Well, we knew it was coming, but holy smokes was I surprised to see all that snow this morning! The first picture above was taken yesterday afternoon as it had just started to snow, and the second is the snow we woke up to this morning! And that's even after Cory shoveled the driveway and sidewalk around 5am this morning. Poor guy! Classes got canceled for me today so Alea and I have been spending most of our morning with lots of snuggles and I have no plans to change either of us out of our jammies today! We've gotten at least 10" so far today and are expecting another 5" so we're pretty well snowed in!
My birthday is fast approaching. It's exactly one week from today, actually! (March 7th for the lazy ones too lazy to whip out their calendar) And since I've gotten numerous requests for my birthday wish list (okay, not really), I thought I'd better get one up for you. You're going to have to email me for my address though, because I'm not crazy enough to post it on my blog. Just saying.
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Alea's obsessed with the Happy Tot "squeezies" and I'd really like to figure out a way to make them myself. It can't be too hard-- it's just pureed fruits and veggies!
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Because Tricia's jewelry is my absolute favorite.
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I just love the concept of these bracelets. Right up my superstitious alley!
We're currently bracing ourselves here in MN for a blizzard. We're supposed to get hit pretty hard tonight through tomorrow with up to 13" of snow! I even went to Tuesday's clinical class so I wouldn't have to brave the storm for class tomorrow morning. The flurries are beginning, but before I ramble on any longer, I know what you guys are here for!
The winner of the Shabby Apple giveaway is: Megan from Absolute Mommy!
A little psychic of her since she JUST tweeted me asking who won! Oh Rafflecopter-- you work miracles!
I can't even believe I've done this to you guys. Schools been keeping me so busy, I haven't even made time to tell you guys about my new baby. My iPhone! My old phone died and went to heaven on me a couple weeks ago (may she rest in peace) and my mom came to the rescue and bought me an iPhone as an early birthday present! Talk about amazing. I don't even know what I did pre-iPhone. This thing is amazing and my life is forever changed. Sound a little drastic? Well, maybe but you iPhone-ers know exactly what I'm talking about!
Along with my iPhone came the amazing photo-editing app, Instagram. Something pathetic? It was one of the main reasons I wanted an iPhone and it was the very first app I downloaded. Not even kidding. And I'm a little bit obsessed and probably post more pictures than I should, but I just can't help myself. P.S. I'm chellywelly1 if you want to follow along!
Here's some pretties I've taken thus far via instagram:
And are you participating in this:
Because I most definitely am! I can't wait!
Do you guys know Beth from Through the Eyes of the Mrs.? She's one of my sweet blog friends and I just adore her and her blog. I met her after I won a huge giveaway from her and sure I'm excited about all the fun goodies I won from her giveaway, but I'm just as excited at the friendship we've formed! She's a total sweetie!
Another thing you should know about Beth is that she's opening her very own handmade shop very, very soon! I had the honor of winning a custom bag from her through that giveaway I previously mentioned and couldn't be more happy with the outcome. I carry it everywhere with me and I've gotten so many compliments! What better way to advertise this little blog of mine than on an adorable, custom made bag, right? Keep a close eye out for the grand opening of her shop so you can get one too!
Check out this hilarious little interview with her & don't forget to check out the giveaway at the end!
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Q: Who is your biggest celebrity crush? A: Okay so for realz Ryan Gossling, I mean who doesn't wish they were his girl. Please come and sweep me off of my feet even for just an afternoon. "It wasn't over and it still isn't over"
Q: What's your guilty pleasure? A: Guilty pleasure hmmm,so do I have to feel guilty about it afterwards? Hmmm I feel guilty when I eat a box of girl scout cookies. Or when I leave my husband with all three kids for an afternoon of thrifting, Oh wait no I don't. Let's just stick with the cookies.
Q: What song/artist are you embarrassed to admit you listen to? A: Okay so I totally blame this one on Elises Pieces because I really had not a care in the world to listen to Justin Bieber but I'm kind of hooked. Just kind of... Not even close to the fever ya'll talk about... but embarrassed yes.
Q: What is your greatest fear? A: I'm terrified of something terrible happening. We have been robbed once and I always fear something terrible happening. I worry about my children and teach them stranger danger all of the time. My heart just wouldn't survive without them. It's an awful fear that most of us mothers have. I pray for their health and safety every night.
Q: If you were stranded on a desert island and could bring only 3 things (because of course you'd know ahead of time that you were about to be stranded on a desert island and would have time to prepare) what would you bring? A: So on a dessert island yes well let's see I would want my laptop of course so I could communicate with others and hopefully be rescued. I would want food because I get terribly grouchy without food and my purple pillow. Yes I said purple pillow, ha ha. I've had it since my first pregnancy and can't sleep without it. I'm a huge baby when it comes to that stupid pillow.
Isn't her family just perfect. This picture seriously melts my little heart.
And do you want to know what makes Beth even sweeter? She's offering one of you a medium ad space on her blog!
I love you guys! I've received the sweetest comments this week and met so many new and wonderful women. I just wanted you to know that I appreciate that you're here and I truly appreciate your love and support. Even though things are busy with school your sweet comments encourage me to keep truckin and find time to blog! For example right now! I'm blogging via my phone quick before class starts! You guys are awesome! Don't ever change!
After a rough day at school the only thing I wanted to do when I got home was grab a cup of tea and relax on the couch with my little one. Bentley (our chocolate lab) however had other plans for mommy. And it was along the lines of poop. All over his kennel. Pleasant, right? I had left Alea in the car to get my stuff inside the house and instead of going back to get her I went and told her that mommy had to clean up Bentley's poopy. And she responded by saying, "Mama change Bentley diaper!" If only it were that easy girlfriend...
For those of you who don't know, a washcloth doused in perfume secured to your head with a headband works wonders for cleaning up poop.
Cory's in grey, I'm in blue.
Oh men... you gotta spell it all out for them.
Here's to hoping your day isn't full of... you know what.
Sometimes I'm hard on Cory. There, I said it. But really, who isn't hard on their significant other every once in a while. We don't recognize all the little things they do and get mad at them when they don't read our minds and do everything we want them to do. It's a never-ending cycle and I doubt it will stop with this post, but it can at least be acknowledged. It's the only way we'll see any improvement! Being in nursing school right now is definitely putting a strain on our family. There's no doubt about it. I feel like since I was a stay at home mom before I started school, I need to continue to keep a perfectly clean house, all the laundry needs to be done and put neatly away, dinner should always be made and should never consist of a lazy trip to a fast food restaurant and the sink should never be full of dishes.
What in the world was I thinking. Seriously, our household was rarely that perfect before I started school, why would it be any different now? I received a sweet message from a friend of mine after I asked her how she made it through nursing school while also having to take care of a family and her response really opened my eyes. I need to be selfish. I need to ask for help and I need to buck up and realize that this isn't going to be an easy road. "Nothing worthwhile is easy" -- or however that saying goes -- right?
That being said, Cory's been awesome this past weekend. I may have had a spazz attack and been stressed to the max, but he helped me big time. He gave me hours of study time and even VACUUMED AND STEAM MOPPED. I know right. Awesome!
And if that wasn't enough he left a little surprise for miss Alea before he left for work today. We got a couple inches of snow last night and after shoveling off his side of the driveway to get out, he made Alea a snowman! Alea's been obsessed with her Frosty the Snowman book lately and we read it every.single.night before bed. Not only was she bouncing off the walls shocked and excited, my heart was warmed. And I was humbled by his sweet actions.
I know this snowman was for Alea, but this silly looking thing completely and totally made my day.
I'm sure all, if not most of you, have heard of the company Shabby Apple. They're kind of a big deal in the blog world, wouldn't you say? If you haven't heard of Shabby Apple (www.shabbyapple.com), they're a clothing and accessories company specializing in women's dresses. And let me just tell you, their dresses are swoon worthy. I find myself drooling over these dresses on a very frequent basis. I mean, come on, my birthday's right around the corner... so if you need any ideas... ;)
The one thing I love most about Shabby Apple is that their dresses are fun and flirty, but you don't have to worry about being too revealing. They don't bare a lot of cleavage and they're not so short that you'd constantly be afraid something was going to pop out every time you bend over to pick up your kid. Not only are their dresses modest and classy, part of the proceeds for the dresses go to a good cause. There's nothing like buying fashionable a fashionable dress and having some of your money go to help women in children in need!
Today, Shabby Apple would like to give one of my lucky readers this gorgeous dress:
Warning: This post may start a little down, but I promise it'll cheer up at the end!
I got pregnant with Alea the summer before my sophomore year in college. It was a hard time (goodness, that's a whole other post in and of itself), but I had an amazing boyfriend to support me and friends that stood strong right by my side. Unfortunately, all but one of those friends didn't last too long. As my pregnancy progressed it seemed I lost more and more friends. Honestly, I don't think it was because my pregnancy hormones were ranging, it was because my life was moving in a different direction as theirs was. I was no longer able to go to parties with them. All I wanted to do was sleep and relax. I always suggested a movie night, but really what sophomore in college is going to skip the big party Friday night to hang out with their pregnant friend. Amiright?
It truly opened my eyes because, really, that was the time I needed them the most. Without all the added craziness of college, I threw myself into my school work and almost pulled off straight A's. I'm still a little bitter at my Psych teacher for that B ;) But I worked my tail off not only in school, but also on myself. Things were really changing for me and quality became drastically more important than quantity.
Towards the end of my pregnancy I reconnected with Bobbi, one of my friends from high school and through her I reconnected with another friend, Alyssa. Let me just say, I'm eternally grateful for these girls. They love my daughter as if she were their own. They check up on me and make sure I'm not going completely insane with school and motherhood. They stick by me... and for that I am so thankful.
But the thing is, I miss these girls. A lot. Alyssa just recently moved to San Diego and Bobbi's stationed in Louisiana. That's a little far for my taste, I'd say. It's so hard when the two friends that understand and love you the most are thousands of miles away.
I guess what I'm just trying to say is, I miss you girls. Lets save up our pennies and meet somewhere in the middle?
If you have something fun & friendly to link up, then you better link-up with Lena and I!
Holy smokes... Today at 1pm I'm testing out for catheterization. I'm pretty confident that I'll do ok but I'm still nervous. I get one chance... Pass or fail. So think happy thoughts for me around 1pm? Please?
Also, look for a giveaway from me later! You'll love it. I just know it!
Happy Valentines Day Loves! I hope your day is full of love, hugs, chocolate, stuffed teddies and flowers! This day of the year makes me all mushy-gushy and lovey dovey. I just love it. I was going to pack Cory sandwiches in the shape of hearts for his lunch today-- but he likes too much meat on his sandwich to make that even a little bit possible. But I packed his lunch, so that counts for something, right? Today Alea and I will be baking snickerdoodle cookies in the morning and making daddy a Valentines day card, going to a Valentines party at her daycare (after a quick stop at the post office), and then going home to have a heart shaped pizza from Papa Murphy's and exchanging presents with daddy!
Just a couple days ago we decided to make some heart shaped crayons! If you have little ones or heck, if you like to color with crayons yourself, you should definitely make these. I can't even believe how easy and fun they were. We got the mold for $2.50 in the dollar section at Target and just used all the broken crayons in Alea's crayon box. I did buy her another box of crayons, too because I had a feeling that most if not all of her crayons were going to be broken! It's called "mommy intuition."
Heart-Shaped Crayons
::Preheat oven to 230
::Spray mold w/cooking oil
::Break up crayons into pieces & put in mold
::Put in the oven for approx. 30min or until fully melted.
All melted!
All done!
Alea loves her new crayons now and always asks to use her "heart" crayons.
Guess I didn't need to buy that new pack of Crayolas after all!
So I've been really interested in doing a weekly Music Monday feature that highlights up and coming artists and their amazing music. I get this silly little high from knowing that I'm helping to introduce others to music that they probably wouldn't hear on their local radio station & helping the artist themselves get a few more dedicated listeners as well. With that being said, if you know of anyone or if you yourself would like to be featured on Music Monday, please don't hesitate to email me! There's absolutely zero cost to this, promise! I would love more than ever to hear from you!
Today, for Music Monday, I'm kind of breaking the rules a little. Because I can. My blog, my rules, right? Don't judge! There are just too many songs that I'm completely head over heals for, especially those by Jenn Bostic, and truthfully I couldn't settle on just one. I'm a self-admitted horrible decision maker. Just ask Cory. When I'm asked to make a decision on fast food or dinner that night... it takes me quite a while. :)
But! I thought this awesome video would be perfect for this week-- the week of Valentines day! Everyone loves a good feel-good video right? If you haven't seen this yet... then I'm SO thankful I decided to post it, because it's amazing. And for those of you very close friends reading this-- you better work on your dance moves because this would be more than awesome for my wedding. You gotta couple years or ten though at the rate we're going over here ;)
When scrolling through my Google reader there's a few blogs that I know I always click on.
Some of the others may get saved for later, but I know that I have to stop by these three :)
Karly is straight up hilarious. I can't even think of a better way to describe her. She shares some of the craziest, funniest stories in her Sunday Confessions and I never leave her blog without tears of laughter! She's also a total sweetheart and I'm so happy that we've formed a friendship. She's also one of my feature sponsors on the left hand column over there! Whoop! You need to check her out. Promise you won't regret it.
It's no secret-- Tricia's one of the sweetest bloggers I've ever met. She's always there when I need to talk and we have wonderful email/twitter relationship. Her blog is full of cuteness from her daughter, N, her experiences with detoxes and weight loss and she's just truly an inspiration! You need to check her out!
You know how I'm sort of into meal-planning now? Well seriously, besides using Relish! I also use April's blog. Not even kidding. This girl has some amazing recipes on her blog. Her blogs also a daily-read for me because she has the most fun DIY projects. Seriously, get your Pinterest button ready if you're going to visit her blog! It's too fun!
If you have something fun & friendly to link up, then you better link-up with Lena and I!
