Craft Day!

So, I was inspired by looking at J Crew catalogs and online to make my own vintage looking flower pins to wear on cardigans, belts and bags. After a quick trip with Connor to the local Dee's Crafts, here is what I came up with. I'm pretty proud of myself! Take that! over-priced J. Crew flower pins! haha! ;) After speaking with some neighbors and friends who make their own jewelry, I've been talked into signing up with etsy.com to see if there is any interest! Maybe I'll never have to work again (haha ;)

First B-Day Pics

This is just a drop in the bucket!

I'll add more later!

Party of the Year!

Whoa - it's been a week since I last posted. I guess I am officially back on the blog wagon... let's hope! The last week has been somewhat of a whirlwind!

First - Connor has made HUGE strides in several areas. The two times we went to the gym this week, he contently played in the children's area without any objection for 45 minutes while I worked out! Yea! Finally, I hope we are over the I-never-want-be-be-apart-from-mommy stage we've been going through for the last few weeks at the gym. I would like to give the play area staff at Urban Active a well deserved shout-out for helping Connor (and mostly me :) through this difficult stage! Now, we both look forward to mommy's time at the gym!

Also, Jamie's mom came in town on Wednesday, so we've had a busy week entertaining and playing with Connor!

And, of course, the woes of planning a one-year-old's birthday party! Still awaiting RSVP's even on Saturday (you know who you are) we managed to figure out how many hot dogs and chicken breasts to cook, servings of pasta salad and beans and size of cake! I am SO SO thankful for having so much family help - big, giant thank yous to Mamaw (for cooking and bringing the hot dogs and buns), my parents (for cooking and bringing the chicken and the gorgeous beach-ball cakes!), Jonathan Palmer (our photographer and friend!) and for everyone who came and had a great time! Connor seriously had the best birthday and worked the crowd very well! I can't believe we have a one-year-old now!! I'll be posting pictures in a couple of days!

Desperately Disappointed Housewife!

I totally thought Desperate Housewives premiered tonight - I was so excited! We even did an early dinner and got Connor all squared away early for the event! IT'S NOT TONIGHT - IT'S NEXT WEEK! So mad right now - and Jamie thinks it's super funny. DARN :(

Ryder Cup Madness

So, I'm sure most people had heard of the Ryder Cup before this year, but not me. I honestly thought it was a horse-related thing, but turns out, I was thinking of the Breeder's Cup, which was here a couple of years ago. Obviously, I am NOT a huge golf fan (I will sometimes tune in to watch Tiger, but it's usually just by mistake) and wasn't exactly clear on how big of a deal this whole thing is. Anyway, Valhalla is super close to our house, so for the last week we've been dealing with bus and tourist traffic related to the Ryder Cup - although it's been pretty cool to see the blimp thing floating around - Connor really likes watching it.
Last night my parents watched Connor and we headed out to dinner at Bravos and then to Fourth Street Live for a little while afterwards since there were a lot of things going on down there in celebration of the Ryder Cup. There was a live band outside and the weather was perfect, making the venue pretty impressive, especially to those who are visiting from out of town. It almost felt like we were in a different city last night because there was such a diverse mix of people there. Louisville, from what I have seen, has really done a great job hosting this huge event, especially while still recovering from the worst wind storm ever!

Finally, I think everyone in our neighborhood has power! It's a good thing too because we were starting to get dirty looks from other drivers in the hood who saw us opening our garage door without actually getting out of the car and lifting it up! :) Hopefully this means Bunco is back on for tomorrow night.

Now, to more important, and quite frankly, more interesting topics. NEW SHOWS START TONIGHT!!! The ones I am most looking forward to are: Desperate Housewives, Gray's Anatomy, Private Practice and The Office. We also dabble in Two and a Half Men, New Adventures of Old Christine and Thirty Rock. I would like to start getting into Cashmere Mafia this year, so I'm going to work on Tivo-ing and actually watching that!

T minus 6 days until Connor's party! I've filled the pinata and have everything organized in our bedroom (can't wait to get all this crap out of here!!) and Jamie's mom comes in on Wednesday, which will be a huge help! My only concern about the whole thing is Connor's sleeping pattern being so 'off' from his usual schedule. Yesterday, he took a nap from 10am until almost 4 pm!!! I went upstairs and checked on him at least 3 times because I wanted to make sure he was still breathing!! Usually, he'll take 2 naps - one in the morning and then one in the early afternoon. I'm not sure if yesterday is a sign that he's ready to start taking just one nap (although 6 hours is crazy!) or if maybe it was just a fluke, but this next week should be interesting. He's also been getting up about an hour earlier than he used to (no idea why) so I guess my little man is just growing up and his sleeping needs are changing!

We have a big week coming up including: Grammy coming in town, getting pictures taken at a studio, Birthday dinner on Friday, and then Birthday Party on Saturday --- so I'll try to post and let you in on how things are going!

Good Week So Far .... Here is why ....

This has been a great week so far. It started not-so-great with our power being off, but it did return on Monday, and even with it off, I just have a good feeling about this week! Here is why (in random order!)



1.) People are very neighborly when there is crap-else to do! I have seen people giving out hot coffee and breakfasts to those less fortunate (aka - without power) and I think it's great! Plus, we got to help out our neighbors by holding their frozen foods while our power was out (with our generator plugged into the fridge) and in the meantime we were able to share stories and come closer as friends and neighbors! Good stuff!

2.) My ballet class was cancelled - which makes me feel a lot better about planning on skipping it anyway ;) This isn't exactly good news, but since it's been cool out, Connor and I have been taking long walks in the morning, so I wasn't really in the mood to get sweaty again today..... plus, my head hurt today and I just didn't feel like slipping on the tights tonight - thank goodness for no power in St. Matthews!!

3.) I'm going to the Rascal Flatts concert tomorrow - for free - with a good friend! Super pumped! I've seen them several times - mostly in the first 1-10 rows with meet and greet passes, so when they announced a stop in Louisville, I didn't plan on going. But, as of this afternoon, 2 tickets wound up in my lap, so I look at it as a nice girls-night-out-on-the-town and I'm super pumped! Am I going to wear my cowboy boots? That's to be determined - and I shall let you know!

4.) I've been updating me fall wardrobe - since last year's was all super-prego-sized and post-prego-sized. And, since it's been a bit cooler, I've been able to wear some of it! Fun!

5.) Connor is the best! He lights up every one of our days together and comes up with something new and completely cute everyday! He will be 1 year in 9 days! It makes me think of how HUGE I was last year at this time! Funny!

6.) Tomorrow we are having lunch with my Mamaw and Papaw! Should be fun! We lent them our generator (which of course prompted their power to come immediately on!) so I guess we'll try to load that back onto the ole' LR so we can stow it back in our garage until the next tragedy!

Hopefully I'll have some cute pics from tomorrow night to post the next time - until then... happy Hump Day!

Wind Blown ... But Still Here!

So, we survived the winds yesterday - barely!! It started in the morning when we woke up. I thought it was pouring rain outside (no such luck on the rain!) because the wind was blowing so hard and steady. By the time we got up and outside it was downright dangerous to even be out there! Our neighbor's roof shingles were blowing into our yard and pieces of fencing and trash cans were swirling through the streets. Since our power was still on and it wasn't even raining, we didn't really think the wind was that big of a deal, so we packed the car and headed to Oxmoor Mall to eat at Panera and shop around. Big mistake. We were barely able to get home!! Apparently the worst of the wind occurred while we were in the mall, so we had no idea of all the damage! Every road we took to get home was shut down because of falling trees, so we kept having to turn around! It took us almost an hour to get home -which should only take 20 minutes!

When we got home, it sucked even more! We discovered our electricity was out AND we didn't know if we had a key to our house. Yeah, not good! Thankfully, Jamie did have a house key that worked for our front door on his car keys, so we were able to get in the house and Connor into his crib, thus avoiding a lack-of-nap breakdown.

We spent the better half of yesterday afternoon hooking up our generator to the fridge, TV and lamps. We were able to salvage all our food because of it (which mostly consists of Lean Cuisine frozen entrees and beer, but saved just the same!) and we held our neighbor's newly-purchased meats, milk, etc... so it was worth the trouble of hooking it up and the $4.15 gas!! Speaking of which, I've been on the waiting-for-gas-to-go-down-before-I-fill my-tank up waiting game and it's not going so well. Not only did waiting actually cost me about 70 cents a gallon, but I had to wait in line for it, too!

So, after not even 24 hours of having semi-power and being told by the city that it could be up to 14 days!!!!!!!!!!!! ......... our power came back on today at like 2 pm. This is good news for several reasons:

1.) bunco is back on for tonight! yea!
2.) we don't have to eat out for dinner or mooch off my parents again
3.) for some reason we don't have screens on the windows in our house, so having our windows open for air is a bit iffy
4.) it's supposed to get warmer in the next couple of days which sucks without AC!, and
5.) living off a generator sucks in general, duh!!
6.) I can get online - I seriously was lost without online blogs and shopping.

I wonder if our close proximity to the Ryder Cup got our power back on sooner - who knows! And, who cares! Hopefully more people in Louisville will start getting their power back on soon. And, it would be excellent if more than just one store in the East End could be open (Walmart on Westport is as crowded as a college bar with free beer) because I really needed to go food shopping like 3 days ago and with no Krogers in the area open it's nearly impossible.

How were you affected by the most recent hurricane? Gas prices soaring? Wind damage? No power??

TIRED!

Oh my gosh - so exhausted right now! Mentally and physically! We had a yardsale this morning to get rid of all my clothes that I didn't want anymore (we're talking a lot of clothes) and it went pretty well - so well that it was very tiring ... especially at a steamy 92 degrees. I am SO glad to have all these things out of my hair (technically basement and guest room) and we made good enough money to make the whole ordeal worth it, but it was TONS of work and without my mom there to help, forget about it!

Speaking of stressful... Yesterday kind of sucked for Jamie because about an hour before he was supposed to hop on a flight home from Chicago, United canceled his flight! What the crap! Canceled, not delayed- due to weather, which from what we could gather, was sprinkles in the early morning. Eventually, he was able to rent a car and get home, but not until 9:30 pm. Boo. Didn't make for a very happy camper or helper when he got home (which is understandable).
We are getting ready to head over to my grandparents with the entire fam to watch the pay-per-view Kentucky football game against MTSU and we're are stopping to pick up sushi at Fugi (the best sushi in the area in our opinion! and they are very kid-friendly and have great pomegranate martinis!) to take over there to eat during the game! So excited!! I've been craving sushi for days!

Now that the dang yardsale is over, I have to move on to finishing up planning Connor's B-Day party.... that does make me happy!

Well, this is probably the most boring blog post I've had in a while! Sorry!

Rolly Polly

It's too early (yeah it's really not THAT early) for my brain to wrap completely around writing a blog post right now, so I will post a couple of pictures of my little rolly-polly getting right up out of his chair after finishing his bottle. He is so mobile now! We are in trouble!! I bet he is walking very soon!

Take my new poll and guess when Connor will start walking!

On Our Own

Jamie headed off to Chicago at a sunny 5 am this morning for work, so Connor and I are home alone for a few days. I'm actually thrilled with all the extra time from not having to fix a dinner or cleaning up after an extra person. This is definitely allowing me some additional time to get our yard sale crap ready - plus I usually end up staying up way later when he's out of town, so naturally I get more done! I feel I should point out that the last time Jamie went out of town on business and left Connor and I here there was a rare earthquake in the area - so all in the Louisville area, beware. I'm actually one of the few dip-shits that slept through the entire thing and didn't even know about it until I tuned in to channel 11 for Regis and Kelly the next morning only to find special coverage of the earthquake (which was basically that 2 bricks fell off an ancient building downtown - it took approximately 6 hours to fully report on this damage - thank God something more substantial like ACTUAL damage didn't occur or they would still to this day be interrupting regularly scheduled programming). It was probably best that I didn't wake up since I was home alone and who knows the havoc I would have caused trying to get upstairs to Connor etc... etc... BUT, when I realized that Jamie had been up for a couple of hours and still did not even CALL to see if we were ok, I was steamed! How could he not call and see if his wife and precious baby boy were safe and sound?!? For all he knew, we could have been struck by the 2 bricks that fell off the building downtown!!! haha.... in his defense, he is from Southern California and survived the last "big one" as they say - so what we had was nothing to him. But still ....

Last night was our anniversary and we went to Rivue on top of the Galt House in down town Louisville. Apparently, this restaurant was voted the most romantic in Louisville and we were nothing but impressed. This is a picture of us just after the sun set.

A few things to mention before I log off and get to work (blah)...

1.) I have not been to the gym in over a week AND I skipped out on my ballet class tonight. Have I just lost the motivation because swimsuit season is over? Or, more likely, have I just lost motivation like I always do? This time 2 years ago I lost all motivation because I knew I was going to be pregnant soon and what was the point of working out and watching what I ate? A few extra pounds is good for the baby, right? Right. If I do not go to the gym in the morning (and the chances of me admitting it publicly if I don't is slim) then I am sentencing myself to no wine for at least a week to teach myself a lesson. And as I type this, sipping on a tall pour of merlot, I already know that will never happen.

2. I'm mad because gas prices went up around our house today and my car says I only have about 50 miles until empty. I ALWAYS get screwed by having to get gas at the wrong time. AND, because we've been going to Whole Foods more, I don't even have a 10 cent off credit from Kroger Gas yet - dang .... I love my SUV, but I probably should have had Jamie leave the Hybrid for me while he was away.

3. Sarah Palin is not running for president. Stop talking about her like she is Britney Spears on last year's VMA's. The VP doesn't actually DO anything. Get over it.

I leave you with one of the more recent "cutest pictures ever" of Connor.

(Oh yes, he is chewing on our coffee table)

Successful Weekend

First - CONGRATS to Rachael who brought little baby Walker into the world on Friday. Welcome to the Wild World of Parenthood!

So, we made it through the weekend all by ourselves at Nolin lake. It may not seem like much of an accomplishment, but when you consider all the things that could go wrong, plus add Connor into the equation, it is a big deal to make it through a weekend to the lake without even a minor catastrophe of some sort. I always worry about Connor getting sick when we're down there because we are literally in the middle of nowhere and the closest hospital is in Lietchfield (not exactly on the America's Top 100 hospital list). This also occurred to me last June when Jamie, my dad, and I went to the lake and I was 6 months prego. I wasn't willing to risk going to the lake any later in the summer than that because I did NOT want to go into labor in the middle of nowhere - and considering how fast I had Connor, it was a good thing I didn't go into labor down there because we wouldn't have made it back to the highway by the time I was 10cm, and I'm pretty sure there was no place to stop and get a quick tide-you-over epidural on the way home.

Anyway - it was nice to get away for a couple of days without the craziness of being at home with the dishes, laundry and dogs. Jamie and I discovered that we are absolutely horrible at starting a bon fire (it took 7 of the 8 fire-starter sticks that we brought - the box says use only 1 per fire - what do they know) but in our defense it did rain all day and night before we tried starting the fire, so I'm sure that played a factor!

Back on the home front, tomorrow is mine and Jamie's second anniversary, so we'll be going to a nice dinner tomorrow sans Connor ( thank to my parents) and then Jamie is off to Chi-town on business early Wednesday morning until Friday, so Connor and I will be free to party like rockstar with the house all to ourselves :) Yeah right. In reality, I'll be getting things ready for the neighborhood yardsale that we are participating in on Saturday (I'm selling TONS of nice clothes and coats that I'm just not going to wear any more - it's disgusting how much clothing I have - this will be a nice cleansing experience I hope!).

Max (Jamie's dog/ baby) is still in Columbus, OH recovering from radiation treatments for his throat cancer and we don't expect him home for at least another week. I'm looking forward to Max coming home for Jamie's sake so he won't be so stressed out about him all the time. They expect him to live for about a year with the treatment he received, so we want to get him home and start enjoying the time that we have left with him.

Until next time...

Goin' to the Lake!

We're headed to the lake right now!!! Be back on Sunday with some pictures :)

New Tricks!!

OMG - Some days I just cannot stop looking at Connor and just laughing. In the last couple of days, Connor's personality has been bursting at the seems so much it's ridiculous!! Sometimes he does the funniest things in the backseat while I'm driving that I almost have to pull over because I'm either laughing so hard I can't see straight, or whatever he is doing in the backseat looks or sounds so cute that I just cannot take my eyes off the rear-view mirror ... and if I learned nothing else from drivers ed (which, for those of you who know what kind of driver I am, I didn't learn much more than one thing) it is not good to be a rear-view-mirror-driver. Connor discovered about a month ago how to make tons of noise spitting with his tongue hanging out. There are times when he does it for a good ten minutes at a time when we're on the road and I just cannot stop laughing. He knows he's being cute, too - once he hears me laughing it really gets him going! When I go to get him out of of his super-fun new front-facing car seat he is soaked from head to toe with his own spit! Only a mother could think of this as being the cutest thing EVER and not utterly disgusting!

In the last week, Connor has begun walking throughout the house with the use of walking apparatus. We have cute little walkers meant for supporting him that he can push, but usually he prefers using a stool, his high-chair, or anything else he can grab onto and move as he wobbles throughout the house. So cute! I saw it for the first time out of the corner of my eye just a couple days ago - his proud face lit up as he walked right down the hall past me - like, "Look mom - you're in big trouble now - I can't be more than a month away from actually walking!" I know they say that babies sometimes don't crawl - they go right to walking. Well, I think Connor will probably skip the whole walking thing and go straight to running. We are really in for it!! At least we finally have the permanent baby gates up on our stairs!

Finally, his most recent trick was discovered tonight while at the dinner table! Jamie and I were looking over at Connor with disapproving eyes as he threw rice and veggies over the side of his chair so Charlotte would come running over and eat it off the floor (ok - this is a new trick, too - but not one we're really proud of!) and while we were looking at him, he slowly squinted his eyes and then totally blinked them for about a second then opened them up really wide and laughed. At first I thought he was just getting tired! But, then he did it again!! And again!! I would say "Blink" and blink my eyes slowly and then Connor would do it, too! Funny! So, after we cleaned up after dinner I called my mom to tell her about the new trick and it ends up she taught him to do it by singing him "The headlights on the bus go blink, blink, blink". Leave it to Grandma Sue to teach him something that I knew nothing about!! haha! He's my little prodigy!!

So, I end this post with a reminder that September 7th is Grandparent's Day so throw a stamp on a card and honor your Grandparents (or at least your kids Grandparents! ;)

My Baby :)

Back to the real world today! We did manage to hit up the gym (for a full 30 minutes - woo hoo!) and made it to Target to buy about the two most random things ever - salsa and coffee filters - the latter which they were out of because they were apparently on sale for 76 cents (in case you need some). I did get a navy and black stretch t-shirts for $2.50 each that will be awesome to layer with this fall, so all was not lost! I just informed Jamie to not expect coffee in the morning because we did, in fact, forget to stop at Kroger on the way home tonight to get filters - we do however have two types of salsa.

I dropped Jamie and Connor off at Costco tonight while I popped over to the Summit to make a financially damaging trip to J Crew (shh). It's a little scary when we're both spending money simultaneously!! Costco is like the man's equivalent to the woman's Target. It really doesn't matter if you need anything, you won't get out without spending at least $100, you'll have no idea what you bought, and you could go three times per week and never get tired of it!! A Costco trip for Jamie isn't much better than one of my trips to J Crew / Target/ or any of the equivalent stores that I am addicted to - I'm not sure if you realize this or not, but simply walking in the door costs $100. I mean, we went to get just microwave popcorn and a case of diet Coke one night and literally spent over $150. What???

Gotta run - I'll leave you with a tiny video of my little man dancing at his activity table!!

An End to a Great Weekend

Last night Jamie and I hit up Captain's Quarters for their last big Sunday night hoo-rah of the summer. It was fun and less crowded than Memorial Day weekend, which means better bar service and less time waiting in a bathroom line. It was nice to get out without Connor and have a good time and see people we haven't seen all summer. But, as most people know from personal experience, there is a elevated risk in big over-populated crowds of seeing or being cornered by unwanted acquaintances. This is a risk you must calculate before leaving the house. I honestly thought we would be safe from this "threat" last night as the big game kept most people securely partied-out at home or those who wore red, crying themselves to sleep. However, there still managed to be a few choice encounters that have given me a lot to laugh and talk about today - to those of my closest friends who probably have an idea of what/ who I am talking about feel free to give me a call for some more details of the encounter - it's worth it - I promise.

Moving on.

Today was REALLY REALLY fun. Let me tell you about our full schedule of super-fun activities today:

11 am - try to go to Costco - it's not open on Labor Day. I guess that's why we pay the membership fee... the convenience. I asked Jamie to call and see if they were going to be open before we drove there - needless to say, he did not.

12 am - get home from picking Connor up from my parents. Put Connor down for a nap.

1 pm - go to Walmart to get formula, conditioner and cream cheese. Awesome.

2 pm - get home. Jamie and I wash both cars while simultaneously trying to keep Connor occupied and within the confines of his baby pool and control Charlotte's barking at passers-by.

3:30pm - start making food for the family gathering this afternoon.

4:30pm - decide there is now no time to take a shower before going to the family gathering, sitead decide to put on Bath and Body Works Warm Vanilla Sugar body lotion instead, reapply deodorant, get dressed and head out the door. This is actually a trick I'm getting very good at.

5:15 pm - arrive late at the family gathering, although it really doesn't matter. Consume 2 glasses of wine and WAY too much food, making me a little groggy and fussy myself. Eat more when dessert is served. Dang it. Diet starts again tomorrow - wait, swimsuit season ended today - sweet!

8 pm - arrive back at home where we play with Connor, change a dirty diaper, give a bottle and put him to bed.


At this moment, I believe Jamie is watching his football team get trounced by Tennessee, who we hate by virtue of being UK fans. All of our exciting activities have also been interjected by taking care of a sick dog who has just gone through radiation treatment, followed by 24/7 cleaning on the house due to the previous - plus what normally needs to be cleaned anyway. Being the perfect little angel (haha) he is, Connor was in truly is great form and was a pleasure to be with today, which pretty much makes everything A-OK in my book! I think it might have something to do with the fact he spent all last night and this morning with his Grandma Sue and Grandpa Ron - that always brings out his best side!


Well, I've got some online shopping to do - I heard on the radio yesterday the must-haves from A Long Lean Fall are: skinny pants/jeans, a pencil skirt, and a sweater dress. Of course, anything from last year would have worked except all the new colors for fall are mustard yellow, eggplant (eww), and slate gray (ok - I'm just repeating what I heard!) so I'm off to the dot com shopping meccas to find bargains on a new fall wardrobe that doesn't involve last year's maternity jeans, flip-flops, and tunic dresses!!

Happy September! :)