Boys Boys Everywhere

Boys, boys, everywhere

But not a one to date!

Saturday night we went to Surin West to celebrate an old friend B's birthday. Baby M was sweet during dinner {thank you!} and even towards the end when he got a little restless, all it took was for Uncle Sean to hold him and walk outside and Mason fell asleep in two shakes.

Unfortunately, all these guys (except for my little guy and my brother, the one holding M) bat for the other team if you know what I mean...

See, B's such a cutie. It even looks like I'm holding his hand under the table.

My brother tried to set us up...once...a very, very long time ago.

I know this is a duplicate photo, but doesn't the guy right under me look like Jude Law? All throughout dinner, I kept staring at him trying to figure out who he looked like. He probably thought I was nuts, but at least he was cordial.

Sheesh...why are all the hot ones...well you know....

To All Your Wishes

Jamie Michele's Birthday is today. And because it's your special day- cheers to all your wishes, to all your hopes, to all your dreams- may your blessings abound!

I dug this pic up from last year at Chez FonFon (since I know how much you love old photos). Happy Birthday!

And we did actually celebrate Thursday night, although I was remiss in taking an actual group photograph (sorry James!). I did snag one of Jamie's hubby and Baby M. Of course we all know Jamie's a baby pro, but apparently Ben is too. Mason was terribly fussy all during dinner, I found out later that it's due to his first cold...poor guy. But despite Mason's ickiness, Ben was able to calm him down AND get him to sleep. Sweet boys!

Hope your birthday is fantabulous Jamie Michele!

Wait on the Weight

It's been 6 months post partum...and I'm still holding on to 10 LBs. A year ago, my goal was to have off all the baby weight and be back in tip-top shape by the time Mason turned 6 months Muwahahaha yeah right!

Here I am 9 weeks preggers (not showing any belly or weight gain yet) July 2008:

Yes, I have a ways to go. This is today, 13 months later with still-fading stretch marks, a tummy that needs some more toning, and thighs that need major slimming. I promise I didn't distort the picture, my left leg was just in an odd position. This and I don't even want to talk about the elasticity of my tummy skin below my belt line. HELP!
I'm actually only running 1-1.5 miles a couple of times a week. I've added weight training to tone and some major ab exercises (hey at least it's twice a week and not just once!). I definitely won't be wearing a bikini anytime soon.

It's Been Awhile

I think I'm open to dating now....*gasp*

I realize that the benefits to me dating now--- in addition to the social aspect, the search for a potential mate aspect, and the self-esteem aspect--- is that Baby Mason won't be as affected now as he might be when he gets older.

So it's going to be a new adventure. Dating now as a single-mom. Ewwww, that previous statement doesn't quite sit well with me. I need to get over it.

Not that there are ANY prospects at all! But I guess I'm just going to make it official and put it in writing.

Girl's Night Out

Tay and I had a Girl's Night Out the Friday before last (yes I've been horrible lately with posting, albeit work travels have me away from home so blogging gets moved to the bottom of the list...*gasp*). It was my first time going out without Baby M (besides business travels) since his birth. Yep, 5.5 months and I definitely still whipped out my Crackberry to show him off all night (shamless new Mommy).

Our night commenced with dinner at Bottega...yummy! After our meal, we ventured over to Steel Urban Lounge, formerly the "U" aka 1st and 23rd. We met a couple of random strangers there but one group was particularly nice and we ended up all dancing at Nana Funks to close out the night.

Wanna guess what time this Mommy got home? THREE A.M.! Yeah, I felt like a Rockstar =)

Here's Tay & I. Notice the strategically placed "black bar"...apparently a breastfeeding mother should be more aware of the nursing schedule and her ill-fitting attire while going out on the town. What was originally a somewhat conservative, knee-length shirt dress ended up quite revealing in the torso-area sometime around 3am.

Recognize the shoes?

Just for the record, Baby M stayed at Nanny C's all night (this was a gift from her) and believe it or not Tay and I only had 1 drink all night-a margarita sipped over the course of 3 hours at Steel. Although I am happy to say that there were two different guys who offered to buy us both drinks...haven't had that happen in a while.

All in all, it was just nice to get out...even though I still missed Baby M!

Here's Tay, me, and our random friend (he was a gentleman to walk us to the car for safety AND he took the only decent pictures of the night).

This is what happens when we try to take the photos ourselves.

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?

Anyone Else Having Blogger Issues?

I've been trying to post both pictures and videos since Thursday of last week and I continue to get this message:

Runtime Error!

Program: C:\Program Files (x86)\Internet Explorer\iexplore.exe


This application has requested the Runtime to terminate it in an unusual way.
Please contact the application's support team for more information.

Arrrrgggghhhh!

How Lilly Translates to Baby Boy

Lilly- pink and green. I really don't dress Palm Beach-style often, but I'd wear Lilly Pulitzer every day if I could... I have some of the more "conservative" Lilly pieces like the Daria coat, navy pinstriped back-pleat skirt, gray pencil trousers, and a white-on-white printed tennis top and skirt (in-case I ever took up tennis seriously...hmmmm).

But then of course I love my brightly colorful Lilly and have a small collection with an alligator shift dress, cabana print tie dress, aqua print skirt, lime green button-down, a few polo-styled shirts, and a couple of Lilly tees.

Anyone want to get us this Mommy & Mason matching set from Lilly Pulitzer? It's only $346...any takers?

They do have adorable sets for moms and "minnies"...again, thankful Mason is a boy otherwise if I didn't go broke from being unemployed, I most certainly would from super-sweet outfits like these!