double dose

EDIT: I totally forgot one very important man on this list: Pharrell. 

Now all is well. Rectified. 

2 posts in one day? Yeah, that's my Saturday for you. 

My little sister is all about the list. She posts all kinds of fun lists on her blog. And since I like her style, I will do what she did to me when she liked something I did/had when we were

 growing up. I will steal it. I will copy it. 

Even though I am happily married, I still have some celebrity eye candy crushes. And in no particular order, they are as follows...

Emile Hirsch: if you have seen Into The Wild, you probably love him too. 

Robert Pattinson: I'll be the first to admit that prior to this guy being cast for Twilight, I had no idea who he was (I don't do Harry Potter). But once they cleaned him up for his role in said film, he became a beautiful brit. AND he sings. AND plays piano. 

Luke Wilson: Turns out finding a nice shot of Luke Wilson was kind of difficult. He is cute, but more than that, he is hilarious to me. Go watch Bottlerocket and The Family Stone, 'nuff said. 

Joaquin Phoenix: Oh, Joaquin. Such talent and cuteness. And a cleft. Too bad he's gone off the deep end. I'll try to hold onto the good times. 

Colin Firth: This is my older guy crush. Again, I love me some brits. He always plays characters that I love. And his dry british humor is the best. 

Justin Timberlake: Duh. He is fine, dances, sings, acts and is also hilarious. Have you seen his SNL appearances??

Pharrell Williams: Beat maker, heart breaker. 

This is Bruno. 

We adopted him from an animal rescue about 4  years ago. When we adopted him he was almost 3 years old. We learned that his previous owners surrendered him to the rescue because they had a small child already and were expecting their 2nd.  Since they first purchased the dog all of their time had been spent caring for their child and then the mother was on bedrest for much of the 2nd pregnancy. Needless to say, they had their hands full and felt they weren't able to devote time to a dog. 

I had begged for a pet of any kind since the time we got married. A kitten, a fish, a dog. Finally, when we had our own home, Spencer caved and we adopted Bruno. We knew he hadn't received any form of training or learned obedience prior to coming to live with us. So we enrolled him in obedience training, which helped him to at least learn what "no", "off" and "sit" meant (and now he picks and chooses if he wants to listen to those commands). 

We were patient and caring and just tried to be a good family for him. Even though he's always been a handful, he learned to be more docile with time. He knows to snuggle my feet when it's cold and to sit on the rug and wait to greet Spencer when he hears the garage door open. For all of his flaws or faults, he has as many redeeming things about him. 

Imagine our relief when he didn't try to attack anyone when we came home from the hospital with this new creature. We were all a little uneasy about how Bruno would respond to Sawyer. All I could think was that he'd been through this before. He's part of a family and then a baby shows up, he gets ignored more and more and then eventually he's living in an animal rescue home. I wondered if he would remember that experience. I mean, surely dogs don't just forget, do they?

Or do they?...he didn't seem to mind the baby at all. Hardly seemed to notice him really. Phew. But after the first 4 or so weeks, I think the novelty had worn off. Bruno found himself being shoo'd away while I'd change a diaper. His toy would be dropped at my feet because I had to hold and feed the baby and couldn't play tug. Everyday less time and attention was devoted to him. 

I suppose all creatures have their breaking point, their bottom line. Bruno must have met his. Last night, while taking a car ride to the store with Spencer and enjoying the fresh air out the back window, Bruno made his escape. Spencer looked back just in time to see his hind paws darting out the window and into the parking lot. We only roll the window down enough for his head to fit out, so he didn't have much space to work with, but he was determined to make a break for it apparently. 

Spencer was able to pull over and Bruno came back to the car. But Spencer admitted he almost let him go. He said, "If he wants to go that bad, I should've just let him. Good riddance."

But Bruno is my baby. My first baby. I know so many people don't get how pet owners can treat their animals like children, but he filled a part of my life that, until now, a child didn't. This doesn't mean that I can or will give Bruno the same attention and care that my actual child needs and receives. But his attempted escape was a reminder of that time in my life when all I wanted was a little companion out of this crazy dog, and he eventually became that for me. The least I can do is still be that for him, right?

 

summer summer time

I know it is only February and it will be months before such an item is necessary, but may I introduce my perfect swimsuit. 

So I saw this online and considered ordering it. But then I remembered the one time I purchased a swimsuit online. The suit turned out to be made of really poor material, didn't fit right at all, and was a pain to return. Imagine my delight yesterday when I found this suit at Target Greatland here in town, and it was none of the above. 

It's actually just a bathing suit top. You just wear a plain black suit bottom underneath but it's really long so it looks like a one piece. With my long torso I've always had a hard time finding tankini (I hate that word for some reason. It just sounds dorky.) tops that are long enough for me. While most of those tops would cover at least to your belly button, they hit mid-ribcage on me. This top is long and flattering and wonderful. 

Oh and hello affordable swimwear! This looks just like those Modbe and Layers bathing suits but it is in a much more reasonable price range. I have never been so excited to wear a swimsuit in my life. Summer time, here I come.  

done and done

Somedays I wake up and feed the babe and say "I'm not doing anything today." It's just me and the dvr and fresh baked blueberry muffins. Those are nice days. I usually don't get dressed or do my hair/makeup.  There's usually nice long naps for Sawyer and lots of down time for me. Maybe I'll wander into the kitchen and cook some dinner at some point. Maybe I won't. There's alot of smiling/laughing time for me with Sawyer. But at the end of the day, I feel like nothing on my to do list has been accomplished. 

And other days I wake up and feed the babe and say "I'm going to do x, y and z today." And I spend the day going 100 miles an hour, running errands or cleaning or cooking or crafting and trying to take care of the kid amidst all of this. Those are successful days. Successful in the sense that the things on the to-do list usually get checked off. But there's usually short, sporatic naps for Sawyer and no down time for me. I race to the fridge to throw dinner together at 5:30 as I'm trying to finish sweeping the floors or putting away groceries. There's alot of

 crying/fussing fits for Sawyer (and even me too sometimes).

It's like I can do all or nothing, literally. I'll figure out how to reprogram myself at some point I guess.  

Today was an x, y, z day and Sawyer has been unhappy ALL day. He woke up twice last night. He hasn't woken up in the night since about 6 weeks old so I was bewildered and staggering around in the dark trying to get him back to bed and thinking "who is this demon??" 

Hopefully the sweet sleeper returns tonight. I'm not sure if it's his shots affecting him or what.I guess babies have good days and bad days just like grown ups. He did have his first taste of sweet potatoes today and although he was fussing during some of lunch time, he ate it up!  

Oh and here's the new hair...

chip chop

I cut my hair. And I didn't cry. Sigh of relief. (I've actually never cried from getting my hair done, but I get a little more crazy the older I get so it was iffy this time around)

So it's different and I love it but it's different and so I kind of don't love it a little too, but only cause it's a change and who likes change? I will probably try and grow it long again, but after the ups and downs of the pregnancy and postpartum hormone roller coaster, my hair was DEAD. So this was a much needed cut, for the sake of my hair's health. I just need to get used to it. But I had forgotten how great it is to have your hair completely dry and styled in under 15 minutes. Sayonara to the 30-45 minute blow-out. 

Sawyer had his 4 month check up yesterday. Aside from being 15 minutes late because Mom forgot his shot records and had to turn around to get them, the appointment went good. 25.5 inches, 15 pounds. He got shots, which is always such fun. He cried more than he ever has when during his shots. Poor little dude. But after a few minutes he was fine. I think I'll start him on his baby food tomorrow. Say a little prayer for meeee (imagine me singing this in a falsetto)

Tonight I'm having a Visiting Teaching Dinner at my house. We're having the women from church who we are assigned to visit each month over for a little fancy dinner. I even made chocolate mousse for the first time! It's in the fridge chilling, we'll see how it turns out I guess. If all else fails, I have some dark chocolate cake cookies I made the other day on standby. I wanted to do a fun table setting, but when I went to the store and began putting things in my cart, I realized it was going to be too involved and SO not in the budget, so it's been super-simplified. 

Spencer continues to be the busiest person I know. We both seem to be busier now than we were before Sawyer was born. Why is that? Why are we over extended in our schedules now that we have this little guy to spend time with? But it seems Spencer has something to be at and or do almost every "free" minute of everyday some weeks. It bums me out but it's life and he doesn't complain so I sure shouldn't. 

The laundry is calling me to tend to it, not to mention the 3 day Law & Order SVU marathon that I have DVR'd. Oh Elliott and Olivia, I must neglect you for now. 

valentines

I was planning on sending little Valentines to family and friends but my computer was being ridiculously slow as I was trying to get them printed, and I just couldn't deal. I gave up and said maybe next year. I did make red velvet cupcakes and fresh blueberry muffins to give as treats. 

But as far as sending Valentines goes, this is the best I can do...a blog-valentine from our hard drive to yours.

 

sunday sickness

Waking up to a head cold in the morning is the worst. the. worst. Or so I thought. 

Turns out coming home from church, eating a peanut butter & jelly sandwich and then immediately being on the verge of puking is the worst. For real, this time. 

Luckily it is Sunday and the other employee who works here at Sawyer Enterprises was around to cover my shift. So I went to bed and napped it off for an hour. Woke up, ate cereal and cookies. All is right with the world. 

I baked banana chocolate chip muffins (mon favorite!) yesterday and tried a new recipe. Said recipe used unsweetened applesauce in place of butter to cut calories. And said muffins indeed tasted like they had calories, not to mention flavor, cut right out of 'em. I'll stick with the butter and the calories next time, thank you very much. Turns out banana-apple chocolate chip muffins aren't my favorite. 

Sawyer had a rough Sunday. He didn't nap at all during church and the result of being awake for 3+ hours was an all out cry-fest after we got home. This was just after I went upstairs to nap away my nausea, and so lucky for me I only had to hear it muffled through the comforter in my bed. He then devoured his bottle and went to sleep for 4 hours. I had to wake him up to eat his cereal/bottle and he kept his sleepy eyes closed for most of that too. He is now swinging contently and kicking his chubby little legs around. He likes to get his workout in before bed. 

Here's a picture of his current exercise challenge. The dreaded tummy time.