Real life

It hit me the other day when I was getting ready to go out that this is it: my life! Like all of a sudden something clicked, poof, lightbulb, and wham, I realized how blessed I am and how this is my life and dude this is way better than I imagined. Ya know when you're little and you make believe what it'll be like to be a grown up, all ponies and tea parties, and then you grow up a little and you get a slight little glimpse at a sliver of reality, and you figure out that you can't spend your whole paycheck on toys and gummy worms. Then you start plan for your life; go to college, save, move, mingle. Then all of a sudden one day you're standing there putting on eyeliner and you realize that all the stuff you'd been prepping for is here, not really, because you haven't had a tea party in over a decade and you've realized that gummy worms aren't made of anything even remotely resembling real food but your life is here.

Saturday night I went out. My first girls night since before the babe was born and oh buddy was it long overdue! Typically I get Addy all dressed up and take a billion pictures of her and I look like death warmed over so the one time that I went all out and she was bummin' it I decided to document it!

I've got some of the greatest friends I could have ever asked for, honest, uplifting, positive, and funny to all get out, like seriously you couldn't have hand picked better people to surround yourself with than these girls! They appeased my type A planning self and RSVPed to a night out (I know, right?) got dressed up, went out in the POURing rain, walked 2 blocks in squishy wet shoes, (or maybe I was the only one with the squishy shoes) to a fabulous restaurant downtown where we picked out which couples were getting engaged and which were just coming from their wedding-we totally saw a bride and groom leaving, wedding dress still on and everything!

I love that people feel comfortable hanging out here and so what if there are wires running in every which direction all over my den so that Jared and his friends could set up two tv's to play video games, because really one isn't enough.
We got back to tired husbands that had been planted in front of flat screens for 5+ hours and had little regard for greeting their pumped up, energetic wives.


Addiston is officially six months old and for her 1/2 birthday we celebrated by giving her a taste of solid food. Carrots. I hate 'em, no seriously like loathe the texture, the flavor and the smell, it makes me gag a little. I don't know what why but I always have and as far as I know I always will. I give them a try every so often just to see if I still detest them and yep, still do! Well my girl didn't think too highly of them either, but that's normal and we'll try again.





The perfect mom that I am in my head eats all organic food, a ton of veggies and drinks water non stop. The mom I am in real life binges on Oreo's now and again, needs coffee in life and is slightly addicted to chip dip. Well the mom I am in my head peaked through with homemade organic baby food!

Jared's mom bought me this lil contraption, and it's super easy to use and clean up. Score!

I don't know if I've already mentioned it but she has discovered the cats. She'll be playing on the floor or in her little jenny-jumper and one will walk by and she'll just freeze and stare. When they get too far away without acknowledging her she'll just yell at them. demanding their attention. One runs from her every time he realizes that he's even in her vicinity, the other is more curious. (We all know what they say about curiosity and cats) He comes close, sniffs her, lets her grab at him and chase him in slow motion army crawl way. However if she ever happens to get a good grip he wrigles and this look of panic flashes in his eyes as if he would be willing to sacrifice the chunk of hair she as captured in order to be free.



So here's to tea parties on the living room floor, splurging on a shiny new toy (or pair of boots) eating a whole bowl of puppy chow and living life!

Talking diapers

Last night was rough,

about 2 am (not a normal hour for us) Addiston started whimpering, not crying or acting hungry but making sad little noises to let us know she was up. Jared went in, and when he couldn't get her to go back to sleep we did the normal feeding routine, he was about to put her back down when I recommended a temperature check and sure enough, it was the highest it has ever been. I did panic a little but gave her some medicine, and let her snuggle up next to me for an hour or so. Jared reached over to hold her hand and as he fell asleep and she lay there zoning in and out, I just rubbed her head, praying, and hoping that the heat would slip away so that she could rest. Soon enough it did and we put her back in her own room.

She is much better today, laughing, jumping and doing this new thing where she flails her arms up and down like a windmill.


Today holds another memorable experience. I used the last of my love-letter diapers. At one of my baby showers my oldest sister threw in what was meant to be a sweet little twist. There was a pack of diapers and a slue of magic markers passed around. Each attendee was to take a diaper and write a heartfelt note or catchy sarcastic antidote for me to read when it was my turn to take a nightly changing, ya know a little pick me up at 2am.

Being the eager person that I am I read all the diapers the night of the shower. I didn't think so but I was informed that it was sort of ruining the surprise. To be truthful I have a very sweet husband who took almost every single diaper changing during the middle of the night. It was our way of being fair. I was breast feeding so he burped and changed the diaper, I did the other stuff, so I really just wanted to be sure I'd get to see all the lil talking diapers!

I wish I would have taken pictures or recorded more of the, but I saved my favorites till the end and today I used the last one.


From two of my nieces, one of whom happened to be a flower girl at my wedding.


From the sister whose idea it was.


And from Grandma


Some of my other favorites were mainly about how, babies grow up so fast so cherish the time you have with them while their little. A few had little puns like $h!t happens and of course the one that actually brought a smile to my face (every time I read it), "get Jared's butt for this one!"

I stretched out the fun just about as long as I could, she really is in the next size of diapers but I just didn't want it to end.

So tomorrow Addiston will be 6 months old and while I know that is only a drop in the bucket in the big scheme of things I'm sort of sad about it. She's crawling, sitting up by herself, eating, and doesn't like to be held like a baby anymore, but rather up looking over your shoulder. I know that there is so much more to come but sometimes I just want to stop myself, slow down, and remember that I love this time, teaching her, watching her discover, grow, and learn. I want her to stay little long enough for me to take in every perfect little thing about her, the way she pulls in her bottom lip when she's scared, lights up when Jared walks through the door, and imitates us chewing at dinner time. She's the best thing that has ever happened to me!

They really do grow so fast!

the in-between

This morning was my repeat blood glucose test. I was suppose to have one sooner than now but somewhere along the line it fell through the cracks. It was less than thrilling to say the least, but necessary so, eh, it happened. I don't do well with needles and had to go it alone so that someone could stay with the babe, so there were watery eyes and lots of deep breathing. My only hope is that this doesn't come back into my life.


Lately it seems like every time I turn around I am slapped in the face with something to be thankful for. Like when I had to ask a friend to watch Addiston last minute and, even though she is not a morning person, she acted like it was no big deal. Or that yesterday we had a group of friends over for no apparent reason and our home was bursting with love, laughter, and slight hint competitiveness, which in my opinion is the perfect combination. I can't even begin to describe how grateful I am that that Addy is almost six months old, and perfectly healthy. We have been blessed and with the reminders flashing in my eyes like vegas lights I feel like I need to pay it forward in some way, and I think I may have an opportunity to do so coming up. The associate pastor at our church has asked me to speak at a rally in early february and while I'm excited and hopeful that my story can reach others I am shakin' in my boots about it, and I am in no way scared of public speaking, so I'm taking it as a sign that something in me realizes that this is big and I need to be prepared.

It's the in between times that get ya, the ones that really have no glitz or glamor, the normal days that so many of us forget to realize are a miracle in and of themselves. This weekend was wonderful, the perfect balance of running about and relaxation. Having people over to try new food, deepen our friendships and then an in-prompt-to afternoon of video games, deep conversation, and appples to apples topped off with frozen pizza.


Saturday morning Jared bought an antique grandfather clock at an estate sale, and I'm pretty excited. It looks great in our table-less dinning room. :) We're still filling this house, but we did cross another room off the the to-do list that virtually came along with the house. The Foyer. It's big and open and has some killer angles!

One of our cats made sure the ladder was safe for us! 15 feet up, no fear!
For some reason the only before picture I have is awful, I'm not sure I even meant to take this picture, but you get an idea of the bland wall color, and 80's drapery!

but now It's much better!


well, except for that stellar brass fixture, which we realize needs to be replaced, no worries.


This afternoon I spent a little time in the kitchen accompanied by my little sous chef whose favorite kitchen utensil is obviously my spatula.


Carpe Diem.

swimming on dry land

It's been a week since thanksgiving, also translated into 52341790845 loads of laundry 795728863 dirty diapers, and 1 exhausted family! We haven't quite caught up from the 20+ hours of driving, and in true being spoiled by the grandparents fashion Addiston has insisted on being held much more, for the last few days, than allows for anything productive to be done around this house.




The car rides were horrendous, traffic this as anything and a baby's temperament to match the traffic. On the way home we saw this.

That's a building folks, people work in there, shop in there and it just looks like the jolly green giant left his picnic basket sittin' there in the middle of the countryside.

We ate way too much food, listen, you haven't lived till you've tasted my mother-in-law's dressing, I could live off of it! We almost died of heat exhaustion from playing dancing games, and of course there was the pie contest. Regretfully I didn't win. But there's always next year.


Addiston got to meet more family and attempt to attack many cousins and second cousins around her age. It was adorable even when some of the literally brushed her off.




This little booger is learning to crawl and after much conversation of it Jared and I have decided that it is a perfect combination between an army man and an inchworm which unfortunately doesn't translate to an armyworm but more of an image of a wee little girl trying to swim on dry land.




Jared's dad came through town last night and even though we just saw him 3 days ago it is oh so nice when he is able to stop by. In Jared's words, "It makes nashville not seem so far from home." oh and here is the four-generation picture from that part of the family. YES as a matter of fact Jared does look identical to his father!


Ok well the baby is fussing to be picked up and I need to start dinner but there is so much more to say so we'll be back soon.