you so if you are looking for a deal this is not the route to go, but if you want quality as well as a super cute keepsake (I framed these) then Stephanie at Celebrations in Paper is definitely the way to go! 

Our Wedding Thank Yous

So my post last night put me in a mood to brag about some work.  :D

Last year after we got married I carefully chose 2 out of hundreds of wedding photos to use in our thank you cards.  I wanted to do something different so I came up with the idea of sending thank you postcards!  Not generic postcards either, each one of course would be personalized with their own individual thank you note, but on the back of the postcard! 

Here it is:

It's really hard to see in the scan, but the back of the postcard is a very opaque picture of me and the hubs.  We are kissing behind a paper parasol (lol).

I just loved the top picture, I know I look really serious but the backdrop is gorgeous.  This is the picture we used for the wedding announcement for my hometown newspaper.  I've mentioned this is an old post, but we ended up having the wedding in my sister's backyard.  It was a beautiful view of Camelback Mtn.  This picture was actually taken under a tree in her neighbors backyard.  The neighbors house happens to be the David Wright Residence designed by Frank Lloyd Wright.  It was neat because the architecture of my sister's old home(before they knocked it down) was very modern (designed by FLW's son) as is the other home's property.  But either way the pictures turned out amazing due to the setting sun in the background. 

I "designed" these thank you cards and had them printed on an iridescent card stock.  I liked them! :)  I made like 75 and used every single one. 

Maddie's Stationery

Not many people know this about me, but my first job out here in Arizona was as a marketing research contractor for a non-explosives company.  Yes, non-explosives.  I actually remember the whole spiel about the company, but generally it used compact gas expansion to demolish rock where there were high explosive regulations (snooze).   Anyway part of my job duties were to create the information packets, advertising mail outs etc.  I had no background in graphic design whatsoever, but for whatever reason that responsibility landed in my lap and I went with it.  I spent weeks on what I assume would take a professional only hours, but I was damn proud of my work as was everyone else.  The company continued to use my work for months after I left (up until they went bankrupt yikes!!)  It was such a great concept and really could have been successful had it been marketed in the right way.  They had some horrible ideas and no direction, hence why I left!  Anyway,  I'm not going to post any of my work here (although I still have my presentation boards) because it's really boring stuff with a lot of explosive statistics.  (snooze again).  I don't blame you, if you have fallen asleep already!

Basically I'm prefacing the work I did today for Madison's thank you cards.   So I have a little graphic design background working with Adobe CS2 (is what it was at the time, I believe).  But I actually didn't use any of CS4 (which is what I have on my computer) I just used plain old Word to design her thank you's.  I've done a lot of her thank you cards as well as my own in the past, but this one for some reason was the most successful the others were kind of blah.  Mostly because I wasn't using a great quality paper with the right color. 

So without further ado :)

 

A very simple, but what I believe is an elegant stationery for my daughter to write (I really mean I'm going to) all her thank you cards for the baptism gifts from family, when we were in Chicago.  I know that people probably just read the note and think oh what a cute little card, but I really try to make each and every thank you card I send out special.  I'm a dork! Every card I have written so far has been a note from Maddie herself, telling her family in Chicago how much she misses them and thank you so much for all the cool things she got.  (She is one sweet little girl right!?) I think it's important, or at least that's how I was raised.  (Tangent! - I wrote straight from my head so sometimes I go off on tangents haha Mommy Brain!)

The deets:

M is the monogram in Edwardian Script Font

Madison Noelle (Scribble Scrabble - yes done on purpose for anonymity purposes) is all caps in Garamond Font

Each of the above were positioned using simple text boxes

3 lines 2 of which were 9pt in pink and 1 in the middle 2pt in blue, lined up with no spacing

I printed it on cream colored 115# (I think) card stock

They are each 1/4 sheet of paper a perfect little thank you note. 

I love to design invitations, thank you notes and everything in between! :) What fun!  I'm trying to think of what my next project will be!

Maddie is 5 months!!

The computer problems I have been complaining repeatedly about over the course of the past couple of weeks have now come to a resounding end. I have corrected the Apple issues and resolved the external HD issues with a successful DIY date recovery. And now that things are somewhat back to normal/order I wanted to add Maddie's 5 month post (a little late!)

Madison Noelle, where do I start. Ahh I could just squeeze your chunky little fat stinkin' thighs all day long, and give you big ol' smooches all over your neck rolls. You are absolutely 100% the cutest little thing I could have ever created. I don't know how much you weigh or how tall you are (no doctor visits this month) but if you haven't hit the 20 lb mark by your 6 mo. visit I'll be very very surprised!

All that squirming you were doing last month to prepare yourself for crawling has paid off. You are mere weeks from crawling. You are able to get up on all fours and you wobble back and forth until you flop down and get super frustrated, but you will get the hang of it soon!! You rarely like to hang out on your back anymore, when we lay you down you flip right over onto your belly - you even like to sleep on your belly (to mommy's dismay).

You have jumped into eating solid foods like a rock star. At first we had a hard time with the rice cereal, but after your persistent mommy kept feeding it to you and mixing it with your favorite fruits you gobble it down!! Mommy is making all your baby food for right now and we have tried apples, bananas, pears, peaches, sweet potatoes, sweet peas, green beans and carrots so far!! Your favorites are definitely the sweet potatoes and all the fruits (no surprise there). You love your mum mums and have recently started snackin' on sweet potato Gerber Puffs. You are currently eating 3 solid food meals a day and it has really helped with your sleeping. You normally take 2 solid naps (about 2 or so hours) everyday and you are sleeping (at the longest) a 6 hour stretch at night time, just a little feeding coaxes you back to sleep quickly until you've gotten a good 10-12 hours of sleep.

You still love to watch Baby Einstein although I've realized that whenever anyone starts speaking during the program you get very annoyed. You like all the pretty pictures and the toys to the music in the background, but none of the serious talk, right? You are also still watching NickJr. You just love Moose A. Moose, just like your cousin Kaia. You could watch him forever. You also enjoy Ni Hao Kai Lan, Mrs. Spider's Sunny Patch Friends and the Bubble Guppies. Mommy's favorite show is the Fresh Beat Band and maybe we will go to one of their concerts together when you are older ;)

We haven't had any exciting trips since last month when we went to Chicago. Daddy and I want to start taking you to the Zoo, but it's just so stinkin' hot here right now. As soon as it cools down we want to show you all the animals and we hope you enjoy it as much as we do :)

I cannot believe my next post about you will be your 1/2 birthday!! 6 months have gone by way too quickly!! Slow down little girl, please, your mama can't take you gettin' any older :\

I don't think there's anything worse...

...than an Asian lady driving with a baby in the backseat, i.e., ME! 

According to my husband I could very well be one of the worst drivers on the face of the planet, aside from my mom and her sister (100% Asian woman - I'm only 1/2).  I understand that it's a stereotype that Asians are horrible drivers, but c'mon stereotypes stem from somewhere and coming from experience, this one is spot on. 

You ever drive down the road and there is a car in the left lane going like 10 mph under the speed limit and you're cruising along trying to get around them?  As you are pulling onto the left side of what is most likely a Toyota Camry you peer to your side just to catch a glimpse of what this driver might look like. There is like a 90% chance it's an Asian woman hovering over the steering wheel not even paying attention to the fact that there is a car to her left or the fact that she is going 20mph in a 40.  Don't roll your eyes, you know it's true! 

Okay, so I'm no a slow driver, if anything I'm a lead foot, but I tend to be a little reckless.  Hence my entry a couple months ago regarding my serious road rage and anger with beggars.  Here are a couple of the common things I do on a day to day basis when I'm driving:

1.  Roll through stop signs - not a horrible offense, there are a lot of people who do it.  I just happen to do this without looking both ways assuming there is no one coming and more than likely cutting someone completely off.  :O
2.  Cruise through stale yellow lights...Hmm it's yellow!!! If my tires are over the pedestrian walking line and it turns red, I'm in the intersection!  seriously!
3.  Occupy 2 lanes at any given time.  There normally isn't anyone in the second lane :)
4.  Get my rights and my lefts confused and when turning left sometimes realize I need to be making a right and just cut across like 4 lanes! Woopsie

There are many many more, but I don't want to completely scare you from driving on the streets of Phoenix.  I promise I have not been in an accident in about 3 years! (Yes an most of the car accidents I've been have been caused by me :\)

But all this horrible driving is exponentialized (yes I made this word up) by the fact that I have my screaming daughter in her car seat directly behind the driver seat.  So when she is screaming I release the steering wheel with my left hand (making sure to keep my right hand in contact with it at almost all times) to reach back to the back seat fumble around in her car seat reaching to her sides, underneath her, up and around in search of whatever toy, pacifier, squeaky I can find to keep her from crying even louder.  I noticed today while driving and this happened, that my driving skills are compromised to the extreme while attempting to do this and make a left hand turn at the same time.  I narrowly avoided a large curbed median with trees and a pole, swerving erratically into the extra lane again narrowly missing the other vehicle making a left hand turn.  Hmm..

So I can admit to the fact that I'm a horrible driver, I can admit to the fact that my driving skills are reduced to an even farther extend while tending to the a crying baby at the same time.  I can also admit to the fact that occasionally I will text while driving (not with Maddie in the car though).  I can lastly admit to the fact that all of the above combined pisses the living sh*t out of my husband, considering he is professionally trained in the art of pursuit/emergency/tactical driving (all safely I mind you).  At least one of us is a good driver! :)

Cheetos, It's What's for Breakfast

Between Maddie waking up numerous times last night and having a somewhat cranky baby this morning(and practically - but not really - force feeding her carrots), attemping to fix my external hard drive myself after a 4 day scan took place and getting the husband out the door for court I am wiped. 

Maddie had a rough night followed by a somewhat rough morning and her morning nap only lasted about 40 minutes instead of her normal 2.  In addition to this cranky little babe, I tried calling Seagate technical support to retrieve my scanned information after an "error" occurred while doing the data recovery scan for 4, count 'em 4 days went by, ugh!   Upsetting!!  Then my husbandio needed to be woken up at 9 on the dot after sleeping for 1.5 hours(he works at night) to head to court.  The duties of a mother/wife/basically servant to everyone, never end.

So I had Cheetos for breakfast yup!  I was hoping to throw a couple eggs on your the stove and a couple pieces of bread in the toaster for a quick and healthy breakfast to start my day off right, but instead I filled a bowl with Natural White Cheddar Cheetos and pounded those things down like they were going out of style.  Breakfast of Champions!  I advise, skipping breakfast all together instead of opting for a bowl of Cheetos, stomach not happy with me.    o_O

You Think We're From Chicago???

Not sure how many people who read this, which is probably not many, know that we are a Phoenix family, but we are!  I personally have lived in the Phoenix metro area for over 5 years now.  Gasp!  (Damn, I'm getting seriously old.) Anyway, both the hubs and myself are from the Chicago-land area and I personally didn't have a strong connection to Chicago sports teams, but my husband and his family surely, surely, surely and just one more surely do. 

These are just a select few of the Illinois/Chicago teams apparel we have in Madison's closet.  What we have missing are some White Sox tees and more Cubs tees, a D. Rose Bulls onesie, like a crap ton of Bears wear.  On top of that we have about 15 U of Illinois tees and onesies one which is so cute and says "I'm going to be a Division 1 athlete just like Mommy and Daddy" hehe cuuuuute!!!

So Madison is currently 5 months, wearing roughly size 6-9 months and will not be able to wear any of these outfits for at least another 6-12 months, but they are there ready and waiting for her because she is a Chicago Girl after all!!! :)  I can't say I won't be disappointed if she doesn't go to Illinois!!  Hmm, I guess we have a little time to figure that all out ;)

One of those HARD ROCK days...

Actually I don't know if you would consider it "hard rock" but I remember this song from back in the day...

The video is so tacky it's hilarious and the tune is definitely catchy

I believe in a thing called love, do you?

Worst Computer Disaster of All Time!

Roughly 2 months ago I came up with this amazing idea to get an external hard drive to move all my pictures to and open up some space on my iMac.  So I went in search and found myself a Seagate GoFlex 2TB external HD. Yippee...I was so excited to plug that sucker in get it all formatted and ready to go.  And 2TB, what would I do with all that space?  

So over the course of the first couple of hours of getting home I managed to move every single picture I have taken over the course of the past 5 years over to the external HD and delete them off my iMac.  Everything was hunky dory as I was still able to move the images back and forth for editing.  I was in technological heaven. 

And then disaster struck.  Ugh!  I plugged the HD into my computer to work on some images and what happens??  "Your HD is unreadable - please reformat"  WTF!!!  Quickly, I maneuver myself to the disk utilities and attempt to do a repair of the HD.  Error.  Error.  Error. Oh motherf*cker!!  In my non-computer genius head I decide to use the seagate website to troubleshoot to no avail.  I finally lower my head in defeat and  come to the realization that this particular job needs to be outsourced.  I figure I need to get my iMac cleaned up anyway.  I'll bring the whole getup into Geek Squad the next day and get them to fix everything for me.

WRONG!!!

After checking in all my equipment signing a million and two pieces of paper and handing over my life so to speak I leave with an emptiness in the pit of my stomach.  Those pictures consist of both my nieces births and subsequent birthdays.  My very own daughter's birth.  Our rehearsal dinner and wedding pictures.  I mean all the memories I could ever want to hold on to are on those HDs. 

Couting the days...day 4 I call, no answers.  Ugh! 

A week later...seriously a week!?! "Yes we would like to inform you that your external hard drive is not working properly and we cannot get your data recovered at this point.  Also we would like to inform you that you iMac's hard drive has also failed"  Yeah.  So I go in to get a tune up on my computer and I get back a non-functional iMac.  Fabulous! $150 later, I have less than what I went in with.  I could literally, and I mean quite literally, bite someone's head off.  Just jam my teeth into one of those tech's neck and start chompin' away until decapitation occurs. Grr..

But I haven't completely given up.  I am taking my iMac to the Apple store tomorrow to be repaired followed by an attempt at a DIY restoration of data from external HD.  We will see how that goes.  I'm keeping my fingers crossed!!

Muffin Top

What is with women wearing what I can only assume are size 24 jeans when they are very clearly not a size 24, closer to a 34.  Can we say muffin top!  And I mean an overloaded cupcake pan type muffin.  Yikes.  Ghetto!  My number one question I want to ask is "How the hell do you get those ON?" number 2..."Do you think that looks good?"  It is beyond me why women do that.  Do you think they would be offended if I asked them?? Because I am honestly super curious.  I can imagine how that conversation would go...

ME - "I'm so sorry to bother you ma'am, but I'm just curious, what's up with the muffin top?"

MuffinTop Lady - "Muffin top?"

ME - "You know, all that fattiness pokin' out from under your skanky halter top and hanging over your way too tight jeans? And while you're at it can you explain to me the physics behind leveraging such a body size into those tiny little jeans?"

MuffinTop Lady - *gasp* "BITCH!"  *WHACK*(her fist hitting my face)

ME - "Ahhhhhh" *SPLAT*(my face hitting the ground)
Hmm...on that note...I'm not going to ask.  I'm just going to assume they don't look in a mirror before they leave and are in absolute denial about their actual size or have not purchased a new pair of jeans since they were 12 years old, in which case I would be more than happy to buy them a new pair of pants, no joke! 

Maddie's First Taste of Food!!!

Madison has started "solids"!!! YAY I'm so excited for her.

Right before we left for Chicago we decided to start Maddie on rice cereal.  She was not a huge fan. She ate a little bit, gave us that disgusted look and spit most of it out.  We repeated the process for about 10 minutes and gave up.  We attempted a handful more times of rice cereal to no avail.  I tasted it myself, its pretty gross. blegh!

When we returned from Chicago I busted out the Beaba and made her some Fuji Apple applesauce!!  She loved it.  We have video of her screaming because a spoonful of applesauce is not in her mouth.  We wanted to make sure that there was no allergic reactions so we waited about a week and 1/2 and now she has progressed to bananas.  Oh my goodness if I thought she loved her some applesauce she is all about the bananas!! She has also recently become addicted to Mum Mums.  Bananas flavored baby rice husks.  THey jsut melt in her mouth and are something for her to chew on, cause I'm pretty sure she is teething.  She loooves them.  So, today is day 3 on bananas and applesauce and she went through 2 oz of each in addition to her regular feedings.  Oh my chunky little monkey is gonna get so big!!!! :)

I think tomorrow I'm going to make her some carrot puree and freeze it in preparation to start her on Monday.  I think apples and bananas are great, but they are fruits and I want to add in some veggies.  I think after carrots I'll add in some sweet potatoes.

Can you believe on Thursday she is going to be 5 months???  Wow all these solids foods before she's even 5 months old?? I'm sooo proud of my growing little girl... I'm a crazy mom I know :-P

Monday, Monday

Feeling a little slow going this moring, groovin' to the oldies - swaying back and forth to one of the best Monday songs of all time...

Enjoy the sounds ;)

Have a great Monday everyone!

Family Photo Picture Time! :)

I am normally taking pictures left and right of everyone and Billy refuses to have his picture taken, so the fact that we even got 2 family "portraits" this past weekend is AMAZING!! I have to share :)

This one was taken at Maddie's baptism.  Maddie is obviously in her baptism dress, so stinkin' cute!!  Billy and I are as dolled up as we get haha :) I'm a little red in the face, not sure why...oh well

This was taken when we arrived at the Koepcke/Nybroten family reunion in DeKalb, IL the Saturday before Maddie's baptism.  Maddie is distracted by her cousin Alarah in the corner.  Fairly obvious in this picture that I have some work to do post pardum (on the bod) but Billy looks great! :) 

So they aren't the perfect family portraits, but they are as good as its going to get at the moment, so I'm happy!