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!

Year 30 update

Wow. That took a LOT longer than it should have, but my Year 30 (365) is finally updated. I'd done okay updating every week or so from March but completely lost track of things in July. When I tallied up the missing days from July I was looking at over 17 missing photos. Normally that shouldn't be that hard to dig out, but with pictures from two phones, a point and shoot and a DSLR...  well there was NO such thing as date order. I probably could have made things easier on myself if I'd just looked for them directly on the c drive but no... I went through Picasa and made more work for myself (see of course I'm not actually realizing any of this until just now.)

However I will stop bemoaning because I did it! No missing photos at all! Enjoy.

Little gymnast!

The difference is shocking. 


A couple months back I signed Jessica up for a Creative Movement "dance" class. It was a disaster. We still have two classes left and while I try to stay positive to encourage Jessica, I bet she can still tell that I dread it. 


She loves dancing. She loves her ballet shoes. She loves Angelina Ballerina. The logical progression would be -- she loves dance class. Not. I don't know if it's the teacher, the building, the small class (only 2 other girls) or if she just had a bad first day (we had just dropped Daddy off at the airport and she didn't eat breakfast) but it all went downhill from there. Four classes later she still clings to me, cries, doesn't participate, begs to go home... it's a train wreck. 


Hence you can see why I might be slightly worried about the gymnastics class I signed her up for a month ago, that starts today. 


I shouldn't have wasted a second worrying. She LOVED it. I mean SERIOUSLY LOVED it. From the moment she saw the indoor rock wall and climbing frame in the lobby she's was hooked. After a few minutes introducing herself to other children and playing chase with a ball we headed into class. 

The teacher was brilliant. Lively, bubbly, engaging. She used to be a kindergarten teacher but has been teaching dance and gymnastics for Raleigh Parks and Rec for four years. Jessica danced, jumped, bounced, ran, followed directions, played nicely, took turns. She was an absolute dream and my heart swelled with love watching her play. I'm positive that knowing other children in the class helped her confidence. I can't wait to go back. Jessica's still talking about 'Nastics! We'll definitely be signing back up for next month! 

Hello August!

Honestly, I know I write more when things go wrong, when I'm stressed. The amusingly awkward and the hilariously unfortunate are more common topics for me. When my husband finds me writing in my journal his first reaction is to ask me what's wrong.

But right now? I'm happy. It was a good day to be me and I thought I'd share. Try to bust out of the only writing when things go wrong habit. 

The air conditioning in Mark's office is out. So he's working from home today. This is a GOOD thing! We don't have to figure out commuting with one car. I don't have to drive into Raleigh during rush hour to collect him. The day is off to a good start. 

Plans to meet friends at the park. It's overcast. Score! It's still humid but since the sun is obscured it's not roasting. I can handle a little (okay a lot of) humidity if it's only 78 outside. 

This is what happens when you ask toddlers to say cheese during snack time. 

Post park date, Jessica and I head over to Target for some essentials. 1 cauliflower, a loaf of bread a new rubbermaid box, boogie wipes, a couple sandwiches, a vanilla milk and a free Starbucks coffee later we head home. (What? Those don't sound like essentials in your home? Well maybe you're weird. Have you considered that. ;)

Lunch with Daddy! Turns out our tomato loving toddler also loves cucumber, but only if you don't cut it into slices. If you desecrate the awesomeness that is a whole cucumber she'll want nothing to do with it.... 

Oh no... I have just realized looking at these photos that I don't remember putting the cucumber away and the last time I saw it Jessica was headed into the living room. Erm.. so the question is... do I get out of my cozy bed (yes, I'm in bed it's almost midnight! ) and go search for this cucumber or leave it till morning... 

Finished lunch and Mark still has half an hour left.... he says he's going to take Jessica for a walk and I can stay home, take a nap and try to fight off my inner walrus (if you've seen me at all in the past 3 days you'll know barking cough would blend in seamlessly on a beach full of walruses.) I opt to be responsible and stupidly use my free time to wait around on hold with various doctor's offices, but I'm given a reprieve when he brings her back.... ASLEEP!!!! WHOO! We roll the stroller into the living room and I'm given a second chance at free time! This time I'm smart and use my time wisely. I lay on the sofa, drink some coffee and attempt to finish my book (for book club tonight.)

The bear wakes, we play. A awesome thunderstorm rolls through. Mark is finished with work for the day. Jessica and Mark adjourn to the den to fight monsters. (This girl is going to be an elite fencer before she gets to kindergarten. The sword we purchased at Edinburgh Castle has been well worth the £2.50.)

While they do battle with the unknown I'm able to finish the book. Which is pretty impressive since I started it right before bed last night. Book club can be stressful when you keep forgetting to read the book because you've forgotten when book club meets. 

Feed the family. Head to book club. Enjoyable relaxed adult conversation. Some of which is even about books! Peanut butter cookie, cafe mocha. Home again. Toddler asleep in her own bed. Husband not stressed out of his mind or covered in child's dinner. Did I mention it was a good day. :D      

                                                                          Psalm 118:24

Princess.

Have I mentioned how much I love this sweet girl? 

It is becoming very obvious that my little sweetheart has an intensely caring personality. She feels (and expresses) it very strongly. When she believes someone is in trouble, in pain, or needs help she will be the first to come to your rescue. She likes to fight off dragons, defend lizards from unknown monsters and generally save the world. This is one princess that's going to be doing the rescuing herself.


Above all she wants to hold your hand.