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Slacker

January 29, 2009 · Filed under Arle, Random · Tagged , , , , ,

 Around a month ago, Arle stopped taking two naps a day.  My life hasn’t been the same since.  I loved the ol’ two-nap-a-day-gig.  She would usually go down for her first nap around 9 a.m, then I would workout, shower, get ready, blog, and be ready for the day by the time she woke up at 11:00.  I would have the whole afternoon to run errands, clean house, or whatever else I needed or wanted to do. 

Since we returned from our Christmas trip to NM, I’ve been a lazy slacker and I totally put all the blame on Arle.  She’s always been our alarm clock.  Well, now that she’s down to one nap, she feels the need to sleep in until anywhere from 8:00 – 10:00 a.m.  Trav and I think this is great on the weekends, but it’s really thrown a kink into our weekday morning routine. 

Trav had to start setting the alarm again because he wasn’t rolling into the office until 9:30 or 10:00 some days.  I, on the other hand, would just roll over and go back to sleep after he got up and into the shower.  I always wake up when he comes over to kiss me goodbye and usually get up soon after. 

I’ve suddenly realized how little I’ve accomplished over the past few weeks, due to this laziness.  I’ve decided to turn over a new leaf, though. 

This morning I drug myself out of bed at 6:55 a.m. (after snoozing only once), got dressed, and worked out.  I’m sure this is the norm for many of you overachievers out there, but for me this is just nuts.  It’s not so much the working out part, although yesterday was the first time I’ve done this since Thanksgivmas, it’s the getting out of bed early part that just doesn’t sit well with me.  I love my sleep. 

I’m so glad I did it, though, because it’s 2:49 p.m. and I’ve already accomplished the following:

  • Worked out (I did 30 min. on the elliptical, crunches, push-ups, lunges, squats, and calf raises.  And did I mention that I’m pretty sure I came really close to dying while burning those 60.2 carbs and 344 calories???  It was misery from beginning to end.  Two months without working out and I’m like an 85 year old lady.  Good thing my Ipod had Justin Timberlake screaming in my ears to “bring sexy back” because, folks, that’s really what this is all about.)
  • Ate breakfast (I know it’s the “most important meal of the day” but I rarely eat it.)
  • Took a shower
  • Put my makeup on, dried my hair, got dressed.
  • Watched the Today Show (All of this happened BEFORE Arle even woke up)
  • Got Arle cleaned up and dressed
  • Made Arle’s breakfast
  • Made homemade buttercream frosting for my cake decorating class  tonight
  • Cleaned the kitchen floor
  • Played with Arle
  • Went to Gymboree
  • Got my car cleaned, inside and out
  • Dropped off/picked up the dry cleaning
  • Made lunch
  • Put Arle down for her nap
  • Blogged

I’m amazed at how much I’ve already accomplished and that I still have time for more!  I’m SOOOOOO going to get up early EVERY morning from now on.  I feel like such a big girl.

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Like A Good Neighbor

January 27, 2009 · Filed under Random · Tagged , ,

On this snowy white morning, I would like to give a shout out to our fabulous neighbor, Bill.  He and his wife, Phyllis, are the kind of neighbors that I aspire to be…oh-so-kind, thoughtful and courteous.  They pick up our mail for us when we’re out of town.  They love Arle and even bring her gifts back from their travels.  They loan us lanterns or space heaters when we have power outages.  And he even comes over to blow our sidewalk and driveway when it snows.  Thank you, neighbor!

Bill

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Back In The Saddle

January 21, 2009 · Filed under Arle, Random · Tagged , , , , , , ,

When I met the man of my dreams (yes, I’m talking about Travis), I thought my dating days were over.  Dating was something I was never very good at or enjoyed.  In my opinion, it’s awkward, nerve-racking, and just plain weird.  I never felt like myself on a date and do NOT enjoy not feeling like myself. 

But, here I am, dating again. 

Except this time, instead of going on dates with guys to nice restaurants and movies, I’m going out on play-dates.  Before becoming a mommy, I thought the term “play-date” referred to the children and ONLY the children.  Now I know that the children “play” and the mommies “date.” 

It’s true.  

The process is pretty much the same in both types of dating.  First of all, you have to come up with a game plan and decide where you’re going to “fish” for your new mommy friends…Gymboree classes and church are my preferred locals.  Many moms seem to like the park, but I’ve had zero luck there. 

Next is the oh-so-important task of deciding what to wear.  Maybe this is just me, but I put a lot of thought into these matters.  I never want to be the mom that’s dressed to the nines just for Gymboree, but I also never want to be the mom that looks like she just rolled out of bed and hasn’t showered in 12 days.  There’s a very fine line here and you have to get it just right. 

Once you’re on site, you have to be ready to fire away with a pick-up-line at any moment.  Instead of the ol’, “You come here often?” line, mom’s usually start with, “So, how old is your little one?”  I find this one is a safe bet.  Another great option is to compliment their child’s outfit.  Moms love this. 

Our Gymboree class might as well be speed-dating for mommies.  During the class, you mingle here and there with other moms while the kiddos play.  Some you click with, others…not so much.  After class, you see pairs of moms scattered here and there, with cell phones out, ready to swap digits.  Then it’s a waiting game.  Who’s going to call first?  This is one part of the “dating” process that I’m horrible at.  I’m going to go ahead and blame it on my mother for pounding it into my brain to “never ever call boys.”  I think I’ve carried her rules for dating guys into my mommy dating life. 

Good thing email wasn’t around when I was growing up, because I never heard, “Never email boys.”  I went out on a limb last week and actually made the first move.  I emailed another mom from our church and asked if she wanted to get together sometime.  We planned a “date” with our little ones and Arle and I had a great time.  Hopefully they did, too…we’ll see if we are asked out on a second date.

We’ve also gone on a couple of other playdates recently and so far, so good.  No bad ”dates” thus far.  It’s so nice to be connecting with some other stay-at-home moms.  Most of my mommy friends work, so I’ve really been praying that I would find some other friends that stay home and can hang out during the day.  I’ll keep you posted on my progress.

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How Do You Say “Momdiggity” In Italian???

January 13, 2009 · Filed under Random, Silly Stories · Tagged , , , , , ,

Sometimes I have a tendency to do things without really thinking about it.  I’m trying to think up some good examples, but am drawing a blank at the moment (I’m sure Travis could give me an endless list of examples, but I’m not really in the mood to hear them).  I’m a fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants-kind-of-girl, plain and simple.  I see something I love, I buy it.  I see something that looks yummy, I eat it.  I think of something to say, I say it.  I rarely take a step back and think about the reasons I shouldn’t do these things…perhaps it’s a disease??? 

Last night, I may have outdone myself.

Travis and I have been tossing around the idea of taking a vacation sometime in the next few months.  This all came about because our friends, Kent and Traci, actually approached us about possibly going somewhere together again (we went to Vegas with them last year).  So, I’ve been perusing some travel sites to try and find a fun and somewhat inexpensive getaway.  Last night I received an email from Luxury Link, an auction site much like ebay, but instead of bidding on a ceramic mule statue, you bid on fabulous vacations.  I’ve always loved looking on this site and daydreaming about the gorgeous destinations they offer, but I’ve never actually bid on anything. 

Until last night. 

I came across a package that seemed to good to pass up.   Not only did I bid (the minimum bid, none the less) I also won.  Here’s what our $750 will get us:

A 5-night package for 2 in Florence, Italy that includes:

  • 5 nights in a Junior Suite with garden view
  • Round-trip private car transfers between the Florence airport or train station and the hotel
  • Champagne and fresh fruit in suite upon arrival
  • Continental breakfast for two each morning
  • Sunset drink for two on one day of your choice
  • Choice of activity for two
    • Full-day guided tour of the Chianti countryside, including private car and chauffeur
    • 3-hour private cooking lesson, including gourmet 3-course dinner
  • Entrance tickets and reservations for two to the Uffizi Gallery
  • Complimentary parking
  • 1,000 Bonus Miles (see details below)
  • Taxes & service charges

Click here to check out the hotel we would stay at.  Pretty fab, eh???

The other thing that makes this whole thing fantastic is that Trav and I have enough American Express points for two free round-trip tickets to Europe!  How could I NOT bid on this?  

I received an email this morning saying I had won the trip.  I called Trav to tell him and let’s just say he’s not exactly thrilled with me right now.  He is the exact opposite of me and likes to put loads of thought into each and every decision.  Even though he was sitting right next to me when I put in my bid and seemed (to me) like he was fine with me bidding on this steal, he insists that he did nothing to give me the impression that he was behind me on this deal.  He’s claiming that I should have never assumed he was totally paying attention to me since he was in the middle of watching an OU basketball game.  I’ll admit that was definitely a mistake on my part.  Trav takes OU basketball VERY serious. 

I’ll also admit, I didn’t read the fine print to realize that bidding entered me into a “binding” contract.  Of course, my attorney husband seemed to find this info quite easily when I called him this morning to tell him we won.  I thought that if we decided not to go, we just wouldn’t give them our payment info in the 24-hour time-frame required and we would be out of the deal.  Evidently that’s not how these things work.  I’ve apologized to Trav for being so irresponsible and am hoping he’ll find it in his heart to forgive me. 

The other kink in this grand plan of mine is that I was pretty much the worst friend EVER.  I completely forgot about Kent and Traci during my bidding madness and now I feel like a big jerk because we didn’t consult them about it, but we’re hoping they are going to brush off their best Italian shoes and hop on a plane with us.  We’ll see.  I’ve also apologized to Traci for being such an awful, inconsiderate friend and am hoping that they also will find it in their hearts to forgive me. 

So, for now we’re trying to work out all the logistics in order to make this trip happen.  Who knows, though, we could be putting this trip up on ebay right next to the “unusual heart shaped potato.”

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What To Say, What To Say…

January 9, 2009 · Filed under Random · Tagged , , , ,

After the trauma of yesterday’s events (the bow fiasco and the demise of my dear, sweet Sooners) I’m not exactly in a chipper mood.  If I was one of those girls that likes chocolate, I probably would have eaten about 3 lbs. of it, just in an effort to lick my wounds. 

So, here I am, racking my brain for something to write about.  Something to take my mind off the sad events of late.  I think I’ll take a stab at doing my first movie review.  Here goes…

If you’re looking for something to do this weekend, I would HIGHLY recommend going to the movies and seeing The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.  Travis and I saw this while we were in New Mexico and it quickly made its way on to my “favorite movies” list (just to clarify-it DID NOT take the place of Dirty Dancing as my “favorite movie of all-time”, but still, it was really good).  Yes, it’s three hours long, but it’s not one of those movies that drags on and on and seems to never end.   I didn’t even fall asleep, which is quite a feat for me and says a lot about a flick. 

I’ll admit, the beginning was a bit weird and I was skeptical for approximately three minutes when I saw the weird old-man-baby that the movie was about.   For those of you who aren’t familiar with this flick, it’s about an old man who’s born in a baby’s body and goes backward through life.  After getting over the initial shock at the sight of the odd infant, I soon found myself completely amazed at the entire concept of the film…the story was wonderful, the makeup was incredible, and the acting was great.  It really made me think about how differently I would live my life if I had to start from the end rather than the beginning. 

So, after a day like yesterday, I’m not going to throw a pity party like I kind of want to.  Instead, I’m going to recite my new favorite motto, “What would Benjamin Button do?”  I’ll tell you what he would do…he would turn his frown upside down and get on with his life.  I would also like to think that he would probably go shopping.  So that’s exactly what I’m off to do.  Ta ta for now.

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Happy ’09!!!

January 5, 2009 · Filed under Random, Silly Stories · Tagged , , , , , ,

I’m a few days late with my Happy New Year wish, but I still wanted to get it out there.  We brought in the New Year by having two couples over for dinner and a mean game of Taboo (at which the guys cheated, btw).  My Martha Stewart-ish friend, Kristin, read about a Spanish tradition of eating 12 grapes at midnight and keeping track of how many are sweet and how many are sour.  For each sweet grape you eat, you’ll have that many “good” months over the next year.  For each sour grape, you’ll have a “bad” month.  She skewered all the fruit and brought them over for us to enjoy with our champagne as the clock struck 12.  I ended up with 10 sweet and two sour grapes.  I think I can deal with that:) 

Cheers!

Cheers!

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Come On In!

December 22, 2008 · Filed under Arle, Momdiggity Style, Random · Tagged , , , ,

I’m one of those people that absolutely LOVES Christmas decorations.  The more the merrier, in my mind.  In order to enjoy them a bit longer this year, we actually decorated the weekend before Thanksgiving, a.k.a. Thanksgivmas.  Time has flown by, as usual, and we’ll soon be taking everything down and I’ll feel like I have the most blah house in the world.  Isn’t it funny how boring everything seems without all of the glitzy lights and ornaments everywhere? 

Anywho, I decided it might be fun to have an “Open House” for all of you Momdiggity readers…So come on in, take your coat off and stay awhile!

Christmas Tree

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At first, I wasn’t all that impressed with our tree this year.  It’s a bit “Charlie Brownish” but has grown on me.  Its imperfections give it character and the sparse branches actually allow our ornaments to show up better.  The ornament on the right is my favorite.  I picked this up last year at Holiday Mart and love it’s whimsical look.  Best of all, it reminds me of our sweet baby girl’s first Christmas. 

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 I always have lots of fun with our fireplace and I pick up something new each year to add to it.  This year I found these sparkly snowflakes and the frosty looking branches to wrap around the garland.  

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I found these cute hand-painted Christmas ornaments last year, while shopping with my mom.  They make me happy!  I’m actually tempted to rip into one just to figure out what they’re made of so I can create some replicas.  They feel like some sort of plaster or something.  I should have just purchased more to begin with.  

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 This corner cabinet usually houses all of our framed photos of family and friends.  During this time of year, it turns into Christmas Central.  At the bottom, you’ll see our Village.  One of my parents traditions is to start a Dept. 56 Village for their children whenever they get married.  We love it!  Each year we receive a piece that represents a highlight of our past year.  We have the Wedding Gallery for our first year of marriage, an apartment building for our first home, a library for Trav’s years in law school, a clothing store for my years working at Harold’s, a house for the year we purchased our first home, a high school for our 10 year class reunion, a golf course for Trav’s love of the game, and a couple holding their newborn baby for last year when Arle blessed our family with her presence. 

The Village is Trav’s pride and joy.  He puts lots of time and effort into perfecting the “city planning”  and was assisted by his brother, Brett this year.  They actually added three other tables of various heights to the bottom shelf of the corner cabinet in order to create the perfect Village.   The photos really don’t do it justice.  There are streams, lakes, steps, loads of snow, and many other fabulous little details that a camera just can’t “see.”  Pretty impressive, eh???? 

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 Our front door definitely needs some oomph, if you ask me.  I always feel obligated to buy a wreath from one of the 800 boy scouts that live on our street.  It always seems to come in about a week after Thanksgiving, which is too late if you ask me.  I’m always so ready to put it up that I pretty much throw it on the door and am done with it.  I had purchased this cool snowflake this year and decided it’s duty would be to jazz up the plain jane wreath.  I don’t think it really accomplished much, but hey, I tried. 

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 Last, but certainly not least, Trav’s sweet Grandma and Grandpa gave me this Willow Tree Nativity for Christmas a couple years ago and I always love putting it out.  What would all of this junk mentioned above mean without a reminder of what this season is really about?  Arle loves it, as well.  She’ll randomly be walking by, stop in mid-stride, point up and say “Jeeshush!”  She also received this precious little Nativity set from her birth family and is obsessed with it.  The majority of the time, she prefers to hold baby “Jeeshush” rather than allowing Mary to.  She carries baby Him around for most of the day and gives him lots of hugs and kisses. 

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From our home to yours, we wish you a

 VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS

and a fabulous 2009!

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The Tan Van

December 12, 2008 · Filed under Momdiggity Style, Random, Silly Stories, Uncategorized · Tagged , , ,

Two months after Arle was born, the wonderful peeps in Lovington, NM wanted to throw us a baby shower.  We were thrilled as we prepared to fly to the Land of Enchantment and show off our new baby girl.  It was our first flight with baby in tow and I was determined not to forget anything.  Diapers?  Check.  Bottles?  Check.  Formula?  Check.  Tan skin?  Oh shoot! 

It had been a super hot and steamy summer and I had not wanted to drag my teeny tiny baby out just so I could be a bronzed beauty.  I hadn’t really thought much about it until a couple days before we were set to fly out.  I suddenly became extremely self-conscious about my pasty white skin and decided that drastic times called for drastic measures. 

I called the Tan Van. 

The what???? You read it right…the Tan Van.  It’s fantastic.  No, it’s Tanfastic (that’s the actual name). 

I had heard about it while working at the ad agency I was with before Arle was born.  The Tan Van Lady would come to the office for a day and people would sign up to go strip down in her van, get airbrushed, and then come back in with a glorious glow.  I was intrigued, but not brave enough to ever put my name on the list. 

So, when I suddenly decided I absolutely HAD to have some color on my body, the Tan Van came to my rescue.  Originally, I decided I would drive to her in order to save $10.  Since conversations between Trav and me are so comical to all of you, see what you think about this one:

Me:  Honey, can you be home by 6:30 tomorrow night?  I have an appointment to be at.

Trav:  Nope.  Tomorrow night is the Royals Dugout Suite Party. 

Me:  I’ve been asking you when that is for weeks and you never could tell me.  Now I make an appt. and need you to be here and suddenly you know when the party is???  (note:  I’m SUPER perturbed at this point)

Trav:  What’s the big deal?  What kind of appointment is it? 

Me:  (with a very loud voice and tears welling up in my eyes)  I have to drive out to Olathe to some lady’s house, get naked in her van, and let her spray me down with a fake tan, OK????!!! 

Trav:  Well, I absolutely forbid you to do that.  Are you crazy? 

Me:  (laughing) Hmmm…it does sound pretty crazy, doesn’t it? 

So, I decided to change my plan.  I forked over the extra $10 to have the Tan Van come straight to my front door.  I planned it when I knew Arle would be napping, locked the door to the house, took the monitor outside with me, and got into the Van.  I stripped down to my undies and got my first airbrush tan.  Yes, it was awkward, but it was worth it.  I looked like I just returned from an island vacation.  The Tan Van Lady was my new BFF. 

We were re-united night before last (yes, the toilet fiasco night).  Trav’s office Christmas party is tomorrow night and I, once again, decided my bod could use a tinge of color.  This time, Trav was home (plunging our toilet) and able to watch Arle, so I drove out south to TVL’s home.  Just when I thought things couldn’t be more strange than stripping down in a van and getting sprayed, I went into her home bathroom and entered the black tent and was sprayed.  I prefer the van. 

Once again, I’m extremely happy with the final result.  For some reason, I always feel skinnier when I’m tan and that, my friends, is worth every second of awkwardness and the $35 that it cost.

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