Q and A

It's funny what comes across the mind of a 6 year old and I mean that both figuratively and literally.

6 year old: What would you do if hot lava was coming towards your house?
Adult #1: I'd run.
Adult #2: I'd run too.
Adult #3: I'd get on my bike and ride away.
6 year old: Wrong! You're all wrong; you'd panic!

Red

Red has really entered my life in a big way.  Right now, I'm loving all things red, including

CoverGirl's LipPerfection Lipcolor #305 in Hot (not actual color below) for $6.99

and Old Navy's Red Aloud Nail Polish for $3.99 (I think), which I cannot find on the internet (uhm, excuse me but what's that about?!) but is pictured below along with the lipstick above.

I'm lovin' this red and it's definitely going to become one of my "go to" colors this year.

Two Little Thieves

These two pictures sum up why it is that I had children.  

My sons are simply beautiful and steal my heart every day with moments like these,

which I happened to be lucky enough to capture.



Reinvention

The title of this post is a little misleading, it implies that there was an invention to be redone, which in my opinion is not the case.  And by case, I'm referring to myself.  My entire life, I've wanted to be/do/have "insert the blank," but I've either never taken the initiative or have never had the guts to do it.  Well, I'm kinda over that and over myself, or lack there of.  Recently, for whatever reason, it seems that I've started on a new journey, which has lead me to believe that I'm in a reinvention period of sorts.  I don't know when or how it happened, but I'm totally lovin' it.

So, I'm just gonna do me from now on or as I like to say, "I'm gonna do me, boo."  For example, if I want to wear red lipstick, I'm gonna do it and not worry that it's too bold or hipster doofusy.  Or how about wearing a dress, I'll make it happen too.  I'm going to start trying to doing the little things that I've always wanted to do but never thought I would.

Mirror, Mirror on the Back of the Door

While I was crusing the aisles of Target with Cullen the other day, I happened upon a very reasonably priced full-length mirror and since I don't have one, I picked it up.  It was just a plain, black trimmed mirror and while it served it's purpose just fine, it needed something.

I managed to get my hands on some equally reasonably priced duck tape and went to town.  Check out the before and after, as well as the quality makeup product that we're puttin' out over here with the new mirror.

Cost of mirror: $5.99
Cost of duck tape: $3.99
Total cost of project: $9.98

I'm Following the Love

As much as I pretend to be an strongly opinionated 20-something woman, I too have my moments of bandwagoning, and nothing makes me love something more than when my kid loves it.  All too often, when I'm having an, "enh" moment, one or the other of my boys is having a heart-melting moment with one thing or another.

For Cullen that means every single pot, pan and kitchen utensil is the object of intense bargaining and begging until we finally give in and surrender our practical kitchen arsenal to his "inspired by Wolfgang" kid kitchen.  And Arden, well he's a total sucker for anything Sesame Street or musical... and anything that he can put in his mouth, like chalk, pickles that were missed during dinner clean up, paper, markers, my hair, my buttons, etc., don't get me wrong though, we're not talking My Strange Obsession- I fall in love with inanimate objects.

I guess, I find it funny that time and time again, I instantly and without abandon fall in love with most of what my children love.  I'm a follower, a total sucker for going from 0 to 60 when it comes to pleasing and appeasing my kids.  However, it should be noted, that "taste" seems like it is genetic, so in actuality, it's pretty likely that the reason I enjoy their favorite things so much is because they inherited their sense of style, music appreciation, color choice, etc. from me.  Hence the Ok Go obsession that has recently developed in our house. 

It all started the other day while I was furiously looking up Youtube videos to keep the kids interest and I stumbled upon, This Too Shall Pass and showed it to Cullen. Suffice it to say, the rest is history.  The kid loves the video and I am in love with the message.  It's a crazy world that we live in, but if you resign yourself to the knowledge that everything passes (sometimes within the hour), it makes those crazy moments so much more manageable.

So, Ok Go has my vote, best video of February in our household.  I have also downloaded the song and paraded around our new office/coloring room with Cullen and Arden proclaiming, "This too shall pass!"  And while I know they don't understand that sentiment right now, it gives me comfort to believe that one day they may listen to that song and think of me and how I told them that, "This too shall pass."

Why it Works

I scrapped my traditional Valentine’s Day post (originally titled Valentine's Day, how original, sigh.) where I write a love letter to my husband and sons, because… well, because that’s not me and not what I’m about.  So, here’s the real low-down on my thoughts on love and how it impacts the production of our life.

I’m young-ish and when you’re young-ish, people assume that stuff comes naturally.  Oh you’re married, well the first years are the best, your heart is all pitter patter and you desperately want more time together; you’re obsessed.  Oh you’re a mom, well being a mom in your 20’s is easy, you’ve got lots of time and energy to chase around the little ones.  But you know what, sometimes people are wrong and that's bullshit; not everything just works because it’s supposed too.  Sometimes marriage, motherhood, a career- or whatever else your trying to juggle, take finessing and twisting and maybe even some out right good ol' fashion ass kicking in order to make them work.  But that’s ok, because that’s why it works.

When I got married, I naively thought, this is going to be fantastic!, I’ve got a man and a house, what could be better?  Well, let’s see, it would be better if I got to do whatever I wanted and watch all my shows on TV, if the house was always clean and dinner was always on the table waiting for us.  But that’s not realistic and so we developed what works for us.  It’s a dash of comprise, coupled with blatant ignoring and a small dose of reality when one or the other of us is really out of control.  It’s faking it around our family when we’ve been fighting all day and sending 25 emails back and forth, just to check in and be a part of one another’s day; ‘cause if we don’t, the ship may not go down, but we may veer a little too far off course, both contract dysentery and come back to port lookin’ like pitiful fools, when we should have just acquiesced and said, “yes, dear, change the channel, I’ll catch the rerun.”

And so it goes with motherhood, and I suspect fatherhood too.  It works because we make it work, with one another and with our beautiful boys.  We may not have a backyard, but what other kids can say they have a slide in their formal living room.  Likewise, when there’s issues at hand that Jim and I disagree on (doesn’t that sound silly, they’re only  1 & 2, but it does happen), it becomes a discussion rather than a fight- usually.  Because bottom line, we gotta both table our arguments and determine what the reality is and what’s best for the kids, for us and for our family.

So, when I’m asked, what is the secret to marriage, or motherhood, or sisterhood, aunthood, cousinhood, etc.- none of which I’ve ever been asked about before, mind you- I’d simply say, it’s works for me (or us) because we fight for it to work.  We make every goddamn day count and respect one another.  It’s not perfect and it’s not always happy, but the majority of the time it is; and that’s because we’re makin’ it work... and If that wasn't already a slogan, I'd t-shirt it!

Almost Printable

Free printables are everywhere.  I Rock So What has a lot and frankly, I think they're just awesome.  Here are some totally rudimentary, almost printable Valentines and should you be so inclined to actually want any of them, I'd be happy to remove the water mark and email them to you, for free of course.

Happy Day Before Valentine's Day!

Love Chain

Who's been on a roll with the double sided tape lately?  This girl!  It all started with the banner for Arden's party, which then turned into the bee chain and now it's taken on a life of it's own and been used to create:

the love chain

It's pretty simple really, I wanted to create a totally free craft for Valentine's Day from stuff I had around the house, so in 5 seconds, I came up with this winner.  I cut hearts from paper that we already had, (I elevated it and used cardstock instead of construction paper) wrote the names of our family members whom we love, taped yarn to both hearts, which bear the same name and hung it up.

Wha-lah, a love chain of the most inexpensive, handmade quality kind.  Here's what it looks like.  (As a side note, it's much harder to make an inexpensive craft appear awesome when there are door jams and weird photographic angles involved, so excuse the hot mess photos!)

And We Partied

This weekend, our family and friends all got together to honor our little man. 

Thanks to everyone for "beeing" here and making his day so special!



So Not Happening

The other day I got an email saying that Picnik is closing. 

Closing?  Like forever and ever?  What the what?! 

There was almost an audible record scratch when I read that email, I use Picnik everyday; sometimes two or three times a day and now they're telling me I won't have the opportunity to do so starting in April 19th.

I just don't know how FotoFlexer or flauntR will EVER  measure up.  Seriously though, if I wanted my face on some "magazine cover," I'd get famous and be on the real thing.  Likewise, if I wanted to know what I would look like with a mustache, I'd grow one. 

This is one of the unhappiest things that's ever happened in my blogging sphere.  Thanks a lot Google; if we were together, we'd be on a big time break right now!

GOOOOAAAAALLLLL!!!!!!

One of my 30 before 30's is to watch a professional soccer game.  In the meantime though, I'm front and center watching my niece and the 5 other five and six year olds on her team, the Stars, man up against other teams.  Go Stars!

Most games go a little something like this:

Celebrating

It's funny how time passes in the blink of an eye and all at once you're confronted with time. 

Time to settle down.

Time to grow up.

Time to get married and start a family. 

Time all too often seems to come in blurs and absolute

still.

moments.

in.

time.

Ones that are seared like pictures on my brain; every detail, vivid and vibrant.  Usually, the still moments coincide with my happiest moments, my celebrations.

I missed my calling to be an event planner.  I enjoy the meticulous details of vendors and seating charts and headsets with frantic orders bouncing back and forth between the frazzled planners.  I love the outfit planning and glamorous feeling of needing to be there.  And that's why I whole heartedly try to be there.  Be present.  And thoughtful, observing and absorbing every buffet line, conga line and laugh line.

This weekend, I had the great fortune of attending my Uncle's 60th Birthday party.  He's been such an important person in my life, imparting wisdom and comfort and generosity that literally knows no bounds.  It was more than a party though, it was a celebration.  A good ol' open bar, roasting toasting, nice ballroom celebration.  I was grateful beyond words to share this moment with him, my family and our friends.  I'm sure it partially has to do with the fact that his party just happened, but I remember almost every moment of the night; every "off the cuff" speech, screaming baby picture and smile throughout the night.

And so, with raised glasses and lots of love, we celebrated the night, his night.