Superbowl Sunday

For Superbowl Sunday we had some friends over to watch the game. Ofcourse, being the sports fan that I am, I didn't even know who was playing until that day. But for me, it's not about the game. I just love getting together with my peeps and eating up some yummy food!

I made some homemade crackers (I subbed olive oil for the yucky canolo oil) and served them with cheese slices, Cremini mushrooms stuffed with grassfed beef and aged english cheddar, Dip consisting of cheese, rotel and pork sausage (the hubs nicknamed this crack dip years ago and that is now what everyone calls it), and ofcourse the Cake Pops. Everyone else brought food too, so we had quite a spread. Before everyone arrived I grabbed a photo of Joe and myself. I hardly have any pics of the two of us together. I need to work on that.



And ofcourse I had to take a pic of the munchkin too, who now says "cheese" really loud when she sees a camera and smiles really big. She's so awesome.


My girl Anna came over early. This was nice, we could sit and chat while I got the food ready and before everyone else arrived. She also helped entertain the munchkin for me.


A few of my girls, Anna, Brenda and Amber chatting around the table.


We welcomed everyone to bring their children, but only one playmate showed up. Rhys and the munchkin get along really well. He doesn't even mind all her girly toys and playing tea party with her.

"A bachelorette party is a bachelor party...gone wild!" - Unknown

I fully intended on posting more about the bachelorette party by now and posting some pics, but we have been snowed in and I have been taking full advantage of the bonus time with the family. I will have to share the pics from the party later.

The party was a blast. I hope our bachelorette feels she went out with a bang, because I sure believe she did. According to her she was hurting for days, and I definitely felt bad for her. It was so much fun though to see her tear up the town and especially the dance floor. She was a woman on a mission!

The day started at 2:00pm with the couples shower. You can tell that this couple is dearly loved and for very good reason. They truly are fantastic. They played some funny games which had everyone laughing. After the shower, I followed my girl Julie and her hubs out to her loft to visit for a little while before heading back to the Bachelorette’s house for dinner/pre-drinks/getting ready for the night. I brought my own dinner (a cheeseburger and a salad), along with some snacks to share with everyone (a cheese ball, homemade crackers, cookies and brownies). I am posting an entire blog about this later, as it really incurred some interesting dialogue throughout the entire evening and apparently some awkwardness (although this was all unbeknownst to me until later).

The limo bus picked us up around 10:00pm and we headed out to the bars. We started down on Main St. in old town St. Charles at a pretty nasty bar, but it was still fun and many of us had frequented it often in our younger days. The whole point of the evening was to hit up all of our bachelorette’s favorite spots from her younger single days. This is where my video from the previous post took place. One of our bridesmaids found the guy on the dance floor, stole his hat and started mimicking his moves. I missed the funnier parts, but caught what I could. Everyone in the crowd was laughing so hard... it was hilarious! The funniest part was how serious this guy was, he was definitely not laughing. The was serious business to him.

Our second attempt failed after the doorman told us he couldn’t serve our bachelorette because she was too intoxicated. Her response “Are you fucking serious?!” She repeated this several times and kept yelling at him as we pulled her away. The guy was definitely an ass and clearly our bachelorette was not drunk (okay maybe a little). We then headed to the next bar which had much better music (awesome guy playing the guitar and singing some great songs) and was much less smoky. After some initial confusement about the whereabouts of our bachelorette’s sister (they found her wandering down the street, pissed off that we had left her), we found her safe and sound and returned to the festivities. We headed to the next bar and found our way onto the 5’x 5’ dance floor and really broke it down with the live band playing some awesome 60’s and 70’s tunes. After a few songs, though, the regulars revolted (as Julie put it) and wedged their way back onto the dance floor, not so politely pushing us out of their way. We felt maybe we had overstayed our welcome and decided to leave (somewhat) gracefully.

After we left the bar, we called our bus driver to take us to our next destination. He was having a hard time finding us and we kept seeing him drive away in the wrong direction or down the wrong street. Next thing we knew we saw a cops cherry lights turned on and our bus pulling over. Apparently, our bus side swiped the cop car. Really. I am not sure how he did it, but he sure did. In his defence, he was trying to navigate cobblestone streets, filled with cars and drunk pedestrians, and also trying to keep in eye out for us. It didn’t take long though, and we were up and moving once again. We were headed downtown to our bachelorette’s favorite bar to end the evening.

We had quite a drive to get there though and made good use of our time with lots of dancing and drinks on the bus. We got stuck in some traffic and our driver got off the highway and headed down the service road. As we pulled up to all the lights, we saw (literally) about 30 cop cars sitting on the highway. As we drove past it all some of the girls started screaming and yelling and shouting “Don’t look, there’s dead bodies on the ground!” I was already looking, and really trying hard to see what was going on. I didn’t see any dead bodies on the ground, and after watching the news the whole next day, I don’t think they did either. Apparently, there had been some kind of high speed chase which did end in a shooting, but there wouldn’t have been dead bodies laying on the side of the road. Whew. After a pit stop at the gas station for supplies and water (thank god) we headed to our final destination.

The last bar was my favorite (aside from the blazing fireplace threatening to singe my hair and eyebrows (also not a good component for extreme dancing). We entered with our bachelorette falling flat on her ass at the entrance to the bar. We were initially afraid we weren’t going to be allowed to enter, but one of the girl’s assured the doorman that she was just “really excited” and he welcomed us in. We danced for a couple of hours (I think? My reference of time here is really skewed) and I seriously had a blast. I had made the (in my opinion) very wise decision to stick to my captain morgan and refrain from drinking anything else. Past incidents have led me to believe that the outcome of the evening will always be better and the morning much more tolerable. I’m so glad I did, because although quite tipsy at the end, I wasn’t feeling too terrible. I was also on a really tight budget and had brought a bottle with me on the bus and was just drinking from that (Thank you to my dear friend Julie for offering me a couple of drinks at the bars, you are such a sweetie!)

We arrived back at our bachelorette’s house around 3:00 am. After some snacking, water guzzling and some recapping of the evening’s events, I finally crawled into bed around 5:00am. I couldn’t believe that by 8:00am everyone was already up and moving around, making it impossible for me to sleep any longer. I finally rolled out of bed, brushed my teeth, washed my face and started gathering my things. I was thanking myself over and over again for bringing my coffee cup pre-filled with instant coffee and all the fixings to go with it. It was a huge help.

Sunday was a wash. Without much sleep and too many drinks, I wasn’t able to get much done. It took till Monday to recover completely and get back into the swing of things. Then came a big snow storm (or atleast that’s what the weatherman told us, it ended up not being that horribly bad... they even called in the national guard!) All of the authorities begged everyone to stay home. I was so grateful for the day off Tuesday to have the extra time to spend with the munchkin and to get some cleaning done around the house in preparation for our Superbowl party.

Stay tuned for some pics of Saturday night and my food blog follow-up....

"It's not so much how busy you are, but why you are busy. The bee is praised. The mosquito is swatted." ~ Mary O'Connor

I think I have finally recovered from the weekend. Talk about busy! I really wish I had more time lately to blog, instead of recapping an entire week, each time I do. Things have just been crazy and non-stop lately. Joe and I have also been really hooked on watching all the seasons of Dexter on our Instant Streaming Netflix (best $11 per month ever!), so that doesn’t help either. Each episode is an hour long. And it’s so addictive...

Thursday night my friend Gina gave birth to her new baby boy, so Friday, after putting the munchkin to bed, I headed up to the hospital to see them. Per her request, I brought some apple dump cake with me, which is basically 4 ingredients dumped into a special bowl just for this dessert, and cooked in the microwave for 8 minutes. Easy peasy but sooooo good! I stayed just long enough to get some new baby love, share in polishing off the dump cake, and then headed home.

Saturday we celebrated our friends 30th birthday with a trip to a local winery. Joe headed out around noon, riding with some friends, and I headed out at 2:00 after my mom showed up to watch the munchkin. I arrived around 3:00, and found everyone. I purchased a bottle of wine (a semi-dry red), and poured my first glass. It was very warm outside, the view was absolutely gorgeous and it had been a while since I was fortunate enough to visit a winery. I was feeling good. Maybe a little too good, cuz I finished most of the bottle of wine within an hour and a half. It was a good time and I wasn’t ready to leave, but around 5:45 we started to gather our belongings and head out. I was due at my house at 6:30 to meet up with my girl Anna to head over to an engagement party.

We didn’t get far from the winery before we saw the lights and emergency vehicles lined up ahead, re-directing traffic. We were not too far out of town, but the area we were in was only used (by us) to get to the wineries. We didn’t know the back roads (they were all “back roads”) to take to find an alternate route. We followed the cars in front of us, thought we were making progress, and 20 minutes later, we were spit back out onto the road right by the winery we had originally left. As we came up to the lights and traffic, we were re-directed in the same direction once again. As we pulled up to the man directing traffic, I rolled down my window, explained to him that we had already been through this and it only took us in a big circle. He said go to the top of the hill, and near the fire hydrant, make a right on Schlausselburg (or something like that).

After we pulled down the street, I was so elated to not have the previous car in front of me that had only been driving 15 mph. I pushed down on the gas, and suddenly realized that I was flying down a gravel road. WTF?! Apparently, we had come to a dead end, in which I was supposed to make a sharp left, but instead continued straight. After looking into my rear view mirror, I saw that I had led a couple of young girls down the same wrong turn as well. Oops. I turned my car around, as they backed up. Our cars moved, facing each other, back towards the paved road. The girls were laughing hysterically, it got me laughing pretty good as well. I had a feeling they too, had just left one of the wineries. They motioned us on to go first. I guess they still felt better about following us then going on ahead of us. I wasn’t so sure that was the best idea.

Joe turned on the Sprint GPS on his phone. It was no freaking help at all. It kept telling us to do U Turns or to make a left on a street, but would call it by another name. I think we were in too deep for the GPS. And where the hell was “Schlausselburg”? Or the fire hydrant? I am pretty sure there was no way out, and this guy was laughing at all of the trusting souls he had sent on this wild goose chase. After taking a couple of different turns we finally turned back onto the same main road, this time we were right by the accident.

As someone drove by, we asked them what had happened. Apparently, a car and a motorcycle had hit head on, and 2 of the passengers had to be air lifted out of there. I was no longer in a hurry and frustrated with the hold up. I could only feel bad for whoever was involved in this accident. We waited, somewhat somberly, another 30 minutes or so and cars were allowed to pass through. I finally arrived home a little after 7:30. I did a quick wardrobe change, grabbed my gift, and headed out the door with Anna.

After stopping at Walgreens to get a card (I can’t remember everything, I’m luckily I had a gift that I had already wrapped!), we arrived at the party around 8:15. Luckily the location of the party was only a mile or so from my house. How convenient is that? We found our way to the house and out into the backyard. We made ourselves a couple of drinks and started to mingle. Not long after we arrived, so did someone else I wasn’t too excited to see. Remember this chick? I guess it’s hard to avoid people forever when you run in some of the same circles. I was warned she may be coming, so I wasn’t completely unprepared, but it was still incredibly awkward. Well, for me anyway. Once she walked up, she gave Anna a hug, then turned to give me one. Completely caught off guard, I half hugged her back. Other then some forced, polite conversation, we didn’t speak to each other much the rest of the night. And then she left early.

I’m not gonna lie, the hug not only threw me for a loop, it also kinda pissed me off. I haven’t spoken with her at all since the whole debacle, and I was still feeling just as hurt and confused as I did when it happened. Plus, we were at a friend’s engagement party. Not exactly the right place or time to confront someone about something like this. I couldn’t help but feel relieved when she made her exit.

Apparently, I drank more wine then I had realized. I would have loved to blame all of the purple stains going down my shirt and pants on some drunk idiot, but the glass of wine in my hand was most likely the point of origin. It had been a long day, and I seemed to have lost the ability to regulate myself or know my level of tolerance. I guess that can happen when you drink much less frequently and also start too early in the day. I do wish I had been alert enough to notice the mosquitoes feasting on my feet. No exaggerating here at all, I have at least 50 bites on my left foot alone! I think one of the highlights of the evening was when Anna and I found the dessert table and shared in 3 different pieces of insanely delicious cakes. Mmmmmm.

Another highlight was seeing our friend Brooke so happy. I remember how amazing it felt to be newly engaged to Joe. How filled with hope and romantic everything was. It’s wonderful to see a friend beginning that journey as well.

I made it home around 12:15 or so and after a make out sesh with the hubs, I passed out.

Thank goodness, Sunday morning, Joe was getting up with the munchkin (we alternate between Saturday and Sunday). I woke up at 7:15 with a pounding headache, took my Tylenol, and went back to bed until 11:00. I definitely had to pay for my fun. Later in the day, I took the munchkin with me on a trip out to Trader Joe’s, along with some other errands.

I also wanted to mention that I bought the Trader Joe’s brand Sprouted 7 Grain bread there on a whim. So far, I have had it with an egg, turkey bacon and cheese sandwich, a turkey sandwich, a cheeseburger, and with peanut butter spread on top. It was absolutely delicious in every situation. Not only is the bread super nutritious, it has only 4 net carbs and 5 grams of protein per slice! I am loving this bread!

For dinner we made a double batch of spaghetti so we could bring some of it to Gina and Brian. I remember how impossible it was to cook a meal that first week after being home with a new baby. After I put munchkin to bed, I headed over to Gina’s. I loved snuggling up with the baby, as he slept soundly in my arms while I was there.

Monday morning I was finally starting to feel normal again. Not long after I arrived to work, Joe called me and told me his car wouldn’t start. Yay. So after only being at work for an hour, I headed home, picked up the munchkin and took her to the sitter so Joe could get a jump start from the neighbor and take his car into his friend’s shop. Luckily, it only ended up being the battery. It could have been much worse. Last night my girl Brenda came over to visit me. I made her watch the Bachelor Pad with me. (Sorry Brenda!) What is it about escaping into other people’s drama, that helps you to forget your own? And that show is never short on drama.

So tonight, I am meeting up with Anna for some sushi. I am REALLY looking forward to it. Nothing like an evening with a good friend, some sushi and a glass of wine to rewind and decompress. And yes, I am sticking to a glass, maybe two, but NOT a bottle!

Now I just have to get through work today....

I won a prize! A birthday Luau! Shopping! Baking! And ofcourse, lots of cute pics!

This past week has been busy, busy, busy!

Friday morning started off really really good when I found out I won a giveaway from Lil' Woman! I couldn't believe it! I never win anything! I won a $40 gift towards anything at CSN.com How fun is that?! I have had my eye on some of these for a while, so I went a head and ordered this and this on Friday and they should be arriving any day now. I am so excited! It's one of those items I have been wanting for a while now, but couldn't justify spending the money. With shipping and everything, I only paid about $1.50. Thank you so much Lil' Woman! You should check out her blog too, her and her big man are really cute;)

Friday night my sister came over and we started making and preparing the food for my mom's birthday luau the following night. There was alot to do! So we were up pretty late getting everything done and then cleaning up the mess. We also indulged in the key lime pie that I had made the night before. It was low carb, sugar-free and absolutely AMAZING. I have been trying out recipes from this girl's blog and I am so happy that I found her. She is a master at making low-carb, sugar-free deliciousness!! I had 2 big pieces every day over the weekend and somehow my weight still went down... crazy! I also saved a piece for my grandmother who is diabetic and she absolutely loved it. She was so happy to share in dessert and not worry about how it would affect her.

I picked up my mom Saturday morning and we headed down to The Loop. It's about a 20 minute drive over to a stretch of road with great restaurants, shopping and music. They have the cutest little boutiques with unique clothing and accessories and lots to look at and lots to do. This was important be because I needed to keep her busy while the rest of the family got her house ready for her party that night. I was bringing her back around 5:30 when we would walk in the door and everyone would yell "Surprise!" She had never been down to The Loop before, so she was excited to go. We had alot of fun walking around and checking out all of the shops. We got very lucky with the weather. It could have been a scorcher considering the weather on the days before and the days after. But it actually wasn't too bad and we even had a breeze. I didn't even sweat. Yay!

Her party was alot of fun. Old friends she hadn't seen in a while showed up, along with family and other friends. Everyone's babies were crawling around and having their own fun. Then at the end of the night, we all decided to crash there. Even my sisters neighbor decided to stay (only because he was too inebriated to drive himself home). So he slept on the couch, Amy on the little couch, her hubs J slept on the floor in the living room right beside my sister Erin and her man C. Joe and I slept in the bedroom downstairs. The munchkin and her cousin each got their own bedroom upstairs. Not fair at all I tell you, but whatda gonna do?

This was the first time the munchkin had slept the entire night in her pack n play and not in her own crib. I wasn't sure how it was going to go. I gotta say, I was mighty proud. She went down at 8:00 and slept soundly through the entire night until about 7:30 in the morning. I was also afraid that she was going to freak out when she woke up in a strange place. But instead I just found her standing up looking around and talking quietly in her little baby babble.

My mom made breakfast for everyone. Her specialty, bacon, eggs, biscuits and gravy. Yum! I skipped out on the biscuits and gravy and had brought my own muffin, but it was all still delicious and it was so much fun having everyone around the table for a big breakfast, along with the addition of our guys and little kiddos. I think it would be really awesome if we could all live in a huge house together. Ofcourse, we would all have to have our own private quarters equipped with kitchens and private living spaces.

Sunday was spent recouping and getting ready for the next week. I usually make up a bunch of food to prepare for the week ahead and this is also the day we do all of our laundry.

The munckin's babysitter's kiddo was sick on Monday and Tuesday so we took turns taking off work and staying home with her. It was pretty awesome having an extra bonus day to spend with her. My favorite part of the day with her is in the mornings before her first nap. We usually only get to spend that time with her on the weekends.

I am slowly easing my way back into carbs. Things like brown rice and whole wheat pasta are things I definitely want to incorporate back into my diet. So last night my girl Gina took me out for some sushi. There is this new sushi place near my house where you can sorta build your own roll and you can opt to have it with brown rice! It was so good. The spicy tuna practically melted in my mouth. It had been over 3 months since I was able to eat any sushi (this is huge coming from someone who previously ate it 1-2 times per week... or more). It was a glorious reunion. Her hubby and their little boy came over with her and stayed and hung out with my hubs for some bbq pork steaks while we ventured out for the sushi.

I gave the munch some edamame and she loved it! I bought them already shelled at Trader Joes, boiled them for about 6 minutes. I then peeled the skin off of them and laid them on her tray. She gobbled them up. Look how happy she is!


She has just been so much fun lately. She is clapping really well now and waving hello and goodbye. It's so amaing to see her grow and learn new things every day.


Her and her little cousin are definitely partners and crime. When they are together, they just follow each other around and get into everything. Here they are trying to pull things out of the fridge.



Reading books. They are so smart.

For the first time ever, they were actually sharing toys and handing each other things.

Our friend Justin brought his little girl Mya over to play too. It was pretty hilarious watching them all crawl around like a small herd of animals.

They kept fighting over who got to hold Mya's cheerios.

I put the munchkin in this little dress on Sunday. I thought she looked so adorable in it, we just had to do a photo shoot.


She got some cool new shades on Sunday from Target. This is as close as I could get to a picture of her wearing them.

I had alot to do in the kitchen yesterday before we could head out for sushi and not much time to do it. I gave the munchkin free reign over the storage containers cabinet to keep her busy. It worked like a charm.


So there's my week. I better get back to work!

Party Planning... Oh How I Have Missed Thee!!

This week I began preparations for the munchkin's first birthday party. I really can't believe she is going to be a year old already. I have to admit, the first part of her life did not fly by. When we were dealing with her acid reflux and breastfeeding issues, along with sleepless nights and a very crabby baby, time seemed to move along pretty slowly. As soon as she hit that 6 month mark, when I was no longer breastfeeding, and we had her reflux under control, time began to accelerate and events and milestones began to come and go at a much quicker pace. It's funny how that works (well actually no, it's not funny, infact it sorta pisses me off). Suddenly she is almost walking, starting to say actual words, clapping when she gets excited, and giving me hugs and big slobbery kisses. She has been the most wonderful, adorable and perfect little baby. I am going to miss her being a baby, but I am also really looking forward to her toddler years and taking her places and seeing her interact more with the world around her.

I have always been in love with little owls.There's something about them, I just find them to be endearing and lovable. So for her first birthday party we are doing an owl theme. I figure, before she gets old enough and starts asking for her own favorite characters, I better get my owl fix out of the way while she is still oblivious. Off I went searching for owl supplies. Turns out, I am not the only one semi-obsessed with owls, and finding stuff was actually pretty easy. I was extra tickled when I found items designed specifically for a one year old's party!How cute are these? I am just going to order the plates and napkins. I don't want to go overboard or anything (yeah right). I am going to buy all of the other items (utensils, streamers, ribbon, any other misc. decorations) in matching colors at my local dollar tree. I have recreated the little owl for her invitations which I am almost done with and will post once complete.

So then I thought, wouldn't it be cute to find a little dress for her with an owl on it? Well, I didn't think I would find one with a little owl that looked just like the one we were already using (only a little more cute and crafty looking), but I sure did! I am pretty sure this lady designed this dress just for the munchkin to wear at her party!



I can not wait to get her into this little dress!

My amazingly talented (and I am not exaggerating here at all) friend Sarah, that made my hubby's cake for his 30th birthday party, is also going to make the cake for the munchkin's party. She is going to do a 3D cake with the little owl. I know whatever she comes up with will be incredible!

While I was searching for the munchkin's outfit, I came across this wrap skirt and I immediately fell in love. Not only would it be really silly cute for me to wear it at the party with the little owls at the bottom, I have a feeling I am going to be living in it most of the fall. The party was a good excuse for me to get it. I mean come on, I need to coordinate too, right? I haven't splurged on clothing for myself in ages (yes, I am really trying to justify this to myself here).



There is also something about having a piece of clothing that is handmade by a real person and that is unique and one of a kind. I don't often fork over the extra money for something like this. But for the times that I have, I still own, wear and love each and every one of these items. This really talented seamstress in upstate NY made it. I wish I could sew like this. I also wish I could have bought more of her stuff... but I'll have to wait till more funds come in...

Now I need to start working on the menu. We are having the party in the evening, mostly because of the munchkin's strict schedule (her idea, not mine). She takes a nap from 10:00 to between 11:30 or 12 and then another nap from 2:00 to 3:30 or 4. Then she is awake and bright eyed-pretty much until 8:00 when she goes to bed. So I figure if we start the party at 4:00 she should be good to go for several hours. Because of the start time, people will most likely be hungry for some dinner. So we'll be serving up some bbq (crossing my fingers that my grill master dad will step in here with his Big Green Egg, he's always looking for an excuse to use it). The cake is taken care of, so I just need to worry about some sides and a couple appetizers.

So I have been thinking about favors. I am wondering really if I should bother with them or not. It's a party for a one year old, do people really need favors? I know they are cute and fun, and under different (more financially fluid) circumstances, I would love to have them, but they can get pretty costly. Obviously when she is older, I will make one for all the kids at her party, but I am trying to decide whether to make them for this party. Whenever I throw a shower for someone, I usually make chocolate chip cookies and put some in little baggies for each person. I could always do that. I have a little number one shaped cookie cutter, maybe I will just make some sugar cookies with icing on them and put those in baggies for everyone. Any thoughts? Any super cheap ideas?

Before you think that I am maybe putting too much into this little party for a one year old's birthday, let me just say.... you are probably right. Let me also say, that until I became pregnant, one of my most favorite things in the world to do was host a party. I just love planning parties. We would have several big parties every year. We had a huge annual Halloween party that we spent weeks preparing for, a christmas party, and birthday parties for ourselves or one of my sisters. We hosted my mom's 50th birthday party and really anything else we could use as an excuse.... a spring fling party... whatever. It's been over two years since we have had a real party at our house and I am extremely excited about it!

All the cousins together!

We had our family all over last Sunday for a bbq. Both of my sister came and brought their girls. We had some good photo opps.

Here is some of the family hanging out in the living room.

Starting in the back, from left to right... my grandmother, my mom, my sister Erin, my sister Amy, then me. Down front are our babies! Girls, girls and more girls!


Here is the munchkin with her younger cousin Q. They are about 6 weeks apart. My friend Gina over at Namaste By Day, bought her this cute little dress while I was preggo.

They threw all of the toys out of the boxes and climbed inside.

I took this pic that same morning. She looked so cute "reading" her books.

Joe's 30th Birthday Party!

I meant to do a post about Joe's 30th birthday party, but whatda know... I never got around to it. The party was so much fun. We rented out the top floor of a local bar that we used to hang out with back in the day. They took really good care of us and we really had a good time. Joe and I drank alot... infact that night and into the next day was a little rough. But we recovered... eventually. We are definitely getting a little too old to kick it like rock stars.

I had to post some pics of his amazing birthday cake that my friend Sarah created for him. I couldn't believe what a great job she did! It was based off of the cover of the Grateful Dead Terrapin Station album...



I will add some more pics of the party later.

Where does the time go?

I am so bad. It's been months since I've blogged. Or atleast it seems like it. Life is so crazy busy right now its hard to find the time. I feel terrible I haven't updated things and I don't want to look back and have nothing to show for months at a time....

Things have been picking up alot for me at work and I have been super busy there. So after I get home from work, play with the munchkin, make dinner, clean up the kitchen, play some more, then put the munchkin to bed, then do some more chores, I am usually too tired to get on the computer. I always say I am going to make more time, and I really would love to, but we shall see....

I will try to get things caught up without going on for too long.

We have been in the new house for a little over a month now and we love it. The past year was hard as far as our living situation, but everything definitely worked out for the best and we couldn't be happier about it. We are pretty much settled. Everything is unpacked and put away. All that is left to do is hang some more things up on the wall. Right now my computer room is full of stuff that still needs to be hung up or set out somewhere. I just leave the door shut and most of the time pretend its not there. And since I rarely go in there to get on the computer anyway, that's not very hard to do.

Things are also getting much busier for Joe at work. This is great in many ways obviously, but since he is going to school now as well, lots more paperwork and lots of homework is alot to juggle. He is doing great though. I am so proud of him. His grades have been so good and he has been working really hard.

I have been on a new diet. I have been doing the HCG diet. Some of you may have heard of it, but if you are like me you never knew anything about it before. My sister decided to do it and once she told me about it, I thought she was crazy and that it sounded like a ridiculous idea. So I got online and researched it so that I could tell her it wasn't a safe diet, but the more I researched it, the better it sounded and I decided to try it myself. I am on day 25 and I have lost 18.5 lbs!! They are drops that I take under my tongue 3x a day, along with an extremely healthy low calorie diet. I am doing the homeopathic version, so it is safer with absolutely no side effects (there are also injections and prescriptions that you can get from a doc, but this is a little different) and I gotta say, I am feeling fantastic and my baby fat is finally going away! The diet is way to complex to explain right now, maybe I will try to dedicate a blog entry to it later. If you are curious though, just google homeopathic HCG diet. Or check out this link for a quick synopsis: HCG Diet Its absolutely crazy how amazing this diet is and how it has changed my life. Not only is it getting ridding of my stubborn baby fat, I have increased energy, and even my skin and hair are looking better. I wouldn't believe it if I wasn't going through it myself!

Update: Knowing what I know now, however, I would NOT recommend the HCG diet as a healthy way to lose weight.

Saturday is Joe's 30th birthday party. I am so excited. We rented out the top floor of a bar that we used to hang out at alot and there are a bunch of people coming. Some people we haven't even seen since the munchkin was born. I can't wait!! My friend Sarah is making his birthday cake and I am sooooo excited to see how it turns out. I will definitely post some pics. She is an amazing cake artist and I am always amazed with her creations. Joe is a huge Grateful Dead fan and she is going to design his cake in 3D to replicate the little train station from the cover of the Terrapin Station album. I can't wait to see it!

The munchkin is growing so fast, I just can't believe it. She is pulling up and walking along furniture, but not quite walking on her own yet. I expect that she will be doing that very soon though. She can crawl so fast, its crazy! She just starting feeding herself a little. I give her little gerber puffs and she can stick them in her mouth. For the longest time she would hold them in her fist, bring her fist to her mouth, but then she wouldn't open her fist. She would get so frustrated! So just last night she made a breakthrough and seems to be finally figuring things out. She is starting to get her pincher grasp going. She still has NO teeth! She is doing pretty good at mashing up some foods in her mouth, but I am kinda wary to give her too much without any teeth. She has started to clap a little bit. She babbles all the time. It's like she is having entire conversations in her little baby language. She has kinda started saying ma-ma-ma and da-da-da but I'm not totally sure she is really talking about us. My friend Gina watched her last week and worked on signing the word "more" with her. She actually seemed to be getting it!

I am so inlove with this little girl, I just can't believe how much she has changed our lives and how happy she has made us. I just never knew you could love someone this much. She just turned 9 months on the 9th. I can't believe that she is going to be a year old in only 2.5 months... time really does fly!

We are LOVING LOVING LOVING our new babysitter situation. First of all, it takes me 6 minutes to get to Stacy's house from mine, so to say she lives close is an understatement. I get up for work in the morning and give the munchkin her bottle, I then dress her and get her ready for the day. Then I put her in her pack n play with some toys and I leave for work. Joe finishes getting ready for work, then he feeds her breakfast and takes her to the sitter. I get off work at 3:00, then head straight to the sitter. I arrive around 3:15 to 3:30 depending on traffic. She is usually just waking up for her nap or still sleeping when I get there. I have known her sitter since high school so we were already friends. So sometimes, when she is still sleeping, I will just hang out and chat for a while until she wakes up. Once she does, I give her a bottle and we head home. She loves playing with Stacy's little boy and there is another little girl there too. She seems really happy there and everything is working out great. When Stacy needs a day off for vacation or whatever, the munchkin goes to her original sitter's house (our very first one) who she loves too and gets to play with her little girl Ada. It is so great to have such a wonderful back up as well and to have people that I really like and trust taking care of my little baby.

Here she is going swimming for the first time!! She was so scared and nervous at first, but then she finally warmed up to it.


Here she is with her little cousin.


And I will leave you with this video. Her little cuz kept trying to chew on her ear. It cracks me up....