Grateful

And blessed.  That's how I'm feeling today.  A complete turn-around from my mood this morning.  Y'all, I know I have a baby growing inside of me and everything, but geez- these mood swings are for the birds!  I woke up, on the wrong side of the bed (again) this morning, and just didn't want to deal.....with anything.  I got on FB, got annoyed, got off, and decided to go straight to the Bible app on my phone for a little spiritual guidance and reminder of what's important in life.  I prayed- for a better attitude, more patience with Aaron, more patience with Adam, more patience with friends and family, and most importantly for more patience with myself.  Then, I turned on Disney Junior for Aaron, and retreated back to bed, laptop in hand for a little catching up on one of my favorite blogs: life{in}grace.  I love this woman, like I love Ree Drummond (Pioneer Woman).  Both of these women are the epitome of what I want to become as I get older.  They're both southern, and amazing moms and wife's, and their love and patience for their families inspire me.  I want to be like that.  Edie, the author of life{in}grace, is my muse.  Her spirituality runs deep- she's an amazing Christian woman.  I love to read her posts on parenting, because as a mother of 5 (or maybe 6) children she knows- she's been around the block a time or two.  She loves makeup, in particular MAC makeup (like myself), and she loves food.  All qualities that I find important in an individual- lol! 

After refreshing myself with some good "bloggage", God sent me another reminder of how blessed I am in the form of my best friend, Natalie.  While texting back and forth, she asked me about Aaron's school schedule.  Then, offered to keep him a couple of afternoons next week so I could have some time to myself.  Offer is actually the wrong word- she stated I'll keep him, not because I have to, but because I want to.  Grateful.  That is what true friendship is.  She loves me, therefore, she loves my child(ren).  It means so incredibly much to me.  That is when I realize how immature and childish my behavior can be at times- I'm not being grateful for all that He has blessed me with.  Good friends- that's a blessing. 

I feel like I am constantly needing to work on being grateful when I'm feeling good, and being graceful when I'm feeling bad.  It's easy to be grateful when things are going great and "according to plan."  It's the being graceful that counts the most.  So today, I am grateful.  I want to focus on this, especially on my "off" days when I'm not feeling so grateful OR graceful. 

Keeping it real, y'all! ;)

Go Dawgs!

~LL

*Patiently* Waiting

I am exhausted today.  I tried to nap some while Aaron was napping, but I think I might have dozed for maybe 30 minutes.  Sleep is so essential right now, and I just can't get rested.  I'm sure it's part excitement/anxiety/discomfort from carrying this baby girl, etc.  Either way, things are getting down to the wire.  I can't believe I only have 4-5 weeks left.  Eeeekk!!!  I keep on looking at her chunky face from her 3D picture and falling more and more in love with her.  I wonder if she'll come out with tons of long, black hair like her big brother; heck, she might come out blonde, red, or even bald (although the ultrasound tech showed me her hair).  Bless it.  Her room is coming together, and I've decided I will only post a pic once everything is officially ready.  Adam painted my old dresser a pretty, matte pink and we are getting new hardware to replace the old, rusty knobs already on there.  I bid on a Pottery Barn Kids chandelier on Ebay and won (yes!) so we still need to get that installed.  We still have some wall pieces that have yet to be hung, I want a pretty rug for her floor, I want a skinny book shelf stand next to her closet, and we still need to get her car seat/base installed in the car.  I absolutely love her room.  It's so girly and pink, and as soon as you walk in it immediately feels like her.  We've been so lucky that basically everything we needed for her, we got at showers through gifts or gift cards.  The only thing left that we need is a swing.  I don't know why I never thought about a swing until now!  Adam and I are such last-minute people (which is totally not a good thing) so I'm sure we'll be collecting these items, and finishing all these "to-dos" up until it's go time.  I ordered some pretty pj's and a bathrobe to wear in the hospital so I'm more comfortable, and I can promise y'all that I will have my makeup bag, dry shampoo, and my curling iron on hand and ready.  Call me prissy, crazy, whatever, but I want to look halfway decent in those hospital pictures!  Priorities, people. ;)

Aaron (finally) starts back school next week.  Last night was his orientation, and today he met his two sweet teachers at Open House.  I hope he has a great year.  I can't believe my monkey is growing up so fast!  It's so sad how fast time flies by.  We popped over to his old teacher's classroom to say hello and she couldn't believe how big he is.  Last time he was in her class he was only 1; toddling into her class- just a baby.  Tear.  It makes me cry.  I would post a pic, but that would send me into a full-on melt-down. He's such a little man now, and I'm so proud of him.  My sweet, big boy. 

Enjoy your weekend, friends!  I'll try to update at some point.  Tomorrow starts UGA football, and my hubby is acting like it's Christmas Eve tonight.  Ha!  Can't believe it's already that time!

~LL

5 weeks to go!!

I started this blog entry this morning and I'm so glad I didn't finish/post it this morning.  I totally woke up on the wrong side of the bed today, and my mood could accurately have been described as heinous.  Pregnancy rage is real, y'all.  Luckily, my hormone levels evened out by lunch time, and after that I resumed normalcy- or, whatever I consider "normal" for myself right now.  I wouldn't be lying if I said that a slaw dog, fries, and sweet tea from Griffith's did the trick.  You do what you have to do, people!

We obviously have a lot to catch up on, amiright??  First things first.....Harper update!  I went in yesterday for my 35 week check-up, and so far everything is progressing nicely.  My weight gain is 30 pounds so far (I really don't know how on earth my weight gain isn't more like 45- guess the daily toddler-chasing, stair-climbing is burning off my crazy ChickfilA waffle fry obsession), my blood pressure looked good, and I haven't started to majorly swell.....yet.  Harper's heart rate was at 148, and I still get so excited when I hear that whoosh, whoosh over the Doppler.  Next week starts the weekly visits; I have mixed feelings about this.  Yes, it's great because I get to check on baby girl, hear that sweet heart, and once you hit that 36-week mark you are officially in countdown mode.  The one thing that I hate about these visits: pelvic exams.  Ugh.  At 31 years old, I am still the girl that pops a Xanax before a pap smear.  Can't stand it.  So yeah, the next few check-ups should be interesting.  I don't want to go all TMI here, but let's just say that after my delivery with Aaron the lady parts needed some significant healing, so the option for a delivery via c-section has always been available to me.  I am definitely not opposed to a c-section, and really prefer it as I do not want to go through what I went through with Aaron.  We'll see......

Sunday, my mother-in-law, my two sister-in-laws, and a friend hosted Harper's second (and final) "sprinkle."  It was wonderful, and just meant the world to me.  This shower wasn't as big as my first, but still so special, nonetheless.  I am lucky to be surrounded by such amazing friends and family.  Here's some pics:

Sweet friends

Brooke and I- due 6 weeks apart; both with girls!

Loot

My beautiful (and delicious) cake

Grub

Love the wreath!

And the diaper cake!

 Again, I am so appreciative of my family and friends that put forth the effort to throw me a shower, and just show up.  Everyone has so much going on in their lives, and it just meant so much to me the people that came.  So, if you're reading this- thank you!!!  I find it so rude and tasteless when you invite people to something, and they can't even simply send a text to regret not being able to show up.  There's just no excuse for that.  But, you live and you learn.  Point noted- moving on!

Finally, VMA's.  Thoughts??  We are now on Day 2 of the Miley aftermath.  My FB newsfeed has been flooded with opinions on the raunchfest that took place on stage Sunday night.  Wth???  I'm still confused.  And traumatized.  The tongue, the leotard, followed by next-to-nothing, the foam finger, the "twerking."  Absolutely ratchet.  Gosh, even Robin Thicke has gone down a few steps on the hottie ladder after he participated in that gross-out fest.   Y'all, I'm telling you, this girl is headed for Britney melt-down circa 2007.  It's so sad.  She needs help.  The only part of the show that was awesome and amazing was, you guessed it- JT.  Agh!!  Cannot.even.handle.him.  He brought sexy back.  As he so rightfully mentioned, "I still run this bitch."  If you haven't seen it, or you would like to watch it for the 57th time (like me) watch it here.


That's it, friends.  Gotta hit the sack!

~LL

It's baaacckkkk

In the words of Madea, my second favorite person in the world, "hallelujer!"  Folks, we are back in the the 21st century.....we officially have Internet again.  Whoop!  We have been without Internet for over 3 weeks now.  It's been awful.  I know I've ranted about this before, but AT&T can suck it.  Basically after being loyal customers for 2 years, they suddenly turned off our Internet....without any warning.  My husband, who is one of the most patient and kind people I've ever known, immediately called and was informed that they had no record of Internet installation at our new address; at this point Adam went off.  We were furious!  After reaming their behinds a new one, he canceled service.  At that point, I told him to contact DirecTV since our satellite service is with them, and they had previously tried to sell me on their TV/Internet bundle before.  We've been with DirecTV for 6 years now, and have never had any issues with them before.  So, Adam calls DirecTV to inquire about their "bundle" and lo and behold, they bundle with AT&T.  At this point, Adam's been on the phone with AT&T for over an hour, and both of us were over it.  We decide to precede with the "bundle" because we could get a discount on our DirecTV bill.  We set up installation for the following week and moved on.  Except the installation day came and went, and after Adam called AT&T (again) to get the status, they informed him (again) they had no record of a request being made to reestablish service.  ARE YOU KIDDING ME?????!!!!!!!!  At that point, Adam said eff' y'all- we're done.  We called Comcast, set up installation day (today) which was 2 1/2 weeks ago.  So that's it folks, we've been without Internet for almost a month and we're finally back in business again.  I know, #firstworldproblems.  I will say; however, depending on my iPhone's fickle 3G service has been awful- today is a blessing.  Yes, I am thankful for the small things!

In other news......

• After my True Blood rant the other day, I found out yesterday that ASkars (Eric) will be returning to TB next season.  "Thank you, Lort!" 
• According to my BabyCenter pregnancy app I am 34 weeks today.  Can I get a what what?!  That means *fingers crossed* that baby girl will be here in at least 6 weeks.  This makes me so happy.  This last trimester has been rough.  I am so thankful to God for blessing me with the ability to carry a child, and for blessing me with another healthy child, but I don't plan to be pregnant ever again.  Pregnancy the first go-round (if you're a person that enjoys being pregnant) is great; you eat what you want to, sleep when you want to, lay on the couch for 5 hours straight when you want to, etc.  Pregnancy with a 3 1/2 year old (or any other child for that matter) is a whole other story.  It's hard; mentally and physically exhausting.  Because no matter what, your child needs you.  Parenting blogs, websites, magazines, love to tell you to put "you first."  These people writing these articles, blogs, etc. obviously don't have children or they have 1 child.  Sorry honey, but it stopped being "about me" the day my son was born.....3 1/2 years ago! 
• My second (and final) baby "sprinkle" is this Sunday at my mother-in-law's house.  I'm excited!  It won't be as big as my first "sprinkle" but I'm still so happy to be able to share this special day with good friends and family.  Bring on the cake! ;)

Since I can't stop quoting Madea today (Harper Beth must love her, too!) I have to add this.  Enjoy!

~LL

Total Letdown

I'm ashamed to say that I haven't blogged about True Blood all summer. That's weird, especially since I am a confessed "Truebie." My only reasoning is the fact that I'm building a human, and well, when all of that is going on you don't think about much else. 

*Warning: This post is all about True Blood and if you haven't watched TB this season and are planning to, this post contains major spoilers.

So this season has pretty much been a major disappointment. The first episode showed a lot of promise: a lot of Eric staring at Sookie with big, sad "I love you" eyes; Eric telling Nora to stay away from Sookie, Sookie attempting to kill Bill to save Eric, etc. After that first ep it all went to..."Vamp Camp." For real?? This is what I've been anticipating since mid-September 2012?? (Disclaimer: the only characters I care about on this show are Sookie and Eric (preferably in scenes together), LaFayette, and Andy Bellefleur). And there wasn't nearly enough of these story lines! What was the point of "vamp camp?" When did Sarah Newlin become a full-fledged psycho? What was the point of Terry dying? Jason becoming a "vamp-whore" (his words)? Did anyone even watch the Sam and Alcide scenes because I totally fast-forwarded through those? In my opinion, there's never enough of Andy B. I literally LOL'd in his scenes. Adore him and love him as a dad. 

I just feel like the writers said eff' it as far as this season went. I don't know if they got pay decreases since Alan Ball left the show, or they just didn't care since there weren't nearly as many episodes as last year (am I right?). 

One thing's for sure: if our beloved Eric was completely toasted to death in last night's finale I am DONE. They betta' know! Honestly, I think Pam got to him in time and saved the day. Guess we'll find out next year...

ASkars 4 EVA. 

~LL

Playing catch-up!

Happy Friday, loves! Thank God. As much as I love this weather, I do have a slight case of cabin fever. I was hoping to take Aaron to see Planes yesterday, but since the kids are "technically" back in school, they only show matinees on the weekends. I say "technically" loosely, because my kid is not back in school....and I'm about to go cray. Aaron's preschool doesn't start back until September 3rd; two weeks from next Tuesday. In other words, SO late. Most schools have either started back by now, started back this week, or are starting next week. I don't know why his school is starting back so late. Okay, so I know I'm complaining; I should treasure every moment spent together, blah blah blah....over it. I blame this partially on preg hormones, and mostly on the fact that he's been out of school since mid-May and it's time to head back; for both of our sanities. There's only so many Lego towers we can build, books we can read, cars and trucks we can crash, bike rides we can take (in normal August heat), etc. before we are legitimately sick of each other. Sorry, I'm not sorry. I love my son more than life, but there's a reason preschool was invented. End of rant.

In other news I'm 33 weeks pregs, and have 7 more weeks to go. (Hoping our little princess makes her arrival in 6 weeks, although I want her to stay in her cocoon as long as she needs to.) I'm big as a house, battling heartburn all.day.every.day, and experiencing major mood swings (obviously). 

Last weekend was busy but fun! Natalie, Amy, and I hosted a baby shower/brunch at our house for our good friend, Jessica, who's expecting baby girl, Emory, in October. We're actually due the same day! It was so nice spending time together and catching up; nothing touches those moments. Here we are and please don't pay attention to me as I look hein- just focus on the other three beauties:

The next day was my first baby "sprinkle" for Harper Elizabeth. My good friends Natalie, Jessica, Katie, Ashley, and Kim hosted and it was so wonderful! Everything was exceptional: the decorations, the food, but most of all my hostesses and guests. When I think of that day the only word that comes to mind is "undeserving." I know that's weird to say, but I literally cried all afternoon Sunday (happy tears!) because of the outpouring of love shown to me and Harper. There are already so many people that love this baby girl and I feel so incredibly blessed. Here are some pics of the sweet day:

*I would caption the photos but I am blogging from my phone app as we still don't have Internet service. Should be back to normal next week- fingers crossed!

Anyway, as I said above, it's been hard to blog with not having proper Internet service, but I plan to resume my *mostly* daily posts once Internet service resumes. Grrrrr.....I plan on writing a scathing email to the corporate office of AT&T. Ridonk!!!!

Have a happy weekend, y'all!

~LL

Burnt-Out

Burnt-out (adj.): An over-worked, over-stressed person who is literally burning the candles at both ends. A term not to be confused with burnout (i.e. a person who smokes pot all day that attends "Panic" concerts AND is over the age of 22.) Don't get the two mixed up.

Burnt-out is the proper term used to describe my state of mind right now. (Sorry, Mom. I know you hate when I complain.) Yes, I know I have no reason to complain: I have a great husband, a sweet and healthy 3 year old, and a healthy baby girl on the way. I have great family and friends. I have a roof over my head, a car that works (and is paid for), food in my refrigerator, and water. Most importantly, I have God. Oh and there's another thing that I'm blessed to be able to do and that's to stay at home with my children. But why is it on days like this that I don't feel so blessed and lucky to be granted this privilege? There are so many moms out there that have to work full-time jobs away from home that would gladly sell their well-earned Dooney & Bourke bag(s) (among other things) for this chance. I need to just shut-up and be grateful, right? I agree and most of the time I do, but not today. Today, a day of endless potty training mishaps, Internet woes (have I mentioned how much I hate AT&T?!?), a broken ice maker, a mail lady that continues to ring my bell and/or knock on my door WHILE my child is napping AFTER I've posted a note on the door kindly asking for this NOT to happen, therefore waking my child early from his nap....the list goes on. And, have I also mentioned my husband works A LOT? Yeah, you could definitely say I'm burnt-out. Does mama need a vacay or an outside job? Or both? Please tell me I'm not the only one that feels this way. Except it's a double-edged sword; I could go back to work full-time thereby getting my hubby home more but losing the time with my kids; or, I stay home, trying not to go crazy. What is the answer? I've prayed, but maybe I need to pray harder. Too bad this prego doesn't even have a bottle of O'Doul's in the fridge to knock the edge off. Instead I'm looking at a big plastic container of Tums right now (heartburn- you can suck it). 

Can you say pity party??

Alright, I vented and I feel better. Sorry to be such a Negative Nancy (Nancy-girl-hahahah. Keepin' it real for GHS, y'all). 

Remembering that these days are fleeting, and *trying* to enjoy every moment, even the yucky ones.

Sorry about the rant, friends.  

~LL

Getting closer!

Hey friends!

It's been over a week since my last blog post- so sorry. We are without Internet for the second time since we moved into our new house (damn AT&T) and won't be getting it back until next Monday. I downloaded the Blogger app and that's how I'm reaching out to you, my lovely readers! It's a long story, one in which I don't understand at all, but I will say that it is completely AT&T's fault. Since I'm starting to feel myself getting angry about the situation all over again I'm moving on...

I had my 31 week appointment for Harper Beth today, and luckily everything looks great! I'm measuring right at 31 weeks, baby girl's head is down (knew that I was feeling some extra pressure over the past couple of weeks), heart rate sounded great, and my weight gain is at 26 lbs. Phew! No guilt tripping over French fries or donuts today! Tomorrow I'm going for her 3D ultrasound and I absolutely cannot wait to see her. Little punkin!!

We are still in the process of decorating the house and getting Harper's nursery ready. Slowly but surely, we're getting it done. My two girlfriends and I are hosting a baby shower for a good friend of ours at my house a week from Saturday, and I'm using that as a deadline to get as much done as possible. I'll post pics once our Internet is back working normally.

I got 2 1/2 inches chopped off my hair yesterday and I feel so much better. Here's a pic:

I look cray in this pic, but whatev. It doesn't seem like a lot, but all the long hair was dragging me down. I knew I didn't want to get it chopped again as (through lots of trial and error) short hair on me=disaster. I just needed something more updated. Voila! The "lob." We'll see how this relationship goes...

Until next time, loves. 

~LL