I'll try...

Confession: I don't want to be "that mom".

Lets start out with a story shall we....

So the other weekend, fourth of july weekend to be exact, I was working on repainting our kitchen cabinets from the yucky shade of cream, to a refreshing shade of white....or should i say "Glass of Milk" as it was cleverly named (soy milk would fit better for us since we are lactites, but oh well)

Side note: when i paint i wear anything, usually shorts or pajamas but i have this habit of wiping off mistakes (like floor drips or a piece of hair or dirt in the painted piece) and wiping them onto my legs or arms. Which means that whatever i am wearing ends up nicely covered, especially my skin. No biggie I figure if i put in on bare skin its easier to remove because it comes off with a good scrub in the shower. Although it also means it remains on my body UNTIL i shower, which can sometimes be problematic...

Anyways, i was painting late thursday night and ended up running into Target early friday morning...sans shower (yeah mama be groady like that). I think i was even still in my jammies top with jean capris [cringe. i know, who does that?!?] Did i mention my hair was curly and nappily thrown up into a high gross bun with frizzes everywhere....oye. So here i am looking like trash when don't i see my supervisor from work. And instead of realizing how awful i look and avoiding him, I literally seek him out. WHAT?! yeah i know, not a shining moment. Its not until mid conversation that it dawns..."Sweet Lord, i am a hot mess". i quickly end the convo, grab my baby items i came in for and head home. One would think i learned my lesson that morning but no, no i did not. After painting yet again that afternoon in the hot garage and adding new paint marks to my legs and arms (and probably sweat marks too), i take Colty with me and AGAIN head into target. Dumb dumb dumb move. Because who ELSE do i run into?? Only the manager to the program manager at work. I can't be rude so I stop and say hello, realizing the whole time that i look 100xs worse than i did that morning.And that i am going to have to do some wayyyy cute outfit on monday to redeam myself!! Lesson Learned!

Anyways, that situation has solidified a goal i have made for myself. To be that momma who tries. Who doesn't live in sweats and a hoodie, who puts on make up and looks good even if she doesn't want to, and even if it is just a quick trip to target or wegmans. To take the extra few minutes to put on earrings or a necklace even though Colton may try everything to rip it off everytime, or even if he succeeds (he totally ripped off an earring and broke it, bummer, oh well perfect excuse to get a new one :)). I don't want to be that momma that people look at and think "poor thing has let herself go". Which believe me is way too easy to get stuck in because just finding time to get a shower in is a challenge, let alone time to give myself a good hair blow out AND flat iron my hair, tweeze my bushman prone eye browns OR even shave my legs. But I am making it a goal to put myself together daily, to shed all the baby weight (thankfully this is done! Holla! [do people still say holla?]), to do my hair AND my makeup. Why? Because nothing is worse than feeling like you look like crap compared to everyone else.I can hear some of you baby free gals thinking "you should be doing that anyways", and inside i chuckle for you, because just you wait...ohh just you wait (all you busy mamas are nodding your head and pursing your lips right along with me), LOL So here is my challenge to all you mommas (and ladies in general).... lets try. Lets try to do our hair instead of tossing it into a bun, ponytail (adios, i will miss you my daily go-to style), pig tails, braids whatever. Lets put on a cute outfit instead of sweats and a tshirt. Lets put ourselves anywhere but dead last. Not only for our husbands or our children or the general public that looks at our thrown together self, but lets do it for us, because with all our hard work, we deserve to look MORE than half decent, we deserve to look Fantasmo!!

FLASHBACK: Baby Week

My wonderfully pregnant friend Alyssa posted the other day about doing baby week in highschool and MAN did that bring back some memories....

At my christian school there was a class called "Marriage and Family". In it we discussed how to have a healthy and succesful marriage. This was taught by our wonderful bible teacher. I will never forget (as im sure many others won't) something he repeated often in that class. It was a triangle with the wife at the bottom right side the husband on the bottom left and God at the top middle point. His point was clear, as the husband grows close to God, and the wife grows close to God, naturally they will grow close to eachother. I have never forgotten that (words of wisdom from Mr. Iamaio). Anyways, this class was only offered to the junior class and pretty much everyone looked forward to this. Primarily for one reason: Baby Week. Now many schools offered this concept. You and your husband (of your choice) have a baby and have to keep it safe for a week. My school did it slightly different. Sure we had spouses, and O.M.G was it ever a big deal to be asked. and O.M.G did the rumor mills run about who asked who or who was considering asking who. But instead of those snazzy "fake" babies that cried and pooped and what not, we used dolls. Whatever doll you could get your hands on. I remember me and my "husband" one year used a black cabbage patch. Anyways, we had a few rules... 1. you had to get up once a night to "feed" the baby and stay awake for 15 mins. 2. you had to take it where ever you went. and 3. you had to keep it safe from the "baby snatchers" HUH?!? yeah thats right. There would be certain hand picked lower classmen who got to join in on baby week to pretty much be kidnappers. If our baby was taken, we would fail. So you learned it was NOT safe to say leave the baby unattended at the lunch table and go grab a cookiewich. Or leave baby sitting courtside to watch you shoot some hoops. Nope, baby snatchers were ALWAYS on their toes (i think they got some incentive but i don't remember). Now im sure the concept was meant to show us what a challenege raising children would be but im pretty sure all my hormonal mind took away from it was "why didn't so and so ask me to be their wife?" and "hope i get an A (even though there was no way i was getting up at 2am for 15mins)" Anyways, you always ended up loathing the baby snatchers because although they could not take the doll from your arms or from the table if you were right there, some did try. And those who did pretty much felt the wrath of the entire class. Thats right, all 24 of us. But it was fun to exchange baby between classes, and shove baby in your backpack (not really allowed but we still did it), leave baby in the car (or trunk as Alyssa mentioned :P) and try not to look lame-o as you carried it around in the mall with you.

In hindsight (now with 9 months under my belt), that was a lot closer to reality than i even realized. Just last night Colton decided 2:30 am was a good time to get up and cry and not want to be put down for a few hours. The threat of kidnappers is legit, even straight out of your arms in some cases, and where alf or I go 9 times out of 10 Colton is with us.

But anyways....good times, good times!

About me :)

Its been a while. I know. Im slacking. I do have a TON to write about although a lot of it is too deep to share on a blog, so poo to that. Buuut anyways, I have been busy... crafting and pinning and updating the homestead. But i will try to be the blogger i like to read (ie one who posts) and post far more often.

Confession: I am mildly addicted to Microsoft Excel.

Ok, more like crazily addicted, but really who's keeping track? I pretty much use it all day everyday at work, so therefore anytime i need anything, a list, an invitation, a program, a functional calculating spreadsheet I make it in Excel. A weightloss tracking sheet? Sure! What about a WW points calculator? No doubt! How about a baby registry input sheet? Ofcourse. Maybe even a fully functional bridal sheet calulating anything from budget to actual expenditures and even a cost comparison of favor ideas.You betcha (because you know i totally have one!)! My good friends make fun of me for my spreadsheet love, but they most certainly come in handy. Seeing as i use this bad mamba-jamba of awesomeness everyday ALL day, i am quite the fan of it and can manuever myself around it with ease. My current favorite is my Wedding File. I used it to maintain my wedding budget and all related ideas. It is fully functional with a tab for each area and ended up being a "Pinterest Board" before there was pinterest. Crazy i know BUT it helped me come in a few thousand under budget AND helped be get my greatly desired wedding seat covers . I am more than happy to share with ANY who need it :)

Anyone else have a crazy addiction?

On a side note (which maybe explains a bit of WHYY i have a wonderful relationship with Excel), i find NO ONE ever knows what i do. At times its nice to fly under the radar of random financial/business related questions, because believe it or not people think i became a teacher. But no i did not. teaching was most definitely NOT for me. I remember taking an entry level teaching class and thinkin "Oh heck no, i do not want to do this" so all you teachers out there, props for doing what you do, because i most certainly could not do your job. Having said that, what do i doooo? Well i am a cost analyst, which is similar to a financial analyst, but not to be confused with the financial analysts who deal with stock, bonds, nor those who do financial advising and not to be confused with accountants. Well gee what are there if not those? somewhere in between are these select few wonderkinds who maintain those GINORMOUS budgets for all those programs or projects to do what they gotta do, or build what they have to build. Enter me, little old me. That is what i do. In simple terms. I forecast headcounts and dollar amounts, build spreadsheets and report actuals, approve purchases and track spending. So for example, if the project were "Building a house" i would compile the estimates from all the subcontractors into a central project budget and then essentially approve purchases for materials and then track the actuals spent to build the house (for each subcontractor) so that we did not go over budget. Ofcourse that is just the general snipet of my job, its not anywhere NEAR a full description, but rather a very broad overview. So now you know why oh WHY i do just about everything in excel and know just another snipet about me :)

So there, happy monday.