Thankful Thursday

As always on Thursdays I am thankful that it's almost Friday. I think after having a short week last week it just made this week feel so much longer.

I am thankful for a MIL who introduced me to the Banana Republic Outlet this past weekend. Not sure how I didn't know it was there, but I'm now so glad I do. I got 4 new pairs of work pants and a few cute sweaters for the fall for half the price they would have been at the normal store. You can bet I will be visiting there much more often ;)

I am thankful for a baby who has decided to start sleeping through the night again. (praying that I am not jinxing it as I type!) The past few weeks of her getting up again were not fun. Hoping she decides to continue these 10 hour stretches.. fingers crossed!

I am thankful for my friends. I don't say that enough, but I really do not know what I would do without them.

Speaking of my friends.. I am very thankful (and excited!) that I get to spend the weekend celebrating with one of my best and favorite lady's at her shower and bachelorette party!

I am thankful for a husband who stands by me 100% of the time. We are in the process of making some big decisions and it's so nice to know that no matter what he's always by side <3

I am thankful that the weather is starting to get a little cooler. There are still some hot days, but fall weather is on it's way! I LOVE fall, there's nothing better than boot and scarf season!!

and last but certainly not least.. I am thankful for my relationship with my sister. The older we get the closer we become. She is one of the most important people in my life and I love her to pieces ;)

Happy Thursday! What are you thankful for?

Excuse me while I whine for a moment..

Last week I said work was finally starting to slow down. Well, apparently I jinxed it. A couple of days after saying that we got swamped again.

These past two weeks have been way too busy. I feel like I leave work each day with an even longer to-do list that when I got there. It's never ending and I am exhausted.

I was looking forward to a weekend with nothing to do but hangout with my little girl at home in sweats for two days. Then this morning I come to work and get an email saying we all have to work this weekend. Fabulous. 

Normally I wouldn't get too upset about it, because I know it comes with the job. However this weekend Vince is out of town (he's going with the rest of my family to visit my sister at Ole Miss and go to the game. I was supposed to go, but can't really take the time off right now) and that means I don't have him hear to help with Kaylee while I work.

Thankfully, after talking to my office manager she said I could just be on call. Basically get some stuff done from home and just be backup in case they need an extra person at the office. So I am keeping my fingers crossed that they don't end up needing me, because I really need sometime off.

OK.. I'm done whining now. (even though I could whine for a while about how jealous I am that I'm not with my family this weekend!)

Hope you guys all have a nice weekend! HAPPY FRIDAY :)

iphone pictures aren't cutting it anymore.

 A few weeks ago I posted that I was setting a new goal for myself and wanted to start trying a new recipe at least once a week. Well, so far I'm actually doing good.

So today I wanted to do a post showing you some of the dinners I cooked to prove it and then I realized I can't because I didn't take pictures.

This made me start thinking about how I seriously need to start using my camera. 

Vince bought me a Nikon dslr camera that I asked (more like begged for) for Christmas almost 2 years ago. It's nothing crazy, but it's good enough that I should have no excuse for not having nice pictures. And I really couldn't care less about having good pictures of food, but I most definitely want to have good pictures of Kaylee. Iphone pictures just aren't cutting it anymore.


To be honest I have NO desire to learn how to work all of the different things on my camera. I know the basics and that's enough for me. I just want to make myself USE it more often.


Typically when Kaylee's doing something cute and I want to get a picture of it, it's a lot easier to just grab my cell phone rather than go to the closet and get out the camera. Besides by the time I did that whatever cute thing she had been doing would be over.


So from now on, I am keeping my camera out of the closet and out of the case. So that way I am much more likely to use it (at least when I'm home) and actually capture cute little moments like these ones from after I picked up K from daycare yesterday...

all smiles

she would much rather eat bows than wear them lol

having a little chat with her monkey ;)

After I get myself more in the habit of using my camera, I think I will try to convince myself to start editing my pictures a little. Heck I work with Photoshop and InDesign every single day for work, so I know I how to do it I just need to start doing it for me and not work once in awhile.


However, that's another goal for later on. Right now I need to just take this one step at time. ;) 

MIA

Sorry I've been MIA lately! I'm really disappointed with myself that I haven't posted anything in a week. I've been trying to get better with keeping up with this, but the past week has just been crazy busy. I normally try to write these at night after K goes to bed, but I have been coming home so exhausted that by the time she goes to sleep I am too lazy to do anything at all. Pathetic, but true. So anyways, things are slowing down again now so I am planning on getting back on track.

On top of work being busy, the little miss decided recently she wasn't a fan of sleeping. For 4 nights in a row she literally would not sleep. I could get her to bed pretty easy, but she would be up about every hour or 2 the entire night. So frustrating. Before that she had gotten pretty good at sleeping and I was getting used to getting to sleep again too. Guess, she thought it was best to keep me on my toes. Thankfully though the past couple of nights it seems that she has gotten back to her normal sleep routine. Hopefully.

Before her little sleep refusal started, Vince and I were actually talking about baby #2. No, we weren't meaning we wanted to try right this moment. BUT, we were saying we wanted our kids to be close in age, and we wouldn't mind starting again soon, and blah blah blah. Well, now after those 4 days? I think I'm back to thinking that Kaylee is going to have to wait awhile for sibling..

On a completely random note.. during my lunch break today I ran to Babies R Us to get 1 thing. Well, of course as I'm walking back to the front to check out, I start browsing the clothing section and by the time I went to actually check out my arms were full. Why does that always seem to happen to me? In my defense, they were having some good sales though and some of the stuff on clearance was just too cheap not to get! ;)

OK I'm off to a meeting, but hope everyone is having a good week so far. At least it's already halfway over!

Wee Bit Wednesday

{one} what's your guilty pleasure tv show?

Well currently there's Keeping up with the Kardasians, Bachelor Pad, The Challange, Project Runway, True Blood and of course my favorite Big Brother. Yes, I know I have way too many. My DVR is constantly full.

{two} ear piercings on men: yes or no?

NO. At least not on Vince. I don't really care about what other guys do. Vince had his pierced in high school and I was so happy when he took them out!

{three} do you have dish or comcast?

Comcast.

{four} what's your favorite current fashion trend?

 

I read the other day that navy is the "fall color" this year. Not sure if it's true, but if so I am all about it.  I like navy better than black and actually just bought a navy blazer from express the other week.  

{five} if you could learn to do anything, money not being an issue, what would it be?

I would learn to do gymnastics. Be a real gymnast, good enough for the olympics. I could do your basic tumbling when I was younger, but nothing crazy. I LOVE watching the summer olympics, I think what they can do is amazing.

{six} red or white wine?

Red. Cabernet Sauvignon is my fav... mmmm..

{seven} what type of food is your favorite?

Mexican. No doubt about it. I would eat it every day of the week if I could.

{eight} hp or mac?

Mac. I used a Mac throughout college, but then got a hp a couple of years ago. Now Vince and I want to switch and get a Mac instead. Love them.

{nine} what color is your bedroom?

The bedding is a mixture of creams, browns, and light green. The walls are a dark tanish/light brown type of color. I need to take a picture because it looks much better than it sounds ha.

{ten} what's your favorite form of exercise?

Excerise classes of any kind. I much prefer taking a class over just running on a treadmill. (not that I have much time to get the gym between work and the baby.. I need to get back into a routine asap)

Thankful Thursday

First off I am most thankful right now that it's almost the weekend. Thanks to the little miss who has decided this week that 5am is time to start the day I have been exhausted and am looking forward to relaxing this weekend!

I am also thankful for lunch dates with Vince. Now that I am back at work we've been able to get back to our occasional lunch dates which are a perfect way to break up the work day and get a little us time again :)

I know I said this already this week, but I am SO very thankful that Kaylee seems to be enjoying daycare. She has made this transition back to work a whole lot easier on her previously worried mama.

I am thankful that the window treatments we ordered for our house about a month ago are finally in and being installed tomorrow. Sleeping in a bedroom with no blinds or curtains or anything is not making it easy to ever sleep past sunrise. (yes Kaylee does sometimes let us sleep in.. just wish it was more often ha)

I am thankful that Vince is getting done work early today and going grocery shopping for me, because grocery shopping with an almost 4 month old? Not always so easy.

I am thankful it's almost fall. I do love summer time, but fall is by far my favorite time of the year.

I am thankful that for my best friends wedding she asked 2 of us to be her maid/matrons of honor. It is much more fun planning stuff her with another person rather than just one person handling it :)

Lastly, I am EXTREMELY thankful that after a few months of ups and downs and trying all kinds of formulas and different medicines for Kaylee's colic and acid reflux issues.. we have finally found what seems to be the right thing for Miss K. She is now much more often the smiling, cooing, happy baby we always knew she was ;) 

** side note please don't judge me for formula feeding. If I hear one more person say that if I had breastfed she wouldn't be having problems, I'm going to scream. For the record I wanted to breastfeed, it just wasn't an option for us.  

My new goal

My friend Kate posted the other day about a cook-off she and her husband had with some of their friends. This made me start thinking about my cooking skills. (it also made me hungry just looking at the pictures!)

Before getting married I knew nothing about cooking. (seriously you would have been shocked at how little I knew)

So one of my major goals the first couple years of being married was learning how to cook.

So after 2 1/2 years of marriage I can now honestly say that I can cook.

I can easily follow recipes and put together a decent dinner for just Vince and I. Or I can make most of your basic meals without having to look at a cookbook. I've hosted plently of parties and had holiday dinners at my house making all of the major food items for the whole family.

BUT none of that qualifies me as being a "good" cook, more so it just shows that I know how to cook. I always comment about how my mom and my grandmom are good cooks. I swear they know how to make anything and it always comes out amazing. There's always something different to try when they make family dinners, insteead of being like me and just having the same old thing all of the time.

I want to be a good cook.

I want to learn to make all kinds of things and come up with some of my own ideas.

I know that this is something that takes time to learn to do, but I want to make this a new goal for myself. At least once a week I want to make something new and start expanding my basic cooking skills. So that maybe one day my grandkids will say what a good cook their grandmother is ;)

Now I just need to start looking for some new recipes..