Home Projects

Since we moved into our new home--I have been hard at work to get everything ready to host my family's Thanksgiving and Christmas celebrations this year. I know that the holiday season will be fast approaching (since Halloween is tomorrow!). Once it starts--I will have very little time to get everything ready for the holidays and P's SECOND birthday party in January.

So there are a few rooms that I have been working on feverishly and I am ready to share them with you. I am certainly no decorator, but I think these projects turned out pretty perfect!

1. P's Nursery
Since I have never really shared P's nursery on the blog--I decided this would be the big one for sure. Her room was the first to be completed in our new home. This was obviously out of necessity. It needed to have everything set up to be ready for her to sleep in each night. It is a room we all spend a lot of time in playing, sleeping, rocking, and reading.

 I was insistent upon getting blackout curtains to help her sleep, and I think that they have served their purpose pretty well. P actually has 4 blackout panels and then an additional 3 black out panels behind those to further block the light. It is DARK in her room, and I LOVE IT!

The other wall houses her changing table--whose days are numbered as I am anxiously awaiting P to show me that she is ready to potty train. It also contains her nightstand with all of her books and her rocking chair. The rocking chair was the one my mother used to rock me in. I just love things that are sentimental like that. The picture over her changing table is the printable I made for her birthday last year that details all of her stats. The wood monogram was a gift from Piper's Aunt Michelle. I spray painted it with gray chalkpaint spray paint to match her room.

The other side has her crib with her name over it, and her dresser with her bow holder.

She actually has two bow holders for all of that hair.

2. The hallway gallery wall
Upstairs we have this huge wall in the hallway that is actually visible from downstairs. Therefore I knew that it needed to be filled up quickly. It is the first thing you see when you walk in our house. I want it to be inviting. So--I hopped on Pinterest to look at a lot of different gallery walls and the best ways to do them.

I grabbed a roll of wrapping paper and traced the outline of each frame and where the nail would go for each one. Then I labeled it with what picture it was. I grabbed my painters tape and laid the wall out in a grid like pattern. I think it definitely looks good when you walk in. What do you think? We still have some pictures to print out and put in frames at the top.

3. My coffee nook

These are all over pinterest everywhere you look. This piece was actually an old hutch. We removed the top of the hutch (it is a shelf in our garage now where we leave our shoes and such). We painted the bottom and I believe that it is a beautiful pop of color for our eat in kitchen.

4. My office nook

I don't have a whole room as an office, but we have a very large bedroom with a perfect spot for a desk. I actually love the desk being in our room. I think it adds more character in the room that has a tendency to feel TOO big at times. This desk was previously our old kitchen table. My dad sanded it and painted it with grey chalk paint. I think it turned out lovely. Now, I just need a picture for the wall above it.

That's it for now. Tonight, we head to P's Trunk or Treat. She is going to be Minnie Mouse for Halloween. I hope actually participates this year. It is going to be so much fun! I couldn't get a good picture of her in her costume, so this one will have to do.

Have a happy and safe Halloween!

Sharpen it up!

In life there are times where you find yourself fighting to stay on top of it all. Moments where time seems fleeting and your attention is stretched between a million different people, activities, and moments. For me this has been true since school started.

I find myself, mentally, physically, and emotionally stretched thin between all of the things that need to be done and the things that I want to do. Prioritizing effectively is not one of my skills and as I have gotten older this has become more apparent to me. Since I re-entered the classroom, added Cheerleading Coach to my resume again, along with my most important jobs of being a wife and a mom--some days there are just not enough brain cells to make it all run smoothly.

I am not one of those women who has it all together. I don't claim to have great organization skills and it is EXTREMELY scary how little I remember dates (especially since I teach history). Lately, I find it hard to remember what the date is--is the it 14th or 15th? Is it Monday or Tuesday--Please god, let it be Friday. Add in late night cheerleading practices, weekend competitions, the occasional make-up job on a Sunday--and there is nothing left up there but one exhausted subconscious just trying to hold on for dear life.

Is it a personality flaw? ADD? Pregnancy brain that just never went away? I don't know--but I need some mental sharpening quick! I mean, stat!

Have you ever experienced this feeling: you are talking to someone and you know exactly what you want to say. The word you want to say is in your head, but you cannot physically get the word out. It is there and you can say it perfectly, but it gets stuck up there somewhere and you just end up awkwardly pausing until it magically unsticks itself. It's like being held prisoner to your own mind.

I used to experience this every once in awhile. But now it happens daily, and sometimes multiple times a day. I know what I want to say, but it takes me several seconds to be able to get the exact wording out. It is humiliating and is starting to scare me a bit.

Whatever the reason--I am really trying to be more present in my everyday life. I'm trying to concentrate more on my words and sentences. I am trying to write down my tasks for each day of the week. Along with important dates--so that way I don't forget something really important because I don't realize what day it is. I never had to write things down in years past. I just remembered in my mental calendar. Well, those days are long gone. Maybe I'm just getting old.

Anywho--I read up on ways to exercise your brain--yes, you heard it right. So I am going to start trying to do a few of these suggestions. In fact, I am doing one right now.

1. practice deep breathing--how often do you really take deep breaths. I never do, but I am going to start trying to give that brain more oxygen.

2. Journaling--see, y'all are helping me right now!

3. Use your non-dominant hand for every day tasks--like brushing your teeth or hair. It forces you to concentrate more.

4. Learn a new skill or hobby--I'm working on this one

5. Get outside, and get moving--this one is going to tougher, but it is good for me, so I will have to try.

How do you keep your mind sharp?

Happy Hump Day!

Sassy Mc-Sasserton

I currently have in my possession a 20 month old going on 15 year old. She is the sassiest little girl I ever did see, and I have a love/hate relationship with this fact for sure.

Last week J and I both had a week off of work. It was great in the sense that we took that time to move into our new home, but it wasn't very relaxing. It did, however, allow me plenty of alone time with my girl, P.

One of the not-so-secret heartaches about me going back to work and being a coach again is that there are days where I only see my daughter to put her to bed at night. It is a tragedy--I truly believe that. I have gone from one extreme in my life to the other, and sometimes I am hit by crippling guilt. What have I done to my baby? Will she forget me? Will she still understand how much I love her? I could cry just typing about it.

Insert last week and I could not wait to spend some time alone with my girl. About 5 minutes in I was worn out. O-M-G--there is no way I could have worked from home another year. Home girl would have burnt the house down around me as I taught my class. That sweet, beautiful little girl has the power to make me tear up with amusement, only to want to smack her bottom five minutes later. Her mood swings are like a teenager. She is up and down and round and round in just minutes.

P has recently taken to my old American Girl Bitty Baby. Which is awesome, because I am a sentimental schmuck and I eat these types of things up. She calls her, "baby" and she rocks, feeds, changes, bathes, and tucks Baby in at night. She is such a good mommy to Baby, and I know that she is just imitating me and how I mother her. Which is so flattering I just want to burst with pride. So last week, P had fed Baby in the high chair, and then forgotten about her and left her in the kitchen (not a very good mommy, P). About 20 minutes later she was upset that she could not find Baby in her play room. I coaxed her on to look for Baby. She looked in all of the toy bins, on each side of the couch, and in Baby's bassinet. Finally, I said, "I think baby is in the kitchen." Then my 15 year old, I'm sorry, my 20 month old gets this look of anger on her face. She turns pink, narrows my own green eyes back at me, points her chubby little finger towards the direction of the kitchen and yells, "GO GET MOMMA!"

My first reaction was to laugh at her, but knowing that that would only encourage her, I said, "no, you can go get Baby." She smiled and then happily complied with my request.

There are countless other incidents from the week. She can throw a tantrum down with the best of them, but you can't help but love that little pig-tailed beauty.

Since it has been awhile since I talked about her. P weighs in at 29 whopping pounds. She is the largest in her 18 month class at baby school. Her favorite food is Moe's chicken burritos. She can count to ten, recite the ABCs, knows all of her body parts, and can sing a mean Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star. She still LOVES the Wiggles, but she will watch Mickey Mouse Club House and Handy Manny as well. Her new favorite toys are her legos and lego table. She had her first ear infection two weeks ago, and it is back with a vengeance this week. She loves to dance, sing, read, hug, and give kisses, and is all around just the best thing since sliced bread--boy, doesn't she know it.

My overall consensus is that if you don't have yourself a little girl--you need to get you one of these. It makes the world go round and everything in life just make sense. Love her to pieces!

Happy Hump Day Y'all!

To Those Who Wait...

Apparently good things come.

Two and a half years ago my husband and I made a decision that forever changed our life. Since we had gotten married we had talked about moving out of the south Atlanta suburbs to the north Atlanta suburbs. We were seeking better schools for D and who ever else came along... eventually. One day my husband noticed that there was an opening in one of the best schools in the country. One that was an hour away from our then residence. It was the holy grail of jobs in the best public school district in the state. Upon mentioning it to me--I encouraged him to apply. I mean--why not? They probably will fill it in house with someone that knows someone. A few days later he got an interview. Not long after that he had a job offer, and then we were struck with a very tough decision of what to do now.

We made the decision to move our entire lives to North Georgia. The next day after my husband accepted the job--I found out I was pregnant. AND the stress just compounded from there. We had a very quick turnaround selling my home and finding a place to rent (since we weren't sure which area we wanted to live in yet). At the time it felt like we didn't know what the hell we were doing--and looking back we definitely didn't know what the hell we were doing. So while we were happy--we started hoping for a time when we could find our forever "right now" home.

Well--I am happy to announce that I am writing this blog from that home. AHHHH! I can't even contain my excitement.

SOOOO..... I know you are all mad at my absence. Most of you didn't even know that I was missing, probably, but I noticed. I missed you and I missed sharing my life with all of you. I just couldn't write a bunch of posts while secretly hiding all of these amazing changes in my life that I just wasn't ready to share with the world. I believe in jinxes. And I didn't want to talk about the house until it was mine--completely!

Also, in news--I have entered the classroom again! YIPEE. This is something that I had been aching for over the last six months. It was a very hard transition that encompassed many tears by me (and many more by P). Nevertheless, I have made peace with the guilt of making by girl go to baby school so that I can work. I am so thankful for my time teaching from home. It gave me the ability to spend every waking moment with P. Those are moment most mothers do not get, and I will and would do it again--if I have another.

I am also coaching cheerleading again! This is something that I really enjoyed 6 years ago when I first started teaching. I am learning, however, that it is a totally different thing when you have a toddler that you already feel like you never see. It takes up a lot of time. BUT--I have a great group of girls and guys (we are COED).

So good things come to those who wait and those who wish, and hope, and pray for them. I always believed that we would get to this place. While it took a lot of discipline, hard work, and even some tears. My husband and I built a house that we can be proud of and that P will hopefully spend the majority of her childhood. It is a good time in our lives.

So stay tuned as we journey into making this house a home. I promise not to keep any more big secrets for awhile, and to try to communicate with you a little more. As long as you keep on reading.

I love you all today!

This Week

This week a lot of things are going on and it is easy to get overwhelmed. I try to find the time for me everyday. This week I cam across a few things that I found to be profound. I thought I would share them with you. Here it goes...

Earlier in the week I was reading an article by Jamie Primak Sullivan where she was describing her struggle over the fact that her husband did not want anymore children. Since I can relate to that issue--I was quick to read it. While she has overcome this issue in her life, and has learned to be ok with her 3 children (which is A LOT of kids IMO) there was something that she said that just sliced right through me. So much so that I brought it to J that night. He is an amazing man, and I love him, but he wasn't affected by the statement like I was--men! Jamie said, "you never regret having that last one, but you might regret the one you didn't have." I read that statement and instantly tears formed in my eyes. That truth resonated with me like a coin thrown into a fountain or an unspoken prayer at bedtime. It was deep to me. BUT--this coming from the person who subjects herself to videos of births even though I know I will cry when that baby finally makes it's way into the world. I might not be the best judge of it's effectiveness. What do you think?

When you become a parent you start to look at things different then you might have before. Yesterday, as I was scrolling through Facebook, I encountered the story about Josh from 19 Kids and Counting. Now, I am a faithful watcher of the show--so I felt saddened as I was reading the story.  I saw countless people gain ammunition towards the Duggar family over this. That makes me sad because I do feel that they do a lot of things right with their children. Sure 19 children is a little crazy, but there is a lot of positive in what they do. Things like their buddy system where they pair up older children with younger children, jurisdictions or chores, courting etc. I'm a fan. So this article made me sad.

As I was reading it--I became angry. I was angry that this father of three (one more on the way) has had to resign from his job because of something that he did when he was 14 years old. 14 years old. When I think back to the things that I did when I was 14--let's just say we won't even go there. He was a child himself--so I can understand why his parents didn't think to report it. How many of you would turn your 14 year old over to the police. They dealt with it internally, and I think that if Piper did something like that--I would do the same thing. Your first instinct is to protect your child. I understand that feeling now. I sympathize with that and with them. I wish them the best. He has a very young family to support, and his actions when he was a teen do not define him today. I truly believe that.

Lastly, while watching the RHONY I came across another great gem from Bethenny Frankel. She was talking to her "dad" and if you don't understand why I put that in quotes then you will have to go back and watch the last episode. It is some crazy crap from her childhood. Anyway--she is great with one liners that are just filled with wisdom. This one was particularly perfect for me. Everyone carries anger in their life. I know I do. Bethenny said, "holding anger is like continuously drinking poison and expecting the other person to die." Anger does nothing to correct the problem, and just taints your life to the point where it can hurt your relationships and all things good. Learning to let go of anger is something that we all struggle with--me included.

That's it. Just a little bit of knowledge from this week.
Have a GREAT weekend, ya'll!

Happy Birthday Poppy!

This past weekend was my grandfather's 93rd Birthday. As I sit here thinking abut all of the incredible things that he has lived through in his 93 years--I find myself thinking I hope I live that long. We should all be so lucky as to be alive during the Great Depression, WWII, Vietnam, the 80s, and to see the birth and growth of computers.

This man is not your ordinary 93 year old. He can build anything. A few years ago in his late 80s, he built his own computer. Something that wasn't even around (at least for most families) for the majority of his life. Talk about a sharp mind. I can't imagine that. My brain doesn't have the capacity for that. That brings me to this question, Where has education gone wrong today that we don't produce more people like him and less people like me? He looks at a problem and finds a solution. He builds it himself and it just works. Me, I find a problem and I find someone to fix it. Such are the times.

He's seen a lot, done a lot. But I bet you if you asked him what the best things he saw were, you wouldn't have to look much further than his late wife, 3 daughters, 4 grandchildren, and 2 great grandchildren. I mean, that is what we are all here for, right? Raising 3 daughters who are all strong, opinionated, successful women with strong marriages. 4 grandchildren who are all either college educated, in the process of, or successful in their fields. 2 of the cutest great grandchildren I have ever seen--though I may be biased on that one. That is what life is all about. It may not be what all of us measure the success of our lives on--but it should be.

Since my grandfather lost my grandmother suddenly years ago, he spent the last ten years and change fulfilling a promise he had made to her to see the country. He has visited all 50 states. I know that my grandmother is smiling up there in heaven because she got to see it all through him. And the adventures didn't stop there since last year he visited Scotland and Greece (at 92 years old). He is an amazing man with a wealth of knowledge that I can't even begin to comprehend. I am so thankful for him and I hope for many more birthdays and trips. Happy Birthday Poppy!

P's 15 Month Round Up

I know, I know--I thought we were done with these updates after she turned 1. While that was my intention in the beginning--there is just too many changes to talk about that have happened over the last 3 months. Like I have said from the beginning the purpose of these monthly posts is so that Piper can one day look back on them and read about herself. I also hope that when she reads them one day she will get the tiniest glimpse of how much I love her, how painstakingly I planned for each transition in her life. You get the idea. So here it is...her 15 month update.

Over the last three months Piper's personality has been ever evolving. She is a bundle of joy quite literally. Whenever you wonder what sheer joy looks like--all you have to do is look for a happy toddler. On a good day everything is so fascinating to her and she is captivated by the world around her. She will study each toy in her toy bag and chase the dog while giggling incessantly. That is what sheer joy looks like. I have seen it--witnessed it. It surely is amazing to behold. Children are a blessing if for no other reason than to remind you that everything in your life is not such a big deal. They help you remember to slow down and live in the moment. Each day is precious because she is different each day.

The other side to her personality is definitely the Mr. Hyde to her Jekyll. Yesterday she pitched a whopping 10 separate tantrums. They come complete with flapping hands, stomping feet, angry red pudgy face, and hot sticky tears. I have tried time out (a little bit of success), and even a smack on the hand (not much success at all). It doesn't seem to reduce the number of tantrums at all. P is definitely hard headed and I have no clue where she would have inherited this trait because it certainly wasn't from me (sarcasm). I try not to lose my cool with her, but there are times when I feel the anger swell, and I have the urge to yell at her. I just try to remember that she is frustrated because she doesn't understand and she cannot communicate as effectively as she would like. I believe that a lot of her tantrums come from boredom.

While she cannot communicate like she would like at times--she has quite a varied vocabulary. It is to the point where we cannot even count the number of words she can say. Almost every day she is picking up a new word. Yesterday I bought her bubbles and started blowing them today for her. Within seconds of me blowing them as saying bubbles--she was saying it as well. And it is not just that she is repeating what I say. She recognizes the connection between the word and the thing. She is so smart. She can follow pretty basic tasks and even some more complicated ones such as , "Piper can you bring me the remote," or "Piper, put that down and go to the stairs."  She can point out most of her body parts, and can tell me what sounds a Cow makes along with a few other animals.

P weighs in at 26.5 pounds and is 32 1/4 inches tall. She is still in the 95th percentile for both. This makes her a towering one year old who looks bigger than a lot of 2 year olds we come across. This makes me both proud and sad all at the same time. She still likes to eat, but is extremely picky about her finger foods--refusing most "kid" foods.

The biggest change in her 15th month has been in the affection category. Piper has just recently started showing real affection. This is the most amazing thing for a parent. You spend the first year pouring love into your child and they are unable of expressing that love back to you verbally or with other social cues that we are accustomed to. While you know that they love you--it is hard to see from the outside. P loves to give me kisses and hugs. She will often just lean in and plant a big wet one on my lips. It is the best feeling in the world. Over the past month I have really been emphasizing telling her that I love her. I tell her all day every day. At least 30 or 40 times a day I would say. Just today I was changing her diaper and talking to her and she said something that sounded like I love you. So I said to her, "I love you." She repeated back what she had said just a moment earlier, and I knew that is what it was. She is finally able to put it to words. I immediately teared up. There is no greater feeling than that.

Now that it is spring time and it is warm outside--I try to take P to the park every day. She loves to run around in circles, swing, and slide. We have some much fun playing together, and there is nothing I would rather do. One day she will no longer want to hold my hand as she slides down the slide or have me push her in the swing--so I am going to savor every moment while I still can. These days are now so fleeting that it is almost like the clock hands are chasing us. In less than 3 months she will be 1 1/2, and I will be planning her 2nd birthday party. HA--you know I already started, right?

So there it is, my little Pooper! 15 months down and a lifetime to go. Only 16 and a half more years before you will be 18 and anxiously readying yourself to leave the nest. The thought sends chills up my arms and triggers that choking feeling in my throat. I love you so completely, and hope that you will forgive me for holding you closer with each passing day.

Love,
Mommy