My First Pinterest Project

I. Am. Obsessed. With Pinterest.

A month or so ago, my cousin, Sarah told me I'd love Pinterest and sent me an invitation via facebook. Sadly, I did something wrong while signing up for it and it wouldn't let me on the site. I gave up, not knowing the treasure Pinterest truly was.

Then, two days ago, my good friend, Hannah reminded me about it and sent me ANOTHER invite. That did it. I finally got on, read about it, figured it out and promptly became obsessed. Truly, it's bad. I literally dreamed about it last night. I love everything about it. I'm finding all kinds of exciting projects to do. And there's something about it that really inspires me to actually DO the things.

So. I completed my first project and now have the materials needed to complete a second project. This first project was sort of a test run to see how crafty my inner craftiness is, so I didn't take pictures along the way, but my next project I just might make a small tutorial just in case anybody else is interested in making one. =) Anywhoo...here's the finished product. I'm super, super excited about how it came out.

Squee! YAY weekly calendars, organization aaaand Pinterest.

Christmastime!

This is Luke. He loves Christmas. He loves the Christmas lights and the trees and the wrapping paper and the parties during which he flirts mercilessly with the women who pass him around.

Luke and Mama (and sometimes Daddy) decorated for Christmas. Here is what we did:

We finally bought a dining table which made me very excited because I have this fancy lace table cloth and fancy christmas candles and things that I wouldn't have had a place to put otherwise.

It's hard to see in this picture, but the stockings all have our names written in glitter. YAY fancy DIY projects. =)

Our new entertainment center sans TV.

Luke's Christmas present. It's under the tree. Yeah. I'm the world's best wrapper. I got this thing on craigslist for 20 bucks. It was originally 100. Score. P.S. it's taking great self-discipline not to stick him in this thing until Christmas. LOOK AT ALL THE TOYS!

This is our cute, tiny, artificial tree. As soon as we got this up, Shem said, "Wasn't this bigger last year?" We can both touch the top without so much as going on tippy-toes. And we're short. (Don't tell Shem I called him short) But it is the cutest tree of all time. We put twinkly lights on it and a beautiful star which this photo doesn't entirely capture, and it makes me so ridiculously happy. I have this thing plugged in just about all of this time.

Another shot of the tree, I guess. YAY decorations! There are a few more, but blogger is a pain about putting up pictures. So. Facebook shall tell all in a couple of weeks. Be excited.

Why My Son Sleeps In A Suitcase

When he was born, I was all about the idea of co-sleeping. I'm a really light sleeper, so the risk of my rolling on top of him was extremely low. Unfortunately, that same blessing was also a curse; for the first 3 weeks of his life, I didn't sleep. At all. Every time he breathed (which was frequent, let me tell you) I woke up. Then, my cousin Shannon lent us her 'My Little Lamb' cradle swing which Luke and I promptly fell in love with. He slept like a baby ! in that thing. (Man, I'm funny.) And I slept like a baby while he was in it.

Then, something wonderfully tragic occurred, for unknown reasons, Luke gave up the swing. He loves swinging and playing in it still, but he WILL not sleep in it. No idea what changed his mind. So I figured...hey...we'll move his crib into our room for a little while until he is big enough to be in a room on his own. No such luck. We constructed the crib inside his room. Therefore, I did not know it doesn't fit out the door. Fail.

P.S. During all of these super exciting developments, I had unpacked our humongoid suitcase from our trip to Utah and didn't want to wrangle the thing back into our itty-bitty coat closet. So the darn thing was just sitting in our hallway, waiting for me to deal with it. It mocked me on my nightly trips to the bathroom.

That's when the solution hit us: we could turn the suitcase into a bassinet type thing! It solved so many problems all in one fail swoop. He now sleeps safely at the foot of our bed, he is within arms reach for those 2am feedings of which I am so fond, he doesn't wake me up, he doesn't wake himself up, he feels safe and secure since the size is perfect, AND...I didn't have to put the stupid thing away. YAY SOLUTIONS!

On: How Sundays mean I'm the Most Unattractive Human Being Ever

So. I have this thing where I don't eat sugar. (Yay getting baby weight off.) It's going really well. I've lost 2 pounds. I know, I know...that's like a sixth of what my newborn son weighs. But hey...it's two pounds that I'm no longer stuffing into my jeans. (I consider it a great personal failure that I've been rocking the muffin top for which I have so mercilessly mocked others for sporting.)

ANYWHOO...here's the thing about the no sugar deal...it wouldn't last a minute if I didn't give myself a cheat day. So Sundays (and date nights if my hubby wants to take me to ice cream) I cheat. Sundays are both glorious and foul. As proof, I offer you this confession:

As I write this, I'm eating ice cream and fudge topping. Seperately. Out of each respective container. With the same spoon.

Don't tell Shem.

"No Dear, it's Not Murder; it's Just Another One of our Charities"

I went to see Arsenic and Old Lace with my Hannah friend last night. If you've never seen/read it...resolve that problem now. I hear Cary Grant plays the main character in the movie. Also. It's about old people. Who have poison. And use it. It's faaaantastically funny if you, like me, enjoy the slightly macabre.

Hawks family update:

My baby is talking up a storm these days. I need to take a video of it and post it because it just may be the cutest thing IN ALL THE LAND! It seriously fills me with all sorts of warm fuzzies. Which will be useful today because it's gonna be chilly. (and all my Utah friends scoffed at me for finding 60 degrees to be chilly.) ANYWHOO...the problem is that my camera is full and I've deleted all that I feel comfortable deleting. The rest I'd like to take into costco to print. I also have to go through my computer when it's finished de-bugging at the computer depot and put those photos onto a CD so that I can get THOSE printed. At that point, I will then delete all the photos on my memory card and start anew.

I know that all of that information probably just blew your minds. "Settle down," you say, "Don't get your exciting news out all at once. We can't handle the thrill it gives us."

I hear ya.

I made Almost Lasagna last night. Looooved it. Next time I will put less parmesan cheese in the ricotta mixture and will brown the meet in onions and salt. Bing! Best dish ever. If you'd like to try it (I also recommend halving the recipe if you're not feeding an army. Holy leftovers, batman.) here is the link.

Luke is laying on the floor in front of me on a couple of blankets playing with his 'underwater play gym' thingy. He's talking to the whale very emphatically. Apparently there is something verrrry important to communicate. He has his 'this is serious' face on.

So. I decided instead of spending 60ish bucks a month on a gym membership that I'd lay down about 20 to buy some hand weights and a workout DVD that had been recommended to me by some fellow mommies. It's Jillian Michaels. I love her. I'm a nerd about The Biggest Loser...or...I used to be when she was a trainer. She left the show last season and so did I. (The show also just tends to get repetitive and boring. I mean, no matter what curve balls you throw in there...it's still just a show where fat people become not so fat people.) Anywhooooo...so...Jillian Michaels. Love her. So she made this DVD called the 30 Day Shred and the cover says 'lose up to 20 pounds in 30 days' which sounded pretty good to me despite the fact that I know realistically that my metabolism and current weight are not high enough to render such a dramatic loss in so short a time in my body...BUT...best. workout. ever. SO good. I lurve it. I've worked out 3 days in a row now (yay me!) and my body hurts so good. I love working out. It's been way too long.

I'm pretty sure this entry is super spazzy. I'm also pretty sure there are a bajillion typos.

My kid likes blankets, pants, and onsies. He eats them. They entertain him. If he's fussy, I just throw him some jeans and he's like, "sweet awesome. Jeans!" and is quieted for a good 10 minutes.

We're going to Utah for Thanksgiving! I am SO excited to see everyone! SQUEEE. Seriously, giddy. (Kyla...I just remembered that you sent me a text last night. Facepalm. Fail. I will respond shortly! Ha. You're totally not going to read this before I send that text...so this is a really pointless little aside. But. Just know that it is full of love for you.) Also, you should pray for our journey. 11 hours in the car with a 3 month old. What could possibly go wrong?

Work is going well for both Shem and I. We like our jobs and we're doing pretty well financially. We should even have enough left over every month to put a little bit away in hopes that someday we can buy a house. Yay house!

So. The wonder of the pants is wearing off and my child wants me.

Love you all,

keep bein' classy

In The Dark Of The Night

The story from Shem's perspective. (As narrated by his wife):

I was asleep. Dead asleep. I don't play around with sleep. In fact, I've been known to sleep whilst doing things that normal people only do when they're awake. (Walk, talk, feed babies, fight bad guys, etc.) That's how seriously I take this sleeping thing. I was dreaming peacefully when suddenly, and from out of nowhere I was rudely awakened by my wife who was apparently having a nightmare and/or a severe seizure in the middle of our bed. Arms flailing at terrifying speed, and with zero accuracy, she was frantically swatting every inch of bed (and me) that she could reach. I quickly assessed the situation and came to the sleepy conclusion that she was having a nightmare and it was spilling over into reality, causing her to try and kill me. I grabbed her arms and said (in what I hoped was a reassuring voice, but probably sounded more like a sleepy mumble), "Babe. Hey. Babe. It's okay. You're dreaming." She stopped flailing and continued to paw through the sheets like she was looking for something.

"No, babe. There is a bug."

"There's no bug," (I was quickly becoming more awake and slightly amused by the situation. A sleepy grin spread across my face.) "You're having a nightmare,"

"No, babe. There is a bug."

Yeah. She was dreaming. I stared at her. She continued, "I swear I'm not sleeping. A huge bug just crawled across my arm. We have to find it. It was enormous."

She sounded awake. I peered, bleary eyed, through the very bug-free sheets. After our thorough investigation revealed no lurking crawler, I reached my conclusion: She had dreamed it. I looked up at her.

She gave a sleepy half-laugh, "There is no way I dreamed that." Pause. "Did I dream that?" Pause, "I think I dreamed that,"

We laughed for a few good minutes about her insanity and then drifted off to sleep.

THE NEXT MORNING:

I had to pee.

I went to pee.

I found a dead water bug in my underpants.

Never again will I doubt my wife's sanity.

Playing Catch-Up

As I sit here, munching my extra fiber oatmeal (delicious and nutritious. I highly recommend it. Yay healthy colon!) it comes to my attention that it has been many moons since last I blogged and I feel as though I need to update the blogger world on my comings and goings. Weight loss, weight gain, weight stagnation, battles with chocolate, becoming obsessed with Psych, having major life-altering paradigm shifts, starting work...these adventures must be shared.

I blog in lists a lot. I love lists. I'm really, really dorky about lists. So. That being said, here we go:

1. Started work.

Food-Ex. It's the stuff. For those of you who aren't acquainted with my history with Food-Ex, I will provide a brief synopsis. I graduated in 2007. Darron Nilson, Food-Ex's most illustrious owner, talked to me about starting a position there. Ever since then, I have left and returned thrice. I really kind of like this job. I mean, it isn't glorious or anything (far from when we're delivering from El Portal and come back swimming in Chile Verde. It's hard to bathe out that smell. And poor Suzie. (my car) The stench is something awful.) BUT I love driving. I love listening to music. I love setting the food up. (I'm a weirdo about making things look organized and pretty) and I love the hours because I get more time with my son. And I kind of like him.

2. Stopped losing weight.

I. Hate. My. New. Metabolism. I mean, it's never been easy for me to lose weight...mostly because it's not easy for me to stop eating. ;) But last time I lost a ton of weight, all I did was cut out sugar and start running. Okay. No. I'm actually realizing I'm lying. I also cut out white flour and most starches and fatty meats and added lots of nuts, leafy greens and such. But the thing is, those habits became so well established that I still (mostly) eat that way. I try to eat more veggies than anything else and I've cut out sweets all together. Granted, exercise has yet to become a regular part of my routine. I'm still figuring out my kid's schedule (that he doesn't have...let's be honest) and how to work in a work out (see what I did there? Yay words!) around it. Wow. You're gonna have to read that last sentence like four times before it makes sense. Apologies. Anywhoo...as I'm writing this I'm realizing why I'm not losing weight. I need to start working out and I need to improve my eating just a smidge and I need to keep on keepin' on. Wish me luck!

3. Bought new pants.

This wasn't very exciting. And there is no story behind it. But it's the first new item of clothing I've been able to afford since about a year before I got married. So. About two years. Yay math! Granted, they are work pants. But still. I got to see the inside of a dressing room. They haven't changed much over time.

4. Shem changed jobs.

This is probably the most exciting of all the updates. Shem quit Verizon and started work as an Administrative Assistant/Spanish Translator for an attorney here in town. He's been there about a week and he LOVES it so far. He says it's far, far busier than Verizon was, but he likes that he's constantly working because it makes time go by faster and makes him feel like he's accomplished something by the end of the day. The best part about this new job is that he is getting paid the same amount monthly that he was getting paid working full time at Verzion, but now he only works 25 hours a week. This will be PERFECT for next semester when he starts school. This job was a HUGE blessing. A shout-out to Brianne for the tip.

5. My boy just woke up and wants to eat or something. So I'll have to resume this list at a later date. But I think 4 updates are quite enough to be going on with for now.