Happy New Year!!

It's NYE!!  I'm actually excited for our plans tonight.  We're meeting friends for dinner at our favorite Mexican restaurant and then headed back to our friends home for games, drinks, and (I'm sure) a dance party or two.  My sweet parents took Aaron Mo for the night so we can indulge in some much-needed adult time.  I honestly can't remember the last NYE that we got dressed up and went out (that's sad, right?).  Cheers!

So, let's just go ahead and get it out of the way: Kimye's having a beybey.  Celebitchy predicted this last week.  I don't think it's that shocking.  I guess she felt that her clock's ticking and her divorce is dragging, so she might as well get knocked up.  Please God, let this child look like her.  Or Mason.  Or Penelope.  Check out this link for the hilarious twitter reactions to baby Kimye.

What are your resolutions this year?  I have a few.

• To wear a bikini next summer.  I really, really need for this to happen.  For great beach pictures, of course.  MyFitnessPal app is downloading on my phone as I type...
• To let go.  Of everything.  To stop worrying about everything.  To pray and trust that God's in control.  To grow closer in my relationship with Him.  To be a better person.  A better mother.  A better wife.  A better friend.  Just be better.
• To read more. 
• To blog more.
• And finally, to stop cutting my hair off. We don't work well together.

Some things I'm looking forward to in 2013???

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The return of this guy (well more like True Blood) in June.   I'm sweating right now.

The return of this show next month.  Eeekkk!  Love them.


And of course, I can't talk about 2013 without talking about this...

Aghhhhh!  JHutch!!  Finnick!!!  Too much excitement for me to handle!!!

Is it bad that all of my excitement involves televisions shows and/or movies?  Oh well.


Anyway, from our home to yours...........

Happy New Year!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

As a side note, Aaron got a helmet to use while riding on his "Show-Wheeler" AKA Four Wheeler, and he refuses to take it off. 

~LL

What is Santa bringing YOU??

I cannot believe Christmas is only 5 days away.  Heck, Christmas Eve is only 4 days away and it's almost as big of a deal as Christmas day is!  I was just talking to my sister-in-law on the phone about who's bringing what to our family gathering Monday, and we both agree that it doesn't really feel like Christmas.  With all of the turmoil and devastation of last week, it's been a very difficult week for many.  Hopefully, I'll get into more of the "Christmas spirit" over the next few days.  In the meantime, I'm excited about giving (and of course, receiving).  Of course, the real reason for Christmas is the celebration of the birth of Jesus, and I've been reading the Christmas story to Aaron this week so he can somewhat understand.  However, he sees Christmas presents and his eyes light up with excitement.  I can't help but be excited for him.  I'm excited, too.  I mean, what time of the year (besides your birthday) can you tell people what you want?  Sooo....without further ado, here's my ultimate wish list.  Hope I've been good this year!

The Naked 2 palette.  Dying.  Obsessed.  All those pretty colors.....all the different combinations......all the different looks....agh!  Love.it.  Ashley over at Kindredly had this on her "wants" list a few weeks back and I followed suit.  It's just too fabulous not to!  Luckily I was able to send this palette via my +Sephora app to my mother-in-law.  Fingers crossed!

 Mix No. 6 Orion Wedge Boot.  I was online shopping at DSW for Riding Boots and found these instead.  I can't resist a heel....or in this case a wedge.  The color is "cognac" so I can wear it with both brown and black....hopefully!

An ifinity scarf.  I wear a scarf as much as possible.  In fact, most every day.  Since my daily attire usually involves jeans, jeggings, or leggings, tunics or tees, and boots/flats I need something to make me feel better about myself when my biggest outing of the day is a trip to the McDonalds playground.  A'la: a scarf!  And since I basically have worn out the whole loop the scarf through the hole, tie it in a knot look, I needed something different.  That's where the infinity scarf comes in!  All you do is put it around your neck, make a figure 8, and, VOILA- a chic, new way to wear the scarf begins!  The one above is from Target.

The Clarisonic Mia 2.  I don't know what it is, but ever since I've turned 30, my body has gone into pre-puberty wack-out mode.  My hair is greasier than ever, as well as my face.  I've had more zits on my mug in the past 4 months than I've had in the past 4 years!  I've done everything: brought the mildest face wash on the market (Cetaphil) and alternated that with an apricot scrub every other day; that didn't work.  Bought the expensive Mary Kay Timewise cleanser; that didn't work.  I'm over it.  After doing my research I decided this might be the answer to all my face woes.  And yes, I've made sure Santa (AKA Adam) is giving me this as I've already ordered it for myself.  Here's to hoping and wishing it all works as planned!

Now you tell me, what's on your wish list??

~LL

What the future holds

While Aaron was at preschool today, I ran up to New York & Company because they were having a sale and I had a coupon (last minute Christmas shopping).  As I was waiting in line to pay, I noticed there was a picture of a young boy, maybe 5 years old, printed and hanging behind the checkout counter.  The caption below the picture said "Our hearts are with YOU, Slade."  Once I reached the counter, I asked the saleswoman about the boy.  She informed me that he was the nephew of their manager and had a childhood cancer that they found out about the day after Thanksgiving.  He is now at St. Jude.  I finished making my purchase, told her I'd be praying for this child, and walked out the door.

After running my errands and picking Aaron up from preschool, I got home and I was in the worst mood.  It didn't matter that today is a beautiful day, or my hubby's home until January, or even the fact that I had swung by Bath and Body Works after my NY&C trip to pick up a gift for Aaron's preschool teachers and it was a hit.....I was upset.  After fixing Aaron's lunch I went in the computer room where Adam has set up shop to work from home and lost it.

I just don't understand.  I don't understand why 20 beautiful, innocent children are gone because of a very, very sick person.  I don't understand why it seems that every day whether on Facebook, Twitter, or the news outlets, someone is reporting of a child that is fighting cancer, a brain tumor, or etc.  I don't understand why a precious little boy named Tripp Halstead was involved in a freak accident that has left him fighting for his life in a hospital.  He's two.  Why?  Why do these things happen to these babies?  I don't understand.

You see, I'm scared to death.  I'm always scared that one of these scenarios are going to affect our family one day.  I'm scared that Aaron's going to be taken from us in an unexpected way.  I'm sure I'm not the only mom that feels this way.  It's hard not to ask yourself "what if" when all of these occurrences are reported by the media on a daily basis.  I pray.  I pray so hard every day.  I pray that God let's Aaron hold his great-grandchildren one day.  I pray that Aaron lives a long, healthy life.  I pray that Aaron falls in love and gets married.  And I of course pray that he becomes a Doctor, the President, a Scientist- someone that helps change the world in a miraculous way.  I pray for Aaron as soon as I open my eyes, and I pray again as soon as I close them.  I pray all day long.  I'm scared.  This world terrifies me.  As much as we want another child, I'm scared for that, too.  Of course, we all worry about our children, but I feel like I've taken worrying to a whole other level, especially since we lost our Luke in such an unexpected way this time last year.

So I broke down today.  I never let myself break down; I usually push my feelings to the side and carry on.  But today there was no holding back.  I needed to vent, and I needed my husband. 
Although he made no promises or predictions for our future, what he said did make me feel better.  Basically, there are no promises for our future.  Worrying is wasteful energy.  We can worry ourselves to death and nothing horrible happens.  OR, we can worry ourselves to death, something does indeed happen, and you feel that much worse.  We are not in control....obviously.  All we can do is our best, pray, and trust that God knows what He's doing.  That was it.  My sweet, wonderful husband.  Thank God for him.  Who knew that such simple thinking can make all of these enormous worries float away?  I know God knew what he was doing when he put this man in my life.  And I'm thankful for that every day.  

I know people have always questioned God, especially in light of the horrific event that took place last Friday.  I'm not going to lie, I've questioned God myself.  But believing in God is not about believing that no bad things are going to happen; it's about having faith.  Without God I wouldn't have my husband or my beautiful child.  I wouldn't have my amazing family, or fabulous friends.  I wouldn't have a roof over my head, food to eat, a car to drive.  Heck, without God I wouldn't have my Sophie May!  So every day I'm going to focus on the fact that God is in control.  I don't know what tomorrow holds, so I'm going to try my best to live in the moment.  And I'm going to thank God every day for my blessings.

"Don't worry about anything; instead, pray about everything.  Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done.  Then you will experience God's peace, which exceeds anything we can understand.  His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus."  Philippians 4: 6-7


~LL

Let's just call it what is is...

In Anne Hathaway's case, a bad decision. 

The divine, now Mrs. Hathway (or is she Mrs. Shulman, now?), appeared on the Today show this morning to promote her new film, Les Miserables.  Of course, Matt Lauer got down to the nitty-gritty as soon as the interview began and questioned her about her wardrobe malfunction (AKA not wearing underwear) to her premiere.  You can see that video here. 

If you don't feel like watching the whole video, this is what Anne said regarding the incident:

"Well, it was obviously an unfortunate incident ... It kind of made me sad on two accounts. One was that I was very sad that we live in an age when someone takes a picture of another person in a vulnerable moment, and rather than delete it and do the decent thing, sells it. And I'm sorry that we live in a culture that commodifies sexuality of unwilling participants, which brings us back to Les Mis, because that's what the character [Fantine] is. She is someone who is forced to sell sex to benefit her child because she has nothing and there's no social safety net so yeah—let's get back to Les Mis." (via)

Let's just call it what it is, girlfriend: YOU SHOULD HAVE WORN UNDERWEAR!

You know, normally I support Anne Hathaway.  She's always been one of the "Good Girls" of Hollywood (except for that rumored hook-up with a very married Christian Bale while filming "The Dark Knight Rises"- naughty naughty!) .  She has one of the best mouths I've ever seen, and I think that she should totally rock the hair/bangs combo she sported in "The Devil Wears Prada" because she was ferosh.  However, acting like everyone else is to blame for pictures taken of her brit-brit out and about Tuesday night is just stupid.  Honey, what were you thinking?  Haven't you learned from Britney?  I don't care if you're wearing a thong, wear something!
 Just because she's considered one of the best actresses out there doesn't mean that she can downgrade her situation to our "culture commodifies sexuality" yada, yada,  yada.  It's no one's fault but her own.  If you're a celebrity, in her case a big celebrity, you know a pap is just around the corner with a camera in hand.  BE PREPARED.

Ohhh, Anne.  I hate to say it, but you just went down a few notches with me.  Why couldn't you just come out and say "Yep, probably wasn't my best move."  Why justify something as dumb as that?  Let's get real here.

Moral of this story: underwear is always, always your friend.


~LL

I am such a Scrooge on Monday's..

It's Monday.  Monday's suck.  And I haven't updated my blog in almost a week sooooo......here I go....

Did y'all have a good weekend?  Mine was nice.  Very low-key.  Aaron and I hung out in Griffin over the weekend spending time with my mom and dad.  I love visiting my parents on the weekends that Adam works because: 1) Aaron has lots more room to run around and play both inside and outside, and 2) I get a break from full-time mommy duty which is always nice.  Yesterday, I went and spent some time with one of my besties, Natalie, who is due to give birth anytime over the next few weeks.  Eeeekkk!  I'm so excited to meet her sweet baby boy!  It was heartwarming to see her and her sweet belly, and to know that in a very short time she's going to be holding that sweet bundle of love.  Very happy and excited for her and her hubby!

On a random note, whilst in Griffin this weekend my mom and I decided to do a little Christmas shopping in G-town (AKA hit up Marshalls).  After putting my whining toddler in a buggy (while he's wailing "I not wide in buggy, I wide in buggy car!!"  The "buggy car" he's referring to is indeed a buggy shaped like a car that he rides in when we shop at Publix.  This.is.my.life.) we proceeded to start shopping.  That's when I noticed a girl in high school....who used to terrorize me.  Literally.  She once chased me down the 400 hall at Griffin High.  I was wearing high-heeled loafers.  Don't hate, that was the style back back then.  She stalked me by phone, threatened me through messages delivered by her buddies, the works.  I'm not kidding, y'all.  I know some people reading this will know exactly who I'm talking about.  I was Lindsay Lohan in Mean Girls eating my lunch in the bathroom (except not really, I would just beg my teacher to let me eat my lunch in my 4th period class room) this girl harassed me so bad.  And you know why she hated me?  All because of a guy.  Now this guy, he was gorge back then.  And it was a full-on high school love affair for me.  Getting back to my story, I run into this girl while shopping.  And do you know, she wouldn't even look at me?!  Seriously.  Saw me walk in, put her face down, and wouldn't even make eye contact with me.  I gave her several chances- she wouldn't bite.  Now let me say, I don't hold grudges.  High school was a long, long time ago and I'm sure she doesn't even think about high school drama.  I don't either, until it's right in my face like it was this weekend.  I just wanted to smile at her.  That's all.  Let bygones be bygones.  She wouldn't make any sort of eye contact.  And she saw me.  Oh well.  I hope she's happy with her life.  And can I just say that it was so nice to run into this person who used to scare the s&*t out of me, and be able to look at her and think "I really don't care anymore."  I wish her the best.  I really do.

Anyway, a busy week awaits.  Another one of my besties is getting married Saturday and I'm so excited for her!!  It is truly a joyous, happy time for many of my friends. :)

I have some news.  Well actually, a new development in my life...................................

I GOT BANGS (again)!!


They're side bangs.  And, I loved them at first sight.  And I still do, surprisingly.  I'll try and post a pic of the infamous bangs.  Agh!  I heart them....again!  Our relationship is like JT and Jessica pre-wedding: they treat me bad but I can't stay away!  The saga continues.....

~LL

Rant

The past few days these Instagram photos of Rihanna and Chris Brown have been leaking all over the Internet:

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Uhhh.  I'm sorry, but they disgust me.  I know that's not a nice thing to say, but if you put it out there people are gonna talk.  Rihanna is the one of the biggest singers/celebrities around; for goodness sakes, she's supposed to be a role model.  And she instagrams/tweets pictures of this?  Her straddling the guy that beat her down 3 years ago.  He tweets a picture of her practically naked with a cigarette hanging out of his mouth.  It's gross.  They're gross.  Sorry, I'm not sorry.  (BTW, I want to give a shout out to Ashley over at Kindredly for letting me steal her awesome phrase.) 

What happened to self-respect?  Does she even know what kind of message she's sending out to young women?  "It's okay for a man to hit you.  It's okay to act like a slut."  I know this blog entry is harsh, but I'm so sick of it.  What happened to good role models?  I know there's something to be said for not caring what other people think, but have a little self-respect.  Posting classy pictures like this are doing you no favors:

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The thing is, I love her music.  And I'm sure she's probably a really great person.  She's probably just very confused.  I can't imagine living under the telescope she lives under.  It's a double-edged sword.  However, if I see one more picture of her and Chris Brown.....together.....looking like they just crawled out of the bed or are about to hop in the bed.....I'm going to puke.  For real.

Getting off my pedestal...

Walking Dead: I'm glad Sunday was the mid-season finale.  I'm getting bored.  I actually fell asleep 15 minutes before the show ended, and had to re-watch the last thirty minutes yesterday morning.  I will say I was worried that Michonne was going to get taken down by the Guv'nuh's zombie daughter.  Guess we all know how that ended....

Looking forward to seeing Daryl take care of bidness' next year.  Love him.

Sad to say, but those are my thoughts.  I'm kind've in a mood today if you can't already tell.  Luckily, tonight five of my girlfriends and I are going out for a Christmas dinner/gift exchange and we're heading to my fave- Carrabas.  Stoked.  Excited about some vino.  And pasta.

Laters, baby!

~LL

The rundown

It's Monday, y'all!  I'm still recovering from our busy weekend in the Big Apple.  We had such an amazing time.  It was so nice just being away from everything and everybody for a couple of days.  I am so proud to be married to such an amazing, wonderful man.  5 years!  Wow. 

We arrived in NYC around 4 pm Friday afternoon.  The crazy thing was, it was already dark by 4:30.  So what was really 5pm felt like 8pm.  I'm guessing it's because of all of the tall skyscrapers and such.  Anyway, it was breathtaking.  All of it.  I've been to New York twice before and stayed on Times Square both times, and still the sights/sounds/smells never cease to amaze me.  You truly feel like you're in a whole different world.  Anyway, with all of the traveling we were hungry, so needless to say, we found a local burger joint in a side street off of Times Square and had a drink while munching on buffalo wings.  Afterwards, we were ready to explore.  We ended up walking.  We did A LOT of walking.  I have finally figured out how Gisele, Miranda, Alessandra, and the other Victoria Secret baby mamas are able to shed the baby pounds in enough time to fit into a diamond-encrusted bra and panty set for the Christmas Fashion Show: they live in NYC and walk everywhere!  Geez.  If I lived there I'd be a freakin' size 4.  Well, maybe not, but I'd definitely be a size 6!  (wink!) 
Anyway, we walked over to Rockefeller Center and saw the huge Christmas tree.  Breathtaking.  Walked all the way to Radio City Music Hall.  Beautiful.  The Christmas decorations were massive.  We ended up stopping at an Irish Pub for dinner, and then headed back to our room to warm up, and take a break before our next outing.  It was only 7pm but felt like 10 pm!  After gearing up for a second outing with a cup of coffee, we were ready.  The plan was to hop on the subway to head further downtown to see the Empire State Building.  (As a side note, we didn't take cabs at all.  Well, I take that back, we took one cab ride from the airport to our hotel.  It was $60.  At that point, we decided we'd either walk everywhere, or take a page out of JLo's book and hop "On the 6."  Ha!)  This is where the planning should have been better.  You see, if you don't study a NYC Subway map before hopping on said subway you will be confused.  As hell.  Adam and I bought MetroCards, then hopped on a random train thinking it would take us to our destination and we ended up in freakin' Brooklyn.  Um, no thank you.  After an hour spent walking around the Subway station trying to get our bearings, we agreed to start over Saturday, and made the trek back to our hotel. 
The next morning we were ready to take on New York.  Once we had gotten back to the hotel the night before, we made a plan: wrote down everywhere we wanted to go, the train(s) we needed to take, and the paths we needed to walk.  We learned that once you get the hang of the subway system, it becomes A LOT easier.  Our fist stop: SoHo/Tribeca.  We headed to Bubby's for breakfast per my in-laws recommendation.  I'm so glad we did because it was delicious.  All organic.  All "free-range" this, and "fair-trade" that.  We split a breakfast plate of pancakes, eggs, and bacon and we both agreed that the pancakes were better than any IHOP combo we'd ever had.  After we left, we walked at least two miles, if not three, to (you guessed it) Dash- the Kardashian baby.  Upon hitting Spring Street (their boutique location) I immediately broke out into a sweat, and my heart started thumping like it was going to pop out of my chest.  "What if Kimye's in there?  What if Kourtney has those presh babes in there?  What am I going to do??!"  I was freaking out.  FYI, as celebrity-obsessed as I am, I'm not the psychotic fan that's going to attack you.  I'm the psychotic fan that cries and has a panic attack when I see you.  I honestly don't know which is worse. 
The doorman (who oddly looked just as excited as I was to be at a Kardashian shop- stalker.) opened the door for us and there we were, in Kardashian territory.  And I was unimpressed.  The clothes were beautiful; you definitely could tell which sister picked out which piece.  The prices were weird, though.  You would pick out a dress thinking it was going to be $700 and it'd be $300.  On the other hand, I found just a simple white tee with Dash embroidered on the front and it was sixty freakin' bucks.  What??!  Knowing that it was one wash cycle away from shrinking I put it down and walked out the door.  Again, I was not impressed.  Not impressed with their super smug employees and not impressed with their weird prices.  The one thing I regret is not getting a picture of the store.  I was so frazzled!  Moving on...
We left from there and made our way to the Financial District in Manhattan.   We were both wanting to see the World Trade Center Towers and how much was rebuilt.  It is still a very somber place.  So much has been rebuilt, yet so much still needs to be done.  I just kept on seeing the pictures in my head of these terrified people running down those same streets 11 years ago as I walked in the very same location.  We didn't have passes to the World Trade Memorial, but I was glad that I finally got to see the rebuilding of these massive buildings.  It truly was extraordinary. 
Since we had basically done everything we wanted to do in the SoHo/Tribeca area (which is so utterly cool by the way) we got back on the subway and headed uptown to Fifth Avenue.  We went from an area where the locals/celebs live and hang out that's not crowded at all to an area where we were once again shoulder to shoulder with every other person.  Major switch-up!  We walked past Harry Winston, the St Regis Hotel, the Trump Towers, Bergdorf Goodman, The Plaza.  Ahhh.....I felt like I was in a movie.  Absolutely amazing.  We stopped at FAO Schwarz and picked Aaron up a collector's box of Hot Wheels.  Talk about panic attack.  FAO is HUGE (2 stories large) and there were no less than a 700 people in the store- no kidding.  I totally felt like I was in the Hunger Games arena  Adam and I walked out breathless, sweating, and grateful we were still alive.  Where's the Xanax when you need it?
At that point we headed straight to Central Park.  Ahhh....paradise.  It was as beautiful and peaceful as it looks in the movies.  As soon as Adam and I got there I started crying.  I don't know if it was because we had just escaped the zoo at FAO, or because it was so amazingly gorgeous, or even because I felt so incredibly blessed, probably all three of those things to be honest, but in that moment I felt like the luckiest girl on the planet.  It was my favorite part of the trip by far.
Afterwards, Adam and I walked the 10 or so blocks back to our hotel and ended up eating a late 2 pm lunch before heading back to the hotel to rest and watch the SEC Championship game.  We were truly exhausted.  I'm not kidding when I say we walked at least 5 miles that day. 
That night, we went to see The Phantom of the Opera on Broadway.  It was my second time seeing it; Adam's first.  We were in the very top row of seats, nosebleeds, but the performance was still awesome.  And surprisingly, Adam loved it.  I wore my leather-coated leggings from Fab'rik and felt very New York chic.  I even got a compliment from a local....winning! ;)  All in all, a wonderful night with my hubby.

We had to be out of the hotel by 6 AM Sunday morning to make our 9 AM flight.  It was excruciating.  Then once we got back into town yesterday, we had a family photo shoot late afternoon.  Oh my goodness.  Between flying, dealing with a wine hangover, and trying to get two toddlers to cooperate on a two hour shoot- it was insane!  Needless to say, I'm still recovering today.

I'm so glad Adam and I were able to take this trip.  Our official anniversary isn't until next Saturday, and with Adam's work schedule we celebrated a little earlier.  I will never forget one second of our trip. 

Check out my Instagram or Facebook for pics.  If we're not friends, friend me!

I heart NY.

~LL