I have a Target problem.

A while ago I posted about my Target problem, and since then things have decidedly NOT improved. Today I went in for a $4 prescription for this disgusting thing (mental note to me: QUIT PICKING AT ZITS, IN-GROWNS & HANG-NAILS!!!!)and came out $97.45 later. I was just proud that it was under a hundy. Barely.
But guess what? They have Breyer's ice cream quarts for like $2.67, a great price on it's own, but if you buy five, you get a $5 gift card!
Luckyyyy.
So now I'm off to have my pre-dinner ice cream. Oh, don't worry, there will be post-dinner ice cream as well. You don't get to be 200£ plus without pre & post dinner ice cream.Everyone swore I'd dropped this week. It felt like I'd dropped this week. Kinda looks like it to me, but Doctor Wood says not so much & I'm still chillin' at 2 1/2 centimeters. Dude is in there to stay. My bad for having a cozy womb & a huge torso. They don't call me Thorax for nothing.



can you tell I'm bored? Two posts in one day?

oh no! what if he doesn't come soon?

So in waiting for this baby to pop out (zero progress btw) I just realized that if he goes over by a few days I won't have any excuse to ignore Matt's birthday like I was planning to. Abram is due on the 8th and my darling husband's birthday is the 11th. Normally I spend months & months planning all sorts of secretive plans; I like to do his birthday fairly big & pride myself in being a "good-gifter". This year I just assumed that I'd be in a new-baby stupor & told Matt that he could plan on me ignoring his birthday. But after our visit with the doctor today, I doubt that will be the case.
We agreed that his Memorial Day golf trip to Seattle would suffice for birthday love this year, but I can't just ignore it if I'm still "with child" when the actual day rolls around!
So I'm looking for ideas, just quick cheap fun things that would help him know how lucky I am to have him in my life. You know.... stuff that a 9 month preggers woman could pull off. Help a chic out here, please!

A few things of note...

#1- Loreli Gilmore/Sarah Braverman/Lauren Graham


I love you. I'm so beyond happy to have you back in my life. You are like comfort food for my brain. And your new show makes me feel like life is completely do-able. I LOVE it. And I want your hair.
#2- the TingTings. Freaking awesome. Whole album.
#3- Lee Dewyze. I called it last year with (the yummy) Kris Allen, and I'm calling it again. Lee is going to be the winner. I called it on facebook in the 3rd week. I freaking love him. And no, Casey James is NOT attractive. I just have to say that everywhere I can because my husband's work wife & I are in a fight about it.
#4- girls. Girls need girls. I don't care how old you are, how busy you are, how wonderful your kids and/or husband are, you NEED girlfriends. Last night I was able to go out with Kierstin, Laura, Stacey & Kirsten, and I feel like a brand new person after eating fantastic food & laughing my brains out. And you know how sometimes when you mix groups of friends it doesn't always go well? Not so last night. I had only met Stacey last night & I pretty much want to keep her in my pocket. It was so much fun.
#5- my daughter is cool. She let's me nap everyday. She makes me smile all the time. She gives great butterfly kisses. She shares like a pro. She understands things that I would never expect her to. She is ridiculously patient & forgiving. She's got a lust for life that'd give Iggy Pop a run for his money.
#6- I think I'm about done with the gym. I've only been going about 2-3 times a week for the last few weeks, but since it takes me 3 days of bed rest to recover, and the fact that my groin feels like it's going to shatter any second, I think it's about time to put the ol' membership on hold. Sad.
#7- 10 days out from my due date & I've pretty much about had it. Bring it on.
- Posted from my iPhone

Wow. Just wow.

I just saw a little ad online for the morning after pill. First off, it was on a healthy pregnancy/natural childbirth site. Maybe not their key demographic. Second off, the ad included a website address that went a little something like this: www.becausetheunexpectedhappens.com.
REALLY?
You didn't expect to drop trou & engage in the pretense of an intimate relationship with someone that you would NOT like to be tied to for the rest of your natural life?
You "accidentally" had sex & now would like to NOT deal with the possible consequences of your rather grown-up actions?
Give me a break.




ever so small print- rape is a whole other ballgame, I'm not going there with this rant.

- Posted from my iPhone

Proud mama moment

I don't consider this much of a "mama-blog", I'm too self-involved & need a place to vent, so that's what this is. But I need to do a better job of recording the fun, silly and/or amazing things my daughter does & says, and since I'm not digital scrapbooking right now, I think I'll start putting more things like that here.
With that said...
Today I was in the shower when Sawyer came in.
"momma guess what I just did!"
(oh crap, I'm thinking, I've left her pretty unsupervised over the last hour...)
"what sweetheart?"
"I just said my own prayers all by my lone!"
(she's been very resistant to saying prayers lately)
"oh yeah? How does that make your heart feel when you talk to Heavenly Father?"
"so, so, so, so, so, so, nice & good! And I asked for daddy & me to be safe while we swim today! And we will be!"
Yup, that's what my kid does while she's unsupervised for a while.
That and empty out her crayon bank alllll over her room.

- Posted from my iPhone

How can I resist these abs?

Anybody know anybody who has a pair of those "toning" shoes? Do they work? Like at all? I want those abs, and although I know damn well that those abs have never born children & that to even come close would require a diet more strict than I am willing to even attempt, advertising is powerful & I'm thisclose to dropping the hundie on these freaking gimmicky shoes.


- Posted from my iPhone

I'm abusing this shirt

Can you hear this poor shirt screaming for mercy??





"help! Help! I'm not even maternity! I'm not supposed to be stretched like this!"

And I still have three weeks left. Wowza. And the jury is hung on whether lots of spazzy baby activity means that
A) he's a super-spaz & wants out STAT or
B) if he's got enough room to move around that much, then he might be in there for the long haul.
What do you think?
'cuz I'm just about done. D.U.N. Stick a fork in me. Between the carpal tunnel, the fat, swollen man-hands & hobbit-feet, the aching hips, the lung capacity of a field mouse, and the fact that it takes me three days to recouperate from a half hour workout. Let's just say that I'm ready to meet this little dude.
We are so excited. I think Sawyer more than anyone.


- Posted from my iPhone

Abram's Nursery

I finally finished it! And I gotta tell ya, you all were soooo right in telling me to paint the furniture black. It looks rad. (If only I had asked for your advise about coloring my hair!) And thank the good Lord up in Heaven that my friend Jenni offered to let me borrow her paint sprayer. Painting sucks, but not so much with a proper sprayer.
Actually I haven't hung the stuff up on the walls, so I guess it's not completely done.... but frankly I'm exhausted & too excited to show how it turned out.
Here is a shot of the majority of the room.This is the blanket that started it all. I saw this on etsy, bought it & asked the girl where she got the fabric thinking I should make a few other things for him, then saw that there were coordinating yet not too matchy-matchy fabrics that went along with it (the fans & bubbles) and went crazy from there. Sometimes I forget I can sew because I hardly ever do it, but apparently I can. Yay me. Anyway the super soft cream fabric on the back of that blanket pretty much exactly goes with the rug that I found at Lowe's last night & yes, I about flipped a lid when I found it because I thought I was going to have to shear a sheep & learn to weave in order to find what I wanted in a rug.
This'll be our little nursing corner, awesome chair, boppy, soft lighting, place to put a book or two. Heaven. I'm actually getting so excited to have a needy little thing that keeps me up at night. Really.

This is my "bump" (ewwww I hate double HATE that term) with the dresser & mirror. (please don't mind the fact that my pajamas in no way, shape or form go together. I have officially given up on trying to be cute.) Oh, also please note the "message in a bottle" bottle on the dresser. I was given the most amazing, asthetically pleasing baby shower of all time. Jessica you are a goddess. I want to be like you when I grow up. The fact that I have zero pictures from the shower attest to the fact that I had the greatest time ever. It was just what I needed to have so many amazing women that I love so much all in the same room at the same time. (eating amazing food & giving me amazing gifts doesn't hurt either.) These are the cute little wooden letters that I modge-podged the fishy fabric onto. They'll go on the changing table/crib wall. This is the freaking darling pinwheel mobile my awesome sister-in-law Jen made. I love it, and if you're having a baby anytime soon, you'll prolly be getting one, so be thinking of what colors you'd like yours in.
Anyway, I love how it's looking. I'm also debating making a valance or window treatment of some kind, cuz that window is very blah. However that is pretty much a mystery area of home decor to me. Suggestions?
So excited to meet our little dude!!!
Only 4 weeks 6 days! (according to the due date that I'm not supposed to be paying any attention to)

Jozet & Haydn's Wedding

Once upon a time a beautiful princess (widow with seven awesome kids) met a handsome (really, he is. Just not so much in these pictures) prince. They had known each other 20 years ago when he worked at her castle (sports & preforming arts school she & her husband ran). Since then a lot had happened. He was in the kingdom (for his niece's wedding) and thought he would go see how they were doing. He first stopped at the princess's .......
wait, this fairy tale format is getting waaay tedious.
here's the deal:
My second oldest sister is bad. Seriously. She's gorgeous, funny & like the most righteous (yet down to earth) woman you'll ever meet. Eight years ago her also amazing husband passed away, leaving her with 6 strapping lads & one beautiful daughter to raise. Yes, seven kids. I know, right? Well, when Lance was alive, 20 years ago, they had this dance/sports training school & there was this guy, Haydn that was their karate teacher and one of Lance's very good friends. He is originally from South Africa, and has the coolest accent. The dude is like 100% charisma & humility & awesomeness. Anyway, they hadn't stayed in touch, he was off living in Australia, or Hawaii or Florida just doing his thing after their school closed. So a few weeks ago he was back in Idaho for his niece's wedding & thought he'd stop in on Lance's parents (who he had lived with for a while). He finds out that Lance has since passed away & they encouraged him to go see Jozet & the kids. So they all go to dinner that night & catch up. Two weeks later they're engaged. Three weeks later they're married. Today they are in South Africa on their honeymoon. I pretty much just sucked the romance right out of the story by telling it so matter of factually like that, but it's been awesome to see it all unfold for her. So awesome to see how Heavenly Father takes care of those who do their very best to be obedient & to listen to & follow the spirit. Jozet is a phenomenal person, and I'm quickly coming to realize that Haydn is as well & I'm so freaking excited to see their life together. And I get to!!! They're moving to Provo this summer & I CAN.NOT. wait to have another of my sisters closer than a 3 hour drive.

Ballet Recital

This is Sawyer's second year of ballet at Creative Arts Academy, and although she did struggle with having a new, more disciplined teacher, she now loves Miss Kristina and loves "ballet-day." When they announced that the recital this year would be Swan Lake she was thrilled out of her mind because she loves the Barbie movie version of Swan Lake. And the fact that she got to be a unicorn really added to that excitement. There were a lot of days where she was really tired and not in the mood at all to rehearse or even go to ballet & I was so so so so proud of her because every time she would stick with it & try her best. That's better than I can do half the time. She's a rock star.This may sound creepy, but I think she just has the most beautiful body. She's always on her tip toes, and it shows in her legs like crazy. She's very strong & I love this picture of her back. One day, if she chooses to continue in ballet I think she'll like this picture, her posture is gorgeous. I pray that I can always teach & show her that being tall is way beautiful & I hope that she carries herself with pride & grace. I've tried to be very conscientious of the attitude I am helping her develop towards food, I don't want her to have any food/body issues. It is very important to me that I teach her to look at food as merely fuel, and to keep in mind that moderation & variety are much more important than any "diet". This seems so important to me in raising a daughter. If this is something you're concerned about or even want to straighten out your own messed up relationship with food, one book I would strongly recommend is Intuitive Eating.
Anyway, back to my amazing daughter. She's amazing. I can't wait to see what she does with her life. She's stubborn, that's for sure, and Matt & I are trying to figure out how to make that work for her (and us). One thing is sure though- once she knows what is the right thing to do, I dare you to tempt her to not do it. She is going to be such a great big sister. She talks all the time about things she's going to teach Abram & share with him. I know it'll be a tough adjustment, she's been used to being the center of our universe for a very long time, but I think she's going to be just great. In every way possible.

Quit being so lazy already, Celeste

I have tons of stuff i need to blog about; sawyer's ballet recital, an amazing baby shower, my sister is getting married Saturday (after a two minute engagement), my right hand is nearing completely useless proportions due to pregnancy induced carpal tunnel....delightful for making cakes, let me tell ya. Anyway, by the time I have a chance to sit down & blog, I'm tired & just want to sit & rot my brain with biggest loser, parenthood (LOVE), and American Idol.
And now guess what. I can't even remember what I was going to even say!
OHH wait, yes I do!
I'm trying to fill in gaps in baby's wardrobe, and am realizing that I have NO idea how to dress a summer baby, let alone a boy. And guess what else? I pretty much hate everything in nearly every store I go into. Puppies, trucks, tools & bears? Seriously? Those are my options? So yeah, what do I need for a little dude who is going to spend his first few months in a sling of some sort (need suggestions here as well) going to Grandma Susie's pool & the zoo with his big sister?

- Posted from my iPhone

Calling all moms

Go read this: http://memoriesoncloverlane.blogspot.com/2010/01/th-e-best-things-in-life-are-nearest.html


- Posted from my iPhone

Bendaroos are not my favorite

Will someone please explain to me how it is okay for the manufacturers of a product to use the words "no mess" on a product that leaves this much disgusting, impossible to remove residue on everything it touches. How is that okay?
So any suggestions as to how to remove waxy buildup from a glass table?


- Posted from my iPhone

Ever so much better, thank you.

First, thanks everyone for kind & understanding comments. Motherhood is pretty universal, isn't it? Also, mental note to me: Everytime I think I should spare Matt the drama & just deal with something on my own, it never gets better until I cave & spill it all on his kind, patient shoulders. He knows me better than anyone, my strengths as well as my weaknesses & gives FANTASTIC advice. If we weren't married I sure hope that we'd be friends because he is the type of friend that would literally give you the shirt off his back & a big 'ol patient shoulder to cry on. (also if he's just given you the shirt off his back & is now letting you cry on his shoulder, you are 3x blessed because you now have a lovely view of his newly improved body & who doesn't like friends like that? Generous, patient, good listener AND hot? Sheesh)
Anyway, I just have to take things one day at a time & as Ashely said, remember that soon I'll be soooo in love with this little guy that any crazy boy behavior will be deal-with-able.

Who do you talk to when no one wants to hear it?

Heck, I don't even want to hear it anymore. But after a particularly "challenging" morning with Sawyer, I have to vent or else I think I might spontaneously combust, and then who would pick her up from preschool?

I am TERRIFIED to have this baby.

Is that okay to say? Take for instance a morning such as this. How in the wide, wide world of sports am I supposed to deal with Sawyer, much less parent with patience, while I also have a squirmy, needy little infant & probably no sleep?

That I could not murder one of my loved ones at some point seems to me a mathematical impossibility.

And the suckiest thing of all is that I feel like I have zero appropriate options of people to vent to.
My husband is obviously my standard go-to guy, but he's got his plate way more than full with work & stuff right now, and it's one of those times where I would much rather attempt to swallow whatever ickiness I have going on & try to create a home that is restful for him to come home to. Notice I used the word "attempt". Rarely do I succeed in that venture.

Then you have any of my close friends...my high school friends are all successfully rocking 4 kids. I would feel more than a little stupid voicing my anxiety over my 1.5 kids.
I have a few girlfriends whose lives more closely match my own, pregnant with one kid, but I hesitate to talk to them because they:
a) are incredibly sick with their pregnancies, and me with my little la-dee-dah easy pregnancy should probably just shut up
b) are running successful businesses or working full time in addition
c) are freaking amazing moms who attend the temple weekly, crochet baby booties for the homeless shelters, bake cupcakes for Haiti..... you get the picture
d) have struggled with infertility or miscarriage, and have the sense (unlike me) to just be grateful that seed has finally found shelter in their rocky shore of a womb.
or e) some combination thereof.

And then there's my mom... another excellent option normally, but I'm just not ready this morning to deal with reason & practicality.

It seems like life is just not all it's cracked up to be sometimes & I'd really like to go curl up in the fetal position (if that were physically possible for me to do anymore) and have a good cry in some dark corner of my basement. That is a luxury I cannot afford right now. There's stuff to do & not enough time to do it in. Sometimes I feel like a rat running on a wheel going nowhere with a whole lot of effort. Sometimes I feel completely, totally incapable of doing all that is going to be required of me in the extremely near future.

Before I go & do something rash...

...I thought I'd better run this idea by people who aren't possessed by an unreasonable, hormonal pregnant brain. I'm thinking of painting all our nursery furniture black. There's a nice bit of black running through all his nursery fabric as well as in the flooring...but is that going to foreordain our little Bam-Bam to become the moody goth kid on stage crew?
Here are some pictures of what we're working with:


Changing table


Nightstand


Rocker, blanket & boppy (and yes, I am a rather impressed with myself for sewing that boppy cover sans pattern. Actually I've sewn everything in here without a pattern, the changing pad cover, crib skirt & fitted sheets. Yay me! But the boppy cover involved a zipper & it turned out really really well.)


And here's a lame view of the crib skirt. I hated it when I'd change the crib sheet & the skirt would get all screwed up, so I just made the little skirt part without the deck & Velcro-ed it onto the sides of the platform. Sometimes I even amaze myself. (except for the fact that those bubbles really ought to be going vertically instead of horizontally. And yes, I'm too lazy to fix it.)


Dresser & mirror.


The flooring. It's not as red as it looks in this picture. I think the black would look particularly nice with the flooring.

Then there's this super cool quote we'll be hanging up with a black frame & font. (p.s. I adore this shop, I bought like 18 of my Christmas presents from there, so check it out.)


And here's the crib. This is how the whole thing started. The nasty thing needs to be repainted & painting is my own personal circle of hell, so I think it's kinda pointless to take off white paint only to put more white paint on, soooo....that's where I'm at. Would the black be too much for a baby's room? I've googled some pics of other nurseries with black furniture & I think it would be awesome. The rest of the room is so light. There's one more fabric involved; there's the goldfish, the bubbles & then an orangish-red graphic fan pattern with a white background. It all goes really well together without being too matchy-matchy. So what do y'all think? Paint it black? Some of it? Just the crib? Repainting is not an option, so I have to choose very carefully. What do you think?

Just FYI

I'm pretty sure my baby has epilepsy or something because this cannot be a normal amount or intensity of kicking.

- Posted from my iPhone

and a belated happy disneyworld to you!

it's been over a month ago now, but I thought I'd post about our awesome Davis family trip. We spent four days on the Disney Wonder visiting the Bahamas & Castaway Cay and then went to Disney World for another four days. We stayed at the Animal Kingdom Kidani Villas which was amazing, they had an African savannah in the center of the grounds, so we'd wake up to giraffes & zebras & these tiny little deer & these big ol' buffalo thingers. Sawyer had so much fun at the kids club on the ship, but I think her favorite part was the beach at Castaway Cay (big surprise there). In Nassau we finagled a pretty cool deal. Disney was asking $180 per person for access to the Aquaventure water park at Atlantis, but I found out online that if you book a room at the nearby Comfort Inn, you get access to the water park for free. So I booked us a bunch of cheap rooms there & we were in for $100 less per person! Yay me! It was pretty amazing, even for a pregnant chic who couldn't go on hardly any of the rides. I'm pretty bent that I didn't bring in my camera though, that was lame. K, so then what else? Disney World was a riot, Sawyer loved meeting all the princesses. The coolest part was that because she's such an Amazon child, she could ride all the rides, and because I couldn't, Matt was in charge, and that meant that not only could she ride all the rides, she did ride all the rides. Tower of Terror? check. The Haunted Mansion? check. Space Mountain? check. Dinosaur? check. I think the only one she didn't ride was the Rockin' Roller Coaster at MGM. And she wasn't the least bit traumatized by the whole thing. She's such a rock star. By the end of the whole thing I was a wee bit exhausted, but it was sooo worth it. Matt's family is so much fun, even the bus ride from the airport had us in stitches. I wish I would have gotten a picture of that. All 30 of us crammed on a 12 person shuttle bus. It was awesome. Grandma Susie paid for the whole kit-n-kaboodle of us if you can believe that. Not too shabby for a poor old widow, huh? Her generosity & example amaze me & I am overwhelmed by the impact that it will have on future generations. I definitely upgraded when I went from cro-magnon ex-husband to married into this family.
and now for the pictures. in no particular order (thanks to the sucky way blogger uploads them)

my hot husband & sassy girl dining on the ship

burying Monte alive on Castaway Cay. Things got a little more anatomically correct when we buried Jake, but I was laughing too hard to bust out my camera.

Sawyer & Kari playing with their special buddies at dinner

SusaruMe & my buddy chillin' on the deckSawyer scarfing one of about a billion cups of soft serveThe view from our hotel room's deck (see the little baby back there? SOOO cute!)Sawyer's $15 paint jobMe, Sawyer & Kari riding DumboMeeting Belle (who frankly was the least look-alike of all the princesses)Jasmine who wins the prize for hottest Disney princess (according to Matt)Aurora (aka Sleeping Beauty)Snow White

Captain Jack Sparrow (my sister-in-law Jen with baby Elsie) on Castaway Cay. He was so in character it was silly. I think it was really Johnny Dep, he was fantastic.

Matt was the only one who made it across the whole rope thingy. By the way, Matt has lost about 15 pounds since the cruise which is completely lame. He should not be allowed to lose weight while I gain like a pound a day. But he looks super-hot.

Our ship docked at Disney's private island, Castaway Cay.

Minnie!

Marie (from Aristocats) Sawyer about flipped when she saw her because we had just bought her a little Marie stuffed animal.Kari & Sawyer on the Mad Hatter teacupsSawyer & Abram (respectively) enjoying a carousel ride.The hybrid. Matt rigged this cheap stroller with a second, higher set of handlebars for me. It's not pretty but I loved it for traveling. However this trip put it over the edge & we said goodbye to it on our last day.

Is this part of nesting?

Lately I've been feeling particularly anti-social. It's not that I don't like people, it's just that I only have so much energy. Right now I'm not the one making plans or calling to stay in touch. I am ridiculously in love with my husband, my daughter & little fetus-face, and I just feel like I want to make my world as small as possible. So, if I've been a sucky friend, daughter, sister, visiting teacher, neighbor, sister-in-law, daughter-in-law, blog-stalker, customer, aquaintance, etc., I'm very sorry. I'll probably be back to normal one day. I don't know. Has anyone else felt like this?

Sawyer & I have extended out St. George weekend to 10 days. Matt is coming Friday night to pick us up, bless his heart, and we've been having such a great time. I love love love being with her & just taking the time to really discover who she is becoming. I just relish these times & am so grateful that my time with her as my only child was extended more than I'd planned. She is the most forgiving, kind, loving, thoughtful little soul I've ever known. She wants to do what's right & once she knows what that is, I don't seem to have to worry about her. What a gift she is.


On her first hike. She did awesome, it was great. My little mountain goat.


Playing in the showers at the parade of homes was her favorite part. That & finding candy in the garages.


Lunch at 25 Main. "Girl cheese" sandwich & cupcakes.
- Posted from my iPhone