the explanation.

The blog has been languishing without an update for months...

Maybe you've noticed that you haven't seen me around playgrounds or social gatherings...?

Maybe when you did see me I looked a little green...?

Perhaps I was running to the bathroom. 

You've probably already guessed why (or you've had a conversation with my 2 year old who can't keep a secret.) 

The morning started off on a less than enjoyable note but steadily got better as the day progressed.

OB appointment at 8:30am.

Up at 7am. UGH. 7am is too early for anything. Jessica has been sleeping till 8:30 recently so I've been spoiled. I hop in the shower and try to wash my hair, in the process of rinsing out the conditioner and I have to leave the comfort of the warm shower to puke for a while. This, of course, throws off my entire timetable. I no longer have time to blow dry my hair, let alone get back in the shower and get the rest of the conditioner out!! I braid my hair back and shove a furry hat on my head. It's 39 degrees F outside for goodness sake!

Arrive for appointment. No wait. Things are getting better. Blood pressure - ideal. Great! No weight gain from my 8 week appointment. Even better! In to see the doctor and get to hear the baby's heartbeat. A perfect 160. Wonderful. Head home again, toddler still asleep. AMAZING. Back to bed for 40 minutes. 

It was a double appointment kind of day. Afternoon scan scheduled for 1pm. Heartbeat still 160, all measurements look good and baby is estimated at 14 weeks. Thankfully, Mark has this week off so we were all able to go together. Jessica included! She was a bit confused by the bouncing blob on the screen but I think she got the idea. Honestly, the pictures she sent us home with leave a little to be desired. We were there and can barely make out what we're looking at. Apparently one (in the words of the ultrasound tech) "an adorable shot of the baby cupping his face with his hands." Yeah... I can't see it. (I'll post the photo after I locate our scanner... I think it's on the 3rd floor somewhere....) 

She's decided that she wants a baby sister "just like her" but that she'd be happy with a baby brother as long as she can have one of each. We tried to explain that there was only one baby in there, she was adamant that there were two... one on each screen. Well yes Jessica, your infallible logic does make sense. There was a screen for the doctor and Daddy to look at and another for Mummy. Thus two babies. 

Lunch with my beautiful girl and my lovely husband AND I got to pop into the salon to get my bangs trimmed back in. [After 10+ years of training myself to say fringe I know feel a bit silly whenever I say bangs. Like someone is going to look at me and say, "HUH?"]

Now I think I might see if I can persuade my wonderful husband to entertain the kiddo while I go wash my hair!! :D

Treat Time!

Free card alert! Just a quick post - normally I just post these codes on Facebook but I figure if you see it here you might actually remember to go make yourself one. I personally have a bad habit of immediately forgetting what I just saw on FB.

You know how much I love cards... and you know how much a love free... so this offer sends me to my happy place. 

Use the code TREATBLOGR for a completely free card from Treat.com (Offer expires 11/20) Great way to send a card to family you won't get to see this year without having to go to the store! *nudge nudge Mom* 

I've seen Treat have offers like this before. (I've actually redeemed one before and loved the quality of the card.) So keep your eyes open in the future. 

A belated Halloween

I never knew how extensive a toddler's Halloween calendar could be!

There was the Stroller Strides annual Halloween Shindig which I think the mom's may look forward to even more than the kiddos (Who doesn't love a reason to dress their toddlers up all adorable like and let them loose in someone else's back yard with more than 2 dozen sets of mothering eyes to help keep an eye on things while you get a chance to catch up with friends?)

A quick and BUSY but fun evening at the Wake Forest Factory Spooktacular.

Then there was the Halloween Hoot at our local library which she loved.

A quick costume change for Stroller trickertreatin after a chilly workout.

(Supergirl isn't the best costume for a sandy playground.)

Followed up by Halloween itself.

Guess what. I made that Supergirl costume. Yup. All by myself. It was a white shirt, a roll of red tulle, and yellow headband when I started!

Veteran's Day

Mark and I didn't realize when we got married that we'd be sharing out anniversary weekend with Veteran's Day, but over the years we've seen a lot of really wonderful events. One of our first anniversary trips away to York we stumbled across a veteran's parade and watched it go by as we stood in awe. Our getaways were always peppered by poppy flowers, the symbol they use in Britain to remember their fallen.

In Flanders Fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We've been back in America for a few years now and while we don't see the poppies here we still remember. My family is a military family. My great grandfather, my grandfather, my father, my brother, my sister-in-law... it continues. It's important we remember the scarifies our military and their families make.

Shutterfly has impressed me again with their Thank the Troops campaign. With over 1.5 million troops serving and many of them overseas they have a simple mission—to send a thank you card to every American hero. They need your help and it doesn't take long. Just select a card from four different designs, add a personal message (or photo -  just think you could have your kiddo draw a picture snap it on your phone and upload!) and click send. Shutterfly will print and ship your card to the troops at no cost to you.

A simple way to say thank you. There is absolutely no reason not to.

Ack! Pre-planning!

It's that time of year again. No, you haven't missed a month. It's not December yet, Halloween hasn't even come and gone. So what time of year do I speak of? That time of year where the super organized start planning their Christmas cards! 

Do I classify myself as super organized? No, not even kinda, however Tiny Prints (this year they've become part of Shutterfly) has kindly reminded me that I may want to start thinking about choosing some cards. It was a very polite nudging email with a ton of great deals that served to reminded me that I've moved into new house [never got around to mailing out 'New address' cards] and that if I don't send my cards in the first half of December then it's unlikely most people will know where to send me cards! [THE HORROR!] 

I've got to say, one of the things you never really think about before children is the FAMILY PHOTO for the "card." Yet, for some reason as soon as you have that darling little mini-me you often become obsessed with finding the perfect shot and sending it off to every living relative. Thankfully since moving to Raleigh I've actually met some pretty great real live photographers! But with pros comes booking and planning... one of the reasons you're getting this post pre-holiday season!

Two of my favourites are Mason Dee Photography and Sarah Beth's Photography. I know both photographers personally, they're amazing and so so friendly! 
                             ...... speaking of, I really need to call one and get something set up!!

This year Tiny Prints has (I'm assuming due to the merger) even more awesome Christmas Card designs to choose from! Which is no small feat, considering the plethora of choice last year. It's a good thing they ran a special on their express shipping because by the time I was finished perusing their selection and pestering Mark to help me narrow them down (yeah, he wasn't much help) it was already the 16th of December and 50% of my cards still needed to make the long trip overseas to our family abroad! Express shipping for the win.

  See?

So many cute choices!

Look I'm already overwhelmed!

I'm also attempting my first ever giveaway. I'm hoping this might encourage a few of my lurkers to poke their heads up and let me know they're around. Plus, anything I can do to  encourage the Christmas Card tradition is a good thing! [read as: SEND ME CHRISTMAS CARDS! I'll always send you one back.] Besides I think Mark adores my many ill-fated attempts to display them in pinteresty fashion around the home (maybe not.) 

*GIVEAWAY*  

$50 off your Shutterfly order! (not including shipping & cannot be combined with any other promos.)

Choose at least one of the following - comment and tell me which you did.

• Check out Shutterfly's Pinterest Page: Shutterfly Pinterest (This is actually a great way to save card ideas to come back and look at later.) 
• Add Shutterfly to your Google + feed: Google + Shutterfly (Come on people, Google + isn't all bad!)
• Follow Shutterfly  on Twitter: Shutterfly's Twitter
• Follow Shutterfly on Facebook: Shutterfly on Facebook

For an extra entry tell me your favourite holiday tradition!
For a super extra bonus entry become a follower! The little link is over there --> (just hover your mouse over the far right side of the page and it'll pop out.)

A random inner will be chosen on October 28th. Winner announced Oct 29th.
RANDOM.ORG has proclaimed Christianna winner of the $50 Shutterfly credit.  Keep your eye on your email because Shutterfly will be sending the credit directly to you. :) Enjoy! Thanks everybody for entering!

Don't feel like entering? Didn't win? Explore some of their awesome deals for yourself: Shutterfly's Special Offers. 

 * Shutterfly has kindly sponsored me to write this post about their amazing product. I don't always order Christmas Cards but when I do I use Tiny Prints. I sense a meme I could have used here ;)

Knock on wood.

It has been a bizarre morning... a morning that is playing with my adrenaline hard.

My toddler wanders in to wake me up. (You get up before your children? Good for you. That's not the way it works in this house.)
She takes one look at me and strips down to her skivvys. I blink at her. huh? After some complicated early morning charades it's determined that she wants the blue shirt with a baby chick on the front that I'm currently wearing. Apparently it's 'HER Best Shirt.' huh? It's too early, I give her the shirt. Oh well - it gets me dressed faster. We've got Stroller Strides this morning and need to get out of the house on time. 
         VERDICT - rudely awakened but this goes in the positive column because it gets me moving quicker than normal.


Drive to Stroller Strides. 2 miles from the park, flashing lights in the rear view mirror... ugh no. 
Do you know how fast you were going?  -No
Almost 55 in a 35. -No?
Is there somewhere you're going? -Erm yes?
Do you have your license and registration? -umm probably? What does the registration look like?

Really though, he was incredibly nice, not mean at all and even though he had no real reason to let me off with a warning, he did. *GIANT WHEW*
          VERDICT - Although my heart is in my chest, my hands are shaking and I'm late for class this gets marked as a positive. No ticket AND it encouraged me to pay more attention to the road. 

Class, playground and duck feeding....

I decide to stop at AC Moore on the way home to buy some fabric dye for Jessie's halloween costume. No dye the right colour to be found, but I was already in there with a 40% off coupon so I picked up some puff paint to decorate pumpkins...(more on that later.) Head to the register. The line is always long here. It's the norm. One person in front of me so I decide to dig out my wallet. NO WALLET!! Probably just fell out in the car. Carry 27 lb sack of toddler back to car. NO WALLET!! Proceed to destroy interior of car searching for wallet. No success. (Did I mention that I needed to pee. This does not help calm a woman down.) I call the park and see if some has turned in a wallet. Nope, but she was really friendly and said she'd keep an eye out. 

I get Jessie buckled back and just as I'm about to head back to the park to retrace our steps, my eyes land on the glove compartment... it couldn't be that easy could it? WALLET!! I must have shoved it in there when I put the registration away but the panic of the moment fried my memory pathways.

Call the park back, thank them for their time, explain where it was; blame toddler. yes. I blamed my kid. I'm not proud. I'm chalking it up to the need to pee and adrenaline. Take a deep breath and head home. (oh, I did go back into the store and get the puff paint in case you were curious.)

          VERDIT - POSITIVE. No explanation needed.

I still have half a day left but I'm cautiously optimistic... 
I'm feeling oddly unlucky and lucky at the same time.

Honestly? At class tonight I felt like an alcoholic at an AA meeting who walked in hooting, " I was at the most awesome bar last night and I drank sooo much man!"

Confused? Okay, I'll backtrack.

Mark and I joined a gym. Joining bonus included Life Time Fitness Bucks that we could spend on gym services. I chose a personal training session and a few weeks of 'Team Weight Loss.' 

It's been great. The trainer is pretty awesome. She's a great motivator and I really push myself just to get her praise. (I'm 30. You wouldn't think simple praise would be such a powerful motivator anymore, you'd be wrong.) The class meets three times a week for an interval based treadmill workout. Without my heart-rate monitor egging me on I'm sure I'd be less interested but looking at my little watch and realizing I've burnt 800 calories in the past hour? That's gold.

However, Monday nights are a little different. The first half hour is spent in a little office discussing nutrition  It's how I imagine a Weight Watchers meeting would be if Weight Watchers met in a tiny office, only had 4 people attend and devoted a large amount of time to benefits of protein and sweet potatoes. (Seriously. I think my trainer's favourite food is the sweet potato.)

Tonight was Monday. Tonight's topic? "Have you eaten out recently and what did you have?" (really? have I eaten out recently? does winne the pooh enjoy honey?)

Okay yes. Last night we went out. Texas Roadhouse to be precise. What did I have? I don't think what I had for a meal even mattered after it was revealed that I started off by nomming up at least four of those yummy rolls with cinnamon butter they so tantalizingly present you with as soon as you sit down. [Some of you with photographic memories might remember when they popped up in last year's 365.] 

Turns out there's roughly 220 calories in each roll BEFORE you add butter. I consumed more than 880 calories before our dinner even arrived. 440 of those before we even ordered our dinner! (hmm... it's pretty obvious why the weight isn't exactly melting off despite the increased exercise) 

When I admitted that breakfast was a brownie and that lunch was, well.. a brownie, I was sure I would be asked to leave. I was not. 

She suggested that next time I ask the server not to bring bread.. Huh? Oh and that I should order the roasted chicken with a sweet potato. (is it possible to own stock in sweet potatos??)

Nutrition class adjourned and we headed to the treadmills. I'm pretty sure the extra push-ups we got tonight were my fault. Can't say I didn't need them!