October Writing Challenge #1

I love Mama Kat's Writing prompts. It's usually the only blogging I do with any consistency. I didn't realize, however, that she's been offering up a list of 31 prompts each month. When I saw her 31 October prompts, I thought that it might be interesting to do one prompt each day for the month of October to challenge myself and hopefully launch me into a stable blogging routine.

The first prompt is What were you blogging about last year at this time? How have things changed? 

It's pretty interesting that this prompt came up, because last October I turned 30 and I wrote a post declaring my hopes and goals.

6. I'd really like to get my craft business up and running. I have a lot of things that almost feel pipe dreamy to me. I did, however, open an Etsy store. Now i just have to sell somethin

7. As much as I thought I'd never do it, I'd like to get involved with a direct sales company. I have a couple in mind, now I have to get past my own anxiety and take the plunge.

8. I'd really like it if my husband and I could get started on some home renovation by my 31st year!

9. I'd love to downsize my junk. I have a whole basement full of stuff that needs sorted. It's just difficult because I have the attention span of a turnip and a 2 year old.

10. I want to take a family vacation! Just the 3 of us. My husband and I have gone away together (Hershey, PA) and my Mom and the Baby and I have gone (Louisville, KY) but my husband, Baby and I have never gone away by ourselves.

16. I want to be pregnant or have another baby. I'm not getting any younger and I don't want to wait so long now that I miss out on things later. I used to always get angry with my mom for waiting til she was 34 to have me, because she wasn't "fun" like she was when she had my brother at 19. She pointed out that she was more financially stable, so I got to do more than my brother. The grass is greener, I suppose.

17. I want to learn how to make metal stamped jewelery

18. I want to take some kind of class. I feel like my brain is turning to goo, because I don't exercise it.

19. I want to put my daughter in some kind of activity- either daycare once a week, or dance or gymnastics or something so she can play with kids her own age.

20. I want to make a new friend. It's really hard to make friends the older you get and I'm usually so burned out that I don't want to interact with people, but then I'm lonely. Quite the conundrum, if you ask me. (Friendship will be classified by social interaction outside of facebook. Also, being able to reach the person in a way besides facebook.)

I still haven't made or sold any craft items, nor have I learned to make any metal stamped jewelry, but I did get metal stamps for Christmas. My house is still cluttered. I think I need to just accept that I will never be one of those organized people! We didn't do a lot of activities or vacationing this summer, because we were waiting for this little bundle!

My second baby girl was born in the beginning of August, so I guess I accomplished the most important thing on my list! I also put the older one into a Mommy and Me dance class and I have been building a good relationship with the fiance of one of my husband's co-workers. Overall, I think I did pretty well for my 30th year. For my 31st year, I'd still like to take a class and work on my craft business. I'm also planning to become a Thirty-One Indenpendent Consultant, so that should help me make some new friends as well! 

What do you want to accomplish this year? 

Bad Moms have cluttered houses, apparently

I was raised by my mom. Any time anyone would compliment my dad on me, he would say "[Her mom] raised her, I just paid for it" and that's totally true. I only remember a handful of times where I went with my dad when I was young, but when I needed money for something, he was the one to ask. When my mom worked, I stayed with her mom, who lived next door. On Sundays, we all went together to my dad's mom's house. The only time I ever spent the night at my mom's mom's was when someone was in the hospital in Pittsburgh and that was only until I was a teenager- then I stayed home alone and my aunt would come check on me.

My mom is a good mom, but I'm not saying that she did everything right. She's the person who was notorious for saying, "You'd be so pretty, if you would just lose some weight," a statement that became so detrimental to my self-esteem. She also didn't enforce a lot of expectations. She'd yell about my room being a mess or leaving messes around the house, but there were never any set chores or consequences. She also didn't do a lot of cooking and we rarely ate family meals together.

My husband was raised a bit differently. His dad was a SAHD, while his mom worked. My husband also spent a lot of weekends at his Pap-Paps house. He regularly stayed their until we moved in together in our 20s. However, even though my in-laws house is uber organized, they didn't instill that value in my husband, so it really irks me when he criticizes me and my housekeeping. I've seen my husband clean up. He never left cans or bottles sit around when he lived at home, so I know that he knows how to do it, but he is constantly leaving a pyramid of cans in the livingroom or on the kitchen table, so you can see how the following exchange sent me over the edge...

The house is a disaster zone right now. I'm hugely pregnant. HUGELY. Remember, at term, my daughter was 10lbs, 9oz, so I'm not carrying a tiny baby in my womb. She's probably hanging around the 6.5-7lb mark right now and still growing. This makes it hard to bend over or stand for long periods of time- all things that are essential to housekeeping. He likes to point out that the house was a mess before I was pregnant, but, in my defense, it's hard to do by yourself. Both my husband and I get stressed out because the house is a mess and we just can't seem to get it under control. Unfortunately, feeling stressed and overwhelmed can lead to arguments. So, just recently, while feeling stressed, my husband yelled at me, "You have values! You're going to ruin our kids! You're a bad mom!" DEFLATE.

"You're a bad mom." "You're a bad mom." "You are a bad mom..." How do you come back from that? "You're a bad mom."

I'm not. I'm a good GREAT mom. My daughter is smart and sassy. She knows how much she is loved. We play and laugh and act silly. I'm a great mom. I may not be the best girl scout leader or the best wife or the best daughter or sister or friend or employee or house keeper or driver or planner, BUT I am a great mom and the best one for my girls.

I do want to find some order in my house, not for my husband, but for my kids. And myself. There is a great blog that I really like called Delightful Order. DaNita has a great entry on "Where and How to Begin Organizing Your Life". I think it's time that I find some order in our house. I've thought about where to start and I think the best place will be my daughter's room. 1.) Because her clothing is an issue- it's all over the house and I can't get around the toys to her dresser to put them away and 2.) Little Sister will be moving in there as soon as she is sleeping through the night. My husband has decided to do an all night clean, so I will stay up as late as I can with him and then he'll have to finish. Aly will have a sleepover with my mom. I'll let you know how it goes!

Anyone have any organizational tips? 

Writer's Workshop- Summer, Summer, Summertime

The Prompts:
1.) The first day of Summer was June 21st…how did you spend it?
2.) The last movie you saw in a theater.
3.) A blog post inspired by the words: setting sun
4.) Create a summer play list and share it.
5.) Talk about a club from your childhood you belonged to (or wanted to belong to).


I actually forgot that Saturday was the first day of summer until later in the week. Our 5th wedding anniversary was Friday, so we went out to eat. My husband got a double Falcon burger, which was 2 5 oz burgers with cheese and a fried egg between 2 grilled cheese sandwiches.

 He's not a fan of facebook, but he was so excited about this burger that he told me to take a picture to post!

 and took Aly to the train station when we heard the train whistle blowing, because she is crazy about the train. Apparently, my husband walked away with scratches. The first train scared her, but she lost her mind when the Amtrak rolled in.

The next day was June 21 and I forgot it was summer! I had a breastfeeding class at the hospital that morning and left feeling more empowered and hopeful for a better time with this baby than with Aly. After I picked Aly up at my mom's, we went home and napped. Later we went to my mother-in-law's house for her birthday, but she forgot to make herself a birthday cake, so no cake.

Next year, I hope I can remember to take a pause to celebrate summer! Maybe some park time, watermelon... mmmmmmm..... I can't believe that it is almost July! It feels like it was just winter!!!

Milestones

Life is full of milestones: first steps, first words, first day of preschool, preschool graduation, first date, first kiss, first day of high school, getting your licenses, high school graduation, going to college, graduating from college, turning 18, turning 21, turning 30, getting married, getting pregnant, having your first baby, having your other babies etc. The list goes on and on.

I wanted 3 kids. I thought about how full my kids' lives would be if they were a trio. I told my mom that it would be nice because if one turned out to be a jerk, they'd still have the other one. She laughed, figuring that I was referring to my older brother.

I also didn't want this to be my last pregnancy with all its milestones: last time "trying" (which doesn't take a lot of time for us), last first positive pregnancy test, last second, third, fourth... ahem... tenth positive pregnancy test, last surprise announcement, last first ultrasound, last time finding out the gender, last time someone will kick inside my belly, last time that a hospital stay will ever be like a vacation, last time counting someone's age in days... you get the idea.

I'm so frustrated with this pregnancy and the care I've gotten. The one doctor has been very rude. They won't let me VBAC. They're sending me to Magee Hospital for ultrasounds rather than doing them in the office for a bunch of bullshit reasons. One of them being that since I had to do an anatomy scan there (because the baby wouldn't roll over so the tech could get her spine), so the doctor told me that since I had a growth ultrasound at Magee, then I have to get all my growth u/s at Magee because they have a different growth scale. Sounds ridiculous to me.  Magee is at least an hour away, more depending on traffic. I have a job, yo.

I failed my one hour glucose test and have to go for the 3 hour now. My blood pressure was high. I'm pretty sure I'm depressed after this. I'm not bonding well with this baby now and I'm just a hot mess. I'm not sure how I'm going to do it. I'm filled with dread about another c-section. I don't feel anything positive in any of this. "Here I am, once again, I'm torn into pieces."

I think it's time to consider a tubal ligation.

Writer's Workshop- Vacationing

The Prompts:
1.) A quote from someone that has stuck with you.
2.) List 13 things you love about vacation.
3.) Public speaking.
4.) Something you got away with.
5.) If your family were dogs, what breed would each of them be?


I miss vacations. We took a day trip to Hershey a few weekends ago, but we haven't had a real vacation in I don't know how long. This year, my husband's pap-pap offered to take us to the beach but he wants to go in early September and I'm having a c-section the beginning of August, so that won't be a feasible trip. Here's 13 things I love about vacation:

1.) I love history, so I'm all about the museums and such. We visited me nephew in Indiana a few years ago and went to the Louisville Slugger museum and that was awesome.

2.) I'm not at work.

3.) I can go back to work and feel more patient with our clients.

4.) My daughter gets excited about trips now. She's been telling me she wants to go to the zoo for a week.

5.) While my husband hates it, I love to stay in hotels.

6.) Speaking on hotels, I love getting great deals on the travel websites like hotels.com

7.) I like going somewhere warm, so SUNSHINE!

8.) we collect postcards, so I get to add new ones to my stash

9.) I get to sleep in!

10.) Someone else does the cooking.

11.) Sightseeing

12.) Sightseeing!

13.) Spending time with my family :-)

What your favorite place you've vacationed?

Writer's Workshop- That problem with my wedding dress

1.) List your top 6 biggest fears, choose one and tell us why.
2.) Whose fault was it?
3.) Share a favorite recipe.
4.) Something you’re reading.
5.) Write about a wardrobe malfunction.

Nearly 5 years ago, I took a boy and decided to shape him into a man married him. FIVE years next month. Holy cow. It really seems like yesterday.

My wedding went pretty well. I wouldn't say "it went off without a hitch," because we had some moments. One of them being a Bride's Wardrobe Malfunction.

For starters, I have to say that I LOVED my wedding dress. I'd picked a similar one when I planned my dream wedding in college. You know, before I was even dating my husband.... oh, what I could have done with Pinterest then....

It was by Alfred Angelo and I loved it. My only beef was that the girls at the Alfred Angelo's store ordered it a size too small, so I have to pay to have it let out. (They also tried to order my bridesmaid's dress in a 24 when she needed an 18. So, apparently, you've got to watch them.) I was really excited about the eggplant trim and the embroidery on the front. It also had a beautiful corset style back in eggplant.

My wedding theme was a Disney Fairy Tale, so I was really excited when I found a Mickey and Minnie garter set on Ebay. The problem was, that it was too small for my leg, so my BFF's mom took the bride's garter and the toss garter and opened them up and sewed them both together again, so that it wold fit my leg.

(You can't bend over in a corset dress, FYI)

So, we were in the middle of our Unity Sand thingy-ba-do and I felt my garter start to slide down my leg! No fear, I had a floor length dress on, so I'd just casually kick it off.... 

It would have probably worked too, if my bridesmaids wouldn't have busted out laughing, which make me explode in laughter. So, I did the only thing I could think of when I was staring out at a church full of confused faces...

I loudly announced: 

"I'm losing my clothes!"

I walked away from that day with the best wedding advice I can give to a bride-to-be: Things will go wrong on your wedding day, but just kick 'em off, laugh loudly and have the best day of your life!

Writer's Workshop- A Day in Chocolate Town!

I've been slacking again on my blog (sorry, growing a human is time-consuming!)

 

But, I did manage to take a recent trip (just this weekend!) But I'm limited on pictures, since I forgot the camera.

 

1.) Let’s reminisce about the last trip you took…pictures please!

2.) Ask a parent to describe what you were like as a small child (under the age of 7), do you still have the same tendencies?

3.) Begin with “I wish someone told me…”

4.) Write a poem about a fight you or someone you love has struggled to win.

5.) List 10 things you love about your favorite show.

 

We went to Hershey, PA on Sunday. My husband shoots competitively and he wanted to go to a match outside of the Chocolate Capital of the World. Because of our pets, it takes massive coordination to go on an overnight trip, so we opted to just make the 7 hour round trip in one day. With a 2 year old. Easy peasy, right? Well, surprisingly, it kinda was!

 

We left home at 430am. Hopped on the PA turnpike and cruised along, all alone on the road. Because, who else is on the turnpike that early on a Sunday morning? The kidlet slept most of the way.

 

We made it 2.5 hours into our trip before I needed to pee, which I thought was very impressive!

 

We stopped in Hershey at Wal-mart to use an actual flush toilet, because the sportsman club only has portapotties and who wants to do that when you don't have to?

 

The kidlet and I dropped her dad off and headed back towards Hershey. We stopped at McD's, ate breakfast and headed to ZooAmerica! ZooAmerica is a small wildlife center that has animals from North America. Since we have a membership to the Pittsburgh Zoo, we got a 50% deal on our visit there, getting us in for a mere $6.04! We were on limited time, so we didn't linger for long periods at the animals, since we had to pick up kidlet's dad at noon. But, we made it through in about an hour and had time to stop and see all the critters and even had time to feed the ducks!

 

The biggest drawback was that their parking lot was under construction, so we had to park at the top of the hill on Chocolate Ave and then walk down to the zoo. The walk down wasn't bad, but the walk back up nearly killed this pregnant mama! Well, maybe not kill, but I was huffin' and a puffin'.

 

If you're planning a trip to Hershey, I would recommend a visit to this zoo. I wouldn't necessarily plan a trip JUST for this zoo, but it is a nice change of pace from lions, tigers and elephants that you see at traditional zoos. This zoo also put you much closer to the animals than we've experienced at Pittsburgh Zoo. One of my favorite parts was being able to see the river otters cuddled up together in their log! They also have a "Desert at Night" exhibit where all the enclosures are darkened so you get to see the nocturnal animals awake! They had ringtails, ferrets, a fox and a coati (as well as some other cuddlies and creepy crawlies!) who were running around and VERY active. I figure they turn on all the lights at night, so the critters sleep.

 

 

As soon as I lifted her up to look through the glass, she exclaimed, "Alligators!"

 

 

Bald Eagles always impress me in person. They are HUGE!

 

 

"Wake up!" The deer didn't care.

 

 

 

After we picked up Dad we went to Chocolate World and bought some factory fresh Kisses (I got coconut crème Kisses. Amazing!) There really is nothing like candy straight from the factory. I'm not a Twizzler's fan, but they are delicious from the factory. We took the factory tour ride, got our chocolate sample and started our trip back home.

 

 

I think old Chocolate Face enjoyed her trip to Hershey!