RP: A Wife of Noble Character

I'm not really sure of reposting etiquette (can you tell with the "RP" that I'm still in Twitterspeak?). Anyhow, Whatever is a great blog that I follow which features beautiful posts on family, crafts and decorating, cooking, friends...the full gamut of life.

Today there was another lovely post about Proverbs 31; I found it inspirational and uplifting and wanted to share. Go check it out HERE

Happy Birthday You Darling Girl!

I think Betty must be the cutest preggers girl ever. She's 6 months along...seriously. Last night we celebrated her birthday, but today is the big day. Hope you had a fantabulous one darling!

Baby M and Ben, his Polo twin.

Buckeye Belle somehow managed to sneak out of pictures this time, but she was sweet enough to capture M "flying" in the restaurant.

Can't believe another year has flown by... Baby Madi will be joining us for her Mom's next birthday!

A New Pair

Yep. I kept thinking that I'd get a nice black or neutral pair.

But no.

I got the ones that scream for attention. I blame it on the red soles.

Here are some more tame choices if you didn't want to look like a safari fashionista.

*EDIT* PS These are my, "Yay for my NEW JOB" shoes.... I've not been very good about keeping you up-to-date on my job situation, but Praise God for providing. June 22nd was my first day with my new/old company {I'm working for the company I 'cut my teeth on' during college}. And it's awesome how He answered prayers through this trial. WOOHOO!

It's a Holiday?

Happy Bastille Day!

It's mere coincidence that Pink Pimpette and I lunched at Chez Fonfon for Bastille Day. What's even funnier is that late last night when I couldn't sleep, I began singing songs and speaking in broken French to Baby M having decided that I'd like him to be bilingual and since I don't know Spanish and only a few select Italian words then French it is.

Today after a scrumptious Croque Madame & Croque Monsieur served with pommes frites, Mary with a l'eau (water) and me with a lovely Vouvray, we ended the magnificent meal with a chocolate pot de crème. We must have been très folle as we each ordered our own entree & dessert and could have split our entire meal in two...at least we have leftovers. Guess what I'm eating for dinner?

Another Baby on the Way

And no, it's not mine!

My little brother and Pink Pimpette are expecting!!! I'm so excited, I can't stand it!

Pink came in town yesterday afternoon and I just had to take her shopping to celebrate. We mosied on over to a new boutique baby store in Homewood called Swaddle to go see Marisa, Emily, and Ally (some of Baby Mason's admirers...and yes I must shop too much because we know them by name & they already know us and Swaddle has only been open for 1 week!). Baby S now has a first book, burp cloth and elephant blanket (ROLL TIDE!).

I'm so excited I'm going to be an Aunt! We charted and it sounds like she'll be due in either late February or early March, so Baby S and Mason will be about 1 year apart.

CONGRATULATIONS Y'ALL!

The Fourth

We had a wonderful Fourth of July weekend at the lake.



Pink Pimpette's dad invited a crowd to stay at his lake house for the Holiday and we had a blast.

The lake was phenomenal...I've been to at least 5 other state lakes I can think of and this one was the best by far. It's expansive but not overcrowded or overdeveloped, there's a lovely State Park and Resort, and a plethora of restaurants accessible by boat and by land. I'm convinced it'd be where I'd like for my lakehouse to be!

This is the lake on the Fourth...seriously it was wonderful waters.

Which made for great skiing...And although I wasn't able to stay up on the water skiis for more than a couple of seconds, here's Pink Pimpette's brother who was a pro (as well as her dad)

But in our large party crowd, guess who was the center of attention?

Baby M with his uncle

And then the uncle who fell asleep wearing Pink Pimpette's sun hat.

Friends on the house boat

Pink Pimpette and Baby M

And then Uncle J who was so proud to drive the other ski boat.

I think Baby M found a new buddy!

Sunday was rainy and we went to church and then to lunch at a place in "egypt" named The Squirrel's Nest. Try and find it. I dare you. It's impossible!

It's decorated with an eclectic mix of junk treasures.

And even had a welcome sign for the fam...

Overall, we had a wonderful Fourth and were very thankful for the blessing of freedom and living in the States!

Have You Heard The Word?

Welcome to ALICE...she's been the new gal on the block, moved-in about 2 weeks ago...and she's a great neighbor!

Alice offers convenient Online shopping services for household essentials (bath tissue, shampoo, trash bags, etc). So the mundane chore of Wal-Mart shopping has now become something you can do from the convenience of your home. All orders ship free- the only "catch" is you have to order at least 6 items. You save with automatically applied coupons, and reduced Internet taxes; my order had 8% tax. It's nice to comparison shop from your computer- it eliminates your waste of fuel ,(do your part for the Earth AND your wallet) and saves a great deal of time (just a few clicks).
The other helpful piece is that Alice comes with a Budgeting Tool and an Advanced Planning tab that helps remind you of when you might need to reorder your household items. You can also calculate your average monthly/yearly spend, see a room-by-room spend pie graph, and can keep track of coupons.

I'm certain that not all of the items are cheaper on this site, but since I was looking for baby items, I personally found the Luvs diapers were the same price as the pack at Sam's Club (of course 1% less if you factor in taxes), and the A+D ointment was cheaper than at Wal-Mart. I did find they actually charged a tax on postage stamps though...so unless you're doing it for convenience, you can save $0.70 per book by just going to the store or a USPS office.

Thought I'd pass along http://www.alice.com/ hope she helps some others out there too!

How To Lose Those Last 10 LBs

How To Lose Those Last 10 Lbs

Want to shed the last 10? It’s simple and easy. You should:

• Resolve that running once a week is enough exercise to cover the other 6 days.
• On the 1 day you run, determine that since the temperature has risen and you sweat more, that you don’t truly have to actually run the entire 3.1 miles since sweating burns more calories while you walk than if you were to run in the cold.
• Eat more now than when you were preggers. Your meals should consist of a balanced dose of sugar, fat, and carbs.
• Oh and don’t even worry that you’ve dehydrated your body with only 3 glasses of water a day because your attentions are so focused on watching your small infant child that you can’t take a break to get some H2O much less take a trip to the lavatory (TMI…sorry). Water only adds LBs any way right?
  
  I lied. I have a love-hate relationship with weight loss. I love losing weight, but I hate what it takes to get there. Oh and darn you Wal-Mart with your product bundling ads and even more tempting snack shelves. I don’t even really care much for marshmallows, but you strategically place those jet-puffed clouds next to the honey grahams and melty Hershey’s chocolate bars…it’s just way too tempting. And somehow I justify that I picked up the low-fat graham crackers so that makes everything okay…
  
  
  I’m not trying too hard. I’m secretly hoping that if I continue to nurse, that I won’t have to ever change my ridiculous eating/exercise habits and that way I’ll eventually be under my pre-preg weight…in 5 years that is. Think that’d mess my son up if I kept nursing him until grade school?