Footie Pajamas?!?

Whoever said "kids say the darnedest things" certainly wasn't exaggerating by any means, and my Greyson doesn't disappoint in this category. Just a few days ago we were sitting at the dinner table when Greyson said something that sounded like "aww footie!" Hubs and I kind of looked at each like what the heck was that, so I asked him to repeat. Again he says what sounds like "aww footie." At this point I look at him and go "Footie!? As in footie pajamas!?" Greyson doesn't respond to this. Instead he gives me a look like I am the crazy one. Then a few moments later it comes out again except this time he says "aww footie pajamas!" Now I can't stop laughing. Not only do I have no clue what he is trying to say, but now it is even more ridiculous that when we started. So for a couple of days he went around saying footie pajamas till the other morning when we were watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. I am only half paying attention as it is probably the tenth time I have seen the episode that was on. All of a sudden Greyson says it again, but now we are back to "aww footie." I pick up the remote and rewind the show a bit. When it plays I hear Donald Duck says "aww phooey" and again Greyson says it. That is when the light bulb went off in my head. He is copying Donald Duck, but he is just a tad off on the pronunciation. It takes a few tries, but eventually we get there and now he says "aww phooey" just like Donald does. However, sometimes I almost kind of wish I didn't teach him the correct way to pronounce certain things cause his version is much more comical :-)

A Mom's Best Friend

A shopaholic mom that is. Now that I have 2 extra people in the house to shop for, my clothes funds are stretched a lot thinner. Not to mention this is the first time in 10 years where I am no longer working hence I have no more employee discount to abuse. Therefore I have had to do some soul searching/web surfing to find a new way to feed my fashion bug. And what has been filling me up these days - OLD NAVY!

I know - Old Navy isn't exactly couture, but for a mom on a budget who wants a few trendy looking pieces in her closet they have definitely fit the bill. Now trust me, there have been plenty of things I have ordered that did not live up to there expectations. However there have been plenty of items I have gotten from there that could walk around by themselves at this point I have worn them so much. I am sure some of you remember the Barbie tee I ordered last fall. Then there is the chiffon butterfly top that I had to buy when the ground was still frozen out of fear it would be gone come spring. My most recent fave is the denim skirt I got. When you're a mom, anything that is cute and has pockets gets an A+! (FYI - the denim skirt is one item that turned out much cuter in person than the picture shows! Funny cause it is usually the other way around!)


My obsession has gotten so bad that I check the website almost daily to see what new things they have added. I have just a "handful" of things saved in my shopping bag waiting for them to send me a % off promo code. One of them being this orange dress. Orange isn't the new pink, but it is definitely a color I want to add to my wardrobe. Another is this chiffon razor back tank. I am just loving all these fun spring prints!


Right now if you shop in store they are giving $10 Old Navy cash for every $20 you spend. Works just like every other store - come back in April and use them to get $10 off a $20 purchase. I acquired a couple over the weekend and am counting the days till I can use them. Of course if I can't make it I can always earn a few more in the mean time :-P

To cut or not to cut?

That is ALWAYS the question! The life of my hair goes a little something like this: cut it short, grow it out, cut it short, grow it out....you get the picture. Every time I cut it short I wish it was long and every time I grow it out I decide I want it short again. So here we are again. I have grown my hair out past my shoulders and now I can't decide what to do. I really would like to try and grow it a lot longer, but then I see pics of it short and I think I want it short. Anyways, I figure it couldn't hurt to get the opinion of everyone out there. Below is a pic of the short hair cut I would go back to and a pic of what I looked like with short hair. Below that is the long hair cut I am working towards and what my hair looks like right now. I think I already know what I am going to do, but let me know what you think looks better, so I can see what everyone thinks. Thanks!

PS - Hubs I already know your opinion, so no comment is necessary :-P

The BUGS and the bees.

No Greyson isn't asking those kinds of questions yet. This is strictly about 2 of my least favorite things that come with the warmer weather. Warm sunshine I love. Having the windows open and hearing the birds sing I love. Going for walks I love. Even the pollen I can handle cause it is short-lived. But going outside and having all those pesky, itchy, buzzy little creatures swarming around you I do not! Especially when they get into the house! I am convinced that out house was built on an ancient bug burial ground or something cause every spring and summer they seem to take revenge on us inside and out. And bugs if you are reading this, if you aren't a lady bug or a butterfly then you can expect to get squished if you set foot in my house!

The ants are probably the worst. Not just any ants - those teeny tiny pin head sized ants that can get literally anywhere! And once one figures out how to get in, all 3 billion of them try to take up residency with us. I learned the hard way the other day that I can't leave my Easter candy out in my pretty Pottery Barn candy dishes anymore. Fun times.

The next worst is definitely the bees. And again not just any bees, but wasps! Their favorite place to make a home is our front porch and most frequently under our porch swing which is just swell considering I love sitting out there this time of year. I am pretty sure Greyson got stung by one last spring. I didn't see it happen but he did tell me a bee bit him about 15 minutes after the crying and screaming ended. Every year we spray and knock down their nests, but they still come back. I have read all the stuff online about painting your porch ceiling blue. Though it isn't fool proof I figure I might give it a try.

Third on the list is the spiders. Another inhabitant of our front porch. They are so bad that out house looks decked out for Halloween about 6 months before it needs to be. We have all breeds of spiders though. My personal "favorite" are the ones about the size of your fist that come out every night and build webs next to the porch lights. Or maybe it is the ones that build the invisible webs that you walk into and then spend hours trying to find all the little strands of web that are tickling you. Either way they are all right on top of my highly obnoxious list. It just so happens that as I was writing this I cam across a post on the Smiling Homemaker blog about using lemon scented Pledge to keep the spiders away. Definitely digging some Pledge out of my stock pile after I finish writing this!

Last, but certainly not least, are the mosquitoes. We are just lucky enough to have a small creek behind our neighbor's house. The town used to send somebody out to treat the water so that the mosquitoes weren't quite so bad, but due to the recent budget cuts I think that position no longer exists. At dusk you can't so much as walk from the house to the shed without getting bit by 6 or 7.

Now that I have officially scared anyone away from visiting our house in the warmer months I can tell you this. We are investigating exterminators as we speak. I am thinking our house hasn't been treated for anything in a long while and that is part of the problem. I know it won't get rid of the bugs 100%, but it has to at least help right!?

My Spring Obsession

Chambray! Now my love for this didn't exactly blossom just recently. If you remember I drooled over the chambray maxi dress from Anthropologie for months last year until FINALLY it went on sale. If you know me at all then you know I don't pay full price for anything. Working retail for 10 years will do that to you. Anyways,  many more retailers are feeding my obsession for this fabric this year as they have introduced more and more pieces that I am pining over.

My all time fave so far is the chambray shirt dress. I tried to snag the JCrew version when in went on sale, alas it sold out too quickly. Now I have moved on to Anthropologie's Fremont shirtdress which of course is not on sale yet. Let the waiting game begin... My newest must have is JCrew's Chambray Clambake shirt. Again I was disappointed as the expected ship date for this item is 6/18/2012. Seriously makes me wonder how they can have this up on their website already when it isn't available for 3 months!?!? The last piece that I feel necessary to add to my wardrobe is a chambray tunic. Again I favor JCrew's Chambray bayou tunic, and once again it isn't expected to ship till June. (Seriously JCrew what are you trying to do to me?!)

So in the meantime I watch, wait, and continue my search. If you have any fave pieces out there then please do share! I am in desperate need to feed my obsession while I wait on the above items!

"Beauty" and the "Beast"

Okay so Ben isn't exactly the beast nor is Courtney the most beautiful woman in all the land, but that is what popped into my head last night when watching them on the After the Final Rose episode. In other words I think they are actually perfect for each other.

For the past 2 months I have been the biggest anti-Courtney advocate. I have never disliked someone on a season of The Bachelor or Bachelorette as much as I have her. While I am still far from her biggest fan, my feelings about them as a couple have definitely changed quite a bit in the last couple of hours. Somewhere between watching the girls rip Courtney a new one on last week's reunion and when she and Ben were reunited tonight I all of a sudden saw it. They are both just two little weirdos. One of those couples that America is just never going to understand. Do I agree with the things she said and did on the show? Heck no! But I have to admit there was a small part of me that actually felt sorry for her when she teared up during her interview tonight. I know, pigs are flying! In all seriousness I wish them the best! I am all for any Bachelor couple withstanding the test of time - or paparazzi. Only time will tell.

EXTRA! EXTRA!

Read all about it! $1 Zhu Zhu pets and accessories at CVS!

No that is not a typo. Anything and everything Zhu Zhu pet is ringing up for $1 at CVS right now. I can't tell you if it is a glitch and will be fixed tomorrow or if they will be the same price a week from now. All I know is I bought a stack taller than Greyson this morning and they all rang up $1 a piece. Best part is I paid for them with Extra Bucks so I spent maybe $1 and some change out of pocket for all of it. Next best part is the boys have had a blast with it. We managed to find a police car, an airplane and quite a few tunnels and houses for them. I will warn you - what I saved in money I made up for in the time I spent putting it all together. About an hour and a half in total to get everything hooked together. Alas it is not my first toy I have had to put together and it won't be my last so other than the headache I had afterwards I survived. The fun they have with it always makes up for it in the end :-)

Daylight Savings Dilemma

You think daylight savings time is rough. That first morning waking up and trying to figure out what time it really is. Then trying to get all your clocks changed over so you can show up to work on time on Monday. Yeah it's tough. It just down right sucks sometimes. But you don't know what rough is till you go through that time change with little ones. When you have bed times and nap times to coordinate that loss or addition of an hour can send your day into turmoil. Luckily we have had 3 years practice at this point so we didn't fair too badly today. We put the boys to bed a tad earlier than normal last night. Like clock work Greyson was up with the sun and Rylan was awake shortly after. Since they both are down to one nap that all went pretty smoothly as well. Rylan actually slept longer than normal and both went to bed at normal time. Now I know a lot of the effects of the tine change aren't usually felt till the following day so we shall see how tomorrow goes.

For anyone out there facing difficulties with this or know you will in the not so distant future I read some advice that I thought was really helpful. It actually suggested starting to switch the time over gradually a few days beforehand. For example, Wednesday night put everyone to bed 15 minutes earlier. Then Thursday night make bed time 30 minutes earlier. Friday 45 minutes and Saturday an hour. Then by Sunday when the time changes everyone is right on schedule. Now obviously when you fall back in the fall you just want to reverse this and put them to bed later. We didn't follow this to a tee, but I think that the little bit that we tried did help. So anyways I just wanted to throw it out there for anyone else who might be interested. Good luck to all you parents out there and to those of you without kids, just you wait...

The call heard round the world...or lack thereof.

There are 2 things I NEVER blog or post about - politics and religion. I think it is obvious why. Well sports are pretty much third on that list. Subjects that are so controversial are just not worth blogging about in my opinion. But I am going to make an exception today in an effort to defend Wolfpack fans far and wide. Now obviously my opinion in no way represents all NC State fans. I am merely going to comment on yesterdays game.

To start off, yes I am most likely biased cause I am a Wolfpack fan born and bred. However, I have read many, MANY articles since the conclusion of yesterdays game and trust me when I say NC State fans did not write all of those articles. Secondly, of course I am mad. We lost! Any fan would be mad if their team lost. HOWEVER, I in no way shape or form would have wanted to win the way the UNC Tarheels did. Now they didn't make the calls - the refs did. But if I was a Tarheel I couldn't possibly be proud of that win. I will be the first person to admit that I don't like blaming the refs for us losing a game. There are plenty of things we could have done differently to where it wouldn't have come down to a call (or no call that is) made on a last second shot. Until yesterday though no one has ever stopped to think why we might blame the refs for losing a game. Well for lack of a better phrase the cat is now out of the bag. I think the whole nation has now witnessed the biased refereeing that is way to familiar in ACC land.

I read an article this morning written by a long time, die hard Tarheel fan. I know what you're thinking - unicorns do exist! Well as much as I hate to say it, he really said it best. "The Tar Heels always seem to get the calls and that’s just the way it is." It is the way it is and so far nothing has changed that. But his statement at the end of the article is what really made the light bulb go off in my head. "But, remember this, you’re going to have to play even harder than the Tar Heels if you are going to win, because life just isn’t fair sometimes. You know it, and the Tar Heel nation knows it too." That's it! Right there! No one is ever going to play them in a close game and win. They know it and now all of America knows it. Unless it's Duke of course who out of pure dumb luck beat them with a literally last second 3 point shot earlier this year. You're going to have to beat them by 30 points like Florida State did, and hopefully will again today.

What yesterday's game did prove however is this: NC State, a team that that UNC no longer considers a rival in basketball, is just as good a basketball team as they are. Not only did we lead most of the game, but we forced them to be bailed out by the refs in order to pull out a win. That alone will make any Wolfpack fan smile. I think yesterdays game was a turning point for our team though. Now none of this will make a Tarheel any less cocky when we meet up again next year, but it does further instill one thing that NC State fans have that UNC never will - WOLFPACK PRIDE!

All that said I will close by saying this - we will see you next year Tarheels! Oh and in football season of course (a sport that UNC fans don't recognize any more). Don't know what I am talking about!? Then I invite you to google 'UNC football scandal' or ' NC State defeats UNC in football' and you will learn about another thing that will make any NC State fan smile :-)

EGGstravaganza!

Sorry I couldn't help myself with the title. It just seemed like the obvious choice!

Last Sunday when the flu started to fade I got motivated to start getting out my Easter decor. It might surprise you, but Easter decorations are actually my favorite. Must have something to do with the cute little bunnies. Sadly, other than Thanksgiving, it is probably the holiday that I have the least amount of decor for. Well I decided that needed to change this year. And what better way to change that than to make some wonderful homemade decorations.

Some of you might recall the ghost tree Greyson and I made for Halloween last October. Well he still talks about that, so I figured our first bit of craftiness would have to be an egg tree. Since we were all still somewhat recovering from last week's flu epidemic we decided to start small and make a trip to Walmart for some plastic eggs to decorate a bush outside. We hit the jack pot at Walmart! Not only did they have plastic eggs in about any color, shape, size or character that you could want, but they even have the eggs with the small holes in the top. Why is this important? Well back in the day when you made an egg tree you had to glue the string to the top of the egg. Now thanks to this brilliant hole invention you can just loop the string through the holes and knot it. Much simpler and quicker when your audience is a 3 year old. So on Tuesday Greyson and I looped string through all of our eggs, carried them outside and hung them on the bush.

This was all very exciting, but rather quick ending, so on Wednesday we ventured a bit further out to look for some eggs for our indoor tree. I knew I wanted something that we could paint, so we went to Michaels to look for some small wooden eggs. We didn't find wooden eggs, but we did find paper mache eggs. Now I hadn't quite thought this all the way through beforehand. Originally I wanted Greyson and Rylan to be the ones to paint the eggs. Now I am glad Rylan slept through it all cause we made quite a mess. It hadn't occurred to me how difficult it would be to paint an object that rolls when you so much as breathe on it, so we were forced to hold the eggs with our hands. Needless to say by the time we finished Greyson's hands look like they could have been hung on the tree. Luckily it was just acrylic paint and washed off easily, but it was quite a task getting him into the bathroom without him touching anything! In the end our tree turned out just perfect! How do I know!? Cause once again Greyson can't stop talking about it :-)