Dream catcher.
The rearview mirror has the right idea.
Putting a pin in the dream catcher so not a one can run away.
Where’s my pin.
New Baby Abound. Something to Keep Track of It All.
Alright so I just finished fiddling around with the Similac Strong Moms app on the iPad and…WOW! I’m going to preface the following amazement with how much I wish something like this existed when I had Nugget.
First off it’s an app which makes things loads easier than writing it down with a pen and paper that I would lose constantly might lose if that were the route I opted to take.
The little sister just gave birth to Baby Abigail yesterday, and her favorite auntie in the entire world of aunties (yours truly in case you were lost) will be taking care of her after she and her husband need to return to work. Now, this app is amazing because it will help me to keep Abby on the schedule that Val & Eric get her onto before I take over for a few hours a day.
The app itself is essentially a #babyjournal. After you set up your baby’s profile, the features are designed to keep track of the essentials of new babyhood. I’m just going to highlight each of the features because, there’s too much to get excited over to just list them off.
Breast Feeding Journal
The breast feeding feature offers a simple way to keep track of which breast you began with during a feeding and how long the baby fed. That’s pretty fabulous.
Bottle Feeding Journal
I’ll be getting some good use out of this feature when I have Baby Abby. My sister hopes to pump to have a stock of breast milk while she’s away. This tracks how long it took the baby to feed as well as how many ounces she fed and when.
Diaper Changes
With three options to choose whether the baby was wet (1), wet & BM(1/2) or just a BM (2) I foresee as a key tool. With any BM diaper, there are options to indicate the consistency and coloration. Great tip on perhaps catching ailments or relaying information to the pediatrician during the newborn check up parade.
Sleep Patterns
With this feature you can track at what time of day or night the baby went down and when they woke. Great for the schedule-oriented new parent.
All features include a section for additional notes and most pages have the telephone number for feeding assistance at the foot of the page. There are also links incorporated into the app to the Similac Strong Moms community and FAQ.
I’m impressed.
**I received monetary compensation from the quaking uteri over at Collective Bias to check out the Similac Strong Moms Baby Journal application. Even if there weren’t an expressed incentive involved, I was pleased to be turned onto the app to help with watching over my newborn niece. I appreciate the opportunity and in no way was my opinion swayed.
Epic foodgasm.
I just devoured one of the most deliciously simple, homemade sandwiches I have ever winged:
Panko Breaded Mozzarella on Ciabatta
You’ll need:
Mozzarella
Panko Bread crumbs w/added Italian seasoning (egg, flour, and canola oil for breading’n’frying)
Ciabatta Bread, sliced
Red Onion
Baby Spinach
Pesto Mayonnaise
Balsamic Vinaigrette
The instructions are pretty basic I suppose. Slice your Mozzarella. Lightly coat in flour. Dip in egg. Coat with Panko bread crumbs. Fry in an inch of canola oil (with a splash of olive oil if you’re down with the Italian sickness). While the mozzarella is doing its thing, spread pesto mayo (one part pesto Genovese and one part mayo) on both slices of your ciabatta. Create a single (or double if your nasty) layer of baby spinach on the bottom slice of ciabatta. Place your mozzarella on the bed of spinach. Drool for a second. Place a couple slices of red onion on top of the mozzarella. Drool a little more. Drizzle balsamic vinaigrette atop the onions. Finish with your other pesto mayo-slathered slice of ciabatta. Take a bite. Change your underpants. Repeat at your own risk. Don’t even attempt to explain the sensation to “outsiders”.
I paired my Sammy (proper) with a baby spring mix salad topped with creamy cilantro dressing and shredded asiago.
And with that, commence utter taste bud envy:
I feel your pain sister. Literally.
Back in the beginning of November, I went on a brief online hiatus. As in, for a full two days, I, without announcement, was completely offline. The reason?
We thought I had a stroke.
It was a seemingly normal evening when all of a sudden I had some major internal organ pain. I felt like I was passing a gall stone like the doctors had suspected I did ten days after I gave birth to Nugget. Um, ouch. Really, super, holy shit ouch is all there really is to describe this type of pain. I would have much rather preferred the other type of stone I’m prone to developing.
All of a sudden, my dominant side was no longer dominant. Numb, tingly, non-functioning. I could not lift my eyelid, or smile, I even had The Claw.
Next thing I know, I am the youngest patient on the cardiac floor at the hospital and have spent more time in claustrophobia inducing, highly magnetic tubes than I ever wished to spend. I am twenty-four so there was obvious reason for concern that resulted in my admittance for the following three days. Oh, and another thing, not being allowed liquids or solids because those things can compromise the tests no one is sure when you’ll be able to take is not a very fun thing. Especially when they strap an IV pumping potassium into your right arm. I have never been more parched in my life. Basically, don’t have a pretend stroke over the weekend when no technicians are working, but on-call, but not sure if they want can make it into the hospital for an alarming case. It was a teaching hospital after all…
The diagnosis: Variant Migraines. Basically, I don’t just get a “mean headache” when a migraine strikes, I get temporary, right-side paralysis. Fun!
I had no intention of sharing this with the internet. Not a shred of it. Up until I saw the video of a reporter at the Grammy’s, also in her mid-twenties, experiencing the same thing, I was comfortable with keeping this vital part of my personal health, well, personal. Needless to say, I feel her pain and now have an aimless intention to share my experience. Luckily there is this really juicy cocktail of meds that keep the variant reaction at bay. It’s like a martini with beta-blockers and two olives. You can totally (not) get crunk off this shit.
I’m now forced to take it easy. Not get riled up. Avoid the anxiety I’m also actively-treating. Type A’s do not handle “cool it down, sister” very well. Just sayin’.
A plus from the weekend were all the inside jokes and incriminating photos wearing compression socks and hospital gowns on my way to the bathroom put out in cyberspace by my family members:
“Now with your right hand…”
Dr. Seuss nailed it.
There is so much that Dr. Seuss feller knew about before it all unfolded.
At times, we do add extra letters to words and appear as humble secret monsters.
And hoes hose too.
Wordless Wednesday: ‘71 Dodge Charger
**Join the Wordless Wednesday fun and link up your photos with Angry Julie.
It was Valentine’s Day. Want some strep?
Alright so here’s the deal.
I just watched Mama Mary’s video post on how ridiculously difficult and sweat shop style the mass-produced, children’s Valentine card racket has become.
See these pieces of love, sister?!:
This is what you call a major lapse in personal sanity. (This is not to suggest that there was much sanity to begin with, mind you.)
I “had” to buy the heavy-duty-no-I-do-not-own-a-printing-press paper, full-sheet sticker paper, bubble favors, light mount, adhesive squares, and yes, even ink for the printer to make EIGHTEEN of these motherfu beauties for Nugget to bring with him to school. The school he attends twice a week. One of those days not falling on the love celebration that took place with his peers.
Why?
Because his mother is an overachieving slice of crazy pie.
That’s why.
Not only does Nugget not attend school full time yet? These valentines for his classmates where what my brilliant brain thought of when the “peanut free” reminder went out to parents.
Be still my heart if ever I realize why, holographic, single-page, out of the box dinosaur cards were obviously the better option.
In other news, Nugget just returned from Urgent Care (I sent him on his way with two twenties and a cell phone. Independence.) and received two strep tests.
Anyone wanna make out with my three-year-old?
This really sexy thing I do.
There’s this really sexy thing I do. In the face of the shitty, the screwy, the just plain suck. I introvert.
Now, if you have had the pleasure of ever being graced with my presence, I’m a complete sort of an attention whore.
I must be the life of the party, the funny one, the you name it in the name of making a spectacle of oneself (not testicles, keep it straight, I don’t want to go losing you to a scrotum joke). I guess sometimes I bomb the moment and, in turn, become a testicle but we’re not hear to rain anymore on my parade. A’ight?! <—punctuation overload
Lately, I’d rather spend the entire day consumed by my bed covers, safe in Snoozertonville, locked away with my emotionally destructive self. I’ve been crippled by the realities of, well, the real world. The kicker with all of this less-than-tasty-shellfish business? The real world is being relatively good to me.
Yeah, big things coming with a big driving force, a happy, healthy three year old, a relationship with literally my other half, Husfriend, the OG, diving into our fifth year of mush and gush and pranks and goofs, general awesomenicity…but I’m pits. Hard.
So this sexy thing I do when this crazy mind of mine decides to nosh on a massive crap sandwich? Wall-building, anti-personal, engrossment. I dive and dig and bury myself in work, writing, being an asshole.
If you see me ‘round and I am less than pleasant or extra un-PC, smile and nod, this too will pass.
Now I’m watching Justin Bieber on the Grammys and feel a fever coming on…
Here I am. An eloquent bitch ass.
There is a lot to be said about a friend who is there for you at the drop of a hat when things go sour. A confidant. A trusted source of comfort. The shoulder and the crutch.
Then comes the moment where it all goes wasted. The revert in the friend. The advice not heeded. The cycle beginning again.
The there-for-you-friend is torn down. Destroyed. Unmotivated. Betrayed.
There is a dynamic, a history, a complication that makes the negative repercussions seem misguided, jealous, selfish. One has a penis, the other has a vagina. At one point in time, their tongues even touched.
The true concern and innocence has fleeted. One of the friends is devastated, saddened, broken. The other is back in a poisonous saddle.
The confidant remains open-armed for when it all happens again…as she is always wont to be.
Sponsored Content: Simply U Shampoo & Conditioner
I’m sort of a hair product snob.
Serves me right for being friends with chickadees who opted for cosmetology school and always needed a guinea pig head of hair.
My tresses have been primped and pampered with the best of the best when it comes to product.
Aveda. Bumble & Bumble. Paul Mitchell. Biolage. TiGi.
And the list goes on and on.
When I was asked to check out a new product at, hold yourself, The Wals called Simply U I figured, “Hey, my pocketbook ain’t gonna start belly-achin’.”
Off I went to the circus that is entering one of their stores on a Saturday afternoon and bee-lined it straight for the hair care aisle. Now, I usually shop for my shampoo and conditioner in specialty shops so I’m not used to going into this aisle at any retailer. Can I just say this? Holy balls with the options Batman! Obviously there needs to be a simple (ha.) solution for treating your locks!
I found the new Equate Simply U products (currently only being carried by a handful of stores) and from the three options, Moisturizing, Color-Treated, & Volumizing, I chose the Moisturizing line. Three reasons for this: 1) I haven’t “color-treated” my hair in a month or so and just chopped a majority of those hairs off of my head. Do you see this gray?! 2) If I added any more volume to my hair I’d have a white-girl ‘fro. 3) I live in the desert. ‘Nuff said.
I rushed home as fast as the speed limit would allow and tried out the product…two days later. ::ehem:: ‘Scuse me for having a three-year-old’s birthday party to host. I couldn’t be bothered with “showering” or “washing my hair”. Duh.
Needless to say, while it leaves my hair a teensy bit heavy, it has a great sheen and smooth texture. Heavy, mostly, because I have about seven head’s worth of hair on my single head so, for someone with a less daunting number of hairs, this may not be the case.
Check out my Whrrl for all the disgusting before and dreamy after pics:
**I received monetary compensation from the sexy hair band beasts over at Collective Bias to purchase and demo this product. The bangs, the snobbery, and the satisfaction is all mine. ::hair whip::
#MyAmbianceMoment Winner!!
Can I just say that there were lots of entries for the #MyAmbianceMoment coffee and $150 Smart & Final Gift Card giveaway?!
See:
I was blown away with how many of you are just as obsessed with a good cup of Joe as me.
The winner, however, was entry number 14:
**proof
Entry number fourteen was the one, the only, KATE!
Noisemakers, whistles, confetti, fanfare, flash pots, fire extinguishers, emergency calls, firemen (yum), brow sweat, sweet relief, fanfare!
Congratulations Kate! You’ve won yourself a scrumptious package of coffee to share with your budding caffeine addict and $150 Smart & Final gift card to feed the coffee munchies (or make dinner).
I’ll be in touch to get your mailing info.
Thank you to everyone for entering the contest. ‘Twas the first I’ve hosted and I had a blast seeing all of you get amped.
Disclaimer: I got me some coffee and monetary compensation from the caffeine heads over at Collective Bias to host this giveaway. The addiction, faux child labor, and Joe dependency, sadly enough, are all mine. And the unconventional antics? Those are mine too.
Wordless Wednesday: Objects In Mirror Are Closer Than They Appear
**Join the Wordless Wednesday fun and link up with Angry Julie Monday.
The Power of a Haircut
Oh the power of a haircut.
I haven’t trimmed my tresses since June of 2010.
Yesterday, I chopped a huge chunk of those gnarly hairs from my head.
I feel new.
It may sound silly, but there’s an unspoken rejuvenation that comes with a fresh haircut. It’s always been a significant sign of a changing of the times for me. This bob is no different.
A drastic A-line and subtly stacked. You could even go so far as to say it’s the Mom Mullet: hip, young and fresh in the front, no-time-to-fuss in the back.
In less than twenty four hours, I’m already standing a bit taller, getting more accomplished, putting on “real clothes”. (a warning would have been fair, my bad. up from the floor…)
I believe it boils down to spending time on me every morning. There’s been a hustle and bustle afoot around here for the past few months, and with the year ahead, a little primp everyday will surely save my sanity…a bit…the rest is what the med cocktail is for.
So here I am world, freshly cut with confidence in tow.
Oh the power of a haircut.
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