Friday Favorites: October!

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Tomorrow it is October.

I love October. It is my favorite month.

Fall is my favorite season and October is the peak. In Michigan (where I grew up) the colors are at their peak. In Virginia, it is just beginning to cool down past 80 degrees.

Other top reasons to love October?

1. My anniversary~ 5 years!

2. My birthday~ The BIG 30 this year. Eek!

3. My entire family is coming to visit! Grandparents, parents and siblings, all staying with us, for a week!

4. Pumpkin anything~ pies, cupcakes, pancakes, lattes....

5. Boots and scarves!

6. Football! (But really, it is kinda depressing this year. I miss Peyton...desperately) On the upside, my Hubby is pumped about his Lions this year.

7.Weekend getaway with just the husband!

8. Birthday discounts ;)

Oh man, so many great things to look forward to in October. What is your favorite month? Why?

October is my favorite.

Awkward and Awesome Thursday!

Thursdays are a good day. It is just before the weekend, so there is some anticipation about that. There is great television. The Office and Project Runway, anyone? You have successfully made it through most of your week. And it is also awkward and awesome Thursday. What more can you really expect from a day?


~Awkward~
~ Jack telling my Mom on the phone that he just had "the fastest poop in my ENTIRE life."
~ snot marks on my clothing.
~ Scrapping off dried, melted plastic off of the back of the dryer vent. Advice: don't dry a cheap plastic tablecloth from Wal-Mart. Apparently, they will melt off and stick to the back of your dryer and force you to half crawl into your dryer to scrap it off with your nails.
~ Smelling like Desitin Maximum Strength.
~ Having to wear a bright gold/yellow shirt volunteer shirt for my company's massive 50th anniversary celebration day. It is just the perfect shade of yellow that turns my skin green, thanks to my olive skin tone. Super hot. Everyone wants to look like a martian, right?
~ Colin figuring out how to kick me in the face while nursing...and now it is time to start weaning...



~Awesome~
~ Colin's baby mullet. There is quite the party going on back there.
~ " Mommy, can we just listen to some Adele right now?" Jack is awesome.
~ Getting my first pumpkin spice latte of the season while on a little coffee date with some good girlfriends.
~ Planning a trip to D.C/Georgetown to celebrate our 5 year anniversary.
~ Taking that trip SANS kids!
~ asos.com
~ Making an awesome lemon bar type cake that is only 2 WW points.
~ Colin imitates sounds that he hears while we are out in public. Car horn beep? He makes the same beep sound. Door bell ring? He makes the same sound. It is actually usually the exact same tone. It is actually pretty funny.

Tell me something awesome or awkward about your week!

Ombre

You guys.

I want to color my hair... ombre.

 

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I have kept my hair at it's natural state besides a few wash-out glosses since I had Jack.

I turn 30 in a few weeks and want a new, fresh look for this new, fresh decade.

 

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What do you think? Should I pay up and have it done right? Stick with the no-cost brown locks?

Decisions. Decisions.

Sickies

I've got a couple of sickies at my house.

As Jack puts it, "I've got sneezes and coughs and buggers."

Since it is rainy and dreary anyway, staying in and snuggling under blankets is perfectly acceptable.

Lots of movies are being watched.

I made a big pot of this soup. It is super easy, super quick and so good. Try it.

The upside of sick little guys? Loads of cuddle time.

30 day photo challenge Day 21-25

 

Day 21~ Pretty Pattern

 

This pillow helped us develop our color scheme in our living room. I love the mix of colors. 

Day 22~ Trees

 

The mimosa in our backyard is starting to lose it's pods.

Day 23~ Sunset

I wanted to head down to the ocean front for some sunset pictures, but rain this weekend thwarted those plans. This was also taken from our backyard.

Day 24~ A smile

 

Nothing is sweeter than a little guy happy to be in his swing, watching his brother and daddy.

Day 25~ Sunflare

 

Most nights, after their dad comes home from work, the boys head out to the backyard to swing for a bit. The sun creeps down behind them, as the day is ending.

Only one more installment of the 30 day photo challenge is left. What do you think? Have you been enjoying it? Has it made you want to take more pictures?

Friday Favorites: Family Outings

On Labor Day, we ventured out to the Children's Museum of Virginia in Portsmouth for a day of family fun. The museum was filled with everything a little boy could want. Trains, fire engines, motorcycles, cars, buses, banks, stores...you name, it was there to be touched and explored.

Little boys loved to drive and touch big engines and play on police motorcycles.

Giant chairs waited in the entry way with a little library next door if you wanted to get a book to read.



Jack's favorite part was fishing with his dad. They would catch the fish via magnets, and than have to identify the fish and place it in a box. Once they found the right section and dropped it in, the fish would shoot out the front of the boat to be "caught" again.



Giant bubbles and electricity were discovered.

The adults seemed to love this push pin type display. That is Ryan. You can see everything. His phone in his pocket, the outline of his tank that was under his button-down shirt, his bicep outline. Kinda creepy. Pretty much every adult male was playing with this thing. Lots of "butt" imprints were made...

 They had a great little kid play area with lots of soft flooring and padded toys. My little turtle loved it.

Getting chased by daddy is always a favorite for this little man.

All in all, it was a great experience. I think the older the boys get, the more they will enjoy all of the aspects that the museum offers. The planetarium will be opening soon and we want to take Jack back to see it. If you are in the area and have young kids, I would recommend a trip the the Children's Museum.

Family outings are my favorite.

Awkward and Awesome Thursday: Quotes

We are hosting life groups at OUR house tonight, so I have lots of cleaning and getting ready to do, so this will be a short one. The fact that I have so much cleaning to do is awkward in and of itself. And the fact that I know there are grammatical issues that are going to happen with quoting is also awkward...but we will venture forth regardless.


Awkward~

" I am not sure if it is because I have been eating breakfast, but I lost 4 lbs." ~ Husband. Seriously?! Men and their amazing weight loss ability. Makes me sick.

Jack: "What are you eating?" Me:"Gum."  Jack:"Mom! You know we are not allowed to eat guns!"

At 6:40 a.m, while laying in my bed supposed to go back to sleep. "Hey Mom, can we talk about fire alarms right now?"  No. Early mornings is not a good time to talk about fire alarms (which he is obsessed with) Thanks a lot, Fireman Sam.

Changing Colin and he pats his little chest and yells "Inky! Inky!" Yes, he is very stinky.

"Hey Mom, can you put your hair out the window and can I swing on it?" Someone recently watched Tangled.


Awesome~

While in the car, driving home from work. "Mom, I missed you. I want to give you a million kisses but I can't cause you are just too far away"

While giving me those million kisses,  he likes to grab my face and kiss my nose while saying, "Give me that little face!"

My brother and sister are flying in from MI to visit us in a few weeks. I told Jack they were coming. Later on in the day Jack said, "Mommy, I am just going to look out the window and wait for Aunt Abbey and Uncle Joel to come, alright?"

Colin yelling "Daddy!" And I do mean yelling. It sounds more like daddddeeeeeeeeeeeee. And it is really loud. And it is really cute.

"Mom, I want to go on vacation. How about this afternoon we go to the hairport. That is a good idea." I asked him where he wanted to go. "I am going to just fly over and see Grandma Waura."  If only it was that simple buddy, if only it were that simple.



Have a great Thursday. Keep it awkward. Keep it awesome.

Remember

I worked Tuesdays at noon, hosting for the Old Spaghetti Factory. It was a little after 9am and I was still in bed debating if I should get up and dressed for chapel or not. My roommate was at her desk on her laptop, just coming back from her 8am class. She went online and noticed that something had happened with a plane and a building. She freaked out because she had to fly the next day and was terrified of flying. I groggily got out of bed and we read what was happening on yahoo.com.

Slowly girls began to migrate into dorms rooms with televisions. We sat, glued as we watched a plane fly into the second world trade center. Girls would pop in and out, asking if this was really happening.
It was as if time stood still. We watched live as the the towers fell. It was like watching a movie, except it wasn't hollywood special effect teams. Great billows of grey ash rolled up into the sky and enveloped everything in it's path. Everyone just sat there. Stunned. Silent tears rolled down my face. What is happening? What is going on? What about all those people?

Fear started to take hold of some of the girls, tears continued to spill sometimes into a furious frenzy. I just felt shocked to the core, almost into a complete numbness. I can't remember who called who, but I am sure I talked to my parents at some point. I called into work and they said to come if I wanted, but they did not think it would be busy and to be careful and aware.

St. Paul, MN also houses a world trade center. Everyone in the Twin Cities was on high alert. As I walked to work, passing the Metrodome, cars flooded out of the city. Most of the high rise buildings were evacuated. Ryan (than my boyfriend) called me on his lunch break. He wanted to see how I was doing. As I walked pass the metrodome I saw a low flying plane. I about had a heart attack. While it was just a plane headed to the airport for a mandatory grounding, it was low and it was scary. I literally thought my heart was going to stop. I don't remember what happened at work, except that everyone looked as pale as a ghost. I am sure I stumbled my way home.

I was suppose to fly home to go to one of Ryan's football games two days later. Obviously most of those flights were canceled. No one wanted to fly. No one knew what would happen.

I did fly that next weekend. It was probably one of the most tense flights of my life. No one talked, as if words of what happened would make it happen again. Air Marshalls were everywhere. Flight attendants whispered about where they were in the air when everything happened.

Prayers were constantly on my heart and on my lips. Anger came at times, great sadness, fear and shock was also present. But a weird sense of survival kicked in. It was like, alright, this was awful. This was horrendous. Let's grow and move past this. Let's unite. Let's bring the good back into the world again. I felt like fighting. The grave injustice made me mad, fighting mad.

While I will never, ever forget those first few moments of 9/11, I will also never forget those moments afterward. Those moments of unity and resilience, of camaraderie. Of heroism, that were both seen and unseen. I will never forget that strength that appeared in people, never seen before.

So, on this ten year anniversary. I will remember. I will remember the good and the bad.

I will remember to continue to pray for my country, it's leadership and it's people.

God Bless America.

30 Day Photo Challenge ~ Day 16-20

Day 16~ What I Ate

 

 It was taco salad tonight. Ground turkey with this seasoning, greek yogurt, ff ranch with some hot sauce and shredded cheese. Yum. I turn 30 in a little under 6 weeks and am trying to loose the last 7-8 pounds and hit my goal weight. So, lots of salads in my future!

Day 17~ On the Shelf

 

 

I am not sure where I got these books. I have had them since high school. They were either some relatives, my mom's or from a yard sale. I can't remember, but I love them. I got the creamer dish from Anthropologie and that photo was taken of Jack a few days before his 2nd birthday. It is one of my very favorites!

Day 18~ In My Bag

 This is a new bag from H&M in Minneapolis. I loved the steel blue color of it and the size and shape were perfect. I rarely buy bags, as I carry my wallet and phone in a diaper bag 80% of the time, but I just loved this new fall bag. Inside my bag is always a mess. The basics are pictured;
wallet, coin purse, work i.d badge, comb, pen, gum and cheap make-up that I don't care if it gets lost. My husband hates lipstick, so I pretty much only wear it at work. I just throw it in my purse and put it on at work, if I think about it. 

I also usually always have some sort of coupons floating around in there and extra paper, which I choose not to photograph because it was ugly. I did have my ebates check in there, which is awesome. If you do not use ebates, you should. Read about it here. I use it for groupon and restaurant.com ALL the time.

Day 19~ Where I Sleep

 

This is what my bed looks like most mornings. Stowaway with a stuffed animal. Jack sneaks into our bed almost every night. We wake up to him wedged in the middle. He is a sneaky little man. If I feel him come into bed, he goes back to his room. He knows this. Somehow, he can always figure a way into the middle of the bed without waking up his dad or myself. Sneaky.

 Day 20~ What I Read

 

I really like to read. I love a good novel. I really do. So much so, that when I start a book, I can't stop reading it till it is finished. So, I would be reading all the time and not taking proper care of my home or family. So for now, I choose to just read magazines consistently. I still read books here and there, but I mainly read blogs and magazines, not including the countless kids books I read to the boys. Some day soon, when my boys are older, I am going to start reading more books. Some day soon.

So, that was this round of the 30 day challenge. I liked this group the least. Kinda boring, in my opinion! Hopefully the next round will be up earlier, and our computer is working properly!

Have a great weekend everyone!

Awesome and Awkward Thursday

My week is all messed up with the holiday. Is it Monday? Is it Friday? Luckily, I made it to work on the right day, but things have been a bit off this week. Thankfully, Friday is just around the corner and I will have all weekend to get back on track!

This week seemed like a good week to do an A&A post. Every week is awesome and awkward, but I just forget to write it all down.

Today, I remembered...most of it.

~Awkward~

~How sore I am from doing these 10 minute rapid results pilates on Netflix. I did three of them and I am S.O.R.E.

~ "Hey Mom, look. I am licking my toes!" while he licks his toes IN his sandals. I may have had a minor freak out while driving them to the sitters today.

~ The heat and humidity here. I did my hair and it looked all sleek and wavy.  By the time I walked into work and it went all Julia Roberts ala Pretty Woman  on me.

~ Talking to Husband on the phone when his big boss is in town. It is kinda like talking to a robot, all cold and mechanical. I should have said something really racy to him to get him all flustered...maybe next time, maybe next time...

~ Having an epic battle with a monster spider in my garage. It was so gross and huge. Multiple shoes were thrown. I won. Barely. There are so many blasted spiders where we live.

~ Forgetting that I parked in the other parking lot after lunch...so I had to casually walk around the whole building while everyone filters off to the cars. My phone got real interesting for that walk, real interesting.

~ Husband eating a not quite ripe peach...

~ Our computer is not working...again. So no pictures, no 30 day photo challenge, nada...


~Awesome~

~ Taking the bull by the horns today at work and finally getting my way in the studio. It only took 4 months, but they did what I said and I even got an apology. It felt good.

~ "Hey Mom, when I get older and my hands get bigger, I am going to hold the fireman hose and spray water on people's houses that are on fire and they are going to like that. Maybe if I ask nicely, the fireman will say " Sure, you can help us hold the hose and spray the house" cause I am going to be bigger and ask them. Ok, Mom?" Cutest wanna-be fireman boy ever.

~ The fact that my Husband will proof my post before I publish it and read the above boss/racy comment statement and say, " Not funny, babe. Not funny" all the while shaking his head. And the fact that I think it IS funny, and I know he will respond this way is also awesome.

~   "Hey Daddy, have a good day! Love you! Be a really big helper at work today!"

~ Sushi coma.

~ The fact that Ryan went to lay Jack down for bed and has yet to emerge. Jack is quietly playing...daddy is passed out on his floor.

~ Jack uses the phrase, "Well bust my buffers" when he gets frustrated. It is so hilarious. He obviously is watching too much Thomas the Train...

Tell me about something awesome or something awkward that happened to you this week!


As always, sponsor by The Daybook.

Friday Favorites: Long Weekends!

It's Labor Day Weekend!

Get excited.

I love long weekends. More time with the hubby, more time with the kiddos, more time together. We have simple plans that include setting up and using our new patio furniture, shopping for the house and taking the boys to their first children's museum. Fridays seem so much better when you know the weekend is extended.
Favorite.

Have a great weekend, everyone!

~Fall Wishlist~

It is September 1st!

For most parts of the country that means fall is around the corner...for us, it means that temperatures may drop in the 80's. Either way, I am excited. Fall is, by far, my favorite season. I love everything about it.


Since most of the retailers have been pretending it was fall for the last month or so, my thought have drifted away from flip flops and shorts, to boots and chunky sweaters. With the changing of the seasons, I thought I would compile my Fall Wishlist. Some of these items are wants, some are needs and some are just both!  Let's get started.

Dark Rinse Trouser Jeans

Emerson Made

I loved a good dark trouser jean. I had a great pair that I wore all last year, but since losing some weight, they no longer fit. So, the hunt is on. These jeans are way out of my price range, but definitely my inspiration.

Soft Silky Blouse

anthropologie

I have been loving soft, flowy blouses lately. They hid a world of wrongs, yet still look pulled together and polished. I love the neutral color of this top and it fits beautifully. I think it will be very versatile. Definitely sale stalking this one.

 Colored Pants

anthropologie

I like this color pant trend. While I like the idea of bright red, cobalt blue and gold, I don't want to invest in a quick trend. Forever 21 will work for those type items. However, I love the deep wine color of these pants. The cut will work with heels, flats and boots. Daughters of the Liberation pants fit me better than any other pants I have owned. I have always gotten them on super sale, so I am anxiously awaiting a sale on these guys.

 Mustard Shoes/ Heeled Loafers

anthropologie

I have wanted a pair of yellow/mustard shoes forever. Really. For. Ever. I love yellow, but I can not wear it anywhere close to my face. Because of my skin tone, it makes my skin look green. Not cute.

However, shoes, shoes I can do. And I love these. LOVE. love. love.

My birthday is also in October. (hint.hint. hubby) 

Red Pumps

Urban Outfitters

Red heels are like a basic. Everyone needs a pair. I need a pair. My shoe collection has died a bit after the birth of my second son. Half of my shoes do not fit and I am in dire need of some basic, classic pumps. I love the whole look of these guys. They come in lots of colors. 

Comfy Flats

TOMS

 I really need some comfortable shoes for fall. While I love some heels, I am a mom of two small, active boys. I need something that will move! My flats include flip flops and knee high boots. Nothing in between. I love everything about TOMS and I love these guys. I hear they are very comfortable. These could just be the perfect fall flat.

Freaking Awesome Shoes

 

 anthropologie

I may not have a great NEED for these beauties. But come on. Look at them. Pretty much perfect. The color, the design, everything. Love. There is not a whole lot more to say about that. Just look. Sigh. So freaking awesome.

I am also on the lookout for a chocolate brown cardigan. I have been on the lookout for YEARS. I mean, really, how hard is it to find a simple, basic, chocolate brown cardigan? Apparently, it is really hard. I have looked for just a basic cardigan for over a year now. Dumb. Someone please tell me where to buy one. Target does not carry one. Old Navy, Banana Republics, Nordstoms BP, H&M...the list goes one. I could not even find a decent internet picture of one. Ridiculous. 

So, the hunt continues.

So, that's my list.

What is on your fall wish list?

Anything good?

Let me know!