Busy, Busy Weekend

I love, love, love shopping consignment!

I am sure that you have heard me mention Sugar Babies before, it is a twice annual children's consignment sale in Smyrna. I have worked all week to get stuff ready to take to it. My goal was to make $50 and spend $50 at the sale.

I won't know for a few weeks what I made, but I spent $50.50 today! And I really wasn't paying that much attention to prices, so I was very happy that I stayed at my goal.

The Loot:

A rain jacket, shirt, pj's, skirt, 2 dishes, about 10 books, a jean dress (love!), 2 pairs of jeans, pink shoes, Minnie Mouse house slippers, and 2 puzzles. My two favorite things are on the far right. A toy vacuum and a MTSU cheerleading outfit.

I was disappointed that I missed out on some stuff that I wanted. I really wanted to find her a table and chairs for the bonus room, but since I was late, they were already gone. I also wanted to find a water table, but I didn't see any. I'll just have to order from Toys R Us now.

*************

The reason that I was late to the sale is that there was an Open House at the Community Christian Day School at the same time. We have been on the waiting list for this day care for an extremely long time.

They called me a few months ago and offered me a spot for October. Yep, like 6 months in advance.

But we got the chance to go tour it again today and see the classroom that she will be in.

I loved every minute of it. I loved the teachers. I loved the pet rabbit, Kevin. I loved the schedule, the values of the class, the options for her to do dance or tumbling once a week.

I am so excited for her to start in October. Yes, it is higher priced and not on the way for us at all. But I think it is one of the best that we have toured, we met the owner and his family.

I just really love that Abby will be in a large class - 3 teachers and 18 kids (!) and will start interacting with other kids more. The teacher also mentioned "helping" us with the potty training. Working out a plan so that both us and the teachers are on the same page.

Score!

I am just so giddy about her starting. So giddy....that I just used the word giddy!

***************

I went furniture shopping on Saturday. Found a few things that I liked and hoping to get that going soon. I probably won't do a large post about the house and every room in, but I will highlight some changes that we have made.

The landscaping is about to do me in though. I truly regret not taking before and after pics. I have pulled weeds for a total of probably 14 hours. And that is the front of the house!

And tonight I tackled a plant/flower that I am probably going to have nightmares about. I'll try and take some pictures of what I discovered after I started trimming.

******************

Exciting weekend coming up....Julie is staying with me! My first houseguest!

Welcome to the Neighborhood

We are so loving our new neighborhood. We have met the neighbors on both sides of us and they are so nice.

I was pulling weeds Saturday morning (or as Abby calls it, pulling leaves) and some walkers came by. "Welcome to the neighborhood" they called out. Love it.

We have a pretty small neighborhood, about 50-60 hours on 3 streets.

The BEST part is that our neighbors a few houses down brought this over today. The MOST delicious iced brownie ever. Yep, that is a pretty big hole in it already. I can't lie - I just took a fork to it and wasn't disappointed. Stu did the same. We were in heaven.

*******************

We are at a point with the house that I am not sure whether to take pictures or not. We are 99% unpacked (the garage is a hot mess) and have started making small improvements. But I am so busy just keeping this big ole house clean, by the time I can relax it is too late to take pictures.

So you will just have to deal with the small peeks!

This is Abby's closet. We installed the two bottom shelves this weekend. One shelf was just not enough!

While I worked on the closet, Abby worked on snapping buttons. Girl can totally keep herself busy. Note that she is sitting in her baby's stroller. I always say it - but she can always make me smile.

Did you notice the bed? Abby is a full-on non crib sleeper! She is such a big girl! She loves to jump in her bed and so far (cross your fingers) she waits for permission to get out of it. I wake up on the weekends to "Mommy, can I get out yet?"

Birthdays in the House!

My favorite hubby turned 32 this week. With all the going-ons of the house, we didn't really have time to celebrate.

But we did go to Bonefish Grill tonight. Just him and I on a date!

He had never been and absolutely loved it!

I don't eat seafood so I had the chicken, but he had scallops and sea bass. We are both miserably laying on the couch especially after sharing a giant brownie for dessert.

I love you Stu!

*********************

My dear sweet little Ali was 4 years old this week.

I can't tell you how great this dog is with Abby.

Just one example:

Without me knowing, Abby put Ali's leash on her. I heard Abby saying, "I am walking Ali", but I really didn't check on her.

Abby walked Ali around the house for about an hour. Ali was just patient with a "poor me" look on her face.

Ali, we love you!

Moving Day

I promise to take "real" pictures soon. We finally got everything moved from the apartment to the house, so just a few more days of getting everything together.

But here are a few pictures of moving day.

Abby discovering bubble wrap. It kept her entertained for about an hour. Cheapest present ever!

Notice that she has a tutu on. At one point during the move, one of Stu's friends (I called them the tattoo crew) got trapped by Abby and demanded that he help her with getting dressed. Luckily for her, he was a great guy and got her all dolled up for the move.


Here is a shot of the kitchen. I have a weird obsession with magnets and get them almost everywhere we travel. This is only about 1/4 of them.


Our gigantic bonus room. I am loving the built in bookshelves/desk.



I decided that I hate her changing table so it did not make it to her room. I plan on selling it soon. Next time, I will def. get a dresser to put the changing pad on. There is just not much use for this once she is potty trained (hopefully soon).

Abby in her room. She was giving her baby a bath while we were moving. I'm telling you, the girl can totally keep herself entertained!

(And more on the bed later. If you follow me on FB, you know the drama that went on with the bed).

This is the view from the kitchen sink. Abby has figured out that she can sit on the back of the couch and look at me cooking/doing dishes.



The other night, she was doing just this and suddenly disappeared. Then I heard a loud wail. I ran around to check on her and she was just sitting on the couch crying. I kept asking her what happened. She finally said, "I fell on my nose". She just cracks me up.

****************
Speaking of cracking me up, I found a new blog that is called Rants from Mommyhood. Quite snarky about motherhood. Loved today's post and my favorite line is "You do not want to come between me and my kids' bedtime. I will cut someone if they knock on my front door at 8:30pm."


So true. We had the trash people come by the other night and ring the doorbell at 8:30. Cue the crazy dog barking. I almost lost it. Luckily, she was too tired to cry out. Moving will do that to you.

What Momma's Reading

Here are a few books that I have read lately. Even though we have been busy moving (I swear, a few, or maybe 10) more boxes and I will share pictures.

I completely grew up on Sweet Valley High. I googled them to get the exact year they were published, and she was still making new ones in 2008!!

So I was anxious to read this book about where they are "now". I thought it was pretty interesting, but since I haven't read a SV book in many, many years alot of the players were hazy. But it was light, fun reading and I would recommend to anyone that also grew up reading this series.

This book was riveting. I am a huge Jodi Picoult fan (I have read everyone of her books) and this book was quite similar.

It is about a woman that is helping at her daughter's school when an explosion happens. She has to choose between saving her daughter or her daughter's enemy that is closer. She chooses "both" and kept me on my toes the entire book. Another highly recommended book and I look forward to reading more of her books.

I am an autobiography nut. I love reading celebs bios and hearing about behind the scenes things that you don't learn just by seeing their shows.

Dick Van Dyke was a very entertaining read. If you have never seen The Dick Van Dyke Show, you are missing out. It is old (black and white) but one of the best shows ever made on TV. I loved to learn how much of a family man he was. And who didn't love Burt on Mary Poppins??

Yet another bio. This was hilarious. Tina Fey is one of the funniest women in TV/movies. Her book was just as good. She is honest, candid, and makes fun of herself in a way that just makes you smile. Especially as a working mommy, she is just a great inspiration about what women can do.

Numero Uno favorite writer. I was so excited that she came out with a new book that I preordered it on the Nook weeks before it came out. And at $12.99 a pop, it better be worth it!

So far, it is awesome. I am on page 82 of 296 and hate to even take a break to write this post. It is a few stories wrapped in one. One girl is going to be a egg donor, one a surrogate and one an adopted family. I might be premature, but I am pretty sure they are all intertwined in a fantastic twist.

************

I will have to say that I love my Nook, the only thing that bothers me is not being able to flip back easily. I can sometimes be a sporadic reader and may need a quick reminder of where I am and what is going on. But for travel, there is nothing better than downloading a bunch of books and only having to take one small "book".

**************

So tell me....have you read any of these books? What did you think? Any suggestions for me?

Landon's Bday Party

Today we went to Landon's 3rd birthday party!

I can't believe he is already 3 years old! Abby is next! It was at Jumper's Playhouse in Smyrna. We arrived about an hour late, and Abby was in a foul mood, so there was no jumping.

And she demanded to sit alone.

But she was on that cupcake.


Of course, she had to have a red one.

For someone so dainty and clean, she jumped in that cupcake.

Even managed to get it up her nose. Girl has skillz.

So glad that we were able to go and celebrate Landon's Bday.

*****************
But the highlight of the event happened in the bathroom. I was changing Abby's diaper and she stood up, poked her little belly out and said, "Look at my belly, Mommy".

And then just grinned at herself in the mirror.

And made this face. I can't look at this picture without laughing.

*********************

We are officially in our new house. Once we are completely unpacked (pretty close!), I will do a complete post on it. Love it!

And.....it's just Day One!

As hopefully most people know, Stu and I are now homeowners! We are both over the moon about it and just too busy to even think straight.

I did throw my camera in my purse to snap some pictures tomorrow, but we don't have Internet until Monday (working on changing that now) so I probably won't be able to post anything until then. I took the day off to "supervise" the final movement.

We closed yesterday at 4 and immediately took one load over to the house. So at least we have one load done!

Stu worked on fixing a giant hole in the garage today. The people that lived there before us cut out a hole underneath the stairs for storage. By doing this, they also cut the support beams under the stairs. It is really not that big of a deal, but something that we wanted to immediately fix.

Stu informed me that during this process he hit a wire with a hammer and shocked the crap out of himself. But he had no idea what the wire went to.

After work, I went to the house to work on the boxes that the boys dropped off all day.

I quickly found out the wire that Stu had hit. It was 89 degrees in the house!

At the time, I didn't put two and two together and just figured that the AC was broken. What luck!

I called the AC people that agreed to meet me at the house in the morning. I mentioned the wire issue and the nice lady said he might have blown it. Fantastic.

But I did manage to find the breaker box (score for me!) and fix that. When I left, I think that cold air was blowing. We will have to check it out in the morning.

Oh the joys of being a homeowner! Still, wouldn't trade it for anything in the world!

Sweet Face

A sweet picture of Abby at the new house.

With her mini broom!

Funny story about the broom. I helped my friend Amanda register for her baby shower. Abby went with me and I promised her a toy if she behaved (do you see the bribery theme). She was pretty well-behaved, so at the end, we went to look for a toy. We came back with a mini broom. Yes, I picked it out, but I knew she would love it.

Amanda says, "Jeez Ann, I thought you were going to get her like a real toy, like a Barbie or something)."

Little did she know how much use this toy would actually get!

Whirlwind Weekend

I have been going non-stop since Thursday night. Exhausted is the only way to describe it!

Here are some of the pictures that I took. The total upload was 89 pictures, but these are my favorites.

Walking around on Broadway Friday afternoon, we saw this little fellow. Seriously, that is his hair.

Friday night was the rehearsal dinner at the Spaghetti Factory. Delicious.

Highlight was watching my mom use a flashlight to read the menu. I love her.

Friday night was spent at the Big Bang. Jessica made it on the stage for a little "bridal" loving.

And left with a wonderful bumper sticker.

*****************

Saturday: It is Wedding Time!

My gorgeous husband and beautiful Mimi.

I am pretty sure that my husband flirted with her all night.

The wedding was so awesome. Jessica was one of the most beautiful brides I have ever seen.

I might be biased because she is now my sis in law, but whatever!

Me and JD's friend Josh.

Josh and JD have been friends for many, many years. I consider him my second little bro. I was so glad that I got to see him again and walk down the aisle with him.

The newlyweds!

Seriously, aren't they just the cutest couple you have ever seen???

Dancing the first dance.

Mother/Son Dance.

These two should not be allowed to dance together. They danced to LeAnn Womack's "I hope you dance". Yes, they are spinning in circles. But it was adorable.

What is this???

So JD and Jessica have some obsession with "planking". I don't get it. But they randomly plank and then post on facebook. Maybe it is like flash mob dancing?? I really have no idea.

But apparently it was necessary for the entire bridal party to plank. Can you pick me out?

(Hint: look at the color of the legs!)

Cutting their wedding cake.

All in all, it was one of the most gorgeous weddings I have ever been to. My camera was acting up and I didn't take too many pictures though. Hopefully they will get their professional ones back soon and I can share a few.

**************

Friday night - 4 hours of sleep

Saturday night - 6 hours of sleep

Sunday morning came early. We met some family for breakfast, but I didn't get pictures as Abby was a hot mess.

Then we went to the new house!!!!!

There is a little bit of a hiccup with paperwork, shocking, right?

We are hoping to close tomorrow afternoon, but not sure yet. Regardless, my parents, Stu's mom and aunt met us over there to help clean this afternoon.

Gammy and Abby working on her bathroom. She didn't want her picture taken.

Stuart (with a wet rag on his head - it was hot!) pressure washing the concrete slab. We decided not to do the porch until we decide what color we want to stain it.

My momma cleaning the cabinets.

I will post more pictures once it is "legally" ours. But to say we are excited is an understatement.

Now, I need to head to bed. We did have a 2 hours nap today - all of us. But I need more sleep!!!

Snake Terror

This has been an interesting (no sleep) week. Here is why:

Monday night, I needed to go out to my car. It was about 10ish. I left the apartment (durn you apt living) and randomly looked to the right.

All the blood left my body. It can't be. There was a giant snake crawling out of the siding on the wall. This is no lie - 5 feet from our front door.

I only saw about 6 inches of "him", but if I had to judge he was at least 3 feet long, just chilling in the siding.

I ran back to the front door and screamed, "StuartStuartStuartStuart, ComehereComehereComehere".

10 minutes later (the boy knows that I cry wolf), Stuart appears. I say, "IThinkThereIsAGiantSnakeInTheSiding" very flustered. He looks, and pretty much internally screams like a girl. Don't tell him that I said that.

I breathlessly run back into the apt, double bolt the lock (because that keeps snakes out) and lie awake in my bed all night dreaming about this snake getting revenge on me for outing him.

The next morning, I was a mess. He was going to be curled up on my Welcome mat. Licking his chops.

My weapon of choice of course was a broom. But note, the dustpan was attached. I figured that would stun him, while I swept his giant body away. I am pretty sure that I checked at least 4 times before I actually got the nerve to walk past the spot that he was last seen.

I called Stu on Tuesday afternoon to see if he had called the office to let them know (in my mind, it was well worth a call to 9-1-1 or at least animal control, but whatever). He had forgotten about it. Words escape me.

He called and the apt said they would set a trap. Ha - a trap for an anaconda, that is like a mouse trap for a lion.

2 days later (yesterday), I notice this.

(*Warning it is gross*)

Look to the left. Someone kicked the siding in.

Look to the right. Massive amounts of blood seeping out of the siding.

I am still terrified. All I can think of is that it just wounded and pissed him off.

I just want to move out.

Quick Story

Abby has gotten so verbal lately. I'm not kidding, the gal talks from the minute she wakes up until the minute she goes to sleep.

The other night, after bathtime, she demanded that we "play cupcake".

It is a cupcake that Julie gave her that has lots of play food and cups and plates.

I was sitting on the floor in her room.

She pointed that little finger at me and said, "Mommy, Don't move. I'm going to get cupcake."

Then she said, "I will be right back".

Then she took off around the corner.

Then came right back, blew me a kiss and took off again to get cupcake.

I love that little gal so much.

4th of July Fun

We went to the Smyrna fireworks show on Saturday night. I never even imagined how many people would be there - it was crazy. Of course, I didn't get any pictures, except this one.

My sweet little baby wanted to be wrapped in her mommy's arms. The fireworks were loud!

Somewhat similiar to two years ago! At least she was awake for these.

*********

Tonight we went to my parents house to grill out.

Abby got it in her head that we needed to feed the ducks. So after dinner, we drove to where the ducks were.

I swear those ducks knew her. As soon as we walked up, almost every duck came waddling.

They were getting super close, but loving the chips that she was feeding them.

Girl has no fear.

There were a few geese that were freaking me out, so I had to throw my body in front of them a few times.

****************

I love reading everyone's posts and comments on FB about the "true" meaning, celebrating our freedom. What a wonderful time to remember all of the men and women that are fighting for that freedom. Please keep them and all of their families in your prayers tonight and every night.

****************

We did the final walk-through on the house today! (Awesome agent that works holidays). It is ours in 7 days! I think we are getting in there on Sunday to do some cleaning (that they didn't do), so I will be posting before and after pictures. And just basically lots and lots of pictures in the weeks to come!

We All Scream for Ice Cream!

I promised Abby Ice Cream on Saturday if she behaved while I ran all of my errands.

Yes, I bribe her.

I have a special place in my heart for BR as I worked there all through high school. Plus, I know I can get a kids scoop at a decent price.

Although this was the biggest kids scoop I have ever seen.

Cookies and Cream seemed like the best fit for an Oreos loving gal.

She concentrated pretty hard on that ice cream.

For whatever reason, Abby allowed me to put a bow in her hair that day. I thought she was the cutest thing I have ever seen!

And definitely an ice cream lover like her momma!

She did demand that I take a picture of my ice cream. Pralines and Cream and Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough....you just can't go wrong!