Organization of brain matter..

Okay, so typing in the words "brain matter" grosses me out. :/

Anywho, Natalie's party is a week from today, and I'm just checking in to get my thoughts organized. Losing an hour of sleep hasn't really helped me, and tomorrow I have to be at work at 7am, which is really 6am, and I'm just not mentally prepared for functioning that early even though I woke up at 4 am yesterday and was able to keep going until 11pm. You following me?

So, I found some pretty cute balloons for Natalie's party and plenty of tablescape inspiration on pinterest. (ah, I love pinterest. it's such a vicious cycle with me. I could go for hours with no food or water if I have a laptop with pinterest pulled up infront of me...)

The tricker is I don't want to drop the cash on a helium tank because I'm pretty sure I only have 12 balloons, not thirty... and you can have balloon overload. So I am going to be that obnoxious girl calling Party City as soon as they open to inquire about balloon blow up rates for balloons purchased outside their store. I hope to goodness gracious they don't have a weird policy. I'd be extremely grateful if they charged me like $5 to blow up 12 balloons because...yeah, that would be kind of them.

I'm probably going to throw things together extremely last minute, but I do like to have some semblance of a plan. I'm excited. Can you tell?

Brandon has given me $100 for the rest of this party, and I gotta make it last. Like I said in one of my previous posts, the invites alone were $30! :/ Never again. Generic invites next year. (probably not--next year is Handy Manny!! Do your kids watch that show? Pencil up my ear material, but the good thing is Natalie will probably be bilingual..)

So, with that being said..
balloons + balloon inflating charge
food
letters for highchair banner $2.99 at Joann's
scrapbook paper

I think I have everything else already taken care of.

I *think* I can make it work. Ya'll ain't never known a cheapskate like this one. I am a Dollar Tree addict.

In other news, I'm going to attempt to make one of these beauties today. I need a wreath form. My front door is nekkid.

Mine will be grey with bright flowers. I know it will not be this pretty. I'm not even going to pretend that something like this can come from my hands... I will probaby realize why these girls on etsy are charging $40 for something like this. I would love this for Natalie's door to her room... sigh. I just can't find felt in these colors and don't want to stand in line to have 1/8 yard of felt wool cut at the fabric store...

And in other other news, I have a date with a pile of yard debris that's cluttering up our backyard. We live in the city and can't acquire a burn permit, so I have to shovel all of it into my dad's truck bed and haul it to my parent's house to burn. I'm not looking forward to it, but I am so excited to have my yard back and looking good so the neighbors can stop talking and pointing. :) Just kidding. I have really nice neighbors.

New facebook site!

If you are in the market for some cute, gently used baby clothes, please visit my consignment site on facebook- http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100003610958884.

(Natalie's Closet 2x because I'm a loser and don't know how to set up a facebook page when not using a real first and last name..)

I am probably the last mom on the planet to start one of these fun online consignment stores, but I work full time and don't have much access to the computer. After some careful deliberation, I have decided it's in our best interest to get rid of some of Natalie's clothes to make room for more, duh. ;)

Kids grow so quickly-- why pay retail?!

Seriously, I salivate when I hear the words "clearance", "yard sale" or "consignment". It's like music to my cheapwad ears.

Okay, it's 11pm, and I have officially been ignoring my husband for, oh, three hours... so bye bye!

Hi!

So... I'm still working on Natalie's Minnie birthday party, slowly, but surely. I had hopes of it being a big ordeal, but then I got tired and just have run out of time to plan it. I don't want to be the overwhelmed hostess, so I think it's going to be a relatively simple affair.
The above are beauties off of etsy, and they were probably the most expensive part of the party. They were $12 to design, $5 to print out at Walgreens,$10 for stamps, and $3 for envelopes. I had to buy some clearance party invites from Target to find the right size envelopes. $30 for invites wasn't exactly what I was planning to drop, so I'm having to scrimp in other areas. So... basically I just paid the money to get people there so I can serve them crackers! I kid, I kid. Really, it's mostly family and only a couple of friends here and there, so it really was unnecessary, but you only turn one once, and it's mostly for the parents. :) And just so you know, there's more of the invitation than that, but I didn't want all of the crazies out there crashing our party so we've cut the address off.

We're going to have cupcakes, and my mom's making a fondant smash cake for Natalie. I'm making a banner from a cute tutorial I found on pinterest, and I have some other things up my sleeve that will take place the night before the party. I work best under pressure. I have also taken three days off before the party to plan, but we all know that means I'll be sitting around in my pjs playing with Natalie. ;)

OH... and another somewhat unrelated update, I have found the beautiful wonder that is Smocked Auctions. It's a facebook page based out of Texas where smocked dresses are sold for half off retail. There's only a select number of clothes in each size, so you have to pretty much act like a rabid dog to bid and win. I think I won a dress tonight for Natalie, and I'm kind of having buyer's remorse because I don't have $40 to spend on a dress she'll wear once. If you want to see a real life soap opera, tune into Smocked Auctions Tuesday and Thursday evenings at 8:30 CST. Grown women whining about not winning clothes for their babies, drama, drama, drama! You just have to roll with the punches, ladies, and wish for the best! I may or may not have won, but, trust me, I'm in more trouble for winning than for losing! :)

And that's all. Baby's asleep, and I'm about to go cuddle with my kindle!!

Minnie Mouse Birthday Party: In Progress

I'm going to be updating every so often with my progress on Natalie's first birthday party! I'm working on finishing up Natalie's birthday banner this weekend, in between working in my yard and attempting to clean out some of our garage. It just never stops, does it? :)

Please stay tuned!!

Mama Laughlin: my internet role model

I have a role model out there in blogland. I read her blog on a weekly basis and get excited when she has a new post because I'm always sure to laugh. Her name is Brandi, and she is a funny, BEAUTIFUL mom of two precious little boys. She's also someone who has struggled with weight issues in the past and conquered the scale. She lost a ton of weight after her first pregnancy and then got pregnant again, so she's working down to her goal weight now. And she looks KILLER. Like, " I hate her for being so pretty". :) But you can't hate her because she's real and funny and is doing the hard work to beat the scale. If I had a tiny bit of her motivation, I'd be doing good! She's so hardcore. One of her more recent posts is about how she fits in her fitness goals with being a working wife and mommy. It makes me tired just reading it!!

Anyhow, I know not many people check my blog out since I am just pretty awful at updating, but I think you should check out her blog for some major inspiration, funny stories, and some pretty incredible before and after pictures. ;)

Long time, no blog! It's seriously been a while. Again. All I can do is assure you just how busy we've been! Brandon's work schedule has gotten busier, and he's still doing night classes and plugging away at his degree. That translates to us being ships passing in the night... and I'm, well... I'm working and being a mommy to Natalie and attempting to maintain our home.

I cannot believe that Natalie's almost a year old. When I close my eyes, I can still envision being big and pregnant. This time last year I was in extreme "nesting mode". I would daydream at work about holding her and smelling her little newborn head. ;) I would mentally rehearse what steps I would take if I went into labor on any given day. I was researching how to naturally induce my own labor, and, each night, I was taking a bubble bath and hoping THAT would trigger labor while I was reading "What to Expect When You're Expecting". I would pull out the cell phone and time my contractions, only to realize they were the pesky Braxton hicks kind and not the real deal.

I remember struggling through the pack and play assembly and being convinced that something had died under our kitchen sink. Hormones! The smell went away as soon as I was back from the hospital. :)

I remember the last night I was at work before maternity leave. I stuck around long enough to change, say my goodbyes for three months, and then I went to see a movie with my then barely pregnant friend, Kelley. Her baby's now almost six months old! Time flies! We watched The King's Speech, and she ate a TON of food because she was still in that very fun stage of pregnancy that dictates that you will absolutely be doing a disservice to your child unless you devour everything in sight.

And, wow, I know it was a while ago, but it's like yesterday to me. I remember the day at the hospital, the feeling I had in the pit of my stomach as I was admitted and shown to our labor and delivery room. It was the best day of my life, and I will never forget it. I got to meet my sweet girl. I was so terrified to hold her that first time, so in awe of her and unsure of myself. I was pretty sure I had never seen anything so beautiful, and I did not feel worthy of her.

But, thank goodness, the nerves have dispelled and my relationship with my daughter has turned into a comfortable ebb and flow. I am not a nervous mother (anymore) , and I am thankful for that. I have learned things over this past year, taken the advice of others, and have settled into my own reasonably normal routine. I worry for her, and I pray for her, but I surrender her care to my heavenly father. He knows the hairs on her head, and for all the bad things in this world, He is good.

I am so thankful for her health and happiness. I have truly never met a happier, more entertaining child. Aren't those the words of a mother? ;)

That being said, I LOVE LOVE LOVE her and cannot wait to celebrate her birthday on the 18th! We're having a fun Minnie Mouse party. I ordered my invitations tonight and am VERY slowly working on her birthday banner. ;) Cannot wait to have the house full of friends and family celebrating our girl. ;)

the post where I bemoan the effects of antidepressants

When a doctor tells you to not stop taking a pill cold turkey, believe the doctor. Let that be the preface to the nervous ranting that's about to take place. As the few of you who actually read my blog know, I've been taking Zoloft since Natalie was about four months old. Give or take, that's six months of a drug in my system. Let it be said that I am horrible when it comes to taking pills. The only exception was when I successfully remembered to take my prenatals throughout my pregnancy. I have more often than not remembered to take my Zoloft and have had great success on it. No weepiness, no extreme terror, no feelings of impending doom. I'm not really exaggerating; these were all real things I felt when I was being tossed through the emotions of postpartum depression. It is real. It is terrifying. Well, we want to get pregnant again. While my doctor has advised me it's safe to be on Zoloft while pregnant, I feel uneasy when I see all of the law firm commercials linking antidepressants and birth defects. I just don't feel right when I watch those. I want this out of my system. And... I had been trying to wean. Initially I was going every other day taking the pill, and then I got brave and decided to skip it two days in a row and then three. This is now day four. I'm up past midnight-- shaking. And what's worse? I can't, for the life of me, find my pills. I remember having them the other night and shaking them for Natalie like a rattle. I stayed at my mom's the other night because I worked a late shift. I'm thinking they're over there, but it doesn't help me right now. I have dug through my purse and diaper bag. I have gone through the medicine cabinet, knowing it's not there. I have paced and laughed out loud like a crazy person. I'm not liking this. Anyhow, there's got to be another way... I don't think I'll spiral into another deep depression because ,surely by now, my hormone's have settled, but I wasn't expecting the dizziness, confusion, and shaking! I have never truly felt withdrawal symptoms. And to make matters worse, we were watching the movie The Unknown with Liam Neeson where he loses his memory and is fighting to figure out who he is. It's nothing but confusion and flashbacks, and it's totally distorting my reality. Funny sidenote: Brandon fell asleep during the movie and bolted upright in bed and asked me why I knew him. Freaked me out. I asked him what he was talking about and he gave me a silly grin and went right back to sleep. Anyhow, I guess I'll get my refills tomorrow and hope for the best. This is weird. I thought I could do it on my own (foolishly), but there's a bit of a dependency here. Anyhow, thanks to anyone who read this messed up retelling of my side effects!